W

HETHER it’s a photo of blue tits nesting in the garden or squirrels somersaulting through treetops, Springwatch fans avidly post their observations on social media.

But when it comes to audience interaction, the presenters’ most frequently asked question has nothing to do with wildlife.

“It’s usually about what we’re wearing,” sighs Michaela Strachan, who today is sporting a T-shirt with a rather cute illustration of a badger.

In fact, this very item of clothing caused a Twitter storm when she appeared on TV with it last year.

“I just said, ‘Oh look, I can scratch my badger’,” she protests with wide-eyed innocence, while co-star Chris Packham sniggers in the background like a naughty schoolboy.

“Sorry, but that’s not an innuendo. I have a badger T-shirt. I can scratch it...”

Such is the camaraderie and comedy of Springwatch, which is back on our screens for a new three-week wildlife watching bonanza (peppered with entertaining banter) from Monday.

Described by the BBC as a radical change, the team has swapped pristine nature reserves for a working countryside estate, with a new home at National Trust property Sherborne Estate in the Cotswolds.

Built as a grandstand in the 17th century, the area is now used for farmland and tourism.

By choosing a location accessible to the public, series producers hope to connect viewers with common animals from childhood books such as The Wind In The Willows and the Beatrix Potter titles, and for the first time, the team will also have a base for a full year, enabling them to chart the adaptations of wildlife to different seasons.

“One of the problems that blights us right now is that we partition our expectations,” explains Chris, who’s been with the programme since 2009.

“If we want to see art, we go to an art gallery; if we want to see history we go to a stately house museum,” he points out.

“We’ve got ourselves into a state of mind where if we want to see nature, we go to a nature reserve, and that depresses me because we should have an expectation to see wildlife wherever we are.”

One of the team’s major aims is to give viewers a reality check on the health of the UK’s countryside, and