Episode 10 Springwatch

Hello and welcome to tonight's Springwatch. We're here in Ynys Hir

with the glorious backdrop of the Welsh hills behind us. Coming up

tonight. Our barn owls have come all over adventurous. We see a cub

otter in broad daylight. High drama from our inner-city peregrine

family. They're on the edge. We'll be keeping a live eye on our

ospreys of course. All of this, and so much more, we can bring you the

best of British wildlife. Don't be A welcome to Springwatch coming to

you live tonight from a rather damp but dramatic, RSPB reserve on the

west coast of Wales. We're south of the mountains of Snowdonia, and the

twinkling waters of the ocean. like that romantic start. We can

promise romantic elements to tonight's show. Before any of that,

let's go to the activity that's taking place in the barn that's

just over there, live to our barn owls. I would expect them to be not

very much. Because they should at this time of the evening, if

anything be waking up and becoming active, after conserveing their

energy all day. This is a frenzied start, a bit of wing-flaping going

on. You will notice there's two of them, and you know we have four.

And that's because, we're moving around and there are the other two.

They've gone exploring a bit. One of our owls is noticeably larger

than the others. That's not surprising, because the adults,

female, lays her eggs, on average two or three days apart. As they

match, they get bigger and smaller. I'm thinking, hang on to yourself,

because it is not time to fledge, we think there's a few more days to

go. They've been busy, lots of jumping about, and that larger bird

is doing a lot of wing-flaping there. When do you think they might

go? The magic number is 56 days, and then they're ready to go. That

doesn't mean he will leave and fly out of the barn, because he will

have to wait the youngest of the owls to get to a similar state,

because the animals will keep going back to the barn. But they have

become a lot more adventurous, moving around. You've seen already,

the birds had moved into the cafity, and this happened earlier today,

very early this morning, they moved off in the cafity. Something has

caught the attention of the bird, that's the largest, he got down on

the lower part of its chest and legs, but its curiosity was

followed by another one, two have climbed in there. I don't blame

them, the nesting platform must be messy and stinky. Here is the

female coming back, in with food, so the two there get a meal. The

two that have secreted themselves will not get a meal, unless they do

a lot of hising, to call the female towards them. She's gone there, she

went in there, and gave that one what is it, a wood mouse, you can

see the large eyes, which make it character skhree a wood mouse.

That's interesting, so they can't go one, by one, they have to wait

and the whole family go at the same time. The older birds will become

more active and they may get flying going, but they won't leave the

barn area, at this stage we're not looking at the adults, the adult is

keeping all out of their way, as the wing flaping would be annoying.

The adults would be in attendance. Will we look at our pied fly

catchers. Let's go live, there they are, snuggleed up, looking nice and

cozy and grown up actually now. There's no adult in there at the

moment. They're starting to lose their gumy look. They certainly are.

They look like they could be ready to fledge pretty soon. Let's remind

ourselves, generally about the pied fly catchers, because they're not a

common bird. Here is the male, looking magnificent in a bit of a

suit. They're 40% of the entire British population here is in Wales.

Here is a female, a beak full of food there. They didn't do at all

well here. There's their nesting hole, a secure place in there.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, toif tell you, that I'm afraid to say,

the pied fly catch Cher male particularly is a bit of bounder,

I'm afraid. He's not altogether, a sort of one-lady man. What he does

is when he arrives here, and migration ends, he comes here, he

establishs a territory, he pairs up with a female, when she lays her

eggs, and starts incubating, he goes off and establishs another

territory, up to three-and-a-half kilometres away and tries to seduce

a second female. Now that's not really very good. Why does he have

to go quite so far away to do that? Well the first female, he is a good

father for the first female, he will come back and bring food, but

for the second female, if the first one is doing well, he will ignore

her. It is not a good policy to show the second female that he is

attached, but that's why he does it. He box a novel male because of the

distance. The female that is looking around the male's territory,

he listens to new song, it is the taste of the exotic, these ones

that move further from the original Second at the males. How common is

that? 30%. Between 2-39%, I know, I looked it up. Do you think our pied

fly catchers will do that? That's fascinating and we can answer it.

Here's our male, and here is the female. And we've been counting how

oven the male is coming in the nest to feed the chicks. Incredibly,

today, there's the female again, I'm happy to report to you, that

the male, here he is coming in, has come in, 60 times in one hour. Now

there's absolutely no way, that our male, here he is, looking handsome

could be possibly be, how shall I say it, serving another female. He

is a one-lady's man. Thoroughly good news. But it is OK, if it is

in birds, if it is natural behaviour, not so good when it is

the human species, doing that. On wards. Let take a look at a bird

that is monogamous, and that's our tree creatures, we introduced you

yesterday. This is where they're nesting in the hollow of an old

tree. Is there anything in there? I tree. Is there anything in there? I

think, yes, we can see the tail. That's an adult in there.

But, we don't know how many chicks are in there. But we can take a

closer look at that nest. I love that nest, it is very small, you

don't realise how small that is. Let's go live, to our goldcrest,

we've been watching these birds over the course of the weekend, for

them, it is no game, just staying alive is really tricky. Here we

have probably the female, brooding on the nest. We have been looking

intently to see how many young that he has in that nest. We know she

had nine eggs, we saw them carrying away egg shells, so there's more

than one of those has hatched, but it is difficult to see, but we'll

definitely catch up. All snuggleed in and lovely and

warm. Gorgeous. Live on tonight's programme, we have another popular

Welsh resident, Lolo Williams. He's not far away from where we're

standing, he is on another part of the reserve, which is the other

side of the train tracks, somewhere in that direction

Yes indeed, I am at the Dovey Estuary, the mouth of the river,

where it empties into cardigan bay. It is a beautiful day and glorious

evening out here. Across the waters there, that is the village, Aber

Dovey, this is different to anything we've seen so far, from

the reserve. The Dovey, wash it is down from the Welsh mountains, all

sorts of knew treents and minerals, it meets the sea water here,

bringing with it, billions of microscopic plankton and they fall

to the ground and it is this mud, that provides food for the millions

of birds, waders and wild foul that visit ourestries. This brings back

fond memories, ice cream, bucket and spade and sandwiches full of

sand. We've been reliving childhood memories. And how to start but with

Chris, I brought you here, this is one of my favourite places. I've

been coming here since I was a small child. It used to be the

school picnic here. It is called the Velvet Bottom. Only you where

the picnics would be organised in a place called that. We crack out the

hard boiled eggs, and this area is fameed for two things, one mining,

the Romans came here and mineed led and silver and the other thing,

which is what we're interested in is adders. Excellent. Beautiful

things. Shall we go addering. used to go out snakeing, Saturday

morning was snakeing time. Grass snakes was my favourites. How do

you find adders? Well firstly, you have to tread very carefully, in a

soft afoot. Because they don't have ears, so you can speak as loudly as

you like, but, they do, obviously feel vibrations through their body

which is in contact with the ground. Martin I will ask you a question, I

put the thermometer where the adders are, what do you think the

25 It's ten degrees warmer down there. Put your hand T feels snug.

It is cozy, and that's why the snakes can be active on days which

feel cold to us. See where the logs, go to the end, there.

That's a male because it is small, the female is bigger than the male?

Also the males have the silvery, very pale green body. And, the

females have a browner base, as a general rule. That Chris, is what I

would dream of seeing as a child. Down here, there's a female adder,

that's snuck off into a hole. have to be patient sometimes

haven't you. Beautiful. It is a special day when

you see a adder, I can remember all the days I've seen adders. What a

treat, a male and female adder. But to find Chris's favourite, we need

to head somewhere down, we're looking for grass snakes. I believe

the British record is six foot three inches. Now that's big. This

is grass snake heaven. Look at it, this is where they love it.

There's one thing I should have told you, welling tonnes. Not brand

new fancy boots. You got your brand new fancy boots are on today.

Unlike adders they secret themselves more in the vegation.

You will see them curled up in the open, but, very oven they're in

here. Well done. Good shot. I will try and do, is get hold of the vent

there. It is excreting.

Catch a whiff. It is part of their defendant strategy. When I was a

kid, my mother would say wash that terrible smell off of your hands, I

would pretend to run them under the tap, and under the covers I would

smell the grass snakes, such was my love for the reptiles. But that is,

one of Britain's most beautiful animals.

A round pupil, unlike the slit pupil, and the characteristic

yellow collar on the back of the head. You should never confuse

these, and perfectly harmless.. So you have to handle them carefully.

If you catch one, let him go in the same place because it has territory

I think it is hard, but if you love something, let it go.

Down it goes. Can you imagine, being a child and not having

handleed a grass snake, not being able to smell that? Yes I can

imagine it. That's what it is all about. That smell has transported

I bet you were a noughty child, Chris, not listening to your mother

and not washing your hands? didn't on that account. It was all

about contact with animals. It is changed now, I want to look at them.

I remember being at the zoo, a giraffe reached over, and it leaned

down and wrapped its tongue around my face, she packed me off and said

go wash your face, I turned on the tap, I looked at myself, turned it

off and left it. It infects young people. How far, when it comes to

snakes, just a word of caution, there is one species, smooth snake,

which is protected so you need a license to pick up the animals.

Grass snakes you have to be gentle with them and the adders, obviously

they're a venomous and feed on animals, which means if they sting

you you will react to it. So it is better to watch them from a safe

distance. Rest assured, boys keep swinging, we're back tomorrow,

we're after stickel backs and badgers as well. That film shows it

is really important to encourage your children to get out into

nature. Get them away from technology every so oven and

reconnect them back into the wild. Can I tell you something, I have

connected with the wild, because a Midge has gone into my eye, it's

gone in my eyes. I love them but they are abundant. Shall we go live

to our treecreepers, they're not eating enough Midges for you,

they're taking mainly spiders and grubs off the sides of the trees. I

don't think there's an adult in there now. But did we see a beak

peek out. We don't know how many are in there at the moment. That's

a sensible place to be, it has a motor around it, which is a good

defence, like squirrels and mice, not woodpeckers of course. It is a

small nest, it's squeezed in there, behind the bark, and the bark is

flakey, it looks like it will fall offment That's typical. About 60%

of them nest behind bark, it has to be flakey for them to get in behind

them. But we noticed them moving when the young are jumping about.

One of the nestwatchers, notice one fall out. They're active. After 12

days, they should be scram bring around the nesting chamber. 15 days,

they will come out and become more adventureous, above the water, no

chance of a slippage, but treecreepers, very, good at

clinging on to the tree. This one is moving along, underneath a more

zontate branch, so you would expect it to be flying forwards, but it

never opens the wings, it is doing this, by scooting itself forward,

using the legs, but almost always resting on its tail. And the tail

is a very important organ for the birds. It is stiff and long, longer

than woodpeckers tails, but every time it stops on the tree, it leans

on the tail, that means it is not expending any energy, or grasps the

bark, it is merely clinging to it. So, the secret for the treecreeper

is actually having claws of the right size and shape and spaceing

and having the stiff tail. That means it can conserve a lot of

energy, so it is perfectly designed little woodland creature. It is

like the Spider-Man of the bird world? Spiderman. I was sniffing

grass snakes, not reading DC come mix, I'm vaguely familiar with this

human. We don't know how many chicks our treecreeper has, but we

have had a clue every so oven, but when they perk up, they're bigger

than I thought they were going to be. We saw four of them, so there's

at least four, so they could be fledge soon. They are big. You see

one adult come in there, both adults are doing the feeding and

then, you see something interesting, one comes out, the other goes in

with a nice bit of food. You can almost, look, one comes in, shakes

a little bit. That shivering, they typically do that, when they're

feeding, and left the nest. Did you see that, there was a squabble with

the two adults, as they came out of the nest. Here it is again, in

slower motion, I don't think this is an intruding adult. One has a

faecal sac. They're monogamous, it is a bit of domestic. We showed you

this last week, it was so special, this is another brood of

kingfishers, which fledged where else, these are the young and

huddling together, on the lichen and they're very difficult to spot.

The adult come in with food and only then do they reveal their

beaks and mouths which make them bird-like, and when I have to say,

when I was talking about this last week, I thought it was something

which was rarely recorded. Subsequent to that, I have been

doing scientific reading, in eastern Russia, and there it is

recorded quite oven. They're so well camouflaged there. They would

freeze if anything kind of kaptture came by. You know, I've said

they're like the spiderman of the bird world, whereas Martin thinks

they look like mice. Well they do a bit, when you see them whizzing

around trunks of trees, I have mistaken them for mice, but they're

beautiful little birds. Now, all of Springwatch we've been asking for

your help to track down the illusive Welsh mine part tin, we

know there are pine martens in Scotland but declared extinct in

Wales, in 1994. Let's just remind yourselves what a pine marten looks

like, a large animal with a bushy tail N the past, they were second

most common carnivore, after the weasel, but second rarest, now

after the Scottish wild cat. To your surprise, and Vincent wildlife

surprise, we're helping them, you sent us, 70 sightings here in Wales,

which are a great surprise to me, because it is vanishing rare. We

have put them on the map. This is where we are, at Inis here, it is

amazing, because there's been a lot of sightings, now, obviously we

don't know how many of those are real, genuine 100% sightings, but

they're credible enough for the Wildlife Trust to look into them

further. There are a few clumps, around Cardiff, I'm more dubious

about. It could be a night out and then you see a domestic cat. But

this area, there's a good sighting here, so this is where we sent our

camera team to put a camera trap, which is a camera that goes off if

there's movement. Did we find anything? We have the inevitable

qirl of course and a couple of female black birds hoping around.

We've got a glowing-eyed, DC comics type mouse. Lovely to see, a very

damp, needs to go to the hairdresser, badger. Nice to see

though. Did we get any more exciting, maybe, let's take a look?

Look at this, something comes in. Does it have a yellow bib, no. Does

it have a bushy tail? Not really. Is it a pine marten? No. It is a

polecat unfortunately. But easy to get them muddled up. Well I think

we'll probably have to leave this for Springwatch. We will keep it

for Springwatch. We will keep it going on the website. If you could

get a photograph of one that would nail it and prove it in Wales,

please send them into it us. Right, where are we going now, Chris.

sure a few of you, that snake nifing is odd, but it is about

using all my sense toss feel nature, that's what it comes down to,

typically we use our eyes but should expand the art of listening.

So instead of looking listen to this symphony of our woodland birds

ABSOLUTELY Fantastic, sometimes it is not individual things it is

about the bigger picture and sense of place, something you have to

feel. One of our wildlife cameraman was task today going to an unusual

place in Kent to capture that sense of place. I hope you think that

I came here before, and it stuck. I came here before, and it stuck.

The southern most tip of Kent. Dungeness. A coast, and a

countryside in one. 40 square kilometres of pebbles. A unique

natural environment, frameed by human decay. Energy is what I'm

here to capture. Not the nuclear power, that

stretches everywhere, but nature's energy. For me, it is what this

The energy of the sea met Dungeness, decades, hundreds and thousands of

years of water, moulding this southern bump of Britain. Creating

our greatest shingle fallen. Waves washing, crashing, an unwelcomeing

shingle, changing the sea to stone. Each resulting stoney ridge,

ripling across the landscape. Left as a marker of a storm ed long past.

But what suss step nans can be gained from stone. How do plants

survive here? Many species have thick, hairy waxy leaves, defensive

barriers that allow Lilley slap ration, as the wind whips across

the flat pancake landscape. The leafy walls are tough for hungry

jaws to chew. But one animal here has the teeth to match. The brown

hair. - hare, normally found on fields, they're chasing each other

here in spring, just like anywhere else. When it rests the natural

rise and fall of the stones, provide shelter, a weird sight for

a weird place. Sound energy is most obvious at

what are known as the listening ears of Dungeness. Long, round,

flatter. Three attempts of evolveing a way of hear enemy

fighters approaching the English Channel, but never used because

radar was invented. The ears defunct the art of listening at

this place belongs to marsh Harriers that hunt the surrounding

gravel pits. Their hearing is a vital tool to hunt amongst the

reeds, and during the spring the male will give the kill to his mate,

Even if the sun falls from the sky, darkness cannot hide the beauty I

see in this place. The lights of the nuclear power station glow, the

bright aura, reflected by the natural nuclear fusion from the

heavens. Pin pricks of energy from the stars, burning bright and sharp.

And with a turning of the moon, the stars and the Earth, a year passes.

And 600,000 people, visit this national nature and RSPB reserve.

So if you come, if you choose to join the throng, wonder, stare and

wonder, then understand how your energy impacts this energy-

Poetic beauty in a bleak landscape, absolutely stunning.

Now, one of nature's wonders that never ceases to amaze and impress

most of us, is the metamorphosis sis, cat per pillar into a

butterfly, this is the time of year, when many emerge. We set ourselves

a challenge, to capture that moment live, for you to see, when the

butterfly comes out of the chrysalis.

We've got three, Lee, small tortoise shell, and this is a

pointed lady. What we're hoping, is one of these will turn into one of

these. This is the adult painted lady, and it is a migratory

butterfly, it breeds through Europe to the UK and we had a massive

influx of them a couple of years ago, they were everywhere.

Obviously, these aren't doing very much when you look at them like

this. If you look at them closely, you can see a little bit of

movement. This is what we've already seen, it is absolutely

beautiful when you really look at it. There is a tiny bit of movement

there, the chrysalis, dissolves the soupy mixture and reorganises they

feel into a butterfly. It is like having a Lego car, takeing it apart

and puting it back into a Lego aeroplane, accept more scientific.

It is very difficult to judge exactly when these are going to go

through the magic moment of become ago butterfly. Hopefully we'll

capture it. Chris and Martin, what do you think our chances are of

getting that moment? Great if we did. I tell you one thing, if you

can show that to a child, you catch that imagination and fuel a

lifetime interest in nature, it is magical. We've come here, because

this is the osprey nest we've been watching. Let's go live. There was

a drama over the weekend. There was a massive drama, unfortunately in

the terrible weather conditions, we lost one of the two remaining

chicks, and the other one, the osprey project had to intervene, it

warmed it up and fed it, and pop it had back in the nest. I hope, Chris,

that chick is actually in the nest, doing well. Let's see what happened

in the last 4 hours. Looking much bigger, in fact, much healthier,

and getting well fed. It is great to see, getting well fed, look at

that. Don't they look reptileian. Fierce looking animal. It is doing

well, which is a great story. Proactive intervention there, but

if we could play devil's advocate, we spend a lot of volunteer hours

and cash in the breeding of birds, yet it is common all over Americas

and Africa, too. It is very true, but surely this is an inspirational

bird, lovely to see, amongst its landscape and it used to be here.

We exterminateed them, there is an element of guilt, but they are an

apex predator in this ecosystem, if they're not here, playing the role,

the ecosystem isn't complete. That means it won't be as healthy as it

could be, we need those ospreys. That's why we think they're worth

every single penny and how are spent on them. One thing we learnt

about them, is they're not feeding in the fresh water but the way down

there, down by the coast. The W osprey project have found them

feeding on flounder, and that's where Lolo is. Yes, I might only be

four miles away, but it is a different world down here. You, at

the Springwatch studio are shrouded by dark cloud, we are basking in

the glorious evening sunshine, and we're keeping our eyes open, if

we're very lucky, we might see an osprey fishing. They are spending a

lot of time hunting and fishing down on the estuary, on mullet,

flatfish and on sea trout too. Most bird watchers think it is June, no

point looking for birds on the estuary, but that's where they'd be

wrong. First thing this morning, we sent our cameraman down here and

this is what we saw. Heron was the first bird, and egret, and bar-

tailed God wit. The wonderful thing is it is not one habitat but a

whole mixture of them. Thuf thrift in the salt mash marsh, oister

catchers, there and I imagine the chicks will be hiding in amongst

the thrift. The other parent bird keeping a close eye open. This is

the interesting thing, these are sand ilgs, usually winter visitors,

but there's a flock here in breeding plume Madge. The wardens

have never seen them here in June. What are they doing, we've several

other waders passing through that should be in the high Artic. Why?

Are they on the way up, will they make it, and is it happening

elsewhere in the UK? We don't know. Not all sea birds make their way to

the far north. We are famous for our breeding orcs and we had great

news from the only colony breeding Turns, sandwich turns.

We went there yesterday. Cam lone bay is isolated by a shingle bank

and it is the only place in Wales where you see sandwich Turns, they

are interspersed with black gills and the Artic turns and the

wonderful news is the colony has gone from strength to strength. We

have 2,000 breeding pairs, no problem at all. We are bring fish

in, sprats, all sorts of small fish, there's the adult bird with a black

beak and yellow tip. Of the last couple of weeks, the eggs are

hatching, so the chickss are out and feeding extremely well. We

cannotity find an osprey. But it doesn't matter, I have a treat. A

few weeks ago, I went to the west coast of Scotland to fulfil a

I've come to the isle of Mul, to find a second biggest fish in the

world. It can weigh ten tonnes. A basking shark. Its life sickle and

movements have long been a mystery. Every spring, these mighty animals

appear as if from nowhere. The sharks arrive in Cornwall on the

south coast and then appear further north. Finally, around mid-May,

they reach Scotland. I've only ever seen a basking shark once before,

and that was in 1976, I was 13 years old in Cornwall and I swam

out, and all of a sudden this fin appears, and the film Jaws had been

out for a couple of months, everyone on the sand was shouting

get out. But I saw the fin, and thought it was a basking shark and

it passed by me. Ever since then, I wanted to get back in the water and

swim with them. My chances of seeing these gentle giants are

better now than decades. They were hunted for oil as recently since

1995, and since that stopped their numbers have increased. They drone

here for one reason - to feed. See what we've got. What happens is at

the spring sunshine warms up the water, and that encourages

microscopic algae, that provide food for little animals, and these

are packed pull if of protein, so that's what fuels these monsters.

To gather enough of this food, the sharks use their gills to filter an

Olympic swimming pool's amount of water every hour. As the waters

around Mull are a hot spot for plankton, they offer me my best

chance to get close to this fish. Here it comes, right in front of

the boat now. One of them is huge. One of them have got to be, five

metre - plus. We've hit something of a hot spot

here. Exactly Howard many animals, I

don't know, three, four. There's another one out here now. Here we

are, come here, just crossing in front of the boat now. It seems

incredible, that we have so much to learn about this vast, carries

matic creature. For years, many people thought that basking sharks

dropped to the ocean floor to hieb betterate in the winter, but recent

research has shown they travel vast distances, and basking shark taged

off the Isle of Man was found to Newfoundland on the other side of

the Atlantic. More research is needed and that something, I can

help with. Because they're concentrated just around the coast

here, gives scientists a perfect opportunity to study them and find

out more about them to help in the conservation. Although you can find

individuals by markings, by far the best way is to get in the water and

photograph them, because they have individual markings, like finger

prients. So, armed with my camera, it is time for me to see these

giants underwater for the very That came right in for me. Although

my head was saying it is perfectly safe, my heart was booming. But I

have hopefully good pictures though. These photos will add to an

increasing bank of data that builds a clearer picture of the lives of

our largest and enigmatic animals. Jumping in with a six metre shark

wouldn't top most people's wish list, but for me, this is a

Fabulous, animals. I'm a fan of sharks, I swam with them off

Cornwall but it is great to see they're doing so well off Mull

there was something in the film I wanted to show you again. See if

you watch it, underneath the shark, see if you can spot two fish

hanging on to the shark. They're Lampreys, they're bigger than you

think, and, up until recently, they thought that's what they were doing,

but it's now proved, sucking blood. They are para sights and we knew

they sucked the blood of other fish, the fact they're pulled along is a

bonus, which means the protein they put into growth. They leave as tiny

lava, but in three years they've up to three kilograms in weight. We

spot one, down in the estuary, this animal had disconnected from the

marine host, and navigating back upstream to spawn. If it was a

female, it could lay up to 100,000 eggs, the lava are peculiar little

things, they stay in the river there between five and seven years

and develop their eyes and gut after about four years, so it is a

trimive group of fish, but to find one and film it like this, was a

real treat and join it up with the basking sharks. Extraordinary. But

let go to something small, our goldcrest nest this. Is the

smallest bird in the UK. Weighs the same as a ten pence piece. When I

see this nest, I want to sing "I want to five". This is the bird

that survived the bird. They're not busy, there, but they have been

busy. We saw them bringing in food. The question is who is having the

food? Because here you can see the spwird trying to pass it into the

bottom of the nest, where there should be a chick, but presumably

the female comes back here, and takes the food from, presumably the

male. He would be seen feeding here, but what about the youngster, if

there is one or more? We've been trying to look carefully, there's a

little head there. There's definitely one. The Feeding rate is

very low. Our nestwatchers, say there's not that much activity

there, which could indicate one or two chicks. But, however many,

they're active and strong. Here, look at this one, he's definitely

getting food, that chick. There were nine eggs, but possibly, only

one chick. But as Chris said it is looking strong. Maybe others got

affected by the storm. Great bird to spot. Martin, have you spoted

any birds. I'm not sure yet. We'll have a look at it. 12.5 million

have bird feeders at home and what a delight they are. I have mine in

the kitchen, right by the sink, so I can have my hands in the sink. My

feed is modest. Not like the one we've got here. Let's go live to

our bird feeder, and inevitably, there's absolutely nothing on it at

all. But that doesn't matter, because all this week, we've been

using high speed camera, a camera that slows things down, immensely,

to have a look at this wildlife here, and reveal it in fresh and

exciting ways. Just yesterday, we put the camera on the bird feeder.

Have a look. This is normal speed, this is what you or I would see in

the garden. Coming in, and feeding and moving around. Now look, as we

slow it right down, here is a female come in and watch the threat

displays. There's the male, really aggressive, that wings flareing out,

seeing her off. So the vocalising, clearly to threaten each other.

Again, we've all seen this, there's a hierarchy of birds, that try and

displace each other, to get the food. Watch this, this one flips

and threatings another bird using his feet likealons, I've never seen

this before. Now have a look, here on the feeder, might is right. The

bigger ones displace the little ones, a green Finch comes in and

the other backs right off. There is definitely a hierarchy on them. You

have the little tits on the bottom, and then it gradually goes up to

the finches and the nuthatch seems to see everyone off. The woodpecker,

everyone goes when he or she turns up. But now have a look the bird's

flight in show motion. Look at this chaff fin - chaffinch coming in,

she flaps the wings and hovers, look at the size of the wings,

magnificent display. She's going to try and land now, and not so good,

she completely messes that up. Now there are about 23 million

gardenness the - in the UK and this is a serious habitat for our

wildlife. But wildlife of a different type is turning up in the

It is amazing to see this young otter family so relaxed and happy

in broad daylight. It gives me the rare opportunity to witness the

relationship between the two cubs. They'll be fishing themselves these

cubs, but they'll rely on mum to catch things like eel for them and

faster fish, because they still haven't got her hunting skills. It

is going to be another few months until they are old enough and wise

enough to go off on their own. Over the next few weeks, she'll wane

them off her milk and in the coming months, she'll share fewer of her

kill. For now, she's still a full time mum.Frustrating that in this

murky water, I just can't see what they're hunting. And, how they're

hunting it. But, I have a theory, as to why

they're so active in the day, based on what I filmed last September,

I think the otters here are taking advantage of an abundance of small

nocturnal fish called bull heads that hide under stones during the

day. Overturning stones and catching the sleepy fish is easy

work for an otter. It is just the sort of fishing habit that mux

-- mum. What's interesting now, is that mum's left the cubs, in the

bushes, and gone off fishing on her own. Hear her whisling now. The

cubs are constantly calling and letting her know where they are,

but that sound, it's a high pitched whistle, just is designed to cut

through noise, especially on rivers, but even against all the traffic on

the dual carriageway here. Just cutting straight through it. Mum

returns to reassure the cubs and is back off fishing.

She's doing a great job raising her cubs, relaxed and full of fish,

these cubs have plenty of time to play. Look at that! It is so nice

when they relax from fishing and start playing like that.

It is so rare to see it. This is classic mammals learning the skills

of fighting by playing. In just a few months from now,

these cubs will be fully independent and will need to be

able to defend themselves. It is essential, if it they're going to

establish their own territories, and protect their families. These

cubs have had a great start in life. They're part of a new generation,

confident enough to mess about in To get them playing like that is a

Well, we'll have more tales from the river bank tomorrow. And

Charlie will be joining us here in the studio, so we can promise more

otters. Last week we introduced you to a fascinating family of

peregrines that were nesting on top of the the church steepel in Bath.

There were two healthy looking chicks, a male and female. As the

wind picked up, he was precariously balancing on the edge. He is not

ready to fledge, he is not really to leave the nest and fly, but he's

having a good go at exercising, but that is the drop that he is he got

if he does fall out. It is quite a drop isn't it? Yesterday,

inevitably, we got a call, and this is what happened. There's the

church, there's the nest, there's one bird in the nest. One chick.

Where on earth was the other one? This is the park, downably the

church, and there is the young peregrine, sitting there, he's

foolishly, overexerted himself and this is Mike Rogers, taking his

life in his hands, because thealons are sharp, the plan is what to do

now, and poor Mike makes his way up the ladders, bravely and with a

little push, it's back in the nest. Please, do not do that again. And

there he is, safe in the nest. You would think, now, I learnt my

lesson now, not a bit, right away. You can tell it's the male. He gets,

precariously, oh... You silly man, what are you thinking of! The

problem is, here they are, on a natural edifice, it is like to have

a nest box, if they were on a cliff, as soon the young left it would

have a cliff face to find, if it doesn't find on a perch, the one

way is down, sometimes the man-made boxes are not as good. It wouldn't

go thumping down the ground. flap furiously, but it would lose

altitude. To the lady who found him thank you. Apparently the chicks

did that three or four times, so they didn't learn their less lesson.

But that's all we have time for, we will be back tomorrow, we will

bring you more otters, Charlie goes out at night to look for the

families of otters. Let us go quickly to the little nest, nothing

there. The beautiful gannets, Roy Denis joins us of the plight of the

astonishing sea birds. Let's leave you with the live barn owls. If you