Episode 2 Springwatch Unsprung

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we have a treasure trove of natural

wonders. We have a pink Parada us, we have parasites, we have a little

hair who has just escaped from outside of the jaws of death. Even

more exciting, we have the jaws of death themselves in the studio.

Three stoats. Lady Zenden Common, I do not think there is any other

place on British television tonight that you will have such a

sensational smorgasbord of nature than on Springwatch Unsprung. --

ladies and gentlemen. Let's remind ourselves what this is

about. That was very brave of you to attempt to says smorgasbord.

This is your show. It is about your questions, pictures and the films

that you send. And we will give you a little quiz. Straight away, let's

do some questions. Chris, are you ready? Is your brain ready? I do

not know. Chris, Howard wants to know, I have wondered if birds can

count. How does a mallard know if she has gathered her family? Can

they count? They have done experiments with crows which have

proved they can count. They have trained some ravens to count. It

had stopped -- it has to be an adaptive advantage, otherwise you

will just leave you chicks scattered around. What about

cuckoos? They need to count because they are looking into nests where

they will deposit their eggs. they can count. Right, here is a

dinosaur egg. There we go. Someone has put Sellotape on to it! Hang on.

Chris, it is a dinosaur egg. While you examine it, I will tell you

about its history. This letter came from Pauline. She says, I found

this in a hold a in my out house about two years ago and it has

become a talking point among family and friends. One of my

grandchildren will be over the moon if it is a mini dinosaur egg.

not a dinosaur egg. I am sorry to shatter the illusion of any child.

As much as we would like to be, it is not. Can I give you a clue? Have

a look at this. We sent this off to the radiology department at a

hospital in Aberystwyth. They have done an X-ray of the inside of it.

As you see, there is a dinosaur inside it, kids, maybe. Where is my

penknife? There is something inside it. We could try to open it. Will

they be upset? I am not familiar with the operation of this gadget.

Is it yours? I would like a knife, if that is OK. Watch your fingers,

Chris. OK, mum! I think this is the pupil case of an animal called a

sawflies. They make these hard cases when they pupate. They are

not actually fly is. They are related to bees and wasps. I am

trying to do this without destroying what is inside.

Beautiful. Thank you. I used to be a surgeon! This is the moment of

truth. What is inside? You cut through it! I cannot be held

responsible for killing it. It is long dead. But it looks like it was

a sawflies. Extraordinary! Not a dinosaur but just as exciting.

There it is. It has been dead for some time. Pauline, thank you for

that. He goes one more. Does anyone in here think that birds can

foretell the weather? What do you reckon? Yes? Any examples of that?

Let's have a go. Ian on Facebook has said he overheard an elderly

woman saying that it was going to rain and she could tell because of

the way the blackbird was singing. 10 minutes later, it rained. Bunkum.

The whole room disagrees with you! Nothing unusual about that. Birds

are obviously in tune with the weather but I don't think they

foretell it in that way. Why would they need to communicate to one

another about what the weather was going to do? Listen to this. This

is the Rain Song of the chaffinch. The chaffinch is purported to make

this sound when it is going to rain. I rang up an hour ago my friend who

is an RSPB warden on a Scottish island. He has become rather senior

now. He said golden eagles would never fly when a storm was coming.

Red throated divers came off the seat of the loch and they called

and called. Green woodpeckers made a sound when it was going to rain.

And most interesting of all, if a storm was coming, he said, the thaw

Meuse would evacuate the cliffs. If he went out and they were not there,

he knew a storm was coming. It is like cow was. Don't they sit down

before the rain comes? Do they? Chris, have you got the items for

Right, tonight's quiz. We need Gary. Gary is our top sound recordist. We

need his key ring. What are these three items? You have to work out

which one it is, and how are they linked? Any ideas? Do not say, if

you can. Anybody know what that is? Spare tube for a bicycle? What are

these three items? Have you been into some of those strange shops in

Amsterdam. I have never seen anything quite like it. I think

they have something to do with cars. You have car keys. That is

something you mend your radiator with. I am not sure what matters.

And my way off? We will have more clues later. I promised stoats.

Before they come in, you have to know why we have got them here.

Earlier in the year it was pouring with rain and lots of rescue places,

like one in Somerset, were inundated with fox cubs, badger

cubs, because they got flooded. But they also have some more unusual

creatures. This is where it all goes horribly wrong. Judith, cumin.

-- come in. There is a real treat in here, isn't there? Would you

I think we need to see them before we ask Judith any questions. Hello.

You can certainly smell them! Look at those! I am going to pick one up

because they are the friendliest little creatures. They are like

miniatures, and they like to bite. How old are they? About four weeks.

They develop quickly. We think they are around four to five weeks.

you ever had them before? Not since I have been there. What are their

stories? How did you come across them? I had just started going out

on calls and I got a phone call about them at a local fisheries

near where I live. They were found in the cold, squeaking, very wet

and cold. I went out and people had taken them inside and warned them

up gently, which is the right thing to do. They have probably lost

their mother. Yes. Did you have to bottle feed them? No. I gave them

some food when they first came in, because they were cold, wet and

week. But they have teeth, so we have not had to do anything like

that. We provide them with a milk substitute, to help them to grow

and develop. Now, the aim is to get them back into the wild. How

difficult will that be? What will you have to do? This will be the

last time anyone door handle them. It will be a hands-off policy. It

will literally be a couple of weeks of putting them into a pen with

lots of activities to build up their strength and then we will

find a suitable release site. If not the side where they were found,

to be honest, because it was a lovely place. Are you hopeful they

will cope in the wild? I should think! Their reactions are very

quick so I do not think they will have a problem Hunting. It is

instinctive. And they play together very well. I have to say, you smell

lovely now. Don't you think, audience? Thank you very much,

Judith, for bringing them in, and good luck with getting them back

into the wild. Thank you. Right, now, because we thought they might

get out and buy it everyone, we have a safety here. We are going to

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 71 seconds

look at some photographs you sent. I thought we were going to get

badly bitten. There was a little bit of me hoping. They just nibbled.

Very small teeth. Chris, something for you to inspect, rather odd.

That was sent in by Rita. "I found being closed nest behind my garage.

I assumed it had come from a third tree which overhangs the path,

although there were other trees and shrubs nearby. No eggs, no birds.

Can you tell me what made it?" It is unusual in that it has two cups.

There is one here and won here. My thought is that a bird started to

make a nest like this and perhaps was disturbed. It twisted and it

decided to use it as the base for another one. That is a remarkable...

That is the only thing I can come up with. Any idea what would have

made it? Well, it uses a spider web and it has Moss in there as well. I

am going with a goldfinch, because it has like come on the outside.

Where did it come from? I do not know. She just said by her garage.

I think that is what happened. It started like that, had a twist and

then it decided to finish it off like that. It looks like something

you would do the plumbing with! a curious photograph has come. Have

a look at this. Can you hang on to the photograph? You can try and

pronounce who sent it in? Thanks. She says, found this in a plant pot

next to where a blackbird nest used to be. I have never seen such a

thing as an egg without a shell. Extraordinary. It is a mallard's

egg. A lot of people think that the birds put the shell onto the egg

but it does not work like that. The egg puts the shell on to itself

while it is travelling down before it is laid. On the outside of the

membrane, there are funny little souls and they are responsible for

depositing the calcium in layers. And they build up. The one that I

found was not completely soft. It was as if it was covered in

thousands of modules, each corresponding to the soul there was

laying down the calcium. It would join together to produce a

particular eggshell. This one has nothing on the outside. There has

been a malfunction in the calcium It is not coming back! Our top team,

John and Sam. If you want to make your own shellless egg, you can!

Sue Reid this? -- are you serious? Yes, with vinegar, it takes a long

time. If you put the torch behind it, you can see the way the a joke

floats around -- the yoke of. Hours of fun at home making your own.

Added to the smell of the stoats, the vinegar... Absolutely lovely!

Birds carrying things in their beaks. From David. On the blog. How

many black birds get so many grubs without dropping them? I know

puffins have things on their tongues to grip their prey. But I

I hope Chris will be able to answer this. That chaffinch has loads. How

do they do it? We have been filming that all week. The world record for

puffins is 60 to the sand eels at one time. How can they do that? --

62. They have a barbed tongue. If you find a dead bird on the road,

you can learn a lot from its anatomy. If you open its beak and

look inside, there are spikes on its tongue and little ridges and

they have facing spines within the mouth, and these are the things

that the food catches on, so when the Boat opens its beak again it

doesn't drop what is already in there -- when the bird. So BT's a

combination of the spiky tongue and ridges, at which it presses the

food on took. I have some sand eels. We will see how many we cannot... I

am joking but I wish I had thought of that! Let's do it with a nose

them! -- with an egg. What about the story of the little baby hare.

What happened was a farmer was going out, lambing, and he saw the

dead body of the hare. He got out his penknife, did a Caesarean, and

got out a live little baby hare. Is anyone on the phone? It should be

memory. Yes! -- Marie. This is incredible. A baby taken from a

dead hare and it is still alive. The farmer put it on the bonnet of

its card to keep it warm and sensibly, he took it to someone who

could look after it. How long ago was that? That was on 2nd May that

he found her. He also took her home He kept her overnight and gave her

a feet and then he brought her to us the next day. Did you think for

one minute that it would survive? Not really! But there you go. It is

amazing, isn't it. I bet that is the first time it has ever happened.

It is the first time I have ever heard of it. Have you given him a

name? Lucky leucine leverets! how is she doing now? She has

luckily been able to reach five weeks of age. We would like to

release her at six weeks because they get very hyperactive in

captivity. So you will be able to release her? Hopefully. We don't

like to keep them longer than six weeks. What an amazing story.

you so much. That is incredible, I reckon that will be a fast. And how

brave to cut it open! They poison the adult, the farmer turns up,

sees movement of... And cut them open and rescued them from a poison

that blocked, it is amazing. you give us a clue on the quiz?

Just a clue. Can you hear that? That would get my Jack Russell

Has anyone got it right? A lot of people are in the right areas.

Would you like me to expand? Imitating certain animal calls.

That was a big expansion, Jo! LAUGHTER. Sorry! You did say yes!

OK! Luckily there is no money involved! Just credibility! Listen,

everyone, if you will. We will play Compare that to this sound.

WATER AND BIRDSONG. Apart from the petrol heads, which did you prefer?

It is pretty obvious. We are about to meet a man who has made it his

life's mission to make our will sound better. Julian! Please come

in! You are a sound expert. What sort of sounds do we humans like?

W P. Wind, water, and I bet you can guess the third one. Birds. The

sounds we have evolved to over hundreds of years, or composed of

lots of individual elements to make a pleasing mixture. We find them

soothing. What effect does birdsong have on us? When birds are singing,

things are safe. It makes people feel secure. Birds are nature's

alarm clock so when birds are singing, we feel alert. Body

relaxed, mind alert, it is a good state. So you have started to put

natural sounds in our world around us. What have you been doing?

have done some interesting things. For example, birdsong in toilets in

service stations. People may have come across that. Anyone heard

that? You will! Coming to a service station near you. It is nice if we

have real nature around us. I was in the Dolomites at the weekend and

she could not hear a human sound at all, it was heaven, but only 7% of

the Earth has that so human sound is around us all the time. I have

heard in duty-free... Has anyone been struck by natural sounds, at

airports? I understand that you can manipulate us a little bit in the

shops with your sound. Only in the sense that if you make a place

sound pleasant, people tend to stay longer and if people stay longer in

this shop, you know what they do. Spend, spend, spend. If this was a

smell, a lot of places really stink, for your ears. We don't design for

the ears. Architects and interior designers are focused on what

things look like and we have to put up with places that sound terrible

a lot of the time, so this is a message about designing for your

ears. The sound of nature is a beautiful thing to put into spaces.

Perhaps one of the most extraordinary things you did was to

put British bird sounds and other beautiful sounds, let's just hear

it. BIRDSONG Feeling relaxed? Perfect. Where did you put that

sound and what were the effects? That kind of sound was in an

airport, where it relaxed people. Airports are stressful. The other

was the Citicorp Lancaster in California, where we put it into a

long, Central Street at the request of the mayor, and according to the

chief of police, crime has gone down by 15% in that town. That is

not my number, it is their number. The shopkeepers are incredibly

happy. It is a barren place in the Mojave desert, with no birds. We

put in the sound of British birds and it seems to have a wonderful

calming effect. What a fabulous export. British birds stopping

crime in America. We will be hearing a lot more of those sounds

in our world by hope. It is all about designing for the ears.

Fabulous. I want some of that! More stuff now. Here we go. Bumble bees.

Gladiatorial bumble bees. They haven't given me the right

question! We have got a question, why do bees fight to the death?

They also do other things. Another person has seen bumble bees around

a wasp. What are they doing clustering around a wasp? Have a

UK ones will do it. They will surround an invader, in this case

it was a Hornet. From the thermal camera, you can see they are

hitting it to death. Oh my word. Using heat to kill things. They do

it in the UK to British hornets. Yes. That was foreign. Yes, in

Japan. We have to hurry up. Shall we do the quiz? This has been

fabricated by his slightly eccentric Frenchman and it is said

to replicate the sound of a flock of young starlings. Of the is!

don't know what else he does in his spare time. -- obvious. This one is

meant to be the sound of house sparrows on the gutter outside.

Beautiful. The same Frenchman, dreaming about a far Guth. And the

last one, Gary, come and demonstrate. It is another bird

calls. You have that on your cue ring? Yes! Anything else you can do

with it? You can do a robin. Someone got it down to the right

species. Very good! Well done! APPLAUSE. How long have we got? 30

seconds! Have we got anything in? Do spiders get tangled in another

spider's webs? The pink Prowler! There is no time to talk about the