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The west coast of Ireland for millennia was really, I guess, | 0:00:11 | 0:00:15 | |
the edge of the known world. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:17 | |
Our ancestors had no idea what lay beyond the horizon. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:25 | |
The vast Atlantic was a place of complete mystery. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:29 | |
My name is Colin Stafford-Johnson. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:42 | |
I've spent 30 years working as a wildlife cameraman around the world | 0:00:42 | 0:00:46 | |
and I've seen some of the most beautiful places on Earth, | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
but somehow I'm always drawn back to the west coast of Ireland. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:54 | |
This is where I now call home. | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
Once you've lived by the sea for part of your life, | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
it's very hard to leave it behind. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
I love its isolation and its wildness. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:13 | |
I've always wanted to travel the length of Ireland's Atlantic coast, | 0:01:19 | 0:01:24 | |
seeking out its secret places and wild creatures. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
SEALS SNARL | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
So much of life is, sort of, timetabled | 0:01:32 | 0:01:34 | |
and when you don't have a timetable, you can't be late. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
When you don't have a destination, you can't get lost. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:42 | |
I suppose, in ways, I'll be wandering up the west coast... | 0:01:50 | 0:01:55 | |
..and if my journey has any direction, | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
I guess it's roughly north. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
And I think it's going to change my view | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
of the island that I've lived on for much of my life. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
PUFFINS SQUAWK | 0:02:57 | 0:02:59 | |
Up till now I've spent most of my life very much really a land-lover, | 0:03:00 | 0:03:05 | |
but travel 100 metres from the shore | 0:03:05 | 0:03:08 | |
and the soundscape changes completely. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
You leave the world behind. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:14 | |
When you think about going on a journey, | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
you've got to think of a place to begin | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
and when I thought of what it would be like to paddle up the west coast, | 0:03:26 | 0:03:31 | |
where will I begin, there was really only one place. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
For me, the Skelligs, it's such an icon for the west of Ireland, | 0:03:46 | 0:03:51 | |
I guess. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:52 | |
Isolated, wild, desolate place. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
Two jagged pyramids of sandstone, | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
one of them home to the second largest colony of gannets | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
in the world. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:15 | |
Come spring, some 70,000 individuals arrive on Little Skellig. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:21 | |
GANNETS SQUAWK | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
They're constantly scouring the ocean looking for food | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
and any fish that's within their range has very little chance. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:45 | |
They're doing really well here. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:05 | |
Year on year, this colony is getting bigger. | 0:05:05 | 0:05:08 | |
There's no place for another nest, it seems to be now. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
This rock is now full. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:16 | |
There's really nowhere in the world quite like Skellig Michael. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:35 | |
No wonder it's a World Heritage Site, because it's truly unique. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:41 | |
It was a monastic settlement 1,500 years ago. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:46 | |
How they survived, it's just hard to imagine. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
With an extraordinary decision to make, | 0:05:53 | 0:05:55 | |
to sail off in a boat from the west coast of Ireland to come here. | 0:05:55 | 0:06:00 | |
We may only be 12 miles offshore | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
but they can be 12 very dangerous miles. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
It's just hard to imagine the effort to construct these beehive homes | 0:06:15 | 0:06:19 | |
and churches. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
They must have been a special kind of people though, | 0:06:21 | 0:06:26 | |
because this wouldn't have been everyone's cup of tea. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:29 | |
And the monks who chose to build this monastery here | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
thought this place was the very edge of the world. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:40 | |
It was the edge of the known world for European man at that time. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
The ocean, to them, was just vast and endless. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
This endless void. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
And the people who came here | 0:07:08 | 0:07:11 | |
came here to contemplate life... | 0:07:11 | 0:07:13 | |
..and I can't think of a better place to do it. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
Tough place to do it - physically hard and challenging. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:21 | |
All they had to keep them company were the elements. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
And the sea birds in summer. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:32 | |
Every year, puffins just arrive out of the blue. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
They've spent the winter out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
being tossed around in storms and it always amazes me | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
how they actually arrive unscathed. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
They look perfect, extraordinary little birds, constantly busy, | 0:08:02 | 0:08:07 | |
constantly moaning and groaning and chatting to each other. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:11 | |
Every place you go on this island in summer, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
little puffins waddling all over the place. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
When they start bill tapping, a way of reaffirming the bond | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
is to do this little bill tapping ceremony, | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
and it's just something that you never tire of. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:44 | |
Some of the younger non-breeding birds, | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
they literally loaf around over these rocks, called loafing rocks, | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
where the young, non-breeding birds gather. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
And they will just arrive and, sort of, strut around the place, | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
maybe with fish in their mouths | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
as if showing to potential future partners, | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
"Look, I can fish. I know this place." | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
One thing puffins can do, which is remarkable, | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
the bill is designed to catch and hold multiple fish. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:28 | |
While on the bill, it's got these little grooves, so as soon as | 0:09:28 | 0:09:31 | |
they catch the first one between the bill and their tongue | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
they can just, kind of, store it there and then open their bill | 0:09:34 | 0:09:38 | |
and catch a second one, so it's all pretty clever. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
There's just one single puffling born every season | 0:09:45 | 0:09:49 | |
and for three months their parents' only goal | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
is to keep them safe and well fed. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
It's only when you look at them closely you realise | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
that they're not just comical little guys | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
but they're actually constantly looking out for predators. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
Here, the biggest predators are the black-backed gulls | 0:10:15 | 0:10:19 | |
and the herring gulls. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:21 | |
There are thousands of burrows on this island. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
The puffins, they find sanctuary underground. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
It doesn't seem it on the surface, | 0:10:41 | 0:10:43 | |
but it really is a jungle out here, you know? | 0:10:43 | 0:10:45 | |
The gulls are responsible for the puffins being pretty much | 0:10:45 | 0:10:49 | |
on tenterhooks all day long, | 0:10:49 | 0:10:51 | |
even though a puffin never really looks like it's on tenterhooks. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
At night, then everything changes completely. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
The day birds have now pretty much stopped calling | 0:11:20 | 0:11:24 | |
and the island goes strangely quiet just after sunset. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
But out at sea there are birds gathering | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
and they're waiting to come ashore. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
It's only safe for them to come ashore | 0:11:49 | 0:11:51 | |
under cover of darkness - complete darkness. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:54 | |
LOUD SQUAWKING | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
This is really a very Irish sound | 0:12:10 | 0:12:13 | |
because Manx shearwaters breed on the west coast of Ireland | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
in really big numbers. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
There are thousands of burrows on this island | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
and there's great competition for those burrows, | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
so much so that some of the shearwaters have actually started | 0:12:29 | 0:12:33 | |
nesting above ground in these old beehive huts. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:36 | |
SHEARWATERS SQUAWK | 0:12:36 | 0:12:38 | |
They're calling to let their mates know that they're on their way. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
You will also then hear the response coming from underground. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
It's as if their mate underground has said, "Look, I'm here, | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
"you're in the right area, | 0:12:52 | 0:12:54 | |
"and I'm going to lure you into this very spot." | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
SHEARWATER CALLS | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
It's incubation time. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
The partners of these birds have been sitting patiently underground, | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
waiting for their mates to return from the sea. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
They love the darkness. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
This is what protects them from predators like gulls. | 0:13:25 | 0:13:29 | |
They are so poor on land. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
Their feet are set very far back on their bodies | 0:13:31 | 0:13:35 | |
and they really are very ungainly. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:38 | |
If you're a shearwater, you really want to land | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
as close to your nest as possible. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:49 | |
Sometimes, if there are bright nights, | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
the poor old bird sitting on the egg will be there for days on end, | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
waiting for their mate to relieve them of duty. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
And they'll spend some time in each other's company, you know? | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
Other birds, I've often found, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
they will just literally swap over without making any contact. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:16 | |
As soon as one arrives, the other one leaves. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
Not the case with shearwaters. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:21 | |
SHEARWATER SQUAWKS | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
They start preening each other and bill tapping | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
and it seems like they're delighted to see each other. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:36 | |
Perhaps romance is not just confined to the human world. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:41 | |
LOUD SQUAWKING | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
The shearwaters spend all winter travelling around the Atlantic, | 0:15:02 | 0:15:06 | |
flying over as far as Brazil in search of food | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
and then they make their way back and find the very same burrow | 0:15:10 | 0:15:14 | |
that they nested in last year. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:16 | |
And they'll do that for possibly decades | 0:15:17 | 0:15:21 | |
because they're a very long-lived bird. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
And this is where they find sanctuary, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
like the monks did long ago. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
Ireland looks really like an island from out here. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
I think that's the thing about the coastal journey. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
It makes you see a country in a whole new light. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
The land has changed. | 0:15:56 | 0:15:58 | |
Human influence tends to mould the land | 0:15:58 | 0:16:02 | |
but that doesn't change the surface of the ocean. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
That just, sort of, defines itself in some way. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
It can't be tamed, as such. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:10 | |
Even when you set out for a day at sea by yourself, | 0:16:21 | 0:16:25 | |
you're never alone for long, not on the west coast of Ireland. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
Even when you stop, it's not long before the common dolphins find you. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:34 | |
They seem to just love company. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
And I love theirs. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
There's something very reassuring about seeing | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
such a concentration of mammals along this coast | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
because it means there must be plenty of life left in the sea. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:57 | |
My favourite places in Ireland have got to be these offshore islands. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:12 | |
And when you come to these places, that's where you get a real sense | 0:17:12 | 0:17:16 | |
of wildness and a real sense of what the whole coast must have been like | 0:17:16 | 0:17:20 | |
once upon a time. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:21 | |
You really feel like you're on the very edge of Europe. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
Nothing to stop the waves between here and America. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:29 | |
The Blasket Islands may be only 20 miles north of the Skelligs | 0:17:35 | 0:17:39 | |
but they feel like a totally different world. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
These west coast islands would once have been intensively farmed. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:51 | |
The old ruins of the houses are still here | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
but they won't last forever. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
I'm sure in another hundred years or so | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
there will hardly be a sign that man was ever here. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
So many of the islands off the west coast have been deserted by people | 0:18:14 | 0:18:18 | |
in the last, you know, 60, 70, 80 years | 0:18:18 | 0:18:23 | |
and wildlife has moved in. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:25 | |
FIRE CRACKLES | 0:18:25 | 0:18:27 | |
If you come to the Great Blasket at the right time of year, | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
you'll see a sight that few people have ever witnessed. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
Certainly, the islanders who lived here once | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
would have been very familiar with these creatures | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
but they never would have seen them in numbers like this. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
These animals are only here now because man has left this place. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
This was the main beach in front of what would have been | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
a bustling village once upon a time. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:13 | |
It's lovely to see them all lying side-by-side. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:24 | |
It's more like a sight you'd see on a... | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
A Subantarctic island or something like that. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
SEALS GRUNT AND GROWL | 0:19:31 | 0:19:34 | |
This must be the greatest gathering of mammals in Ireland. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:40 | |
Some days you can see over a thousand grey seals | 0:19:45 | 0:19:49 | |
all hauled out on the beach. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:51 | |
It's their island now. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
For centuries they were hunted and harassed | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
and the numbers have plummeted. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:05 | |
But grey seals, in fact, were the first protected animal in the world. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
The numbers have come back but we still have a duty | 0:20:09 | 0:20:12 | |
and responsibility to look after them here. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:14 | |
They're not built for land, that's for sure. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
You've got to feel sorry for them because there's nothing worse | 0:20:34 | 0:20:38 | |
than having an itch you can't scratch, | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
and if your arms are only a foot long, it's not easy getting to | 0:20:40 | 0:20:43 | |
all the bits of the body that you've got to get to. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
Sometimes you need a neighbour to lend a hand. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
They're supreme swimmers. They can dive to depths of 600 feet. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:21 | |
And snoozing underwater? | 0:21:24 | 0:21:26 | |
Not a problem. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:27 | |
At breeding time there's loads of aggression. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
Females are barking at females | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
and the bulls have come to mate | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
so they're very aggressive towards each other. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
Everyone's, sort of, trying to protect their patch. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
SEAL GROWLS | 0:21:51 | 0:21:52 | |
The entire year is spent building up to this time. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:59 | |
They're doing all this on an empty stomach too. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
They're being driven by hormones. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
And this fighting can be difficult to watch. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
It can be extremely aggressive | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
and they can inflict serious damage on each other. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:18 | |
If you become the dominant male of a patch of beach, | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
that means you will have access to all the females that lie therein. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:32 | |
Mating, for grey seals, is not a very elegant process. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:55 | |
The male's got to keep away other males at this time | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
and he's also thinking that as soon as he's finished with one female | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
he's got to get on to the next one. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:18 | |
When they leave here they will spend the next six months or so | 0:23:38 | 0:23:42 | |
just wandering, on their own, | 0:23:42 | 0:23:44 | |
because they can travel from here all the way up as far as Scotland | 0:23:44 | 0:23:49 | |
or down to the Bay of Biscay, wandering around foraging. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
So much of Europe's coastline has been developed | 0:24:02 | 0:24:05 | |
and undisturbed places like this are becoming rarer and rarer | 0:24:05 | 0:24:10 | |
in the world now. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:11 | |
For great stretches of the west coast, | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
mountains drop straight into the ocean | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
and travelling just a few miles inland | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
can transport you to a completely different world. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
These are the MacGillycuddy's Reeks, Ireland's greatest mountain range. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:02 | |
There's somehow always like a dull roar coming from the sea, | 0:25:19 | 0:25:24 | |
but that's absent here. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
The lake doesn't have that same kind of energy. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
Still waters like this, such a different experience. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:35 | |
Last night was a perfectly clear night | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
and as a result this seems like the coldest morning of the year so far. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:56 | |
There's a real chill the air. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
DEERS CALL | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
These mountains and these valleys have borne witness to this sound | 0:26:13 | 0:26:18 | |
for thousands of years. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
These are the calls of male red deer... | 0:26:24 | 0:26:28 | |
..proclaiming their territories. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:33 | |
The rut has begun. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
And that voice... | 0:26:46 | 0:26:48 | |
..it's telling the other males to stay away. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
Don't mess with me. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:54 | |
Some of them have been rolling in the mud. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
Sometimes you'll get them with grass attached to their antlers | 0:27:03 | 0:27:07 | |
and that's all about making themselves look bigger. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:11 | |
The only thing that these guys have on their mind right now | 0:27:15 | 0:27:19 | |
is fatherhood. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
It's fatherhood or failure. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:23 | |
It's all they live for | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
and if you're not strong enough and powerful enough, | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
then you will never become... | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
a father. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:33 | |
Biggest land animal in Ireland. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:45 | |
And there are several big stags displaying this morning, | 0:27:51 | 0:27:56 | |
but there's one of them who is just... | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
..bigger and more powerful than all the rest | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
and he's the one that's got all the females. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
Once a stag has gathered a harem, | 0:28:10 | 0:28:13 | |
he's got to keep a very close eye on them. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
Sometimes one of them will slip away, | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
perhaps attracted by other calls, | 0:28:22 | 0:28:25 | |
and as soon as he spots her | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
he goes back and retrieves her in no uncertain manner. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:31 | |
He's gone to all that trouble gathering them. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:47 | |
LOUD CALL | 0:28:47 | 0:28:49 | |
He's not for sharing. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:52 | |
Now, stags will do whatever they can to avoid conflict | 0:28:59 | 0:29:02 | |
because it's dangerous for both parties. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:05 | |
Those calls and that posturing is normally enough | 0:29:05 | 0:29:09 | |
to keep rivals apart. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:11 | |
But when you have two males of similar size, | 0:29:12 | 0:29:15 | |
sometimes neither of them will back down. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:19 | |
LOUD CALL | 0:30:07 | 0:30:09 | |
The loser looks utterly exhausted. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
Everyone has seen that he's been beaten. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:20 | |
The females have seen it, the males have seen it, | 0:30:20 | 0:30:24 | |
and so he will not be feared again. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:27 | |
It's the sole purpose of their lives, I guess, is to... | 0:30:33 | 0:30:37 | |
..become fathers, and they will put all their energies into doing that. | 0:30:38 | 0:30:42 | |
And there are some winners but more losers. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:46 | |
And it seems like Stone Age man | 0:31:04 | 0:31:07 | |
brought this herd here 5,000 years ago, | 0:31:07 | 0:31:11 | |
and they've been here ever since. | 0:31:11 | 0:31:14 | |
They've been hunted and harassed for millennia. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:18 | |
But it's something very reassuring that they're still here. | 0:31:19 | 0:31:23 | |
They are such powerful animals and somehow | 0:31:25 | 0:31:29 | |
a real symbol of ancient Ireland. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:32 | |
Just 20 miles north as the crow flies is the Dingle Peninsula. | 0:31:59 | 0:32:04 | |
When you wander the dunes here by day | 0:32:08 | 0:32:11 | |
you have this wonderful soundscape | 0:32:11 | 0:32:13 | |
of skylarks and stonechats and linnets | 0:32:13 | 0:32:16 | |
and those sounds slowly disappear with the setting sun. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:21 | |
TOADS CROAK | 0:32:23 | 0:32:25 | |
This is a sound that you only hear in this part of the country. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:32 | |
Wonderful sound. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:37 | |
Almost seems otherworldly to me, or certainly... | 0:32:37 | 0:32:40 | |
..it's hard to believe sometimes that you're in Ireland. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:44 | |
Here in Ireland we've only got three different kinds of amphibians. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:54 | |
We've got a newt, we've got a frog and one toad. | 0:32:54 | 0:32:58 | |
For some reason the natterjack toads ended up here | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
and no-one quite knows how. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:04 | |
Some funny anomaly from the Ice Age, maybe, | 0:33:04 | 0:33:08 | |
and a little population got left here. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
Right now there are lots of male natterjack toads | 0:33:16 | 0:33:19 | |
in the ponds, hidden. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:20 | |
And they're calling for one purpose and one purpose only | 0:33:25 | 0:33:28 | |
and that is to lure the females in from the surrounding dunes. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:32 | |
They've been waking up from their winter slumber and they're... | 0:33:46 | 0:33:50 | |
..listening to these calls now and I wonder what they're thinking. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:55 | |
But the females could be well spread out. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:06 | |
They could be several hundred metres away, | 0:34:06 | 0:34:08 | |
which doesn't sound that far but if you're only a couple of inches long | 0:34:08 | 0:34:12 | |
it's quite a long journey. | 0:34:12 | 0:34:13 | |
TOADS CROAK | 0:34:13 | 0:34:15 | |
LOUD CROAKS | 0:34:20 | 0:34:22 | |
These little males have been waiting for this event all winter long. | 0:34:29 | 0:34:33 | |
It's probably the loudest natural sound in Ireland | 0:34:35 | 0:34:39 | |
when they all get going. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:40 | |
You can hear them, I reckon, a mile away on a calm night. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:44 | |
And those little females that are stirring on the dunes right now, | 0:34:48 | 0:34:51 | |
they're going to become crawling laden with eggs. | 0:34:51 | 0:34:55 | |
As soon as a female arrives on the edge of this pond and is spotted... | 0:35:03 | 0:35:08 | |
..there's going to be a little bit of a frenzy | 0:35:09 | 0:35:12 | |
to see who can get to her first. | 0:35:12 | 0:35:14 | |
Once he actually gets into what's known as amplexus, | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
when he tucks his arms under her, | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
he will not let go for love or money. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
He'll stay with her right through the spawning process. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:45 | |
They lay these long strings of eggs and the male fertilises them | 0:35:53 | 0:35:57 | |
as they emerge. | 0:35:57 | 0:35:59 | |
And that's it done. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:01 | |
CROAKING | 0:36:04 | 0:36:06 | |
This is what this little corner of Ireland has sounded like | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
for thousands of years. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:17 | |
You could almost be by a water hole in Africa or something like that. | 0:36:19 | 0:36:23 | |
That's what it sort of reminds me of. | 0:36:23 | 0:36:26 | |
Just to be in a place with natural sounds. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:38 | |
You somehow feel that this is what the world should be like. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:44 | |
You feel very small out here sometimes. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:15 | |
My boat is a currach. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:21 | |
It's a traditional boat that would have been used | 0:37:21 | 0:37:23 | |
right along this coast for hundreds of years. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:26 | |
They were often made just from scrap wood and canvas. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
It's the perfect way for exploring this coast | 0:37:30 | 0:37:33 | |
because it was designed here. | 0:37:33 | 0:37:35 | |
It was designed for these conditions. | 0:37:35 | 0:37:37 | |
There's a wonderful story from these parts. | 0:37:49 | 0:37:52 | |
It's said that there were a group of men | 0:37:52 | 0:37:55 | |
rowing their currach back to their home on the Blasket Islands. | 0:37:55 | 0:38:00 | |
And as they rowed, they heard this very strange sound - | 0:38:00 | 0:38:05 | |
sounds that they had never heard before in their lives, | 0:38:05 | 0:38:09 | |
that seemed to come from the very ocean itself, | 0:38:09 | 0:38:13 | |
through the skin of their boat. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:15 | |
Now, one of the fellows on the boat was a musician | 0:38:20 | 0:38:22 | |
and when he got home that night, he started composing a piece of music | 0:38:22 | 0:38:27 | |
based on the strange sounds that he had heard. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:30 | |
Now, that piece of music became a very famous Irish tune. | 0:38:30 | 0:38:35 | |
MUSIC: Port Na Bpucai | 0:38:37 | 0:38:39 | |
In the Irish language it was known as Port na bPucai. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:49 | |
The Song of the Fairies. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:52 | |
And years later, someone was listening to it | 0:38:57 | 0:39:00 | |
and when they thought about it, they realised | 0:39:00 | 0:39:03 | |
that it reminded them of the song of the humpback whale. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:06 | |
People said there was no way they could have heard a humpback singing. | 0:39:16 | 0:39:20 | |
You just didn't find humpback whales in these waters. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:26 | |
Amongst the dolphins, we have a visitor | 0:39:45 | 0:39:47 | |
and it's wonderful to see them back. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
I love the sounds of their breathing. | 0:39:57 | 0:40:00 | |
When I was growing up, I remember I had that sort of iconic photograph | 0:40:07 | 0:40:12 | |
of a humpback fluke on my bedroom wall and I remember thinking, | 0:40:12 | 0:40:15 | |
I'd love to see one of those one day. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:18 | |
Well, never in a million years did I think | 0:40:18 | 0:40:20 | |
I'd be watching sights like this here. | 0:40:20 | 0:40:23 | |
This is now a relatively common sight off the west coast of Ireland. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:32 | |
These are almost resident humpback whales. | 0:40:32 | 0:40:35 | |
And the locals recognise one male humpback | 0:40:39 | 0:40:43 | |
that's been coming here for years. | 0:40:43 | 0:40:45 | |
He comes back so often, they call him Boomerang. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:48 | |
It seems that once one creature finds a bowl of food, a big bowl, | 0:40:56 | 0:41:01 | |
all the other creatures are, sort of, called in. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:05 | |
They could be anywhere in the whole ocean but they choose to be here. | 0:41:31 | 0:41:37 | |
It makes you feel a bit special. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:40 | |
Humpbacks have developed their own unique hunting method. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:48 | |
They blow circles of bubbles to frighten and corral | 0:41:48 | 0:41:51 | |
a shoal of the fish. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:53 | |
And then swallow the lot. | 0:41:57 | 0:41:59 | |
They're the only whale that has developed this particular | 0:42:08 | 0:42:11 | |
hunting technique and it seems to work incredibly effectively. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:15 | |
When they've had a good day's foraging, | 0:42:20 | 0:42:22 | |
what better way to end the day | 0:42:22 | 0:42:25 | |
than to lie on your back and just flail your limbs around? | 0:42:25 | 0:42:30 | |
Sure, why not? | 0:42:30 | 0:42:31 | |
Hello. | 0:42:35 | 0:42:37 | |
There's something youthful about them. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:47 | |
It's almost as if they're just enjoying themselves. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:51 | |
I'd like to think that other animals can be happy. | 0:42:51 | 0:42:55 | |
So many whale species just briefly visit the surface when they have to | 0:43:07 | 0:43:13 | |
to literally pick up air and disappear into the depths again | 0:43:13 | 0:43:17 | |
but humpbacks seem to, sort of, enjoy that transition | 0:43:17 | 0:43:21 | |
between sea and air, between those two dimensions. | 0:43:21 | 0:43:25 | |
It seems like cessation of whaling | 0:43:31 | 0:43:34 | |
has been a massive conservation success story | 0:43:34 | 0:43:38 | |
and it's taken a few decades for the numbers to come back | 0:43:38 | 0:43:41 | |
but the whole coast of Ireland is a whale sanctuary now, | 0:43:41 | 0:43:44 | |
so they're safe here. | 0:43:44 | 0:43:46 | |
So isn't it a wonderful thought that maybe... | 0:43:55 | 0:43:59 | |
..just maybe, all those years ago, | 0:44:00 | 0:44:03 | |
as this group of men were paddling themselves out to their island home, | 0:44:03 | 0:44:08 | |
there was a humpback hanging in the water | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
and that there was actually, somehow their craft, | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
the skin of their currach, | 0:44:14 | 0:44:16 | |
had somehow managed to pick up these calls of the humpback. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:20 | |
50 miles north of Kerry, | 0:44:50 | 0:44:53 | |
County Clare is home to one of the most unique landscapes in Ireland. | 0:44:53 | 0:44:57 | |
BIRDS SING | 0:44:57 | 0:44:59 | |
A dawn chorus. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:04 | |
At this time of year, it seems to hardly stop all day sometimes. | 0:45:06 | 0:45:10 | |
It's at its strongest early in the morning but... | 0:45:10 | 0:45:12 | |
..it seems to keep going for hours. | 0:45:13 | 0:45:16 | |
The weather is nice. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:23 | |
The birds just seem to sing all day long. | 0:45:23 | 0:45:26 | |
What a beautiful place to raise a family. | 0:45:29 | 0:45:32 | |
There are five chicks here this year. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:47 | |
That's a lot of chicks for ravens. | 0:45:47 | 0:45:50 | |
It just shows how productive the whole area must be. | 0:45:53 | 0:45:56 | |
Over here in the Burren, | 0:45:57 | 0:45:59 | |
there's such a variety of, sort of, habitats for them to... | 0:45:59 | 0:46:03 | |
to find food. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:04 | |
There's the seashore and there's little woodlands | 0:46:04 | 0:46:07 | |
and then the open limestone landscape as well. | 0:46:07 | 0:46:10 | |
There's no end of food | 0:46:10 | 0:46:12 | |
and I guess that's why they're so successful here. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:15 | |
Ravens will stay together for life | 0:46:21 | 0:46:24 | |
and then every individual raven is different. | 0:46:24 | 0:46:26 | |
They're amazing birds. They're so smart. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:29 | |
They probably know me. | 0:46:31 | 0:46:33 | |
They come here a few times, then they go up, back to your mam. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:36 | |
"Yeah, that's the short little fellow in the blue shirt again. | 0:46:36 | 0:46:40 | |
"He's harmless." | 0:46:40 | 0:46:41 | |
The people who built this place | 0:46:45 | 0:46:48 | |
obviously needed security. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:50 | |
And they built it here because they could obviously feed their community | 0:46:50 | 0:46:54 | |
and the raven family has chosen this site for that very same reason. | 0:46:54 | 0:46:59 | |
They are the kings of the castle now. | 0:47:03 | 0:47:05 | |
When you sit in a place like this on the Burren, | 0:47:43 | 0:47:46 | |
you can't help but think about change and how... | 0:47:46 | 0:47:48 | |
..the very landscape and nature just changes and adapts all the time. | 0:47:49 | 0:47:55 | |
All that exposed limestone was once at the bottom of an ocean. | 0:47:55 | 0:47:59 | |
This seabed moved up here from the equator, | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
got pushed up into mountains | 0:48:02 | 0:48:04 | |
and now... | 0:48:04 | 0:48:06 | |
you've got this extraordinary landscape. | 0:48:06 | 0:48:09 | |
A place that, from a distance, may look sort of barren | 0:48:17 | 0:48:20 | |
and lifeless and almost like a moonscape | 0:48:20 | 0:48:23 | |
but it's far from it. | 0:48:23 | 0:48:25 | |
This place is full of life | 0:48:25 | 0:48:27 | |
but it's life that's not always immediately obvious. | 0:48:27 | 0:48:31 | |
Reptiles really don't want to live in Ireland. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:47 | |
We only have one native species here. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:49 | |
That's the common lizard. | 0:48:49 | 0:48:51 | |
But the females, in summer, have young developing inside them | 0:48:54 | 0:48:58 | |
and they can be really big at this time of year. | 0:48:58 | 0:49:01 | |
Most lizards in the world lay eggs | 0:49:03 | 0:49:06 | |
but for these ones it's not an option. | 0:49:06 | 0:49:08 | |
It's too cold here so the females give birth to live young. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:11 | |
I guess it's an adaptation to northern climes. | 0:49:11 | 0:49:14 | |
Her job as a mother is at an end. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:23 | |
She looks literally deflated. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:25 | |
But as soon as she's given birth, that's it. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:28 | |
She pays no attention to the youngsters she's left behind at all. | 0:49:28 | 0:49:32 | |
They are completely on their own. | 0:49:32 | 0:49:35 | |
Some transition. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:40 | |
They're born within a membrane and their first job in life | 0:49:49 | 0:49:52 | |
is to fight their way out of that membrane. | 0:49:52 | 0:49:55 | |
They've got to learn to hunt and to feed themselves from day one. | 0:50:05 | 0:50:09 | |
They've got to find places to get warm. That's really important. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:13 | |
They're going to have to learn the geography | 0:50:13 | 0:50:16 | |
of the territory that they take up. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:18 | |
But they do well here. | 0:50:22 | 0:50:24 | |
There's no competition from other lizards, I guess, | 0:50:24 | 0:50:27 | |
and the land is still in good condition. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:30 | |
There's a lack of pesticides so there's lots of little insect food. | 0:50:30 | 0:50:34 | |
It's amazing what instinct can do. | 0:50:34 | 0:50:37 | |
Looking down on the... | 0:51:02 | 0:51:04 | |
beautiful old abbey, | 0:51:05 | 0:51:07 | |
it must have been such a hive of human activity once upon a time. | 0:51:07 | 0:51:10 | |
The people who built it could never foresee the day | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
when it would be abandoned and just overtaken by birds. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:18 | |
Great foraging to be had in this landscape. | 0:51:36 | 0:51:39 | |
Good place to be a kestrel. | 0:51:39 | 0:51:41 | |
They'll deliver all sorts of things back to the nest. | 0:51:45 | 0:51:49 | |
Little mice, birds. | 0:51:49 | 0:51:51 | |
Even reptiles. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:53 | |
They're a regular on the dinner table for kestrels. | 0:51:53 | 0:51:57 | |
You'd wonder how the kestrels managed to gain a foothold here | 0:52:11 | 0:52:15 | |
this year at all. | 0:52:15 | 0:52:17 | |
But my guess is there must have been a pretty determined female involved. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:22 | |
Not easy to nest amongst these jackdaws. Not easy to find a space. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:30 | |
She must have just been lucky to be in before the jackdaws arrived | 0:52:30 | 0:52:34 | |
and got too territorial. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:36 | |
Somehow, she managed to... | 0:52:37 | 0:52:40 | |
hold her ground, because there's big competition for space here. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:44 | |
JACKDAWS SQUAWK | 0:52:47 | 0:52:50 | |
Noisy neighbours. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:51 | |
But still a good place to be a kestrel. | 0:52:52 | 0:52:55 | |
They fix the ground with such a gaze. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:07 | |
Kestrels perceive the world in a very different way than we do. | 0:53:22 | 0:53:27 | |
When they're scanning a patch of ground | 0:53:29 | 0:53:31 | |
they can actually sometimes see little urine trails | 0:53:31 | 0:53:34 | |
that have been left by rodents. | 0:53:34 | 0:53:36 | |
A lot of the rodents leave trails and that can be their undoing. | 0:53:36 | 0:53:40 | |
Because then kestrels are not just looking at a patch of grass, | 0:53:40 | 0:53:43 | |
they're actually looking at a system of little, sort of, rodent highways. | 0:53:43 | 0:53:47 | |
They follow them and look for movement. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:51 | |
It looks like this family are going to do pretty well now this year. | 0:54:00 | 0:54:04 | |
So what more would anyone want but a family, security... | 0:54:09 | 0:54:14 | |
and food. | 0:54:14 | 0:54:15 | |
That's what we have in common with all creatures, I guess. | 0:54:17 | 0:54:20 | |
There's something about rowing. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:44 | |
It's just so gentle on the water, gentle on the planet. | 0:54:44 | 0:54:49 | |
And you're much more connected with the ocean | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
when you're in a rowing boat. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:54 | |
You really, sort of, appreciate and you can imagine | 0:54:54 | 0:54:56 | |
what's going on underneath. | 0:54:56 | 0:54:58 | |
All the creatures drifting in the tide. | 0:55:00 | 0:55:03 | |
The west of Ireland has always, sort of, attracted | 0:55:14 | 0:55:17 | |
these lone individual dolphins. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:20 | |
Some of them have lived for 30 years or more on their own. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:23 | |
This is Dusty and she lives her life off the coast of Clare. | 0:55:25 | 0:55:29 | |
She's a bottlenose dolphin and it's always bottlenose dolphins | 0:55:37 | 0:55:41 | |
that become these, sort of, lone individuals. | 0:55:41 | 0:55:44 | |
No-one quite knows why. | 0:55:44 | 0:55:46 | |
They're probably misfits in some way. | 0:55:46 | 0:55:49 | |
Don't know if they get lost or maybe they were thrown out of the pod. | 0:55:49 | 0:55:53 | |
For some reason they didn't fit in in some way, but they don't like | 0:55:54 | 0:55:58 | |
being on their own and they soon seek out human company. | 0:55:58 | 0:56:02 | |
Dolphins make such great travelling companions... | 0:56:09 | 0:56:12 | |
..and they've such an aura of real intelligence and almost compassion. | 0:56:13 | 0:56:18 | |
But soon she leaves me behind. | 0:56:27 | 0:56:29 | |
She's got her home and I've got mine. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:34 | |
This is where I now call home. | 0:56:52 | 0:56:54 | |
I first discovered Clew Bay, I guess, about 12 years ago or so. | 0:56:54 | 0:56:58 | |
I was moving up and down the west coast of Ireland | 0:56:58 | 0:57:01 | |
and, sort of, looking for a place to settle | 0:57:01 | 0:57:03 | |
after years of travelling. | 0:57:03 | 0:57:05 | |
I remember just thinking there was something very restful | 0:57:10 | 0:57:14 | |
and peaceful about this place. | 0:57:14 | 0:57:16 | |
This is really my halfway point. | 0:57:22 | 0:57:25 | |
I see Clew Bay as the halfway point along the west coast of Ireland. | 0:57:25 | 0:57:29 | |
Everything changes north of here now. | 0:57:30 | 0:57:33 | |
North of here is somehow, sort of, wilder, less tame, less visited. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:40 | |
Lots of little islands. I don't know it well. | 0:57:40 | 0:57:43 | |
I'm looking forward to getting to know it better. | 0:57:43 | 0:57:45 | |
Look at this. | 0:58:01 | 0:58:03 | |
What an extraordinary beautiful creature that is. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:07 | |
It feels like I've, sort of, landed on some tropical paradise. | 0:58:11 | 0:58:15 |