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'Our street was chosen to be on Springwatch'

Nathan Turvey & Cathy Minton
BBC News, Yorkshire
BBC Springwatch A hidden camera picture of a badger on a wall in a Sheffield garden captured at nightBBC Springwatch
A badger caught on camera during Springwatch filming in Sheffield

A suburban street with an abundance of wildlife is the star of the new series of BBC Springwatch.

For the first time, producers of the popular nature programme decided to place hidden cameras in ordinary gardens for the show's 20th anniversary run.

Filming took place on a street in the Sheffield neighbourhood of Hillsborough, where residents have installed "swift bricks" to attract the birds.

The cameras have captured badgers, foxes and hedgehogs as well as the nesting swifts.

BBC Springwatch An aerial picture of Sheffield showing rows of houses and factories surrounded by trees and green spaces.BBC Springwatch
Sheffield was chosen as a location because of how green it is, with a quarter of its land made up of gardens

The location was selected because of its proximity to the National Trust-owned Longshaw Estate in the Peak District National Park, where Springwatch will be broadcast from for the first time.

Sheffield is also one of the UK's greenest cities, with a quarter of its land consisting of gardens.

The series began on 26 May and is presented by Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan.

BBC Springwatch Chris Packham, wearing a bucket hat and camouflage jacket (left) and Michaela Strachan, wearing a yellow hat and red jacket (right), standing in front of some rolling hills in the Peak District on a damp and grey day. BBC Springwatch
Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan are filming the 20th anniversary series of BBC Springwatch in the Peak District

Researcher and ornithologist Jack Baddams was sent to Hillsborough to meet the human, avian and mammalian residents of the street.

He said he was delighted to see swifts nesting in the eaves of the houses and in the bricks installed by homeowners.

"Just being on this street and hearing their screams is absolutely fantastic - there's so much work going in to protecting swifts in Sheffield."

The garden cameras were first set up in April and have recorded 12,000 clips so far.

Mr Baddams added he was surprised to see badger activity in the gardens.

He said: "Badgers are becoming increasingly urban, there's some fantastic populations of urban badgers in the UK, but to see it climbing over the wall, squeezing under fences it seems out of place. But it's very cool."

BBC Springwatch Deborah XX (left) in a green dress and smiling sitting in her garden looking at footage of wildlife on a laptop, with Springwatch reporter Jack Baddams (right) wearing a red fleece. BBC Springwatch
Deborah Beck told Springwatch reporter Jack Baddams it was "brilliant" to see so much wildlife in her garden

One of the neighbours whose garden was "bugged" is Deborah Beck - who has a "no mow" policy for her lawn and has provided a pond, woodpile and plenty of flowers to attract wildlife.

A fox and a hedgehog were filmed as well as a "big badger" jumping on and off her wall.

She said: "We knew about the hedgehogs. And we have seen foxes here occasionally in the daytime but the badgers were amazing.

"It's so lovely – it feels like the less you do in the garden, the more the wildlife come.

"I'm really pleased about that," she said.

The series runs until Thursday 12 June on BBC Two and is also available on iPlayer.

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North

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