The popular BBC Springwatch television show will be back at Pensthorpe next year.The programme makers and owners of the nature reserve near Fakenham this week spoke of their delight at the news.

The popular BBC Springwatch television show will be back at Pensthorpe next year.

The programme makers and owners of the nature reserve near Fakenham this week spoke of their delight at the news.

Pensthorpe co-owner Deb Jordan said hosting the BBC Springwatch production team had been a wonderful experience for everyone at the reserve, and she was delighted that Pensthorpe and a wider area of Norfolk had been given nationwide coverage. She added: “The BBC production team have been wonderful during their stay at Pensthorpe, being very professional and well organised and we are going to miss them.

“I am so pleased for the whole of Norfolk that the team are returning next year, and they will be made very welcome again.”

Mrs Jordan said, that with a longer lead-in time next year, the BBC crew would have even more wildlife to film on the reserve.

And she thought the programme had helped to increase people's awareness of wildlife generally, with more of them now taking a greater interest in the wildlife in their own gardens.

Springwatch executive producer Tim Scoones said the team had been absolutely delighted with how the filming had gone. He added: “We always saw Pensthorpe as a potentially longer-term location than just one series.”

It has emerged that more viewers tuned into the first Springwatch to be broadcast from its new base in Norfolk than from its previous location in Devon. According to audience figures, the shows broadcast live from Pensthorpe had an average of 2.4m viewers each night - 10pc more than the 2.2m-a-night audience watching the programme last year.

The figures were printed by Broadcastnow, a website which publishes viewing data. It said more than 4m viewers had watched the first show when it went live on May 27, and up to the 10th show it had averaged 3.4m viewers per one-hour slot.

Springwatch was aired four nights a week from May 27.

The series had presenters Bill Oddie and Kate Humble showing the lives we do not normally get to see of birds as they make their nests and rear their young towards the end of spring. Highlights - or lowlights - were an infanticidal swallow that threw his young out of his nest and a weasel that raided a reed warbler's nest.

Send the Times your pictures of the wildlife you've seen in your garden or in the Norfolk countryside this spring.

Have you spotted some nesting robins, a family of otters or a nest in a strange place? E-mail your pictures to julia.carter@

archant.co.uk or bring them into one of our offices in Dereham and Fakenham. Include your name and address and a way to contact you and tell us what the picture shows.

We'll print the best.