SPRINGWATCH hits our screens again on Bank Holiday Monday and this year wildlife super-sleuth Simon King is exploring the urban jungle. He will be showing viewers how London, and other cities, is a great place for wildlife and is home to peregrine falcons

SPRINGWATCH hits our screens again on Bank Holiday Monday and this year wildlife super-sleuth Simon King is exploring the urban jungle.

He will be showing viewers how London, and other cities, is a great place for wildlife and is home to peregrine falcons, badgers, foxes, bats and water voles.

London is fast becoming one of the most important wildlife habitats in Britain and is the place where a lot of people have their only contact with wild animals.

During this year's Springwatch series, which will fun for three weeks on BBC2 Simon will show viewers where and how to find our wildest city dwellers.

He will encourage people to wake up to the wonderful acoustics of the city dawn chorus, will take viewers on a smell trail of a dog foxes downtown and turn attention to the muddy tracks of otters under a busy city flyover.

The East End's tall buildings are great nest sites for peregrine falcons, the world's fastest animal and Tower Hamlets is home to bats and foxes as well as birds and insects - a seal has even been spotted swimming in the docks around Canary Wharf.

Simon, who is due to be presented with an OBE by the Queen during this series of Springwatch , aims to show viewers that they can discover an extraordinary world of wildlife on their doorsteps and that, because the wildlife in the city is tamer, people can get close and connect with it.

He said: "If there is one thing that Springwatch has maybe done is that it is has made the natural world not quite as geeky as it once was.

"It has now got a tiny bit of cool associated with it and that's good, because it means that kids can keep hold of a basic interest in the world around them.