:00:18. > :00:23.I offer you a redstart. Raise you a barn owl. Surely a Royal flush of
:00:23. > :00:27.herons will win any hand. Not so fast, my fine friend. I might have
:00:27. > :00:32.a black-and-white ace up my sleeve. But there's no need to gamble at
:00:33. > :00:42.all. True. If you want the best of British wildlife, you are in
:00:43. > :01:08.
:01:08. > :01:13.exactly the right place. Stay tune Hello and welcome to Springwatch.
:01:13. > :01:18.Coming to you from the beautiful RSPB reserve at Ynys-hir. Just rook
:01:18. > :01:22.at it. What a fine evening we've got. A bit of sunshine raining down
:01:22. > :01:26.on the hills behind us there. A bit of geography at the start of the
:01:26. > :01:31.show. Let's see where we are. Here is a map of the UK. We are in Wales
:01:31. > :01:36.towards the west central. Zooming in, that's the spot where we are
:01:36. > :01:42.and here is an aeriel view of the whole of the reserve showing its
:01:42. > :01:46.rich array of habitats and all of those home to some fantastic
:01:46. > :01:51.animals. It is. Although we have only done one show so far, the
:01:51. > :01:55.wildlife has completely taken over our lives. Well, there's one family
:01:55. > :01:59.in particular, this one, the great spotted woodpecker family. If you
:01:59. > :02:04.were watching last night, you will have seen two chicks fledge. This
:02:04. > :02:07.is the third. Did it go? Are there any more? We don't know. We'll be
:02:07. > :02:10.finding out a bit later in the programme. We've also got some
:02:10. > :02:14.potentially now great stars for you, stars of Springwatch coming in the
:02:14. > :02:18.form of one of Britain's most favourite animals, barn owls. Take
:02:18. > :02:23.a look at these. We have a nestful of birds here and they've been
:02:23. > :02:27.active over the last few days. so exciting to have barn owls back
:02:27. > :02:31.on Springwatch. There's been a long time since we have had them live in
:02:31. > :02:36.the nest, so something for us all really to enjoy over the next few
:02:36. > :02:42.weeks. Now, we also have one of these. It
:02:42. > :02:48.is of course a badger set. Mr Packham made a prediction about
:02:48. > :02:53.this set last night. Was he right or was he wrong? I was a bit
:02:53. > :02:56.sceptical. Let you know in a few minutes' time. But I can be
:02:56. > :03:03.absolutely certain that Charlie Hamilton-James has got to grips
:03:03. > :03:10.with some of Britain's most exciting new mammals up in Scotland.
:03:10. > :03:14.All right, guys, I'm investigating the first official trial
:03:14. > :03:21.reintroduction of beavers. We have some cracking stuff lined up for
:03:21. > :03:28.you tonight so come back to us. We certainly will. Now, let's start
:03:28. > :03:33.with one of our new families, the great spotted woodpecker. Let's go
:03:33. > :03:37.great spotted woodpecker. Let's go straight to the nest now. There's
:03:38. > :03:43.nothing there at all! But... Just teasing us, one of the chicks. Now,
:03:43. > :03:49.Chris, when we were watching them yesterday, we saw the adult birds
:03:49. > :03:53.feeding and tempting out these very grown-up looking chicks, two of
:03:53. > :04:00.them fledged, but we actually have no idea how many chicks are in that
:04:00. > :04:05.nest. No, we haven't, no. There is a narrow diameter to the hole, only
:04:05. > :04:09.one chick can get out at a time. There are six, maybe seven out
:04:09. > :04:12.there. Two came out, another is visible, so there are three, but
:04:12. > :04:16.could be even more inside. I've got to tell you, it's not a pleasant
:04:16. > :04:20.place inside that nest. Really? the adults don't remove the foetal
:04:20. > :04:24.sacks, so you are looking at two weeks potentially of perhaps six
:04:24. > :04:29.baby wood peckers pooing away. That's not clean, like many of the
:04:29. > :04:33.nes we've seen so far. So you would think that the chicks would be
:04:33. > :04:38.absolutely desperate to go out. -- nests. We have had our cameras
:04:38. > :04:42.fixed on the nests all day. This is what happened earlier. We saw the
:04:42. > :04:46.two fledglings from yesterday and I'd asked you, Chris, whether the
:04:46. > :04:49.adults would be able to cope with having chicks in two separate
:04:49. > :04:53.places. They don't go too far and they make a lot of noise. It's very
:04:53. > :04:57.easy. That was the second one leading. That was the third bird
:04:57. > :05:02.leaving, immediately another one's head appeared so we knew there were
:05:02. > :05:06.four in there. It's almost like a conveyor belt, one goes, the next
:05:06. > :05:10.pops out. This could run and run because we don't have any idea how
:05:10. > :05:14.many chicks are in there, you don't know how many chicks are in there,
:05:14. > :05:18.so keep your eyes on the wood peckers and we'll try and get a
:05:18. > :05:21.final count at some point later today, tomorrow, who knows. We have
:05:21. > :05:25.another species though which we met yesterday. For my money, one of the
:05:25. > :05:29.best looking birds in Britain. It joins us for the summer from Africa.
:05:29. > :05:33.It's the redstart and here is a view inside one of the nest boxs
:05:33. > :05:37.with a family of redstarts, six chicks in there, not far off
:05:37. > :05:41.fledging actually. It's a real shame because we've never had this
:05:41. > :05:45.species on Springwatch before. It is a shame that we've come in quite
:05:45. > :05:48.late in their development but we are getting wonderful views of the
:05:48. > :05:51.adult birds there and great views of just how quickly they develop.
:05:51. > :05:55.You saw the adult taking out that foetal sack there and how clean the
:05:55. > :05:59.nest was to contrast it with the conditions inside the woodpecker.
:05:59. > :06:03.Beautiful male. A stunning bird. Look at the wing flapping going on
:06:03. > :06:07.here. My goodness. I don't think this one is even trying to fledge.
:06:07. > :06:11.It's trying to do this, look. It's getting itself into an optimum
:06:11. > :06:18.position to get the food first. It can see the food coming in the
:06:18. > :06:22.entrance with its parents so it's hopped up to have the first go at
:06:22. > :06:29.it. Such extreme confirm tition. They will all successfully fledge,
:06:29. > :06:32.but it's a case of who gets fattest first to get out -- extreme
:06:32. > :06:37.competition. That's the nest box you can see against the tree.
:06:37. > :06:41.Inside, we can see the chicks all looking still quite alert, Chris,
:06:41. > :06:45.despite the fact it's late in the evening. Yes, it's not that cold
:06:45. > :06:48.here, quite a few insects still active and the adults have been
:06:48. > :06:53.visiting many times during the course of an hour. Look how quickly
:06:53. > :06:57.they've grown. Since yesterday, they've lost all traces of down now
:06:57. > :07:02.and the flight feathers are getting ever stronger. Could they go
:07:02. > :07:07.tomorrow? Well, I'm not a gambling man, Kate, but I would say that if
:07:07. > :07:11.they don't go tomorrow, they'll go Thursday. I think I'm going to put,
:07:11. > :07:16.yes, Thursday, Thursday. Not a gambling man but I say Thursday.
:07:16. > :07:22.He's not a gambling man for a jolly good reason. Because yesterday, Mr
:07:22. > :07:28.Packham made a very wise, considered wildlife prediction.
:07:28. > :07:34.Look at it. Absolutely derelict. I would never met on a badger turning
:07:34. > :07:38.up there in a million years... was Mr Packham, our own Mr Packham,
:07:38. > :07:43.badger expert, talking about our very own badger set. Let's go live
:07:43. > :07:47.to that badger set now. Martin, I really want you to be with me to
:07:47. > :07:51.bear witness to this moment. sorry, Chris. There we are live.
:07:51. > :07:57.Shall we have a look at the other view. Always going to be empty for
:07:57. > :08:01.a million years. Yes, it is. So, we could obviously have listened to
:08:01. > :08:04.Chris and gaveen up on the cameras on the set and maybe put the
:08:04. > :08:09.cameras somewhere else. But something just told us, no, just
:08:09. > :08:15.leave them be. Good job. Look what happened at 11 o'clock last night.
:08:15. > :08:21.What do you think this is, Martin? It's a sort of stripey thing isn't
:08:21. > :08:29.it. Black-and-white?! Could be a fox, stripey fox. A bit squat,
:08:29. > :08:34.hairy. Tiny bit familiar to me. think it could be...... Wait a
:08:34. > :08:39.minute. What's this?! It could be a badger!? Has a million years passed
:08:39. > :08:47.since yesterday to today, have we been in a time warp? Maybe it was a
:08:47. > :08:50.fluke, maybe not a badger at all. Hang on, a second badger. Entering
:08:50. > :08:56.a derelict set. There was never going to be any badger activity.
:08:56. > :09:01.Isn't it great to see? Great to see! Isn't it, Chris?
:09:01. > :09:07.It really is, yes. I've never ever been so pleased to see any badgers
:09:07. > :09:12.in all of my life! So, if you would like to continue... What's that?
:09:12. > :09:17.Humble pie. Just in case he wants a slice. A slice of Humble pie. Can I
:09:17. > :09:21.make a point about the badgers. quick one? I would suggest the set
:09:21. > :09:24.isn't terribly busy hence the derelict look to it. These are
:09:24. > :09:26.probably visiting badgers. The second one looked like a cub, so
:09:26. > :09:32.they're probably coming from another part of their territory
:09:32. > :09:35.popping by, the chances of seeing them again are... Well, I'll leave
:09:35. > :09:41.that out. Whatever he thinks, I would suggest you keep an eye on
:09:41. > :09:47.the webcams, they keep running until midnight and start again at
:09:47. > :09:52.4am. I'm going to bet one thing. You won't see a tyrannosaurus Rex
:09:52. > :09:57.arrive at that badger set in a million years! You've blown it.
:09:57. > :10:00.Martin's got a quiz for us. Last night's quiz was successful,
:10:00. > :10:07.reliked it. We'll try another one which is germane to tonight's
:10:07. > :10:14.programme. It's a sound quiz. Have a listen to this sound, please. And
:10:14. > :10:18.again. Do you know what that sound is? Get on the website, get on
:10:18. > :10:22.Twitter and you can get on our Facebook site and tell us what you
:10:22. > :10:26.think that sound is. I've got to go to another part of the reserve.
:10:26. > :10:33.Catch up with you down the magic television line. You are not going
:10:33. > :10:37.to make it. I am, just talk slowly. Egg all over my face and badger
:10:37. > :10:41.down my trousers, so I'm doing a walk of shame over here. I studied
:10:41. > :10:49.badgers for five years, you know. There's the buggy and there goes
:10:49. > :10:53.Kate and the team. Bye, see you in a bit. Drive safely. If you were
:10:53. > :11:00.watching last night, you will know that we have invited some guest
:11:00. > :11:03.natralists to be with us. Charlie Hamilton-James joins us today. He's
:11:03. > :11:07.in Argyleshire in Scotland. Let's zoom in on south-western Scotland.
:11:07. > :11:12.Right the way in. This is where he is. What I like about this is the
:11:12. > :11:17.detail. Last night he was here, but we've tracked him and we know he's
:11:17. > :11:22.here on the side of the lock. He's in pursuit of another mammal,
:11:22. > :11:30.having a bit more luck than me, I hope, Charlie.
:11:30. > :11:35.Yes, it's actually raining! Welcome back to the Napdale forest in the
:11:35. > :11:38.heart of rainy Argyleshire. I came up here with the Springwatch team
:11:38. > :11:43.to reacquaint the British public with a creature that was once
:11:44. > :11:48.extinct here, but now is back. It's the beaver. We've joined up with
:11:48. > :11:55.the Scottish beaver trial team to get to know them again, to get our
:11:55. > :11:58.hands on one. We even went out and caught one. So, what have we got in
:11:58. > :12:02.store tonight? Well, we need to film beavers, that's why we are
:12:02. > :12:08.here, so we have been out, they come out at night, very secretive
:12:08. > :12:11.and nocturnal, so we've rigged the place with infrared lights and
:12:12. > :12:16.cameras so we can see what they are doing and they can't see us. We got
:12:16. > :12:26.a shot of Christian the beaver trying to fell a tree. Now, did he
:12:26. > :12:36.
:12:36. > :12:39.fell the tree or get squashed by OK, we are picking up where we left
:12:39. > :12:42.off yesterday, look. Christian, stop. He's been beavering away.
:12:42. > :12:47.He's listening for creeking. What he doesn't want to happen is, he
:12:47. > :12:50.doesn't want that tree to fall on him and squash him. Quite a decent
:12:51. > :12:54.sized tree, this. And it's very Stiltonite, so there's no wind to
:12:54. > :12:59.assist the felling. He's got to do all the hard work himself. What
:12:59. > :13:03.he's doing is, he's trying to cut the tree so that it falls into the
:13:03. > :13:07.water because it's safer and easier for him to have the tree in the
:13:07. > :13:14.water. He's almost through it, hanging on by a thread. He's got to
:13:14. > :13:18.be really careful now. Oh, there it goes. Look at the speed of him!
:13:18. > :13:24.Never seen a beaver move so fast. But the tree missed him, he just
:13:24. > :13:29.got out the way in time. If you look back, here it goes. Catches
:13:29. > :13:34.him completely by surprise. Leaps back really fast and then just gets
:13:34. > :13:40.out of the way as fast as he can into the safety of the water. And
:13:40. > :13:45.he just gets away with it. But now it's in the perfect position for
:13:45. > :13:50.him to get in there safely and start eating the leaves in the
:13:50. > :13:56.water. That's brilliant. It's the first
:13:56. > :14:00.time anyone's ever filmed a British beaver felling a tree. But, wasn't
:14:00. > :14:04.very close, we didn't really see what was going on, what was
:14:04. > :14:09.Christian doing? We didn't really see the physiology of Christian's
:14:09. > :14:13.jaws, as he cut down that tree. So, we invited along Simon Jones, who's
:14:13. > :14:23.the project manager of the Scottish Beaver Trial, to go through this
:14:23. > :14:26.
:14:26. > :14:31.footage and show us exactly what's Simon, we know that beavers chop
:14:31. > :14:35.trees down. Can you explain to me exactly how they do it? They have
:14:35. > :14:39.really perfectly designed teeth for cutting wood. Incredible incisors
:14:39. > :14:45.which the front covers, as you can see, is orange, which is hard
:14:45. > :14:52.enamel. Behind is a softer den teen. It erodes at a slightly different
:14:52. > :14:58.rate, so as the beaver bites and chews, the harder eman Elle create
:14:58. > :15:04.this is natural chisel front on it. And that's sharp isn't it? How is
:15:04. > :15:08.that working on a tree stump like this, say? The top teeth are used
:15:08. > :15:12.more as a grip and it's the bottom incisors that do the cutting.
:15:12. > :15:17.can see all the tree felling is good for Christian, the beef, and
:15:17. > :15:20.his buddies. But how is it benefitting the trees -- beavers.
:15:20. > :15:26.That tree doesn't look very benefitted to me? Fair enough, but
:15:26. > :15:30.we have to remember that millions of years worth of evolution's given
:15:30. > :15:34.this tree the ability to regenerate. This tree will regrow. In the
:15:34. > :15:38.process, it's opened up a hole in the canopy which creates a
:15:38. > :15:44.different habitat for other wildlife that can use these little
:15:44. > :15:47.coppice areas within the forest. What species will benefit from this
:15:47. > :15:57.more open woodland habitat? Because there will be higher temperatures
:15:57. > :15:57.
:15:57. > :16:02.in here, the ininvert grate braits do well. -- invertebrates do well.
:16:02. > :16:05.This regrowth is important for the birds. It's a temporary woodland
:16:05. > :16:11.created by beaver coppicing and over time, it will close up again,
:16:11. > :16:19.but a new glaid will be created somewhere else a they work round
:16:19. > :16:22.the water's edge -- glaid. -- glade. It might not all be doom and gloom
:16:22. > :16:27.if you happen to be a tree that's been eaten by a beaver. I hope some
:16:27. > :16:31.of you at home learn how you can chop a tree down with your teeth if
:16:31. > :16:37.you don't happen to have a chainsaw or axe handy. Right, once the
:16:38. > :16:40.beaver's felled his tree, the first thing he wants to do is eat it. We
:16:40. > :16:43.have some gorgeous intimate close- up shots of them doing exactly that.
:16:43. > :16:48.Come back to us in a bit and we'll show you them.
:16:48. > :16:53.Thank you very much, Charlie. Now, I've made it, just, from the studio
:16:53. > :16:57.to quite the other side of the reserve absolutely spectacular spot
:16:57. > :17:07.here. This line of oak trees has proved very productive for us. We
:17:07. > :17:08.
:17:08. > :17:11.have got a buzzard nest which I think we can go to live now. We are
:17:11. > :17:18.seeing chick and adult, both of them. Lovely. If we go to the end
:17:18. > :17:26.of the oak trees, you can possibly see a little black dot there at the
:17:26. > :17:30.end and that is our river cam just inland from that, there is another
:17:30. > :17:35.camera on a really handsome bird. Let's go to it live. It's the
:17:35. > :17:38.oystercatcher. One of the adults there. They're brooding two eggs.
:17:38. > :17:42.We were a bit worried because one of the adults has a limp and we
:17:42. > :17:45.thought that would make it very easy to be pre-dateed and if that
:17:46. > :17:50.happened, sadly those eggs would fail, but the good news is, both
:17:50. > :17:54.adults have been seen on and off that nest all day. But the real
:17:54. > :18:00.reason that I've made this epic journey is to come and meet up with
:18:00. > :18:04.Nigel Bean, one of our mini camera team and, you have managed, the
:18:04. > :18:09.team has managed, to crack a really great first for Springwatch this
:18:09. > :18:15.year? We have. It's herons just nesting in these oaks over here.
:18:15. > :18:18.what is it that makes herons and getting cameras on a heron's nest
:18:18. > :18:22.so challenging? For a start, they're high up, they nest very
:18:22. > :18:27.early in the season and it would be very easy to disturb them, to turn
:18:27. > :18:30.up when they're already nesting. So So we've had to go in very early.
:18:30. > :18:33.How early? Mid-February in this case. Right. I think we got some
:18:34. > :18:37.footage of you and the team starting to rig this nest. Let's
:18:37. > :18:42.have a look at that. So you can see a very wintry scene there. Those
:18:42. > :18:47.blobs up in the tree, are those the heron nests? They are, yes. You can
:18:47. > :18:51.see the wonderful dummy camera which we put in early on some
:18:51. > :18:54.camera mounts so that hopefully the birds will get used to them when
:18:54. > :18:58.they arrive. The birds aren't using this at this stage. You are putting
:18:58. > :19:03.these cameras in and the birds can come in, see these weird black
:19:03. > :19:08.blobs and thinking, they're fine, nothing to worry about? Exactly.
:19:08. > :19:11.And did that little bit of intrigue work? Well, it seems to have.
:19:11. > :19:16.Yes, we have got them live for the first time, so really pleased.
:19:16. > :19:21.is brilliant. What did you do? You had to go up and take the dummy
:19:21. > :19:27.cameras away and replace them with actual cameras? Exactly. Because
:19:27. > :19:30.we'd done the work, it was simple, we had take the dummies off, run
:19:30. > :19:35.the cables and let them do their thing. Fingers crossed. So you
:19:35. > :19:40.think that at this very moment, we could go live to a heronry for the
:19:40. > :19:46.first time ever on Springwatch? hope so! Well, Chris and Martin,
:19:46. > :19:51.are you there? Can you see me? We can. Here we are. Let's all
:19:51. > :19:58.witness this together, let's go live to the heronry. Yeah!
:19:58. > :20:03.Fantastic. Look at that. What a fantastic sight. Little halos
:20:03. > :20:08.around them with the light. Beautiful birds. When I heard we
:20:08. > :20:13.were going to do this, this got me going. Up trees, what are herons
:20:13. > :20:18.doing up trees? These are a couple of youngsters, the one closest to
:20:18. > :20:25.you has the devil's hair cut. rock outfits. Looks a tiny bit
:20:25. > :20:33.familiar, mate! It is, yes, that was me in the '70s and '80s and
:20:33. > :20:38.'90s. There are 1,300 henonrys in the UK and 13,000 fair pairs of
:20:38. > :20:43.them. Because they are easy to find and count, always in heronrys, they
:20:43. > :20:48.were one of the first group of birds that will have been censused
:20:48. > :20:51.over time, so we have watched the numbers fluctuate. They don't like
:20:51. > :20:58.hard winters. Let's see what was happening in this very henonry over
:20:58. > :21:05.the last few months. Here is where it is. You can see it's in this oak
:21:05. > :21:08.tree. This is a dentry... They started nesting when it was very
:21:08. > :21:13.much alive because they like to choose trees which provide them
:21:13. > :21:16.with some shelter. You can see the cameras which are looking at the
:21:16. > :21:20.birds. They know there is no leaves and the weather we've been having,
:21:20. > :21:25.it's very, very exposed. Yes and the number of herons nesting here
:21:25. > :21:34.has gone down over the years. In 2004, there were 12, now there's
:21:34. > :21:37.only four active nests there. Here is a nest with some young one doing
:21:37. > :21:40.wing-flapping exercises. We are seeing a lot of wing-flapping
:21:41. > :21:44.exercises. We have been watching some of the nests can greater
:21:44. > :21:49.detail. Let's take alike at one that we have stuck our camera into
:21:49. > :21:53.in the last month or so. Wow, what a view! Here are the chicks. One of
:21:53. > :22:00.the four chicks. One of them is very small. Yes, the one on the
:22:00. > :22:05.left. That's typical because they will lay five eggs, up to five eggs,
:22:05. > :22:08.but the survival rate can be incredibly low, you know, 40% of
:22:08. > :22:12.those birds might perish. That's not unusual. It's basically the one
:22:12. > :22:17.that's the largest one gets most of the food, the idea is to get one of
:22:18. > :22:24.them out of the nest successfully. There's bullying here. They look
:22:24. > :22:28.like dinosaurs, pteradactyls, fantastic. Stunning. They probably
:22:28. > :22:31.act them them as well. This is grabbing the beak of the adult to
:22:31. > :22:36.get it to regurgitate the food into the nest. Here is the adult trying
:22:36. > :22:41.to avoid being grabbed by the youngsters by holding its beak up.
:22:41. > :22:44.It's so violent. We don't surely have to go through this? We do,
:22:44. > :22:47.it's just that when they're teenagers, they're grabbing your
:22:47. > :22:52.wallet instead. They want to get that adult to regurgitate the
:22:52. > :22:58.valuable food that it might have flown up to 30 kilometres away to
:22:58. > :23:02.collect. 30 kilometres? 10-30 kilometres, yes, probably not here
:23:02. > :23:06.because there is a wide estuary for them to forage over. But if they
:23:06. > :23:11.are in an isolated henonry, they will fly that far. It's essential
:23:11. > :23:15.that that food gets to the young. If it were to be regurgitated in a
:23:15. > :23:20.fracas, it could go over the side, so they want to get the adult to
:23:20. > :23:26.regurgitate it right there in the cup of the nest so they can grab it.
:23:26. > :23:31.That's what the beak grabbing is about. So that acts like a bowl.
:23:31. > :23:35.Then they peck the feathers off the head and it looks shabby, pretty
:23:35. > :23:39.rough to grow up with. Over the last few weeks, Kate,
:23:39. > :23:46.Martin and myself have met a great number of fantastic natralists.
:23:46. > :23:51.Yesterday, we met Mark ef regard, a man who likes his fish. Today I'll
:23:51. > :24:01.introduce you to an extraordinary lady, Sylvia She wouldon, she lives
:24:01. > :24:01.
:24:01. > :24:05.in the countryside, where I went to meet her -- Sylvia Sheldon. # Go
:24:05. > :24:11.wild in the country # Where snakes in the grass
:24:11. > :24:15.# Are absolutely free... # Those were the days, go wild in the
:24:15. > :24:19.country where the snakes in the grass are absolutely free. If only
:24:19. > :24:24.it were true. We only have three species of snake in the UK and
:24:24. > :24:31.pretty much all are in trouble today I've come to a quiet corner
:24:31. > :24:35.of the West Midlands to meet a lady who is a true champion of the adder.
:24:35. > :24:40.The adder is Britain's only venomous snake and has very few
:24:40. > :24:45.friends among the general public. Yet it's a very secretive snake and
:24:45. > :24:48.adder bites on humans are rare. Their striking zig-zag patterning
:24:48. > :24:53.helps them blend into their favourite habitat, but it's also
:24:53. > :24:56.now being used to help identify individuals. It's as unique to an
:24:56. > :25:05.adder as a fingerprint is to a human. This remarkable discovery
:25:05. > :25:10.was one of the insites into the snake's world made by 74-year-old
:25:11. > :25:15.Sylvia Sheldon. How did you get into adders? I started
:25:15. > :25:19.photographing them, cutting their heads out and sticking them in this
:25:19. > :25:23.ancient little book. I was aware that they were very individual.
:25:23. > :25:29.many do you think you have identified over the years? Hundreds.
:25:29. > :25:33.Joo they're all different? Yes. I've got to say that this is one of
:25:33. > :25:36.the most incredible documents I've ever had the privilege to handle. I
:25:36. > :25:42.was once able to handle some of Darwin's notes and Wallace's
:25:42. > :25:45.specimens, but this is right up there, it really is. It's so
:25:45. > :25:52.obviously a fantastic work of natural history. You must never
:25:52. > :26:02.ever lose this. This must be handed down through generations. It's
:26:02. > :26:07.absolutely exquisite. Do you have a favourite adder? Years ago, we had
:26:07. > :26:14.Pawn, followed him for years. ago I had porn but my mother threw
:26:14. > :26:24.it away. Now it's time for adder mastermind. Oh, yes. Think you know
:26:24. > :26:27.
:26:27. > :26:32.your adders? I do. That's Marie. Marie is correct. And that is Hue.
:26:32. > :26:42.And that's broken birch male. Superb. Thank you very much. I'm
:26:42. > :26:52.going to test you now on punk rock albums. What a slippery customer.
:26:52. > :26:54.
:26:54. > :27:01.Once upon a time, the singles. done. It's the Jam. Oh, right.
:27:01. > :27:05.Mod Cons. Well done. Ten out of ten. Surely we are both feeling pretty
:27:05. > :27:11.smug now. I think we should be. Shall we go and see some snakes?
:27:11. > :27:17.Yes. It took no time at all for Sylvia to lead me to one of her
:27:17. > :27:24.study snakes. Yes, this is Marie. Only a young female. Could be a
:27:24. > :27:30.first breed here. How old is young? Six-and-a-half. If six-and-a-half
:27:30. > :27:38.is young, how old is old? oldest one we have on the site, I
:27:38. > :27:43.think he's about 32. I first recognised her in 1984 when she was
:27:43. > :27:49.mature. Beautiful creature, don't you think? Stunning. Sylvia's
:27:49. > :27:53.dedication is infectious and it's rubbed off on her grandson and her
:27:53. > :27:56.close friend Chris. They've joined her in a new project to radio tag
:27:57. > :28:01.some of the best-known snakes and map their daily movements.
:28:01. > :28:06.Interpreting the maps is helping reveal much, much more about how
:28:06. > :28:11.adders use their habitat. So it started under this tree? Yes, went
:28:11. > :28:16.up here and was mating and combating. This is quite a
:28:16. > :28:21.traveller, the Marco Polo of adders. This is also a unique opportunity
:28:21. > :28:24.because we can get underneath the skin of the adder. That's right.
:28:24. > :28:30.And we charter that course ourselves, can't we. We can. Let's
:28:30. > :28:35.see what happens. Right. This is remarkable because it's going from
:28:35. > :28:43.what I would call adder habitat into, look, oak woodland...
:28:43. > :28:47.woodland, yes. This is the pond here, he crossed over the stream
:28:47. > :28:54.further up. Yes, this project's given us so much information about
:28:54. > :28:58.the habitat that adders will use. Really, it's going to help a lot
:28:58. > :29:03.with manage. -- management in the future, we hope. I hope so.
:29:03. > :29:10.Sylvia's work and the insight into adder life it's revealing is truly
:29:10. > :29:17.worthy of geek status, so I struck a deal involving a cup of tea and a
:29:17. > :29:22.stuffed oodle. You kept your side of the bargain, a fine cup of tea.
:29:22. > :29:27.Here is mine, the very prestigious geek award, you can make your
:29:27. > :29:32.acceptance speech now, I'll sit back and enjoy it. Oh, I feel very
:29:32. > :29:42.privileged to have Mr Scratchy. stoodious one. Very privileged to
:29:42. > :29:47.have this award. Thank you, Chris. What an amazing lady. She is
:29:47. > :29:54.absolutely amazing. I couldn't believe... Welcome back. This
:29:55. > :29:58.reserve is so huge. Wasn't that heronry amazing. Yes, I've been
:29:58. > :30:02.looking forward to seeing that. How could she have identifyed the
:30:02. > :30:06.adders from the pictures? I couldn't believe it. To me, every
:30:06. > :30:12.adder I've met got exactly the same. We didn't fake it, she knows all of
:30:12. > :30:20.them. I suppose to an adder, me and you will look very similar. Smell
:30:20. > :30:26.very different. Snakes? Yes, we have reptiles here and here is here.
:30:27. > :30:34.This is an area just outside the reserve and Lynn zirbgs one of the
:30:34. > :30:38.wildlife cameramen spotted this -- Lynsey, one of the female cameramen
:30:38. > :30:42.-- wildlife cameramen spotted this. Surprisingly, one of the birds has
:30:42. > :30:48.been having a snake bite, or in fact the bite of a snake. This is
:30:48. > :30:51.the buzzard. Now, they feed a lot on amphibians and have a broad diet.
:30:51. > :30:56.Occasionally, given the opportunity, they will take snake, not only
:30:57. > :31:06.grass snakes but also adders too, obviously without being affected by
:31:07. > :31:07.
:31:07. > :31:13.the vemen. This one is enjoying the grass snake, I'm not sure I'm
:31:13. > :31:17.enjoying it. Like a noodle. This was like a bonanza. If the snakes
:31:17. > :31:22.come out in the morning and they're cool, basking in the early sun, the
:31:22. > :31:27.buzzard sees it, it's an easy catch. That's true. There are other
:31:27. > :31:32.species which specialise in taking snakes. So the buzzard is actively
:31:32. > :31:36.hunting, not picking up a dead one, it's actively hunting and nailing
:31:36. > :31:40.them? Let's go to them live. I wanted to show you something, Chris,
:31:40. > :31:46.I noticed, just looking at the nest. It's got a lot of new green leaves
:31:46. > :31:50.in it. They weren't there yesterday. Oak leaves I think. Yes. This is
:31:51. > :31:54.typical of some raptor species. They decorate their nest with fresh
:31:54. > :31:57.greenery, not to make them look good, we think it's because the
:31:57. > :32:03.leaves contain substances which control the parasite population in
:32:03. > :32:06.their young. So oak leaves here have a lot of what we call tannins,
:32:06. > :32:10.not very edible for the caterpillars that try and eat the
:32:10. > :32:14.leaves. Perhaps if they get trampled around the nest, they
:32:14. > :32:20.release something and that keeps the insects down, that's the theory.
:32:20. > :32:23.We should try it out here for midges. Let's see and remind
:32:23. > :32:31.ourselves about that sound, that quiz that we were having. Let's
:32:31. > :32:40.hear it once again, please. Has anyone been getting us right? Got
:32:40. > :32:47.any, Becky? Let's have a look. Becky?! Wait a minute. Wrong, lots
:32:47. > :32:57.of people think a curlew. Kate Derwent on Twitter and Ian on Blog
:32:57. > :32:58.
:32:58. > :33:04.thinks it's a different species. sounds a bit like a wader. I can
:33:04. > :33:11.understand why someone went for curlew. Those pipers have that call.
:33:11. > :33:16.It's an introduced animal and is quite small. We've seen the grass
:33:16. > :33:19.snakes being eaten by buzzards. Now we'll go over to the eating habits
:33:19. > :33:24.of the beaver with Charlie Hamilton-James in Scotland. Tell us
:33:24. > :33:28.about their table manners, mate? Well, haven't got many. Welcome
:33:28. > :33:32.back to Napdale. We have been filming beavers doing all the
:33:32. > :33:37.things that they do, chopping down trees, working hard, I think the
:33:37. > :33:41.phrase is beavering away. But, all of this hard work makes them hungry.
:33:41. > :33:47.Now, a beaver can get through up to four tonnes of plant material a
:33:47. > :33:51.year. That's a hell of a lot. That's the difficult of four
:33:51. > :33:56.Springwatch Land Rovers in food. So, how do they process it all, how do
:33:56. > :34:01.you deal with four tonnes of leaves and sticks? We got sigh moan Jones
:34:01. > :34:06.from the Scottish Broofr Triel Scheme back to have a look at the
:34:06. > :34:13.footage and to explain how they do it -- Scottish Beaver Trial. Simon,
:34:13. > :34:20.here is the footage we've got. Nice big juicy close-ups for you to look
:34:20. > :34:24.at. This beaver is looking for aspen leaves. They are really
:34:24. > :34:32.palatable. Something like an oak leaf which beavers don't like very
:34:32. > :34:42.much, they have tannins, toxic compounds that plants have evolved
:34:42. > :34:44.
:34:44. > :34:49.to protect themselves from beefs. So it's like a sweet cup of tea
:34:49. > :34:55.compared to a builders' cup of tea. So it's the same for beavers as
:34:55. > :34:59.it's for us. Coming to another area, having a sniff around. There's an
:34:59. > :35:03.aspen leaf there. This is interesting. You can see, this is
:35:03. > :35:09.actually the little finger on a beaver acts like a thumb. It allows
:35:09. > :35:13.the beaver to grip and turn, which is an essential skill for it to be
:35:13. > :35:17.able to manipulate that closely. So see that little finger has been
:35:17. > :35:24.used again to grip this branch. Checking it, as it goes, and
:35:24. > :35:29.nibbling it as it goes. Little twig here. It will nip the twig off,
:35:29. > :35:34.feeds it into its mouth in one go, like a bread stick effectively.
:35:34. > :35:38.Sometimes beavers wash the food as well. That's a great shot, it's
:35:38. > :35:42.nipped it in half and it's effectively got two bread sticks
:35:42. > :35:45.and it's feeding in bigger stuff. It will strip the bark off. It's
:35:45. > :35:48.checking along because that's had the bark stripped off it already.
:35:48. > :35:52.It's made its way to tend of the branch and the beaver will rotate
:35:52. > :35:56.that branch around, a bit like us eating a corn on the cob or
:35:56. > :36:03.something, and it will peel the bark off and eat that. Fantastic
:36:03. > :36:07.footage. Really, really good. Thanks, Simon. I never knew eating
:36:07. > :36:13.leaves was such a precise art. We have been making it easy for the
:36:13. > :36:18.beefs here by giving them their favourite food, aspen -- beavers.
:36:18. > :36:25.But it's not always easy to find food if you're a beaver, but where
:36:25. > :36:29.there's a will, there's very very often usually a way. Nowadays,
:36:29. > :36:36.canals are generally just used for pleasure, but in the past, they
:36:36. > :36:43.were vital for transporting goods all around the country. They were
:36:43. > :36:48.an extraordinary feat of human engineering. This is the remarkable
:36:48. > :36:51.feat of beaver engineering. This is a beaver canal. The beavers have
:36:51. > :36:59.created it to transport goods around their territory. Exactly
:36:59. > :37:02.what we used to do when we built canals. Now, when you look at these
:37:02. > :37:06.canals in detail, you realise just how complicated they are. This
:37:06. > :37:11.looks just like a big pile of sticks, but it's not. It's a mini
:37:11. > :37:15.dam, essentially a lock gate. It's holding water back here. You can
:37:15. > :37:19.see there they've built the sides up and created a pool. This is
:37:19. > :37:22.flooding right back into the forest which is allowing them to go up
:37:23. > :37:28.into the forest to feed and allowing them safe passage back
:37:28. > :37:33.down their canal with their cargo. Of all the things that beavers do,
:37:33. > :37:37.to me personally, this canal building is the most fascinating,
:37:37. > :37:41.because to have that foresight to be able to manage your landscape
:37:41. > :37:45.like that in flood areas of forest when you are a massive rodent, I
:37:45. > :37:50.find quite extraordinary. I'm going to get some camera traps out there
:37:50. > :38:00.and see if we can get some shots of them actually building their canal
:38:00. > :38:10.
:38:10. > :38:13.Aren't those canals just a bit cool. We got all the camera traps out,
:38:13. > :38:19.they're a bit ropey because of the camera trap, but they revealed what
:38:19. > :38:24.we wanted to see, the beavers using their canals. Now, look at this guy.
:38:24. > :38:28.He's going up the canal. That's what we want. It's about 8.30 at
:38:28. > :38:32.night, so it's not quite dark, he's out early because they're usually
:38:32. > :38:37.nocturnal. He's come up to this dam. I say the dam, this is the big pile
:38:37. > :38:41.of sticks I showed you earlier. He's inspecting it, checking it's
:38:41. > :38:48.still intact. If it's not, he's going to fix it. He wants to go up
:38:48. > :38:53.into the forest beyond into that water above his gate. And there he
:38:53. > :38:58.goes. Now, looks promising. He's gone into the woods, but is he
:38:58. > :39:01.going to get a branch and bring it back down the canal. Well, wait and
:39:01. > :39:05.see. Absolutely extraordinary stuff from
:39:05. > :39:10.Charlie. I had no idea that beavers were such engineers, high doe
:39:10. > :39:20.engineers, is that the right word?! Anyway, let's resolve our quiz.
:39:20. > :39:26.Let's hear the sound once more. OK. Now, on the blog, Craig R got it
:39:26. > :39:28.right, on Twitter rosy got it right and on Facebook Gill got it right.
:39:28. > :39:33.It is of course a little owl. Well done.
:39:33. > :39:37.We'll have a bit of an owl fest tonight. I'm going to start off
:39:37. > :39:42.with my personal favourite, the little owl.
:39:42. > :39:47.The little owl really is little. Only about seven inches high.
:39:47. > :39:51.They're not native to the UK, they were introduced in the 1870s and
:39:51. > :39:54.1880s and they're visible because they sit on top of telegraph poles
:39:54. > :39:58.and things, even during daylight. We have been luck you in you have
:39:58. > :40:04.to catch up with Emily who's doing a research project at Reading
:40:04. > :40:09.university. What she's doing is, trying to fit cameras into the nest
:40:09. > :40:12.boxes so we can get a really intimate view of their private
:40:13. > :40:19.lives, something we have been trying to do for years actually.
:40:19. > :40:24.And here we are, right inside the nest with a little owl. And so now,
:40:24. > :40:29.let's catch up with the very latest news and see what's happened.
:40:29. > :40:34.Now, here is a little owl bringing in food. That's a worm and a vole.
:40:34. > :40:39.Very Catholic diets. This is interesting. Here is the female.
:40:40. > :40:45.She's just laid her first egg. How many is she going to lay? She
:40:45. > :40:50.lays one egg every two days, quite staggered. There's the second. And
:40:50. > :40:54.now let's have a look. What's she got in there? Three I think, yes.
:40:54. > :40:59.Four. You can see she's got four in there. She'll start to incubate
:40:59. > :41:01.them and the male will bring food for her all the time she's
:41:01. > :41:07.incubating them. Of course, we'll follow the
:41:07. > :41:12.fortunes of those little owls waul the way through Springwatch for the
:41:12. > :41:16.next three weeks. Back to Chris and Kate -- owls all the way through.
:41:16. > :41:20.An owl fest tonight. Time to introduce a new set of stars for
:41:20. > :41:25.Springwatch, as I mentioned at the top of the show. 200 or 300 metres
:41:25. > :41:29.away down in the woods there, we have our barn owls nesting. We can
:41:29. > :41:34.cut to them live now. There they are. You can see the
:41:34. > :41:38.adult bird is there with a family of four chicks. Looks like the
:41:38. > :41:42.adult bird has just brought some prey in, perhaps. Some food.
:41:42. > :41:46.the chicks are feeding. One of them's got it. Probably just about
:41:46. > :41:50.at the stage where they might be able to swal row that whole. What
:41:50. > :41:54.you will notice is the one on the right looks significantly big tore
:41:54. > :41:59.some of the other ones -- swallow. It's not, Chris, because it's the
:41:59. > :42:03.greediest, is it? No, when she laid her eggs, she started incubating
:42:03. > :42:07.with the first or second egg, meaning that the last egg that got
:42:08. > :42:11.laid has longer to wait and it will hatch later. This is a deliberate
:42:11. > :42:14.ploy. Many birds try to start incubation with the last egg so
:42:14. > :42:19.they hatch at the same time, particularly if they have to leave
:42:19. > :42:23.the nest like ducklings. Owls want a staggered set of sizes because
:42:23. > :42:28.there is a strategy there to make sure that at least one gets out of
:42:28. > :42:31.the nest. To explain what Chris means, we had exactly that story
:42:31. > :42:37.played out on Springwatch a few years ago. We had a barn owl family,
:42:38. > :42:43.it was the last time we had them live in 2007. Originally, there was
:42:43. > :42:48.seven chicks, two died, so we were left with five, and then
:42:48. > :42:53.mysteriously, the male bird disappeared. There was quite a lot
:42:53. > :42:58.of bad weather and the pressure on the female bird to keep feeding
:42:58. > :43:03.those five chicks just became too much. And so, the survival
:43:03. > :43:09.mechanism of having smaller chicks in the same brood became very
:43:09. > :43:14.evident indeed. Have a look at this. This is from 2007 and you can see
:43:14. > :43:19.one of the bigger chicks, I'm afraid, it looks a little gorey,
:43:19. > :43:24.but it's eating its siblings, and this one, cies, was the next one to
:43:24. > :43:27.go -- Chris. Its destiny was to die in the summer time, frankly. It
:43:27. > :43:30.makes sense, you see, because they've got to get their genes into
:43:30. > :43:36.next population, meaning they've got to invest in the biggest chick.
:43:36. > :43:40.It's not unusual. Up to 40% of barn owl chicks in any year, that's a
:43:40. > :43:44.high year, might get eelten by their siblings. This is actually
:43:44. > :43:48.relatively common behaviour -- eaten by their siblings. Let's go
:43:48. > :43:53.back to our barn owls now. We have footage of them feeding, Chris,
:43:53. > :43:56.they seem at the moment to be doing pretty well to be finding plenty of
:43:56. > :44:02.prey animals and so we hope that this scenario won't have to play
:44:02. > :44:06.out again? That's right. We spoke to barn owl expert Colin, he really
:44:06. > :44:11.knows his barn owls and he said it's likely to be a vole year this
:44:11. > :44:20.year. Voles go up and down in their numbers. When there are more of
:44:20. > :44:26.them about, there's more feud for owls. Each one of the chicks will
:44:26. > :44:32.be after four or five voles an evening. Wow. If there are lots of
:44:32. > :44:36.voles about, they all get fed and then the sibling infanticide just
:44:36. > :44:40.isn't playing a major part. Let's hope that doesn't happen. Let's
:44:40. > :44:44.have another look live at the barn owls. These are going to be a
:44:44. > :44:49.family that we hope to be able to follow entirely over the three
:44:49. > :44:55.weeks of the series. While you are enjoying that view, let me say that
:44:55. > :45:03.we've had a lot of questions on the message board about finding small
:45:03. > :45:07.chicks, apparently helpless chicks. A moorhen was found by Mo and Suzie
:45:07. > :45:14.Q has told us about hand-rearing a bluetit. Did they do the right
:45:14. > :45:20.thing? Well, Martin Hughes-games has been to investigate this common
:45:20. > :45:25.string conundrum Out for a walk, it's a beautiful
:45:25. > :45:28.spring day. Suddenly, you hear a rustle in the grass or see
:45:28. > :45:32.something. This is actually happening and it's happened to me.
:45:32. > :45:40.It's a baby animal and looks like it needs help. What are you going
:45:40. > :45:45.to do? You need to think very hard before you decide to pick up a baby
:45:45. > :45:51.animal. You might not think it, but leaving it alone might be the best
:45:51. > :45:54.thing to do. I've come to the RSPCA rescue centre in Somerset, to meet
:45:54. > :45:58.manager Pete and his staff to find out more.
:45:58. > :46:02.So, Pete, we've come here at probably your busiest time of the
:46:02. > :46:07.year? Yes, this is definitely the busy season. It's babyboom really
:46:07. > :46:10.for animals out there, for wildlife. The centres get about a 400%
:46:10. > :46:15.increase in baby animals coming in at this time ofier. Let me put you
:46:15. > :46:19.on the spot now. I rode along on my bike and saw a baby rook at the
:46:19. > :46:23.bottom of the rookry, tiny and I thought, what should I do. What
:46:23. > :46:27.should I have done? First thing to do is watch and see if the bird is
:46:27. > :46:32.in danger and if there's no obvious sign of a parent and no nest that
:46:32. > :46:36.it can be returned to, the best thing to do is to seek advice,
:46:36. > :46:40.failing that, bring it into us, the best place for it to be. So it's a
:46:40. > :46:48.matter of watching and making the right decision. If you are unsure,
:46:48. > :46:51.seek advice from the experts. When it comes to baby birds, if you
:46:51. > :46:54.spend time observing them, you will probably see the parents come in to
:46:54. > :46:59.feed them. Some fledgeles will spend two or three days on the
:46:59. > :47:05.ground before they learn to fly, so they may not have been abandoned at
:47:05. > :47:12.all. That's something animal nurse Ellie West knows only too well.
:47:12. > :47:15.They're beautiful. What's happened to these tauny owl chicks?
:47:15. > :47:19.suspect most should have possibly been left where they were. Because
:47:19. > :47:23.this is a classic one for the mistake of bringing them in isn't
:47:23. > :47:27.it because they sit on branches? Yes, they branch. And people think
:47:27. > :47:31.they've been abandoned but they haven't at all? No, that's the
:47:31. > :47:35.biggest problem. So there are birds here that really shouldn't be. And
:47:35. > :47:40.it's worth remembering that whether they need to be here or not, all
:47:40. > :47:45.these baby birds require a huge amount of work to look after them.
:47:45. > :47:48.How often will this wren have to be fed? At the moment, every 45
:47:48. > :47:51.minutes. Different birds need different food, different feeding
:47:51. > :47:54.times, they're all different, you've got to know exactly what to
:47:54. > :47:57.give them? That's right. It's very important, so therefore it's not so
:47:58. > :48:03.easy for a member of the public that's just picked up a baby bird.
:48:03. > :48:06.How long is a shift? We start add 8am in the morning and finish at
:48:07. > :48:11.9pm in the evening, but certain things like this little wren
:48:11. > :48:14.ideally we are probably going to be taking home and start to feed it
:48:14. > :48:18.about 5am because that's what mum would do. If somebody was to try to
:48:18. > :48:23.do this at home, they wouldn't have a hope, would they? No, it's a lot
:48:23. > :48:28.of hard work. Ellie tells me that over 70% of the baby animals they
:48:28. > :48:33.get here are birds. You will also see baby mammals alone at this time
:48:33. > :48:38.of year. Again, that's not always a bad sign. Newborn deer fawns are
:48:38. > :48:42.left in the long grass by their mums for up to eight hours a day.
:48:42. > :48:45.It's a deliberate strategy to keep them hidden. So deciding if a
:48:45. > :48:48.fawn's been abandoned is no easy task.
:48:48. > :48:51.How did he come into you, this little one? He was found by some
:48:51. > :48:56.members of the public. They heard him crying during the day, they did
:48:56. > :48:59.the right thing, stood away from it. He was in fact left for 24 hours so
:48:59. > :49:02.unfortunately he was still crying, a clear indication that something
:49:02. > :49:09.is wrong, so he was brought into our care.
:49:09. > :49:14.And you have sadly had an xmpl where things didn't go so well
:49:14. > :49:18.recently with a deer? Yes, we had a roe deer, probably about a week old,
:49:18. > :49:24.some members of the public found it and tried to hand feed it
:49:24. > :49:29.themselves and by the time it got to us, it was severely dehigh
:49:29. > :49:33.drailted and sadly that one has to be put down because it wasn't a
:49:33. > :49:37.viable animal -- dehydrated. can see why people do that to help,
:49:37. > :49:42.but it's an expert job? Yes, it's a huge, huge responsibility. But with
:49:42. > :49:47.this little one, looks like he'll be all right? He's doing really
:49:47. > :49:51.well. I know from personal experience just how hard it is if
:49:51. > :49:55.you find an injured or apparently abandoned baby animal. You just
:49:56. > :50:01.want to step in there and try to help. But what we found out today
:50:01. > :50:04.is it's generally better to leave it, just watch the situation,
:50:04. > :50:12.definitely try to get some advice because by the simple act of
:50:12. > :50:17.picking it up, you could be doing more harm than good.
:50:17. > :50:22.Wise words from Martin there. If you are still a bit confused about
:50:22. > :50:28.anything to do with finding apparently abandoned young animals,
:50:28. > :50:33.please go to our website. There's lots of information on there.
:50:33. > :50:39.We've had a fantastic response when it comes to sending in photos. No
:50:39. > :50:44.less than 48,000 have come in to our site, inClaudeing some baby
:50:44. > :50:47.animals. I've got some. This is a glorious one, a fox cub taken by
:50:47. > :50:53.Philip. I love that. This is, I have to say, if you are allowed to
:50:53. > :51:00.have fauf Ritz, I love this one, this is one of lovely wild boor
:51:00. > :51:03.taken by Ben -- favourite. Finally, a fluffy wader, a lapwing chick and
:51:03. > :51:07.it was taken by Julian Sawyer. Thank you very much indeed. I
:51:07. > :51:13.picked out a few that were great photographs in my opinion. This one
:51:13. > :51:17.is a turn, taken by Keith, super picture that one. This one, a bit
:51:17. > :51:22.more interesting than beautiful. These are wasp larvae and were
:51:22. > :51:32.photographed by Trevor and Dilys. Lastly, how about this for a close-
:51:32. > :51:33.
:51:33. > :51:38.up view of an orange tip butter flay's head. Keep the photo shots
:51:38. > :51:43.coming in. Now back to Napdale and to Charlie.
:51:43. > :51:48.Hi, guys. Welcome back to Napdale. Earlier on, I show yod u my
:51:48. > :51:52.favourite piece of beaver engineering, the beaver canal --
:51:52. > :51:56.showed you. We rigged the canal and got some ropey footage of a beaver
:51:56. > :52:02.going up it. But have a lack at this, this is what happened later.
:52:02. > :52:06.Now, this is a beaver out on the land, dragging this huge stick,
:52:06. > :52:09.heaving it across the land, pretty hard work and really, he doesn't
:52:09. > :52:16.want to be doing that. It's not safe, there are predators out there,
:52:16. > :52:20.he wants to be in the water. So, back to the canal. Here is a shot
:52:20. > :52:24.of him using the canal and look, he's heading off down the canal,
:52:24. > :52:29.it's easy, perfect, back to his lock with his food. That's pretty
:52:29. > :52:34.amazing stuff. As much as I love beaver canals, some would say it's
:52:34. > :52:39.not their most impressive thing. Beavers are famous for their
:52:39. > :52:46.ability to entirely change a landscape. Now, how do they do it?
:52:46. > :52:55.Look at this! This used to be a forest, but now it's a lake.
:52:55. > :53:01.The reason is this. This is a beaver dam. It's massive. It's
:53:01. > :53:06.about 15 metres long. And over here, it's about two metres deep. What's
:53:06. > :53:10.amazing about it is that this was made by a rodent. It's quite
:53:10. > :53:15.unbelievable. It's by far the biggest structure I've ever seen an
:53:15. > :53:20.animal build anywhere in the world. So, how do they do it? How does a
:53:20. > :53:26.redon't create this monstrosity? I'll show you. It all started here.
:53:26. > :53:29.Now, this used to be a small Forestry Commission drain. Now,
:53:29. > :53:34.here is the interesting thing about beavers, when they hear trickling
:53:34. > :53:38.water, instinct tells them to stop it. They have to block it. So, just
:53:38. > :53:41.here, they started bunging on big sticks, tree trunks, anything they
:53:41. > :53:45.could get to block the flow and stop that sound of trickling water.
:53:46. > :53:50.Then they started adding smaller sticks and leaves and mud and
:53:50. > :53:55.anything they could get their paws on and behind that grew a pool that
:53:55. > :54:00.started overflowing, so they made it bigger until they ended up with
:54:00. > :54:05.this. This is 1.5 football pitches of water. It's held back by these
:54:05. > :54:08.sticks, these haven't been put here pi people, these have been put here
:54:08. > :54:12.by beavers holding back this vast wall of mud and dirt and anything
:54:12. > :54:16.else they can get their hands on -- put here by people. They're still
:54:16. > :54:20.doing it. This is last night's. I get very excited about this. The
:54:20. > :54:26.ability of an animal to flood its landscape. But, not everyone's as
:54:26. > :54:36.excited as I am about it. I went to meet a farmer who had a few more
:54:36. > :54:38.
:54:38. > :54:44.concerns. Robin, what do you think of
:54:45. > :54:50.beavers? Not a lot. Beefs do several forms of damage, that being
:54:50. > :54:58.one. Another being the lagoons they make, each family unit requires
:54:58. > :55:01.something like a hectare of water. That's a lotment. That's a trainage
:55:01. > :55:06.ditch, I could visualise a dam going there and in time the water
:55:06. > :55:11.blowing up and this lovely bluebell wood being skramped and all the
:55:11. > :55:21.trees here, their roof would be under water and the trees would die,
:55:21. > :55:22.
:55:22. > :55:26.the roots would be drowned -- swamped. It would be like a
:55:26. > :55:31.battlefield. Amageddon! I have a lot of low-lying farmland. I spent
:55:31. > :55:35.my life trying to get rid of water and keep the pasture. The last
:55:35. > :55:39.thing I need is beavers stopping the water going away. So Robin, do
:55:39. > :55:45.you think beavers should be released back into Scotland? That's
:55:45. > :55:50.up to others. I would defend the right of Scottish Wildlife Trust to
:55:50. > :55:55.release beavers as long as they're held on the land belonging to
:55:55. > :56:00.Scottish Wildlife Trust. Once they get out and adversely affect
:56:00. > :56:05.somebody else's land, then that's not so good. This farm has never
:56:05. > :56:10.had beavers and, as far as I'm concerned, it never will.
:56:10. > :56:14.So, clearly this is a subject that's being watched by landowners
:56:14. > :56:19.all across the country who probably have similar concerns to those that
:56:19. > :56:23.Robin aired there. There may be positives though. It's said that
:56:23. > :56:27.beavers can help the environment and help other animals and possibly
:56:27. > :56:33.even help the economy. It's a complex debate and one that we are
:56:33. > :56:38.going to cover in more detail tomorrow. Join us then.
:56:38. > :56:44.It is a complex debate isn't it? Fascinating. Can I just interrupt
:56:44. > :56:48.briefly. I have my copy of Gerald of Wales, his journey through
:56:48. > :56:53.Wales... Never without it! walked through Wales in 1188, a
:56:53. > :56:56.long time ago, and he says "the river has another remarkable
:56:56. > :57:02.peculiarity of all the rivers in Wales, it's the only one where you
:57:02. > :57:06.can find beavers". They had beavers here, wild beavers here in Wales in
:57:06. > :57:11.1188. I hope they're back here by 2088, I have to say. Let's go and
:57:11. > :57:16.do a final check on our lovely redstart family. Let's join them
:57:16. > :57:22.live now. There are the chicks. Looking very Bonnie indeed. Will
:57:22. > :57:27.they go tomorrow or will, as Chris predicted... Thursday. He
:57:27. > :57:34.reckons Thursday. Shall we have a look at the gorgeous herons.
:57:34. > :57:38.Fantastic. Herons with the setting sun with that hair cut. Terdack
:57:38. > :57:46.tolls. Wing flapping. You can keep an eye on the characters by going
:57:46. > :57:49.to the website. That is how you send us your photos and videos and
:57:49. > :57:53.you can get all the information you need. If you have had your finger
:57:53. > :57:57.on the pulse, you would have noticed a sad story of 0 tonne
:57:57. > :58:00.sperm whale washed ashore this morning on Redcar beach. Tomorrow,
:58:00. > :58:06.we are also investigating a stranding of our own where we delve
:58:06. > :58:10.into the physiology of these remarkable animals. We'll also be
:58:10. > :58:14.looking at beautiful, British butterflies and how they're faring
:58:14. > :58:19.this year. We'll be going up and looking into the world of the barn
:58:19. > :58:25.owl. Yes, loots to look forward to. Now, don't forget, 7.30 tomorrow