Episode 3 Autumnwatch

I am We're here in Lancashire, enjoying the very best of the UK

spectacles. But it's Hallowe'en, so we have a few spooky creatures for

you tonight. We will also be catching up with some other nightime

prowlers, our urban fox family. We have sent Martin out to explore mud,

mud, glorious mud, in Morecombe Bay. It is a really rough night, that

won't stop our wildlife or us it is wold wild, it's windy, it's

Autumnwatch. Yes, hello and welcome to

Autumnwatch 2013. Coming to you from here, the RSPB's Leyton moss reserve

in the North West. I will try to perch on this wall at the

appropriate altitude to be on the same level as Michaela. It is a

fabulous place. Lots of Sweden bed, square kilometer of that with all

the specialist species there. Open water too and on the edge of

Morecombe Bay. The best thing about it is... The cafe. Earlier in the

week I mentioned the orange drizzle cake, and I went in there today and

tried the lemon drizzle cake and the carrot cake too, and they were both

sensational. How about an impromptu cake watch, # cakewatch, let us know

the best nature reserve cafe cake. It is not just about cake, it is

about all the birds that live here too, every night we are treated to a

remarkable spectacle. We think 30,000 starlings are murmerating

here. I love the pattern in the sky. They settle down in the reads for --

reeds in the morning, at 7.00 they take off again in the morning. I

tell you why, as you Autumnwatch Extra starts then, you can watch it

by going to the website and watching it on-line. Our cameraman will be

there showing you those starlings leaving the roost. It can be equally

spectacular, Euan is reporting on the action and the rest of the team.

It is on from 7.00am-8.00pm. It is Hallowe'en tonight, let me

tell you something rather spooky happened to us just before the show.

And really it did. You know we missed out on the storm up here in

the North West of England. The storm that hit much of the southern parts

of the country earlier on in the week. Instead we got this... .

Listen to the wind, it was really freaky because it came from nowhere

and it only lasted minutes. But it did cause some damage and knocked

quite a bit of our technical equipment over. Especially on the

mash flats in Morecombe Bay. There are more of those freaky squalls

forecast. Who knows what will happen, it is a live show, it is

very calm at the moment, if the squalls hit us it could go pear

shaped. It could be apocks lips now. I hope -- Apocalypse Now, I hope

Martin is all right. Yes, well it is wild here, wind is building up and

getting more and more. Actually we got hit really hard, it knocked all

our equipment over, for a while we thought we weren't going to be able

to go on air. We have another problem, have a look at this, the

tide here is creeping in all the time. And Morecombe Bay legendary

tides, we have to be really careful about that. But if I look behind me

here, I'm about 2kms way from the studio right over there. If I look

behind me I'm looking out over the whole sweep, the gigantic sweep of

Morecombe Bay. That is 340 million square metres of mud. That mud is

absolutely the most attractive thing to migratory waders. Let's have a

daytime look at what's behind me. Here is the bay itself. And it's a

perfect place, bring your binoculars down. Herons, here are the little

dunlin, redshank here as well. All these birds coming into that mud.

They love the mud. Look at that golden head on the Widgen. Here is

the Lapwing, my dad's favourite bird. Then the lovely Curlu, the

evocative sound, sweeping across there. I can hear Curlu crawling

across the mud flats, just above the winds, which is getting more and

more and the tide is scriping in. OK that is what is -- creeping in. OK

that is what is happening during the day, what is happening out there

during the night. We can have a look with our live thermal camera, let's

have a look at that. We are just looking out across now. There are a

few very little there, I thought the tide would be driving the birds in,

because that's what's happening. Lindsay is going out to have a look

there. You can see them, little, there they are, all running around.

You can see. That's fascinating. Let's have a look at what Lindsay

was able to film a little earlier last night. Let's have a look. Now

what are they doing? They are feeding. You can see all these

waders are feeding. Their lives aren't driven like ours by light, it

is all about the tides. When the tide is in they can't feed on the

mud. When the tide is out, even if it is in the middle of the night,

then that is when they will be feeding. So, their lives are driven

also by the tide, mainly. But, the thing that draws them all here is a

quarter of a million waders arriving here in autumn. And it is underneath

my feet. It is this stuff. This is what they come for. They want mud

and sand. And I'm going to be delving into the mud in more depth

in just a moment. Well I don't know, what do you

think? I think we ought to look at these. Look, these are our pumpkins

that we have got, because it is Hallowe'en tonight. You are nice and

smiley. And I'm rack wracked with angst. It is amazing to go on the

mudfields and you see tens of thousands of wading birds, then you

see a predator coming in and they a rise up and it is Anne credible

spectacle. Another bird of prey that we see regularly, not so much on the

mudflats, it is this one. It is the marsh harrier, they have two males

here and six females in the reserve. You can see the size of it. It is

slightly smaller than a red kite. About 1.30m, wing-span. This one is

hunting. Typically they will hunt for small mammals and birds,

opportunistically they will take things like frogs and snakes and

maybe even a young rabbit. But you know these marsh harriers are a good

news story. Less than 40 years ago there were only four individuals

left in the UK. One male and three females in Minsmere. Now there are

360 pairs. Incredible, eh. Why are there so many, what happened? When I

was a kid I begged my dad to take me to see those birds. I thought they

were going to become extinct and I wanted them on my British list and

he throve me up there that was in 1975, they have increased for a

couple of reasons. Firstly, no more persecution, secondly, no pollution,

and the third reason is the RSPB have done a great job of recreating

reed beds which is the habitat they like. They have gone from the brink

of ex-ticks back to 360. While that Harrier is prospering, another

species is definitely not. The hen harrier, for the first time in a

very long time, these birds failed to breed successfully in England

this yearssfully in England this year. The problem is persecution.

This is a female, there is the male, quartering backwards and forwards

against the moorland in this instance. They are a bit like owl,

they have large ears and they spend a lot of time listening for their

prey amongst the reeds or the heather. How do you tell the two

apart? Take a look test at this. They will mix in the winter time,

because the hen harriers move off their moorland and will come down to

the coastland and sites like this too. The RSPB have launched their

hen harrier hot-line. They would like to hear about any sightings of

hen harriers that you have. If you think you have seen one, and now you

can tell them apart, do get on to our website. That will link through

to the RSPB's hen harrier hot-line, we need to find out where the birds

are because we need to look after them. As we have been saying, it is

Hallowe'en, hence our angst-ridden and happy pumpkin faces. If you are

at home with your kids hyperactive because they have eaten far too many

sweets. If you want to send them to bed with images of blood-sucking

creature, creatures with revolting eating habits, or creatures that

creep and crawl in the dark undergrowth. ? You need to get them

to watch this. Deep beneath the dead autumn leaves is a place shrouded in

shadow, a minature Hallowe'en world. Full of creatures that creep and

crawl. A harvestman hunts for food, unaware that he's being eaten alive.

Two red ghouls are hitching a ride. These bloodsucking larvae will drink

their fill before falling off and transforming into velvet soil mites.

It is not just bloodsucking ghouls that live here. There are skeletons

too. Down in the mulch, leaf carcasses are striped down to the

veeps by minute spring tails. Each cub metre of undergrowth is seething

with 100,000 of these transparent creepy crawlies. A shimmering ghost

glides into view. So transparent its heart beats clearly through its

shell. No surprise it is known as a glass snail. As it slips by, it

gives off a whiff of Garelic. Of garlic, hoping to attract the

minature vampires that stalk the world. And that is a predatory

long-nose beatle. It emerges after night fall and instills terror into

the heart of its victims. It skewers the snail's flesh and carries it off

into the shadows. Long-nosed beatles will suck the life bloods of the

snails. But first they must turn its flesh to mush. Special enzymes begin

to liquify the nail's tissues. Having failed with garlic, the snail

tries a second line of defence, it blows muck cuss -- mucus bubble, to

no avail, there will be no escape. The weird and wonderful have made

the leaf litter their home. Wood lice are the terrestrial cousins of

prawns and crabs. Despite living on land, they haven't escaped their

aquatic ancestry, and still need damp conditions to thrive. It's not

all death and decay in this decomposing world. New lives are

also being spawned. Deep in the mulch lies a clutch of slug eggs.

They were laid in spring and are now beginning to hatch. As soon as the

youngsters emerge, they must fend for themselves. Hidden away in the

shadowy world of leaves, these tiny creatures will feed, and by next

spring they will be ready to lay eggs of their own. So when you are

out and about this Hallowe'en night, spare a thought for the ghoulish

microworld. Beneath your feet. (Scary laughter) It is often the

little stuff that's really, really interesting. If not a little bit

gruesome and gory. I don't know about that, I don't like the term

"creepy Crawley", just because it crawls doesn't mean it is creepy.

They get a bad reputation, there are too many things with bad reputation.

Not just insects but plants too. What about ivy if there was ever a

huge amount of misinformation about species it comes from ivy. Here are

the flowers, these are incredibly valuable, they are producing a lot

of late nectar, used by a whole mix of insecretary, including the red

Admiral butterfly. These adult insecretaries require the nectar

this time of year. Because over winter as adults they will hibernate

and emerge in the spring to get going. Lots of whatsps and flies

come to this. When the nectar is finished berries form, and you get

lots of birds, wood pigeons stocking up on the berries. In terms of a

food resource it is very, very valuable, it is not just about that.

When it is growing up a tree or on a wall it is perfect shelter. A good

place for bats to roost and birds to make their nest. What about the

misinformation. Firstly, ivy doesn't strangle tree, it is not a parasite.

It has its own roots. The only problem is in a dead tree and a lot

of ivy, it can catch the wind and it might topple over. When it is

growing on walls, English Heritage did a study and they looked at ivy

on walls because they are concerned about that. It found in winter it

kept the warm 15% warmer and in summer 36% cooler. It did no damage

to the wall, it protected it from frost, salt and pollution, and it

could only do damage if the wall was already damaged and the ivy got into

it. No need to drag it off your wall, it is a great resource for

wildlife. That was a party political broadcast on behalf of the Ivy

Party. I rest my case. From celebrating the vert tos of ivy to

celebrating the vert tos of mud. Yes, we are Michaela, slightly

spooky being down here. Slightly spooky because we can hear this very

whooshing sound, we are not sure whether it is the tide coming in on

us or another storm coming in. We know that out there hidden away in

all those mud flats there are thousands of birds feeding right

now. Let's go on the live camera, the thermal camera and see what we

can see? Yes, there it is, it is hard to see them. It looks like a

couple of ducks there. They are rolling around as that tide, you can

see it coming in behind them. Gosh I wish I could see them a bit more

clearly, could they be my glorious, no, they are not pintails. That is

beautiful. We know that they are all out there those birds, but how do

they know where to feed, where are the best places out there to feed?

There are some places that are better than others, have a look at

this. It is all speeded up, but you will

notice that they generally, all these waders they are probing at the

front of the tide. Where it is coming in. As it comes in they got a

bit swamped there, but they tend to be feeding near the front of the

tide. And there is a very good reason for. That because when the

tide goes out, and it all dries out, all the inverityrate they are after

go deeper and deeper into the mud and sand, as the tide comes in and

they get wet they rise up and all the waders start to probe with their

billso deeper and deeper into the mud and sand, as the tide comes in

and they get wet they rise up and all the waders start to probe with

their bills. Their break, a more sophisticated organ than you might

think. Let's have a look? This one is a great big long break, below it

a red shag, a much shorter break. That will mean that they can

actually delve have different parts of the mud, the godwit is feeding

the beak getting right down. Here is a little dunlin, a shorter beak,

feeding in the upper layers, here is the curlu, he can go right, right

down. But, it is not just a matter of the length of the bill, we are

going to become waders. Can you hold on to those. These bills have been

prepared for me very carefully by the RSPB by Al, that could be a

curlu, or the oystercatcher bill. Let's use that one. Sometimes it

looks like they are just probing about like that, they are, they do

that. They do that, but sometimes they will just leave the bill in

there. And that, the tip of the bill, it is not just rigid like

that, it can bend around. I don't know if you can see that, it can

flex about like that, so they can feel about underneath the mud for

things. It is even more clever than that. Because at the bill tip,

sometimes they have a special sensory organ and that can sense

movement, so it will just plunge it in there. And it will just leave the

bill for a while, it is checking all the while like sonar in the mud

there, looking for things. The bird's bill, it is a much more

sophisticated and sensitive thing than you might think. I'm just being

told we should go to the live camera right now. What have we got there?

We have got a fox. What is a fox doing, how opportunistic is that. We

have a fox out here. Extraordinary. Michaela and I, wept out earlier to

look in more depth at this mud to try to find out what it is that the

waders are after. I don't know if you remember on Winterwatch you said

a metre of mud had the same calorific value as 14 chocolate

bars. If I said it must be true. I have a challenge, prove it. I have

membering measured out a cubic -- I have measured out a cubic meter, get

digs -- digging, I have to eat my chocolate bars before the tide gets

in. And I have to do some bird watching. This mud is so sticky. I

tell you what I need a plank to stand on! Oh no. Hold on to me. I

have got both hands on it. There you go! I have got a plan. Refreshments?

This is to stand so you doesn't sink in the mud so much. Where didn't you

get the trays? Didn't I say I brought three scientists from

Lancaster University, they are going to help us with the science and

analyse the mud you dig up. They are not helping me do the digging? No,

I'm not getting stuck again. Keep going. But while Martin works up a

sweat, our scientists set about extracting what is there.

Sorry! Martin. What we have found so far is in here. That is amazing to

see that. That is not looking like even one chocolate bar yet, let

alone 14. What are we going to have to do, will we have to get sieving.

There is a quicker way, what you can do is take a core and look at the

animals in there and then scale up to a metre cubed. Don't tell Martin

that, let him carry on, but that sounds like a much better idea.

Brain is sometimes better than brawn! It is like a cake. Get some

water on that. I Is this a good representation of

what you would expect to find in the mud? Yes, you would find the lug

worm, mud worm, shrinks, shrimps, most would be in the top 20cms. That

would make sense because the birds' bills aren't that deep? Nearly

there. You don't have to keep digging, we have taken a small

sample and we will scale it up. I'm not sure I like you today! You built

up a sweat. Will he be able to find the answer to this conundrum. I

think so, we can get a very good estimate. What do you reckon the

result was? There wasn't a lot in that mud, surprisingly little. I'm

going to go for 0. 4 of a chocolate bar. Not bad, it was actually a

fifth. So Martin's guess of 14 chocolate bars was a massive

exaggeration. But we did learn a lot from that experiment, we obviously

saw the things the birds feed on, the rag worms and cockle, what did

those things, the rag worms and the cockles and the shrimps eat. If you

take that into the laboratory you can see by looking through the

microscope. This is what they eat, they eat nematone, millions in the

mud. In turn they eat these, they are called diaton, they are

single-celled plants, they are a fifth of a millimeterment you find

them in the first millimeter of the mud. But they are really

fascinating. If you took a metre square of that top mud, it would

absorb the same amount of carbon dioxide of a metre square of

tropical rainforest. That is incredible, they are not just found

in the mud but the sea all over the world. If you take all of them

together they produce 20% of our ox juvenility every -- our oxygen.

Every fifth breath you take is all thanks to the diatoms. What I find

amazing is we all know about tropical rainforests and the fact

they absorb CO 2, I bet very few people know that diatoms absorb it.

I'm feeling faint. Because after 20 years of knowing you, y finally got

into diatoms, it has taken you 20 years to get you into the small

stuff. I better take a rest. They are really interesting. I got really

into them? It is not about the big and the glamorous it is all the

little stuff and how all that works too. We have to say that whilst

there was only 0. 2 of a chocolate bar in that square meeter of mud. 0.

5. It was a fifth. 0. 5, a fifth?. That is 0. 2. 0. 2 of a chocolate

bar. That doesn't mean it is the same over Morecombe Bay, it is a

rich mosaic of different types of mud. Some will be packed full of

worms and all sorts of things, that is what the birds are after. If you

were watching yesterday, you will know that we were really pleased to

have embarked upon a project with the craft of Brighton. Dr Barney

Tollhurst and Dr Bernie Scott have been putting radio collars on to

urban foxes. We want to find more out about how animals living

alongside us. I went down to see how much progress they had made. How did

the tagging go? Well, very well, we caught 13 foxes in total. However,

they are all males. All the males? 13 males? We have 13 males. Why

didn't you catch females, are there less of them out there, they are

trap shy? We think and we don't know it may be a combination of both. Can

we see the animals you have got. Who are these? These are the inner city

foxes, this is where we had loads of males. We started off with silver,

7. 8 canning which is a big --kg which -- 7. 8kg, which is a big fox,

and we thought he was big until we caught Sam. Then we have another

yearling which we called Spritz, he's 5.7kg. His homage is smaller,

he's stopped by the busy roads. You can see the roads are limiting where

they go. I must say I'm astonished and tremenduously excited by the

amount of data you have in just two weeks. You have learned so much

about these animals so quickly. But, we are looking at it in two

dimension, indoors, on a computer screen. We have got to get out into

the field. I need to see this, the shape of these environments to

understand the real context of what these animals are doing. Shall we

prowl the streets of Brighton. With the tracking data in hand, we head

to the home range of the inner city foxes. Are we in Elm scuff grove

now. We have turned the corner, this is his patch in there. In the heart

of Silver's territory is a derelict villa, that most would consider a

waste of space. But data from the tracking collars show all three

foxes hide up here during the day. I caught the whiff of fox here. There

might even be an animal down there at the moment. So... They have

definitely been here. In spring time that would be the perfect place to

give birth? Absolutely, it is an area we will be monitoring.

After a concerted search, there is no sign of Silver and co. But I can

see why this villa is the perfect fox hideout. This derelict building

may look a mess to us with all of its graffiti, and the fact it is

crumbling down. But this is fox heaven. Because it is an obey

wayies, in amongst all of these buildings. And here you can see

foxes lining up in the daytime, bringing food to eat it securely,

and certainly, fingers crossed, in the spring time, this is a place

where they would hopefully breed and raise their cubs. The satellite

collars revealed after dark Silver leaves this pocket of urban jungle

and heads out on to the streets to feed. So this is effectively his

whole range, these are all of the contacts you have received back so

far? These are all the places he has been. Let's prowl around and see

what his range is made of. At the moment, with the exception of the

villa, it looks really, really built up to me. You might think that wide

food would be hard to find in the inner city, but there are plenty of

alternatives. Especially on bin day. All sorts of stuff in here, there is

some plastic container, a little bit of strawberry yoghurt in there, and

the delicate tongue of a fox will have that out? Anything there he

will pull it out and nick it. More food containers? The snail is there,

they take invertebrates, and they are so opportunistic and they will

scavange anything. They have discovered that to find food they

have to travel further than suburban cousins. That is a risky business,

when there are lots of roads criss-crossing their ranges. You can

see how much busier it is here. It is considerably busier than 100ms up

the road, it is a lot quieter. I would be scared about crossing this

road, never mind a fox. But that's it, the boundaries are this road and

this one, it is very clear to see why. We have discovered the critical

components of the inner city territory. But there is one place

that Silver goes to, at the same time every night. We're just in time

to find out why. There is two of them, the one in front looks like he

has a collar on. It looks like they are looking up at that window. I

think they are waiting for food. I love the way he is sat down. Here we

are, the window must be opening. Look at that, what a beautiful

animal. This time of year they have a fatastically thick coat on for

winter. The little guy is waiting for some now. He has got his foot.

You can see the size difference can't you? Definitely. We have had

great day, by going out into the field we have quite literally found

out more. Because this big clump here, which previously we knew was a

spot that the foxes were visiting we now know is all down to the people

in this flat, throwing out food at 8.30 every night. So there, field

observation, state-of-the-art technology, we're learning a lot

more about foxes already. What could be better,

state-of-the-art technology and field observation. And let's just go

back to that map that Dawn had there. Feeding is something which we

have immediately learned, that's humans feeding foxes is very

important to these animals. Let's just recap. Here is the skanky

villa, I expected to find lots of foxes in there. Over here is the

feeding area you just saw where the other animals are. There is another

ago gags of records from this animal just over here. We haven't explored

that yet. I wouldn't mind betting that is another place where people

are feeding these foxes. What is interesting about the inner city

foxes is although they are bounded by these roads, on occasions they

cross those roads. You can see here, where the red lines link out, this

animal has dispersed, we think it is doing that to find food. There isn't

a great density of food in this I can't remember, outside of those

people who are providing it for them. We think they have to nip

across there to find a bin or take away. When they do that, that means

there is a good chance they will get run over. I tell you in stud eats,

60% of foxes in urban areas are killed by cars. That is a very

significant mortality. Tomorrow we're going to head north, out of

the city and into the suburbs to look at some middle-class foxes and

see how they live there. Dr Dawn Scott will be joining us to tell us

what else they have learned. We have had a lot of autumn wildlife

activity here. We have captured a lot of it on our hidden cameras

around the reserve. One that's certainly not disappointed is the

live otter-cam, this is the view you can see from the camera. The lights

in the distance is where we are in the barn. If we just pull back a

little bit and pan round, this is where we have been seeing a lot of

the otter activity, and the trustee old heron is there. We have seen

quite a few times. This is a live picture, nothing else at the moment.

But let's have a look at what we saw just last night. We are seeing a lot

of otters. It is a family of otters, the heron is there still. You can

see him as he comes out of the water. He's enjoying some fish

there. Remember this is in the dark. But look you have to look closely

and you can see, did you see that is definitely a male. I saw what I

needed to see. We have been speculating whether it is male or

female, you all know now, we have highlighted it in case you missed

it, it is definitely a dog, we call that a dog. It just goes to show

even when you get cracking images sometimes you have to look very

carefully to establish the simple things about the animal, even what

sex they are. These cameras are providing us a unique opportunity of

doing that. It is what you call field craft. Let's have a look at

some other behaviour we got today. Look, we think that is probably the

same male, the dog. At first again we speculate but we thought that he

was scent marking. A lot of little noises going on. We thought maybe

he's rubbing or getting rid of dirt. He's putling, my putles do --

poodles do that, and because he's going back to the same spot and he's

dressing himself in the spot. Why not rub somewhere else and because

he's going back to the same spot and he's dressing himself in the spot.

Why not rub somewhere else. We don't know, we can watch the nightime

behaviour and do speculating. Let's cut live to the camera, we have a

rat there. Oh, yes, look. What I ought to say is these animals are

coming to this particular area, because we have put some bait down

there. The RSPB have been baiting this area for the otters, for the

bitton, and here you can see a rat coming in. Punching one of the fish,

which is -- pinching one of the fish, which is particularly good. We

have had rats for a little while, here are some of the pictures we

have got. There they are on top of the mowned of fish, fresh Spratt,

none of your rubbish! Rats have a terrible reputation, they are

effectively a nonnative species and came here a long time ago. They are

fleeing because the otter has come in. That is not surprisingeeing

because the otter has come in. That is not surprising. There is the

ratio of 6-1, when you are in a city you are no more than six feet from a

rat. We looked at that today, the closest you should be to a rat in a

city is 50ms, that should make you feel more comfortable. I wouldn't

mind that. We are probably not far from one in the barn. He's have a

look at the heron earlier on. It is a beautiful bird. He's posing a bit

there. What I want to look at is its feet. Again I will remind you, this

is in the dark, you can see he's really feeling round on this cut

reed bed. You can see how massive those wading feet are. He's treading

very carefully, and he flies off. But why? It is the otter again.

Listen... He's not happy that he's been chased off. That is the heron.

But I can't blame him that's leaving, otters will take birds, not

typically as big as a heron, but they will take lots of water birds,

couts, moor hens, it varies in their diets. It would have a got a it. We

have been celebrating the reed beds and the mud, mud, glorious mud, we

know it is vast and full of life. But it can also be treacherous.

Morecombe Bay is one of the largest expanses of intertidal mudflats and

sand in Britain. On the lowest tides mile upon mile are exposed,

providing rich feeding grounds for bird life. Walking around Morecombe

Bay it is pretty easy to see why it is so important for bird life. At

low tide it is this huge expanse of nutrient-rich mud. But to get a real

sense of scale and to understand the habitat, I think I should be right

in the middle of the bay. I'm certainly not going to walk out

there, what I need is one of these. This is the Hurley flyer, at

Morecombe Bay the tide goes out so far that the RNLI needs a vessel

that can cross sea and mud. Fantastic, wow.

I knew these mud flats were big, but you really don't get a sense of

scale until you get right in the middle of them. You can see as far

as the eye can see, it is just mud. It is such an enormous area. The

ever-changing nature of Morecombe Bay, though great for wildlife, has

been catching people off guard for centuries. Often with tragic

consequences. Commander Harry Roberts showed me the dangers out

here in this dynamic habitat. If you start to move your feet around a

bit, underneath it gets soft. Suns do that you begin to stick in it, it

feels like cement on your boots. It sets like a cast and hardens, can

you feel it? How quickly does the tide come in? It is, I will get my

foot out first! If I start rescuing the RNLI that would be really funny?

Rescue me! It comes in very fast, I would say fast walking pace. Since

it came into service in 2002 the Hurley Flyer has rescued more than

100 people. The crew's vigilance is a constant reminder of the

unpredictable nature of Morecombe Bay. It may be a dangerous place for

us, but a vital habitat for bird life. It gave you a real sense of

scale, Chris, being right in the middle of those mudflat, but it also

made you respect the see, in four hours it was covered from the tide

coming in. The message from the RNLI is be safe, sensible and respect it,

it is very deceptive and dangerous. Don't wander into the mudflats on

your own. Think about it. Are you safe and sound? It is so flat. Half

a metre of water could cover a kilometer. It comes in faster than

you can walk sometimes. Very, very scary. At the beginning of the week

we launched our Migrationwatch, we asked you to look out for three

species of birds, the red wing, the brown wing and these birds the

waxwing, they are truly exotic species. We have had a number of

reports coming in from around the country. That is really good. In a

typical winter we would only get maybe tens of these birds, but in

the last couple of winters we have had eruptions and thousand, as many

as 4,000 last winter. This is the map for what happened last week, we

have had plenty up here in Orkney. A few more over here in the Western

Isles, and one in Mrs Miniver's garden, down here we had one from Mr

John Sergeant, in York some waxwings too, they have already spread

through the country. This is a pretty good arrival of waxwings.

What does it mean. We called our friends of the BTO, and there are

plenty of berries in Scandinavia so they may not come in the numbers

they have in the last few years. This is Chris's on than logical --

ornathalogical moment! If you see these birds contact us via the

website. It is not just birds that migrate, fish do, particularly eels.

This year has been a bumper year for eels. Particularly elver, they have

arrived here in their millions. In the River Severn, alone they had

over 100 million elveres arriving. They are coming into our fresh water

river, they will stay there maturing. It is when the mature eels

start to make the reverse journey back down to the sea that they can

get into trouble. I went out to find out more. Every autumn many of our

eels set off on Anne credible journey. -- an incredible journey.

They will attempt to swim over 3,000 miles to the other side of the

Atlantic to mate and spawnn incredible journey. They will

attempt to swim over 3,000 miles to the other side of the Atlantic to

mate and spawn Before they get to the sea they have a whole host of

man made obstacles to get there. Wheel, turbines block a third of

waterway, killing 40% of my growth eels it is thought. Fortunately help

is at hand. Dr Adam Piper from the University of Southampton is testing

surprising ways to help eels pass these dangers and out to sea. First

needs to catch someto sea. First he needs to catch some. We are just

coming up to migration time. It is rainy nights and a drop in

temperature, when the levels and the flow picks up. A combination of all

these things causes this migration cue and they start migrating

downstream. You so rarely see them. You see them all the time. But for

me it has been years since I have seen an eel. Yes. Eels undergo a

series of extraordinary physical changes as they mature. Only when

they transform into full size silver eels are they ready to travel down

our rivers and out to sea. The larger eel is nearly half a metre

long, it looks like a female silver. Can we have a closer look at her,

maybe picker up in the net? Yes, certainly. Fascinating, a lovely

colour now we can see? Much better, a silver belly. Look at that. So it

is not just the colour, all sorts of other things are going on inside the

eel's body are they now? All sorts of mover logical changes, the eye

becomes bigger, the fin and the silver colour on the outside. All

sorts of things preparing her for the journey. She must be how many

years old? There is a huge variation in when they migrate, one of the

things we don't know. They might migrate four-to-five years after

being in the river. But also they found eels years and up to 40 years

of age. 40 years? The oldest ones. Adam is tagging the silvers to

assess how they react to obstacles as they swim down stream. The tags

give a remarkably detailed picture of the eels' behaviour. It doesn't

like it at all? It has come to the fast flows and rejected and gone

back up stream. Adam has found when he increases the speed of a water

flow around a hazard the eel turns around and goes back up stream. He

hopes to use this research to guide eels away from danger and follow

safer routes tout sea. But he's not just looking at water flow. This

autumn we are looking at infrasound, very low-frequency sound. Like being

shouted at, "not this way"! It is more of a vibration. Anything else?

All sorts of things including strobe lights, more manipulation of

hydraulic, we will see how they go. If Adam can deploy effective

deterrents at danger spots across the country, it will give silver

eels a fighting chance. They are very lucky to have a champion like

you. And one of the silver eels is luckier still. I'm going to give it

a head start by we leasing it past the final barrier on its way to the

sea. The time has come to send this eel on its way. And Adam always

releases them in the evening so it can migrate under the cover of

darkness. What a shame we can't go with t good luck.

Such fascinating creatures eels, fascinating. And there are still

many mysteries about their life cycle. Let's have a look at what

people know so far. The eels will leave the UK and they will all go

down across the Atlantic and out to the Sargasso Sea, and hear they mix

around, these are -- here they mix around, these are the adult eels,

they will mate, breed, and the tiny little elveres will make their way

all the way back, drifting on ocean currents they will come back and

populate our rivers. People aren't sure what happens in the searing

goes sow sea. Epic -- Sargasso Sea. Appic migration. Not sure why they

are declining, since 1983 a massive decline. We think some of it is down

to the obstructions in the waterway, in the waterways there are 2,500

obstructions. That is great work. Stay tuned for Sun Sprung on the --

Unsprung on the red button. After that those real live eels will be

released somewhere in the reserve. Let's hope they are not leased

anywhere near the otters otherwise this could happen to them. This was

recorded by a visitor to the reserve this week, Kate from Nottingham. You

can see it is two of the kits, fighting over an eel. Two of the

otter kits, fighting, a bit of a tug-of-war, one of them wins and

swims off with it, the other one looks miffed and sits down to really

enjoy a nice bit of eel nosh! Fantastic, thanks for that Kate. You

are frowning, you don't like that? Poor old eels they have such a tough

time. Yesterday we saw a really beautiful film that had been made by

John, he's one of the top wildlife cameraman. Today we sent him to the

River Ithan and it is place he used to know very, very well, but he

hasn't been back there for 20 years. It is such a time of change here on

the estuary. The geese have come for the winter, there are waders here,

ducks that have come from the north. The estuary is just as vibrant and

full of life as it was 20 years ago when I first came to know it. It is

such a relief to find it is like this, that it hasened really

changed. -- hasn't really changed. It is a tiny stuary. Small enough to

know every bank and sand do you know. It is not a pristine wilder

fishings that is not the point. It is a place where people live, on one

side of the estuary they will come and walk their dogs and bring their

kids to play in the sand. And just across the water, life goes on.

These parallel lives, as do ours, the seals, the oyster catchers,

getting on with their lives. There is always something going on, there

is always something to notice where there's light and wildlife. Where

the weather changes every moment. And this place is just full of

patterns. Of ripples and sand banks and shapes in the water and shapes

on the land. 20 years a long time, I expect things to have changed here,

but it is like it was. The waders are doing well and the geese. But

these are struggling. The eider ducks are the spirit of the place.

So dapper, 1920s ducks. Like spats. They wait on the high tides further

up. As the tide starts to fall it carries the ducks down to the mouth.

In the mouth of the estuary there are mussel beds, and that is what

they eat, mussels. They dive for them, but they have to wait for the

tide. If it is moving too fast they will just get swept away. But the

ducks are in trouble. There are only half as many as there were when I

was here before. It might be some problem with the mussel beds. Hard

to imagine the river without its eideres. Nature is so important, it

should be part of everybody's lives. It is worth rembering the places you

love and keeping them safe and going back to see them again and again.

We're all so busy these days. The phone rings, there are e-mails,

there is so much to do, there is so many demands on our time. Perhaps

time doesn't have to be a fast-flowing river going in one

direction, maybe the tides are a different way of seeing it. Maybe

there can be renewal of interest and cycles in your life as well as that

linear flow. But this river reminds me just of the simple Joyce of

sitting, listening and looking at what is happening. And slowing down

for a bit and spaying attention to other lives. And being in the

moment. Beautiful, poignant and pert napped, I think. We have all got our

patch, haven't we. We have all got places we go to, and we learn to

love those places, just like John loves that estuary, what was

pertinent is he said we should learn to look after them too, because in

20 years time they might be gone. If you have a patch look after it.

Sometimes it is down to you. No-one else will do it. Then you can love

it in 20 years time and maybe your kids too. That would be a top

result. It was beautiful, if you are going to love place you need to get

out and enjoy it. And plenty of you do just that. Sadly that's all we

have time for this week. So this week, tonight, it is not over yet,

we will be back tomorrow. This is what we have coming up tomorrow. We

have got a national treasure, in the form of the red squirrel, and we

have hot news about conservation of this species. I will try to solve

the mystery of how moths can travel under the cover of darkness from the

UK all the way to the Mediterranean. We will be catching up with our

majestic stags, especially our worryingly injured 14-pointer.

That's all coming um tomorrow, see you at 8.00, remember you can join

Nick Baker with Sun sprung on the red button and on-line. By the way,

has anyone seen my broomstick, I need to go now, because it is

Hallowe'en. Goodbye.