91热爆

Located in the Peak District National Park, Stanage Edge is a dramatic grit stone escarpment.聽 A quarter of million visitors are drawn to this special place every year but there鈥檚 one that makes an epic journey to get here.聽 The rare Ring Ouzel winters in North Africa but travels thousands of miles to breed and nest in Britain.聽 Every year, the shy, rock-loving Ring Ouzel takes up summer residence in the nooks and crannies of Stanage Edge right under the fingers and toes of the climbing community. The problem is both the birds and the climber鈥檚 want this rock.聽 Keeley Donovan meets park ranger, Bill Gordon, whose job it is to act as peacemaker in the battle between climber and bird.聽 He鈥檚 roped in climbers like ecologist Kim Leyland to conduct bird surveys to help protect the Ring Ouzel and cordon off areas where the birds are nesting. 聽

In less than a century, we鈥檝e lost a staggering 97% of our beautiful wildflower meadows. 91热爆 to vital pollinators, they underpin our entire ecosystem but shockingly, one in five of our wild plants are edging towards extinction. Margherita Taylor joins botanical specialist, Dr Trevor Dines from Plantlife, to find out about a national campaign to reverse the catastrophic decline of our meadows. She reveals how you can do your bit to preserve your local meadows by planting some specialist local seed and discovers why the humble honeybee plays an important role in sustaining our wildflower meadows through pollination and by helping to spread native seeds.

There are more than one and a half million second homes in the UK and, in popular areas like Cornwall, as many as two in five houses are holiday retreats. But is this a good thing? Charlotte Smith meets local residents who say they cannot afford to stay in the area where they grew up because second homeowners have dramatically increased house prices. But for many local tradesmen the income that comes from second homeowners, especially in the summer months, is a vital part of their business. So is there a way of keeping everyone happy?

Prized as a delicacy, lobster is now making a move for the mainstream.聽 Sales in the UK rose 90% last year. This is great news for the UK fishing industry but lobster stocks have crashed elsewhere due to overfishing.聽 But one charity has come up with an ingenious idea to safeguard British lobster stocks. Jules Hudson travels to Padstow to join The National Lobster Hatchery team at the beginning of the first ever experiment to farm lobster.

The Lee Valley is known as the 鈥済reen lung鈥� of London and the Lea Valley Growers have played a key role in shaping the landscape. Matt Baker spends the day discovering that the region is home to a number of Italian families who brought their growing know-how to the Lea Valley in the 1950s. Matt meets a Sicilian family who have been growing cucumbers for three generations. He finds out how, from humble beginnings, the industry has become a high-tech business. It now produces five million cucumbers a year, as well as fruit to suit a more Mediterranean taste.聽

This summer, Paul Martin is keen to make his smallholding pay.聽 With a demand for quail eggs on the rise in his local area, Paul sets off to meet Phillippa Collins, a local quail breeder, for some much needed advice about how to keep these little birds as part of a potential new business venture.聽 He takes home eleven quail of his own to start his egg-laying empire, and sets about building them the perfect new run. Much to Paul鈥檚 delight, they start laying tiny but tasty eggs almost as soon as they have arrived.