Episode 4 Autumnwatch

I tell you what I want, what I

really, really want, what I really,

really want is a massive glorious

dollop of fantastic autumnal natural

history.

It may be our final show

but we are going to spice it up! We

have...

Batty spice.

Foxy spice.

Bunny spice.

Old spice.

Welcome to Autumnwatch.

Zig-azig-a.

Hello! Welcome to Autumnwatch 2017.

Very sadly, the last show of the

year. Coming to you live from the

natural Trust Sherbourne Park estate

in Gloucester. Our mission as ever

is to bring you the very best of

British wildlife throughout the

course of the week and we started

our shows with a mouse a badger, but

let's go live now to a brown rat.

Oh, yes!

The tail of a brown rat

even.

Look, let's not diss the rat.

It's a non-native species but we

have to agree they're an important

part of our ecosystems because so

many things eat them. Foxes, owls,

pole cats, all these other animals

have become dependent upon them.

They're not popular, they did spread

the playing but it was a long time

ago.

We have to forgive them.

Forgive and forget, that's what I

say! It's not all about rats. During

the day we have been watching one of

the animals that might feed on them,

our barn owls. This is the pair that

were breeding here in springtime.

They've been roosting outside.

That's are definitely the adults.

They've been spending most of their

day ensuring their feathers are in

tip-top condition for hunting at

night. But look at that one on the

left. You will see there is a small

feather sticking out of its face.

That is one of its stiff ear

feathers that is moulting.

There we

go.

I love that. I find that relaxing to

watch and I love all the texture and

colours. It's the sort of thing I

would love to put up on the wall

above my desk in the office and

every time I am stressed look at it

and the stress would disappear.

Yeah!

I am not selling that to you.

In fact, it's better to go out and

go for a walk as we said a couple of

days ago. That will get rid of the

stress. Let's try another one of our

live cameras. I have to be honest we

have not been successful...

We just

got a rat.

Exactly, we have not been

successful. Let's go to a live

camera now. This is the garden-cam.

Look at that, it's a bunch of

apples.

You say that, hold on, there

is a slug on one there.

How excite

something that.

That's a slug, live,

on BBC Two and that's what we pay

our licence fee for!

Yeah. A slug on

an apple. We can do better than

that. We have had a lot of action on

that camera. Yesterday we had a

tawny owl. It was back last night

perched on its favourite perch,

which is the top of our camera.

Interesting, then we started to

rotate the camera and the owl took

absolutely no notice. It was

completely chilled. But this sort of

reminds me of Chitty Chitty Bang

Bang. # You would see a owl on a

music box... This badger, this night

looked like any old badger going to

get some apples. But this is a

comedy badger, Chris. Just stop and

listen.

Isn't that brilliant. That is just

like someone eating an apple right

by your ear. I find it highly

irritating.

Yeah. Or munching

cornflakes first thing in the

morning in a hotel sat opposite you.

Or popcorn right next to you.

I promise you, that was the noise it

was making. Brilliant. Don't give me

worms on apples, Chris, because a

munching badger making a heck of a

noise, that's what you pay your

licence fee for!

It's such a hpy

badger.

Brilliant, I love that. It's

my highlight of the series.

Martin.

Chris, I am down here on the

Sherbourne brook and the brook runs

into the windrush river, very Wind

in the Willows. It's beautiful here.

It's here we have had an unexpected

lot of wildlife throughout the whole

of Autumnwatch. We have a live

camera, the thermal camera looking

up the river. Let's go live to that

camera to see what we can see.

Now, you can see the birds there.

Above the birds what do you think

they are? They're bats. That's live

now. We have seen something very

interesting a few minutes ago up

there.

Here are the bats, a lot more bats.

Then we saw this. An owl, a tawny

owl, and it actually comes down and

I think it's trying to hunt the

bats.

That is an amazing... I never dreamt

that tawny owls would hunt bats

live. So, there we go. The thermal

camera reveals another bit of

interesting natural history. During

the day this brook is home to one of

our most beautiful little birds.

It's a grey wagtail. It's nearly

always found in summer anyway near a

river. You can just see it down

there on the right side.

Look at that beautiful lemon yellow

bottom. Don't know why it's called

grey wagtail, it's gorgeous. Here it

is feeding. Typical behaviour.

Actually saw them nesting down here

in spring. Look at this in slow

motion. Look at the agility. It

leaps up, catching insects out of

the air. It's lovely to see it. So

graceful. A turn on a sixpence

there. That's the grey wagtail. I am

also down here, also at Sherbourne

we have another sort of wagtail,

these are less sort of exciting.

They're more sort of black and

white. But what they'll do is

they'll migrate from here into our

towns and cities. Quite often right

in the middle of cities you might

find a wagtail roost. I found one in

the middle of Bristol. You may

sometimes see a grey wagtail as well

mixed in. Something to look out for.

Let's go down...

Most of the exciting stuff with that

takes place about 20 metres from

where I am now. Let's go live to it

and see if anything's going on now.

Anything going on? A few bats again.

But it's very quiet, unlike last

night, something very extraordinary

happened there. Here we are. Same

camera. Look at this. It's a deer,

obviously. Look at that upside down

black horseshoe on its bottom, that

tells you it's a fallow deer.

Coming in there, probably having a

bit of a drink. These would have

been about 20 metres from where I am

standing now, these super secretive

deer. Lovely to see. This camera has

shown us all sorts of things that we

didn't expect down here.

You can just see its legs. Remember,

this is all in the pitch darkness.

You see that deer just jump out, it

is pitch black. How did it know

where to jump? It obviously knew the

way around. Now, earlier in the year

I went to the bird fair, a big

gathering of people interested in

obviously birds and naturalists

generally. One of my favourite bits

is the art tents. They have tents

full of artists and the way people

interpret the natural world is

fascinating. I went past one little

bit of this and I was rooted to the

spot. It was so beautiful! These

delicate pictures of insects and I

went in and got chatting to the

bloke called Richard. It turned out

we were making a film about him.

My name's Richard Lewington and I am

a wildlife illustrator, specialising

mostly in insects, invertebrates,

butterflies, moths, dragonflies and

anything that crawls and flies, I do

them.

From an early age I used to go out

with my dad looking at birds and

butterflies and then I would

immediately as soon as I got home I

would start painting them and

drawing them and sketching them.

I am Ian Lewington, I am a bird

illustrator, I illustrate field

guides. The passion for illustrating

and birds was with my father from a

young age, at four he used to take

me on nature walks and I gravitated

to birds, was inspired by my brother

who was already a professional

illustrator and I watched him and

thought that seems a good job, I

will have a go at doing that.

We

both do our own thing and we don't

cross paths. I would never take on a

book on birds and he would not be

doing one on insects, I don't think.

The interesting bird was first, I

was interested in trains Wye have

drawn trains, but I automatically

wanted to draw what I was interested

in.

My earliest moment of my brother

illustrating, when it was me I used

to annoy him, he used to paint on

the dining table while he was

attempting to do something very

detailed at one end of the table, I

would be at the other end giving a

little jog just to be an annoying

younger brother.

He used to irritate

me and he doesn't any more.

So you really need to see the bird

in the field to produce something

that's a good representation of the

species. Just the process of

attempting to draw something in the

field makes you look a better

observer.

When I decide on a

painting or illustration I usually

try and accumulate as many

references as I can. So, if I have

caught something interesting in the

moth trap, if I can take that into

my room and paint it from life

that's the best thing. To actually

have a specimen in front of to you

put under a microscope and count how

many hairs on the tips of its

antennao or whatever, it's always

better to have that to reference. I

think the basics when you are

painting something is texture, form

and colour. Using those three things

you can really describe your

subjects perfectly. If you take a

ladybird which is shiny and almost

metallic in some cases, creating

those highlights and that form,

compared to a dragonfly with its

detailed wing formation or a moth

with its dusty wings, you can kind

of create textures and three

dimensions when you are illustrating

them.

I think I have always been obsessed

with being accurate in always and as

I matured as a painter and

illustrator and learned more about

the anatomy of birds and how

different feather tracks acted, the

need to be accurate just grew. I

think the most difficult to actually

physically paint are the iridenses

of Kingfisher, that's combining

contrasts. I find birds with long

legs and long necks the hardest to

get, the formations, patterns

around.

My brother was certainly

inspirational to me. As I grew up, I

regarded illustrating for book

publication as a normal job. Shall I

become a policeman or a fireman or

plumber or illustrator? It was

normal. I didn't realise it was such

a specialised and unique and sort of

quite unusual occupation.

Ian tells me I was his inspiration,

but I don't know whether he is just

saying that because he is my younger

brother and he is scared of me. But

I believe him. But he also inspires

me. Some of the things I see of his

are absolutely incredible and I

couldn't do them.

I wouldn't want to try.

I don't consider myself an artist,

because that implies some sort of

imagination which I don't think I

have any. Art is subjective, I

consider myself an illustrator

because I am trying to reproduce

precisely what's there in front of

me with nothing of me in it. I will

never perfect nature. I am trying to

get there as far as I can, but no,

that's an impossibility, nature's

perfect.

Not an artist? I beg to differ! If I

had an ounce of that artistic

talent! Extraordinary.

I know, I've

been looking at their work all my

life, I've got this book, and

Oldfield field guide I've got to

butterflies of Europe which Richard

illustrated. I poured through the

first edition of this in 1981,

enjoying all of his work.

Fantastic

stuff. You'll never look at and I

debug the same way again the same

way, you take the pictures for

granted, so much work and effort and

talent has gone into every single

one.

If you've been watching this

week you will know we invited you to

take part in an important piece of

citizen science, sea bird watch. Sea

birds are in trouble. Doing centres

can be difficult. We asked you to go

online and can sea birds on 61,000

photographs which are posted on a

website. You've done quite well. I

was a bit disappointed last night

with your endeavours but tonight I

can champion them. 1600... 162,430

clicks. 137,068 birds have been

performed by 16,693 people. The UK

data, those photographs taken in the

UK, is 85% complete. Overall, the

whole set is now 58%. Not long to

go. Top performers, Francis, 698

classifications. Marie Hanna: 444.

Sue SJS 394. Let's hear it for them.

Still more work to be done.

Congratulations to this lot. Doesn't

that warm the cockles of your heart.

That is a school in Sheffield, the

whole school got involved.

The whole

school?

That is a teacher who loves

wildlife, well done.

Absolutely

fantastic. Best of all, it's

generating meaningful data. I've got

some of that here. This has been

produced from your analysis this

week. It shows the peak of

kittiwakes arriving at a colony in

Ireland. The early part, hardly any,

then they gradually arrive on the

cliff, and leave at this time. Blue

is the guillemots. During the mid

winter period, some of the

kittiwakes appear to come back to

the economy. I wonder what they are

doing that for. -- back to the

colony. Those kittiwakes build

numbers to this, the peak of the

season, then drift off, whereas

guillemots, hardly any, all of a

sudden they are on the cliffs, all

of a sudden, all gone. Same with the

winter peak. It's this sort of data

that will allow us to better inform

our conservation efforts when it

comes to these birds. 42% are left,

come on, you can do it by the end of

the week. Check out the website, BBC

.co .uk slash Autumnwatch.

the week. Check out the website, BBC

.co .uk slash Autumnwatch.

A lot of people are upset when the

show finishes, they say it's only on

for four nights. Tomorrow night

between eight and nine, that is what

you have to do, get on the website

and click. Earlier in the week

Gillian was in Bournemouth testing

out urban foxes and their

intelligence. She is with us tonight

to give us an update.

Yeah, if you

were watching earlier in the week

you would have seen we ran an

experiment to test the

problem-solving skills and

intelligence of urban foxes. A few

of them engaged with our fox box

experiment. But there was one

standout performer. Teardrop.

Phase

one... Would he even approach the

experiment? Within hours, he quickly

overcame his fear. Phase two. He

learned to pull a string to get a

tasty rewards. Again and again.

Phase three, two strings, but only

one reward. A problem he was soon

solving 100% of the time.

What do you reckon, Chris?

Great

stuff, wasn't it? I've been enjoying

the work you are doing down there I

have to say. Before we move on and

we have a live fox. We can cut to

it. Oh, it's just gone, it's just

gone, isn't that the story of our

lives? Let's move on. Teardrop was

the star of the show. Why was it

that particular Fox?

Good question.

Teardrop, we think, is male. A male

born this spring. One of the things

that happened at this time of year,

autumn, is the sub adults start to

disperse and leave the Natal

territory. The males especially

leave. The females sometimes stay

but the males are the ones who go

out in the world and they need to be

bold and curious. These are the

characteristics that Teardrop

showed, this is why we think he was

male and why he did so well with

this experiment. The other

interesting thing to note, none of

the adult engaged with this

experiment. You would expect adults

to be set in the airways. The sub

adults, like teenagers, will be more

curious and experimental. As we

started to build the complexity of

the tests we gave Teardrop, he kept

up. It was interesting. As we got to

the final phase of the experiment,

the Cross streams, something dogs

can't do, we wondered whether

Teardrop would cope, let's see what

happened. Here is a cross string

experiment. You see him give it ago,

pulled out a string, like he's been

doing through whole experiment, but

he pulls at the wrong string. And

doesn't get his food. He's back

again. He tugs at the string, goes

to the jamjar lead where the chicken

would always be, but it isn't there.

Then something really interesting

happens. He goes past our cross, he

bypasses the cross, and pulls at the

right string, get his reward. Then

does it again. And get his reward.

Absolutely amazing. I mean, we were

really excited by this. Because he

didn't solve the experiment the way

we thought he would. He did it his

way.

He used ingenuity.

It's

amazing. We watched, observed for

several days after this. The more we

watched him do this, the more we had

to ask ourselves, was he actually

learning? Let's see what happens

next. Here he comes again, he has

bypassed the cross, he's decided to

do this each time. But it's not the

right string. Here he comes again,

does he get it right? Again, no, he

doesn't. The more he tries, again,

the wrong string. Really by this

point you see he gets really

frustrated with this experiment and

trashes...

I know how he feels can I

get frustrated with certain computer

games and I get frustrated and they

end up on the floor when I can't get

past level 20 seven.

He had 17

attempts at this and failed 12

times. The last nine attempts he

failed eight times. So at this final

phase of the experiment the cross

strings, we had to accept it looked

like he wasn't learning.

A bridge

too far. We were interested to know

whether the Fox might be more

intelligent, if you like, than the

dog, because we know dogs can't do

this. We know there is evidence from

wild dogs that they are brighter.

Dingoes are better at solving a

second stage trial ban dogs. If you

teach your dog to solve the puzzle,

it solves it, then you enhance the

puzzle so it can't solve it, instead

of trying it, it'll turn and look to

you because dogs have evolved to

look to us to help them whereas

dingoes, while in Australia, still

have to solve it themselves. We know

dogs can't use lateral thinking.

They can learn a solution but what

they can't do is use that solution

is to creatively solve a different

type of problem. Now we know.

Teardrop still has this amazing

capacity to learn. What he was able

to do was join the dots. With a

straight line he could work his way

back to the food reward but when we

crossed it he couldn't build on that

learning. Still, clever fox.

Great

to watch, urban foxes, beautiful.

From urban foxes we go to a rather

more peculiar life form. That can

also make its home pretty much

anywhere.

This time of year, a walk in the

woods can open the door to another

kingdom. A kingdom of organisms that

surge up from the underworld. The

kingdom of fungi. Ruled by bizarre

beings with a myriad of forms.

Neither planned nor animal, the

fungi branched out over one and a

half billion years ago on their own.

And in terms of variety, they

outnumber plants by at least 10-1.

And can be found right across the

planet. So how have fungi

infiltrated our world so

successfully? Their secret weapon is

their spores. Microscopic and in

millions, the familiar parasol of a

fungal fruiting body is actually an

elevated launch pad. Mushrooming up

from the soil to release its spores

onto the wind. Some fungi fire their

spores vertically. Whilst others,

like both stars, use raindrops to

propel their progeny into the air.

Sting:s attract flies that carry

their spores away. -- stink horns.

Spores seep and explode relentlessly

through autumn in constant search

for new areas to colonise. As they

land, the spores send out feeding

tubes. They lose a cocktail of

enzymes to rot and digests

putrefying organic matter. These

grow and divide, creating a web of

hungry fingers probing for

sustenance. A living, creeping,

recycling machine, hyphae.

It is this a web of hyphae, not the

mushrooms themselves, that form the

mothership of the fungus. The

mycelium. A living network under our

feet. Concealed, it attaches itself

to plant roots in an engulfing

embrace, reaching out precious

sugars. But in an unlikely alliance,

the mycelium actually feeds the

plant in return. Fungi trade

nitrogen, phosphorus and water that

the plants need is for energy rich

sugar. This unique relationship is

so important that 90% of our plans

are utterly reliant on fungi for

survival. By breaking down Deadwood,

cleaning the soil, and recycling

nutrients through the most intimate

relationship with living plants,

fungi are vital to life on Earth.

Warm, wet, autumnal days are the

best time to catch a glimpse of this

overly underworld. Before the

kingdom of the fungi retreats once

more back into the earth from where

it came.

Fungi are vital to life on earth yet

a lot of people know so little about

fungi. I think we need to start

appreciating it. In fact this is a

brilliant autumn to do that, it's an

unusually long season for fungi,

started early, it's still going, so

you can go out in the woods and

really enjoyed it. Many of you have

and have sent photos. Let's have a

look at them. No, this is a

beefsteak fungus from wonder model.

This is from James Emerson. Look at

the texture.

Wonderful, I've never

seen those.

That is your typical

toadstool. You expect to have a

little fairy sitting on the top of

that. Fantastic. Get out and enjoy

them, they are brilliant.

The

Cotswold fungus group have collected

this tray we have in front of us,

there is a great diversity of form.

This is called dirty tale, a type of

Brecon fungus. This is one of those

fly agaric mushrooms. Those spots

wash off in the rain. Lastly we have

got this one, one of the sceptre

species that has gone past its best.

It is popular for people to go out

and eat. We are concerned about over

picking to eat. If you pick for your

own pot it is fine but if you clean

up entire woodlands to satisfy the

restaurant trade and make pennies,

maybe you should think twice because

it'll have a negative impact on this

fantastic group of organisms. That

might be fabulous looking but this

one is interesting.

This is a honey

fungus, I know it doesn't look like

much. You find them in the UK. In

Oregon, America, one was found where

the mycelium which you saw in the

film, that goes underneath the earth

from tree to tree, spreads out,

spread out 2.4 miles over an area of

3.7 square miles. And it's thought

that is largest living organism on

the planet. They think, they don't

know, but they think it could be

8000 years old.

Isn't that

incredible? That is remarkable,

isn't it?

It doesn't look much there

but that is really impressive in

Oregon.

From one extraordinary thing

to another. Not Martin Hughes-Games,

but the bat he's about to look for!

You are quite right, I am down by

the brook, trying to investigate

bats. My mission to investigate the

autumnal wildlife of Sherbourne

continues, as Chris said we are

batting. I have an extraordinary

device here which is trying to pick

up calls, it even tells us... Yes,

it's picking up the calls of the

bats behind me.

It's even telling me

what species they are.

We have had

three species so far. We have

another one. Amazing. We are

surrounded by bats. Let's have a

look on the thermal camera to see if

we can see the bats.

Some in the distance. Again flitting

over the water. Lots and lots of

different species here.

Batting is very exciting. What we

did after Springwatch we managed to

find a lesser horse

Lesser horseshoe. Let's have a look

inside a maternity roost of the

lesser horseshoe bat. You can see

there they are, quite a large group.

It's likely these are all females.

If you look really closely, where

the wings are wrapped around the

bodies there are other little wings

there, that's because they have

babies. They're all carrying babies

close to their bodies. They're

mammals so they'll be suckling those

babies. Tiny baby bats. Twitching

all the time, aren't they?

Fascinating thing is when the bats

start to grow up they stretch their

wings and practise to fly. Of course

they'll drop off if they... Mum

holds on to them by their feet as

they practise. The mother will have

to hunt for food, she carefully

makes sure the baby is attached to

something like that beam and will

then go off and start hunting. I am

told that the little babies don't

echo locating they'll have to learn.

What a wonderful sight. That was

early on in the summer when they had

the typy babies in the maternity --

tiny babies in the maternity roost.

As the babies started to grow up, we

went back weeks later. It has got

more crowded in there as you can

see, obviously, because the babies

are now almost indistinguishable

from the adults. This is speeded up,

but the question is how does an

individual get back into the pack?

Like penguins, it will just ease its

way in there. Squeeze its way in to

that snug warm little group. Here is

a thing, if you are a bat and you

are upside down, how do you go to

the lavatory? This bat wants to have

a poo, it's moved out of the crowd.

It's a television first, folks! It's

a lesser horseshoe bat pooing. It

still feels it needs to go to the

lavatory a bit more, a wee-wee. How

does it do it? It's out of the pack.

There it is. A lesser horseshoe bat

weeing almost live on telly,

brilliant stuff. Absolutely

fascinating to go right inside the

maternity roost. Bats change around

all the time, the roost they'll

spend in for the maternity will be

different from the one they'll high

bern Nate in later in the year. They

move about, in fact the mothers will

teach the young, the young will

follow the mothers to suitable

roosts, they learn where to go when

it starts to get cold and winter

comes. So those bats, most of them

will have gone from there now but

where are they now?

I am about a mile away from the

studio now, this is a limestone

mine, and I wonder... Come on.

Ow! It's pitch black in here. So we

switch to infra-red light. Although

we are licensed to enter the mine,

we want to keep the disturbance to

an absolute minimum. Oh, yes! We are

in luck. There they are. A couple of

lesser horseshoe bats. Like little

hairy plums hanging on the ceiling.

They send to stick together in

family groups, but these are on

their own so I suspect they're males

and setting up a territory here.

That's what happens, the males set

up a small little territory. The

females will fly in and will mate

with one of the males or actually

more than one of the males. Here is

the fascinating thing, what makes

that male more attractive than that

male? Nobody knows. It could be that

they produce some scent or it could

be that they fly in an exciting way

or even they kind of sing a song

that the females find attractive.

But that's what I love about

science, there's always more to find

out.

So, we had seen a few bats. But now

it was time to listen in to them as

they began to wake up. This is

absolutely fascinating.

You can see this screen is changing

all the time. That's because we have

a microphone deep inside the cave

here. It's beginning to record the

echo location as the bats are

starting to move around, it's

getting darker, though. The echo

location, you can see it happening.

There it is, right up here. That's

about 110kilohertz. Oh, look at that

down there!

That is echo location. But this

flickering down here, that might be

social calls. Bats don't just use

sound to echo locate. They also talk

to each other. Fascinating. Now,

what sort of things might the bats

be saying to each other? I have to

tell you, this is right in the van

guard of science. This is very

actively being researched right now.

It's quite difficult, it's an active

area, we can't be definitive but

with the help of Maggie Andrews and

also Paul Hollywooden leech we think

we can actually delve into the

social world of bats. What we are

going to do is play some recordings,

they're slowed down 20 times. You

are going to see a sonogram, a

representation of that sound. First

of all, we will play the sound of a

bat just the regular echo location

as a baseline. Listen to this.

OK. So that's just the echo

location. That's not what we are

listening for. We are listening for

the social calls. Listen to this

call.

That was recorded in our maternity

roost, we recorded that and it's

called a bellow call. Margaret told

us that is an annoyed bat, angry

aggressive sound. It could be a

female saying you are standing on my

foot or I don't like you, you are

too close or clear off. That is

undoubtedly an aggressive social

call. This next one is not a

horseshoe bat, it's and this is a

distress call.

That's a distress call. Why would a

bat emit a distress call? Sometimes

it's to warn other bats there is

potentially a predator around or

sometimes they'll get other bats to

cluster around and help them. They

can mob like birds mob a bird, a

bird of prey. Also, sadly, sometimes

a bat might get into your cold water

tank and will emit the distress

call. Other bats will join them.

They'll get struck and they'll all

die. That's a distress call.

Finally, we don't know what this

call is but we recorded it with our

lesser horseshoe bats. Listen to

this.

Here it comes.

What is that all about? Kind of

sounds like whale song or something.

This is right in the front line of

bat research. So, probably in a few

years we might be able to interpret

that and talk bat back to bats.

Fascinating stuff. Now, we are going

to leave Sherbourne now and go up to

Scotland to a beautiful but slightly

unsettling film by cameraman Raymond

Becen.

Growing up in Orkney it was the

first wild animal I learned to

approach and photograph. I would

spend hours on the cliff honing my

film-making skills but trying to

follow their graceful flight. As I

did, I came to love these birds like

no other.

I love its heritage. Although the

gull part is misleading, they are

cousins of albatrosses. Albatrosses

Their strong musky odour is

unmistakable in the breeze. To me

they're still stunning birds with

biz around nostrils primed to catch

the scent of pray across the open

seas. -- prey.

And their faithful too. They're

wedded to one another, reaffirming

bonds year after year.

Some of these pairs have been

together for almost as long as I

have been coming to these cliffs.

I love listening to their courtship

vocalisations, a mixture of cackling

and chuckling calls.

I have watched them feeding, and

they'll take fish, squid, pretty

much anything and everything is on

their menu. They're real

opportunists and over the years

they've fared well alongside fishing

vessels, following them for scraps

and earning the nickname the flying

dustbins of the ocean. This

opportunism means each year the

cliffs play host to 90,000 pairs.

I have learned of a new relationship

with humans that has serious

side-effects.

Plastic pollution. Now and then a

dead one turns up on the shore in

Orkney.

And over the past decade I have been

trying to find out more about what's

killed my birds.

My inquiries have led me to a doctor

in the Netherlands who uses them for

the health of the ecosystems. He

tells me 93% of the North Sea have

some form of plastic in their

stomachs.

Amazingly, they can survive with

what is the human equivalent of a

lunchbox full of plastic inside

them.

Larger pieces block their stomachs,

leading to starvation. Chemicals

could also prove toxic.

As well as some natural prey like

squid beaks, the analysis shows the

bird has three plastic fragments as

well as foam in the stomach.

Staggeringly, the average North Sea

full mesh has 30 such particles,

making this a relatively clean bird.

Although it turns out that my bird

didn't die from plastic in the

stomach, it is still shocking to

know that it is normal to find so

much manmade debris inside these

wild ocean wanderers.

Back on Orkney I try to clean the

local beach as much as I can. And

whilst it can seem overwhelming with

new plastic on each tide, I feel I

have to try.

It's relatively easy to clean up

larger pieces but looking closer

reveals a more difficult problem.

Although I know there's been new

legislation to reduce refuse at sea,

the problem is that plastic doesn't

so much break down as break up.

It creates a kind of soup, tiny bits

of plastic mixed in with the sand

and organic matter, easier to see

how it's mistaken for food.

The crisis seems insurmountable but

Jan told me there is hope. The

massive plastics found now seems to

be dropping in fulmers. Public

awareness about this global issue is

greater now than it's ever been but

there is still a lot we can do as

individuals to take responsibility

for the use of our own plastic.

My hope is that these Orkney fulmers

will one day be plastic-free. For

now, even small steps can help to

making their environment a cleaner

place.

There is hope, but the problem is

still shockingly bad. I mean there

is absolutely no room for

complacency. On average a dead

fulmar in the North Sea has 30

pieces of plastic in its stomach.

0.31 g. If we scale that up to a

human stomach, that is 31 grams of

plastic. Which is that much. Imagine

that in your stomach. We wouldn't

stand a hope of surviving with that.

That is average. The most found was

20 grams and scaled up that is two

kilograms of plastic. Imagine that,

Chris. No room for complacency. This

stuff takes for ever to break down.

We're still making it come in fact

since we started producing plastic

we've produced 8.3 billion metric

tonnes of non-biodegradable plastic

and every year 8 million metric

tonnes finds its way into the ocean.

It is unjust into fulmar but

albatrosses, kills chicks before

they fledge, gets into whales and

dolphins. Turtles, too. They swim

around the sea, the plastic bag,

think it's a jellyfish, eat it, they

accumulate and it kills them. The

plastics break down into

micro-plastics and you can see how

small these things are here. This is

the head of a needle. Micro plastics

are pieces of plastic smaller than

five millimetres. Clothing fabrics

washed out to sea when we wash

clothes, paint dust, tire dust,

microbeads, it all ends up there.

Sadly it can become part of a food

chain. Doctor Richard Kirby has sent

us this. This is a mass of plankton

and in amongst it you can see those

red and blue fibres. That is plastic

amongst the plankton. The plankton

sometimes eat the plastic which is

potentially fatal. Even if they pass

it through it is a waste of energy

because they are not getting

sustenance. Even more insidiously,

sometimes plastics in the sea are

trapped, toxic chemicals stick to

the plastic then get ingested and

build-up in the body of the

planktonic animals. They are tangled

up in it. If not eating it, disabled

by it. A very small fish eating a

tiny piece of plastic. This is the

bottom of the food chain. We know

therefore plastic works its way up

the food chain. Other staggering

stats to leave you with. Every day

when humpback whales feed on

plankton they can ingest 300,000

pieces of micro-plastic. And if we

eat fish ourselves during the course

of the year we humans because we are

at the top of the food chain can

ingest 11,000 pieces of

micro-plastic. So far there is no

evidence, no scientific work being

done, to understand what impact this

has on human health.

Shocking

statistics. What can we do? We've

already started to change habits.

Since the 5p thing was introduced on

throwaway plastic bags in

supermarkets we've dramatically

reduced the amount of plastic bags

we take by 83% since 2014.

Fantastic.

This year the government

have declared they're planning to

ban rents of micro-plastics in

facial scrubs, that is really

positive, but we can do so much

more. We have to reduce the amount

of single use plastic we consume.

Things like plastic bottles, those

things you clean your ears with,

these are dreadful, these plastic

straws, I see so many of them on the

beach. Go to a beach and clean-up,

these are things you can do, all

ideas on our website. Go to the

website. Very simple, you go along,

click, click on the bit above, help

our oceans. There are lots of ideas.

Positive, practical ideas.

We've got

to remind you coming up on Sunday,

BBC One, 8pm, blue planet two.

Probably worth a watch, I don't

know!

This is worth a watch. Get

your popcorn ready because this is

the conclusion of yesterday's top

third starring Martin Hughes-Games,

Chris Packham, a swan and abuse.

First up in the speed test was

Maisie the goose who took one minute

and 36 seconds to fly one mile of

runway. Look at that!

Keep going,

Maisie, good girl.

Now it is time

for Earth are the swan, will she fly

faster to stay in the competition

for top bird??

Look at that, what a magnificent

sight, I love the sense of rhythm.

And the head. Held gyroscopic Luso

still in the air.

A very powerful

bird I'm slightly nervous, I must

confess.

Very obviously I've never been this

close to a flying bird. Think of all

the physiology going on inside that

bird, it's lungs, its air sacs, all

those muscles, the beautiful

rotation of the wings which are so

evident here.

They're taking their

time, 40 seconds. They're not going

to make it here in a minute. Come

on, swan, come on. Oh yes.

This is going to be tight.

The

finishing line is in the site, come

on.

146, only ten seconds difference

in it. Anyway, Chris will have to

eat his hands now.

Yes, difficult to

read his face at this point.

Slightly smug. Very smug. It's

getting smug. In fact his face is

getting so smug I'm going to have to

put my goggles on to try and filter

out some of the smugness.

I want you

to imagine there is a plate and a

lovely wobbly slice of humble pie

and it's ready for you to eat. It is

2-0 to the goose but only just, 1.40

six.

1.40 six.

Which surprises me,

only ten seconds difference in such

a heavy bird.

It's marginal really.

Such great thing to see.

Normally

they are up there are not right

beside you. It's magical.

You get a

real sense of migrating with them, I

almost felt like it is a wing man, I

was there.

Wing man? I see what

you've done there, mate.

The third

and final test, agility. The bird

that sticks closest of the car as it

weaves down the runway wins. She's

up for it.

I'm up for it, she said,

I'm up for it. Effortless, turning,

easy.

This is going to be hard to

beat, mate.

I think it will be a

little bit.

She's got following the

line of the car perfectly.

Impressive run from Maisie, now it

is time for Ertha to weave her

magic.

Pretty good.

Not bad.

Not bad

at all, I'm amazed. She can turn

surprisingly well. Here we go...

There is a bit of a lag. A bit of

understeer on this one.

She comes

right over as well.

Overshot but

gone completely.

That was a lag.

Still magnificent, but a lag.

Here

we are, one last turn. Come on,

Ertha.

Come on, Ertha, you can do

it.

But grudgingly it looks like

Martin's bird has won this test as

well. I've got to confess I'm not a

good loser. At all. I'm very, very

bad loser. It doesn't matter, it was

so enjoyable.

It was a fantastic,

being in the vehicle with the birds

right next door, power of their

wings, hitting you on the face.

I

loved the synergy of the movement

and the rhythm they had.

It made me

exhausted just watching it mate,

fabulous. However I have to say as

it was 50p per test you owe me £1

50.

£1 50?

£1 50, yeah.

Take a

cheque?

Or a postal order, mate. So

the top bird trophy goes to the

goose. There is no denying both of

these birds excel on their mammoth

migration. Can you imagine a flying

Fortress or Lancaster 's screaming

over our heads and Lansdowne there

with a puff of smoke.

Do you know

what, mate, that would take my

breath away.

Brilliant, love it.

I won, mate,

sorry, I won.

I intend to pay my

debt, I intend to pay you in harvest

mice. 2p pieces, mate. Here we are.

£1 50 of 2p pieces. I've got to tell

you, those ones do fly at 8000

metres in temperatures of -40

degrees.

Impressive but that wasn't

the test, you can't get out of it

like that.

When they leave Iceland

it only takes them 12 hours to get

the UK whereas it geese 15 hours.

You're loser, loser.

Give me the

money, I'm going straight down to

the local.

Have you seen this? A

heron and a weasel. Guess what

happens next... It escapes.

Did it,

amazing.

Look at this, this is

fallow deer, stags ratting. How does

it get it in the air like that?

Absolutely extraordinary, thanks so

much to everybody for sending in

such amazing pictures. Really great,

thank you for getting involved, we

really appreciate it.

That's about

all we've got time for so to keep

the spicy theme we started with,

time to stop right now and thank you

very much. So Young we've got to

thank the National Trust Sherborne

Park estate very much indeed, the

farmers that let us come here and to

the good people of Sherborne, we've

driven through their village and

made life interesting for them.

We're back at the end of January for

winter watch but in the meantime

stay in touch online, the website

and social media.

We've had a great

time, we hope you have too. We'll

leave you with the highlights of

Autumnwatch 2017. We'll be back for

winter watch. See you then. Goodbye.

I've lost my pipe! Welcome to

Autumnwatch 2017.

Open your eyes. Be

ready to be amazed.

It would

literally take your breath away.

I

want to see him working.

It's not

twerking, is it?

Defining the! This

is so exciting.

Look at this,

amazing. Good girl, Maisie.

Obviously I've never been this close

to a flying bird.

There's only one

word for the harvest mouse. I know

you hate it but it's cute.

I'm

introducing a ban on the C word.

It

is incredible to see them all

together like this.

The hedgehog's

digging in. Like a rugby scrum.