Episode 8 Springwatch

Last night Springwatch became Crimewatch. The question is, could

we catch the culprit? Stay tuned to admire our remarkable detective

I fancy myself as a Sherlock. could see that. Sherlock? Welcome

to Springwatch coming to you live from the beautiful Ynyshir nature

reserve owned by the RSPB. It is full of fantastic habitats, so we

have got all of the usual ingredients - real wildlife in

real-time. Coming up tonight: Well, we have our barn owl mystery, what

were our young owls getting so hot under the collar all about? I took

Chris for a ride in the beautiful Isle of Man and we had a marvellous

time! Lashings of ginger beer. We will be bringing you news of this

icon of Wales, it is of course our red kite family. We will be telling

you how the chick is getting on a little bit later in the programme.

Now, let's go to this week's guest naturalist, Iolo Williams, who is

on Skomer. Welcome to sunny Skomer. It's been a beautiful day. It's a

glorious evening and the island as ever is alive with birds. We

promised you all week we would bring you a puffling. Tonight we

deliver! He is very confident. I would love

to see it. Last night we asked for your help to solve a mystery.

Something was upsetting our owls. It seemed to be a sound, some sort

of noise was upsetting them. What was that sound? Let's have a look

at those owls. Here they are getting very upset. Clearly, there

is something in there that's bothering them a lot. They are

looking straight out towards camera, but towards the entrance of the

nest. What was it? Now, we asked for your ideas and they came in

thick and fast. 40% of you thought it was a magpie making that sound.

27% a woodpecker. 8% thought it was a badger. The people have spoken,

Chris. Listen to this. We heard this noise before the owls all got

terribly upset. We tested you, you came up with your ideas. We also

spoke to the experts. We spoke to a lady from the Barn Owls Trust. She

thought it was the young owls. We spoke to Paul, he thought it might

have been a male barn owl. We still had another expert. We did. Chris

Watson thought that he had a theory so I went to see him today just to

ask him for a bit of clarification. That sound is coming from the barn

owl nestlings, principally because of the perspective in sound because

the source of the sound and the quality of the sound is almost

identical to the quality of the sound and the hissing. How can you

tell that? Well, take your microphone off. So if you speak -

ask me that question again. How can you tell that? If I move the

microphone - if I put it over here. Ask me that question. How can you

tell that? The level of the sound of that chucking sound, it had to

come from exactly the same place? would say so. It's the great thing

about Springwatch. We have cameras and microphones in these privileged

positions so we are hearing stuff that some of the experts never get

the opportunity of hearing. There's also another clue for me as a

wildlife sound recordist. Birds of prey of a certain age, nestlings,

have a commonality to some of the sounds. This is the recording of a

young goshawk we made a couple of years ago. What Chris suspected was

he recorded in that goshawk nest that chucking sound, different from

the barn owls, but similar rhythm from those young nestlings in the

goshawk nest. So what he thought was that he was hearing a similar

thing with the barn owls. And given that thought, I went and did some

background reading and found out that young barn owls, very young

birds, do produce this low chucking type of call. Then it goes away. It

appears the lady from the Barn Owl Trust was absolutely right. Hats

off to you! That's only solved part of our mystery. That's answered the

question about the sound, what was making it? It was the owls

themselves. There was something else definitely there generating

some animosity. It wasn't the sole occasion. Take a look at this. We

saw this last night. Here is one of the adult owls giving this

characteristic antagonistic hissing sound looking at something that it

quite clearly perceives as a threat. We wanted to find out what that

threat was. We called in our crack team of mini camera guys, here is

Nigel and Charlie with camera traps which they set up around the barn

and in the hope that we would then catch on camera whatever it was

that was causing the owls to get upset and make that extraordinary

noise. You will never guess what? We think they have managed to do it.

They got some photographs - these are stills. Have a look at this.

You will see up in the top corner there, the top right-hand corner,

that is the window into the owls' nest. Down there on the left,

what's that? Let's have another look. The next picture. It's gone

behind the wood there. I am sure you are guessing what it is. There

is an owl going in. And it's a cat. You can see its eyes glowing. It is

right up looking into the nest now. Mmm. Cats are very serious

predators of small birds, but what about owls? Well, I am looking at

that female barn owl and I am thinking if you tolerate this your

children might be next or might they? This is a cat and they are

quite a large bird. We know they pre-date small things. To have a go

at an adult barn owl might be beyond the cat. Before we think

about that, let's go to the nest live and make sure our owls are

still in there. They are looking good. I have to say, these owls - I

know they had a bit of stress last weekend with the heat - but this

week they have been getting a bumper supply of foods. They have

been getting masses of food. We have had an interesting question

about that. "Do owl chicks regurgitate pellets like their

parents?" Well, we can tell you that, not just verbally, but

visually. Have a look at what happened today with our largest of

the chicks. I think it speaks for itself, or regurgitates for itself!

Is that the first one? This is the first time it has been seen

producing a pellet. What a pellet! LAUGHTER Chris, do they start

almost immediately? They are being fed voles and mice and all the

things that they are going to eat as adults. Is this something they

naturally do straightaway? What happens is, they get Ted for the

first six or seven days lots of indigestable material. Then they

don't produce a pellet then. They then go through a secondary stage

which we have seen with baby Bob. This is what happens next. It is

rather unpleasant. They don't produce a compacted pellet. It is

more like vomiting up the loose remains of all of this material and

Bob was trying to do this for a considerable period of time. Look

what he ends up having to do is take it all back again. I make a

pasta dish almost exactly like that! LAUGHTER Sorry. So what we

are going to see in a few days' time Bob will produce a prized

pellet. If we could recover it, we might put it in a silver frame and

entitle it, "My first pellet." It is time to move on to something a

bit more genial. Let's move over to see what Iolo has been up to. We

are down here on the west coast of central Wales. Iolo is down here

off of the tip of Pembrokeshire on Skomer island. The last time we

spotted him, he was here. I am hoping he is not out here at the

moment or lost in the clouds. Iolo, are your feet firmly on dry land?

Welcome back to Skomer island. If you were watching yesterday, you

will have learnt that the seabirds here are doing pretty well. You

will also know from what Chris the warden told us that the most

numerous bird here is the Manx shearwater. 250,000 breeding birds.

How do they know this? Well, the wardens have a secret weapon. It's

this tape. The Manx shearwaters are underground and on this tape is a

Manx shearwater call. If there is a bird in this burrow, it should

respond to this. Bear in mind this is live, this is an experiment,

usually they go wrong! We will give it a good go. I will play this

first. CALL OF A MANX SHEARWATER Listen, can we get the microphone?

CALL IS REPEATED It worked. Thank you. Isn't that brilliant?!

Fantastic. By knowing there is a bird in there, they can do this

over an area here in every burrow and they can then extrapolate those

results over the whole island and work out the whole island

population. I am so excited that that worked. Also, we have a camera

in a burrow just up there and we were hoping to film a change-over

which is where one of the birds comes back from the open ocean and

takes over the incubation. This is what happened at 3.00am, still

going, two nights again. There is one adult on the nest and here is

the other one. The second bird has been feeding far out of sea,

perhaps for a week, maybe ten days and now it is taking over the

duties of sitting on the egg so the That bird is out there in the Irish

Sea right now feeding. But the Manx shearwaters are only on Skomer for

six months of the year. Where are they for the other six months? I

know a man who has got the answer to that.

On Monday, I joined a team from Oxford University and saw them

downloading the data from a tiny tracking device they had fitted on

the bird's leg a year ago. They had to have a day off to analyse the

results but yesterday team leader Tim was able to reveal what our

bird had been up to. Tim, come on then, what have we got? So, we

managed to analyse the data now. So I have colour-coded different

periods of the migration. In orange, we have the outward migration which

starts mid-September, it goes down the west coast of Africa, across to

Brazil and then down to start of her winter period off the middle of

Argentina. In the deep winter, in this dark blue, she spends those

three months November, December and January very far south indeed, on

the edge of an arkty ka. Then about the beginning of February, she

starts to move north again -- Antarctica. Mid-March, she whistles

the east coast of South America, she comes into the Caribbean taking

a sweeping arc and back across the North Atlantic. That is her return

migration. That finishes mid-April. Fascinating. I didn't know that

they went far south. I didn't realise they came this far north

either. We didn't really realise they went this far south. Are you

able to calculate how far this bird has thrown in the last 360-odd days

-- has flown in the last 360-odd days? 10,000 kilometres, maybe

12,000. That means about a 25,000 kilometre return trip at least.

These are long-lived birds? This bird could be 25 years old. It

could be twice that. So several million kilometres. This is

fascinating, Tim. I have learnt something completely new. It also

reinforces the fact that there's so much that we really don't know

about these fabulous birds as well? We are only just beginning to

understand the elusive lifestyles of these seabirds. Isn't it it

incredible to think when they leave here in September they might

touchdown on land again for five years. I must tell you the story of

an incredible story of a Manx shearwater. Up till two years ago

it had come back every year for 55 years. Scientists believe it had

flown more than four million miles, that is to the moon and back eight

times. An incredible bird but we have got lots of incredible birds

for you when you come back to us later on.

Four million miles! That is the most incredible statistic, one

little bird. Unbelievable! I know. From one extraordinary bird to a

little bird that we have nesting in the woods just behind us here. It

is our wood warbler. Let's go and have a look at her now. There is

the nest. This is the most incredible nest. It is like a

little tunnel. It is on the ground and it is nestled in. In amongst

the moss and the ivy. It is so brilliantly camouflaged and

disguised that even with our camera right up there, you can barely see

the chicks, can you? No. They are keeping their head down doing what

they need to do. They will only flick their heads up when the

adults come back in. This is unusual. We have been on the nest

for a few seconds and not seen an adult. They have been coming in up

to 48 times an hour. More than once every two minutes. Again, these

woods are terribly productive when it comes to providing foodment they

have six youngsters in there so that will take a lot of food --

providing food. They have six youngsters in there so that will

take a lot of food. We have been watching the grasshopper warbler,

too. How are these two species able to live in the same place at the

same time? Here is the answer. Both are sub-Saharan migrants. The

grasshopper warblers have spent their winters in northern Senegal.

The wood warblers, they have been to Sierra Leone perhaps all the way

through to southern Sudan. They get back ten days later on 23rd April.

Both of these species are very song centric. The wood warbler has a

civilian trill. The nests are build from the same fabrics - a base of

leaves and a cup of neatly-woven grass. These are then lined with

hair. Clutch and brood size, they are about the same. Both of our

nests have six healthy youngsters in at the moment. The habitats are

different. The grasshopper warbler likes marshland with bushes. The

wood warbler likes these tall Oakwood lands which are so typical

of this part of Wales. This affects their foraging behaviour. The

grasshopper warbler creeps along like a mouse. Whereas the wood

warbler is up in the canopy, fly- catching. This in turn affects the

prey they catch. We have seen plenty of spiders being brought

into our grasshopper warbler's nest. Whereas, the wood warbler, well

lots of cater pillars but also flying insect -- caterpillars, but

also flying insects too are appearing in the diet. That is what

we call niche separation. That allows both those species, both our

birds, to co-exist within metres of each other and raise successful

families. Let's go live to our grasshopper warbler now. You can

see these chicks. This has been probably the most remarkable

transformation we have ever witnessed on Springwatch. Just four

days ago, we introduced you to this family. You could barely see the

chicks. Now, they are enormous, Chris. I know. There is a good

reason for that. The food has been going in. This is the food we have

seen going in. This one is a bit odd. She got back to the nest with

some other food and found on the side of it a slug. Not typical food

for this species. She couldn't resist it. Puts it into the mouth

of this bird. It didn't slither out. Did it? It did! This is the equally

interesting thing - these birds are growing so much that one of them

appears to follow the adult out. is not falling out. The nest is on

the ground. This is very typical of their behaviour. It is. They grow

so quickly. They are on the ground, they are very vulnerable there. The

concept is, if they get disturbed by a predator, they will scatter

into the undergrowth so that they can't be found. They may go back to

the nest. One thing is for sure, the scattering will mean that not

all of them will get eaten if they are discovered by a predator.

can see they look like they are pretty close to fledging. So

definitely one of our webcams to keep your eyes on over the weekend.

Now, there has been a very worrying trend emerging that many of our

native birds are going into decline. Really, is there anything that we

can do to reverse that? Well, I went to a farm that seemed to be

having some measure of success. There is one group of birds in

Britain that has suffered a particularly dramatic and prolonged

decline. It's lost half its numbers since 1970. That's more than any

other group. It's our farmland birds. Some species have suffered

more than others. The UK population of tree sparrows is down by 94%.

Corn bupbtings by nearly the same. Other farmland specialists like the

lapwing and yellowhammer have also plummeted. -- bunting. It is a

terrifying and very real prospect that some of the UK's most

important species are on the brink of being lost forever. Experts at

the RSPB know exactly what's caused this decline in our farmland birds.

There aren't enough safe nesting sites and there isn't enough food

available at critical times of the year. Farmers have become so

efficient at producing food that there's hardly any room left for

wildlife. So it is farmers and modern farming methods that are

responsible. Or is it? Farmers are under increasing pressure to supply

a plentiful amount of cheap food and that pressure comes from us.

Because we are unwilling to shell out cash for our food, ultimately

it is our wildlife that pays the price. I have come to Upton Farm,

2,000 acres on the border of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. It is

a non-organic arable and livestock farm which has found a way to

combine farming and wildlife. It is down to one man. Wildlife needs

three things - a home, food and a mate. Presumably, though, farms

provide plenty of places for things to nest and plenty of food, don't

they? No. Science tells us 90% of the wildlife on farmland has gone

because the has been fats have gone. 90%? What are you advising --

habitats have gone. 90%? What are you advising farmers to do? This

wild flower meadow provides insects and insects feed birds in the

summer. Presumably, if you are a farmer, desperately trying to make

any sort of profit, taking this amount of land out of production

isn't going to work? The Government give him money to grow wildlife and

wildlife is a crop. My skill is sitting down with the farmer and

working out where he's earning �300 from wheat but I can show him �400

from wildlife. Now he's in business. Brilliant. Look at that

yellowhammer. Two! A pair of them. They are special birds. We planted

this hedge eight years ago and it is a home for birds. The methods

provide food and shelter for birds but he also plants crops to help

them in the winter. We know one of the biggest killers is winter

starvation. This is a mixture of plants that will retain their seed,

the blue one is linseed, that one will produce seed later in the year,

mustard is the yellow one. The one that is most interesting is fodder

radish. The birds have to peck into it. Take one. Eat the seed? Yes.

That's three birds you have starved to death. You are so mean! It does

taste like radish. Basically, what we are looking at here is a little

permanent source of winter food? we could get more farmers planting

this, birds wouldn't starve. He has been working with Rob Alan since

2003. The results are astonishing. We have seen more and more birds.

We have lapwings nesting for the first time this year. We have 18 of

the 19 farmland birds. We have boxes everywhere for the tree

sparrows. We found tree sparrows where bits of mortar were missing

from buildings. In those stones? They take to the box very readily.

They seem to move straight in. Clearly, you have done a lot of

things here and it has worked. Is it worth it? It is worth it, I

think, from our point of view. The farm's profitable, we are paid for

taking this out of crops and farming it for wildlife. There are

costs and hassles, but it is very rewarding. What you have done here

at Upton has made a real difference to the state of farmland birds?

And to the wildlife environment as a whole? Yes. Is your dream to turn

your back on Upton and tackle the this lot? Yes. There's Wales and

the rest of the world! What the farmer needs is the help to deliver.

We know it works, we have seen it working. That's for tomorrow. It's

What's so heartening about that, is it proves it can be done. If the

farmer does it, it works. But he is right, farmers need help, they need

support, they need advice about how to do it. But I have got a bit of

breaking news for you. I shouldn't be telling you this. Figures that

are due to be released tomorrow by Natural England are expected to

show that our farmers are taking up this challenge. More land than ever

before, 150,000 hectares of our farmland is now being managed for

wildlife. That is really good to stop the decline of farmland birds.

Really good news. Big thanks to the farmers. If you are a farmer that

is not involved, get involved. We are down by the marsh, we have had

a look at the grasshopper warbler. On to the water, there has been

lots of activity. Plenty of swallows taking all of the fly or

midge larvae which are hatching... Not enough of the midge larvae I

have to say! They are hatching out and these birds are picking them

off. They have been down there all afternoon. Lovely damselflies here.

These look like common damselflies. Lots of dragonflies, too. Once the

nesting season is over, birds disappear, these are the things to

delight us. These are super animals. They have been around for hundreds

of millions of years in this body form. They can fly at 30mph, hover,

go backwards. I have to say, you really don't have to come to a

nature reserve like this to see them. That's right. One of the easy

things you can do is build a pond, I did it myself a couple of years

ago. It did involve quite a lot of digging. You don't need to do that.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 79 seconds

Brilliant. That's so simple and it really works. You have a pond?

have only just dug my pond. I did it a few months ago. No what you

have got! I know. I am feeling smug about my pond. It was built two

years ago. We featured it on the programme. We have put newt traps

in it. All three species of British newt in two years! Isn't that

fantastic? If you build it, they will come! It is true. Ponds are

great places for insects. Lots of insect life. There is over a

million species of insect around the world. In the UK we have well

over 20,000 different types of insect. What is happening to our

bugs? Well, you can help find out. The Natural History Museum, here it

is, OPAL, the Open Air Laboratory, have joined together to produce

this. We can all get involved with the big count and I did that this

afternoon. There's lots of different things they want you to

do. I'm going to search for bugs on plants. I have a checklist and I

have 15 minutes. We are off! Wolf spider with egg case. A big tick.

Bumblebee. Having its lunch on some clover. He's fallen off. I think I

will back off. That's a bee! Slug- tastic! Ladybirds. It's a seven-

spot ladybird. A ladybird is a beetle. Grasshopper. Young one, but

it counts. Beautiful fly, hover fly, can you see him? Gorgeous. He's

gone. Catster pillar. One for Chris to identify. -- caterpillar. One

for Chris the to -- one for Chris to identify. How many do I write on

this sheet? Ants. And time is up! That's it. If you want to get

involved in the bug count, there is a link on bbc.co.uk/springwatch.

would like to see you looking for insects. When I see you out and

about it is such a crime to be wearing that Green Watch! Stop

about the watch! It really is. Let's catch up with a few of the

birds that aren't here on the reserve. You might have seen

earlier in the week that we visited the osprey project just up the

estuary here. Great news there. They have hatched not two, but

three chicks. Despite initial teething problems with the

inexperienced female not feeding them properly, they are all getting

plenty of food, as you can see, and they are still very healthy. One

other thing that we witnessed with these birds is this. When they move

around the nest, they close up their feet into a fist so that

their large and very dangerous talons don't run the risk of

puncturing the eggs or scratching the chicks. Well, last week, I

introduced you to the Little Owls, our Little Owl nest. It is time to

catch up with the latest news there. You may remember we were lucky

enough to hook up with Emily who is is a researcher, she is sponsored

by the Hawk and Owl Trust and she's managed to get cameras right inside

the nestboxes of the little owls. Here is mum coming in. You can see

the first chick has hatched out. That was on May 18th. Then just the

next day on the 19th, the second chick hatched out. That continues.

Here she is bringing in some food. That was a moth. You can see if it

is a moth, just how small she is. Even better here, that is a sparrow.

It is almost as big as the owl. Here are all the little chicks.

They are a bit different in size. That is perfectly normal. They are

getting lots and lots of food here. There goes a moth. They are so

hungry, they are coming right out of the nestbox to be the first to

get that grub as it comes in. Here we go. Here comes mum or dad again.

The news is all good. We will keep in contact with Emily and we will

follow this family throughout the whole of the rest of Springwatch.

They are absolutely delightful. beautiful. Great news that that is

going so well. Another nest, and another family are our red kites.

There is the red kite chick. Before we came on air, ten days later,

look at him or her now. Looking very magnificent indeed. The reason

for that is again she's been very well looked after and very well-fed.

A vole coming in now. We think that this chick's about four weeks old.

We are not entirely sure and the good thing is, that she has a very

experienced mum, the mum is about 16 or 17 years old and she's raised

two chicks in the two previous years to this. But this is

something that I absolutely love, it is pouring with rain yesterday

and look what she does, she comes into the nest and raises her wing...

Thanks, mum! To create an umbrella over the chick. So what the Welsh

Kite Trust, that is looking after this nest, are hoping to do next

week is to ring that chick - very important to ID these birds and be

able to keep an eye on them. I am hoping I might be able to go along

and help them do that and if I do, you will get to see it. Now, let's

go back to Skomer and to Iolo. Welcome back to a remarkably calm

North Haven. One species that we have neglected so far, the herring

gull. Steve is on a herring gull over there at the moment. It is

just standing around by the puffins' burrow. They know a puffin

will come in with fish and that gull is going to pounce on it. It

pales into insignificance compared with the biggest gull on the island,

the great black-backed gull. Earlier, we saw one have a go at a

puffin. It happens all the time. Steve has been following this bird

for the past few days. The great black-backed is the King

of the Island. It is a huge bird. That is a buzzard. They have a nest

on the other side of the island. There it is being mobbed by a great

black-backed and you can see just how much bigger the gull is. They

even bully the buzzards! The ridge tops are the best nesting sites on

the whole island and they are taking by great black-backed gulls.

These are the best viewpoints on the island to keep an eye out for

potential prey. The threat from these gulls is the reason why the

Manx shearwaters don't come out in the daytime. This Manx shearwater

may well have been out feeding and strayed too close to the island and

these big gulls are very efficient predators. They also keep the

rabbit population in check. It pays to have a deep burrow on this

island! It would be so easy to portray these birds as villains,

but they are just trying to survive as is everyone else. We have been

staking out a nest in the heart of the island and just look what we

saw yesterday. It's a beautiful chick. This other chick is tucking

itself in amongst the rocks. Youz can see how well camouflaged it is

-- you can see how well camouflaged it is. That is because the buzzards

would eat the chick. You are not safe from predators just because

you are at the top of the food chain. You don't mess with a great

black-backed gull. We have also been following cliff nesting birds

- the guillemots and razorbills. Steve is on some razorbills. They

are one of my favourite birds. If you remember, we watched them on

the nesting cliffs, they were developing well. Steve went back

this morning to see how things were going. Those are quite young chicks.

They are still quite fluffy. Look at this razorbill chick. You can

see that it's lost most of its down and it's got almost complete adult

plumage. I thought we might see one of these moor advanced chicking

fledge and leave the cliff this week. We haven't seen that -- these

more advanced chicks fledge and leave the cliff this week. We

haven't seen that. Here are some shots filmed in Scotland a few

years ago. # Might as well jump

# Go ahead and jump # Jump

Thapbgss to-of- -- thanks to Gordon Buchanan for pictures of the

razorbills jumping. The gulls come in and they gobble the whole lot up.

They often have to fight with other gulls as well. Have a look at this.

This is something we filmed earlier on. It shows what the puffin has to

go through to get into his burrow. Have a look at this again. I missed

that, too. Puffin comes in from the left. There he comes. The gull

comes straightaway. That is what a puffin has to do to avoid being

eaten by a gull. To avoid having the fish taken away from it by the

gull, sorry. That burrow had a marker tag on it. That is one of

the research burrows out over there. That is where yesterday I went with

Chris the warden to look at a puffling. If you want to see that,

come back later on. Thanks Iolo. Iolo! Iolo! It's not

unusual to be sad with anyone. I am now because you have really let us

down. We were here last night with the Undertones and you have phoned

in so awful Van Halen! Let's fly over those trees because that is

where our herons are nesting and we can cut to them live now and a very

atmospheric shot. They have been out and about quite a lot today.

One of them left the nest for four hours so our story developers did

think maybe this is it, they have fledged. So definitely worth you

keeping an eye on those birds on our cameras over the weekend. Shall

we have a quick check on our oystercatchers? Indeed. There they

are. The adults have been brilliant at sitting on that nest. There are

two eggs underneath that adult bird. The nest is on a wall about eight

feet up with a beautiful view of the reserve. We don't think that

those eggs are due to hatch quite yet. Again, you might be able to

prove us wrong by keeping an eye on them over the weekend. Top spot on

top of the wall. Let's go beyond the trees because that is where our

buzzards were. This is our youngster, the one youngster. He's

been doing a great job of growing. Lots of - I say adult feathers, but

its first proper set of feathers. One of the reasons it's been doing

such a great job of growing is almost every time we go live to

this bird, apart from this time, it is eating, it is being extremely

well-fed by its parents. Grass snake earlier. He was in tears.

What can you do? Now, we do have a little surprise for you.

certainly do. We have got a second live buzzard which we can go to now.

This nest is slightly different in that it's got two much younger

chicks in. Pretty sleepy at the moment. We have seen a lot of

activity at this nest. We have. In fact, not altogether friendly

activity. This is sibling rivalry at its best. You see, this is a

gorgeous shot - this shows you both adults involved here, bringing food

in for these two chicks. As you can see, they are being very well

attended by those adult birds. One chick a bit bigger than the other.

It is not unusual for them to be mad at anyone. This looks like just

out-and-out bullying by the big one. It is. This is another species

which practice what is we call the Cane and Abel strategy. The adults

hatch enough eggs to ensure the bigger one survives. Take a look at

this. We saw something quite unique today. Here the adult buzzard is

bringing in a fledgling. We have tried to see what it is. It is

about blackbird size. It is a thrush more than likely. It arrives

back with another fledgling of exactly the same size, suggesting

that it's come from the same nest. In fact, in the course of just 13

minutes, it came in with no fewer than four or five of these things.

Do we glean from this that the buzzard has found a nest and has

raided it when it feels like, like a sweetie jar? That is it. It's

found that nest like you say. Identified it as a source of food.

It goes in. Pinches one and keeps going back. Goshawks would do the

same to buzzards so they may not have the last laugh. Yesterday, we

showed you the rather tragic end of a pied flycatcher's nest. I am

pleased we put plenty of nestboxes out, rigged with cameras. Today we

were able to plug another one up and we can bring you live pictures

now of the next pied flycatcher that we have got online. We haven't

been able to follow the antics of these birds too much. You can do

that over the course of the weekend. Next week, we will be catching up

and seeing what is happening in that box. Talking of weekends,

Martin, he's said he's had a fantastic weekend, "You should have

been with me." He convinced me it was the right thing to do and I

went off to meet him for a boys' weekend away.

What could be better, the sun shining and Martin has promised me

a trip to the best cafe on the island. Where is that stretched

limo? Oh for goodness sake! Chris, welcome to the magical Isle of Man.

Hold on! # I want to break free

# I want to break free. # What could be better than touring

this beautiful island on this beautiful bike with a beautiful...

Well, Chris? I'm determined to show Chris a good time this weekend, so

the first stop is the Calf of Man where I could almost guarantee some

great wildlife. The Calf of Man. There you go, a grey seal. Two, two

seals! It's gone underwater now. my goodness me! I'm going to go

underwater myself! It is nice to see. Can you see why I come here?

can. That is a splendid landscape. There is a sense of rough romance.

I can see you reflected in the landscape. This is how you see

yourself? It is. Hair in the wind... You see yourself as the Calf of

Man? The view is splendid. There is one thing it needs... For us to

stand here all day soaking it up? was thinking a cafe! OK, Chris.

There is a cafe, yes. Let's go. is not an outdoor person. I have a

treat that is far better than a coffee and a muffin. It is an

animal I always try to see when I'm here. This is the chasms and these

ravines provide an ideal nesting ground for choughs. Here they are,

this... Look at that! Oh! That was worth coming. Look at them all.

have never seen many choughs out altogether. They are so playful.

The agility in the air is unmatched. I love it when they bounce up and

close their wings and drop down. my goodness. Oh! Yes! Goodness me.

Chris, why are they nearly always in pairs? They are monogamous. They

will remain together in pairs from season to season. Look at them go!

Oh! Martin, I would give everything, every single thing for just one

minute as a chough, wouldn't you? As good as that? I would, too.

Imagine being able to walk to that edge and fall off and do what they

are doing. Can you imagine the thrill? I would give everything

except the bike! I would have to keep that. That is going to weigh

you down. You will plummet into the sea! That is glorious. What is

nesting down there? There is another massive colony there.

are guillemots there and lots of kittiwakes, too. You can hear them

from here. They kittiwake, so the choughs chuff and the kittiwakes

kittiwake? Guillemots, little stumpy wings, regurgitating fish,

blah, blah, there goes my egg, I don't think so. There is another

chough! Look at that. That on the other hand, the Prada of the bird

world. I like the Chasms. Is there a cafe here? Shall we go and look?

Come on! That was really great chough action. Now, I'm quite

looking forward to my bed, a nice four-star hotel, continental

breakfast, oh... I can't wait. There it is, Chris. A bit snug,

home sweet home. I'll get the kettle on! Martin? Yes. It is

fabulous. Perfect. I knew you would love it. Ha-ha. Listen, I consider

you to be a great mate. You see, I can camp it up but I don't do

camping. Oh? I have seen Brokeback Mountain. Chris! Good night. I've

got you some Earl Grey tea bags. Well, you will be pleased to hear

those two will be off on more boys' weekends next week. Welcome back to

my favourite island, Skomer. Now, the bit you have all been waiting

for, the puffling. Yesterday, Chris took me out to some research

burrows over there to have a look at one in the hand.

I am really excited about this because we have promised you all

week we would try and get you a puffling and we think we know there

is a burrow with a youngster in it. You have to walk so carefully. Look

at this, it is like a Swiss cheese. Follow Chris the warden. Where are

you aiming for? This burrow 45. We have seen the adults coming in with

fish. Hopefully, there should be a chick in here. If we carefully

weave our way through. That is a long burrow. Can you see that. Here

is the entrance. There. Chris is looking for the chick all the way

over there. Look at that. Oh. Look at that. Got a bit of a dusty head.

Let's have a look at him. We have to be pretty quick as well. You are

going to weigh and measure? Yeah, what we are doing here is we are

measuring the growth rates of the puffins. We can work out sort of

how successful they are doing throughout the season. It is

important work? Yeah. One thing, can I point that out? Can you go in

on the beak? See that little light colour on the end? That is the egg

tooth. That is a small hard deposit that they will use to help to

escape from the egg. Let's get on and do the measurements. Yeah, yeah.

There's a lot of down on these chicks. That is 27 millimetres.

How old is this one? About ten- days-old. It will be in the burrow

for how long? Well, they will usually be fed for three to four

weeks and the young will start to explore and then they will be out

at sea. The weight of this one at the minute... They are almost

starved in the end and may need to go out? Basically, yeah. So the

weight of this one is 85 grammes at the minute. They will be about 300

grammes when they come to fledge. The adults are heavier at 400

grammes. He is doing well. You saw the little beak there. It is not

coloured at all which is quite a surprise for most people. That will

stay that colour for the first couple years of its life. It will

get bigger. They won't develop the colourful bills until they are two

years old. Hopefully, this one will fledge to an adult and survive to

next year and we better put it back. Yeah. Ta-da. Excellent. That has to

be the cutest thing I have ever seen and it gives me an excuse to

use my favourite word of the week - puffling! Was that worth waiting

for or was that worth waiting for? I know what is going to happen -

children all over the country will tell their parents, "I don't want a

bike, or a computer game this Christmas, I want a puffling." You

can't. Chris wanted me to emphasise when he said three to four weeks,

that is the incubation period. The chicks will be in the burrows for

six weeks. That was the highlight of the week for me. It's been a

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 79 seconds

week of highlights. Here they are Unfortunately, this is the end of

our stay on this wonderful island and being here for the week has

reinforced what I have always thought, that Skomer really is a

very special place. Now there are so many people to thank, Kenny and

John the boatmen for getting us over here, Phil and the team from

the Marine Nature Reserve of the Countryside Council of Wales for

taking us diving, the research bods and Chris the warden and the

wonderful staff from the south and West Wales Wildlife Trust. They

couldn't do enough for us. Now, we are going to say goodbye. But

earlier on, you over there at Ynyshir named your barn owl chicks.

I said we weren't going to do that. I have changed my mind. I'm going

to name the puffins. There is Dewi and Tomos, Lynette, Gethin, Dafydd,

Gethin, Rhodri, Cary, no... There is no doubt at all that he's

spent too much time on that island! After last week's great success

with Charlie's live beavers, Iolo had to come up to a live standard

and he did it. Thank you very much indeed. We enjoyed all of your

reports. We have. We have time for a very quick film that was sent in

by Ian, have a look at this. We couldn't resist this. It is a mouse

that is wishing it was a centimetre taller. Jump, jump! Would you

remind everybody what they need to do this weekend? Get out and count

bugs. Go to the website - bbc.co.uk/springwatch. Go to the

website for all sorts of things, there is a link for things to do to

keep you busy and occupied this weekend if you don't want to wear

leathers and ride in a side-car. We will be back at 8.00pm on Monday

night. What have we got? Next weekend our guest presenter is Liz

Bonnin. We are sending her off to Essex and to a rubbish dump. There

is nothing rubbish about that dump. It is full of wildlife including

this delightful family of foxes. Keep an eye on our grasshopper

warblers. They may fledge this weekend. Keep an eye on all our