The 200-acre nature reserve, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is located in the Wensum Valley. The River Wensum, which runs through the reserve, is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC), Europe’s highest nature conservation designation.
Deb Jordan, General Manager, Pensthorpe Nature Reserve said: "It is fantastic news for Pensthorpe, as we celebrate our 20th anniversary, that BBC Springwatch has chosen us as its new home. It is also great news for Norfolk, which is the UK's premier bird watching destination and is blessed with many internationally important nature reserves. We are working very closely with the Springwatch team to ensure that the best of the Wensum Valley's natural world is revealed to a national TV audience."
Bill Oddie, who will be based at Pensthorpe with his co-presenter Kate Humble (while Simon King and Gordon Buchanan explore other areas of the UK), said “Pensthorpe is an amazing place with it’s combination of good things to see and do as well as wonderful conservation projects going on behind the scenes. I’m thrilled that it is to be the new home of Springwatch.”
Pensthorpe has an amazing variety of habitats. The river is home to the endangered white clawed crayfish, otters, brown trout and the regionally threatened bullhead. Other habitats featured are ancient woodland, wetland, wildflower meadows, marshland, and Breckland grassland, heath and scrub (ideal for ground nesting birds). The reserve hosts a wide range of mammals including muntjac, roe deer, badgers, foxes, stoats and endangered water voles.
Pensthorpe also features 300 acres of farmland which is being transformed into a Conservation Grade farm by owners Bill Jordan of Jordans Cereals and his wife Deb, who purchased the reserve and farm in 2003 from founder Bill Makins. This ‘farming for wildlife’ has resulted in the numbers of lapwings and little ringed plovers significantly increasing on the farmland.