An edition of the Tyne Tees Television series on the wildlife of the north presented by Kim Inglis. The programme begins with 'The Kittiwake', a young ornithology group run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, who are building bird boxes that will be installed inside Jesmond Dene Park in the heart of Newcastle. Next, to the Thornley Woodland Centre near Gateshead where CCTV cameras have been installed into several nesting boxes to help children better understand and...

An edition of the Tyne Tees Television series on the wildlife of the north presented by Kim Inglis. The programme begins with 'The Kittiwake', a young ornithology group run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, who are building bird boxes that will be installed inside Jesmond Dene Park in the heart of Newcastle. Next, to the Thornley Woodland Centre near Gateshead where CCTV cameras have been installed into several nesting boxes to help children better understand and learn more about nature. Kim then meets Tom Cadwallender of the British Trust for Ornithology at Bolam Lake Country Park near Belsay in Northumberland to learn more about one of Britain's most popular species, the Chaffinch. After the break Kim meets Ian Waller, County Durham's official dragonfly recorder about a new species that has been discovered in the area possibly due to climate change. Finally, a look at a colony of harbour or common seals now living along the River Tees at Sea Sands for more than ten years. At Thornley Woodland Centre on the outskirts of Gateshead, staff have installed closed-circuit TV cameras in a group of nesting boxes. The aim - to keep an eye on birds like great tits as they hatch out their young. The live pictures can be watched on television monitors by the crowds of people who visit the centre. Ranger John Hemstock. People can see what really goes on in the nest as the parent birds feed their chicks. Often it's the survival of the fittest, but the public watching the screens don't like it when one of the small chicks doesn't get any food. They urge us to step in and help, but we can't. It's nature's way of balancing things out. Kim joins children in Newcastle to find out how to make nesting boxes for robins and blue tits. The children are members of 'The Kittiwakes' a young ornithologists group run by the RSPB's David Avis who says: 'A lot of places that birds use to nest in gardens, like old trees, have vanished and bird-boxes are a way of replacing them.' One bird which many people will recognise is the chaffinch. There are seven million of them in Britain. But, according to Tom Cadwallender of the British Trust for Ornithology, they are all individuals who have their own local dialect. Experts have studied the calls of chaffinches and they vary from region to region, in the same way that human dialects change from area to area. Ian Waller, County Durham's official dragonfly recorder tells Kim that more kinds of dragonflies are being discovered in the North, possibly because of global warming. And Rebecca Turner of Teesside's Industry and Nature Conservation Association, gives Kim the latest information on a colony of harbour seals which has established itself on the River Tees over the last 10 years. Credits: Presenter Kim Inglis Camera Lee Sutterby Dubbing Mixer Andy Ludbrook Editor David Hindmarsh Executive Producer Jane Bolesworth Producer Charles Bowden CBTV production for Tyne Tees Television A Tyne Tees Television Presentation. Granada. © Tyne Tees Television