:00:08. > :00:18.Hello! We have got a big show for you tonight. We have got big bugs,
:00:19. > :00:25.big beatle, big stars, big love and we've even thrown in a live
:00:26. > :00:30.Peregrine Fal son. -- a live peregrine falcon. What could
:00:31. > :00:38.possibly go wrong? This is Springwatch Unsprung.
:00:39. > :00:46.CHEERING Did I mention we've also got a very
:00:47. > :00:49.big and noisy audience? Let's get straight down the business. I'm
:00:50. > :00:56.going to sit down, because it is very exciting. You've been sending
:00:57. > :01:01.in lots of really brilliant stuff. Great photographs, great questions,
:01:02. > :01:08.and also some great pictures with some fantastic animal behaviour in
:01:09. > :01:14.them. This is surprising predations. This is from Lou Warrington. A grey
:01:15. > :01:20.herring eating a duckling. This looks pretty brutal but it's not
:01:21. > :01:27.that surprising, because grey herons don't just eat fish. I've seen them
:01:28. > :01:38.eating rats and mice in fields. A duckling is just a parcel of protein
:01:39. > :01:43.for herons. I've seen mallards feeting on birds -- feasting on
:01:44. > :01:50.birds underneath bird tables, it is a bird eat bird world. This is a
:01:51. > :01:57.great photograph. This is a great tit feeding on a long-tailed tit. It
:01:58. > :02:02.is quite brutal to look at, but it is targeting the headfirst. It looks
:02:03. > :02:08.horrible to us but the head has the brain in it. It is full of goodness
:02:09. > :02:14.and lots of birds will start on the head. We asked some of our
:02:15. > :02:19.colleagues and friends at the RSPB if they had seen anything like this.
:02:20. > :02:26.They did point us towards a study done in Hungary. Just have a little
:02:27. > :02:35.look at some of the footage they've gathered. This is a great tit
:02:36. > :02:39.feeding on a bat. This is a dead bat. These great tits are
:02:40. > :02:43.Presidentating roosting bats. The bats are completely vulnerable and
:02:44. > :02:49.the great tits have taken them as parcels of protein. They found when
:02:50. > :02:53.they fed the great tits regular food like seeds and the rest of it, they
:02:54. > :02:57.stopped Presidentating the bats. This is op tensedic. They will take
:02:58. > :03:03.anything as long as they can overcome it and take it into their
:03:04. > :03:08.beak. Wild photo fails. Some are so good,
:03:09. > :03:13.or bad, they are rather brilliant. Have you seen some of these? It is a
:03:14. > :03:21.genius idea. Who came up with that one? I wish it was me, but it was
:03:22. > :03:27.the more than capable Laura. This is Richard Clarke's photo fail. Oh, for
:03:28. > :03:33.goodness sake. Didn't notice its head was missing! Where is its head?
:03:34. > :03:36.Most people take a photo and look at it afterwards, because we have
:03:37. > :03:44.digital these days. That is wonderful. It is not very wild
:03:45. > :03:52.though. No, well observed. Another one Laura? This is a white stork, in
:03:53. > :03:58.brackets, near. I quite like that. It is quite arty. I bet you were
:03:59. > :04:03.gutted when you looked at your camera after that one. That's
:04:04. > :04:07.brilliant. We've been bin undated with your photo fails. We love them,
:04:08. > :04:11.so keep them coming in. We thought we would do in an old-fashioned
:04:12. > :04:18.style, a little gallery of some of your best, or worst, efforts. I
:04:19. > :04:24.would like to point out that the people holding these images aren't
:04:25. > :04:31.responsible for them. This one is really good. I can't even see the
:04:32. > :04:38.animal in it. There's two in you look carefully, a rabbit or a
:04:39. > :04:45.pheasant, or a blackbird, who knows? Another photo-bombing goose. This is
:04:46. > :05:00.a favourite, look at that. A crab swallow. A good fail. Oh, we might
:05:01. > :05:07.recognise the name on this one. This is the well known Russell Savoury. A
:05:08. > :05:15.picture of a bungee jumping little owl without a bungee. It is not even
:05:16. > :05:19.in focus! One of the my favourites, I don't know what that is.
:05:20. > :05:29.This one's great. I like the one with the bricks. Can't work out if
:05:30. > :05:42.he is taking a picture of his brickwork, or that bumblebee. Well
:05:43. > :05:47.done What's the world-famous Chris Packham doing? Here's a picture I
:05:48. > :05:53.took of a cheetah in the grass. What I hadn't accounted for is the grass
:05:54. > :05:57.was the same height as the cheetah. So I built my own mound. You have to
:05:58. > :06:02.control the situation. This might look like a photo fail, but I did
:06:03. > :06:07.this deliberately. LAUGHTER I quite like that. I've
:06:08. > :06:15.used a flash for the orange colour. You can see what birds they are?
:06:16. > :06:20.Woodcock. Starling, mate. Maybe it was a fail after all. Brilliant.
:06:21. > :06:25.That's very brave of you to share those with us. It makes everyone
:06:26. > :06:30.feel better if the great Chris Packham has pictures like that in
:06:31. > :06:35.his collection. If you want to send in your wild photo fails, go to the
:06:36. > :06:47.website - bbc.co.uk/springwatch. You can get us on Twitter and Facebook.
:06:48. > :06:52.This morning I went to, I got very excite, because I heard there was
:06:53. > :06:56.another creature here at RSPB Minsmere, a creature I've never
:06:57. > :07:01.seen, so this morning I snuck off to the local pond and found one. If you
:07:02. > :07:07.want to see wildlife quickly, you can do a lot worse than going pond
:07:08. > :07:14.dipping. I prefer to call it pond exploration. All you need is a net,
:07:15. > :07:19.preferably a good one but a rubbish one will do. And a white tray. You
:07:20. > :07:27.can get them from catering suppliers. And then it's just a case
:07:28. > :07:32.of getting stuck in. Invert the contents of your net into
:07:33. > :07:39.the white tray. This is the best way of seeing a huge variety of wildlife
:07:40. > :07:44.quickly. All these weird and wonderful creatures appear. Some
:07:45. > :07:49.have big eyes, some have monstrous jaws. Some are so strange you can't
:07:50. > :07:54.tell which end is which. This pond is special, because there's an
:07:55. > :08:00.animal I've never seen in the UK. It is the second largest beating in
:08:01. > :08:04.this country. -- beatle in this country. That there is the egg case
:08:05. > :08:10.of the animal I'm looking form. It is an egg case, laid on the surface
:08:11. > :08:15.of the importanceding close to the -- surface of the importanceding
:08:16. > :08:28.close to the water. It is -- surface of the pond. Close to the surface.
:08:29. > :08:38.How am I doing for time? That's pretty good. I think between 30 and
:08:39. > :08:48.40 minutes into my lunch break and I've got one. Look at this. It's
:08:49. > :08:55.great. I have to be careful because per spike perspiky. - they are
:08:56. > :09:00.spiky. I'm pleased I found them. What a brilliant end to the week.
:09:01. > :09:05.The only thing I really want to see is this animal underneath, in its
:09:06. > :09:09.own element. To do that I have to take this guy back to our
:09:10. > :09:15.macrophotographers to see if we can get the true essence of the silver
:09:16. > :09:18.water beatle on craft. How was that?!
:09:19. > :09:25.APPLAUSE We have got it here in the studio. Have you ever seen a
:09:26. > :09:32.creature as beautiful as, that Chris? I've never seen one of which
:09:33. > :09:40.these species. These are the robo-Beatles of the pond. Beautiful.
:09:41. > :09:46.There's something about them. This made my day. This is why we knew
:09:47. > :09:52.they were there. Our resident naturalist tipped me off. That is
:09:53. > :10:01.the actual egg case of a silver beatle. It is like a praying mantis,
:10:02. > :10:06.spongy. And they breathe through that snorkel? Do they bite? They
:10:07. > :10:13.will eat snails and vegetation. It is more the spikes on the legs and
:10:14. > :10:24.the thorax. Sometimes when you are in the water in your pants, you get
:10:25. > :10:34.in this your pants, they will be getting, biting you. Is they were
:10:35. > :10:38.7-9 cm long. They are huge. If that enthusiastic outburst hasn't sold
:10:39. > :10:47.you this as the bug of the day, have a look at what Ryan managed to get.
:10:48. > :10:53.That's why they are called the great silver beetle, because they are big.
:10:54. > :10:58.The silver is the layer of hair. You can almost see him breathe prog from
:10:59. > :11:03.the breathing holes underneath. Aren't they great? Well done, Ryan.
:11:04. > :11:09.He didn't have long to knock these together. Starship Troop teres, do
:11:10. > :11:17.you remember the bugs? Sucking the brains out of people. Yes!
:11:18. > :11:23.Brilliant. That for me, I'm going to be self indulgent, that is my bug of
:11:24. > :11:30.the day. It is, but hang on, there's another contender here. John has
:11:31. > :11:34.taken a photograph. Look at this. This is the muslin moth. Are
:11:35. > :11:46.telealways black and white like that? No they are not. That's a
:11:47. > :11:54.bilateral gynandromorph. It has lots of names. Sit half lady and half
:11:55. > :12:04.man? If you are getting kwurfgsd look at the antennae. The boy has
:12:05. > :12:11.this -- if you are getting the confused, look at the antennae.
:12:12. > :12:18.John, enough very much. There's an Indian God that's half male and half
:12:19. > :12:24.female as well. : Culture in Unsprung. If you can get this animal
:12:25. > :12:31.out. This letter says dear Springwatch, nigh name is Laila and
:12:32. > :12:37.imwant to give you this. I found this insect outside my pond. I hope
:12:38. > :12:43.you will show it on your programme. I'm a great fan. Yours sincerely
:12:44. > :12:49.Laila Moore. It is very fine. However, it is not a brown Hawker.
:12:50. > :12:54.It is fine. Dragon flies are incredibly confusing. We've had
:12:55. > :12:59.everyone trying to look at this one. This one is old and faded, so it is
:13:00. > :13:06.difficult. Its wings aren't brown. Fit was a brown Hawker it what have
:13:07. > :13:13.a brown staining. We've got Norfolk Hawker and migrant Hawker. We think
:13:14. > :13:17.it might be migrant. It's faded, so it is difficult to say. Before we
:13:18. > :13:27.move on from Laila's wonderful letter, there is a PS at the bottom.
:13:28. > :13:32.The bitterns are great. She hadn't seen the great silver water beetle
:13:33. > :13:38.at this point. Which one should be the bug of the day? We are going to
:13:39. > :13:45.open it to the clapometer. If you think the moth is the bug of the
:13:46. > :13:52.day, cheer... CHEERING What about the migrant
:13:53. > :13:56.Hawker? APPLAUSE And what about the great
:13:57. > :14:06.silver water beetle? APPLAUSE Oh, well, with I think our
:14:07. > :14:17.clapometer's got stuck. I'm going to put them in as all bugs of the day.
:14:18. > :14:24.Right you may have noticed that there are fantastic sculptures
:14:25. > :14:32.hanging around the studio. There is a wonderful dragonfly. Not sure what
:14:33. > :14:37.kind of a hawker that is. If you are an arack nar phobe, you may not wish
:14:38. > :14:43.to look the scene. And here, they are amazing. All made
:14:44. > :14:51.of wood by Alex Jones. Welcome to the studio Alex.
:14:52. > :15:00.Now, I, when I first saw these earlier, I was gobsmacked. I was
:15:01. > :15:06.standing behind a fantastic dandelion as well, look at that. All
:15:07. > :15:12.made of wood? Yes. Why these creatures? I don't think
:15:13. > :15:19.that they get enough press. We have seen the carvings of fluffy rabbits
:15:20. > :15:22.but these are beautiful. These are the beasts, the dragons of now, if
:15:23. > :15:26.you make them big enough, that is what they become.
:15:27. > :15:30.I definitely think so. How long does it take to make something like this?
:15:31. > :15:35.I definitely think so. How long does Like the long horned beetle? It
:15:36. > :15:39.takes months. We go right down to the original speaks mens and have a
:15:40. > :15:43.proper look. It can take up to a year.
:15:44. > :15:51.Wow! I love them. Now we have questions from the
:15:52. > :15:56.audience. One from Karen. She says, how long does the sculptures take to
:15:57. > :16:02.produce, sorry, I have done that one. What about this one, what do
:16:03. > :16:07.you use for inspiration? I have not grown up basically. I am still a
:16:08. > :16:10.kid. I love insects. I tap into that.
:16:11. > :16:15.You have a good story about the house spider? Yes, I caught one and
:16:16. > :16:19.kept him as a pet for a couple of months. Just as I finished he died,
:16:20. > :16:23.so maybe a part of his spirit is in there.
:16:24. > :16:29.Oh, no! But look at that, fabulous. And this is how they look. If you
:16:30. > :16:33.have gotten down on your hands and niece and gotten to look at a spider
:16:34. > :16:36.have gotten down on your hands and but that is exactly right it is spot
:16:37. > :16:41.on, biological, accurate, everything. We love them. Great,
:16:42. > :16:46.great stuff. One more here: Do you use a speaksic kind of wood? All
:16:47. > :16:52.types. Traditional woods. They carve well. I like to ground it in
:16:53. > :16:56.traditional stuff and then do the weird stuff with it.
:16:57. > :17:01.Talking about weird stuff, you do this with wood, it is a task, what
:17:02. > :17:09.are you doing? One of the things that I use, with the heligon beetle,
:17:10. > :17:17.the oak is darkened. I don't use paint but an ebonizing process. It
:17:18. > :17:22.is a mixture of wire wool and vinegar. When you paint it on to the
:17:23. > :17:25.oak it goes dark in front of your eyes.
:17:26. > :17:29.That is lovely. Well, you are a man of your words?
:17:30. > :17:34.Absolutely. Well, here we go.
:17:35. > :17:38.The first time we are ebonizing live.
:17:39. > :17:44.You are trying to cover the whole leg. It will be smelly. That is OK,
:17:45. > :17:55.they are often smelly. Do I stir it up? Just go straight in. Oh, it is
:17:56. > :18:00.pecuniary. When ebony ran out, they found out a way of turning the oak
:18:01. > :18:06.black. That is a reaction with the tannin. It is the iron turning it
:18:07. > :18:13.black. It does that. If you build something out of oak it has black
:18:14. > :18:20.stains on it is that when it is going on this process? Yes, and
:18:21. > :18:25.especially with nails. It is ebonizing. Look at that. Will it
:18:26. > :18:34.stain me? No. You need to go right up there. Alex, you are not pulling
:18:35. > :18:42.my leg? I will go black, won't I? Well from two men brilliant with
:18:43. > :18:48.their hands to another one, Euan. From stunning artwork in the studio
:18:49. > :18:56.to amazing sculptures on the marsh, look at that. That is brilliant. I
:18:57. > :19:02.am proud of it. Not Alex' standards but I am proud of this. And I have
:19:03. > :19:08.Nigel, one of the team responsible for putting the cameras out on the
:19:09. > :19:12.marsh. Somewhere out there is one camera and the bittern's nest.
:19:13. > :19:17.That was the dream one to get. It was the top of the list. We got it.
:19:18. > :19:24.That is why the whole team are here? It is. We had a dream list, we got
:19:25. > :19:28.the bittern and the marsh area. We got the bittern.
:19:29. > :19:32.You must be chuffed? It is fantastic. A dream come true to get
:19:33. > :19:36.the bittern. It has really captured the attention
:19:37. > :19:40.of people. To get the shot, to see the scenes that nobody has seen
:19:41. > :19:44.before. It must be great. Is it a sense of relief or pleasure?
:19:45. > :19:50.Initially it is relief. You build it up so much and put all of the effort
:19:51. > :19:55.and energy into it, the bird accepting the camera is a relief.
:19:56. > :19:59.After a few days you enjoy it and enjoy the revelations that we get
:20:00. > :20:05.watching that nest. The potential for it to go wrong is
:20:06. > :20:09.high. Putting the camera in the wrong nest, you don't know that they
:20:10. > :20:15.will go for it? That nest was found with eggs. It was found with the
:20:16. > :20:19.help of the RSPB, they were watching. So we knew there was a
:20:20. > :20:25.nest with eggs in it. How did you get the camera in there?
:20:26. > :20:29.You get pretty scratched up. It is a painful business.
:20:30. > :20:34.Lorraine says how much time and people are involved in getting the
:20:35. > :20:41.cameras out there? It is weeks and months of planning. Then a team of
:20:42. > :20:47.five of us on site with the cameras and then we rely on the help with
:20:48. > :20:57.the local RSPB, a huge amount of investment and time.
:20:58. > :21:02.So, from the marsh here down to your madness in the studio.
:21:03. > :21:08.Madness for sure. There is a lot of giggling here,
:21:09. > :21:15.what is happening? Well, you had Best Bug and I have T-shirt titters.
:21:16. > :21:21.I was subtle, you clearly were not. But I think this is beautiful. Which
:21:22. > :21:26.one do you like the best? Mine! Thank you very much.
:21:27. > :21:32.I told you anything can happen. No idea what is going on now! Right, we
:21:33. > :21:37.have had loads of questions from you. Absolutely loads of questions.
:21:38. > :21:41.What we, well, we feel we are getting behind. So a quick-fire
:21:42. > :21:46.round now. To get through as many questions as possible. I may have to
:21:47. > :21:51.throw them out to you. I don't always know the answers.
:21:52. > :21:59.Do hedgehogs lose their spines? Yes. They malt them like hair.
:22:00. > :22:10.Urban fox is burying a chicken's eggs, why do it? Why not eat them?
:22:11. > :22:17.It is storing them up. I had a fox last year, I had a nest,
:22:18. > :22:23.the foxes ate the babies, then I noticed a little egg. I excavated it
:22:24. > :22:29.and the fox had buried it under the nest.
:22:30. > :22:33.That is sad but not a question! How do we attract foxes to the garden
:22:34. > :22:36.without getting them into trouble? Feed them at the bottom end of the
:22:37. > :22:41.garden as far from the house as possible. You can enjoy them but
:22:42. > :22:45.they don't associate you with the food. Whilst you may want to enjoy
:22:46. > :22:51.them, the neighbours may not want to. So do this strictly and feed
:22:52. > :22:57.them every night. Do build up dependency. Feed them I regularly so
:22:58. > :23:04.they come opportunistally. So a top tip.
:23:05. > :23:08.Responsible fox feeding. Where do articlings nest? We see
:23:09. > :23:15.them in thousands in the winter, where are they now? They like
:23:16. > :23:18.woodpecker holes, or under the eves. Thank you very much.
:23:19. > :23:22.That is a few out of the way. Thank you very much.
:23:23. > :23:28.Now we have a peregrine picture here. It is from Tom Harris. He has
:23:29. > :23:34.beaten himself up about this, as he feels he failed to get the falcon or
:23:35. > :23:41.the prey in focus. I would not worry about it. Very few people get fall
:23:42. > :23:48.cans in this kind of pose as they are very, very fast.
:23:49. > :23:52.Now, I did promise a peregrine falcon but it seem it is is not
:23:53. > :23:57.here. But it does not matter as we have lots of peregrine questions.
:23:58. > :24:03.They have been sent in from you. We are going to answer them. The first
:24:04. > :24:07.from Paul Thompson, have the peregrines recovered from the '60s
:24:08. > :24:13.after the problems with DTT? The answer is that they were down to 62
:24:14. > :24:23.pairs, now they are up higher. I think the last sensus was something
:24:24. > :24:27.like 1,500 pairs, so bouncing back to pre-DDT levels.
:24:28. > :24:32.And one from Harry, how long do they live... I can't answer that. What is
:24:33. > :24:38.the top speed, we know that one, we think, it can be up to 200 miles and
:24:39. > :24:44.plus if they are going good guns. Now, we have a very special question
:24:45. > :24:50.from the floor... Yes, I have a question. Is it a myth that the
:24:51. > :24:55.peregrine falcon can actually kill a bird, break its neck on the wing? It
:24:56. > :24:59.is not a myth. No. They are incredibly fast. Amazingly fast
:25:00. > :25:06.animals and of course they are chunky. So a female per screen a
:25:07. > :25:10.big, big bird. I have heard of peregrines taking out herons. A
:25:11. > :25:18.female peregrine can weigh the same. So it is not surprising.
:25:19. > :25:23.If it is plummeting at anything -- 200 miles an hour, you can throw
:25:24. > :25:28.anything, and in case you recognise that voice... Do you recognise that
:25:29. > :25:36.voice? If you were a fan of the Archers, you will know Trevor as...
:25:37. > :25:43.Eddie Grundy. This is our surprise guest that our audience did not
:25:44. > :25:48.know! So good! Welcome. Welcome. One of the things I wanted to ask
:25:49. > :25:52.you, thank you very much for coming here but the sound effects on the
:25:53. > :25:56.Archers seemed so accurate. Lots of good stuff. We have a little
:25:57. > :26:37.recording of a clip of the Archers. That's right.
:26:38. > :26:41.Imagine that a lot of effort went into getting the sound right? On the
:26:42. > :26:47.radio sound is very important. In the radio studio we have a radio
:26:48. > :26:53.script saying if my character were washing my hands, I am holding the
:26:54. > :26:59.script, so I can't do it but we have lovely people, spot effect people
:27:00. > :27:04.washing my hands while I'm reading. So they are almost the actor's hands
:27:05. > :27:10.and feet. And wildlife, of course. Where we are today. A wonderful day.
:27:11. > :27:14.You will be pleased to know we record the birds for example, the
:27:15. > :27:18.bird song all through the seasons. So if someone was listening to the
:27:19. > :27:24.Archers tonight. I hoped you were. If there was a bird song in the
:27:25. > :27:29.background it would be the birds singing on June 5th here.
:27:30. > :27:38.I will listen more carefully now. A big round of applause. Thank you
:27:39. > :27:45.very much for coming in. Now we have got some captions. I
:27:46. > :27:52.can't remember asking for them. But we asked on the web for captions to
:27:53. > :28:01.go with the photos. We have one from Luke R, gg which is just:
:28:02. > :28:09.Springbotch. And one from Tim who says: I could rescue this with
:28:10. > :28:14.Photoshop but I'm not a cheetah! Very good.
:28:15. > :28:20.And from Keith in the audience: Blurs of a feather. Very, very good.
:28:21. > :28:27.So, do we have time for anymore questions? Not sure you do.
:28:28. > :28:32.We could do a quick one. Do female cuckoos only lay eggs in the species
:28:33. > :28:35.that they were brought up by? The answer is yes. Thank you very much
:28:36. > :28:38.that was great. Right, well, I think that is all we
:28:39. > :28:47.have time for. I told you anything can happen it
:28:48. > :28:51.really has. And we are back Monday. BBC Two, 8.00pm. And the red button
:28:52. > :28:53.continues throughout the weekend. BBC Two, 8.00pm. And the red button
:28:54. > :29:00.continues throughout the Keep an eye on the cameras. We will be. We will
:29:01. > :29:04.see you the same time on Monday. See you on Monday. Goodbye.