I’ve long been fond of the Gilbert White approach to natural history. White, rector of Selborne in Hampshire in the late 18th century, was an acute observer of his local surroundings. He had an intense curiosity for the animals that surrounded him and his world was largely defined by the boundaries of his parish. Everything he needed to live a rewarding life was there within a mile or so of his house.

I am of course second guessing his opinions, maybe he really wanted to travel the world but circumstance conspired against him. But I don’t think so, his writing exudes a passion for the local. And that’s what I like. For me there’s nothing better than getting to know the wildlife on your own doorstep, to have what birders describe as a local patch. Travelling the world is fine up to a point, but I worry that leads to a superficial experience of the natural world.

To see a lion chasing a zebra across the African plains is no doubt exciting, but does experiencing this just once really deepen our relationship with the natural world? Personally I doubt it. I’d much rather listen to people tell me about the comings and goings of their garden birds or local hedgehogs and foxes, because this is where I hear understanding, relationship and passion for the animals we share our lives with.  

Which is why I like the BBC’s Springwatch and Autumnwatch programmes. They are a wonderful celebration of everything local. And programmes that listen as well as broadcast, that allow viewers to share their own love of wildlife, whether it be photographs of blackbirds, shaky home video footage of stoats or online discussions on all manner of wildlife topics. If Gilbert White were alive today, I’m sure he’d be there on the programme’s Flickr group with photo’s of his swallows.

And so, a  back in February I was delighted to get a call from Nick, one of the Springwatch assistant producers, asking if they might come over to our Arne reserve in Dorset to see if it was suitable for hosting Simon King for a couple of days in June.

I reckon, because I’m clearly biased, that you could spend a lifetime at Arne and never tire of the amazing diversity of wildlife there. Its one of those places where there’s always something to see, something new to discover. For our appointed meeting we were joined on site be Dante Munns, our local area manager and custodian of all things wild on the heath

This was good, it's Dante’s local patch and so he could describe with a passion why the BBC should spend time there. We looked at ponds where raft spiders could be filmed. Heather clad slopes where nightjars were a certainty. Gorse bushes from which Dartford warblers would perform. We heard woodlark. We even caught a glimpse of a wintering merlin dash low across the harbours edge. By the end of our three hours on site we reckoned we had enough for three weeks of live filming, never mind the couple of days up for discussion.

As it turned out, we had done more than enough to extol the sites virtues as a few weeks later the BBC’s attendance on site was confirmed followed by a flurry of detailed questions from the producers and researchers of what could be seen where and when. More on this tomorrow.