An experienced birder and a curious friend
Sam & Ade Go Birding follows Samuel West and Adrian Edmondson on birdwatching trips around Britain. West brings more than 20 years of experience, while Edmondson joins as a beginner. Their different starting points create a natural way into the subject: one friend knows what to look for, and the other is discovering how much there is to notice.
The programme combines the search for particular birds with time spent in their habitats. It is as much a shared journey as an exercise in identification. The hosts’ friendship gives the series continuity as they move between estuaries, coastal landscapes, marshes and other places where the next sighting is uncertain.
Cornwall, Norfolk and the Somerset Levels
The first set of trips includes Cornwall, where the pair search for choughs and hope to find unusual visitors carried in by the wind. On the north Norfolk coast, a search for geese takes them through woodland, beaches and marshes. The changing settings help make birdwatching a way of getting to know a landscape.
The Somerset Levels trip focuses on finding a bittern in a flooded environment. An elusive target changes the rhythm of the journey: waiting and searching become part of the story, alongside whatever else appears. The programme’s beginner-and-enthusiast partnership makes that uncertainty part of its appeal.
More places and conversations in the second series
Later trips take the friends to the Yorkshire Dales, West Wales and Bempton Cliffs. The Welsh episode includes red kites, woodpeckers and ospreys, while Bempton provides a search for puffins amid seabird colonies. Conversations about ageing and friendship sit alongside the wildlife encounters.
The RSPB confirms visits to its Bempton Cliffs and Ynys-hir reserves in the second series. Its participation connects the television journey to real places where viewers can learn more about birds. The programme’s central invitation remains accessible: bring curiosity to a landscape and allow a shared interest to develop through what you find.
