It's back to nature with Winterwatch

Winterwatch (BBC Two, 8pm)
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January can be a tough month, but it’s not all doom and gloom, as the BBC shows with this programme – its perennial tonic for the coldest and the shortest days of the year.

Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and co are back tonight to explain how winter can actually be the most magical of all the seasons, when the bare trees expose themselves and wildlife make the most of any opportunity as the frost takes hold.

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As last year, they will be based at Wild Ken Hill conservation project in Norfolk, standing around a roaring fire in their big padded jackets and bobble hats, and introducing footage from a multitude of live cameras focusing on the marshland and farmland of the east of England.

They will be taking a look at the area’s grey seal populations latest breeding season, and Michaela will be learning what mermaid’s purses can tell us about the health of our seas.

Plus, the duo will be uncovering the hidden secrets of the birds that come to our garden feeders over winter.

We’ll also be enjoying two super flocks that make Norfolk their home in colder months, as pink-footed geese and corvids put on an epic show when they go to roost.

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The winter rains have brought life back to the grazing marsh and the waterfowl and waders should provide a seasonal spectacle.

We’ll also be seeing how the beavers maintain their dams in the winter now the water levels have risen, and hope that their pond continues to be an exceptional raptor-fest for goshawks, sparrowhawks and buzzards.

Meanwhile, Chris and Michaela’s co-presenters Iolo Williams and Gillian Burke are in one of the UK’s greenest cities – Edinburgh – as cameras are trained on a very active wild badger sett in the heart of the Scottish capital’s zoo.

They will also follow peregrines and uncover exciting new research along the Water of Leith, Edinburgh’s very own wildlife highway – home to secretive otters and marathon migrating eels.

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As well as features from its two bases, Winterwatch will also showcase pre-recorded films covering the length and breadth of the country, including tonight’s look at the largest jackdaw roost in the UK.

Plus, ex-soldier and police officer Paul Williams, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, photographs mountain hares high up in the Cairngorms, and singer-songwriter David Gray follows the curlew, a species that has enchanted since he was a little boy.

Professor Lynne Boddy explains how veteran trees can be saved by inoculating young species with a kind of fungi called heart rot, and Nadeem Perera reveals how he has found solace and serenity watching jackdaws.

Megan McCubbin is invited to join two intrepid birders to witness a starling murmuration, while John Keeling follows stoats, Dr Aleksander Domanski takes his kayak into the water at night, and TV Doctor and newly appointed president of the RSPB, Dr Amir Khan, shows us around his frosty city garden in Leeds.

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This season of Winterwatch will also see the return of an audience favourite – Mindfulness Moments.

Iolo Williams, Michaela Strachan, Gillian Burke and Chris PackhamIolo Williams, Michaela Strachan, Gillian Burke and Chris Packham
Iolo Williams, Michaela Strachan, Gillian Burke and Chris Packham

In each programme, there’ll be a 90-second film of pure nature. No music, no presenter voice-over, just natural sound and glorious pictures to take us to wild places or immerse us in natures favourite species.