Challenge Martha sweeping planet Earth

Morning all.

I've just had the most fantastic email that I wanted to share with you. It turns out that Challenge Martha is fast becoming an international hit with followers as widely spread as Canada and Australia. Brilliant! This email and picture came in from Gloria on Vancouver Island this morning -

"Hi Martha ~ I've been following your blog, and I thought I'd send you something for Halloween so you can meet this particular challenge after all! Hope the weather cheers up a bit for you! It's wet and rainy over here on Vancouver Island as well! Kind regards, Gloria"

Gloria I can only say thank you from the bottom of my heart. The fact that someone I have never met on a continent over 3,000 miles away would take the time to dress me up in a giant red squirrel costume for the world to see is genuinely heart warming. If only they were broadcasting tonight I could make Chris and Charlie (and no doubt my colleagues here) very happy indeed.

Does life get any better than this my friends?!

Well it might next week, with the challenges pouring in. Here are a selection that I may or may not be able to take up next week to inspire you if you've not yet set me a challenge.

"Do some batspotting? or with climate change have they hibernated or gone on holiday? Think the goggles will help with this challenge...keep up the good work. Angela"

"How many different Water Voles can you see in one hour on the reedbed boardwalk crossing in front of the villa and is there anyway you can identify them individually to discount any double counting? Photographic evidence please!! Australian Charlotte"

"It sounds like you are having far too much fun. So I'm going to think up some nasty and horrible challenges for you! In the meantime, can you spot seven different colours of waxcap on Brownsea? Sophie"

"Stay out on Brownsea island, building your own home and surving for a whole 72 hours living off the land. Mike"

Mike I know your game...That's got 'Brownsea Boatman' stamped all over it. Are you trying to kill me?!

Challenge three: get ye to the sofa!

The weather took a turn for the worse today as we traded radiant blue skies for high winds and black clouds; a good day for being a bit more inside I think. Chris and Charlie provided me with a reason to shelter like a wary muntjac with this challenge - get onto Autumnwatch dressed as a big red squirrel. Or failing that just be interviewed by Bill Oddie. Well guys you don't ask for much do you?! And as they claim to be the blog's biggest fans I can only wonder why they appear bent on causing me complete and total humiliation...

Ok, the squirrel costume was never going to happen, and if there's one thing I've learnt this week it's how BUSY Bill and Kate actually are. They arrive on the island between 8 and 10, head straight to the production village to talk through the day's work and then out with the wildlife cameramen to record the little packages that get slotted in to the live show. After that are more meetings, writing scripts (such as there are!) and learning them, doing radio, TV and paper interviews, arranging the following day's filming and rehearsals, not to mention a fairly constant interaction with the Brownsea public - photos with children, autograph signing for grannies and chats with local naturalists, all topped off by the live show. They, and the rest of the BBC crew leave the island on the 9.30 boat so it's a pretty full-on and relentless day.

So, I'm sorry Chris and Charlie but I think Bill and I are destined to continue to live separate lives. However, so as not to fail you and myself completely, I did manage to sneak in to the studio and on to the famous sofa for the pic below. I call it "waiting for Bill". Hope that's enough to keep you happy.

On a separate note, we're officially half way through Autumnwatch 2008! I'm not sure how that happened and frankly I don't think I'm very happy about it. Tomorrow will be my last challenge of the week, before we dive back in on monday. So don't hold back, email me your challenges now! I think...

Challenge two: Find out what the public really think of the Autumnwatch presenters

After the high-tension show watching on tues night, and of course the excitement of squirrel speed spotting, I chose to take up Louise’s rather more sedate challenge yesterday of finding out exactly what the Brownsea public think of Bill, Kate and Simon in terms they would understand. Louise set me this challenge - survey 30 visitors and see how many of them can name the Autumnwatch presenters. Then ask them to pick an animal they think each presenter would be.

Just before I get on to that, a little challenge one update. Today in 35 minutes walking the island I counted not 6, but 24 red squirrels! Whilst yesterday I opted for quality, there are clearly a great quantity of squirrels out there to be seen as well.

So, back to our visitors.

Thanks to the Autumnwatch effect, and no doubt half-term fun, the island has been absolutely buzzing this week. Luckily for me this means there were no shortage of people to accost, especially towards the end of the day as they queued for the boats, battling against the icy weather in valiantly British style - “sleet? what sleet?”.

The good news is that out of my 30 participants, only 2 had no idea who the Autumnwatch presenters were - obviously Bill, Kate and Simon hold a special place in the heart of the Brownsea visitor. Gordon however has yet to earn his right to our affections, with only one person remembering his part in the show and deciding he was called “Roger? Alan? Oh I don’t know, something like that.”

Moving on to animal personalities, the answers were far less clear. Diversity reigned supreme, but the overall outcome was, unsurprisingly that Bill and Kate were both red squirrels (good to see the squirrel love sweeping the country) and Simon was a fine handsome stag of a man - “Now Simon, he’s my favourite he is, so handsome, such a lovely voice.” Though Bill as badger and Kate as a beautiful gazelle came in a close second followed by the suggestion that “Bill, he would be a porcupine I think, and Kate, well obviously she’d be a curly haired giraffe wouldn’t she.” Would she?! I can’t say it’s entirely as obvious to me, but perhaps I’m missing something here...

Thank you to all our lovely visitors for being so game! Challenge two, completed.

Bring on three!

Andrew - after careful thought and consultation with the wild-food guru’s here on the island, I’m going to take up your challenge of living on foraged food for the day. Head warden Justin and Boatman Mike are going to help me forage Brownsea and I'll record the whole thing for our podcast next week, so do subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss it. Due to a decidedly rank day today, the foray will commence next week.

I’ll leave you with a little comment of Justin’s earlier today, which sets the stage nicely for a day of foraging fun and games next week.

Me: “As long as it won’t make us ill Justin I’m game”
Justin: “Well, it might Martha, but why not live a little eh!”

uh huh.

Challenge one: How many red squirrels can you see in 1 hr?!

What a day!

Having started writing a post at 10am this morning I can't believe I'm only just getting round to it now, nearly 12 hours later. That's the problem with being surrounded by both amazing wildlife and fascinating people, time passes in an instant.

I've just hotfooted it from the not-so-snug-snug (see before and after shots above with Tim Scoones Executive Producer and Stephen Moss Production Editor watching nervously) where the producers, VIP's and other skeleton staff watch live transmission from. Headsets donned, the director and production co-ordinator's voices fill your ears with every possible instruction for the running of the show. Tonight was a finely tuned exercise in timing. The first quarter of the show rattled through fairly fast meaning it was running 1 minute under schedule. So, word went out to Bill and Kate to relax it out a bit and at the half way mark timing was perfect. However, being a little too relaxed, as the end came into view it was running 2 minutes over. Luckily, this is exactly the kind of thing the BBC know how to handle. In this case the last 3 minutes of the show are known as the 'buffer' and can be altered as needed. It's great because it allows some flexibility for Bill, Kate, Simon and Gordon to be reactive to the wildlife around them as well as beautifully scripted.

You might also be interested to know a few things about how Bill and Kate work that I picked up from hanging around the rehearsals. Bill never practices his opening bits properly but instead opts for a steady flow of hilarious banter to keep it all fresh for the live show, whereas Kate and Simon run through almost word for word. And during transmission, Bill only gets direct instructions for him in his ear-piece ("Bill, say more" or "Bill, don't go there" for example), whereas Kate gets every instruction for everyone so she's filtering out a near constant stream of information as she's talking.

Very impressive!

Anyway, enough of the production chat, down to the serious business of my first challenge! Mike got things off to a swing with this challenge - "I challenge you to see as many red squirrels as possible in 1 hour and get photographic evidence of each one". Well Mike, I hope I'm not going to sound a bit cocky when I say I think I triumphed on this one.

After careful thought and consideration about where I could maximise squirrel viewing, I opted for joining the BBC wildlife cameramen as they filmed the second stage of the squirrel assault course. So, as you see below, in an hour spent silently sitting, we were not short on squirrels! I think I counted 7 at once, though to be honest my eyes are not yet attuned to the subtle squirrel characteristics that differentiate them as individuals so it may have been more, or less. Either way, I not only saw 7 highly endangered and very lovely animals for you Mike, but I saw them learning to fly across the jump on the second stage of the assault course.

Very cool!

Am sorting through the challenges for tomorrow so please do keep emailing me with your suggestions. And Andrew, don't worry, I'm working on the foraging challenge and will happily take it up once I can track down someone who knows a whole lot more about fungi than me!

Yawn. Time for bed, if I can sleep with all this excitement ping-ponging through my head...

Introducing...Challenge Martha

Not content with shipwrecking me for a fortnight, my ever-caring colleagues have decided that I need something to occupy myself during my time here. You might argue that watching the world around you make its profound shift into another season is enough occupation, but it seems not. So! At the risk of encouraging a whole lot of trouble and humiliation for myself, I'd like to introduce to you Challenge Martha.

It's all fairly simple really, you set me a challenge - by emailing brownseablogger@gmail.com, or posting a comment on here - and I'll pick one each day to do, with photographic evidence as proof.

You should know that I am the proud owner of a wetsuit and a particularly fine pair of night-vision goggles should that help you come up with something... Boatman Steve challenged me to swim round the Island on a previous visit, though at over 4 miles, and being nearly November, I might have to build up to that one.

In fact the night-vision goggles, complete with 'sonic listening device' whatever that means, came in handy last night when I stepped out of the Villa and into thick darkness. I could hear the sika deer whistling from my room and wanted to try and record the noise for our podcast so I headed up to the East Lake Hide, which during daylight overlooks one of the two freshwater lakes on the Island. I sat in the darkness and waited, and waited and...then came an almighty 'kerwick' of a tawny owl flying directly overhead. Well with the sonic listening device plugged directly into my left ear and nothing but blanket silence for the previous 30 minutes, the whole thing was vaguely traumatic and the challenge of recording the deer remains.

So there's one from me, record the sika deer calling. Look forward to hearing your suggestions very soon! Perhaps you want me to find something out about Bill and Kate, step into the shoes of an NT warden for the day, find out exactly how much running a runner does, or ask our visitors what they really think?! Do get emailing or commenting now!

Introducing...Brownsea Island

After a long and tedious journey navigating Britain's finest offerings in public transport, I finally arrived on Brownsea Island at sunset last night. Met Mark, one of the BBC wildlife cameramen on the jetty at Sandbanks whilst I waited for the National Trust boat to emerge out of the darkness and carry me to my new home.

I like to think we shared a moment together, Mark and I, as we watched the sun dipping into the clouds over the chilly harbour, turning the world red for about 2 minutes before darkness fell, but in reality I was probably having this little moment alone as Mark went about his work. Never mind, it was a great start to my Brownsea adventure either way and after a very warm welcome from the Dorset Wildlife Trust, who I'm staying with, a good nights sleep and a stunning morning run with the deer (I have to admit they were doing a rather finer job of running than I) I'm ready. Bring it on!

Just off to our first production meeting with Stephen Moss and Reema Lorford to hear what's planned for filming during the day and the first broadcast tonight.

An extra audio delight

Time marches on! And thank goodness it does because, like a squirrel faced with autumn food abundance, I am fast becoming a ball of inefficient over-excitement. As I sit at my desk here in Swindon I can't help but let my mind wander to the island and the BBC Autumnwatch crew currently setting up there. Still, one more office day, a bit of manic packing and then i'm off.

Our October wildlife and countryside podcast is now live with a little preview of how Kate and Bill feel about their new home and the inside story from the island staff, who I'll be getting to know a whole lot better over the coming weeks.

16 October - Let the count down begin!

It's so close that I can almost smell it - the dewy grass, the sea air and wet woodland of Autumnwatch 2008 on Brownsea Island.

Moving in to their island home over the next week are Bill, Kate and around 70 BBC crew, madly trying to turn our special place in Poole harbour into a first rate BBC filming and production studio. With the minor issue of an ocean to cross, this mass take-over is certainly a logistical challenge - more on this to come.

So in just over one week I'll be packing up and heading down for two weeks on the small but perfectly-formed island. I'll be getting under the skin of the BBC (in the nicest possible way) and working out exactly what it is that makes Brownsea so very captivating. As well as this daily blog, I'll be collecting audio delights as the adventure unfolds for two weekly podcasts.

So join me as I roam wild on the autumn isle, traversing the cliffs with the sea-birds, tip-toeing beneath the shedding trees and following wherever my new squirrel and deer friends lead, as we embark together on one of the most exciting things ever to hit beautiful Brownsea.

For a wee taster of the fun to come, check out our wildlife and countryside podcast from back in April, when I met Island warden John Lamming down there. And watch this space for more pre-broadcast treats.


12 days and counting!