Springwatch is back on our screens for three weeks from 29 May, and with it there will be some new locations that promise spectacular wildlife footage - live and prerecorded.
Here we take a look at where Springwatch 2023 is being filmed
Springwatch 2023 filming locations
RSPB Arne
The main location for Springwatch 2023 will be RSPB Arne in Dorset.
RSPB Arne comes alive at this time of year with rare breeding birds, specialised heathland insects and all six of the UK’s native species of reptiles.
Set against the backdrop of Poole Harbour, RSPB Arne seems to have it all. Famous for its wide-open heathlands where reptiles roam, Springwatch will be exploring ancient oak woodlands, farmland and reedbeds. If that wasn’t enough, mudflats, scrub, wet woodland and acid grassland are just some of the habitats where the huge variety of wildlife which call Arne home can be found.
Poole Harbour
Iolo Williams will be setting out in search of Poole Harbour's new ospreys and white-tailed eagles to find out about the successful reintroduction projects that have brought these birds back to the south of England for the first time in hundreds of years.
Durlston Country Park
Durlston Country Park has some of the most spectacular wildflower meadows anywhere in the UK, which are home to incredibly rare and beautiful orchids and butterflies.
Swanage Bay
At Swanage Bay Iolo Williams will be catching up with local people to uncover the hidden marine world beneath the waves whilst a stop at the National Trust’s Winspit Quarry takes in one of the most unique bat roosts in the country.
Purbeck Heaths
The Purbeck Heaths is a 3,331 hectare national nature reserve that spans Studland, Corfe Castle, Arne, Church Knowle, and Steeple with Tyneham in the County of Dorset.
Isle of Purbeck
The Isle of Purbeck is a beautiful peninsula in Dorset, which is home to some stunning wildlife
Bass Rock
Maggie Sheldon has been working on Bass Rock for 25 years and has come to know every nook and cranny. No one knows the population of gannets that come to the rock to breed every spring better. Springwatch follows her for a ‘day in the life of’ experience, finding out what it takes to care for this inhospitable habitat and monitor the birds that call it home.
North Wales
Gillian Burke takes an adventure into the habitat and species that call North Wales home. From the specialists of Snowdonia National Park to the seabird colonies of the coast, she’ll explore much of the region across the three-week broadcast.
She’ll begin her journey in Yr Wyddfa (Snowdonia) National Park with Llanberis providing the perfect backdrop to kick off the road trip before heading to the Gwaith Powdwr Nature Reserve. Here she will investigate how this post-industrial landscape has been reclaimed by nature with species such as lesser horseshoe bats and palmate newts all making the most of the remnants of the former explosives factory.
The next leg of Gillian’s journey takes her to the Menai Straits where viewers will take a deep dive into the research conducted by Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences uncovering the life that these waterways support. There will be a detailed look at plankton and uncover some of the changing seasons of our seas. She then follows the coastline down to the Llŷn Peninsula to find Wales’s rarest bee species and visit one of the country’s largest seagrass meadows at Porthdinllaen.
For the final week Gillian will marvel at the seabird spectacles to be found on Ynys Môn (Anglesey) and gets closer to red squirrels than she ever has before. She visits the National Trust’s Cemlyn reserve to see sandwich terns first hand, and the RSPB’s South Stack reserve for a full-on bird bonanza with razorbills, guillemots and puffins all nesting on the cliff faces.