Episode 8 Springwatch Unsprung

APPLAUSE Hello and welcome to Unsprung on

this fine sunny evening in the Sherborne Park Estate in

Gloucestershire, home of the National Trust. We have been

enjoying our time will stop you know the premise of this programme, it is

very much about you. We like your contributions in terms of questions,

photographs and queries. We try and sneak in wildlife and science. It's

basically about celebrating nature, and very often we invite guests to

help us do that. I'm pleased to say tonight we've got some super guests.

First of all, let's hear it. Nicole. -- let's hear it for Stephanie Cole.

Very fond wildlife garden and a lady with a passion for nature. Alongside

here, MG Leonard. Author of the soon to be Beetle Boy trilogy. A lady

with a passion and we will be learning about all things beetles

from MG. But now let me step aside into the shadows... Thank you very

much indeed, amazing. That is the warmest reception yet. Not the

temperature outside, but the crowd inside. Great crowd, beautiful

weather. And because of that I've put together some beautiful pictures

for you because I like your critical eye to take a look. I've been

researching hard. This first one is fantastic, it is from Susan Brewer.

She says that she noticed a camouflaged horror fry in her

garden. My macro -- hover fly. I like the matching body of the insect

and the pansy. But I'm perturbed by the Green and black at the corners.

I would have cropped in a little bit, but fabulous colours. I'm going

to try and bet about - have a look at this one. This is from Austin

Thomas. He says he still not 100% happy. I like this. It is the

principal ingredient which is imported, symmetry. I often think

hell for me would be living in a world without symmetry listening to

Coldplay! This is a good shot, it's lovely. The knife through this one

in, why not, because you love a sparrow. -- then I just threw this

one in. I've had the privilege of meeting

that bird, it is Mad Max. Is that a winner? The little owl is a better

photograph, but that is the best bird. Is stunning. Along with the

fabulous pictures you also have the occasional one that doesn't go quite

so well. Devoto fail! Have a look at this. What did you think that might

be? -- vive photo fail. It's important to focus on the subject,

especially if it's Robin. This one is fantastic, it's supposed to be an

otter but it moved its head. Very often these pictures are popular

when the animal is wet when they are shaking spray from themselves. There

are good pictures of polar bears and brown bears shaking spray off with

fish in their mouth and become quite popular. Unfortunately, no points

for that one. This is my absolute favourite because is it a fail? This

is by Kim McDonald and it is a bird poo that is a bird. In the shape of

a bird! Hold on a moment, that has trounced all of the other. I know.

And she has called a self-portrait. Brilliant. Let's move on. I'm giving

that a seven. An eight! This is tonight's quiz. We would like you to

get in touch and let us know whose feathers these. There is a bonus on

this one as well because there was something special about those

feathers. If you can tell me more, there is a bonus. So identify the

species and a little bit more for bonus? Get in touch using the

hashtag Springwatch. It's not an exotic species, it comes from

Sherborne itself. Let's come over to our first guest. Stefanie, thank you

for coming in. A beautiful evening here. You've been acting for a long

time. I will take you a long way back, overseas. I'm in my 76th year.

Where you are enjoying the wildlife of the time? Yes. Because we filmed

on Singapore island itself. But we also comes in Malaysia on the east

Coast for Tenko. The only town was right at the top in that time, so it

was wild. There were people living there, and there were villagers, and

there was a great Turtle Beach. We actually didn't see very much

wildlife, oddly enough. Rather sadly! I suppose there were a huge

number of us, do you know what I mean? Too busy working. We invaded

an area when everybody else flew. There we were, making a lot of

noise. Your interest in wildlife is long-standing. You grew up in the

countryside. Yes, I did. First of all in North Devon. I had a great

aunt who knew quite a bit. There you are. That I am. She taught me the

names of flowers, birds and birdsong. It gave me a passion for

the rest of my life. We moved to between Bristol and Bath, and the

passion continued. There was a river at the bottom of the garden and I

watched young badgers play when I was about nine. Let's look at this,

and a delicate afternoon if ever there was one. It was a great place

to be a child. Minnows, sticklebacks, you name it, there

they were. Young kids these days don't often get those opportunities.

When was the last time you went to a river and saw kids playing around

like that? I can't remember. Now you are bringing the wildlife to you.

You are still in Bass and you have a garden which is good for wildlife.

It still is. It's not as good as it used to, because I've had to

rationalise it. It's how much gardening I can do, DC. Therefore,

I've rationalised it. Rather sadly I've discovered over the last few

years, well, it's not a discovery, other people have realised it, but

actually bird life is really, really diminishing. We used to have

woodpeckers. I think I've heard one wants this year at the top of the

garden. Happily, the rains have come back. They left for about three

years but have come back this year. -- the wrens have come back. That

buzzards because we have Woods on either side in the valleys. Of

course you do see buzzards, but you used to see lots of pairs playing.

We were talking on the Springwatch programme last night. Since 1970, we

have lost 44 million birds from the countryside. That's appalling.

Subspecies are declining. The song thrush, this is a species that in

suburban areas doesn't do terribly well. One unusual thing about the

birds is when they fledge, the younger one to the ground, rather

than the bushes. They are susceptible to cats. This is the

lesser spotted woodpecker, I can't remember the last time I saw one.

You have to look at them specifically. The one benefit but

does -- the one feature does benefit in gardens is the great spotted

woodpecker. Do you still get these? Yes. Do you put food on? Yes, I do.

I'm very careful about what it is and where I put it. What is your

favourite bird? My favourite bird is the owl. When I was a child, do you

know that extraordinary sound, I think it is the tawny owl that makes

it, which is rather like a rabbit being killed! When I was little I

used to lie in bed and hear this screen. I used to call for my

mother, "They're killing the rabbits again!" She would say, no, no, it is

the owl. We can hear it. SCREACHING it is the barn owl that

creates this noise. They create the range. What about

when you were overseas, you mentioned in Malaysia. There were

lots of people familiar with what can be called creepy crawlies,

invertebrates, spiders, millipedes, scorpions. There were lots of

things. I do remember asking before we went, I said, are there things

that we should be aware of? I was aware that we were going to have to

squat in the jungle to have a quick pee. He said, no, Malaysia is full

of absolutely anything that could possibly hurt you. Not true! Read

ants... You don't mind spiders? I love spiders. My house is a spider

house. I will take down a cobweb until I know that it is over and

with. What about this one? I think that is beautiful. These are some of

our largest and most robust arachnids. They have a leg span of

something like this. Beautiful. We have another one here. This is the

garden spider. Look about, so beautiful and so clever. Exquisite.

And they get rid of flies. What more can you ask for? A perfect creature.

Here we have it. A lady that has travelled the world, doesn't mind

spiders and is now sculpting her garden to attract wildlife. Thank

you very much indeed. APPLAUSE

Lindsey, not a spider fan? No, I really don't like them. But I'm so

pleased that you do because it balances things out brilliantly. I

think it's probably time to shift the focus. It is time for Unsprung

Undressed. Our first cameras were put in four

weeks ago, but it isn't just a case of setting them up and leaving them

alone. Buffeted by wind, rain and the occasional accident, the

equipment has a lot to deal with. Someone has to maintain it. Meet in

the remote camera team. We are on our way to put a

microphone on a blackbird. I'm on my way to clean more poo off

the camera lens. Most nests are hard to reach, and

blackbirds are no exception. We monitor the nests of the birds

don't get upset. They seem happy. It is quite fiddly because we are

right in the heart of a hawthorn bush, which is really spiky. Not the

most comfortable place, but say for the birds.

Our kestrels have found sanctuary in a church bell tower. It's a long

way! They have glued it down with their

poo. Disgusting! It is so tempting to ring the bell,

isn't it? That is everything set. We will get back to the truck and see

if it's all working. This signal is already there. 1.6

kilometres of cable trail back to the main site. Once O'Neal catches

up, he checks the microphone is working well.

Turned the sound up. You can hear all the chicks, you can hear the

adult landing on the nest. That is him hopping away. It picks up all

that sound, that communication. It is very important. Not just

pictures. The blackbirds are wired for sound,

and the kestrels camera is back in action.

Good, isn't it? But is it. The glamour, the relentless glamour!

Well, you might not think so, but our VIPs may disagree.

APPLAUSE Relentless glamour! We love the

phrase. Remote camera team, absolutely brilliant. The kestrels

have been the stars of Springwatch this year. Let's take a look at

them. There they are. Mikhaylov has become very fond of the smallest

kestrels, which is lagging behind. They know they are on! I love that.

Roy Wallace has been on to say, could the cast will be more

successful hunting in the wind due to graph is being blown about and

revealing more prey? I think if there is a light breeze, it allows

them to hover. Other than that, they have to expand an enormous amount of

energy so they sit in Detry. Telegraph poles. If there was a

light breeze, that allows them to scan more landscape. They also not

just looking for bowls. They are looking for the vole wee. They are

hovering down there looking for Galway, because they leave trails.

From wee to poo, Mall has been on. She said the bird would be poo, it

should have been called be self poo-trait! This is another question

that has been sent into us. This one is from Jewels. She said she found

this on a birch tree, what are they? Will they hurt the tree? These are

like caterpillars, but they are the larvae of a sawfly. So flies are

called sawfly is because the females sort of scissor into the leaf where

they lay their eggs. These things will emerge. And sometimes they will

emerge in sufficient numbers that they will devalue parts of the tree,

or indeed a whole truth. But it is only a part-time effect. You can

tell the difference between those in caterpillars because they have a

different leg arrangement. And we think her tree will be OK? Yes, it

will be fine. And leave them there because at the moment there are lots

of birds foraging for these sorts of things and taking them to their

nest. Let's move on to our second-guessed.

MG Leonard. Let's get straight into the books that you've written.

Beetle Boy was the first one. What made you come up with the idea of

writing about beetles? I've always been scared of creepy crawlies, any

invertebrate that I didn't know anything about would terrify me. I

thought, when I was an adult, I thought it would be the case all my

life. Then I discovered that I didn't even know that beetles had

two pairs of wings. I assumed they crawled about on the ground. I

realised my fear came from ignorance. I began to learn about

beetles and I learned that whatever you see, if insect is coming to the

story, it's usually ominous, evil, a bad portent. What about the ones

that show how heroic they are, how they have got great skills? They are

one of the most successful species on Earth. I thought that if I wrote

something that if I had read it when I was eight, I wouldn't be so

scared. You are successfully communicating to young people what

you have learned as an adult. That beetles are cool. There is a

glossary at the back so they can learn it and become a Coleoptera

list of note. Children who read these books will know the Latin

terms to describe the things they see in their garden. So, this one

did well, then you went on to Beatle Queen. Now you have got the third

one. It is set in the Anna 's -- at the Amazon and there is a massive

beetle battle in it. It's a way of showing how my extreme fear has

turned into extreme passion. I keep African beetles now. These are

Australian stag beetles. Exquisite. They are so beautiful. They have

these amazing iridescent exoskeletons. The male has larger

jaws. They are so strong. People don't realise the strength beetles

have in their exoskeleton. Even if I wanted him to get off, he's not

having it. What about beetles as pets? Would you advocate it? You

have to be very careful. I read the book nearly ten years ago and I

spent six years learning about invertebrates and beetles. They have

to be bred very specially and you have to understand the habitat that

makes them happy and the right conditions. Normally, in a tank,

they have at least five inches to bury themselves in. You can't get

them from a pet shop. There are insect shows where you can go and

buy them but you need to do the research. You need to do try and

read them. I have unsuccessfully done that yet. People are breeding

beetles because they eat them. What do you think? I have eaten quite a

lot of insects myself. My research has taken me to weird places. Is

this a beetle burger? It is made out of meal worm and cricket, mushrooms

and coriander. It was really lovely. We eat prawns, we the invertebrates

of the sea. Lobsters used to be considered like cockroaches. They

are very rich in protein. They are very environmentally friendly to

farm. You can produce more protein more quickly farming insects than

you can with cattle. In the future, it could be beneficial to the

environment. That's one of the reasons I'm really interested in it.

I can't talk about it without putting my money where my mouth is.

You've got a beetle that we found here locally. Here we are. It

climbed to the very top. It's a wasp beetle. We filmed it earlier. Very

beautiful animal. It's a mimic. It is not toxic, it is pretending to be

a wasp. We can release this beetle. If you take the top off and put it

into your hand. We release it where we found it. We wouldn't move it. If

it doesn't take off, you've got a friend for the next few minutes. I'm

all for that. Isn't it beautiful? So clever. What about that? Perfect.

You must be pleased, beetle rehabilitation live on BBC TV.

That's what you pay your licence fee for. Thank you very much. Good luck

with the next book, I look forward to the beetle battle. I want to see

the CGI. Mine started troopers was good but this will be better. And it

is entomological accurate. Let's see one of our wildlife heroes. Jules's

love of wildlife happened 13 years ago. She rescued a hedgehog 13 years

ago. From humble beginnings Prickles hedgehog rescue was born. It's 20/7

365 days a year. I never thought it would become as big as it has. She

has converted her garage into a hospital for the care of tiny

hedgehogs. They are very early this year. It's probably down to a good

spring in terms of weather. Prickles has a dedicated group of volunteers

helping out every day. This little one has literally just arrived. I

estimated to be about four days old. Unfortunately, mum has run off.

We're hoping that we will be able to locate her later. Incredibly tiny,

isn't it? You know, I'm confident. We will get them through. We've got

the experience to know exactly what to do with this little one. Rescuing

hedgehogs isn't even Jules's paid job. I split my life into two. Sleep

doesn't come into it. I work with children during the day. Full-time.

What happens is, this time of year, my day starts about 4:45am. I get up

and feed any hedgehogs we've got in. Then a fantastic team of volunteers

step in and feed during the day when I go off and do my day job. Then I

come home at the end of the day to pick up Hogg at feeding or to deal

with any complex casualties that have come in. It's very much a life

of two parts. APPLAUSE I'm delighted that Jules is with us

tonight. A huge well done for all you your hard work. Anyone who says

sleep doesn't come into it deserves a wildlife award from ours. It's

time to resolve the quiz. At the very beginning of the show, we ask

you who these feathers belong to. Quite a lot of people getting this

wrong and saying the same thing. People like Craig said great work

tell. We had waxwing, great tip. Debbie said greenfinch. Many people

got it right. Jack Dawson, Cockney Rebel, Justin car. If you said,

Goldfinch. You got it exactly right. There it is. You can see the wing

bars on these feathers. Shout out to Jesse Wilkinson and Phil Barber who

got this right. They said this belongs to a fledgling Goldfinch.

You can see how we can identify that. There is the end of it. At the

root, you see what we call the pin. The waxy sheath that covers the

feather as it's coming through. You say it might be moulting but not all

of them in one go. This was a young Goldfinch we found on the farm which

belongs to this gentleman. He's been such a great host. Squatting on his

land but not doing any damage, we hope. Time for a quick picture.

Chris, this is fascinating. Any idea what this is? It's a scorpion fly. I

can't tell you which species. There aren't many species in the UK. I

didn't know we had anything that looked like that. You can see how it

gets its name but it doesn't sting like a scorpion. You've had a little

owl guest in your garden. We found a little owl sitting in the living

room. Quite friendly, no mess. We were able to lift it up, it sat in

our hands, let others take it back outside. A very friendly soul. We

hope he comes back. How exciting was it for you? Very excited. It came

down your chimney. Far better than Santa! Brings you more joy. Time now

for fantastical beasts. So, the purpose is for our guests to come up

with an animal that could exist. It needs to have realistic ecology. It

could be an animal that might evolve in the future. Stefanie, you have

got yours. This is a midgiephant. When you are picnicking in the

Highlands of Scotland, you can see it coming. A gigantic Mitch. You

know that midges suck the blood. It's going to do that. These things

are going to be apocalyptic. There won't be many Scots there if they

come flying around Scotland. They won't need independence, there won't

be any of them left. Unsurprisingly, I've plumped for a beetle. This is a

trash beetle. In its lava form, it lives in landfill sites eating

plastic. For about five years and then it Povh Bates and out comes a

beautiful trash beetle, multicoloured because of the plastic

ingested. And, of course, it has the horns of a Hercules beetle. It can

help break down the waste. The larvae eat the plastic and recycled

it into its body, what about when the birds eat the plastic beetle? I

hadn't thought about the birds and I should have. It was going so well.

We loved the recycling. Not just birds. This would have to be giant.

Look how much trash we've got. Then we are into the realms of the

midgiephant. I think this is the realms of total illusion. I was

inspired by this because I read an article where caterpillars had been

proven to be able to digest plastic. This is where the idea came from. If

caterpillars can do it, so can beetle larva A. I went to judgment.

You started well. But then I got worried with the last beetle is

flying around. I'm going to mid-score that one. There's hardly

any room on our board. This is not going to go. Now, I like the

elephant. I love and apocalyptic insect. Sadly, this is all we've got

time for today. We've got our Springwatch programme coming up at

HBM on this fine sunny evening in Sherborne. Thank you and a big

Hang on, you haven't even told me what it is yet.