The Wildlife Trusts were delighted to be part of the filming for this episode, with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s wonderful Langford Lakes used as one of the locations. Here, Eleanor Dodson, Digital Marketing & Communications Officer from Wiltshire Wildlife Trust gives us more of an insight into this fantastic place and what they have been up to there to make it even better for wildlife!

Since Wiltshire Wildlife Trust acquired Langford Lakes in 2001, we have created islands, ponds and wader scrapes that provide habitat for 150 bird species. We transformed a neighbouring field into the Great Meadow wetland, where bird-watchers flock to see wading birds such as lapwing, sandpiper and redshank.

Dragonflies lay their eggs on marginal plants around the lake, which the nymphs can then use to climb out of the lake when they are ready to emerge as adults. This abundance of dragonflies attracts hobbies – agile and fast flying falcons, which travel from South Africa to catch and eat dragonflies in flight – quite an impressive sight!

Whilst at Langford Lakes, you might spot a flash of blue from the corner of your eye – this is the elusive kingfisher. You might spot it perched on a branch next to our aptly named Kingfisher Café! We have improved the 800-metre stretch of the Wylye River for fish, which the kingfishers feed on for their survival and for establishing their territories.

This abundance of small fish, helped by the clean flowing waters that have been naturally filtered by a reedbed, has also at times attracted a white-tailed eagle. Listen out for a commotion from the Canada geese for a clue as to when it’s arrived!

Mayflies – a vital source of food for much aquatic life - depend on clean chalk streams for the majority of their life cycle, which begins as eggs in the gravel and sediment of the riverbed. These eggs hatch into nymphs, before emerging as duns above the surface where they shed their skin and begin their beautiful mating dance as spinners above the water. On summer evenings, larch hatches of mayfly can be seen – the males emerge first, and the females join soon after. Once they have mated in flight, the females land on the surface of the water to lay their eggs, providing plentiful food for trout, and the cycle starts again.

Only 14% of England’s rivers are in good ecological health, with pollution from agriculture, sewage, roads and single-use plastics creating algal blooms that suffocate freshwater wildlife. In Wiltshire, we have restored over 60 kilometres of rivers so that many of the UK’s remaining chalk streams such as the River Wylye, and the freshwater wildlife that depend on them such as mayflies, kingfishers and dragonflies, can thrive.

Discover how we are improving freshwater environments in Wiltshire here.

Catch up on the BBC Wild Isles series on BBC iPlayer.