Instant Genius - UK wildlife, with Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin

Episode Date: October 24, 2021

The presenters of Autumnwatch and Chris and Meg's Wild Summer tell us about all the different types of wildlife you can see right here in the UK. Once you’ve mastered the basics with Instant Genius, dive deeper with Instant Genius Extra, where you’ll find longer, richer discussions about the most exciting ideas in the world of science and technology. Only available on Apple Podcasts. Produced by the team behind BBC Science Focus Magazine. Visit our website: sciencefocus.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit name audio.com to learn more. Hello and welcome to Instant Genius, a bite-sized matterclass in podcast form. I'm Amy Barrett, editorial assistant at BBC Science Focus magazine, and in this week's episode, I talk to Chris Packham and his step-daughter, Megan McCubbin. They're naturalists and conservationists and recently filmed their journey around the UK for the BBC program Chris and Meg's World Summer, which you can view now on BBC Eye Player. They're also hosts on the BBC's Wildlife Program, Ultram Watch, which starts on Tuesday 26th October.

Chris and Meg tell me all about the different types of wildlife I can see right here in the UK. Thank you both for joining me here today for Instant Genius. For anyone who doesn't know hasn't had a chance to see it yet, can you just tell us a little bit about your new series Wild Summer? What is all about and the roles that you two take in the series? Well, it's the year of staycation. And so Megan and I thought we'd join in, but we would travel around the UK with a more defined,

purpose in that we would be seeking out interesting aspects of its natural landscapes and the wildlife that lives in them. Returning to quite a few of the places that either I had been, she had been, or we'd been two together. So it was a chance for us to reacquaint ourselves with some familiar species, but also in a more exciting way to go some areas where neither of us have been and find new things. And it was really good fun. We did it in an electric vehicle. We're very keen and conscious that we need to keep our carbon footprint as low as possible when we're working these days. So across the BBC, right and bold steps are being taken to try and reduce that. So we were on the trains. We weren't quite on the buses, but we were in our electric vehicle

and we were hanging out in some sunny and damp car parks. It was, most of all, as Meggs will tell you, it was good fun. It looked very good fun with lots of ice cream as well. Well, you have to have the occasional ice cream dotted in amongst, you know, I don't. I I haven't grown out of that phase yet, unfortunately. But no, we had a lot of fun. And it was something that neither Chris or I had done in quite a long time is go out and explore the UK like we got the opportunity to do with the series. But also, we hadn't travelled around together very much recently, as we had done.

A lot of the time I met when I was, met him when I was two years old. And from that point, we started kind of traveling all around the world, going to some incredible places. So we're quite used to traveling together in, kind of, you know, sleeper trains, buses, whatever. So the kind of the small electric camper wasn't so much of a problem because we're quite used to kind of being an enclosed space is travelling long distances together, bickering over the music playlist. But yeah, it's something that we hadn't done really properly, I guess, since I've gone off to university. So it was a good

opportunity for us to go and, you know, and like most of the nation did, go and explore the wonders that we have here in the UK. And also just, you know, go and have a bit of of fun. And I think we've all needed a bit of fun over the last 18 months. We've all needed to kind of get away and explore and it was a great opportunity to do that. It certainly made me want to plan my own Wild Summit road trip next year, definitely. But we're kind of coming into now the colder months. Have I missed my chance to see some UK wildlife this year? No, certainly not. I think we're tempted to think that our most productive seasons are spring and summer because a lot of life flow at that time. But during in autumn and winter, there's an enormous transition in the wildlife

in the UK. We see some things leaving, of course, but an enormous amount arriving. There's never a dead time of year in the wildlife calendar. There's always something going on. And as a consequence of that, there's never an excuse to stay indoors and not go out. I mean, obviously, the one handicap you might have if you choose to staycation in the wild in the winter is that there are shorter days. And as we're principally diurnal animals, you have less time to explore. But there's still great places to go and things to see, and particularly obviously in the UK, our coastal regions, which receive vast numbers of wild fowl and waders in the winter, can provide some spectacular, you know, sites that are frankly, you know, rarely rivaled anywhere else on earth. So, you know, we have a

fantastic resource out there year round. You just need well-ease a raincoat and a flask full of vegan hot chocolate to do it properly in the winter. So Meg, if you were going to plan an autumn road trip, where would be your top locations to go? Oh, it's a difficult one because there are, there are so, so many. I mean, for me, a Starling memoration would have to be high on there. I'd have to, yeah, for me, that's a kind of a classic sign of the season. Where's the place you've seen one of those? Oh, do you know what? It's been a long time since I've seen, I was saying this recently. It's been a long time since I've seen a really good styling murmuration, a really, really long time.

So that is actually high up on my list of things to go and see this year, that's for sure. We live in the South Coast, don't we, in Southampton, New Forest. So for us, the closest one would either be Isla Perbeck, there's one at Shell Bay. Then, of course, there's the Brighton one along the coast. If you want to go further afield, the one at Aberystworth is pretty spectacular. There's another one at Leighton Moss. I mean, they occur all around the country, but like Meg says, sometimes not. not in the abundance they did in the past.

But it's a question of, you know, finding your local murmuration. I have to say the one in Southampton that we used to go to has dwindled now, and it's more of a murm. There's not enough for the Asian. So it's just a little murm of a few hundred birds, but to really see them in their greatest finery, you need a few thousand. But, yeah, our best thing to do is check online, find out where your local murmuration is. Definitely.

I'm tempted by Aberystwyth, because lastly we were covering Aberystwyth and the Watches, and there was an amazing, amazing thing with an owl coming in to, you know, take on a catch of starling, which was incredible. Barnow came in and it was, we didn't know how it got there into the city centre. It was amazing kind of mystery. So maybe we have to go to Everest with here. Obviously, deer rutting season is pretty spectacular. And if you get up early enough, if you, you know, live in the city centre, you don't have to worry.

Even in London, you just go into Richmond Park and you've got a famous group of deer is there. But, you know, everywhere you can go and see red deer rutting. And that is quite an amazing spectacle, you know, with the males and they start booming, bellowing and everything. And particularly if you get up early, that's the time to do it. Get up early. Get out in that kind of beautiful, dramatic mist. Get out with that golden hour of sunshine. Get your camera out.

Go and take some photos of deer because it's a beautiful time to go and see them. And there's quite a few places where they're in parks. You mentioned Richmond beast, but I've seen them in a park on the outskirts of Manchester. So because they are quite commonly kept in parks, Petworth in Sussex as well. So all around the country, the benefit of these deer being that they're used to seeing people. And if you go into some of the more remote locations where you might think it's a more romantic place to go and watch a rut, your life's made a lot more difficult by the fact that the deer are really scared of people and they're difficult to stalk and get close to. But in Richmond, Petworth and around our larger cities,

then the deer are a lot tamer, makes it lot easier. And there's always a tea shop there where you might get yourself a vegan hot chocolate. And of course, you know, you say that the days are getting shorter, but there are plenty of nocturnal animals that we can see in the UK. Absolutely, absolutely. Get a back detector. It's one of my favourite activities. Still is.

I was when I was a kid. It still is now. You need a back detector. They didn't have to be super fancy. got on there. It's mine. It's on the desk. It's ready. It's ready, ready for tonight, because I'm going to be back protecting this evening. That's quite a special when you plug into your phone and you download an app and it tells you exactly the species. You can hear the recording of the frequency. It gives you all the species information. It's a really clever piece of technology,

but you don't have to, you know, go that far and go, you know, get, you know, this particular device. You can get these kind of relatively simple ones where it turns the frequency into an audible sound so you can hear it. So there's lots of different ranges of kind of bat detectors out there. And that's always something I'd recommend going and doing. But yeah, at this time of the year, of course, you know, you've got our foxes going, which is really always nice to see in the badgers, of course, as well. Last night, the tourneys were going berserk here last night.

Dogs were barking. It was a duet between tourney owl and poodle. So, yeah, they've started, you know, early this year. They're very vocal at the moment chasing their youngsters out of the territory. So they want that territory, the adults, they want that space to themselves throughout the winter to guarantee they can get through that winter if things get tough. So they've started to be very vocal at the moment driving those youngsters out. And by the time we get to Christmas, then they'll be arguing with their neighbours about the extent and shape of that territory.

And again, you know, tourniales are commonest species of our found all over the UK, including right into the hearts of our cities, anywhere there's mature trees in parks, they can breed. And you can hear them hooting in the middle of glass. in the middle of Birmingham or the middle of London. So certainly worth listening out for the keywick and true call of the male and female duetting tourney hours. And I have to be honest that my favourite episode from the series was actually the one that was around North Wales, not just because I recently been a holiday there, but actually because

I really couldn't get over that you two actually got on the zip wire, which was a bit of a change from taking the train up Snowden in the previous episode. Yeah. Well, it was my idea, the zip line. I kind of suggested it because, to be honest, I wasn't 100% sure whether Chris would agree to doing it or not. You know, I wasn't sure whether his adventurous streak could kind of calm down. Turns out it hasn't. Far from it. And yes, we turned up at Zip World and it's this most incredible zip line that's over this disused quarry. And essentially you can get up to speeds over 100 miles an hour. And you can, basically, it's the

closest a human is ever going to get to flying like a peregrine. You know, it's the fastest zip line in the world. I think it's the second longest. It's, you know, an incredible experience. I really recommend doing it. It was only when we were driving up the slate quarry to this tiny, tiny, tiny little building far up in the distance, up in the cloud. We're not quite up in the clouds, but very high up. Did I look down and go, did I really decide? Did I really decide? This is quite high. And yeah, you have to, it's not like a typical zip line where you're in a harness at your waist. You're kind of in a sling where you're lying down, so you're facing downwards. And they kind of hook you up. And I think Chris said something like

onwards into hell and off we went. And no, it was amazing experience. It was a lot smoother than I thought it was going to be. But I did almost wimp out, but I definitely got a little bit nervous up there. And Chris, given you've been protecting and caring about Peregrine Fulcons your whole life, How did it feel to actually fly as fast as one? Well, it's difficult to conceive, isn't it? When we watch animals sometimes, the way they behave, how quick they move and how agile they are. And we're a rather cumbersome bipedal mammal firmly rooted onto the ground

or occasionally swimming. I'm not terribly good at swimming, so I try to avoid that. But, yeah, I've always dreamed of flying. I suppose I've got that Peter Pan complex. All of my favourite animals are winged in one way. or another, butterflies, dragonflies and of course the birds. And, you know, it's always, I'm always excited by the fact that, you know, Peregrine falcons have made the recovery. They were very rare birds when I was a kid. They now nest in the town that when I grew up as a kid,

you know, I would never have been able to predict that recovery and that success. But you have to pinch yourself because every time you look up and see one, you're looking at the fastest animal on the planet. They can stoop at speeds in excess of 200 miles an hour for short periods during their stoop when they're plummeting down to knock their prey out of the sky. So, yeah, it was good. It was all over too quickly. I think those sort of experiences are so overwhelming for the senses, that you need to do them a few times to get your senses under control

so you can really take in the experience because I think our zip lasted a minute or something. It felt like about 10 seconds because it was so exciting, really, really thrilling. I didn't predate anything on the way down. I was slightly disappointed. I wasn't able to predate a vegan cake or something like that I'm going out in Peregrine fashion. But anyway, it was great fun, really, really great fun. Good idea from Beast. Was there a moment for you, Meg, that really stood out in the series.

It's kind of when you think back, that's one that you'll definitely remember. Yeah, I think, I mean, there's so many highlights amongst all of it, really. I mean, I've always wanted to go, I've seen puffins, but I've never got. gone to the Welsh islands where they kind of breed in high numbers, you know, Skolkham, Skoma. So that was one of my top things that I really wanted to do. And I think it was the first episode we visited Skolkum. And that was brilliant. That was great. I'll always remember that because I quite like clumsy birds. I think they're quite entertaining and endearing. And the puffins are always surprisingly small. No matter how many times you see them, you're always

like, you are really tiny and pretty adorable. But I have to say, for me, the biggest, but actually, I'm sat right next to the photograph here. We went to Bass Rock first when I was about nine years old. I remember it was probably the first time I ever picked up a camera properly and was really thinking about wildlife photography. I think that was definitely, you know, the first instance where I was really thinking like composition, birds and flight, birds landing, and I was really getting to grips with my camera.

And actually this is one of the, you can't see, but behind me, is a photograph of two gannets that have plummeted into the water and they've both got fish in their builds. So I took that when I was nine years old and I loved it. Going Bass Rock is home to about 150,000 Gannet. So it's a really big breeding colony and on quite a small rock, I have to say. And it was a really positive story because we got to go back when we were filming and the population had increased. And a lot of the time when we talk about places, revisiting places or we talk about conservation,

we're often talking about the negative and the fact that things have declined. But the fact that this population on Bass Rock had increased. so much so that when we landed, we couldn't get up anywhere near as high on the rock as we would have done when I was nine years old, because quite frankly, there are too many Gannets and they were not very happy about you walking path,

their nest, and they were breeding, they had a lot of chicks and everything, and it was just really great to go back and to see Gannets. I think they're one of the most elegant sea birds that we've got, and they're always just, you know, it's chaos, it's absolute chaos. They're pecking each other, they're quite loud.

You know, they're always telling, one another off if one's land in the wrong place or, you know, someone's done something bad. But it's just, yeah, I mean, the smell is interesting, as is any seabird colony. It's quite overwhelmed. It does, you know, you are kind of playing Russian roulette with Gannet guano, which I think we definitely got shot at a few times and didn't manage to miss. But, all in all, you know, for me, it's one of the top wildlife spectacles in the UK, Bassarok, it has to be. It's brilliant. And you've mentioned kind of the eco-friendly aims of the series. What other things are important in kind of planning any kind of UK wildlife

trip or experience to make sure that seeing these creatures does not endanger them further? Yeah, I think, you know, we're very keen Meggs and I to encourage people to go into the countryside, into that landscape, whether they're visiting nature reserves or taking coastal walks or whatever, because it's only through proper engagement with that. I think people develop a real affinity for it and a lot of it is in peril and does need looking after. And if people love something and they feel an attachment to it, they're far more likely to look after it. But at the same time, we equally realize that encouraging large numbers of people into what is a relatively small space and overcrowded space in the UK means that we have to behave

ourselves. We all have to manage our behaviours to protect the thing that we love so much. So that's why we have rules and regulations and that's why we have stipulations. as to where you can and can't go when it comes to breeding birds and so on and so forth. It's why we listen to the advice of the wardens or the people who are in charge of these sites. And if they're not there, then we have to conjure the sense ourselves to show the animal's proper respect and sometimes show some restraint. Meggs and I are both really keen photographers, but there's a time to stop. You can't just keep walking closer and closer and closer and closer.

You'll end up disturbing the animal. So it's about learning those parameters and implementing them and sharing concerns with other people. If you think they're getting a bit too close or they're not doing something, then we need to make sure that we really politely communicate that to one another. There are new generations of people who have found respite and solace in that environment. I welcome the fact that they're going to do that. But I sometimes worry that if they leave their litter behind or they use their disposable barbecues and don't distinguish them properly,

we do face some quite serious threats. So it's all about, you know, education and learning, sharing ideas, being tolerant and allowing people to, you know, maybe make a mistake, but only make it once. And it's something that the conservation movement have spent a lot of time mastering. So we've not only learned how to look after other animal species,

we've learned how to manage humans so the two can interact harmoniously, which is why when you do visit, nature reserves. Sometimes there are rules and regulations. No dogs. Dogs on leads. Don't go beyond this line. Please stay in the hive. Please be quiet. So, and so and so forth. And they're all there for a good reason. So if you are out and about and you're a bit of a newbie, just take note of all of those things and try and play by the rules for the benefit, not just other people, but of all that wildlife that we love to. Yeah, but also do your research. You know, if there's a particular species that you really

want to go out and see, you know, try and learn a little bit about it beforehand. And also there's some fantastic guided tours that you can do. You know, so you take note from them. Either, you know, if you've got any questions, don't be, you know, it's a really amazing community and people are always happy to give advice. So if you're not sure, just do reach out and ask the best way to, you know, best place or best way to get a photograph or get an interaction with a certain animal and how best to do it, say for the animal and for you. And, you know, these guided tools are always really good, particularly if you're starting out because then, you know, they know where all the best spots are and you can kind of be taken there.

You know, things are shown to you that otherwise you might not have seen. And obviously that's a great way of learning, you know, how to judge distance and respect animals whilst adoring them from afar. And what kind of species in the UK right now should we be worried about? What should we be looking at right now? I mean, I don't think there's room for complacency anywhere. Like Meg says, you know, when I was a kid, you know, sparrows and starlings were very common birds. We had a lot more turtle doves than we have now.

I mean, there were so many species that even in my short lifetime in terms of the grand scheme of things, we've seen tremendous declines. And when you think of animals, which we very much took for granted by hedgehogs, and we've seen 97% decline in hedgehogs in some areas, and declines actually accelerating in that species as well. I can't think the last time I saw a living hedgehog actually would have been almost a year ago. It was almost a year ago, actually. In September last year, I saw.

the last hedgehog and that's that would have been unthinkable when I was a child. So I think that we've got we've reached a point where there's such pressure on our environment, either deliver or through neglect, that we need to have no complacency whatsoever. Every scrap of space which is intact and offering a resource for life should be protected. We need to, you know, restore, we instate, we introduce species into environments. We have the technologies and the ability to do that. We need to be a lot more proactive in that way. And we live in one of the most nature denuded countries, you know, set of countries anywhere in the world. So as much as we love wildlife and we've got all our nature reserves and Megs and I romp around enjoying it, we've got to remember that it is

one of the most damaged set of ecosystems anywhere on planet Earth. And that brings me no end of sadness and, you know, and motivates a real desire to get, you know, active, proactive, you know, good quality conservation working everywhere. And that's not just on nature reserves. That's people's back gardens. That's the local park. That's the school ground. That's the car park in your place of work. All of these places could offer a resource. And we know how to adapt them to make that resource work. So this is the time for us to really get on with it. I do have anything you wanted to kind of add about the species that you're concerned about? I mean, it's, how long have you got? It's, you know, an incredibly long list for a variety

of different reasons. And I mean, I could list off individual species, but I won't because we will be here forever. You know, hedgehogs are a big one, Britain's favorite mammal. You know, that's terrifying that it's declined, you know, 97% in some areas. We look at seabird colonies. Seabirds are incredibly important indicators for the health of the oceans. And yet we know that, you know, with these puffins, that they're really struggling because sandial populations are declined massively. We know that there's problems with microplastics and sea birds are feeding their young more and more plastic. And we're seeing a massive decline in those colonies, which is, you know, seen mirrored amongst populations of different species and mirrored around the coasts of the UK. You know, we know that things are struggling massively.

You know, the swallows and swifts. Great. It's so exciting when they come every year. But are there as many as there were the year before? or ultimately, you know, not really the case. You know, we look at our butterflies, we look at our bumblebees, we look at our insect populations that have just been absolutely decimated. You know, there is nowhere near the amount of insects that, you know,

I remember as a kid, and ultimately even that is nowhere near the amount of insects that Chris could probably remember as a kid. And ultimately, that's something called shifting baseline syndrome. And that's quite an interesting kind of phenomenon that, you know, young people judge, or any person really, judges populations by their own lifetime, you know, and says, okay, well, that's normal because it's always been that way or, you know, that's increased since that point. But you've got to remember that these animals have been here long before we were born as individuals and hopefully we'll be here long, long after.

And we can't keep judging animals and their abundance by the parameters of our own lifetimes. We live 80 years, if we're lucky, and populations are going to fluctuate within that time. But we need to make sure that we're not just trying to stabilise it within our lifetimes and not just thinking about the short term of the 80 years, but we're thinking of the long term 100, 200, 500 years so that we can protect these species that are struggling. And the time is now, ultimately, unfortunately, we don't have that time. We don't have that time to waste talking about how to save it. We know how to save it.

We've got the solutions. ready to do it, we've just got to get on. And of course, like you've mentioned, part of that is actually going out and experiencing nature, because once you've had that experience, you can then fight for it and you've got that kind of motivation. I know we all should have the motivation because it's UK wildlife, but actually there's something about seeing it that brings it all kind of into a new perspective. Yeah, I think so. It's that sense of ownership and engagement, which is, you know, so important. And we saw that developing in many people

who may have had a casual interest in the natural world before, but during lockdown, they had that little bit of extra time and they were able to, you know, stop and look at things that they'd seen and stop and listen to things that they'd heard. And it piqued their interest. And all of a sudden, you know, the sound of common birds singing, robins and blackbirds and songfashes in the cities was bringing them in.

enormous amounts of joy. And what makes and I hope is that in the aftermath of that, you know, if there's a plan to cut down some trees at the end of the street where those blackbirds were singing so beautifully during that period and brought those people so much joy, they might say, well, do you know what, let's find somewhere else to put those houses or that car park and protect the trees. So it is that very much that passion that we want people to, you know, to excite, but then to use creatively when it comes to conservation. We're in a climate and ecological emergency, and it is an emergency, and that means that we need immediate action.

And so, you know, an action, we can all do our own little bit, but collectively we need to do a lot more. And as a consequence, the bigger the team, the better the result. And that's, again, why we're, you know, in our program, we didn't go anywhere exclusive. So we didn't go anywhere where people can't go. It was really important to us that they could put their bootprints in hours and experience the same thing. We wanted to show that we do have, despite all of its problems,

some fantastic places to go in the UK to encounter wildlife. And we want people to go and do that. But as it makes us said, we both recognise the real and very urgent need to act now to protect it. Otherwise, we're going to lose things. We could lose things like hedgehogs. I know it's almost unbelievable, but it's really becoming a potential reality that we would lose what were in my youth common animals that we took for granted, and they'll be gone and gone forever. And of course, you know, you got to the legislature to see, you know, an elusive animal, the red squirrel. And I've never seen one. It's one of those things that my parents always say, oh, you know,

It used to be loads. And I know the stories, but I've never actually seen one. What can I do or what can people do to kind of get the best chance of seeing that kind of iconic animal? Well, Red squirrels is a difficult one because, of course, the problem with them is that they've been out-competed by the grey squirrels, which is highly invasive when they came into the UK out-competeing for everything, pretty much food and, you know, territory. They're quite territorial when it comes to the Reds. So, you know, unfortunately, you know, the Reds are clinging on to some small areas. You've got Cumbria, some areas in Wales, the Isle of Wight, and, of course, up in the Cengorms in Northern Scotland. The Red squirrels are all around there.

And I think there's, you know, some initiatives to kind of bringing them back at the moment, but it's still kind of an ongoing process, I think, because it is difficult because the grey squirrels are so prominent now in our landscape and do cause kind of such a problem. but other than going to those places at the moment, you know, I'd love to say that the Reds will be back in high abundance all over the UK within my lifetime, whether that will be a reality or not, I don't know. But, you know, as it stands, it's definitely not the case, and you kind of have to go to where those last populations are holding on,

and hopefully they do hold on. And in terms of listeners who are kind of really keen to get out there and see some more UK wildlife, but perhaps, you know, living in cities, London might not have the kind of opportunities to visit the wild landscapes that we've got in Scotland or the north. What are kind of the three things that you would recommend a listener does in order to see UK wildlife at home this autumn? Well, if you're lucky enough to have a garden, you can modify that garden to make it more appealing to wildlife and it will come. You know, we on our South Isolating Bird Club, next night put together with a couple of other folks last year, encourage people to put an old washing up bowl in their lawn as the world's tiniest pond

and hundreds, not thousands of people did this, and frogs and newts and dragonflies turned up and things came to bathe in it and things came to drink from it, including hedgehogs, I might add. And again, you know, that just something as simple as an old washing up bowl improves your resource for wildlife if you're lucky enough to have a garden. If you don't have a garden, just rest assured that our cities, even in the hearts of those cities, the most urban parts of them, are filled full of life. We're really lucky in the UK have good metropolitan parks. And there's invariably, therefore, there's large trees there. Good bird populations, invertebrate populations, if the council are far thinking and they've got wildflower areas or areas of unmoan grass now, which are profitable too.

then another good one is cemeteries. A lot of cemeteries are quiet places for obvious reasons. People go there to revere their lost relatives. Some of them are overgrown, and they become repositories for wildlife, certainly in London, and Manchester, thinking places like this, Liverpool, those overgrown cemeteries are fantastic places for things like foxes and badgers and breeding birds. So they're another good source. And then there were plenty of urban nature reserves. because we've been very conscious of the fact that that urban population wants and needs access to the natural world. And again, I can say hand on heart that, you know, there are some really, really good urban nature reserves,

which are packed full of surprising things. Most notably, I think, because many of our larger cities are based on rivers because they required access to bring in goods, and they also required drinking water before it was piped. I'm talking going back thousands of years, of course. But rivers are great conduits for wildlife. Anything moving follows that river, anything from an otter to a migrating osprey. So our cities being on those rivers means that they're often at a confluence of roots across the landscape, if you like, that wildlife follows. You've got our railway lines going into all of our cities.

And the railway embankments are going to quiet places where people cannot go, but wildlife can. And wildlife uses this network of routes to get in and out of our city. So there's never an excuse for thinking that I live in the middle of town, I can't get out to the countryside, I won't see any wildlife. Look up. You'll see Peregron falcons and kestrels flying overhead and look down and you'll see some fabulous plants growing in that broken piece of tarmac around the bus shelter. There's always something living there.

And most of it is pretty fascinating when you get down on your hands and knees. Thank you for listening to this episode of Instant Genius. That was Chris Packen and Megan McCubbin. If you want to know more about the wildlife you can see in the UK across the coming months, check out Autumn Watch on BBC EyePlayer. Or to hear them tell me more about wildlife, head over to the Instant Genius Extra podcast. The October issue of BBC Science Focus magazine is out now. Pick up a copy in store or visit ScienceFocus.com.

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