Episode 1 Autumnwatch

Hello, welcome to Autumnwatch. Coming to you, live, from the

beautiful Highlands of Scotland. Over the next four nights we will

bring you the very best of British wildlife, at this, the most

dramatic time of the year. We have this whole site bugged with

live cameras, everywhere and they should give a superb view of

animals like this, the magnificent pine marten. There is only one

place you will get this, and much Welcome to Autumnwatch 2012.

Committee of for the next four Loch -- a four nights. We have headed

north of Inverness to the amazing feel centre. We're up here to enjoy

the very best of the season. For the animals, it is make-or-break

time. Some of them have left us, some are going to join us and some

are going to sleep through it. He will not be able to do that because

I can promise you we have some fantastic shows coming up.

really have, and this is one of the most beautiful places in the whole

of the UK. We have come to one of the UK's most incredible landscapes,

the Scottish Highlands, at the very heart of that the autumn spectacle.

This rugged area is home to some of the UK's most iconic wildlife.

Highland specialists, and familiar favourites. This time of year is

full of drama and duty. -- beauty. But Alton is also a critical period

for animal survival. -- autumn for for animal survival. -- autumn for

some --. And we will be following them 24 hours a day as they prepare

for winter. And for the seasonal challenges ahead. What about that!

It is going to be good. It is going to be good. And a lot of those

iconic animals surround us in this site. And many of them are

nocturnal but this time of year, which is fabulous for us because it

has given us the opportunity to break infra-red cameras around the

site, which is a first for Autumnwatch. That is one animal --

there is one animal that I'm excited about. It is directly

behind us. It is a family of beaver is. We have put live cameras on the

lodge where it lives, but very exciting, we have one camera right

inside that Lodge. Obviously, it is a little experiment will because

there are lots of chambers within that beaver lodge and we have no

idea which one they uses -- which one they use. We picked one, and we

did not know if we would get anything the time police to say

that we did. Last night, for the first time, we saw one of the

beaver is inside our rate chamber. It is a TV first! I and it is

completely Darkin there. It is infrared, and we are looking at a

very secretive part of its life, which is incredible. Not the only

animals that are secretive around here. There are about -- about 100

metres away, there is his camera. It is a collection of logs, and a

dry-stone wall in the background. This is where we had been staking

out pine marten said. They are extraordinarily shy animals. --

pine martens. To see one in the flesh is a treat. During the last

few days, we have seen this. This is a fabulous sight. Absolutely

Fabulous. They are related to stoats and weasels, and it is

coming up here and we had been getting the most amazing views at

night. Fingers crossed, we will see these animals live as well. We have

been seeing them at about this time. If they appear during the programme,

we will go straight over. You can keep your eyes peeled, too, because

another first, if you visit our another first, if you visit our

website, and look at the webcams, website, and look at the webcams,

they are on 24 hours a day. You can look for beaver is that pine marten

us. The same service is available us. The same service is available

on the Red Button. How could you resist? I would be there all day

and all night! And it is not just around his local area. We will go

further afield. We have had it up north, off the West Coast, in the

search for our most magnificent bird of prey. The golden eagle,

Absolutely Fabulous. Let's see whether he manages to do that.

Autumn is all about migration and up the road from where we are, all

of these swans have appeared. Look at those beaks. They are yellow,

they are not mute swans, they are whooper swan as, all away from

Iceland. -- whooper swans. They're still coming in and they will stay

here, refuelling, and then in two weeks, they will move south, into

the south. I hope I will be seen them on my local bird in patch. If

you see that yellow beak, it is always exciting. And there is

another bird, one of my favourites, which is more look local, a

glorious bird. People who say that British birds are not pretty, look

at that! Isn't that beautiful? They are stopping their faces. What are

they doing? You tell me. They are man did relating! -- mandibulating.

They're interested in the seed inside the Bury, not the fleshy

part. When it is cold, on a cold day, bullfinch is way more because

they increase their feeding weight during the course of the day so

that they can build up their reserves to get through the night.

It does not tally look good, it can put on weight in a day. That is one

of your favourites. -- it does not only look good. We have travelled

all over the UK to bring you fabulous wildlife footage. And we

will be up-to-date with the latest research as well because even some

animals that you think you are very familiar with, well, the result was

something you to learn. -- there is always something new to learn.

squirrels. Over two-and-a-half million of them are in our parks,

woodland and gardens and they are one of the UK's most commonly seen

Introduced 140 years ago, they have spread almost countrywide. But what

They are masters of the trees. Long, curved claws grip the bark. And

flexible joints allow them to hang This agility is absolutely vital.

Life in the park is fraught with danger. Any of these would make

short work of a squirrel if they could catch one. It may look as

though squirrels roam everywhere across a park but the fact they

have carved up into individual home ranges. They mark the boundaries of

these by rubbing urine and saliva into the ground. And they dispatch

any intruders by chasing them off. Family members to have a softer

side. Related females will set up as nature's -- neighbours and they

will even groom each other. When it comes to food, grey

squirrels live on a diet of seeds, berries and food. -- fruit. And

anything else they can persuade park visitors to part with -- to

part with. But it is how they prepare for the lean months of

winter that makes squirrels so successful. In autumn, they will

spend hours collecting and storing food. It is a strategy known as

caching. They will take a hole in the ground a push the food into it.

-- Daegu a whole. In the disguise it. Autumn leaves come in handy.

Scientists have discovered that they can store up to 3000 nuts.

Experiments have shown that, incredibly, they remember where up

to 90% are hidden. To do this, grey squirrels are deployed their

remarkable spatial memory. The use landmarks like trees or bushes to

remember their cash to more than five centimetres. In the use their

acute sense of smell to lead them to the exact spell -- then they

used their acute sense of smell to lead them to the exact spot. But

there is a problem in the park. There are thieves about. Jays are a

prime culprit. But it is not just birds to steal their stash. Our the

squirrels are on the make, too. -- the squirrels. Why bother to find

and story not when you can make someone else's? This pilfering is a

serious business and it reduces the hoarder's food supply so ultimately

can be a matter of life and death in a hard winter. Grey squirrels

have become masters of deception. They scatter hoard, hiding nuts

throughout their territory to spread the risk of all their stash

being invaded in one go. They also pick up sports nuts and then rebury

them in different places, throwing feeds off the scent. -- throwing

thieves. If they are aware of and others will while they are hiding,

they become even more secretive. They will turn their backs on the

onlooker and sometimes dig fake calls, even concealing the not in

their mouths, then Burry Inlet at a different location. -- bury it.

For a grey squirrel, the local park is a world of theft and deception.

These rodents will stop at nothing to find and protect their food. It

is a strategy that has helped them to become one of our more

successful mammals. The next time you visit the park, take the time

to wander and watch these clever little creatures. They are clever

little critters! And that is the new research. 3000 nuts, and they

remember 90 % of them. I'm glad I'm not a grace will, I would not

survive very long! The thing I really like about this is that this

is an animal that is widespread across the UK. We have access to it

and it is very interesting. Ordinary people like us can do the

science and learn more about them, whether it is in the park or the

garden. And there is more staff to learn, which is very exciting. We

spoke to her friends at the British Trust for Ornithology and they said

they had been a one-third increase in squirrels moving into gardens at

this time of year already, and we think that is because the corn crop

has failed. The squirrels will be coming into your garden. If you

were not up to looking at them, protect your bird feeders because

they will be all over them. There will be lots of acrobatics on the

bird feeders! There are no grey squirrels appear but plenty of red

squirrels. They also cash their food but they are not as good at it

as the grey squirrels. They can remember where they buried their

nuts 34 days after. But the grey squirrels, 64 days. They do not

have as good a memory. That may explain why they do not survive as

well as the grey squirrels. grey squirrels, when they move into

the territory of the red squirrel, they will steal their food. When

the red squirrels are in breeding conditions, because they have had

their food stolen, they are not as heavy and cannot produce as many

young. This is one of the ways that the grey squirrels in directly

affect the population of the red squirrel by stealing their food

because they have better memory. And appear, they are eating peas,

pine cones. And the plenty of them. Studies have said it is about 115 a

day, which works out to roughly 40,000 of these year. That is 2

million seeds. Bet is a lot of dispersal going on by the red

squirrels. -- that is a lot of dispersal. I did not realise you

had a beautiful mind! Even the most familiar species, there is a lot to

learn. Absolutely. Of course we are looking for other things. Small

mammals are also storing food. We can show you some small mammals

live on Autumnwatch. We have brought up from Springwatch, by

popular demand, the mammal stump. There it is, in daylight. And we

have already had some action Flight club there. There's a mouse

and a vole. They tolerate each other in the end, because they

realise this is a good place to have a nice snack. We have news now

- we have the beesers live, so we'll cut to that now. This is one

of the beavers outside of the lodge, somewhere near the dam and you can

see there it's found a maul twig and it's gnawing at it. We think

that it's -- small twig and it's gnawing at it. We think it's one of

the small animals. What is amazing, Chris, this is quite near where we

are standing. We are 150 metres away and we have our mics. We are

relatively quiet. This is what they do at night. They are going out to

feed and with all the leaves falling off the trees, what they're

interested in is the bark. This one is gnawing at the bark and given

that their digestion isn't very good, they'll have to eat all night

long. This animal could be eating 2.5 kilogrammes of bark. That's a

lot of bark. It's a heck of a lot. They are fascinating creatures.

It's swimming. It's really exciting to have a great animal live on our

first programme. Thank you, Mr Beaver. Absolutely fantastic, my

colleague wants to beef up his image, so he's been down in the

woods staking things out. He went out a couple of nights ago. The big

question was would he be A Man For All Seasons or a bit of a midnight

cowboy? The giant, redwood. These trees can grow into some of the

biggest trees on Earth, but look at this - the bark is all soft and

squishy. It's not what you would expect. This soft bark has allowed

a curious relationship to develop between a giant tree and a very

small bird, the tree creeper. This mouse-like bird creeps up the bark

using the stepped tail for support. That curved bill allows it to probe

into crevasses in search of prey such as insects, lavae and spiders.

This tree was planted in 1880 and this behaviour was only noticed in

1905. Here it is. You see this hole here, it's been dug out and there's

another one here. In fact, the whole of this trunk is peppered

with the little hens' eggs-size depressions, but to find out what's

really going on, we'll have to wait a couple of hours and come back

just as it gets dark. In this tree is a tree creeper fast asleep with

his head buried in the bark. As far as I can see, we just have one tree

creeper in this tree and they are quite territorial, but on occasion

you can get ten or more all peppering the side of the tree. Not

surprisingly, they tend to stay on the sheltered side, out of the

worst of the weather. What I didn't know was they sort of fluff up

their feathers. They look like a tiny, little hedgehog, and they're

embedded in the bark. We have had a look at him actually in the little

hole there. If you really want to see what's going on, we want one of

these. This is a heat-sensitive camera and I'm just going to have a

look. If we want to see it in even more detail, we don't want this

little camera, we want the monster thermal camera. Lindsey McCrea

gives us a hand. He's a wildlife cameraman. It's preening. While

it's preening you can see hot air. It's opened itself up and it's

letting the heat escape. When it's finished I bet it will tuck the

head back in and it will go blue again. He's covered up again.

covered up. That's brilliant. That's great. It's tucked its head

under. All we can see is the breast of the bird or a little bit of

breast. Just a crack of heat now. The light blue is the back. That is

letting out hardly any heat at all. It makes perfect sense for him to

be up there. OK, with we go live, straightaway, we have something

live on the cameras? Look at that, it's a live pine marten. I didn't

dare hope we would get that. never thought it would happen. Look

at that. What an animal. It's pitch black. The light are infrared, so

it can't see them there. It's just having a little bit to eat. Gosh,

we are lucky. So lucky. Now, Martin, this one looks kind of slim and

quite slight. The females are smaller than the males. And they

look a little more chunky. It could be one of the females, because how

many do we have in total? Five or six. There are a lot more than we

imagined. We have had views of two them at the feeding stations and we

can identify them as individuals, but look at that. You can see the

narrow snout. It's got more prominent ears, more prominent than

pole cats, but the only place you can see these is in Scotland. There

are some in ales and Ireland, but most of England is devoid of pine

martens. That's a fairly recent thing. They were even as far down

as London a couple of hundred years ago. The worst time they had was

from 1850s to the end of the First World War, when they were

persecuted by gamekeepers and that's what drove them out. Given

the chance, they are spreading and there is a chance that they will

recover that ground, because although they spend more time up in

the trees, in fact, they spend a lot of time feeding on the ground

and their principal prey are small mammals, but at the moment they are

licking out strawberry jam, but we're getting a great view. We have

a way of trying to tell how - the difference between the polecats we

have here. If we just look at this and leave that for a second. Look

at this. If you want to tell the difference between poles can cats

you can, because the patterns on the - Pine martens, mate. Did I say

that?? You did, mate. I knew I would. They have different patterns

on they will and that's the thing to look out for. Let's look now.

Let's see if we can find a couple of hours and go back to hours.

one is usefully named Spot. That was imaginative. Very. It's got one

spot. That's a young female, I think, that one. Here's another one.

Quite different. Dice. Why? I think it's because the spots are

configured like that on a dice. haven't got the live camera. We'll

go back and see. We think it's Dice. The thing is, all of you can watch

them at home, so what we're hoping is that you'll get views which we

may not, of their chest patterns and over the period of the next few

days we'll identify a number of different individuals. Please be

more imaginative with the names, though. Think of something a little

more exciting. Shall we move on? have seen beavers. And the pine

martens, or poles can cats. Right, countryside. -- polecats. Right,

the countryside. This time of year, it's about enjoying the simple

beauty of autumn and one of the best ways is just look - looking at

the autumn colour. Gorgeous. The forests are one of the treasures of

the UK and for anyone who is at all interested in natural history, the

news over the past week or so has been deeply distressing and I'm

talking about the ash trees. I'm sure that you've heard that they're

under threat. There's a fungus that can kill them and in Denmark 90% of

their ash trees have been killed by this fungus. It's turned up over

here. We have 80 million trees. They are a prime feature of all our

forests. Here's an ash tree. It's right here. It's a beautiful,

mature three and it's about 350 years old. That's how you tell ash

easily. The leaves, lots of little ones out of the side. They're easy

to identify and identifying them is crucially important. What can we do,

you and I, to try to help do something about this disease? Well,

what you can do is go on to our website and there we have got lots

of links to places and organisations who want to hear from

you if you find an infected ash tree. What does it look like? Look

at this. This is a young tree, it's most obvious on young trees, the

death of the leaves, you can see them at the crown. That's the first

thing that happens. As it spreads, gradually other leaves lower down

start to die. Of course, this is a difficult time of year to identify

it, because many of the leaves are falling off the ash trees, so we

have only got about a couple of weeks to try to identify it. If you

suspect you have got dead ash trees when you are out walking and look

like that, please get on to the website. Let us know. There are

links there that will take you to people who need to know. It's about

all the creatures that live on them. The ones that eat the seeds and

leaves and the birds that nest, kestrels and owls and even the

small trees, which are used as posts. The impact on the ecology of

the kunds could be deaf stating. -- countryside could be devastating.

It's been three years since we went up to the island of Rum to see the

deer. How could we forsake these animals? They are soaked in the

stench of raging hormones. I'm talking about the struggle that is

the red deer rut. One place, one time. One brutal challenge. Off the

west coast of Scotland lie the island of Rum. A place of breath-

taking beauty. And wild weather. It's home to the most explosive,

autumnal wildlife spectacle of them all. It's the red deer rut. Nearly

all the dominant stags of the last few years have gone. No-one knows

what's going to happen, but whatever happens it will be an

exhausting test of strength tactics and stamina. Win and you win the

chance to mate and lose and you One stag is already making his

presence felt. This is Mozart. He's nine years old. He's rutted before,

but never amounted to much. He's hungry for action and on the

Deer. The females assemble where Karl-Heinz are starting to come

into season but they will only be receptive for a matter of hours. --

V Hines. Mozart was a close to increase his chances of mating. He

has already rounded up the large -- a large Param but he is surrounded

by rival stags wanting exactly the same thing. It is going to take

everything he has got to stay on top. On the other side of the river,

a surprise contender. Cassius. At 12, he is technically past his

prime but the one thing this old warrior does have his experience.

Mozart, on the left, and Cassius, size each other up. By roaring and

walking in parallel, they assess each other's strength. Cassius

looks fired-up, but with a river between them, it is easy to be

confident. If he wants to challenge Mozart, he will have to take the

plunge and crossed to the other side. Mozart has his work cut out,

protecting the Harron. The stags are now challenging him on all

With antlers tipped like daggers, Mozart manages to fend off this

attack. But when you're surrounded by enemies, there is no time to

If you of Mozart's Hinds head off to the beach. Seaweed is nutrition

alternative Wanderers no good grazing around. Mozart goes down to

round them up. -- or when there is no good grazing around. Cassius

makes his move. If one of the female's comes into season, Cassius

Mozart sees the threat. Cassius For a rutting stag, confidence is

the key. Right now, Cassius is not quite in the zone. Mozart's hard

work is starting to pay off. The female is in heat. If he can hold

on to this group for a few more days, he will have even more mating

opportunities. But as more or females come into season, other,

powerful stags will inexorably be drawn into battle. Including

Cassius. How long will Mozart have the strength to hold on. --? It is

dramatic stuff. It really is. Cassius was meant to be well past

it but he is looking quite good. money is on Cassius because I would

rather go for experience than figure. We will see what happens.

One you see that film of them fighting, you do not get a proper

idea of just how big those antlers are. -- when you see that film.

These are quite heavy. astonishing thing is to think that

they will grow every year afresh. Quite soon, the deer will drop the

antlers and specialised cells will break down the junction here and

they will simply drop off. And then in April next year, a little bump

will start there and it will start to grow. And they grow at a

phenomenal rate, up to 10 mm a day. It is the fastest growing bone in

the mammal Kingdom and it turns into this epic shape, these amazing

structures. They are really sharp and lethal. What is fascinating,

each individual stack will maintain his own individual shape. When they

grow, every time, once they reach maturity you can recognise them by

the shape of their antlers. And if all of because they might break

during rutting. Imagine that on your head. I could not be a grey

squirrel and they could not be a red deer because that would give me

a headache! We see lots of live action so far. The pine martens and

there be for us. You know already that we have infra-red cameras on

the first, which are just over that side. Historically, they would have

been here but they were wiped out around 450 years ago mainly due to

habitat loss and hunting. Then in to residents six as part of a

demonstration project, a breeding pair were brought back. Here they

are. But they are Boris and Lily. Lilly is the larger female on the

right. Since 2006, they have had quite a few letters. Currently,

there are eight of them on the site. We have already hand live action

from them. -- Letters. We have lots of cameras around them. We have

four cameras trained on various locations. Let us have a quick look.

I thought I saw something swimming around earlier. Moving on to the

next one. Nothing there. And there is the lodge. It is a massive pile,

enormous. And this is the most exciting one. This is inside. And

there is nothing there at the moment. It is honeycomb, the lodge.

They might going there, they might not. We thought we might not get

one in their at all. But we have already! This was just today. This

is a youngster. We think this is Timber. It is difficult to see how

big they are. It is probably the size of a Jack Russell. And that is

one of the young from this year. Still lot of growing to do.

they will stick together as a family. Periodically, he will kick

the adult out. It is quite a soap opera. They are fascinating

creatures. It is one thing to see them at night, but you get a real

sense of their lodge and where they live, to do that you have to go out

in the day. Earlier on, I joined The Lycia has been supervising the

beaver project for three years. It must be fantastic having beavers to

watch. It is really exciting. and Lily are the adults, and how

many kits do they have? Two. this is their home? The first time

I saw this, I was amazed at how big it was. That is a lot of work. How

long as that taken them? About five years. Every year, they add to it.

It is huge. It is. At this time of year, they're doing a lot of

building. That is not just maintenance, but they eat the bark

as well. Yes. They are vegetarians and they are after the bark. And it

has loads of examples of that around. Look at this one. What is

their favourite? Birch and willow. This is a birch tree. You receive a

layer that contains the vessels. That is what takes the nutrients

around a tree, and that is the sugary goodness. There just after

that dark bit. When they are stockpiling, how do they transport

that? Are when the tree is felled, they will take the branches from

that to one area and build that up. When it is a nice size, they will

sink it and pushed the sticks into the mud, so it does not break down.

Over the winter they can come back and take the branches and the park.

So it is an underwater larder. I had no idea they did that. And

different beavers like different trees? They all tend to have their

favourites. The birch and willows, most beavers will go for. They

might have individual preferences. They are really fascinating

creatures. I think most of us know very little about them but

hopefully, during Autumnwatch, we will learn a lot more or because we

have loads of cables and cameras and they have put a camera into one

of the chambers. Fingers crossed we will capture some interesting

behaviour. But there is no guarantee! Everyone must have had

their fingers crossed because already we have had them live on

the programme. We have not only been lucky enough to see them on

the cameras at night, we have also seen them this morning in the

daylight. This is quite unusual. Isn't that sweet? That is one of

the young are, it is very difficult to tell which ones they are. That

was one of the adults, with the young on its back. And this, we

think, is the two-year-old. Not this year's it, but two years ago.

-- kit. This is 845 am this morning, so the beginning of our day but the

end of theirs. He is having a little snack before bedtime. I have

a beavers skull here, which is a fantastic way to see the tools they

are using. It is principally these two huge incisor teeth. You can see

how long they are. From the front, you can see how broad they are.

They grow continuously. But you can appreciate that this is a big road

and when it comes to knowing. is an impressive set of teeth.

below a set of teeth sharpened the upper ones? They do. And there are

morlet at the back which to the grinding. Fantastic. -- molars at

the back. We have been live on those cameras since Sunday, so we

have seen a lot of that already. There is one magnificent bird of

prey that seems to epitomise all that is most fierce and glorious

about the Scottish Highlands, and it is the golden eagle. We went

north, up to the Outer Hebrides, to see whether we could find one

ourselves. When I was a lad, there was one bird I wanted to see above

all else, the golden eagle. Or a family holiday when I was 14, in

the Highlands, I finally got to see one. No more than a speck in the

sky, but that was enough to spark off a lifelong love affair with

this magnificent bird of prey. And I have now come to this wonderful

landscape, North Uist, to find out more about the King of birds. North

Uist is one of the best places in the country to see golden eagles,

but what I really want to do his film their hunting behaviour. It is

a huge challenge and it is rarely seen. I have enlisted the help of a

crack team. I have a wildlife cameraman, Jesse Wilkinson, Eagle

spotter Matt Wilson and local RSPB warden, Jamie. With their expertise

and a little bit of luck, I am hoping to get to know a particular

family of eagles to live here. An experienced pair, and their large,

hungry, female chick. It does not take long to track them down. We

have had to split up because we had so much distance to cover. I have

seen all three from the distance. There is the female. And there is

the youngster. And there is the lighter male. Much smaller. When

they came up, the lapwings came out in a cloud. There is one in the air

here. The a really main business. They have not fed today. They are

loving this wind. They are using a lot of energy. They will be chasing

rabbits, carrion, whatever they can find. Hopefully rabbits. She is

hanging in the air. We are lucky because we have a whole family

together. The juvenile, even though it is October, is with the adult

pair, and she will stay with them until maybe even January time,

before they get very territorial and kick her out. For now, she will

stay with them and they will no wonder very far. That is the joy of

North Uist. It is not maintenance, it is not difficult from -- to get

from one valley to the next. You can follow them and get relatively

$:/STARTFEED. We have seen them, but my mission is to film them

hunting. They have all sorts of prey on the island, everything from

rabbits to gulls and even other birds of prey, like the short-eared

owls. To find out more about what they might be eating, I have a real

treat in store. I've never seen an eagle close up, but I've been

special permission to visit the family's old nest with Jamie, but I

must admit, it's not a spectacular as I had imagined. Is this it? Well,

I'm really excited about seeing an eagle nest, but I'm underwhelmed. I

was expecting half a tonne in weight of twigs, on a life 100 foot

high, but it's not that. This is pretty unique, the family nested on

the ground like this, as there are no predators like foxes, stots or

weasels on the island. It's a great -- stoats or weasels on the island.

It's a great opportunity to see what they've been hunting. This is

a breastbone from a goose. They've taken chunks out there. You will

find this is a young otter. Would this be picked up alive or dead?

Well, we don't know, but I would be surprised if eagles would try to

attempt to take a young otter, because they're young and powerful.

If there was an injured or dead cub they'd certainly take it. It's a

bird at the top of the food chain. Lord and master of all it sees here.

Absolutely. It's a top predator. That was a tantalising glimpse into

their world, but I still want to see the eagles hunt for myself, so

the quest continues. I've just had a phone call from Jessie. He's got

a golden eagle on a carcass as we speak, so I'm heading over there

now. It's definitely our male bird he's found. That's wonderful. Good

stuff. Yes, it's all right. He's a quite confident bird. Powerful

birds, even from this distance. You can see, it just looks like a body

builder. It's so nice to see it. It's not a view you often get from

golden eagles. A lovely view of the bird. It's very, very pale. Amazing.

Beautiful thing. He's gone. He's gone, unfortunately. You see him in

the air now. Classic eagle. Happy and full. That's right. Let's hope

he hasn't overfed. Golden eagles hunting. This is going to be a

little more gifl than I thought it would be. -- difficult than I

thought it would be. I had high hopes. I've got some great views,

but it's so frustrating. A feed like that could keep him going for

three or four days and ruin my chances of eeing a hunt. My only

hope is that both parents -- seeing a hunt. My only hope is that both

par rents still need to hunt for the juvenile. Iolo will continue

tomorrow. One thing you don't realise when you see a golden eagle

is the wing span. If I stand up and put my arms out. It's bigger than

that. It's much longer. It's two metres and 20 centimetres, which is

7 .217 feet. Are you sure about that? Of course. That's it. It's

like a flying door. Fabulous creature to see. Another bird of

prey you can see is the osprey. It's a bird that we have featured

on Springwatch in Wales, where there are precious view. In fact,

there are only two breeding pairs. We featured this breeding fair and

despite the odds, it managed to produce two chicks and one of them

survived. Look at that little chick there. Looking very vulnerable, but

where is it now? It's called Calan. Unbelievably, it's travelled 3,000

miles to west Africa. Senegal to be precise. It left there at the

beginning of September and arrived 12 days later and has been seen

fishing in the river. A fantastic success story and hopefully in a

couple of years' time the bird will be back. It will be a couple of

years before it moves out of Africa. They are normally three years old,

but that's what it's all about. It's about getting them back into

Wales in numbers. That was one of the departed species, but there are

a lot arriving here like this beauty. We have had an influx of

bramblings. You will notice they are a little like a finch, but they

are a little different. The projection is that an increased

number will come over this winter. This is a redwing. They flood into

this country hoping to feast on the berries. Another thought it

Hurricane Sandy is swirling around the coast of America, so there's a

chance we might again an American beauty. There has already been a

few. Look out for these, little auks. Earlier this week there were

over 4500 of these. I saw these in the summer because I was very

fortunate to go up to the Arctic. I was up there for a project called

Operation Iceberg. We went up there to try to understand how glaciers

work. If you would like to understand it and see us all in

action stay tuned, because it's on after this. More of Chris. Terrible

plug. More of Chris now, actually. A couple of days ago he went to

loch leave in, which is -- Loch Leven, to see a true autumn

spectical, the arrival of very noisy pink-footed geese. It's

7.10am. On mornings like this it's all about the anticipation, how

geez will there be, will they fly overhead and will it be the

spectacular we have been dreaming of all night? Fingers crossed. This

cemetery on the edge of the loch is where I'm hoping to catch one of

autumn's most impressive specticals. Joining me is Craig, the reserve

officer here at the park. You can hear one of the pink-footed goose

roosts. They come here for security at dark and at night and they'll

lift up and away to feed on the surrounding land. How many do you

have? At the last count we had about 15,600 geese. Wow. That

sounds like a lot of geese and the fact is that pink foots are now

doing rather well. In the last 50 years, there's been a ten-fold

increase in their numbers, with nearly 300,000 of them now

wintering here in the UK. They've been arriving here in their

thousands over the last week. Many miles from their breeding grounds

in Iceland and Greenland, but this is just the touchdown to feed up

before they continue their journey further south to England. To really

appreciate the geese, I wanted to see them in flight, so Craig took

me further around the to one of their feeding grounds. They are

reluctant to leave. You never know, we could see a large number at some

point soon. Then, suddenly. Oh, wow, look at that. Oh, that's amazing.

Look at that. Growing geese in front of the sky. How many do you

think? I'd say MOT far off 10,000. Somewhere between 8 -- I'd say not

far off 10,000. Somewhere between 8,000 or 10,000. I'm determined to

take a photograph of that and make it into a 10,000-piece jigsaw and

give it to someone I didn't like. The birds and the sky mixing is

something to behold. The sound's amazing too. They seem to get vocal

when they lift off. It helps them keep track of each other and stick

in the family groups. They quickly they form into the classic V. The

one at the front is doing all the hard work. Then he will move off

and let someone else take the lead. There are few finer sights in

Scotland at this time of year. It was amazing when they caught the

sun. It's a long time ago we got up, but it was certainly worth it if

the end. Absolutely. Worth the wait. Can I have one of those jigsaws?

It's all yours, mate. I wouldn't give one to a friend. Keep you

occupied for days, that's would. We have had so much live action on the

cameras today. Some of it we were really hoping to get, but some has

been a real surprise. You have heard of toad in the hole, but this

is similar. It's toad in the beaver lodge. You are going to love this,

Chris. Look at this. The toad is there on the top left and

highlighted is anant that is crawlling along -- an ant that is

crawlling along. Just watch the toad. Watch the ant. The toad

somehow knows it's there. I say somehow, because this is in total

darkness, but how did that happen? How did the toad get the ant on the

tip of its tong in total darkness? It probably listened. Toads do have

ears and it could smell it, but that's remarkable. I love that.

looked for the beavers, but we saw something else just a few hours

earlier. Look at this. I love it when the camera hunts around. Is it

a beaver? No, it's moving too quickly. Look at that. It's a

fabulous otter. We really were not expecting to see an otter.

Hopefully we'll see lots of more surprises. I hope so. Glorious

thing to see. Do we know there are otters around here? I think they

would move up through the courses which is how they get if one part

of the environment from the other. The beavers are daming and that's

what the demonstration project is doing that we are working with here.

It's designed to understand how beavers work in the environment,

because in the end if they work well and everyone can be satisfied

there are plans to re-introduce them into the wild. They are

creating habitats for creatures like the otter, so there could be a

good indication that beavers are doing a great job in terms of

moving the landscape for an enrichment in terms of lots of

other animals. Who would win if they had a fight? I was thinking

the same thing. Do they get on? Tomorrow, we'll go back up to Rum

for the next instalment of the glorious red deer rut. Who is going

to come out on top? My macho mate is heading off to the damp woods on

another steakout. Chris is going to the forest to look at the wildlife

there and trying not to get his trouser grubby at any time. We'll

see you tomorrow, but you can cary on watching all the live action on

the red button and on the webcams, so keep watching the beavers and