Where the BBC's Winterwatch is filmed as new series launches

Winterwatch returns to our screens tonight for another season of nature spotting - but where will the team be setting up base?

Find out more about the stunning locations featured in the 2024 series and who will be visiting each place.

Where is Winterwatch 2024?

A new year of BBC Two's Watch programmes kicks off with Winterwatch, which has set up camp in Dorset for the 2024 series.

Hosts Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan will take charge from the main filming base, which this time is Dorset's RSPB Arne, a nature reserve of heathland, woodland, mudflats and wetland on the banks of Poole Harbour.

Viewers are in for a treat as the series broadcasts nightly from the area of outstanding natural beauty, which looks as incredible in the depths of winter as at any other time of year.

Arne is known for its huge diversity of species, so even though some creatures may be hibernating or have migrated for winter there is still plenty to spot.

Look out for white-tailed eagles, wading birds, deer and nocturnal views of owls, badgers and insects.

Where else does Winterwatch visit?

Iolo Williams will also be getting acquainted with the wildlife of Dorset as he reports from Brownsea Island, just off Poole Harbour, where he'll find out more about native red squirrels.

Meanwhile, Gillian Burke is far away from the rest of the team in the breathtaking Orkney Isles, an archipelago made up of around 70 islands and home to some of our rarest and most spectacular wildlife.

It's one of the most dramatic places in the UK in the winter thanks to its Atlantic position, and Burke will spot whales, orca, seals and otters with at least one film from the Orkney Isles every night of the series.

There are some fascinating pre-recorded films, too, including Packham visiting Lydford Gorge in Devon to find out more about its ferns, mosses and lichens, while in Plymouth the team has found one of the world's rarest spiders - the horrid ground weaver.

Viewers can also expect to see otters in Shetland, while the series heads back to one of its favourite locations, the Cairngorms in Scotland, to track wildfowl.

Winterwatch airs on BBC Two at 8pm from Tuesday to Friday.