Episode 8 Springwatch Unsprung

APPLAUSE Thank you very much. What an

exuberant welcome that is, to Springwatch Unsprung. Coming to you

on another fine, sunny spring evening from Minsmere with a great

crowd of people who are really going to join in tonight, we hope! You

have picked the right evening to come along. We've got some real

treats in store both in Unsprung and in our other programme at 8pm. Now,

this is a bluetits nest but it has got great

-- it has got greytits in. Yes, a predator is trying to get into the

box. You can tell from the wagging tail at the end that it is in fact a

stoat. A stoat tried to get into our tit box at lunchtime. The other nest

we are watching is this one, it's now empty. This was a nest which had

five young in but now it's empty, and why is that? We can show you

because this afternoon... A female adder appeared and the nest was

vacated. The adder went in to have a sniff around unfortunately for them

all the chicks had gone from the nest. Were they going to survive?

Again, to find out, you will have to join us later. On Unsprung, we like

to tease you towards our main programme but we have got great

company here this evening. Our first guest is an author can he is a poet,

he's a writer, a musician. He is an extraordinarily gifted man who is a

passion of the can and also very keen to protect animal rights. He's

the and only Benjamin Zephaniah. APPLAUSE

Our next guest is a young lady who I've known for a few years. She is

one of a new wave of young British naturalists who are coming together

using something that we didn't have when we were kids, social media. She

is using it to great effect, to bring others into the fold and also

to work with other young people to turn them into great young

naturalists too. It is Georgia Locock.

APPLAUSE Lindsey, what's happening?

So exciting on the live cameras. So many messages has come in -- have

come in. This is one from Holly. Stoat at the door, was that from the

Shining? Here's Johnny! Gale Sayers it's all kicking off on the webcams,

which it is. -- Gail says. Everyone's been getting very excited

about the record-breaking Arctic terns, seen on Springwatch last

night. They are record breakers. 97,000

kilometres, to put it into miles that's about 60,000 miles. It's a

long way and I have to say that was the first one they have covered and

they have another 14 of them, so the record may be broken again at some

stage in the next couple of weeks. The exciting, Sony people getting in

touch about that. We would love to hear your record-breaking stats from

your garden. Have you got hundreds of caterpillars? This is from Johann

Nilsson, who says there are 18 in there! Stoats can't get through but

weasels can. 18 in one nest, that makes you wonder whether it is one

with a brood of youngsters or if others have been laid in there as

well? That is such a lot. Send in your pictures

and stories using #springwatch. We are also encouraging you to get

involved with our quiz. Hi, I'm Sophie and this is my quiz

for you. This bird is a member of the thrush family.

As ever, I am watching Twitter like a hawk, get in touch on hashtag

#springwatch. Now, I've been looking

through all your images of peeking animals for my favourite

Peeky Blinders. A little bit of grass in the

foreground! Have a look at this number. This is a dragonfly with a

clothes pegs for a body. I like that, I like the symmetry! That is a

neat shot, very good. CE if you can spot the peaky blinder in this shot.

Oh yes, the star peaky blinder! Now, let's move over to Benjamin. I

really wasn't expecting that! You should be, you are a man of many

talents! But you started life in the city, in central Birmingham. Not

much wildlife how did you connect? Well, first of all, parks. Aston

Park. We had these shrubs and we used to call it the jungle and we

would get on our hands and knees and pretend we were in the jungle. I was

Tarzana and my sister was Jane! Any bid of nature I was desperate to get

close to it. You did get out of the city and play a weird game of

getting lost? Yeah, in those days you could. Nowadays people worry

about their children and won't let them out of their sight. But we had

a game, this is what we're going to do today, we're going to get lost!

You would find your way home. You couldn't leave that to date. You

would leave the house, go out, deliberately get lost and then have

to find your way back? You would discover so much. I mean, I met so

many girlfriends like that! I should get lost myself!

LAUGHTER It was great fun. Lycos said, people

weren't so, kind of them are protective of their children. You

would come back with a few scars or whatever. Those were the days,

weren't they? We could go out and connect with nature ourselves and

without mum and dad looking over our shoulders. Now you've escaped to the

country and you enjoy wildlife there? Yes, I've moved to the Fens

in Lincolnshire and I absolutely love it will stop cities have their

thing going but the air you breathe in the countryside is just so

different. People say to me, how long do you run for, how far do you

go? I say, I don't know, because if I see a squirrel I will stop and

talk to it! I see herons as I live near Dykes in Lincolnshire, so I

will start whispering to the herons. I have to go to the point, what are

you saying to the herons and the scrolls? I've been -- I say to them,

I've been an Peaky Blinders, have you been on Springwatch?

LAUGHTER It depends what time I go out.

Sometimes you see the night animals going home and the day animals

waking up. I just love it. If that connecting to time and place, the

sense of season, all of those sort of things. Yes. Well, since I've

been in the countryside are really have appreciated seasons more, and

the weather, which are used to take for granted. In the city, it's like,

do I need an umbrella or not? I started to grow my own vegetables

and I loved that. I love vegetables, I love the weather, I love the

animals. But some of the animals nick my vegetables! I kill it

multiculturalism! Well, Here is a good question for you, not

one I've been able to answer myself. Why is it in the UK that there are

far fewer black or Asian people who get into nature? There must be a

cultural difference? It's interesting. My parents and many

people in that generation came here to work in hospitals in cities, in

urban centres. So they're not really living in the countryside. The

strange thing is, though, when my mother comes to see me in

Lincolnshire, she says, it looks just like to make a! Because it

does. They come from lots of rural parts back in Jamaica -- it looks

like Jamaica. A lot of Sikhs come from the Punjab which is very

countryside. I think it's just because our parents came here for

work really. After that they lost touch with the countryside. Yes. I

did a TV programme about canals around Birmingham and why black

people and Asian people don't tend to use them. They said it wouldn't

be cooled to write home, and say we live on a boat. It wouldn't be seen

as progress! But how many generations before it changes? I

grew up in a city as well... It is changing now. When I moved to the

countryside, some people weren't worried about a black man moving

into a small village. Unfortunately it was white liberals who would say

the city is a black man's place and the countryside isn't. I would say I

fought for our rights as British people and it wasn't just to live in

Brixton! It's a great country and we should be able to live anywhere.

That is certainly the case. We want as many people as possible these

days to engage with nature because we're never going to look after it

otherwise. We have also asked our viewers

to send in poem tweets or "Twoems", Stoat and add on the prowl, intent

upon a most foul. Looking for an easy kill, both with young and

mouths to fill. Wonderful. It's good, isn't it? Deadly calm, nice

and cool not silent, something moved. Note in darkness, but eyes

can see, run for your life, be free! Oh! It's really good. Beautiful. I'm

not so sure about the delivery on that last one! When it comes to art,

poetry is one of your talents. But we always set our guest a challenge

here. We give them ten minutes and a range of artists's materials and

they have to reproduce part of the Minsmere vibe. Soap, Benjamin, what

have you come up with? There's an enormous amount of reluctance here!

This is really embarrassing! I've never drawn or painted anything in

my life. That is so strange, you're so creative in many ways but you've

never turned your hand to drawing or painting? I can't do everything,

Chris. Well, we can see that! Note what do we think?

APPLAUSE LAUGHTER

Can I talk about it and explain it? You can try but it would take a long

time! Benjamin, I never really one for imparting advice but I will pass

on some I was given myself. It was given by a man called Clint Eastwood

and he said, "A man should know his limitations", in Dirty Harry or

something like that. I'm going to put it down here with the other

drawings we've had. Larry Lamb... I'm going to stick it in the middle

there with the drawings we've had in our Drawn Two B Wild competition.

What did you think? Well, I do love your poems, I think they're

brilliant. Not a bad drawing! All of us are here because we love

wildlife, but many of our viewers are elderly and can't get out

and enjoy it. There is one man who is trying

to bring wildlife inside. I went along to see just how he's

doing that. Hello, I am Simon Watts, I make

wildlife films. Somewhere local, in the park, or somewhere bit exotic,

as today, we are off to the Highlands of Scotland. For your job,

you were the district nurse? Yes. How did nature come back into your

life? You were working somewhere completely different. One of the

ladies run a club, she heard about my interest and suggested I come

along. I did, nervously, and her reaction was surprising. Through my

youth I found it hard to impress on people the joy I felt about seeing

things, but here I had an amazing audience. That must be special. Yes,

it takes all the boxes. It means it is purposeful. It actually is.

Despite the severity, I was not there to admire the beauty. I was

there because that patch of grass in front of you is like a Roman

amphitheatre. As we get close, you noticed the black dots are birds. It

got amazing reactions. Sometimes emotional reactions. It was positive

as well. Everybody has a part of them that loves nature, whether they

love it or not. There is a lot I had not seen, which is interesting. I

enjoyed it, from beginning to end, it was lovely. How does it help you,

having him show you the film 's? Does it give you access to things

you would not see? I are not used to it, it is a first for me, I enjoyed

it. We can't get out to see it. That is quite true. We are housebound, in

a way. The only way I can go out is in a wheelchair, if somebody can

push me. What is it like to have him come in and show you the films? He

brings new life. It is nice here, of course, but he brings the nature and

what is going on in the world all the time that we don't really think

about. Thank you. I had a good day, Simon is with us.

It was a wonderful day, thank you. We have fans of all ages, from the

older to the young. This is a young fan. This is in either.

Packham! I don't know what to say, but I

might strip off and put my binoculars on back to front and do

my own version! Please don't! A photo of George, he

is seven. He has been rearing five painted ladies butterflies for doing

something great for nature. Superb. George. Will you come and

join us? You are a keen bird, you have been

to spurn point. Straight after my exams, I headed up there. I had a

great week, one of the highlights, I saw loads of great birds, a Rose

Stinchcombe and one of the highlights was this. That is a bird.

Brilliant to be so close and see the colours and the patterns. Very

envious. You have got a passion for swifts? Yes, there are HQ in my

neighbourhood. Last year, after my exams, I went up and spent the week,

I was counting the swifts and helping with that. I fell in love

with them, I thought they were fantastic, hoping to go back in a

few weeks again. They are marvellous. You have also done

birding closer to home, and introducing others? Yes, in my area,

I am eager to attract anybody to look up, see what is going on,

notice and appreciate the nature around us. I did this in Lichfield.

I ( Gwent Balkans, one of my favourite birds, amazing. I get them

coming over my patch. I have been to see urban projects in Derby and not

a game, down the road. I heard there was one bird at the cathedral in

Lichfield, so I headed down. This is the project needed.

I am here at Lichfield Cathedral, I heard a rumour there was a bird

here, I headed down, I walked around the corner, and that it was, a

peregrine Vulcan. If you people know, but a lot of people don't. It

is so loud, I don't know how people can walk past and not realise. I

want to make other people aware, so I decided to organise a watch

morning, I got something in the local paper, I wrote a blog,

everybody I know, come along, learn about these birds. People lined up

all the way down the road. We had a people turned up altogether. That

was brilliant. After the success of that, so many people came along, so

much interest, a lot of people said, I will come back. That is what it is

about, more people being aware. You can hear them again now.

Brilliant. It is not just people in the community, you are doing stuff

with younger people as well. Does my age and younger, I go into local

primary schools, there are HQ, I go in and talk to the children about

wildlife, things I have recorded on my cameras, sound, photographs, tell

them all about it, how they can go and do simple things. From

accessible stuff, things in the garden... These are the foxes are.

This is on my school field. I did a big display to show the other

students. This is one of my badger clips. I have got some superb

footage, using my camera. It is brilliant. I love to take things

like that into schools, they are interesting, I can tell the students

what is going on. They can see it, it is exciting. Another way you

engage is through social media. That is how I met you. Focus on nature is

a great way. Social media is such a great asset. At school I had no

friends interested in nature, it was isolating, because you want to shake

your passion and tell everybody about it. But I could not do that

with friends. But with social media, other young people out there that

you can talk to about it. You mentioned a focus on nature... To

illustrate this, they have just retweeted, they say the young

birders' blog is there now, it is a great way of communicating.

Benjamin, you take young people into the countryside as well. When I

lived in London, kids who have had problems, we would take them to

Wales, ran the Brecon Beacons, and some of these kids were hard and

tough, nothing could frighten them, but you take them to the countryside

and they have never experienced darkness. They only know cats and

dogs, so when they hear something strange, they get really frightened.

I thought it was a shame. I did it for a while. On a much smaller scale

I invite city kids to see where I live. There are also some people who

live in the countryside that don't experience the city. In

Lincolnshire, the sky is really big. You have got to be careful about

what you say about the people that! I take these heads to London, they

say, where has the sky gone? You have to look up to see the sky. You

have to appreciate the whole country.

Georgia, it is time for your challenge, what did you come up

with? This is brilliant! What have we got here? What can I say? I am

thinking motifs. I am liking the pattern of the swifts in the air. It

will score very highly for me. It is right up here, second place.

I don't know if I am thinking T-shirt or wallpaper, but it is one

of the two. A comparison to Matisse!

It is very good. I have had a tweet about bees. We have got the great

British beat counter going on, which is hugely important, run by Friends

of the Earth. You can download an app and report the bees that you

see, which is vital to conservation. It has proved popular, 80,000

people? Yes, but they want more, they want

over 100,000, which was the record last year.

It is not just honeybees, it is also about wild bees, bumblebees and the

solitary species, because they are important pollinators, a part of the

ecosystem. We want to know more about them.

Download the app, it is super easy. Let's get to the quiz. Sophie set is

this question, what did you think these feathers belong to? We have

had a guesses. Is it a miss of fresh? Chris driver, is it a ring

result? If I had one, I would be very happy.

They would be hard to get hold of. Any ideas? Blackbird over here.

Anything else? Quiet as a mouse now! Let's find out.

These wing feathers from a male Blackbird.

Did somebody have their hand up? A male blackbird, there we go. Thank

you for getting in touch. Let's have a look at this picture, which is of

a jellyfish. That is the size of a space hopper.

Any ideas? It could be a lion 's mane jellyfish, we get those on the

West Coast, they grow to enormous sizes. I have seen them about space

hopper size. It could be that. It is hard without seeing the underpass.

It is hard to identify jellyfish on the beach, they don't want to be

there. They want to be out at sea. It for animals.

They are huge. Breaking news, just before we came on, we have a new

camera, it has just been rigged, and something interesting happened. If

you can make it out, there was a visitor on the new camera.

This is an animal that should not be in a hole in the tree, unless it was

up to no good whatsoever. One can imagine it is up to absolutely no

good. To watch our programme in an hour and a half to see what is going

on. If you want to know more now, the

story is still unravelling, go to our Facebook page. And to the

website. Head there now. We have a choice of four cameras,

sparrowhawks, all sorts of things for you to enjoy. But it?

Yes. It has been fantastic, I must thank our guests, Georgia and

Benjamin. We have to get involved in nature

with young children, let them fall over into puddles, push them into

the brambles. They have got to connect with nature. I will head

here this evening, down to the scrape, plenty of action.