Episode 1 Wild on Water

Welcome to Strangford Lough,

one of Europe's most diverse natural habitats,

and it also just happens to be one of my favourite haunts.

It's home to an abundance of animals and plants,

and with its outstanding views and easy access to fabulous flora

and incredible creatures, this is simply a wonderful place to explore.

Join me as we go Wild On Water to meet our extraordinary neighbours.

Strangford is the largest

sea lough in Britain or Ireland.

It's internationally recognised for

the diversity of animals and plants

that live in and around its sand, rocks, grasslands and tidal waters.

I've lived on the shores of the lough for several years now,

so it's time I learned more about the remarkable natural life

which this stretch of water has to offer.

So to satisfy my curiosity

and help me meet with our extraordinary neighbours,

I've asked a couple of local experts to join me

for this wildlife adventure.

Jen Firth is the Lough Ranger

and we're starting our Strangford safari

from Whiterock Bay,

close to Killinchy.

We're on our way to the appropriately named Bird Island.

Right in the middle of the lough,

it's one of the most important bird-nesting sites in Ireland.

Jen, so many birds here on Bird Island -

what are we looking at?

Bird Island is one of the biggest cormorant colonies

we have here in the lough and in Northern Ireland.

This is where most of them come to have their young.

You'll see them all just resting up at the top there

while the tide goes out.

They're really distinctive, they have big long necks.

And you'll often see them with their wings stretched out like Dracula.

The reason they do that is because they don't have

the same waterproofing oils that other birds have,

so they have to actually dry them out in the wind -

the same way we dry our hair -

and that means when they're actually under the water or flying around,

they'll be nice and warm and dry underneath.

They really aren't a pretty bird,

they're a bit like a dinosaur, reptile even.

They are, it's one of the reasons why I love them.

They're so unusual looking. They're quite scaly around the eyes

and then they have this big long hooked beak

and they just remind you of the dinosaurs, really.

Yeah. And what stage in the season are they at now?

We're nearly at the end of the season,

so a lot of the young birds will be starting to lose their downy feathers

and practising to fly, and they'll get more and more hungry

and then start to leave the nest and search for their own food.

And are they good mums and dads?

Brilliant mums and dads, they only have one brood during the summer,

so they can put all their energy into that one brood.

And they're also monogamous, so they stick to the same partner

and every year, they'll come back to the same spot, the same partner

and do a little dance to each other to confirm their partnership.

-How romantic!

-Old romantics, yep!

And what about the seagulls too? Lots of them around.

Yep, there's lots of seagulls.

One of the most impressive would be the black back.

-He's huge!

-He's massive and quite intimidating if you see them up close

and also to the others birds,

because these guys are actually one of the biggest predators in the air

and they will take the small chicks off the other birds

and that's why they nest beside other colonies.

So they take the live chicks, not just the eggs?

No, they take the chicks.

Unfortunately, it's a hard world out there for the birds.

And what sort of lifespan does the average seagull have?

Well, some seagulls can live quite a lengthy life.

The oldest seagulls have been found up to 30 years or more

and the oldest cormorant was 23.

But on average, they only live maybe 12, or a wee bit more than that

because life out here is very difficult,

especially in the winter, and they don't always survive that long.

So why are you such a fan of the ugly old cormorant?

-They're just so different!

-You don't even think he's ugly!

No, I think he's fantastic! When you see the sun on their feathers,

they glisten because they're black, they're brilliant divers,

they have really unusual webbed feet that they use as propellers

under the water, and because they look so reptilian,

they're so different and so distinctive. And when you see them

gliding along the glassy water in the lough, it's just beautiful.

You're doing a really good sales pitch for them, I have to say!

If we wanted to go onto this island

and have a bit of a walk around, is that possible?

Unfortunately not.

Bird Island is a sanctuary,

which means it's totally protected for the birds.

I think it's better that way

because it means the birds know they can go somewhere to be safe

and not be disturbed. It also means that we can watch from a distance

and see so many birds together in one place.

Such a special thing, right on our doorstep.

Oh, it's fantastic, I love it.

We've come back to land to get up close and personal

with some of the amazing creatures

who can be found along the shoreline.

And I'm here in search of some Coastal Guardians.

What are the Costal Guardians, Jen?

The Coastal Guardians are a group of local people

who want to learn how to look after their coastline,

so we're down here today to do some rock pooling.

So, Jack, what have you found?

We have found a pie crust crab,

which can grow to an unbelievable size and can also be eaten.

Oh, look, there he is! We've actually got two in there.

So you can see there, Karen, the pie crust shape on the shell

-and that's what Jack's taking about.

-Just like a Cornish pasty!

Exactly right. And they do grow really, really big.

That's why we eat them, because their claws are full of flesh.

So they're very popular around here and all around the world to eat.

Nora, what have you found, what did you like?

Well, one of the best things is the butterfish,

which is hard to find,

but it's pretty fun to watch it swim around so fast.

-Which one? Have we got one in there?

-Yes, we've got a couple in here.

There's one absolutely gorgeous orange-coloured one.

And the reason they get their name is because

they're really slippery, like butter, but they're very special because

they can survive on the coastline here

without water for quite a long time.

So the slimy coating all over their skin actually provides moisture

for their gills, which helps them breathe when they're in the dry,

and they're always mistaken for eels.

-Oh.

-So if you find what looks like an eel,

but has spots on its side, it's definitely a butterfish.

OK, what else have we got?

OK, so we've got lots of limpets, we've got some anemones,

but I'm actually going to have a wee go myself

-and maybe get your hands a bit dirty.

-Absolutely.

If you want to help me move back some of this seaweed...

and see what we can find.

-Oh!

-Oh, look!

Yep, we have a starfish.

So this is a common starfish, they are absolutely common here,

you'll probably find one nearly every time you come down to the beach.

They get a lot bigger than this,

but the shoreline is the perfect spot for finding baby starfish.

They've quite rough little suckers on there, yeah?

-Yeah, I'll just pass it over to you and we can turn him over.

-Ooh!

So underneath here, we've got hundreds of little feet

and they each move around individually

and they have little suckers on the ends.

So that's how starfish can stick to rocks,

but it also helps them when they're feeding.

So what they do is, they find a piece of food, like a shellfish

or a piece of fish, anything they can find that's usually quite smelly,

and they sit on top of it and pull the shellfish open

with these sticky feet, and then they do something pretty gross -

-they spit their stomach out on top of their food.

-Oh!

So there's not much room in there,

which means they have to digest all the food outside of their body.

Not such a pretty starfish!

No. And when they're finished, it turns into a big fish soup

and they suck it all back in again, so it's not very pleasant,

but it's the way they have to do it to survive.

-He's terrible table manners!

-Yes.

He's got five legs. And if we turn him over there...

Sometimes, you'll find a starfish that doesn't have five legs,

but it doesn't mean he was born that way -

it's actually a really clever defence mechanism.

So if a crab decided he wanted some starfish,

he would come up to the starfish and attack it

and the starfish would actually drop one of its legs,

almost like a sacrifice, so the crab's left with the leg

and the starfish gets away scot-free and grows back a new leg.

How long does that take?

It depends on the size of the starfish.

If it's a small one, it doesn't take long - maybe a few weeks -

but the bigger ones, it can take quite a while.

Well, Lewis, what have you found?

I've found a sea anemone.

A sea anemone! Very good!

And he's stuck to the rock, that's what they do, isn't it?

So a sea anemone is basically an upside-down jellyfish.

And you know when they're under the water,

all of their red tentacles come out.

This one's called a beadlet anemone

and all around the outside, he's got little blue tentacles

which he uses for fighting with other anemone.

And I see you've got a limpet here as well...

And these are also stuck to the rock.

So did you know that limpets actually leave their little spot

in the rock whenever the tide comes up?

And when they go away,

they leave a little trail of scent behind them

so that they can find their way back when the tide goes out again.

And that means they always stay in the same spot.

So if you see a rock with a dark circle in it,

that's called a limpet scar and that's where the limpet lives,

so he always comes back.

Jen, Lewis and David are loving all of this and we've got to remember,

haven't we, that this stuff can be found on any rocky shore?

Yep, and every rocky shore will have a different set of animals,

so you'll never get bored.

And you can get more interesting ideas

for exploring your local habitats at...

Time to go back on the water,

and we're in search of some of the 300 seals

who have made this lough their home.

We're heading for Cloghy Rocks, just south of Strangford.

But first, there's time for a short stop at an unusual local attraction.

Jen, there's such a lot of fast running water here, what is this?

This is a unique area in Strangford Lough

called the Routen Wheel,

and it's basically all the water flowing in from the sea at high tide

going against all the ridges of rock underneath the surface.

So you can see lots of little whirlpools

and they all merge together in a big bubbling cauldron.

So it can be quite violent at times

and you wouldn't want to get caught in it without an engine,

you'd need a good escape route.

-And do all the local sailors know to avoid this area?

-They do, yes.

My dad always told me when I was younger,

"Stay away from the Routen Wheel."

Jen, so many seals the length of the lough, who are we looking at here?

Well, this is Cloghy Rocks,

this is one of the best places to come and see the seals,

and we've got a couple of greys just floating around.

The tide is starting to come up again

-so they're starting to head back off to sea.

-What's the difference?

Because I know there are two different types of seal here.

Yep. We have the grey seal and the common seal in Strangford Lough.

There's more common seals because they like the shallow inlets,

whereas the grey seals like the more exposed coastline.

And you can tell the difference quite easily once you get your eye in.

The grey seal has got a really long Roman nose

and they're absolutely huge animals,

whereas the common seal has a little squashed puppy dog face.

Is there competition between the two types of seal?

Yeah, all the animals here in the lough compete for fish.

-They're fishing now!

-Yeah, quite a lot of them rely on fish

as their only source of food

so because the greys are bigger,

they often intimidate the commons,

but they seem to be living in harmony at the minute,

but we're keeping an eye on the numbers.

You're monitoring the population here,

is one more dominant than the other?

Yeah, well, the common seals have the biggest number here

but, all in all, there's just below 300 seals in total.

The common seals are breeding at the minute - they're summer breeders -

so if you see a little group of commons, you'll often see seal pups

dotted in amongst the adults,

and then whenever the tide comes back up, like now,

the adult seals go out to sea to catch fish

and then they'll come back periodically

to feed the pups the sticky milk that they have.

Are they good mums and dads?

Well, the dads aren't so good, I must admit,

but the mums definitely tend very well to their young

and they'll wean them for a few weeks

and then they'll start eating their own fish,

so the commons are quite independent.

But the greys are born with the furry coat in the winter

to keep them warm, so it takes them a little bit longer to be weaned.

They're having a lot of fun out there - big splashes behind me -

and so curious following us,

and I heard calls too earlier, they make a very strange noise!

Yeah, especially the greys.

They sound a bit like a cow, mooing in the distance.

But the greys are particularly more loud than the commons would be.

They are great entertainment

and we've got the luxury of seeing it from a boat today,

but the road's just over there, anyone can come and see this!

Definitely, because the rocks here are so close to the road,

you can simply just park your car...

Big splash!

Yeah, he's making a scene.

You can just park your car in one of the laybys or car parks,

get your binoculars out and you can listen and look at them.

Do they occasionally leave the lough?

Yes. We did a project a few years ago where we tagged a couple of the seals

and we found out that a few of the rogues go down to Dublin for the day

or some of them go over to Scotland,

so although we have a steady number here,

we don't know if it's exactly the same seals,

but as long as we keep the general numbers up, we're OK.

-Spot of shopping or a pint, maybe?

-Yep!

Who could blame them?!

For the next step of my journey,

I'm crossing over to the other side of the lough.

I'm heading for one of the area's hidden wildlife havens -

Killard Nature Reserve.

Visitors come from all around the world

to see the multitude of wild orchids that grow here every summer.

But even though it's no longer orchid season,

I'm told it's well worth the trip.

My guide for today is naturalist Rory Mellon.

Rory, this place is absolutely stunning!

-What's so special about Killard?

-Isn't it spectacular?

It's over 100 acres of natural nature reserve

and it's never been farmed. It's very thin soils,

pristine environment and just choc-a-bloc with wild herbs,

flowering grasses, sedges,

butterflies, bees, you name it.

Every time of the year you come down here,

there's something different to see, something new.

Definitely a place to come out and enjoy and stretch your legs.

Look, though, at all the colour and all the plants!

-What is that blue one?

-Isn't it spectacular?

Come on, we'll step in off the path and we'll have a look and see.

-Oh, even more up here!

-Yeah, and it's kind of late on in the year,

but this is pretty spectacular.

-This is Field Scabious.

-Right.

It's a really important nectar plant,

and the head of it's got 50 individual flowers on it

and you'll find the butterflies and bees

feeding predominately on that at this time of year.

-Ah, that's their favourite.

-It's a really good butterfly plant.

And what's that wee yellow one?

That's one you wouldn't expect to find this far in off the path -

that's pineappleweed, it came in in the 1800s from Oregon

and it doesn't compete very well.

Give it a good rub and smell it...

-Oh, my goodness!

-Isn't it brilliant?

-Really strong smell of pineapple!

You'll find it where the gates are swinging backwards and forwards,

or at the edge of the path that's well trampled.

This is another fascinating wee plant here. It's Restharrow.

It's called Restharrow because of its massive tangle of roots

and when the farmer would have taken the harrow through it,

he would have to lift it up, clean it all out and have a rest.

Great nectar plant too, feel the texture of the leaves there...

-Oh, they're sticky.

-Sticky and hairy,

that's just to protect them from the insects.

-And it has that long root that you talk about.

-Yeah.

Kids would have use those years ago,

they chewed the roots as a liquorice substitute.

-Does it taste of liquorice?

-It tastes disgusting.

OK, that good. Well sold! What about this peculiar thing?

That's a lovely wee one. That's a yellow rattle.

That's a fascinating plant, it's what they call a hemiparasite,

so that actually takes in nutrients from the roots of the grasses

that are growing here and in doing that,

it suppresses the growth of the grass

and you get more species moving in to more open canopy.

But if you shake it against your hand,

-you'll see where it gets its name.

-Oh, are they seeds inside?

Yeah, they're seeds, they desiccate off. And in Norway,

they would say when it's at that stage, it's time to cut the hay.

So this is a good weed?

-Yes. A good conservation weed.

-There we go.

So, Karen, this is also a spectacular site for butterflies.

If you come down here on a warm day,

particularly early in the season when it's nice and still,

you'll see clouds and clouds of blue butterflies. Common Blues,

Meadow Browns, Graylings, whole swathes, all over this site normally.

It really is worth coming down here to take that view in.

You can just see all the children and all the nets already!

As long as they put them all back, that would be great!

What's the difference between a butterfly and a moth?

The moths are mostly night fliers,

butterflies are day fliers.

You will get some day-flying moths here as well.

You've seen the Burnet Six-spot Moth

and the Magpie Moth on the way down the path here.

Has it been a good season for them?

Brilliant season. They've had a couple of bad years,

maybe three really bad years - very wet.

This year's brilliant. It's stayed dry and very hot,

the plants are up in abundance

-and they're all doing really well.

-I've seen lots of caterpillars, too.

-Wee brown and yellow boys?

-Yeah!

-That's the Cinnabar Moth caterpillar,

they feed on the ragweed here on the site

and they develop into a beautiful wee moth as well. Quite spectacular.

Three fascinating plants here, Rory,

everything seems to have a story to it. What's this one?

That's Wild Thyme, if you want to pick a wee piece and crush it.

They use this in the Mediterranean a lot to wrap their cheeses.

So that's related to the herb we cook with?

That is the herb you cook with, only it's developed from that.

I see, and what about this one?

That's a lovely wee plant, that's wild carrot,

you wouldn't normally see carrot flowering.

It's the same leaf as carrot - it is just original carrot.

It looks no more like a carrot.

The commercial varieties of carrots

would have been bred from this, originally.

You'll see it starts pink and turns white,

and sometimes, you'll get a little scarlet centre.

Yes, a wee dot in the middle.

The ancient herbalists would have used that to treat epilepsy

and mental health problems, it would have been highly prized,

-harvested and picked out.

-They fed it to a patient?

-Yeah, fed it to a patient.

-I see. And what about the yellow one?

That's a lovely wee one, that's another favourite.

That's Lady's Bedstraw.

Smell that and see what you think.

Oh... Hedgerow! Honeysuckle!

That's honeysuckle, and it's a really strong smell on a warmer day.

Now, if you were very wealthy years ago,

you would have paid somebody to pick that for you,

to stuff your straw mattress,

so that's where it gets its name - Lady's Bed Straw.

And the bedrooms were all fragrant with the smell of honeysuckle.

Absolutely right.

So why is Killard such a great place for birds?

Oh, it's brilliant. It's because we manage it for wildlife and plants

and there's an abundance of insects and an abundance of food

for all these birds that'll come over and nest here during the summer.

Who are these little fellas? We're surrounded by them!

These are wee Sand Martins and they're feeding on the wing.

Adults and young there, who have raised broods of birds

in the sandy cliff face just below our feet.

And these would be some of the first birds to arrive on the site to nest.

They would be travelling thousands of miles

and they're some of the last ones to leave back home in the migration.

And they're breathtaking,

they're just soaring on the thermals there

and taking the insects as they're flying by.

Most days, you'll see there's plenty of birds there.

At the winter time, it just comes into its own,

the focus changes from the birds nesting in the grasslands

to what's coming in, and over winter, there's always something.

It's one of the best bird watching places you could come to.

It certainly is!

For the last leg of my journey,

I'm heading back up the lough

to meet Jen on the shoreline at Greyabbey.

We've come at low tide to explore the exposed mud flats

to see why Strangford Lough supports

such a fabulous diversity of wildlife,

especially the hungry birds.

So, Jen, what are we looking for here?

We're going to look under the sand to see what it is

all the birds come to eat.

-So I'm going to give you the spade...

-Good.

..and I want you to focus on this little worm cast here.

So just dig in as far as you can...

-and then just flip the sand over.

-OK.

That's perfect.

Brilliant, so what we're looking for is a burrow, and these little

worm casts are made by a worm called the lugworm,

and it's one of the favourite foods of the birds.

So if we just dig around in here...

What does he look like?

He looks like a little pink earthworm...

And here we go.

Oh, I'm glad you found him!

Yeah. They're quite hard to find

and they're quite small at this time of the year.

I'm going to pass that over to you.

OK. It's windy.

He's not very significant looking, but he's very, very strong

and as soon as you put him back in the sand, he will burrow down.

So he eats all of the detritus that lives in the sand and then ejects it

up to the surface, and that's why you get these little curly casts.

OK, and what else have we got in this pool?

OK, so we've also got some cockles.

Cockles are another important food source for the birds,

especially the Oystercatchers.

All the different birds have different lengths of beaks,

so they specialise in different animals.

These ones only burrow about five to ten centimetres underneath,

so they just eat the gooey centre in the middle,

-just like we would eat cockles.

-Hard work for a bird to get that.

Yeah, they're pretty hard, but they're all really good at getting

-the soft centre out of there.

-I'll bet.

As we've been talking about lots of birds, lots to eat,

lots of vegetation, too?

Yeah, this area is one of the most important areas for eelgrass

and it's one of the most protected habitats we have here.

Every year, in the winter,

we get nearly 100% of the Pale-Bellied Brent Goose population.

And they come here to feed on the grass, so every summer, we allow

the grass to grow back ready for these birds to come and feed.

With such a rich variety of food,

no wonder we get so many birds,

and such a great place to watch them!

Yeah, if you come here all year round, you'll see birds,

but in the winter, we get huge numbers

and you can see some brilliant spectacles of birds.

What are the most common, though, perhaps?

If you pull up at any of the laybys along the road here,

you're probably most likely to see the Oystercatcher -

they're the most distinctive. They're black and white, quite big birds,

big long red beaks, big long red feet, so you can't miss them.

And you'll always see them piercing their beaks into the sand.

Do they eat oysters?

They don't really eat oysters, I don't know why they got that name.

Maybe in the past, they ate more oysters, but now they really

concentrate on the cockles and the worms in the sand.

What else might we see commonly?

Quite common would be the heron,

the heron flies along with big open wings, a huge bird.

They dangle their feet, which is a really good way of telling

what it is and they'll stand at the edge of rock pools

with their heads stretched out looking for fish.

What might be a more unusual visitor to the lough,

or perhaps something that's just harder to see?

Some of the birds are really well camouflaged, like the curlew.

It's quite a big bird, it's got big long feet and a huge long curved beak

so once you see it, you know it's definitely a curlew.

-What else?

-We also get the Redshank.

The Redshank is also easy to tell, with a brown mottled body.

If you see a bird with a brown mottled body,

a red short beak and red legs, it's probably a Redshank.

What's your favourite most unusual bird?

My favourite would probably be the heron

because they're so comical with their dangly feet and their big long necks.

So, Jen, with such a brilliant place to watch birds,

how do you pick a really good set of binoculars?

Well, the best way to watch birds is to stay as far away from them

as possible, so they don't know you're there.

So if you get a pair with really good magnification, you'll do well.

This one is ten and you've also got seven here,

so anything between that is really good

and you should be able to see the birds from this distance.

So when you're looking at the bird

and you want to see it through the binoculars,

find it first of all and if you can get a pair of binoculars

that are adjustable, it means you can shape them to your face.

So find the bird, hold the binoculars up,

look through them and make sure you can only see one circle.

If you see two circles, it means the binoculars are too big.

And then you'll hopefully have a really good view of the bird.

How do we know what we're looking at?

Well, whenever I'm stuck, I just use a bird guide.

I keep it in the car and that means it's there when I need it,

but there's plenty of apps that you can use with your smartphone.

You can download a guide onto your phone to use it

just like a book, or you could take a photograph or a description

and feed it into the app and some experts will even come back to you

on your phone and tell you what it is.

And I also just go home and look things up on the internet

because then you've got the time to do it.

Then when you're out, you can just enjoy looking at the birds.

And you can also find an easy-to-use bird guide on our website at...

Well, it's been great fun

to discover more about the amazing array of natural life

that's right here on my doorstep.

Strangford Lough is just a small part of the unique landscape

that is Northern Ireland.

So I hope, like me, you're inspired to step outside

and get closer to our extraordinary wildlife neighbours!

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