Episode 2 Springwatch


Episode 2

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Episode 2. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

I offer you a redstart. Raise you a barn owl. Surely a Royal flush of

:00:18.:00:23.

herons will win any hand. Not so fast, my fine friend. I might have

:00:23.:00:27.

a black-and-white ace up my sleeve. But there's no need to gamble at

:00:27.:00:32.

all. True. If you want the best of British wildlife, you are in

:00:33.:00:42.
:00:43.:01:08.

exactly the right place. Stay tune Hello and welcome to Springwatch.

:01:08.:01:13.

Coming to you from the beautiful RSPB reserve at Ynys-hir. Just rook

:01:13.:01:18.

at it. What a fine evening we've got. A bit of sunshine raining down

:01:18.:01:22.

on the hills behind us there. A bit of geography at the start of the

:01:22.:01:26.

show. Let's see where we are. Here is a map of the UK. We are in Wales

:01:26.:01:31.

towards the west central. Zooming in, that's the spot where we are

:01:31.:01:36.

and here is an aeriel view of the whole of the reserve showing its

:01:36.:01:42.

rich array of habitats and all of those home to some fantastic

:01:42.:01:46.

animals. It is. Although we have only done one show so far, the

:01:46.:01:51.

wildlife has completely taken over our lives. Well, there's one family

:01:51.:01:55.

in particular, this one, the great spotted woodpecker family. If you

:01:55.:01:59.

were watching last night, you will have seen two chicks fledge. This

:01:59.:02:04.

is the third. Did it go? Are there any more? We don't know. We'll be

:02:04.:02:07.

finding out a bit later in the programme. We've also got some

:02:07.:02:10.

potentially now great stars for you, stars of Springwatch coming in the

:02:10.:02:14.

form of one of Britain's most favourite animals, barn owls. Take

:02:14.:02:18.

a look at these. We have a nestful of birds here and they've been

:02:18.:02:23.

active over the last few days. so exciting to have barn owls back

:02:23.:02:27.

on Springwatch. There's been a long time since we have had them live in

:02:27.:02:31.

the nest, so something for us all really to enjoy over the next few

:02:31.:02:36.

weeks. Now, we also have one of these. It

:02:36.:02:42.

is of course a badger set. Mr Packham made a prediction about

:02:42.:02:48.

this set last night. Was he right or was he wrong? I was a bit

:02:48.:02:53.

sceptical. Let you know in a few minutes' time. But I can be

:02:53.:02:56.

absolutely certain that Charlie Hamilton-James has got to grips

:02:56.:03:03.

with some of Britain's most exciting new mammals up in Scotland.

:03:03.:03:10.

All right, guys, I'm investigating the first official trial

:03:10.:03:14.

reintroduction of beavers. We have some cracking stuff lined up for

:03:14.:03:21.

you tonight so come back to us. We certainly will. Now, let's start

:03:21.:03:28.

with one of our new families, the great spotted woodpecker. Let's go

:03:28.:03:33.

great spotted woodpecker. Let's go straight to the nest now. There's

:03:33.:03:37.

nothing there at all! But... Just teasing us, one of the chicks. Now,

:03:38.:03:43.

Chris, when we were watching them yesterday, we saw the adult birds

:03:43.:03:49.

feeding and tempting out these very grown-up looking chicks, two of

:03:49.:03:53.

them fledged, but we actually have no idea how many chicks are in that

:03:53.:04:00.

nest. No, we haven't, no. There is a narrow diameter to the hole, only

:04:00.:04:05.

one chick can get out at a time. There are six, maybe seven out

:04:05.:04:09.

there. Two came out, another is visible, so there are three, but

:04:09.:04:12.

could be even more inside. I've got to tell you, it's not a pleasant

:04:12.:04:16.

place inside that nest. Really? the adults don't remove the foetal

:04:16.:04:20.

sacks, so you are looking at two weeks potentially of perhaps six

:04:20.:04:24.

baby wood peckers pooing away. That's not clean, like many of the

:04:24.:04:29.

nes we've seen so far. So you would think that the chicks would be

:04:29.:04:33.

absolutely desperate to go out. -- nests. We have had our cameras

:04:33.:04:38.

fixed on the nests all day. This is what happened earlier. We saw the

:04:38.:04:42.

two fledglings from yesterday and I'd asked you, Chris, whether the

:04:42.:04:46.

adults would be able to cope with having chicks in two separate

:04:46.:04:49.

places. They don't go too far and they make a lot of noise. It's very

:04:49.:04:53.

easy. That was the second one leading. That was the third bird

:04:53.:04:57.

leaving, immediately another one's head appeared so we knew there were

:04:57.:05:02.

four in there. It's almost like a conveyor belt, one goes, the next

:05:02.:05:06.

pops out. This could run and run because we don't have any idea how

:05:06.:05:10.

many chicks are in there, you don't know how many chicks are in there,

:05:10.:05:14.

so keep your eyes on the wood peckers and we'll try and get a

:05:14.:05:18.

final count at some point later today, tomorrow, who knows. We have

:05:18.:05:21.

another species though which we met yesterday. For my money, one of the

:05:21.:05:25.

best looking birds in Britain. It joins us for the summer from Africa.

:05:25.:05:29.

It's the redstart and here is a view inside one of the nest boxs

:05:29.:05:33.

with a family of redstarts, six chicks in there, not far off

:05:33.:05:37.

fledging actually. It's a real shame because we've never had this

:05:37.:05:41.

species on Springwatch before. It is a shame that we've come in quite

:05:41.:05:45.

late in their development but we are getting wonderful views of the

:05:45.:05:48.

adult birds there and great views of just how quickly they develop.

:05:48.:05:51.

You saw the adult taking out that foetal sack there and how clean the

:05:51.:05:55.

nest was to contrast it with the conditions inside the woodpecker.

:05:55.:05:59.

Beautiful male. A stunning bird. Look at the wing flapping going on

:05:59.:06:03.

here. My goodness. I don't think this one is even trying to fledge.

:06:03.:06:07.

It's trying to do this, look. It's getting itself into an optimum

:06:07.:06:11.

position to get the food first. It can see the food coming in the

:06:11.:06:18.

entrance with its parents so it's hopped up to have the first go at

:06:18.:06:22.

it. Such extreme confirm tition. They will all successfully fledge,

:06:22.:06:29.

but it's a case of who gets fattest first to get out -- extreme

:06:29.:06:32.

competition. That's the nest box you can see against the tree.

:06:32.:06:37.

Inside, we can see the chicks all looking still quite alert, Chris,

:06:37.:06:41.

despite the fact it's late in the evening. Yes, it's not that cold

:06:41.:06:45.

here, quite a few insects still active and the adults have been

:06:45.:06:48.

visiting many times during the course of an hour. Look how quickly

:06:48.:06:53.

they've grown. Since yesterday, they've lost all traces of down now

:06:53.:06:57.

and the flight feathers are getting ever stronger. Could they go

:06:57.:07:02.

tomorrow? Well, I'm not a gambling man, Kate, but I would say that if

:07:02.:07:07.

they don't go tomorrow, they'll go Thursday. I think I'm going to put,

:07:07.:07:11.

yes, Thursday, Thursday. Not a gambling man but I say Thursday.

:07:11.:07:16.

He's not a gambling man for a jolly good reason. Because yesterday, Mr

:07:16.:07:22.

Packham made a very wise, considered wildlife prediction.

:07:22.:07:28.

Look at it. Absolutely derelict. I would never met on a badger turning

:07:28.:07:34.

up there in a million years... was Mr Packham, our own Mr Packham,

:07:34.:07:38.

badger expert, talking about our very own badger set. Let's go live

:07:38.:07:43.

to that badger set now. Martin, I really want you to be with me to

:07:43.:07:47.

bear witness to this moment. sorry, Chris. There we are live.

:07:47.:07:51.

Shall we have a look at the other view. Always going to be empty for

:07:51.:07:57.

a million years. Yes, it is. So, we could obviously have listened to

:07:57.:08:01.

Chris and gaveen up on the cameras on the set and maybe put the

:08:01.:08:04.

cameras somewhere else. But something just told us, no, just

:08:04.:08:09.

leave them be. Good job. Look what happened at 11 o'clock last night.

:08:09.:08:15.

What do you think this is, Martin? It's a sort of stripey thing isn't

:08:15.:08:21.

it. Black-and-white?! Could be a fox, stripey fox. A bit squat,

:08:21.:08:29.

hairy. Tiny bit familiar to me. think it could be...... Wait a

:08:29.:08:34.

minute. What's this?! It could be a badger!? Has a million years passed

:08:34.:08:39.

since yesterday to today, have we been in a time warp? Maybe it was a

:08:39.:08:47.

fluke, maybe not a badger at all. Hang on, a second badger. Entering

:08:47.:08:50.

a derelict set. There was never going to be any badger activity.

:08:50.:08:56.

Isn't it great to see? Great to see! Isn't it, Chris?

:08:56.:09:01.

It really is, yes. I've never ever been so pleased to see any badgers

:09:01.:09:07.

in all of my life! So, if you would like to continue... What's that?

:09:07.:09:12.

Humble pie. Just in case he wants a slice. A slice of Humble pie. Can I

:09:12.:09:17.

make a point about the badgers. quick one? I would suggest the set

:09:17.:09:21.

isn't terribly busy hence the derelict look to it. These are

:09:21.:09:24.

probably visiting badgers. The second one looked like a cub, so

:09:24.:09:26.

they're probably coming from another part of their territory

:09:26.:09:32.

popping by, the chances of seeing them again are... Well, I'll leave

:09:32.:09:35.

that out. Whatever he thinks, I would suggest you keep an eye on

:09:35.:09:41.

the webcams, they keep running until midnight and start again at

:09:41.:09:47.

4am. I'm going to bet one thing. You won't see a tyrannosaurus Rex

:09:47.:09:52.

arrive at that badger set in a million years! You've blown it.

:09:52.:09:57.

Martin's got a quiz for us. Last night's quiz was successful,

:09:57.:10:00.

reliked it. We'll try another one which is germane to tonight's

:10:00.:10:07.

programme. It's a sound quiz. Have a listen to this sound, please. And

:10:07.:10:14.

again. Do you know what that sound is? Get on the website, get on

:10:14.:10:18.

Twitter and you can get on our Facebook site and tell us what you

:10:18.:10:22.

think that sound is. I've got to go to another part of the reserve.

:10:22.:10:26.

Catch up with you down the magic television line. You are not going

:10:26.:10:33.

to make it. I am, just talk slowly. Egg all over my face and badger

:10:33.:10:37.

down my trousers, so I'm doing a walk of shame over here. I studied

:10:37.:10:41.

badgers for five years, you know. There's the buggy and there goes

:10:41.:10:49.

Kate and the team. Bye, see you in a bit. Drive safely. If you were

:10:49.:10:53.

watching last night, you will know that we have invited some guest

:10:53.:11:00.

natralists to be with us. Charlie Hamilton-James joins us today. He's

:11:00.:11:03.

in Argyleshire in Scotland. Let's zoom in on south-western Scotland.

:11:03.:11:07.

Right the way in. This is where he is. What I like about this is the

:11:07.:11:12.

detail. Last night he was here, but we've tracked him and we know he's

:11:12.:11:17.

here on the side of the lock. He's in pursuit of another mammal,

:11:17.:11:22.

having a bit more luck than me, I hope, Charlie.

:11:22.:11:30.

Yes, it's actually raining! Welcome back to the Napdale forest in the

:11:30.:11:35.

heart of rainy Argyleshire. I came up here with the Springwatch team

:11:35.:11:38.

to reacquaint the British public with a creature that was once

:11:38.:11:43.

extinct here, but now is back. It's the beaver. We've joined up with

:11:44.:11:48.

the Scottish beaver trial team to get to know them again, to get our

:11:48.:11:55.

hands on one. We even went out and caught one. So, what have we got in

:11:55.:11:58.

store tonight? Well, we need to film beavers, that's why we are

:11:58.:12:02.

here, so we have been out, they come out at night, very secretive

:12:02.:12:08.

and nocturnal, so we've rigged the place with infrared lights and

:12:08.:12:11.

cameras so we can see what they are doing and they can't see us. We got

:12:12.:12:16.

a shot of Christian the beaver trying to fell a tree. Now, did he

:12:16.:12:26.
:12:26.:12:36.

fell the tree or get squashed by OK, we are picking up where we left

:12:36.:12:39.

off yesterday, look. Christian, stop. He's been beavering away.

:12:39.:12:42.

He's listening for creeking. What he doesn't want to happen is, he

:12:42.:12:47.

doesn't want that tree to fall on him and squash him. Quite a decent

:12:47.:12:50.

sized tree, this. And it's very Stiltonite, so there's no wind to

:12:51.:12:54.

assist the felling. He's got to do all the hard work himself. What

:12:54.:12:59.

he's doing is, he's trying to cut the tree so that it falls into the

:12:59.:13:03.

water because it's safer and easier for him to have the tree in the

:13:03.:13:07.

water. He's almost through it, hanging on by a thread. He's got to

:13:07.:13:14.

be really careful now. Oh, there it goes. Look at the speed of him!

:13:14.:13:18.

Never seen a beaver move so fast. But the tree missed him, he just

:13:18.:13:24.

got out the way in time. If you look back, here it goes. Catches

:13:24.:13:29.

him completely by surprise. Leaps back really fast and then just gets

:13:29.:13:34.

out of the way as fast as he can into the safety of the water. And

:13:34.:13:40.

he just gets away with it. But now it's in the perfect position for

:13:40.:13:45.

him to get in there safely and start eating the leaves in the

:13:45.:13:50.

water. That's brilliant. It's the first

:13:50.:13:56.

time anyone's ever filmed a British beaver felling a tree. But, wasn't

:13:56.:14:00.

very close, we didn't really see what was going on, what was

:14:00.:14:04.

Christian doing? We didn't really see the physiology of Christian's

:14:04.:14:09.

jaws, as he cut down that tree. So, we invited along Simon Jones, who's

:14:09.:14:13.

the project manager of the Scottish Beaver Trial, to go through this

:14:13.:14:23.
:14:23.:14:26.

footage and show us exactly what's Simon, we know that beavers chop

:14:26.:14:31.

trees down. Can you explain to me exactly how they do it? They have

:14:31.:14:35.

really perfectly designed teeth for cutting wood. Incredible incisors

:14:35.:14:39.

which the front covers, as you can see, is orange, which is hard

:14:39.:14:45.

enamel. Behind is a softer den teen. It erodes at a slightly different

:14:45.:14:52.

rate, so as the beaver bites and chews, the harder eman Elle create

:14:52.:14:58.

this is natural chisel front on it. And that's sharp isn't it? How is

:14:58.:15:04.

that working on a tree stump like this, say? The top teeth are used

:15:04.:15:08.

more as a grip and it's the bottom incisors that do the cutting.

:15:08.:15:12.

can see all the tree felling is good for Christian, the beef, and

:15:12.:15:17.

his buddies. But how is it benefitting the trees -- beavers.

:15:17.:15:20.

That tree doesn't look very benefitted to me? Fair enough, but

:15:20.:15:26.

we have to remember that millions of years worth of evolution's given

:15:26.:15:30.

this tree the ability to regenerate. This tree will regrow. In the

:15:30.:15:34.

process, it's opened up a hole in the canopy which creates a

:15:34.:15:38.

different habitat for other wildlife that can use these little

:15:38.:15:44.

coppice areas within the forest. What species will benefit from this

:15:44.:15:47.

more open woodland habitat? Because there will be higher temperatures

:15:47.:15:57.
:15:57.:15:57.

in here, the ininvert grate braits do well. -- invertebrates do well.

:15:57.:16:02.

This regrowth is important for the birds. It's a temporary woodland

:16:02.:16:05.

created by beaver coppicing and over time, it will close up again,

:16:05.:16:11.

but a new glaid will be created somewhere else a they work round

:16:11.:16:19.

the water's edge -- glaid. -- glade. It might not all be doom and gloom

:16:19.:16:22.

if you happen to be a tree that's been eaten by a beaver. I hope some

:16:22.:16:27.

of you at home learn how you can chop a tree down with your teeth if

:16:27.:16:31.

you don't happen to have a chainsaw or axe handy. Right, once the

:16:31.:16:37.

beaver's felled his tree, the first thing he wants to do is eat it. We

:16:38.:16:40.

have some gorgeous intimate close- up shots of them doing exactly that.

:16:40.:16:43.

Come back to us in a bit and we'll show you them.

:16:43.:16:48.

Thank you very much, Charlie. Now, I've made it, just, from the studio

:16:48.:16:53.

to quite the other side of the reserve absolutely spectacular spot

:16:53.:16:57.

here. This line of oak trees has proved very productive for us. We

:16:57.:17:07.
:17:07.:17:08.

have got a buzzard nest which I think we can go to live now. We are

:17:08.:17:11.

seeing chick and adult, both of them. Lovely. If we go to the end

:17:11.:17:18.

of the oak trees, you can possibly see a little black dot there at the

:17:18.:17:26.

end and that is our river cam just inland from that, there is another

:17:26.:17:30.

camera on a really handsome bird. Let's go to it live. It's the

:17:30.:17:35.

oystercatcher. One of the adults there. They're brooding two eggs.

:17:35.:17:38.

We were a bit worried because one of the adults has a limp and we

:17:38.:17:42.

thought that would make it very easy to be pre-dateed and if that

:17:42.:17:45.

happened, sadly those eggs would fail, but the good news is, both

:17:46.:17:50.

adults have been seen on and off that nest all day. But the real

:17:50.:17:54.

reason that I've made this epic journey is to come and meet up with

:17:54.:18:00.

Nigel Bean, one of our mini camera team and, you have managed, the

:18:00.:18:04.

team has managed, to crack a really great first for Springwatch this

:18:04.:18:09.

year? We have. It's herons just nesting in these oaks over here.

:18:09.:18:15.

what is it that makes herons and getting cameras on a heron's nest

:18:15.:18:18.

so challenging? For a start, they're high up, they nest very

:18:18.:18:22.

early in the season and it would be very easy to disturb them, to turn

:18:22.:18:27.

up when they're already nesting. So So we've had to go in very early.

:18:27.:18:30.

How early? Mid-February in this case. Right. I think we got some

:18:30.:18:33.

footage of you and the team starting to rig this nest. Let's

:18:34.:18:37.

have a look at that. So you can see a very wintry scene there. Those

:18:37.:18:42.

blobs up in the tree, are those the heron nests? They are, yes. You can

:18:42.:18:47.

see the wonderful dummy camera which we put in early on some

:18:47.:18:51.

camera mounts so that hopefully the birds will get used to them when

:18:51.:18:54.

they arrive. The birds aren't using this at this stage. You are putting

:18:54.:18:58.

these cameras in and the birds can come in, see these weird black

:18:58.:19:03.

blobs and thinking, they're fine, nothing to worry about? Exactly.

:19:03.:19:08.

And did that little bit of intrigue work? Well, it seems to have.

:19:08.:19:11.

Yes, we have got them live for the first time, so really pleased.

:19:11.:19:16.

is brilliant. What did you do? You had to go up and take the dummy

:19:16.:19:21.

cameras away and replace them with actual cameras? Exactly. Because

:19:21.:19:27.

we'd done the work, it was simple, we had take the dummies off, run

:19:27.:19:30.

the cables and let them do their thing. Fingers crossed. So you

:19:30.:19:35.

think that at this very moment, we could go live to a heronry for the

:19:35.:19:40.

first time ever on Springwatch? hope so! Well, Chris and Martin,

:19:40.:19:46.

are you there? Can you see me? We can. Here we are. Let's all

:19:46.:19:51.

witness this together, let's go live to the heronry. Yeah!

:19:51.:19:58.

Fantastic. Look at that. What a fantastic sight. Little halos

:19:58.:20:03.

around them with the light. Beautiful birds. When I heard we

:20:03.:20:08.

were going to do this, this got me going. Up trees, what are herons

:20:08.:20:13.

doing up trees? These are a couple of youngsters, the one closest to

:20:13.:20:18.

you has the devil's hair cut. rock outfits. Looks a tiny bit

:20:18.:20:25.

familiar, mate! It is, yes, that was me in the '70s and '80s and

:20:25.:20:33.

'90s. There are 1,300 henonrys in the UK and 13,000 fair pairs of

:20:33.:20:38.

them. Because they are easy to find and count, always in heronrys, they

:20:38.:20:43.

were one of the first group of birds that will have been censused

:20:43.:20:48.

over time, so we have watched the numbers fluctuate. They don't like

:20:48.:20:51.

hard winters. Let's see what was happening in this very henonry over

:20:51.:20:58.

the last few months. Here is where it is. You can see it's in this oak

:20:58.:21:05.

tree. This is a dentry... They started nesting when it was very

:21:05.:21:08.

much alive because they like to choose trees which provide them

:21:08.:21:13.

with some shelter. You can see the cameras which are looking at the

:21:13.:21:16.

birds. They know there is no leaves and the weather we've been having,

:21:16.:21:20.

it's very, very exposed. Yes and the number of herons nesting here

:21:20.:21:25.

has gone down over the years. In 2004, there were 12, now there's

:21:25.:21:34.

only four active nests there. Here is a nest with some young one doing

:21:34.:21:37.

wing-flapping exercises. We are seeing a lot of wing-flapping

:21:37.:21:40.

exercises. We have been watching some of the nests can greater

:21:41.:21:44.

detail. Let's take alike at one that we have stuck our camera into

:21:44.:21:49.

in the last month or so. Wow, what a view! Here are the chicks. One of

:21:49.:21:53.

the four chicks. One of them is very small. Yes, the one on the

:21:53.:22:00.

left. That's typical because they will lay five eggs, up to five eggs,

:22:00.:22:05.

but the survival rate can be incredibly low, you know, 40% of

:22:05.:22:08.

those birds might perish. That's not unusual. It's basically the one

:22:08.:22:12.

that's the largest one gets most of the food, the idea is to get one of

:22:12.:22:17.

them out of the nest successfully. There's bullying here. They look

:22:18.:22:24.

like dinosaurs, pteradactyls, fantastic. Stunning. They probably

:22:24.:22:28.

act them them as well. This is grabbing the beak of the adult to

:22:28.:22:31.

get it to regurgitate the food into the nest. Here is the adult trying

:22:31.:22:36.

to avoid being grabbed by the youngsters by holding its beak up.

:22:36.:22:41.

It's so violent. We don't surely have to go through this? We do,

:22:41.:22:44.

it's just that when they're teenagers, they're grabbing your

:22:44.:22:47.

wallet instead. They want to get that adult to regurgitate the

:22:47.:22:52.

valuable food that it might have flown up to 30 kilometres away to

:22:52.:22:58.

collect. 30 kilometres? 10-30 kilometres, yes, probably not here

:22:58.:23:02.

because there is a wide estuary for them to forage over. But if they

:23:02.:23:06.

are in an isolated henonry, they will fly that far. It's essential

:23:06.:23:11.

that that food gets to the young. If it were to be regurgitated in a

:23:11.:23:15.

fracas, it could go over the side, so they want to get the adult to

:23:15.:23:20.

regurgitate it right there in the cup of the nest so they can grab it.

:23:20.:23:26.

That's what the beak grabbing is about. So that acts like a bowl.

:23:26.:23:31.

Then they peck the feathers off the head and it looks shabby, pretty

:23:31.:23:35.

rough to grow up with. Over the last few weeks, Kate,

:23:35.:23:39.

Martin and myself have met a great number of fantastic natralists.

:23:39.:23:46.

Yesterday, we met Mark ef regard, a man who likes his fish. Today I'll

:23:46.:23:51.

introduce you to an extraordinary lady, Sylvia She wouldon, she lives

:23:51.:24:01.
:24:01.:24:01.

in the countryside, where I went to meet her -- Sylvia Sheldon. # Go

:24:01.:24:05.

wild in the country # Where snakes in the grass

:24:05.:24:11.

# Are absolutely free... # Those were the days, go wild in the

:24:11.:24:15.

country where the snakes in the grass are absolutely free. If only

:24:15.:24:19.

it were true. We only have three species of snake in the UK and

:24:19.:24:24.

pretty much all are in trouble today I've come to a quiet corner

:24:24.:24:31.

of the West Midlands to meet a lady who is a true champion of the adder.

:24:31.:24:35.

The adder is Britain's only venomous snake and has very few

:24:35.:24:40.

friends among the general public. Yet it's a very secretive snake and

:24:40.:24:45.

adder bites on humans are rare. Their striking zig-zag patterning

:24:45.:24:48.

helps them blend into their favourite habitat, but it's also

:24:48.:24:53.

now being used to help identify individuals. It's as unique to an

:24:53.:24:56.

adder as a fingerprint is to a human. This remarkable discovery

:24:56.:25:05.

was one of the insites into the snake's world made by 74-year-old

:25:05.:25:10.

Sylvia Sheldon. How did you get into adders? I started

:25:11.:25:15.

photographing them, cutting their heads out and sticking them in this

:25:15.:25:19.

ancient little book. I was aware that they were very individual.

:25:19.:25:23.

many do you think you have identified over the years? Hundreds.

:25:23.:25:29.

Joo they're all different? Yes. I've got to say that this is one of

:25:29.:25:33.

the most incredible documents I've ever had the privilege to handle. I

:25:33.:25:36.

was once able to handle some of Darwin's notes and Wallace's

:25:36.:25:42.

specimens, but this is right up there, it really is. It's so

:25:42.:25:45.

obviously a fantastic work of natural history. You must never

:25:45.:25:52.

ever lose this. This must be handed down through generations. It's

:25:52.:26:02.

absolutely exquisite. Do you have a favourite adder? Years ago, we had

:26:02.:26:07.

Pawn, followed him for years. ago I had porn but my mother threw

:26:07.:26:14.

it away. Now it's time for adder mastermind. Oh, yes. Think you know

:26:14.:26:24.
:26:24.:26:27.

your adders? I do. That's Marie. Marie is correct. And that is Hue.

:26:27.:26:32.

And that's broken birch male. Superb. Thank you very much. I'm

:26:32.:26:42.

going to test you now on punk rock albums. What a slippery customer.

:26:42.:26:52.
:26:52.:26:54.

Once upon a time, the singles. done. It's the Jam. Oh, right.

:26:54.:27:01.

Mod Cons. Well done. Ten out of ten. Surely we are both feeling pretty

:27:01.:27:05.

smug now. I think we should be. Shall we go and see some snakes?

:27:05.:27:11.

Yes. It took no time at all for Sylvia to lead me to one of her

:27:11.:27:17.

study snakes. Yes, this is Marie. Only a young female. Could be a

:27:17.:27:24.

first breed here. How old is young? Six-and-a-half. If six-and-a-half

:27:24.:27:30.

is young, how old is old? oldest one we have on the site, I

:27:30.:27:38.

think he's about 32. I first recognised her in 1984 when she was

:27:38.:27:43.

mature. Beautiful creature, don't you think? Stunning. Sylvia's

:27:43.:27:49.

dedication is infectious and it's rubbed off on her grandson and her

:27:49.:27:53.

close friend Chris. They've joined her in a new project to radio tag

:27:53.:27:56.

some of the best-known snakes and map their daily movements.

:27:57.:28:01.

Interpreting the maps is helping reveal much, much more about how

:28:01.:28:06.

adders use their habitat. So it started under this tree? Yes, went

:28:06.:28:11.

up here and was mating and combating. This is quite a

:28:11.:28:16.

traveller, the Marco Polo of adders. This is also a unique opportunity

:28:16.:28:21.

because we can get underneath the skin of the adder. That's right.

:28:21.:28:24.

And we charter that course ourselves, can't we. We can. Let's

:28:24.:28:30.

see what happens. Right. This is remarkable because it's going from

:28:30.:28:35.

what I would call adder habitat into, look, oak woodland...

:28:35.:28:43.

woodland, yes. This is the pond here, he crossed over the stream

:28:43.:28:47.

further up. Yes, this project's given us so much information about

:28:47.:28:54.

the habitat that adders will use. Really, it's going to help a lot

:28:54.:28:58.

with manage. -- management in the future, we hope. I hope so.

:28:58.:29:03.

Sylvia's work and the insight into adder life it's revealing is truly

:29:03.:29:10.

worthy of geek status, so I struck a deal involving a cup of tea and a

:29:10.:29:17.

stuffed oodle. You kept your side of the bargain, a fine cup of tea.

:29:17.:29:22.

Here is mine, the very prestigious geek award, you can make your

:29:22.:29:27.

acceptance speech now, I'll sit back and enjoy it. Oh, I feel very

:29:27.:29:32.

privileged to have Mr Scratchy. stoodious one. Very privileged to

:29:32.:29:42.

have this award. Thank you, Chris. What an amazing lady. She is

:29:42.:29:47.

absolutely amazing. I couldn't believe... Welcome back. This

:29:47.:29:54.

reserve is so huge. Wasn't that heronry amazing. Yes, I've been

:29:55.:29:58.

looking forward to seeing that. How could she have identifyed the

:29:58.:30:02.

adders from the pictures? I couldn't believe it. To me, every

:30:02.:30:06.

adder I've met got exactly the same. We didn't fake it, she knows all of

:30:06.:30:12.

them. I suppose to an adder, me and you will look very similar. Smell

:30:12.:30:20.

very different. Snakes? Yes, we have reptiles here and here is here.

:30:20.:30:26.

This is an area just outside the reserve and Lynn zirbgs one of the

:30:27.:30:34.

wildlife cameramen spotted this -- Lynsey, one of the female cameramen

:30:34.:30:38.

-- wildlife cameramen spotted this. Surprisingly, one of the birds has

:30:38.:30:42.

been having a snake bite, or in fact the bite of a snake. This is

:30:42.:30:48.

the buzzard. Now, they feed a lot on amphibians and have a broad diet.

:30:48.:30:51.

Occasionally, given the opportunity, they will take snake, not only

:30:51.:30:56.

grass snakes but also adders too, obviously without being affected by

:30:57.:31:06.
:31:07.:31:07.

the vemen. This one is enjoying the grass snake, I'm not sure I'm

:31:07.:31:13.

enjoying it. Like a noodle. This was like a bonanza. If the snakes

:31:13.:31:17.

come out in the morning and they're cool, basking in the early sun, the

:31:17.:31:22.

buzzard sees it, it's an easy catch. That's true. There are other

:31:22.:31:27.

species which specialise in taking snakes. So the buzzard is actively

:31:27.:31:32.

hunting, not picking up a dead one, it's actively hunting and nailing

:31:32.:31:36.

them? Let's go to them live. I wanted to show you something, Chris,

:31:36.:31:40.

I noticed, just looking at the nest. It's got a lot of new green leaves

:31:40.:31:46.

in it. They weren't there yesterday. Oak leaves I think. Yes. This is

:31:46.:31:50.

typical of some raptor species. They decorate their nest with fresh

:31:51.:31:54.

greenery, not to make them look good, we think it's because the

:31:54.:31:57.

leaves contain substances which control the parasite population in

:31:57.:32:03.

their young. So oak leaves here have a lot of what we call tannins,

:32:03.:32:06.

not very edible for the caterpillars that try and eat the

:32:06.:32:10.

leaves. Perhaps if they get trampled around the nest, they

:32:10.:32:14.

release something and that keeps the insects down, that's the theory.

:32:14.:32:20.

We should try it out here for midges. Let's see and remind

:32:20.:32:23.

ourselves about that sound, that quiz that we were having. Let's

:32:23.:32:31.

hear it once again, please. Has anyone been getting us right? Got

:32:31.:32:40.

any, Becky? Let's have a look. Becky?! Wait a minute. Wrong, lots

:32:40.:32:47.

of people think a curlew. Kate Derwent on Twitter and Ian on Blog

:32:47.:32:57.
:32:57.:32:58.

thinks it's a different species. sounds a bit like a wader. I can

:32:58.:33:04.

understand why someone went for curlew. Those pipers have that call.

:33:04.:33:11.

It's an introduced animal and is quite small. We've seen the grass

:33:11.:33:16.

snakes being eaten by buzzards. Now we'll go over to the eating habits

:33:16.:33:19.

of the beaver with Charlie Hamilton-James in Scotland. Tell us

:33:19.:33:24.

about their table manners, mate? Well, haven't got many. Welcome

:33:24.:33:28.

back to Napdale. We have been filming beavers doing all the

:33:28.:33:32.

things that they do, chopping down trees, working hard, I think the

:33:32.:33:37.

phrase is beavering away. But, all of this hard work makes them hungry.

:33:37.:33:41.

Now, a beaver can get through up to four tonnes of plant material a

:33:41.:33:47.

year. That's a hell of a lot. That's the difficult of four

:33:47.:33:51.

Springwatch Land Rovers in food. So, how do they process it all, how do

:33:51.:33:56.

you deal with four tonnes of leaves and sticks? We got sigh moan Jones

:33:56.:34:01.

from the Scottish Broofr Triel Scheme back to have a look at the

:34:01.:34:06.

footage and to explain how they do it -- Scottish Beaver Trial. Simon,

:34:06.:34:13.

here is the footage we've got. Nice big juicy close-ups for you to look

:34:13.:34:20.

at. This beaver is looking for aspen leaves. They are really

:34:20.:34:24.

palatable. Something like an oak leaf which beavers don't like very

:34:24.:34:32.

much, they have tannins, toxic compounds that plants have evolved

:34:32.:34:42.
:34:42.:34:44.

to protect themselves from beefs. So it's like a sweet cup of tea

:34:44.:34:49.

compared to a builders' cup of tea. So it's the same for beavers as

:34:49.:34:55.

it's for us. Coming to another area, having a sniff around. There's an

:34:55.:34:59.

aspen leaf there. This is interesting. You can see, this is

:34:59.:35:03.

actually the little finger on a beaver acts like a thumb. It allows

:35:03.:35:09.

the beaver to grip and turn, which is an essential skill for it to be

:35:09.:35:13.

able to manipulate that closely. So see that little finger has been

:35:13.:35:17.

used again to grip this branch. Checking it, as it goes, and

:35:17.:35:24.

nibbling it as it goes. Little twig here. It will nip the twig off,

:35:24.:35:29.

feeds it into its mouth in one go, like a bread stick effectively.

:35:29.:35:34.

Sometimes beavers wash the food as well. That's a great shot, it's

:35:34.:35:38.

nipped it in half and it's effectively got two bread sticks

:35:38.:35:42.

and it's feeding in bigger stuff. It will strip the bark off. It's

:35:42.:35:45.

checking along because that's had the bark stripped off it already.

:35:45.:35:48.

It's made its way to tend of the branch and the beaver will rotate

:35:48.:35:52.

that branch around, a bit like us eating a corn on the cob or

:35:52.:35:56.

something, and it will peel the bark off and eat that. Fantastic

:35:56.:36:03.

footage. Really, really good. Thanks, Simon. I never knew eating

:36:03.:36:07.

leaves was such a precise art. We have been making it easy for the

:36:07.:36:13.

beefs here by giving them their favourite food, aspen -- beavers.

:36:13.:36:18.

But it's not always easy to find food if you're a beaver, but where

:36:18.:36:25.

there's a will, there's very very often usually a way. Nowadays,

:36:25.:36:29.

canals are generally just used for pleasure, but in the past, they

:36:29.:36:36.

were vital for transporting goods all around the country. They were

:36:36.:36:43.

an extraordinary feat of human engineering. This is the remarkable

:36:43.:36:48.

feat of beaver engineering. This is a beaver canal. The beavers have

:36:48.:36:51.

created it to transport goods around their territory. Exactly

:36:51.:36:59.

what we used to do when we built canals. Now, when you look at these

:36:59.:37:02.

canals in detail, you realise just how complicated they are. This

:37:02.:37:06.

looks just like a big pile of sticks, but it's not. It's a mini

:37:06.:37:11.

dam, essentially a lock gate. It's holding water back here. You can

:37:11.:37:15.

see there they've built the sides up and created a pool. This is

:37:15.:37:19.

flooding right back into the forest which is allowing them to go up

:37:19.:37:22.

into the forest to feed and allowing them safe passage back

:37:23.:37:28.

down their canal with their cargo. Of all the things that beavers do,

:37:28.:37:33.

to me personally, this canal building is the most fascinating,

:37:33.:37:37.

because to have that foresight to be able to manage your landscape

:37:37.:37:41.

like that in flood areas of forest when you are a massive rodent, I

:37:41.:37:45.

find quite extraordinary. I'm going to get some camera traps out there

:37:45.:37:50.

and see if we can get some shots of them actually building their canal

:37:50.:38:00.
:38:00.:38:10.

Aren't those canals just a bit cool. We got all the camera traps out,

:38:10.:38:13.

they're a bit ropey because of the camera trap, but they revealed what

:38:13.:38:19.

we wanted to see, the beavers using their canals. Now, look at this guy.

:38:19.:38:24.

He's going up the canal. That's what we want. It's about 8.30 at

:38:24.:38:28.

night, so it's not quite dark, he's out early because they're usually

:38:28.:38:32.

nocturnal. He's come up to this dam. I say the dam, this is the big pile

:38:32.:38:37.

of sticks I showed you earlier. He's inspecting it, checking it's

:38:37.:38:41.

still intact. If it's not, he's going to fix it. He wants to go up

:38:41.:38:48.

into the forest beyond into that water above his gate. And there he

:38:48.:38:53.

goes. Now, looks promising. He's gone into the woods, but is he

:38:53.:38:58.

going to get a branch and bring it back down the canal. Well, wait and

:38:58.:39:01.

see. Absolutely extraordinary stuff from

:39:01.:39:05.

Charlie. I had no idea that beavers were such engineers, high doe

:39:05.:39:10.

engineers, is that the right word?! Anyway, let's resolve our quiz.

:39:10.:39:20.

Let's hear the sound once more. OK. Now, on the blog, Craig R got it

:39:20.:39:26.

right, on Twitter rosy got it right and on Facebook Gill got it right.

:39:26.:39:28.

It is of course a little owl. Well done.

:39:28.:39:33.

We'll have a bit of an owl fest tonight. I'm going to start off

:39:33.:39:37.

with my personal favourite, the little owl.

:39:37.:39:42.

The little owl really is little. Only about seven inches high.

:39:42.:39:47.

They're not native to the UK, they were introduced in the 1870s and

:39:47.:39:51.

1880s and they're visible because they sit on top of telegraph poles

:39:51.:39:54.

and things, even during daylight. We have been luck you in you have

:39:54.:39:58.

to catch up with Emily who's doing a research project at Reading

:39:58.:40:04.

university. What she's doing is, trying to fit cameras into the nest

:40:04.:40:09.

boxes so we can get a really intimate view of their private

:40:09.:40:12.

lives, something we have been trying to do for years actually.

:40:13.:40:19.

And here we are, right inside the nest with a little owl. And so now,

:40:19.:40:24.

let's catch up with the very latest news and see what's happened.

:40:24.:40:29.

Now, here is a little owl bringing in food. That's a worm and a vole.

:40:29.:40:34.

Very Catholic diets. This is interesting. Here is the female.

:40:34.:40:39.

She's just laid her first egg. How many is she going to lay? She

:40:40.:40:45.

lays one egg every two days, quite staggered. There's the second. And

:40:45.:40:50.

now let's have a look. What's she got in there? Three I think, yes.

:40:50.:40:54.

Four. You can see she's got four in there. She'll start to incubate

:40:54.:40:59.

them and the male will bring food for her all the time she's

:40:59.:41:01.

incubating them. Of course, we'll follow the

:41:01.:41:07.

fortunes of those little owls waul the way through Springwatch for the

:41:07.:41:12.

next three weeks. Back to Chris and Kate -- owls all the way through.

:41:12.:41:16.

An owl fest tonight. Time to introduce a new set of stars for

:41:16.:41:20.

Springwatch, as I mentioned at the top of the show. 200 or 300 metres

:41:20.:41:25.

away down in the woods there, we have our barn owls nesting. We can

:41:25.:41:29.

cut to them live now. There they are. You can see the

:41:29.:41:34.

adult bird is there with a family of four chicks. Looks like the

:41:34.:41:38.

adult bird has just brought some prey in, perhaps. Some food.

:41:38.:41:42.

the chicks are feeding. One of them's got it. Probably just about

:41:42.:41:46.

at the stage where they might be able to swal row that whole. What

:41:46.:41:50.

you will notice is the one on the right looks significantly big tore

:41:50.:41:54.

some of the other ones -- swallow. It's not, Chris, because it's the

:41:54.:41:59.

greediest, is it? No, when she laid her eggs, she started incubating

:41:59.:42:03.

with the first or second egg, meaning that the last egg that got

:42:03.:42:07.

laid has longer to wait and it will hatch later. This is a deliberate

:42:08.:42:11.

ploy. Many birds try to start incubation with the last egg so

:42:11.:42:14.

they hatch at the same time, particularly if they have to leave

:42:14.:42:19.

the nest like ducklings. Owls want a staggered set of sizes because

:42:19.:42:23.

there is a strategy there to make sure that at least one gets out of

:42:23.:42:28.

the nest. To explain what Chris means, we had exactly that story

:42:28.:42:31.

played out on Springwatch a few years ago. We had a barn owl family,

:42:31.:42:37.

it was the last time we had them live in 2007. Originally, there was

:42:38.:42:43.

seven chicks, two died, so we were left with five, and then

:42:43.:42:48.

mysteriously, the male bird disappeared. There was quite a lot

:42:48.:42:53.

of bad weather and the pressure on the female bird to keep feeding

:42:53.:42:58.

those five chicks just became too much. And so, the survival

:42:58.:43:03.

mechanism of having smaller chicks in the same brood became very

:43:03.:43:09.

evident indeed. Have a look at this. This is from 2007 and you can see

:43:09.:43:14.

one of the bigger chicks, I'm afraid, it looks a little gorey,

:43:14.:43:19.

but it's eating its siblings, and this one, cies, was the next one to

:43:19.:43:24.

go -- Chris. Its destiny was to die in the summer time, frankly. It

:43:24.:43:27.

makes sense, you see, because they've got to get their genes into

:43:27.:43:30.

next population, meaning they've got to invest in the biggest chick.

:43:30.:43:36.

It's not unusual. Up to 40% of barn owl chicks in any year, that's a

:43:36.:43:40.

high year, might get eelten by their siblings. This is actually

:43:40.:43:44.

relatively common behaviour -- eaten by their siblings. Let's go

:43:44.:43:48.

back to our barn owls now. We have footage of them feeding, Chris,

:43:48.:43:53.

they seem at the moment to be doing pretty well to be finding plenty of

:43:53.:43:56.

prey animals and so we hope that this scenario won't have to play

:43:56.:44:02.

out again? That's right. We spoke to barn owl expert Colin, he really

:44:02.:44:06.

knows his barn owls and he said it's likely to be a vole year this

:44:06.:44:11.

year. Voles go up and down in their numbers. When there are more of

:44:11.:44:20.

them about, there's more feud for owls. Each one of the chicks will

:44:20.:44:26.

be after four or five voles an evening. Wow. If there are lots of

:44:26.:44:32.

voles about, they all get fed and then the sibling infanticide just

:44:32.:44:36.

isn't playing a major part. Let's hope that doesn't happen. Let's

:44:36.:44:40.

have another look live at the barn owls. These are going to be a

:44:40.:44:44.

family that we hope to be able to follow entirely over the three

:44:44.:44:49.

weeks of the series. While you are enjoying that view, let me say that

:44:49.:44:55.

we've had a lot of questions on the message board about finding small

:44:55.:45:03.

chicks, apparently helpless chicks. A moorhen was found by Mo and Suzie

:45:03.:45:07.

Q has told us about hand-rearing a bluetit. Did they do the right

:45:07.:45:14.

thing? Well, Martin Hughes-games has been to investigate this common

:45:14.:45:20.

string conundrum Out for a walk, it's a beautiful

:45:20.:45:25.

spring day. Suddenly, you hear a rustle in the grass or see

:45:25.:45:28.

something. This is actually happening and it's happened to me.

:45:28.:45:32.

It's a baby animal and looks like it needs help. What are you going

:45:32.:45:40.

to do? You need to think very hard before you decide to pick up a baby

:45:40.:45:45.

animal. You might not think it, but leaving it alone might be the best

:45:45.:45:51.

thing to do. I've come to the RSPCA rescue centre in Somerset, to meet

:45:51.:45:54.

manager Pete and his staff to find out more.

:45:54.:45:58.

So, Pete, we've come here at probably your busiest time of the

:45:58.:46:02.

year? Yes, this is definitely the busy season. It's babyboom really

:46:02.:46:07.

for animals out there, for wildlife. The centres get about a 400%

:46:07.:46:10.

increase in baby animals coming in at this time ofier. Let me put you

:46:10.:46:15.

on the spot now. I rode along on my bike and saw a baby rook at the

:46:15.:46:19.

bottom of the rookry, tiny and I thought, what should I do. What

:46:19.:46:23.

should I have done? First thing to do is watch and see if the bird is

:46:23.:46:27.

in danger and if there's no obvious sign of a parent and no nest that

:46:27.:46:32.

it can be returned to, the best thing to do is to seek advice,

:46:32.:46:36.

failing that, bring it into us, the best place for it to be. So it's a

:46:36.:46:40.

matter of watching and making the right decision. If you are unsure,

:46:40.:46:48.

seek advice from the experts. When it comes to baby birds, if you

:46:48.:46:51.

spend time observing them, you will probably see the parents come in to

:46:51.:46:54.

feed them. Some fledgeles will spend two or three days on the

:46:54.:46:59.

ground before they learn to fly, so they may not have been abandoned at

:46:59.:47:05.

all. That's something animal nurse Ellie West knows only too well.

:47:05.:47:12.

They're beautiful. What's happened to these tauny owl chicks?

:47:12.:47:15.

suspect most should have possibly been left where they were. Because

:47:15.:47:19.

this is a classic one for the mistake of bringing them in isn't

:47:19.:47:23.

it because they sit on branches? Yes, they branch. And people think

:47:23.:47:27.

they've been abandoned but they haven't at all? No, that's the

:47:27.:47:31.

biggest problem. So there are birds here that really shouldn't be. And

:47:31.:47:35.

it's worth remembering that whether they need to be here or not, all

:47:35.:47:40.

these baby birds require a huge amount of work to look after them.

:47:40.:47:45.

How often will this wren have to be fed? At the moment, every 45

:47:45.:47:48.

minutes. Different birds need different food, different feeding

:47:48.:47:51.

times, they're all different, you've got to know exactly what to

:47:51.:47:54.

give them? That's right. It's very important, so therefore it's not so

:47:54.:47:57.

easy for a member of the public that's just picked up a baby bird.

:47:58.:48:03.

How long is a shift? We start add 8am in the morning and finish at

:48:03.:48:06.

9pm in the evening, but certain things like this little wren

:48:07.:48:11.

ideally we are probably going to be taking home and start to feed it

:48:11.:48:14.

about 5am because that's what mum would do. If somebody was to try to

:48:14.:48:18.

do this at home, they wouldn't have a hope, would they? No, it's a lot

:48:18.:48:23.

of hard work. Ellie tells me that over 70% of the baby animals they

:48:23.:48:28.

get here are birds. You will also see baby mammals alone at this time

:48:28.:48:33.

of year. Again, that's not always a bad sign. Newborn deer fawns are

:48:33.:48:38.

left in the long grass by their mums for up to eight hours a day.

:48:38.:48:42.

It's a deliberate strategy to keep them hidden. So deciding if a

:48:42.:48:45.

fawn's been abandoned is no easy task.

:48:45.:48:48.

How did he come into you, this little one? He was found by some

:48:48.:48:51.

members of the public. They heard him crying during the day, they did

:48:51.:48:56.

the right thing, stood away from it. He was in fact left for 24 hours so

:48:56.:48:59.

unfortunately he was still crying, a clear indication that something

:48:59.:49:02.

is wrong, so he was brought into our care.

:49:02.:49:09.

And you have sadly had an xmpl where things didn't go so well

:49:09.:49:14.

recently with a deer? Yes, we had a roe deer, probably about a week old,

:49:14.:49:18.

some members of the public found it and tried to hand feed it

:49:18.:49:24.

themselves and by the time it got to us, it was severely dehigh

:49:24.:49:29.

drailted and sadly that one has to be put down because it wasn't a

:49:29.:49:33.

viable animal -- dehydrated. can see why people do that to help,

:49:33.:49:37.

but it's an expert job? Yes, it's a huge, huge responsibility. But with

:49:37.:49:42.

this little one, looks like he'll be all right? He's doing really

:49:42.:49:47.

well. I know from personal experience just how hard it is if

:49:47.:49:51.

you find an injured or apparently abandoned baby animal. You just

:49:51.:49:55.

want to step in there and try to help. But what we found out today

:49:56.:50:01.

is it's generally better to leave it, just watch the situation,

:50:01.:50:04.

definitely try to get some advice because by the simple act of

:50:04.:50:12.

picking it up, you could be doing more harm than good.

:50:12.:50:17.

Wise words from Martin there. If you are still a bit confused about

:50:17.:50:22.

anything to do with finding apparently abandoned young animals,

:50:22.:50:28.

please go to our website. There's lots of information on there.

:50:28.:50:33.

We've had a fantastic response when it comes to sending in photos. No

:50:33.:50:39.

less than 48,000 have come in to our site, inClaudeing some baby

:50:39.:50:44.

animals. I've got some. This is a glorious one, a fox cub taken by

:50:44.:50:47.

Philip. I love that. This is, I have to say, if you are allowed to

:50:47.:50:53.

have fauf Ritz, I love this one, this is one of lovely wild boor

:50:53.:51:00.

taken by Ben -- favourite. Finally, a fluffy wader, a lapwing chick and

:51:00.:51:03.

it was taken by Julian Sawyer. Thank you very much indeed. I

:51:03.:51:07.

picked out a few that were great photographs in my opinion. This one

:51:07.:51:13.

is a turn, taken by Keith, super picture that one. This one, a bit

:51:13.:51:17.

more interesting than beautiful. These are wasp larvae and were

:51:17.:51:22.

photographed by Trevor and Dilys. Lastly, how about this for a close-

:51:22.:51:32.
:51:32.:51:33.

up view of an orange tip butter flay's head. Keep the photo shots

:51:33.:51:38.

coming in. Now back to Napdale and to Charlie.

:51:38.:51:43.

Hi, guys. Welcome back to Napdale. Earlier on, I show yod u my

:51:43.:51:48.

favourite piece of beaver engineering, the beaver canal --

:51:48.:51:52.

showed you. We rigged the canal and got some ropey footage of a beaver

:51:52.:51:56.

going up it. But have a lack at this, this is what happened later.

:51:56.:52:02.

Now, this is a beaver out on the land, dragging this huge stick,

:52:02.:52:06.

heaving it across the land, pretty hard work and really, he doesn't

:52:06.:52:09.

want to be doing that. It's not safe, there are predators out there,

:52:09.:52:16.

he wants to be in the water. So, back to the canal. Here is a shot

:52:16.:52:20.

of him using the canal and look, he's heading off down the canal,

:52:20.:52:24.

it's easy, perfect, back to his lock with his food. That's pretty

:52:24.:52:29.

amazing stuff. As much as I love beaver canals, some would say it's

:52:29.:52:34.

not their most impressive thing. Beavers are famous for their

:52:34.:52:39.

ability to entirely change a landscape. Now, how do they do it?

:52:39.:52:46.

Look at this! This used to be a forest, but now it's a lake.

:52:46.:52:55.

The reason is this. This is a beaver dam. It's massive. It's

:52:55.:53:01.

about 15 metres long. And over here, it's about two metres deep. What's

:53:01.:53:06.

amazing about it is that this was made by a rodent. It's quite

:53:06.:53:10.

unbelievable. It's by far the biggest structure I've ever seen an

:53:10.:53:15.

animal build anywhere in the world. So, how do they do it? How does a

:53:15.:53:20.

redon't create this monstrosity? I'll show you. It all started here.

:53:20.:53:26.

Now, this used to be a small Forestry Commission drain. Now,

:53:26.:53:29.

here is the interesting thing about beavers, when they hear trickling

:53:29.:53:34.

water, instinct tells them to stop it. They have to block it. So, just

:53:34.:53:38.

here, they started bunging on big sticks, tree trunks, anything they

:53:38.:53:41.

could get to block the flow and stop that sound of trickling water.

:53:41.:53:45.

Then they started adding smaller sticks and leaves and mud and

:53:46.:53:50.

anything they could get their paws on and behind that grew a pool that

:53:50.:53:55.

started overflowing, so they made it bigger until they ended up with

:53:55.:54:00.

this. This is 1.5 football pitches of water. It's held back by these

:54:00.:54:05.

sticks, these haven't been put here pi people, these have been put here

:54:05.:54:08.

by beavers holding back this vast wall of mud and dirt and anything

:54:08.:54:12.

else they can get their hands on -- put here by people. They're still

:54:12.:54:16.

doing it. This is last night's. I get very excited about this. The

:54:16.:54:20.

ability of an animal to flood its landscape. But, not everyone's as

:54:20.:54:26.

excited as I am about it. I went to meet a farmer who had a few more

:54:26.:54:36.
:54:36.:54:38.

concerns. Robin, what do you think of

:54:38.:54:44.

beavers? Not a lot. Beefs do several forms of damage, that being

:54:45.:54:50.

one. Another being the lagoons they make, each family unit requires

:54:50.:54:58.

something like a hectare of water. That's a lotment. That's a trainage

:54:58.:55:01.

ditch, I could visualise a dam going there and in time the water

:55:01.:55:06.

blowing up and this lovely bluebell wood being skramped and all the

:55:06.:55:11.

trees here, their roof would be under water and the trees would die,

:55:11.:55:21.
:55:21.:55:22.

the roots would be drowned -- swamped. It would be like a

:55:22.:55:26.

battlefield. Amageddon! I have a lot of low-lying farmland. I spent

:55:26.:55:31.

my life trying to get rid of water and keep the pasture. The last

:55:31.:55:35.

thing I need is beavers stopping the water going away. So Robin, do

:55:35.:55:39.

you think beavers should be released back into Scotland? That's

:55:39.:55:45.

up to others. I would defend the right of Scottish Wildlife Trust to

:55:45.:55:50.

release beavers as long as they're held on the land belonging to

:55:50.:55:55.

Scottish Wildlife Trust. Once they get out and adversely affect

:55:55.:56:00.

somebody else's land, then that's not so good. This farm has never

:56:00.:56:05.

had beavers and, as far as I'm concerned, it never will.

:56:05.:56:10.

So, clearly this is a subject that's being watched by landowners

:56:10.:56:14.

all across the country who probably have similar concerns to those that

:56:14.:56:19.

Robin aired there. There may be positives though. It's said that

:56:19.:56:23.

beavers can help the environment and help other animals and possibly

:56:23.:56:27.

even help the economy. It's a complex debate and one that we are

:56:27.:56:33.

going to cover in more detail tomorrow. Join us then.

:56:33.:56:38.

It is a complex debate isn't it? Fascinating. Can I just interrupt

:56:38.:56:44.

briefly. I have my copy of Gerald of Wales, his journey through

:56:44.:56:48.

Wales... Never without it! walked through Wales in 1188, a

:56:48.:56:53.

long time ago, and he says "the river has another remarkable

:56:53.:56:56.

peculiarity of all the rivers in Wales, it's the only one where you

:56:56.:57:02.

can find beavers". They had beavers here, wild beavers here in Wales in

:57:02.:57:06.

1188. I hope they're back here by 2088, I have to say. Let's go and

:57:06.:57:11.

do a final check on our lovely redstart family. Let's join them

:57:11.:57:16.

live now. There are the chicks. Looking very Bonnie indeed. Will

:57:16.:57:22.

they go tomorrow or will, as Chris predicted... Thursday. He

:57:22.:57:27.

reckons Thursday. Shall we have a look at the gorgeous herons.

:57:27.:57:34.

Fantastic. Herons with the setting sun with that hair cut. Terdack

:57:34.:57:38.

tolls. Wing flapping. You can keep an eye on the characters by going

:57:38.:57:46.

to the website. That is how you send us your photos and videos and

:57:46.:57:49.

you can get all the information you need. If you have had your finger

:57:49.:57:53.

on the pulse, you would have noticed a sad story of 0 tonne

:57:53.:57:57.

sperm whale washed ashore this morning on Redcar beach. Tomorrow,

:57:57.:58:00.

we are also investigating a stranding of our own where we delve

:58:00.:58:06.

into the physiology of these remarkable animals. We'll also be

:58:06.:58:10.

looking at beautiful, British butterflies and how they're faring

:58:10.:58:14.

this year. We'll be going up and looking into the world of the barn

:58:14.:58:19.

owl. Yes, loots to look forward to. Now, don't forget, 7.30 tomorrow

:58:19.:58:25.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS