Our New Location
So what about Autumnwatch's new location? We'll be based at the Aigas Field Centre, in the beautiful Scottish Highlands. It's one of the finest areas in the country to experience autumn wildlife, and we'll be right at the heart of the action. Nestled in a wooded glen and surrounded by dramatic mountains, Aigas is home to some of the UK's most iconic animals, from highland specialists to familiar garden wildlife. In the forest, there are red squirrels, pine martens, red deer and crested tits. Birds of prey cruise over the moorland, while foxes and small mammals hunt in the undergrowth, and a loch is home to a family of beavers. We can't wait to show you!

The cameras are being prepared as we speak and with many mammals only active at night, our team will have infra-red, thermal and live mini-cameras to provide a unique insight into their rarely-glimpsed nocturnal lives. The latest macro camera technology will reveal the fascinating, hidden worlds of tiny creatures that normally go unnoticed - we'll truly have autumn covered from the canopy to the leaf litter.

Of course, the wildlife always writes the script, and we've learnt to expect the unexpected on Autumnwatch! But we're hoping to bring you the following:-

• Beavers - for the first time in the UK, Autumnwatch aims to show exclusive, intimate views from a live camera inside a beaver's lodge as they prepare for winter.
• Pine martens - these secretive and little known creatures are notoriously elusive but Autumnwatch will have a privileged opportunity to see them up close.
• Mammal stump - back by popular demand: the mammal stump is a hollowed out tree trunk with embedded cameras and offers a unique perspective on the dramatic lives of small mammals.
• Buzzards, red squirrels and foxes. In autumn all these species employ different feeding strategies as they prepare for winter. Scavenging, hoarding or stealing - we'll be following their every move.

Live Online and on BBC Red Button
This year, there's more opportunity than ever to watch the action. The remote wildlife cameras switch on on Sunday 28th October, before the series airs on TV.

We now have an Olympic line up of platforms to watch the cameras on - BBC Red Button, the Web, iPads, iPhones, android phones and tablets. So now you can stay tuned to the action, where ever you are.

We're also excited to announce that this year, for 17 hours a day, we'll have live commentary on the live cameras from wildlife experts and broadcasters Chris Sperring and Euan McIlwraith. (Between midnight and 7am the cameras will still be live, with text commentary - apparently presenters need to sleep.)

As always, there are plenty of ways for all of you to get involved.

• Post a Reply to a blog like this one

• Join us on Facebook

• Follow us on Twitter or share your autumn experiences with #autumnwatch

• Share photos via the official Autumnwatch Flickr group

• To find autumnal events near where you live, Try BBC Things to Do.

The Autumnwatch team will be checking all these regularly and we're looking forward to seeing your pictures, receiving your questions, and finding out about your own experiences of autumn.

So that's the big news about the new series, and the new location. But that's just the start - from our base in Scotland we'll be following autumn across the UK, and the team are already out and about filming. The autumnal highlights include an in-depth wild diary, showcasing the beauty of the UK's most iconic landscapes, and revealing the new science and behaviour of some of our best loved animals. We'll be posting more news about all of this soon. Also, look out for a blog from our very own Martin Hughes-Games, who'll be talking about how everyone can get involved in Autumnwatch Unsprung.

And if that wasn't enough, after Autumnwatch, we'll be telling you all about our brand new series, Winterwatch - live for 4 days in January.

We hope you are all as excited about the new look Autumnwatch and Winterwatch as we are!

We were at the heart of a Welsh storm and watched, first hand, how wildlife is affected by an extreme weather event, while our own production site was flooded and abandoned.

We've seen predator attacks from a weasel, a mink, a woodpecker and a cat.

This year we made a concerted effort to make the TV show feel fresh and re-energized. We've tried, wherever possible, to put more of the wildlife we know you love on screen and to offer you a greater breadth of different species. We tried to go deeper into the lives of some species, such as peregrine falcons, kingfishers and otters.

We've also tried to bring you more mammals and revel in the unsung heroes of our native wildlife both on our live cameras and on the show, such as earthworms, moles, mammal stump and butterflies emerging.

In the past, Springwatch has had a second live location but this year, in some programmes, we chose not to do this. This meant we were able to allocate more time and effort into live cameras around our base at Ynys-hir. It would be interesting to hear if you missed this element at all?

Sometimes things don't go so well for the animals we're following. This year has been particular bleak at times, with the extreme weather and a number of predations that have taken place, all part of nature taking it's course. We feel it always right to show you exactly what happens even when, at times, it makes for emotional and hard viewing.

On the web this year, we teamed up with the BBC Nature team to bring the webcams with a news-style commentary system. We were also able to bring the webcams onto the Red Button for 20 hours a day for our first week (before jubilee and football events pushed us off the schedules).

Like so many other BBC sites we said goodbye to our messageboard this year, but Facebook and Twitter went from strength to strength.

We try to post a range of blogs, which are helpful, interesting or examine a subject in more depth.

We're back with a Summerwatch special in August and with Autumnwatch. As ever it's always great to hear from you about what you enjoyed and what you'd like to see more of?

Although we're focussing on Fingal and Iona, a new pair of Mull's awesome white-tailed eagles this year, 20 years ago a young chick in another nest had recently hatched and was well on her way to a successful fledging - and a life that would ultimately touch the lives of millions.

Her name was Frisa and she came from an amazing pedigree being the offspring of the eagle legend that was Blondie - the Norwegian white-tailed eagle who raised the first Scottish chick in 1985. About 5 years after she'd fledged, in 1997 Frisa paired up on Mull with a handsome young wanderer from the Isle of Skye and they've been together ever since. They are the eagle celebrity A-listers Skye and Frisa who were beamed live into the living rooms of millions on the first night of the first ever Springwatch in 2005. Many have visited Mull since to capture a glimpse of them soaring over the summer hills.

White-tailed sea eagle by Iain Erskine

There are many aspects of my RSPB job that I love but probably the most satisfying element is being able to follow the fortunes of generations of white-tailed eagles as they slowly but surely recolonise old haunts and rightfully establish themselves again within the British landscape. There are some pairs on Mull and the Scottish mainland where one of the adults is a great-great-great granddaughter or son of Blondie. They might all look alike to some people but sometimes I see the sunlit glint of the Matriarch in their eagle eyes.

Pair of white-tailed sea eagles by Iain Erskine

Just last week we ringed another generation of young white-tailed eagles. This spring has been kind to them on the west coast and they're already big and strong, exercising developing wings. In another six weeks they too will take that mighty first leap from their tree or cliff-top eyries and begin their lives soaring and drifting across Scotland - and maybe further afield. We wish them well, the Class of 2012, on their journey as they face the many dangers both here in the UK and beyond.

White-tailed sea eagle chicks by Justin Grant

And as I watch them soar away, I'll think of Blondie and of friends and the treasured times we spent watching her; I'll wonder how Skye and Frisa are faring this year and what of their pioneering Autumnwatch 2008 chick Mara whose life has been mapped by satellite? This year's young generation belong here. In another five years time, it will be their turn.

Dave Sexton

RSPB Mull Officer
Twitter@skyeandfrisa

In ten easy steps (and a bonus question), you could be on your way to a having a haven for birds, mammals and insects, all within easy viewing of your kitchen window.

1. Bird feeding station (4 points)
A bird feeding station is a good start for any garden - providing high-energy food for hungry birds throughout the year.
- BBC guide to feeding garden birds.
- RSPB feeding birds guide

2. Long grass (1 point)
Just forget to mow one corner of your garden to allow the grass to grow long. Perfect for crickets, grasshoppers, ants and small mammals such as voles.
- How to make your lawn wildlife friendly
- RSPB Lawns for wildlife

3. Nectar-rich plants (2 points)
Insects such as bumblebees and butterflies need energy too - so treat them, and yourself, to a flowerbed with nectar-rich plants during the spring and summer.
- Plants for a wildlife garden

4. Bird bath (2 points)
Just like us, birds need water - to drink and to bathe. A simple bird bath is easy to buy or make.
- RSPB advice on Bird Baths

5. Compost heap (1 points)
Compost heaps provide just the right temperature for creatures such as worms and invertebrates, which in turn attract birds. You may even be lucky enough to get a slow worm or grass snakes (try these links)

6. Logpile (3 points)
Piles of cut wood are an ideal hideaway for all sorts of insects and other invertebrates, as well as small mammals. And hedgehogs may even hibernate in there through the winter.
- Wild about gardens - making a logpiles

7. Nest boxes (3 points)
Once you've attracted birds to your garden, why not provide them with a ready-made home? You could invest in a nest-cam, so when there's nothing telly you can watch your very own SPRINGWATCH unfold in your back garden. There are plenty to choose from different manufacturers these days.

8. Berry-bearing shrubs (4 points)
Birds love berries - high-energy fruit to help them get through the autumn and winter.
- RSPB Birds and berries guide

9. Pond (5 points)
A wildlife garden needs a pond - even a tiny patch of water will bring birds to drink and bathe, frogs and newts to live, mammals to drink, and insects to feed and breed.
- Pond conservation - making a pond

10. Wild flower meadow (5 points)
If you're really ambitious to make your garden into a wildlife haven, then a wild flower meadow is ideal - hard work, but well worth it! (try these links)
- BBC Breathing Places - sowing wild flowers
- RHS - Wildflower meadows

11. Bonus Points: Get your neighbours involved (5 points)
Animals need large and interconnected green areas, so the more of your neighbours that have wildlife friendly gardens, the better it will be for everyone.
- The benefits of wildlife volunteering in UK

Your score:_____

24-35 points: you are a wildlife star and a fine example for all of us on SPRINGWATCH - your garden will rival anything we have filmed for the series

16-23 points: you are doing a great job attracting wildlife to your garden - keep up the good work.

8-15 points: your garden is already good for wildlife but could be a better - start digging that pond.

1-7 points: the good news is that anything you do will make your garden a lot better for wildlife - and, hopefully, you

General help about wildlife gardening
- Gardening to attract wildlife
- RSPB planning and creating a wildlife-friendly garden
- Scottish Wildlife Trust: In your garden

Editors Note: About Stephen Moss

Thanks to SPRINGWATCH researcher, Dr Emma Brennand and our camera team, we now have 20 pupae ready to emerge into beautiful butterflies.

Watch closely and you'll see them emerge live on our webcams.

Nick Pitt setting up

Emma ordered a selection of British butterflies, comma, painted ladies and small tortoiseshell butterflies, and a package containing 20 butterfly chrysalises arrived last Thursday 7th June.

The chrysalis stage varies between species but is usually around two weeks, whilst the caterpillar inside is undergoes metamorphosis into a butterfly. In order to emerge, they need to be out of direct sunlight, at around 25 degrees and in relatively high humidity.

Our camera team created an ideal environment in a small studio here on site. There are two lights in the room, to provide both light and heat during the day, and then we switch them off at night. There is also a lot of well-watered vegetation behind them to both re-create a natural looking environment but also to keep humidity levels up.

Chrysalis set up in our studio

Each chrysalis was then carefully attached to a stick with a very small blob of glue.
We lined up 5 comma butterflies and 5 small tortoiseshells to the top stick, and 10 painted ladies to the bottom.

Chrysalis lined up, ready to hatch

All we can do now is sit and wait for them to begin emerging. We expect to see at least some of them to begin this metamorphosis before the last show on Thursday this week - so keep your eyes peeled to the webcams.

Attaching the chrysalis

How can you tell when they are emerging?
The chrysalis itself will begin to split, from the bottom, the young butterfly will climb out of the case up to the stick. As it first emerges the butterfly's wings will be very soft, and folded in against the body. This is due to having to fit inside the pupae.
So, it will then spend the next hour or so pumping blood into the wings to get them working in order to be able to fly.

Once they have emerged, just open an window and off they fly into your garden and help to maintain a healthy population of British butterflies.

These are the beauties we hope to see any time now, thanks to your photos on the Flickr group.

Comma butterfly by GVG Imaging

Small tortoiseshell by Brianb60

Painted Lady by Paul (Gumboots) Ritchie

Now I'm not a British Wildlife expert like my friend Chris Packham, when Chris was making bird boxes at the age of 8 and going badger watching, I was wearing a tutu and obsessed with ballet dancing. So I've also learned a lot about the UK's wildlife as I'm sure we all have this series. Let's face it, that's what Springwatch is all about. So I thought I'd give you my top 10 from SPRINGWATCH so far.

2. Seeing what the inside of a kingfishers nest looks like. More wow factor at the shots than the facts I guess but it was incredible to see the female lay her eggs and then the chicks hatch out. We think it's the first time that's ever been filmed in the wild. The weather meant they had a tragic end but what an insight into their nest. I did learn about why they line their nest with fish bones. Apparently it's to stop the eggs rolling out of the nest, which slopes towards the opening so all the excrement can dribble out. Glad I know that now!?

3. Seeing a male rabbit urinate over a doe to attract her, then when the female is ready, she wafts pheromones into the males face!. Not my idea of dating but fortunately I'm not a rabbit. I was also one of those people who always thought it was male hares that boxed each other, and in fact it's the female hare boxing the male.

4. I didn't know that the goldcrest is our smallest breeding bird. I've never seen one before. I am amazed at how light they are, the same as a 10p piece, although Chris was arguing that it was actually a 5p. Whichever, it's an incredibly small bird.
Editor's note: it turns out they weigh about the same as an old 5p (or new 10p). Chris must be stuck in the 80's...

5. Being able to announce that we have a new breeding species in the UK, the Great White Egret. Isn't it great when there's really exciting news. For the first time ever, a pair of Great White Egrets have bred on the Somerset Levels. Let's hope more will follow.

6. I was amazed that what we all think might be just one blackbird in our garden is in fact many. As many as 30 blackbirds might visit an average garden in one day.

7. Lovely to see the beauty of the Somerset Levels and interesting to learn that the WW2 Vera Lynne song 'They'll Be Blue Birds Over The White Cliffs Of Dover' was written by an American who didn't realise that 'blue birds' are not indigenous to the UK. They're native to North America and we've never had blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover. But why let the facts get in the way of a good song!

8. On a day off I went to the Centre Of Alternative Technology, about 10 mins away from Ynys-hir. There was a diagram showing the amount of CO2 per capita of various countries. Now which country would you think had the highest result? I would say the USA. Well according to their diagram it was Australia with 26.9 tonnes. America was 23.5. I was also surprised to see that the UK was 10.6 and not far behind was South Africa with 9 tonnes! India was only 1.7 and China 5.5. Fascinating info on a day off.

9. I learned that there are 27 species of earthworms in the UK, mainly reds and dendras.

10. I've learned that Chris likes earl grey tea and a slice of cake at around 4pm and Martin likes cheese and biscuits after the show. I've also learned that 'Cygnet Committee', 'Be My Wife', 'Aladdin Sane' and 'Kooks' are all David Bowie songs, thanks to Chris mentioning them during the show, which some viewers like to spot.

And there at least another 20 things that make me go "oooooh", "aaaah and " really", because life as a SPRINGWATCH presenter means I never stop learning.

Meanwhile at the Dyfi Osprey project, we watched a drama unfold on Saturday. Having seen one chick perish in the terrible wind and rain, they chose to help the last remaining chick, which did not have the strength to beg for food. It was returned to the nest 15 minutes later and is now taking food from his parents again.

The common sandpiper we've been following, who'd nested beside the railway line perhaps made a better decision than we though. The train line may seem like a dangerous location but it is high and well drained - the common sandpipers sat out the storm in safety.

Barn owls benefited from their location. When we got our cameras live again, they'd grown, we can really see their adult plumage coming through and they are moving around the nest area.

There is no doubt that this spring has been volatile - from drought, to cold to heavy rain and storms. And volatility in the weather is an aspect of climate change, but what has been the wider effect on our wildlife around the UK?

If you have pictures, video or first hand accounts of how our wildlife has been affected this year by these weather conditions, we'd love to hear from you.

Many of you will have seen the news reports of floods and our site was right in the middle of it.

The rain had been falling steadily since the early hours, not heavy but relentless.

Some of the team had noticed that the waterfall at Dyfi Furnace, on old iron ore smelting mill - next to the bat roost and near our OB site - was huge. The river was exceptionally high compared to previous days.

Dyfi furnace

11:00 - 12:30
When we got a call to say that the river broke its banks at the far end of our field - we knew we had a big problem.

Nearby river bursts its banks

So we had to prepare for the worst - get everything off the floor and as high as possible....and quickly.

But even as we were doing this, water started to come into the site from behind us. With water now flowing freely through the site, and right through our production tent, we had to evacuate and cut the power.

Evacuating the production office / tent

That meant the nest watcher's truck and our live webcams ended.

We were cold and soaked to the skin, but at least we could retreat to safety...the animals had no choice but to sit out the storm. With continuous rain and high winds, we wondered if anything could survive.

Saturday 09th June
During the early hours of Saturday morning, the nearby village of Talybont had floodwaters rising to 5ft deep in places.

In the surrounding area, 1,000 people were evacuated and 150 rescued during the early hours of Saturday morning.

The rivers of Leri and Ceulan burst their banks flooding homes and caravan parks in Ceredigion, Powys and southern Gwynedd.

This was the worst flooding in this area since 1973 - nearly 40 years.

Back on our site key members of the team met at 10am to assess the situation, although it was a struggle to even get there through flooded and blocked roads. When we arrived, we couldn't even get into the field. Water was flowing fast through the site, 2ft deep in places, out of the gate and down the road towards the estuary.

Sunday 10th June - the clean up starts
We finally got onto site properly on Sunday and started the cleanup. Very luckily the water levels had stopped just below desk height, and just below the height of the main broadcasting truck, leaving most things a bit damp, but still useable.

Flood height

Our web servers' cabin weighing over 4 tonnes, was shifted by the sheer force of the water and would have floated off, had it not been tethered to the trucks by its cables.

So with a lot of re-cabling, testing, cleaning, heavy lifting and Glastonbury-scale mud, we managed to get our first nest cam live on the web by 5pm.

Meanwhile we were kindly offered a temporary production office by a local Carillion construction site, working on improvements to the main road to Aberystwyth.

The first nestcam was back in action at around 5pm and everyone was delighted to see the 4 barn owl chicks alive and well. Barns are clearly a good place to be in a storm.

And by today (Monday) we've now managed to get almost all our cameras back live on the web, despite the wild weather. And thanks to the team working round the clock and all the help we've had from the local community. Springwatch is back tonight to tell the story of how the wildlife coped with such extreme weather.

I went back to 'Hunky Dory' and on to 'Diamond Dogs' and 'Rebel, Rebel' remains a top ten all time favourite track. I got 'Young Americans' too but bought nothing beyond 'Low'. I remember being sat in that same bedroom, now with a record player, and playing 'Sound and Vision', getting up, and putting on 'Janie Jones' by the Clash. My world had changed and although I liked some of Bowie's stuff up till 1980, I have never got beyond that and remember loathing the rock gods 'Dancin' in the Street' in 1985. Can't argue with 'Suffragette City', 'The Jean Genie' and 'Drive In Saturday' though, and if you don't know the words to 'Space Oddity' then you've been committing 'Rock 'n' Roll Suicide'.

Related links
Springwatch versus Manic Street Preachers
Springwatch 2010 - The Cure: From The Smiths to Robert
Damned Autumnwatch 2011
David Bowie (Official site)

Can you tell what they are and what's the link?

Object A

Object B

Object C

Well done to everyone who got it right. They are all instruments which mimic bird calls.

A. Starling
B. House sparrow
C. Audubon (cal be used to make several different bird calls)

We knew we wanted to look into this issue on Springwatch this year. We didn't expect to see a cat take a nest of wood warblers on our live webcams.

But that's the reality. Right there, in front of our eyes.

Our gardens have become vital for wildlife, and we need to find ways to make keeping cats and feeding birds compatible. Conservative and current estimates put the number of songbirds killed by cats in the UK each year to be 55 million.

There are two questions - what's the real effect of cats on our birds and what can we do about it?

The science needs to be brought up to date. Tonight on Springwatch, we feature the launch of research at Reading University who are taking a new approach to that first question. Cat-cams hope to track exactly what our cats are up to at night. (Previous research is usually based on the number of animals which cats bring back home, and a presumption of what percentage of their kills this number represents.)

Some say that if cats didn't kill all those songbirds, something else would. Well let's reduce cat kills and see if that happens. Personally, I'd rather a sparrowhawk got a meal than an already well-fed cat.

So what can we do it?

• Keeping cats indoors at night cuts predation in half.
• Fitting a new style beeper collar also cuts bird predation by 45-50%.
• Get our cats neutered. A neutered cat is less likely to roam.

3 small steps, with huge consequences for our garden birds.

We used to let our dogs walk themselves around our streets and parks, now we use leads and pooper-scoopers. So isn't it time that we changed the way we keep our cats too?

Organisations like Froglife are surveying public areas, but some of the key habitats for these little guys is actually in your back garden. Garden ponds are important for many amphibian species.

Click for large version

The idea behind the count is to find out more about the type of different habitats that newts use. So you'll need to record details such as the location of your pond, how much vegetation is in it and any other wildlife that use it.

You can download a recording form and report your findings on the FrogLife website.

Please note - you do need a license to survey in ponds that are known to have great crested newts, but it's fine to look in and around other ponds. If you find great crested newts in your garden pond, you will need a licence to do further surveying or if disturbing the animals. You should not attempt to capture them. The best way to find great crested newts is to simply look for them in the pond just around sunset using a torch. You can also find newts in your garden hidden under slabs of concrete or piles of bricks. Please get in touch with Froglife , if you need any more information on licensing and the legal issues around newts.

Other links:
If you're keen to attract more wildlife to your garden, we've made this guide.

So here's a quick guide to distinguishing a vole, a shrew and a mouse as it races past.

Voles, mice and shrews - a quick guide

Now that you can spot these three, you can get onto identifying the species within each group.

The Mammal Society () gives you the essential facts of various mammal species, including their ecology, biology, and conservation.

North Pennines AONB have produced this useful guide to identifying small mammal species is this the pennine area.

Here's some of the his incredible creations, spotted earlier around the Ynys-hir reserve.

Redstart

Blue tit

Pied flycatcher

Robin

Great spotted woodpecker

Magpie

Puffin