Episode 12 Springwatch

Hello and welcome to what will be a very wild and wet Springwatch. But

don't worry, we still have plenty of drama. Chris and Martin are

reliving their childhood adventures and going badger-watching. One of

our peregrine chicks goes for a swim. Yeah, it's out of the nest

again! We will be checking up on our family of fox cubs, those

beauties from Potters Bar. Stay Yes, hello, welcome and I would

like to say good evening to Springwatch but as you can look

around us you will realise I would be exaggerating. It's not that good

an evening but I can guarantee it's going to be informative and

entertaining. Yesterday when we left you our piedflycatcher had

partially fled. Six had left the nest but there was one remaining

and we were wondering what would happen to this little bird.

Overnight it died. I think I have a theory as to why that might be the

case. The temperature dropped to 9C last night and previously it had

all the warmth of its six nest mates to keep it nice and warm

through the night. Last night, without them, on its own, it was

shivering and I think it got too cold. This morning the adults were

busy feeding the other fledglings outside the nest and that one was

left on its own. But that's not a disaster. We have to think of this

as the positive that it is, they've got six of these little birds out

of the nest and they're being well attended by the parents. Six out of

seven is really good. This year there have been 47 broods

of piedflycatcher. It sounds sad, but I can guarantee

that is a positive result. Yesterday we saw our first barn owl

fledge, television first? Have we seen that before? It wasn't a very

elegant fledgling. In fact, it dropped like a stone. Let's go live

to the barn owl and see if we can see it.

I am in the sure whether it's there. We will be returning to that later

in the show. Now, I have some breaking news. Our little sandpiper,

our little star that's been sitting on that nest with four eggs since

the beginning of the series, I predicted probably those eggs would

never hatch. That it was too late now. Let's have a look at our

I am pleased to tell you that I was wrong! The eggs have hatched.

Obviously, the weather has taken a turn for the worst and the adult is

sitting on those little chicks. Let's look at what happened today

because that's when it happened. There we go, making a lot of

movement and what is underneath? A little chick!

Can you imagine the excitement when we saw that? The train comes. The

adult goes back, sits down again and moves around a lot.

And there is a second chick. The adult is taking the egg away

from the nest so that predators don't know where the nest is. Then

there is a third one that seems to have tumbled out of the nest. There

was a slight panic with the nest- watchers, but no need, the adult

comes back. Sits on the chick, two of the

chicks. The third one moves under All three of them are getting under

the warmth of those feathers. The train comes past then.

The adult still gets off the nest and the three little chicks are

looking Absolutely Fabulous. As I say, what a star? Been with her

since the beginning and delivers at the end. We are so chuffed. Superb.

At this point we were going to give you a simple update on our

goldcrest nest but strange things have been going on just in the last

few hours. Let's go live to the nest. There she is. All looks well.

It looks like one of the parents is sitting there on the nest.

But actually, it's not sitting on a chick. Just three hours ago this

happened. Have a look. First of all, the chick is getting

fed. It still looks sort of pink. It's ten days old and I would

expect more feathers on it. The parent gets in there and then I am

afraid, she is sitting down. The chick starts to appear and then

starts to behave slightly oddly. It's as if it's irritating to her

and disaster, yes, it got kicked out and she literally, she gave it

a push. It looked that way. She did. Why, though, is the reason? Was it

just she was being irritated with it fidgeting? Or was it that she

realised that chick wasn't developing naturally and normally?

Because at ten days with eyes still closed and no feathers, it wasn't

like a normal goldcrest chick. Intuitively, did she know she

didn't need to protect it? Could they be first-time parents and not

very good having to learn the ropes? The nest is a bit on the

tilt and normally they're made with a Dome over the top, perhaps they

are inexperienced parents. The reason she's still there is there

are unhatched eggs still in the nest and I think the incubation

urge has come back and she's sitting on those eggs now. That's

why she hasn't left the scene completely. Sad. From the smallest

to the biggest and one of my favourite, the white-tailed sea

eagle and we are lucky enough to see them again in Britain up in

Scotland. We sent Iolo Williams to This is A sea Loch on the west

coast of the Isle of Mull. There are wildlife everywhere. All sorts

of gulls. In recent years, one other animal's made this loch and

this island its home. The white-tailed eagle. With a wing

span of eight feet, it's our largest bird. Nicknamed the Flying

bando. There are new developments to the story of the white-tailed

eagle. First of all, let's meet the bird.

Its favourite food brings it in. Here we go, here we go!

Wow! Did you see that? They just take the fish off the top

of the water. Incredible. Effortless.

White-tailed eagles have followed fishing boats for centuries, so

this is perfectly natural behaviour. Wow!

Huge wings! The wing beat. Here it comes,

talons are out and off it goes. That's the first time I have ever

seen a white-tailed sea eagle fishing, that's a first for me.

If the eagles are hungry enough they'll eat it in flight but

usually they carry their prey to a convenient perch or back to the

nest. That's where I am heading with RSPB Scotland's Mull officer,

Dave. After hunting and poisoning drove

the white-taeugled eagle to extinction in the early 1900s an

ambitious reintroduction project began on the west coast in the

1970s. Dave tells me that there are 14 nesting pairs on Mull this year,

up from 11 last year. It makes it a Every now and again a head about

jump up, that's the chick. There he is! I can see him, yeah. Oh, wow.

Have a look there. Quite often white-tailed eagles are

better in a way than golden eagles, golden often raises one. They seem

less aggressive in the nest. They have had trauma over the years. One

of the chicks got to fledgling time, three months old, we thought it had

fledged but it hadn't. It had fallen. So lots of things can go

wrong, right from now up to the point of fledgling.

These chicks are now three weeks old and need to be fed every 20

minutes or so. The parents are kept busy bringing

in the catch of the day. They go from this tiny little - to

a full-sized eagle in ten weeks. Phenomenonal.

The chicks on Mull show what conservation can achieve. There's

exciting news on a chick that In 2008 a young eagle called Mara

was fitted with a satellite transmitter. Over the last four

years he's flown as far as Rum and Skye looking for food, territory

and a mate. And this year he's found one.

He finally settled on the mainland, not far from Mull, but the surprise

is his choice of mate, a female brought over from Norway and

released on the other side of Scotland.

If Mara and his mate breed successfully it means the two

populations, east and west coast, finally become one and it also

means that the story of the white- tailed eagle in Scotland has come

full circle. Iolo has joined us in the studio. I

love sea eagles and you never get tired of seeing them do that

fishing and they hit the water and go up again. It's absolutely

fantastic. I tell you what, when you are on the back of a boat and

they're that close, that's when you realise just how big they are.

They're enormous. They're doing really well this year. They are.

It's yet another record year in Scotland. They have 60 pairs this

year. They are spreading constantly. The hope is in the end they'll fill

up Scotland and move south. It would be wonderful to have them

here on the Estuary. It's obviously a great success story as far as

reintroducing birds go. It's going on for a few more years, is it?

this is the final year now. Of course they've been doing it for

over 40 years on the west coast. Since 2007 on the east coast then,

and they're in Norway at the moment getting the latest batch of birds

over. Then, they believe that with 60 pairs that population can now

sustain itself. So, that's fantastic news. It's 40 years of

hard work. Was Mara and his partner successful in the end?

Unfortunately, not. Mara is a Mull bird and his partner is from the

east coast. Finally both those populations have come together, but

they were young birds, they were both four years old and usually

white-tailed eagles breed for the first time at five. They proved to

be very good, very caring parents, but the eggs didn't hatch. But

everybody is really hopeful that next year, fingers crossed, they

will pair up and they will rear young. Why is that significant to

have a bird from Mull pairing up with a bird from the east coast of

Scotland? You go back hundreds of years and it was a white-spread

bird, it became extinct 100 years ago, they were first very

introduced 40 years on the west coast and six years ago on to the

east coast. The fact that those two populations have joined up means

that there's - there aren't two distinct populations, it's one big

Scottish population now. It is a milestone. I have to say, you have

had a good time on Springwatch this year. He's done sharks, pike, the

birds here, we went to look at the wildlife together. One of the ones

that went down well was the peregrines in Bath. You have an

update for us, it provided us with comedy the other day. It did. One

of the birds jumped out and we have some more footage from yesterday

and it's the same troublesome male again. Looking out, exercising his

wings and lo and behold, what happened? As his sister looked on,

look, off he goes, any anyone mow. He went off again. Initially,

that's mum looking on, initially to a tree nearby. This tall tree. He

was mobbed by gulls there. That sent him, unfortunately, into the

river. Doing the butterfly there for the Olympics! He could usually

get out by himself but there is a steep wall there. Luckily there

were peregrine watchers on the far shore and they picked it up and

handed it on to Mike Rogers from the trust. Mike then thought the

best bit is don't put it back in the box. Let's put it back on flats

opposite. A A flat roof and he could stretch his wings without

jumping off. They were hopeful it would be there for a day or two.

The parents, of course, would see it and feed it. But, look, running

around there, scampering along. Wasn't happy with that roof and

thought I am going to move on. He jumped off, yet again. That was the

last we saw of him. The female is still in there but I heard she

looks like she is ready to go any time. If anyone knows where DR is,

please, please, can we have our grin -- peregrine back? He is

looking good, looking strongage he If you do find a peregrine chick,

get in touch with the Hawk and Owl Trust. The RSPB would probably be

the best. We've had a roller coaster ride, our hearts have been

in our throats but it's good news in the end. I like the fact that

you've had brought us good news Iolo, you can come again. This is

just the beginning for many of our birds, insects and reptiles.

Earlier on we managed to get a camera inside a bat ma temporaryity

roost. They were lesser horseshoe bats. We were able to see the

females in there. Let's remind ourselves. -- bat maternity roost.

It is very important for them to keep warm so that the baby can come

to full term as it were. I was hoping against hope we might see

them give birth, but we didn't. However, I think we can probably

see what a lesser horseshoe bat baby does look like. Excuse me, my

friend has given me, watch out for this, Chris, a photograph. This is

probably only a couple of hours old. What a beautiful little thing it is,

Chris. That's a baby horseshoe bat. Isn't that gorgeous? Across the

universe I've never seen anything quite so unusual. You can't

describe that as beautiful, Martin. You really can't. It's

extraordinary and quirky but maybe not beautiful. Two quick things.

That baby bat is about the third the weight of its mother. They give

birth to enormous babies. That's massive. A quick question. This is

from Samuel Rothschild on Facebook. How do bats give birth if they hang

upside down? Some bats reverse themselves and they catch the baby

in a membrane down by their tail. Horseshoe bats don't. They don't

have that membrane. They do actually give birth up side down

and they clasp the baby in their wings as they give birth. Superb. I

am going to tell you something but don't reel back astonishment. A bat

is a liminist.. It is an animal which in folklore is caught between

two worlds. It is neither a mammal nor a bird. This is where the bat

appears in so much folklore. In many parts of the world, Caribbean,

Europe, America, they were thought of as being nasty things. Strangely

in China they are bearers of happiness and joy. This leads me to

a poem Martin. This sums up this attitude. Written by Ogden Nash.

Myself I rather like the bat. It's not a mouse, it's not a rat. It has

no feathers yet it has wings. It is quite inaudible when it sings. It

zigzags through the evening air and Neverland on ladies' hair, a fact

which men spend their lives attempting to convince their wives.

Delivered with the aplomb of a cracked actor. What about that?

Fantastic. It it is not just the bats which are helping to give

birth. Some of our birds who've currently failed in their attempts

are thinking about having another go. We know this because they've

already starting singing. Our sedge warblers were washed out in the

floods here last weekend, but the male is singing. Our Black Caps

lost their nests to weasels but the males are singing. Even the wood

warbler, what a bird. Our wood warblers have been out in the woods

singing. The males wouldn't sing unless they were trying to attract

a female. The I wouldn't betting that some of those birds have a

clutch of eggs already. Let's talk about another sort of egg. They

haven't been laid yet but they are about to be. Let's look live at our

compost heap. No snakes, no grass snakes to be seen there now, but we

know that it is nice and warm in there due to the decomposition in

the heap. Let's look at what it is like when the snakes are around.

Fabulous grass snakes. These are about to start laying their eggs.

That's how they reproduce. It can depends how old the grass snake is.

The number of eggs she will end up laying. A young grass snake might

lay up to 15 eggs but could lay up to 40. Shis is a slow worm. They

give birth to live young, six to 12. They are a gorgeous gold colour.

you find one they are one of the most exquisite things you can find

in the British countryside. Michaela. What I love about spring

is it brings new life. There is loads of little miracles going on.

It is a time of new beginnings. One of the most magical has to be

seeing a butterfly come out of a chrysalis. We showed you that

yesterday filmed in our studio here. There are all sorts of magic ic

things going non-there, but how does a caterpillar become a

chrysalis? This is what we filmed earlier today. The caterpillar

anchors itself using its hind legs, makes a J shape and begins the

process of met for to sis. It grows -- metamorphosis. When it is

complete the old caterpillar skin splits and is pushed up by lots of

wriggling. That skin shilves up, falls off -- shrivels up and leaves

the chrysalis to harden. If that is something you haven't seen before

it is extraordinary to watch. It leaves that beautiful chrysalis. In

fact chrysalis comes from the Greek word for gold. In that shot you can

see why they gave it that name. After that the butterfly comes out

of the chrysalis. It then drys off and flies off. We filmed that in

slow motion. This is the actual butterfly that

came out of the chrysalis yesterday. It is a painted lady and there it

is in slow motion flying off. It is absolutely stunning. A real magical

thing to film. It is a great way to spend time watching met morn sis

but an easier way to spend time watching wildlife is watching birds

on a garden feeder. That's what Martin is doing right now.

I am, buts not exactly perfect conditions for it. Let's go live to

our feeder. As expected there is nothing on it. The birds are tucked

away, hiding away somewhere trying to keep out of the rain. But let's

have a look something that happened earlier today. This is fascinating.

Here are the feeders and look at this. Thisna is a sparrowhawk and

it is trying to get at a bird inside. It is hard to see whether

it got it. The sparrowhawk comes in. The bird is trying to get away.

It's a little bit gruesome. Inside that protective cage, and the

sparrowhawk, the tallons go in and it grabs that little bird.

They are the most spectacular predators. If you get them in your

garden this is a wonderful sign, because it means your garden is

full of little birds, or it wouldn't bother. Look at the siskin

here on the right-hand side. Bang! That's exactly, I've seen that in

my garden so many times. A blur and a puff of feathers. The siskin sees

its nemesis arriving. You can just see the siskin's trapped in the

sparrowhawk's tallons. Fantastic footage there. If you see

a sparrowhawk in the garden it is a great sign, because they won't both

tore come in unless there are loads of birds around your feeders. We

put our high-speed camera on this feeder to look at the pecking order.

There's a very of the pecking order on the afford. The little tits are

knocked off first of all. This siskin is fairly low-down. That was

an adult male seeing off a female. And here is a greenfinch and the

siskin givers way. Here is the dominant bird on most people's

garden feeders, the great spotted wood specker -- woodpecker. They

are quite an intimidating bird. The only one that ever seems to stand

up to the greater spotted is a nut hatch. They are so fisty. I'm going

rename this area into a wrestling ring. This is near to the mammal

stump, there is fighting going on there and on the bird afford but

also underneath the bird feeder. This is what you call a squirrel

scrap. Flying through the air. Some of the

fight moves are really impressive, as he flys in to attack his

opponent. That is Matrix for real isn't it. Tails are going

everywhere. Fantastically agile. The won't comes in and tries to get

rid of the aggressor. It tumbles to the floor, pins him down. You can

only see that in slow motion, because it probably took seconds in

real life. All in squirrel wrerstling. Shall we try to go to

our live marsh cam and see what we can see? Fantastic! Water hasn't

got in the works. We've got swans and cygnets. Haven't they grown?

They really have. Michaela, I have to ask you, this is a little

question for you. I've just discovered this today. Why do you

think the cygnets are grey? Something to do with camouflage

maybe? What it is is that they are very territorial, swans, and those

adults will not let anything else come into the territory. They

particularly dislike anything white. When those cygnets grow up and get

their adult feathers, the white feathers come through, they will

drive them off. It has been shown if the cygnets, the grey protects

them from being attacked by their own parents. Really? It is a

defensive fluff. Isn't that maize? It wouldn't work very well if they

killed their own. Shall we go quickly to see our tree creeper

nest? Everyone is in there nice and hunkered down. But earlier today we

did see that greater spotted woodpecker and we think it might

have taken one of the chicks. We can't be sure, but happily it

hasn't come back. There was an awful lot going on today. Non-stop

action. Now, all this week we've been enjoying a family of otters

filmed by Charlie Hamilton James on a river near to where he lives.

He's had a life-long passion for otters. It started when he was a

teenager on a trip to the Schett lands.

I saw my first otter when I was 16. I had gone to Shetland just to see

otters. I didn't have a job. I didn't have a mortgage. I didn't

have a phone. So I was kind of free of responsibility. My head was free.

But now it is not like that. Now my Back then I choose solitude. I

should have been down the pub getting hammered and chasing girls

with my mates. But instead I was walking along a barren, cold, empty

coastline looking for otters. I am not really sure what it is

about otters, I just love them so I still get a massive kick every

time I see one. I can't do anything but just stare at it. It's a very

It's very weird feeling you get when you immerse yourself,

particularly your head, under water, because all the sounds and

experiences you are having above the water just immediately vanish.

Then when you see something that's as secretive and as special as a

wild otter swimming you really are seeing something that you shouldn't

be looking at. And that to me is a totally

When I approach them in the water, I don't know what they think I am.

I guess they must think I am a seal, because it's just a head bobbing

around to them. None of them will ever have seen a human swimming

around in their sea, because they don't do that in Shetland very

often. They must just think I am a When I am watching an otter I just

focus on the otter. To me, that's What always gets me is this amazing

feeling when I let my head back out and I just had this unbelievably

special experience and then I am back to normal life and I can't

possibly ever explain just how There's nothing quite as special as

watching otters. They dip under the water and you see that traeufl of

bubbles and they come back to the surface and the light light catches

in their eye like a little diamond. Dogs and their relatives are my

favourite animals, I am I am sure they're one of yours, too. Let's

look at our foxes, they were looking at this family in programme

one but we have been back this week to see how they've been getting on.

There were an extraordinary number. 11, all in one group. We finally

figured out there were two females that had given birth to this large

litter. They've been back, as you can see the cubs have made great

focus. They're still very playful, jumping about in the garden. What a

spring that family have had. They've been very careful not to

disturb the animals but they've certainly been enjoying them. The

animals have enjoyed their company, too. They've been putting food out

for them, doing it properly, not feeding them by hand. Here one of

the adults is taking that food. Of course, in a few months' time

this group is going to split up and certainly by Christmas around 60%

of all of the males would have left. Look at this. This is a highlight.

One of the family's children watching a little fox cub just a

few metres away. She can't resist opening the door. That childhood

curiosity. Look at the fox, equally Look at that! That has got to seal

a lifelong interest in natural history. That sort of encounter.

Another British favourite, though, it's got to be the barn owls. Let's

go to them live. There they are. They've moved off

the nesting platform. They're into the gap between the roof and

brickwork. We saw they were in there for much of last night. Then,

whilst we were on air, we were lucky enough to see one of them,

not quite fledgling but taking a first jump. It was the largest of

them. It moved to the front of the platform and this is its depar ture.

We were able to find it. It didn't go far. It jumped to a lower raft

in the barn and stayed there for about five hours and then it was

keen to get back. Quite a struggle.

Clinging on there. Eventually, it came to its senses and took an

Look at that. You see how well developed the wings are there. It

wants to be back with the rest of its nest mates because that's where

the adults are bringing the food. Last night they were getting plenty

of it, I have to say. The adult brought in a bird. In black and

white it's difficult to identify but our nest nest-watchers think it

was a warbler. One of the smaller chicks made short work of it. Look

at that. Please don't try that at home!

What's going to happen to these owls? Well, after about 66 days

they'll be out there and they'll be exploring further away from the

barn. After three and a half months they'll be looking for their own

territory, they'll be driven out by it's parents and have to find

somewhere to live. They don't normally go very far. Maybe 20

kilometres at most. It's not only about finding their own territory,

it's about finding their own place in this community. They've to

integrate with all the other life here. That means forming

connections. We have seen some of those connections, I mean, you know,

these birds have been eating the rodents which have been active in

our stump. You see here, to make this place work things have to be

joined up. Some of those relationships are extraordinarily

beautiful. That's why we made a TV series about it. It's called

Secrets of Our Living Planet. It's all about ecology and shows

sometimes it's not the individual species that are beautiful, it's

the way that they all work together. It's how life works.

BBC2, 8.00pm, try and catch that. Martin.

Thank you, Chris. I am here with a great friend of Springwatch, Lloyd

and Ashleigh. Ashleigh and Lloyd are going to help us try to

understand a very, very important thing that all our birds are about

to do here, they're all about to moult. You may notice the birds

around your bird table when they finish nesting, the adults, their

feathers look awful. They're falling to bits. They have to shed

them, moult and start all over again. That is pretty much what

Ashleigh, who is a kestrel, the sort of bird you see bide The --

beside the motorway, he is going through his moult. How does it

work? Ashleigh being a bird of prey, like a majority of birds, it's very

important he can still fly to catch food and to feed. What he does is

he moults two main flight feathers on each wing at a time, in a

sequence from the centre outwards. When one is halfway down, that

triggers the adjacent tpet tore push the old one out. -- feather to

push the old one out. He loses them two at a time. Same with the tail?

When the wings are halfway done, then he will start his tail from

the centre outwards, either way two at a time. The crucial thing for

him is that he's got to be able to maintain his ability to fly and

catch his prey. Exactly. He is looking slightly more scruffy than

I have seen him before. You are right. That's what he is doing.

That's exactly what happens to many of our garden birds as well. You

might notice suddenly people say where have all the black birds gone,

where are the Robins? They're going through what Ashleigh does,

shedding feathers, losing the ability to fly well and they'll go

and hide in a wood and you won't see them. That's one way of doing

it. There is another way, much more radical. And that's what's going on

here. The geese. Many water fowl, what

they do, is they shed flight feathers completely and these geese,

if I have it right, have completely lost the ability to fly now. They

can in the fly. They cannot. They lose all their flight feathers

within about a two-day period, lasts about eight weeks of being

flightless. If you think about it for them in the wild they want to

go somewhere really safe. They might be on an island, they're

always going to have water nearby for safety. That's how they'll be

able to protect themselves, find somewhere isolated or even roost on

the water. If there's not an island they'll roost on the water. They

look relaxed tonight. They are. That's Maisie. That's it. That's

how it works. You can either do what Ashleigh is doing, if you are

a bird, and gradually shed those feathers. Or you can go the whole

hog like water fowl and shed the whole lot. Absolutely fascinating.

Many of the birds have finished breeding in the woods or some

having a second go, they've another big task. They've got to get

themselves into tip-top condition to migrate all the way back to

Africa. No simple task. Our red starts, for instance, they're still

out there busily feeding their young. But as soon as they finish

that, they will moult and make sure that they're capable of this flight,

even the young birds which have left with their baby feathers will

have a complete new set by the time they head off in September back to

Africa. Same with our pied flycatchers. Here is where they're

going. Our red starts are going from Wales down here, to the

central part of west Africa. That's pretty much the same for our

pied flycatchers too, they have a quick stop in France to fuel up.

That could be a distance of between 4,000 and 6,000 kilometres. It's

absolutely incredible to think those birds will be doing that

journey so soon. I know. In fact, they're not -- they're not the only

ones, our common sandpiper will also be doing a long journey. What

amazes thee about this bird, it's not exactly been in training for a

flight like that. How is it fit enough to be able to fly all the

way down to Africa? Frankly, it isn't at the moment. It's used up a

lot of reserves to lay eggs and then sit there incubating them, not

feeding as efficiently. But they've the capacity to take on weight,

energy very quickly. In ten days they can put on 30 grams and that

will get the sandpiper down here to north Africa in one go. Then

they'll go down to other places in west Africa to to spend the winner.

-- winter. Although a few have started wintering in the UK. What

about our ospreys? They're long distance migrants, too. Our young

ospreys currently being well brooded there, but they've a lot of

growing to do. Look at this. Here is our osprey when it first hatched.

Tiny, downy little bird. Here it is now looking somewhat stronger and

It's unbelievable the difference in size. It's getting total protein

every day. It's able to put all of that into growth. It's being well

brooded. Last year we put satellite tags, very exciting, on our ospreys.

We know that they go all the way down to Senegal for the winter.

Breaking news! Let's look at the sandpiper. Just as we were talking,

look, is that the fourth chick? No, that must be one of the others. We

think the fourth chick has now hatched.

I guess we really want the adult to come and sit and keep those chicks

warm. These have dried off, so these must be the ones that hatched

earlier. Look, they're getting active already. Look at the length

of their legs. They won't stay in this nest very long. Just in the

back you can see the wet chick and that's the one that's just emerged

from the egg. When that one dries off, what the

parent will do is lead these four chicks, hopefully together, to the

nearest patch of marsh so they can I am so excited! Will they do that

tonight, even though it's chilly? would rather hope on this rainy,

wet evening that those sandpiper parents sit on these and brood them

overnight. I really, really hope that it's clear and not wet

tomorrow. Then they'll lead them away from that nest somewhere they

can start to find food. They'll still some reserves in their body.

Look the adult has come back now. They're doing a good job. What I

think is so funny is when we first introduced the sandpiper we thought

it was slightly crazy, because it's decided to build a nest by the

train track. But now look. It's calling now. That's probably

calling to keep those youngsters close to it. It doesn't want them

wandering too far away where they could get spotted by a predator.

We all know that Chris's knowledge of birds is like an encyclopedia,

but he also has a good knowledge of badgers. He studied them for five

years. He took Martin for a trip down memory lane to do a spot of

Martin, look at these historical documents. Every good adventure

starts with a map. These are maps of the badger setts I was studying

in the New Forest in the 1980s. Each own of those is a sett that I

went to every Sunday and sometimes during the week during the ages of

17-23. Great work, Chris. Marvellous. Didn't get out a great

deal, did you? Did you have a girlfriend at the time? She was

black and white and spent most of the time underground. What's this

here? This is a path. I'm going to treat you to a little visit to B26.

It's one of my favourite badger setts and I'm hoping that the

badgers will come out in daylight. Obviously poodles and badgers don't

mix, so the boys are going to have an evening in on their own. Look,

mate, we are nearly at the infamous B26. I'm going to read you a little

from my notebook. Are you going to give me the history of B26? Of this

particular sett. It says Thursday 9th July, 1981. Badger megaday.

There were four cubs and then a boar. I got four shots from my

camera and one cub sniffed my boot without fright. Ate all of the nuts

and left at 8.37pm. You loved your badgering didn't you? That's the

first photograph I ever took of a wild badger. That's when badgers

were in black and white. Shall we do some badgering for ourselves

now? Listen, before we do, that I have to warn you of the three per

irls of badgering. Number one, bracken. When it comes up and fully

opens, all of it is leaves and you can see nothing. The second great

Persil this - a biting midge. They are infuriating, because you can't

move. If we move the badgers might see us? Put the gloves on so your

hands are less obvious. You can wipe midges off the face. There is

only one thing worse than the biting midge - wind. It are carry

your wind on to the sett, so weuals approach from down-wind. You asked

me to bring matches is. This associated with my wind? Gin deed.

You strike the match, blow it -- indeed. You strike the match and

you blow it out. See the smoke? That's the direction we've come

from. I just heard a woodpecker. Chris, before we go in, here is a

little poem. OK. Snuffle from the Holt within. The written route of

blackthorn. They stretch, they snort, they sniff the air, then sit

down to plan the night's affair. That's very good. It is isn't it?

We'll see them planning the night's affair. Have you got a fine

designer hat to wear? I knew you would forget something. Come on,

let's go. Chris, I haven't done this since I

was 14. Have you not? No. It takes me right back. One of the great

things about badgering is that you always think you're going to see

When they first come out, they are very, very sensitive, so the one

time you can't move is when they first stick their noses out.

Eventually the whole body comes out. You've got to stay stock still,

barely breathe. Do they always have a really good scratch like this?

Yes, it's the first thing they do I have completely forgotten how

exciting badgering can be. I haven't done it for a long time.

I'm going to do it again. Very exciting. Nothing beats badgering.

Thank you. So, badger watching, pond dipping,

fossil hunting and snake sniffing - you guys have done it all. You

completely relived your childhood? It was lovely. If you would like

ideas, go to our things to do bit And take your kids with them. Let

them sniff snakes. And take your camera as well and get some great

footage. Loads of you have already and you've sent it to us. Look at

this one. This is from Gavin Jenkins. It's

stoats playing in his garden. He hasn't told us where his garden is

unfortunately, but they are having a riot royal frolic-around. What a

thing to see out of your kitchen window! It certainly is. I don't

think I've seen a stoat in the wild, so to see three of them in your

garden is quite a treat. Geoffrey Willetts from Newport sent us this

clip - a grass snake who has taken refuge near the moorhens. The snake

is giving a good account of itself. It made its way off and later he

went back and found chicks in the nest, so it hadn't eaten them all.

Yesterday we saw cormorants on the nest but nothing like Colin Black

saw. He sent us this. Look at the size of that fish supper!

It's almost the same size as the cormorant. As it goes down, the

cormorant gradually sinks. I honestly didn't think he would get

it down. Will he swallow it, or she? Incredibly, yes. And down it

goes. Submerged! How did it swallow that? That's absolutely brilliant.

Thank you for all the footage you have sent us. You've sent us some

great photos. We've each chosen our favourite on a theme. Mine is the

aaah theme. Little peregrine chicks peeking out

Massive aaah factor. Mine are slightly more violent.

A hobby snatching a may fly. 1950s postcard from Bognor Regis.

We had lots of truly fabulous pictures. I hope you enjoyed

looking at them. At the certainly have. Shall we look at our live

cameras. It's the last time we'll be able to see them. Which one

shall we go to first? Sandpiper. It's good that the adult has come

back on that nest, because she or he will really have to keep them

warm tonight. They won't stay there long, will they Chris? Surely

overnight she won't leave them now. I doubt it. That one has to dry off.

I doubt it. That one has to dry off. I think that's it. That's the

wetter of them. That's the one that's just hatched. Look how warm

the feathers are. I would like to What do we look at next? Let's go

What do we look at next? Let's go to our barn owls.

Four of them. They are all in that crack. Their facial disks are fully

functional. Rocking from side to side, listening to what's going on

in that barn. They'll be there for another couple of weeks and then

they'll be exploring the countryside. The parents are going

to have a job hunting tonight. It's pouring with rain. They have been

really entertaining. What about the osprey. There's a view of the chick

we can take. How it has grown! Look at that. They took us on a roller

coaster of emotion this is series. There is one healthy chick there

that's looking good. It looks absolutely stuffed. Superb. What a

spring we have had. It's been extraordinary in terms of its

weather. We started off with that drought and then we had a

tremendous amount of rain. This has had an impact on our wildlife. No

doubt there's been a few losers, but we've had some winners too. You

can watch the webcams for another half-hour. We would like to end by

saying a massive thanks to the RSPB here at Ynys-hir. Thank you guys.

We are going to be back for a special called Summer watch in

August, and Autumnwatch will be back in the autumn. Chris will be

starting his new series on BBC Two at 8 o'clock on Sunday. Thank you

very much and thank you so much for all the questions and photographs,