Episode 11 Springwatch

On the show tonight, we've got some beautiful plants that pretend

they're animals. We've got a buzzard being an umbrella. And a

barn owl that's turned into a serial killer. Sounds surreal, but

Hell will, and welcome to Springwatch. Now, in 1962, the

legend who is Bob Dylan released A Hard Rain's going To Fall, and Bob,

today you got it right because it has been absolutely pouring here in

Wales. We have prevailed, though, to bring you the very best in

British wildlife. Remember, it's real wildlife in realtime. What

have we got coming up? I took a jaunt. I went down to the beach to

see some glamorous babes. Very gorgeous they are, too, but not as

gorgeous as these. Why have butterflies when you can have

moths? Chris and I leave the rugged shores of the Isle of Man to sample

the delights of Newcastle. Newcastle, a top place for some

culture later on, and of course, our guest presenter this week is

down in Essex. It's going very well, thank you very much, Chris. All

this week we're finding out how landfill has all the makings of a

21st century wildlife haven. Tonight we're on some of the

restored wild land. And we're going to find out if the curse of the

Springwatch badger has followed me to Essex. You don't want to miss

that. See you in a bit. Thank you very much, Liz. What do you mean

"the curse of the Springwatch badgers"? Right. Is traditional, we

have a quiz for you tonight. It's a tough one. It's a sound quiz. Have

a listen to these three sounds. This is the first one. (Whooo!)

That's the croon - no, it's not. Here's the second sound. ( Wheee-

eee) What do you think? A pop concert? And here's a tricky one.

(Bump, bump, bump) What are those sounds, what's making them? What

links them all together? We're going to hear them later. You can

get your texts in now. Go to the web, go to Twitter and go to our

Facebook site. I'll get it right in the end. He's very young, really.

He just does his old foggie bit. Questions for Unsprung? Yes, if you

have any questions we might be able to answer, please send those in as

well. Should I clear off? Yes. have a little bit of trouble with

the leopard. It's all going terribly well. It would be going

great if he wasn't joking. If you were watching yesterday you might

have seen I made a slightly brave prediction because we have been

watching these birds called oystercatcher s. They have been

hanging around a little bit, then last night, I saw this bit of

behaviour. They seem to get this - this could be the male or female -

getting a little bit kind of twitchy on that nest, just wouldn't

settle, kept looking at the eggs, settling down again, then going, no,

I'm just not right. I just wondered, could they possibly be hatching?

Now, we have been watching these birds throughout the entire series

of Springwatch, and I thought, how perfect would it be if they hatched

on... But you're not a gambling woman, are you? I'm not a gambling

woman, but I just thought it would be a lovely treat for you, our dear

viewers, if they hatched on the penultimate show. So let's go to

them live. And there are the eggs, very much intact. Unequivocal proof

that on this occasion it proved wise not to be gambling woman.

did. If I am not mistaken, I know it's not a badger but those are

oystercatcher eggs. They are. But there is still one day left. It

could still do that. Don't do that. Don't shake your head. I am

counting. We have come down to this lovely lane to show you that barn.

You may think there is nothing special about that barn, but

believe me it is. The residents are very special - it is our barn owls.

As you have seen if you have been watching the whole series, the barn

owl parents have been doing an amazing job keeping their four

chicks very well supplied with food indeed, but on Monday night, they

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 52 seconds

Absolutely astonishing - 20 voles and three slew -- shrwe they

brought in on a single night. great work for the cat on the

banjo! LAUGHTER This is heartening because last year our barn owls had

particularly poor breeding seasons on account of the fact there aren't

that many voles out there. They are largely dependent on field voles,

80% of their diet, and the population rises and falls in a

cyclical fashion. Every ten years it switches between three and four

years. If they're breeding at the peak, it super-produce these

animals. If these young get out of the nest early enough, there is

some chance these parents might even have another clutch with this

super-abundance of prey. Really? Yeah. They also have been storing

them. Take a look at this. This is what we were watching last night

when we were watching our barn owls. One of these chicks has a small

mammal, I should is a, and one of the others pinches it, but there is

very little concern about this because within the box there, we

have noticed there is a cache of small mammals. Again, this is

typical of these sorts of raptors. We saw it with our kestrels. We did,

a kestrel had a store of food on the edge of one of the branches on

the tree where they were nesting. They store them in the barn. They

may well have another spot where they're sticking them into, a

crevice like the kestrel. We saw that cache raided by a jackdaw. So

they're cunning about where they put them. Of course, at the moment

we're seeing those chicks go through a fantastic growth phase.

Shall we go to them? Let's go live. These are live pictures, and as you

can see, they really are growing very fast, Chris, but not as fast

as our buzzard chicks. They're still very downy. They haven't

started to feather up. If we could zoom in a little bit more, we might

be able to see there are some adult feathers just beginning to emerge.

When we see their wings stretching, you can see their flight feathers

there. Another thing you can notice is their facial disk - the stiff

feathers that form the outer part of the ear - that that catchs the

sound, which is essential to them because as adults, when they listen,

that's how they find their prey. It's a long process. They'll be in

the nest up to ten weeks, will be jumping out of it, then coming back

for more. The buzzards are out there open in a tree where they're

relatively vulnerable. These things are quite sca safely ensconced in

the barn. If you're out in the open, it's a problem. If you were

watching yesterday, we were watching aest in of wrens and as we

were beginning to watch, there was an attack from a predator. Our

cameraman went to see if they were doing OK. They had all survived

their first night in the wild. We were worried the rain might take

its toll. As you can see, they're in the woods, a great spot, Pete,

well done for finding them. The adult is very much in evidence. But

look at this - a little chick actually catching food for itself,

so I think we can feel cautiously optimistic those wren chicks are

doing OK. It was a small reward, but it was that instinct to peck at

things that are moving that'll make it work for them. They'll still be

dependent on the parents from somewhere between nine and 18 days.

If you have been watching the series or our programmes this week,

you'll know we have a guest natural joins us so we can enjoy another

part of the country. This time it's Liz Bonnen. Where has she been? If

we zoom into the south-east, we can find her in Essex on the Pitsea

landfill site. Where exactly are you on that landfill site this

evening? Very glad you asked me that, Chris, because I happen to

have my trusty site map with me. Every picnic should have one as

well as a lot of rain - nice. Remember on Monday we were here at

the top - the active part of the site. Then we moved down here to

where the gas generation plant is. Today, though, we've gone all the

way up here to a very interesting part of the site. This is restored

land. This is where nature has reclaimed some of the landfill.

Before we get into that, we need to rewind just a little bit because

our wildlife cameramen have only gone back to the active part of the

site to get us some footage you absolutely must see. Now, take a

look at this. This is a very common sight at the top of the landfill -

a beautiful vixen getting some food, but just behind her and a little

bit to the left - any minute now - is another fox. It's a vixen as

well. Now, she spots the camera, and then it looks like she wants a

bit of that action, so check this out. Her ears are pinned back. This

is a sure sign a scrap may be about to happen. When you get into a

fight, you want your ears out of the way. You don't want them torn

off, looks around again before she goes in for a bit of a tiff. This

isn't a full-on fight. They're not using teeth. They're just using

paws, but they're really going for it now, and watch what happens. The

second vixen turns the first around and gains the upper ground here.

She's in slightly better body condition. She's clearly the

dominant female. It's not over quite yet because look at what

happens right here. There is a bit of a flagging tail action by the

first vixen. This, again, is a sign these guys know each other. It's

quite possible this is a mother and daughter pair. But there is a last

little scrap here just to assert that vixen number two is indeed the

And it's just that high density of foxes here at Pitsea that's

allowing us to get an insight into all of their social interactions

and behaviours, beautiful stuff there. Walking through here, it's

kind of hard to believe this was once active landfill, but there are

hundreds of acres like this around Pitsea, and it's really rich in

biodiversity, so much so that the site was awarded the Wildlife Trust

Biodiversity Benchmark, but how do we go about finding the wildlife in

so much land? One man has been studying this land for many years.

We met him yesterday with the foxes. His name is Phil Shah. He's a

wildlife oecology. We met him. His wildlife feeding stations are

allowing us an amazing insight into Well, this set-up here is mainly

for woodpeckers, so I'm trying to photograph the green woodpeckers

here, but the others as well. green woodpeckers are wood feeders,

but you're not interested in getting them on the ground, are

you? No, I want to get them against a nice sky background on an active

perch. How do you go about training the bird to feed up here instead of

where he's used to? It's a long, boring tale, but it involved making

piles of sand to mimic ant hills, then finding vertical logs with

holes in like this. How long did it take them to learn to feed up here?

Altogether, I have been trying to get green woodpeckers to perch here

for five years. Five years! Phil puts some meal worms into a neatly

drilled hole in the trunk. With a tasty breakfast on offer, we

retreat to the hide and wait. The green woodpeckers don't immediately

make an appearance, but there is plenty of activity to keep us

occupied. The bird is flying past - I'm like... That was a jay.

Beautiful, two jays. What are birds like these and the woodpeckers

doing on a landfill site? It's because of the trees we have here

now. These trees had been planted 20, 25 years ago and now are

getting quite big, so obviously the habitat is being created, and the

wildlife has moved in to exploit it. Wonderful. Well, you wouldn't think

it was landfill. No. You really Here it is. It has just come in.

Where, where? Look at that! That is beautiful. It has clearly found a

mealworm. It normally looks for insects on the ground, right?

They specialise in eating ants. Woodpeckers are mainly a tree

feeding species. I am presuming the green woodpecker feeds on the

ground as an adaptation to find food sources that other birds are

not using? Yes, that is right. Years of hard training has worked a

treat. He is feeding happily. A beautiful sight. Really special

shots of those ground-feeding birds. And in. In -- an important point to

make is that you must never get them to depend on the food that you

attack them with. Phil does not do that here. Chris, I bet you would

like to get your camera down here, wouldn't you? I am rather a fan of

the green woodpecker, I have to say. I always think of them as a rather

hard bird with a sense of attitude that you might want to capture. And

it is your favourite Pooh, if I remember correctly. Top poo! If you

have been watching our barn owls with us over the last couple of

weeks, you will know they had a couple of unwelcome visitors in

there. On the webcam, you may have seen other things visiting them,

too. It has not just been big mammals sticking their nose in.

Throughout the evening, lots of moths have come in. Look at this

little owl. Moths coming in, this is perfect food for bats and other

nocturnal animals. We had a number coming in and catching things. It

is spectacular stuff. It really is a great aerial display. It appears

to catch it in its wing. Some species do that. they are flying

very fast and I must admit the images are not perfect. We send the

images of the find out what species it might be.

This is international year of the bat. That might have gone over your

head, but it certainly has not now. It is a global initiative with all

sorts of partners. The UN are one of the leading partners. What is it

about? Is it it -- it is about raising awareness. You cannot catch

them or handle them, but you can take part in a survey that has been

put together by the Bat Conservation Trust. It is a survey

that encourages you to going to your garden or a place where you

might have seen bats and record them and the direction of their

flight at sunset and sunrise. I would advocate that you go for the

sunset, because the sun rise at this time of year means a very

early alarm call. If we know where they are, then we can go about

looking after them and protecting them. If you would like to find out

more about the survey, go to our website for all the details. I have

to apologise, I was sprightly distracted looking at the

oystercatchers. -- slightly distracted. The reason we have bad

series because of the moths. I thought it was too good an

opportunity to miss looking at some of these amazing creatures, so I

joined forces with Russell Jones, who is the reserve manager here. He

kindly set up a trap for us last night. You can see him doing that.

The plan was that I would get up very early in the morning and join

him to see what had been attracted to that light.

Do you think it was a good night last night? I hope so. There is a

big one down there. That is one of my favourites. They tend to be a

bit flighty because it is getting warmer. Isn't that just beautiful?

That is an elegant hawk-moth, isn't it? Yes. -- elephant hawk-moth.

This one trembling, does that mean it is about to take off? Yes. It

has decided not to do it any more. It has decided to stick around for

a bit. It is a method of warming up. What is it that makes this a good

place for Marks? It is because of the habitat we have. We have a bit

of heathland, but of more land -- a bit of moorland. Some of species

need to feed on a particular tree, for example, whereas others will

feed on lots of different things. Some moths you get in quite

specific habitat and others in quite varied habitats. A moth is

the same, really, as a bird - each one has its own part of the

ecosystem that it inhabits. without the moths, you would not

have the caterpillars and so forth. Everyone thinks they are brown and

boring, but they are not. If you had to choose, moths or birds?

couldn't. Birds go quiet in August, moths are there. When you think you

can put your binoculars down, get your moth trap out. That is a good

tip. A lovely way to spend an hour in

the morning. What is fantastic is that you just see such a huge range

of species so easily. About 800 species, in all shapes and colours,

of course. You do not need an expensive moth trap like that, you

can do it in your own garden. If you have an outside security alarm,

leave it on all night and perhaps pin a white sheet round the outside

to reflect the light and that will attract some of the species. The

other thing you can try his moth sugaring. You get a saucepan out

and make a mixture with all sorts of ingredients, alcohol being one

of them. You either painted on a tree or on a wall -- paint it on a

tree, and occasionally they will come in. Sometimes you get nothing,

sometimes you are covered. I was invited for a weekend away.

It was rough and ready, some parts of it were sordid. I thought I

would get my revenge by taking my This weekend, I am going to

introduce Martin to a new form of wildlife watching, one of which

does not involve horrible discomfort, camping. One where you

can wear your city clothes and not get mud all over them, or one where

you can have a rich mix of culture and wildlife at the same time. Yes,

this is Chris's idea of a great weekend away. I must say, Chris is

looking very dapper today. I am not sure it is the right to clothes for

wildlife watching. Why are we going to an art gallery? Right now, I am

more keen to see the living, breathing animals that he has

promised me. That is a bleak scene. I think Martin is enjoying his but

I think he will of what is waiting upstairs for him. Brace yourself

for some of the finest art that nature can offer. This is beautiful,

look at that. Kitty when Kevin, just dozens of them -- Kitty wake

heaven. They are very tolerant as long as you stay within your own

space. Up it is a brilliant place to watch their behaviour, not just

if you're a student of art but a student of zoology, too. How on

earth did they come and ten miles up straight and think this was a

good place to be? I think, possibly, when this was a much busier port,

they would have followed the ships. Anything dumping fish or anything

of other side, they would have been curious and followed them. It found

these man-made edifice is as perfect replicas of a cliff. They

are bringing in, what, seaweed? They must be collecting it on the

shore. They are flying up the river with it. They will bat together to

produce a nest with a deep cut to hold normally between one and three

eggs which are being laid at the moment. I also notice that when

they bring the material and they are using their feet to traded down.

While it is still wet I guess it is the key. They squabble a lot, don't

they? -- it is sticky. They do a lot of preening. The pair bond can

appear to be very affectionate. They are fighting. Bodies, they are

not. That is interesting because it is even more difficult because they

are on a ledge. It is brilliant, nature sharing an art space like

this. Everything in there is refined towards perfection, and

nature is as close to perfection as we can get. The other thing that is

great about seeing them here is that there is a fantastic cafe.

is into the cafe thing now - All of which proves that you can

have your cake the wake -- kittewake and eat it!

We have been following the fortune of one buzzard nest that has a

chicken at. It was a busy day down here at Ynys-hir. That is the check

on the left - hard to tell it from the adult now. Mum was giving it a

little bit of Shelter. She was looking like she was saying, come

on, you are bigger than that. The chick is saying, you love is

not enough on its own, I need shelter. When birds are young they

do not have that waterproofing in their feathers. Presumably, this is

quite an important thing for the mother to keep doing in weather

like this. If the down gets waterlogged and cold, it is putting

resources into staying warm and not producing more feathers. It makes

sense. Let us call lie live to see how it is doing. -- let us go there.

Here is something interesting. You do not see this often. This will go

down in the archives of pain for this buzzard. Birds cannot afford

this buzzard. Birds cannot afford to crash, their fragile. You can

see the squirrel hanging down from its feet and it just does not get

enough lift. The school is quite big and heavy. It crashes into the

side. We can tell you everything is We have another buzzard nest with

two chicks in, and their mother brought them in something a little

bit more difficult to handle. Here she comes with a frog - watch this

closely - whee! Frog mates leap for freedom - whee! It's doing a Bruce

Willis. It's trying to die hard - unfortunately, it does! The buzzard

brings it back to the nest - honestly. Very much enjoying those

frogs. If we go back to the other buzzards... It's not the only

amphibian taking a punishing. This is unusual. This is our young bird

here. If you look closely in its Talins, it's actually eating a toad.

You'll recognise the under side of the toad with its spotted surface.

Toads aren't normally eaten by these animals. I was going to say,

they're known for being toxic. That's right. They have a gland in

their skin that can produce in our species quite serious toxins.

You'll find foxes won't eat them. Badgers won't eat them. Some

species will eat them. Martin loves a toad. What have you got? I do.

It's not unusual to see a toad now and again, but when I see what's

going on here, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! I have never seen anything like this.

There are toads absolutely everywhere, and early on, you may

remember, I went down to the water's edge and find a look what's

going on there. It's like a plague. There were tens of thousands of

tiny little toadlets all down by the water's edge, quite

extraordinary. In fact, we have just picked up a few just in front

of the studio. Have a look at that. There they with. They're absolutely

everywhere. In fact, Chris, Kate and I are having to step care any.

We're treading on them everywhere. We're trying to get them out of the

way. I have never seen anything like this at all. What's going on?

They seem to be moving in the same direction. They're moving away from

the pond. I think what's happening is you have a huge number of

animals messaging. They don't want to compete for resources, so the

first thing they're doing is moving apart. That's what they're doing by

moving away from the pond so they can find their own food. The other

thing is, food won't come to them so as long as they're moving up

through the wood and through the grass, there is every chance

they'll bump into something small and edible. That's perhaps how

they're finding their food. Perhaps there is two parts to this strategy.

I have to say, I have just made that up off the top of my head!

LAUGHTER So if anyone out there can think of another reason... I have

just done an experiment with this piece of wood. I put one of the

toadlets on this, it went that way, turned the piece of wood around,

the toad turned around. I did that five times. They've got a compass

in their head. (That's not science, mate.) Don't knock him! I think

it's time we should head back to Essex and to Liz. What other

wonderful wildlife gems have you got down there, Liz? I have a few

more up my sleeve, Kate. That's because Phil Shaw is giving us

access to wildlife it's taken him years to study and get the best out

of. First, it was the green woodpeckers. Now he's only gone and

given our wildlife cameraman another exceptional opportunity.

Whereabouts are we with relation to the main bit of the site? We're

down on the southern boundary now. This is a very old part of the site.

It's unusual in that it's dominated by hemlock. Hemlock is particularly

good for white throats. You may hear them singing in the background,

but this site is good for stone chats. A very creative one it is

too. Why have you built it this way? I am feeding the stone chats,

attracting them to the camera position. I am putting in wax worms,

and they'll perch on whatever is highest around here, so most of the

time they'll come and perch on this rose bush here. So if we place the

wax worms in there, do you reckon our cameraman will get some good

shots of the birds? You'll get some outstanding shots. Let's do it.

While Phil and I bait the feeder, our specialist wildlife cameraman,

Ian, gets into position. Within minutes, the first stone chats

arrive. This is male with a dark head, handsome russet chest and

striking white collars, and here you can see a female joining him,

distinguished by her eye stripe. The male seems to give way to her

here, but as she gets her fill, he darts back in for more wax worm.

Amazingly, Phil's found that the white throats, usually very wary

birds, are making the most of the free food on offer. I'm not sure

anyone has got white throats visiting a feeder like this - quite

a unique site. -- sight. So birds are thriving on the restored land,

but what about other animals? Well, there happens to be another big

clue over here to a notorious character on Springwatch because

this happens to be a badger set. Now, this landfill dates back to

the '40s and '50s, so it's mostly made up of pottery, ceramics and

glass, also coal fire glass, which is great for badgers because it

means this substrate is easily drainable. It's granular and easy

to dig it in, so if a badger sat here, it's highly likely there are

other sets in this older part of the landfill. Now, we know that on

Springwatch, we don't have an easy time filming badgers, OK? I know

that in Wales, we're having problems, again, getting them on

film this year, but we have Phil Shaw. He is our secret weapon, and

only a couple of days ago, he said to me, "Liz, I can get you badgers

on Springwatch."S "It's Springwatch," I said. "There is no

way." "I am going to get you badgers," he said. "Are you sure?"

I said. "I'm sure," he said. You get the idea. So Phil, where is the

badger set? The badger set is here. We're almost on top of it, but the

main set is just in the trees here. In there? In there. Wow. And have

you seen the badgers come out into this clearing? Oh, yes. They come

out every night. Excellent. So I need to ask, then - what is this

wire for? Well, what I'm trying to do here is to photograph the

badgers. OK. And I've got a number of props to help me do that. A zip

wire?! What are these for? Well, badgers normally travel with their

face close to the ground, and that doesn't make for a very attractive

photograph, really, so what I do is actually put some peanut butter

sandwiches on the end of these wires. Nice. It raises their heads.

They smell it, then they take it. Have you actually measured how high

they can actually jump up for the sandwich? No, I haven't. I don't

think that's known scientifically. I think we need to find out

scientifically this evening. No pen at the ready, see what happens.

Good stuff. You have studied these badgers for years now, haven't you?

A long time. So you know their habits well. This year, I think

I've seen eight badgers out here at once. So it was all looking good -

nightly visits for the last 14 years - eight badgers all at once.

How could we possibly fail? But of course, Phil and I hadn't taken

into account the Springwatch curse when it comes to badger watching.

It just doesn't seem like tonight They'll definitely come out, but

maybe they're just watching for us to leave. It's always the way with

wildlife. The curse of the Springwatch badgers had followed me

to Essex. I can't believe it. It was the first time in 14 years that

they hadn't shown up for Phil. So did we give up? Have I mentioned

that the Springwatch adventure team nevergies up? I have? Well, we went

back the following night, and I personally believe that the term

"TV gold" was invented for what happened next. See you soon. She's

teasing us. She's teasing us, but they never give up, those guys, do

they? They never do. What shall we do? I know - Britain's warmiest

bird nest. We're in the third year in our attempt to find this year's

warmiest bird nest, and you have been sending in some entries, some

stills, which we can have a look at. Kate, if you would... When I see a

photo like this, it can't but make This was sent in - I think it's

Rochywil? As you can see, it's a Robin and has made its nest in a

boot. You can't get mad when people are sending in pictures like this

one, sent in of a moorhen underneath a fountain. I love that

one. It's like the hen wanted an en suite bathroom. Do you think that

goes on every night? To get some peace and quiet! This is from Alex,

13-year-old Alex. Looks quite normal - until you notice it's

actually in a shop. Do you think when they go to sell that, they'll

have to put one careful owner on it? LAUGHTER Please keep them

coming in. We want more footage of barmy bird nests. Are we going to

reveal the entry tomorrow? Yeah. We have one here - from "punked-up

poodle packer 3" - strangely familiar! LAUGHTER Let's have a

look at this. It's a great tit nest there, and in a way, sensibly, it's

made its nest in the middle of a beehive, so I guess it's very well

protected in there. No predators will have a go. By the way that guy

looked... Can't place him. wasn't an active hive, but they

will visit bees and pick them off, so maybe by the end of those birds'

nesting pictures they'll be sick to death of bees. Don't let that

poodle packer win. Our sound quiz, let's hear the first one -

(Wee-ee) The second one -

( Whirring noise) And the third one -

(Deep thumps) Up until week three, I am afraid we

hadn't done any plants, and I thought this was a serious

oversight, so yesterday I headed down to the local nature reserve

Oh, I love a day out at the seaside. But I've come here for an elicit

rendezvous with some glamorous Orchids are some of my favourite

flowers, and this is the best place Big moment - look at this -

southern marsh orchid, the leopard marsh variety defined by these

lovely little leopard spots on the leaves here, but it's a robust,

thick, full, brightly coloured flowering spike. It's designed to

attract bumblebees. They come and cross-pollinate this species, but

it's a con. They're drawn here by the colour and the form of these

flowers, but when they get here and try, there is no nectar there at

all. It's a ripoff from the insect's point of view, but they

can't resist it. Deceitful. But you know, there is an even more devious

flower here. I must prostrate myself before great beauty. Look at

this - so glamorous - the bee orchid, but not only glamorous,

equally fascinating. This plant has evolved to attract a specific

species of bee to pollinate it. How does it do it? Well, firstly, this

part of it here, the part we call the la bellum, has formed to look

exactly like the body of a female bee. Then it's got this shiny bit

here we call the speck lum. That, we think, is meant to represent the

shiny wings of the insect, but how does it get the males to arrive

there? Unbelievably, it releases a cocktail of chemicals from the edge

of the lip here which exactly mimic those released by virgin female

bees, so when the males emerge first, which they do, they throng

to these flowers, and it gets them so excited, they practise what we

call pseudocopulation. They try to cop late with the plant. Only this

species is not only mimicking an insect, it's not using the insects

because this is a south-pollinated. It's the only one of the species in

Europe which is south pollinated - remarkable science. Also, there is

an intrinsic romance for me here because the plant is producing a

chemical exactly the same as an animal. It's a triumph of evolution,

an absolute triumph - just makes What are you doing?! Pseudo

copulation. Idiot! In a hall much to Bob Dylan, as I move over here,

I will be dropping these lovely pictures of these orchids. We have

very little time to senior -- to see any more of them. Unfortunately,

from my point of view, we have to go to Les in Essex. Any more badger

news? -- Liz. Let us put this myth of the cast to

rest. It was the second day and we thought we should give up. But just

as the sun was setting, look at this. Yes, yes, yes! He is going

straight for it. I have to say, you set up is very cool because you see

another aspect of them that you do not usually see, a nice big stretch.

It is beautiful to watch. He is taking it to his pals. He may well

do. Here is a different one. obviously like crunchy peanut

butter. He is trying to follow it and swipe it down. It is the most

adorable thing. That is a little bit of luck, isn't it? We had done

it, but it was not quite over. There was one last treat in store -

a badger cub. How old is that? will have been born in February, so

it will be about four months old. Is that around the age that they

start venturing out with their parents? They will come out of the

set entrance at a younger age, but venturing any distance, I never see

them until the beginning of June. Is that the first time you have

seen the cubs out here? Be it is the first time they have been out

this year, I am pretty sure of it. The peanut butter sandwich

experiment was a bit of a disaster. I have to say, though, three

badgers including a cub, that is a result.

Unbelievable stuff, wasn't it? So you know, fill only feeds peanut

butter sandwiches very occasionally to the badgers. Mostly they forage

for earthworms. The question still remains - how high can a badger

rate? Our cameraman went back the following night and got us one last

shot. Here he comes. He has spotted a peanut butter sandwich and he

reaches for it. This might look a little bit unusual but it is not

unusual for badgers, they do reach for berries on bushes, snails on

tree trunks. They are very agile it is just that we do not see it very

often. Let us rewind for a second, because this gives us the perfect

opportunity to measure how high a badger can reach. There he goes,

number one is not too shabby. Number two is not quite as high.

The average male badger measures around 75 centimetres in line. Add

the hind legs and the claws. Badgers are not stupid. After a

couple of attempts, this fella decides he is going to go for

another sand which. Badgers can smell 600 times better than us

humans. He takes a bite out of that one then moves along. Is he going

to bite it? Will he take a swipe? He is getting lazy and moving to

the lowest one on the wire. It is swinging around him, he keeps his

eye on it. He takes a swipe, he takes a chunk. Come on, you can do

it! He follows it, he follows it, and he swipes at it. There you go!

Mission accomplished. And off he goes.

Phil's inventive way of getting badgers to do unusual stuff, stuff

we do not see very often, is brilliant. We get to see another

aspect of these fantastic animals. One last thing from the adventure

team, Richard Taylor Jones went to explore another unusual place to

find wildlife. Not a landfill site but a golf course. Take a look at

this. Golf courses cover more of the UK

than all of the RSPB's Nature Reserve put together, so we did not

be great if they were all natural enough for nature? With their

pesticide, pea-green fairways and manicured greens, they are not

normally thought of as places for wildlife. To find dated it is true,

I have come to my local courses on the Kent coast. -- to find out if

it is true. Good morning. Many animals around this morning? I

thought I might find some skylarks. Over there. You might be lucky.

Thank you. Literally a minute ago, there was nothing. Then suddenly

there is just a live with skylarks singing. -- the air. It is lovely,

really, because skylarks have really struggled over the last few

really struggled over the last few decades. Their numbers have crashed.

A little bird against a white background, it doesn't matter when

you have a song like that. This is a territorial dispute. He is saying,

this is my patch, go back to your patch. Golf courses often get

blamed for ripping up good habitat, yet clearly this is good skylark

habitat. I think the reason is that you have the rough areas where the

birds like to nest next to the very short fairways and greens, which

are ideal skylark landing pad, really. It is sort of accidental

nature. The golf course and the people who run it did not plan to

have skylarks here, but they have. The result is that we have skylarks

everywhere. Sorry, I got distracted by another bird. There you go, a

female hen harrier. Well I never! I was not expecting to see a career

on the golf course. -- Harrier. I sound surprise that all this

while life but I should not be. These golf courses are amongst the

best that in British for nature, classified as Special Areas of

Conservation. The man who looks after the wildlife here is with me.

A lot of clubs are now taking on the responsibility of managing

That brings about a much wider experience to those who play. 60%

of courses could be potentially important wildlife habitats.

courses here are flourishing. Another striking example of that is

just a few yards away. I had been walking along the 7th green and I

have been met by this delightful host of deep purple green winged

orchid. Look at them, they are beatable, and thriving on the very

sandy soil that the golf course is built on. Stunning, absolutely

stunning. Just imagine if all golf courses could be like this.

Throughout the UK, we are looking at something like 3,200 golf

courses, occupy ing of or 150,000 hectares of land. We need more

courses to recognise the importance of managing for wildlife as well as

managing for golf. That is my role in life, to try and raise that

awareness. Bob shows that this can be done. I really do hope that more

golf courses become aware of the wildlife that surrounds them. After

all, golf has long relied on grazing rabbits to keep the grass

short on the fairways. Golf used to need rabbits. In today's world,

rabbits need golf. We have had a question from Neil

Hopkins, who lives just down the road. He sent us a photograph. Here

it is. It does not look spectacular but let us see it at night. It is,

of course, a glow worm. It is a type of beetle, isn't it Chris?

glows to attract females. He has not seen any others for more

than two years. To have any chance of attracting

glow-worms to your garden, you need an open patch where they can

display, some shrubbery, because they feed on snails. Do not worry

if you do not see them every year because they take a few years to

mature. Tonight, there is a great event. It

is a lunar eclipse. You may not get to see it because it is very cloudy,

but it is going to happen just before 9:30pm. I would like to bet

that if you do not see this one you will not catch the next one in the

UK which is in 2141. The culture vultures are out and

about in Newcastle on our next programme. And we will be bringing

you more Tords, of the natterjack toad variety. We will actually also