Episode 9 Springwatch


Episode 9

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You know, a lot can happen in three days, and it did. We had reptiles

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turning unwhere they shouldn't. Emergency fledglings. Smash and

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grab raids by complete strangers. All that and lots and lots of rain.

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But no matter what, it's Hello and welcome to Springwatch.

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Coming to you from a beautiful clear... Hello and welcome to

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Springwatch coming to you live on this beautiful summer's evening,

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from the one and only RSPB's Ynys- hir reserve in Wales. The geography

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of this place is quite impressive. We don't only havest ris but lots

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of fresh water. Woodland, too, and if you look in there you can see

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our studio. So tonight we've got real wildlife in real-time. And

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we're going to be telling you not only about nuances and the ecology

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and the behaviour of this wildlife but they are here to have fun, too.

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We'll have time, will we? Excellent! And we were also here to

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tell you about what happened over the weekend. One thing that

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happened was that the weather took a dramatic turn for the worse. The

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black clouds rolled in. The rain came down. And we were on tenter

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hooks wondering how that was going to affect our Springwatch families.

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Like our grasshopper warblers. Would they stay or would they go?

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Last week there was an intruder annoying the barn owls, it was cat.

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But something else has snuck in amount of stress. Now, as usual, we

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shall have a quiz. It is a slightly smelly quiz. Come over here and

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look underneath this pot. Something has left a little deposit in the

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studio. A fine deposit, I should say. What did that and how do you

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know what are the clues? If you know the answer, get on the web,

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tweet us or go to our new Facebook site. By the end of the programme.

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Absolutely. We'll reveal all at the end of the programme.

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Every week we have a guest presenter with us. And this week

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over in Essex is the lovely and extremely fragrant Liz Bonnin.

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Thank you very much, Kate. It is so lovely to be back on the team, but

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very a bit of a confession for you. I'm really sorry about this, but

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all this week the Springwatch adventure team and I are going to

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bring you a load of rubbish. And I'm not even skidding. It's a

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massive load of rubbish. Welcome to pit Sealand fill site in Essex.

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Come back to me very soon, when I'm going to show you how an incredible

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amount of flora and fauna mansion to thrive here.

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Thank you. I have to say I'm really looking forward to that. I like the

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contrast between the mess we make and the way that wildlife can

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thrive in it, and the picturesque beauty here.

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If you were watching last week we were enjoying a feast of warblers.

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You could have followed up the stories on the webcams over the

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weekend. One of the stars was the grass hopper warblers. They had a

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nest in the marsh. The question was, would these animals fledge or not?

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This is how they started at the This is how they started at the

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beginning of last week. Tiny little things, just about able to peep

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over the cup of the nest. But just a few days later they got to this

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size. That's an incredible growth rate, Kate. Unbelievable the

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transformation. I think we were pretty right to say these were

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birds to watch, when we left you on Thursday. However, what we couldn't

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predict is what did happen over the weekend. So we were watching the

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nest and, as ever, the adults were in feeding the cheeks. You can see

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how active they are getting, looking really strong and lively.

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But, look at this. Just watch carefully.

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One chick goes. Why is that? Look at the back of the nest, in the

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grass, and the adult is coming in and really seems agitated by

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almost certainly that snake slithering through the grass behind

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the nest that pushed out that chick, maybe forced it to fledge earlier

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than it should have done, and caused the panic with the adults.

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As you can seekers within the next ten minutes other chicks started to

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fledge. Chris, what I wonder is, are they also doing a panic

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response to that snake, or are they thinking, one of them's gone, so

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why don't we go too? They can fledge at 11 days, sometimes 12,

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sometimes 13. It seems the snake stimulated it and once one had gone

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perhaps the others thought it was safer. Perhaps the adult was trying

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to drive the snake away. For me it was a close shave. But two of them

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did stay in the nest and they stayed inover night. You can see

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the adult coming back and, presumably, Chris, the other four

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will still be close by tucked in in the grass. They might come together

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once the adults come back with food. In the fledging stakes this

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probably has to rank as the most unspectacular fledging we've seen.

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That's quite typical of the bird itself, isn't it? They tend to move

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through the grass like little mice. They will move under the grass,

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like a rodent. The adults coming back to the nest are secretive. I'm

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sure that's what the youngsters are doing at the moment. They might

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have Frenched but they are not safe from the predators. I've seen a lot

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of grass snakes here at Ynys-hir. It is pretty much a grass snake

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Heaven. These are serious predators. They like to eat amphibians, small

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mammals occasionally, even fish underwater. When I was about 17 I

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found a willow warbler's nest on the side of the track and the

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adults were making a terrible noise. They were going down to the opening

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of the nest but not going Curiosity got the better of me. I looked into

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the nest and curled up inside it was a grass snake. When I prodded

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it, it slithered across the path and running down its body were a

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number of little bumps. They were the young wibble o wash lers, so I

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have no doubt these things have -- they were the young willow warblers,

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so I have no doubt these things have had a close shave. Some of you

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have mentioned the strange goings- on in your gardens. They noticed a

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blackbird was taking newly-hatched chicks from a nest. Pat said she

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saw a blackbird eating a shreview. We are all familiar with blackbirds

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on the lawn pulling up worms, so what's happening here? We spoke to

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our friends at the BTO and they told us that back birds are having

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a tough time due to the dry weather. The worms have gone deep into the

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ground. They are struggling. Their bood size that collapsed in some

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places, so it is not surprising they will go after other food. They

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will eat newts, small frogs, lizards, even baby grass snakes.

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And occasionally nestlings too. That brings us on to our wood

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warbler nest, the other wood woorb ler family in the woods. A

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wonderful family. Both adults are feeding up to 80 times an hour the

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six chicks. But this blackbird was caught on camera. When I first saw

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this, it has got some sort of worm or insect in its beak. I thought,

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hate got distracted by that huge gape which tells the it it has to

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feed this chick? It could be it was out foraging and it heard the call

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and thought, are those my chicks. But it could have picked up on that

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and gone to investigate. Given the way it was peering into that nest

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with intense curiosity I think it was getting a measure of the chicks.

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Are these big enough for me to carry away in one go and will they

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fit down the throat of my chicks? I think thankfully for our wood

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warblers, they were just a bit too big for that blackbird. To see if

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they are still there, let's go live to our wood warblers. They have

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been a difficult nest to seekers because it is so beautifully

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disguides. Fat, healthy chicks nestling in the moss, definitely

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one to keep yours on. They will go in the next day or two. If you've

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been watching for the also couple of weeks, you will have noticed

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we've been joined by a guest naturalist. Initially Charlie

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Hamilton James was looking in Scotland, but now we are going to

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Essex, to join Liz Bonnin. Liz, how is life on the landfill?

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Chris, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I am loving this place.

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It has to be said that a 50 tonne compactor isn't the run-of-the-mill

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wildlife safari vehicle, but hey! This is not your normal Springwatch

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location. We've covered urban wildlife before but we thought we

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would bring awe human-created landscape that most of us would

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rather forget about, maybe because we think of it as a blot on the

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landscape, where we throw our rubbish and don't think of again.

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The UK dumps 57 million tonnes of rubbish every year, more than any

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other country in the European Union. There are a thousand landfill sites

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in the UK and pit sea is one of the biggest. This skpactor is sitting

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on top of 75 metres of landfill. Until we run out of space for these

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places they are a going to remain a fact of life. It is part of how our

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society operates. This week we are looking at what a landfill is, how

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it works, and how wildlife can thrive. How did we come to be here?

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Sean Taylor is a site manager here and I met him earlier.

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Sean, so this is where all the action is, the top of the landfill?

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Yes. What you can see there is the landfill site we are operating

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today. It's a huge site. We are tipping in an area of about 400

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acres. We have in the region of 5 00 lorries coming to use the

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facilities each day. How many tonnes of waste a day? That relates

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to around 2,000 to 3 ,000 tonnes a day. On top of that we have

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restoration soil lorries as well. This is what I expected to see, but

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that's only a small part of what you guys do here, is that right?

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That's my day job but yes, there is lots of other things that go to

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make up a well-run landfill. that's your day job, what's the

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rest of it? That's the important bit I have to take care of every

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day but I actually love land film. Over the time I've been here I like

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to look at this as my kind of mini wildlife park. I like to operate

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this in a way that's beneficial to biodiversity and to the plants and

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animals here. This is a vast area. No-one comes here. I'm the Earl of

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this. I take care of this. This is my patch. When there is no landfill

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going on there is an opportunity for different kinds of wildlife and

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plants. It's a nice place to be. The wider site is 800 acres, much

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of it landfill that's long since been restored, creating a complex

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mix of waterways, woodlands, meadows and scrubland. These places

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can never be built on because of the landfill that lies beneath, but

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can they really be a haven for wildlife that chooses to live

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above? If you drive around the soil, the time you are with us, you are

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going to see a vast variety of wild life. So you see this, place is not

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just a rubbish dump. This is massive. There is much more to it

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than just this top active part. Have you wondered what happens to

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the rubbish you throw away after five weeks? After five years? After

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50 years even? This week the team and I are going to find out. We are

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starting at the top and moving out and down to the areas that nature

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has reclaimed. Here is a taster of on a landfill site, but this is

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:14:55.:15:34.

this week. Next up though, we're checking out the bird life at the

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very top of this landfill site. See you very soon. Thank you very much,

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Liz. You were right, Chris, it is teeming with wildlife. Lots of food.

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We waste one-third of the food we buy in the UK. A lot is going to

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the landfill. Most of it is potatoes I leave under... Never

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mind! Right, we have had a brand new nest for you, absolutely brand

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new. Some of you may have seen this over the weekend. It's a wren nest.

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There's been high drama there. Let's look at this wren's nest.

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Adults are coming in and feeding. That is what people have been

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watching. We could not see exactly how many young are in there. I

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think there's at least four in there. There is four in there. You

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can definitely see four. Mum is trying to feed them a snail. That

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is a little bit too big. My mum tried to do it with sprouts. They

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wouldn't go in, to be honest with you. It was doing very, very well.

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Then something strange you noticed about it. One thing we were able to

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do was look at this at night. This allowed us to take a closer look at

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the birds' behaviour whilst they were overnighting in there. We

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don't normally get views like this of birds. Here is the adult with

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the youngsters, no doubt keeping them warm. If you look closely,

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what at what is crawling around on top of the youngsters, it is

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mosquitos. What is all that about? I like moss

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ket toes. I have -- mosquitos. I have an admiration for them. We

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don't have to worry about malaria. There are 33 species in this

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country. Some are rare, I have to say. The females of them now need

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to suck the blood of other animals to get enough protein to produce

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their eggs. For me it is part of being a community. I like sharing

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myself. I offer a little bit of blood. That is what the WRENS were

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doing too. Do you think they itch? Mosquitos have to find other hosts,

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birds, mammals, they are bitten too. It is not just us. OK, the nest

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started off, everything was calm, then things took a dramatic turn.

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They are, everything seems calm, now the most enormous threat. There

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it is. It is a jai. They will try to take -- jay. They will try and

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take those fledglings. At this time of year they are keen on finding

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eggs and youngsters. A hole appeared in the back. Now explos

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sieve fledgling. -- expo sieve fledgling.

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The jai did get one of those little chicks. That motivated the others

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to burst out explosively. minutes later this bird came back.

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Jay have phenomenal memories. Over the space of two minutes it is

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obvious it will go back and try and harvest the rest of these chicks.

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This happens every day. No matter what you say jays are not a bad

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animal. It is part and parcel of the ecology. They only do this when

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they have young to feed. The rest of the time they eat invertebrates.

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If it had been a day earlier those chicks would not have been able to

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go. It is the third close shave for our chicks we've had this evening.

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What happened to them? We sent our cameraman, who got this fantastic

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sequence out for us. The adult goes back. She finds them because they

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produce a call of their own. Despite some searching around here,

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they have moved to a spot where they are well hidden down on the

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ground. Eventually she locates them. They are, tucked up under cover

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down there. They are all back together. And being fed. We have

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been out today. I will bring you an update tomorrow. We can still find

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those chicks. I will tell you how they are. That is lovely to see.

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Now, tomorrow I'm going to investigate about exactly that sort

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of thing, jays, crows, particularly magpies. How much of an effect do

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they have on our song bird populations? We will find out

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tomorrow. We will try and get clear answers to this emotionally-charged

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story. Who's poo? A quick update on the poo. Let's look at it now. I

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have to say, quite a lot of you are getting it right.

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Really? Yes. When I see it I think what a triumph of television we

:20:42.:20:46.

have created! This is what real biology is all about. Particularly

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some of the younger viewers. When it comes to younger viewers it is

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time to celebrate a couple of lads from Suffolk, Paul and Ryan Edwards.

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We met them in 200. They were 16. We joined up with them again. They

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are 19, at their home in Suffolk, where they have taken a close look

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at some barn owls. A beautiful film. Take a look.

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When you spend so much time in an area you begin to get a bit like

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the animals in it. You get territorial in a way, which is

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silly, but you do. We're really lucky to have a place

:21:29.:21:35.

where we can go. The oak will always be from where our passion

:21:35.:21:41.

stemmed. It's only until you see them poking their heads out of the

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box for the first time, the first time you make eye contact with them,

:21:45.:21:55.
:21:55.:21:56.

it's when you realise, wow, that's a really good moment. We think of

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them as our owls. They are obviously not our owls, but we feel

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we've played a part in rearing them in a way. They have a mystical

:22:07.:22:12.

quality to them. You know, spending time with them, following them, you

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soon realise they have different characters and different ways of

:22:16.:22:22.

living to other creatures. It's all about their life cycle.

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Not just seeing the creature, but realising there's another life

:22:27.:22:37.
:22:37.:22:40.

within the meadow. It's pretty breathtaking as they come towards

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you and it looks almost as if they can feel the wind underneath their

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wings. They are hunting. They have one thing on their mind. I don't

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know, they are so in tune with what they want to do. They forget about

:22:55.:23:05.
:23:05.:23:14.

It's also there -- always there, whereas the river is constantly

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changing with the creatures that come and go. When the kingfishers

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start heading up-stream, it sort of slaps you in the face and you are

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like, wow, there are kingfishers here, they are back. It is special

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when he comes and chooses our area. When you are sitting waiting your

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mind starts to wonder. You start this think about all the other

:23:45.:23:55.
:23:55.:24:10.

free-flowing in a way. Things come and go.

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When you're filming the barn owl, when you are watching that life

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cycle, and you tend to forget about all the other animals in the oaks.

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You can see the little owls watching the barn owls. They

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certainly know each other is there. When we're actually filming the

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owls, it does seem to go on forever. It seems to take a long time. Then

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when you actually think of how long ago these chicks you are watching

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fledged, it was only 14 weeks ago they were eggs. I think that's

:24:49.:24:59.
:24:59.:25:10.

and diving down. It would be cool to be inside their head for a bit.

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That is the way you are sucked into when you are filming them, you are

:25:17.:25:27.
:25:27.:25:31.

almost having a shared moment with hunting barn owl. A beautiful film.

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Thank you guys. Thank you very much indeed. I've come out to the

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estuary from the other end of the reserve. You can see absolutely

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stunning views out here. If you could see just past the end of the

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trees there, you'd be able to see our oystercatchers. We have a pair

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of oystercatchers, sitting on two eggs. They've made a nest on top of

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a wall. They've been sitting on those eggs. This is some glarryous

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shots we got at the weekend -- glorious shots we got at the

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weekend. They choose the spot not just because it is eight feet above

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that wall, but I think they choose it because of that view. We caught

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on camera two birds looking a bit distressed. That is a typical

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oystercatcher call, something you'll recognise from beach

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holidays. We think this was the culprit. It is a crow. We saw how

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that jay behaved. A crow would certainly have a go at those

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oystercatcher eggs if it managed to find them. You can see the adults

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are being very attentive. Chris, Chris, perfect, come here, you've

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got here, well done. I just wanted you to have a look.... Nice

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dramatic entrance! Let's go to the oystercatchers live. I was watching

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them earlier. If we can zoom in a bit. Is that possible? Perfect! We

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are used to these birds looking very pristine. They are beautifully

:27:09.:27:15.

turned out. They look like they are going to the opera, or something.

:27:15.:27:22.

But uncharacteristically a bit scruffy. They seem to be ragged

:27:22.:27:27.

around the edges. I notice their back feathers are looking a little

:27:27.:27:32.

bit, as I say scruffy and brown. You can notice the brown feathers

:27:32.:27:37.

really show up. These are last year's feathers which have aged and

:27:37.:27:41.

weathered. What makes them stand out is the contour feathers are

:27:41.:27:47.

coming through. This makes sense. The birds won't want to molt their

:27:47.:27:53.

flight feathers at this time. They need to be able to fly, defend the

:27:53.:27:56.

nest or forage for food. Since they sit around they are not using up a

:27:56.:28:01.

lot of energy. That would be time to put it into their contour body

:28:01.:28:05.

feathers. This is what has made them have this appearance. They are

:28:06.:28:10.

using this inactive time to molt. You would never see that with the

:28:10.:28:17.

smaller song birds because they have so much to do. I am going to

:28:17.:28:27.
:28:27.:28:27.

do an impersonation. I need a coat. Are you ready?

:28:27.:28:33.

LAUGHTER I know what you are being. Shall we ask the crew? A heron. He

:28:33.:28:38.

is being a heron, aren't you? being a heron. You know, our herons

:28:38.:28:41.

are just over there. We have been following their progress throughout

:28:41.:28:45.

the course of our series. Let's take a look at this because they've

:28:45.:28:49.

been more active over the weekend. They have spepbtd an increasing

:28:49.:28:52.

amount of time away from the -- spent an increasing amount of time

:28:52.:28:58.

away from the nest. They have been practicing their stabbing and

:28:58.:29:02.

foraging skills. They are still not brilliant at it. They are being

:29:02.:29:07.

bullied a bit by some of the estuary's more belig grant

:29:07.:29:14.

residents. The tables will turn when it realises how well armed it

:29:15.:29:19.

is. It is investigating an object. Watch this one - if you watch

:29:19.:29:24.

closely, it stabs and then it swallows a little silver fish it

:29:24.:29:29.

has caught. We have been watching them. We did wonder, they've had

:29:29.:29:34.

all those slightly useless attempts and you think, are they ever going

:29:34.:29:39.

to find any type of prey they can catch? And are they ever going to

:29:39.:29:43.

leave the nest? Let's go live to our herons to see what has happened.

:29:43.:29:53.
:29:53.:30:00.

posters, everything they can to get the teenagers out of the home.

:30:00.:30:04.

Joking aside, I wouldn't mind betting that occasionally the

:30:04.:30:12.

adults are coming back with food. Our sharp-eyed wildlife camera man

:30:12.:30:19.

Mark Yeates spends a lot of time here at the estuary. We think it is

:30:19.:30:26.

that he is not only a keen Fisherman but he likes the wildlife.

:30:26.:30:30.

He spotted a ripple on the water and look at this, it's a grey seal

:30:30.:30:35.

coming inland away from the sea. We were not 100 miles from the sea

:30:35.:30:38.

here. It is just beyond where we can see from this point, but he

:30:38.:30:44.

thinks it was probably coming up because there are a lot of sea

:30:44.:30:48.

trout heading up this estuary, probably as a result of the rain at

:30:48.:30:56.

the weekend. A big flush of rain is a real signal to sea trout and

:30:56.:31:01.

other fish waiting to spawn up the river. They need to know there is

:31:01.:31:07.

going to be enough water when they spawn. He was going up there

:31:07.:31:13.

forehis meal. Liz Bonnin is going to introduce us

:31:13.:31:18.

to some birds. I'm a keen birder myself.

:31:18.:31:23.

Welcome back to pit Sealand fill site. Over the next few nights I'm

:31:23.:31:29.

hoping to show you how a well- managed site like this one can have

:31:29.:31:34.

all the makings of a nature reserve. It is some of the stuff that's been

:31:34.:31:37.

thrown away here that's attracting probably the most obvious species

:31:37.:31:45.

on show here at pit sea, the gulls. For them this is a massive fast

:31:45.:31:48.

food outlet. There is food absolutely everywhere. Look at this,

:31:48.:31:52.

a potato, and something else there I don't want to pick up! But

:31:52.:31:58.

there's a lot of food here. We throw out 60 million tonnes or so

:31:58.:32:03.

of food in the UK every year. That's ridiculous. Of this area,

:32:03.:32:09.

36% of it is organic matter - that's garden and food waste. The

:32:09.:32:16.

gulls seem to be doing very well on this diet, but it is not a happy

:32:16.:32:21.

ever after story author these birds, as the site is set to close in five

:32:21.:32:26.

years. What is going to happen to the gulls then? Scientists are

:32:26.:32:36.
:32:36.:32:46.

Pitsea during the spring and summer, but in the winter numbers can reach

:32:46.:32:50.

40,000. It is one of the most astonishing collection of birds in

:32:50.:32:54.

the whole of Britain. It is a contrasting mix of natural beauty

:32:54.:32:59.

and the darker side of our human world. And this mass of swirling

:32:59.:33:07.

feathers has an unfolding story to tell. The birds have been cannon

:33:07.:33:11.

netted by the Thames gull group, who are involved with a major

:33:11.:33:16.

scientific study to monitor the population here. Today they've got

:33:16.:33:21.

an interesting catch. How many different types of gulls do we have

:33:21.:33:29.

on this landfill site in general? Herring, lesser-blacked back and

:33:29.:33:36.

great-blacked back. There are five. We'll get them bagged up, back to

:33:36.:33:44.

the processing site. This is if Med gull? That's the Mediterranean Gull.

:33:44.:33:50.

This colouring will allow bird watchers to see them easier in the

:33:50.:33:54.

field. Mediterranean gull makes me think they come from the Med, but

:33:54.:33:59.

do they? They don't actually. The population of Mediterranean gulls

:33:59.:34:03.

in the UK probably came from Germany and central Europe. And now

:34:03.:34:07.

we've got a population breeding in the UK as well. If we are getting

:34:07.:34:12.

more Mediterranean gull this is this country it might be difficult

:34:12.:34:17.

to differentiate between black- headed gulls and Med gulls?

:34:17.:34:23.

Absolutely. The black-headed gulls has moor of a chocolate brown hood,

:34:23.:34:28.

whereas the Mediterranean gull has a deep, blackhead and it goes

:34:28.:34:38.
:34:38.:34:40.

further down the Med. It is much more of a ver million red. Thank

:34:40.:34:45.

you very much for all the information. It is so lovely for me

:34:45.:34:49.

to see the gulls here, but the reason for this work is to monitor

:34:49.:34:53.

how the population at the landfill site is changing, and ho help us

:34:53.:34:58.

understand the wider problems facing these birds. Paul, is there

:34:58.:35:02.

anywhere like this landfill site for helping you get this kind of

:35:02.:35:06.

information in about these gulls? Absolutely not. In the winter

:35:06.:35:10.

numbers that we are catching here, very large numbers, we had one

:35:10.:35:17.

catch last year, our total in the net was 760 birds in one catch.

:35:17.:35:27.
:35:27.:35:29.

There is nowhere else you can catch that number of birds. Herring gulls

:35:29.:35:37.

-- heron guls. These have declined in the last 30 or 40 years. The

:35:37.:35:43.

number of girds the towns the hasn't matched the decrease in the

:35:43.:35:50.

populations. When this landfill site is covered over, could you all

:35:50.:35:56.

move out to the coastline and replenish the numbers there? It is

:35:56.:36:01.

not as simple. This will help our understanding of how we can

:36:01.:36:04.

understand population numbers without them crashing here once

:36:04.:36:09.

this site is covered up. That information we are collecting now

:36:09.:36:14.

we are bank sog that when the landfill sites close we understand

:36:14.:36:21.

what happens to this population of birds. Will they all move to the

:36:21.:36:28.

coast, or move to France or into London? We can hopefully monitor

:36:28.:36:38.
:36:38.:36:38.

that in future. One of the greatest birding spectacles in Britain.

:36:38.:36:43.

Considering this location, it was so unexpectedly stunning. Paul's

:36:43.:36:46.

work is so important. We've got to make sure these gulls have a

:36:47.:36:51.

promising future in this country. Join me later to find out how

:36:51.:36:56.

wildlife find foods here and also a home.

:36:56.:37:04.

Thank you very much indeed, Liz. It is absolutely eye opening isn't it?

:37:04.:37:08.

Teeming with life. We'll join Liz lafrplt

:37:08.:37:12.

Now, no-one I think in the country escaped the weather. It was quite a

:37:13.:37:18.

wet weekend. In fact here in Wales a quarter of the average rainfall

:37:18.:37:26.

for June fell in a 24 hour period over this weekend. It was wellies

:37:26.:37:36.
:37:36.:37:36.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 57 seconds

:37:36.:38:33.

Isn't that what some people call jazz? Now stop. We've got a big

:38:33.:38:37.

story to tell. You can't have weather like that without it having

:38:37.:38:47.

some sort of impact on the wildlife. Last week we fold the -- followed

:38:47.:38:57.
:38:57.:39:00.

the tragic tale of the pied catchers. Things change. Initially

:39:00.:39:05.

it was all good news. The sun was shining and the male was giving

:39:05.:39:09.

food to the female and she was passing it to the chicks. But one

:39:09.:39:15.

of the chicks started looking off- colour at the weekend. She carried

:39:15.:39:20.

on feeding but it wasn't good. The weather had kicked in. She sensibly

:39:20.:39:25.

removed the animal which had died. It was a small size, so it might

:39:25.:39:30.

have begun to rot and cause a problem, but here the wind has come,

:39:30.:39:35.

the sun has gone in, there is less food and it was another disaster in

:39:35.:39:39.

this nest. But this morning sadly all the chicks had died. You can

:39:39.:39:46.

see the female was coming back in to check, but to no avail. What on

:39:46.:39:51.

earth was going on? Let's just have a look at what they were eating.

:39:51.:39:57.

This was the thing that started leading us to suspect that it

:39:57.:40:01.

wasn't the health of the adults, it was just the food that they were

:40:01.:40:07.

able to find. You can see they are bringing in food but there are no

:40:07.:40:15.

big fat protein-laden juicy caterpillars, just a few flies.

:40:15.:40:24.

Sometimes you can't even see what's in the beak it was so small. So, it

:40:24.:40:31.

came down obviously to the need of a bar chart. A rather useful bar

:40:31.:40:36.

chart for Saturday Shows us that they started slowly with the number

:40:36.:40:41.

of feeds being just over 20. That's not unusual. That's early in the

:40:41.:40:46.

morning. It is not warm. As the day heats up you can see they are

:40:46.:40:51.

bringing in plenty of food, but that peak doesn't last. It drops

:40:51.:40:56.

off really quickly. By the end of the day, look here between 4 and 5,

:40:56.:41:01.

it is light until after 9 o'clock, they should be really feeding those

:41:01.:41:04.

chicks but they weren't. That was Saturday's picture. On Sunday the

:41:04.:41:10.

rain came in, so the combination of the feeding really dropping off,

:41:10.:41:15.

the bad quality of the food, and then the rain meaning that finding

:41:15.:41:22.

any other food became in increasingly difficult probably led

:41:22.:41:31.

to that nest failing. This continued on Sunday. This bar chart,

:41:31.:41:38.

I'm giving you 10 for statistical accuracyy. 10 for presentation.

:41:38.:41:42.

Thank you. We've got a theory, that food is at the centre of all of

:41:42.:41:49.

this, but we are not experts the pied flycatcher but we know a man

:41:49.:41:52.

who is. Earlier this afternoon I had a word

:41:52.:41:58.

with him. Malcolm, in the last couple of

:41:58.:42:03.

weeks we've seen both our broods of pied flycatchers fail is. This to

:42:03.:42:09.

be expected at this time of year? It is. I mind on my own population

:42:09.:42:15.

in Dartmoor. Later-nesting broods are much more likely to fail than

:42:15.:42:25.

materialier-nesting ones. Why is it? Others have done terribly well.

:42:25.:42:29.

In my population productivity is affected by the weather. They do

:42:29.:42:34.

suffer with prolonged rain. But I think one of the main reasons

:42:34.:42:43.

probably they are just breeding too late, so they've missed the peak in

:42:43.:42:48.

abundance of food, with the catter pillars. Spring has been coming

:42:48.:42:55.

earlier and if they don't time their brood with this, they will

:42:55.:43:00.

suffer increased failure. If the birds are able to calibrate this in

:43:00.:43:05.

anyway, why are these late ones bottering to raise a brood?

:43:05.:43:11.

could be a second clutch, where the female has failed earlier in the

:43:11.:43:18.

nesting cycle, either on eggs or small chicks. Or it could be they

:43:18.:43:24.

are first-time breeders. And they just get it wrong. Thank you very

:43:24.:43:28.

much Malcolm for that insight. We've got to say, it is not just

:43:28.:43:34.

our nests that are failing. 19% of the broods here at Ynys-hir have

:43:34.:43:40.

failed recently. But it is not all doom and gloom. Look at these

:43:40.:43:45.

delightful pictures taken by our wildlife cameramen. These are pied

:43:45.:43:49.

flycatcher fledglings, so not all the families here have failed. Some

:43:49.:43:56.

of them are thriving and doing very well indeed. It is not a total

:43:56.:44:01.

wipeout as far as that species is concerned. Not at all, if you go

:44:01.:44:11.
:44:11.:44:17.

out here in the morning it is alive explore the Isle of Man. If you

:44:17.:44:21.

have suffered motorcycle emptiness over the weekend, here's our second

:44:21.:44:29.

instalment of boy's weekend away. Martin, come on. Good morning. A

:44:29.:44:36.

croissant and some lukewarm tea. Come on, mate!

:44:36.:44:46.
:44:46.:44:48.

A strange trail here. What's going on? Oh, my....! Come

:44:48.:44:55.

on, Chris. The water's lovely. See what you're missing out on. Have

:44:55.:45:03.

some decorum, man! It's a family programme.

:45:03.:45:11.

He's barking - absolutely barking! Now, Chris, you may have noticed

:45:11.:45:15.

that in the Isle of Man there are beautiful rivers. Can't argue with

:45:15.:45:21.

that. Look at this! I would like to show you something which has been

:45:21.:45:24.

rediscovered living in the river. Not that something I found living

:45:24.:45:30.

in the river this morning, I hope! I seriously think Martin's trying

:45:30.:45:37.

to freak me out. What's this? Ghostbusters? This team from the

:45:37.:45:43.

department of environment, food and agriculture are electro fishing.

:45:43.:45:47.

This sends a small charge into the water. It does not harm the fish,

:45:48.:45:57.
:45:58.:46:01.

it stuns them briefly, so they can be safely caught. This gives us an

:46:01.:46:07.

ideal chance to study them. We look at this evolutionary

:46:07.:46:11.

throwback. I can see you have something. We are trying to put

:46:11.:46:15.

them into different categories. The very small ones there we are

:46:15.:46:21.

looking at they could be one-plus stage. One year? These ones here

:46:21.:46:28.

then? Two-plus. They are getting more defined tails. There's a

:46:28.:46:33.

massive change as they go through - it's a proper met more foe sis.

:46:33.:46:39.

This one here? That is an adult, looking at the definition of the

:46:39.:46:46.

fins. There are clear gill openings. It has developed eyes. Obviously

:46:46.:46:51.

that will be in preparation nor the spawning period. Once mature the

:46:51.:46:58.

adults stop eating. That sucker- like mouth becomes a tool used in

:46:58.:47:02.

breeding and nest building. They will use their suckers in the

:47:02.:47:06.

current of the water. They will move their bodies and move the

:47:06.:47:12.

stones. You get clumps of them. There has been up to 50 recorded in

:47:12.:47:16.

some surveys. Sometimes they are referred to as a ball of spawning

:47:16.:47:24.

activity. A ball of spawning activity. We caught one once, under

:47:24.:47:32.

a stone. I remember all the little kids coming around when kids looked

:47:33.:47:40.

at lamprays. They are slightly intimidating.

:47:40.:47:46.

Even thoi they are not going to feed, that does mean they are a

:47:46.:47:56.
:47:56.:47:57.

little important. Why are they doing this? J they spawn they will

:47:57.:48:03.

be in the same areas as other fish, brown trout. It is good for other

:48:03.:48:10.

fish to spawn in as well. The water has to be good quality for them to

:48:10.:48:17.

stay in that area. It has been a treat to see these lamprays. I have

:48:17.:48:21.

never seen them before. It has been fascinating. Thank you.

:48:21.:48:30.

You know, all this fresh air and fishing has given me an appetite.

:48:30.:48:34.

There's no doubt the Isle of Man is a feast for the senses. Frankly

:48:34.:48:40.

there's something distinct lilacing in this trip so far - the lesser

:48:40.:48:46.

spotted toasted tea cake. At last! That is amazing. Definitely the

:48:46.:48:55.

closest thing we've got to river monsters in the UK. The sun is

:48:55.:49:01.

setting over the pit. It is a beautiful site. Who would have

:49:01.:49:04.

thought it? We talked about the gulls coming here to get their food.

:49:04.:49:08.

They are not the only to do so. A beautiful popular mammal does that

:49:08.:49:13.

as well. More of that in a little bit. Animals don't just need food

:49:13.:49:18.

to survive, they also need shelter. Can our discarded rubbish provide a

:49:18.:49:22.

home for wildlife. Take a look at this.

:49:22.:49:29.

Thanks a million. So, we were having lunch here yesterday. Two of

:49:29.:49:32.

the team spotted something interesting over here. This is Rod,

:49:32.:49:40.

our special macro-cameraman. This is an old disused road sweeper

:49:40.:49:46.

brush. If you wait you may see it. We will stick a mic in there as

:49:46.:49:56.
:49:56.:49:57.

well. Make-Sinn Fein boom. I love it! Now we -- make shift boom. I

:49:57.:50:02.

love it. It's not long before our mystery animals emerge. It is the

:50:02.:50:12.
:50:12.:50:16.

sound which gives them away. That's what we've been waiting for

:50:16.:50:20.

- bumblebees. Loads of them, coming in and out of this bit of discarded

:50:20.:50:24.

rubbish. That is what is interesting. Here, this is part of

:50:24.:50:32.

the site which is not managed at all. It has been over grown. These

:50:32.:50:37.

amazing little bumblebees are adding to the biodiversity of this

:50:37.:50:42.

entire site. Bumblebees do well here because a

:50:42.:50:47.

lot of wiltd flowers, many of which we -- wild flowers, many of which

:50:47.:50:57.
:50:57.:50:58.

we may think of as weeds, are flour Irishing. I am not sure --

:50:58.:51:07.

flourishing. The clue is in their legs. Sarah

:51:07.:51:14.

from Bug skaf Life is here to help. Can you identify what is on you?

:51:14.:51:23.

What we are looking for.... There you go, you've got it.

:51:23.:51:29.

So, she sat still for a minute there. The hind legs are black, are

:51:29.:51:39.
:51:39.:51:39.

they? They are not black, they are red. The red-tailed bumblebee. We

:51:39.:51:44.

have 24 species. Generally their experience is declining in range

:51:44.:51:48.

and numbers, which is a shame. are in decline because of what

:51:48.:51:56.

factors? Loss of habitat. There are not enough wild flowers to support

:51:56.:52:00.

these wonderful creatures. Great news then for the bumblebees here.

:52:00.:52:08.

There are plenty of these waste land flowers. Shall we let it go

:52:09.:52:15.

then? Yes. Back to the nest. Fly, fly, fly.

:52:15.:52:20.

It goes to show, lovers of wildlife don't have to keep everything neat

:52:20.:52:28.

and tidy. Sometimes a little bit of scruffyness can -- scruffiness can

:52:28.:52:33.

go a long way. We did not plan it, we came across it. That is what

:52:34.:52:38.

Springwatch is all about. To mammals who woman here to feed, I

:52:38.:52:43.

am talking about red foxes. Watching them here is an incredible

:52:43.:52:52.

experience, I can tell you. Look at what the cameras managed to capture.

:52:52.:53:02.

Just like the gulls, the foxes here make use of our discarded waste.

:53:02.:53:11.

They are natural zavevengers and the bountiful -- savengers, and the

:53:11.:53:16.

bountiful food means they hardly have to hunt for anything. The food

:53:16.:53:21.

is delivered on their doorstep. Around the edges of the active

:53:21.:53:29.

landfill one pair has set up home in a log-pile house. In April, the

:53:29.:53:39.
:53:39.:53:47.

looking after them, bringing them scraps of food zavevenged from --

:53:47.:53:55.

savenged from the landfill above. Living right next door, in some

:53:55.:54:02.

dense bushes, were another four cubs, with one lone vixen looking

:54:02.:54:12.
:54:12.:54:15.

after them. The cubs played all the time, practicing their hunting

:54:15.:54:20.

techniques on passing magpies and scrapping with each other, already

:54:20.:54:30.
:54:30.:54:34.

determining a pecking order. All adorable scenes that did well

:54:35.:54:42.

with my arrival with the adventure team a few weeks later.

:54:42.:54:47.

How utterly devine was that? It gets better, I had been amazing

:54:47.:54:51.

experience with those foxes. Come back to me tomorrow for that and

:54:51.:54:57.

more surprising wildlife. Thank you very much, Liz.

:54:57.:55:00.

Absolutely gorgeous stuff. As she said, there'll be more from Liz of

:55:00.:55:04.

the dump tomorrow on the programme. Now, you have been rightly

:55:04.:55:08.

concerned about our barn owl, so Bob and his family, let's go live

:55:08.:55:13.

to them now. As you can see, I think your concerns, well, I

:55:13.:55:18.

wouldn't waste them, if I was you. This is a very happy, healthy

:55:18.:55:23.

looking bunch of chicks don't you think, Chris? Too happy for my

:55:23.:55:28.

liking. They are not doing much. We had the hard weather, but they

:55:28.:55:34.

continued to bring in prey at the same rate when it was not raining.

:55:34.:55:40.

They had cacheed some where. We did have a barn owl incident over the

:55:40.:55:46.

weekend. Look at this. Last week we saw a cat generating in and

:55:46.:55:49.

generating animosity. This time we saw same behaviour. Who was the

:55:49.:55:54.

intruder this time? Yes, it is one of the country's least favourite

:55:54.:55:58.

mammals, I am afraid, a grey squirrel. Would a squirrel attack

:55:58.:56:03.

those chicks, or would a barn owl attack that squirrel? If the

:56:03.:56:09.

squirrel got too close to the nest, there is no doubt the adult barn

:56:09.:56:14.

owl would attack. They will take young birds.... It is like, don't

:56:14.:56:19.

you come near, or I'll punch your lights out. She has the flick knife

:56:19.:56:23.

out and she is demonstrating what is happenedy there. I don't think

:56:23.:56:30.

the squirrel represents a threat to the chicks. You have forgotten the

:56:30.:56:37.

badger-cam. Let's go live to the badger-cam. Oh, there's no badger.

:56:37.:56:42.

Nothing at all. We have recorded something very exciting. Was it

:56:42.:56:49.

badgers? Let's have a look! No, it was cubs.

:56:49.:56:52.

Looking slightly shocked. Strange we've seen cubs a couple of times

:56:52.:56:56.

on that camera, but never with adults. I think they were born

:56:57.:57:02.

somewhere in that badger sett, but out of reach from our cameras. The

:57:02.:57:07.

vixen will be there somewhere. We only see them playing like this.

:57:07.:57:11.

There might be badgers in that sett. It is not uncommon for them to

:57:11.:57:17.

share a sett. Foxs will go into a badger sett. When I was a kid I

:57:17.:57:22.

used to speak to an old fisherman. He told me foxes would make their

:57:22.:57:32.

den at the top, badgers at the bottom and otters too.

:57:32.:57:39.

From the blog, Jim, dark indicates karnnivor size and the twist at the

:57:39.:57:45.

end -- karnnivor size and the twist at the end means fox.

:57:45.:57:50.

The reason it is a fox is it has that twisty tail. It is dark in

:57:50.:57:56.

colour F you look into the soul of this poo, I can see there is fur in

:57:56.:58:00.

there. It means it has eaten something like a rabbit. You can

:58:00.:58:10.

keep your eye on the web-cam. What do we have tomorrow? We get to meet

:58:10.:58:15.

a handsome bird. We will bring you news of our beautiful Red Kite

:58:15.:58:22.

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