[Ben]

It's that time again...

The latest podcast can be downloaded from our website here:
http://www.bbcwildlifemagazine.com/podcast.asp

We are trying to include more features recorded out and about, in the wild. This month, Fergus takes the trusty dictaphone as he goes in search of big sharks off the North Cornwall coast. Did he see any and did his stomach survive the relentless ocean swell? You'll have to tune in to find out.

Back in the studio, Fergus tries to get Sophie to spill the beans about the winner of Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Ben defends twitching, and we all talk about the latest issue of the magazine. Enjoy.

As ever, let us know what you think. We DO listen, honest.

[rob snowhite]

read your post yesterday and didn't know what twitching was.
listened to the podcast and now i know.

got into birding a bit in college with a friend, he went all over the place and always had binoculars around his neck
drove 4 hours one day when he heard a vietnamese duck was blown off course and was off the coast of virginia

learn something all the time, thanks.

[ChasCreek]

Enjoyed the out and about first half, one of the joys of audio to have soundscapes where you have to build the image in your mind as opposed to TV where everything is handed on a plate.

Not sure that I get the idea of 'twitching'. Shooting off just to see a rare bird for a few moments to 'get a tick' (or even to not see it) doesn't really appeal to me.

What does appeal to me and what I do do is have my local patch where I can spend a lot of time building an appreciation of an area, it's habitats, resident birds (and of course insect life, mamals and reptiles which opens up a whole other world). Of course being a local patch it means that apart from being able to spend more time there I can also spend time there at very different times of the day from very early morning to into the night building up a picture of the ecology and how it varies over time (both short term and long term).

It also makes the rarities, the small numbers of passage migrants more interesting as they have in ones or twos stopped at your local patch for a couple of hours or days while say migrating from the Artic Tundra to Sub Saharan Africa.

While working around the country I often if working away in those areas make visits to patches in those areas and while it is enjoyable it doesn't feel the same to me as it isn't 'my' patch and I am only seeing a very small time slice of that area.

[Ben]

The BBC news website has a nice little story about twitching here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7662371.stm

The short clip is worth watching...

[Ben]

It's been a good year for 'rares' in the UK:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2008/oct/20/wildlife-conservation

[ChasCreek]

yes I watched clip on twitching - still doesn't 'float my boat' to use a silly expression.