Episode 9 Springwatch Unsprung

Thank you very much indeed. Welcome to the penultimate Unsprung of 2017,

coming you from the wonderful National Trust Sherborne Parc estate

in Gloucestershire. As I have said many times, this programme is about

you. We're going to have a quiz, and we really want your answers. There

is still time to send us photographs and videos, with one more programme

coming up tomorrow night. We like to get a bit of science and art into

our programme, but of course, it is most of all about our guests. There

is one phrase which I find consistently irritating, it's the

term national treasure, I am both to use it to go but tonight, I'm going

to use it twice, because we have two! Pam Ayres, author, poet,

performer! And you've brought a guest as well? I have, it's a level

hedgehog. He's quite frightened, these little animals struggle to

survive, but later on, we'll show you how to help the hedgehogs drive!

And Steve, where do we start?! Television presenter, wildlife

expert, adventurer... I could go on and on. You have not matched the

hedgehog puzzles your clasping a wooden snake. Join the later for an

animal medley, you can bet it will be live and deadly! Let's go

indoors. Always defer to expertise, a man has got to know his

limitations. Steve up against Pam in the poetry stakes was a bit

one-sided. It was! But nice try! Let's go to our swallow camera,

because that nest has been very busy today. There are five chicks in

there, it looks like they could go any time soon. That nest is in a

traditional place for a swallow nest. Have a look at this

photograph, however, a very different kind of nest. It has been

sent into us from the Natural Resources Wales visitors' centre in

Pembrokeshire. The swallows are actually nesting on a whale skull in

the corner. It is the most incredible thing. It was sent to us

by Kate Lock, who said they want to make sure the birds can get in and

out to feed their chicks, so they have put a little hole in the door

for them. That's very good, really. Quite a surreal sight for a

swallow's nest. I worry about those swallows when they grow up, that's

quite dark! There will be strange as teenagers, listening to The Smiths,

or The Cure during their Gothic phase! Now, time for the quiz.

Yesterday, we did some photo sales, which are always a joy, we love to

see your photographs go wrong. We thought, today we will make them

into a quiz. This one is from Jason Buck, but the question is, who do

those legs belong to? Shall we give them a clue? No! OK, I was about to

be generous! You scoff at my generosity! I'm going to move

swiftly on, over to Pam! Thank you very much for coming in! It is a

pleasure to meet you, none of course for your poetry and you're

performing, and many bestselling books. But I did not know you were

so passionate about your wildlife. Yes, I am, I have always liked

animals very much, although I've always hated it as a child when

there was nothing that could be done for animals if one was injured.

People will just say, hit it on the head, put it out of its misery. I

think it is great that today, people care much more. There are wildlife

hospitals and places you can take injured animals. I try to make my

garden as welcoming as possible, with just little things that anybody

can do. Our garden is where we can definitely make a difference, we do

not have to rely on anywhere else, and this is your garden. Yes, it is.

Very nice, some big trees, lots of nectar in the garden. So, have you

deliberately sculpted it? Well, you have, you have got your bird feeders

in? I have only just moved here after 28 years in no other house, so

I'm just seeing what is coming up. Great thing is the little

housemartins and there are 15 nests in existence and two being built,

which is fantastic. I'm only just watching what is coming up, and then

I shall add to it and plant lots of nectar producing things. And you

have a favourite animal? Yeah, I like hedgehogs. What is it about

them? They're benevolent little creatures can they don't do any

harm, they do a lot of good, they eat pests in the garden. They're

nice to look at, they don't harm anybody, they're not venomous and

they're disappearing, they're vulnerable. And this is a hole in

the wall? MBI said to my neighbour, do you mind if we put a hole in the

wall for the hedgehogs? They thought, we have got some crank

living next door! They did not mind at all, they were very kind. And I

think it gets used, I have hedgehogs in the garden most nights ago I

think we have a hedgehog coming up car don't we? We do, actually. That

is some great advice. On Facebook Natalie Bishop has been in touch to

ask how to make her garden hedgehog-friendly, because she has

got this little chap. Wait for it... Also, Pam, we would like to know

what is going on here - here he comes! What is happening with that

moustache? She is building a nest, it is a pregnant lady and she's

building a nest, she has collected lots of nice soft grass to line it

with. That's fantastic. Help with the composting! Either way, it is a

win-win situationIt's so sweet, isn't it? You rehabilitate hedgehogs

in your garden, and Tori, you're from the wildlife hospital here, you

have got one here let's have a look. Here's our little baby. How could

you not like them? I think it is adorable, I really do. So do I!

They're so vulnerable, they get streamed and they get run over, they

eat slugs that have been poisoned with pellets. Poor little guy! And

where has this one come from, Tori? This one is about two weeks old, it

has literally just opened its eyes. It is on puppy milk at the moment,

it was found out on its own, crying. Obviously, a hedgehog this side

should still be in the nest, we should not see them out, especially

in the daytime. And what is the future? This will be rehabilitated

with us until it is up to about 500 grams. And then it will go back out

into the wild, possibly in Pam's garden, to good shush -- to...!

Because the weight is all-important? Yes, exactly. It is an enormous

amount of hard work which you and your staff do, let's not

underestimate it? No, we don't just look after the hedgehogs, we look

after all British wildlife. We have started to get the baby is coming in

now, I think we have got about seven of them at the centre at the moment.

Pam, you're helping out next year with raising money for hedgehogs.

And your contribution is going to be a poem? Yeah, I am hoping to have a

book published about the hedgehogs and I'm going to give the advance to

the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. Shall I give you a quick

burst of it? Give us a teaser. OK, it is about being the last hedgehog

left on earth. It's very sad! Not many laughs in it, Chris! Hang on a

minute... Let me get my thoughts together. I will read it to you,

that's the thing to do. If your fence you made a space, we could

have moved from place to place, have paid our respects, had some cautious

hedgehog sex, and in a cosy pile of logs produced a nest of little hogs,

from now on, when you pull the drapes, you will see no round,

familiar shapes, nevermore from dusk till dawn will I eat slugs on your

lawn, so little gratitude you've shown, from now on, you can eat your

own. Superb. Pam, thank you very much. What a great poem! It was sad,

though. Staying with the gardening and hedgehog theme, we asked you to

get in touch with your spring tales. At the university of Brighton, they

have been looking at this, and loads of you have been in touch about who

is top dog when it comes to the garden. Have a look at this one,

sent in by Christine. Basically, she saying she has got hedgehogs in the

garden. They're really going for it, Friend. And we have noticed quite a

lot of aggression in hedgehogs, and Dr Dawn Scott has this is because

food is being left in the same place in your garden. So the advice is, if

you want to encourage hedgehogs, try putting the food in different places

in the garden. We have been having our own spring tales here at

Sherborne, using our remote cameras. But sometimes a different approach

is needed. It's Unsprung Undressed. Whether by foot or by 4x4, our

long-irons cameramen are scanning the countryside. Welcome to my

mobile hide, it is not comfortable, but sometimes it means you can get

those shots quickly that you would not normally be able to get. We are

here where the stoats are, she moved her kids and we are trying to find

where there have been moved to. Pete carries all of his equipment to

stake out one of our most elusive birds. This one is on this branch

just across the river, probably one of the adults. There have been three

fledgling is to have been hanging out here, and they will come almost

as near as you and me. They're beautiful. Spending every day in the

field, they become quite attached to their subjects. They're real

characters, especially the mothers, they're just constantly hunting.

They have quite a tough little life. Even though they spend hours alone,

both cameramen enjoy their time in the wild. I am really happy to come

here and get away to a quiet bit of the river and listen to the cuckoos

in the trees, and the kingfishers coming down. It is a beautiful spot

up here. Although it can be quite thick when everything is kicking off

with the stoats, it's still nice to get away from the chaos of the main

site. And getting the shot makes it all worthwhile. Contact I gain a lot

of leisure just watching it for my own benefit. And if I can capture a

good shot of it and share it on the TV, that's an added bonus. We could

not do without them, could we? We couldn't, stunning shots. And they

are out there in all weather. They are. And if they don't get it, we

make them stay out there. Its move on to our next guest, Mr Steve

Backshall! Thank you very much for coming along. How are you? I'm very

good, especially here in this glorious sunshine. It is a top spot,

isn't it? It is blissful. Wildlife has taken you all over the world, we

have seen you in every continent, wrestling with all sorts of large,

sometimes dangerous things, but what about wildlife at home? I'm very

lucky in that I live on the Thames. This time of year is very special

because you get the eruption of the mayflies and other insects and

everything that follows in feed on them. It is such an explosion of

life. Right now we are blessed as we have a pair of Swans nesting in our

garden. Last year, they had an attempt, but the mail got caught up

in a rope in the river. And I went into the river... Of course you did!

But for some reason, he thought it was my fault and he refused to come

back into the garden for the whole of the rest of the year. He

associated me with it. But this time around, they're back, the female has

five eggs, she has sat on them and I think in about two or three weeks,

they're going to hatch out into cygnets in our garden. Fantastic.

What is coming up, work-wise? I have just got that from Alaska, and I'm

heading out again a couple of times over the next six weeks, because we

are doing a series called Alaska Live. We have also got a British

component to it as well. We are encouraging viewers to send in

photos and time-lapse photography of wild places here in the UK, so we

can convince people that we have wilderness to equal anywhere on the

planet, even Alaska. Going back to Alaska Live, it is quite a

challenge? It is. The thing is, the wildlife is there and it is there in

abundance, as you know well. The polar bears, the grizzly bears,

everything is there. But the main challenge is making it happen live

on air, and with the potential of the Alaskan weather which can be

pretty full on. If we hit it right, there is probably nowhere better on

earth to be doing it, except for here, of course. But anything goes

wrong with the weather, and we're going to be on a knife edge.

We have an example of some photographs. This is from our Flickr

side four. Have a look at the bluebells. We have the beach, a nice

bit of a seascape for you. This is my favourite, from Richard Walker,

the Highlands. What do you think about, will that do? It's stunning,

its wilderness, right there. Those are the kind of pictures you are

looking for. Those are exactly the kind of pictures, there's a hashtag,

#MyWilderness, to send the pictures on. What's your particular venture?

What challenge have you been set this time? We're doing the same, I

got back from filming salmon sharks. Quite remarkable. They are related

to another fish, they are many great Wyke, and they contact the mouth of

the rivers. You will try to get the meeting salmon live question not no,

that definitely won't happen. We might get an orca. We have some

fabulous questions from young people in the audience. Which animal do you

love to hate? LAUGHTER

Parasites are probably the most intriguing of all animals, but when

you are on expedition they are the worst. Leeches and ticks seem to

find the softest, most personal part of your body. I've had a leech on my

eyeball. One of my camera men had one on the roof of his mouth. He

thought he had a wine gum! I had to the honeymoon suite. I won't explain

that to you. They have this uncanny ability to head exactly where you

don't want them. What do you think about that, a leech on your eyeball?

Rows. If what's your question? Were you a Boy Scout? Yes, I'm an

ambassador for the scouts, and cubs 100 last year, a 100 year

celebration of the cubs. Myself and my wife are ambassadors for

scouting, which is important because it is moving that is getting young

people outside, connected with nature. So many old-fashioned are

really important. I was a girl guide and I loved it. Oscar? What's your

favourite thing you've done on deadly 60? That's tricky, probably

the last thing we did on our pole to pole adventure, which was diving

underneath an Antarctic iceberg alongside a female leopard seal,

flashing her teeth into the camera, doing circuits around us,

interrogating is underwater, was dazzling. What do you do on a

Saturday night when you've been underneath an iceberg with a leopard

seal? You can't compete with a DVD. You can't, but you sit around with a

glass of lemonade and chat about it! As we look to recount those stories.

In terms of animals, you mentioned the parasites. I like the parasites

as much as the big stuff. It's not just about the deadly, the biggest

and the fiercest, it's about the whole aspect of life coming together

to make it work? That's exactly it. Whenever anyone asks me what the

most deadly animal is to others as human beings, it's the mosquito, by

a country mile. But perhaps the animal that has most shaped human

evolution, the way we have moved across the planet has been shaped by

taxi flies, for example. The weight animals evolve alongside their

animals is amazing. You get parasites living at low density, the

parasites by getting sidetracked, so they come out and dance around in

front of cats, as the parasite needs to get inside the cat to complete

its life history, finding a way. Finding a way to change the

behaviour of that animal, yet the parasite might be microscopic. It's

not doing anything intended, it's just created a fantastic arms race

between the two animals. Steve, thank you for coming in. We could

chat for hours about these animals, including the fantastic parasites.

APPLAUSE Sometimes my guests have to climb

inside a very small sweaty tent with me. It's time for highchair. This

year highchair has gone mobile. -- Hideshare. Anyone could be hiding

inside. Dancing hands. So who's next? Yes! Today's Hideshare is a

match made in heaven. Natural historian meets military historian

with a great shared interest in each other's subjects. I'm on the shores

of the Solent with... Dan Snow. Hey, Chris. I love your outlook. It's

pretty amazing, isn't it? Superb. You have the mudflats, the ships

beyond, the sea. Fantastic. I know you can tell your lances from your

huzzahs. What about waders and wildfowl? And terrible. I come from

a family of twitchers and I'm the black sheep of the family. My

grandparents loved it and went everywhere in the world, so I want

to get into it and as I get older and appreciating watching birds. I

love it. Lets see what we can find out here. I have my nautical

telescope which I like to use. There's some Canada geese and brent

geese out there, brent geese are the ones you will have seen thousands of

hearing the winter. There is a curlew. You see the red post? Yes,

just in front of it. Drop-down. I love the sound they make. I know

where the form of Khartoum was, 1855, and I generally know what a

curlew looks like, and that's a godwit! Godwit. It's got a nice long

beak. The bill is straight, not curves. In winter of course a lot

more birds here because this mode isn't really productive. Dunbavin in

the summer you think it's all about nature and everything coming out and

actually it's much quieter. They've dispersed, the ones that breed in

the UK have come inland, land, whether is on the problem of the

tide going up and down. There's an oystercatcher out there, it will

breed on that spit. A lot of the birds head north, where that is an

immensely rich, quick and productive summer, so they head north and come

back down here. Where I mowed birds going question my Scandinavia,

northern Russia, Greenland, Iceland, a long way. It's one of the most

magical things about the world. Extraordinary. In your podcast, are

you trying to involve the natural history? You Babin that's the great

thing about a podcast, you can put in what you like. I did one on solar

flares, West solar energy, no one on earth knew what was going on, it led

to which burning and all sorts of things, so I love bringing the

natural world into history. This is something I think traditional

history books didn't really talk about. They were more interested in

talking about brilliant generals and politicians. I just think it's

actually the Earth and its rhythms that are almost dominating how

things are going. Collectivity is important. It gives you a sense of

place, time and context. The I think so. Like loving history, I look at

the landscape and see how it's been shaped by past generations and it

helps me to understand what I'm seeing. I know a boat sank down over

there, Titanic went over there. I want to match that now with an

understanding of nature. I feel that nature was missing in my life and

now it makes me feel connected with where I am. Can I try your scope?

You Babin of course. Why Babin its unconventional. I like a bit of

nostalgia. But Alan Wake might come into play, I think. What have I got

here? I've got a curlew. Where? On the shoreline. It's got a longer

beak, has it? Along the beak, curved. You Babin my grandma said,

never bored when bird-watching, even if you are on a motorway flyover

there's always birds and it stayed with me, ever since she told me when

I was a kid. APPLAUSE

A really good film. A lot of banter about history. We were run through

quite a few battles. You Babin I have to be honest, I'm getting

worried, you've won a sparkly jacket, armbands and chain male.

It's beginning to make that top looked normal. This is made of

rayon, fashioned in the 1950s. Of course you know, brilliant! Still

quite worrying. Shall we resolve the quiz? Lets. You'll we showed you a

photo fail picture and we asked you, whose legs were these? Many of you

have been in touch. Just a few wrong answers. This is quite distinctive.

So Elaine says, was it a herring? Stephen Watson, is it a black winged

stilts? No, it's not. The crane, says Andrew Williams. Those are

wrong answers. Let me show you what it is. This is what it actually is.

Complete with its body, it's a little egret. Lots of you get it

right. Kevin Jackson says, please mention me, I normally get it wrong.

Steve Ripley, so well done if you got it right at home. It was a

little egret. Those distinctive yellow feet, yes, and egrets they

were moved through the water and shuffle their foot to disturb the

sediment. A number of other birds have yellow feet like that, so the

colour is part of the process. Well done if you got it right. I want to

show you footage that came in after the chat about beetles yesterday.

What a great piece of generated content we've had sent in from the

audience. Tina wants to know, do stag beetles fight like this? Why do

they fight like this? Will they kill each other? They are males died

beetles, they are armed with the large antlers. Size is important for

stag beetles. They want the largest mandibles you can possibly have.

This is just as it is when it comes to deer, it's all about pushing and

shoving. It's showing off, my antlers are bigger than yours. It's

about pushing and shoving, not killing. They are trying to flip

each other over and they will have an arena and eventually one will

Drive the other one away. The only problem is when they are in the open

like that they are vulnerable to predators and I've seen them

fighting and then magpies come down and eat them. Oh no! A tragic waste

of stag beetles. What a waste, because they are fantastical beasts.

They are indeed, fantastical beasts. Let's. You know the premise, we've

got to come up with an animal here, which is viable to some extent.

Could play an ecological role, maybe up some stage in the future or now.

What have you come up with? Shall I show you my picture, or the

description? This is a titanium tips hedgehog, because hedgehogs need to

go through lots of gardens to forage and it's no good keeping them in one

little garden. This hedgehog has got a really steely hard nail, so it can

make its own holes. Like Rob Lowe hedgehogs, it can make holes through

walls and fences but very neatly, because I've given it an opposing

some so it can hold a little trowel. Wait a minute, it's blown away! Here

it is. Rob Lowe hedgehogs. -- Robo hedgehog. Has got sharp nails and an

opposing some, so it can smooth it. You can see how smooth it is.

Titanium tips hedgehog from Palm. Steve? I've based mine on a

leafcutter ant, which has communities that gather leaves, take

them back to their underground subterranean nests, masticate them

and use them. This does the same thing but with plastic and I've

called it the litter Buck-macro. Litter bug, good! Winner cycling and

that collect litter, take the below ground. Processes it into usable

stuff. Steve, I like your and, I hope the litter is properly

digestive. -- I like your ant. I like the titanium hedgehog. I'm

going to put it closer to the top. We'll put it alongside Sue Perkins,

who had eight bioluminescent hedgehog, sorry didn't get run over.

That's all we have time for. We have one more Unsprung, which will start

at 6:30pm tomorrow night. Let me hear it for our guests, Pam Ayres

and Steve Backshall. Thank you very much