Episode 3 Autumnwatch

We are going live from the wilds of Dorset with these beautiful sika

deer. And if you're sika cake, stick with us, because I can promise you

we have a range of ingredients to whip you into a frenzy. Martin is

rarely half baked, Michaela Strachan rarely has a soggy bottom. Stay with

us for Autumnwatch. Hello and welcome back to

Autumnwatch 2016. We're coming to you live from RSPB Arne in Dorset. A

fabulous place to be. We've already had an amazing three days here. But

where is Arne? You can see on the map, down on the coast, just west of

Bournemouth, close to Poole Harbour. What makes this place special is it

has a variety of habitats and it's surrounded by wetlands, and these

attract thousands of overwintering waders at this time of year, egrets,

oyster catchers, Lapwing. It makes this place is fantastic at this time

of year. It's a tremendous place all round. You know what we do on our

watches, we bug the place with cameras to allow us to investigate

the animals. This is the deer-cam. This record is heat. You can see one

of the sika deer. You can see the antlers, it's a stag, and the white

is the hot part of the animal. They are rutting at this time of year, so

if they get into a frenzy we will stick with them and show it live. We

have been watching lots of activity out in the fields. This is the area

where they have been rutting, in the fields, and every day we see them

leaving when the light comes up in the morning. This is a natural

behaviour. If there were predators around, but there are no natural

predators here any more like wolves, but they would head off, and the

males follow. This is the stag we have been watching this week.

Following the females into the woods this morning. He has to do that,

sticking with them through the night and waiting for them to come into

season. Lots of other males like these guys in the trees, waiting for

the opportunity if it arises. Very handsome animals at this time of

year. Look at the shaggy rough they have developed for the rutting

season. This is an older boy, maybe his days are over, chewing the cud

to see if there's an opportunity. A younger stag dressing himself up,

like many species of deer do. Deliberately going through the

bracken and trying to hook onto its antlers. This is the boy we have

been watching. Truly is a very handsome deer. There he is with his

hinds. He is extremely handsome, as you

say. We will see what action we have from him. It started out beautifully

this morning after a cold night, so a lot of dew around meaning Chris

and I were out looking at incredible spiders webs, they were everywhere.

We could see them so well because of the dew. There are about 350

different species in Arne. It was glorious. It was a glorious morning.

Made more so by the fact the leaves have started to turn. The green is

starting to leave them. Day length and temperature control the

behaviour of the plans at this time of year. When it gets to a certain

level it takes out the Green pigment from the leaves. We can see the

other pigments like yellow and red, looking beautiful. We have noticed

the changing colours at Arne this week. It's happening and it's

beautiful. What about you, how is it looking across the country? How

beautiful is your leaf colour this autumn? All the details to send them

to us on the website. If you're watching last night he would know

Martin went out onto the shoreline with a robotic spoonbill, fitted

with cameras inside. We can have a look at it now. There it is looking

rather lonely out on a spit of land. We can see the cameras inside the

spoonbill, and there is the view over the spit, the artificial

spoonbill to the right-hand side of the screen. Earlier this morning at

4:22am we achieved success. The robotic spoonbill filmed three

spoonbills in action. Using that extraordinary bill to save the

water. We have also seen these Brent geese, dark bellied Brent geese

flying over from North Europe and Russia, and a lot of them have

arrived in the last few days. It's a beautiful sight to see. The light is

lovely. Migration is taking place as we

speak. Indeed, migration is taking place as we speak and listen. Martin

is just outside here now. I'm rather envious because he's about to

explore a new way of not seeing, but hearing migration. Martin... You're

quite right, Chris. I want you all to imagine that when you were

sleeping last night, all of us asleep, high up in the sky,

hundreds, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of birds were migrating

through the night sky. A sort of air traffic constantly going all night

long. Fascinating to think of that one it's all quiet. Like that Jimi

Hendrix song, Night Bird Flying Centre 'S Back. Do You Know It? They

Are Moving Around, Wouldn't It Be Marvellous To Find Out What Species

They Were. Up there in the dark, and believe it or not, we can. I'll

explain how we do it in a second. But while these birds migrating in a

dark? A number of reasons. The air right now tends to be really still

so they don't have to use as much energy flapping on their migration.

Another very good reason too. These birds could be easy prey through the

day for predators. Down here in Arne we have seen some spectacular birds

of prey. These are done when, a flock of dunlin. Suddenly a bird of

prey comes hammering in. Let's wind back to see if it gets anything.

It does hit a dunlin which falls into the water. Can it get out? It

does get up, not too badly injured. The peregrine goes up into the sky,

and has another go. But it misses. The brave little dunlin has got out.

The peregrine is up again. A third goal, might be going for the same

dunlin that hit the water. Chasing after it. Doesn't get it though. I'm

pretty certain that was a juvenile peregrine, because an adult, I don't

think that dunlin would have survived. Fantastic pictures. These

birds are us are avoiding predators. Inside here you can see a parabolic

microphone. If I put my hand, the sound changes. If I Russell, they

are very sensitive. These bales of hay are blocking out the sound from

all around the microphone. Paul and Magnus from sound approach. Good

evening. What we are going to do, they will try tonight to record

whatever comes from the microphone into this recording device. They

will record what happens during the show. The birds whizzing above us,

we hope during the programme, and Magnus will tell us what actually

has flown by. We will retire and keep really quiet now while they

start recording and when we come back we will see what we've got.

Goodbye for now. It would be amazing to see what Martin can hear flying

overhead. For most mammals, autumn isn't the ideal time of the year to

start giving birth. The days are colder and shorter. The nights are

long and it gets very stormy by the sea. But in autumn, grey seals start

to pup. Plenty of colonies around the coastline but they don't.

Pupping at the same time. They stagger around the coast. -- they

don't start pupping at the same time. The Isles of Scilly in

Cornwall, the first pup was seen in late August. It then fans across the

country, along the coast of Scotland to the west and then down the other

side in Northumberland. The last pups will be born on the east coast.

Yesterday they saw their first bug in Lincolnshire and they are still

waiting for the first in Norfolk. By the end of the week we should have

quite a few seal pups around the coastline. It's very unpredictable

weather at this time of year. So if you are going to start a family in

autumn, then inevitably there are going to be some casualties, as I

found out. Grey seals have one of the shortest

periods of parental care of any mammal. Mothers abandon their pups

after only 17 or 18 days and they are left to fend for themselves,

sometimes in harsh weather. Not surprisingly, some of these find

themselves in trouble. But for some of them, a lifeline. RSPCA West

Hatch looks after all sorts of animals but this is the time of year

when they get inundated with grey seal pups. This is Shredder, barely

three weeks old. They named their rescued seal pups on a theme, and

they have chosen 80s and 90s cartoons. They have chosen Ninja

Turtles for this one. Shredder was rescued after she was washed into an

area where it was difficult for her to get back to her mother or to the

shore. She will have been fed exclusively on high-fat breast milk

putting on two kilos per day. The crucial days they have with their

mothers is about piling on as much blubber as they can. Shredder is a

good weight but the rescue centre staff need to keep hydrated. She's

very quick. She looks happier now! Once their mother leaves them, their

life jacket of blubber will be the only thing they have two provide

warmth and sustenance. It's a race for them to learn to feed themselves

before their reserves run out. This is the riskiest time for a youngster

in the wild. In fact, as we film, two more grey seal pups arrive.

Hi, Dan. Hi, how are you. Dan has driven up from Cornwall with two

rescued seal pups. How old are they? Three or four weeks old. They are

both quite lean so they might have struggled to feed themselves over

the last week or so. Once enrolled, they will embark on a two-month back

to health rehabilitation programme. They are hardy little creatures. As

cute and fluffy as they are, the grey seals are tough little things.

Because the pups don't know how to feed on their own, the Centre acts

as a kind of seal school teaching them how to look after themselves at

key stages. When they have mastered tube feeding, they are onto solids.

This is Zebedee, who was rescued at just two days old with the umbilical

cord still attached. More advanced is little Dougal, who

was found wounded three weeks ago. She is now nearly five weeks old and

learning to feed herself. She gets her fish in a shallow bowl of water

so they are easier for her to handle. Once they get to about six

weeks old, the pups graduate to the outside pool.

She is gorgeous, isn't she? Hello! Are you waiting for your breakfast?

This is Cheetara from Thundercats, she will soon go into a deeper pool.

When she has reached 40, 50 kilos and is confident in the water she

will be in good enough condition to be released. These are the lucky

ones. Here at West Hatch, 90% of the grey seal pups rescued will be

successfully returned back to the wild.

I'm pleased to report that all of those adorable seal pups are doing

well and hopefully they will be able to going to the wild in the not too

distant future. Over the next few weeks they will be rescuing more

because we have 40% of the world population around our coastline,

about 150,000 seals. Important to stress that if you see a seal pup

left on its own on the beat it does not necessarily mean it needs

rescuing because their mothers abandon then -- on the beach. They

may be perfectly all right. Breaking news, let's go to Robo spoony. Look,

we have a spoonbill live on the programme! We are particularly

excited about this. Only in the last four years have their numbers grown

here. They are up to 60 here now in Poole Harbour, which is a large

number. It is not a common sight, so getting it live on Robo spoonbill on

the programme is very exciting! Robo spoony is a potential mate and they

may come over and caught and even go through the main process. Let's move

on! Despite the antics of some of our species, Homo sapiens, we are

the most intelligent of the animals we have on the planet. There are

other bright animals such as elephants, dolphins and chimpanzees

but we tend to look down on things like mice. But they can be quite

bright and this week we've been testing the ability of mice here in

Dorset to learn a route through a maze, offering different challenges

every night. Let's see how far we have got with mice in our maze.

Mouse Maze two, the squeekwell. The moustermind needed two days to solve

the conundrum and complete the maze. A swift rotation meant that the

route was the same. Total disorientation meant that landmarks

were to blame. Our Tri Nations star was soon back on track. Was it a

sense of smell or did something else give him the knack? Now, right is

left and left is right. Can super mouse make it just one night? Look

at that, he left his mark! Love it. How did the mice get an overnight?

Let's have a look. We flipped the maze, they got confused. This mouse

is clearly quite bemused. In 18 seconds, the exit it choosed! How

long did it take to complete it? Well, about 93 seconds and it didn't

cheat it. Seven goes later. Will it get it sussed? Yes, in just about

eight seconds without a fuss. Did you like my poem? That was thought

up last minute, I could have made it better! It did the trick. The mice

are getting in there. This isn't hard, rigorous science but it is

giving us an opportunity to look at how these animals learn a route. I'm

going to go off here. -- I have a graph here. The red at the bottom is

the first time we let them into the maze. We see that it takes them a

few attempts to get the speed down, it first takes them around 90

seconds but after ten seconds it takes -- can attempt it takes them

around eight seconds. Then we spun it around to see if the external

cues might confuse them and here is the graft. They had to relearn the

route through the maze, no doubt and it took them longer. Then, we

flipped it. The Greenline shows us they were going back to basics, they

had to relearn the route through the maze. But look, they learned it much

more quickly than when we twisted it, when we flipped it. I would

postulate that it is because they have their minds into a learning

mode, these mice know that there is a maze, nuts at the end of it and

they have developed a method of learning, what we call working

memory, to find a way through. We know this is something that can be

improved if exercised, like you learning the way to the shop, after

a few tightens you get better at it, so working memory seems to be

something we are improving in these animals -- a few turns. They were

not just learning the maze last night, there was a bit of an

altercation. Take a look. This is the mouse who has got to the nuts

and he is sauntering out but another one comes in and this one clearly

knows the road. It does it very quickly, bumping into the second

mouse and now they are battling, having a bit of a handbag fight,

chasing each other out of the maze. Not happy to be sharing it. Look

what happens, this one goes out of the maze in a record six seconds.

Six seconds? Six seconds, remarkable. With the adrenaline

pumping it is interesting that it only made one mistake when it was

being pursued by the larger mouse. Under pressure it was still

remembering the route out of the maze. Here is a thing, the mice are

eating up to 20 times a day meaning that they have two poo quite a few

times a day. How many times do you think a mouse has a wee? 3000 times!

That is because weeing is not just about getting rid of the fluid

waste. That is what you are paying a license fee for, folks! Recorded

mouse wee! It is really good stuff. Inside it are no fewer than 1600

chemicals and they have the ability to communicate a vast range of

things to the mouse and other mice. And perhaps orientation is one of

them. Perhaps it is leaving wee to leave a trail for when it was next

coming in. Perhaps we should test that, Michaela. We are going to test

the mice one step further because this is what we are going to do

tonight. We are going to turn the maze vertically. Obviously that is

going to challenge the mice, not just mentally, but physically as

well. That's going to be really tricky for them. Don't you think?

Well, I do but these mice have been doing so well when it comes to

relearning the maze. We haven't cleaned it this time, we have left

the wee there for them. Apps they are using sense trials on top of

everything else. We will keep watching it. If we see any mice we

will go to it live. We were out of this morning looking at spiders on

the Heath, nearly 300 species are here but Gillian Burke has been out

locally to find one of the currently's sexiest animals, one of

the best spiders on earth. -- the country's sexiest.

In 1980, a chance discovery was made right here. This tiny patch of land

turned out to be the last refuge of eight species that was previously

thought to be extinct. -- a species. Not seen in the UK since 1906, just

seven individuals were found in an area the size of a tennis court. The

tiny colony needed help. Thanks to heroic conservation efforts, I have

a chance of meeting Britain's most elusive spider. The ladybird spider.

The jewel in this heathland's round. -- Crown. Ian Hughes has dedicated

the last 23 years of his life to saving this species, with his unique

spider relocation programme. Hello, Ian. Hello, Gillian. Pleased to meet

you. He collects individuals and moves them to form new breeding

colonies. They may be one of the most distinctive UK spiders but

because they spend almost their entire lives underground, they are

virtually impossible to find. I'm looking for just a little bit of

spider silk that will be stretched between the Moss. Hats off to Ian,

this isn't very easy. Found one, Gillian. Right. OK, here we go.

Gosh, that's it. Spectacular piece of work, isn't it? What is

spectacular is that you found it, frankly! My goodness. You know what,

respect to this man, respect. Thank you. That isn't easy defined. This

is a large spider 's web so almost certainly a large female. Is that

part of it? That is the winter web. It will have sealed the web over for

the winter and in the spring it kicks it off. That is why looking in

the autumn is important because they are getting ready to seal themselves

in and you must get to them before. Yes. To save the species Ian Hass to

gently dig the spider out of the borough which could be up to 20

centimetres deep. Peel off the top of the web, the comfort blanket that

goes in with her. She can smell hurt silk, she knows that it is home. If

she is separate from that, it is a slow process getting settled in. It

is a painstaking process as each and every spider is so precious.

Ian gently blows the last of the soil away. Revealing the buried

treasure. So, out she comes. Oh, my... I'm

going to get the pot ready. She is ready. -- she's beautiful. You know,

it is so nice when things are not just as good but even better than

what I was expecting. She is absolutely stunning. She is this

beautiful velvety, sleek midnight blue. Oh, absolutely amazing. After

20 odd years, I'm still just as excited. Amazing, isn't it? I can

see why you do this. At four years old, this large female is mature and

with Ian's help is going to produce the next generation. OK, I think we

should put in the pot. I think she's ready. There you go, lovely.

Security blanket. Back at the base, he takes the spider's vital

statistics before re-homing her with the rest of her web in this bottle.

She will overwinter here with the other spiders he has collected

before being released into a new secret location in spring. This

method has increased numbers from just seven to over 2000. But for a

healthy population unique females and males. This bottle contains a

mature web ladybird spider. Would you like to see him? Would I? Yes!

Here we go, then. You can take over from here, Gillian, if you want. Oh,

he's just absolutely amazing. He knows that he is beautiful. My first

and probably only male ladybird spider. There are people who have

written books about spiders of the world and have never seen this. And

I'm feeling a little emotional if I'm honest because this is... The

rarest site. Ladybird spiders may still be painfully rare, but with

people like Ian on their side, hopefully their future is secure.

What an animal! Gillian, thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. It

is fantastic, you are a bit overcome. To be honest I was taken

by surprise, the emotion. I had been caught up with the filming and what

needed to be done that day. The moment when Ian finally got the

ladybird spider out, I was completely blindsided with what an

amazing thing it was. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Before we

found that, Ian had shown me this book, the world of spiders, it is

the spider Bible. There is a line that he read, talking about how in

1958 when the book was published, they were not sure if there were any

left in the UK and he read this line which said "If anybody finds a

ladybird spider before I do, I will showed no resentment!" Ian said he

had never seen this kind of exclamation so it shows what kind of

holy grail it was. In 1980, Peter Merritt, who I was fortunate to

know, found it. What a find. And now Ian has taken over nursing the

population back to health. You have been out on ani looking at other

spiders and you found a beauty. The first day we were filming on

Arne, the first animal eyesore, I just about to put my foot down on

some heathland, walking around, and my brain couldn't compute what I was

seeing, it's a taste of how special Arne is. A stunning animal.

Relatively new arrivals into the UK on the south coast, but they are

spreading around the Thames now as well. Doing really well. This is a

spider I like very much. But a leaf into the water. This is the raft

spider. This is a female, out you go. Look at that. It's quite happy

to be on the water, chasing it back to the leaf. These are

extraordinary. They can go under the water, they can walk on the surface

and they are ferociously predators. They are. I love the diversity of

spiders. This spider actually uses the water instead of a web to find

its prey. It lunges out when it feels vibrations on the water and

catches its prey. They are fantastic predators. They even fish, they can

catch small fish and tadpoles. I had one once that was about this size,

put it in an ice cream tub and fed it, I stopped it from breeding but

just let it and fed it. It was a monstrous spider. Just before I

could photograph it it laid some eggs and tripled up. -- shrivelled

up. What a shame. You have been all along the south coast in this

region. Tomorrow night we have another treat. You can guess by now

that I like the underdog and tomorrow is no exception. I will be

looking at bats and there will be some real surprises. You will have

to wait until tomorrow to find out. A surprise worth waiting for. Thank

you for coming in and sharing your spider experiences, Gillian. I'm not

that envious because I have seen those ladybird spiders and they are

absolutely fantastic. Nick Taylor. I don't think I've seen anything like

those ladybird spiders. You could go on a spider safari. But you have to

be patient because they are difficult to find. Much easier to

spot the sika deer here. We have been watching them all night on the

live cameras, the thermal cameras. Is that a stag or hind? I can't tell

from here, the head is down and its grazing. That's what they do at this

time of night. We can see clearly it's a stag now as it's turned its

head. Has to be alert all the time because it's waiting to mate. As

Chris said earlier, the females are only in season for around 24 hours,

so it has to be extremely patient. They are very vocal deer. They make

lots of noise as we are sitting here. It's a very strange sound.

It's the sound they make during the rutting season. It's a screeching

sound that you can hear for up to a kilometre. They also make a short,

sharp alarm sound, made by both males and females. They make a dozen

vocal calls. Probably one of the most vocal deer in the UK. The Stags

are just making a lot of noise. They also like to dress themselves up. We

caught this one on our badger-cam looking extremely resplendent. Look

at that! A nice bit of leafy headgear. Looking rather majestic,

not silly at all! I quite like colourful, show we males, so I think

he looks great. We want a bit of action from those Stags, so we will

keep an eye on them. We all love the wild life, love watching it,

learning about it, listening out for it, but some people just go that

extra mile. Some people are so passionate that they put their lives

on hold to protect an animal they really love.

This year we've only had three hen harrier nests in the whole of

England. This nest just has one chick out of five eggs so the job is

to make sure the chick survives until adulthood. The chick is on the

RSPB reserve in a remote part of northern Cumbria. It's being watched

over by a dedicated team every minute of every hour, night and day,

until it sledges. My name is Steve Garnett and I'm the morning warden.

My name is Olivia and I work at the reservation. I live in Cheshire but

commute up here to Cumbria. Olivia and Steve form part of a team based

in this hot, about one kilometre from the nest, providing an ideal

spot to keep eyes and ears on the hen harriers. -- in this hut. I'm in

the hut, and I will be listening for the next couple of hours. We can

hear her alarm calling from here, so if there is a fox or stoat

approaching then we can do something. Foxes are easily scared

away. But aid stoat, is different. We could easily scared a man away.

Now we have to sit in the dark and try to stay awake. Unfortunately in

the UK, hen harriers are the victims of illegal persecution. They are

shot, poisoned, trapped, and their nests are destroyed.

This particular nest faces a number of extra challenges. First, it's

late in the year and there is less natural food available. On top of

this, the mail is inexperienced and often disappears, leaving the female

to find what food there is on her own. Under normal circumstances we

wouldn't bother doing supplementary feeding for the birds, we would let

nature take its course. The team is taking the extraordinary step of

putting out food. It's still a bit frozen. But it under here, not on my

bearskin! That should defrost it. Given the fact there are only seven

or eight chicks in the whole of England this year, everyone is

precious. That's why we are doing the supplementary feeding.

One of the biggest challenges for the harriers and their human

guardians is the Cumbrian climate. You might be sitting in glorious

sunshine on the decking, and half an hour later it can be absolutely

throwing it down. But it's all part of the experience, I think, of being

out in the wild. Obviously, Sonny is better, but it's all enjoyable in a

weird sort of way. -- obviously, sunshine is better.

Here we are on a beautiful sunny day, a very pleasant evening. Bring

back the bad weather! The midges are unbelievable. No

matter how much reply and you put on, they are trying to land in my

eyes. This is giving me some relief for a little while. -- no matter how

much repellent. The sunshine also brings out flies which gather around

the chick. At four weeks old he is having a satellite tag fitted.

Hopefully we can watch the life of this chick. They play such an

integral part at the beginning of its life, it will be exciting to see

where the chick goes and what it does with its life. As the season

draws to a close in September, Steve reflects on the team's remarkable

efforts. Just thinking, it feels like it will be a very long season.

Some of us have been out here since March waiting for the birds to come

in. And here we are in the first week of September and the birds are

up and flying. Any day now it could be gone and it will be something of

a relief, I have to admit. Knowing there's so few of them, it

feels a privilege to work with such a wonderful bird and hopefully make

that difference. In a few years' time we might have more numbers

again. To know we have achieved that would be great satisfaction.

Amazing commitment, passionate people who have become custodians of

our British wildlife. Hats off to them. Particularly in those

conditions with all those midges. And that was a pink T-shirt Olivia

had over her head, not Bridget Jones style giant pants. They're your

pants! I've seen your pants lying around hotel rooms from time to

time. You have definitely not seen my pants in my hotel room, thank you

very much! The good news is that the tagged hen harrier is still alive

and around the North Pennines. The RSPB say that out of three nests in

England, seven chicks have successfully fledged. We are waiting

to hear about numbers from Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. But

they have hen harriers here. I think we had to reports of them being

seen. And we just heard... A lot of people tweeting about something

making a noise in the background and a few seconds ago we got a shot of

it. It's not too far away from here,

it's still calling. It might be calling to itself now. It can hear

itself being played out here and is calling back! But we do have hen

harriers around here as well. We haven't seen any ourselves but we

have seen a close relative, the marsh harrier. This is a young bird,

one of this year's youngsters. When I was a kid and getting into birds

of prey, these were migrants, a lot of them went to France, some of them

went as far as North Africa. But now the UK marsh harriers often stay in

the UK, as this one will probably do. They are doing well here in

Poole harbour. This used to be a hotspot. This is a cormorant. They

sometimes come well away from the coast and we also get birds from the

continent coming to Poole harbour. I saw some swallows a couple of days

ago, these look like they are bathing and feeding. You might be

surprised they are still around, it's late for them to fly off on

migration, but they have had a late breeding season. It's been mild with

lots of insects still around. So why hurry. Put off that long flight to

South Africa! They have tried for a third brood, then they have to stick

around and feed them, then they have to do set off late. It has been very

mild. We know there are these birds around, the tawny owl is making lots

of noise. What is Martin hearing on his parabolic? We are trying to

record the sound of the night flying migrant birds as they go across us

live in the programme. We have been doing that for the last 25 minutes.

We will see what Magnus has managed to record. Anything above us?

Actually we've had 11 Red Wings. You heard it 11! May be more than that.

We heard 11. We might be able to see more on the sonogram. This one came

over about 15 minutes ago... I couldn't really hear it, could we do

it again. BIRD CALLS. A RED WING, A REALLY INTERESTING ONE. You can even

hear that noise in the middle of the city, the red Wing. That's the

sound. We have other ones as well. BIRD CALLS. That is a curlew that

we've heard. We've been able to point the camera into the sky here.

We pointed the thermal camera into the sky. There we go, a migrating

birds. We've got another migrating bird as well. That looks like a duck

to me. Of course they are difficult to identify. What Magnus and Paul

are doing gives us a very clear identification. There is another way

of identifying these birds, not just the sound, it is these sonograms

here. It is the frequency against time, the frequency of the call

against time. That is an individual signature. That is a red Wing. That

is the sound of the redwing. This is very sensitive. Can we see the

special one, please? One of the special ones. I love computers! If

you look at the top, that is very difficult to see, there is a little

Zig Zag. Magnus has compared it with a clearer version. That kind of

frequency, what is it we are looking at? We think that is a waxwing. A

beautiful waxwing. Glorious bird. When did you record it? That was

nine minutes past midnight last night. They are here, they are

coming! Waxwings are coming, folks. Other things that you might hear,

such as this sound. TWEETING. I couldn't hear it, could you hear it?

A blackbird. That's a blackbird. You may be surprised to hear that a

blackbird is a migrator re-bird. They come from Scandinavia. They

move up and down the country -- migrator reet bird. It may even come

from Scandinavia. Anything else? There is something super spectacular

that these guys have managed to record. TWEETING AND BELL RINGS.

Biao Chai, bells, and what was that? This was at 2am. -- tweeting and

bells. Normally you might see seven or eight of these. The average has

been eight of them. How many did you see? My friends have been recording

in August and September and they heard 31 times. 31 times with this

equipment. Fantastic. I must interrupt, we have live deer.

Something going on with the deer. Live deer mating. Sorry to

interrupt, folks. He has been repeatedly mounting her. Here we go.

This is absolutely live. She is allowing him to make. You can see

that she must go along with him. If she walks off, he hasn't got a

chance. He'll continue walking. Live mating! I never dream we could see

that. Sorry, chaps. You don't have to have this wonderful equipment.

What you can do, you can just use your hands. I do this in the garden

and it really helps. If you're feeling Keane, go to the garage and

get a couple of chocolate boxes and you can put them on like that. I

know it looks ridiculous! But you can really hear. So get out now, get

out in the night, go out in the garden and listen and you can share

this extraordinary night-time phenomenon and of the night-time

migrating birds. Brilliant. I'm going to carry on listening.

Honestly, he looks quite ridiculous but what about the mating. To get

that live on the air. Picking up everything that is red-hot.

Fantastic. What a splendid mail. We have had one great treat, let's go

live to the Carcass Cam. I'm so excited! Look at that, sandhoppers.

These are absolutely fantastic little things. They are and reports,

cross stations, spending the day up to 30 centimetres down in the sand

and we are coming up to feast on the carcass -- cross stations. You know

what I like about them? Hold on! They have asymmetrical antennae. You

can see them! That's because they are normally lying on their side and

the antennae on the ground sand of the sand is shorter than the one

that waves in the air. They are on the carcass because they are eating

it and what's interesting is that lots of things come to eat them and

we have seen other things on the carcass. At night we had a mouse,

this is a wood mouse. They will eat meat. In the daytime we have had

these birds, insect of all, coming down. -- insect eaters. The buzzard

came back. Probably the same one. And this buzzard was here for half

an hour. You can see, look at the flies. Don't laugh! This is a great

resource for all sorts of animals. I never thought I'd see that. What

makes me laugh, it is a bit of a contrast to bake off, they get icing

sugar and we get blood and blood! And now we have had sandhoppers

live. This is what people pay for! Blubber on the beach, onto birds in

the City. Over to David Linde, taking us on a tour of the City

which has had a wildlife makeover. Sheffield, famous for the steel

industry, snooker and shopping. During the Industrial Revolution,

Sheffield became a powerhouse of production and although many of the

larger steel works are shut, the City makes as much money from steel

today as it has ever done. I'm just over one mile away from the centre

Sheffield and this is a very industrial area, full of heavy

industry. You might think to yourself, there's no life here, but

all you need to do is look down at the river. That river is full of

life. Sheffield's rivers are its

lifeblood, forming corridors as you enter the City. 40 years ago, this

river was biologically dead, polluted by local industry. But

things have changed, a lot of work has gone into recreated habitats,

mud banks, vegetation alongside the river. We have boulders. These are

all improving the habitat and boosting biodiversity. Grey wagtail,

two of them. Actively feeding on insects that must be emerging from

the vegetation in the water. Lovely long tail counterbalancing the body.

There seems to be a lot of food for them, a sign that the rivers are now

healthy. Good in vertebral numbers are crucial for the flourishing

ecosystem. -- in vertebrate. You don't have to be in the middle of

nowhere to seek beautiful things, just open your eyes in an urban area

and you'll be surprised. And to prove it I'm going to one of

Britain's smallest nature reserves. This bit of land, tucked away behind

busy road and some blocks of flats is a complete gem. Just over the

size of a football pitch, Sally Shelley Bank and now it is autumn

time and these frogs are fattening up to go for the winter which they

spent, not in hibernation, but if the sun comes out and there is food,

they will emerge. Hop along, my friend. This tiny pond supports over

100 frogs. And plenty of birds and butterflies, so everyone can come

and enjoy. Now I'm going in search of a species that few people have

ever seen. It actually lives on the fabric of Sheffield's industrial

past. It looks like a spider but it actually isn't, even though it is

part of the spider family. In fact it is a brand-new species of giant

harvest men, not even named yet and only discovered in Sheffield in July

this year. Up close they are quite different from spiders, they are not

venomous and don't have the gland. In web is. And the way that they

move -- the gland for spinning webs. They tend to standstill until you

try and touch them and then they sprint. A couple of centimetres. You

can see how this one raises itself up, arching up and balancing its

body. It looks quite strange, actually. This is a trick to confuse

predators as it is harder to catch a moving target. And this second pair

of legs feeling around. If I was one of these harvest men, my limbs would

be 14 metres long. Imagine that, walking down the high street. I

would be a spectacle! And this is a spectacle, wonderful creature.

So, time to rethink Sheffield. It is one of the UK's greenest cities with

over 250 green spaces, healthy rivers and new species to discover.

Great news for wildlife and for urban naturalists.

I love it when major reclaims its space, especially a post-industrial

City like that, great to see wildlife coming back in force, I

say. Martin, you are coming back in force. Quieten it down, so loud! I

brought one of these things as well, it all works, it helps you listen to

birds in the night. There you go. Ulick like Mickey Mouse! Keep it

down! -- you look like Mickey Mouse. We have been catching up with our

golden eagle chick we have been watching develop. Chris helped to

put a tag on it and now it has fledged. We can follow it over the

next six years and we haven't asking you to suggest names for the eagle.

We were inundated with amazing suggestions but we have whittled it

down to the top three and we want you to vote between them. I picked

my favourite and Indic is Hermione -- it is Hermione. Fantastic name.

It came from Robin Smith, nine years old, and it means messenger of God.

I like Freya, another goddess, gold, flying and using a cape of feathers.

I'm going for Highlander. Good name. Suggested by Pat and Matthew reed

who sent a note rather than the Internet. I like Thailand and the

film and because "There can be only one"! -- I like Highlander. Start

voting now and voting will close in 24 hours. We will tell you tomorrow

who has named the golden eagle chick and you can vote on the website. I'm

interested to see. Let's go to the Mouse Maze! There is a mouse in

there. I think he's going to have real problems. We've run out of

time, you'll have to join us and see if the mouse solves the problem.

Coming up tomorrow we have a fascinating ramble down the river

Wye. As well as that, Gillian Burke is going to make some of the local

residents. And we are going to have some exciting news, an update on the

badgers -- going to meet. Take a look at Autumnwatch In A Nutshell.

And tomorrow we will be back at our usual time. If you have an

opportunity tonight, put a bucket on your head, go into the garden and

listen to birds! By the time you wake up in the morning, your

neighbours will have had you committed! Good night!

WAVES LAP, WIND ROARS

BIRDS SING, CRICKETS CHIRP