As the series producer of ‘Rhys to the Rescue’ and now ‘Rhys Jones’s Wildlife Patrol', I’ve been working with Dr Rhys Jones for over six years now; and in that time he’s led me into some scary animal scrapes – a close encounter with Africa’s most venomous snake, a deadly spider in a Cardiff garden centre, and any number of heart-pounding animal-related police raids.

So I guess it should have come as no surprise when he came to me during filming for the brand new series of ‘Wildlife Patrol’ and said: ‘I think we should do something on the killer shrimp in Cardiff Bay.’

‘The killer what? In Cardiff where?’ was my alarmed reply – my head filled with visions of vicious blood-thirsty crustaceans taking people along Mermaid Quay.

Rhys explained to me that whilst us humans were currently safe, the bay’s waters were in danger of being overrun by a voracious and aggressive shrimp that had made its way to Wales from Russia and was now munching through our native shrimp, fish and plant life – causing general carnage to the local ecosystem, and worrying the be-gee-bees out of ecologists, environmentalists, and scientists across Wales fearful that the shrimp – currently contained within the bay - would soon break out and infest other waterways. So far, so bad. And it’s worse…

Dr Rhys Jones & Prof Peter Kille, Cardiff Bay

Dr Rhys Jones in the lab

I’ve just finished watching the first episode of ‘Iolo’s Great Welsh Parks’ with my wife and mum. They both thought the filming was fantastic, but they would, of course, as I was the cameraman.

I was brought up in the countryside near Chepstow. Being a wildlife cameraman was hardly considered a realistic career choice then - it was right up there with footballer, film star and astronaut. As I was just about to start a mechanical engineering degree, an amazing series called ‘Life on Earth’ appeared on TV with David Attenborough, and I decided one way or the other that I wanted to film programmes like that. The degree was ditched. Years later I heard that my sixth form teachers thought I had totally lost the plot, and maybe they were right! Even so, after a convoluted route I ended up doing the job that I still love.

Graham Holder at work

Across Wales, we’re blessed with a huge range of parks which we use for walking, playing, running, relaxing and lots more. But did you know there’s a whole world of hidden wildlife in our parks waiting to be discovered?

In the first series of Iolo’s Great Welsh Parks we concentrated on larger, wilder parks - places like Dinefwr Park near Llandeilo and Stackpole in Pembrokeshire. This time, we’ve concentrated on four urban parks, Singleton Park in Swansea, Wepre Park on Deeside, Pontypool Park and Holyhead Country Park. Each park supports a wealth of wildlife and each one is unique. In this new series, I take a good look around them, to show viewers just how much there is to discover.

Iolo at Holyhead's Breakwater Park

Enjoying a spot of impromptu fishing at Afon Lwyd in Pontypool Park

For the new BBC One series Hidden Kingdoms, made by the BBC’s Natural History Unit in Bristol, the team turned to composer Ben Foster and BBC National Orchestra of Wales to provide the soundtrack for this innovative new series. Here, Jake Jackson, recording and mix engineer, explains the process of getting the music on screen.

An important part of any documentary is the soundtrack – the music in the background that matches the excitement and emotions of the action on screen. For the new BBC One series Hidden Kingdoms, composer Ben Foster wrote an original score to accompany the series.

The process for getting Ben’s work from initial ideas to a fully recorded soundtrack takes around 4-6 weeks, and part of my job is to make sure that the orchestra sound their very best.  

Once Ben sees a rough copy of the programme, he meets with the production team to decide which parts of the episode need music – these are broken down into around 20-30 sections, or ‘cues’. These will be the moments where the soundtrack can help to heighten the emotion, to add excitement, or provide a sense of mystery.

Jake Jackson at the mixing desk.

Rabbits? Who needs them? Well, it seems that many people do. They have an honoured place in literature and modern culture, featuring in books such as Watership Down and the Beatrix Potter Tales, in cartoons and in legend and fable – Bre'r Rabbit and the old superstition of rabbits feet bringing good luck.

These days rabbits are often kept as pets although rabbit meat is still considered a delicacy in many quarters. Yet they did not exist in Britain until after the Norman Conquest when they were introduced into the British Isles, Wales in particular, as an important part of the food chain.

Certainly there is no record of rabbits prior to 1066 and the Welsh name for rabbit, cwningen, comes from Middle English. As such it originates from a period well after the Conquest. Even the animal's English name, rabbit, derives from the French word rabette.

Once they arrived on our shores, however, the growth of the rabbit population was significant. But it was a growth that was not allowed to get out of hand.

To begin with rabbits were regularly culled by the owners of the large estates where they thrived and lived – that, after all, was why they had been introduced to Wales in the first place.

But the proliferation of wildcats such as pine martens and polecats also ensured that the rabbit population was controlled. These wild animals would quickly kill any rabbits that had managed to escape from the warrens.

It was only when these predators were hunted down and exterminated by gamekeepers in the 18th and 19th centuries – keepers desperate to preserve their precious game birds - that the growth of the rabbit population reached huge proportions.

Nowadays rabbits are found all over the world. There are dozens of different species but the furry creatures we see in farmers fields and at the roadsides in Wales are the European rabbit. This is the most common of the breed and provides a direct link back to the food larders of the Norman and Medieval periods.

It was not just food that rabbits provided. Their skins were also highly valued, particularly for the fur edging on collars and coats during the Middle Ages, perhaps the one piece of luxury enjoyed by men and women in a time of scant comfort and limited degrees of elegance.

The ideal habitat for the humble rabbit was, and remains, meadows and grassland but it was quickly discovered that rabbits could exist almost anywhere.

The coastal dunes of Wales and the off-shore islands were perfect breeding grounds. In the Middle Ages the Pembrokeshire islands of Skokholm and Skomer were just two of the places where rabbits were bred.

While, to begin with, rabbits lived in artificially created warrens, over the years they gradually developed the ability to dig their own burrows and by the 18th century most country estates, on the coast and inland, possessed large rabbit warrens. It was low maintenance farming with, quite literally, no work or effort required.

Initially, rich landowners had kept rabbits for their own use but during the Industrial Revolution demand for their meat and fur – cheap on both counts - was steadily rising as people realised that here was a real opportunity to make money. By the beginning of the 20th century rabbits were big business.

By the 1940s over three million rabbits were being sent each year from south Wales to London and other major cities. There seemed to be no shortage of rabbits – small wonder they soon acquired a reputation as ferocious breeders. They were, by now, something of a pest, however, eating crops and digging up lawns and other pieces of parkland.

In France they were a major problem and a pest. Consequently, just after the war, myxomatosis, a lethal disease, was deliberately introduced by French farmers in an attempt to keep the rabbit population at a decent level.

Very quickly, the disease spread to Great Britain and in the 1950s it wiped out over 90% of the Welsh rabbits. Since then there has been a gradual recovery of the rabbit population in the country but it is unlikely that the rabbit population will ever again reach the endemic proportions of the 1930s and 40s.

They may not ever be so important again but there is no doubt that the rabbit holds an important part in all of our hearts – whatever we want to use him for!

You only get one shot at this – why filming with Dr Rhys Jones, the UK's wildest wildlife expert, is such a nerve-wracking ride.

Whether it's attending an escaped snake emergency at midnight, a close encounter with a pack of crocodiles, or trying to solve a case of owls with insomnia, there is never a dull moment when filming with Dr Rhys Jones.

Because most of Rhys's work involves dealing with emergency situations, I can get a call to film with him at any time of the day or night - and believe me, I do.

In Rhys Jones's Wildlife Patrol we filmed plenty of emergency call-outs - from someone finding a snake in their garden shed, to a buzzard that flew into a vat of chip fat. From an escaped African black eagle in a forest block to a man who was stung by his deadly pet scorpion.

Ian Durham filming a wildlife emergency

Humboldt penguins, emperor tamarins and Bactrian camels may not be indigenous to north Wales, but if you know where to look you can find them all, and more, in a small pocket of a Welsh coastal town.

The Welsh Mountain Zoo in Colwyn Bay is home to over 100 different species and 600 animals. This weekend the tourist attraction celebrates its 50th anniversary, and has a special birthday weekend planned to mark the half century.

The sea lion enclosure, Sea Lions Rock. Photo: Welsh Mountain Zoo

The lemurs look out at Lemur Lookout. Photo: Welsh Mountain Zoo

A meerkat at the zoo. Photo: Welsh Mountain Zoo

A view from the zoo in Colwyn Bay. Photo: Welsh Mountain Zoo

Few writers have ever really captured the heart and soul of Wales or, more importantly, been able to present them in a style that makes them accessible to readers of all nationalities and all ages. The novelist, social historian and travel writer George Borrow was one of the few who did.

Born at East Dereham in Norfolk on 5 July 1803, Borrow was the son of Thomas Borrow, an army recruiting officer, and his wife Ann. He was educated at Norwich High School but, coming from an army family and with the Napoleonic Wars still raging, he moved constantly from one place to another. Such physical and geographical mobility certainly helped foster a lifelong passion for travel in the young boy.

In 1815 the family was in Clonmel in Ireland where the young George not only made his first acquaintance with the Romany gypsies who were to fascinate him all his life, he also learned to ride a horse – without a saddle! By the end of 1815, however, the long series of wars with France were finally over and the family moved back to Norfolk.

Although he went on to study law it was languages and literature that really interested Borrow. He became a protege of the scholar William Taylor and, through his influence, wrote and published his first book, a translation of the Faust legend that had originally been published in Russia in 1791.

With the world now at peace again, Borrow was able to indulge himself in his passion for travel and for walking. He made tours around Germany and France and ventured much further afield, to places such as Russia, Morocco and Turkey. And having been to these places, he promptly wrote about them in books such as The Bible In Spain and The Romany Rye. It would be wrong to call him a hack writer - he was far more skillful than that - but he certainly could turn his talents to many different types of writing.

Even his marriage to Mary Clarke in 1840 did not stop his travels. She was a widow with land in the Lowestoft area – something that gave Borrow security and the money to indulge his interests – and in 1844 he completed an arduous walk across Europe to Istanbul.

Wild Wales

Perhaps his most profitable excursion, however, was his 1854 tour around Wales, a walk that in 1862 led to one of his most famous books: Wild Wales.

The book is a fascinating account of places encountered and people met while on the tour. Borrow's enthusiasm for the country, its history and language clearly come across in every page of the book. It remains a highly readable and wonderful account.

For many people in the late 19th century, their concept of Wales, its people and its landscape, came from reading Borrow's Wild Wales rather than from any visit to the country itself. Such was the power of his pen.

Borrow claimed to have been taught Welsh by a stable lad when he was still a boy in Norfolk. Given his propensity for and skill in languages it is highly likely. He certainly spoke Welsh, albeit with an unusual dialect. As the Welsh Academy Encylopaedia of Wales says, he was: "taken for a southerner in the north and a northerner in the south, he insisted on speaking the language at every opportunity."

Although he travelled all across Wales it was the rugged grandeur of the north that really appealed to him. At the time he was travelling, the southern valleys were in the throes of industrialisation and for someone like George Borrow such a despoliation of the land was an anathema.

Said to be a man of striking appearance, George Borrow was not averse to using his fists in a tight corner – the product of his army upbringing. He certainly liked to partake in a glass or two of beer but was, nevertheless, a strong churchman. His beliefs, however, did not stop him developing a strong affection for the nonconformist Welsh peasants.

Borrow's wife Mary died in 1869 but the man himself carried on walking and writing for another 12 years. He died on 26 July 1881 and was buried alongside Mary in Brompton Cemetery in London. He remains a man who, almost single handedly, gave Wales an identity in the minds of those across the border, and, perhaps, the greatest travel writer since Giraldus Cambrensis.

As the milder weather continues, our wildlife is becoming increasingly confused with the fact that we are still actually in winter.

Yesterday I visited Merthyr Mawr with my 2 year old son and his friend for a spot of 'dune surfing' on a snow sledge - hard work dragging/ carrying him back up to the top each time but good exercise and I probably burned off more calories than the fitness 'boot camp' that arrived later!

But getting back to the wildlife...on our way to the dunes, I noticed the verges were full of flowering snowdrops, but aside from the unseasonally early blooms, I didn't see many birds?

This was in stark contrast to a recent visit to Penbontrhydyfothau in North Pembrokeshire. The weather was bitterly cold with NE winds and Penbontrhydyfothau lies in a pretty shady valley but prone to frosts.

As a result the garden bird feeders, packed full of peanuts were absolutely buzzing with life - with non-stop visits from blue tits, great tits, coal tits, house sparrows and nuthatch. I also saw my first bullfinch of the year, such a plump and beautiful bird (the male anyway) but rarely seen these days.

I'd not seen that many birds in a single garden for years, especially when compared to my relatively quiet garden in Porthcawl where frosts are rare - thanks to the close proximity of the Bristol Channel.

Apart from crows, seagulls, the odd territorial robin and occasionally alarmed female blackbird diving into the hedge - I've hardly seen anything of real interest in my garden all winter long.

It made me think about a recent email I received to wales.nature@bbc.co.uk from a gentleman who was very concerned about the lack of house sparrows in his garden. A once thriving population, basically vanished from his garden during the autumn.

The RSPB have also been inundated with similar enquiries asking 'where have all the garden birds gone?'

Don't panic, it's not down to some mysterious migration pattern, an increase in the local cat population or the neighbours having tastier morsels on their bird feeders - it's simply due to the fact that birds are currently finding easy pickings out in the countryside. Birds in the countryside? I know, it's absurd!

The mild weather means that there are still plenty of insects around and the ground is still soft enough for birds to easily forage for their favourite bugs and grubs.

Yesterday I even found a bright green caterpillar chomping its way through an exotic plant I've been carefully nurturing in time for summer.

I'd put it in the garage to protect it from frost and mistakenly assumed it would be safe as the leaves are covered in fine, spikes (which would make them fairly unappealing to most creatures) but this little critter was right at home, so perhaps he came with the plant?

I put up some fat balls outside for the birds a month ago and they are still intact, vitrually untouched - so the birds are clearly finding food elsewhere.

However, we're not out of the woods yet and if the weather does suddenly cool down - food will literally become scarce overnight and birds will once again flock to our gardens, towns and cities for those life saving handouts.

So, don't stop putting food out altogether - but equally don't worry if your feeders aren't busy.

Lyndsey Maiden, a warden from the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales has been in touch with some peculiar wildlife observations in South Wales such as a robin sitting on a nest and currently incubating 5 eggs in Bridgend.

It would good to know what the earliest record of a fledgling in Wales is, as we might just have some local contenders in our midst.

Magpies have been spotted flying around with nesting materials in their beaks and in Morriston Park a nuthatch has been seen flying in and out of a nesting hole.

Meanwhile in the city, coots are mating and building nests at Bute East Dock in Cardiff.

A hedgehog has been spotted out and about in Carmarthenshire and more and more birds are now beginning their dawn chorus including collared doves, song thrushes, blackbirds and robins.

Personally, I'm still hoping we do get some snow in February so I can try out the sledge on snow rather than sand but the Met Office seems to be 50/50 at the moment - depending on which weather model you opt for - remaining mild with occasional cold snaps or snow with hard frosts from the north east.

I'd love to hear about your unusual and unseasonal wildlife sightings so please leave yours in the comments box below or drop me a mail at wales.nature@bbc.co.uk

November was incredibly mild this year which has had a knock on effect on our wildlife in Wales.

Lyndsey Maiden from the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW) has been in touch with some examples of unseasonal behaviour and sightings.

Whilst our summer visitors have left us and our winter visitors such as fieldfares and redwings have arrived, it would seem that not all our wildlife is aware that winter is on the horizon.

This November has been unseasonably warm which has meant that some animals such as bats and hedgehogs have delayed their winter hibernation.

With plenty of insects still around this may not currently be a huge concern although a sudden drop in temperature may leave some animals out in the cold.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) needs help in recording the movements of one of the lesser spotted visitors to UK shores and is urging everyone from coastal path walkers to sea users, to look out for leatherback turtles.

A gruesome list of the 10 worst wildlife invaders has been revealed by the Environment Agency this week - the natural world's version of the '10 Most Wanted'. They've concentrated on the species threatening Britain's waterways and top of the list is the so-called 'killer shrimp', which has been discovered in three UK locations - two of them in Wales!

The tiny invader attacks native species like shrimp, young fish and insect larvae and has been known to destroy entire species to the point of extinction. It's been found in Cardiff Bay, at the Egwlys Nunydd Reservoir in Port Talbot and at Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire.

We featured an item on the deadly shrimp on Country Focus earlier this year; I went to meet some of the Environment Agency's staff at their office in Cardiff Bay and they had an example of the shrimp in a test tube - it was tiny! Hard to believe something so small can cause so much havoc and has now been declared aquatic wildlife's 'public enemy number one'. I can remember the staff telling me that calling it a 'killer shrimp' was a bit misleading, because there's no risk to human health or water quality, but it's certainly one way to grab the headlines.

There's even a 'Killer Shrimp Wanted Poster' which has been issued by the very official sounding Non-native Species Secretariat - to help people identify the rogue, and anyone who finds one is asked to email a photo to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology for confirmation. People who use the waterways like sailors, rowers and anglers, are being asked to increase biosecurity measures - the mantra is 'Check, Clean, Dry' - to make sure all equipment is clean and dry before you leave the waterway, to prevent further spread.

But back to the 'Top Ten' and the worst wildlife invaders are costing around £1.7bn a year to tackle, according to the Environment Agency. That's a lot of money. When you read the list, many of the entries, like water primrose (straight in at number two) - don't sound too dangerous but then again, I'm not sure you'd want to get mixed up with topmouth gudgeon or giant hogweed. Here's the complete list:

1. Killer Shrimp
2. Water Primrose
3. Floating pennywort
4. American crayfish
5. Topmouth gudgeon
6. Giant hogweed
7. Japanese knotweed
8. Himalayan balsam
9. Mink
10. Parrot's feather

So is it safe to go back in the water?

As you're probably aware, red squirrels are an endangered species here in Wales and the rest of the UK with only a few pockets of resistance left in parts of Scotland, Wales and Southern England.

Grey squirrels may be cute to look at (we have 100's of photos sent in to our Flickr group each month) but they're actually a fairly destructive American import known as the North American eastern grey squirrel.

Now, it's not their fault that they are so successful at adapting to life in the UK but it comes at the expense of our own native species - the red squirrel; which in a beauty pagent would win hands down over their larger, loutish cousins.

Greys out compete reds for food by feeding on the ground and by being able to digest readily available acorns, which the reds can't.

As if that wasn't enough, they also carry the deadly pox virus - SQPV which they're immune to, but which kills reds, so the evolutionary scales are well and truly tipped in their favour!

To give you an idea of the scale of the problem, the Forestry Commission estimates that there are approximately 140,000 reds left in the UK - and most of them are in Scotland.

Now that might sound like quite a few but not when you compare it to the number of rampant greys, with over 2.5 million of them on the march.

Habitat is paramount in this fight to the death, as red squirrels prefer dense conifer forests where they spend much of their time high up in the canopy, hopping from tree to tree and rarely stepping foot on the ground to feed.

The CCW are asking us all to lend a helping hand to our wildlife and in particular the birds, during this cold snap.

Birds use up precious energy flying away from us when spooked, so please bare that in mind next time you want to get a closer look at something.

As the ground freezes over, food becomes incredibly scarce and our feathered friends begin to move into areas that we humans also like to frequent such as parks and gardens.

Wildfowl (ducks, geese and swans) in particular will be looking for areas of open water on ponds, lakes and reserves.

Due to the more severe weather in the north and east of Britain, birds will also be flying west to areas in Wales to try and find places where they can still feed.

I was in Porthcawl this morning, down at the Pavilion and it felt quite pleasant in the sunshine with no wind.

Temperatures here reached 8 Celsius this afternoon but are going to drop over the next few days with a mixture of sunshine, frost and wintry showers.

There is a risk of some snow too and the Met Office has issued a watch for Friday. Nothing definite but it worth keeping a eye on...

The jet stream in the upper atmosphere is shaped like a roller coaster at the moment and we're on the cold side of a big dipper and will remain so, well into next week.

In meteorology this is called an Omega Block because it resembles the shape of the Greek letter Omega. These blocks can last for some time before breaking down.

The weekend will be unusually cold for this time of year with a significant wind chill.The odd snow shower is also possible but it will otherwise remain dry with some sunshine.

Next week, looks bitterly cold with a risk of more significant snow and strong to gale force winds so keep the de-icer handy and don't forget to feed the birds!

If you're travelling, you can keep up to date with the latest travel news on Radio Wales, Radio Cymru and Online at www.bbc.co.uk/wales