Episode 4 Springwatch Unsprung

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Thank you very much indeed. It is a

very, very, very warm welcome to Suffolk. Welcome to Springwatch

Unsprung. On Thursday evening we have a real treat for you. If you

are not a regular viewer, what Springwatch is about is coming here

with cameras so we can peep into the intimate lives of the creatures that

live here. These are some of the things we have been watching this

week. Look at that! Wonderful little fox cubs. Martin has been after the

moths. On the sure we have had ring clubbers, but the highlight is the

golden eagle camp in Scotland. There were plenty of Roberts and the

things that pursue them, the stoats and in the woods we have the

sparrowhawks. And then we have the long tail tits. You will be able to

see those in our eight o'clock programme. This is all about

involving expertise, involving you and about our guests. Our guest this

evening, when she was younger she aimed for the stars. She reached

them. She is now the celestial gem that presents the sky at night. It

is Maggie Adrin-Pocock. Our next guest is a 12-year-old boy. But he

is already a force in the world of wildlife. He writes a blog and takes

great pictures. It is, Alex. It is good to see you here. We like to get

as many young people in as we possibly can and you are the first,

thanks for pioneering VAT. Lotsa people have been watching the

cameras on the website and we are getting a few questions. So I would

start with a question tonight from Paul. He has been watching the

Riedewald was once to know how it starts its nest off without the bits

falling onto the ground? Have you ever tried to make a nest? I used to

try that with the grass cuttings. I would get them and try and leave

them together, it was impossible. Some birds have a specific nesting

not to start it off. I wouldn't be surprised if reed warbler 's didn't

have the same. They start with one thread and then they bind them

together using the specific knot. And the speed as well. Martin will

be talking about that later on. Incredible, we have Kirsty in the

audience. You have been sketching from our cameras? Pretty good. We

like these stone curlews. Check out this tweet from Rachel, who is an

Olympic canoeist. She is training for Rio at the moment whilst

watching Spring watch. How brilliant is that. She has a duckling on the

front. She is a sprint canoeist? Surprised she hasn't sprinted off

with it on there, leaving the rest of its family behind. In honour of

Maggie, I have looked through the fantastic pictures you keep sending

in. Some nocturnal ones I love these, but I thought you could put

your critical eye across them. Look at that,

in. Some nocturnal ones I love these, but I thought you could put

your critical eye across them. Look at that, I have started strong. It

is not quite central, is it. Hold on, maybe Maggie would like that one

because you can see the details on the moon. I thought it was great.

The second one, a few badges. I do like the badges in the foreground

but the tale of the one behind... It is a bit distract ring. The daisies,

it is a bit celestial. Final one, this is my best one, look at this!

That is a mouse silhouette. I am going to give that an astonishing

nine. That is one of the best we have ever had. Mike, one of the best

pictures we have ever had. Look at the whiskers and the Silver outline.

It is a cracking image. Amazing, keep sending them in. Here is how to

get in touch. It has never been easier to get in touch with us here,

where ever you are and whether you use a phone, laptop or tablet. The

easiest way is to go online and be our friend on social media. Like us

on Facebook and you can post comments and picked just to our

wall. Follow us on instant gram and tweet us at BBC Spring watch. If you

cannot remember this, it is explained on the website. Something

we would love you to get in touch about is the quiz. Every night we

had set you a school quiz set by Melanie. Here she is. I am Melanie.

This is my quiz for you. This is the only UK mammal where in the adult,

the jaw is perfectly articulated. It has very small orbit is where the

eyes would be. It means it doesn't rely heavily on its eyesight. Can

you tell me what this is? We like Melanie very much. Anyone here know

what it is? Don't shout it out now. Get in touch. I am moving over to

Maggie. The Sky At Night. You used to

Get in touch. I am moving over to Maggie. The Sky At Night. You used

to watch it as a kid and now you present it. As a kid I got special

permission because it was on late and I loved Patrick Moore. To be on

it, the first one I was like a rabbit in the headlights. Patrick

Moore, he was a national treasure, for so many generations? He did it

for 57 years. Once a month, and only missed one episode. I would like to

have a record like that. What was it that drew you to an interest in the

night sky? When I was about three years old, I used to watch a cartoon

on the BBC called The Clangers. Let's take a look at this... Sailing

majestically through the myriad of stars. Perhaps this star is also

home for somebody. Can we imagine the sort of people that might live

on a star like this? That is a a Clangers. It brings a tear to my

eye. I liked the planet, and I love it the Soup Dragon. The mother

Clanger had a beautiful garden. You went into astrophysics and into

space science? Yes, I build instruments that go into space and

it all started with the The Clangers. I am dyslexic and I was

put into a remedial class, and it is because of The Clangers, I became

interested in space. This is you at Nasa? It is the International Space

Station. They have a mock-up on the ground, so not like Tim Peake, I am

not up there. But I would love to go. Wouldn't you? Yes! Some people

saying no. I would love to get up there. Just to see the whole of

planet Earth. Slightly more antiquated piece of equipment? That

is up to Greenwich Observatory. We are going to talk about the lunar

cycle, it plays a massive role, not only in space and what happens to

our planet, but the animal life. We have our little owls and we have

been watching them live this week. This is alive victory of

have our little owls and we have been watching them live this week.

This is alive victory of one of our owls. I cannot tell you if it is

male or female. It is quite hard, isn't it? Earlier in the week, we

cannot see the youngsters. They are hunting for the little ones. Owls

have very good nocturnal vision, but there are other animals that are

more effective, they get longer hunting time when there is a full

moon. They will carry on reading through the night when there is a

full moon. When it is cloudy, everything is safe. But if we had a

very bright full moon, those gulls would carry on hunting. They stay

indoors when the moon is full because they know the predators are

out there and they have debtor vision because of the extra

illumination. The male will only come to join the female or replace

the female in the Burrow if there is no moonlight. What else have we got

in terms of our nocturnal animals here? Last night we were out and

listening for a species which comes out in the evening. Night jar, comes

back to the winter and produces that astonishing call. Martin was out

looking for it. I think we have got a night jar live on our night

camera. Let's have a look. And there it is! I don't believe it, we have

been waiting. We have had tantalising sounds! They are dark,

but it is a camera that looks at heat. The thing is, the quality of

those images might not have been for the likes you get on Sir David

Attenborough's programmes, but when you are looking into deep space,

some of the images are not good quality, sometimes it is just a

spec? Yes, but it means so much. One taken by the Voyager in the 1970s,

it looked back and you could see the planets of the solar system and you

could make out the earth. It was hardly a pixel on the image, and it

was where we lived. This is something we have made and sent out

into space and it was looking back at us. I like it when the earth is

reduced to a pixel, it puts us all in our place. Maggie, every guess

that comes on the programme, we set a challenge. It is called Drawn To

Be Wild and you get ten minutes onto the reserve and represent a species

that you find. You have been out this afternoon and you have done

your work, let's have a look. We tried to rent the Hubble telescope,

but we couldn't afford it. We have a mixed media peace. There is a face,

almost like a green man of the forest. That is what I was trying to

create. What you think of the Green man!

APPLAUSE Great. I was gathering that had

fallen, it was lovely to see it. It is a firm favourite, but is up to me

to judge it. Here we go. I will put it a joint one appear with Lucy

Jones, who also used mixed media, but not the heady heights of Jason's

impressionism from last night. But we do revise the leaderboard from

time to time, so it might go up, or down. Presenter on Springwatch,

Michaela Strachan is passionate about wildlife rehabilitation and

she went to one of the biggest rescue centres to help the

volunteers. We went along to see how she got on.

I have come to Cheshire to volunteer.

Basically, I've got to do the job that volunteers do. They don't get

to just look at cute animals, they get to do a lot of cleaning. Once I

start cleaning, it has to be spotless! I will be here all day,

you know, just cleaning this one pen. That is adorable. What is the

rehab process? What we would do, we would get a small cub like this, and

look after them, and then we pair them into a group of about five, a

family group. And then the process would be integrating them into that

social group and then we move them outside to the rehab cages. There

you go. They are very cute and cuddly and this is why people are

too quick to pick them up. CYAN We have blackbird fledglings there,

which we will feed, then box up and clean out. I am mummy blackbird,

here we go. We have watched these in the nest on Springwatch a lot being

fed. I don't think I have ever fed baby blackbirds before. How much

longer are you going to be feeding them? They are on hourly feeds at

the moment. As they get bigger, you will notice they are not so keen

each hour, so we will reduce that down to two hourly and three hourly

so you can see they are eating on their own. Much of the time here is

spent dealing with injuries. This Canada goose has an incredible

story? This Canada goose came in a week ago and he actually had a

crossbow arrow all the way through his back, just about here. It came

out the opposite side of his abdomen, under here. You can see

where the arrow has entered. Yes. It was coming all the way out through

here. Someone has used this goose as target practice? Yes. That is

terrible. Have you experienced that sort of thing a lot? A couple of

times, we have had them with crossbows in, yeah, and swans as

well, so... I find that absolutely astonishing, that he is doing so

well? It is amazing. They are very resilient. Clearly. He's got his eye

on me! We are going to take him out on to Pool 1. Get off! We have to be

careful because he will probably snap his wings out. That was quite

relaxed. He can't wait to go. It's been a busy day here. I have had a

great time. It is also incredibly rewarding to know you are helping

these animals on their road to recovery. What would you say to

people that think, oh yes, I fancy being a volunteer? They should go

for it. Definitely. A lot of it is done by volunteers.

Chris, you know earlier this spring, the BBC launched their Do Something

Great campaign. If you head over to our website, we have a page about

it. I can show you it now. That will give you some great ideas about

getting involved and we would love you to do that. Do do it. We have

had a couple of suggestions in already. Have a look at this

picture. This is from Viola Ross-Smith. Alice has made a bee

house as well. Lots of stuff you can do at home. You don't need a big

garden. If you have a window box, you can get involved. There's been a

lot on social media about not picking up animals, not picking up

young fawns at this time of year. Normally, the adults do a better job

than us. If you do find anything, leave it. Excellent. Thanks. Shall

we go to Alex? Let's do it. I have been looking forward to this. Let's

have a massive round of applause for Alex.

We are keen to champion the young naturalist. There is a possible

extinction. You are here saying, no, that is not true, I'm mad into

wildlife. You write a blog. What do you write about? I write about

whatever I see when I go out for a walk, so whatever I see. What are

the favourite things you like to see? Most likely, it is hares, I

come across them quite a bit. Sometimes I find badgers wandering

in the fields or I just go out and find the badgers and just watch them

and take photos of them. It is better being out than in? Yes. I

don't know about your bedroom, I never found a badger in mine! When

you are out and about, you carry a camera with you. You are a keen

photographer? I do. Can we see some of your photos? You know I am

ruthlessly... Yes. He is really ruthless. Let's have a look. What

have we got first? We have a blue butterfly there. I quite like that.

What I like about it, it is all about the colour. The rest of the

frame is quite mooted. I quite like that. If I was going to be

ruthless... Brace yourself! The thing is, Alex, if you were to tell

me that was the Best Picture in the world, I would say, what are you

going to do tomorrow? I think, as photographers, as artists, we can

all continue to improve. We will only improve if we are critical of

our work so we see what we have done wrong and we can put it right next

time. Yes! This one is a badger. Peopling from some thistles there.

It is in daylight. Where did you find that? This was a badger cub

and, like I said earlier, I was out on a walk and... That was lucky.

There were six of them wandering about. In daylight? Yes. Wow! What

an amazing opportunity. You have captured that one. Let's move on to

the next one. Now, we are talking! I do like that one. I like the mix of

colours. Hold that up nicely so we can see that. That is perfect. I'm

not so sure about the slug hole in the middle. That is not your fault!

Unless you had a nibble of the mushroom! I like the richness of

colours. That says autumn to me. I can almost smell the decay in there.

The picture is communicating and that is what photos are all about.

Let's move on to the last one. Now, that is a good photo. We like that

one. I love the colours. The colours are

lovely. All the stubble compliments the hare. This is a prize-winning

picture. Yes. What did you win? The Young Mammal Photographer of the

Year. First place? Yes. Fantastic! Let's have a quick look at your

camera. You are not armed with a very big, posh camera with massive

long lenses, like all of the people that work on Springwatch. You are

using a modest camera? It is just a small bridge camera and with a small

built-in zoom. It is really, it's got amazing zoom in it, it goes

really far if you are taking photos... You have proved the point.

It is not the camera, it's the photographer who does the work. Yes.

And sometimes people can do good things with mobile phones. Yes, we

have had this one that has been sent in. This is a great picture. If you

have a look... Can you see that? Yes. What do you think about that?

She has taken that with her phone and a little lens that she has

clipped on? Wow! The whole face of the moth or butterfly, whatever it

is, is pin-sharp and all the eyes are pin-sharp. The one thing that is

getting me is that is just out of focus. Points out of ten? Seven.

Yes. I like it. That's good. We've got one that will score higher? Let

me see. Let me put up this one. This is over here with me. It is on a

mobile phone. Come on! Alex? I like how it's just face-on and it's

looking slightly away. What about that stone? Yes. Yes. That green bit

in the corner, you are not loving that, are you? No. I thought it was

good. How many points? Six. Top bloke! You have been out and about

today with Maggie, and you have done a bit of filming. This is what you

have been up to. What have you spotted? A damselfly

just down there. Wow. Can I get a photo? Yes. He is waving one of his

legs. It is wonderful here. It is above and below and everywhere! I

love the colour. Good luck with the photography. Stay

critical. You will keep getting better. You have done a challenge

for us as well. You have been out and about putting your artistic

skills, not in photographic terms, but in other terms, what have you

got here? That is interesting. Let's have a look. We have a photo

montage, it is a first. We haven't had one of those. It is myself and

my good colleagues in a hide. What do we think? Yes!

Potentially, it is audacious. You have gone for something a little

less conventional there. You heading for the Turner Prize? If you had

some whacky music, it was in the dark and playing a video, you might

be in with a chance. I will score it down here with Mike Dilger's. No, I

will put it alongside Clive's. That is reasonable. There we are. A round

of applause for Alex. Mid-table. Let me show you another

bit of artwork. She has come from Essex. And what have you got here?

These are two models, which I did for school projects and I chose

evolution and I thought about it and I thought I will do evolution of the

dove to the feral pigeon. It's evolved, obviously(!) It is

brilliant. Evolution? Papier-mache pigeons? That is worth another round

of applause. APPLAUSE

We must resolve the quiz. This is a reminder of that skull from earlier.

I have had a few guesses. Victoria says otter. Mike says beaver. Anyone

got any thoughts? Badger. Badgers? I will hand over to Mel for the

answer. So, this skull is of a European

badger. There you go. Well done in the audience. Loads of people

getting it right. Jenny Lewis got it right. So many people. Yes. Fused

nasal processes here, the crest at the back which has those massive

muscles on, all give-aways when it comes to the badger skull. I have a

few of these under my bed. Don't forget to head to Facebook after our

programme because Brett Westwood will be on air. He is a fantastic

naturalist. It is worth sticking with him. Thank you very much to

Maggie for coming in this evening. And to Alex as well, of course. Do

keep up the photography. I can see you winning more competitions. Your

mum might buy you a bigger camera! It is not about the camera, it is

about the photographer! That is it for our Unsprung. Join us at 8.00pm

for our 8.00pm show, Springwatch. We have some real treats for you. I can

show you more of the golden eagle, more of the stone curlew and those

long-tailed tits. We will see you again tomorrow at 6.30pm.