Episode 2 Springwatch

It's a beautiful spring evening here at the RSPB's reserve in

central Wales. Tonight we have more wonderful wildlife treats for you.

Let's go straight to the live osprey nest and see have those eggs

actually hatched out? We will be catching up with our fabulous foxes.

How can one family have 11 adorable cubs? It really is exceptional.

the nuthatch nest is that tiny runt still there? Has he survived?

Yes, good evening. You have made the right decision because you have

joined us for programme two of Springwatch 2012. We have another

sue pressure evening -- superb evening. We are lucky, so far. Our

remit throughout the three weeks here is to bring you the very best

of British wildlife. Let's not hold back. Let's go live to one of the

most exciting birds in Britain - our ospreys.

This is our female. She's about a kilometre away and she's sat on top

of an artificial nest put up exception for these -- specially

for these birds. Take a look at this. We have been watching these

birds for a period of time. Only yesterday they were both in

attendance at the nest paying particular attention as to what was

going on and the eggs were hatching. You can see a small hole there. The

egg is what we call pipping. We were watching this last night. It's

fingers crossed that later in the programme we can show you pictures

of not eggs, but young ospreys. It's an exciting start to the

series. In fact, we have a dramatic start as well. Yesterday a bit of a

drama unfolding area. We have nuthatches for the first time on

Springwatch, live in the nest boxes. We think it's a single parent, we

know that they've got six chicks and one of them, unfortunately, is

the weaker one, the runt. There was a lot of concern as to whether he

would survive the programme, to programme two. Did he survive?

Six chicks! So you will be pleased to know that yes, he is still with

You can see him there, in the top left-hand side of the picture, I

think. Because his mouth is much more yellow, he looks younger.

have decided our audience loves a drama, because it did get everyone

talking on Facebook, Twitter and the blog. We have lots of comments.

On Twitter, Karen said just saw the nuthatch runt race to the hole and

take food from the parent before it had a chance to get inside. We have

seen that happening a lot. She says at the end go little one! On the

blog we had: This is nature at work, survival rates for young animals

can below. However, there are always exceptions. It pays to be

realistically optimistic. I think that's what I am, Martin. I am, too.

Chris, what are you? I am pragmatic. I really, really like nuts, so my

tpeupbg - like nuthatches, so my fingers are crossed. He could be

lucky because he doesn't get food all the time but every so often he

really goes for it and he gets a little morsel. Look at this. In

comes mum with some food. She goes in the nest this time, not hanging

around the entrance. Runty doesn't get anything. It goes to one of the

other chicks. Out she goes again. Let's see what happens next. In

again. Oh, please feed me! He is so desperate. Yes, mum gives him a

little bite to eat. So, it's looking hopeful. Who knows? It is a

bit touch and go for Runty. What do you think, Chris? Whilst it's warm

that means there is a lot of insect activity, either the single parent

or perhaps the two are finding plenty of insects, he is still in

with a chance. We have to pray for the sun to keep smiling, not just

for him, but for us, too! Also, don't forget all this week we are

exploring the miniature world, the world beneath our feet. The tiny

creature that is normally we can never see and we will be bringing

you the first results of that filming later in the show.

brings us nicely to our first quiz. Take a look at this shot.

This is something that was filmed in closeup here on the reserve at

Ynys Hir. What is it? That's what we want to know from you. Send in

your answers to the blog on the Now, foxes. They have to be one of

our most exquisite, most beautiful animals. Last night we met some,

normally we see maybe three or four, but this family, in Potters Bar,

they have 11 fox cubs in their back garden. What's that all about?

Goodness me. If that was in my back garden I would still be there now.

I am not prone to saying things acute but I can't argue with that.

That is absolutely fantastic. Beautiful. Our cameramen have been

down there in Potters Bar working extraordinarily hard to find out

exactly what's going on. Why are there so many cubs in a single

litter? Here is an update on what they've been seeing.

When our cameraman returned to the garden, some of the cubs were out

enjoying the sunshine. And looking so healthy.

Up to now, they've spent much of their time in the security of the

den. Out in the open, the cubs look so

small and vulnerable. Yet, at this age they spend several hours on

their own while the vixen is out At six weeks old, the cubs become

more adventurous and spend more time away from the den.

For much of the time foxes are solitary animals, but at this age

they seem to tolerate and even appear to revel in each other's

company. The cubs start to establish a

hierarchy with their siblings. This behaviour may look like play,

but really it's about learning how to hunt or who is in charge. The

cubs don't have an instant pecking order, it evolves over time. One

cub may appear to be more boy terous or stronger -- boisterous or

stronger, but the constant pouncing, body slams and posturing is all

about showing their strength and agility. This activity is all about

developing a central -- essential skills for the future.

In this exceptionally large family, tolerance for siblings will

probably wear thin pretty quickly. In normal litter sizes cubs usually

leave the family unit for good at around five months old. With this

much competition for food, we may As the cubs get older, the vixen is

going to stop feeding them and they'll have to fend for themselves.

For now, though, both the cubs and the vixen still seem in remarkably

good condition. So much so, that our Springwatch cameraman isn't

convinced that this vixen is feeding all of these cubs on her

PROBLEM WITH SOUND time now for our live cameras. We

have got miles of cable out here to even more cameras than we had

yesterday. We thought we would show you exactly where they are. Here is

a map of the area, including the main body of the Ynys Hir reserve

down here. So, we have seen a few kites over the woods here. We have

seen our swans on this lake, which is immediately in front of our

studio here. Just to the north of that we have our mammal stunt with

a woodmouse and in the garden we saw our grass snake. Barn owls tphr

the wood here. And the bats, which we are yet to show you, down in a

building at the base of the reserve. What a wonderful map that is. I am

really pleased with this. I like a map and magnetic bursts. Call me

ssmall-minded and childish, I don't care. Easily pleased. Let's place

others on the map. Let's go for blue tits. Let's go live to them.

Gosh, they're active. Look at those. Doing really well, though.

Beautiful images. Chris, please, where are our blue tits? They're

about down there. So, they are to the west of us over here in a

separate block of woodland. Around there.

Martin, let's look at our chaffinch nest which we briefly introduced

yesterday. It's recently had a camera on it. It's a natural nest

in the trees. They're absolutely tiny, the chicks. They're five days

old. There are five of them. Snuggled down. Hopefully we will

see them fledge, if they survive, of course. Where are they, Chris?

was wondering if you would ask. Our chaffinches are on the edge of the

wood in a nest, close to the blue tits. Are you sure they're exactly

there? That's better. Vaguely to scale. Can't go further without the

nuthatches. Can we have a look at them? Here they are. Runty is still

there. Hanging in. Looks uncomfortable that nest. Chris,

where are the nuthatches? I am beginning to feel like one of those

hostesses. They're down in the same block of woodland. Some distance

from here, don't underestimate the technology that's involved, but

they're quite close to the other nests and near the barn owls, too.

Now, this nuthatch nest is very unusual that we have nuthatches in

an artificial nest box like this. It hasn't happened here for 11

years, it's the first time it's happened for 11 years. Let's look

inside that box. Here is the artificial nest box

with the adult going in. Much unusual that they'll use a box.

Usually, they'll use a natural hole in a tree, like this.

The curious thing about this is that that hole might have been

bigger originally, but what she's done, they packed mud around it to

make it just about nuthatch body size. That's right. It's the female

that does it. The male will advertise the nest hole when he has

found it. She will look and think I can do something and it's her that

muds it up. Sometimes it can take two or three weeks to achieve this.

The purpose is to exclude other birds that might want to nest in

the hole. Something like blue tits or great tits but also starlling --

Starlings. She makes it so she can squeeze in and out and the diameter

of that is 2.8 centimetres. The European nuthatch is 2.8. What

about if it's had a big meal? collect the tphud needs to be --

mud t needs to be wet. So the nest- building depends on rain. If it's

particularly dry they can't build their nest. An interesting story to

finish the muddy bit with, and that's that on one occasion they

wanted to nest in a hole where there was already an owl's nest.

The nuthatches were so tenacious, they mudded up the hole to the

extent the owls young couldn't get out and they all starved. Is that

for real? It's for real. I read that I think, in a tomb of

distinction. That's a terrible story! This mud habit, these habits

die hard with the nuthatches. Look at this. The mum comes in and look

she's got a beak full of mud and she's not going to feed that to the

chicks. What does she do? Looking around, she starts to do a bit of

DIY, home maintenance. She's stuffing that in the cracks.

what was unusual about that artificial nest is typically when

nuthatches do use them, they will mud around the hole, even if the

diameter is exactly right, and they will mud up all of the cracks and

sometimes even go behind the nest and glue it to the tree. The fact

there was no mud was a bit weird. Chris, how comfortable is that

nest? This is what it's made out of it and that doesn't look

comfortable to me. Well, that's a large flake. They choose nice

little flakes. These are Scots pine and what's interesting is they will

go some distance to a pine tree to get those flakes to put inside.

have something interesting to show you. When our nest watchers were

watching this nest they saw this behaviour. I think it's pretty

unusual. Because, the mum's come in and

tried to feed. The one in the front has a little bit of this nest flake

in its mouth. I can't decide whether it's stuck

there or whether it's picking it up... It looks like it's using it

like a tool to scratch its feathers. Utter nonsense, I am afraid! I

think that it's displacement behaviour. That's that it's so

excited that when the mother comes in, it's picked it up and

eventually, as you can see, it discards it. What's interesting is

then you can see that it's completely covered in saliva. One

of the characteristics of nuthatch young is they produce an excess of

saliva. The reason they do this - it's nice, is the fact that the

adults are catching lots of insects, some of which are dry and this

helps them swallow it. Lovely. Absolutely lovely. Yesterday, you

were saying single family, that's what they think. I think there

might be a male outside not visiting the nest and the female is

getting food. We sent our cameramen She was joined by her mother

nuthatch and not behaving aggressively towards it, suggesting

it was a male because they are very territorial birds. The female at

the bottom sees the other bird, look at the posture, lookout the

demonstrative posture of the not hajj. After a couple of seconds she

chases this away. When they fights they fight members of their same-

sex so this could be an intriguing female she's chasing away. Despite

their best efforts they have not yet seen her collecting food from

the Mail and take your bags the nest so my theory remains nothing

more than that. An ongoing mystery. From an nuthatch spit to the lovely

yellow Williams, part of the Springwatch team who will be with

us all series bringing us interesting British wild life.

Yesterday he was with us live looking at our family of foxes but

earlier this spring we spent 10 -- sent him out to see why spring is

romantic for some underwater creatures. Ever since I was a kid I

have been in awe of this fish. It is one of the biggest freshwater

predator as in Britain. But has a fearsome reputation and ferocious

looks, a true monster of the deed. It is a cold, wet miserable day but

I have come to the best place in the country at the best time of

year Fourie close encounter of a very different kind. I am hoping to

witness the spectacular, rarely seen behaviour but my task is

daunting. This might look like any other lake but the fish lurk here

in their hundreds and locals tell tales of them terrorising not just

smaller fish but birds, too, dragging ducklings and coots down

to a watery grave. The make is actually a flooded quarry in

Leicestershire, famous for its large population of this fish. They

are top predators and also very territorial, except when the water

temperature in early spring hit a critical 829 degrees centigrade,

then their behaviour changes and that behaviour change gives me the

Underwater it is a different world, the lousy weather is quickly

forgotten. I headed to the quarry bed, littered with Rex. -- wrecks.

This is the area where the pike is supposed to be, 6, or seven metres

down. Not long before I come face to face with the creature I am

looking for. A fish that some call the freshwater a barracuda. Look at

this. A lone male Pyke. Guarding his territory. He shoots out, grabs

the prey, that is why it is such an impressive predator. But in

springtime then normal hunting and territorial behaviour breaks down,

that is what I really want to see. It is not food or fighting they are

thinking about, it is sex, that is all that is on their mind. That is

a pretty big fish but if you think that is big, wait until we see some

females! These males are heading in the same direction, zoning in on a

female for the spring phenomenon I am so keen to witness. Look at

that! I can barely see the larger dark a female at the bottom of the

pile of the go males. Eventually she would choose the strongest male

to fertilise her eggs. I never thought I would see that many of

them together! This is remarkable behaviour, the only time you will

see a group of them come together like this. It shows they have

another side to them, a more loving side. By nosing her swollen sides

the amorous males encourage the massive female to spawn. Eventually

she will lay anything between at 25 and 50,000 eggs. There she goes,

closely pursued by the males once again. By breeding sow early the

Pyke give their young a head start. The babies will be ready for them

when other species spawn in a few Incredible. I have always wanted to

see them under water but I never thought in my wildest dreams I

Astonishing. I never thought I would see behaviour like that. They

just lurk, don't they? Incredible. I am involved in a blood stoning

Marathon on behalf of these images. -- images. It is all part of the

economy. We are here in a beautiful glade, only part of Ynys Hir, we

are quite close to the sea. This is the view from Heron point and you

can see the ships on the horizon, the tide is out but if you pull

back towards the reserve, there is saltmarsh and all the way back here

you can see this fabulous landscape brings us up to the woodland where

Martin and I are at the moment. Because we are so close to the sea

it allows us to talk about some see life, and this is another

Springwatch first, just a couple of That is a sea lamprey. It is hard

to get an idea of the scale but that is about a metre long.

The it has been on a fantastic voyage from a least 200 miles out

to sea and is on its way back into fresh water. An amazing fish with

cartilages set of bones, no scales, just skin. It really is a treat.

you know how it got its name? It is from the Latin to lick. And Petra,

Stone. They progress by hanging on to stones. Remarkable. We were

lucky our cameraman came across one. You can appreciate how

extraordinary the anatomy is. It does not really have conventional

goals, it has seven holes that the uses to breathe through. -- gills.

On top of the head you can see a pale spot, a pie Neil gland, it is

light sensitive because we think that lampreys can change their

colour certain times of their life. We also have a nostril because

these things can smell the odour of past lampreys and they will

navigate their way up the stream because they can spell that larval

what lampreys have been there in the past. A very sensitive organ.

They are parasitic and will paras the ties are there creatures. The

critical that they have is their mouth. Look at that. Fearsome.

About 1000 teeth there. They are made out of keratin, and that

sucker attaches itself to the host and a scraper where the flesh, suck

their blood and eat the flesh. is successful because they are very

primitive and have been unchanged for literally millions of years

which means they have got it right and are still doing it right. But

not quite so well in the UK. It was a tradition that the people of

Gloucester would give the Queen a lamprey pass it on the Jubilee --

pie. Except they did not come from the UK, they had to be imported

from Canada because there is not enough left here. The Queen is

lucky. She is. Shall we look at some chaffinch has? Let's go to the

chaffinch next. -- nest. Possibly our most common bird, the chaffinch

is -- chaffinch. We have over 7 million pairs in the country. That

nest is made of moss and cobwebs. How do they do it? Brilliantly

camouflaged. Let's see what they have been up to. This is a fabulous

This is the female and male together, more caterpillars. Not to

be -- not good to be caterpillar around here! Look at the size of

that caterpillar and that ambitious little chick. It is like us trying

to swallow a baguette! Did you notice that? Familiar behaviour. In

a nest of a bird like this where the young stay for a long time,

they keep it clean and that female was removing what we call the

faecal sac. They produce the faecal sac, covered in a membrane, they

take them and fly off with them. Only occasionally they do this.

she eating it? Is that normal? is. We see it in quite a few birds

and typically more in the females than males. With the one of the

reasons might be that they are slightly lacking in nutrients

because they have had to go through the process of reading, producing

the eggs, sitting on them, so they are short of nutrients and choose

to eat the Speaker will sacks. They choose which one to eat. -- faecal

Sometimes they take them out, dumb them and other species of birds eat

them. Fascinating. We love to hear from you and every now and then we

hear from you about something that really makes us prick up our ears.

We started to hear about an animal that seemed to be being seen here

in Wales that, by all accounts, had been extinct for many years. What

The pine Marten, one of our most beautiful native creatures. Quite

big, they are carnivores, spend a lot of time up trees and to be

honest I have never seen one. Pine martens are secretive, stealthy

predators. In the 18th and 19th century they were trapped and

poisoned because it was believed they killed game birds. Many more

were hunted for their beautiful fur. Here in Wales in 1994 the pine

marten was declared functionally extinct. And yet since that time

there has been a series of tantalising reports, people have

seen something strange, something they could not explain but

something that looked a little bit This woman runs a tepee campsite in

mid-Wales and has heard -- had a mysterious guest. So this mystery

starts with you? It does. You got in contact with us and said you had

That's right. I saw something come down mystery, along here and

disappear up one of these trees. It is a clear view. What did it look

like? Brown would quite cute years, a wide chest. -- with the quite

cute beers. Quite cat-like. The it is what they say in the books. Did

you know what it was straightaway? I did not have a clue. I thought it

might have been an otter. It does not a mink, or a stoat. It or

something. So was it possible they are still here, hidden away in

Since I had that meeting there have been many more reports of sightings

of pine martens in Wales so we started to look into it and it

turned out the Vincent Wildlife Trust were already investigating.

So we joined forces with them. Now Here is a slightly moth-eaten one!

They're a big animal. A big bushy tail T would be possible to confuse

them with a pole cat, a ferret, a stoat. Animals in the same group.

To be honest, I have looked into trees and often thought a squirrel

might be one, as well. Stick with him for the moment, but I am

beginning to wonder! If you can help us, if you think you have seen

one of these in in Wales we would Please help us solve this mystery.

Martin, lots of people have just been on the website now trying to

guess our quiz. They've been on the blog. We have had James: Is it a

venus flytrap? Is it a sea urchin. Others think it's a caterpillar.

You are all wrong! Look at the picture. This is a different angle

of it. I am going to give you a clue.

Although we filmed here in the reserve in Ynys Hir, it's something

that you can see almost anywhere across the UK.

What do you think it is? Very nice. Hopefully someone will get it right.

Now, I love those shots, like that one, closeup shots. Don't forget

later in the programme we will be seeing what Alistair McEwan has

managed to film here in the last 24 hours on the reserve.

Yes, stay with us, we also have an amazing film about whiskers. We

have all seen them, we take these organs for granted. I meet a woman

who has found out remarkable things. Two eggs have hatched. What about

the third? We will be keeping an eye on our osprey live. Let me tell

you, anything could happen before the end of the show.

If you were watching yesterday you will know that we tasked Charlie,

one of our cameramen, with the going out and filming habits and

getting under the skin, into the real drama and life of one of our

most charismatic animals - the kingfisher. He started looking at

their early behaviour in the spring. He saw the male offering a fish to

the female, saying be my wife T worked. They formed a pair. But

After the long winter, I was delighted to watch the kingfisher

pair come together again and renew their bond. It was heart-warming to

see the young inexperienced male proving his worth to the older,

wiser female. Courting her with a series of gifts, engagement fish.

But now she would take centrestage as the pair look to nest and start

Kingfishers nest in burrows, normally in sheer mud banks. They

dig a short tunnel leading to a nest chamber.

Our pair were already using an area around a nest I know the female had

used in the past. So I was relieved to see them start to come and go.

A couple of weeks earlier we had installed cameras in the nest. It

would give us a unique view of this family and the chicks I was hoping

they would raise. It's a good location, nicely

concealed. But I worried predators might get in and there's always the

danger of the bank being washed It's wonderful to watch them

exploring their new home together. The cameras film in infrared with

lights invisible to the kingfishers. To the pair, the chamber is pitch

black, just as it always is. To Everything seems set. But for the

pair this is just the start of the process. Things could still go

wrong for them. It isn't even guaranteed that they will lay in

this burrow. But each time they return my hopes

As the pair start to settle, they do something I have never seen

before. Kingfishers cough up pellets just like owls and other

birds of prey. I knew they did this, but it seems that our pair had

deliberately breaking down the pellets in the nest. It seems

really unhygienic, half-digested fish bones around the nest but

kingfishers don't bring any lining material into the nest like other

birds. Perhaps these broken down fish bones act as insulation, soft

bedding for the eggs. They're purposely using the pellets to line

the bare nest. It makes perfect The females spend longer periods in

the nest. The days pass, and nothing happens.

Outside, the male waits. Eventually, the female starts

behaving strangely. Breathing very deeply, her whole body tensing.

It's a contraction. She's laying. It even looks like she's got

It's the first time a kingfisher has ever been filmed laying an egg

in the wild. Just two centimetres long, barely the size of a jelly

bean, they're perfectly white. Like most birds, kingfishers will wait

until all the eggs are laid before they start incubating.

Over a week, one egg becomes seven and she's ready to incubate.

Fluffing up all her feathers to warm the eggs.

The pair now sit tight for three weeks as the eggs slowly develop.

It's nearly the end of March, perhaps a little earlier than

normal, but so far, it's been a warm, sun-baked spring. So it's no

wonder they laid early. It won't be long until the chicks

hatch, naked, vulnerable, and totally dependent on their parents.

What an exquisite film. A stunning bird and to get that behaviour,

it's never been filmed before. A wild kingfisher laying eggs. I bet

it's the romantic side of that film you loved best. I am not a big fan

of kingfishers, they're brightly coloured, a little too much for me.

But for many people they are the prettiest stars, but Charlie's

camerawork is fantastic. What about the pellets? That was interesting.

I have a kingfisher pellet here. It's tiny! It's relatively tiny. In

fact, today we got closeup pictures of this. You can see all of the

fish bones there stuck together with that saliva. That's incredible

to see that closely. It wasn't just fish bones, here is the head of a

water boatman that was in it, too. All of the animals that it's eaten

are in there. Are you familiar with them lining their nest with these?

Well, not as much as Charlie. I knew they did it. His theory was it

was to provide insulation for the eggs. I have a different theory and

that's that they have a sloping hole so that when the young are

producing lots of exkreplt it dribbles down. When they leave the

hole, sometimes they dislodge them and the eggs roll out into the

water. I think this bed of pellets is there to stop the eggs from

rolling out. Is it unhygienic? dry out. You can imagine when all

of these things dry, I think think possibly not. They are welded into

a mat. Incredibly fragile mat. There is an old story which says

that if anyone could take a kingfisher's nest to the King he or

she would receive a bag of gold as a reward. And that furthered itself

and there was a rumour that said the people at the Natural History

Museum in London said if anyone could take an intact kingfishers's

nest they would get �100 reward. Whether it was true or claimed we

don't know. Don't go trying to get a kingfishers nest and taking it to

the King, Queen or the museum, not a good idea. They'll not give you

money these days! Let's look at the live cameras. We are close to the

marsh-cam. Look, that's very cute cute! You are impressed, aren't

you? I like mallards. They're an rated, I have to say. Six there, I

think. Anything on the swan-cam? We are close to that, as well. They're

back on the nest, which is typical. They'll go back to the nest at this

time of evening and brood those youngsters.

Well, our hidden cameras can give us beautiful shots. But what's

truly amazing is when you get a hidden camera that's a mini-camera

getting closeups of very small things, isn't it, Martin?

It certainly is. It's time to plunge into that hidden world on

the ground, the one we hardly ever see.

You may remember yesterday we set Alistair McEwan the challenge to

try to delve into that world. Wes unof the world's leading experts on

closeup photographry. It's a tough challenge, to be honest. Normally

we give him days to do this, but already he's started to see some

extraordinary things. Have a look at the first thing he

filmed. This is a biting fly. Like a horse fly. There's 30 different

types. It's the females that bite us. The males suck nectar. Each eye

of is made up of thousands of individual lens. That fly is

getting a sort of complex network of images coming in. What look like

hairs, they're not there to keep the fly warm, those are an awry of

other sensory equipment. We just can't begin to enter into their

bizarre sensory world but it's fascinating to see.

Here is a second thing Alistair managed to film.

Tantalising to begin with. Can you guess what this is? I expect you

probably can now. It's a snail. But what a way to see

a snail. This is absolutely fascinating. The snail is eating,

obviously. You can see the mouth parts. That brown thing you can

just glimpse, it's very, very hard and it can scrape away algae and

eat our vegetables in the garden. If you want to see that yourself,

you can get some sugar solutions, weak solution, put it on a window,

a glass window or door and put a snail on it and you will see that

scraping away for yourself. Fascinating.

Now, let us have one more look at another shot. That closeup of the

quiz. Michaela, are you there? We had over 600 responses to the

quiz on the blog. Lots of you got it right. An 11-year-old. What was

it? Let's have a reveal. I love this.

As you see more and more of it you probably can guess that it's a

plant. And it is... A stinging nettle! What is great about when

you can see that closeup, you can see the nettle has hairs on it,

that's what stings you. The little end tip of the hair breaks off into

your skin and releases a chemical and that's what makes you itch.

Earlier this year I got my own back on the nettles, I made soup, it was

like yeah! Got one back. The sting goes when you cook it. It doesn't

go when you try and eat it raw, apparently. Do you know they have

annual stinging nettle eating championships. I give you one guess

who has entered? Chris. But don't mention it to him, he was beaten by

Ben Fogle and he does not like to be beaten. Eating nettles?

Seriously. Talking of Chris, who are Chris's two best friends?

and Scratchy. Think about the itch's little face. Brown curly

stuff and also sticky out - it's got whiskers. What are they? How do

they work? Chris went down to Kent to find out more.

Whiskers are spepgsly adapted thick sensory hairs that grow around the

face of almost every mammal. We humans are one of the few

exceptions. How they function is fascinating.

And it can reveal a lot about their owner's way of life. So, how

exactly do whiskers work? I feel a visual metaphor coming on. In fact,

rather paradoxically I can hear one. Because out in the woods we have an

old-fashioned gramaphone player. But there is a direct relation that

you can see between the needle here, and the animal's whisker. This

needle is down in the groove on the record and every bump, every twist

and turn is being transferred into the sound that you can rather,

unfortunately, hear coming out here. The sound of jazz.

But, the whisker is very similar to this, tpwaus, too, is in contact

with every bump, every twist and turn in its environment. Instead of

turning it into sound, in the mammal's brain it's turned into

that sensory feeling, so it can I'm at the Wildwood Trust in Kent.

Robin from Sheffield University specialises in sensory ecology, she

is a whiskers expired. She has been doing some remarkable research into

exactly how small mammals use their whiskers. Why have we not learned

more about them earlier? advances in technology and the

thing about whiskeys is they are small and move very fast so we film

in high-speed to film slow-motion and we can film them slowed down by

about 20 times. This super slow- motion footage is used to analyse

the finest details of how the Memmel smooth and use their

whiskers. Today Robben is studying the, in my opinion, dull dormouse,

the aquatic water vole and the harvest mouse. You can see his

little nose and whiskers around it flexing constantly. He is moving

them backwards and forwards. We call this whisking. The is that

term in the Oxford English Dictionary? Not sure yet but it

will do. A great phrase. It is this movement which is the focus of the

research. The whiskers themselves are dead material, they are like

our heads, so the sensory apparatus is in the follicle and they must be

super-sensitive? They are. That is what sets whiskeys apart from the

hair on our heads. You can touch the whisky gently and they can

detect it at once. Let's look at what we have got. This is the

harvest mouse. Forwards and backwards, this is whisking. As he

moves around the block one side makes gentle touches against the

block whereas the other side is really reaching round and trying to

put as many whisker touches on to the block as possible, we call this

minimum impingement, maximal contact. Brilliant! Let's move on

to the water vole. These guys on the ground on the water, so surely

different whiskers? Yes, the first thing you notice is these are much

smaller in comparison to its body size. I imagine their sense of

smell would be quite important when it comes to finding their food so

the whiskers may not need to be so super-sensitive? It might not be

their primary sense but they use their whiskers and integrate all

their senses together so they get as much information from their

environment as possible. So the whiskers are not moving all the

time. Not much whisking. I am going to give the harvest mouse a six out

of 10, but mark the water vole to just a 2.2. Let's bring out the

dormouse. This is a very young dormouse and he is pushing his

whiskers forward to scan way he is about to put his feet. Dormice live

in the trees so there whiskeys work in three dimensions, pointing

outwards, upwards and straight ahead all at once. Is this all new?

This is brand new. We have not even published it yet. Fantastic and

fascinating. You are waiting for a score? I'm a bit of a Simons --

Simon Cowell so I will give it a There was the most exciting film I

have been lucky enough to do for Springwatch for some time. We see

those whiskers but we never really think about how they were used, or

how useful they can be. Her research is fantastic. I had such a

good day. Driving home I was genuinely so excited. Come and look

at this. We are being murdered by midges! They are so ferocious.

knew you would love that film because you have unquenchable

thirst for new science, which is what we love about Chris. She is

the one adding to it. Her research is really exciting. She told you

lots of things you did not know about whiskers. This is something

everybody knows - they are useful for small mammals in the dark which

leads us to the mammal stumps just behind us. Although we can see

pictures of it, we have infra-red cameras which means we can see

animals if there were any. It is very Darkin there. That is where

the whiskeys are useful and we shot something earlier that shows where

whiskers were used in quite a comical way. The wood mouse there

is clearly disturbed by default but they don't actually touch one

another, surely because the whiskers made contact. They look

much longer than we can see them. Another piece of film we have here.

Look at them closely, before this that starts they don't actually

make any direct physical contact, it is probably just their whiskers

touching. They are tremendously important organs in the

subterranean world. They are probably in there, in the dark,

they can sense and smelly each other, they are going around and

suddenly their whiskers touch and it is like what was that?! They

don't know how close they are. almost felt your whiskers on my

chest there! A must shave! Another animal with a formidable set of

whiskers, we have managed to get some film of. Otters. I say lucky

because simply normally these animals are strictly nocturnal. Our

cameraman was out and found this, a female otter with a couple of cups.

She appears to catch something and they become very boisterous,

probably trying to get the food from her. They move away and

eventually he loses sight of them as they disappear. Through the rest

of our time here we can be doing everything we can to see if we can

find more to us. Let's see if there A camera is just down underneath

the tree there. The but we did get Nothing there, then an adult comes

in, we don't know if that is the male female but it is promising.

an amazing shot. A really attractive animals are fingers

crossed we get more of these. have them on your eyelashes!

don't mind giving blood, but this is taking it a bit far! Martin is

It is slightly better in here but not much! We are coming towards the

end of the show, let's go lout on the osprey camera and see what is

going on. I think that is Nora sitting there. So tantalising, I

would love to see what is going on underneath, she is incubating those

eggs. If you have been watching you may want an easy way to tell the

difference between Nord and Monty. There is a way. You have to look at

their eye colour. Monty's eyes are actually orange. Nora's They are

different. Are yellow. Quite clearly they are different. Here

are those eggs, they picked, a crucial moment they're. The adult

comes in, watches them, sure enough, there is the chick, a critical

moment. They have to push that Shell off and here they come. They

are out. There is just two of them out and now it becomes absolutely

crucial, these first few feeds. The mother knows what she is doing but

the chicks have to learn to accept that food off their mother's beak.

Will she do it? It can go wrong, this. Did she get it? I think so. A

critical time for them, isn't it? It is. They are lucky the weather

is good. But we won our first one to hatch and it will be inside that

gig at the moment using its pipping muscle, the muscle that goes down

the back of its neck, giving it the strength to break out of the egg.

We have a question on that. Mike on Twitter - how does an unattached

Osprey chick survive? They rose membrane that goes round the edge

of the egg and it connects the membrane to inside the egg. Oxygen

goes through the shell into the membrane which is porous, and

transfers the oxygen. There is an air sac and B Chick's beak goes

into bat and when the carbon- dioxide build up to about 9% it

then forces it to break out. Good question. It is thought instigates

Let's go to our live cameras and I don't want to build up the

jeopardy too much, or put it down on his chances but take a look at

this, the behaviour we have seen going on today. The Nat hajj is now

feeding them through the hole. -- nut hatch. So it is not going into

the nest box so the biggest and the strongest can reach up and get the

food. Nepal Rand has not done too well. He is still on the left-hand

side not getting anything. -- poor runt. He reaches, but the adult

doesn't come! Nearly! Still going strong. Plenty of insects. That's

all we can do. Grade one Twitter - are not hatches the only birds to

mug up tree holes? -- nut hatches. Other species will do it, there are

many nuthatches across Europe, one called a rock nuthatch which makes

it own not -- mud nest, a bit like a house Martin. Hornbills muck up

the whole. Shall we take a look at the barn owls. Can you see the

difference in size? You can! We will focus more on those tomorrow.

They look gorgeous. They have been breeding and breeding. Tomorrow I

will continue to follow up that amazing Welsh pine marten mystery.

Can we find them with your help? will catch up with our kingfishers.

Things get a bit wet for them. will leave you with our us prays,

keep your eye on them, see what happens to them -- Ospreys. Surely

after we finished our next -- nest expert will give you insight into