An episode of the Tyne Tees Television series on the wildlife of the north presented by Jonathan Morrell. The programme begins with Jonathan joining marine life expert Maureen Fortune on Bamburgh Beach in Northumberland exploring rock pools. Next a report on the Brown hare which traditionally was seen to have magical powers and linked to ancient folklore. At Rising Sun Country Park near Wallsend Lisa Kerslake from the Northumberland Wildlife Trust explains why it is now in decline. Following...

An episode of the Tyne Tees Television series on the wildlife of the north presented by Jonathan Morrell. The programme begins with Jonathan joining marine life expert Maureen Fortune on Bamburgh Beach in Northumberland exploring rock pools. Next a report on the Brown hare which traditionally was seen to have magical powers and linked to ancient folklore. At Rising Sun Country Park near Wallsend Lisa Kerslake from the Northumberland Wildlife Trust explains why it is now in decline. Following the break, we follow Mark Eton from Durham University who is using modern technology to track seabirds, especially Turnstones, along the Northumberland coast near Amble to see how they react to any changes in their environment. Finally, a look at the work of David Clarke who is creating a record of every site in the north where Dragonflies live. Maureen Fortune from Alnwick specialises in the secret life of rockpools. During the summer she works as a volunteer for Northumberland County Council's countryside service taking groups of children on guided tours of rockpools at places like Stag Rock, Bamburgh and Alnmouth. She tells Jonathan Morrell about the wonderful world of marine life waiting to be explored at low tide on these beautiful beaches. The number of hares in the English countryside is believed to have fallen by almost 50 per cent since the last war, mainly because of changes in farming practices. Lisa Kerslake, of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust, has made a special study of hares and knows where they can be found. At dawn on an early spring day she took the Wild North team out into the countryside on a hare-spotting mission. A multi-million pound clean-up of the North East coast's beaches is being carried out by Northumbrian Water, with a series of schemes to intercept sewage pipes and stop them from pumping waste into the sea. But what effect will this have on marine life, which lives off the waste, and on a whole range of seabirds, which depend on the marine life for their food? Durham University researcher Mark Eaton is one of several experts who are looking into the issue. Mark is monitoring turnstones and purple sandpipers on the coast near Amble, using a radio-tracking device to keep an eye on the birds. David Clarke works in a museum but in his spare time is the North's official recorder of dragonflies which involves keeping a record of where these colourful insects have been spotted in the region. David takes the Wild North team to a secret site which is home to the extremely rare White-faced darter, a dragonfly only found in a few parts of the country. 'Dragonflies are under threat', he says, 'mainly through the destruction of their habitat by roads, building schemes and drainage. They need unpolluted water, and that can sometimes be hard to find.' Credits: Presenter Jonathan Morrell Camera Simon Crouch, Lee Sutterby Sound Postproduction Andy Ludbrook Editor David Hindmarsh Executive Producer Jane Bolesworth Producer Charles Bowden CBTV production for Tyne Tees Television © Tyne Tees Television MM