Episode 7 Springwatch

Hello. Welcome to Springwatch. Coming to you from the Ynis Hir

Reserve, here in Wales. I can promise you, we have a show tonight

that is packed with action. There's been a dramatic turn of events down

on the river. We're going to go live to our

curious peregrine falcon family in Bath. Not only that, we'll devil

into the mysterious world of the rabbit. Our small mammals have

berserk, to find out why, and so much more, we've entered the launch

code, we pressed the big red button Hello and welcome to tonight's

Springwatch. And I know that it is a grey, cloudy night but I'm please

today say it stopped raining, because it's drizzly all day, so

fingers crossed it will stay dry. It's a busy programme. We have lots

of things to catch up on, so let's start with your bluetit vx the

remaining chicks fledged. They were a family starteded off with ten

chicks, they were doing well, adult comeing in regularly to feed. Then

they went down to four chicks, six died when we had the terrible

weather and we think we lost one of the adult. The remaining adult did

well, with the four chicks, yesterday, one of them fledged.

What happened to the other three? Well, this happened, at 6am this

Well, this happened, at 6am this morning. First chick pokesity head

out. Thinking about going. Off it goes. Are the others going to

follow? I think they might. The second one comes out, and thinks

"I'll fancy that, I'll give it a go". Second one, third one hops up,

peek out and I think I might join them as well. So the four remaining

chicks have fledged. Where do they go? One of them decides to hand on

a nearby tree, having a look around. Chris, will they stay together, the

bluetit chicks or spread out? Unlike the nuthatchs that will

spread out, they'll stay closely together. Probably in the same tree

or collection of trees, to make it easy for the adult to feed them.

They'll do that for the next couple of weeks. They won't not get on

with another brood. They're difficult to find, when they're out

in the trees there. Not to difficult as these though. Take a

look at this, our cameraman, spotted this, here is a collection

of young treecreepers, they're brilliantly cam flainched in that

lichen. They become obvious when the adult comes in with food. When

they have the heads tucked down, you can't see the beaks, and only

when the adult comes in, do they make themselves apparent. We rang

all our friends at the British trust ornithology, we know they had

treecreepers in the wintertime, but no account of youngsters doing this,

as far as we think. Maybe you think differently, if you do, let us know.

It is cold, maybe they're huddling up for warmth, which maybe we

should do. It could be the camouflage was so profound, they

were hiding from predators. You'd never see them, I like treecreepers,

because they go to the bottom of the trees and wind them up. The

nuthatch goes down. It does go up and down. Treecreepers go up, they

don't eat cheese though. Let us go to the latest nest, the goldcrest

nest. Let's go live to the nest, which is blown around quite a lot.

They feel sea sick in there. I can't see, yes there is a parent

sitting there brooding. We want to try and find out what is going on

inside the nest. Let's remind ourselves about the goldcrest nest.

Have a look, what a gorgeous little bird it is. Britain's smallest bird,

beautifully coloured. Here is the nest, we knew they had nine eggs,

but how many have hatched out? How many chicks are there there? Here

is the parent trying to get an early meal in. We still haven't

been able to find out how many chicks, there are. She seems

confused, she hasn't got any food in. In fact, that's not good, now

she's eating it. Is that a worry? Maybe she's a little bit, quite a

new mother, and she's just trying to get the hang of it. Maybe the

chicks are just full up. Maybe it is they've had their fill, and they

just didn't want any more? That's a good point, because if they were

hungry, we would see the beaks. Chris being optimistic, that's a

first. Let's go live to the barn owls. That's a remarkable change

there, those wing feathers seem to have become more obvious. Let's go

and see what's going on inside the nest, particularly with the big

fella there, there he is. Look at the fluffy legs. They're great.

has Jodhpurs on, there he goes, hoping about, he's starting to

think about flying, not elegant. But hoping about, and his friends

think, yes, I'll have a go at that too. With a bit of luck, they're

progressing, and it is chocing how quickly they develop. With a little

bit of luck, we may see the oldest one fly before the end of

Springwatch. It is like a toddler trying to walk. Well from one top

bird and favourite for many, to another, peregrine falcons, we've

been following a family in Bath, which enjoy the high life.

Yesterday we saw the two chicks, successfully reared by three adult

which was surprising. Well, today, Lolo Williams is live with us in

Bath and he's there to give us an update. Welcome to the heart of the

beautiful city of Bath where it is raining hard all afternoon, but now

the rain has gone and the sun is trying to come out. Over the water,

that is St John's church, home to our family of peregrine falcons.

For those who are my age, it is remarkable that peregrine was put

in the remote rugged parts of the UK is now nesting in our towns and

cities. If we go live, we have a bird up there now. It is the young

male. Just up there, perched, this is the bow GATTy fastest bird in

the world. Here he is looking down at his world. Fantastic birds. This

maybe recap and remind you of the main characters involved in this

tale. We'll start with the adult female this. Is her, earlier on in

the spring. Her back is grey/ brownish, she's a big, powerful

bird. This female is experienced, because she first nested in 2006,

so she's in her prime now. This is the male. He's smaller. He is about

two-thirds the size of the female. A grey back, and white breast there.

Of course, the odd character here, is the one on the right there. This

is the young male the juvenile male, the chick from last year, who has

been doing his best to help out. Helping out to incubate the eggs,

not doing particularly well, and helping out to bring in food to the

family. Now, all three of these birds have doing their very best to

make sure that the young fledge successfully from that nest. That's

why we're here. Let's talk dates on this very date, 12 months ago,

three chicks fledged from that nest. This year May 2nd, first egg

hatched. So they could go around 40 days, we will be keeping an eye on

them for you. Let's pick up where we left off last night. And give

you an insight into why we know so much about this wonderful peregrine

At 20 days old the peregrine chicks are turning into gawky adolescents.

They're ready for the rite-of- passage undertaken by modern

peregrines. Ed is one of the few licensed

peregrine ringers in the south-west. It is only possible to work out the

remarkable stories of individual birds if it is certain exactly who

they are. And leg rings are a which way of telling them apart. It is

through Ed's work we know this is last year's chick, now helping to

feed this year's brood. A behaviour never filmed before.

And now, it's time to put rings on the next generation. The Bath

peregrines chosen site makes them an eminent part of the local

community. Ed knows from our camera the chicks have fed this morning,

and are now robust enough to be handled. The adult birds watch on

as the chicks are taken from the nest. Ed's aim is to ring and

return them within 20 minutes so their parents will hardly miss them.

After weeks of distant observation, it is an opportunitytor

congregation to take a closer look at their closest neighbours.

Nice and healthy looking. So, pop the ring on the right leg. First he

clips on the metal ring of British trust of ornithology. Then a

coloured ring with a code that can be read from a distance. Ed has now

ringed over 60 peregrine chickness the south-west in the last five

years. It is the only time in their lives these birds will be handled.

Such a unique chance to record their weight.

They're put back in the bags and Edicly returns them to the nest.

The parents closely monitor the Within minutes their mother is back

to check them over. After an hour or so, she brings them a pigeon,

they seem fully recovered from their morning, and now researchers

like Ed can track them throughout Ringing is such a fantastic tool,

we learn so much from it. We know the juvenile male is last year's

chick because of the ring. And we have another revelation, and Chris

you're going to like this, we know the adult male here, is coupleed

with his own mother. The adult female is his mother, that

revelation, I hand you back over to Wales. It is a revelation. Well I'm

confused by that. So, is he saying that the adult pair, a are mother

and son and they've had not just the juvenile chick but the other

chicks as well. It is time to rub the old latch. Let me show you this

here. Here is a family tree of the peregrines. The female's paired

with the male and given birth to a young male. Shortly there, the

other male disappeared. She then has been mating with her son and

last year she produced the male which is helping with the nest. She

is mateing with this, means they share 50% of their genetic teal.

But now she's mated with him again, and produced these two chicks, this

in turn means the young helper there, is sharing 75% of his DNA,

his genes the most important thing of all with the other two chicks.

And that's why, that's why, he's staying there to help them out.

Because if he went off on his own and found a female and mateed, the

offspring would be carrying 50% of his genes. So it is unbelieveable.

But, genetically at least, it makes sense for him, to invest his energy

in looking after these birds because they've 25% more of his own

get netcal material. Is that usual? It's seen a couple of times before.

But as Lolo said, unless they're ringed and you can check the DDNA

this is a problem. Will it cause problems with inbreeding? That's

the down side. Of course there's a likelihood of some sort of

unpleasant characteristics in the young. It is seen, the kite

population, when it becomes inbred their productivity was going

through the floor. Hardly at all. But it also throws up genes which

are useful. In human terms the Darwin and Wedgwood family, both

came through families which were closely intwineed, cousin to cousin

marriages, and yet he was a genius. Down side was he became ill in life.

Peregrines may be a faist. But my faist, this series is our common

sandpaper, because they are he a on the edge. Let's have a look at our

sandpiper live, sitting on the nest, comfortable there. One of the

things we've been concerned about, first, it is difficult to tell the

difference between the male and female. But, we've never seen two

birds, and there should be two birds, tending to the nest. The

good news is, take a look at what our nesters saw, there's one bird

and a second one, comes in. They hear something, one runs and the

second one Bobs around, hears the train, and what would they do, run

towards the rain. It's always a little bit of a worry, isn't it.

You see the train, you see them take off. If they take off, that

could be a problem, but up until now, they're veering out of its way.

This is something the nestwatchers saw, look, there's a little bank

vole looking around the nest, looking at the eggs, unhatched,

we're not sure when they'll hatch, hopefully before the end of the

series, and then we move over, and there's our vole eating something,

not the eggs, because the eggs will be a bit big for the bank vole, and

then you can hear the train comes, and the sandpiper is on the nest,

and this time the vole is running away and runs off in a different

direction to the train. Fingers crossed for the sandpipers. Whilst

we're on voles, let's take a look at our mammal stump, this is a

hollow tree we put come ras into. We're using infrared to look at the

small Mam mass in there, because we've been feeding them. Initially

we gave them bird food, and yesterday we gave them fruit. I

have to say, they greatly enjoyed it. They've been fighting a little

bit, and when the fruit came in, it became a fracas, and how, the

fighting now has moved beyond mere boxing. They get up, and it's

turned into cunning few, kicks going in as well. I recognise some

of these moves. And, they really are, it is fascinating, when we put

the fruit in, it seemed to really kick off in there. It was something

about the fruit that was, there's a beetle coming in, to referee, some

of the scraps, and look at that. Let's have a look, it is like the

Matrix this, they're leaping around. Here they go, wow! It is fight club.

There is no mammal stump. What's fascinating is what we think the

fruit provides them with a sugar hit, which it wouldn't get, and

that's what they need, it's a hit of energy. No breeze, nothing out

here naturally so they're wild for it. Let's go live into the mammal

stump. Look what we've got, two voles. I hope it doesn't kick off

again. We've changed the diet, we have a meaty diet, because we want

to see, domestic science this, whether they prefer a meaty diet or

fruit. So far they like the fruit. Voles like this, will go for a few

insects if they happen across them. The wood mice, they eat more invert

berates. But it is a basic experiment. What have you got in

there, chocolate? We keep talking about the mice, and the voles, and

these are field mice and bank voles, but how do you tell the difference

between the two? Here is our guide. The first thing you want to look at

are the eyes. Look at the wood mouse, large eyes, the vole, much

smaller eyes. Now the tail is long with the wood mouse, the vole is

short and stupy. Vole much smaller, the mouse nose is pointed and the

vole is blunt and short. Pocket guide to wood mouse and bank vole.

I prefer a vole myself. You've got treecreepers and vole, I'm getting

a measure of what you're into. Credit where credit is due, we

don't all have the ideas on Springwatch and mammal stump is one

we Nicked from Kate ma - McRae, she thought putting her garden into her

own Springwatch. This is what they came up with. Kate's garden is a

nature reserve in miniature, a rig of 20 cameras record the every day

life of visitors. It is a quite a set up. My first camera kit was

bought for me for my 40th birthday present. When I watched Springwatch,

I thought maybe I could try a camera on a bird feeder, and

different nest boxes. So it all escalated quickly from there.

cameras revealed animals that Kate never knew was there. When I first

saw the hedgehogs, I was so excite about that. I lived nine, ten years

before I had seen hedgehogs, and most I've seen is through my

infrared cameras. This is most certainly turned into an obsession.

At this time of the year, I can't drag myself away. Birds we're

familiar with with, like the bluetits and grey tits, but seeing

them build a nest inside a nest box and raise their family and trials

and tribulations linked into that, I'm aDick theed to it. The more I

do it, the more questions. The bluetit building a nest, she starts

with the moss and they're bringing in moss, and something triggers

them to think I've enough of that, I will collect soft materials, and

I think what is that is causing that? Watching the black bird, the

female builds the nest and male comes and watches every now and

then, but as soon as she sits on that, he brings her food. So he's

watching and waiting for the trigger that change changes his

behaviour. The more you watch the more you discover about those

creatures. She has a few more tricks up her sleeve to entice the

birds in her barreden. I'm well known for my obsession with bird

feed as I have all sorts. Not only do I serve different kinds of foods

but dispense them in different ways. One of the feeders that's

successful in the garden is made out of three tiny tea strainers, I

bought three, screwed them on a log and mounted a camera behind them

and I pack those with fat and various different foods and they're

the right size for birds to land. Another project is taking a whisk

and then pack it with a range of nesting materials, moss, fur, hay

and straw, and I hang them up in various places and the bird takes

those to build their nests. inventions aren't only used for

birds. She's discovered a way of looking at mammals. I knew there

was mice, you can hear them. I built clay cabin, which is a hollow

that mimics a buttero, I get three species meeting in there, the bank

vols, wood mouse and shrews, and oven, all three will be trying to

feed at the same time, I imagine happens in the wild all the time,

when they're foraging in hedge rows, but we would never see that.

Cameras record mammal behaviour that's difficult to see. Footage so

special the research scientists are now interested in it. In total, 15

different Mam mass have been recorded here and 47 species of

birds, not bad for a back garden. enjoy watching all of the wildlife

in my garden. I get the same pleasure from seeing blue and grey

tits on my feeders than I do the more unusual. But my Finch pair

give me a lot of pleasure and long tail tits. Every day I learn

something knew about the animals, plants, insects that are right here

in my own back garden. It is completely taken over my life, but

And next year's Springwatch will be coming to you live from Kate's

garden. It is not a bad idea. Did you see, she's got three mammals, a

shrew, mouse and vole, and we've only ever got two. What I love is

Springwatch, certainly inspired Kate, then she inspired us by put

the mammal touch up. I love the bird feeders, so we decided to make

our own today. We haven't seen birds on it yet, but that's because

it takes a little while for birds to get used to something knew,

hopefully by tomorrow. We should put the whisk up for the birds

nests, that would look cool. Rebel, I don't want to be a rebel, I don't

want Kate advising me when it comes to garden onmentation, I don't

fancy that. Come on, it inspired me how Kate was feeding the birds but

providing the crucial nesting material. But you have kindly sent

us photographs of birds using unusual nesting materials. Have a

look at that, Abb are pulling fur out of the back of a horse, I hope

it doesn't hurt and they're dragging that to make their mests.

Have a look at this one, bluetit, tennis balls, turn out to be

popular items. They rip the yellow off and stick it in their nest.

Itch the fabric is amazing, and making the nest, take a look at

making the nest, take a look at this. These are old nests. We found

around the reserve. This bird has been raiding the moss garden and

made this fabulous mud flap inside, that's a song thrush. This one made

out of fine twigs and grass, that's black cap or garden warbler, hardly

any lining in there, quite how it manage today fashion that, I don't

know. Lastly the wren here, this one's a domeed nest and completely

covered in barracken, like a camouflage. Let us go around some

of the nests here and see how birds created them. Here is a pie catch

Cher, here is a treecreeper, they don't make one, they'll use a

convenient crack. The wood pecker will whack holes in the tree, we

saw that nest earlier. A meadow pippet at ground level it will make

the nest. The wren, much more come employee kaited structure tur, the

male will entice the female there. The crow, not a great nest, just a

few sticks, a little bit of softier lining, but it is up a tree. One of

the key features is security. It was a nest we were looking at

yesterday, where security is taken to an extreme. They make a tunnel

over the water. I'm talking about kingfishers, these were on our

river, close to our studio. When we left them yesterday, they were

going in and out there showing us, they had chickness their nest,

because they were bathing. wasn't actually the safe haven the

two adults were hoping for. Yesterday we had a dramatic turn of

events. One of our cameramen noticed this on the river. He

noticed this on the river. He noticed that Something was swimming

towards the nest. Was continue ater, it was a mink. It was, once a mink

finds something, it doesn't forget about it, because the mink almost

immediately came back to the nest. Look at this. It approaches it

across the river, I think it heard the youngsters, because they're

large. When it climbs up, when it does with remarkable agility. One

of the eggs fell out, that must have been an unhatched egg in the

nest. In the mink goes, into the burrow, and almost immediately, it

is backing out and in its mouth, it has one of the young kingfishers.

The adults are tenacious, they're dive bombing the mink. But, within

a matter of seconds, it is coming back, look at that, in again the

parent dive bombing, but it won't be put off. It knows where it is

going, it is up and in, and backing out with another one of the chicks.

It is removing it, it is puting it somewhere safe, where it knows it

can access it. This is like supermarket shopping, you don't go

home with one tin of beans, you fill up the trolley and this is

what the mink is doing here. It is taking advantage of a source of

food which might run out. It looks like it's run out. It has come back

out, but then drops down in the water, heads back across the other

side and finds something else to eat. What is interesting about this,

is it won't waste, nature doesn't waste things, but the mink did

something interesting. Have a look at this. Having eaten the egg, it

then started to move, sadly the Kingfisher bodies around. It will

be cacheing them, what it is doing, it found the wonderful food source

for T and it will hide away all the chicks, so that it will be

returning later on, and gather them up again, and probably,

interestingly, May is the peak time for mink to give birth, so it may

well be, this mink has kids. Its own, and it will be storeing this

food supply, which will then, refined, nothing ever gets wasted

and bring back to its chicks in the nest. You can see the size of the

chicks, we thought they would be bigger and they were. Nearly ready

to g That's why they were making so much noise. They make more noise,

more visits from the adults, more obvious to predators. All that work,

weeks and weeks of work from the kingfishers and over in seconds.

is rare behaviour, and obviously, that was a good day for our mink

and its young, not a good day for our Kingfisher pair. And this is

what happened after. One of the adults came back with a fish in its

mouth, all ready to feed the chicks, you can see the head of fish is

facing forward, to put in the chicks mouths. It comes out,

because there are no chicks in there, confused, it starts turning

the fish around, so that the head is pointing inside its beak,

because that's how the kingfishers eat. Having a little bit of a job

there. Massive fish. Eventually it swallows it. But it

is a healthy adult and should be able to have more chicks. It is

going in the right direction, it is building up the reserves, and

there's no doubts the kingfishers will try again. Let's have a close

up of the mink. You didn't see the face here, this is a non-native

animal, brought in from North America. It's made a nuisance for

itself, we think it is responsible for a decline in water voles and

eats a third of their diet is bird, normally ground-nesting birds. If

you think of picking on the mink, on thetors eat birds, and it takes

a lot to take the world go around. To the very common place rabbit.

Rabbits, everyone knows about rabbits and surely there's nothing

more to say about them? You'd be The rabbit, they're cute, they're

fluffy, and there's around 45 These are the grassy holes of East

Anglia, sandy soil, ideal, and enough cover close by.

And the perfect opportunity for long-term research into rabbits.

Which is revealed a side of rabbits we rarely see. Rabbit Warrens

contain large populations but within these, they live in small

social groups of up to nine. The female produce two or three litters

a year, each litter with up to ten young or kits. Once the kits emerge

from the warren, they're no longer fed by their mother, even though

they're three weeks old. In spring, the females fur appears

patchy, as she removes it to use as The dominant male here on the right,

can stay with the dominant female for life. The male must remain

vigilant against any rivals. He controls his territory. He

uernates in scent marks by rubbing his chin and paw scrapes. This

marks his patch. While he waits for the depe male to be ready to mate

The female shows she's now ready. Then a rival male attempts to

separate her from the dominant male. The contender runs in parallel and

Then, a jump fight. It's fleeting and over quickly. The

contender loses. But it is not only the males that

are aggressive. During breeding from January to June, the dominant

female is the most violent rabbit in the Warren. Determined her young

have the best food, she'll chase other females away, even one she's

closely related to. It is not only other rabbits, for predators

Rabbits can detect smell and sound very quickly.

Eyes that are set on the sides of their skull give them a wild field

of vision. They sit on their behind legs to see further on constant

watch for predators. Elsewhere on the site, one of the most

Over 90% of all kits are killed by preed stores or disease during

their first year. -- predators, with such a high

mortality rate, it is a good thing that rabbits breed, well, like

rabbits. One female can produce up to 30 kits a year. Life for an

individual rabbit is a risky business. But they're phenomenonal

breeding rate helps ensure their survival. The secret world of the

rabbit. Who'd have thought they were so complex. It is lovely to

get the insight into the rabbit's world. But Joyce Griffin, from

Glasgow has shown us something about rabbits I thought we would

never see. Have a look, this is the footage, this is a subordinate

female. The dominant depe male has not allowed her to give bir the in

the main warren. But what is she doing. You may think she's digging

for food. But out of the hole, come three tiny baby rabbits. And they

are are suckling there. She's hidden the rabbits away from the

warren, she comes once a day, for a few minutes, she gives them a meal

of fantastically rich meal. And then incredibly, she carefully,

back fills that hole, she carefully moves the mud over the stop, and

won't come back to the three babies, until the next day. Joyce filmed

this, apparently at 6am, every single morning, for a week. Joyce,

thank you very much indeed. I have read about that, I never dreamt in

my life I would actually see it. Please do, keep the films coming

into us, we love to see them. it is back to the city of Bath and

the cureies family of peregrines, with Lolo Williams. Welcome back to

beautiful Bath, where, on St John's church over there, we have a unique

family of peregrines. I'm going to show you something, that Chris will

be rubbing his thighs with glee. These are he mains collected by Ed,

below this irony here. This is a sample, that is a water rail skull.

Here I have feathers from an incredibly rare bird, corncrake,

and these are from the Woodcock. What are they say doing. I came to

Bath a week ago when the chicks were four weeks old to get the

The peregrine chicks are thriving. Their adult plum Madge is pokeing

through. As they approach fledging, they'll need for food than he was.

Their parents will have their work cut out, even with the legendary

produce yes. But there's new research that shows, city

peregrines might have developed an advantage. Now, this time of the

evening, rural peregrines are settling down for the night. But

for urban peregrines, it is a different matter.

To find out what gives these city predators the edge, I've come to

meet Ed for a night on the town with a difference. Even at this

time of night you see a few pigeons, they must constitute most of the

pray? You would think, but here in cities, they take up 42% of the

diet. So the rest, the 60 are the other birds. A lot of wooden birds,

garden birds, but things such as corncrake and Woodcock, black neck

ceeb and qail and other birds. on, these birds migrate at night?

So they're tucked away. But when they migrate at night, they become

exposed over cities, because they have pale bellies and there's loads

of street latches and all the lights are lighting up the birds

like becons. That is amazing. got a pellet here and skull from a

little bird. So finding the clues on the ground that we've worked out

the peregrines are eating these sorts of birds. Tonight we're not

spotting much, even with the help of the street lights. But if we

head up in the church tower, we'll see what our peregrine family is up

to. How is he going? Two sleeping chicks. I've never see a peregrine

nest at night, so it is great for an infrared. It seems they're old

enough for them to be unattend. When one wakes them, I wonder if

one of the adults is returning. We've been staking out the nest for

weeks, and yet have an adult visit at night. Because there are two of

them, and three, adultish birds bringing food in, there's enough

food brought in. There's evidence, elsewhere, of chicks fed throughout

the night and adult birds hunting at night. This is archive footage

from Derby cathedral. A Woodcock, brought back at 11pm. The shots

aren't sharp but prove that peregrines hunt at night. With

committed parents a full time helper, and the option of around

the clock care, our chicks are perfectly Kateerd for. It won't be

long before they join the growing ranks of adult peregrines. That's

fascinating, isn't it. That's evolution in action. With a

increasing numbers of peregrines moving in the urban areas, who

knows what the next discoveries will be. It is long overdue time we

went and caught up with our chicks. So let's go live to our nest camera

up on the church there. Look at that, what a difference a week

makes. How they've come on, they're trying to get rid of the downy

feathers, they're looking magnificent. They must be five

weeks old now, and for the first year, they'll have the brown

feathers, they look like juveniles, until they get in the second year,

when the male will get the slatey grey black. The female is on the

right, she's bigger, she Bobs up her head. Beautiful birds, don't

forget these are the fastest birds in the world. Diveing at speeds of

well over 120mph. If you look at the church now,

you'll see a few pigeons, scattered around, they're safe as long as

they're perch, but once they launch themselves off in the wild blue

beyonder, that's when they become peregrine food. Thaick a look at

this. This is the female, feeding, one of the chicks there. At this

stage, the chicks can feed themselves. That's the young female,

pecking away, probably at a pigeon leg. But the female will carry on

coming in with food. They'll Dutch food more and more, so they'll be

feeding themselves. This is the footage I like, this is like a

scene from lady and the tramp. The female is fighting for a bit of

intestine, with one of the chicks. Nowhere near as tastey as is a

Getty. - spaghetti. They're probably going to settle down soon.

The evening is a time when Bath comes alive. And nightclubs here

are heaveing, so I've been working on my dances all day, I have the

moves, so I'm going to hand you back to Wales, while I disco the

night away. You have a great time. We have our moves working out

mainly to avoid the Midges. Let's stick with the nest theme, the

siting of the nest and structure. Here is a greater wood pecker's

nest, the young have fledged so we're not disturbing them. But

that's a structure which excavated itself. It has, all this week,

we've been using a specialist thermal camera to reveal, give us

insights into wildlife. And we have avenue turned the camera, today, on

to some of our nests. Now, there's a nest, that's a fly kite catcher,

and look at it with a thermal camera, it is like a volcanic vent.

But that's is beautifully insul late. Here is a nest box, nothing

in that, and the temperature's exactly the same as the true, but

here is one in use, it is a fly catch Cher, have a look as it goes

in, you can see the bird there, very warm. Actually tkphros as the

parent goes in, but on the bottom there, it is quite well insul late,

that nest box. But I'm surprised how much heat is getting out of it.

Here we've got a crow's nest. You may think it is a bunch of sticks,

but we were given a bit of a surprise, when the put the thermal

camera on it, it is not bad. But on the bad, it is leaking heat. That

surprises me, because although the nest is made of sticks, the crows

line them. Here is our goldcrest nest, you would think it is like a

do you have vai, but leaking heat out. This is a shot from underneath.

You can see the adults moving there, but, not quite as insul lateed as I

thought. I would have thought the moss, woven together with spider's

web, strong and flexible would be a perfect insul lateier. We came with

our nest efficiency rating. The higher, the pied fly catch Cher,

crow not bad, pied fly catch Cher, leaking lots of energy, and

goldcrest at the bottom. So if you think of selling your nest, you

have to do one of these. I want to bring you breaking news, this paper,

I was speaking to Dr Charles Dening, this paper was published on 21st of

May, this year, what it says in essence, is bluetits and grey tits,

modify the insullaigs in their nest, as you go north to south, across

the country. So the birds in the south of the country have less

insullaigs, than ones right up in the north. So in Scotland, the

nests will be heavily insul lateed, that's breaking news. They modify

the sin you willation. - insulation. It is colder in the north than the

south, so you may expect that. You think if that much heat is leaking

out of an artificial nest box, when you're sight siting your nest box

you have to put it in out of the way of the wind to give them a

better chance. It must count, because otherwise there wouldn't be

more material in the northern nests. Roy Denis has taken us to the north,

almost as far as you can get, it's a place he's travelling do, all his

life. This is Fair Isle, a unique, remote and beautiful place. A haven

for wildlife and an island that is very close to my heart. More

species of bird have been recorded here, than on any other piece of

land in the same size in the British Isles. I first came to Fair

Isle in 1959 when I was just 18. I never believeed more than 50 years

later, I'd still be coming back to this fantastic island. Just others,

I just fell under the spell of it. It is wildlife and scenery which

were so special to me. I want to show you why I think this is one of

the UK's best places to see wildlife. Four years after my first

visit I returned to Fair Isle to work as the warden of the bird

observatory. I found my dairy for 1959. It is the first day that I

visited Fair Isle. I saw lots of raiseer vils, guillemots. At the

end of the day I write, "Very impressed" and I've been very

impressed ever since. I lived here for seven years, it was a wonderful

time, surrounded by wildlife and being part of a warm, friendly

community. Every time I return, there's one bird I can't wait to

catch up with. Black guillemots are one of my favourite birds. There's

six pairs here, engaged in this beautiful dancing display.

Sometimes they're chasing each other in pairs, and then suddenly,

they turn into lines, and different shapes. It is really beautiful to

watch. You can see they're furiously paddling bright red legs,

and when they call, it is equally brilliant red. They're engaging

birds. Here in Fair Isle they have the lovely name, the Tisty We're

going around the rock, which is a distinctive feature of Fair Isle.

The cliffs are scattered with sea bird colonies. And every bird has a

prefered place to nest. In the caves at the bottom, you'll find

shag nests and black guillemot. The lower ledges have kit kitty wakes,

and once you get on the grassier slopes, there will be fumora and

the ganets, right up will, and on the grass at the very top, are

nesting Puffins, herring gulls and greater black gulls, it is like a

big city. It is fantastic wildlife encounters like these, that have

excited me right from my very first visit. There's even a bird named

after the island, the Fair Isle wren. But at this time of year, the

local residents are joined by a huge minority of migrants. 7 birds

on the British list were first seen right here.

The recent Fair Isle is so fantastic for bird watching is that

it is a tiny island in a vast ocean. When migratory birds need to rest,

they come here, and you never know what you're going to see. And after

60 years of field research, Fair Isle is built up a huge bank of

valuable data on the migrant species. But not all the

discoveries have been good news. In the last ten years, Fair Isle has

seen a dramatic fall in sea bird numbers. Do you know I'm staggered

by some of the changes. Certain sea birds have gone. This was a great

place for shags, and the other noticeable bird that is missing is

the kitty wake, and they were nesting along that cliff over will.

And they're gone. The numbers of some is he birds have crashed. In

1989 there were 23,000 breeding pairs of Puffins, yet just 18 years

later, numbers have dropped by around 70%.

Sadly, it is not just here on Fair Isle. It is throughout most of

Britain, that our sea birds are in a really serious and rapid decline.

But for many species, Fair Isle is still a UK strong hold and

important refuge for sea birds that are globally throatened. That's why

I think Fair Isle is such a very special place.

Isn't it great to get a personal insight to a place like the Fair

Isle, by a man who has such an indepth knowledge of how it's

changed in the last 50 years, ever been? No it is between the Orkneys

and Shetlands, never up there. No but I have the sweat on. Talking

of moving on, we have bluetit that fledged today. So that means we can

introduce you to a new nest. I'm going to give awe clue, the male is

a gorgeous little black and white bird and not a bird you'd commonly

see in the average garden. That's the clue, let take a look. That's

not going to help you out very much. But I'm going to tell you, seven

little chicks there, born on the 2nd of June. To help you out, I

should show you the adult bird. Let's see adult bird. The chicks

look sleepy. There, that doesn't help you out much. Because that's

the female, which predictably is duller than the male. But then we

see the male come in. There it is. It is, guys a? Pied my catch Cher.

Both the male and female are coming in feeding. These are birds, that

arrive from West Africa, mid-April and May, and 60 million of them

that come from Africa each year. Here there's an abundance of

insects. In Africa, it would be very dry. So, it is an ideal place

for them to come. The western Oakwood lands have been their

strong hold. They're not a garden species but the male is a very

striking bird to be honest with you. And sadly, we're going to wrap it

up there. Join us tomorrow, where we will be bringing you another

update from Lolo in Bath with the falcons. I will have a encounter

with a monster from the deep, and of course, you can carry on

watching the nests on the website. We will be back tomorrow, not only

with Springwatch, but also with Springwatch unsprung, where we will

answer many of your questions, and showing your photos as well. But I