Episode 1 Springwatch

Look at this! It is a beautiful may spring evening and we are live.

have extraordinary access to British wildlife. We're going to

bring you foxes. These are live pictures of box praise. Also live

pictures of blue tits. That is just a taster. -- ospreys. Springwatch

Hello and welcome to Springwatch 2012 - the first of our live

programmes that was bound over the next three weeks. We are here at

the RSPB Ynys Hir reserve in mid central Wales. We'll show you where

we are plaister -- later. It has a fantastic diversity of habitats.

There is heathland, Marsh and plenty of oak wood land. There is

plenty of wildlife. Our mission is the same, to bring you the best of

the world live in sound and vision. What an evening! This spring

started off nice and then it went horribly wet and cold. Now it is

beautiful. This spring has been unpredictable and extraordinary.

That is how this series will be. It will be extraordinary and

exceptional. That was good! We have cameras absolutely everywhere.

Let's begin with an attached. Let's go live to the nest. We have six

chicks. -- a nut hatch. That nest looks extraordinarily uncomfortable.

There will be a lot more of that later. What is a nut hatch? Let's

remind ourselves of what an adult looks like. They have a slate grey

back and that dramatic eye stripe. Numbers have gone up 99% in the

last 10 years in the UK. Possibly because a lot of people are feeding

them. They are full of character and be aggressive. They chase other

things of the feeder. If you want something bigger with a more

demonstrative attitude, go up a km away to me Montgomerie share

wildlife project. We have live pictures from this nest. This is

hour osprey nest. The Mail is incubating at the moment. The

female has been diligently applying herself to those as well. Let's

remind you a bit more about the birds. It is the osprey earlier in

the season. It is quite close to the season. It is quite close to

They are bringing in nesting material. They are very precious -

the three X. You know when you're up on a school trip, I always

opened the pot as still -- as soon as I went out of the school gate.

It would be amazing to see those chicks coming out. It is not just

nests, we have to live cameras all around the reserve. One is not far

away from us. It is called master Cam. There are stunning pictures of

the waters, the lake and the marshes around. There are resident

swans on the lake. They have signets. Neither of them made it.

They have three now. There are two there. Even you are going to like

this. Take a look at this! We filmed it earlier on. How sweet are

they? There are two babies there. Where is the third? Show us.

sweet is that? It is on the back of the adult. I have to say it looked

like a Pre-Raphaelite dream. It was explained -- exquisite. It is not

just about us here. We will go all around the country. The first

friend of Springwatch is Yana Williams. We sent him to Potters

Bar. Welcome to a wonderful evening in Potters Bar. Where is Potters

Bar? Within earshot of the M25 and a few miles north of London. I know

you are very concerned about how I will get back into Wales. I have my

passport with me! When the family moved into his three short months

ago, they had no idea of the adventures they had in store for

them. Through his it is the garden and this is home to an incredible

family of animals. -- through here is the garden. This is what they

sent in to us at Springwatch. 15- year-old on other film this at the

beginning of April. The most staggering thing about this family

of foxes is the sheer number. Are you ready? One, two, three, four, 5,

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. 11 foxes is incredible. It is more than double

the amount you would expect to see in a single letter. We have never

seen anything like this before. We are going to pop quickly and

quietly into the garden here. I want to show you something. That is

the garden shed. The Earth is underneath. I want a quick look. No

foxes as yet. We want to give the fox every chance to come into the

garden. That is incredible footage. I have heard of seven, even eight

foxes, but never 11. We had to send our camera down immediately when we

heard. The Xbox den, also known as a foxes earth, his underneath this

shared in the back garden. -- the fox's den. They are still quite shy

to any danger, any sudden noises, any sudden movement. Then they go

back into the earth. They are spending more time in the field

with their mother, the vixen. The cubs are begging her to regurgitate

food. How will she cope with 11 cubs? We will find out over the

next few days. That posed more questions than answers. Is it just

the one female? How will she cope with all these cubs? If we are

incredibly lucky, we may have footage of live foxes. Back to

Wales now and Martin. Thank you. I love the mystery. 11 cubs! I have

never seen anything like that. We love to hear from you. Please do

get in contact. Probably the best There are lots of blocks on that.

We do have the Springwatch Facebook page. You can get in contact on

Twitter. What we really love I your videos, the ones you have shot at

home. You can film things we never see. Here is a shining example of

exactly that. Andrew Hutchinson from York has filled this. Two male

adders. This is called the added dance. This is how they compete

with one another. -- at their dance. I have read about it but never seen

anything like that before. Thank you, Andrew. Keep those videos

coming in. Ever seen anything like it? Never. The thing about that

footage is the adders were out in the open. You could see them so

clearly. It is astonishing. That could be a series Highlight bombing.

I see a new series, slither come Dancing. -- highlight for me.

have 40 miles of cabling out into these would skied down on to the

marshes. -- these words, down on to the marshes. I am going to pick a

bird which is familiar, the blue tit. It nested so early last year

that by the time Springwatch came, they had all fledged. This year

they have nested later and we can enjoy them. This is a very cosy

nest. It is made out of sheep's wool. How many are in there? We

have 10. We did actually think it had gone down to nine and de

Menezes that the sibling was sitting on the 10th one. -- and

then we noticed that a sibling. The parents have been so busy. About

500 visits a day. They generally have one brood. If they get the

timing wrong and they cannot make successful visits, then obviously

the numbers that were fledged will go down. At the moment, in this

fine weather up with the lack of rain, they are doing really well.

Let's take a look at how they looked earlier. They were more pink

a few days ago. It has been amazing to watch. The parents are so

attentive. They have been coming in and out 50 to 70 times an hour to

feed the chicks. They were still come to the bird table occasionally

for themselves and have seats. is why you should continue to feed

them throughout the summer. Adults would take the food and they were

not think of giving it to the chicks. -- will not think. What

other chances? It depends on the weather but they're doing really

well. It was windy yesterday's so the parents of brooding them to

keep them warm. It was sunny this weekend. Where we were of was very

windy. Let's go live to the nuthatch nest. They have grown a

lot in the short time we have been watching them. The feathers are

wrapped in a bomb racks -- waxy sheath and they are beginning to

preen them out. You can see the smallest of the brood. That is No.

8 and it is smaller than the rest. We have been worried about that one.

Let's have a look at what they have been up to. They have been really

busy. They are in a nest box. Typically they choose a natural

hole but my will go into nest boxes. The adults are in and out all of

the time, bringing in lots of caterpillars. We think it might be

a clouded still the moth caterpillar. The air were actually

eight and now it is down to 6. -- there were actually eight. We hope

not. Nest watches -- watches think it is a single parent. Females have

less Chesnutt on their body. Looking down on her, it is

impossible to tell. She has her work cut out. I have some grass!

These showed the number of visits that bird has been making into the

nest during the course of the day. This is 5am and the coterie to 7pm.

27 times and that is the peak. -- and we go. The red one was on

Sunday and the blue was Saturday. That individual bird has come in

213 times on Saturday and 188 times on Sunday. It is very busy. The

rent has not been getting its fair share. This bar chart shows the man

typically going to the rest of the brood, which is 45 feeds. -- the

amount. On Sunday 30 feeds and the rent the few more - significantly

We have seen that single bird coming in and out of the nest.

We're presuming it's a single parent, but what about it's going

out and collecting food from the other bird, the male? Sometimes she

goes out so quickly and comes back in an instant with a mouthful of

caterpillars. I can't believe she can get them that quickly. I think

she's going out, getting them from the male and that does happen

sometimes. My task then is to send one of our cameramen out to the

nuthatch site to see if they can record that - just a theory.

know you were saying the runt isn't getting as much food, but ever so

often it gets lucky. Take a look at this. There they all are. Mum comes

You might have missed it. I am going to show that again. Comes in,

tries to put it in one mouth, takes it out again. It jumps and flies

into runty's mouth. How lucky was that? It's good a good square meal.

Quick question has come in from Facebird. What'll happen when they

begin to fledge if he's left behind? Will the mother continue to

feed him? It does become difficult for the

mother to feed the brood once they leave the nest. Once they break up,

they don't huddle together, which means the adults will make separate

visits to the chicks, so if one is left in the box, it will be at a

disadvantage, so we'll have to see how things progress in the next

couple of days in terms of the runt making it, if at all. In the next

few weeks we have challenged our cameramen to go out and get under

the skin of some of our most charismatic animals in the UK. We

want to learn all about them and see all the dramas that unfold in

our lives. Our first task has been set to Charlie Hamilton James.

You'll remember him. Hoe has done work for Springwatch and

Autumnwatch before. He's a lad insane to be down by the river bank

because it's there that he finds some of his favourite animals,

including one of our most splendid Early spring on the river - my

favourite time of year, and there's no bird on the planet I'd rather be

watching than a kingfisher. Kingfishers are magical birds -

vibrant, charismatic, captivating. As the seasons move from the late

winter to early spring, they come I'm back on the same small, humble

river where I have been watching kingfishers for most of my life.

What always excites me is each year and each season, life on the river

is so different, so unpredictable. There is one particular pair of

kingfishers I'm desperate to catch up with. I have followed them

before, but have no idea what they have been up to over the long,

harsh winter. This is the female. We're pretty

certain she's the same girl I followed before - mature,

experienced - perhaps even wise. Female kingfishers have orange

lower bills, whereas with the males, it's all black, making them easy to

tell apart. This is her patch of river. She's

nested on this same short stretch for a couple of years.

The male of the pair, with his all- black beak I know less about, but

in many ways, intrigues me more. He was new to the river last year

when the pair first mated. Back then, he had to work tirelessly to

woo the female, and he's going to Once a strong bond is formed,

kingfishers can mate for life, but they may try a few different

partners first, so our boy is still out to impress his older, more

experienced mate. It's mid-March, and the sun beats

down. It seems spring has come early this year, and the river

looks idyllic, but early spring is always particularly tough on the

male birds. Kingfishers have a delightful and endearing mating

ritual. It involves catching a lot of fish, which means that our young

guy is going to be rushed off his feet for the next few weeks.

Kingfishers always eat fish head first - carefully, delicately

turning them around in their beak before swallowing them whole.

This avoids spines and scales getting stuck in their throats.

However, if you see a kingfisher turning the fish around the other

way, head facing forward, you know To another. To court the girls and

reaffirm their bond, male kingfishers feed a series of these

engagement fish to their chosen female. Our male is ready to go.

But it looks like the female has He tries again, and this time his

persistence pays off. She accepts the fish.

Their bond is strengthened. Fish passing is a way of proving

his worth. He'll need to support her

throughout the spring, to wants to show her that he's got what it

takes. He'll carry on this way for the

whole season, delicately feeding It's lovely to watch the pair in

Once he's confident he's enticed her with his fish suppers, our male

builds up his courage and goes to mate with the female. It's a

wonderful thing to watch and the first steps towards the

pitterpatter of baby kingfishers. But I can't get carried away. It's

still so early in the season, and our pair have many, many hurdles to

overcome. Who knows what the spring might

hold for them. Right now they must defend their

territory and guard their nest. Soon, the eggs will arrive, and as

the spring moves on, I hope the He's good, isn't he? Not only great

behaviour, but beautiful pictures too. Of course, we'll be back with

Charlie tomorrow to catch up with the next part of that kingfisher

story - might even get the pitterpatter of kingfisher feet.

Followed by the flippy flappy of little wings. And we're fired. We

have another live camera down here. It's about 50 metres from our

studio. Hanging down from the oak tree is monstrous bird feeder

packed with sunflower hearts. We can go live to it, now, and there

is absolutely nothing. There is a siskin in the background. That's

not fair, Chris. It is not what we wanted. It has been heaving.

have recorded earlier in the day birds on it. That's more like it.

fest! It is. I get them on mine at home as well. Then look at them!

It's the nuthatch. They all flew off. That's the point. That's the

adult nuthatch toping up so it's got enough emergency for itself to

go out and feed its chicks. Woodpecker there, the boss really

of any bird table - everyone goes off when one come, but there is a

little siskin hiding around the back sort of enjoying himself.

the nuthatch would bow down to a woodpecker. Well armed, those

woodpeckers. In keeping with trying see more mammals this Springwatch,

we've got the mammal stump. doesn't sound good, but look at

this. It's brilliant, absolutely brilliant. If you look in the

distance, you might just be able to Let's have a closer look. In we go.

It's hidden behind the tree. Let's have a closer look at it. Right -

there it is! It's that stump. It was carefully made by experts...

Experts! Who drilled holes - they put cameras in it and filled it

with food, and we're hoping small mammals will come and enjoy this

feast, Chris. There is one enjoying it straight way. You see the green

thing around the hole there? That's to stop the squirrels from getting

in. Oh, oh! That was a vole there. Let's have another look. It was a

vole that had a surprise. There is a little vole - comes in, looking

around thinking, look at all of this lovely food just for me - then

- ooh! Who is that? These are bank voles, I should say. A couple of

bank voles. Superb, a common little animal, the bank vole - not the

type you would find in fields, field voles, but they're lovely red

colour when you see them. If you ever pick them up, you will get

bitten. Take a look at this, though, because other visitors have been in

our mammal stump. We have a wood mouse, but a vole has come in. It's

all kicking off with a bit of sparring between the two. You can

hear them too. Top trumps, isn't it? Who is going

to win? I would put money on the wood mouse. I don't know. They're

feisty little things. Look how feisty he's looking. I like a bit

of gladatoryial fighting, don't you?

Let's move on! More mammals. Let's go from the small mammals to

something slightly bigger, slightly Welcome back to Potters Bar where

we have an incredible family of foxes in the back garden. Now, I am

coming inside because the sun has gone down, and now is an excellent

time for foxs to appear, and the last thing I want to do is stumble

out and scare them away. A quick introduction for you. This is the

Alt family. Say hello. When they moved in here a few months ago,

this back garden was a veritable jungle. It was cleared, and in

March, a couple of fox cubs appeared. Can you imagine their

surprise when a lot more came Mandy and her family moved into

their North London home earlier this year, and what started as a

simple garden clear-up revealed some unexpected residents.

We moved in in the middle of Facebook. There were loads of

conifer trees that had grown up around the garden. We cut the trees

down, and it came to light it was a summer shed, so it was a great

surprise to see not only this lovely big shed, but to find out

days later there were loads of baby foxes coming out from underneath.

My thoughts were, would it be a problem? So I did phone the Fox

Association and asked them, did they think it's appropriate where

they are? They said it was perfectly OK.

Foxes are shy by nature, and Mandy and her family are very lucky to

We only have to open our doors slightly, and the noise of the door

opening, all the foxes will scatter and run back to the den. And yeah,

we're all getting very attacked, really.

My oldest son, he loves filming them and watching them. There is

one particular fox which comes up to the window, and - yeah, that's

probably my favourite out of all of them because it's so small.

And a couple of days ago, they were eating birds, literally. There was

about 12 of them. One of them is a very interesting, actually. They're

all very healthy as well - lovely coats, all different colours, and

they were obviously very relaxed Let's meet the family. It must have

been a big surprise to find there you had a family of foxes living

with you. It has been amazing - really exciting for the children.

Tell me this. Do they do their homework or two they spend all of

their time looking out of the window at the foxes? We have put

their homework beside a bit far we have been enjoying the foxes. It

has been really good. I would be doing the same. Many of you will

have foxes coming into the garden. I am hoping a fox might come. By it

all means Fleet foxes. Especially this time of year with the cubs. Do

not put too much food out because you do not want the fox to become

dependent on the food to put out for them. They are wild animals. Do

not feed them from other hand. Fox cubs are usually leave the mother

at about five months. We will try to follow every twist and turn. We

will look at this remarkable vixen and how on earth she manages to

feed 11 cubs. This is a side of Springwatch you do not see very

often. It is the Springwatch village - the epicentre of the

programme. There are loads of trucks, loads of cables. Lots of

production people and technical people. In here it is a technical

place. We have a whole team watching nests. They are watching

live cameras 24 hours a Dame -- a day. You can see all the monitors

showing different cameras were different birds nests. Let's take a

look at the barn owls. They look so fantastic. We have four barn owl

chicks. They are looking quite big already. They are slightly

different sizes. We love watching them. They have an upright stance.

Went it is hot, they pant and look like they're chatting to each other.

In it must be boiling in there. Let's have a look at the

chaffinches. This camera has only just gone in. It went life

yesterday. What have you noticed? There are five chicks and they work

only born a few days ago. The mum be sitting among them at the moment.

They will develop a lot as the series goes on. The best nest is

this one. It is the rare nest. You are looking at that and going,

nothing is happening. -- beat Rainer nest. They have fledged. We

were watching them earlier this morning and they were poking their

little faces out. They were hoping they would fledged life on the

programme. They did that this afternoon. Let's have a look at

that! There is the mum coming in and trying to entice them out with

the food. The little caterpillar, saying, out to come. They have been

very active in the last few days. Of that is the first one out. How

many came out? There were actually five. We had only seen four in the

nest. They are all out successfully. I do not think there will be the

stars of this year's Springwatch. We probably will not see them again.

You can carry on watching all these monitors, on the red button or on

the website. Martin, where are you? I am at Peron Point. This has to

beat one of the most beautiful parts of the whole of this RSPB

reserve. The Sun has dipped down behind the hills. Absolutely

gorgeous! Every week we're going to try something a bit different. We

are going to try and explored the hidden world at Ynys Hir. We're

going to look at behaviour and wildlife which normal cameras could

not possibly see. They are going to look at the very small, Macro world.

Things at that are happening under our feet. This is a fly's eye view

of its nemesis, the spider. Look at that! I would not like to meet that.

Here is a B. Buchan see the thousands of lenses in its eyes. --

you can see. Also the pollen it has been collecting. That is a

millipede. Now, the person that managed to film all that is

Alastair McEwen. Thank you for coming to see us. You are going to

be exploring the whole Reserve, trying to film some of that. Do you

have any particular targets in mind? We are trying to give a

general look at various habitats. We will get as close as possible to

the subjects we find. Let's have a look at a normal-sized camera. Film

is looking at his. Let's have a look at your camera. -- fail Macro

is looking at his. Why does the camera need to be so small?

tried to get down into the world. The world is very different to the

world we experience. Cameras like this can really dig down match and

actually own ticket to a certain extent and give an impression of

the place they live in. -- take down and actually. We are going to

try to get among spam. It is fierce. -- amongst them. It is very

dangerous indeed. Small creatures do not have an easy life. They are

designed perfectly for environment and lifestyle. The design criteria

for small creatures is completely different to our world - a world

dominated by gravity. Nature has used all those differences in ways

which create creatures and shapes and senses almost beyond our

imagining. We do not need to imagine them because you are going

to show them to us, I hope. We are not going to only have these

fascinating animals as a first, we're going to look at another

animal. We all know this animal well. It has never been felt in its

natural environment until now. -- filmed. Peter Stafford has a

passion for the very elusive creature - the mole. At the age of

16, Peter took this unique photograph of a mole and its pubs

under ground. The photograph won him wildlife cameraman of the year

in 1967. Over 40 years on and this remains the only known picture of a

wild mole must. When I first found the nest, all I had was a wonderful

ball of grass. I did not know what was in it. You saw the

extraordinary naked creatures which looked like something prehistoric.

They were moles, but they had no eyes, note is you could see. I was

lucky and patient and I got the photograph. Remarkably, the only

footage of European moles underground was shot in an

artificial studio of well over a decade ago. Moles are the only

mammals which live entirely underground. They are solitary

creatures who fiercely defend their territory. Their tunnels have note

surface entrance or exit holes. The mole hills we see are piles of

earth from the excavated tunnels. All of which makes them incredibly

difficult to film. 45 years after Peter took his original photo, he

has made it is mission to film a wild Mars for Springwatch. It is a

real challenge to film roles under ground. -- molls. It might be as

great a challenge filming polar bears. It is a small parochial

British animal but the point is, we never see the animal. You have

something hidden. The fact it has not been done for quite a while

reinforces that. With so many molehills, finding a mile tunnel to

put a camera in should be easy. This is the vertical tunnel. It

doesn't give you some sense of the extraordinary strength they have.

They do what I do with tiny little pause. The bottom is there to there.

This would be the normal depth of their permanent tunnel system.

Peter has found the tunnel. Now, for the first time, small infrared

cameras are placed in a mole's home. Power Springwatch camera man sets

up the equipment. The camera is set for -- left for a few nights and

reveals this footage. A tantalising glimpse of a mole. It does not like

the small hole in its tunnel left by the camera and covers it over.

With the few adjustments, the cameras are reset. Moles will bite

the heads off worms to immobilise them and stored them in a lather to

return to later. This approach years them out. -- stores them in a

lather. It is the first time I have seen this underground footage in a

completely natural environment. I have got the most amazing picture

of an adult marl busy devouring a very large earthworm. It is passing

its through -- it through its large front paws. It is being incredibly

inquisitive. It is looking to see how it can repair its tunnel.

are powerful figures. To help prepare a hill or a new tunnel,

they have developed a modified wrist bone - rather like a 6th

finger. Moles are not completely blind. As they live in total

darkness, they rely on other heightened senses. It is touch and

smell, I am short of it. All based in and around its nose. I think

what I admire most about moles is the extraordinary existence they

left. Completely out of sight and mind as far as we are concerned.

You are on your own all the time, moving this extraordinary quantity

of soil. It only increases one's admiration for the little creature.

Amazing! The first time they have been filmed in the mind - his

racket in the wild for 40 years. Being the new girl, I thought we

tried to get a few brownie points. I have brought a picture, it shows

the 6th finger. Have I gained some points? This shows us the radial

sesamoid bone. That is the 6th finger. It is covered in Cartledge.

It also has a very strong humus. This hand is great for pushing

earth. You can see just how efficient they are at shifting soil.

They have one in their back foot. They can push with a force that is

32 times their body weight so they can squeeze the soil on to the

surface or backwards down the tunnel. What about that! A radial

sesamoid. If you're watching that film, you will have noticed they

did not have many whiskers on their noses. They have an organ, bulbous

papillae. They have masses of nerves in. They can detect seismic

movements in the soil. You pay your licence fee, you tune into

Springwatch, you get a radial sesamoid and bulbous papillae. It

has to be worth every penny! If you want a copy, you can download it

from the website and pin it on your bedroom wall. That did make most of

us realise how little we knew about an animal that is under our feet.

Most people do not know much about moles. I love them. There is a lot

to learn. I thought she would like this. This is the grass mound. In

here, we have lots of snakes. There is nothing there at the moment. I

did come here earlier. I cannot believe the size of them. Take a

look at this. This is what we got yesterday. I had no idea they would

be that big. The biggest was 6 ft long and seen on the Isle of Wight.

When I was a kid, we would regularly catch them up to a metre

in size. They are beautiful. Look at the decoration of the scales on

the face? --! I imagine they will have eggs. If they lay their eggs,

they will be coming out. Is it unusual to have them in your

garden? It would not have been. To have them here it is a treat.

also unusual to have 11 fox cubs. That is what a family in Potters

been into the garden, picked up a bit of chicken and gone into the

back. They're spending a lot more time in the field at the moment. We

have a cameraman over there. I think we can cut into a couple of

cubs in the field now. They have moved over here to the little cops

over there, so this vixen every now and again is picking up food and

moving it over there. Now is an ideal time. People tend to think of

foxes as being active at night-time but they're also active at dawn and

dusk. They can be active all day too. The activity may have moved

into the field now but when our cameraman came into the field a

couple of weeks ago, this is what he saw.

We first sent our Springwatch cameraman down to stake out the

cubs at the end of April when they nowhere near the number the family

encourage the cubs to follow her. There is a large field beside the

garden next to the foxes' den. A break in the weather brings out

the cubs and allows us to get a demanding food. At this age,

they're starting to eat solid food, but will continue to feed on milk

from their mother for the next few weeks.

She not only suckles them for nourishment, but also for comfort

and bonding. The vixen can also feed them by

regurgitating solid food. The cubs seem to be begging her to do this,

the cubs and feeding herself. To produce such highly nutritious

milk for so many hungry mouths, she must spend much of a time away from

them searching for food. Mortality rates are high. 60% of

cubs don't survive the first year. As our vixen appears to be feeding

them without the help of a male or dog fox, she has a huge task ahead

of her, so if the vixen is on her own, how is she managing to keep

herself and 11 cubs looking so Beautiful cubs there, and one very

hungry mother. I think we've still got the two cubs in shot over in

the field right at the end of a long lens. I think they're just

leaving now. So that's why it's not such a good shot because they're

far, far away in the cops over there. The mother comes into the

garden, picks up food and takes it over to the cubs over there. The

diet of urban foxs is interesting. Many people think they scavenge in

bins, but bins are big, and foxes can't knock them over. A remarkable

60% of their diet is what I call wild food - grubs, insects, birds,

mammals this. Mother here deserves a gold medal. How she's coped this

far, I don't know, especially when you think one in five cubs die

within the first four weeks of life, but we'll follow this story. Ci,

you'll like this. The wonderful thing about watching urban foxs is

at the end of it all you can sit down with a warm front family, have

a cup of tea and a lovely cake. So from Potters Bar, back to you.

We have to watch that man or watch his waistline tucking into those

cakes. I think he was a bit smug. I have my own cup of tea. We were

saying earlier blue tits have nested later, which means we're

lucky to have them on the programme. Barn owl, which we had a sneaky

preview of earlier with the nest watchers, nested earlier, so we

have some great shots of them. They're incredibly noisy birds.

Take a look at this. This is the barn, and the mum - you can see her.

that's noisesy, just wait. She's obviously got food. It's been into

our mammals' stump! Listen to that sound.

It's like a steam engine. The one in the middle thinking, what am I

supposed to do with this? It's try to shove it down. It's no wonder

people think they have scary monsters in their barn or loft.

you see its eyes after its ate it? It was like oh! Let's go to the

barn owls live to see what they're doing.

You can see the facial features have already formed - those

feathers have come through. Those are the exterior part of the bird's

ears. They use that for capturing the sound and channelling it down

into the ear openings, but it's still covered with that thick coat

of down. You can just see it's losing some of it in front of the

wing. That down will fall out, won't it, and the feathers will

come through? Pretty soon we'll see it change - certainly during the

course of our series. Again, as we have seen before, very different in

size to the birds. She starts to incubate before she's finished the

clutch. This is a good idea because it means one of the birds -

successively, they'll be larger. There will always be a smaller one.

As you mentioned, 70% of the barn owls we know of nesting in the UK

started breeding in the first week of April. This is the earliest for

many, many years. It's likely all of that wet, rainy weather wouldn't

have done them any good. They can't hear their prey when they're out

hunting and are not as active. Some of the chicks might die. If the

chicks run really short of food, it could be that the larger ones will

eat some of the smaller ones. It's part of the plan. It might strike

you as horrible, but it is part of the plan, something seen on

Springwatch a few years ago. that common? It's a bit grim.

called the cane and Abel strategy. They normally lay two egg, but the

larger will eat the smaller. Can I point out? It's good. I was

about to show you - the wren came back. You know the little wrens

have fledged - it came back. Don't worry! Win some, lose some. Let us

have another look at our Ospreys. Let's remind ourselves of the

Ospreys' story. Magnificent. Here they are. They've

come back. Look at those eyes, and they - they have been apart, of

course. Isn't that right, Chris, when they're in Africa, they're not

together in Africa. They don't always arrive back at the same time.

He arrived nine days before she did. Let's go live to those ospreys, see

what they're up to now. Look at that. There is a bit of egg turning

going on there. Can we see anything there? Just - just - there they

right now because we have actually seen cracks appear in the eggs.

That's right. How long does it take generally for them to come out?

depends - sometimes up to 24 hours, sometimes longer. The adults don't

help them by breaking open the shell of the egg, but the young

bird is inside, and it's communicating audibly with the

adults. That's why they're particularly fidgety at this time,

because they're fascinated by the sound that's coming out of those

eggs. Certainly in the next few days we should see these eggs hatch,

and that should be a fantastic sight live. Can I say how amazing

that is actually because it's only a kilometre from here in the

Montgomeryshire WildlifeTrust, and that'll be only the second time

that ospreys have bred in this area. It's a great project. The female

came from a conservation project at Rutland Water, moved over here and

found the male. By seeding the population, they have successfully

seeded the Welsh population. I love the way they curl up their tallons.

When they're anywhere near the egg, they curl them up so they don't

damage the chicks. Even kestrels do the same. A quick question - Karen

on Twitter says how do the parents know which chicks to feed and which

have been fed already? When you watch the birds, I guess it's the

ones the most vigorously displaying that get fed. Fortunately, in our

nuthatch, the little one's head is never up. It's the vociferous ones

that come back to the nest. They have their wide gape, which is, ie,

put food here. Sometimes you see them sticking the food in and out

as if the adult is also making the choice as well. Shall we have a

look at the photos quickly? Look at this! I don't even know which way

this is around - "Wingens in flight" by Lee. That's like a

mosaic. I could make a jigsaw out of that for my sister and say "Sort

yourself out for Christmas, love." Look at that! The colour is

fantastic. It's a beetle inside a poppy. Beautiful. It's on a poppy?

A poppy, yeah. Yet it looks like a landscape. What a start. Fantastic.

Anything happening in our nests at all? A quick look at the nest.

Chaffinch mum in her nest? I am afraid we have to wrap it up.

That's all for our first Springwatch 2012 show. Next time,

one of the things we'll bring you is an update on the fox story.

We'll find out how she's managed to rear 12 cubs? Where did they all

come from? We'll find out if our nuthatch runt survive, but of

course, you might know that before us because you can carry on

watching our live cameras both on the red button and on the website.