Episode 5 Hugh's Wild West

For me, watching wildlife is one of life's greatest pleasures.

And my favourite place to do it is right here,

in my beloved West Country.

This captivating corner of the British Isles...

There's six right underneath us!

..has a cast of creatures that's as awe-inspiring,

extraordinary and magical as any.

-Oh, come on, no way!

-Yeah.

I'm hoping to get as close as I can to as many as I can...

Right, I'm ready.

This is great, this is measuring an eel.

Whoa, whoa!

Pants! Off, off! Oh, there's one inside my...

..with the help of a band of dedicated nature lovers.

Some of the patterns on the feathers, they are beautiful!

-Good spot. Look, look, look, look!

-Wonderful! Oh, that's so cool!

There's one in my hair now, Poppy.

I'll share the thrill of the chase...

-Do you hear them?

-I heard something.

-Yeah, they're in there.

ANIMAL CALLS

Yes.

..the sheer joy of the encounter...

-She's so golden.

-She's fast asleep.

It's OK. Shh!

That's amazing.

..and I'll pitch in to help these local heroes...

..safeguard the future of our precious animals.

Bye-bye.

There she goes.

Whoa!

I can't believe that I've been living in the West Country

for so many years and I've never done this before.

This will be a year-round adventure...

Straight ahead!

..as we explore the natural wonders of the UK's very own Wild West.

Today, I'm in the shadow of Glastonbury Tor, where my quest

for enlightenment has brought me to Somerset's own secret kingdom.

This labyrinth of sparkling waterways and misty wetlands

has a special place in England's history.

It's called the Avalon Marshes.

This extraordinary landscape has always been a kind of sanctuary,

almost hidden away from the outside world.

So naturally, it's a haven for wildlife.

But it's also a place where people are connecting with nature,

and being inspired to protect it.

And I'm really looking forward

to meeting some of the people who are doing that.

Of course, I'm also hoping to make that magic connection myself.

The Avalon Marshes lie at the heart

of the Somerset Levels,

a vast flood plain covering

around 650 square kilometres.

Rising above it

is Glastonbury's famous tor,

a landmark linked to the legend

of King Arthur.

Winter is a quiet time

for much of our wildlife.

But here in Somerset,

it's the moment to witness one of the UK's great natural spectacles.

So, I've hit the road, and I'm hoping that today,

I might see it for myself for the very first time.

And if I do, it should be the perfect introduction

to my exploration of the Somerset Levels.

At this time of year, starlings roost together in vast flocks

to survive the harsh winter nights.

There's safety in numbers, and the birds share their body warmth

as well as information about the best feeding sites.

And the Avalon Marshes is home

to one of the UK's largest and most impressive gatherings,

made up of hundreds of thousands of birds from across the county.

The starlings swoop and dive in unison,

creating massive flowing flocks called murmurations.

It's surely one of the avian world's most breathtaking sights.

For those in the know, this spectacle is a big local attraction.

And today, I'm planning to join them.

This will be a first for me, but not for our soundman Gary.

Gary, are you a bit of an old hand at the starling murmurations?

I guess I've been to see them on a regular basis

for the last ten years.

I've never seen them. I feel I have seen versions of it,

kind of almost out of the corner of my eye or maybe when driving,

big swirls of starlings sort of at the end of vision,

quite a long way away, but I've never been to have a look,

sort of purposely made a date with the murmurations.

OK, no pressure, then!

I'm glad to have Gary as my guide.

When it comes to the murmurations, he's a true aficionado.

The reason these birds come together in such vast numbers is for safety.

They'll drop into the reed bed, they'll pour in like water,

you'll think the display is over, but something will trigger them.

A few birds might get nervous, might panic, and they'll move.

Then suddenly, the whole lot will go again.

Peak viewing for the murmurations

is from mid December through to February,

and it happens in some form or another most nights.

But the timing and precise location can change from day to day.

So finding the best place to watch it is never easy.

-There's a starling hotline, run by the RSPB...

-Really?

-..that you can

-ring and they'll...

-And you've got... I bet you've got the number.

-I have got the number.

-Brilliant.

I'm going to ring the starling hotline.

It should be the location the starlings were the night before.

And that's the best bet for where they'll be tonight?

-Best you've got to go on?

-The best you've got to go on, yeah.

-OK.

Welcome to the Avalon Marshes Starling Hotline.

Last night the starlings roosted on Ham Wall.

Ham Wall, is that a location you know?

I know Ham Wall, but it's still a very big reserve,

it's the RSPB reserve on the Somerset Levels.

The RSPB reserve at Ham Wall is one part of the patchwork of wetlands

that make up Avalon Marshes.

But it's still a large area, so it's a bit of gamble

deciding exactly where to go for the best view of tonight's avian show.

I'm hoping our cameraman John Walters

might help to get us front row seats.

He's another murmuration veteran and is exuding confidence.

So this will probably be the best spot for tonight

-because they've just moved and have taken to a fresh bit of marsh.

-Yeah.

I think they've sort of completely flattened the reeds elsewhere,

-and now they've come for...

-That's what happens, is it?

-Yeah.

-They flatten a patch, then move on?

-Yeah, fresh reeds and a fresh spot.

Nice bit of hard ground to set your tripod up.

Absolutely.

How are we doing for time?

Oh.

-Ooh.

-Ten past four?

-Hm.

-20 minutes?

At least. Well, I'd say, half an hour.

Yeah. 20 minutes, half an hour.

-So we just enjoy the, er, waterbirds till then.

-Yeah.

The Avalon Marshes are home to a vast range of bird species.

And it's best known as a great place to see all kinds of waterfowl,

waders, herons and swans.

Tonight, these lovely birds are just the warm-up act.

But it's a great way to settle in.

So Gary's brought his own stool.

Look, it's actually a folding rucksack stool.

What a pro, eh?!

Is it really comfortable, Gary?

Well, it's the first rule of wildlife watching.

-Any fool can be uncomfortable.

-Any fool can be uncomfortable.

-Absolutely.

-That'll be me, then.

The murmuration is best seen on bright, still, crisp days.

And it looks like we've picked a good one.

The birds can start to appear about an hour before dark.

As dusk approaches, the sense of anticipation

among the gathered spectators is definitely building.

They look like old hands, somehow,

they look like they've been here before and they know what to expect.

I'm starting to wonder if I'm the only murmuration virgin.

Here they come, here they come.

That's fantastic!

That's beautiful.

They are moving in the most extraordinary way.

Twisting and turning.

Look, see on the horizon there?

-Oh, my goodness!

-Massive, massive.

That's insane!

-That's huge flock.

-That is a huge flock.

-That's many thousands.

Right on cue,

shape-shifting swarms of starlings stream in over the reedbeds.

Wow, they keep coming.

In midwinter, Somerset starling population is boosted by more flocks

from northern Europe, making for one mighty murmuration.

Still going on in the distance.

-Quite a spectacle.

-It is, isn't it?

-Amazing.

Are you a teeny-weeny bit disappointed

-that they weren't closer?

-It would be nice.

-It would be nice,

-but then if you could foresee it...

-We can come back.

..it wouldn't be the same, would it?

-No, but it whets your appetite.

-It does, doesn't it?

Have you been before?

No, it's the first time.

That's strange, cos I thought I was the only first timer, somehow.

I thought everyone else looked like they knew when you were doing.

-Can you still see them?

-Yeah, there's a big crowd of them.

Look at the trees. They're still around there. We thought

-that they'd gone down but they all came back up again.

-Oh, yeah!

-There's a wave, there's a wave.

-Look at them all piling down there.

-What did you think?

-It's fantastic.

-Have you been before?

-I came on Tuesday for the first time.

-How was it on Tuesday?

-It was different.

It was lots of sort of little ribbons of birds that came.

-Right.

-And it was lovely,

but you didn't get that huge crowd that we got today.

It was just very different.

There's something quite nice about lots of people coming out here.

It feels like a bit of a party.

-Yeah, it's lovely.

-Shame nobody's brought any mulled wine.

I've got some hot tea, but, you know, just enough for me and Sue.

-Hot, sugary tea.

-All right, I... I get the picture.

Not enough for you.

-You can...

-I'll open it.

-You can have a bit in that top lid.

Do you want me to open it for you?

-There we go.

-You can have some of the top part.

-See what you think.

-That's very kind.

Oh, that's lovely, hot, sweet tea.

It is nice, isn't it?

I've had such a lovely time,

I can't believe that I've been living in the West Country

for so many years and I've never done this before.

It's just so mad.

Why didn't I do it before?

Anyway, I've done it now, and I'm definitely going to do it again.

Wherever you are on the marshes,

the striking landmark of Glastonbury Tor dominates the view.

It's easy to see why it entered the mythology of ancient Wessex.

But just a few miles away,

another patch of high ground is earning a place in local legend.

This is Green Down, and in midsummer,

a little miracle is taking to the wing...

..the large blue butterfly.

You've got something here in Somerset

that would be the envy of every country.

I think that makes it very special.

Almost 40 years ago,

this globally endangered species was declared extinct in the UK.

But now it's back, thanks in part to entomologist David Simcox.

In 1992, we put 281 caterpillars on the site,

26 generations later, we've got over 170,000 large blue eggs.

They're on the wing for just a few weeks

when they must mate and create the next generation.

It's a vital window for David to monitor their progress.

Whoa!

This steep hillside is the best place

to see large blues in the world.

Let's just keep looking.

But that doesn't mean they're easy for David to spot

or for John to film.

We've got a blue. We've got a blue.

Have you got it?

Can you see it still?

Still got it?

I'm not sure I'm filming it, but... certainly not in a steady mode.

Good spotting.

Are you ready, John?

The other thing to bear in mind is once she's laid an egg,

there's a good chance for about two seconds she'll open her wings.

Hold on.

Large blues are incredibly fussy.

They only lay their eggs on the buds of wild thyme flowers.

This is a beautiful patch of thyme.

These have huge flowers on them.

So sites that have thyme with large flowers are good sites.

But there's something else about this special spot

that makes it just right for the large blue.

And it only came to light after years of meticulous research

by David and his team.

The large blue has a really quite extraordinary life cycle.

The female will lay her eggs right in...

..the tips of the flowers of wild thyme.

And after about five or six days, those eggs will hatch

and a very, very tiny caterpillar burrows into the flower.

And all it actually eats at this stage are parts of thyme flowers.

When it gets about six or seven millimetres long,

it loses interest in actually feeding on the flower,

and it drops onto the ground, and it sits there and waits.

And what it's waiting for is one of these red ants to come and find it.

The large blue caterpillars undertake a deceit

on which their whole future,

and indeed the future of the species, depends.

Caterpillars are releasing pheromones that tell the ant

that it's there.

It also has little glands that it produces a sugar solution,

which the ants start to feed on.

The caterpillar is fooling the ant into thinking

it's one of its own grubs.

The ant will pick the caterpillar up, put it in the ant's nest,

and at that point...

..the large blue caterpillar stops being a herbivore and,

for the rest of its life, it will just eat ant grubs.

After gorging on its unsuspecting hosts,

the crafty caterpillar completes its metamorphosis underground,

until it's ready to emerge as a butterfly

and start its search for a mate.

The ant trick is played by a few other types of butterfly,

but for the large blue, it's very risky.

The team have discovered that some ants

are wise to the caterpillar's con.

And that can have deadly consequences.

There are four or five different species of red ant.

Any of those will pick up the caterpillar

and take it into its ant's nest,

but landmark research over five years

showed four of those species quickly recognised it was an impostor

and killed it.

And just one species, called Myrmica sabuleti,

were unable to detect it was an impostor.

The butterfly had learnt perfectly to mimic ant grubs.

This sneaky secret of the large blue's life cycle has made it

a very tricky species to reintroduce.

Without exactly the right kind of ant to serve it,

this butterfly simply won't survive.

Today, David's also taking an ant census to ensure the right red ant

that the large blue depends on is present and correct.

And I'm now going to pick one up.

And to get the ants where he can see them,

he deploys a few crumbs of trifle sponge.

Ants love sweet things, so they love trifle sponge.

And the ants very quickly will come and find it,

and there are ants running around already.

And I can see this one is exactly the ant that we want to see.

But keeping the right red ants here on Green Down is no piece of cake.

Taller the turf gets, the cooler the ground gets.

And as it cools down, a different species of red ant

will very, very quickly, just in a matter of weeks, come in

and take over the ants' nest that Myrmica sabuleti has.

So we need to keep it warm in the spring and particularly warm again

in the autumn, and grazing is how we manage that.

To me, it's mind-boggling just how many delicate variables there are

to manage for both the large blue and the ant it depends on.

No wonder it's taken David and his team almost 30 years

of relentless attention to detail to get this habitat in shape.

But their fantastic fieldwork has been richly rewarded,

as these demanding, devious,

but delightful butterflies now have a vital stronghold.

It's not just the biggest population in this country,

but actually it's the biggest known population anywhere in the world.

A few miles north of Green Down across the flatlands of Somerset

lies the watery heart of ancient Avalon - the marshes.

These reedbeds are home to a variety of British birds.

Crisscrossed with waterways,

they're also an ideal habitat for mammals like water voles and otters.

I've come back in the summer and the starling murmurations are long gone.

It's such a peaceful spot that it would be easy to believe

that not much has changed here in the marshes for centuries.

But in fact these beautiful wetlands were created relatively recently,

and that takes a huge amount of vision and hard work

from some very dedicated people.

And one whose story really stands out is Sally Mills,

a lifelong wildlife obsessive.

As a child I used to be around,

trying to see birds in the local quarry and the local woods.

And... And I was just collecting, like,

bits of eggshell and trying to identify what they were,

and, much to my mum's distaste, I used to also pick up dead birds

that I found so that I could paint them and I used to keep them

in the freezer at home, and she didn't realise

till she got to the bottom of the freezer and found them there,

but, yeah, these things you do as a kid.

Sally's childhood passion led her to a career in conservation

and, ultimately, to a truly daunting assignment after the RSPB

acquired a new site with an amazing opportunity.

In 1994, work began to turn Ham Wall,

where peat had been dug on an industrial scale,

into a wetland wildlife reserve.

When I first started, it looked a bit like what I imagine the surface

of the moon to look like,

cos they harvest the peat right down to the clay, and I thought,

"Here we are, trying to establish a wetland.

"I'm never going to do this by myself."

And so we put an advert out for volunteers,

and I remember advertising that

there was free tea and cake on this evening if volunteers came,

and we were... we had about 50 people turn up.

It was the start of a cake-fuelled people-powered revolution.

Sally and her team of volunteers

planted thousands upon thousands of reed seedlings, all by hand.

They used to be, like, with spade handles and bits of broomstick.

It was great, I mean, all right, it was hard work,

but it was an easy job for people to do,

but they were really...felt they were making a difference.

Reeds are a tough form of grass.

They thrive in flood plains and provide much-needed cover

and sanctuary for all kinds of animal life.

Among them lives a very curious British bird that with the decline

of the UK's wild reedbed habitats had very nearly gone extinct.

Bittern was our main target species at a time

when we started back in 1994. They were in massive decline.

I think it was just down to 11 booming males

in the whole of the country in '93.

The bittern is a member of the heron family.

But no other heron can do this...

BITTERN BOOMS

This is Britain's loudest bird.

The male's distinctive mating call, or boom,

is made by belching gulps of air.

It can be heard from a distance of two kilometres.

20 years ago, this eccentric bird was on the brink of extinction,

but thanks to new reedbeds like this, it's making a comeback.

The marshes here are now home to 45 breeding male bitterns.

It's a very different picture from when Sally started.

It makes you draw breath, really. If you got it right for the bittern,

then you're going to get it right for so many other species.

So I feel very, very lucky to have been involved,

and it's just brilliant to see how the site has...

has developed, and I think will continue to.

The transformation of this place has been a great success story and

the benefits of what's been achieved here go beyond the wildlife.

What's also great is to see the people that got involved in...

in making this project work still here, still enjoying it, and still,

whether it be watching the wildlife or still volunteering,

and...and it's just... feels very complete.

THEY CHUCKLE

For Sally and her team, the years, in some cases decades, of hard work,

have been their own rich reward.

Newcomers like me and the tens of thousands of delighted visitors

who come here every year owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude.

To maximise their value as habitat,

man-made reedbeds like this need a lot of maintenance.

To keep the ditches clear and the water flowing

is a year-round task for the volunteers.

And it's just brilliant to see all their amazing hard work paying off,

as every year brings greater diversity and new species arrive

that haven't been seen here before.

There are hundreds of British bird species

that now call this place home.

But in recent years,

the startling white plumage of some exotic newcomers

has been spotted through the reeds.

For the whole reserve, this is a very exciting development.

Today, volunteer Alison Morgan wants to confirm the latest sightings

with the help of an eye in the sky.

We've got this new species coming in, they're beautiful, they're new,

they're big birds, they're about this big.

They're just incredible birds to watch.

This is the great white egret,

once an incredibly rare sight in Britain.

When a single pair was spotted here on the Avalon Marshes in 2012,

it was big news in the bird world.

But more remarkable still was the discovery

that the pair wasn't just passing through. They were nesting.

It was an all-time first in Britain.

Since then, more new pairs have been attracted

by the newly-created marshland,

and now the team wants to help them settle for good.

-There we go.

-That's the nest.

There's the nest.

Oh, look, what a wonderful location.

Oh, yeah.

Great white egrets hunt by stealth, stalking fish and frogs,

which they catch with a deadly jab of their bill.

Reedbeds provide fantastic cover, and for egrets that's essential

for finding a nest site where their chicks can stay safe from foxes

and other land-based predators.

It makes monitoring the progress

of these precious newcomers a challenge.

But with the help of the drone, some of their secrets are being revealed.

The egrets nest over water, constructing a home in the reeds.

It's on a quite flimsy platform, isn't it?

Yes, it's a very flimsy platform. Yes, it's surprisingly flimsy.

Sometimes quite...about a metre high, you'll see the water,

and there's just these sticks,

then they build a platform on top of the reed sticks,

so the whole thing is very precarious.

Today's aerial investigation is revealing more good news.

Got these three birds nesting very closely together, haven't we?

-Yeah.

-They're supposed to be colony nesting birds.

These early signs of a possible colony are a thrilling discovery.

If these pairs breed successfully,

Alison and the team will be the guardians

of Ham Wall's next generation of great white egrets,

so keeping a close eye on the chicks is paramount.

We know that one nest has got at least one chick,

and we want to check whether it's one

or whether it's more than one now,

cos they tend to lay up to three eggs.

The other two nests, we want to know what's going on,

we think they're both incubating. From that we can calculate

the dates, so that we know when they hatch.

But for now, it's time to leave the egrets in peace,

and it's the end of a very satisfying day's work for Alison.

It's just a fabulous way of being outside

and seeing what life there is all around us.

It's good for your mental health,

it's good for your spiritual health, it's just great fun.

And the sight of these egrets

is a spectacular seal of approval for this man-made habitat.

Just such a privilege to connect so closely with birds,

with the natural world.

We're just a small part of it and it's an amazing and beautiful thing

to be able to do.

Alison will return in a few weeks to see how the new colony's

getting along, and she'll be hoping to find some brand-new chicks.

Summer in the marshes is not to be missed.

It's when life here is teeming...

..and there's another exotic newcomer

that's made the hop here from mainland Europe.

It might not be as elegant as an egret,

but it could be having a vital role in their success.

Ecologist Andre Blacker has invited me to join him as he patrols

the marshes on the lookout for this easily alarmed amphibian.

Are we stalking frogs at the moment?

Yeah. This morning there were a couple over here in this ditch.

They're really, really jumping, so if you get...

Stop it! Frogs?

Never! Jumpy?

Surely not!

There's so many herons and predatory birds around,

they're just like a coiled spring, so, you know...

-Softly, softly.

-Softly, softly.

OK. So I shouldn't have laughed loudly.

-No. If we're too...

-You said the frogs were a bit jumpy.

I'm sorry. That was what set me off.

We're trying to find a jumpy, shy, noise-averse, well-camouflaged frog

in the thick cover of a reedbed.

Surely that's a cinch!

But it's possible that a heron was here before we got here

-and might have frightened them.

-Or eaten them.

-Or eaten them.

-Yes.

-They're definitely heron food.

But we're not giving up easily.

Hang on, what's that there?

-Bit of leaf.

-Yeah, that's it, yeah, there we go.

Got one, well done.

-Bright green.

-Aren't they beautiful?

Stunning, stunning.

So that's an Iberian water frog.

-So he's come all the way from Spain?

-Portugal, Spain or southern France.

How on earth did Iberian water frogs end up here on the marshes

-in Somerset?

-We're really not sure.

They could have been released deliberately,

but they're more likely to have been brought in with the fish stock.

Oh, so maybe somebody brought some carp over

-for one of the angling lakes here.

-Yeah, that's...

-Tadpoles came in with the carp or something.

-Yeah, yeah.

This Iberian arrival really is rather smart.

The striking patterns and that vibrant shade of green

make it very different from our common British frog.

It's also a lot more vocal...

FROG CROAKS

..and that's helped to make it

a very notable presence in the marshes.

I've done some rough calculations, and I think in this habitat here

there are probably 2,000 adults per hectare.

Come on. 2,000 adult...

-Per hectare.

-That could look like a bit of a problem,

a kind of invasion of a frog that's not meant to be here.

Is it proving problematic for the ecosystem here?

We've not recorded any problems.

These frogs have been here since the 1960s and we would have seen

a problem by now, we would have seen one of our native...

-50 years.

-Yeah, we'd have seen one of our native species in decline

and they're thriving.

They're now part of the food chain whether we like it or not.

The sheer numbers are clearly a boost

for the birds that like to eat them.

And I'm wondering if their vocal tendencies could be a factor, too.

Is it possible that the fact that they're noisy makes them easier prey

for herons and bitterns and the birds that are doing well here?

I personally think so, yeah.

Yeah. Cos they call at night, erm, a lot of bird species

migrate at night, it could be acting like a homing beacon.

Egrets, herons, bitterns...

-Yeah.

-Little bitterns,

they're probably all piling into the Iberian water frog.

Yeah, they all predate frogs.

Any species. And because we have so many,

it could be the reason they're doing quite well here.

Andre regularly conducts DNA tests on these frogs,

and today the task of catching one falls to his new field assistant.

I'm going to stalk the Iberian water frog for a good scientific reason.

It's not just for show,

and I'm guessing you're not rating my chances.

I'm no heron, but I can be pretty stealthy when I want to be.

Oh!

And guess what?

I thought I had him.

Nice try. I thought you were going to...

Sorry about that, I really thought I had him.

-It's OK.

-I got within a couple of inches and he plopped...

-..just into there.

-They're so fast, aren't they?

-God, he did move fast.

-Yes, yes.

I've no idea where he is now.

But the Iberian water frog has eluded this famous amphibian catcher

that you've got with you today.

-That's all right. Nice try.

-Thank you.

Luckily, Andre's research isn't dependent

on my frog catching skills.

He's already gathered some prize specimens.

Is he allowed out?

We can't let him escape because technically it is illegal

to put them... Although they came from here, technically it's illegal.

Oh, because it's a non-native species?

Yeah, so these will have to live out their natural lives at home with me.

-That's quite bizarre.

-It is.

-But the rule is there to protect the countryside...

-Exactly.

..from non-native species even if they are already here.

-Wow. A very bright, jade green body.

-Yeah.

And then speckledy brown flanks and legs. Very distinctive.

And the sheer amount of water here, the big ponds, the standing water,

the little pools, he can exploit all those habitats.

They can also exploit salty water

and they can tolerate different pollutants.

So it's a tough frog but its undoing is the heron and the bittern?

-Exactly.

-He can't do much about them.

-No.

They can still make lunch, tea and dinner of him.

But there's no such fate in store for this frog.

He'll be heading home with Andre to live in his garden refuge.

So you'd think he'd be happy to go back in his box.

Whoa!

Come on, Jumpy.

I notice you have got a couple of reptiles with you as well, Andre.

Yes, two grass snakes.

I haven't seen a grass snake for years.

-Can we have a look?

-Yeah, of course you can.

There we go. It might musth on you.

It's strong. I've got him, I've got him.

I've got one as well.

I can hear yours making a squirty noise.

Your hands end up stinking, but it's worth it.

They're amazing, aren't they?

Stunning, stunning.

Yeah, I'm getting that smell,

definitely getting that smell.

-That is a musth, is it?

-It's a defence mechanism, yeah.

Some people say it smells like rotten frogs,

-which is probably what it is.

-It doesn't smell good...

..but they're so fascinating and amazing to handle

that I'm putting up with it.

It's not just herons and bitterns who are booming

on the frog population, these guys are also frog eaters.

They are, yes, specialist predators of amphibians,

so we have a substantial population of grass snakes.

-They're doing well here?

-They're doing very well, yeah.

The last time we surveyed them was in 2015

and they're one of the most numerous reptiles

we have on the Somerset Levels.

Are grass snakes also prey as well as predator here?

Yeah, absolutely.

Wow. These guys obviously are natives,

so they are allowed to go back.

What are your plans for them?

As soon as we finish, these can go back to where they came from here.

They're obviously quite keen to get back in the grass.

-Yes.

-Shall we let them do that?

-Yes.

-OK, grass snakes, back into the grass with you.

Oh, he's fast and into the water.

Quick.

-This one is making its way a little bit more slowly.

-Mm.

Well camouflaged, aren't they?

There he goes.

Beautiful.

And away.

It's great that not only are amphibians thriving here,

but also snakes that we barely stop to think about

being part of UK natural history.

Mm, grass snakes are doing really well,

a really healthy population.

Good news.

They don't smell great, though.

THEY CHUCKLE

These marshes are inspiring for any budding wildlife watcher,

and they've certainly got me looking to up my game.

But I am still way off the pace of one man

who must be among the Levels' most dedicated nature lovers.

I supply, install and maintain air conditioning and heat pumps.

Even in his day job,

Stephen Hemry can't stay away from the local wildlife.

Sorry, you've got a nest.

No eggs.

It's quite dry, so obviously from last year.

So they were very busy here last year, which is good.

He seems to me to be a man with a keen sense of work-life balance.

Finish work maybe six o'clock, go home, have a bit of tea,

spend a bit of time with the family and then off out.

I was born and bred in Somerset so it is a special place, very special.

The wildlife is absolutely fantastic.

This infectious passion for his local patch

isn't something Stephen can keep to himself.

I like to get out there, see it, film it, photograph it,

share it out.

This evening he's out with his camera as usual,

seeing who's to be found around some of his spots.

This is West Sedgemoor, a big open moorlands, which do flood...

They are flood plains, so in the winter

this would all be under water.

And what happens?

All the wintering birds come in.

As a child I was always into my birds,

but then you grow up, you get jobs,

you go to work, you get married,

you have children and those sorts of things fall by the wayside.

It's a familiar story, but since he rediscovered his passion,

Stephen's developed a knack for getting close enough to wild animals

to film and photograph them.

I could see the footprints, found a hole,

sat and waited for a while and, yeah, I got one on film.

I love water voles, they're great to see.

Very elusive, don't see them very often.

Plenty of roe deer out here.

Often see them playing around.

You stay still, you've used the landscape as your hide,

you don't need to come out here and build a hide,

you use what's natural here to hide behind,

let those mammals come in close, and they do.

Keep the wind in the right direction,

keep the noise down and you'll get them in,

and you get them in nice and close for the good close-up shots.

It's beautiful.

They don't know you're there.

You're not disturbing them.

That's the key, don't disturb anything, let it come to you,

don't chase it, let it come to you

and you can get your shots, it's great.

She came out and walked about 15 feet in front of me,

and she's just happily eating the thistles.

And she looked up a couple of times, she saw me there,

wasn't bothered at all, and, like I say,

closest I'd ever come to a roe deer.

That was absolutely fantastic.

I'm able to film these things and put them out on my Facebook page

and people really enjoy it.

There's no sign yet this evening of Stephen's favourite badger family.

But the clues aren't far away.

In the puddle here, there's a couple of dog prints,

which are really quite obvious.

But there's also something else.

That's actually a badger print.

So a badger's passed through this way at some point.

But you can tell by the length of the claw that it's a badger

as opposed to being a dog.

Stephen's stealth and field craft often gets him and his camera

in the right place at the right time.

I spotted the fox in the margin, and he's making his way up through.

And then there's a big commotion, the crows started to chase it off.

So, yeah, one of them had to leave,

and there were more crows than foxes, so the fox lost!

Think a heron got involved as well somewhere along the line there.

It's really quite interesting to see.

Whilst I was actually filming that,

a stoat came out of the gateway.

Just out there hunting, looking for food.

Went in and out of the hedgerow a few times, and I managed to get it

onto film, so, yeah, I was very pleased with that.

Stephen's midsummer outings usually end in a sunset appointment

with some old friends.

I know where the hare are.

I do like to try and get shots of the hare.

There's one particular evening out on Curry Moor,

I was sat quiet in the gateway and then slowly came along the hedgerow

just to my right.

Came really close, less than six feet away from me, I suppose,

and stopped.

Having one so close, I had to stop...

stop filming and take some photographs.

He makes it sound easy, but hares are famously skittish,

so to get close-ups like these are a great testament

to Stephen's dedication and skill.

And he's always alive to every opportunity to watch and wonder.

I've got one out there. It's very low at the moment.

It's obviously heard me, so it, it's...

But give it a few minutes and it should settle down.

If I stay quiet, it should show.

So we'll wait and see if a couple more come out.

Hares tend to feed at night

when they'll be less obvious to potential predators.

When called for, those hind legs can propel them at over 40mph.

For Stephen, whatever they're up to,

every minute in their company is time well spent.

There you go, that was nice to see.

We stayed quiet and he eventually came up out of the grass,

had a bit of... bit of a trot across,

and a bit more feeding and then has run off into the distance.

Great. Happy days.

One thing I've learnt from the devoted wildlife watchers

of the Somerset Levels is always to keep my eyes open.

And every time I come here, including today, I'm asking myself,

"What am I going to see today that I've never seen before?"

And it doesn't have to be big.

What are those?

Come and have a look at this.

On the water.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny aquatic insects.

They look like little beads, little beetly things.

Just have to get a closer look.

Are they going to scarper?

They've sensed my presence and they're just heading off.

I don't want to scatter them too much,

but they're definitely reacting to me.

Just raise a hand and they start spinning,

like, doing crazy circles.

They're stunning, like little jewels in the sunshine.

Catching the light in the most brilliant way,

they're absolutely mad.

Some of them are just spinning round and round like crazy tops.

And there's a load over there, too...

..just at the bottom of the reeds on the other side.

You can see the tiny little sparkly dots.

Every now and then they go absolutely nuts,

and I wonder if that's basically a kind of defence.

Cause such confusion with the spinning movements that any predator

doesn't really know which way to go.

Never mind the starlings.

This is aquatic invertebrate murmurations.

But what are they? That's what I want to know.

I'm either going to have to find somebody who knows

what these little guys are, or,

by the time this is actually on telly, I'll have done my research

and I could do you a nice little piece,

tell you exactly what they are

and a little bit about their natural history.

As promised, I've done my homework,

and now I can tell you that these little whirling dervishes

are actually aquatic beetles called whirligigs.

This out-and-out specialist is perfectly equipped for life

on the surface of still water.

They're actually predators feeding on tiny insects

trapped in the surface tension.

They have extraordinary split-vision eyes that allows them

to keep a lookout for danger,

both from the air above and the water below.

And as for that crazy gyrating movement,

it's thought to be something whirligigs do when they're hunting

to panic the tiny insects they feed on.

But also, as I suspected, as a defensive manoeuvre

to confuse any threatening presence, birds, fish,

or the occasional passing wildlife enthusiast.

There's something about them just caught my eye, which,

at the beginning of the year, probably wouldn't have happened.

I'm definitely much more tuned in now, I spot stuff.

I'm getting better. It's so exciting.

These curious bugs are just one part of the explosion of life

here at Ham Wall over the summer.

The reedbeds everywhere are bustling with newly-hatched insects.

And, of course, it's a crucial time for the birds.

It's been a few weeks since the great white egrets

started hatching chicks, suggesting these relatively recent arrivals

are really settling in here.

Alison Morgan is certainly hoping so, and today she's catching up

with the progress of the precious offspring.

There's the cloth on the string.

Yeah.

That's the rings.

Alison and her colleague Richard Hearn

are taking to the water to check on the chicks.

As we approach, the adults come off the nest.

They remain within sight of the nest.

The young ones don't have too many options about where to go,

and we put them back quite quickly, and then the parents

will normally return 10 to 15 minutes after we've left.

We've got a special disturbance licence,

because obviously these are rare breeding birds.

The mission for the day is to ring all the chicks.

It's important that this happens before they're strong enough to jump

from the nest, which is always a risk if they get spooked.

As the nests are over water,

a chick that falls or jumps out could easily drown.

I'm just going to stand up.

To minimise the disturbance,

they've left the crew behind and are filming it themselves.

Yeah, they're pretty big. I think they're too big to go anywhere near,

personally. They're completely feathered.

They're going to see us come in and they're over water,

and to me that just changes everything.

For the welfare of the chicks,

Richard and Alison decided to back off the burgeoning colony.

The chicks just look too big - they're feathered.

And so that means that if we go in and ring them, they'll jump off

the nests into the water - all sorts of dangers that we need to avoid.

And the other nest is so close to it that we'd disturb the first nest

if we went in.

The third nest, the chicks are too young still probably to ring, anyway.

So, that's how not to ring great white egrets.

It's a frustrating start, but there's another nest on the list...

..and this one's on its own.

Yeah.

There she goes.

They look a nice size.

Good shot, Richard.

The cloth over the chicks helps to keep them calm...

..before popping them in a pillowcase

for a comfortable move on to the kayak.

There's one.

There's the other one.

It's important to gather all of the data that they need

in the shortest possible time.

-CHICK CHEEPS

-Yeah, excellent.

And these old hands have got this down to a pretty slick routine.

Total head is 111.1.

Feathers are taken to determine the chick's sex...

..and leg rings help with future identification of each bird.

6.50.

-That's the actual weight.

-6.50?

-CHICK CHEEPS

-Ta.

Oops, he's just left his breakfast on your bag.

You're number two, aren't you? Looks good.

Job done, in more ways than one.

Great.

That's good.

Textbook.

The great white egrets are thriving and giving us all hope

of what could be a long-term nesting colony here in the Avalon Marshes.

Just a few weeks later, the chicks have flown the nest.

It's successes like this that make the long struggle to recover

and preserve this wetland habitat

from an industrial site incredibly worthwhile.

It's been fantastic. It's been the best so far.

This year we had eight nests with 18 chicks fledging.

And there's more exciting news.

It looks like the egret chicks ringed here just a few weeks ago

could be colonising other wetland sites across the country.

AAJ was reported less than a week after we know that it was still here

from Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory in Kent.

And just a few days ago we discovered that a AAH has been seen

at Dungeness Bird Observatory in Kent.

So we reckon both birds probably travelled together.

The timing seems to suggest that.

We don't know why. Maybe there was a strong west wind,

maybe they just went along the coast and stopped when they ran out

of land, but we have successfully exported them to Kent.

Whether they'll come back we don't know.

We rather hope they will, but time will tell.

In my visits here, I've seen so many species, both new and native.

It's clear just how important this place is for wildlife.

And it's certainly done wonders for my bird knowledge,

and that's something I now realise can be a never-ending quest.

But there's one famous resident that has eluded me so far -

the booming bittern.

BITTERN BOOMS

Today I'm returning to the exact spot where I watched the starlings

back in the winter, hoping finally to see one.

I'm with the reserve's warden, Steve Hughes,

and the ever-dependable team of John and Gary.

-Hi, John.

-Hi, Hugh. How are you doing?

-Got your short sleeves on.

-Yeah.

-You wouldn't have had that on in February.

-No, not in winter.

How's it going?

There's some egrets about.

-Marsh harrier.

-A marsh harrier, was it?

-Very amazing chestnut colour, isn't it?

-Mm.

-It's just going down into the reeds.

-Yeah.

Also there's meant to be some bitterns flying about, but I haven't

-seen any yet.

-OK, well, that would be exciting.

-Have you filmed a lot of bittern?

-No, no.

They're difficult because, I mean, you can see them,

but by the time you pick them up,

they're often just already dropped into the reeds, so...

-Yeah.

-Yeah. I mean, yesterday,

I think was actually the first time I got a decent shot of a bittern.

-Really?

-Yeah, and I've been here many, many times.

John's making it sound like I'll be lucky to see a bittern today.

Do you see the little...

Is it some duck in there?

There's a duck just to the right of it?

I don't think that's a bittern.

But I'm learning that when you're looking for a wild animal

you haven't seen before,

a glimpse is all it takes to get the pulse racing.

Is that a bittern? Can you see him?

Yeah, he's come out from this side now, you can see him clearly.

Amazing, that's a bittern.

I did not think I would come here and see a bittern.

Marsh harrier, the other bird.

So, marsh harrier crossing a bittern there.

How amazing. Big bird.

Bigger bird than I expected.

How was that for you, John?

Just got the last bit as he dropped into the reeds.

OK, that was phenomenal.

I have to say, my heart's still thumping.

I mean, that's magic for me to see a bittern.

I've never seen one before.

-Fantastic.

-Yeah, no, really, really great.

That's just blown me away, actually.

And the marsh harrier at the same time.

It's one of the only places in the UK I think you could probably

come and get six species of heron, if you want, in a day.

So that would be the grey heron.

-Grey heron, yeah.

-The bittern.

-Yeah.

-The little bittern.

Yeah.

The cattle egret, the little egret, and the great white egret.

-Indeed, yeah.

-Have you ever seen them all in a day?

I have done them all in a day, yeah.

-Have you?

-Been pretty lucky.

-That's heron bingo, isn't it?

-Full house.

-It is, yeah, indeed.

Is that a bittern?

-I think so.

-They're a bit further away this time.

Yeah, bittern up underneath the mast.

-Are you on him?

-It dropped in again.

-It's gone in.

-It's gone in at the exact same spot again.

We've seen him drop in there twice,

once from the left and once from sort of behind and to the right.

That feels like we're getting a fix on the nest.

-Possibly.

-Possibly?

-But we need to take a view over a much longer...

I'm getting overexcited. I'm pushing you to conclusions

you're currently reluctant to make on the evidence.

We take a few weeks, I think,

to be able to decide whether it's a nest or not.

-What, rather than three minutes?

-A few surveys. Yeah, we like to get

a bit of evidence behind it rather than just...

What I'm trying to tell you is I've found you a bittern nest, Steve.

Come on, give me some credit here.

I appreciate the enthusiasm.

Well, I'm super enthusiastic.

I'm being treated to a parade of some really hard-to-see species

all making the most of this wonderful wetland.

This distinguished iridescent plumage belongs to the glossy ibis.

I just saw an egret pop up.

Yeah, it's a little egret.

That's the little one just behind the reeds there.

Great white egret flying.

You really see the heron in him there.

-Yeah.

-With that sort of S-bend in the neck.

Just dropped in behind the reeds there.

Ah, is that a bittern I see?

-I think so.

-A bit further away this time.

Yeah, bittern underneath the mast.

Are you on him? It dropped in again.

It's gone in, but I did get it.

Well done.

That bittern has treated us all to a stunning show.

It's a fitting end to my time amongst the captivating wildlife

of the Avalon Marshes.

It's been so heartening to see this man-made environment looked after

by such a dedicated team, enriching our world for wildlife

and giving so much pleasure to visitors like me.

Saw all sorts of things I didn't expect to see today.

Ibis, marsh harrier and bittern.

-It's not bad, is it?

-It's not bad.

-And great egret.

-Yeah.

-And great egret.

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and find out how to create your own wildlife habitats,

the Open University has produced a free booklet with bookmarks.

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