BBC Autumnwatch on Islay in November

Ron Steenvoorden’s great Islay Info website has detailed information on the plans of the BBC Autumnwatch team.

The 2011 series, Autumnwatch Live, will run from Friday 7th October at 8.30pm on BBC Two. It will air once a week for eight weeks, ‘tracking the very best wildlife action from the beginning to the end of this dramatic season’.

The week 5 programme will feature Islay, which means, working from the start date of the show, that the team will be on Islay at the beginning of November.

What they’re aiming to see is the arrival of thousands of barnacle geese at Islay’s nature reserves, with resident golden eagles and otters. The bonus will be a sighting of a merlin. We’ve had that luxury in unusual circumstances. A hunting merlin in full flight – and his prey – hit a window. The prey died but the merlin fell stunned to the ground, lying on his side. We held him upright to keep him warm – right or wrong as a counter to shock, gently made sure his neck and wings were in working order, got his talons working again so that he could grip on a safe resting place. When he got strong enough to wonder who on earth we were and what we were doing, were carrying him to a good release place when he simply flew from our hands.

A once in a lifetime close-up.

Check the Islay Info site for the details on the Autumnwatch Live,  news on their new Twitter account – and some great photographs of the blizzard of barnacle geese.