Episode 6 Springwatch

The bank holiday is nearly over but fear not because the Springwatch

team is going to make sure that a long weekend finishes on a high

note. We have another hour of the very best of British wildlife and I

can guarantee that you are going to be enthralled. We have a brand new

nest, a little beauty. But to build it? There is dramatic developments

for our high-rise Peregrine Falcons. And our family of a walls are

getting bigger by the day. All this and so much more. -- barn owls.

Yes, welcome to the woods. The famous images Woods, here at the

RSPB reserve and Wales. It is programme two of weak two and if

you wish us yesterday you will know that we had lots of action. First

late, to the chaffinches. Yesterday, the birds began to fledge. They are

fidgety, so we were not surprised to see them go. By the end of the

afternoon, one had taken the plunge, and then a little later, another

one jumped out. Let us go live to the nest now to see how many are

left. Not surprisingly, there are none. They left earlier today. Take

a look at this. There was a lot of wing exercising going on, which you

might predict. First thing in the morning, it was nice and warm. One

of the birds came back as if to tempt his nest mates out. And then,

tempt his nest mates out. And then, eventually, the first one took the

plunge at 12:20pm, leaving just one. And after that energetic exit, this

one and made a rather ignominious tumble. But we must not mock it,

because this is a successful fledgling. Leaving the nest empty.

The Mail comes back with some food. This was shortly after the last

This was shortly after the last ones had left. He has been coming

to that spot every day for the last two weeks and he will now be

listening out for a particular call which the young will be making to

guarantee that he finds them and gives them the food. Now that they

are out, will be dispersed and look for their own territory? Not yet.

They will not all be huddled up, they will have spread themselves

out of they were going to deep cover, as deep as possible so that

they will be secure. In there, they will stay for the next three weeks.

After a couple of weeks, they will start to feed for themselves and

only then will they disperse. By then, the adults will probably have

another clutch of eggs. With one group of chicks successfully

Fletching, it is the perfect time to introduce you to a new bird.

This is a fabulous little bird, the smallest breeding bird in the UK.

It weighs the same as a 10p piece. Can you guess what it is? Let's

look at it live. Is it in there? You can see it, just about. You

cannot see why it is called a goldcrest. Can you see the gold on

the top of its head? It is a fantastic net, made of moss, stuck

together with spiders webs. -- fantastic nest. It is spongy and

very cosy. It is difficult to tell the difference between a female and

male in that shot but look at this footage that the two earlier. There

is the male, look at that. You can tell when it erects its crest, that

flash of orange shows that it is the male. Four that has to be worth

seeing again. That was fantastic. How about this for Air & Style,

David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust if ever I have seen it. -- a hairstyle.

put a camera on this Nestor a couple of days ago and it had nine

eggs in it. The get the size of the X. That is it. Absolutely tiny.

Just imagine the size of the checks that come out of an egg that small.

Take a look at this. This is what happened earlier today. There is

happened earlier today. There is one of the adults, sitting on the

mast. We do not know whether it is an egg or cheques at this stage.

That adult gets off and the other one comes back, and look. It has

got food in its peak. Clearly, some of the cheques, or all of them,

have hatched. Amazingly, we have not seen the chicks yet. It is a

very deep nest and the chicks are obviously hunkered down. They must

be small. And the reason it is so deep, they build these nests right

on the end of the branches, so it makes it difficult for predators to

get to them. The end of the branch close around a lot so if they do

not want the eggs to fall-out, they build a deep Cup. You can barely

see them when they're in it. But we might get a chance to see them

during the programme. We have not yet seen the cheques. And they

hatched this morning. It is amazing, we have not seen it yet. Every week,

we are following a charismatic British animal in great detail,

looking at its breeding behaviour in particular. This week, the

Peregrine Falcons. This is a very unusual family. Their nesting on a

church in Bath and what is strange, almost bizarre, is that there are

three adults testing the nest. Two parents, the normal parents, and we

think it is the son from last year helping out but not doing very well.

The good this. -- have a look at The male and female have a nest on

St John's Church. They have been joined by a young male, their own

from last year. He has started to incubate the eggs but he is clumsy.

Will this put them in danger? It is early April. The juvenile is

helping to incubate the eggs but he is inexperienced and it shows.

Parts of the egg are clearly still visible. This church tower is

exposed to the elements and the eggs may not keep warm enough.

There are also signs of tension. When the female arrives, the

youngster led to takeover. -- lets But when the adult male arrives,

the juvenile refuses to leave. And there is a bit of a stand-off. The

Mail immediately flies off and meets with the female. Mating

normally stops as soon as the female has laid the final leg, so

perhaps he is feeling threatened. - - the final leg. This behaviour

underlines how one usual this It is now 35 days since the eggs

were laid and they are overdue to hatch. After a dry start to the

spring, the heavens opened. The temperature plummets, and the

timing could not be worse. These birds have no choice but to sit it

out. And tried their hardest to keep their eggs warm and dry. The

rain is so bad that water gets into the camera. Two days later, still

nothing. Could he XP infertile or damaged? Are they too cold,

especially with the juvenile not incubating them properly? Then, the

female starts to fidget, and The danger is not over. The Czechs

seem to be hatching into a pool of cold water. Their tiny and damp,

and vulnerable. There are reports from all around the UK although a

peregrine chicks dying in this weather. -- or of other Peregrine.

Eventually, two chicks emerge. 1 egg remains. The female tries to

keep them all warm, but for the first few hours, they can survive

on the internal food store from the yolk sac. But this cold and wet

weather will weaken them quickly. The male peers. He seems bemused.

In fact, he seems more interested Finally, he settles over them. As

if they don't have enough difficulties, they are then prodded

As he leaves, there is movement in the third egg, but frankly, these

chicks are in trouble. It looks desperate and the camera is

succumbing to the weather. An hour or so later, the juvenile bird

brings in a pigeon. He is trying to help and an adult would not bring a

whole bird to two tiny checks. The female leads, probably to remove

the wings and prepare it properly. Police two of the Czechs have

fluffed up. This down will give them some protection. -- at least

two. It is hard to see if there is a third behind them. Then the

waterlogged camera gives up, leaving us wondering how many of

Born into a puddle of water, how about that? We will pick up on that

later. Nor are good. I am surprised they hatched. When the war there --

when the weather turned nasty, the young bird was not doing a

brilliant job of incubating it. Here is the female, and she is

accomplished. She is made to do this. She is larger, completely

covering the X. Her wings are down on the ground. -- eggs. The young

bird is smaller and trying but he is not getting those eggs into the

right position. Ideally, he wants two either side of his breastbone.

It is there that his brood patches are. These are areas of skin which

are rich and blood vessels, designed to transfer heat from the

body of the birds to the eggs. Here, he is not even covering bx. That

may or may look a little bit of eggshell, but if it is really cold,

it will make a difference in the development of that egg. They were

low and away certain amount of cooling but not too much. When I

pick up my breeding chickens, you can feel that patch, all warm on

the chest of the bird. Warm and humid and lovely. Also, they have

to turn those eggs as well. It is important that they keep turning

them around to stop membrane sticking to the side of the egg. We

don't often talk about that. birds to it. Peregrine Falcons are

not particularly accomplished. Even the female, she nudges them and

they rolled around, but because there are frequent changes between

the male and female, it is then that they probably get turned.

Peregrines are one of the best birds in Britain. If you were

watching last week and yesterday he will know that we are also covering

another one of those species. They are living over there in that barn.

It is three or 400 metres behind us in a quieter part of the reserve.

In the roof, they have chosen to make their nest. Obviously, it is

our barn owls. Let us cut live and see what they're up to. They are in

a hovel in the corner. That is what we would expect. This is the sleepy

time of day. Later in the evening, the adults will be out hunting. We

have seen that the chicks are nocturnal already. At the moment,

it is about staying warm. They are 40 days old, almost exactly. They

are due to fledge at 60 days. We might see one of those actually

leave that comfortable mast before the end of Springwatch. --

comfortable nest. We up the war Ching the food brought in to these

birds because the food is large and the cameras are giving us could

images. But this was quite unusual because the young are there a

couple of nights ago, waiting expectantly, when the adults come

back, with, look what it has got in its food. It is a bird, it is a

pipit. When we looked at it, it enabled us to tell the difference

between a medal pipit and a tree pipit, which has a very long towel.

Careful observation enabled us to identify what it was. How is an --

a barn owl catching a pipit? imagine they roost on the ground at

night. To be honest, they often run around on the ground like mice. You

can imagine the Barrmill moving backwards and forwards, spooking

the pipit, and before it knows what has happened, the will is upon it

and it has caught it. Although uncomfortable, it was eventually

swallowed by one of those And it would have heard nothing

about that. Also last night, these parents are providing their chicks

with enormous amounts of food. Between 10:30pm and midnight, we

filmed what was coming in. See if you can work out what it is

bringing in. It has got to be a bowl. That look like another one. I

thought they didn't eat shrews? I thought they thought they were

distasteful. When we look closely at the nest, it is just full of the

carcasses of mice, voles, all sorts of things. It is a smorgasbord! A

smorgasbord of shrews! That is because they are cashing them in

the nest. Eight times, they came in. Four bowls,, one I don't --

unidentified animal, and through the rest of the night, they have

brought in 10 other mammals, I'm sure not all of those were eaten

last night, some probably stored in the nest. Shall we have a close-up

at their faces? A lot of you have noticed this extraordinary disc.

Early in their development, even before their major flight feathers

come through, they are developing this facial disc, because of this

is the equivalent of this part of a heart here, it is a listening

device to capture sound, channels are down into a couple of huge ears.

Wouldn't it be great if we had a real barn owl? Good Lord! I have

seen you pulling rabbits out of hats before! That is remarkable.

you can see on her face. Whereabouts are the ears? They are

underneath all of these rather stiff feathers which form the

facial disc. It is typically heart shaped, although they can control

the shape of those Fagan -- feathers and adjust them to ensure

they capture the maximum amount of sound. They want to capture high-

frequency sounds, made by small mammals. If I can get her to look

round, these feathers are very soft, these feathers are much harder. She

has two ears, one at the top here and one at the bottom here. This

might offset between them means she can judge the distance of sound,

not using the horizontal plane, but the vertical plane. Look at the

size of the disc relative to the bird. Probably about 35 square

centimetres of beer on a bird the size of a -- and year. They go out

there listening, scientists have don't experiment could put them in

dark rooms and found they can still catch their prey by just using

their ears. Remarkable bird. Michaela, would you like a go?

where did you get it from? That was awfully clever. Some of our birds

it really seemed to grab the limelight. Our common sandpiper is

one of those. It is not so much the limelight as the train a light,

because it has decided to nest in a perilous nest, right by the edge of

the Railtrack. There is the sandpiper. Sitting on their nest,

as we have seen in the last few days, whenever a train comes past,

the sandpiper get staff and runs away. Yesterday we saw it getting

really close to a train. In fact yesterday we were really concerned

that it wasn't going to come back to the nest, but fortunately, it

has. This is the good news. That is the train going past. What does the

sandpiper do? It stayed on the nest. That didn't happen just once, it

happened a couple of times. I have to say, we have been a bit naughty,

we have kept calling the sandpiper she, but we really don't know if it

is he or she. That is the adult birds. It seems to be doing very

well, and fingers crossed the eggs will hatch. Maybe today, may be

tomorrow. But it doesn't seem like the sandpiper is the only crazy

bird that has chosen a ridiculous place to nest. Some of you have

sent pictures in. If you think the sandpiper is close to the Railtrack,

just take a look at this herring gull. That is crazily close to the

train track! I can't believe how close it has got. Maybe it is the

warmth of the train or something. Let's look at another one. This is

a blackbird on a stroma. It has even got its chicks there,

balancing a way. And we have got a third one, this is quite tricky to

work out what it is. It is a blue tip in an army tank barrel,

restoration work on a 1965 vehicle has had to stop after these birds

nested in the barrel of a gun. Keep them coming in. We want to see more

This year we gave one of our regular cameraman at the task of

building three films that reflected the beauty of iconic British

landscapes. For today's film, he chose a stunning landscape near to

The White Cliffs of Dover. A symbol Standing 300 ft tall, stretching

eight miles along our southern coast, at these bastions of

Britishness beam across the British Channel. They dazzle and shift in

colour, with time. And for me, time Chalk, the cliff's rocky building

block, is made from the skeletons of tiny marine animals, crashed and

pushed together, layer upon layer, moulded in the furnace of time. And

as a result, travelling down this monumental graveyard allows you to

Borwick -- a voyage back through history. At the bottom of the

cliffs, millions of years have passed, and flint fossils can be

Stretching out from the butt of the cliffs, low spring tides reveal

unusual and rare chalk Rees. -- reefs. This ephemeral landscape is

dominated by the daily pressure and poured the moon. They live by the

waters ebb and flow. Delicate and Emily's hand their tentacles lays

leaf through the water, microscopic food drifting into their grasp. A

prawn hides. He could be the next Even an occasional lobster looks in

the briefest, looking for bodies to scavenge, whose time is up. From

talk Reeves to ancient chalk grasslands, the cliffs's green

canopy, home to rare plants like the striking spider orchid, and

with them, ponies. While continental horses can be brought

to browse and Greece the clifftop valleys, a relic of the past

introduced by us for conservation Without them, as the years pass,

the delicate flowers would become choked by scrub, drowned in bramble

and Bush. The chivvying and chomping of this animal, a very

human intervention on to stop the march of animal time. The ponies

are a recent addition to this landscape. But humans have left a

mark on the cliffs in many, more obvious ways. Medieval castles,

Roman houses, and beneath them, most intriguingly for me, a

labyrinth of wartime tunnels, honeycomb of their way through the

chalk. Inside the stock, forgotten passages, stalactites have started

to form as water drips relentlessly through the cliffs. Custodians of

these natural sculptures arcade spiders. In the permanent dark, the

passing of time and played out side makes no difference to these

hunters. They wait for the likes of would like to succumb to their

delicate touch. -- woodlice. Slowly, these historical human monuments

begin to fade into the landscape. Reclaimed by nature. As time passes

onwards, it is a reminder to me that the White Cliffs will keep

standing, long after I finish Gorgeous light on a dramatic

landscape. It makes me want to sing! Don't worry, that is all I am

doing. You sing that song made famous by Vera Lynn, and then you

think, Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover? We have blue tips,

but not Bluebirds. It is an American bird, and that song was

written by an American songwriter, who had no idea we didn't have

Bluebirds here. Quite frankly, why let the facts get in the wake of a

good song? Any young Americans out there, get yourself some bird books

before you come over here and start writing songs that our national

inspiration! But we will stick with the Bluebirds. Last week we were

treated to an extraordinary set of film. The kingfishers are one of

that Britain's most popular birds. But we also saw some beautiful

behaviour. The Mail on the right is passing a fish to the female to

seal their Bond. What about that? Well, very luckily, we have found

we have got some kingfishers here on the river that is running down

behind us. So we have been out looking for them. And nice Clear

Stream, just enough bank for them to have laid and nest. There it is,

you can just see the whole. The camera men have been diligent,

filming both of the adults coming in. Just look at that. Absolutely

There is one of the birds, going in and out of the nesting hole.

Absolutely fantastic little thing. There is the pair together. Top

left and bottom right. Ferriter an old Victorian poet who wrote, as

kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame. He was inspired by that

explosion of blue that you always see when they died down the river.

It normally catches you unaware. is one of those birds that

definitely captures the inspiration Of People. But we were wondering if

those two birds had chicks yet. There is positive evidence. One of

the adults with a fish in its beak, with the head pointing out, it goes

into the hole, which is good news - - evidence. Is it to prove?

comes out without the fish, and it is pointing the right way, to go

down into the throat of the chicks. It is a pretty big fish, which in

debate they must be quite big to swallow it. -- intimates. It goes

in, and it tumbles out backwards. What has happened there? Why is it

doing that? It is backing down the hall, having to turn around, and

then throwing itself into the water. This all makes perfect sense and

explains that there are possibly large young in the nest. It has to

back down, because now the nesting chamber is so full of pain birds

that it cannot go in -- baby birds. The other thing is, if there were

lots of little kingfishers, the slope of the whole is designed so

it channels all of the excrement out, so as the bird is having to

scramble up, it is getting that all over it pressed further. The first

thing he does when it comes out is it wants to clean it off. Sure fire

signs we have got young in that kingfisher's nest. Charming

Yesterday was not a good day for our blue tits. Six of them perished

in the nest. Let's not look at the negative, let's look at the

positive. We have four left and the good news is that one of them

fledged. There we have the nest. We have the addled going in and you

can see the four live chicks. You can see the dead ones as well. Then

a brave little one pops its head out. But a beautiful shot. Thinking

about it, shall I go? No, I will hang around. They huddle up, and

another one hopes on. It looks like it is going to fit through the hall.

Is it going to get enough courage to go out? It is looking, and

offered dollars. That is one out of four that has successfully fledged.

D know what, the more successful fledglings, 88%, that was the

record. That is the highest. That would have been eight out of 10, we

have 40% which is average. It is. The objective is to get young out

of it and now they have to keep them alive until they mature. They

are on a good footing. I know what is sad that we have lost some but

they're still in a winning position. We're going to move from one

exciting bird to another exciting birds to the most exciting bird.

Live two-hour redstarts. This is the exterior of the nest. -- to

hour. Typically, they would use holes but they are using an

artificial box. We have some slippy youngsters, seven in their at the

moment. They are cuddled up nicely. We think they are possibly going to

be leaving in the next few days. But I have to say, they have not

grown as much in the last couple of days as I thought they might.

are not very active. It is last thing in the evening and the amount

of insects being brought in will drop off. Actually what, when they

get out of this nest, when they mature, let us see a real birds.

Yes, oh yes. What a beauty. needless to say, Chris is a fan.

They are stunning. They have been taking lots of insect prey. There

have been plenty of caterpillars, and moths and butterflies. They

have not been many of those on the wing today. You can clearly see

that the bird's tales are red, but when will the bird -- adults get

the red breasts? I was thought they would keep that until after they

had migrated back to Africa, but when I checked earlier, I found

that in fact six or seven weeks after they get out of the nest,

they go through their Moult. Even then you can tell the difference

between the males and the females. By the time they leave us, you are

looking at a young males or females. Anyway, let us look at where they

are on the map. The redstarts are here, and the goldcrests were here.

The Kingfishers are on the river. And we are here, sat comfortably.

I'm standing up. And where is Martin? He is off the map, always

off the map. Let us say that he is down here. Are you OK? I am fine.

I'm here for a reason. All throughout the series, we have been

seeing how specialist cameras can take us way beyond our senses and

see wildlife in completely different ways. We are about to

turn some of that technology on one of my favourite animals, bats. We

have a live camera in a batch roost and actually, if you see that

building over there, the building just behind it is where the live

cameras are. Let's go and look live and bat roost. There is nothing

there but that is extremely interesting because we have noticed

that the bass move around that building throughout the day,

optimising the temperatures. -- bats. Let us remind ourselves what

kind of that these are. The here they are, hanging up like bats do.

These are lesser horseshoe bats, about the size of a bomb. -- a plum.

They spend a lot of time preening. In winter, they will be any

different roost. But this place is there summer roost. It is also the

maternity roost where they are going to give birth later on. Let

us throw some technology at it and have a look at what went on last

night. Here is the team, Gary the sound man. We had an infra-red

camera and a thermal camera which will pick up heat differences, and

also a bat detector which allows us to here the cries of the lesser

horseshoe. They sound like aliens. Here are the bats starting to come

out early in the evening. They do this strange thing, light sampling.

What are they doing? Some people think they're coming out to chick

whether it is time to go out. Others think they are resetting

their biological clock. I think our thermal camera shows us what is

really going on. The temperature, you can see it is very raw and, the

bat first, but during the day the temperature can vary enormously.

And as they come out at night, they need to warm-up. These bats are

flying in and out, getting the muscles up to temperature ready for

the evening. A fantastic. One other thing we have noticed, also to do

with temperature, is happening during the day. Have a look at this.

Most of the bats inside the roost will be pregnant females. It is

critical for them to maintain their body temperature. The temperature

of the males could drop way down, but the females want to give birth,

they want teachers to develop so they can give birth as quickly as

possible and have the biggest chance of growing in the summer.

They cluster together to keep warm. Fascinating. Bats are really

sensitive to temperature. We will be coming back and following them

throughout the rest of Springwatch and we might even get a berth but I

doubt it. It is a little too late. We are down by the bird for Easter

-- feeder and we have had a fiesta of mammal activity down here

involving some scurrilous quarrels. Take a look at this. These birds

look splendid but the squirrels like the sunflower seeds, which

probably taste splendid, because this one has thrown itself a great

distance on to there, sending the birds scattering. Here they are.

This is beneath the feeder. You can see there is a battle going on.

This is a gladiatorial arena. off my nuts! This is a scene that

many people will have seen. And the pheasant comes in, thinking it

might get a share. But the squirrels had other ideas. I would

have put money on the pheasant. you see that? One of them pushed to

the other one off. Listen to it as it falls, a dull thud as it hits

the turf. A day a sway a a a expect them to be on our nuts. It always

provide some comedy. But don't worry, the squirrels don't always

win. Sometimes the birds get their own back. This is part two. There

is the squirrels. It has a unique way of attacking this will. The

crow is an intelligent bird but watch how the squirrel uses its

tail as a threat. The Crow is biting its bomb and this will is

still eating nuts. It doesn't care. -- the squirrels. The they're both

tenacious. Anything on it now? Not de the squirrels. Have we got

something in our mammals stump? What is that? Send your answers

into the website! I'm going to have to say that is a vole. I was wrong,

it was a mouse. It is a ball. look like another one was coming in.

-- bowlfuls someone might have seen a handbag fight. It is having a

great feast. No wonder it is always full. Do you think the barn owls

have made some visits? I would be on a takeaway mission if I was a

barn owl. Next week we should put different food in there and see if

the wood mice prefer a different diet. Let's do some science. I will

bring some things in, raisins, things like that. We will look

forward to that. Have you ever wondered how birds got their names?

Sometimes it is not as obvious as you might think. Here is Bill Oddie

giving us an insight into one of our most common garden birds.

Just a Wren. Actually, it really upsets me. The word is disappoints

me, when bird watchers say things like, just a Wren even the common

us of birds have interesting things about them. -- most common. For

example, how did they get their It is a bird. And it is black. So

what shall we call it? I know, blackbird. Simple as that. Actually,

it is not as simple as that, because if you think about it,

there are lots of blackbirds. Perukes, crows, all sorts, but

backing the 18th century, all of those birds like that were known as

foal. It was only the smaller birds that were called birds, so this was

the only true blackbird. Why was there not a black hole? # Blackbird

singing in the dead of night... Blackbirds belong to the thrush

family. Along with their cousins, the song thrusts and the missal

thrush. And even the red-breasted Robin is a member of the thrush

family. Blackbirds are now one of the most common garden birds, with

over 5 million breeding pairs. But it was not always that way. In

times gone by, blackbirds were almost exclusively woodland birds,

but then the fact is that. Britain was covered in woodland. Then all

the trees were cleared and it became flat, featureless farmland.

That did not suit the blackbirds. This is the irony, it was only when

urbanisation began to spread that you go parks and gardens and walls,

all of that quintessential black bird habitat. -- you got parks. If

they are now very familiar sight and a very familiar sound. In fact,

blackbird song has been voted as the bird song most likely to calm

us down. It is therapeutic and it raises people's spirits. And

relieves press. That is human beings, of course. -- relieves

stress. The same survey decided that black-headed gulls were number

three. And that sounds like, waah! But the blackbird is genuinely

lovely. It is a conspicuous song, and loud. Apparently, it is not

loud enough because in order to combat the sounds of the city in

recent years, urban blackbirds have had to turn up before you and even

raised their pitch. -- turn up the volume. Here is a statistic that is

a pleasant surprise. You may think that you have got to just one pair

of blackbirds that come and go into your garden but chances are it is

actually 20 or 30 different birds It is really nice to end on a

positive note, because the fact is, there are now 10 times as many

blackbirds in the towns as there are in the countryside. And another

thing, the ones that live in the towns live a lot longer than the

Quite a good bird, a top bloke! Be just too aloof to that study, it

has been conducted by a guy called David Leach, and he has ringgit 250

blackbirds in his mother's back garden. He has but coloured rings

on them so they can be identified as individuals. He has gone home

and left his mum and all of her neighbours still identify the birds,

what a brilliant scientific breakthrough! If only my mum had

been out looking for badges, I might be a different person. He has

found that despite the fact you think there is only a pair in the

garden, sometimes at there may be 90 birds visiting, because urban

areas are so rich in food, we can sustain these extraordinarily high

densities. I can also tell you that another study has been looking at

the fact that blackbirds are still moving into urban areas. The first

colonised in Germany in 1820, and in some places, they are still a

countryside of bird. Amazing to think there might be that many in

your garden. They all look the same to us, blackbirds are very

different, however. But amazing. haven't looked at how live pond

camera, we are now going to turn it around to look at the pond. There

is not much on it at the moment, but when it gets colder, it tends

to be a bit quieter. At the weekend, when it was warmer, seems a long

time ago! We did have some fabulous dragonflies on how pond. They are

splendid animals. Evolved a long time ago, ferocious predators, they

can fly faster than 30 mph. Look at this shot, you can see this animal

eating a small fly it that it has captured, but what is unusual is

they have three pairs of legs. You can see the rear pair, but the

forelegs, it folds them up behind the head. Then it is munching away

at that fly, it must have specialised mouth parts. If you

look carefully, look at the hairs on the legs, when they are hunting,

they know what all of them behind it down behind dead body, hold them

in a symmetrical pattern so it forms a basket so when you see them

swooping backwards and forwards, they are using that basket to catch

those flies which they transfer to their mouth. You know what I love

about an animal like a dragonfly is you take it for granted, but you

look at it closer, it is absolutely fascinating. On the programme so

far we have given you lots of good news, we have had blue tips and

fledging, but I'm afraid to say, it is not all been good news.

afraid it hasn't. You may remember how beautiful family of wood

warblers, let's remind ourselves of them. They built a gorgeous nest

down on the ground. It was all going well, six chicks in there,

mum and dad were coming in, feeding them regularly. Things were looking

good. They are a lovely little bird, glorious song there. But

unfortunately, last night, all that changed, because a predator got

Grant to see, it was a domestic cat, and it made short work of the nest

and all the chicks. Many have you saw that on the Web cam and it

caused consternation, and all of us will have strong opinions about the

impact cats are now wildlife. -- on how wildlife. On Thursday, we will

show you some very innovative research that is going on at

Reading University. Some curious research. Be managed to fit live

cameras to Catt, and it should be able to see what they are up to and

what they are hunting. We hope that with that research, we can get a

clearer idea of the overall impact of domestic cats on out what life.

-- wildlife. We have been following hour family of peregrines come when

we left them, it was pouring with rain, and one of our cameras had

gone down. Things could only get better. It is 11th May. The weather

has improved and our cameras up and running again. The adult male and

his son from last year are perched high on a expire. But what about

The female is feeding prey to her two chicks. Sadly, the third Chick

didn't make it through the terrible weather, but these two look fit and

well. At this age, they need about 100 grams of meat a day, so the

pressure is on the adults. To feed themselves and the chicks, they are

going to need to catch several birds a day. This isn't the best

time to be a pigeon. Normally, the male bird does most of the hunting,

while the female protects the But in this unusual family, things

are different. The juvenile male is hunting a large share of the food.

Having three adults to look after them is a real advantage for these

A week later and the chicks are visibly growing. They have

developed a second, thicker layer of down, so they don't need to be

brooded by their mother on warmer days. Judging by the remains of

prey, they are still getting plenty of food. They are also starting to

practise grasping things in their talents. But for now, the mother

In the late afternoon, the temperature drops. After the final

feed, the female stays at the nest to brood could cheques for the

night. -- brewed the chicks. It won't be long until these checks

face the most Peronist event of their lives, taking to the air for

the first time. -- perilous to stop but for now, as they settle for the

night, things are looking up for It is amazing to see what

difference two weeks make when you are filming, not only for the

weather, but only the size of the cheques! They were so tiny and

vulnerable. What are they going to be like now? Tomorrow, we will be

catching up with them live, we will get an update from Bath. From one

fabulous bird of prey to another, let's check out our ospreys, live a.

We know we have two held the chicks under there, sadly, we did lose

another one -- healthy. I'm trying to identify that fish. It could be

a mullet. It could be a grey mullet. We have been looking at these

ospreys, and we have been seeing them bringing in a whole range of

food. Look at this. They have been diligent in recording these

pictures. That was a flounder. That looks like a mullet or a bass. I

think that is a seat trout. That one could be rainbow trout. I have

to say, they have done such a good job at identifying the fish that

they have produced for us apply a diagram. This is what they have

What we are seen it is that the vast majority of food that the

ospreys are taking come from the sea. So they're not using the

freshwater habitats, they seem to be flying downstream, out to sea,

and catching the fish, which is possibly why we haven't seen them

hunting around here. Which is a shame, because it is fabulous when

you see them Hunter. Astonishing to think they can see the fish down

there. Shall we talk about moles? Are we not going to have a look at

this? Look at this. This was earlier on. This was when the

chicks were just eggs. They have done a bit of DIY. Oh my goodness!

That is a bit close to the Egg! What a crazy adult bird that is.

Perilously close. Fortunately, the eggs are OK. What is going on?! It

is giving Bielczyk a battering. School of hard knocks! It has left

it on top of the bird. They have got to be rough and tough to

survive that. They're always trying to build up the strength of the

nest, so they had a material to it. Let's hope to do it and little more

gently! That was a day or so, and we do know that the chicks are

fine! Right, moles. We saw that amazing footage, there has been a

lot of love it for Malta. You have been sending us lots of lovely

pictures, and this a fascinating footage. This is normal speed. That

is a maul in fear. It looks like it has lasted car keys! -- lost its

car keys. A fat is a young one, it is very rare to see a mile above

ground. That is because the parents kicked them out of their tunnel

system, and that is a very dangerous time, in the summer. You

have got some figures for us. buzzard to take them in the daytime.

But tawny owls absolutely hammer them at night. Up to 40% of a tawny

owl's diet in June can be moles. Shall we take a look at some of our

live cameras? We have got a wood mouse, loving the grape. It has

been busy in there this evening. You can see where it is situated in

the shot. It is swinging around in the wind. There is a bird on there

now. That really is being blown around. A mouse fight! Handbags,

again. It is my great! Keep your eyes on the live cameras, you will

be able to continue watching those We will be back tomorrow, we will

show you an animal you might think you know well. But do we know it so

well? We will take an in-depth look at the world of the bunny. This is

the blue tips nest, they haven't gone yet. Tomorrow, we will have to

live link-up with an art peregrines in Bath, catching up with that

story. We will be following all the rest of our characters, the