Episode 8 Springwatch

Hello, and welcome to a stormy looking Wales. It may be stormy

outside, but inside our owls are keeping us royally entertained.

High above the streets of bath, our peregrines are peering down.

will our goldcrest nest cope in the windy weather. You've seen Die Hard,

you have avenue seen Love Actually, if you want to see the same amount

of action and in the same emotional roller coaster, stay with us, for

I know what you're thinking, you're thinking, he oversolid that a

little bit. I promise you not. We have a cracking show for you

tonight. Coming live from the beautiful reserve in central Wales.

To give you geography, we've sent one of our cameramen up the hill,

backwards, over there, behind me, you can get this view of us. That's

us in the centre, in your studio, in the foreground you can see the

moorland in front of him. But as the shot widens, you can see the

fabulous habitat that make up the reserve. The estuary, and of course

all of the fabulous, rich Oakwood left-hand side. Down there, as we

speak, in the shade, there is a spark of fire. Look at that! The

red tail, the fire tail, my favourite name for the red tart,

fire flirt and this is the male. What a bird. Honestly. They're

nesting in one of our nest boxes. They've been busy, bringing the

food in on a regular basis, and our young redstarts are doing well

indeed. Typical bird of the western Oakwood left-hand side and a

migrant that comes back in the summer. The young exercising their

wings. This one is having a peep outside. I think at some stage in

the future, they might be thinking about going, you know. They do look

like they're going to. Do you think they could go today, it is not

great weather for them. It is late in the day. Let's go live to the

redstarts, still active, and the parents still bringing in food at

this time of the night. If you look at the back side of the youngster,

in a minute, it might flex, the wings might open and you'll see a

flash of orange, that soon, will be jumping out through that hole,

ready to ignite the emerald shades of the woodland. You have got to

excited today, because we started with a red start haven't you?

They're one of my favourite birds. They're neat and I like their alert

postture and action. Closely related Robin, it is similar the

way they hop about. Chris, I'm going to introduce you to a new

nest, and it is not as colourful as the red start but it is a cool nest

in the reeds. We haven't seen one of those yet. It is a siege warbler,

there it is, it is typically made out of grasses and weeds, bound

together with cobwebs. What was that, it caught an insect there. I

think so. It is slightly off the ground that nest and five chicks in

there, and they're six days old. But let's take a look, we can see

the chicks underneath. Remember, this is all live footage we've got

at the moment. But let's take a look at footage we've taken earlier.

The adults, they are a little bit of a brown job, aren't they? And

they're similar to a reed warbler, accept for the silver white stripe

over the eye. And they've a speckled body. They're doing very

well. 59% increase over the past 20 years, you can see it in the reeds,

which is what it will doing, foraging for small insects and

spiders to feed its young with. They have a great song, it is a

noisy song, it is a ram bring warble, and you can see it do that

on the top of a bush. We can play you a little bit of the song now.

(tweeting). Quite scratching, I put that in for you. Why is that? We

have call it Avian Jazz. Because each male siege warbler, has a

collection of phrases it uses but every time it sings it puts them in

a different order. So every time you hear, a siege warbler singing

you're hearing a song which is absolutely unique. Now that's

pretty special. Unfortunately, the racket it makes, certainly isn't,

mate you know. Jazz, what about that? Yeah. We have to educate him

about jazz music, haven't we. Shall we move on to the owls, our

wonderful barn owls. Let us go live now. There they are. Sitting there,

looking and they apair to be developing remarkably fast in the

last few days, Chris, we oven see, look at that, the one on the far

left on the picture, you can see the feathers, every day it seems to

change. That's the Big Brother in there, isn't it? I don't think

they're growing in terms of their weight as they're appearing to look

like adults because the down hair is coming out. Of most of the

coverts, it is looking more and more like an adult isn't it? We'll

keep an eye on that. Let's have a look at what is going on inside the

owl nest. Here they are. This was last night. Wonderful pictures. And

the parents were fantastically active last night. We thought they

were going for a record-breaking spree of wringing in mice and voles,

and a little shrew and our nestwatchers, managed to count 17

and then about 2am it began to rain and all prey covering stopped. Why

is that? Why did it stop dead? They're using their hearing to find

food. When the pitter patter of the rain happens, they find it hard.

They don't like flying in the rain. If they caught 17 in the short

space of time that's easily keeping the young for the evening. They

stash great piles of rodents will. Probably all around the barn and

even in the ajaisent buildings, they'll be hiding the prey.

adults will take it to the youngsters. If the storm is coming

tonight, that will be useful, it won't be a good night tonight.

They're large, so they won't miss a night of no food, but I'm ensuring

there's plenty there. We haven't had the action of Die Hard or

romance of Love Actually, but we had eye Kandy, barn owls, but let's

go to the heart of the matter, with Britain's most beautiful, and

exciting birds, the fastest animals on earth. Lolo Williams are looking

at peregrine falcons in Bath. Welcome to the beautiful city of

Bath, where we're hammered by high winds and soaked by torrential rain

all day. A few moments ago, it eased up a little bit. So somebody

up there, actually likes us. When I woke up this morning and heard the

weatherman say that gale force winds will hit the south-west, I

thought, no, that's not good for live filming or our peregrine

chicks either. Let's go straight up to the nest camera, high up on the

church there, and see how they're getting on. Look at that, they're

doing fantastically well. Huddled up, where they've been for most of

the day. Hiding out of the wind and driving rain too. But the good news

is they've actually been fed. The adult bird is perched up there, a

terrific hunter, he's brought in at least two pigeons, already today to

make sure the youngsters, feeding well. The good news of course is at

this age they are able to regulate their own temperature. In that nest,

we have one female chick, that's the big one on the right, and one,

male chick too. They've five weeks old, so they're looking well, and

more like peregrines every day. They're changing all the time. Very

little down left on them and they're fantastic birds. We are

here to film them fledging, three chicks last year fledged this very

date. Maybe this week, they're five or six days later, so they won't

fledge until next week, but we have had a few scares. Have a look at

this, this was filmed two days ago, thankfully in sunshine. Here they

are, exercising their wings, stretching them, flaping furiously,

down going everywhere, like confetti, and perched on the edge

of the nest box. That's the young male, Dock as he's known, from here,

we thought he wouldn't go on the verge, because that's what he can

see from up there. They're 100 feet up, 30 metres, if he was to plunge

a gust of wind, then he will fall all the way down to the ground.

These peregrines, they have problem youngsters, because they have a

record of jumping out too soon. They've been recovered from all

over the city. One was rovinged, from cricket ground over there. One

has been recovered from the river below me. And a couple of years was

recovered depr the chimney of the President of the Bath natural

history society. If you're going to go down the chimney, that's the

probably best one. What do you do if you find a young peregrine,

phone the RSPB. We will look what happens to a potential threat to

the peregrines when it comes close to the nest. For now it is back up

to you from here. That looks precarious. So scary. There's a

buzzard looking around, do they think, oh my Lord, I've been

frightened. Of course it never happens. All this week, we've been

using a camera, that is able to film differenceness temperature, to

investigate wildlife in a different way. And boy has it delivered

results. Now today, we're going to look at insects. Now, why put a

thermal camera on an insect. Before they take off, this is dragonfly,

it has to warm up its muscles. It takes a while and you can see the

temperature increasing, getting brighter and brighter, and then it

is off. That's amazeing to see, and how fast the wings go. Now I think,

when we watch a bee doing the same thing, it is more interesting. Have

a look at this. Here is a sorry looking bee, wet and clearly cold.

Obviously, it is maybe in the morning. Its body temperature's low,

it is black. But now, what the bee does is disengage its wings, but

fire up its wing muscles. Its muscles are buzzing, but furious

activity inside that bee, using oxygen, and look at that

temperature, raising up, coming up, and getting up the temperature,

nearly ready to go, and now, almost ready, and then, engage the wings

and it is off. Before it goes, it does a little poo to get balanced.

I love the camera, because it gives you an insight into something you

wouldn't normally see in We will use a different camera to reveal

more of the wonders here. weather also, affects animals that

rely on insects for food, like our bats. Let take a look Lord Attlee

our bat live. So oven, we go to the live camera and it is nothing there.

We see lots of bats, and what they're doing is moving inside the

building, looking for the warmest spots. They leave that area,

because they found somewhere warmer. They're active, within the building

during the day. Do you know, one of the cameramen, noticed something

interesting, which was this. It is a bat, hunting in the day time

which is really unusual. We wondered whether it was one of our

lesser horseshoe bats, but we weren't sure. We asked a expert and

he thought it was too big to be a pipStrel. But it was difficult to

identify. What is clear, it is not good to see a bat hunting in the

day. They're very vulnerable to predays. They will be hit by

sparrowhawks, all sorts of birds, so why is it out in the day? The

only solution, is in this bad weather with the rain and cold,

there aren't enough insect out when they hunt at night. On Friday, when

it was filmed, it was very cold, so they probably stayeded, when it

warmed out, the critical temperature is seven degrees, all

the insects take off, and that bat came out to hunt and try and get

food. They're not doing well. was a very well April. So it wasn't

a good time for the bats to hunt. They think it will be a bad

breeding year for bats because their weight is down. Last week,

the Vincent Wildlife Trust did a study on lesser horseshoe bats in

Devon and they found the average weight has gone down to 25 grams it

17 or 18 grams. In a small animal that's serious. Our bats, where we

have the cram ras is a maternity roost. One of the birds that relies

heavily on insects is our pied flycatcher, this is a bird we

introduced you to yesterday. There's the nest, all the little

chicks in there, seven hatched on the 7th of June, and both parents

doing a lot of feeding. They're not feeding right now. Let have a look

when they were feeding. This is interesting, because, fly catch

Cher, that's the male and female. Both birds have coming in to do

that feeding. They came in there with a caterpillar. They're

bringing in flies, and beetles, but bringing in caterpillars too.

That's the male, you can tell the difference between the two. The

male is the black and white striking pattern. Female's duller.

In again together. What they did notice was a large caterpillar

being brought in. The adult not quite sure what to do with it. It

looks a bit big for the chicks' beak, so it flies off, and we

presume we made the most of it, and ate it itself. That was huge. He's

not here. So we have our own pie chart. Now this is absolutely

fascinating. This is looking at the pied fly catch Cher's diet n the

adult, you can see the majority is flying insects. The caterpillar's

10% but they're feeding the chicks here, a smaller pro - proportion,

many of you ask, how do the chicks in the nest get fluid and water. Of

course the caterpillars are 70% water, so that's now the chicks get

the water. And that's why they're bringing caterpillars more than

they would eat as adults. If you are a bird watch Cher, it normally

means you can do your passion in relative comfort. You could sit

indoors and waux the birds in a bird feeder or wrap up warm and go

around the woods. But if if your passion is insects the conditions

aren't always quite as glamorous. West Pembrokeshire is home to a

woman with a passion for insects. Sarah manages the family farm to

encourage all types of insects to thrive. Spring is the best time to

survey the hedge rows and pastures to see if this is working. We've

got, a lot of dock on the side here, so most people think dock, weed.

But, to these little guys, dock is home. They're the barner's best

friends, it's a agriculture land and these Beatles will feed on the

dock leaf as adults and lava. He pulled his legs into himself, and

normally if I wasn't here to hold him on, he would have fallen off.

If anything is going to grab them, they pull the legs together, drop

This is a large beetle, the wing cases are fused together, it

doesn't fly, so it needs some way of protecting itself. If it gets

picked up, for example by a bird, it will emit this foul tasting red

insect blood through the nose which will make the bird spit it out and

the beetle lives through another day, it is a bloody nose beetle.

Beetles are plentiful all across the farm. But some of the most

extraordinary insect behaviour is found in perhaps the least likely

place. A dung pat. This is covered with yellow dung flies, we have the

large males, they're golden yellow colour, furry flies with lots of

hairs on the front legs. The at the males are a dull, brown, greeny

colour. Most people assume these fliess are here to eat the dung.

Not so. These flies are here to The male dung flies, will sit on

the dung pat and wait for a female. We can see male tussling and

fighting of at the males and also over space on the dung pat. They'll

fight to the death sometimes. It is The males have got strong front

legs to grab the at the males and hold the females down. The mating

itself will last about 30 minutes, The male, will actually guard the

female all the way through until she lays her eggs. He walks around

on top of her,-to- waiting for her to lay. The eggs are tiny. You'll

see them as cream dots on the top of a dung pat. The at the males

don't lay their eggs anywhere. Imagine you were the size of a

yellow dung pat, that dung pat would seem huge. But the at the

males lay their eggs on hills, this prevents them getting waterlogged,

as soon as she lays her eggs, he's off to find someone else.

This frenzy of activity, not only provides for the next generation of

dung flies, but it is also, vital for the farmland itself. Dung flies

are really important in ecosystem functioning. Their lava live within

the dung pat, eating and breaking it down. By doing that, they're

pulling the nutrients in the soil, preventing dung pats sitting on the

surface for years on end. Everyone should have a poke around in a

You see, it's a great passion. But, it is not so glamorous is it. There

she is on her knees by a pile of dung. If you're lucky enough to

come across a pat like that, and give it 20 minutes, it is a

phenomenonal called Ron of behaviour. You have the subadult

males, waiting to sneak in and grab the at the males. The at the males,

they don't lay their eggs anywhere, not in a pregs, which may fill with

water, or top of a crest, but in the perfect place on the dung. It

is top entertainment. I promise you. Let's have top entertainment and go

live to your barn owls. I was on to and a loser there. These things are

exquisite, the animal there on the left-hand-side, is definitely

making progress in terms of its leaving the nest. It is preening

away there, the flight feathers, are well down. It is obviously,

trying to remove what remains of the waxy shaeth that covers them.

Even the tail there, you can see, the barn owls have short tails. So

that's a top view. It is still a way from fledging though isn't it?

It is looking like more of an adult bird. We have a camera on the hill,

so we can show you where the barn owls are, rel vanity to us. -

relevant to us. Lots of rough grassland and meadows, that's ideal

for the barn owls and that's where they do their hunting. It is the

collection of the buildings, where the barn owls are nesting. Of

course, we've been watching them throughout the course of the day.

This is a neat little sequence we got, this was last night. Remember,

they're in a barn, and it is pitch black. It is a blackout. But a fly

has madeity way in, and it becomes the object of their fascination,

It is like when one is in the bedroom. You turn the light on and

you think where is the fly gone. And then, you think, I'll open the

window and let it out and it hands like that. But the thing is it is

pitch black in there, and yet if you look at them, they're looking

exactly at the fly. All of them are following the progress of that fly.

They must be using their ears, but nevertheless they're pinpointing it.

Perfect practice. Do you know what I love about them, you can't help

but smile when you watch them. Anything they do, makes me laugh.

They are comecal. And a lot of people are drawn to owls, because

they have a human facial structure. They have forward-facing eyes,

their beak looks like a nose, and the disc looks like a face. It is

like a heart. The hearts, OK. What about this. They're also, capable

of making ungainly noises. We hear a lot of hising but this is

different. This, is because they're upset with something. Our

nestwatchers are paning the cameras around, this was last night.

They're trying to see, what was, antagoniseing the owls. It could be

almost anything to be honest with you. They've spent their life in

the barn so they're not aware of too much of the outside world. It

could be a rat or squirrel, or could be like a bat that's flown in

and landed. It spooked them, and when they are spooked, they produce

the constant hising sound, like a deflateing car tyre, and sway from

side to side. That got you going again. Yesterday when we were

showing you going like that, you watch them going like that. I'm

sure loads of people are watching them like that.

Anyway, from one large chick to a weany one. So small we haven't seen

them properly. They are the goldcrest. Here they are live.

There's the adult sitting in the nest. I'm concerned about this nest,

because, we can feel the wind is starting. How is that nest going to

cope, if it gets stormy? It is held together with spider's web, and

that's common to use this material. It sounds remarkable that they

collect web and make a nest out of it. But they achieve it. The fabric

is tough, but also flexible and strong. So the thing about a

goldcrest nest is it expands and contracts. You can stretch it and

push it back in. It is spongey and that's how it copes with the wind

belowing. You can feel the wind starting to get stronger. We know

there were nine eggs in there, but we don't know how many chicks are

out of the eggs. Let's have a look at this, there's evidence here,

there's the adult taking a little bit of egg out of the nest. So

clearly, that's something has hatched. I think that was today. We

saw yesterday, I managed to see it a little chick pokeingity beak out.

What is interesting, is yesterday, the male was doing two feeds an

hour, and that's double today. That would imply a few more chicks have

hatched. When they hatch, they weigh 0.8 of a gram. Although

they're not bringing much food in, here the female is intent on eating

what the male has been bringing in the chicks. I don't think they need

that much food when they're that small. If there's plenty of food

about, maybe we shouldn't be worried about the rate of feeding.

That mighting a sign of it. Fingers crossed for them tonight if it gets

stormy, or maybe the storm will go past. From the sublime to the

ridiculous. We're now going underwater into ponds all around

the UK. Martin has become very keen In winter, they're drab, but in

springtime, now it is a completely different story, they're

magnificent in their full breeding colours, and that One is the most

magnificent one of them all, the grey crested institute. Our most

strictly protected amphibian, their numbers crashed because of habitat

loss, but not here. This is a haven for nuets on a great scale. They

need lots of ponds near together with lovely, clean unpolluted water.

But they need open spaces and scrub, so they can come out in winter and

hibernate. And this place, has got it all. This is perfect, great

crested institute territory. This has the highest population of them

in the whole of Europe. The Hampton nature reserve in Peterborough,

started life as an industrial site for bricks. It filled up behind and

hundreds of ponds were created. In the 09s, the natural population was

boosted by rescueed animals, generateing a supercolony of 0,000.

The grey crested is the UK's largest, and can live up to 13

years. The male is very handsome with speckled white spot on a black

watery skin. He has a striking underbelly, which is a warning that

he will taste bad. In spring, he grows an impressive jagged crest

along his back and tail. The female, has an orange strieb along her tail,

contrasting with his silver one. There's another species here, a

smooth or common one, and that's the one you will see in your garden

pond. These are sometimes active during the day, and I was hoping to

get a good look at them with a specialist kit. We've got one here,

a smooth one, displaying in front of me. It is just down there. The

male's behind, and the female's in front. He wants to get ahead of her,

and start flickingity tail at her. Here we go.

Look at that. That has to be a television firt, while smooth Yutes,

displaying to one another. Now I want to find the rareer, great

crested nute, because their numbers are in freefall, the numbers are

closely monitored by Frog Life. Every five years they conduct a

count. Tonight I'm joining the dedicate volunteers. Are we doing

the survey at night? Grey crested Nutes are a quiet species, and the

best way to get them is shine ago light in the water. Everything

looks the same shape. That's a male great crested Nute. There we go.

You can see the shape of it, better now. They really are like

underwater dine saurs, aren't they? How much longer will you and the

volunteers stay out tonight? Another three hours, if the weather

holds. Three hours tonight. I thought this survey would go on for

one night, and that would be it. But it turns out, these volunteers,

and Paul will be out 34 nights. To cover all 400 ponds here. I think,

Frog Life volunteers - respect! Those volunteers, hard core. Hard

core. Tough, very tough, or barking mad? Into no they're tough. Can I

tell you one more thing, have you heard of nute guffing. We saw the

male displaying to the female. She ignores him. He careies on showing

off to her, she ignores him, and at the end when he is bursting to take

air, he has to breathe, he comes up to her and belows a bubble of air

at her, which is saying, I did all that displaying and all on that

bubble of air. Have you tried it. We have the three species, hard to

identify, tell the difference It has the webing, that gives its

name on the legs. Then you have the great crested newt. It is an

absolute monster of newt. It is a beautiful thing. But the whole

thing is come employee kaited, in winter they look different to those

lovely breeding colours, they lose the crest. And look like the at the

males. Great crested newts are widespread and will occur in garden

ponds. Even modest ponds like that one. They like them when they're

deeper. But smooth newting, - newt could be found here. Last year, I

dug a pond, smaller there, and I have newting in it. Now, frog life

would like your help, if possible, in identifying any ponds that have

Great Crested Newts, they want to map out and there's a link on our

website. Now, Michaela. Into the weather is getting cold.

The temperatures have really dropped here, there's no way I will

get my hands in a pond today. I want to show you a barking mad

squirrel. This is a squirrel we saw earlier on. And it is in our otter

camera place. What is it doing? It is picking up some bark, and then

it kind of falls over, juchs a bit, falls over on the back and picks up

another bit and it is almost as if it's been bitten or tickleed or

maybe it's had fermented fruit. What is it doing? If you know, tell

us, because we haven't got a clue. Is there anything there Apparently,

there was a wood mouse, it is one of those "you should have been here

seconds ago". But we have been doing an experiment over the last

couple of days, by putting different sourceness your mammal

touch. We start off with fruit which was popular. We had all sorts

in there, eating the fruit, thoroughly enjoying it, there's a

bank vole there, and we had mice in, and then we tried meal worms, which

weren't so popular. The mouse enjoying it, but not that

interested is it. It picks up one there. Munches away but Chris that

was your experiment, what are your results? Positive. Because the

mouse was eating insect food. And wood mice eat a lot of insect food.

Strangely males more than at the males, not sure why. They're

opportunistic, they'll pick up insect and earthworms, particularly

the beginning of summer when there isn't much fruit about. Martin

mentioned, last night, they thought the rodents were getting a sugar

hit from the grapes, it was true. Because we found that when they go

out foraging, they go for the sugary things first before moving

on other foods, to take on board fuel so they can for rage more

effectively. Bank voles, will eat invert berates, but her' herbivores,

they like seeds and grass, but their get is designed to cope with

the tough material that is so hard to get out material and use in the

body. One thing they can do, throughout the course of the season,

the year, they will change the structure of their gut in tune what

they're eating. So it is dependent on their diet. You think they're a

vole, for an owl to eat, but they're highly complex little

organisms, in tune with the remarkable ecosystem. I didn't know

it was going to be a long explanation, but it was good. And

you know, my child will go for the sweet things, but then forget to

eat the good things. Now our bird feeders live. What have we got?

Come on, it is cold and windy here. It is getting dark, I'm not

surprised we haven't got anything feeder. That's your friend's Kate's

feeder. It takes birds a while to get used to it. The only reason

we've had birds is it is not there long enough. It is windy and

waveing around. Unlike the wood peckers. Wood peckers have been

busy, they've been coming in. And they fledged nearby, and they're

visiting this feeder here. Once they finish breeding, you will see

birds in your garden will return to the feeders, it may be some time,

because they're intent on feeding their young on insects for protein,

but particularly, at the end of summer, you get a surgeon of

bluetits and grey tits coming in the garden to take advantage of the

easy to find food. Earlier on, our woodwarbler nest was attacked by a

cat. It was emosive, but how much I will pact do cats have on our

birds? We sent Liz out to investigate. - emotive. With nine

million pet cats in the UK and with garden birds in decline, should we

worry about the impact cats have on our birds. Clarence here might look

like butter wouldn't help, but millions of years have led to a

finely tuned ambush predator, excellent at catching small animals.

A few thousand years of demest case have done nothing to undo that. How

much of an effect these hunting skills have, may not be as clear as

we think. A recent mammal society survey, estimated that cats bring

in around 55 million dead birds ever wri year. But how significant

is that? It sounds like a huge amount and something that upsets a

lot of people. But to find out if this is really an issue, I've come

to meet Colin Wilkinson from the RSPB. The research we've done and

other people have done into the reasons why some urban birds are

declineing have failed to reveal a link between cat preed days, and

what these populations are doing. Would it be true to say the birds

in this country have time to revolve in order to avaied ground

predators like cats? British birds have evolveed over milla, to deal

with a whole range of predators, all sorts of things out there. The

obvious thing that our garden birds are doing, is laying lots of eggs.

The truth is most don't survive. With evidence to suggest cats will

oven take weaker or sick birds that are unlikely to survive the first

year, the society doesn't think it has an impact on the population.

But not everyone is convinced there isn't a problem. Scientists

question the accuracy of the research being used. Let's take a

look at the statistics. Studies estimate that cats bring home only

0% of what they kill. Which means on top of roughly 55 million birds

brought home every year, there's roughly another 128 million dead

ones that we never see. But could we within underestimating

the total number of birds cat kill? An ecologist from Reading

university worried we've put too much faith in the figures. We had

to rely figures from other studies, they come from non-urban habitats

and other countries. The reason for using the 0% is the only one we

realistically have. How do we improve our assessment of the

situation. Cats are notoriously difficult to study by their nature?

What we need is a technique to enable us to see what they're doing

in people's back gardens. How a team of researchers developed a way

to get a cat's eye view what they're up to. Clarence is a

proficient killer of birds, a perfect cat to demonstrate how the

research can be done with a cat cam. Attached is a camera, height enough

not to interfere with his normal activities. It will show us exactly

what he gets up to, when he leaves the house. Is it switched on.

Clarence, you're on. This should be interesting, off you

go. Let see what we get back. How long will the battery last?

should get two to three hours of the world from Clarence's point of

view. It is a little difficult to watch as these cameras have no

image stabiliseer, but up until now, we've only been able to use GPS to

find out where cat's hunt. The video diary hasn't caught him on a

hunt. But it shows where he goes and what he does. Right, that is

the cat cam from our Clarence the cat. It is interesting to see, what

the cats are getting up to, isn't it. This gives us a level of detail

of behaviour we never saw before, like what prey they're taking and

how much prey they bring home, relative to the numbers they take.

That will give us a much, much, better picture of the issue of the

impact of cats on wildlife in urban areas, in a way we've never been

able to do before. Well that research will continue, and it will

be very interesting to see the results. Now I want to say

something important. We on Springwatch are not anti-cats. We

love cats, of course we do. We love animals. But we want to encourage

responsible cat ownership. There are a few simple things you can do

if you like the birds and the cats. First thing, if you keep your cat

in at night. Research has shown that reduces, overall predays, by

50%, just keepings the cat in overnight. So simple. Another thing

is get a new collar, this beeper attached which emits a sound, but

active vaits when the cat goes into hunting mode. In the living room,

it won't be pleeping, these cost a few pounds and you can fit them on

the cat until the battery runs out. We spoke to Cat scam protection,

they said make sure you can put two fingers between the collar and the

cat's neck. Don't use elastic collars. Is a bell any good? Bells

are a good idea. This is one with a single bell on there. But this one

is better, it has two bells, two tones. The problem with bells, over

the newer devices is eventually they fill up with muck or water and

don't work. So, think think for the price of a few pounds, get the new

collar. The The last thing you can do is get your cat knew neutered,

this stops the cat roaming, they tepd to stick closer to your garden.

In the garden you can monitor what your cat's doing and make other

changes. It is important to be sensible. If

you're going to feed your birds, which we encourage, think about

where a cat can get to the bird feeders. Don't put it near a fence,

or don't feed the birds on the ground if you got cats. It needs a

bit of common sense. Same with nest boxes. Put them on a plain wall

where it can't be reached. It isn't rocket science, but it will make a

difference. In austraila, they have a curfew on

cats, where you are not allowed to let your cat out. If your cat is

seen out, it will arrest the cat. And you're only allow today have it

back, once you pay your fine u have problems with endemic wildlife

that is exterminated by cats. I'm a dog owner, dogs have a very

detrimental effect on wildlife. When they're off the lead they

disturb lots of birds. But we dog owners have changed our behaviour.

My mum used to let the dog out for a run, and people never pooped and

scooped. But if the cat keepers, and many love their birds too, were

to change their behaviour, we would have a richer degree of wildlife

living. Some viewers have really good suggestions of how you can

help with your cat. Make it sit in and watch Springwatch and not allow

it out again. His cat is thoroughly enjoying Springwatch. That cat is

eyeing up the barn owls, but that's the way they can enjoy the birds,

hunt them on the telly. Look at that one, that cat is enjoying us

three. It is looking at you. will be showing more photos on

Springwatch Unsprung which is coming on directly after this

programme. Let's talk about wadeers. What are wadeers, dictionary

defiance them as long leged birds that live near water. We have

started to film wadeers on here, there are water here that are great

for them. Let's have a look at where the wadeers are. The camera

sweeping over where we are, and the glorious flat, the salt flats, lots

of mud there, loads and loads for the birds to feed on. Now, what are

the most common waders down there? Let's have a look at some of the

birds we have been filming. Here we can, a lap wing A redshank, the

most common wader in the UK. Absolutely beautiful. Now, lap

wings are one of the birds in serious decline. They have

plummeted, more than 50% in ten years. They struggle to look after

their young. When they hatch, all sorts of things have their eyes on

them. We saw this earlier, these are Oyster catchers, attacking a

Red Kite. Red Kites will take small prey, such as wader chicks, and the

lap wings join in. All the waders drive this bird away quickly.

But some more serious predator, particularly when they're young

like this, this is a couple of days old, still being looked after by

the adult there. And two of them, and their strategy when they're

spotted is freeze for make for cover. But the animal I was talking

to, is this, the car yn crow, the lap wipgs spotted a crow, it is not

just the pair that have chicks there, they use this attacking of

the crow. Listen, it is a magical sound. A magical sound and it did

the trick, because the crow was long gone. They did do the trick,

because take a look at those chicks, there we go, we have an older

redshank, looking cute. And we have an older lap wing. Now, we're

hoping this will be a good year on the reserve, hoping the 44 pairs

they've got will breed one chick each, so it could be a good year

here. Of course as soon as they're adults they will face a different

type of predator, and we've been looking at this, with the

peregrines. The wind has let up a little bit and the rain. I came

here expecting sunshine, this is Welsh weather, what is going on. It

doesn't matter, because we've been entertained by our peregrine

falcons. I want to show you our cameraman filmed yesterday, showing

what a potential predator gets too close to the nest. Look at this.

know peregrines have been nesting here in Bath since 2006 and doing

well. But other birds have moved in, namely gulls, herring gulls and

lesser black backed gulls. They're declineing in the sofl areas, but

very much on the increase in our towns and cities. And this, brings

them into potential conflict with peregrines. Don't forget these are

big birds, almost the size of a buzzard. What happens when one

pushs their luck. I warn you to watch carefully, bang, did you see

that, I think it is a young herring gull. We slowed it down here. Bear

in mind it is going of speeds up to 100mph. Takes a shrunk out, but no

harm done, it is not prey, but teaching a lesson. It goes back up

and looks smug up there, if I may say so. Isn't that fantastic, the

peregrine must be half the size of the gull. We've enjoyed intimate

insight into peregrine life, thanks to our nest catch way up there.

We've seen the eggs hatch, and the chicks grow, and a young male

helping as best he can. You've enjoyed it, because we've had an

incredible reaction, you've enjoyed the big closeups. So we thought we

would show you adaptations the peregrine has to the fast life on

the wing. Our chicks are fast asleep now I think. But earlier on,

they were alert here, they are, five weeks old and look at the eyes.

That eyelid moving across, a third eyelid. It's a membrane, and their

eyesight is superb, nine times better than we can. Look at the

most tral it's a conical device, that slows down the wind speed when

the bird is diving, so the wind doesn't rush in the lungs and burst

the lungs. But also, look at the killing machines, the talons. Look

at that, bright yellow, and the beak is for riping up prey, more

than anything else. That's the tooth, that is a notch, that can

distinguish falcons from hawks and eagles. Closeup of peregrines like

you will never see again. The big thing of course, is what

happens to our peregrines now. We know that they will fledge in

roughly a week, so we will leave a cameraman to film that. After that,

they'll stay in the immediate advice yint - vicinity for a while,

but they won't be kicked out until the end of the summer, and then

they will have to set up their own territories. They don't breed until

they're two years old. This young male is an exception. But it will

be interesting to see what happens. This is new research, because urban

peregrines, have been nesting in our towns and cities, for about 0

years or so. But these are - 30 years or so. Lots of people coming

here to see them. From the Bath peregrines, it is back up in Wales.

Thanks. Fantastic to see the peregrines there, and from one top

predator to another. Let's have a look at our ospreys. And curious

things have been going on there. The dominant chick, and it is

actually wrestling its sibling to the ground there. It looks a bit

rough. In fact, it was a trout. A slap in the face for its troubles.

But it seems to be getting most of the food here.

Its brother or sister is not getting a lot. Curiously, even when

the parent goes away, there's a surprising degree of aggression.

Look at that. Really nasty goings on in that nest, taking it out.

That's unusual suspect it Unusual in os greys. We see that cane and

abell strategy, which a big one can survive off the little ones, but

we'll have to keep an eye on that. Can we look here on the live

cameras. What shall we go to, the marsh camp. I'm feeling the wind

behind me, it is not looking as stormy as I thought it would be.

We've still the three cygnets, I think, which is amazing. And really

good news. I think that's a good positive thing to end the show on.

That's it from us, for this week, on Springwatch at least. We'll be

back on Monday. I'm sure plenty will be on on on the webcam, so

keep your eye on those on the weekend, because some birds will be

fledging. Some will be coping with the windy weather. Especially our

little gold press, how will they cope if the wind picks up is this

Next week we will be catching up with the otters down here, and

diping into the secrets lives. an eye on the red start, because

they may fledge over the weekend, and you'll see that bf we do on