Dilger Mike - Natures Top 40 Britains Best

Dedicated to my dad you would have been chuffed to bits

At HarperCollins I would like to thank Myles Archibald, Julia Koppitz, Kirstie Addis and their design team for making my first complete book such an enjoyable, fun and straightforward process.

Natures Top 40 is a bizarre and wonderful collaboration of three regional BBC departments from Southampton, Leeds and Norwich, and of a superb production and post-production team of Jane French, Jonathan Bigwood, Paul Greenan, Jenny Craddock, Paul Baker, Jon vortex Valters, Christine Hamill, Catherine Shawyer, Isabelle Hutchins, Mike Lane, Steve Holdsworth, Ron Southern, David Wernham, Terry Wooler, Sue Wilkinson, Simon Marks, Richard Taylor-Jones and Gary Moore. Thanks also to Carla-Maria Lawson and Craig Henderson for commissioning and overseeing the series respectively and to Rob Collis for help with tracking down research books and articles.

Out in the field I would also like to thank Chris Packham, Janet Sumner, Iolo Williams and Sanjida OConnell for their terrific performances, and the camera crews of Trevor Adamson, Phil Putnam-Spencer, Sean Twamley, Joe Cooper, Martin Giles, Graham Hatherley, Steve Phillips, Manuel Hinge, John McIntyre, Mike Riley, Colin Lang, George Mitchell, Nigel Chatters, Dafydd Baines, Colin Bowes, Robbie Burns, Mark Killingback, Stan Raba, Chris Sharman, Matthew Parker, Mark Dodd and Andy Fraser for making us and the wildlife look so darn good!

Lastly, and by no means least, thanks to my partner Christina for being so patient, and to my mum Renee, brothers Paul and Andy and their partners, families and friends for being so supportive and encouraging.

by Chris Packham

I made my first list when I was about eight. I thought nothing of it; it seemed perfectly natural. I was obsessed with reptiles at the time, which seemed normal too, and Id come down from the heady heights of the dinosaurs to the British Six, as my list was called. Adder, grass snake, smooth snake, sand lizard, common or viviparous lizard and slow worm were the words so neatly inscribed in my book, even if I didnt know what viviparous meant and had to be careful spelling it. I had four out of six ticks alongside them, not bad thinking about it now, but seriously disappointing for the obsessive young naturalist who had to wait an eternity until he was twelve to put the final mark alongside sand lizard. Lying in bed that May night wrapped in the warmth of smug satisfaction, I then wondered if I could be the youngest person ever to see the all of the UKs native reptiles.

Several things are revealed by this admission: that list-making is a very important part of any naturalists behaviour; that an incomplete list can cause real distress and lead to an increase in obsessive behaviour; and that lists have a strong competitive component. When you think about it, they are only made to be completed. Shopping lists, wedding lists, they are all made up of things that we need, and the difference between want and need is a notable one. So, listing things is sometimes helpful but patently questionable, and Im not sure that it makes you particularly happy sometimes, either. But I am certain that it gets you out of bed and that it can act as a wonderful fuel to get your life lived more fully. Oh, and people say that listing is geeky. So what? If youve picked up and paid for this book you are at least a little bit geeky, and thats good; be proud of it!

Its tempting to imagine that naturalists invented listing, but Im sure it would be hotly contested from many sides. Historians are also consummate listers, and collectors of anything are listers par excellence, but I think we hold our own. I have a British bird list, a world bird list, a garden bird list, a dogwalking bird list, a garden moth list, a British butterfly and bat and amphibian list, an orchid list, a travel list and, to be fair, thats nothing. Im an amateur when it comes to listing. But these are all empirical lists; there are also the subjective lists and these are very exciting because they are dynamic and more interactive. We brag about the former, but we debate the latter.

My Top Ten Favourite Films Of All Time (the last bit is fabulously childish, but necessarily demonstrative, and should follow all such list titles) obviously bears no resemblance to the list from which I was trying so hard to tick smooth snakes and sand lizards, although Raquel Welch of the One Million Years BC era still features in several lists. And it can be thrown into turmoil by a single release; it can require a systematic reappraisal, taking hours and contentious discussion with my movie guru James. And that is great, too, because opinionated lists must be argued about as a matter of honour. I mean, how can this self-appointed guru have Blade II in his Top Ten? Or, more to the point, how the hell did black grouse lekking make it into the Top Five of this list when glow-worms are languishing in the 30s? And who seriously thought: its right that a spiders web is not Top Ten material? And, to my mind, puffins should not be seen or heard in any list, gaudy little chavs. Starlings, swirling about going to roost, good, but so pass. Thats like still having The Italian Job in your Top Ten Movies. I mean, come on, update will you?

What is even more exciting about Natures Top 40 than the order is that its a UK-based list, and that it finally gives us a chance to bunch together a set of spectacles, which undeniably deserve their status, if not their final positions, in your or my opinion! It proves beyond doubt that the UK is not the land of little brown jobs, or quite good for its seabird colonies, or has a few nice spots; it is rich in things that can stop you in your tracks, make your heart miss a beat, make you hold your breath, make you travel a hundred miles, make you want to shout out loud, make you make lists of things it will make you do!

Joking aside and I know that many of you will immediately count through to see how many of this 40 you have already seen the actual final positions dont matter. What does is that you use this list to get you out to experience and enjoy these spectacles first-hand and that you get some youngsters out there with you. Ask yourself this: how many twelve year olds today have seen all the UKs reptiles in the wild, or, more importantly, lie awake wanting to? If this list is to endure, we need some more of these apprentice listers, and that could be down to you.

Chris Packham
2008

PS The answer is Ive seen 37. I havent seen the roosting parakeets or the wild goats, and I would most like to get to grips with adders dancing.

Music charts lend themselves to a list according to their popularity based on the solid statistics of sales volume, as do films, and of course computer games and books but wildlife? Some may wonder how we dare make a Top 40 list of Britains greatest wildlife spectacles in such a manner, and may feel that the act of giving each of our chosen entries a number might even cheapen the very spectacle we have filmed and written about.

Others will be indignant that their favourite spectacle has unfairly been demoted to the lower regions of the Top 40. But look down any of the numerous Top 40 lists that have formed the basis of a variety of television programmes, such as the