Episode 1

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:00:34. > :00:41.programmes which start with a tango dance! So, what could it be? Only

:00:41. > :00:50.one show does this and that is Springwatch Unsprung!

:00:50. > :00:55.CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Now, there is method in our madness. Is there?

:00:55. > :00:59.There is. That tango dance, that lady is a professor of psychology

:00:59. > :01:03.from Cambridge, and she is here to answer one of your questions. We'll

:01:03. > :01:06.come back to that later on. But what's Unsprung all about? It is a

:01:06. > :01:12.show where we try to answer your questions and record your

:01:12. > :01:17.observations. You can get in contact with us at any moment, because

:01:17. > :01:21.level-headed Jo - can we see her? You can contact her any time you

:01:21. > :01:26.like. If she has a really exciting question from you she is going to

:01:26. > :01:31.ring the bell and we have to listen to what she has to say. What do you

:01:31. > :01:36.think of my waistcoast? Very nice for a tango. It is a bit loud and

:01:36. > :01:41.sparkly. Let us start immediately with a quiz. We have a number of

:01:41. > :01:45.songs in this quiz. It is not a sound quiz. I'm not going to tell

:01:45. > :01:55.you how many but every song title has an animal in its title, so

:01:55. > :02:13.

:02:13. > :02:19.That is really hard! We thought we made them too easy, but that is

:02:19. > :02:29.quite tough isn't it? Did anyone get any of them? It sounds like someone

:02:29. > :02:49.

:02:49. > :02:54.retuning a radio. We'll do it once How many did you get? I got a few.I

:02:54. > :02:59.had two I reckon. One. Good luck. It is on the web, so if you want the

:02:59. > :03:03.listen to it again, you can listen on the web - bbc.co.uk/springwatch.

:03:03. > :03:08.The glorious Lynne Hardman. She's excelled herself with our

:03:08. > :03:15.Springwatch tea cosy. That is fabulous. An extraordinary song

:03:15. > :03:21.thrush. It is a magpie, and that is not entirely unintentional, because

:03:21. > :03:25.we have been sent a film from Sue Mayhew from near Southampton. Sue

:03:26. > :03:35.got in contact with us because over the last couple of years she's

:03:36. > :03:39.

:03:39. > :03:44.noticed something absolutely We have given them names. We have

:03:44. > :03:54.Jeremy the jackdaw, Madge the magpie. We spend most of our day

:03:54. > :03:55.

:03:55. > :04:00.looking out the window going, "There goes Jeremy... Or Madge." What we

:04:00. > :04:05.have noticed is that Jeremy the jackdaw is actually feeding Madge,

:04:05. > :04:10.jackdaw is actually feeding Madge, as if she were a chick in the nest.

:04:10. > :04:15.Last year I didn't see much of them. This year, however, they are

:04:15. > :04:22.building a nest, but we are not quite sure where and they keep

:04:22. > :04:26.putting sticks in the beech tree and taking sticks out. I would like to

:04:26. > :04:36.think that they were a couple, but all the times this going on there is

:04:36. > :04:45.also this other adult magpie. Sat in the tree, not far away. He is call

:04:45. > :04:52.called man Friday. I think Madge rather likes Manfried but I'm not

:04:52. > :04:56.sure Jeremy does. He just enjoys himself. He is a sort of cocky young

:04:56. > :05:04.man really, a cocky young bird, because he sits there and he puffs

:05:04. > :05:09.out his chest and I'm sure Madge enjoys it. Jeremy is not so

:05:09. > :05:16.flamboyant. He is quite happy to feed Madge and to help build the

:05:16. > :05:23.nest. He obviously likes Madge quite a lot, but they do all get on

:05:23. > :05:29.together. If you had three birds of the same species together, it would

:05:29. > :05:37.be unusual, but to actually have two magpies and one jackdaw, it really

:05:37. > :05:43.is strange. I would really like to know more information about this, so

:05:43. > :05:46.I'm give giving Unsprung a little challenge: Please find out as much

:05:46. > :05:52.as you possibly can and find out whether anybody else has seen

:05:52. > :05:56.anything as strange as this. Absolutely bizarre. Magpies and

:05:56. > :06:03.jackdaws making a nest together and feeding each other. Of course. We

:06:03. > :06:11.have with us Professor Nicky Clayton.

:06:11. > :06:17.APPLAUSE Please come round.

:06:17. > :06:21.Nicky and Clive, the tango-dancing academics. Nicky, you are a

:06:21. > :06:22.professor of comparative cognition, have I got that right, in the

:06:22. > :06:27.department of psychology at Cambridge University. You've seen

:06:27. > :06:33.that film of the magpie and the jackdaw together. What do you make

:06:33. > :06:36.of it? We are quite fascinated by the clip. We've looked at ate

:06:36. > :06:40.carefully and we are interested in it. In fact it is very much, it has

:06:40. > :06:44.a lot to do with the work that we do which we called the captured

:06:44. > :06:50.thought. The interesting thing about that clip is that its courtship

:06:50. > :06:54.feeding. Courtship feeding?Yes. That's right, and it's the boy,

:06:54. > :06:58.Jeremy, that's feeding the girl, Madge. In our laboratory in

:06:58. > :07:04.Cambridge we've done quite a lot of research on this courtship feeding

:07:04. > :07:08.or food sharing. What we've discovered in Eurasian Jays males

:07:08. > :07:12.know what their females want. Even if it is something quite different

:07:12. > :07:16.from what they want themselves, they know what to give the females.

:07:16. > :07:22.the interesting thing here is these birds are different species. Yes,

:07:22. > :07:30.that's bizarre. So there is a jack you can -- a jackdaw and a magpie

:07:30. > :07:34.working together. We wonder whether the jackdaw thinks it is a magpie.

:07:34. > :07:39.Why does it think it is a magpie? That's an interesting question, but

:07:39. > :07:46.we do know of cases where eggs from the wrong species have ended up in

:07:46. > :07:49.the wrong nest. I've seen it before with bluetits ending up in great tit

:07:49. > :07:53.nets and vice versa and then they get confused about their identity.

:07:53. > :07:57.So there is just a chance it might have hatched out in a magpie's nest

:07:57. > :08:03.and thinks it is a magpie? Yes, but there is another thing that goes on

:08:03. > :08:07.with jackdaws in particular. Because they are cavity nesters, they love

:08:07. > :08:11.nest boxes but also tree holes had, in order to defend one of those nest

:08:11. > :08:16.sites it takes two. One on its own doesn't stand a chance. It is

:08:16. > :08:20.difficult enough with two, as other jackdaws come in and create havoc.

:08:20. > :08:27.But you need two, so if you are a jackdaw on your own, better to pair

:08:27. > :08:33.with the wrong species than not pair at all. Brilliant. And they were

:08:34. > :08:38.good at synchronicity. That's interesting interesting. What has

:08:38. > :08:44.tango dancing got to do with crows, please? Not a lot as a direct link,

:08:44. > :08:52.but what we notice is that many birds dance. They do beautiful

:08:52. > :08:55.synchronous movements. In fact the rooks in our colony in Cambridge are

:08:55. > :09:05.fantastically synchronous in the way they move. We can see that. Here

:09:05. > :09:08.

:09:08. > :09:13.they are. Look at that! So they are almost behaving like your tango

:09:13. > :09:17.dance. They are having a little dance. We would say it is a

:09:17. > :09:26.conversation without words. Amazing stuff. An avian tango. Which is what

:09:26. > :09:29.we do. Professor, thank you very much indeed. Thank you.

:09:29. > :09:33.APPLAUSE Do you concur, Chris? I did think

:09:33. > :09:36.about the egg in the other nest, the mistaken identity. The thing about

:09:36. > :09:40.these birds is they don't necessarily have self awareness,

:09:40. > :09:46.knowing what you are and what another thing is restricted to...

:09:46. > :09:49.Well, some birds show this. Pigeons know which plumage they have, but

:09:49. > :09:56.normally it is animals with much higher cognition that have self

:09:56. > :10:00.awareness. But the only species to pass the mark test in birds is

:10:01. > :10:07.magpies. That's where you put a mark on them and they identify the mark

:10:07. > :10:17.on themselves and know that it is on them. A sense of self. We shall move

:10:17. > :10:17.

:10:17. > :10:21.on now to frogs. Thank you very much indeed.

:10:21. > :10:28.APPLAUSE Chris. Hello,From the sublime to

:10:28. > :10:36.the ridiculous. Hold on... Sorry, I thought I heard a helicopter. It was

:10:36. > :10:41.mistaken. Grace asks why do flogs have slimy smooth skin and toads

:10:41. > :10:45.have bumpy skin? They growth through it. They exchange oxygen through

:10:45. > :10:50.their skin. Frogs have a greater capacity to do this than toads, and

:10:50. > :10:55.they will do it in the water, whereas toads do it on the land and

:10:55. > :11:00.don't have that capacity to breathe through their skin. Breathing

:11:00. > :11:05.implies they use their lungs but it is the ability to absorb oxygen

:11:05. > :11:14.through their skin. And they are toxic aren't they? They have grand

:11:14. > :11:19.behind their head. They have dry, watery skin, whereas -- warty skin.

:11:19. > :11:23.And there's our toad. The latest research says the common toad may

:11:23. > :11:28.sense chemical changes in ground water when an earthquake is about to

:11:28. > :11:33.strike. This is latest research from 2012. We had an earthquake, did

:11:33. > :11:38.anyone feel it last night? No!But if you had been a toad you would

:11:38. > :11:43.have known all about it and gone. What benefit would it be for toads

:11:43. > :11:49.to know there are earthquakes coming? To get out of the water,

:11:49. > :11:54.mate and get to higher ground. a toad! I will pass you the paper

:11:54. > :12:02.later. Let us bring in a beautiful little animal to be with us. Paul

:12:02. > :12:12.earnings bring him in. -- Pauline, bring him in. I'm so desperate to

:12:12. > :12:18.bottle feed a baby on Springwatch. This is Pauline Kidner from Secret

:12:18. > :12:22.World. I don't think I have ever seen you when you haven't had an

:12:22. > :12:29.animal to bottle feed. How old is this one? It is only about a week

:12:29. > :12:34.old. And it is a little bit nervous. What's its story? He was just found

:12:35. > :12:39.following people in a village actually. He was brought to us,

:12:39. > :12:45.because he lost his mum. That's what they do, they follow mum around, so

:12:45. > :12:51.he follows me around. Seeing as he is only about a week old... Come

:12:51. > :12:59.here, you. That's a good boy. too much light Pauline? I think it

:13:00. > :13:04.is just the excitement of everything being on. Let him go.That's better.

:13:04. > :13:11.How much bottle feeding do you have to do at the moment? It is only four

:13:11. > :13:17.time as day. Not too bad then.No. I'm over here! This is a fallow

:13:17. > :13:25.deer? That's right.And that's a good thing to rescue a fallow deer

:13:25. > :13:30.fawn, but you shouldn't be other deer should you? No, we have a roe

:13:30. > :13:35.deer and it should never have been picked up. People don't realise it

:13:35. > :13:39.is quite natural for them. When he is tired he goes into the long

:13:39. > :13:44.grass. It is natural for them to be on their own. It is difficult

:13:44. > :13:52.because a lot of people don't know the difference at this age. We can

:13:52. > :13:57.show the difference. It is very important. What's this? This is a

:13:57. > :14:01.much bigger red, with a shorter tail, with a calf. The youngster is

:14:01. > :14:07.called a calf. That's your fallow and the fallow is the only one

:14:07. > :14:12.that's called a fawn. When you come to a roe it is known as a kid. They

:14:12. > :14:18.are all different. Let's clarify, how do people tell the difference?

:14:18. > :14:22.Red has a short, triangular tail. That's the easiest way, as they are

:14:22. > :14:28.all red with dots when they are tiny. The fallow has a tail which it

:14:28. > :14:35.swishes, and the, are oe has a tiny tail but a powder puff when it is

:14:35. > :14:39.running. What will happen to this little chap? It will go with our

:14:39. > :14:41.roe. Although they are the same age, it is half the size. One of the

:14:41. > :14:49.things we've been asking a lot on Springwatch is about the late

:14:49. > :14:56.spring. How has that affected you as a rescue centre? It has affect us a

:14:56. > :15:04.lot. Our casualties in April were 50% down. Our badgers and foxes have

:15:04. > :15:10.been late. We've never had a winter where people are -- where animals

:15:10. > :15:18.with coming in starving there. Has been no insects for emerging animals

:15:18. > :15:23.and no voles. You say it has been down 50%? Down 50%.Does that mean

:15:23. > :15:28.there's less animals around? I think because it has been so bitterly cold

:15:28. > :15:33.that orphans have not survived, because it has been so cold. What

:15:33. > :15:43.was noticeable is most of the things that have come into us... Come over

:15:43. > :15:45.

:15:45. > :15:50.here! Do you want the milk?There's lots of legs isn't there?

:15:50. > :15:54.LAUGHTER No, I think it is the fact that it has been very cold when they

:15:54. > :16:00.emerged and they lost mum and there haven't been people out walking. It

:16:00. > :16:04.has been very noticeable. Let's try and see, it has been very noticeable

:16:04. > :16:09.that most of the birds that have come into us have been brought in by

:16:09. > :16:13.farmers. That shows you that he isn't worried about being here.

:16:13. > :16:23.Pauline, thank you very much indeed. We are going to move on to something

:16:23. > :16:25.

:16:25. > :16:35.else that you've brought in for us. If we leave him where he is...

:16:35. > :16:36.

:16:36. > :16:39.shall unravel this. Hello gorgeous. Look at that. This is... Ow! They

:16:40. > :16:45.have had a really, really rough time. I find it amazing that

:16:45. > :16:48.although they are in such decline, every year all the rescue centres

:16:48. > :16:52.get more and more being brought in during the winter. It is almost as

:16:52. > :16:58.if they don't go into the autumn ready to get through the winter.

:16:58. > :17:03.Well, for Autumnwatch I made a little film about hedgehogs with

:17:03. > :17:08.Duncan Richardson. You are prickly! I think Duncan is on the line. Can

:17:08. > :17:14.you hear me? Yes, I can, hello Martin. Hi, I've got a hedgehog on

:17:14. > :17:18.my lap as I'm talking to you. to hear. I know you were following

:17:18. > :17:23.17 hedgehogs in your garden in Newport. How many of them have

:17:23. > :17:29.turned up this spring? In the end the it turned out to be a total of

:17:29. > :17:37.28 hedgehogs in the end. Gosh!Yes, it grew rapidly after I did my

:17:37. > :17:41.census. So far returning we've had 15 different hedge hogs. What

:17:41. > :17:46.percentage do you think? Are they down this year? They do seem to be

:17:46. > :17:49.down. Most of the regulars that we have have returned. All the ones

:17:49. > :17:55.that we saw on Autumnwatch have returned and made it through the

:17:55. > :18:00.winter, but they've been very late coming out. I think a lot of them

:18:00. > :18:05.have not made it through hibernation. We are probably about a

:18:05. > :18:08.month behind in hedgehog numbers so far. OK. I know that you looked

:18:08. > :18:13.after seven hogs in your house, little hoglets, that were

:18:13. > :18:19.underweight. Are you able to... How have they fed? Are you returning

:18:19. > :18:22.them to the wild now? Yes, they've all gone back to the wild. Lovely.I

:18:22. > :18:26.have had to, the unlike last year, where they were being released in

:18:26. > :18:31.March, I've had to wait until middle to end of April before the weather

:18:31. > :18:40.conditions have been OK to let them go again. There's a lack of natural

:18:40. > :18:44.food out there. They are struggling to find, as I mentioned just now,

:18:44. > :18:47.all the right insects and stuff. They don't seem to be around.

:18:47. > :18:51.the thought of you with your seven little hoglets. Thank you so much

:18:51. > :18:57.for looking after them and getting them back to the wild. It is a

:18:57. > :19:03.pleasure. Right, if you want to know how to help hedge hogs, Duncan has a

:19:03. > :19:08.website that gives you lots of advice on how to modify your garden

:19:08. > :19:14.for these creatures and there is advice on our website -

:19:14. > :19:19.bbc.co.uk/springwatch. There's lots of advice there, links

:19:19. > :19:22.on how to help these hedge hogs. I'm going to put this one back. We've

:19:22. > :19:26.got a studio full of rather beautiful animals.

:19:26. > :19:36.A quick reminder of that incredibly difficult quiz.

:19:36. > :20:00.

:20:00. > :20:10.No-one's getting all of them right. One person has got up to nine right.

:20:10. > :20:11.

:20:11. > :20:16.People are get getting Back To Black and Albatross, but it is tricky.

:20:16. > :20:21.Pauline, are you all right for her to go now? Am. Thank you.Goodbye,

:20:21. > :20:27.gorgeous. APPLAUSE

:20:27. > :20:35.It is always a joy when Pauline comes up, especially as all her

:20:36. > :20:45.animal animals are returned to the wild. You may have heard strange

:20:46. > :20:49.

:20:49. > :20:55.sounds, car alarms going off, things like this.

:20:55. > :21:00.That's a little bit like an ambulance. That came in from Tim in

:21:00. > :21:06.Bristol. It keeps him awake most of the time. This is from Charlie

:21:06. > :21:12.Kelly. Not bad is it? That's pretty good.

:21:12. > :21:16.Incredibly, Tim Bolt's was a blackbird. That was a star laying.

:21:16. > :21:24.They are mimicking fantastically well. Chris, why do some of our

:21:24. > :21:31.garden birds mimic? Stashlgs are -- starlings are particularly good

:21:31. > :21:35.mimics. There was a story of one mimicking a referee and was stop

:21:35. > :21:39.stopping football matches. If only with had some of those in certain

:21:39. > :21:44.England games we might have done better! Many birds mimic because

:21:44. > :21:48.they want two things. Firstly, they can make it seem to other males that

:21:48. > :21:52.there are more birds present in their territory. That's the first

:21:52. > :21:59.thing. Territory is crowded. The other thing is that, to many

:21:59. > :22:04.females, it is more attractive if your male has a greater repertoire

:22:04. > :22:09.of songs. Some birds in the UK don't learn their songs until after

:22:09. > :22:13.they've migrated back to Africa. When they come back here in the

:22:13. > :22:17.springtime their mimicry includes African bird song. It can be

:22:17. > :22:23.confusing if you are out in the reeds and you hear African bird

:22:23. > :22:27.songs being performed by a marsh warbler that's learned them after

:22:27. > :22:36.its migration. The more songs, the fit ter you are. Chris, you are

:22:36. > :22:39.notorious - that isn't the right word - more analysis of people 's

:22:39. > :22:48.photographs are sometimes overly created. You've chosen some that you

:22:48. > :22:53.quite like? I have. These are fine photographs but these aren't the

:22:53. > :22:59.ones that I chose. OK, here we go. This is a photograph which I think

:22:59. > :23:05.is technically excellent. What I liked about it was the rather

:23:05. > :23:12.artificial blue look of the water which mirrors electric blue of the

:23:12. > :23:17.kingfisher. This high -speed photograph has all the spume, which

:23:18. > :23:27.is attractive. This is an impressive feat of photography. Who sent it in?

:23:28. > :23:28.

:23:29. > :23:33.Richard Rogers. I thought it was a famous architect? No, it was Richard

:23:33. > :23:39.Schofield. This is the portrait. This is a simple photograph to take,

:23:39. > :23:44.because it is basically just a close-up portrait of a hornet, but

:23:44. > :23:47.it is a striking insect. By using shallow departmenth of field we can

:23:47. > :23:51.concentrate on the head of the animal. It is extremely beautiful if

:23:51. > :24:01.not a little menacing. Thank you Richard. Quite a good photo but

:24:01. > :24:02.

:24:02. > :24:12.stick to the architecture. This is from Jam mrbgs mo under underscore

:24:12. > :24:15.

:24:15. > :24:22.S. This is a Peregrine falcon food pass. Two birds are passing food in

:24:22. > :24:25.the centre and splitting up again here. This is a multiple exposure, a

:24:25. > :24:35.series of shots stitched together to show this food pass. That's

:24:35. > :24:36.

:24:36. > :24:45.particularly good. Jammo underscore S. I have to resolve the quiz.A

:24:45. > :24:52.helicopter? Has someone got them all right? No, I'm afraid not. Sorry.

:24:52. > :25:02.No-one's beat opinion nine. That was Andy Goldsmith. What were the nine?

:25:02. > :25:04.

:25:04. > :25:09.Goodness! Now you're asking me. In My Kitchen, Bat Out Of Hell, The

:25:09. > :25:19.Buzzard Song, Shark In The Water, Albatross, Fox On The Run, Pigeons,

:25:19. > :25:40.

:25:40. > :25:47.Batman, Eagle, His Eyes On The really tough. That's the hardest I

:25:47. > :25:53.think that we've ever done. Just quickly, a lot of people are very

:25:53. > :25:58.worried about the swallows and the martens turning up. This is from Rob

:25:58. > :26:02.Guest. Normally at this time of year we have hundreds of house martens,

:26:02. > :26:09.but I've seen so few of them. What's happened, Chris? There is a graph

:26:09. > :26:15.somewhere. We spoke to our good friends and they provided us with

:26:15. > :26:18.this information. What it shows, the red line is the typical arrival date

:26:18. > :26:24.and numbers of each of these species. Swallows at the top. The

:26:24. > :26:29.blue line is this year, so our swallows arrived later but they

:26:29. > :26:33.rapidly got up to the typical numbers, that we had last year. The

:26:33. > :26:40.house marten a different case. Arrived later but it doesn't make it

:26:40. > :26:45.up to here yet. So there are still less house martins here than

:26:45. > :26:50.international os and there is a second secondary peak in migration

:26:50. > :26:54.in July. Birds will arrive in July and then nest. They can then get a

:26:54. > :27:01.brood off in time to get back to Africa. So there is still hope.

:27:01. > :27:06.Michaela? Someone wrote in and said, 2011, you do remember on Springwatch

:27:06. > :27:10.the star of the show was a baby barn owl called Bob, do you remember it?

:27:10. > :27:18.Barn owl Bob, yes. It brought together people on chat boortsdz

:27:18. > :27:27.which supported him. After Springwatch finished Bob got his own

:27:27. > :27:31.Facebook page and the friendship continued. We all met for a Bob fest

:27:31. > :27:40.in Wales, at Ynis-hir. Two members of that club started to get rather

:27:40. > :27:47.close. This is where you play the music. And they eventually fell in

:27:47. > :27:55.lurve. They got engaged and get what happened in May? They had a baby!

:27:55. > :28:02.And guess what they name named him... Bob. Luke! Congratulations,

:28:02. > :28:08.that's the first real baby. Luke Morris So why didn't they call him

:28:08. > :28:18.Bob? ! One quick... Can you hear a helicopter? They are coming aren't

:28:18. > :28:25.they? Itchy and Scratchy, it is their birthday. Itchy and Scratchy

:28:25. > :28:30.are his poodles, if you didn't know. We should have tried to get them in

:28:30. > :28:34.but shall we sing happy birthday to Itchy and Scratchy? No. Thank you

:28:34. > :28:39.very much indeed. We are slowly coming to the end of the programme.

:28:39. > :28:43.We would like to get all of your questions, more questions, we need

:28:43. > :28:49.more questions to try to answer. And more objects. We haven't got any