Episode 2 Springwatch Unsprung

Some of you felt something was missing from Springwatch. Some of

you, well it's important to you. Tonight, for one night only, my

spectacles, thank you very much. APPLAUSE

The buffing cloth. And now, we're ready for everything,

even including Unsprung. Good evening!

We are sitting here panting. Welcome to Unsprung. What is

Unsprung? It's where we pant a lot. We are Unsprung. It's where we

answer your questions, look at your pictures and videos and throw in

extra things as well who. Is in the house tonight? We have a big

audience here. We have. Look at them ought. It's huge. Did we go to

the Jobcentre? Dodgy characters as well. Level-headed Joe.

APPLAUSE She's standing by to receive your

questions, more information anything you want to talk about,

get in contact with Jo. Can we get a wave from Lynsey. Thank you for

our dipper stuff. Yeah, fantastic dipper material.

APPLAUSE Top stuff. Let's hope this works.

We start with a little quiz. Tonight's quiz has a twist. These

are photographs of creatures that live on us. I hope people in the

audience, where are they? Down there. Person A, what animal is

living on you? That's A. Now person B, what animal is living on person

B? I hope not. Person C, please hold it up. Oh, dear! And finally D,

can you hold up D, Jo! I so hope not. So that's A, B, C and D, get

your answers in now. Is Iolo with us still? Are you there? Yes, I am.

I can hear you loud and clear. You've got none of those things

living on you. We're back with you in a second. Hang on please. We

have coasters, where are the coasters? These have been sent in,

can you hold them up please, Kate, Amy Whitewick has sent us lovely

coasters to put our cups of tea. Our cups of tea that we never get

to drink because we're too busy. The tea is stone cold. There's mine.

Thank you very much. Martin there's yours. Beautiful. My favourite

animal too. That's a stoat. Thank you, very much indeed. Those are

stunning. I'm not putting that miserable cup of tea on it though.

Straight away a very good question. Charlotte McWilliam, oh, where is

it, come on find it. She said, "I ate a double yoked egg for my lunch.

If it had been fertilised would two chicks have grown from the one egg,

who thinks that the chicks, two chicks would have hatched out?

Anyone thinks they would have hatched out? Not many. Who thinks

they wouldn't have hatched out? More think they wouldn't. Over to

our expert. It is very interesting, in fact, I had an extraordinary

morning one morning when I went to collect my chicken eggs and I

cracked open one and it was a triple yoker. -- yolker. I didn't

know the answer. But I did check with the BTO. They said that

actually they will hatch out. So anyone who put their hands up and

said they will hatch out, so sometimes they come across this

very confusing thing where they see four eggs in a nest and suddenly...

Blackbirds. Yes, and there will be five chicks. There you R I hope

that answers your questions. Can we quickly see the picture of a happy

I vent that happened at Kate's house, I think only this morning.

have got them here. So, I've got Aylesbury ducks and we put some of

the eggs in an incubator and... That little event started this

morning and lovely Paul Carter who is looking aafter my house at the

moment, sent me this photograph and then this... How adorable is that?

How wrong is Chris Packham? It's not a pure bred species though. If

it were a harl Quinn or Eider... It's mine and that's all that

matters. If anyone wants to think of a name for the new little duck

let us know. Now... What? Elle. Very good. Excellent. Chris this is

from Susie 882, my favourite question, "What do female bats do

with their babies when they hunt? Do they carry them or just hang

them up somewhere?" Great question. Actually, when they give birth they

initially nurse them and they don't hunt. They stop feeding for a while.

The bats are obviously hanging up with them and they're suckling them

in there. Then in some species they have nursery roost, where they

normally give birth to their young, in a specified place. Extra females

take care of the youngsters whilst they forage and replenish their

energys. They will hunt with the baby? They leave the baby behind

with the other bats hung up in the nursery roost. My friend said they

go flying with them. Yeah, they do. Some of the females in some roots

have nurseries where they leave them behind. Like nanny bats.

Fantastic question. Shall we look at some beauty? A quick bit of

beauty. We get so many Flikr photographs. We never do them

APPLAUSE Impressed? Some of them were quite

good, yes. LAUGHTER

Yeah OK. I liked one with all the dew over the head of the insect. It

wasn't symmetrical... But nevertheless an interesting concept

that I'm going rip off later. go to Iolo, I don't know if you can

hear me, this is a question, after Monday's programme, I got tweeted

by Jeanette Millward who said, because you showed us angel wings

and said that the black bat girls had nailed the Manx Shearwaters.

What she wants to know is this - oh, wrong question! I'll get there in

the end. How does a Manx Shearwater become the victim of a black bat

girl when they're nocturnal and they can't hunt at night? Good

question. Yes they are mainly nocturnal, but they will arrive off

the island before it's fully dark. If you get moon light the black

gulls will hunt them then. They will put their heads down entrance

to burrows. Sometimes sheer waters come out to the entrance, if they

time that time that incorrectly they end up as food. This island is

scattered with angel wings. There's the answer then. That was a great

question. Thank you Iolo. Right, here's some now it's a bit ropey,

this footage, sorry, Anthony Allen and Kate Tomkins, who I've just

insulted quite badly - but it's robins doing something very

unusually. Have a lock at this: Look at this: We have called this

This is Kate's footage. We saw the green wood peckers during that

strange dancing. Sort of Vogueing. Yeah, now we've been sent this.

There's communication going on between those two. I've not seen

this. There's a great book you can refer to by David Lack, who studied

them for a long time. They are very aggressive birds. So there's one or

two things. This is prior to fighting, two Robyns seeing who is

toughest. Or it could be a male and female. Male and females look the

same. You can't sex them in the field. It could be a male

displaying it a feel mail. I'm going to plump for the latter. When

I see robins fighting they don't bother with preamble. The signs

they are able to read are so subtle that they can go immediately into a

frenzied bout of fighting, if they're evenly matched. Should we

have an ask the audience. They might know a bit about birds?

Anyone with any thoughts? mentioned David Lack I was taught

by his son Andrew. Yeah, I think I've been told that they have UV

cryptic chests like a lot of other birds. I just wonder whether they

could be perhaps showing off that in some way because although they

all look the same and have the same red chests, they actually are

subtly different. I don't know, I'll throw that into the ring.

APPLAUSE Very good. That is our top geeky

story developer there. Thank you very much.

He's won an award already. He's heading for another one. Last week,

I promised you a lynx in the studio. Royston? Hold on. It's the best I

could do. That's rubbish. Unfortunately I failed. But we've

got something better. So now if everyone can be quite quiet again,

please, could Pauline please come in, where are you? Just outside.

Where do we want Pauline to go? I'll sit on the edge. Kate can you

talk to Pauline. I can. Love to talk to Pauline. We hope this is

going to work. In you come. look at that! If we can just, I

know everyone wants to go aawww. We need to be very quiet. Yes, if you

would. Tell me about this little creature. This is a little one

we've had in nearly a fortnight now. She's just about eight weeks old.

She's still on the bottle, but starting to take fish. She's a baby

otter. But how on earth did you come to get her? We are a rescue

centre and she actually just turned up in somebody's shed during the

day. One of our release managers went down and quite rightly put her

in a cage and waited in case mum turned up. But she didn't. We've

been looking after her. We have heard there was an otter found

killed on the road. It's likely that it was mum, but she was a long

way from a waterway. We have to think of these things when these

animals come in. It was very important that you did watch her

through the day, because mum could have come back. Absolutely. That's

the thing with wildlife, a lot of them get picked up too early. It is

important to see, to give them the chance to go back with mum. Eight

weeks old. You're bottle feeding her. You're handling her. Is there

any chance she's going to get back to the wild? Absolutely. That's why

we do it. It's a long rehab programme of 18 months. We copy the

time the mother would normally chase them away. We have pens with

ponds in. She will go into a pen with eight metre pools and we try

to rear them in pairs and no doubt, another one will come along. People

are surprised how big they are. Aren't they. Only eight weeks old

and she is a really robust baby. And just to have this privilege to

really get a good look at an otter. Can we see some of these features.

The fantastic tail, which is a third of the body and so important

for them for swimming. The fact that they've got these wonderful

webbed feet which help is really great. That fabulously thick fur

insulating them. You can't experience this, but I can, that

wonderful musky smell. Absolutely. She's absolutely gorgeous. Thank

sow much for bringing her in and What's she called? Tan. We try to

give them water names. That was very special. Thank you. Thank you.

You never know, do you, but she was calm. It's a lovely story that.

Everything worked well and she's going to go back to the wild.

other otter is called Cistern and it's leaking everywhere! OK, next

question. You are You are rubbish! While we are at it... No, we are

not not being nasty about the watch any more. What is it? It's high

fashion, you wouldn't get it. being disingenious here, because

your daughter loves that watch. can love it as much as she wants.

If she goes to a fairground and plays with one of those things

where you put a pound in and grabs something, she might get one as

well. Later! Serious thing. This is from Pat, having seen all the

toadlets in last night's programme and hearing kphepb about black

birds taking them made me think about something in our garden, a

black bird took a shrew. Birds condition be readily available. I

suppose it phus be needs must. rare event. Predators of any kind

always want to pick on things they can overcome without the risk of

injury, because if they're injured in any way, any simple way, the

next time they go huping they might be at a disadvantage. The balance

of nature is so fine that that disadvantage means they won't be

hunting effectively. A black bird can easily murder a worm or a slug

but there's always a risk of getting bitten by a shrew. It might

get infected, it's a risky proposition. We don't see this an

but occasionally we might. I spoke to the BTO and they say our black

birds are in trouble and that might be happening because it's so dry

they can't get worms so that's why. People at home, you can help our

black birds. You can put out these. Meal worms, they like them. Even

better if you can do them live, actually. You can get them live.

You can go on to the internet and buy live ones and they're great.

They wriggle and scare your mum. You can also open your compost heap.

What about the grass snakes though? Cancel that last idea!

Our black birds are in trouble. Body weight is down to less than

100 grams. Iolo is back with us. had a question from Sue and she

actually asked exactly what you explained, how do the puffins

manage to hold the sand eels in their beaks, thanks for that. She

also said, why are their beaks so fantastically colourful? What is it

for? Well, the beaks are fantastically

colourful because it's used in courtship. They use that beak. The

male and female puffin come together and they'll fence, they'll

nibble and use that and it's also a sign of just how healthy the bird

is. So, a female puffin seeing a male puffin with a whacking great

big colourful blue, red and yellow bill is going to think, that's the

chap for me. He is in peak condition. He is the strongest,

biggest puffin around. That's what that beak does. Brilliant.

Fantastic. Thank you very much. you showed us the shearwaters, down

the burrow. We might be able to top that. We might be able to go live

now down a puffin's burrow. Let's see if this is going to work. It's

a bit dodgy, but she's asleep down there. We can probably speak live,

I hope, to the person who put the camera down, because that's in

Shetland. Helen, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Hello. This is Helen

from the RSPB in shuthand. -- Shetland. How did you get the

camera down? We managed to find a burrow with two entrances a little

down the cliff. We managed to get a small camera and secure is in using

it. When did you put the camera in, ahead of them coming back in, I

suppose? We hid it in place last We can look at footage you recorded.

Here is the puffin itself. Can you tell us, are these the same puffins

back to the same burrow? They do return each year. So you know these

two? Have they laid an egg down there? They have, yes. Do they take

it in turns, they come and go into the burrow? That's right. They've

shared responsibility so the mum and dad take turns. It's a 40-day

incubation period. So you know when the egg is going to hatch? We are

expecting it somewhere in the 17th June. We might just be able to see

that. We are off air on 16th. Hello, Helen! If we get one

hatching that will be fantastic. Let's move on quickly. We have

something dear to your heart. We have some art. I will move over.

Let's all go over and see this. Hello, Kate. Kate, a lady who uses

natural fabrics in the form of feathers to make exquisite works of

art. Combining nature with a human device. Which is the one you have

made for us? This over here, inspired by your programme last

week, where you showed a Jay feather and also the features on

otter. It's beautiful. What is so amazing is just the feathers seem

to take on a totally different texture. Do you go out shooting a

lot, sorry, how do you get hold of these wonderful feathers? These

over here are pigeon feathers. I have about 200 people over the UK

who are pigeon fanciers, I write to them and send them photographs of

what I am going to do and they send me moulted feathers twice a year in

April and and October. Fantastic. The other sorts of feathers, - can

we have a look at this one. It's fantastic. If you rotate that in

front of the camera, does it change colour? Is that the mallard? Yes.

Fascinated by the fact it's a common bird we see all the time and

it's this miraculous colour. We had somebody who contacted the

programme and asked why British birds were so dull in colour and

all you have to do is look at that. Look at the Jay and the mallard and

realise they're anything but. Didn't you also keep in contact

with game-keepers as well and they provide you with feathers? Yes, I

did a project last year, game birds would have been shot and cooked in

the kitchen of Tatten Park. So they lived on in your... Can we look at

more of Kate's work. Some of the pieces, which are particularly

large, some of the larger pieces need to be seen. This is the Tatten

Park piece. Mostly tpezant, quail. What about this one? This is magpie.

Tail feathers? These were wing feathers. This is crow. How many

feathers did you use in that one? Can you remember? Something lying

20,000 feathers. How long did it take? It took me about four years

to collect enough feathers to make that piece. It was from game-

keepers who control the bird population on their farms. Did you

sketch it out, the idea first? Have you stuck them on to

something? Yes. So you have built a frame? A form. That's about four

metres long. It's sensational. a shame we couldn't have it in here.

Thank you very much indeed. Who is going to have that one then? Later!

Fight you for it! Thank you so much for bringing them in. They're

fabulous. APPLAUSE.

That's a challenge. Caroline, from the RSPB here, I think you should

start collecting feathers for Kate and then maybe she can build an

installation for you guys here. would be fantastic. If anyone at

home, we love it, if you are inspired by any of the artists we

show, get out there and make something and take a photo and send

it to us. I am going to do one quickly, excuse me, right Robin

wrote how do lizards detach their tails and does it hurt? OK, I don't

know whether it hurts but it's called autoony and it's under

nervous control, they have a weakening in the tail, it doesn't

split between two vertbrae, they decide, a muscle activates and

shatters the vertbrae, the muscle blocks detach. A nervous programme

is switched on in the tail that's detached to wriggle about to detach

a predator. All that happens in a split second. Most species can grow

a stump back, not a perfect tail, not just lizards, crustaceons. Even

if spiders lose a leg they can, when they next moult. I want to

look at this. Can Iolo see what we see? It's a little test. I can see

bits of them. Vince has sent us a video of something that happened in

his bird box. OK. Have a look at It's obviously a dispute here with

two blue tits. Like a blue tit boxing ring in there. This is blue

tit cage fighting. Got you! could make a lot of money out of

this chaps. It's just a dispute over a box involving probably two

males there fighting over ownership of that box and the successful one,

I would imagine, would then have got a female and would have built a

nest. I still reckon we can make money out of that! Who was the guy

that sent that? I have lost it now. It was Vince. Clearly you have a

very lovely bird box there. We have to watch this programme, pole

dancing and cage fighting. My nine- year-old daughter, questions about

hedgehogs, do they lose their prickles, are baby hedgehogs born

with prickles and do old hedgehogs turn grey? Have a look at this

picture. Baby hedgehog. It's here. There it is. Look, they're by a 10

10p coin. I would suggest hedgehogs don't give birth to their young

with spines. 50% of the audience have been through that process, and

it would be too painful. They have them held beneath the skin and the

follicles break and they begin to develop immediately. They don't

lose them. They're actually made of fur. They're a modified type of fur

and they will stay with the hedgehog throughout its life.

Individual spines are shed and they regrow new ones and to the best of

my knowledge and I have seen a few in my time, they don't go grey at

the end of they've life. -- their life. Now the quiz. What's

happening? Few people have got it completely right. It's reassuring

really that they don't know what they are. But Rich on Twitter and

Rose. What is A, please. It's a tick. B? It's a human flea. C is

the eyelash mite. Most ladies in this room will have them. The make-

up means they can't escape from underneath the eyelashes and

they're common in women. What have you got pubiclice. We want to

celebrate wildlife champions. If you are a wildlife champion and