It has that slightly ramshackle feel that live TV can never quite avoid, no matter how whizzy the technology, but that only adds to its charm: Springwatch, the BBC2 series that joyously celebrates Britain's wildlife, is more popular than ever. The cannibalistic barn owls of Heligan and motherless choughs of Islay are proving irresistible to the British public, with the result that Springwatch is pulling in up to four million viewers a night - more than Big Brother. In the ratings war between the choughs and the chavs, you might say, the choughs are winning.

The concept is simple: a series of hour-long programmes running for three weeks, in which strategically placed cameras follow the day-to-day fortunes of young families of birds and mammals. One of the highlights this year has been the Glasgow Fox Diaries, filmed by Scottish wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan. Tomorrow, Buchanan will join other BBC personalities at the Glasgow Springwatch Festival at Kelvingrove Park, one of 15 such events taking place around the UK and the only one in Scotland. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the festivals, which are being used as the launch pad for a new campaign, BBC Breathing Places Cities, to encourage urban wildlife across the UK.

The vulpine celebrities of Glasgow's west end demonstrate perfectly how animals can thrive in big cities, in harmony with people. Jamie, the resourceful lone male, and the so-called chip shop family, which includes the adventurous cub Mungo, have proved to be natural stars. Jamie, at six, is on the aged side for an urban fox and has survived thanks partly to handouts from local people, something that has made him relatively relaxed around humans. As a free spirit, he has a tendency to disappear then show up again, as he did on Wednesday night's instalment, when he gingerly accepted an earthworm from Gordon's hand. The same day, the chip shop family emerged from under their dense hedge for an outing en masse, an early step towards independence for the cubs.

For Buchanan, who lives in Glasgow, filming foxes on his doorstep is a fairly major departure from the norm. Most of his work involves searching for large predators, particularly big cats. He has filmed leopards in Sri Lanka, lions in the Serengeti, tigers in India and elusive jaguars in south America. Before the foxes, his most recent subjects were those most endangered of large mammals, pandas; he even got pictures of them mating.

Footage of wild pandas mating is among the rarest a wildlife filmmaker could hope to get; a child in a park with a digital camera, on the other hand, could grab a picture of a fox. Yet that is the beauty of Springwatch: the ordinary becomes extraordinary.

Buchanan is unhesitating in his enthusiasm. "People entirely overlook the wildlife in the UK," he says with feeling. "For me, finding wildlife here is as interesting as finding it in any other location."

In fact, in one sense, filming the foxes has been more rewarding than the pandas. "The foxes have quite well-defined characters; the pandas didn't. Jamie in particular is a total gift to TV."

Buchanan is not prone to sentimentality about the animals he films. But where he would get upset is if malicious harm were done to them; they already have enough threats to contend with. "I hope at least one of the cubs survives," he says. "Only one in four makes it through the first year."

He would like to revisit them for Autumnwatch, which will delight Jamie and Mungo's many fans. The foxes have been a hot topic on the Springwatch message board and, among Glaswegians, the response has been one of pride. Buchanan believes this is partly because the fox films challenge old stereotyped views of Glasgow in other parts of the UK as a grim place "full of neds roaming about drinking Buckfast".

Springwatch has uncovered a touching national inquisitiveness about blue tits, stag beetles, owls and every other manner of living creature. Tuesday's programme, for instance, featured a gentleman called Patrick Roper who has a square metre of rough grassland in his garden where he sits quietly, sometimes for hours, and studies wolf spiders and beetles - in fact, over a three-year period, he identified 700 species of plants and animals. The message board, meanwhile, has a life of its own as an information exchange on everything from vegetarian hedgehogs to how to attract swifts. For Gordon Buchanan, the essence of the series' success is the "real stories, real drama, real sex and real violence that's going on on a national scale; it is not contrived in any way".

Contrast that with Big Brother.

If it raises awareness of how much wildlife there is in Glasgow, tomorrow's festival will have done a good job, says Jim Coyle, the environmental policy and research manager at Glasgow City Council. There are six council-managed nature reserves and one run by the Scottish Wildlife Trust in Glasgow, and it has the wildlife to match. There are badgers, otters on the Kelvin and the White Cart, and roe deer. Best of all, though, is the healthy population of water voles in Hogganfield Park local nature reserve - while they are one of Britain's most endangered animals and have suffered a population crash in recent years, the carefully managed reserve at Hogganfield is "hoaching" with them, according to one environmental consultant.

Another tantalising development is the fact that a pair of ravens have been seen prospecting for a nest site in the city. Ravens are usually birds of the mountains, and were hunted out of Glasgow a century ago. As they were a young couple, Coyle is hopeful that they will return next year and stay. "If they did, it would probably be the first time in more than 100 years that they'd bred in the city." Other birds that are already breeding in Glasgow include buzzards, sparrowhawks, kestrels and tawny owls, while peregrines overwinter there.

With regard to foxes, Coyle hopes the programme will encourage Glaswegians to see them as part of nature, just like birds. The council does not encourage people to feed foxes, on the basis that while one household might like the creatures, their neighbours may not. But he regards it as a matter of personal choice.

Buchanan sees no harm in it. He estimates that Jamie gets about 50% of his nutrition from handouts, but would find the food from elsewhere if he were not fed. "We put nest boxes up and food out for birds, after all. It's just another way you can interact with animals."

Buchanan will be using his time at the festival tomorrow to show clips of the foxes and answer questions. But there will be a full programme of other events, including an appearance by CBBC character Raven, Nina from CBeebies' Nina and the Neurons, and Nigel Pope, producer of the Big Cat diaries.

At the centre of it all will be the Do One Thing for local wildlife Springwatch message. A whole range of wildlife organisations will be offering their ideas, including the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, the RSPB and the Marine Conservation Society. There will also be practical events, including a mini-beast hunt, learning how to build a bird box and going on a guided nature walk, as well as a chance to work on the wildflower meadow, pond and butterfly garden. Face-painting, a drumming workshop and story-telling will also be available. Organisers are hoping for 25,000 visitors overall.

rebecca.mcquillan@theherald.co.uk l Glasgow Springwatch Festival takes place tomorrow, 10.30am to 4pm, Kelvingrove Park. Marquee one highlights include Gordon Buchanan, 2.30-3pm; Raven at 12.40pm and 3.10pm (20 minutes); Nina from Nina and the Neurons at 11.30 and 2pm (20 minutes); and Nigel Pope 3.30-4pm. Please take public transport where possible - the park can be reached by bus or tube.

Join in with the wildlife watch
WATCH ANTS IN YOUR GARDEN
A few ants plus a handful of crumbs of different sizes add up to a good floor show, and you don't need a big garden to enjoy it.

GIVE A BIRD A HOME
You can attract birds to your garden by putting up a nesting box for them. See the website below for tips on how and which boxes suit which birds.

BURY A BUCKET FOR A BEETLE
Stag beetles are up to 7cm long with huge jaws. Fill a plastic bucket with soil and woodchip mix and bury it in the garden. It may take a while for the beetles to grow, but they're worth the wait.

MAKE YOUR CAT WILDLIFE FRIENDLY
Putting multiple bells on a cat's collar can help save mammals, while collars emitting a sonar signal seem to alert birds. Try to keep the cat in at night. Site bird feeders near prickly bushes or hang them from a thin metal pole that cats can't climb. If you have a wooden bird table, put obstructions (anti-squirrel baffles) on the pole.

MAKE A CONTAINER POND
Virtually any container can be used to make a mini pond. Old enamel sinks or stone troughs work well. Fill the container with rain water. Native water starworts are good oxygenaters and provide cover for insects. Avoid non-native plants. Construct a ramp or put stones at one edge so that if an animal falls in it can get out. Mini-beasts and maybe amphibians will reach your pond by themselves. Avoid putting fish into your pond if you want to keep it wildlife-friendly.

www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/ thingstodo/doonething