Episode 3 Autumnwatch

What a beautiful day it's

been here in Sherborne.

Some autumn sun bursting through.

It has brought out the very best of

our birds.

But at night something

has been flashing through. Our

cameras have picked up on some

surprise visitors. What are they?

We've got magic, we've got mystery,

we've got Autumnwatch.

Hello and welcome to Autumnwatch

2017 coming to you from the National

Trust Sherbourne Park estate appear

in Gloucestershire.

Trust Sherbourne Park estate appear

in Gloucestershire. We've been

bringing you the very best of

British wildlife. We started last

night brilliantly with a live mouse.

Tonight I think we can do a little

bit better.

We're going to try the

mouse because tonight we've got

something more exciting than our

live camera, not that a mouse isn't,

but I think you'll like this even

more. This...

A mouse and a badger.

Where is the badger?

He's really

well camouflaged. Look at that!

I

promise you, literally.

Look at his

head, the leaves rustling, Michaela.

Seconds before we came on air it was

the perfect shot of a badger.

The

mouse jumped as well! Mouse and

badger, absolutely fantastic. Just

before we came on air we saw

something else. Amazing thing. Let's

have a look at it. Owl, tawny owl.

That's nice.

It's very close to

where we're sitting, probably not

more than 100 yards and we keep

hearing them. Through the programme

you might hear them too.

It

definitely trumped the badger in the

bush.

Listen, listen. Keep your ears

pinned because there was a lot of

tawny owl activity going on all

around us.

A good start. Badger,

mouse, tawny owl, what could be

better? What about that mystery

animal that we teased you with in

the pre-titles, as we call them?

Let's take a look again. This was

caught on camera covering our badger

set, dashing through. It's a weasel

or stoats like animal, but much

larger and darker. When it passes

the fence you get quite a good few

of its face. It doesn't stop for

long. Disappears behind the tree.

But if we rewind it, look at the

very distinct facial markings on

this animal. It looks very much like

a polecat. Could it be a polecat?

They were once widespread across the

UK. After years of persecution they

disappeared pretty much into the

Welsh marches, then expanded their

population from there. Have they

reached Sherbourne? We asked Lizzie

Cruise from the Vincent wildlife

trust and she said this is part of

their core area, there was a good

chance it could be a polecat. The

ambiguity is there are lots of feral

ferret out there and ferrets were

domesticated from polecat about 2000

years ago and escape into the

countryside and often they hybridise

with real polecats. We seem to think

we're in a core area, so there was a

good chance there could be real

ones. We would have to DNA test them

to absolutely prove it.

They've been

seen before he haven't they?

Sadly

they've been picked up on the road,

that's how we've noticed the polecat

has been moving out of this area it

was hemmed into and spreading across

England and Wales. Because people

see them knocked over on the road,

sadly.

Fantastic so, to see.

Very

exciting. If you were watching last

night you'll know we had lots of

activity by the river. Tawny owls

hunting rats and mice. We went down

this morning and put a new camera on

that leaning blog. Grace Krul

arrived pretty promptly. Rooting

around. Finding food this time of

year to cash it away. Lots of

activity from the ground rats. More

rat activity. But I've got to say,

for all of that, we watched all

night long and there was no tawny

owl action.

No tawny owl action

there, Chris, but we did have tawny

owl action in the garden, our garden

camera. We don't know if it was the

same tawny owl. It flies off and

lands on some of our filming

equipment. It's obviously looking at

something and if you look down by

the bench, look very closely, this

is the owl's eye view because he's

sitting on top of the camera. The

camera focuses in, can you see just

as the camera gets it the owl also

spots that mouse on the grass. Flies

down...

That was close.

Tries to

catch it. If we look at that

again... It's a near miss, not a

successful hunt this time. That

little mouse lives another day. And

it flies off. Once it flies off,

though, there's quite a lot of noise

going on, there's a lot of

vocalisation. As you were saying,

Martin Kaymer at the beginning, at

this time of the year you hear that.

Listen to that, listen to that. --

as you were saying, Martin, at the

beginning. You are a bit hard of

hearing, but we can hear it. Now

we've got something really exciting

to show you, we saw this last night.

If you take a look we don't know

what it is, we almost thought it

could be a rabbit or a hair until

you look closer, you can clearly see

that these are two deer. You were

focusing yesterday on fallow deer,

but these ones are roe deer. They

are not adult males, not writing as

such, because it's not the right

time of year, but what are they

doing

it is a false note, the Rodeo

what is generally over by August.

It's young males, 18 months old,

bursting with hormones, this is them

sort of practising. By golly they

were really going at it. You can see

how hot they've got with this

thermal camera. Look closely around

the head. He's panting away. The

blood vessels around the ears and

head have violated and all the blood

has gone to the periphery to try and

cool down. No way you'd see that

without the thermal camera.

Extraordinary.

Incredible they do

that at night, that they can see

each other well enough to have a

fight at night.

I don't get this

deer at night thing, Chris, in the

pitch black it's almost as if they

can see.

They've got very large

eyes, roe -, maybe they're nocturnal

vision is quite good. It's not

really pitch Black, there is so much

light pollution.

They really were

going at it. I'm glad I don't have

to fight like that for access to my

wife.

Anyway, moving on.

That is

black and white stuff, what about in

colour? Let's have some brightness

and go to the bird feeder. We have a

bird feeder full of peanuts and

garden birds like tips coming in to

feast. And their woodpecker, great

spotted woodpecker, you'd probably

get those on your feeders at home.

It's taking the food away and

feeding immediately. In it comes,

the nuthatch, it won't eat here,

takes the peanut away. It does some

feeding, then something interesting

happens. It picks up some moss

Orbach and it cashes the remain of

the nuts. -- caches. The J is a

legendary cache. They can cache up

to 5000 acorns in a day. They take

them away, they can carry up to nine

in their gizzard and buried in the

ground. This one puts a bit of moss

there, takes it in. And put a leaf

on top which is really silly because

it'll blow straightaway.

It's a nice

touch, though.

He is the fascinating

thing, it has been shown that some

jays are able to remember where they

have put 75% of the nuts they

buried. There are 5000 and they can

remember where 75% are.

How many you

remember? Three. You would remember

loads because you've got that sort

of memory.

I'm not as wise as the

jay. Good memory but can't hear a

word you're saying. Called selective

memory. We've been concerned about

the plight of Britain's sea birds.

Some seasons they fail to produce

young in some colonies and some

species are on the brink of

extinction. We were asking for your

help in a brilliant project called

sea bird watch. It couldn't be

simpler to do. If you visit our

website will link you to the sea

bird watch website. There were six

to 1000 photographs. What you've got

to do is click on all of the birds

that you see. One at a time. These

are kittiwakes. We want you to count

guillemots and their young and any

other species you will see. Now the

photographs come from the UK, the

Pharaohs, from Iceland and from

Svalbard. -- the Faroe s. Those

photographs start from 2014 through

to 2017. Couldn't be simpler, very

easy to do, generate good data that

could inform effective conservation.

There is just one problem. Only 11%

of them have been done. 11, 11%,

you've only done 11%. It's not very

good at all, is it, really. Can I

ask you when the programme finishes

rather than having a cup of tea or

turning over and watching some in

facile on the other side, you sit

down and click through a few photos

for us, it'll make a difference for

sea birds. If you don't they could

die in their thousands. I don't want

to get on your conscience but they

could die in their thousands. Go to

the website...

could die in their thousands. Go to

the website...

Please don't upset him, he wants to

get this figure right up. Let's join

in. When it comes to wildlife we

very quick to celebrate the quick,

bold and beautiful. But as we seen

so many times on watches, it's often

the little guys who are so

fascinating. We're going to give you

a glimpse into the weird and

wonderful world of life in a dried

up puddle. Don't prejudge, open your

eyes! Be ready to be amazed.

It's summer 's end, and the land is

parched. As autumn rain is beginning

to fall, the caked mud softens and

long hidden secrets emerge from the

earth itself.

Desiccated eggs, dormant all summer

in the dry substrate begin to hatch

in the vernal pool. Here life

multiplies rapidly. Tiny daphnia

dance in shafts of life while in the

darkness of the creatures 12. --

shafts of light.

-- in the darkness other creatures

dwell.

The tadpole shrimp. Triops. These

crustaceans appeared on Earth over

200 million years ago. They've

evolved to thrive in low oxygen

pools and have heightened levels of

haemoglobin, giving them a red hue.

But they must grow quickly in this,

the most temporary of homes. With

voracious determination, they begin

to feed. Moving across the rocks

with their undulating gills, these

omnivores feed on anything they can

find.

In the waters above, hang fairy

shrimp. The males, with tusk like

appendages, hunt for females.

They, too, must act quickly, because

a fairy shrimp would make a tasty

meal for the Widnes. The males chase

down any females they see. -- a

tasty meal for the triops.

And after mating the female produces

eggs, which she keeps in a special

abdominal sac until spreading them

around the pool where they will

hatch into a new generation of fairy

shrimp. As the season progresses,

the pool fills with autumn spoil.

Meanwhile, the triops have almost

doubled in size, taking on a

greenish hue. There are floating

skins, ghosts of their former

selves. As the pool begins to dry

up, the triops are running out of

time. They must lay their eggs

before it's too late. Luckily, they

don't need to make, they can self

fertilise their eggs, which they lay

in their thousands. Mixing them with

the sediment ensures their safety.

With no new rain for weeks,

conditions are getting tougher.

Food is becoming scarce.

So in desperation, the triops resort

to cannibalism.

But it's no use. The unrelenting sun

leaves the last of the triops

helpless.

And as the land returned to its

apparently barren state, it harbours

a secret store of eggs once more.

And when the rains finally returned,

so will this alien world.

Remarkable, aren't they, triops? I

really like them, they are one of

those animals that you always hear

people say they've been around since

the dinosaurs but it is not strictly

true, those sorts of animals might

have been around from the time of

the dinosaurs but not the same

species but in the case of the

triops and a number of species

around the world, one of them has

been around unchanged as a single

species for millions of years.

Absolutely phenomenal but it looks

very alien, it has an alien look

about it but it's not the only

animal that takes advantage of those

vernal or temporary pools. So does

this creature, the natterjack toad.

He uses a similar strategy in vernal

pools found in sandy soil, like sand

dunes and things but for them it is

a race against time to complete the

whole breeding cycle from reading to

laying eggs, to hatching the

tadpoles, to becoming toadlets

before the pond dries out. It is a

slight risk but there are huge

advantages because in a vernal pool,

there are less predators, no fish or

dragonfly larvae so it has more

chance of growing into one of those

fantastic adults and after that show

-- natterjack toads.

And a bizarre

instance, John Buckley, who was my

biology teacher, was responsible for

lots of effective natterjack toad

conservation and came into the

classroom Monday with a packet of

mud. He told me to put it in a

bucket and it had been scooped up

from a pond in the new Forest where

triops live and they hatched the

eggs in the bucket and I got to keep

them time. Fantastic.

Because they

are only found in places.

The new

Forest and Blackrock recently. A man

who is also happy to be messing

around in the mud is Martin.

Thanks, Chris. Here's a little quiz

for you, this is a quote from

Charles Darwin, none other than

Charles Darwin, describing a

particular sort of animal. I wonder

if you can guess what it is? "It May

be doubted whether there are many

other animals who have played a more

important part in the history of the

world". He said that in 1881. What

do you think it was? It was worms

and at this time of year, worms are

critically important because what

they do is they will drag the leaves

that are falling from the trees all

around us now under the ground and

start the whole process of rotting

them down and recycling the

nutrients. Here comes one, look at

that, going under, dragging it under

the ground. Fantastic images. Look

at this, that is going on all around

us now, as the leaves come down,

under the cover of darkness, the

worms tidy them up. Just to give

UNIDO of just how important they

are, we have been filming, well,

somebody filmed them for 15 weeks.

Watch this. Those are the leaves and

the mud. 15 weeks, time-lapse, and

you can see what is happening to the

leaves, they are being broken up

into little pieces by the worms and

other invertebrates and the whole

pile is sinking down into the

ground. If we didn't have worms, by

the end of the autumn, we would be

walking around with leaves up to

year. They are absolutely brilliant

and they don't just recycle the mud

and detritus. They are a crucial

food resource for lots of the

animals we feature on the Watches.

This is Jimmy buzzard, eating worms.

Up to 20% of the buzzard's diet can

be invertebrates like worms. The bad

job, up to 80% of the badger's diet

can be worms, Fox is a lot less,

maybe only 4% but they are still

important to foxes. That is out in

the countryside. Those animals are

not munching the worms here but

there are worms in the city as well.

They are just as important to

animals there. Have you seen a

seagull doing this, paddling like

this? What do you think they are

doing? By doing the paddling, they

are making noise like falling rain.

What happens is that if the worm's

hole in the ground fills up with

water, they might start to lose

oxygen to quickly and that makes

them come up to the surface so by

paddling and mimicking the rain, the

seagulls hope the worms will come to

the surface. An amazing stat, for

some gulls, worms are 90% of their

diet. OK, what we are going to do

now is start the Sherborne worm

grunting event. A car alarm is going

off over there! What we are going to

try to do is bring the worms are up

from under the ground. The first way

we are going to do it is by

grunting, this is a genuine thing.

What you have got to do is... Do

this, and if I keep going with this,

eventually, some worms might come

up. That is grunting. I always get

this wrong, it is not twerking, it

is twanging. Get a fork in the

garden and do it like this. It is

not twerking, is it? It is worm

twanging and if you keep doing that,

with a bit of luck, the worms will

turn up and there's another amazing

way of trying to get hold of worms.

What we need is a bassoon player. If

only we had one. Oh!

Now, you may laugh but Charles

Darwin's own son used to sit in the

garden and play the bassoon like

that because those deep vibrations

would bring up worms. It is called

worm charming. I'm going to go back

to the twerking... No, it's not

twerking, and try to get some worms

up and we will examine the types of

worms that thereafter in Sherborne

in a lot more detail because there's

a lot more than one species. See you

later.

I think the only chance he's got

getting any worms is if he assumes

Darwin's Sun using the fork and get

him back on the bassoon.

I want to

see Hugh Graham twerking! What are

thought!

When it comes to nature, we

have an enormous admiration for it

and when it comes to exercising our

creativity, we draw upon the beauty

of nature and we try to replicate it

and we do that through painting,

photography and perhaps the most

difficult medium, if you like,

writing. Trying to transform all of

this and distil it into words and

make it just as beautiful is

incredibly hard. Having said that,

we are enjoying a bit of a

renaissance in the UK at the moment

when it comes to top-quality nature

writers.

Today is the launch of a

national survey to find out the

nation's favourite nature book.

Either written by British author or

about British and nature. They want

to know what your favourite book is

and why in 100 words or less. All

the details for that are on our

website. The survey

the details for that are on our

website. The survey will be open

until the 30th of November and then

a panel will would let down to the

most popular ten and then there will

be an online vote in January and we

will announce the winner,

be an online vote in January and we

will announce the winner, the

nation's favourite nature book, on

Winterwatch. Very exciting.

Great

idea from the arts and humanities

research Council. To launch this

thing, we thought, why can't we get

hold of the best nature writer we

have got in the UK, perhaps Robert

McFarlane, author of The Wild

Places, a commit is also, and find

out what inspired him to first pick

up the pen?

25 years ago, I read a book that

changed the way I see the world.

That book was The Peregrine by JA

Baker. It gripped me in its talons

then and it shows no sign of letting

go. This extraordinary text was

written by a seemingly ordinary man.

Baker worked for much of his life at

the automobile Association offices

in Chelmsford, Essex. But he had a

secret obsession. For around ten

years, from the mid-19 50s, Baker

compulsively followed the peregrines

that wintered among the salt

marshes, power stations and

woodlands of coastal Essex.

Autumn begins my season of hawk

hunting, he wrote. "Spring Ends it

and wintered glitters between like

the arch of Orion"

and wintered glitters between like

the arch of Orion".

I was fascinated by Baker's longing

to become a bird, to transform into

a peregrine. His quest spoke to my

own dreams then of flight and of

wildness. But it was Baker's

startling prose style above all that

seized me. Reading his descriptions,

I was enraptured. "Autumn Rises into

the bright sky. Corn is down. Fields

shine after harvest. Over orchards

smelling of filigree windfalls, a

peregrine glides to a perch in the

river bank all the". He describes

how a barn owl turns in wonderment,

the dark, prune like guys shining

through the sad full's mask of

feathers. -- prune like eyes. Of a

falcon hunts, the sky shredded up

was torn by whirling birds. The

beaches flared and roared with

salvos of white wings. Like the

peregrines themselves, Baker's

sentences stoop, swerve and shock.

His writing not only opened my eyes

to peregrines, it also transformed

the southern English landscape in my

imagination. Seen through his

language, Essex, much maligned

Essex, became a place as wild to me

as the Arctic or the Himalayas. It

was as if he had given me

binoculars. Nature leopard forwards,

filled with a vivid new energy and

strangeness. His words rewilded my

everyday world. Unlike some of what

we might call nature writing, The

Peregrine cannot be passively

consumed, it surprises the eye,

sticks in the craw, raked the mind.

In the mid-19 60s, when Baker was

writing, pesticide contamination was

so serious that the peregrine

population was crashing towards

extinction. Eggshell thinning caused

by DDT was preventing raptor X from

hatching. We are the killers, Rob

Baker. A man embarrassed by the

capacity of his species for harm.

"We Stink of death"

capacity of his species for harm.

"We Stink of death".

The Peregrine was published 50 years

ago this year but it still speaks

ringing lead to loss of our

contemporary predicament. In its

furious vision, there exists an odd

kind of hope. For Baker's peregrines

did not go extinct. Pesticide use

was restricted, public awareness

grew of the chemical threat.

Peregrine numbers began to rise

again. Now peregrines, though

persecuted in the uplands, are back

in number in our cities, nesting on

our cathedrals, office blocks and

power stations. They are now nesting

in the heart of my city, Cambridge,

and they take my breath away daily.

Baker shows us that the best writing

about the natural world is not

dastardly out of date -- dastardly

out of date. It is vital, urgent,

powerful, hard-wired into the wonder

of wild nature. It works through

beauty and anger to change the world

and change the way we see it.

Isn't it fantastic, that such an

amazing book has inspired an amazing

wildlife author? We want to know

what has inspired you, so head to

the website for all the details. We

love hearing from you as always and

there are lots of ways you can get

in touch. The easiest way to reach

us is go online and be our friend on

social media. You can like us on

Facebook, and in your pictures and

comments to our page. Follow us on

Instagram and tag us in your

photographs, or treat us your

questions. If you still can't get

enough our website is full of

exclusive videos, in-depth articles

and links to extra information.

The

Last couple of nights Gillian has

been in Bournemouth looking at urban

foxes. Not just looking at them,

putting them to the test, seeing if

she can measure how bright and

intelligent they are. We thought

we'd contrast the foxes in

Bournemouth with those appear at

Sherborne. We took the same piece of

appointment, the Perspex box, and

put it out in the woods. Let's see

what happened. Here is the box with

two chunks of chicken out front.

And... So far no foxes at all, which

is as we suspected, the foxes out

here are very shy. They are near

phobic, afraid of new things. It may

take them longer to get used the box

but there were some creatures who

couldn't help but rush in and help

themselves. -- neophobic. The

ubiquity was wood mouse, the star of

Autumnwatch 2017 comes in and helped

itself to a massive chunk of

chicken. I don't blame it, this time

of year they are out eating acorns,

beach and sycamore seeds. They will

eat meat, insects, centipedes,

caterpillars, worms, those sorts of

things. If they happen across a

great big chunk of protein like that

I can't blame them for carrying it

away. Didn't want the second one,

full up.

The mouse is thinking, this

is an easy mouse maze this year, it

was harder last year.

There is that.

While Gillian was in that garden

they had a cat in the garden so she

sent this clip. This cat looks

absolutely enormous through the

Perspex. We can see it is enormous,

quite a large cat. It knows

something is in the box, it's

looking at what it has to do, but

this is what I love about cats,

you've got to admire them, it's

like, I'm not playing your game, not

going to do your experiment, I'm

going to put my fat pour in there

and get the food out, thank you very

much. I mean you've got to love a

cat, they are clever.

You've got to

love the cat, I've always said that.

You've always been a champion of the

cat. We asked you to send in clips

of clever animals in your garden.

Thank you very much for those that

did, let's show you a couple. Look

at this, this is a bird feeder with

a cage on it and that is to stop

things like pigeons getting in, but

it isn't going to stop this intrepid

little hedgehog in Sherry Smith's

garden. I love this name, Pat

sparrowhawk sent this in. This is a

blackbird. There is food underneath

the plant pot. The blackbird is

sussing it out, goes round and round

the plant pot. Sits on top, things,

what do we do to get the food out?

I'm not a stupid blackbird, I can

tip that over and gobble laptop.

Thank you very much for the little

tip. It doesn't surprise you, does

it?

Blackbirds, thrushes in general,

frequently turn things over to find

food, you'll see them flicking

leaves overlooking for worms,

turning over small twigs, pieces of

bark, obviously knew the food was

there, so quite an easy task.

If you

have any more clever animals in your

garden, we'd love to see them.

We

can go live to a badger I believe.

There it is in one of the sets we've

got out here. We seem to be animals

this evening while we've been

wittering on about other things.

That is nice to see, it looks like a

sour badger, narrow neck, long body.

Can't see the tail but we might see

a long tail. -- it looks like a sow.

A better view than we got at the

beginning. Lovely to see. From a

badger in the dark to a charming man

in the dark.

The leather is smooth

and his passenger seat but let's see

if nature has made a man of him yet.

Thanks, Chris, we've been trying to

use all sorts of techniques through

the day to try to find worms here at

Sherwood. This is the planning

method, some of you may use it at

home if you are a fisherman. Go

backwards and forwards and the

vibrations are meant to bring up

worms. We've not had much luck but

we've had luck with other

techniques. We've managed to find

some worms and they are crucially

important to the health of the soil

and to lots of the animals that feed

on them. We found the worms and

found a world-class expert here.

We've got Emma Sherlock, chair of

the free-living worms Department.

Chair of the earthworm society.

Curator of the free-living worms

department at the Natural History

Museum, but it right at last. She is

a world expert. We're going to look

at some of the worms we've got here.

You can take us through. Many

different species are there?

In the

UK we've got 29 different species of

earthworm so a lot more than people

think.

29? Before we have a look,

why do some of those techniques,

putting those vibrations in the

ground, charming with the bassoon,

why might it work bringing the worms

up from underground?

What are you

doing, especially with grunting and

twanging, putting lots of vibrations

deep into the soil. The earthworm

sends these vibrations and they

think a predator is coming. In

particular moles. So they think,

cranky, a mole is coming for me, and

they come up to the surface.

It's

not the joke, that really works.

It

does, it's brilliant.

And different

species, you say?

Yeah. Already I

can see a very familiar character.

This one you can see has got a deep

redhead, very large. If you give it

a tap it has a bit of a saddle like

shape.

If flattened down tail. This

looks very much like one I would

find in the garden.

Exactly. This is

the nightcrawler, the one that comes

to the surface and pulls leaves down

into its burrow.

Exactly as we saw

in the film. This one does that.

It's a beautiful thing, it's

gorgeous. Sometimes some animals

have difficulty getting worms out of

the ground. They pull and you think,

it would be easy to get this out.

Why is that?

No, they are cleverly

adapted. Basically when these come

up at night, this end will come out

of the borough, looking for leaves

to pull down, but this speech like

tail it makes, that stays in the

baroque and they have little hairs,

I don't know if you can feel them,

little hairs...

A little bit

bristly.

If anything tries to get

them they can retract themselves

really quickly back into their

baroque. They can grip onto the mud.

Yes. -- back into that Arroyo.

This is really stripey. When it

stretches out in particular can use

either stripes?

Zebra stripes... Not

zebra... Yes, I see them. Is this

the one I would find in my compost

heap? Exactly coming must have been

found around the estate in compost.

They are really nice worms to find.

How do they manage to lead? They've

got no teeth, how do they choose a

compost in my compost heap?

Really

good question. These worms like

deep, thick organic matter. They

will ingest it. Then they have a

dessert, like a bird, that is why

people ask you to put eggshells in

the compost, so they have something

to take down and used to grind, to

grind up that food. As it goes down

the gut they also have symbiotic

relationships with bacteria and

things that help break it down and

make it wonderful when it comes out

the event.

Kind of like my chickens.

That's amazing.

Anything else? Then

we've got these kind of smaller,

grey, pink coloured worms. These are

your soil feeders, these ones rarely

come to the surface. Instead of

having vertical boroughs like that

big one, these have horizontal

burrows. They convert all the

nutrients to a lovely form. For

plans. Breaking up the soil, making

it a wonderful texture.

You

fascinated the whole crew the whole

day, you make the earthworm so

interesting, I want to join the

earthworm society, may I join?

Absolutely, please do. We'll talk

about subs later on. You can see

once again a lowly, apparently, life

form, is crucially important to the

whole of life on planet Earth.

Gillian has been showing us the

foxes in Dorset over the past couple

of days. She is coming tomorrow to

give a final update. She also went

down to Cornwall to focus in on a

really fascinating new conservation

project.

Ecosystems are complex. Trying to

unpick how all these elements

connect and interact is incredibly

difficult. Especially when you're

trying to measure the impact of one

single animal. Here in Cornwall we

have just that. A keystone species

that has been reintroduced and given

us the chance to study them.

Beavers. Originally indigenous to

Britain they were hunted to

extinction almost 400 years ago.

These large rodents are incredible

habitat modifiers. Their dam

building activity changing water

flow and sculpting the landscape.

Skills that could be put to good use

here in Cornwall where flash floods

have caused devastation to homes and

villages. In June this year, a

parent beavers were released

upstream of one of the worst hit

areas. The site was carefully chosen

for a unique scientific study, could

these two individuals really make a

difference? Richard Brazier is a

hydrologist from the University of

Exeter. He joined the project over a

year ago to monitor water flow and

quality before the beaver release.

Tumbles from a recent storm in able

Richard to show me the staggering

difference the beavers have made.

This is a sample from the storm last

night, water that has flowed into

the site. If we give it a shake, it

has quite a lot of sediment in

there. Quite a lot of nutrients

associated with diffuse pollutants

from farmland upstream of the beaver

dams.

This is a sample from

downstream. The one on the other

side.

Taken from exactly the same

time. Immediately easy it is clearer

water, not as polluted, because the

beaver dams have filtered out the

poor water quality.

I know you've

got to take it and analyse it but

even to the eye it is such a

noticeable difference, amazing, it

really is.

The other important thing

here is slowing the flow. We've got

water flowing rapidly of the

farmland upstream. It enters this

site that has five beaver dams.

Water ponds, the flow has slowed and

released very gently downstream. So

we don't see a flood wave moving

through the site as we did before

the animals started building these

dams.

An incredible success story in

just four months.

It's a nature

-based solution to a man-made

problem.

Or some, I love it. The

project will be closely monitored

for the next five years and the hope

is that this pair will breed next

spring. This would have been

possible without serious commitment

from farmer and landowner Chris

Jones, who has championed this

project from the start. As nocturnal

animals, the best time to see the

beavers at work is at night, so

we've brought along our thermal

imaging camera to try and capture

them in action. I've never seen a

wild beaver before, I'm really

excited. It's pitch black out here

but we've got this thermal imaging

camera that we can see on this

monitor and straightaway we've

picked up a brown rat out there, got

a little bit excited but it isn't

the beaver, is it?

I have not seen

it like this, this is absolutely

phenomenal. There it is. Fabulous.

Oh my gosh, that's it. That is it.

That's an actual, adult, European

beaver. Right there.

Look at that.

And it's getting something to read.

That's the first thing they do. Oh

my God, unmistakable, isn't it? This

is so exciting. It looks like it's

gnawing away at some branches.

Putting some branches down, little

twigs, it'll slip those off and find

a comfortable place to sit, then

it'll slowly strip the bark off

those. The sticks, often they leave

them there, but sometimes they will

stick them in the dam. He's bobbing

his nose up and down, having a good

smell.

This is a working farm with

dogs and cattle, I mean...

Heading

towards us. Turning around.

Patrolling.

That was a little tail

slap. Probably only ten metres away

from it. Maybe closer.

That's

amazing. You can see it blinking at

the moment. This pair have only been

here four months and already we've

seen this incredible activity and

you've seen real changes.

It's been

superb. We knew what they were

capable of, but we had no idea that

they would get down and start

working almost as soon as they

arrived. Creating a habitat for

fish, and amphibians, and for a

whole host of insects, bats. I can

just see this becoming like an

island of intense biodiversity. What

I'd like to think is we'll be able

to demonstrate how these animals can

just... Be a part of the British

landscape. Why not?

Absolutely, why

not?

Great to see Gillian so excited to

see a beaver. It is a brilliant

project because it has baseline data

and that means they have gathered

information about flooding, about

water flow and about species numbers

from a year before the Beavers were

introduced, which means they can

have accurate information on before

and after. I mean, it's really

important.

They have already got

that in the form of biodiversity,

they looked at the aquatic

invertebrates before, 14 species in

the area where the beaver dams are

and the year afterwards, 41 species.

Immediately, the Beavers have

increased the biodiversity, the

species of life there. They are not

just about improving things for

other types of light. They are

ecosystem engineers who could help

us as well and we have a model which

we have built over here which shows

a cross-section of the British

countryside. You have got the

uplands, no trees, we have

deforested them in many places,

sadly, and no trees on the slope,

either, and we have drained this

area. Let's see what happens when we

have an extreme weather event with

lots of very heavy rain, as we are

seeing with climate change.

This is

Storm Strachan racing down, getting

overly houses.

It gets to Compton at

the bottom and submerges it and

immediately, the whole of all of the

firefighters are rushing out of the

fire station to help the village.

I'm game to try to rebuild the

village and we're going to change

the landscape by adding Beavers. I

have to get the water out.

Do that

but I will start adding the Beavers.

When I said extreme weather...

Did I

overdo it, storm Strachan got

carried away! In goes the Beavers,

quite a big beaver, look at the size

of it! It is not to scale. It is as

big as the houses. There's another

one, another dam that the beaver has

built which will go in there. I

think we have drained it.

Pretty

much.

It is not to scale.

And the

water that came out on that occasion

was very silky because it was

eroding the land it was rushing

through. Now we have the beaver dams

in place and we have transformed the

landscape and if I just get the

glass ready, off you go. An extreme

weather event. But what happens? The

beaver dams are holding up the

water, slowing the flow, it is

merely trickling down and then two,

the drains are overloaded on the

streets but it's not around your

washing machine and savour. It is

still a bit silky but in real life,

it certainly wouldn't be. Getting

serious for a moment, we've had a

laugh with the model but when we

have these kind of events, it ruins

peoples lives and costs the economy

billions of pounds but we have the

potential for an logical solution.

Beavers can make a difference, they

slow down the water flow through the

system that is being monitored down

on the farm there by up to 30% and

the 13 beaver dams he has got on his

farm hold-up 1 million litres of

water. Beavers really can make a

difference. I think we ought to

salute Chris Jones as being one of

the foremost forward-thinking

farmers in the UK in his interest in

bringing back Beavers.

What I like,

as it said in the film, a natural

solution to a man-made problem and

I've got to say, it went better than

we expected, didn't it?

Pretty much!

Now it's time for an update on a

really beautiful but rare visitor to

the UK, a bird called the Montagu 's

Harrier. They are right at the limit

of their range here but they do

breed occasionally and I was lucky

enough last year to actually join a

team that were catching and

satellite tagging them. We caught

one and her name was Sally. It is

amazing, B Harrier looks quite big

in the air but in the hand, they are

tiny and really liked, and we

managed to get the satellite tag on

and once it was on, we were ready to

let her go.

Three, two, one. Zero.

There you go, Sally.

Fantastic. We

knew that Sally had successfully

bred for two years in the past with

her partner, Roger. But now we had

the satellite tag, we could track

exactly where she was going to go

and it was quite an extraordinary

journey. She left the UK, went all

the way across France, shot across

the Mediterranean, went to Tunisia

and then swept across here to the

Western Sahara and ended up down

here in Ghana. Quite a story. As far

as anyone knows, that is the

furthest south any Montagu's Harrier

has ever flown, Sally is a record

breaker. Of course, having done the

journey, earlier this year, she

started off coming all the way back

again and hopefully meeting up with

her partner, Roger, to breed this

year but sadly, that didn't happen.

Unexpectedly, suddenly, and

unexpectedly, her satellite tags

stopped transmitting on the 6th of

August. That was a very surprising

event. It is almost certain that

Sally is dead. And the fact that she

disappeared like that suddenly is

very suspicious. Also, three years

ago, another Montagu's Harrier was

killed in exactly the same area. It

is very sad news.

It is but I have

some good news, in 2004, I went out

in the south-west and I helped to

wring some Montagu's Harrier is, as

you can see here. It's fingers

crossed these Montagu's Harriers

will not only be successful now and

fledge but also comeback and have

some broods of their own. Fingers

crossed they would come back and the

RSPB went out this year, similar

kind of area, and they caught two

adult Montagu's Harriers, and when

they looked at the rings, they were

two of the female birds from the

brood that we ringed 13 years ago.

That's impossible because they

surely don't live 13 years?

We prove

they do, we put the satellite tag

them and we calculate if they were

to migrate back to Senegal like

usual, that is a distance of over

100,000 kilometres, 65,000 miles.

What about that?

Astonishing.

Five

pairs trying to breed this year,

four were successful and they had 12

young this year.

That's very

impressive. I don't like it, Chris,

there's a bit of the slope on the

floor and I know you are a bit

taller than me but I feel really

short and I want an orange box! Now,

and Autumnwatch special because

Chris and I are going head-to-head,

testing the abilities of two massive

migratory birds, swans and geese. In

fact, we're going to try to find out

which one is top gun. The hooper

swan and the greylag goose.

Supreme

migratory birds from Iceland. Both

top birds.

But who is the champion

flyer? We have come to Abingdon

airfield to find out. Now, this is

Maisie. She is a greylag goose. She

is about five years old and she

weighs 2.8 kilograms and with a

wingspan of about 1.6 metres, she is

a superb flyer. For me, Maisie,

you're the one.

This is Earth, the

hooper swan and she is 12 years old.

If they were open, you could see she

has a wingspan of 214 centimetres.

She weighs 8.6 kilograms which makes

her three times heavier than Maisie

the greylag goose. Nevertheless,

there is no doubt at all that hooper

swans like this are fantastic

long-distance migrants. I've got to

agree, this species has earned its

wings. To put these two species to

the test... We have come to meet

bird handlers Lloyd and Rose Buck.

They will be scoring the birds on

their take-off, flight speed and

agility in this, the toughest of

flight schools. Test one, take-off.

The number of steps to take off

made?

Number of steps? Our fingers

will have to be pretty nippy.

Let's

give it a go. I'm feeling nippy.

First up, the goose.

Come on!

How

many steps is that? LAUGHTER

Three.

Three steps.

Three steps and

she was off.

She's liked and agile.

I'm going to win.

If the wind picks

up we are in with a chance.

Well,

let's find out, it is time for

Eartha's run.

Oh, come on.

It was 16.

You've got a

nervous twitch.

You've got 11, it

was 16, mate, you can't cheat by

letting your finger slide off the

button. It was 16.

My finger was

always on the button.

We will look

at the action replay.

Post-fight

analysis reveals Eartha takes 13

steps to get airborne. It is

understandable as this weighty bird

needs to use its speed to generate

enough lift to take-off. 1-0 to the

goose. Let's see if the Swan fares

better in test two, flight speed.

The quickest birds down one-mile

runway wings. It is all very well

getting into the air, taking off.

Yes.

It is what you do in the air

that counts.

Good point.

You would

your goose can disappear down the

end of the runway. I'm going to stay

on the starting with this post. You

drive a.

And the wind the goose

takes off, I will say go.

I will

start the stopwatch and then we will

do it with this one. The Swan!

This

is going to be so easy.

Him in his

goose, honestly.

First up, Maisie.

Lloyd will be driving alongside her

but she will be dictating the speed.

Go, go.

The goose is apparently

airborne.

Look at this! Amazing.

Good girl, Maisie! Look at our go!

She is drawing checks her body can

cash! Woe! This bird can fly like

that 600 miles from Iceland to us.

Unbelievable.

Not much chance of a

sonic boom, is there?

Look at that,

keep going, Maisie, good girl. A bit

faster. LAUGHTER

45 seconds.

You've heard of a lame duck.

Come

on, girl, feel the need, the need

for speed. Good girl!

1:36.80 one.

12.

She is stalling, spilling out of

the air. That is a winning run if

ever I saw one.

Did you pause for a

Breen en route.

It went like the

others, that Bordeaux-Begles

beautiful to see. What did it do?

1:36.80 one.

A spread.

It did not

feel like that, mate.

Do you want

50p on this to make this

readjusting?

50p, of the Queens

currency?

One of those newfangled

pound I will go that far.

Will the

Swan bigwig or will I have to become

pie? Out tomorrow. You won't want to

miss the conclusion of Swan against

goose tomorrow. It will literally

take your breath away.

Stay with us

for Facebook live immediately after

this.

We will be back for the final

show tomorrow at 8pm and Gillian

will be with us. See you then.

Goodbye.