Episode 6 Springwatch Unsprung

APPLAUSE On the Fuser. -- unbridled

enthusiasm. We are here on a fine sunny evening, all of these kind

folks have given up the opportunity of being outside to come in for the

show. But what is the show all about? We are up here broadcasting

live for three weeks from the RSPB Minsmere reserve. More than 5000

different species here, not just mammals but 20 of birds, like this

magnificent shelduck, and we have been sticking our cameras into all

sorts of nests. The curlew are now sitting on one egg. It is all about

getting intermittent use of wildlife. It is all about you,

because this show is about the way that people connect with wildlife,

so do get involved. We also have guests, we have a couple of cracking

guests to start the week, the first of which makes a mockery of our week

sometimes. He has frequently got News for you, but I bet you don't

know he is keen on bagging Monroes. It is the one and only Mr Ed Byrne.

APPLAUSE Ed will be helping a little later on

to make a joke out of this series! Next, a polymath, zoologist, author,

he has written a couple of excellent books, the first about the sticky

subject of sex, and Gnabry is the tricky taboo death. -- next it is

tricky taboo. It is Jules Howard. APPLAUSE

What happened in the wake of last week's ro grams? What a weekend it

has been on the live cameras. If you haven't had chance to have a look at

them, go to the website right now. All you do is type BBC .co .uk into

your browser, and if you scroll down, you can see live coverage,

click on that, and you can see the webcams. This is our Wiedwald --

reed warbler live. You can just see it speak picking up. There will be a

lot more about this species on our show at 8pm. They have been a treat

this weekend, because on Sunday two of them hatch, which was amazing,

you could see it live. Then this morning, another one hatched, and

about two hours ago, the fourth one, so it has been an amazing nest to

watch. And the bearded tips have left the nest. You mean long tails.

This weekend there were six of them, and they left in about half an hour.

Initially we could only see four, but eventually, when the nest is

this disintegrates on the process of hatching, they come out one after

the other, because they stick together, they even roost together

to make sure that when the adult comeback it can find them all. And

the nest is made out of spiders webs. It is lined with a lot of

feathers, and covered with lichen to make it camouflaged. But it is not

just hatching and fledging, it has been going on all over the country,

and you have been getting in touch. Have a look at this picture from

Matthew. Goldcrest fledgling is all on a branch. A whole group of them,

they have all come out at the same time, and like long tails

tits, they have stayed together. And that is a fledgling wren as well, it

is bigger than the adult because it is fluffed up, but it is one thing

the birds do, they feed the youngsters a little more so they are

big, to give them reserves to keep them going while they are learning

to find food. And we have had a question about the live cameras,

this is about sand martins, and they have been fledging as well, this

footage is interesting. The sand martin, says this viewer, is the

most confusing thing I have seen. They appear to be pulling the young

ones I'd. I do that to my stepdaughter! She is away at

university, but when she comes back, I will be doing it again! I haven't

seen it before in a bird species. And now we need to set the quiz.

Last week's quiz was about animal skills, but now it is about birds

wings and feathers, and it is set by Sophie who collect them. I am

Sophie, and this is my quiz for you. This bird gets its name from the

bright band of colour in its wing. The male drops and opened its wings

in courtship, showing these bright yellow wing flashes. Whose feather

is this? APPLAUSE

I like a young person that collect wings and feathers, because I have

got millions of them under my bed, and they do get eaten by moths. You

have to keep the moths away otherwise you open them years later

and it is a pile of dust. I had a nightjar's wing in an envelope, and

I was going to display it one day and it was just bones, the rest was

gone. Do get in touch with what you think the answer is. Our first

guest, aired, thank you very much. You have studied horticulture? I was

enrolled in a university course. But Eubank died and got into comedy.

What led to the job? If I had stuck with it, I might have a gardening

show now. -- you left and joined comedy. I could have got into public

speaking from that. And here is a clip of you from Live At The Apollo.

The reason we have a cat is we found a cat by the bins, he looked hungry,

so now he lives with us. You wouldn't do that first human being,

would you? Mate, what are you doing by the bins? Are you hungry? Would

you like to come and live in the house? Come on in, I knew go. It's

much better than being by the bins. APPLAUSE

We have two of them now, a friend move to Canada. Just as I was trying

to turn the garden into a proper wildlife Sanctuary. You get loads of

things hanging around your bins now waiting to be invited in! What about

growing up in Ireland, because you did have an early interest in

natural history. Off the coast of Ireland is good marine life, sharks

and things, but I grew up in Dublin, suburban Dublin, and there was

really nothing, and I would read books about exotic creatures like a

jazz and think, one day. #

domestic pets, a rat was the biggest I ever got. You do get domestic

badgers. I have never seen one. The Irish Sea came up, and left you with

a smaller complement of mammals than we have on the mainland, and we have

a smaller complement than we left in continental Europe, so you have 25,

26 mammals, no moles, no common shrew. I remember watching Jasper

Carrott do a routine about moles in his garden, and I couldn't imagine

what it would be like. And Patrick put paid to the snakes, so their

worries very little. And now you have it in your garden! We have Matt

Jack -- muntjack in the garden!

APPLAUSE I have never seen such enthusiasm

for muntjack. Kevin Robinson has a better picture. Let's see if he can

do a ten minute stand-up routine about having a cat. I bought my wife

nest box camera for Christmases ago, and I finally read it up this year,

and we have tit Sennett. You have some youngsters in the bottom

left-hand corner, the camera is not exactly tilted at the right angle!

You do Live At The Apollo and we will do Springwatch! By the way,

those baby tits... Went to live on a farm. I went away, and I came back,

and they were dead in the box. It might have been because of the cold,

or it could have been a sparrowhawk killed the parents. They do that. We

have been watching our sparrowhawks very closely, and this is what

happens to blue tit in the men's mere vicinity. This is a young blue

tit here, it is easy to identify. This is what could have happened to

the parents of our once. It is as much about death is about life. What

about the Highlands, what is bagging a Munro? A Munro is a mountain in

Scotland above 3000 feet, and when you do one, it is called bagging it,

and if you have done them all, you are a complete. There are 282. There

was 283, then they decided one wasn't tall enough and they booted

it out. How many have you done? 77, not adverse one who lives in Essex!

Here you are. Not bad for somebody, one foot on top of the rock. That

one is slightly less attractive. I didn't know I was going to be on TV

on that. What about wildlife at 3000 feet? There is some. That is some

wild life! They probably wouldn't have thanked me for putting that on

TV. Or they would have looked a bit happier about it. That is in snow.

Yes, they found a patch of snow to do it on, there were plenty of

patches with no snow that they could have used. Maybe slowed the whole

thing down. We will get to that in a moment. What is next? For me? Myself

and Dara O Briain are heading to the Far East to do another show. We did

one a couple of years ago, they are repeating it on BBC Two, we

travelled through Central America on a road trip, so we're doing another

one now in Thailand. You will see plenty of wildlife. Don't get bitten

by it. I will do my best. Wasn't for you, I would have gone with my arm

out at any creature I saw! All of our guests take part in a challenge

called Drawn To Be Wild. We ask them to draw a species they have seen

here at Minsmere. What have you come up with? I was very impressed with

one of the camera trunks. I decided I would do a charcoal and pastel

drawing of it. I can't draw, but I thought it was a reasonable

representation. APPLAUSE

I ran out of time! I think we have a picture of this.

We can judge it for accuracy. It isn't too bad. I am astonished you

came to a place of such outstanding natural beauty and drew a camera

truck. I have had so many amazing pictures that have come in. I have

one right here with me now that has been drawn by hand, and it is so

much better than that, I'm sorry. But was it drawn in ten minutes

under the pressure of having to do it here at Minsmere? Ed, your camera

truck, I can't really... LAUGHTER

All those natural resources. I totally agree. If you were with us

last week, you will have seen Chris sharing a bird-watching hide with

lots of famous faces. Back in our highchair tonight, things are

getting just a little bit spicy. Sitting here you would never think

you were in central London. I can kind of blank that. I have walked

here with my nephews, it was a few years ago but this is fantastic.

Let's do some birding. The birds we have in front of us to tufted ducks.

The mail has the white panels on the side. Why are the males more

flamboyant? We just! They could in theory have up to about 30 young.

How many will survive on average? This is where things go bad. A

duckling is like a bird burger and everything wants a slice! I don't

like that. Sorry. You're like animals? I was brought up with

animals, not on a farm but near the coast in Kent, I left school at 16

and started in the music industry. I was lucky, like you, we are

passionate about what we do and hopefully we do it OK. Did you not

represent the Spice Girls and David Batty and takes out and all these

other people doing OK? -- and David Batty?

I have to tell you about the infanticide because it is a good

story if there is not much good about. She can recognise that you

cannot get all of those youngsters to survive. It is important that

there is some guaranteed success. So the weakest one gets killed. What

does she do with the body? She brutally packs it to death in the

open. Did the Spice Girls at any stage... Yes, they did, they did

eventually Italy Pack one another to death in public! We are struggling

to get kids into this stuff. How can we make this as sexy as the Spice

Girls? But a band together, each with a different personality. We

would have the coot, they would be the bad guys. Who would be the good

guys? Moorhens, they are closely related. A Canada goose getting on

with its neighbours? A bit of a message. You could vote for who

should be the next bird band member and get the kids to vote on it. I am

loving it. I will manage them. Isn't that gorgeous? I will put together a

band of birds and with your guidance we will get them topping the charts!

APPLAUSE I want to see the bird band. I might

change some of the species to things that are more flamboyant. It is hard

to make a girl band out of birds because they are a bit dowdy. Be

careful because in that film you said the male birds were more

flamboyant. I want to pick you up on that. There must be a reason for it

within birds. If you look at this, starting with the Mullard, the male

is more striking than the female and there must be a reason for that. The

female is making the choice. So the males are advertising themselves,

one way is through their physical appearance, sometimes it is strong

and sometimes display, sometimes a combination, generally their

physical form so they can be more brightly coloured, and a distant and

the females to make the choice. A couple of exceptions, where you get

the role reversal, the females are more brightly coloured although this

is rare. And Robbins. Female robins will sometimes sing, you cannot tell

them apart in your garden unless they are brooding over sometimes you

can see patches on the female because she incubates. Gayle has

written to ask why Chris is wearing that shirt and Jan says she cannot

hear you above that top. So I think tonight I have won this one! I don't

think so. This is retro flamboyant. And very low cost from an Internet

auction site! Let's move on to Jules. Thank you for coming in.

APPLAUSE You have gone from sex to death. For

your latest tome. The first was a great read, I have not had the

pleasure of this one, how did you get into death? When you spend a lot

of time looking at animals reproducing, we OK to talk about

sex? We OK. This is why I like this show, death, your blue tits,

unfortunately, going. When you study animals, and you look at their

behaviour and sex lives, you see that death is there in the

background, so to speak. Basically you think of pound animals, for

instance, dragonfly larvae, in a pond, there is a lot of death.

Animals, on the whole, they are in a hurry to reproduce. There is a

reason that tadpoles grows quickly, they don't spend to or three years

growing up, they need to get onto the business... Before they get

nailed by a dragonfly. Even dragonflies, they come out in a few

months as adults, they will get eaten, they evolved to live quicker

and get the kids done quickly. When do we give up on death and start

thinking it is unpleasant, when we get closer to it ourselves? It is

better for me thinking about death and spending time contemplating it

in nature, I feel better about this alive bit that we are in right now.

I think we all do! Just being with you guys in this room. Stop. When

you worked with kids, as many of you guys have done, with nature they are

particularly interested in that. I suspect it is because it is the one

topic that families are sometimes awkward talking about with their

kids. And the kids are like, I've heard about this death thing, let's

see what it looks like. And sometimes animals fake it which is

interesting. It's like a personality thing. I used to catch a load of

grass snakes and not all of them do this. Sticking their tongue out,

giving it the whole thing. And they roll bark. Basically trying to look

dead so the predator who does not want to scavenge them wants to kill

their prey so they know it is fresh. Some frogs did it, they flipped over

on their backs. A couple of lizard species do that, thorny devil, one

of those insects. I would argue, Jules, is that there are not enough

dead things in the environment. We'll need more dead things! This is

one of my childhood dreams! We do need more! People with rifles are on

their way in! LAUGHTER

There is a shortage of stag. I spent the weirdest day watching the corpse

of a dead pig and the amount of animals going in and out... This is

why people pay their licence fee. Do you people talking about watching

dead pigs for a day. In the book I get a lyrical and talk about

everything like a circus. It really was. I didn't know much about rove

beetles but a lot of these species were walking in and grubbing maggots

and then stamping out again, absolutely amazing. A dead pig's

carcass is in fact full of life. If we had more carcasses we would have

more kites. One reason that we like scavenging birds, vultures are

absent of a much of Europe because we have cleaned up the environment.

Look at this, the sky is full of kites. On this site was common for

Hundred years ago. They were acting as natural scavengers, 400 years

ago. We are quick to say that crows and foxes of evidence, and the

animals that are associated with death, we are kind of weird about

them and I think that says more about us than about them. We are

running out of time but must ask you, some animals effectively do not

die. Absolutely. In the pond there is a hydro, and I once held a

507-year-old clown. - stag. It was like a soap dish although I did not

use it like a soap dish! -- it was a clam. We want to learn more from

animals so that we can live longer if we want to. While you have a

life, read this book by Jules. I'm looking forward to getting into it,

I like death and everything that surrounds it. Now I know that things

like death may be on the cards, show us your artwork. Audio, do you want

to come on Springwatch Unsprung this week! Sure! Explain this? Thinking

about food webs and energy, and getting it's transferred into all

these different creatures, it is kind of about that. I am feeling the

room and I am thinking... ! You are feeling wrong. Because I love the

abstract idea. , And! I love the fact that you are involving science

in this and it is diagrammatic. It has a bit of Tracey Emlyn about it.

I'm giving it a high score. I'm going to stick it about Jason. I'm

going to put it in second place. -- I will stick it above Jason. You

identity and! -- you are dead to me. He is angry, isn't he! We have

created a storm on Twitter about the jumpers. Mine is clearly the best!

This weekend we asked you to go into your gardens and do a bio blitz.

This viewers found as many species as she could and Elaine Wright got

in touch and said, let's do this. So you can do a bio blitz anywhere.

It's not a total of animals you find, it's a compliment. If you have

as many as you can have in your window box or in your garden or on

your country estate that is when you are doing well. It is not about

having the biggest total. Absolutely. Let's go back to the

quiz set at the start of the show. The question, the wing of a bird,

we've got a few clues at the start of the show, loads of responses

online, Dawn asks if it was a yellow whitetail, Neil has asked if it is a

waxwing. Donna asks if it is a blue tit. Any ideas? Goldfinch. Goldfinch

is the general consensus. Let's take a look. Here is Sophie. These are

the wing feathers of a goldfinch. APPLAUSE

I have to say they were very flamboyant. So many people are

getting it right. Well done you. Excellent, thank you. More quizzes

and more programmes tomorrow at 6:30pm on BBC Two. Don't go away,

still with us online between 7pm and 8pm, Spring Springwatch is coming

up. Our blue tits not what they seem. I would like to say thank you

to our guests. Good night!