{"id":692269,"date":"2026-01-13T01:56:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T01:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692269\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T01:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T01:56:23","slug":"winterwatch-heads-to-northern-ireland-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692269\/","title":{"rendered":"Winterwatch heads to Northern Ireland for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The BBC Two show \u2013 presented by hosts Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams \u2013 will air from the shore of Strangford Lough in County Down, the largest sea lough in the British Isles.<\/p>\n<p>The series, which first launched in 2012, is a nature documentary which observes animals and wildlife in the UK during the winter months.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #666666; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-style: italic;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/eb7dde6e-c4f0-4ebc-b219-3321e03abae6.jpg\"  \/>Chris Packham presents Winterwatch alongside Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams (BBC\/Jo Charlesworth)<\/p>\n<p>Winterwatch 2026 will focus on Northern Ireland\u2019s wildlife and natural beauty, and will be broadcast live from the historic Mount Stewart estate, which is owned by the National Trust.<\/p>\n<p>Packham, 64, said: \u201cI\u2019ve been visiting Northern Ireland since the early 1990s and I always saw it as a very unspoilt part of the UK, it\u2019s magnificent in terms of its natural resources and it has some exceptional species.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s got incredible coastal regions and loughs and a wonderful range of species, some of which we don\u2019t see frequently across the UK, so very excited to be heading there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The environment of Mount Stewart estate is home to a wide range of animals \u2013 including pine martens, red squirrels and badgers \u2013 which are expected to feature in the new series.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2.82572474.jpg\" alt=\"Climate \u201cemergency\u201d briefing\" data-title=\"Climate \u201cemergency\u201d briefing\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Stefan Rousseau\" data-usage-terms=\"\"  \/>Chris Packham has said he is \u2018so very excited\u2019 as Winterwatch heads to Northern Ireland for its return to the BBC next week (Stefan Rousseau\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n<p>It will also feature pre-recorded clips of wildlife across the UK, including Yorkshire, Dorset, and areas in Scotland and Wales.<\/p>\n<p>Packham said: \u201cThe great joy of our live programmes is that there\u2019s always something new and you don\u2019t know what it\u2019s going to be, and that\u2019s part of what keeps us coming back to it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe team never tires as we keep turning up not knowing what to expect. Of course, we have any number of plans, but inevitably, something crops up which you don\u2019t expect to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Strachan, 59, described the show\u2019s new base camp location as \u201cexciting\u201d, and said that in the new series, viewers can \u201cexpect a variety of wonderful wildlife and woolly hats\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/a089d3f0-27e4-48c3-8e0b-84bc3d724848.jpg\" alt=\"\"  \/>Iolo Williams said there will be an \u2018amazing array of wildlife\u2019 for viewers (BBC\/Jo Charlesworth)<\/p>\n<p>Williams said: \u201cI had a peek at some of the wildlife at Mount Stewart in spring, so I\u2019m looking forward to going back there and also spending time on Strangford Lough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll hopefully see waders and wildfowl and some Brent geese, birds that have come all the way from Arctic Canada.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, it\u2019ll be an amazing array of wildlife that we\u2019ll be bringing to the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Winterwatch will return to BBC Two and BBC iPlayer from January 20-23 at 7pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC Two show \u2013 presented by hosts Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams \u2013 will air&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-692269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115885308996927424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}