Episode 5 Springwatch

Hello, and welcome to Springwatch. Coming to you, on a beautiful June

evening, from the RSPB's reserve. We'll see who fledgeed over the

last couple of days, and catching up with our common sand piper who

has taken Trainspotting a step too far on this very Railtrack. We'll

meet the Peregrine family living the high life in the heart of the

city. And which animal is this? Hotting up, in the middle of the

compost heap? We'll be live for the Hello, then and welcome to

Springwatch. It is our second week here, broadcasting to you live all

week. Now, of course, the whole country is griped with fervour

surrounding the pageantry of the Jubilee. But our cameras are

functional and concentrating on the wildlife here. We will bring you

the excitement and drama. Let's go to the most dramatic story of last

week, which is our hut nuthatchs, let's go live to the nest, it looks

like an abandoned bowel of cereal. But that's good news. Let's look at

what happened earlier, on Saturday. Here they go, they're about to

fledge, looking fantastic. First bird out. Bang, so wonderful to see

this after the sadness of Runty, here they're coming out looking

hail and hearty. Bang, another one comes out. Two down. Takeing it

nice and steady, a bit of cheaping. They've been in the security of the

nest boox all that time, and now out in the big wild world.

This last one, seems not that keen to go. Mum has to come along and

give encouragement, comeen. Still not coming out and then at

last, go on. Away. I love the way they disappear into the tree behind.

Good to see all those getting out there. What happened to the one

they left. Nuthatchs are odd when they leave. Our cameramen were able

to find them and follow them, this is what they saw. They're fed by

one of the adults outside, but learning to get to grips with

climbing up and down the tree. It is going to take a bit of practice.

They did go up and down, unlike our tree creepers. They've all split up.

This one seems to be troubleed findingity feet. They're not

altogether in a group, they're fed separately. This is separately,

because nuthatchs, when they're split up, it is like theykind stand

each other, but twhen they go, they separate, which poses a huge

problem for the parent, because they have to find the chicks,

dotted around all over the place. Sometimes they'll be giving out the

contact call which makes it easy for the parents to find them. But

nuthatchs, as soon as they're out, they're out of the shop. This

footage is unusual behaviour, an adult is moving down, it finds the

youngster on the ground, clearly the youngster isn't happy, it is

frozen, and it is attacked by an frozen, and it is attacked by an

adult. Exactly what is going on here is difficult to discern. It is

giving a threat postture there. It may be an adult intrudeer in the

territory. But within two weeks, these young nuthatchs will be

setting up their own territories. The males will be singing and

finding mates, two weeks out of the nest and competing with their

parents, so maybe this is early friction. On the one hand the

parents want to feed them and then kick them out of the territory.

They're terrified being overthrown by your kids, it is like a teenager,

that goes downstairs and occupies the living room and never leaves.

It happens a lot doesn't it. Last week, we were watching the nuthatch

chicks, and we thought there was one parent feeding them, the female.

We did, but Chris was sceptical, because he said that female is

doing regular feeds and short intervals, so he said there must be

an adult male around somewhere. We sent our cameramen out and this is

what they found. Take a look. Can you see one adult going up.

there's another one, in the background. It is so close to the

nest box. But there wasn't aggression there, obviously, and it

is right next to the nest box. If it wasn't another related one, that

nuthatch would have attracted attacked. I'm not entirely

convinced Chris was right. hiding the smug look, I thought

there was a male there all along. Otherwise she was supermum wasn't

she. But they all fledgeed. Let's catch up live with our common sand

piper, she's not on the nest, but you can see the three eggs there,

this is the sand piper that decided to nest right by the railway track.

Look what happened over the last couple of days. There she is, she

regularly get off the nest every time a train comes past. She gets

off the nest, but seems to be walking alongside the track, a

little bit too close, if you ask me. She goes back, the next train comes,

and look at her, she's going towards the railway track, oh my

goodness, she flies away just in time t get worse. She's actually,

right next to the track now, you can hear the train in the distance,

guess what she does, she goes along the railway track.

Oh my goodness, what happened? Well you'll be glad to hear, she flew

off in time and there she is, safely coming back to the nest,

that's Bobing a bit more than usual. She's one crazy common sand piper.

I'm surprised, she's been on the nest for a long time. The trains

are regular and predictable, and never do her harm but she jumps off.

How about a quiz with a Jubilee theme? Take a look at this. Here is

a iconic image which we changed slightly, we want you to identify

the three species that are there, and tell us how they're linked in

that Jubilee theme. If you think you know the answers, which species

and what links them, contact us on Peregrines went through a dip, it

was because of pesticides, it was thought it be less than a hundred

pairs in the whole of the UK, but now they've recovered superbly.

Latest figures is we have 1,437, that means they're having trouble

finding natural nest. Where do they nest? They nest in high trees, but

also on cliff tops, and in quarries as well. This one I actually know,

I can see her nest in a minute, flying around. I know this nest

site well, in there there's a peregrine nest. Now, because the

natural nest sites are largely occupied, our per grins are having

The historic city of scam bath and above all the traffic and people,

perched on the tallest spire, a peregrine falcon. Strengthth, speed

and raw beauty make this bird and of prey one of the UK's most

impressive animals. How much do we know about their lives in the heart

of this city? To find out, Springwatch has made a specialist

cameras on their nest, for the first time we can reveal every

detail as they attempt to bring up a family. The peregrines decided to

nest on St John's church in 2006, after the hawk and owl trust put up

a box. They think this is the same female nesting ever since. This

male bird has been with her for our years. Now, peregrines are usually

loyal to a successful nest site and this pair seem content with their

high rise living arrangements. Although, there are obvious quirks

become bell tolls become). The male falcon keeps watch and chase off

any intruders. He will bring food in as a gift, to reestablish the

pair bond between them. And he doesn't have to look far for a meal.

The church is an ideal roosting site for pigeons and pigeons can

make up half of a peregrines diet. These birds attack their prey in

midair, building up to speeds of up The pair were seen mating from mid-

By the 25th of March the male is keeping watch as his mate sits on

The eggs will be incubateed for up to 33 days, both parents will sit

tight through every weather to keep them warm and protected and the

camera will capture every detail as the eggs develop. But is this happy

family scene about to be disrupted? You see, a strange peregrine has

turned up at the church. It is a juvenile, much browner than the

steely grey adults. And the adult birds aren't showing any signs of

chasing it off. The youngster has a ring on its leg, and our camera

reveals its identity. It is a male As. To confirm this the juvenile

approach is begging for food and the male giving up his kill, just

as he would have done when the youngster just fledgeed. The male

is allowing him to stay. This extra food is a bonus to a young bird,

starvation is the biggest threat to a peregrine in its first year of

life. Remarkably, this juvenile bird, seems to be interested in the

eggs. As he lands on the nest box the female willingly hands over the

brooding duties to this bird, just as he would to her mate. The

juvenile however, seems unsure what to do, he approaches really

columnyly, he is not folding over thealons, and there's a chance the

eggs could be damageed. Eventually he settles down, a juvenile

peregrine, incubateing the eggs of his own parents is very unusual t's

never filmed before. So why is he doing this? If he's trying to move

into this territory, the adult male might have a future rival.

But there's more immediate concern. You see, first time nesters, can

and do break eggs they're looking after. Could his inexperience put

Wow, what an extraordinary story, what is going on? Very difficult to

discern other that's a related male tolerated in the territory. But

this is an extremely rare eye vent. Peregrines do do strange things owe

occasionally, they're called to kestrel's eggs, and breaking them

and nesting them. But we don't know why it is tolerate. We know it is

related, they're one of the offspring from last year, maybe it

is that. It could also be the other territories surrounding this one,

are occupied. Like you were saying earlier, we have carrying capacity.

So basically it's got nowhere to go. As a sequence of that, it is

hanging around its original nest site and the parents are

tolerateing it. It is interesting, Ed, one of the friends of the

programme, said he's seen this, in Bath, close by in a quarry in

recent times. So this is the second time it is reported, but first time

it is filmed. It is scary to watch the youngster, because he doesn't

look good, and the alons are so close to the eggs, and it is the

most precious thing, and the female let's them go in for it. The female

inqueue Bates, so he and the other male is sharing the duties. It is

precarious, we've been following the story since the spring when

they first paired up. Of course, we'll be bringing you an update

tomorrow. A proper bird. But still a bird. Come on let's have mammals.

Let's us go inside, live the mammal stump. What have we got? We can't

see because our monitor's just gone down. You're offering me a vole A

wood mouse, instead of a peregrine falcon, I'm not playing top trumps

with you, mate, it will be tedious. It is live, there he is, it's a

beautiful animal. Gorgeous animal. It couldn't stoop at 200mph.

have seen other wood mouse behaviour, earlier, which is a

little more exciting. Take a look. Here we have a couple of wood mice.

Friendly to begin with, benign. Pushing each other. And then it all

goes wrong, somebody says the wrong thing. And then it is handbags.

is no more than handbags. If we want to attract a younger audience,

because an audience into violence on television, we have to up the

anti-, fighting wood mice isn't going to do it is it? What is the

most dangerous, exciting, thrilling small mammal in the UK snuck Robo

rat. Vole van Dame. It's got to be a shrew. These are the most

thrilling. This is down at the herrin hide, and I don't know who

it was, but somebody saw this. Look at that. Brute. It is a pigmy shrew

and look at the speed of the thing. These animals have to feed every

two or three hours, unless they starve to death. They live their

life at breath-neck speed. heartbeat can reach, 1,043 a minute,

because they've such a high met bolic rate. They live life in hyper

drive. And, I don't know if you, now that's very interesting. Nice

to freeze that. It is carrying something, it is not going to eat

that. That looks like nesting material. The timing's right,

between March and May, have you ever walked down the hedgerow and

you hear the squeaking, they're fighting in the hedgerows, so

they'll be breeding now, so we may see a bit of shrew breeding. The

man who called a pigmy shrew, a "brute" live on BBC Two. Next.

Well I'vedom down to the Springwatch village and this is the

truck that our cameras are monitored 24-hour a day. It is a

cool place to be. Watching the cams at the moment, let's first take a

look at our life chaffinchs, there they are, they've grown so much,

but you may have noticed there's only three of them in the nest.

Well I can tell you it is good news, because, take a look at what

happened earlier this morning. Now you have feeding going on there,

and then you have a lot of activity. The adult goes, and you got one of

the chicks, stretching its wings, gets to the edge of the nest, and

it's take-off time. Come back to the nest, another one

standing on the edge. Looking like it's very keen to follow its sib I

will and off it goes, leaving three chicks behind. Fingers crossed the

might fledge while we do the programme this. Is a dramatic place

to be, especially this weekend. I came in on Saturday to have a look

at bluetits and this is what I saw. There's ten chicks being fed and

they're all looking well and healthly, I was amazed how much

they had grown in two days. When I came in this morning, imagine my

surprise, that six out of ten of the chicks hadn't made it and had

had indeed perished in the nest. Let's have a look at them now, live.

You can see it is a very sad sight in the nest. You've got four chicks,

that are still there, being fed. And very sadly, you've got the dead

chicks still in the nest. I think we all know, it was an awful

weekend, especially Sunday, it was wet and cold and windy, especially

here, so the weather plays a big factor. Harry, you noticed

something else, didn't you? As the cold weather progressed, we noticed

both parents were never in the nest box and increasingly, one of them

may have been predated, but we're watching them closely, to see both

return or not. It is noticeable, because the bluetits in particular,

you oven saw two adults in the nest, or if one went, the other one came

immediately, there was definitely two birds. That's a big problem,

let's keep your fingers crossed, that the four remaining chicks do

fledge. Chris, are you surprised by what's happened? Well, you say,

surprised, look at the nest of our bluetit here, it is right out on

the western side of our reserve. If you take a look at the location of

this nest here, you'll see it is right out by the seaside. You know,

the wind blew in here, wild as the wind in Wales, so I have to tell

you, at 35mph, from the North-East it was coming in this weekend, and

the temperatures plummeted, in the day time they didn't get above 7

degrees and the night down to five. You can see the sea beyond that

nest, so that was getting a pounding when it came to the cold.

They looked so good at the end of last week, I'm surprised, what do

you think happened? A combination of things. It got very cold. But

also, if you look at the bar chart, this is put together by our

nestwatchers, and they were counting the number of visit the

adults were making. On Friday, 550 visit, Saturday, 600, as they said

on Sunday, it dropped off completely, and right down here to

400. I know that sounds a lot, but when you have that many young in

the nest, that means the amount of food coming in has fallen

significantly. A combination of very cold weather, but also, a lot

less food. Another thing as well, it rained a lot. And the rain can

wash the cat caterpillars off the ground and they won't pick them up?

Of course, it's a bonus for Robins and black birds but the other

species foraging up in the tree are losing out. So it could be that.

Very sad. We like to bring you a new nest every now and again, we

had great plans today to bring you this new nest. Let's go to it live.

See if you guess what it is. It is set up in some brambles, and

unfortunately it is now no longer occupied, but we're going to show

you why. Firstly what is it? Up until 9.20am, there was a couple of

birds in busy attendance, they were blackcaps, and here, the pair of

them together, the male on the left with the characteristic and elegant

little birds feeding the young. There were four young in the nest,

one unhatcheded egg and they were doing a great job of feeding them.

But then, at 9.20 this morning, look at this, a weasel, now, it

juched up at the nest, and all the young, despite the young bolted, it

returned and what it is doing at the moment is it is actually eating

the egg that was remaining in the nest. If you look carefully, the

adults are still there, then it dashs out. At this stage, we think

the young birds were on the ground and the weasel, was coming

backwards and forwards to the nest in order to pick up all the

youngsters. Because once it had found it, there was little chance

it was ever going to leave it alone. We were on the brink of showing you

new birds, but sadly they were taken. The weasel need add meal. It

is interesting up to 50% of birds, which nest in that situation, will

actually lose their nest before the igs hatch. One interesting thing is

the busier the nest, more frequent the visits the adults are making

the greatser chance of it being predated.

Maybe the weasel heard the adults and that's thousand it clock it had

They are wonderful little predators, but it is fantastic to see. Let's

talk about a close cousin of the weasel, the pine marten, I went to

Scotland to have a look in the last strong hold of the pine marten and

here it was. You can see the similarity in body shape at least

to the weasel. Of course a pine marten is bigger and it has a

lovely bushy tail. What we want, we asked you if you could help us, try

to find out whether pine martens, which are thought to be extinction

are hanging on in the wild Welsh wood left-hand side. You came back

to us, and we had plenty of sightings. People thought they knew

where the pine martens were, one site was near here. So we set up

remote cameras. They set it up, close to where the sighting was

occurring, and with any look, we hope to bring you pictures. We

pushed the boat out when it came to bait. They went to the sardine

because the smell will go around a long distance. How do we know they

like sardines. They're on ne Vlores, so they probably will like them.

But, I know that mine pine marten is seen regularly there, and it was

seen last Tuesday, the same night we were on air. So, we've a fairly

good chance. A time for reflection, everyone is thinking of the Jubilee,

so this is the last time to see the last 60 years of our Monarch, so

let's look at the last 60 years of birds. To do that, I chose Roy

I was a 13-year-old boy living in Hampshire the time of the

coronation, and already, I was far more interested in what was going

on outside, than staying in for the coronation.

Being a country boy, I almost certainly a day off would have

meant exploring, looking for wildlife in the local woods and

marshes where I lived. What amazing changes have taken place in the

countryside since then, and the wildlife that lives in the British

Isles. In the late 50s, just a few years after the Queen's coronation,

something happened here in the Scotland high left-hand side, that

would go on to have a huge impact on my life, and also, change the

way we viewed wildlife as a nation. A pair of ospreys, reared three

young, the foreruner of an amazing recovery. I came here in 1960 to

work for the RSPB osprey project. I oven came here to look be for

fishing osprey. What I remember most is this tremendous interest

and excitement about this one very special pair of nesting birds. By

the early 60s, the ospreys have become the first ever eco-

attraction and people flocked to come and see them. Until that time,

rare birds nests were kept very secret. But here, the public was

encourageed to come and view these beautiful birds, from an

observation height. Nowadays, that is common place. And it is not just

how we're experienced wildlife that's changed over the last few

deck decades. Natural habitats have been transformed by increasing you

are been sedation and the way we use our land. Even places as fair

isle in the shet left-hand side haven't been immune to these

changes. I lived here in the observatory in the 60s for seven

years and then the casts were family run unit, having hey and

cattle and fields echoed to the Corncrakes and in the Autumn when

they cut their corn and stacked it in stoops, they were buzzing with

twiet and rock doves. Then European subsidies encourageed farmers to

replace the traditional crops with sheep. That was true throughout

Britain with the intensification of agriculture in the 1970s, and

suddenly the way we use the land changed. It had dramatic effects.

Lap wings down 80% since the 1960s. Corn bunting down by 87%. Grey

partridge, down 91%. But not all our wildlife is decline, stock dove

and wood pigeon populations have shot up as the adaptable birds have

learnt to live alongside humans. Then there are other species that

have had a helping hand from us. In 1968 four young sea eagles were

brought from Norway to fair isle. This is the exact place where I

built a big cage to rear and release them. Unfortunately, the

project wasn't successful. Four was too few and the island was too

small but the techniques were used on the island of 157 rum were

between 1975 and-85 they brought 90 young eagles and that reestablished

the bird in Scotland. What about the ospreys? Back when I first got

involved in the osprey project I could never have imagineed how

successful it would be. From that first pair back in the 1950s, there

are now at least 270 nesting pairs of ospreys in the country. After

more than a hundred years of persecution and other problems like

the pesticides in the 1950s and 1906s, our raptures have bounced

back. It is a example that we can work with the rare birds and we

also have them living side by side Absolutely fabulous. When I was a

kid, a bit younger than Roy, there was raptures on the brink, but

since then some have been enjoying their golden years in terms of

reproduction. Greatly increasing numbers and now they're back,

ospreys being a case in part. Let's go live to our ospreys. She's

brooding two youngsters, if you were watching last week, we had two

eggs, all three hatched, sadly we lost one of the youngsters. Let see

what has been doing on over the course of the weekend. Here is a

shot showing the geography of the nest. This is a male bird bringing

in fish, this was earlier than last weekend. He is provisioning the

female while she is incubateing at this staipbl. Now of course it is

about feeding the youngsters. They've been both been busy.

Now a trout sup per for these two, the surviving birds. They're

looking pretty good I have to say. Hopefully the increase in ospreys

will continue. Who knows what the next 60 years will hold. Some

things not doing so well. It is great to see those two doing so

well. On Thursday, when we lost the third chick, one of the others

wasn't looking too good. Now with the terrible weather we've had, it

is looking strong. But they seem to be physically bigger and they're

looking tough. Shall we look at the barn owls, live. Observation, what

have they seen. All looking off to one side. They're absolutely lovely.

This of course, is a very success story as well. Because barn owls,

did have a very difficult time. 1932, we had 12,000 pairs, great

fantastic, but by 1997 it had dropped to 4,000. Thanks to nest

boxes and this idea of creating habitat for them, enlightened

policy, we've got around, they think 6,000 pairs, maybe more. So

we're doing well. And fascinatingly, over 75% of barn owls now, nest in

man-made boxes as well. So it is well worth putting the boxes up.

Cheap, easy to make, if you have a barn where there's not a plax, you

can make a home for them. They're using them and it is working.

a look at this, this is familiar to all parents, here we are, there's

mum and the chick on the right hand side has got a mouse, isn't it, but

it is ignoreing it, and mum is thinking, hang on, I brought that

in for you, so she picks it up. She's going to take it away, you

ungrateful children, she's gone, but not for long. Now she's tries a

trick to many parents be look a lovely fresh mouse, not! It almost

seems to work. We don't know whether that fooled the chick or

not. In the sprouts in 1966 it got left in the corner, until they were

found covered with dust two weeks later. Next time I bring in a

lentil bacon, I will lie and say it's a shepherd's pie. Some animals

live amongst us successfully. Things like seagulls and foxes and

pigeons, but others need very specialist happen tats. And just

this weekend, Michaela went with Lolo Williams, with Boreth Bog, to

explore and find out what they This is Boreth bog, and it is a

rare and special habitat. It is full of life, insects birds mammals,

particularly plants, some of them you'll find nowhere else. You know

this bog well? I've been coming here since I was five. You will

tell me more about this plant. I find this fascinating. It is sun

due and carnivorous plant? It has specialised leaves, and on the red

stalks, you can see the due, and that's glue, and small insects get

stuck, and it has specialised cells in the leaf that squirt out enzymes,

that breaks down the insect, sucks out the nutrients and all you've

left is a dry husk. What are we looking for? Mainly insects I

guess? It has to be mainly insect. But here, there's a track, like a

path going through there, the bogy bit and out, this will be otter.

There's really good population of otters here, lovely animals. But

that's a typical path. Unlikely to see those today. There we go.

spotted. That is a blue damzel fly. That's a real bright colour.

Some birds you have to stop and listen out for. But not that one.

Skylark. Lovely bird. Very loud and noisy. And just sings and sings, as

it goes. As a kid I remember it being common, farmland bird or an

upland bird. This habitat is rich in grasses and different mosss

isn't it? It is. A host of plants, all adapted so well to life on the

wet, wet bog. Take this, lovely name, cotton grass, for obvious

reasons. The white heads, seed heads Bobing in the wind. The mosss

you see, if you take up a chunk, and if you squeeze that, see it

retains so much water. That's the single most important component of

the whole bog. This will die and forms peat. If we were to dig down

here, the peat can be two metres deep. An interesting factor is in

World War I, bandages were hard to come by. What they did, they

wrapped them in this, so it was useful.

This plant is bog myrhh till - myrtle. If you rub that, it keeps

Midges away. I need plenty of that for the live shows then. We are

playinged with Midges. - playinged plagueed with Midges. Every one of

them is so special. It is a fantastic place. A walk in the bog

with Lolo, what more could a girl ask for? You have to get down to

see the wildlife. It is famous for having adders, did you see any, see

skins? We didn't, but probably because it is not warm enough. And

it is not warm enough to see the grass naicks on the cam we have

here. This is a pile of old grass cutings. In there, we know we have

lots of snakes. And earlier on today, we found a new way of

looking at them in a totally different light. Here we go. May I

have the camera. Last week, we were looking at the macro world, tiny

things that live here. But now, we're going to try something

different, this is infrared or thermal camera, which picks up heat

differences and we've pointed it at this compost heap. There's a snake

on top of the grass heap, that's a grass snake, very individual, has a

funny mark on its mouth there. But then it is going in the grass heap.

Here is Richard tailor Jones, this is fascinating the hotest bits is

yellow, so this camera is looking inside, you can see the entrance

holes looking like tubes, and here, is a grass snake. What's absolutely

fascinating is instead of basking in the sun, they are using the heat

that's generated by decomposition, inside the heap to warm their

bodies up The blue bits are the cold bit and yellow are the hot

bits. The red thing coming out like moving spaghetti is the grass snake.

That's fascinating. Staying inside that heap to warm themselves up

enough so that once they're hot enough they can hunt. On that

camera, it looks like volcano with lava. I'm going to ask ask for a

spade. I'm not, but you and Chris are, I will he tell you more about

that in a second. Chris. If you were watching Thursday, we were

pleased to laufpb our survey called the Big Garden Weigh In. What we

wanted to know was the buy owe mass, living weight of grass in your

garden. We wanted you to count the birds over the course of an hour.

We are pleased to say, we have 1,677 replies, from our Hebrides

and Channel Islands. As usual we're not happy. We want more. And you

still have 2 hours to go. So please still have 2 hours to go. So please

help us work this out. It is the measure of the productivity the

health of our garden. Details on our website.

Result will be published on Thursday. Initial results. What

about the quiz? We showed you this image earlier and asked you to

identify the three animals that were there, tangleed up in the

iconic flag. We wanted to know, not only the species names but what

linked them in a Jubilee theme. If you think you know the answer, go

back to the website I've just given you. You will need this, Martin has

his, because I'm going to get you to dig, the little patch here,

which is 20X20 centimetres. But the reason I'm going to get you to do

this is a challenge, I want to see how many worms you can find in that

bit of vegtable patch. I'll tell you why, in a minute. Do you accept

the challenge? I accept. I have to find more worms than Martin. So if

you want to start drig, you have about four-and-a-half minutes. Now

if you have kids you might know this song, nobody loves me,

everybody hates me going down the garden to worms. Here is a woman

that has such a passion for worms, that her love is completely

infectious. Most of us wouldn't give earthworms a second glance.

But not Emma sherlock, Earl worms are her passion. You see, Emma is

curator of worms at the Natural History Museum in London. She's

President of the earthworm society of Britain. As Emma is about to

reveal, there's far more to the humble earthworm than first meelts

the eye. Most people, think we've only one species of earthworm in

the UK. But that's really not true. We actually have about 27 different

species. We've got stumpy green ones and they're bright green,

stripey ones, these ones when they stretch out you will see the

stripes on them, we call them tiger worms because of the stripes. We

have pink ones, and grey ones, ones with black heads, a keep red ones,

some are really large, 20 centimetres in length, right down

to a few centimetres so. Magsive diversity. Surprisingly, scientists

know little about the distribution of the different earthworm species.

Sam piling the worms in your garden can help fill in the gaps.

better way to sample earthworms is to dig a hole in the ground. So I

generally dig around a plot, pull out the square I've dug, and just

go through it, and try and see how many earthworms are here n a plot

this size, potentially it could be 50-100, maybe even if it was a rich

patch up to 200 earthworms. So in an area the size of a fool field,

you could get as many as two million earthworms. All gardeners

know earthworms are good for the soil. But the reason that is, is

because they are they're burrowing down in the soil, letting air in,

carbon die on identify out. They're the repsych letters of the planet,

breaking down the organic rubbish and releasing the knew treents to

be used by the plants. Without earthworms life would dry up

quickly. Earthworms aren't just good for the soil, they're juicey

musclar bodies are perfect food for other wildlife. Birds just can't

resist them. Badgers gorge on them. 60% of their diet is made up of

worms. And mols, they can eat 50 grams of worms a day. It does seem

they get picked on by other animals. One neat little trick I'm going to

share with you, is to get the deep burrowing earthworms to the surface,

without the heavy digging, and that's it this. This is mustard

powder with water, around two tablespoons per litre-and-a-half

bolt. And then pour it on the ground. What this technique does is

it irritate the worms slightly, so they come up to the surface.

Earthworms behaviour is fascinating, not least the way they reproduce.

Earthworms are male and female parts, but they still sexually

reproduce. So they find another earthworm, glue themselves together,

pass each other's sperm, when they've broken off they both

produce a cock coon, which sits in the soil, until conditions are

right and then babies emerge. I love them because they're so

amazing important for your soils. They're fascinating animals, and

when you start to look at them, it is amazing the diversity the sizes

colours, and different jobs they all do. And yet no-one's looking at

them. They're work something hard under our feet. I hope you see them

Well I have to say, I'm completely with Emma, I'm a fan, and I have a

wormry where I make compost. He's not having a pee, but as I was

saying, I have a wormry, I make compost, but the worms in the

wormry don't do well when you put them he on the earth. I spend ages

picking them out before putting them on the vegtables. Right, stop.

Why are you digging, are you going to Australia? How many did you get?

29, 30, 35, worms. One. Two worms actually. Here is a real worm.

got one! That's a worm too. That's pathetic. Did you seriously

get them. Here is another one. many? 14 and I've got a mill peed.

You know he will be tkpwruchy for the rest of the show. It is a good

job we're near the end, because he get competitive. You did your best

and that's all that matters. Shall we explain, it is not just for fun,

is one coming up. I have a Midge in my contact lens now. I found one.

Two that's great. There is a proint to all this,

because this is not just fun, it is open air lab surveys, and they're

trying to find out, they want your help to find out the distribution

of the 26 or 27 species of worm in the UK. If you want to join in, it

is great fun, they give you a key to all the different worm species,

all the details how you can get the packs, and they're great. It is a

fantastic thing to do with kids. Because kids love to get their

hands in the soil and pick the worms. One lucky child might find

the golden worm. If you find the golden worm, children, you get to

go to the big worm place under the ground and hang out with worms for

a couple of weeks. For the rest of your life you can wriggling. He's

made that up. It is not just the worms but the soil. Soil is

important and that's what the survey is about too. While you two

wash your hands, let's take a look at some of the photographs you sent

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 55 seconds

Fabulous pictures frbgs thanks very much, keeping sending them in. We

showed you photographs of cryptic quiz and we asked you to tell us

the species of the three animals we were showing you and tell us what

connection they had to the Jubilee. We had wrong suggestions, one was a

whitethroated, dragonfly. Lots thought it was a golden eagle.

Let's take a look at the photograph. And I can tell you, that it was a

red start. It was a white-tailed sea eagle. And a common blue damzel

fly. What did they have to do with the Jubilee? Red white and blue.

was indeed. Well done to people who got it right. Lots of you got it

right so well done. Do you have an occasional dream where you meet a

superbird. A bird like that red start? Well, stay tuneed because

now, in glorious technicolour and full HD, we're bringing you had,

the red start, a bird, not the female, which is dull, but, a male

red start, which is a bird amongst birds, look at that splendid animal.

What an absolutely extraordinary thing it is. Well, fortunately, the

strong hold of this species, is now in these western oak woods and

there are plenty of them here. This is where our nest is. It is down in

the woods there. Quite close to the edge of the woods, they lock the

Oakwood, the natural holes and foraging for caterpillars,

butterflies and spiders too. Let go live inside the nest. Take a look

at this, because, all the young dueds are in there. Seven of them.

Absolutely fantastic little birds, beautiful. Till young. I reckon

they're ten days old, they'll fledge another couple of days.

They've still got the rudements of gape flanges on their mouth, but we

reckon we might see them going on Thursday. Then they'll going to

Africa. At the end of August, beginning of September, the parents

and they move to the south coast, hop across and down through Spain,

and France and into Spain and across to North Africa. Some going

down the coast and south of the Sahara. Unlike many of the others,

which are declineing rapidly, 2% of redstarts and they're calling their

own at 100,000 pairs. You're a fan? A male red start. A question, we

have got a question, here and animosity, on Twitter says what

happens to the chicks that die in the nest, does the parent remove

them, is there danger to the rest from puet refaction. It would be if

the others would stay in the nest for a long time. But those birds

were on the brink of fledging and too big for the adults to get out.

But what we noticed over the weekend was there, in your ospreys

nest. We lost one of the three chicks last week. But what we saw

this weekend is the adult bird, picking up the chick and taking it

away. This makes sense, although it is small, the other two chicks will

stay for weeks, and what they do not want to be doing is sitting on

a decomposing mate. Bluetits, we lost six of them. But they'll stay

there, because it is hard to get them out, even though the our

foremight not fledge for a few days. At this stage they would leave them.

Normally they get trodden down into the bolt of the nest and

occasionally, if they're small enough, it is early during the

fledging process, the adults will chuck them outside. So it various,

but the longer they're in the nest the more sense it is to remove them.

Let's take a look at our bats. Look at them. They're huddleed up, how

many, 13. That's unusual because they cluster but don't huddle.

one, they seem to spend a lot of time preening, looking after their

wings. They're up and down every square centimetre to make sure they

can fly tonight. My dream is that we might see them giving birth live.

Imagine that? What a tease you are. Risky dream. Well, tomorrow, we're

going to follow our peregrines, again, we're going to have a look

at them. They got caught out by pouring rain. How will they do.

have an old friend looking at his favourite birds. You can carry on

watching us on the website not on the red button because that's the