Episode 2 Springwatch Unsprung

Thank you. Thank you very much. Hello. Welcome to Springwatch

Unsprung. Coming to you live from the fabulous RSPB Minsmere reserve

in Suffolk. We're joined by some of the Minsmere staff and some of the

local people around here. We apologise for that. They are full of

gusto, full of verve and spirit. They love this area. So do we now

we've been here for threers years. A fantastic place to be. If you're not

a regular Springwatch viewer, we bring you the fabulous wildlife that

lives here live for three weeks. We started last night. Already we've

some fantastic things in our programme. Let's look at the sorts

of things we like to see. Dragonflies here. We like close-up

views of common birds. Sometimes we chase rarities and the exotic like a

golden eagle which we're all terribly excited about. More of

these in our 8.00pm programme coming up later. But, we are championing

the underdog. This is a programme designed to appeal to everyone. Not

just experts. There will be experts here. No doubt some in the audience.

We want you to get involved. Even if you've just bought your first bird

book. Contact us and ask questions and contribute when you can. One of

the things we have is people who join us. We've a couple of very

special guests tonight. Our first is an actor. He joined EastEnders

initially as a loveable rogue. Then, he became an arch Machiavellian

minute inlater, a Mitchell, you see. He was finally killed by a very

large bust! I don't know if Barbara Windsor was involved. Let's find

out. Larry Lamb might be able to tell us. You were koshed in the

Queen Vic? A very large bust. No-one knew who did it. When they did it

no-one would tell me. I didn't know who did it unless six months later

when they revealed who did it. Suddenly I knew who I was doing when

I didn't know what I was doing. I'm rather pleased I wasn't working on

EastEnders. Most of us here haven't a clue what we're doing. Larry,

we'll chat to you later on. Our other guest is a long-term friend of

the programme. An ornithologist. He observes birds in the wild but has

an extraordinary ability to engage with them in captivity. The birds he

keeps himself. It is Lloyd buck. He's here -- Lloyd Buck. He's here

with the remarkable Tilly, the golden eagle. Is she OK? Cool. The

coolest you can get. We'll chat with you in a moment. First, Lindsey, how

are you? Very well, thank you. Another busy day. People very much

enjoying the golden eagle and its chick last night. Will enjoy

tonight's show with Tilly. Ann says how are majestic birds so tender

with their chicks. People commenting on Martin's hair. A real feature!

Compared to a lapwing. Tracey wonders if there's something nesting

in it? Those were his erecognise tile nuptial plumes. Check this out.

A themed shirt. Very nice that themed shirt. Very nice.

Grasshoppers. Let's look at some of the things we've been sent in. I

picked this picture of a water vole. We've had quite a lot of rain here

today. This was sent in by Stuart Shore. Nice, isn't it is the? Very

nice. The grass in the foreground is irritating. A lovely little water

vole in profile there. We've been sent this video. This is tadpoles

sent in my Mark Baldwin. He doesn't have much in his pond to feed on. He

puts steak in for them to have every few days. What do you think? They

are carnivores. They will eat steak. Don't put too much in. My mum put

liver into a jar of tadpoles I had. That rather did for them. I've been

in the news for eating tadpoles myself this week. You make a joke at

a literary festival. People laugh and two journalists think you're

serious. People are complaining. You don't really have to eat tadpoles to

develop a lifelong interest in Natural History. All I have to say

is it didn't do me much harm. Have a look at this picture. This is a

sparrow eating a mouse, possibly. Sent in by Annie. Extraordinary. At

this time of year, sparrows are feeding protein to their young. They

eat seeds typically. They wouldn't go after meat. They might be tempted

to feed meat to their young. I've never seen anything like that.

Perhaps one of our viewers has. If you have or know anything about

starlings let us know. I've spotted this picture of an owl sent in by

Ronne. In the background there's rain. Our little owls are not

enjoying rain. Generally, owls don't like rain. They've quite soft

feathers which enables them to fly quietly. They get waterlogged

easily. Rain makes a lot of noise Pitter pattering on the grounds.

Species of barn owls and tawny owls are highly reliant on their hearing

ability. Typically, they don't like it. Little owls probably use their

eyes a little more. They come out in the evening. Not saying they'll like

rain. Anyone perched on a sign like that, that was a good photo.

Fabulous. Thank you. Now on to tell you, if you want to see our live cam

wrasse go to bbc.co.uk/springwatch. Press the play button and watch our

live cam wrasse. On to the quiz. We started it last night with the

schools. Skulls, this is the second night set by Melanie. Has an amazing

collection of animal skulls. This is tonight's quiz. I'll Melanie. This

is my quiz for you. This animal is symbolic of spring. It's widely

loved by people. This animal has its young above ground unlike its

relative which digs burrows. Can you name this skull? Interesting.

Audience are, think about that too. We'll ask you at the end. There was

a big clue in that one. Head to our website. All the links are there.

Use the #springwatch. Take a look at the video on our page if you want

more information. Let's move on to our first guess. Mr Larry Lamb.

Let's hear it for Larry. Larry, in terms of acting skills, you've put

it about. Superman! Putting it about? Superman. Then EastEnders

where you had a prominent role. Gavin Stacey too? You get lucky.

That's what happens. Allowing of a sudden, you've had a life of working

as an actor. You do OK, make a living. Suddenly, right out of blue

something like that happens. In fact, the funny thing was Gavin

Stacey happened before that. Normally what happens when you sign

up for EastEnders, they rule the roost and you're not taken on with

anything else on the go. Gavin Stacey was such an unknown thing,

they didn't sinus of for more episodes. I thought I'd have to make

a choice but the boss at the BBC said I could do both. They put the

two together. It was extraordinary. In the course of a lifetime, career,

get to play both those parts. But to play them simultaneously was

extraordinary. Bit of a treat. Aside from treading the boards indoors,

you like a life out doors as well living in Essex when you were young?

I was one of the kids which came from the edges of London. Plonked

down in what was a new town, Harlow in Essex. New towns were that. They

started to build them usually on the edge of an existing village. Harlow,

the old town, was there. They took hundreds of acres of farmland and

built a town. You walked to the end of the street, there was just mud

and fields. Our places to play were the forests, you played in the

woods. Birds nesting? That wasn't my particular thing. I was into making

bows, arrows, catapults. This is going badly wrong here! Burning

things. Having fires. Hunting birds? When it was bonfire Knight, that was

the one legal fire. We'd keep it going for weeks. Back go every night

and burn something. We can laugh. We were part of a generation where kids

were allowed outside to explore that environment. You went outside to

play. It was healthy. All the time. I remember the whole of the summer

holidays, you played out. That was it. You went out in the morning.

Maybe came back for something to eat during the middle of the day and

came home when it was dark or they got worried. You were fond of

wandering through Richmond Park? That came later when I was living in

Tedding ton. I walked every day. Did a great big circuit. Went through

Bushey Park. There's a big, acte period of deer. It is great at

certain times of the deer. At other times, it gets scary. If you're

walking through the heather breaks there, you can be confronted by

these colossal bucks. These great big fail lass. No offence Lloyd!

Extraordinary big animals. That's not a great big one. That one I can

deal with. I've been send a tweet of a deer. Nice one for Larry. You can

see this brilliant picture of' been sent in of a deer. There it is. I'd

love a caption for that if anyone has one. Is that a red deer? It is.

Passed its driving test. How it got in there with the head room, I'm not

sure. What about the parakeets? Down there, they've really taken off. The

population's expanding rapidly. Richmond, all that area. You see

them in the park. They move around that whole area. I assume they've

escaped from... One of the stories is they escaped from pinewood on a

film set. Some say they got out of Jimi Hendrix's garden. There you go.

Much more glamorous. Aside from seeing them, we can hear them. This

is how they sound. When you're walking, you hear them, know they're

up there in those trees. Are you a fan of the parakeet? Bearing in mind

there's a lot of contention in the conservation world. They are not a

protected ornative species. People get had the up about it. During the

history of animals and birds developing, they all go through a

stage where they are not native to the area. Exactly. Let's hear it for

Larry. Things move around. People move around. Animals move around

too. You've been moving around on the reserve today. Let's look at

your antics out here. Something much bigger than a sand

martin flew into one of those holes. I was too slow to get it. Maybe an

owl. An owl wouldn't be out in the day, really, would it? What do I

know? I'm not a birdwatcher! What did fly into the hole? I don't

know. It was a great big thing flying into that great big hole next

to the little ones. A jackdaw maybe? No, that I would have recognised. It

was a fawny-coloured thing. I thought maybe some sort of owl. What

do you think? A little owl? You think it might have been a little

owl down by the sand martin colony. Someone from the RSPB here? Now.

Every day, when we have a guest on the programme, we set them a

challenge. The challenge is to represent Minsmere the environment

or one of the species here in artistic form. We give them ten

minutes with cray ons, pencils, felt tips, glue. They have to come up

with a picture. Part of our competition. Larry, how did you do?

Let's get it out. What they don't hand you is talent! Here we go. OK.

APPLAUSE A lot of appreciation in the audience for your cartoon,

Larry. I'm going to mark you, it is a competition here, down to my

subjective judgment, I am afraid. Our two entrants yesterday, Clive

Anderson, we put them in the middle. We didn't know if you were going to

be better or worse. And this is Lucy Jones' Collage piece here. Larry, I

like the diversity of species. I'm amazed I got that far from the

bottom! In our drawn to be wild competition, you're nudging towards

the mild! If if I like it, but it is on the

right place. Now, we are honouring the people who

dedicates much of their time to conservation work and this week, we

celebrate Libby Houston, who does amazing work in Bristol on the Avon

Gorge. She does a lot of research and the work she has done has helped

save over 70 species of plant there. Martin Hughes-Games went to meet

Libby and have a look at her new work, with Unsprung Hero.

Libby, I think I first met you actually on the rocks here

underneath the suspension bridge, and I must confess, I was a bit

surprised to meet you on the rocks. I was working as a secretary in a

solicitors office, but I did notice that they were shot blasting the

bridge with toxic copper abrasive, but they didn't put any screens up

so all of the shot blasting stuff went straight passed on to the

cliffs. So it became a campaign that I was part of to get it cleaned up.

So by then, you already had an interest in botany so you are

concerned this lag would be damaging the native botany here? Yes, they

said to me, we have done it, we have got money, so you can clean it up.

Oh, me? Well, I suddenly found myself being part of men's rope

access team, working on that live every day from October to Christmas.

So you sort of fell into the rope work as a result of the conservation

effort. I haven't done this for awhile.

Obviously, I would never dream of mentioning the fact that it will be

your 75th birthday next year. I am in my 75th year. I think Libby is

the absolute authority on the plans of the Avon Gorge. Libby is doing

more recognised work these days but there is so much work she has done

in the past that she does in her own time. She is unstoppable. Am I

right, there is a tree here that is named after you? I am sorry to say

there is only one. It is a bit like a cliff edge there, how on earth did

you find this tree in the first place? There it is, that is my tree.

That is amazing, Libby. I have never met anyone, I don't think, that has

had a living organism named after them. What is its proper name?

Houston's whitebeam. It is fabulous, but when it comes in to leave, does

it look different from the other rare ones around us? To me, it looks

completely different. It is a child of the Bristol whitebeam, it could

only happen in the Avon Gorge and I hope you will remember how to get

there again. I would never find it in a million years. It is quite

safe. APPLAUSE.

What can we say? What an extraordinary achievement. Libby, it

gives me an enormous honour to present you with our very first

Unsprung Hero award. I am amazed. It is only a small badge but we have a

certificate to go with it, I will not ask you to kneel, but I will

kneel for you. There we go. Absolutely marvellous. Protecting

the species and discovering your own. That is going to be tough to

beat. It really is, we will meet more Unsprung Heroes across the

series and some exclusives online and if you want to nominate anybody,

used the hashtag Springwatch. Well done to you. We will go over to

Lloyd, I will move cautiously. Well, just to gently. How is clearly? She

is fine, she is good. How old is she? 16 this year. And they go on

into their 20s. In captivity, into their 30s and 40s. Going back, what

got you into birds in the first place? I was fascinated with them

when I was a small boy, started with a budgerigar, parakeets and then

birds of prey when I was ten or 11. You and your wife Rose have an

extraordinary ability to get into the minds of these birds. I have

never met anyone who can train them the way you can. What is it, the

time, the observation, the intensity of the observation? We always say

that in a funny sort of way, we don't train them to do anything.

What we do is spend a lot of time with them so you get close social

bond and utilise what they do is naturally, but in unnatural ways for

the camera. You are always trying to replicate natural behaviour but

sometimes in an unusual fashion. I don't mean this in any way

flippantly, are they your friends? They are part of our family, seven

days a week. You can't forget about them and go on holiday. It is a

lifestyle more than anything. And you use them for filming, we have a

clip on some -- some of them. This was Live On Air. These are the

Swans. We have yellow, Arthur, wide and olive. yellow was the leader,

always on camera, nearly always the lead bird. Rose is the leader, we

have had them since they hatched, so she is head of the formation, so

they are making a formation of of rows. I love the way they are flying

just behind you. They can be quite stroppy to me, I am low down in the

pecking order. What happens if you upset a stroppy swan? They give you

a crack with their wing. He old wives tale about its began to break

your arms with their wing? No, never, you would have to have

brittle bone disease. You have taken part in the art challenge as well.

Here is the picture down here. I will take a look at this whilst we

swap Killie for another set of species. Which way does it go? I

think it is this way. Here is Lloyd's achievement. I was going to

say effort, but he is a mate. What do you think of Lloyd's?

APPLAUSE. I think we can call that applause

reluctant. Anyway, I will place Lloyd's over here, let's see what we

can make of this. It is a bit of a dirge. I would like to say it is

impressionist but I think I would be pushing it. So I am afraid we are

sinking down. It is sort of primitive, childlike, but it is just

not really hitting the mark. We have had some brilliant things come in,

people clearly taking inspiration from our competition. This has been

sent into less and it is female sparrowhawks, which is really

lovely. There are a couple more, a quick look on the computer. This is

an hour with a golden eagle chick that she sketched during last

night's show and we have also had this lovely beginning of a badger as

well. So people are taking inspiration from our challenge. I

kind of like the beginning of a badger. We could all inaugurate

another competition, one where our viewers could sketch some of the

stars of the show and send in pictures and we will put them on

during unsprung. -- Unsprung. Not quite so much pressure on the studio

guest. Lloyd, you are going to introduce us to another set of your

mates. These are your starlings, how long have you had them? They will go

all over the place. They are eight years old this week. Eight is pretty

good this week. What do you think, Larry? Yeah. I have never been close

to a Starling before but these are rather nice. Yeah. I just love their

colouring, they always look rather drab but when you get up close, you

realise they are rather beautiful. They have that beautiful

iridescence. Like you, they are the stars of stage and screen, these

were in Poldark. That is Ernie. Fantastic. Fantastic.

APPLAUSE It is an enormous amount of effort, it takes them weeks to get

on an axe handle and the shot lasts four seconds.

You have been promoting nest boxes in London, tell me about that. Ernie

is the only one who will go in a nest box. The others are so keen,

they will and they won't, but Ernie is very reliable, so the idea is for

East Village in London, promote people to put bird boxes up. They

have made them very exotic. The Gherkin. That is architecturally

ambitious. They are great ideas, it is to try and inspire people to put

boxes up in small suburban gardens in the city. And it is required, we

mustn't forget that starlings have gone in our lifetime to being

extraordinarily comment through a rapid decline to being a rarity in

some parts, we just don't see the numbers. And in other places, they

are a nuisance, in Rome, they have a huge problem with starlings, having

to walk around with umbrellas because there are so many of them,

it is becoming embarrassing. Do you know, I wouldn't mind that too much.

Lloyd, thank you ever so much for bringing them in, they are absolute

stars. I will walk across cautiously, I don't want to tread on

any of your boys. Can we have a ripple of applause that the

starlings? Coming towards the end. They are, it

really does race by. People are talking a lot about the sparrow

picture with the mouse. John Sparks says that the mouse is maggot ridden

and the sparrow is eating them. Also, we had this question earlier,

her pictures sent in and it looks like a double-tailed lizard, so if

you look at this, that is really different. He says what is going on?

It is a double-tailed lizard and sometimes, when the animals shed

their tails, if they are attacked, the tale wriggles very vigorously

while the rest of the animal skulks away, leaving the predator to

consume the tale. The tale does grow back and on occasions, with two

parts, something goes wrong at the formation of the growth point.

Actually, sometimes you get two headed snakes and occasionally two

headed lizard, that is the way they normally emerge from the Hague, they

cannot lose ahead and grow to ones. -- from the Hague. And we need to

get back to the quiz. If this is our quiz from earlier on, this is what

we set you. Melanie asked what type of animal skull this was. Steve has

said it is a badger. Mark is saying it is a puffin. Does anyone in the

audience have an idea? Hare. A few people saying that, let's find out

from Melanie just what the school is. -- the skull. So this is a brown

hare. Excellent, this is the skull of a brown hare, this lady over

there tells me it is a pride and joy. It is a bit smelly to be her

pride and joy. How we can tell it is her before us is this, this

basically bites the food off here and it uses its tongue to turn it

around and chew it on these molars. Sadly, that is all we have time for

today. Do come back to us at 6:30pm tomorrow when we are back with

Unsprung. Join us at 8pm for Springwatch then. In the meantime,

you could be joined by Lloyd, who will be commenting about our live

guest on the web. So don't go away and join us with Lloyd. Big round of

applause for our guests. APPLAUSE.

Take a look and you'll see into your imagination.

We'll begin with a spin, travelling in a world of my creation.