Episode 1 Autumnwatch

It's October, the nights are drawing in...

We've got a packed new series lined up in glorious

And our wildlife cameras are live, to sneak a peek

And I'm at a secret location in Bournemouth, putting some wild

So settle down and snuggle around the television set because it is Tom

Watson! -- Autumnwatch. What are you doing? I have lost my

pipe. Welcome to Autumnwatch. We are in Gloucestershire. If you were

watching in spring you will know that we did Springwatch here as

well. Here we have the UK, zooming into the South West and there you

can see Sherborne, nestled into that constellation. It is great to be

back. We were here for Springwatch and we are excited to come back and

catch up with the stars as well as carry on with our mission looking at

how the wildlife changes through the season. Our studio has changed. We

had a teepee and now we are in the cow shed. I think it is rather chic.

We have got camera is carefully placed around the estate and we have

managed to pick up some surprising pictures already. This was last

night. If you see bats like this whizzing over the water, they will

be specifically adapted to catch their prey over water. They have got

very long hairy feet to pluck insects. There is a rat! Superb

swimmer, brilliant acrobat. Marvellous climber. They are

incredible. A superb swimmer. A marvellous acrobat. Down by the

badger sets, there they are. Fantastic. We have got our live

cameras. This is our thermal camera. The image we are looking at is

recording heat. We can zoom in and see that we have got some fallow

deer. That is as far as we can go. They are likely to be fallow since

there are three of them together. Is that a rabbit? Something else

glowing in the dark. We will be scanning the hedgerows and the

fields with our thermal camera. We saw them when we were driving in.

Our cameramen have been struggling. That is a tiny taste of what we have

got. We will be cramming in so much more. Back in the spring we

introduce you to the glorious Sherborne Park estate, pretty new

beauty, drama and excitement. Fast forward to Autumn and the vivid

colours of the Cotswolds are mellowing into Auburn Hughes. We

will see how some of our key characters have fared as the seasons

change. And we will be meeting some new faces that call this place home.

At introducing a test for some cunning creatures on the south

coast. We have been up and down the country to collect the biggest and

the smallest stories of the season. Filming tales of passion, intrigue

and revelation. It is the best of British wildlife. From the very

heart of the British countryside. It is going to be good. Before we get

started, let's cast our minds back to Springwatch, we watched a number

of birds here, some of which fledged and others that didn't and one of

those was our kestrels. They were up in the church tower down in the

village and there were four of them nestled up there. Here they are. One

is quite close to the camera. There was a discrepancy in size. The one

on the right is a very small kestrel. He was not getting much of

the food, it was getting pushed out here by its siblings. Although the

female did her best to make sure it got some food, it was Lucy Knight

and it was also yellow, an unusual colour and we were worried. It

fought back. I am having that, lads! When we left, it was still going

strong but everyone wanted to know whether our young kestrel would

survive. Let's see what happens. We went back, a few days later and you

can see the birds are becoming feathered but the one on the left is

the youngster that still has more down. It is still behind the rest of

its siblings. Still not getting the food, it kicks the female with a

demand to get more. It looks like they have all gone, but look who is

loitering at their back, it is the young kestrel but it is looking fit

and it was fit enough to fledge and there you can see, all of them made

it out. What happens after that? In the post-fledging period, the mail

looks after them, after three days with the meal stops feeding them and

depending how fit they are, they can be fed for another 18 days but after

that they start to disperse. Up until this time of year there is no

real direction in which way they will go, by now they are starting to

probably drift south and they have probably travelled up to 100

kilometres so it is unlikely that any of those young kestrel is that

we saw fledging are still on the estate including the young yellow

runt. Great to see them all fledge. As well as the kestrels we also had

barred owls. This is what happened with the spring. This is an adult

nesting in a barn on site. Three Appleton -- chicks hatched. You can

see the one that hatched last. Despite the fact that it was a runt,

it was quite feisty and managed to get a little bit of the food. What

we were concerned about was if there was not enough food, and if the food

was scarce and the runt would not make it, there was a huge difference

in size there. Look at that one, it is towering above the little one.

What did happen over the summer? Well, I am pleased to say that the

little runt made it. It has actually caught up quite well with its

siblings. There are was enough food during the spring and the summer and

all of them grew up and shared the nest. Adults were still coming back

to feed them. All three of them were ringed and I am pleased to tell you

that all three fledged and it is this time that they have probably

either dispersed or they are starting to disperse but because

they are named, we have a small chance of spotting them because they

do not go far, they look for a home range and the average is about 7.5

miles and the average means they do not go far. Some of them do go a

long way, one went from Cornwall to Germany. If they do that, we have

not much chance of finding them. That is unusual but it is a risky

time and more tend to die during juvenile dispersal than at any other

time in their life cycle. 50% of all barn owls die during the dispersal

which is quite interesting. It is that that regulates the population.

50% of all of these birds are killed on the roads and that is the one

thing that seems to be holding our barn owls back in this country. They

can have good seasons but when the young star to disperse they do get

knocked over on the roads. It is because they are on the verges and

get knocked over by bands. Let us hope that the runt is not out there

on the A40! I have heard... There is a barn owl actually quartering. It

has gone behind a tree. It was there. Anyway it is out hunting. Let

us look at the adult barn owls now. Very quiet. They have had a tough

season bringing up those chicks. They are now relaxing, mutual

preening, they go out independently and feed out in the field, they do

not bring any food back. They look a little bit tired. I think they look

fabulous! They really do. That is lovely to see. Great to catch up

with them. Incredibly successful pair. That is the barn owls, what

about the other animals that we saw in Springwatch? What about our

stilts? You may remember that there was a family of stoats and this is

fascinating. The females tend to stay in the same areas as the

mother, but the males go off. They are like foxes. Some of them

disperse enormous distances. What about the Jays? They are the

opposite of the long-distance stoats, the chicks will remain

close, less than one kilometre to where they were born. That is great.

It is great to be able to catch up with some of the animals that we met

I keep doing up through the series. One of our colleagues, Gillian, has

gone down to the south coast where she has discovered a place with

marvellous animal banter watching. I am in Bournemouth. I am here to see

an animal that has been doing really well. You might have guessed it, it

is the fox. Bournemouth has one of the highest densities of urban foxes

in the whole country and this garden is becoming a hot spot. Come and

take a look. We had a fox out here and we still do! There are two foxes

out there. They are absolutely beautiful. Oh my goodness. Now, over

the summer there have been six individuals visiting this garden.

Two vixens, three adults and a dog fox that makes an occasional

appearance. They are beautiful. Right now at this time of year they

are putting on their winter coats and they are looking at their very

best. They have been visiting this garden for 15 years, every night,

without fail and we have a very special lady to thank for that. My

name is Sandy and some years ago I was sitting at the end of the garden

and this fox just walked right past me, I could not believe it! And I

think that is where the relationship really started with the foxes. I

think I have been feeding them for 15 years and I feed them every

night. I do not miss a night. If we are away, we have a house sitter to

come and feed them. We scattered food around in different places and

then I go to the edge of the garden and look over the forest and

whistles. And they come up immediately. Foxes bring such

pleasure. Some of them are quite timid, some of them are really bold,

they come right up to the window, they sometimes appear right inside

at you and they appear totally relaxed, just as they are in nature,

so it is lovely. We are in town and how wonderful to see wildlife in

town! I am always going to seed the foxes in the garden, it really gives

us so much pleasure and it gives so many other people pleasure as well.

It is so wonderful to see wildlife in our gardens, in our cities just

like this and we have people like Sandy to thank for it. Foxes only

really started moving into our cities in the 1930s and 1940s and it

seemed to track the rise of suburbia, houses like this built on

the edge of cities and towns with large gardens provide the perfect

habitat and beastly plenty of food but that is one reason why foxes are

doing well in our cities. The other reason either themselves. The traits

of the archetypal fox, they are not fussy eaters, as you can see, they

will take pretty much everything. They are really agile, look at those

long legs, relative to the body size, it means they are fast and

they can negotiate this complex urban environment. The most

important reason of all is that they are smart and that is why we are

here. Later on we will run some experiments to test just how clever

urban foxes are and whether they are smarter than the rural cousins,

maybe like the ones at Sherborne. What do you think?

I think you're extremely lucky to get that close to foxes. They're a

beautiful animal, undeniably, for me at least. I have got a question for

you. Which British mammal weighs the same as a 2p piece? I'm going to say

Pippa Straw backed maybe? Maybe I should have said terrestrial Ariel

harvest mouse. Exactly right, they're absolutely tiny and

extremely difficult to spot in the. Wild the only chance you really have

his sporting their nest, and if doesn't really lucky you might even

see one at this time of year, because the adorable harvest mouse

continues to breed throughout the autumn.

It's mid-autumn. In the setting sun, a harvest mouse makes her secretive

way through the long grass. What is she up to? She's looking for the

right place to build a nest. She will weave the nest out of living

grass, and needs to find a strong stem surrounded by Hood building

material before she can start her new home.

This dense clump is perfect, and she begins to build. Delicately caring

and weaving the leaves around herself. Building from the inside

makes sure she stays hidden from potential predators, and safety is

important, because she's not just build it for herself... As she

leaves to forage, three tiny new lives have begun deep in the safety

of the nest. Helpless and blind, these young will have to wait in

this woven sanctuary for their mother's return.

But out in the fields, autumn's bounty is on the wane. A few morsels

are all she can find. The harvest mouse must leave the safety of the

long grass if she's going to find food for her young. And that means

keeping out of harm's way. It's a dangerous world out there for

a tiny harvest mouse. Recent rain has brought new challenges. She ages

tentatively towards the pool. And leaps. Like all harvest mice, she's

a very competent swimmer. And she gets her reward - shame stumbled

across. Delicious windfall. In fact the Orchard offers a veritable

cornucopia, a banquet of faintly festering fruit.

She returns to the nest. Over the next few weeks, she will continue to

care for her young. With winter on the horizon, she's found a

well-stocked larder that should see her through the harshest months. And

gave her a hungry baby is the perfect start in life.

What do you think of the harvest mouse? I think it's so clever the

way it does its little nest! There's only one word for it, it's cute!

From this point onwards every time you use that word, I shall be

brandishing this sign! It is unacceptable when it comes to

describing small mice! Can I use the word adorable, then? Just about! We

always like to hear from you, and there are a number of ways you can

get in touch. The easiest way to reach us is to go online and be our

friend on social media. And if you still can't get enough,

our website is full of exclusive videos, in-depth articles and extra

information. We absolutely love it when you do get in touch and get

involved, and in Springwatch we asked you to get involved in lots of

surveys, but one in particular was quashed by the RSPB and we asked you

to take pictures of puffins, and in particular of puffins with food in

their mouths. Let's have a look at some of the ones that you got. This

is from fair Isle and you can see, it's sand eels. And this one is from

Yorkshire... Plenty of fish in that! Plenty of fish! And is that a squid,

do you think? I'm going cuttlefish on that. So many of you got

involved, so thank you so much, because it's not exactly

straightforward, you don't get puffins in your back garden unless

you're... Thank you for getting involved. We are asking people to

monitor these sea birds as we know they're in terrible trouble, things

like the kittiwake and the terns, some years they're not producing any

young at all and it can be difficult to monitor and it can require an

enormous amount of time and energy. But there is an alternative and we

are pleased to launch another way that you can monitor our sea birds

and it is called seabird watch and it is being launched right now.

There are no fewer than 61,000 photographs on this site, and what

we want you to do is to count the number of birds. It is quite easy,

isn't it? Yeah, the kittiwakes, there is a guide to remind you of

what it looks like, we have already pressed kittiwake, so basically you

just have to mark all the different kittiwake... Are there any guillemot

in there? Obviously, this could take some time! It is the sort of thing

your kids can get involved in as well. The photographs were collected

between 2014 and 2017 in a number of sites and we're hoping that by

looking at these and counting the birds, also counting the young, we

can look at the timing of the breeding season and the success of

the breeding season as well. Does this kind of science work? I

continue it does. A little while ago 14,000 viewers of stargazing live

over a period of three days analysed no less than 2 million images of the

night sky, and they discovered a solar system with a few planets. But

I've got to tell you, friends of Brian and Dara - they're just stars!

Light-years away! And if one of them is short on sand eels or squid, we

can't do much about it! But we CAN do something about our sea birds!

And that's why we want you to get involved by going to our website and

there you will find a link to this website and over the next few days

we would like you to count kittiwake, please. Which are

competitive, we do want loads of you to get involved! In the meantime,

let's go to Martin. Light-years away, these are real birds...! Our

mission is to explore as much of the wildlife here at Sherborne as we can

and that includes animals which live underwater, animals like trout. This

is our main studio area, and this blue bit, that is the Sherborne

Brooke, which is beautiful, a clear little stream. In Springwatch we had

a camera down there, we didn't know what it was going to film, but it

did film trout. This is a brown trout, our native trout, and we got

lovely shots but then we got these beautiful pictures of the brown

trout, which are very carnivorous, leaping up and gorging themselves.

Fantastic. This is a crucial time of year for brown trout, because

they're thinking about making, so we thought, debts go down to the Brooke

and try and find out where they're going to goes pawning. So I am about

to fulfil a childhood dream by entering the secret world of the

brown trout. Here I am in the world of the trout,

but I haven't seen a single one yet. Surprisingly trout can change colour

almost like a chameleon, from silver to brown to black even. And it's

partially dependent on their mood but also on the substrata. Here is a

weird thing - if a trout becomes blind in one eye, the opposite side

of its body goes black. So, clearly a whole Communion like ability is

mediated through their eyes. -- chameleon-like ability. We might see

crayfish, anything... Or nothing! It is just as magical as I dreamt it

would be. There are beautiful green lush weeds... Not many trout! If I'm

looking for spawning areas, this is all wrong, the we'd is much too

dense. I think I need to hop out and have a rethink.

I've seen a beetle - it was black and shiny, it was lovely! I like

beetles. The water has got in! Well, that was my childhood dream come

true, but I wasn't finding the spawning grounds. I needed help and

I turned to a 15th century nun for advice. In 1493 she wrote a book

which was called "A Treatyse of Fysshynge" and it was all about

fishing. He was a keen Fisher woman and this is her advice... The trout,

because he is a right dainty fish and also a fervent biter, he is on a

clean gravel bottom in the stream, I need to look for a clean gravel

bottom. This reminds me exactly of those childhood days - perfect

crystal clear pool. If there isn't a trout there, I will eat my hat.

Oh! Two. Yes, yes, yes six! There is a whole shoal of them. All

squirrelling around and around. A fabulous show Best site. That is

just wonderful. We found the trout. How about the spawning area? If I

was a brown trout, this would be the end of my migration. The perfect

place to lay my eggs and to breed. Lovely clean gravel beds, just the

job, nice and shallow, crystal clear water, this is where it they will be

arriving to mate and lay their eggs. It is gorgeous. Mission

accomplished, we found the spawning area and with a bit of luck, we

might be able to film them. I want to tell you something astonishing

about the Brown trout, look at this. This beautifully painted by Alex our

runner is about the size of the trout I used to catch in the stream

near me as a kid. This is an adult fish. Drawn to the same scale,

incredibly, this is another adult brown trout. An adult brown trout

can either be that size or can get as big as this. How on earth is that

possible? It is all about nutrition. This little one is probably not in a

rich environment, does not have much to eat but this one will have come

from a really rich environment where it has had mountains of food and can

get to this said that matter the size. This is the same scale. I

cannot think of another animal on the whole of the planet where the

adult has such an enormous size discrepancy. Extraordinary. We have

a live camera down in the river, let us go live to the camera now. It is

very mysterious. Like creature from the Black Lagoon. There is a little

trout down there and another one. Look at them in the darkness. It is

brilliant. Fantastic. Trout have been with us ever since time began

practically but some species have only just arrived, Michaela went to

investigate. This is probably not an obvious

place to come and do a spot of bird-watching but in the last few

weeks over 10,000 people have come here to do just that. They have come

hoping to get a glimpse of an exotic and very colourful bird that has

chosen this quarry to Neston. It is there be eat. Widespread in warm and

Southern climbs, the eaters are rare visitors to the UK but in the last

few years they have been spotted more and more, to the delight of

eager twitchers. At the scene and? Know. Have you seen anything yet?

Not yet. Have you ever seen bee eaters before? Not in the UK. Are

you excited? Yes. Excited and patient, four hours and still no

sign. We think a loud cry will go up with something appears. Is that your

technique, wait for everyone else to do the hard work? I like that. There

is an bee eater on the way, it is miles away. I saw it flying. You can

just about make it out. Hopefully we will see it close, but that is the

first time that most of us have seen a bee eater in the UK. Let us have a

round of applause. APPLAUSE. There is not just one bee

eater here, there are seven, vibrant group that has been mesmerising

RSPB's Mark Thomas since they arrived. You have spotted them. They

are just on the water level on a branch. Look at that! They are

amazing. They are such stunning birds. Probably bigger than people

expect. They are about the size of a starling but with a longer tail.

That flash of yellow. With the water in the background, we could be in

Africa! Maybe not! It is going to be the one on the right.

It is going to land back down. Look at that! That is what they do, they

catch their honey bee, they come back and thrash the sting out of it.

Yes. -- they catch there be. You must be so chuffed that you have got

to -- bee eaters here. We have got three nests and we have got chicks

in the nest. There has been a huge amount of excitement. They are the

most colourful birds, they are the rainbow bird and it is the kind of

thing, if you gave a three-year-old some crayons and told them to draw

an imaginary bird, they will come up with something like bee eater. It is

worth getting out of bed for. They are brilliant. Did you discover

them? It was a local bird-watcher who came here occasionally and just

happened across a flock of seven bee eaters. What a day for him! I would

love to find seven bee eaters. It is really exciting. The question is why

are they here? Why have they chosen this quarry? In recent years,

greater numbers have been coming to the UK and we think it is

linked to climate change. This is the fifth breeding attempt in the

last ten years, this is the largest group of birds we have had one goal.

There are seven of them, obviously they have paired up, what about the

extra one? Bee eaters are unique, they often travel with a helper

bird, a young bird and its duty is to basically service the nests with

food. There can be several, but they are related, they are thought to be

the offspring of one of the pairs from a previous year. So, what do

you think the chances are of bee eaters making the UK their home in

the future? It is highly likely they could colonise in the UK. How

exciting without the? The rainbow bird in Britain, it does not really

fit, but they are great birds to see. More than great, fantastic, had

you seen them? Yes, many years ago in South Wales in the 1970s. And

again more recently, they bred on the Isle of Wight. Very sad that

they did not actually have a successful rearing in the end.

People have speculated why that would be and some people think it is

because of this. This is where they mess, you can see one of the bee

eaters go" but a kestrel follows it in and flies off. Would the kestrel

be a threat to the bee eater? Let us look at how big the bee eater is

compared to the woodpecker. It is a similar size, about the size of a

starling, I guess. What do you reckon? Would kestrel take a bee

eater? It certainly would. Do you know how much it weighs? Eight 2p

pieces, about 50 grams. Starlings are about 75 grams and kestrel 's

feed on starlings, particularly young starlings. A robust kestrel

would take a blackbird as well, but a bee eater is a easy meal for a

kestrel. The RSPB thinks there was not enough food around and if I tell

you that when they are rearing their young they need to catch about 225

flying insects every day, that is wasps and bees and that sort of

thing. Sadly they did not make it this year, but they have nested

eight times since the 1920s and they have successfully reared young and

four times but what is interesting is the last couple of times, 2014

and 2015, it is getting more regular. The question is, how

regular does it have to be before they colonise the UK? These birds

are responding to climate change, we are having a milder winters and

warmer and wetter summers and we see a trend like this, we got this

information. This bird, this is dated from 1990 and this indicates

the number of them in the UK and it comes up to here and when you get

your first breeding in 2012. What seems to happen is that these birds

need to increase their population up to the point where they can find

mates, if they are returning to the site, it is a site they know and it

reaches a threshold where they start to breed. The reason that this has

escalated is that egrets are breeding every year and producing

young in this country. That is what we will predict will happen with the

bee eaters. Since 2000 they have been here six times, trying to

breed, I think, so this will continue and I think in about ten

years' time they will be regular breeders. It would be fantastic to

have them here, they are beautiful birds. Are we going to have a look

at the other birds? They are not the only things that have colonise. It

was the first time this year that night herons have bred here. They

will come from the continent, hot on the heels of other herons that have

come. Others from the same family have been breeding for the last

couple of seasons. These birds have been visiting for the last number of

years and they have been breeding regularly, this year producing 13

young. They are bit ahead of the bee eaters. It is exciting to get these

rare birds arriving. The main reason that they are coming is all to do

with the weather and I must say some birds must be very confused by the

autumn weather because we can sum it up by saying it has been unsettled

and stormy and I am sure that Nick Miller will enlighten us more. Story

does not quite cover it, this time last week, former hurricane hit us

and this is what storm Brian look like as it moved across through the

weekend. Bird-watchers get excited about powerful weather systems in

the Atlantic because the strong winds can drag birds of course and

bring rare birds all the way from North America to our shores. There

are plenty of birds that intend to come here for the autumn and winter,

those from Scandinavia are facing a head wind. Look at the wind change,

later this week and into the weekend and this developing north-westerly

could get an easier arrival for birds from Iceland, like the red

Wing. Most red Wings will come from Scandinavia and Russia. There is no

easterly wind to help them but plenty are still arriving. Those

birds that have already arrived found a cooler than average

September, very mild October and hardly any frost, but that could

change next week. Cherbourg for Autumnwatch this week is mild and

cloudy. Some birds, like the red Wing migrate at night, so take

advantage of the mild evenings, give them a wave and say welcome back!

Welcome back, we will be staying inside, because until just a few

moments ago, we had wild foxes out here. We are in Bournemouth because

this place has had Fox's visiting here for 15 years, almost every

single night without fail and it makes it a great place for us to

come here and test whether urban foxes are smarter than rural foxes.

Now, to do that, we are going to do is we are going to use a jam jar

lid, a piece of string and a shed load of Perspex. Out here in the

open is a piece of string. And over here, in the box is a food reward.

The foxes will be able to see and smell it but the only way to get at

it is if they pull the string. Easy enough for us, but will the Fox

figure out The Fox Box? We have teamed up with an old friend, Doctor

Dawn Scott from the university of Brighton. She studies urban wildlife

and she is really interested in this question about urban foxes being

smarter than rural ones. She reckons that in a complex urban environment

where there are lots of new objects and unfamiliar things, boldness and

problem solving and intelligence will be a trait that is selected

for, something that urban foxes will do better. For us, before we could

even begin the intelligence testing, we had to work out whether the foxes

were going to be afraid of our The Fox Box. We had to test for Neal

phobia. Would our foxes even approach The Fox Box in the first

place? On the first night we put pieces of

chicken out there. This adult could smell it but thought better of it

and left. Another fox, this one is called Blondie by Sandy, could smell

the chicken but you could see how nervous it was, just a little smash

and off it went. It was so nervous it would not eat it near the box, it

took it some distance away. Now, this one is called Teardrop a sub

adult again, born this spring. So cautious but it takes it, and just

like Blondie, off it goes. Chimdi Chekwa this out. On Teardrop's

second visit, it just goes for it, takes it and eats it right there,

right next to the box. Now, we have got some interesting numbers

relating to this. The time it took Teardrop from approaching the box to

actually taking it, first time it took three for minutes and one

second. The second time it took just 13 seconds. And on its third attempt

it was just three seconds. And the other one was similar. What is

interesting is that no adults approached the box at all. Dorn said

this was something she would expect - at this time of year, the

sub-adults are getting ready to disperse, to leave their native

territory, so they've got to be bold and curious if they're going to make

it in the wide world. So, the sub-adults overcame their fear of

the box, but how did they get on in the intelligence test? So, here we

see Blondie. Food is in the box, you can see the jamjar laid. Blondie

pulls it back and startles herself! But then comes back. She can just

reach the chicken, she's got it, she's off. Now, what happens when

Teardrop visits? Teardrop was quite bold, slightly distracted but keeps

going - so assistant! Works the whole perimeter of the box looking

for a point of weakness. -- so per assistant. Pulls the strings and

makes a little bit of a mess of it, actually. He's got it! And he enjoys

that tasty morsel. Now, this was just two nights of the experiment.

It is a great start and it exceeded our expectations - we had no idea

how they would react to the box. But we have to accept that it could just

be beginner's look, because if you look here, especially watching

Teardrop, it is possible that Teardrop is trying to pour its way

towards the food and catching the string accidentally. In order to

test whether they are really making the connection between string and

the food and whether they know that pulling it leads them to the food,

well, we had to make the test a lot harder. And it generates some

really, really fascinating results, which we will show you tomorrow

night. So, now, we're going to hang out here, and it's back to

Sherborne. Fantastic. Really simple, the kind of thing that you could do

in your own back garden to test the foxes! You may already have some

camera footage and if you have, please send them to us at our

website. It could be coming foxes, crafty... Hedgehogs with high IQs!

Anyway...! Over the years many of you have put up nest boxes and put

cameras in them and for some of you it has become a real passion. One

such passion is Kate, who over the years we have featured many times,

because she made a fantastic mini Springwatch in her garden. In recent

years she has taken her talent and passion to a much larger site in

Worcestershire. This is a stunning seven April

Bardon which is fronted by the River Severn -- seven acre garden. I'm

lucky enough to work here one or two days a week and I manage the site,

everything from putting in habitats to installing the 30 cameras that we

have on-site. Those cameras are everywhere, quite literally. We've

got nearly 70 species of birds that visit here are, mammals... The more

habitats we put in, the more species that come and visit. About ten years

ago, an artificial sett was put in on site. The camera showed that the

badgers were actually using it, so then I started to think, wouldn't it

be really amazing if we could see what happened inside the sett? And

that's when probably the biggest camera project I've ever done

started to take shape. It took about three days to build the sett. We

created two large chambers out of sleepers with two entrances. Their

me sett is in the woodland about half a mile from here. Badgers often

have an satellite to lick some distance from the main sett. Nobody

really knows how they are used because it is very rarely filmed.

So, these badgers are using the two setts we've got on site, and then

I'm able to film how they're using them. There were youngsters

visiting, and then I was amazed to see a female come in, but she wasn't

on her own, she brought a cub. So, she would have given birth possibly

in another annex sett if she was not the dominant female and then brought

her cub to this place. And then she suckled that cub within our chamber.

It wasn't just youngsters coming. We had a very elderly female come into

the sett, who visited over a one-month period. She was very, very

frail looking. Often the weaker members would be ousted out of the

main sett and would have to use satellite setts, and this is what

was happening here. One night she snuggled down in the hay, her

breathing got slower and slower and she actually died within that

chamber. There were multiple invertebrates, beetles and all sorts

of flies, came into the sett and I could see the body beginning to

break down. The cameras then went down you to a power cut. When I

turned them back on about a week later, the whole body was covered in

soil. And I can only presume that the other badgers came in and

covered her body to ensure that the corpse would not contaminate the

whole sett. We don't know if that happens in the wild. It makes

complete sense, but to me it is incredible because we have filmed

something which has never been seen before.

There is an incredible amount of wildlife here, and I don't think we

appreciated it until we started to film. Things like the polecat, we've

captured footage of them inside our setts and outside. You don't often

see them in the wild, but it's fantastic to know that they're here.

We've filmed sparrowhawk catching a bat on our kingfisher post. Every

now and then you get a piece of footage but blows your mind. I love

the changing of the seasons here, particularly when we move out of the

summer into the autumn. As the leaves start turning, the site is

full of natural food, a lot of berries and fruit and we start to

see other species coming in. Kingfisher often hunt here, but in

the autumn and winter, especially when the river levels rise, they

start to come more. The badgers start to pull down hay and straw and

grass ready for the winter months, when they're going to be snuggled up

underground. I don't think I will ever finish with this project. The

phrase find a job you love and you will never work again comes to mind.

This has become my second home. I can quite honestly say it's the best

job in the world. Fantastic, intimate which is! I

remember when Kate used to do things with kitchen and Clements! She's

gone large now! She said in the wild people do not know whether hedges

bury their dead, but there have been reports. 1942 one person saw a

female badger, a male joined her and the two of them dragged a dead

badger Oddy out of sett and buried it in a rabbit warren. We spoke to a

doctor adulthood university and he suggested there were three very good

reasons why badgers would do this. Firstly, hygiene. Secondly, if the

badger starts to decompose in the sett it would bring in all sorts of

predators. And then lastly, of course, it would be smelling, it

would be rotting, and badgers have got such a keen sense of smell they

would not want to be locked in small chambers with something which was

stinking like that, so it makes sense. It is a shame the cameras

went off, but we have got an update from Kate. There has been some

action just outside the sett, with two individuals doing what is called

banal rubbing! First of all they have a little cuddle! And this is

exactly what they're doing, scent marking each other, and they do that

when it is individuals in the same clan. Interestingly they have got a

number of anal glands, not just the ones which produce pungent smells

but ones which are specifically for the rubbing and they give a much

sweeter smell. Each one is individual to the animal, so they

can recognise each other individually through the scent.

Isn't that absolutely delicious?! We've managed to film on the thermal

camera during this programme... Any banal rubbing? It takes two, you

can't do it on your own! Tomorrow, Gillian will be live in Bournemouth

when she will be updating us with her fox experiment. And there is an

update on the damselfly. And I will be continuing my investigation, and

I will be going undercover. Send in your wildlife clips, we want animals

being clever in your garden. Seabird watch! Get involved in that as well!

We will see you tomorrow, same time, same place, same cosy cow shed!