Living The Wildlife

This first programme in Living the Wildlife is very observational and quite different to what Colin has done before. Sea Trout are a cousin of the salmon but much more secretive and Colin wants to film them spawning. It’s November on the Lough Currane system near Waterville in Kerry – one of the best sea trout fisheries in Europe. Spawning time is extremely difficult to film, so Colin enlists the help of local wildlife cameraman, James Pembroke who knows this system like the back of his hand, and together they explore the river system, attempting to film the sea trout with limited success. They need a little more help, so Colin meets up with local underwater cameraman Vinny Hyland, and with Colin directing, Vinny gets into his wetsuit to film them. Following the successful filming of the spawning, Colin travels to the midlands in search of some more of our freshwater fish. Waterways Ireland are dredging the Barrow Line Canal in Kildare and as part of their work, the Central Fisheries Board have to take all the fish out of a section of canal and move it to another section. Colin sets up a tank to learn more about our freshwater fish including Pike, Roach, Rudd, Tench and Perch, and after Colin has finished filming them, he takes the fish back to the canal and releases them.

In the second programme in this series of Living the Wildlife, cameraman and presenter Colin Stafford-Johnson visits an organic farm in Roscommon where he meets Tommy Earley who is determined to discover every living thing that shares his family farm. Tommy has a passion for one butterfly in particular – one of our rare butterflies – the Marsh Fritillary and is determined to give them the best home possible. He also chats to Norma Shortall, a local teacher and a neighbour who is taking part in a National Butterfly Survey on Tommy’s farm – this is something anyone can do and they are looking for volunteers. Colin and Tommy also film some extraordinary footage of spiders catching dragonflies in their massive webs. Colin then leaves Roscommon and visits a really special garden in Maynooth where he catches up with Jesmond Harding, author of Discovering Irish Butterflies & their Habitats that Colin has been using for the past year. Jesmond explains what plants are needed to encourage butterflies to live in gardens – something we can all do according to Colin.

This week Colin Stafford-Johnson is on the trail of the hedgehog, one of our best-loved small mammals In the third programme in this series of Living the Wildlife presenter Colin Stafford-Johnson visits Bandon in Cork where he is on the trail of one of our best-loved small mammals – the hedgehog. Everybody loves hedgehogs and Cork student Amy Haigh is no different. She loves them so much that she is working on a PhD about them. Amy takes Colin on her nightly trip on the trail of the ten hedgehogs that she has already radio tagged. They find a new hedgehog to tag and Colin’s van becomes Amy’s workstation. But what do the locals think about Amy trekking around in torchlight late at night searching for her little friends? DJ Driscoll farms one of the fields that Amy uses for her research and he takes up Colin’s offer to learn more about hedgehogs. What do hedgehogs eat? Colin also catches up this week with Dr. Evelyn Moorkens who is an expert on the slugs that form an important part of the hedgehog diet. Colin and Evelyn explore some woodland and Colin learns some interesting facts about slugs.

Colin Stafford-Johnson reveals the secrets of birdwatching In this week’s programme presenter Colin Stafford-Johnson explains to viewers exactly what they will need to enjoy the fascinating hobby of birdwatching. Living the Wildlife presenter Colin started birdwatching as a six-year-old with his brothers and his prized childhood possession is an old guide to birdwatching. Colin visits Knappagh in Westport, County Mayo, one of the best places west of the Shannon for garden birds. There he meets birdwatching enthusiast Wendy Stringer who spends hundreds of euros every year feeding hundreds of birds in her garden. Wendy shows Colin’s daughters Annabelle and Sylvie how to make the lard cakes that birds love to eat. Colin also shows Annabelle and Sylvie some of the things that he used to do as a child to encourage birds into his family garden. This included dressing up in camouflage to try and get garden birds to land on his head! Sylvie and Annabelle give it a go and show how easy it is to bring beautiful birds into your garden if you are patient.

Ireland is home to three species of amphibians. Everybody knows about frogs and newts, but the Natterjack Toad is the focus of a pond-digging project in Castlegregory in Kerry. Every April, hundreds of Natterjack Toads congregate on the sand dunes to mate. The male makes a unique call to attract the female and the result is an amazing cacophony of sound as hundreds of males compete for mates. Colin has borrowed some equipment and assistants from the Film and Television Training Centre in Tralee, Co. Kerry to film this behaviour. Colin also meets Dr. Ferdia Marnell who is the leading expert on amphibians in Ireland. Dr. Marnell works for the National Parks and Wildlife Service and is responsible for ‘The Toad In The Hole’ project in Kerry. He also loves newts and when Colin travels to meet him in Dublin, Dr. Marnell takes Colin to his neighbour’s garden to find some.

In the final programme in the series, Colin Stafford-Johnson is on the trail of Ireland's bat population Emmy-Award winning wildlife cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson is on the trail of Ireland’s much maligned bat population in the final programme of this third series of RTÉ’s very popular nature programme, Living the Wildlife. In this week’s programme presenter Colin Stafford-Johnson meets Daniel Buckley, a Phd student with the Centre for Bat Research in UCD, Dublin. Along with a team of postgraduate students from Queens University, the ‘batmen’ of UCD have discovered some strange bat behaviour in caves around Ireland. Colin really enjoys meeting people who have a similar passion for wildlife so he is delighted to catch up with them as they are about to explore Dunmore Cave in Kilkenny. This is the only cave in the area and the students believe this could be an important site. Bats that normally live in woodland and near rivers are flying to caves and engaging in social calling. Daniel believes this is part of a mating ritual and the team are setting up traps to find out what species of bat are visiting caves in autumn.