Episode 3 Springwatch Unsprung

is. With his brushes working away. Take a bird of prey. A beautiful

Take a bird of prey. A beautiful British snake, a very attractive

audience and a little dash of level headed joe, mix it altogether and

simmer for the next half-hour. You have Springwatch Unsprung. YEAH!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Now, what is Springwatch Unsprung?

We try to answer some of your questions and observations on the

wonderful world of wildlife. We throw-in things of our owns. We ask

you for questions. Look at what we have? We will try to get through as

many as we can. You have sent us lots of things as well. We will be

examining some of those later on. Right. Our world-class artist, we

will come back to him. It's Darren Woodhead. We will look at his work.

We have set him a task. He is trying to produce a fabulous work of art.

There he is, work of art, while the programme is on. He has started

earlier. He is looking at the birds he is painting through his telescope

as he works. We will go back to him in a minute. We received a

photograph from Charlotte, she was inspired by wildlife she has had a

tattoo. There it is. It's a long-tailed tit on her wrist.

Lovely. It inspired us for our quiz tonight. Our quiz is - Whose

Tattoos. It is slight slightly risque. Look at these pictures. Now,

you have to match the tattoos to the faces underneath. You will see that

it's me. We have Kirstie, who works on the programme and Chris Packham.

These tattoos have to be matched to these people. That is the quiz.

There is a supplementary quiz, that tattoo, which may or may not be my

tattoo. That tattoo has a special significance that tattoo. You have

to tell us what is that special significants? Level-head headed Joe

are you standing by to receive the answers. Yes.Will you ring the bell

when the first correct answer comes on. Do we need to guess where they

are. You said wrist, it looks like a arm. Isn't the wrist part of the

arm? I beg to differ. We will have quick-fire questions. This has come

from Joffy Hill in Moray. Will you, please, Chris examine the object. He

says, "we have a wildlife pond, frogs, newts with a healthy

population of snails. We find half a dozen caches of 50 snail shells

buried under the grass at the side of the pond. Who is eating them?

These are ram horns snails. They are rams horned shape. They are nice big

snails. That is a healthy pond, that is good. They have been opened on

the side here. Had they been broken up by a song thrush she would not be

buried under the ground, they would be smashed to pieces. These have

been opened by a mammal that chewed through the side here. Just to the

point where it is able to get a grip on the animal's body and pull the

remainder of the flesh out of it. In the past, I have found water volves

that have eaten snails and hidden them in their runs and rats will

that eat these. I'm going for rodent. Without the context of

seeing where the pond is, I'm going for brown rrat. Answered it. Now, a

sound one. We have a question from Martin Barber about this glorious

sound. Everyone know what it is? Come on, don't be shy what is it?

Skylark. Knows, skylarks. If you notice, it seems to go on and on and

on. We have noticed birds right here in Ynys-hir doing the same thing.

"how do skylarks sing so constantly?" In simple terms they

can sing whilst they are breathing in and breathing out at the same

time. We normally speak as we breathe out. We can speak as we

breathe in, it doesn't work well for us. Birds can sing as an equal

volume when they breathe in and out. They have a different structure in

their throat we have a larynx, they have something called a sirynx. They

are produce two parts of a song at the same time. If we had one we

could talk to yourselves. It would be disastrous in some instances, I

would have to say. They have a different structure. The muscles

there are the fastest record recorded vertebra muscles ever, not

as fast as the frog happener, faster than the blinking eye. They can use

one to sing at one point whilst they are using the other breathing in to

sing at the same time. Wonderful People can do circular breathing. It

takes practice. Tell me you can?I can't. It's really hard. A lot of

practice. Nick. This is one for you. We have been sent some wonderful

footage. This is from Neil and Caroline Smith. What is this? Under

snow. There it is.It's a mole running around. They saw it. They

were going ice climb climbing in the Cairngorms in spring and they

managed to film that mole. We know it's a mole, what is it doing in the

snow? I can only guess. It sometimes happens in the summer for the same

reason. You see them on the surface, it's what they feed on. They feed on

invert bras, mainly worms. They live in the soil. If the soil is frozen

these animals aren't going to move anywhere. They will be hide hiding

out. The mole needs them. They are desperate. They will bust out of the

soil and find a new site. It happens in the summer when the soil is dry.

Worms will hibernate in the summer because it's dry. The worms aren't

active. That is what we are seeing there. A desperate mole looking for

food. Ah. The Ground is frozen, can't get food. A white mole... A

black mole on white snow... I have gone completely negative. Nothing

unusual there. Stuart Robinson says, "is the kestrel the only bird of

prey that can hover? " This us see a kestrel. This is Greaves. She is

five years old. You answer that question. Is the kestrel the only

bird of prey who hovers? No barn owls will hover. You will see

buzzards doing a short hover. They can't do a long hover as these can.

We have footage. We never get tired of watching this. Absolutely

beautiful. Head is rock solid. When you take Greaves out, presumably she

will fly like this? She will hover. She is a bit lazy. She will hover

and get lower and lower and lower. You know exactly what you want, she

will do it. Birds of prey have to Mott, they have to change their

feathers. The bird of prey like a kes reif they Mott they won't go

hunting. How do they do it? It's really cool. When the female starts

to lay eggs, once she has start started sitting she will throw out

as many feathers as she can. Her husband will work hard to bring in

food to feed her. She has 31 to 33 days of incubation. While the babies

are getting their secondary down and keeping warm. She is through the

Mott by then. She joins hubby, helps getting food for the kids. He starts

to Mott when the things he is going to catch have got young, which are

easier to catch. How amazing.It is cool. Fascinating. She is not very

good at hunting she is Motting, he looks after her while she is in the

nest all that time? Absolutely.How do they Mott? They don't chuck out

all the feathers -- Mott. The first feathers are the centre two tail

feathers. That carries her bell. It does. She drops those two. They come

half way down. The next two go. The first two are fully down, the next

two half way down. The next two go. The same thing happens in the wings,

it happens in pairs all the way across. Fascinating. We. We have a

question from the audience. Where is Maureen. I wanted to know. What do

we have to do to encourage kestrels to nest in our gardens? Nestboxes

are really important. Birds are having a bad time at the moment. Not

just kestrels. If you put up nestboxes it is great. There are

tonnes of different designs on Google. If you Google bird nestboxes

there is lots there. It is where you put them. Don't damage the tree.

Face them into your warmest wind, probably south or South West. Put a

perch on the outside so when they do have babies, the babies can come out

onto the perch and practice flapping. It's important to put

something in the base of the nestbox because kestrels don't build a nest,

neither do owls, they dig a hole in the bottom of a tree. Put in dry

mole hill soil, dry leaves about that deep. They dig a little and lay

the eggs. Imagine having one of those in your garden it would be

fantastic. They need your help at the moment. Absolutely.Insects need

our help. A young man, Connall Rhodes, has decided on his bat to go

out and try to help our insects. years old. I have made an insect

hotel. An insect hotel is where where insects can go and live safe

from birds and all of those animals who would eat insects. My grandma

got a booklet to plan the insect hotel. It took two months to build

it. I filled it in with cones, wood with holes in, bricks with holes in.

Bamboo. The holes are for the insects to go in and live in there.

Some of the holes I have things in that the insects can eat. I think

it's quite big for some insects. It looks more like someone who is about

five could fit in it if they had big enough doors. I think that wood lice

would go in and live on the wood, beetles would as well. Spiders would

go in and live there in some holes and make webs in the big ones. So

far, I've seen a beetle and some flying insects. Martin, I would like

to know how to attract hedgehogs to come and live in my insect hotel.

I've put signs by the hedgehog Brilliant. Really good. But I guess,

there was a bit of round the entrance already, but you want to

put logs and twigs round the entrance, not only does it stop the

wind going in, but they like to sneak into their houses, so that

will be my first tip. Second tip is try and draw them in by feeding

them. Never put milk out, but dog food out. Mincemeat. Chopped egg,

and see what happens. Good luck, but you are doing a very good job at

encouraging wildlife. Level-headed. First time of the

tinkly bell. A few people have it right. The whole thing?Nearly. I

think a flash of flesh has sent everyone into a frenzy. Hundreds of

answers. There is a few wrong answers for C.

A few people, good guesses. Shall I give you some wrong answers.

Sam thinks it is the left overs from a bunch of grapes. Julia thinks it

could be a poodle. Is that a hint? And Vicky says it looks like a maths

equation. None of them quite right. Somebody has it right. We will come

back to this in a minute. OK. Shall we remind ourselves what the quiz

is. Here you go. I wonder how the audience are doing in here. That is

it, you have to match the faces to the tattoo. Whose tattoos? Lovely.

That is a beauty, isn't it. Now, let us move on. I love this

one. We have been sent some of these lovely objects, this has come from

Mrs Vine, she said no poo for Chris to play with, but I found this skull

on a National Trust volunteer holiday. We are going to pass it

over to Nick. I thought it was a pie! I was looking forward to that.

What is it? The give away is the fact the jaw is still articulated to

the skull. The tooth just fell out. The weasel family do that, they have

a jaw that, well not, it will won't love the top part of the skull. That

big crest on the back is where the jaw muscles attach. Lions have that.

You think this is going to be a big vicious predator but it eats, earth

worms. This is a badger skull. Very good find. One of my favourite, the

most sculptural skulls. You don't have to have a fox skull with you?

Funny you should mention this. I have this one here, I have a one

here, the jaw has fallen off. That wouldn't happen with the badger. You

have a fox skull. You have an idea of the size difference. If it had

teeth I would have show you, none of them have teeth, so I give up. There

is no point in talking about it! Beautifully done mate. Let us take

in a spot of art. Excuse me. Darren. Look at this. Absolutely fantastic.

Round of applause for this. Look at them.

APPLAUSE Darren, you like to do these, how

long do they take do? Everything I do outside, so less than a day, it

happens in that one day. It happens in one day? Sometimes less than

that, the studies are quicker than that. Some of them may take a

winter's day. Everything is done outside and it is direct in brush.

Some are splodged. Yeah.And why is that? It is because it is done

outside, I am out in all weathers so rain, snow, if the paint freezes, it

is something to work with, when something like that happens it is

excitement. It is part of the day, it is what was happening then, the

environment has come into the paintings. So that, if it rains that

that runs a bit, that is part and parcel. The texture is caused by

rain. They are beautiful. Long tail tit family, the wax wing, beautiful.

You have been out on the reserve. Yes. We have a film of you out

there. Let us look at you at work on the reserve. There you are.

Take us through it. Here you are. When I am out, for me it is about, I

am out, I am looking, observering, I am finding subjects, but I like to

be in one place, I like to know my environment, so here on the reserve

I found this one spot where the pied flycatcher, I don't see them much at

home. I was there, pied fly catch evers great. I was there for the

whole day. -- catchers. I saw another one fledge this morning.

is magical. It is amazing how a couple of these strokes from your

brush and it just, it just appear, just comes to life on the page.

brush itself is fascinating, you can do, line, colour, shape, form, just

with the flick of the hand. But you keep looking as well. You keep

watching, just to get the feel of the bird itself. As natural laze we

observer, we look to understand, we look to learn. It's the same with

art and drawing, you are looking to observer and learn. That is

fantastic. It is hard to portray a bluetit head unless you draw it then

you can recognise the markings. we got that picture, the picture, so

this is the one we saw you doing. That is right. Look at that.The

white of the paper is the key. I want it to move round. We can

suggest, we don't have to pick out everything on the bird. We can

suggest an outline. I love the way. It is what you don't put paint on

that brings it to light. You are working in negative in many ways.

Are you still working? We will see that one, thank you for joining us.

Round of applause. APPLAUSE

Thank you. Now, talking of observering nature,

we quite often on Springwatch sea birds mating -- see birds mating. It

is not an elegant thing to watch. Of course, birds don't have a proper

penis. So it is really difficult for them, as you can see to ensure they

mate. And... My friend Greg the climber would, he looks pleased with

himself. Greg the climber wants to know, how do birds do it? It looks

very ungainly. It is hit-and-miss, because they don't have what we call

organs that will ensure the sperm gets into the female. They have a

cloaca. They literally have to put the two

orifices together. When you are wobbling round on the back of a bird

and you are trying to squeeze round and it is windy, it is unsuccessful,

that is why we see bird mating so often. When it came to kestrel, in

order the fertilise one egg they may have to cop late up to 25 times. Now

evolution works in devious ways, when it becomes difficult, when you

have water involved, some of the ducks they have begun to develop

rudimentary penis, I have read somewhere in proportion to its body

size the Ruddy duck has the largest pee ni, it is a small bird but it

has to guarantee to deliver that sperm. Fascinating. There you go

Greg the climber. This complicated business. We promised you grass

snakes, we have them. Let us go to the grass snakes immediately.

brilliant. It is gorgeous. We have noticed, I was under

misapprehension. Has it pooed on you? Yes. Timing in Springwatch, we

struggle a it be. Look at this for good timing. It is shedding its

skin. In one nice bit. It looks at its brightest. I have got to ask

though, literally, was that poo? is skin. It is shedding live on

television. Crikey. Chris, very quickly, we, we saw, I thought that

snakes either were constrictors that squeeze their pre-or they were like

an add adder they were venomous, when the adder took the chicks it

was neither It was brute strength. They will grab it by the head. The

further or the feathers will be facing in the opposite direction. In

order to get the animal down, if it is larger than them, they have a

skull which can virtually disconnect. Held together. The

plates with lack us the fibre, the only bits that don't separate are

the brain case and eye, they can open their mouth and they produce an

excess of saliva so it slides down easily, they don't need a pint of

beer! Back do you, Nick, how do you get snake, Nigel, sorry. I am being

told I should ask you this. How do you manage to get them, I

want them in my garden. How can you encourage them in? You have to be

connected to habitat. Putting a pond in because you attract amphibians

they eat. Refuge piles for them to go into, but also as they are the

only egg laying snake, a compost heap. Lovely. Have you got them in

your garden. Sadly not. We have had two of my favourite animals snakes

and dresses. You love that smell, don't you? I don't mind I I remind

me of my childhood. Let us leave that quickly! Let us go outside and

see how Darren is getting on. Thank you for bringing them in, the snakes

are gorgeous. Look at that. What have you seen out here, now,

that you have been watching? willow warblers in the hawthorn. The

flower are dying down, the greens, the dampness we have got, for me is

what painting outside is about, it is the environment, and the way the

paint is reacting with the dampness. And, it hasn't been raining on you?

It was drizzling a bit. If it rains too hard it will give you trouble?

The paper is working for me, which is great. It is lovely. Beautiful.

That bird is magically, like, again, you have left out, it is the white

isn't it. The paper you leave behind. You say, the paper moves

round, the weather conditions affect the paper. Exactly. When I brought

it out this morning it weighed qlefr than it normally does because of the

moisture absorbed. As soon as I put paint on it behave behaves

differently. It is a wonderful things. Such a complex thing.Water

colour is the simplest of mediums but it is so complex at the same

time. I will speak to you about that later on. After the show. Thank you

Darren. It is now time to resolve our

mystery quiz. Let us remind ourselves, what the

questions really were, once again. I might ask the audience. Here are

the tattoo, which tattoo, this ugly person has? Any ideas? Any advance

on sun? I would like to think you were a wall creeper kind of man.

are right. What about this fellow here? ? Got to be bird?A bit on the

end? Chris has got that beautiful, can you tell us what it is? A wall

creeper. One of my favourite species of birds. Not a UK species, you find

it all over Asia as well. Now, Kirstie has got perhaps the most

fascinating one. Kirstie, can you, well, hang on a minute. Let me get

this right. Did, who got that, any other odd Suiing suggestions as to

what it was? Part of river maps, and... That is a good one. I could

be a river. DNA, there was a lot of DNA. OK. Kirstie, will you tell us

what this curious tattoo is? It is a copy of the tree of life drawn by

Charles Darwin in 1837. You can see, it says I think, and why did you go

for that momentous thing? I am interested in biology and natural

history, I think Darwin, his work and life are really interesting, and

inspirational. Fascinating, you were spot on. We won't ask to see it

live. Thank you very much indeed. Where it is. Well done.

APPLAUSE We have just got time, I have lost

all the question, they have been blown over, we have time for another

one, Robin says spider, Why don't they stick to their webs? This is

one filmed in our wonderful macro studio. Why don't they stick to

their own ewebs? They make three different types of silk. They make a

silk that radiates out. That holds the web, that is the basic

foundation, then they make spiral silk, which will give it further

structure, last they spin something called capture silk. That is sticky

stuff they put in a certain part of the web where they hope to catch the

insect, that is how... Why don't they stick to it? Because they have

tiny hairs on their feet which stop them from sticking to it.

Fascinating. There is more to that. Thank you very much indeed. It has