Rivers Britain's Big Wildlife Revival

Britain's wildlife needs your help.

Many of our favourite wild creatures are under threat.

-From persecution.

-From pollution.

And alien predators.

-Others are losing their homes.

-Suffering from injury or disease.

Or just struggling to survive in the modern world.

Some could be extinct within our lifetime if we don't act now.

There's nothing in the sky or even in the trees there, is there?

But YOU can help bring them back from the brink.

-Together we can fight their enemies.

-Restore the places where they live.

And stop their decline in its tracks.

Release.

-Whoa!

-Whoa!

-So, join our campaign.

-To save our wonderful wildlife.

For us all to enjoy.

Oh, look! Ha, ha, ha!

Ah! Hello to you!

I mean, how can you not just fall in love with that?

Britain's rivers. Arteries of life running through our countryside.

There's an old saying that goes

"You can never step into the same river twice,

"because both you and the river will have changed."

They are a dynamic swirling force of nature that never stays still.

Because of this constant change,

our rivers are home to a fabulous wealth of wildlife.

From handsome mallards to minute mayflies.

Slippery eels to spectacular otters and dazzling kingfishers,

to snow white swans.

River creatures are a vital piece of the jigsaw

that makes Britain and its wildlife so special.

So just imagine if the amazing wildlife

in our rivers were to die out.

Well, that actually happened, not that long ago. Within living memory.

And if we don't act now, it could well happen again.

It's hard to believe, but 50 years ago,

our rivers were so polluted that some were biologically dead.

Since then, we've cleaned up our act,

but our rivers still face dangers today,

as our team of wildlife experts discover.

Gordon Buchanan reveals the threats to the mighty king of fish.

No matter how many times I see it, it just takes my breath away.

Miranda Krestovnikoff fights for a species

on the very brink of survival.

If we don't do something about it, right now, it could even go extinct.

And Mike Dilger takes to the air...

Up you go!

..to show you how to turn your garden into a hot spot for wildlife.

There are more than a thousand rivers in Britain.

They crisscross our landscape, winding their way

through our countryside, towns and cities,

before reaching the open sea.

The very nature of rivers is what makes them so good for wildlife.

Animals drink, bathe and live in their waters.

While rivers also create natural corridors,

easy pathways for them to travel across our land.

But rivers can be tough places to live.

They may look very clean, but a single chemical or sewage spill

and they could be ruined in a heartbeat.

We humans have had a major impact on our rivers.

From changing their flow and straightening their banks,

to introducing dangerous, invasive species and causing pollution.

Now our changing climate means our rivers

are suffering from a cycle of flooding and drought

than can be deadly for our wildlife.

So we need to always be on our guard,

because any sudden shift in fortune can spell disaster for our rivers

and our most beautiful bird is more vulnerable than most.

As Philippa Forrester discovered.

The creature that I'm looking for is Britain's most colourful bird.

It's our only member of a tropical family

and even though it only weighs about two ounces,

on a good day, this bird can catch upwards of 70 fish.

The kingfisher.

With three out of four kingfishers dying before they're one year old

and only around 6000 breeding pairs,

these beautiful birds are struggling to survive in Britain.

Kingfishers make their homes in holes in our river banks.

Kingfishers can't live anywhere else.

They can't adapt to woods or fields or gardens.

They need a clean river to fish in and the right kind of bank to nest in

and that leaves them really vulnerable.

Floods are particularly bad for kingfishers.

Those nests can get filled with water

and baby chicks can even end up drowning.

The River Trent flows 300km from its source to the sea

and with high banks and rich clay soil,

has been a haven for kingfishers for many years.

One man who's on a quest to help them survive here

is local naturalist Andy Holt.

So, I can see why this place is so special for you.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

The emotional involvement you get when you're observing wildlife,

day in day out, I think it's just something

that, you know, money can't buy.

Andy has filmed the kingfishers

and the changing landscape here throughout the seasons

and seen the effects of the wettest summer in the last 100 years.

What do you see as the main problems here for the kingfishers?

I think the climate has got to be an issue.

The river just continually floods.

If they are completely unable to breed along large stretches

of our inland waterways, that's just going to be disastrous for them.

But there is another deadly threat to the survival of the kingfisher.

The American mink.

This predatory mammal, introduced to the UK for its fur,

escaped from captivity from the 1950s onwards

and has been attacking our native species ever since.

There are more than 100,000 of them living along our waterways.

I watched, fairly horrified as the, er...

I saw the mink swimming across the river,

went straight up the bank to where the kingfishers' burrow was

and started trying to access it. It just kept going

until it eventually got into the burrow and at that point

I contacted the local Wildlife Trust and...

I then started, you know, like sort of...

trapping the bank down by the nest area.

With the support of his local Wildlife Trust,

Andy was given a license to trap and kill the minks.

Once you actually see what's happening,

if you don't actually take a stance and do something,

you're effectively sentencing a lot of the native wildlife

to a death sentence, effectively.

I don't believe it's our automatic right to kill one species

to save another, but I don't see any other way

to save the kingfisher from a terrible fate.

The kingfishers' future is still in the balance,

but, thanks to people like Andy, we can still find these birds

along our river banks.

He set me up with a hide so that I can catch a glimpse of a pair

in the throes of a new relationship.

I don't know if you can hear, but as they're sitting there,

they're just chipping to each other.

Little high-pitched cheeps.

When she decides that she's finally going to accept him as her bloke,

she finally accepts a fish from him.

Here they come. Right, so they're just below me.

On the tree trunk.

Courtship is occurring. The presentation of a fish.

I feel very, very lucky today.

It's one of the best things you can see.

These two are obviously setting up home together.

Very much in their honeymoon period

and so I think for now, I'll leave them to it.

But remarkably, it's not just the countryside

where you can catch a glimpse of these beautiful birds.

It's hard to imagine that the precious kingfisher

can be found just a stone's throw from Twickenham's famous rugby ground.

This is the River Crane.

It's a tiny tributary of the mighty Thames,

but it's here that people power is really keeping the kingfisher alive.

One Sunday a month, for the past 20 years,

Ian McKinnon has rallied his neighbours

to help restore this stretch of rivers

here at the Crane Park Nature Reserve.

They've created a haven for river wildlife, especially the kingfisher.

Isn't it wonderful? It's an urban oasis.

We're in the heart of West London, really, and it's absolutely magical.

Block of flats there and you must be Ian?

-I'm Ian, yes.

-Hello. Nice to meet you.

-And you.

What are these guys doing?

They're clearing litter out of the river.

Lots of people would say, "Yeah, but I'm in a city.

"I can't do anything to help wildlife."

Oh well, I think we've proved differently here.

We've created all sorts of different habitats on the nature reserve.

Reed beds. Hedgerows. Wildflower areas. All sorts of things.

And what's your star creature, would you say, Ian?

Because I think we can probably guess!

Ooh yes, my favourite, I think probably is the kingfisher.

So much so, he's built them a special nesting site along the river bank.

-So, this is the kingfisher bank.

-Yeah, so what's behind?

So, you've got the front board there to stop the soil falling down.

What's behind is a wooden room.

The reason it's got a side walls and a back wall

is I didn't want foxes digging in and getting the chicks.

We didn't know if it would work, obviously,

so they've voted with their feet and they've nested every year since

-except last year.

-And what happened last year?

There was a pollution incident further up stream on the Crane

and I'm afraid that killed all the fish.

So after all that hard work, that must have left you really gutted?

I think the kingfisher's probably my favourite creature on the reserve,

so to lose that was really devastating.

Ian's hoping conditions will improve, so that the kingfishers can return.

And local ecologist, Joe Pecorelli, is helping him

by monitoring the effect the pollution has had

on the rivers' inhabitants and, most importantly,

the kingfishers' favourite food. Fish.

So how do we do it? How do we find out the state of the river?

Well, the best way is to look at the invertebrates

of the river by doing a kick sample.

If we only find species that tolerate polluted environments,

-we know we have a problem here.

-So, let's get cracking then.

-OK.

-So, if I hold the net, you kick?

-Yeah.

SHE LAUGHS

It's a two-person job!

Here we go. Just do it for a little bit.

-Normally we'd do this for three minutes.

-Yeah.

-And then shall we take it back and have a look?

-Yeah.

We've got, um, fresh water shrimps.

The mayfly is intolerant of low oxygen,

so we've got a few of those, which is very promising.

-And it's easy to spot the mayfly. They've got the three tails.

-Yeah.

The thing that's so important about this,

it might look like we're jogging around in the mud looking at bugs

which we are, of course, but the significance is that these are

the base of the food chain and without them we don't have our fish

and without our fish, of course, we don't have our kingfisher.

Your assessment then, is it good or bad news for the kingfisher?

My assessment for the kingfisher is that the river is in recovery

and if we can prevent future pollution events happening,

the river will recover enough to sustain the fish

that will then sustain the kingfisher.

What would a British river be without the kingfisher?

Well, for me, it would have lost some of its sparkle.

Something really magical.

We need to make sure that never happens.

In our busy lives,

a beautiful river can be a quiet place for contemplation.

Somewhere to get in touch with nature.

And my way of relaxing is to jump in for a refreshing dip.

Wild swimming is becoming more and more popular.

Make sure you find a safe, recommended place

and then immerse yourself in cool, fresh water.

I feel like humans are really drawn to water

and rivers give us a chance to get close to it.

I certainly remember when I was a kid.

I used to swim in the river in my great-grandparents' garden

and be all freaked out by the weed wrapping round my legs.

I'd also play in the stream at the bottom of my valley,

just damming it up and mucking around.

And now my children are doing exactly the same thing.

They are great places.

Another great reason I enjoy wild swimming

is that I can get a close-up view of some beautiful river dwellers.

All along this river bank I am seeing tonnes of dragonflies

and damselflies and, in particular, loads of these.

Banded demoiselles, they are also called water butterflies,

because the bands make it look like their wings are fluttering.

They're EVERYWHERE around here!

Oh, wow! And they have such an interesting life.

A lot of it is spent at the larval stage, under water,

sometimes up to a couple of years, where they are voracious predators.

This stage, the adult stage, where they emerge

and fly around is special because it only lasts for a couple of weeks

and their sole purpose during that time is to mate.

So you'll occasionally see a few of them coupled together.

Absolutely gorgeous. The males are this beautiful blue

and yet the females are an emeraldy green.

Amazing animals.

This gentle stream looks as if it's never been touched by human hand,

but in fact there are hardly any rivers unaffected by us.

Not all that long ago, we straightened their sides,

dredging out gravel to increase the river flow,

so destroying essential habitat for wildlife.

Here in Dorset, river keeper, John Aplin,

is helping to rebuild the diversity of this beautiful chalk stream.

A quick dip is always a nice way to end the day.

-You've got a tough job!

-Yeah, yeah!

THEY LAUGH

How far back do you and rivers go?

Erm, I think I first went to a river with my dear father, fishing,

when I was 5 and for one reason or another, it's been there ever since.

I mean, what a place to have as my office.

So what's so special about it?

It's a big vein running through the Dorset countryside.

It brings life from the invertebrates that live

on the bed of the river, the fish that eat them,

the birds that eat them. The whole ecosystem, you know, it's all there.

It seems amazing that in a single lifetime

they could have changed the way they managed rivers so radically.

Straightening it. Taking all the gravel out.

Then within the same lifetime putting it back to how it was again.

-It seems extraordinary.

-Amazing. We had a machine driver on a project.

He said to me, "30 years ago, I was taking this out

"and now I'm in the very same place putting it back in."

We're now healing what we thought was right 30, 40 years ago.

We're putting it back.

But there are some threats John can do little about.

Rivers provide much of the water piped to our homes

and one out of three is now under threat

from having too much water removed to meet our needs.

Do you have any worries about rivers and the future?

Um, my only worry for rivers of the future

is the growing population and the growing demand on water.

You know our rivers, they're fragile ecosystems.

You know, when people say, "Don't flush the toilet so many times,

"don't leave the tap running when you clean your teeth,"

in the grand scheme of things, that really matters

and it does make a huge amount of difference.

Today, it's my chance to give John a helping hand

and I'm on weeding duty.

What are we going to do with that piece of mean-looking kit?

I'd like you to just cut a bit of weed.

-We're just trying to speed up the current through here.

-Yeah.

Bring some oxygenated water through.

-OK.

-It will keep this bit of gravel clear,

ready for when fish come up and spawn later in the autumn.

If you just hold the scythes like that.

Oh! So this is all too long around here, then, is it?

Yep. Just trim some of that, just to channel the water through.

-I've given it all a good old hair cut.

-Very good.

I'm sure it's not quite the right technique!

There's different environments within a very short bit of river.

In some of the margins, we like a little bit of silt to build up,

obviously for the vegetation, for the rushes.

But also for things like mayfly.

The mayfly larvae love to live in silty bits of the river,

so it's all about variety.

I'm just looking upstream just now

and the whole surface of the water is dancing, isn't it.

-It's just a throng with flying invertebrates.

-Yeah, yeah.

It's a sign of a really healthy river.

When the insects thrive, you know the waters are clean

and supporting plenty of wildlife.

People like John have championed our rivers

and worked incredibly hard so that now, they sing with life.

But sadly, that doesn't mean we can congratulate ourselves,

because new and unexpected threats are appearing

all the time, as Miranda Krestovnikoff has been finding out.

The animal I really want you to help me save

is certainly not cute and cuddly.

It's got powerful claws, that can give you a nasty nip

and most of us have never even seen one.

Yet it needs our help more than any other British creature,

because if we don't do something about it right now,

it could even go extinct.

The white-clawed crayfish is being wiped out from our rivers.

So here he is, the white-clawed crayfish

and I know he's not going to win a beauty contest,

but as a marine biologist with a passion for things wet and watery,

I'm here to convince you that this little creature needs saving.

He's that important.

The white-clawed is our only native crayfish

and evolved in harmony with all our river creatures

and plays a vital role in the natural food chain.

But beneath the surface of Britain's rivers

lurks an alien monster crayfish, and it's annihilating our native variety.

The American signal crayfish is threatening river systems

across much of Britain.

This monster crustacean was brought here in the 1970s

as part of a crayfish farming experiment that went horribly wrong.

These foreign invaders escaped, spread and multiplied,

killing and eating everything in their path.

Today, they've contaminated almost every river system in England.

Seemingly unstoppable, they go from streams to rivers

and even march over land.

But on the rivers of Hertfordshire, the fight back has begun.

And it's being led by Crayfish Bob.

-Hi, Bob, how are you doing?

-Hello, Miranda.

-Lovely day for it.

Bob traps them for a living.

It's a great chance for me to come face-to-face with the enemy.

So this is the problem animal. This is the American signal crayfish.

So called because they're meant to signal to each other

with these red undersides of their claws

and these little white flashes in the joint there.

They're very much bigger than our native white-clawed crayfish.

I mean, nothing's going to escape the crushing power of that big claw.

But the American crayfish is also very tasty

and Bob thinks we should be eating them for lunch.

-Look at this, you see.

-Ah! Oh my goodness.

-OK.

It really feels like, as you were saying,

-the river bed is crawling with them.

-It's crawling with them, yeah.

We've got a massive problem here.

It's not just one or two, there are hundreds, there are thousands...

-There are billions of them. Yeah.

-Billions of them.

When we're dealing with quantities like this,

is it really a realistic thing to try and eat them to get rid of them?

Well, it's gone!

SHE LAUGHS

Sadly, although we've taken a good number out of this river,

this is just a drop in the ocean

as the alien crayfish are in so many waterways across Britain.

You also need a permit to trap them

and you're not allowed to trap anywhere near the British crayfish

we're trying to save.

But Bob wants to encourage US-style crayfish cook-ups.

Wow! Look at that colour!

It does them no harm to soak in there for a while.

These guys will be happy to get out.

-Amazing. It smells really good as well, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

Amazing how they could go from these menacing-looking creatures to dinner.

-In 10 minutes flat.

-It's really something very attractive, yeah.

OK. So the next stage is eating them.

-There are some superb flavours in there.

-Wow. That looks really good.

It is. You might, uh... these have been cleaned through, anyway.

Oh, it's beautiful and it's not that slightly fishy flavour

that you get from lobster or crab.

It's a really beautiful, mild, mellow... Mmm!

Catching and eating the American invaders is one possible solution,

but we may need an even more radical one to save our British crayfish.

On the outskirts of Bradford, a group of volunteers

are collecting white-clawed crayfish to move them to an arc site.

Just like Noah, they want to find safe havens,

where the American crayfish cannot reach and move them, two by two.

-OK, so that's a male.

-They need isolating,

because the American invader also carries a plague

that is lethal to our British crayfish.

Morning, chaps.

Whilst we don't catch this plague, we have helped spread it,

by moving between river systems.

We just want to make sure that you're not carrying crayfish plague

or pests or diseases that might affect the wildlife in this pond.

Ecologist Stephanie Peay has been protecting British crayfish

for over 20 years.

Right, so all of us have got to be disinfected. Crew included.

Including the crew, yes.

OK. All right, I'll just have a bit of a scrub, then.

Right, that's me done, your turn.

-Yes!

-I think we're in luck.

-Oh, ho, ho. Good one.

-Not just one!

That's fantastic. What have you got? Two or three in there?

There's two in the corner. There's three.

-Wow! That's great.

-A beautiful white-clawed male.

-Can I hold him?

-Yes. Go ahead.

Let's get a good look at him.

So he's not the most beautiful, charismatic, cute, cuddly animal

in the universe, but you love them, don't you?

You're really passionate about crayfish.

Oh, well, they're not cute, but they're really interesting animals.

This body plan's been around for millions of years.

We've got binocular vision, you know, eyes separated out

and we can hear whether a sound's coming from one side or the other.

Or they can smell whether the odour is coming

from one side or the other.

-Because of these amazingly long antennae.

-Yeah, yeah.

'These dedicated volunteers have collected as many

'of the British crayfish as they can.

'The aim is to help them

'escape the threat of plague by moving them to a safer site nearby.'

-See, there's some really good places to put crayfish here, Miranda.

-OK.

That nice, slow flowing water is just what we want.

-Right, just stick them down over there then.

-Yup.

Let's have a look in the box.

This is some of the ones we caught earlier. This is the first box.

-There's loads.

-Would you like to choose a nice spot?

-Say maybe...

-Well, down there looks great, doesn't it?

There's a nice slab there with a crevice underneath it

on the right-hand side. OK.

'This is just the start and we really do need to think big

'if we're going to save our native crayfish.

'Don't forget that this is the animal most likely to go

'extinct in Britain today.'

If we don't succeed in saving the British white-clawed crayfish

and we allow the alien American species to take over,

this could be absolutely devastating for Britain's rivers

and streams, so let's not give up on this little creature.

Right, off you go, little chap.

Good luck cos you're going to need it.

'Still to come on Britain's Big Wildlife Revival -

'Mike Dilger gets a bird's eye view of a wildlife garden.'

Unleash the hexicopter.

'And I'm on the trail of a fantastic success story.

'A top river creature returning to our waters.'

You just don't know when they're going to pop up.

'Rivers are not just a home for our beautiful wildlife,

'they've also played a part in our development and history.

'Providing a constant supply of fresh water and a natural transport route,

'it's not surprising that behind every great city lies a great river.

'Here in Newcastle the city is built along the banks of the River Tyne.'

Rivers like the Tyne helped our civilisation grow and flourish,

but that brought its own problems.

'The growth of the city led to terrible consequences for the river.

'Millions of tonnes of raw sewage poured into the Tyne

'while factories on the banks added their toxic waste.'

If I had been here at the beginning of the 20th century,

I would have been overcome by the stench.

In fact, by the 1950s, the River Tyne

was the most polluted river in Britain.

So much so that the local MP declared it a national disgrace.

'The Tyne was dying

'and the same was true for rivers right across the country.

'But thankfully it's now a very different picture.'

Today, the River Tyne is cleaner than it has been for decades

and helping to keep it that way is the crew of the Clearwater.

'For five days a week, 52 weeks of the year,

'this boat patrols the river.

'David Howsby has been pulling out anything from branches that could

'hit boats to debris that can pollute the water and impact the wildlife.'

-Are you all right there, David?

-Yeah, I'm all right.

-A massive piece of wood.

-Yeah, it's quite big.

Is this normal for what you guys pick up?

-Yeah, sometimes it's a lot bigger.

-Really?

-Yeah.

What would you say is the most unusual stuff you've had?

We've had pigs, sheep, a mobility scooter before. A bag of silver.

-A bag of silver?

-Yeah.

-Did you get to keep it?

No, we had to hand it in, like.

Oh, you didn't! I'd have been on eBay that night.

-What else have you had?

-Er, shopping trolleys, fridges...

-Wow.

You name it, we get it.

'It's a constant battle to keep the rubbish from piling up

'and affecting the water quality, but it is working.'

'And crucially there are now laws that prevent raw sewage

'and toxic waste being pumped straight into our rivers.'

'Keeping a careful watch on the health in this river is

'the Environment Agency's John Shelley.'

So, how bad was this river when it was at its worst?

Well, at its worst, Ellie, the river was very bad indeed.

There were virtually no fish swimming through the estuary and

in the '20s and '30s the dissolved oxygen level was extremely low.

-Sometimes down to absolute zero...

-Really?

..so pollution took all the oxygen out of the water and obviously

once the oxygen's out of the water, then the fish can't survive.

So, now comparing it, you've got this oxygen probe in there,

what are we getting a reading of?

-I'll just give it a moment or two to stabilise.

-All right.

From that 0%,

it is reading now 77% dissolved oxygen

which is a really good reading.

That'll help support fish populations and other wildlife.

'As rivers like the Tyne were restored, one very special creature

'became a real success story.'

This mighty fish which travels far and wide,

having once disappeared from these waters,

made an extraordinary comeback.

But just when we thought it was out of danger, it turns out

we got it wrong, as Gordon Buchanan's been discovering.

There's one species that no matter how many times I see it,

it just takes my breath away.

A bit like this cold water.

This creature deserves the title, The King Of Fish.

'The wild salmon.

'Fish don't get more brilliant than this.

'This remarkable fish swims

'hundreds of miles out to sea

'and then uses its in-built sat nav to find its way back home -

'leaping over every obstacle in its path.'

But now these unique creatures desperately need our help.

Because salmon have incredibly complex life cycles, it only

takes one small environmental change to land this magnificent

fish in big trouble.

'So, what are the problems?

'Well, at one time, it was pollution, but now incredibly we're losing

'our salmon even in the pristine waters of the Scottish Highlands.

'There are lots of theories why.

'It may have started with over fishing,

'but now salmon farms are also being blamed.

'Another fear is that climate change may be causing

'problems in the ocean where salmon feed.'

'What we do know is that for every 20 salmon that head out to sea,

'only one makes it back to the river to breed and this catastrophic

'drop in the numbers of returning salmon means that fewer

'and fewer are managing to leap over the barriers in their path.'

This is Rogie Falls.

The impressive thing about this place is not the waterfall itself,

it's what the salmon do here.

They have to leap more than twice my height to get past this

natural barrier.

Some of the biggest obstacles that salmon

encounter are right at the end of their migration,

so we can give them a helping hand by putting in these fish ladders

that enable them to get to the top without exhausting themselves.

Same can't be said for me.

And typically the last one is the highest and for a salmon

this is the point that it knows that it's nearly made it and they're

looking for the final step which takes them beyond the waterfall.

All the hardships that they've met in life are behind them.

Then further upriver from here - that's where they'll spawn,

that's where they'll die

and that's where this incredible cycle of life starts again.

'Despite the building of salmon ladders, very few salmon

'are returning and the spotlight is currently falling on the

'salmon-farming industry which has increased massively in recent years.

'Today, incredibly, there are 50 farmed salmon for every one in the wild.

'The fear is that these intensively-farmed salmon

'are contaminating the waters with deadly lice.'

'Fly fishermen were the first to notice the

'huge decline of salmon in their rivers.

'But now they're helping to revive their favourite fish.

'On the River Carron in the Highlands they put back any wild salmon

'they take, but this catch and release scheme has gone one stage further.'

'Bob Kindness is on a one-man mission to return the salmon to his river.'

So, what have we got in here? Can you tell through the net?

Yes, this is a small hen.

It's about 4lbs in size and if I take this back to the hatchery

and then take eggs from it, I'll get about 3000 eggs from this fish.

Wow. Oh, she's lovely, look at the colours. Amazing. Beautiful.

It looks as if you've won the top prize at a fair.

BOB LAUGHS

It's a big goldfish.

'Bob takes this female salmon away so that he can harvest the eggs for

'his breeding programme with the aim of restoring salmon to the river.'

So, what's the advantage of bringing this female in from the river?

By taking this fish in and stripping her,

-I'll get a success rate as high as 99%.

-Wow.

So, if that fish that I've just put in produces say 3000 eggs,

I can be putting almost 3000 young fish back into the river.

Whereas that fish, if it was left to spawn naturally,

would put a fraction of that back in.

So, what you're basically doing in a hatchery is you're protecting

the young stock from all the problems that they're likely

to have in the wild.

'Incredibly, Bob released 150,000 salmon into the River Carron

'last year alone.

'Time for me to help set the next batch free.'

These fish are about six months old now, so it's time for them

to head off into the river.

Christmas has come early.

Just in about here? So, do I just..?

Just beyond that stone in front of you. Yeah.

'Without Bob, the vast majority of these fish would already have died.'

Good luck to every one of you.

So they just have to orientate themselves a little bit.

Yeah, you can see how quickly they move away.

There you go. You're wild.

It is fantastic to see all these little fish.

When they get out to sea, they have this epic journey ahead of them

before they think about returning back to this river

and I think it's a testament to how incredible these fish are -

the fact that some of these fish will return to this river as giants.

'There are now enough salmon for the return

'of the angling tourist like me.

'On a catch and release basis, of course.'

I've got the waders, I've got the rod.

It's just the technique that's a bit rubbish.

'This may all seem a million miles away from you,

'but we can all do something to help the fish in our rivers.'

For anglers, catch and release is a fantastic way of enjoying

the environment, enjoying the fish and you're not taking anything away.

Another great thing that everybody can do is join an organisation

that helps keep this habitat clean -

clearing up river banks. And that's something, no matter

how old or how young you are, we can all do.

'But in my view we also need to investigate why

'so many salmon aren't making it back from the sea.

'The big issues of climate change, fish farming and over fishing

'can only be solved if we come together and make our voices heard.

'Only then will we have a chance of saving the king of fish -

'the wild salmon.'

'Here on the River Tyne, the salmon have made a great comeback.

'That's thanks to the efforts made to restore this mighty river to

'a healthy state.'

And there are some surprises right at the heart of Newcastle city centre.

Above all the traffic noise down here, you can hear a racket of bird-calling up on the bridge.

They're Kittiwakes and they're so-called, a bit like cuckoos,

because of the sound that they make.

And the really surprising thing is that they are true sea birds.

I associate them exclusively with cliff faces and the ocean

and yet here they are nesting five miles from the sea.

And this is a truly unique site.

No other colony of kittiwakes lives this far from the coast

anywhere in the world.

From March to September every year, these delightful birds come

here to nest and raise a family.

James Littlewood from the Tyne Kittiwake Partnership

is up on the city's prime-viewing spot.

James, why is there a sea bird colony right in the middle of this

city along the river?

Well, firstly they're using the buildings as fake cliffs

which is where they normally nest.

They use the river for bathing, mainly,

and they also take some food from the surface and they make

their nesting materials from the mud and the seaweed at low tide.

These birds are doing a 100 mile round trip to

feed their young off the Northumberland coast

so it's an incredibly long way to go to find food.

But they're clearly thriving here,

so there must be something on offer for them.

Whether they're protected from storms and the sea...

It might also be that when the young fledge, if they're on a sea cliff

they have to cope with the wild North Sea, whereas here they've

got a nice, calm river for them to get used to flying

and develop into adult birds.

And how do people view them?

The people who live here and tourists?

Well, I would say at least half the population of Newcastle

think they're brilliant.

It's absolutely wonderful to have a natural spectacular

like this in the city centre that people can enjoy.

They love the sounds.

They think they're charismatic and a lot of people think they're actually part of Newcastle now.

But obviously they do create a lot of mess with the nesting material.

The ground below does not look grey as it should do.

No. That's right and they're also quite noisy as well,

but, you know, Newcastle is famed for its Saturday night out

in Newcastle and on a Sunday morning, Newcastle city centre

looks a bit of a mess anyway, so what difference do a few birds make?

I love that. Brilliant.

'The kittiwakes travel up

'and down the river during the breeding season.

'Not only do the clean waters of the Tyne provide them

'with nesting material and the occasional snack,

'the river also guides them to the coast.'

'Many animals use rivers as an easy pathway

'across our cluttered landscape.'

'Providing routes for animals to travel along is

'something you can also do much closer to home,

'as our wildlife gardener Mike Dilger reveals.'

'I'm really lucky to have a river flowing past

'the end of my garden.'

'It also winds past many of the gardens in my village -

'drawing them together

'and providing wildlife with an easy passage through the neighbourhood.'

We often think of our gardens as private, enclosed spaces,

but do you know what?

Wildlife doesn't see it like that.

'Many animals will drop in for a quick visit whilst

'searching for food or shelter.'

So, if we were to make our garden more attractive to mammals,

birds and insects we have to think of our garden as one small

jigsaw piece in a massive puzzle.

'In my village, some of my neighbours are encouraging

'connections between their gardens.'

'In Penny Robinson's, there is a wealth of wildlife.'

This is our badger sett.

Wow. Not everybody gets a badger living in their garden.

That's fantastic. You're very lucky.

We are. We sometimes see them in the morning,

coming back from their forage.

One year, we saw a mother take her babies across the garden.

But they're beautiful creatures.

And you've got a nice, porous fence at the back I can see,

so they can come and go as they see fit.

'They can easily travel into the field behind,

'as well as into Lucy's garden next door.'

-The great thing is your gardens all connect together.

-Yes.

What kind of animals have you seen moving between the gardens?

We've got foxes and we've definitely had deer in the garden.

We have Penny's badgers and hedgehogs.

'A fence with gaps might seem simple,

'but at night mammals are on the move and fencing that stops them

'in their tracks can cause all sorts of problems.'

'Hedgehogs have been particularly affected by solid garden boundaries

'that block their nocturnal searching.'

'So, plant a bush rather than a fence or at least

'cut a hole in the base for animals like hedgehogs to use.'

'Once wild creatures can move between gardens, you can start to

'plan your area as one connected space.'

Have you thought about trying to make your respective gardens

all more wildlife friendly together?

For example, do any of you have a pond or any fresh water in the garden?

Not at the moment, but we have an old sand pit, which is quite a big area that we'd like to

make into a pond around the other side of the house.

I like the way you're talking.

Fantastic. What about the kids? Are they keen on wildlife?

They are wildlife.

THEY LAUGH

'If your gardens connect, your patch doesn't have to provide everything.

'A pond in just one of these gardens will be the drinking spot

'for the whole neighbourhood.'

'It takes a different tactic to help our insects.

'They can fly over boundaries, but need food for their journey

'and Penny's garden serves up a positive smorgasbord of nectar.'

Oh, Penny, this area is lovely.

We only mow this once a year, so try and keep it as wild as possible.

We've got the dandelions, the fritillaries, the primroses

and the celandine.

It's just our wild area.

'We're used to seeing the daytime visitors, but I want to show

'the kids from the cul-de-sac the huge range of nocturnal callers.

'I set up a trap overnight to catch what was passing by.'

-Who knows what this is?

-A moth trap.

It is, Harry, it's a moth trap. So we'll lift that off.

Whoa, look at these! They're called grey Muslin.

Who'd like to hold one?

Oh, I think Cameron's hand went up first.

You can quite often flick them off. There we go.

It feels ticklish.

All the moths are moving between all the gardens

and they've flown in from all around.

So they could have been in that garden or that garden or that garden.

There's a nice moth on that one.

-Where's that? Ooh, yes, well spotted. Ooh...

-It's flying!

It's gone.

That was an Early Thorn which has gone. Never mind.

'Moths are the hidden creatures of our gardens

'and just like butterflies need plenty of varied habitat.'

So, what you've got here is

you've got a beautiful moth called a Purple Thorn and a really boring

one called a Clouded Drab, so you've got beauty and the beast there. OK.

Emily, there's one on your back! That's my one.

There he goes. It's all right. It won't do any harm.

CHILDREN LAUGH AND CHATTER

There he goes. There! Where's he gone? Oh, look at this.

Look at this!

'The other animals that will be travelling around the neighbourhood

'are of course the birds.

'Our gardens are part of the bigger picture

'and in our village, surrounded by fields, birds will be

'looking to the gardens for food and lodging.'

I was envious before, Penny, but now I'm positively jealous,

because you have a woodland in your garden.

You've got horse-chestnut up here. You've got field maple.

There's a massive ash tree behind.

You've got loads of fruit and nuts for all manner of birds

in the winter and places to breed, as well, in the spring and summer.

There's just everything a bird needs.

'It can be hard to imagine how our garden really looks

'to the animal world.

'The way they see our private patch is very different to us.

'But I can give Penny an unusual insight into how the garden

'looks to the birds and insects flying overhead.

'By giving our camera wings.'

Wow.

'The camera rides underneath the helicopter blades to capture

'a bird's eye view.

'The images are then beamed down from above

'to these futuristic-looking glasses.'

-Ready?

-Yeah.

Unleash the hexicopter.

-Can you see yourself?

-Yeah.

Up you go!

Oh, my gosh. We're above the trees. I can see the roof.

The drive, the cars.

The lovely thing is you're getting a perfect bird's eye perspective.

The reason why your garden is so great is, first and foremost,

you've got lovely, big, mature trees, but also, as well,

lots of porous boundaries so the wildlife can easily move between.

So, do you appreciate how your garden looks now from a wildlife point of view?

Absolutely. You can see how they interlink.

Yeah, they interlink, exactly.

The wildlife doesn't know what's your garden

and what's Lucy's or what's Ann's.

It'll just hop over the fence and feed in yours.

So the continuity of all the gardens together -

the network of them is so important.

That sounds close!

Wow!

-Have you ever seen your garden like that before?

-No.

That's absolutely amazing.

Incredible. Really incredible.

'It's easy to forget our gardens represent individual jigsaw pieces

'in a much bigger puzzle.'

'So, creating nature-friendly corridors between them will make

'all the difference to the flow of wildlife across our landscape.'

'If you've been inspired to turn your garden into a haven for wildlife,

'Mike has lots more advice on our website.'

'Along with more information about what's happening where you live

'in the BBC Summer of Wildlife.'

I'm coming to the end of my rivers journey and one thing that's

become really clear to me is how connected everything is -

how all the animals that live here depend on each other.

And vital for any ecosystem

are the animals at the apex of the food chain -

the top predators.

'This is the market town of Blandford Forum in Dorset,

'founded over 1,000 years ago

'when our Anglo Saxon ancestors made a river crossing here.'

But today it's more famous for being one of the best places

in Britain to spot the top river creature of them all -

the otter.

'It's not all that long ago that otters

'were virtually wiped out in England.

'Only hanging on in a few remote hideaways.

'The decline began in the 1950s when agricultural chemicals,

'persecution by fishermen and hunting with otter hounds drove them

'to the edge of extinction.

'40 years ago, otter hunting was finally banned

'and they began a slow but steady recovery.

'Now, incredibly, they've returned to every county in England.'

What's fantastic here is that in broad daylight,

on the edge of a busy town, I can see otters doing their thing.

That at least is the plan.

Just the small matter of finding otters.

'But today otters are proving elusive on these Dorset rivers.'

'If there's anyone who can advise on otter spotting, it's the man

'who spent years in pursuit of this elusive animal -

'pioneering wildlife cameraman and local resident Hugh Miles.'

You've filmed lots of different animals during your career

as a wildlife cameraman, what is it about otters that have charmed you?

Erm, well, they're such charismatic animals.

They're extremely attractive. They're very playful.

You can't help admiring them for all those characteristics

and they're very effective hunters.

'30 years ago, Hugh was celebrated for his incredible film

'following a family of wild otters.'

Can you remember how easy or hard it was to film otters

when you first started your career?

-Well, it had never been filmed before in the wild.

-Wow.

And to actually find otters, they were rare.

Hardly any in southern England. Almost extinct in Dorset.

I had to go to Shetland to film them so I made a Wildlife On One

which got an amazing, I'm told, 17.3 million audience...

-Oh.

-..they were that popular.

-Wow.

'The female can now leave the cubs on their own for short periods.

'They're three months old

'and squabble over their fish like a couple of puppies.'

In those early days of filming otters, how hard were they to see?

Er, it could be tricky.

Initially, I think I went nine days without actually seeing an otter.

They were shy and people hadn't filmed them before, so I didn't know

whether I could overcome their fear and I decided

the only way really to get to grips with it would be to concentrate

on one particular otter and try and habituate her to my presence.

I wore the same clothes every day and crept around, and in the end

the gulls would stop alarm calling at me which wouldn't alert

the otter and then the otter, this particular female, would trust me.

So now that you can just pop out from your house and film them

here in the middle of the town, how does that feel?

Brilliant. I don't have to drive to Shetland all the time.

Well, 20 minutes!

I used to say to Sue, my wife, that, you know,

"I'm just popping out to Blandford, I'll film the otters, I'll be back

"by lunchtime," and bingo!

And I've never come here and not seen the otters.

This morning I arrived 4.30,

got out the car, walked up on the bridge and there's an otter cub. It's magic.

Well, you did better than I did. I had some glimpses.

-You weren't up early enough!

-I was up pretty early!

So, has it all been an unqualified success, the return of the otter

to all of the counties in England now?

Oh, absolutely. The recovery is remarkable in many respects.

I think it's challenging for the otters,

-but it is wonderful they're back.

-It is.

And if we care for our rivers better,

then I think they'll do fine.

Not to be denied a wild otter sighting, I make a dawn start

and stalk the river looking for tell-tale signs of life.

(Oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh, where?)

'I'm looking for bubbles or ripples -

'any clue that an otter might be lurking beneath the surface.'

(The funny thing, you get up at unsociable o'clock,

(so there's a lot riding on it, but it also builds the excitement.)

(Oh, come on.) There's some movement on the water just down here.

(There we go. There we go. There we go.)

Get the binos on it. Come on. Come on. Come on.

Oh, it's a duck. Oh!

It was a duck! It was a duck!

I was punching the air for a duck!

(I've got a definite mammal. Definitely a mammal.)

All I saw was the back - a furry back.

'It looks like they're heading downstream,

'finding fish for breakfast, so we take chase.'

Here we go. If you come on this way.

They're moving down the river all the time, feeding as they go

and we can't stay along the river's edge all the way,

so we've got to go through these nettles!

(This is not easy. We're right by the bypass now.)

(We've ran down the river bank.)

Unfortunately, some canoeists came at just the wrong time

for the last shot.

(So I live in hope.)

'The crew spot one right beneath the underpass.'

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

There's loads of ripples.

We just had a little head popping out for a fraction of a second.

Oh! That's how quick it was.

Never mind, there is proof that they are here.

'So they are a little camera shy, but nettle stings

'and early starts are a small price to pay for a glimpse of these

'spectacular animals that have made such an incredible comeback.'

Over the past few decades, our rivers have suffered terrible

lows and great highs and yet still face all kinds of problems.

But I think we should take heart from their capacity to recover,

to come back from the dead

and to support a wealth of incredible wildlife.

'Next time on Britain's Big Wildlife Revival, I reveal

'how a much-loved habitat is under attack.'

All is not well in the heart of the British countryside.

'Mike Dilger starts a wildlife revolution in your back yard.'

We actually caught a...

'And our team investigate three species in danger of disappearing for ever.'

We need to unite together to help to protect it.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd