Episode 7 Springwatch

It's Wednesday, so that means... We've got 90 whole minutes of

wonderful wildlife. Including punk herons. A gluttonous buzzard And an

insect that builds its own disguise. And that and this little guy too.

Hello and welcome to Springwatch, coming to you from the beautiful

wooded slopes of the RSPB reserve in Wales. Tonight we've got all the

usual ingredients, the best of British wildlife coming to you live

in real time. You can't beat that, so stay tuned. If you were watching

yesterday, you watched an extraordinary draum yawn fold in

our pied flycatcher nest. What happened today? We'll tell you

later in the programme. We need your help to solve a mystery, what

is scaring our barn owls? The spiky quiffs and the naughty undertones

of these herons are going to allow to us bring fantastic music into

the show a bit later on. They're teenagers and they kick each other,

that's a clue. Normally at this time, I'm setting a quiz for you.

We're going to do it differently tonight. We'd like you to ask us

questions. If there's any question, any question about anything that

comes up tonight, then ask us. We'll try to answer the questions

live as it happens. What can you do? Ask them on the web, on Twitter

or on our Facebook site. Get them coming in. If we can't answer them

on this programme, we'll try to answer them on Unsprung. Talking of

that, hop it. Get it ready. I hope he'll leave a trail of breadcrumbs.

As well as all, that we have got everybody's Welshman Iolo Williams

on an island not too far from here. Welcome to magnificent Skomer

Island. Today is United Nations world oceans day, when we should

all be celebrating the wealth of our seas. That's exactly what we're

going to be doing here on Skomer as well as catching up with our

puffins. We're looking forward to that. If

you were watching last night's programme, you'll know that we had

a very real drama here. Some of the birds that we've been watching over

the last couple of weeks, well, they got into all sorts of trouble.

It was our pied flycatchers and It was our pied flycatchers and

this is what we saw happening until last night. This was the female.

She had been looking, not entirely well. Her chicks were OK. She was

feeding them. Then she left them for a long time. Sadly one of those

chicks perished. She came back with food. Sadly she left them for so

long that they'd got rather chilled. As you could see they weren't

taking the food then. The male came in and tried to feed. Sadly another

chick had died. By the end of last night's programme we just had two

of the four chicks surviving. However, we finished the programme

feeling cautiously optimistic because the male had been in and

fed and the female was still brooding them, but in the middle of

the night, she started to lock a bit twitchy, as you can see here.

She left the chicks again. Now this was very bad news. She shouldn't

have been leaving them in the middle of the night, particularly

if they were already feeling a little bit cold. She was back.

Still brooding. We kept everything crossed that maybe they were OK.

But as you can see here, this was this morning. Three chick has died

and one was looking very, very unhealthy indeed. On the brink. She

continued to come in. She's got food. Obviously they're not at this

stage able to appeal for that food. She has nothing to do with it. She

tried to brood them. I'm afraid that the last chick had frankly,

run out of energy and despite the fact this she was now trying to

keep it warm, when we looked at them at about 6.30am, it had died.

This is what's happened through the rest of the day. Both parents are

confused by what's happened in here. She's continued to come in and

brood them. The male has been in and out a couple of times. But

sadly, those chicks have finished and the nest is over for this year

at least. It is a great tragedy, nobody wants to watch the great

loss of an entire family like that. The confusing thing is that we've

seen chicks die over the years. We've been doing Springwatch for a

very long time. It's just one of those things that happened, but

they seemed so robust, when we first met this family. They do. I

have to tell you that 30% of all the pied flycatcher broods that

hatch are destined to fail before they fledge. Weather is one

contender for why. We haven't had weather that's too rough. It hasn't

affected the abundance of food. The adult washlers have been in and out

with food. The female's body weight, goes back a few days, as to when

the male wasn't attending. You think, she's got a lot of energy

into producing this. She'd laid the eggs, sat there brooding them, unk

baiting them until they've hatched. Not able to feed at maximum

efficiency. What she was hoping for is that as soon as they hatched,

the male would help out, so she could build up her reserves again.

But it didn't happen. If the male had been more atentive, she could

have fed herself. The chicks would be carrying on being fed by the

male. Instead, she had this huge pressure to keep the chicks fed,

but at the same time, was losing weight herself, needing to feed

herself, which meant that she left the chicks for longer periods.

they got chilled. In the end she's going to make the decision that she

looks after herself. She's an adult breeding member of the population,

that's the most valuable part of any population. She had to feed

herself up and as a result, the chicks have sadly been sacrificed

this year. Fingers crossed she'll be back this year and successfully

rear a brood. That nest was full of bad news but we had fascinating

behaviour in another nest. This is what we saw last night. Our barn

owls were coming back to the nest with plenty of food. There's voles

and mice being brought in. When this one comes in, they kick off at

something. This is very, very strange. The chicks are looking

like there's a threat out there. Then the female or adult bird, at

least, is making this really distinct warning or alarm call,

very typical of barn owls. This hissing, they will also go into a

powerful display. They fold their wings forward and sway from side to

side if they get really upset. You can also hear a clicking sound that

the chicks and adults are making. This is typical of tawny owls and

barn owls. What's really interesting is that she is clearly

looking at something, there is something and unfortunately

whatever that something is or was was out of sight of our cameras. We

just didn't know what she was looking at, but then we remembered

something that the story developers recorded last week. Have a look at

this, it's the chicks and they are making that same sort of alarm call,

just listen to this: (HISS) You can see again fixated on something, as

is the adult bird. They're looking down out of the window. They're not

looking at the camera. It sounds like they're trying to inflate a

Zeppelin or something. This is antagonistic behaviour. Something

is outside. If you were listening carefully, just before they got

agitated can you hear this sound... That might have been the thing that

set them off. I honestly don't know what that sound is. We've asked

everyone around here. None of the other tholjists know what it is

either. Frankly, if you do, let us know.

Do you think you know what that is that might have antagonised those

chicks? Contact us on the website. You could contact us via Twitter or

the Facebook pace as well. Now we've got a bit of news about the

Ospreys. We certainly have. Great news, as you saw yesterday. For the

first time in more than 447 -- 400 years three chicks have hatched.

They've been fed today Kate. They were worried about them. It was a

first time breeder this parent. They've all been fed and doing

really well. We will keep you updated. We will. Now as Iolo

Williams said, it is world ocean day today. He is going to be

celebrating the beauty of the seas around Britain. Let's just remind

you where he is. We're just off the coast of mid-Wales. He's a little

bit further south, just off the tip of the coast. If you want to be

more precise, he is extractly at that point there.

Over to you. Warm welcome back here to Skomer

Island, where it has been a stunning day. I've escaped for a

while. I've come down to north while. I've come down to north

haven to this lovely beach. This is probably the most cosy and peaceful

part of the whole island. It's also a wonderful place for me

to introduce you to Skomer's amazing marine life. Now the seas

around the island and the nearby Marlowe's peninsula, are one of

only three marine nature reserves in the whole of the UK and

deservedly so. The strong currents and upWellings mix nutrients into a

soup. You have the gulf stream, this warm current of water that

comes all the way from the Caribbean. This is where it hits

Europe. You have a mixture of cold water loving species and species

that we would generally associate with the Mediterranean. When I had

the opportunity to go diving beneath the waves, I grasped it

thing is under water might not be as clear as I'd like it to be. When

the visibility is good, it is out of this world, but I'm just hoping

the murk in the water is tiny particles of food that most of the

animals here feed on. The sheer variety of creatures and colours

down here is just mind blowing. This is a sea cucumber and the

whole floor here is covered with them. Spider crab here. This is a

small one. They can grow to be a metre across and more.

But a lot of the animals that Skomer's rich in could easily be

taken for plants at first sight. They're brightly coloured and don't

move. They wait for the currents of the sea to bring their food to them.

These are yellow anemones, one of several species found around the

coast of Skomer. They simply grow another anemone, hence the carpet

Ross coral or a potato crisp rhyosome. It's a series of minute

creatures living together. You can see a pale fuzz along the service,

those are the tentacles filtering these nutrients out of the water

and these other things are able to flourish here on Skomer because it

is a protected area. There's no trawling with nets, there are no

boats mooring everywhere. These are beautiful, but very, very fragile

too. But there was one animal above all

the others that I wanted to see. This is the pink sea fan, usually

associated with warmer waters. It's at the northern edge of its range.

It gives the place a tropical feel to it. It's a soft coral, quite

fragile. It will bend with the swell. They say this in cold water

grows at most a centimetre every year. This must be 50, 60 years old

here. Wrapped in it is a dog fish egg case. Look at that.

Every square sentiment -- centimetre of rock is covers in

It's like diving in tropical waters. Some of the things I've seen down

there, I've never seen before and I never, ever thought you'd find them

here off the seas of Skomer. It's an incredible place. If you get the

I have to tell you that was a wonderful experience. A huge thank

you to Phil and the marine nature reserve team there and, of course,

rich seas mean a rich Skomer island. When you come back to us, we are

not going to stay on dry land and wait for the puffins to come to us.

Oh no, we are going to go out there to look for the puffins.

How wonderful, I have to say I was extremely jealous of that dive. It

looked fantastic. Getting cold and wet in Welsh water! The wildlife

and the animals and plants there are mind-blowing. We look forward

to joining Iolo later. We have come down to what we are calling heron

point. The studio is half a kilometre back there. We are here

and beyond the trees over there is where our herons are. You can't

quite see the nest because of the foliage but we can cut to them live.

Let's see what they're up to. are getting fairly typical views of

this. We see two hunched young herons looking, well, a little bit

brassed off with the weather. They're sulking really. Their heads

are are under their wings. They're going to stay nice and warm.

They've been very active. They have been very active. They don't just

sit hunched lying that all day long. Have a look at what they've been up

to over the last day or so. As you can see, one looks like it's

just taken off and fledged, but, Chris, both of them have really

been trying out their wings and amazing legs. They are jumping

right up and about in the trees, using air currents to help them

because they're not accomplished fliers. They keep coming back to

the nest, this is where they're getting the food from the adult and

they know they're safe from predators. But they're great little

characters these herons, I like them. I like the quiff. You have a

still a bit... -- a style a bit. used to be. This has inspired us,

we thought why not play the greatest pop record of all time, as

defined by John Peel and underlined by the Undertones, I give you

# A teenager dreams so hard to beat # Every time she walks down the

street # Another girl in the neighbourhood

# Wish she was mine, she looks so good

# I wanna hold you, hold you tight # Get teenager kicks right through

Nothing beats that! Not my choice, Kevin Carter suggested that one

actually. Did he? Well done Kevin. Exhausted! Now, they haven't just

been falling around in the nest, there is the serious business of

learning how to feed. Our wildlife cameraman caught this wonderful bit

of behaviour, these are our fledgeling herons, doing what they

do best, stabbing those great beaks into it's water to find food. But

not very successfully. No, they're getting bits of grass and weed and

mud at the moment. But what will happen is they'll probably follow

the adults to an area where there is a rich supply of food and the

side of a small fish will catch air air attention -- will catch their

attention. They'll realise the reward is sa meal for themselves.

It's a case of practice makes perfect and I am glad to see

they're out there doing that. will be fed by the adults, they're

not just going to be relying on mud and leaves? Not at the moment.

That's why they're back on the nest. We will see the adults carrying, or

still regurtitating food into that nest. It's not just the herons,

again beyond the trees, we have our Buzzards. Let's see what's going on

there. There is the adult bird. Fresh greenery that's come in

recently. We have been noticing this over the time we have been on

air, bringing in fresh green leaves which you think, Chris, might have

some sort of effect to keep insects or parasites away. There's got to

be a reason for it. No Buzzard is going to spend its valuable time

snapping off fresh greenary, carrying it back to the nest and

putting it there. We think, in some birds of prey, that when they

trample the leaves they give give off chemicals which have - insect

icidle qualities. Now, as you saw there, the chick

was quite well hidden, both by the adult bird and all those fresh oak

leaves, but if you have been watching on our webcams, which you

can do by going to our website, you will have seen the remarkable

transformation that has happened to our chicks since we have been on

air. This was just before we came on air

when the cameras went first on the nest.

This is now, today. Look at that, from one grey fluffy

Downey chick, to a bird that's looking not far off atkuplthood --

adulthood. They have a couple of down coats before they get real

feathers. They don't want to invest too much material in feathers early

on because they want the skeleton to grow. When they get rid of the

down coats the real feathers come true and we started to see them.

Vicky wanted to know, a great question, how do feathers grow?

They come out like hair, don't they? It's a follicle like our

hair? You are exactly right. Birds have thin skin. But in that skin

and growing from the time they first emerge from the egg, at the

embryo stage, they have a series of follicles all over the body that

produce feathers. Initially the feather is a living thing, it's

full of blood and keeps carrying material to make the feather there,

so at the moment the young Buzzard will be fragile. If you snap the

feathers off it will bleed and they would die and it would have to grow

another one but when the growth is finished it's all sealed off, the

feather is dead tissue, like our fingernail as it were. When they

moult them they grow a new one. If a feather does get lost that

stimulates the follicle to start a new one. Quite complicated.

feathery bit of the feather, that's all sort of curled up in the

follicle itself or in the quickly? It's curled up in like a waxy

sheath. At the moment you might see birds preening and hen they shake

dust comes out,. There you are, I hope that helps you, I hope that

answers the question. They've been growing furiously. It's had a

I love that film, thank you very much to our editors for putting

that together. Now you are going to be really impressed. Go on. I have

done a pie chart all of my own! Look at that! I just think - now

you are going to be impressed, look, we have looked at what the Buzzard

has been eating, roughly the same amount of mammals and small birds,

a little panchant for the frog and toad. And grass snakes. Are you

impressed? I am, if you should ever want to be loved by anyone, put me

on the list. Look, it's fantastic. It's statistically accurate, ten

out of ten. But the presentation, Kate, I mean, frankly, look it's a

bit scrappy. It's not even round. What is that? That's a mouse.

a good start. That was my humble pie pie chart. It was a humble pie

chart. I think you can do better. am off. I have upset her now. I

shouldn't have screwed that up. Let's move on to another film.

Charlie elder is a man who wanted to see all of the British birds

that were on the amber and red list, those which are critically

endangered but there was one that A worrying number of British birds

have suffered alarming declines over the last 20 or 30 years. A lot

of people talk about saving birds for the next generation, but with

some of these species the worry is they might be lost within our life

Times. One in five British birds are

currently considered threatened, not just rare birds, but also a

number of common birds. Birds like house sparrows, Starlings and heron

gulls. To help conservationists prioritise

which species need the most help, all of the UK's birds are placed on

one of three lists, either the green, amber or red list. Those on

the red list are the ones in the most trouble.

The red list became a very big part of my life. I decided to set out in

my free time to find every bird on the red list and also to find out

why these birds were in trouble. My quest took me all around the

British Isles and led to me writing a book about my endeavours. I

wanted to highlight the plight of the birds.

As I was nearing the end of my travels, the red list was revised

from the 40 that I had originally set out to see, to 52 and over the

last year or so I have been trying to see all the new additions to the

list but there's one bird that's been added to the list that I would

love to see and that's the hawFinch, it's a notoriously elusive bird

that I could spend ages travelling around Britain staring at tree-tops

so I am going to have to rely on expert help here angery Lewis has

been -- Gerry Lewis, I am pinning my hopes on him. I am excited, this

is a striking and handsome bird. It's not often I look forward to

getting up at 5.00am. The hawfinch is Britain's biggest

finch and it's able to crack open cherry stones with that formidable

powerful beak. Gerry coaxes them down with this carpet of sunflower

seeds. That's amazing. A brilliant view.

They can pick out the size of the bill. That's fantastic.

Once caught in the net, Gerry carefully retraoefs the bird for --

retrieves the bird for processing and is going to let me hold it.

OK, got him. Wow.

That's incredible. You certainly feel a bit wary

holding one. Especially as I am not experienced and you see the size of

that bill. If you put your hand right in the bag and then just let

go of the pweurbd. -- bird. Oh, he tried me there,

look, two indents there. To be almost pecked by a hawfinch

is an honour, this one is a handsome male and his bill is a blu

y grey colour. It's coming into the breeding season. That purply colour.

Gerry inspects the condition, weighs and measures all the birds

he catches. You are going to let him join his

mates then? Yeah, do you want to... He looks a feisty one!

Gerry's work is vital, if we are to understand why hawfinchs, sadly,

now find themselves on the red list. They got a pretty powerful flight.

That was wonderful. Thank you.

There willing something sad for me about my old bird books becoming

out of date, simply because many of the birds in them no longer lived

in Britain. As much as I love seeing these birds up close, my

hope for the future is that the red list decreases in the coming years.

After all, my travels had been about celebrating these inspiring

Profound and poignant stuff. I'm sorry. It's no good to me now. You

really want to see me cry, don't you. Any way... Hawfinchs are

fantastic birds. A few days ago, I was at home, I was going to be

watching a game of football, office on the line, saying one of our

viewers, Kirsty Clayton had rung up and said she had fantastic birds in

her garden. The game was kicked into touch and it was worth it.

Result, not only a cup of tea, chocolate cake! Better than

football. Kirsty, how long have these birds been here? I noticed

them last summer. They were calling and feeding and stuff. Male just

come out bull finch. For me a big scoring bird. I'm going to give it

7.8 and that's a very high score. Obviously, you're a fan too.

Absolutely. What is it about them? Their plumage is really amazing.

They're bright, beautiful. They go like an old couple together.

They're very monogamous. There's a likelihood that these are the

couple that were in your garden last year. Where are they nesting?

There's a camellia hedge just there. I went past and I heard tweeting,

they were reaching up out of it with their fluffy heads. What a

treat. In true Springwatch fashion, we couldn't resist putting in a

nest cam to try and record the chicks. We got some awesome shots.

They're out collecting food for the young at the moment. They feed them

through regurgitation. They're basically seed feeders. They're

after soft fruits. They peel away the outside. They're not interested

in the covering. They're after the seeds inside. Their monstrous bill

is that they can snap these open easily. The young are nowhere near

as attractive as the adults. They're little monsters. Are they?

They're grotesque. All beak, bulgy eyed, but at the moment looking

rough. They're in the nest for about 16 days and then they'll

fledge. Their flight skills will develop for until Mr and Mrs

Sparrowhawk arrives and probably take a couple of them. The thought,

personally, of a male sparrowhawk eating a male bull finch is

perversely a frequent fantasy of mine. Perhaps I didn't ought to

have told Kirsty that. Perhaps it's time for a piece of cake.

I think she really regretted asking you round. She looked mortified.

But those chicks, don't they look like dinosaurs. They do. Very

powerful bill. The crushing power of a hawfinch is 43 kilograms in a

bird, that's the equiff lebt of us having jaws to crush with the power

of 60 tons. They must come pretty close to that I think. Martin, have

you got news? I have got to say, quickly, I had three pairs of bull

finches on my apple tree. They ate all the buds, but it's worth it,

isn't it? Certainly is. Plant more trees. I will. Our barmyi birds

nest challenge. They have been A robins' nest. Yes, this one

they'll never get caught short. They're in a toilet site. They're

from David Barnes. Are they flushing their faecal sacks? Stop

it. This one, lovely Great Tit, little bit under the arm. Brilliant.

We would like more please. It's quite a challenge. The bar is very,

very high. Please keep them coming in, if you wo. Have we had any

questions from our viewers? We have. They started to come in almost

immediately. We're running short of time. We'll do one quickly. This is

from Julia on Twitter. "Where did barn owls live before we built

barns?" Quickly, hollow trees. When a tree breaks over, I found a barn

owl's nest in a willow tree that snapped off. It would have been

natural calfities. A few of them would have nested in caves and

cliff ledges as well. We have unsprung straight after this. We'll

answer more then. Now back to Skomer.

Welcome back, live to Skomer Island. Now earlier on, I mentioned the

fact that it's because of the rich seas with plenty of fish that

Skomer Island supports hundreds of thousands of sea birds. For

evidence of that, you've only got to look over my shoulder. You've

got rafts of hundreds of puffins, bobbing up and down on the water.

They do this every evening here in the shelter of north haven. Some

will be preening, making sure their feathers are in peak condition,

vitally important for a bird who spends most of its life out to sea.

They might head out to sea again or head into their burrows. The other

day I was able to swim out into the middle of these birds for a close

Conditions are perfect this evening. The sun is shining and the puffins

are out on the water in their hundreds. Mike, the cameraman and I,

are going to see if we can snorkle up to them and have a closer look.

If you're patient and move slowly, you really can get right in amongst

the birds. Outside the few months of the breeding season puffins

spend all their life on the sea. They rest on the surface of the

water like this, not on land. And they're expert divers. Look at that,

zipping past, they really do fly Sand eels are what they are diving

for. They thrive in the sandy sea bed around Skomer. They're a very

oily, nutritious fish and definitely the puffins' favourite

food. Happiness is a beak full of sand

Isn't that amazing. Now puffins are only small birds. Everyone come

together island expects to see a bigger bird. They're not much

bigger than a blackbird. They dive five or ten metres, sometimes up to

30. They're after sand eels. What is a sand eel? Well, that is a sand

eel. Not an eel, but a snake-like fish. That body is to burrow into

sand to escape from its predators. There are plenty of sandy bays out

here so these eels are abundant. How does a puffin catch a sand eel

and then catch even more? This is where I go into Chris Packham geek

mode. This is a puffin. That is a puffin's bill. One of the key

things is that bill doesn't open on a hinge like a blackbird or robins'

bill. It has a special bone, the quad rant bone, which allows the

mandibles to open parallel to each other. There are small hooks along

the edges of that beak. There are barbs on the tongue and also

backward-pointing hooks on the roof of the puffins' bill too. That

allows it to dive and catch fish. That bill really is like a Swiss

army knife. There's a tool in there for absolutely everything! Now, I'm

going to need your help here, fast quiz - what do you think is the

maximum number of sand eels ever seen and photographed in a puffins'

bill? 20, 25, 30? No, it's actually 61. An incredible 61! We spoil our

wildlife cameramen here and Steve has spent the last couple of days

taking shots of puffins. Have a look at this: Look at that

lovely bird, it looks like it has sand eels and sprats in there.

That's quite a catch. It's a big day when the first puffin is seen

on the island with a beak full of fish, because that means the first

chick has hatched. But even the few days we've been here, we've been

seeing more and more adult puffins flying in with fish in their beaks,

so by now, probably most of the puffin eggs on the island will have

Well done sto Steve, lovely stuff there. Later on, we're going to be

looking at how sea birds are faring here on Skomer and in the UK, but

now it's back to you. Thank you very much. Absolutely

fantastic footage that. You know the thing he was saying about the

beak, I'd often wondered why and I didn't know, that's the best thing

about hanging around with other good naturalists, you constantly

learn new things. I've been out geeked tonight! Someone else we've

inspired to want to learn something about nature is an extremely

unlikely candidate. It's Phil our cameraman. Wave to everybody. Go on

put your hand in front. There he is. He has had his heart stolen by a

bird not an unusual occurrence, but this particular bird is one, which

one is it? Bobbers. Bobbers, dippers to you and me. One of the

things that Phil wants to know about bobbers or dippers is why

they bob or dip? Actually one of our viewers has written in.

Fascinating stuff. Listen carefully, John chambers says "I have a theory

concerning dipping activity. These birds live in what is effectively a

white noise environment. The action of dipping may be a mechanism used

phase displacement of the white noise, generated by the water, to

identify prey or predator." He admits that the mathematics is

hairy. But in effect, coherent sounds exhibit different

characteristics to white noise, when the sensors, the ears, are

moved. Stand by a water fall, he says, shake your head and the sound

of the water will take on a different character. Coherent

sounds tend to be not so masked by the white noise of the water. So

what he's saying is that they're dipping so they can hear better.

But John, other birds like owls bob their heads so that they can hear

more accurately, where a sound is coming from. I'm thinking that

bobbing your head doesn't take much energy, but bobbing your whole body

up and down, as I'm finding out, requires a lot more energy. If it

was just about sound, why not just the head? Things like sandpipers,

they bob, and they don't live in such a noisy environment. No, and

wagtails wag, and that's got nothing to do with their ears

because it's their tail. I think it's a good theory. Thank you very

much indeed. We love theories on this programme. We like them when

they say things like "phase displacement and hairy mathematics".

Keep those coming in. You are probably desperate to know how our

dipper fledglings are doing. I know Phil is. Let's look at the footage

that our wildlife cameraman has got over the last day or so. Here they

are. There are three fledglings out of this nest. The adults very much

in attendance with the beak full of caddisfly. You'll admit, they're

absolutely thriving. They're doing extremely well. Lots of food down

there. Again an adult coming in. Super picture as well. I have to

say rather attractive young dipper there, look at that. Really lovely.

This one is showing quite independent ten densies at this

tender age. It tends to be more on its own. The adult knows exactly

where it is and is looking after it. It is starting to feed a bit for

itself. This is interesting. This is amazing. These animals are

supremely adapted for an aquatic lifestyle, even as soon as they

leave the nest. We've seen them, here's the adult doing what dippers

do, turning over stones. This is a youngster, only a few days out of

the nest already looking beneath the surface. Can you see sometimes

a white flash going across their eye. This is the nictating membrane,

it's a tough contact lens that stops sand in the water getting in

their eyes. Swimming and bobbing about, fantastic. You know, I

learned today when I was reading in my books that if dippers get

disturbed when they're in the nest, only seven days old, they're not

meant to fledge until 22 days old, they can pop out and already swim

and dive beneath the surface at seven days old! That is incredible.

As you saw, that river is very rich and full of food. We got some

lovely underwater footage of what it is our dipper chicks are looking

Well, there's so much food in the woods here, a lot gets washed into

the water when it rains, lots of insects so so lots of food for fish.

The fish eat them but it's a rich environment and on the surface of

the stone there, Kate, is a caddisfly and they form up to 75%

of the dippers' diet so they're very important and these streams

are packed full of them. In fact, we have some right here. These are

live caddisflies although they look like bits of stick and the reason

for that is that they build these wonderful sort of cases around them.

We have some film of them doing exactly that. It's amazing, cryst,

that they pull -- Chris, that they pull together lots of things.

use a web, not unlike a spider's web and they steupb it over their -

- spin it over their back. This is serving two purposes, it's

protecting the soft body of the caddisfly and it's fantastic

camouflage and caddis is a name for a strip of cloth and people selling

cloth in the middle ages used to wear it over their bodies and

that's where the name comes from. Absolutely brilliant. I like that

sort of information, it's a bit geeky, which brings us on to this,

the Springwatch Geek Award, this is to celebrate the depth of knowledge

some naturalists have. It's adorned by Mr Scratchy, the one and only

and every year, so far, we have met a number of naturalists who we

think are worthy of this award. Now, it's time to meet another who

certainly is. In a country park in Wiltshire,

there is a man who could have found the answer to a real wildlife

The emergency has been centred on the busy honeybe, a truly fantastic

insect. Bees are vital to our way of life. They're one of the great

pollenators of British plants, including many of our food crops.

Yet, since 1992 in the UK the honey bee has been under attack from an

alien invader which threatens the honey bee's very existence. The man

that may have the answer to this problem is Ron Hustings. Ron has

been researching a blight that's been having a terrible impab on

British bees, and he has got to know them very well. Well, every

good geek needs a shed or a lab and you have a lab here, Ron. Sort of.

Very nice. What about the the Mythes then -- mites then?

wanted to see the mites, there's a few for you.

Oh my goodness me! How many are in here do you think?

50,000. 50,000 mites in this small tub and you have put them in there

there... They've all been under my microscope. It's difficult to see

them, although I am in awe of 50,000 mites in a tub. There's the

detail. That's what we are looking at. Wow, look at that. That's an

alien, if ever you have seen it. This, presumably, is the point of

menace. That's what sucks the blood of the baby bee. It's what we could

call a proper infestation. Very much so. It's decimated the honey

bee population. Ron's own bees were infected with this mite but his

close examinations with to reveal incredible results.

Underneath all my hives, Chris, we have a special tray that that

collects the debris that falls. I also noticed that there are little

vermites on there and I collected them and examined them and found a

lot of them were damaged. Damaged? I am sure it was done by the bees

grooming them off. They're mutually grooming these off. Monkey fashion.

We found another breakthrough and I condition show you it because it's

so minute but I have a picture here. Ron, I am fortunate to be shown

lots of photographs of natural subjects. I don't normally have to

ask which way up it goes. This is not a triumph when it comes to

photography, but I am assuming it's fascinating. They are the antennae

of larvae bees. They're being ripped off by the bee. They're

removing it because it's infected? It's never going to be any good to

the colony so they get rid of it now. What we have is a strain of

bees, or a group of bees carrying genes which make them cleaner bees?

Exactly. They're grooming off the mites and removing the infected

larvae before they're useless to the colony? That's correct. Ron's

next experiment was to move one of these cleaner Queens to an adjacent

hive. This Queen bred cleaner drones and instances of the mite

fell dramatically. So Ron had proved that this behaviour was

genetic, rather than learned. Amazingly, Ron is now breeding

cleaner Queen bees to try and alleviate the whole mite problem.

Look at that. That works, doesn't it? What about these hooks either

side here? Those are micro manipulators, they allow me to open

the Queen gently, carefully, not to damage her, and open ready for

inseplation of semen. I would inseminate the semen into that

Queen. Eight. I normally give it the seven. Astonishing. Absolutely

astonishing, Ron. Of course, what it guarantees is that you can get

your grooming gene, which you have collected from the male in the

semen, into this Queen? That's right. The theory is that we are

going to put as many drones as we can until we have got, as it were,

Swindon being a gene pool of hygienic bees. Swindon. Swindon

saves the world of bees to the work of Ron. On that account, I am going

to present you with an extraordinary prize. It's under the

microscope, take a look through here. Seriously. Look at that.

It's Mr Scratchy. That's the uber geek.

What a fantastic bloke. I have to tell you, when I saw his 50,000

mites in that tub, the geek award was his. And the impact that he

could have for anyone that keeps bees. I am constantly bat battling,

so good on you, please keep working. Drop Drop proof that geeks -- top

proof that geeks can change the world. Some questions, one on

Twitter: How many chicks can a heron have? That's easy, they can

have about four or five is a usual clutch but they will often lose

them, so two or three is the usual number to fledge. One last quick

one, why do some fledgings have no tail? They wait to grow them until

they get out of the nest. Let's head over to Iolo on Skomer.

Welcome back. Now, I bet you are sitting at home comfy in your chair,

wondering how that dashing chap on Skomer finds his way into your

living room? Well, I tell you, Toby the cameraman is filming me, that

goes by cable through all this here, it's fired across to a van on the

mainland, beamed up to a satellite miles above us, beamed back down to

us here and then to your living room. The wonders of modern

technology. Now, over the past couple of days we have been

following the puffins here on Skomer and they've been carrying

fish back to the nest. So it would appear that the population is

healthy, but is it? Well, the man to answer that is warden Chris

Taylor. Hello, Chris. Puffins on Skomer, how many have you got and

are they doing doing well? puffins on Skomer, they've been

busy the last couple of years, so 1988 there was about 8,000 puffins

on the island, now that population expanded to about 12,500, so it's a

good sign they're doing fabulously. We have looked at a host of other

birds here as well, how are they doing? I think the real stars of

the show are the guillemots, the population is under 0,000. There --

20,000. It shows there must be so much food to sustain that

population. And manx Sheerwater. Are they doing all right? They seem

to be. I am sure as you know, it's a tricky species to monitor and

record. But we estimate about 120,000 breeding pairs, so lots

that we monitor year on year. thank you very much. That really is

wonderful news from Skomer. How about the rest of the UK? I posed

that question to Professor Tim Guildford of Oxford University over

there in the wardens' library. Fantastic old records here, Tim.

It's interesting to look back over the decades, over 100 years almost,

of records, particularly of sea birds. Now, from my time here I

have learned that on Skomer our sea birds appear to be doing rather

well. What's the picture for the rest of the UK? There is clearly a

difference between what's happening, appears to be happening in

Pembrokeshire and what's happening in the north of Britain. Do we know

why? What is the difference to our birds here, go to different areas,

more fish in the sea? Down here in Pembrokeshire the sand eel

productivity seems to have been good and puffins are enjoying that.

Poor breeding success in the puffins, and this is almost

certainly because the sand eels and other small fish they depend on are

not as available so they're starting to try and eat other

things which are not good for bringing up their chicks. It's a

complex issue though, because I know here in Pembrokeshire the

populations of some of the birds have built up on the back of

collapse of the commercial fishing industry, for example. That must

affect sea birds throughout the UK, if not throughout the world. That's

right. I mean, it would be nice to believe that just because sea bird

populations are growing or looking healthy, that this is a sign that

the oceans are necessarily healthy, but it's not always like that.

Because they may be freed from competition because there's been

overfishing of their competitors, the big fish that eat the little

fish that they depend on and as the fisheries recover, then the

competitors are become and the sea birds start to suffer. So we need

to be very careful in our interpretation of what's happening.

How about the future then? If you were able to look ahead 20, 30, 40

years, do you see a flourishing population of sea birds in the UK

and here on Skomer? I really hope so. I think they're so important,

but, I think we will see changes. Some of those will be positive,

probably, but some will be negative. One thing that I think that we can

be fairly sure of is that the climate is slowly changing, and

that this will lead to changes in marine resources and this will

inevitably lead to changes in sea bird populations. I don't think

it's all doom and gloom but we certainly need to understand what's

going to happen. It's a very difficult issue, but

there ar couple of things we can all do. We need to be careful where

we buy our fish from. Is it coming from a sustainable well managed

source? Also, don't throw plastics into the sea, that affects not just

fish but other wildlife too. If you want more information on this

complex issue then please go to our website.

Well, that's it from here, for now, I am going to hand you back. But I

will still be here for UnSprung. See you then.

Thank you very much. Now, if you were watching at the

top of the programme we set you a challenge. We were struggling to

identify this sound: It had upset our baby barn owls.

Has anyone come up with any suggestions? Very exciting, they're

coming in all the time. Someone thinks it's a magpie. Another

thought it was a deathwatch beetle. John, my wife trying to start her

Mini! We asked our expert sound recordist here, he thinks that it's

actually being made by those young owls, so we have set them a

challenge. We put a microphone and camera all around the barn owl nest

and hopefully overnight we might find out what is going on. But you

can keep watching on our webcams by going to our website.

Tomorrow, Christopher? We asked you a question, is it Steve McQueen and