Join Us Live on YouTube on Saturday 9th May, Broadcasting from Attenborough Nature Reserve from 11.00 a.m.
Lauren Cook, now a Molecular Ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, has been confirmed as a presenter at this year’s Skydancer Day. A popular choice with Skydancer Day viewers, Lauren has co-hosted on two of our previous live broadcasts, in 2024 in the Cairngorms and again in 2025 in the Yorkshire Dales.
This year she will be joined by well-known wildlife television presenter, author and conservationist Ajay Tegala. With more than 25 television appearances to his name including Countryfile, Winterwatch, Walking Through History and even Eggheads, as part of a celebrity science team, he brings more than a decade of nature conservation experience as a countryside ranger.
In the year when legendary British naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough celebrates his 100th birthday (8th May), Skydancer Day will broadcast live from the Attenborough Nature Reserve on the 9th May.
A flagship for Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, the nationally important reserve was opened in 1966 by Sir David, and is home to Kingfishers, Bitterns, Sand Martins, Otters and hundreds of bird, plant and insect species. More than half a million people visit each year, with many families having visited for three generations.
We’ll be releasing full details of the programme in the coming months, so keep an eye on this page and our monthly newsletters, but we already know about some of the highlights. There will be film and live interviews from the nature reserve itself, including details of their hopes to reintroduce European Elk into some of the wetland habitats cared for by the Trust. Elk, a lost keystone species once native to Britain, became extinct here around 3,000 years ago.
We’ll also have exclusive new film from Greta Santagata about the Yorkshire Dales and the campaigning charity Friends of the Dales, and live interviews with the team from Butterfly Conservation.
Children’s author Gill Lewis will be announcing the theme and details of this year’s Young Wild Writers competition, and award-winning international wildlife photographer Richard Birchett will be launching this year’s Young Wild Photographer competition.
There’s an interview with Mark Thomas from the RSPB Investigations Team about their busy year identifying and prosecuting illegal raptor persecution, and fresh new details of the ambitious Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project.
Plus a film about Nottingham’s Sherwood Forest featuring our own Indy Kiemel Greene.
