:00:14. > :00:19.Hello and welcome to the wilds of Wales. And what a weekend we've had.
:00:19. > :00:25.The reserve here at Ynys-hir in west Wales was hit by severe
:00:25. > :00:28.weather and flooding. What would this violent weather mean or our
:00:28. > :00:33.wildlife? We'll give you the answers to all of this and
:00:34. > :00:38.introducing you to a new set of stories about one of Britain's most
:00:38. > :00:48.charismatic and beautiful animals, the otter. Stay with us for
:00:48. > :01:04.
:01:04. > :01:10.Hello and welcome to the RSPB slightly murky but nevertheless
:01:10. > :01:15.beautiful reserve here at Ynys-hir in central Wales. Now we have had a
:01:15. > :01:19.weekend-and-a-half. It's largely due to rain. But before we get onto
:01:19. > :01:23.the weekend's rain, let's look at what was happening when we left you
:01:23. > :01:25.last week. At the end of the week, the storm was brewing. The rain had
:01:25. > :01:30.the storm was brewing. The rain had started. Our wildlife was beginning
:01:30. > :01:36.to be affected. Our goldcrest nest was being blown around all over the
:01:36. > :01:40.place. It's quite a weak looking nest. Common sandpiper looking
:01:40. > :01:46.drenched. Up in the osprey nest the chicks were wet but still enough
:01:46. > :01:50.energy for bickering. In the barn, the owls were absolutely fine.
:01:50. > :01:54.Martin mentioned that there was a storm brewing. You would have seen
:01:54. > :01:58.that if you were watching the weather forecast. Here was the map
:01:58. > :02:05.at the end of the week. Look at that swirl of heavy rain. Look how
:02:05. > :02:15.it centred over western Wales. It absolutely poured down here n. One
:02:15. > :02:20.spot close to Aberystwyth there were 186 millimetres. As a result
:02:20. > :02:30.there were the worst floods here since 1973. A lot changed in 24
:02:30. > :02:32.
:02:32. > :02:38.hours. This happened on Friday and for Friday delivered here in west
:02:38. > :02:44.Wales. It rained. And it rained and rained. The river banks burst and a
:02:44. > :02:49.lot of places in west Wales were flooded. What we weren't worried
:02:49. > :02:55.about at the time was what would happen to us, but look at this, our
:02:55. > :02:59.production village has turned into a lake. By Friday, we had to
:02:59. > :03:09.evacuate. There was a huge effort to save as much equipment as
:03:09. > :03:10.
:03:10. > :03:15.possible. The force of the water moved a four-ton porta cabin. The
:03:15. > :03:23.road to the reserve was completely flooded out and inaccessible. And
:03:24. > :03:28.the water just kept rising. 12.42 on Friday, the decision was
:03:28. > :03:34.made to shut down the entire Springwatch site. That meant we
:03:34. > :03:38.instantly lost contact with all of our wildlife. Thing is, why did it
:03:38. > :03:42.happen? There was a lot of rain all over Wales and many other parts the
:03:42. > :03:46.UK. So why did we have the floods here? Well, one reason for the rain
:03:46. > :03:49.in the first place was that the jet stream was pushing that storm a lot
:03:50. > :03:54.further south than it typically would at this time of the year.
:03:54. > :03:59.Should have been at the top of Scotland, but it was over Wales and
:03:59. > :04:03.SORN England. If we look at the topography here. Here is the site
:04:03. > :04:07.and here is the reserve and the Dovey estuary. Look at the hills
:04:07. > :04:11.that surround us and can you see behind us. They have very steep
:04:11. > :04:16.sides. When it rained the water cascaded off the sides of this, ran
:04:16. > :04:22.down the river, very close to our site, as can you see, and then out
:04:22. > :04:25.in the estuary, where it should have drained away. But we also had,
:04:25. > :04:30.co-incidentally, two of the very highest tides that we have at this
:04:30. > :04:34.time of year. When the water got to the coast there was nowhere for it
:04:34. > :04:38.to go. It backed up and burst the banks of those rivers. If we look
:04:38. > :04:42.at this shot from op top of the hill, you can see what a vast flood
:04:42. > :04:48.plain that this is. You have the ocean out there in the background,
:04:48. > :04:53.Cardigan Bay. Then you can see the Doffy estuary. See how flat the
:04:53. > :04:58.land is, beneath the hill. Clearly, just a little rise in the water
:04:58. > :05:02.level means that it will be completely flooded as our site was.
:05:02. > :05:06.On Saturday, we couldn't even get there at all. What about the
:05:06. > :05:10.wildlife? That was us and sadly, some of the local people. What
:05:10. > :05:19.about the wildlife? Look at our picturesque water fall. This was
:05:19. > :05:23.last week. And then over the weekend, this happened. A raging
:05:23. > :05:28.torrent of water swept down that river. This little grey wagtail
:05:28. > :05:34.doesn't look too perturbed. It's stopping for a preen and a feed.
:05:34. > :05:37.But that is what was fublg straight into the Springwatch camp.
:05:37. > :05:42.Extraordinary pictures. We couldn't do anything for a while. But as
:05:42. > :05:46.soon as the weather cleared a bit, Michaela went out to try to find
:05:46. > :05:51.out what was going on. Here they are. The only option we had was to
:05:51. > :05:55.try and get close to the nest and reconnect the cameras close up to
:05:55. > :06:00.try to see what was going on. Obviously, with all that amount of
:06:00. > :06:06.water, we were fearing the worst. But fingers crossed, we had to see.
:06:06. > :06:10.You could see actually quickly the storm passed and the sun came out.
:06:10. > :06:14.It was a huge volume of water in a short space of time. Up until this
:06:14. > :06:19.point, up until the power was switched back on and they connected
:06:19. > :06:24.the cables, we had no idea how much it had affected all of our birds
:06:24. > :06:28.and wildlife. But once we'd powered up, we could have a look. The first
:06:28. > :06:32.bird we saw was the sedge warbler. Now this was the bird that we
:06:32. > :06:37.introduced you to on Thursday. It was a new nest. You can see it's
:06:37. > :06:41.the in the reeds just by our studio. It nests quite low down. This was
:06:41. > :06:46.how the water and lake looked after the flood and obviously, the nest
:06:46. > :06:51.has been completely submerged. Now this is a sedge warbler with five
:06:51. > :06:55.chicks. The good thing is it may be able to have a second brood. I've
:06:55. > :06:59.been doing calculations, if they started straight away, they'd need
:06:59. > :07:04.until the 18th of June to complete the nest, by the 23rd they could
:07:04. > :07:08.lay a clutch of five eggs. Then 14 days of incubation, 14 days till
:07:08. > :07:11.they fledge. They could be out by July 21. By 4th August they could
:07:11. > :07:15.be independent, the reason I'm running through this list is
:07:15. > :07:19.they're up against a deadline. They have to get out of the nest and
:07:19. > :07:23.feed up before they started their migration at the end of September.
:07:23. > :07:27.So there is just time and there's also hope because when I was
:07:27. > :07:32.waiting down here earlier, I heard a male sedge warbler singing behind
:07:32. > :07:35.us there. That's where the nest was. If it was the male of that pair,
:07:35. > :07:38.it's a good indication that he's singing because they're going to
:07:38. > :07:42.start again. Do you think the adults would have survived then?
:07:42. > :07:47.The adults would have survived, no trouble at all. The youngsters
:07:47. > :07:51.would have been lost. Probably with all these inning sects buzzing
:07:51. > :07:54.round they're enjoying a bonus. It's a question of whether they
:07:54. > :07:59.decide to nest again or go through their moult, which is essential
:07:59. > :08:05.before they migrate back. There's an energy debate taking place.
:08:05. > :08:09.about our cold cests? Tiny birds who really enjoyed seeing inside
:08:09. > :08:13.their nests. Last week the nest was blowing around violently. How would
:08:13. > :08:20.that nest survive this enormous storm? Again as soon as possible,
:08:20. > :08:30.Michaela went out to have a look whether they'd survived.
:08:30. > :08:37.What can you see? Oh, my word. It's still there! Yes. And the bird's
:08:37. > :08:42.still in it? Yes, a significant lean on though. I can't believe the
:08:42. > :08:47.goldcrest nest is still there. That is incredible news. We were quite
:08:47. > :08:51.surprised as well. I thought that would be the first nest to go in
:08:51. > :08:57.the wind and rain. So did we. We were amazed. Chris was saying
:08:57. > :09:01.because it's so spongey it can take quite a lot of movement. Yeah. It
:09:01. > :09:08.is definitely moving. It's still a bit worrying really because it's
:09:08. > :09:14.still windy. As you can see. Yeah. We have just seen one chick's beak
:09:14. > :09:20.poke up. We know at least one chick is still in there How the heck does
:09:20. > :09:25.a bird that size survive all that rain. It's amazing really. Do you
:09:25. > :09:29.know, I felt really quite down this morning, when I saw the state of
:09:29. > :09:32.our production village and I just wondered whether anything would
:09:32. > :09:42.have survived. But things are looking more positive than I'd
:09:42. > :09:47.
:09:47. > :09:51.spoke to Michaela and she said she couldn't even drive in Saturday, I
:09:51. > :09:55.thought of all the nests that were here, the goldcrest would be the
:09:55. > :10:00.one that would be lost. Let's go to it live now, because it is a nest
:10:00. > :10:07.that's still active. If we push in, you can see it is quite sheltered
:10:07. > :10:12.here in that conifer. They invariably choose conifers. There
:10:12. > :10:17.she is! One of the adults brooding the young. It's tipped to one side.
:10:17. > :10:21.They're very flexible nests. As long as it doesn't blow too much it
:10:21. > :10:25.will be all right. The question is what has survived in the nest. We
:10:25. > :10:32.might catch a view of the chicks later. So, we've seen what happened
:10:32. > :10:40.to the sedge warblers and the goldcrests, what about the Ospreys?
:10:40. > :10:45.Michaela went down on Saturday to investigate.
:10:45. > :10:49.We've had 24 hours full of emotion, drama. We've had blackouts. The
:10:49. > :10:53.electric's been off, the cameras off. We can't see the birds from
:10:53. > :10:57.the hide properly. We're all fearing the worst, but thankfully
:10:57. > :11:01.now the cameras and electricity is just about am coulding back on
:11:01. > :11:06.again. Because I would have thought they're very exposed, that this
:11:06. > :11:10.weather would have hit them really hard. I was here in the warge and
:11:10. > :11:14.it was just awful. Norah, the weather was so resilient, doged.
:11:14. > :11:18.She's lay down on the two chicks and just shielded them from the
:11:18. > :11:23.worst of the weather. It was incredible to see. How difficult is
:11:23. > :11:28.it for the adult osprey to fish in this weather? Very is the quick
:11:28. > :11:34.answer. It was so bad yesterday, they probably went without food for
:11:35. > :11:38.24 hours. Both mum and dad will be fine in those conditions. Of course,
:11:38. > :11:43.we're not sure about the two chicks, which are about a week, week-and-a-
:11:43. > :11:46.half old now. It's good news and bad news. Good news is they haven't
:11:46. > :11:51.abandoned the nest. But you don't actually know whether the chicks
:11:51. > :11:54.are OK yet. As I speak to you now, we've had one glimpse of a few
:11:54. > :12:00.seconds. This is exactly what we saw about five minutes ago.
:12:00. > :12:03.looks like one of them is moving and it, and that one you just see
:12:03. > :12:07.it moving a bit. Yeah, well we don't know whether they're week
:12:07. > :12:11.because they haven't fed for 24 hours or whether they're in that le
:12:11. > :12:15.chargic state where they have fed and can't get up. What do you think
:12:15. > :12:18.is the prognosis, do you think they'll make it? It's very
:12:18. > :12:22.difficult to say at moment. We need more evidence and information. They
:12:22. > :12:26.just don't look too good at the moment. The next hour or two is
:12:26. > :12:32.critical. If they feed, the weather forecast is not too bad, they could
:12:32. > :12:35.be OK. But time will tell. Very worrying pictures from the
:12:35. > :12:40.nest. That was back on Saturday. There were further developments and
:12:40. > :12:45.we'll go back to that a bit later on. Meanwhile, all over the weekend,
:12:45. > :12:48.bit by bit, our live cameras were coming back to us and we were able
:12:48. > :12:52.to look inside more and more of the nests around Ynys-hir. After all of
:12:52. > :12:58.that rain, we were keen to find out what was going on, particularly
:12:58. > :13:03.with those in the nest boxes like our pied flycatchers. We presumed
:13:03. > :13:07.inside the box the young would be sheltered and our brood, numbered
:13:07. > :13:12.seven little birds. Of course, they did manage to keep out of the rain.
:13:12. > :13:16.The problem here might have been were the adults short of food. Well,
:13:16. > :13:21.it worked for pied flycatchers a bit of rain. They will spend up to
:13:21. > :13:27.70% of their time flying from the trees down to the ground to pick up
:13:27. > :13:30.their prey. The adults will feed on beets and wasps and bees, but
:13:30. > :13:34.they're after the caterpillars to feed their young. If they've been
:13:34. > :13:39.knocked off the trees by the rain drops it's a bonus for them. You
:13:39. > :13:44.can see that over the weekend, they were doing a jolly good job of
:13:44. > :13:49.provisioning enough food. Done very well. Already I'm surprised at how
:13:49. > :13:52.well the birds are doing. So am I. Let's go live to the pied
:13:52. > :13:56.flycatchers. There's the external of the nest. It's getting a bit
:13:56. > :14:04.dark here. It's very overcast this evening. But inside, all seven
:14:04. > :14:08.youngsters are still doing really well. You can see that they've got
:14:09. > :14:12.those flanges on their beaks. They're probably not thinking about
:14:12. > :14:16.fledging until at least the earliest the 13th. They grow really
:14:16. > :14:20.quickly. The adults are still in and out with plenty of food. The
:14:20. > :14:24.strange thing is, we call them flycatchers but they don't spend
:14:24. > :14:28.that much time salying up from the perch to catch a fly and landing
:14:28. > :14:33.again. They keep going down to the ground. One can only imagine over
:14:33. > :14:38.the weekend that's what they were up to. There's the pied flycatchers.
:14:38. > :14:42.What about other animals here? Let's go to what we saw on the
:14:42. > :14:47.ottercam. This is meant to be, to have otters. It had been taken over
:14:47. > :14:52.by somebody else, a couple of lovely pheasants. A cock and hen.
:14:52. > :14:56.It seems to me the bad weather hasn't dampened his ardor at all!
:14:56. > :15:01.No certainly not. Later on in the night, the camera picked up what it
:15:01. > :15:06.was put there to see, look at this, a really ridiculously close view,
:15:06. > :15:12.little kiss to the camera, of an otter. Fantastic. They're around.
:15:12. > :15:17.One sniff and it's off. Gone. Fabulous. Almost too brief view of
:15:17. > :15:23.an otter there. We like to see more. Luckily we have a good friend of
:15:23. > :15:27.Springwatch, the wildlife film maker Charlie Hamilton James who
:15:27. > :15:37.knows these creatures intimately. He went back to a river he visited
:15:37. > :15:47.
:15:47. > :15:53.last year, earlier this spring. He Unlike those living along
:15:53. > :15:57.Scotland's coast, our river otters are rare, secretive and nearly
:15:57. > :16:06.always nocturnal. To have a chance of spotting one, you have to head
:16:06. > :16:14.out at first light. I have come to this stretch of river, for a very
:16:14. > :16:19.particular reason. A tip-off last year got my pulse racing. Otter
:16:19. > :16:29.seen regularly right on the edge of a town just an hour from my home.
:16:29. > :16:32.
:16:32. > :16:37.Not only that, but out fishing in were behaving in such an
:16:37. > :16:42.unotterlike way. Metsing round on the river, in the middle of the day.
:16:42. > :16:47.-- messing round on the river, in the middle of the day. When I went
:16:47. > :16:51.to find them for winter watch, I discovered they had cub, I saw
:16:51. > :17:01.great behaviour and I realise this was a unique opportunity to get to
:17:01. > :17:10.
:17:10. > :17:15.Hoping to catch up with them. The first thing that hits me is how low
:17:15. > :17:20.the river is. It is like a river in the middle of summer, yet it is
:17:21. > :17:24.still the spring. What hits me straight away is there has been an
:17:24. > :17:28.otter really recently. You can see a wet trail going along that bank
:17:28. > :17:34.there. That has happened in the last hour. So the otters are still
:17:34. > :17:39.here obviously. When I was here last year, the otters were out
:17:39. > :17:44.every morning, regular as clockwork, spending the days fishing. But for
:17:44. > :17:48.some reason, finding them this time is proving more tricky. This is the
:17:48. > :17:55.first time I have ever been here, at this time of the morning and not
:17:55. > :18:00.seen and otter. I don't really know why. The river is so low. I wonder
:18:00. > :18:04.if the level of the water is affecting the fish, in turn
:18:04. > :18:08.affecting the otters. I don't know. There has been a lot more people
:18:08. > :18:12.round, the otters have attracted more attention, and people have
:18:12. > :18:17.travelled here to see them. Maybe that has had an effect. Maybe they
:18:17. > :18:21.have flipped to hunting at night like normal otters do. You know,
:18:21. > :18:27.that is why I'm not seeing them. I am not going to give up though,
:18:27. > :18:33.because this is just one day. The thing about otters they are so
:18:33. > :18:37.unpredictable. I am going to find them! Having experienceed the flood
:18:38. > :18:43.with 187 millimetres of water in 48-hours it is hard to believe
:18:43. > :18:46.there ever was a drought. Bizarre. But did Charlie find his family of
:18:47. > :18:53.otters? He is not a man to give up easily so we will catch up with
:18:53. > :18:57.what happened when he went back later on. Now, eventually the storm
:18:57. > :19:07.died down. It was short and sharp, and then gradually, the waters
:19:07. > :19:07.
:19:07. > :19:56.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 49 seconds
:19:56. > :20:00.began to abate, the sun came out, and it looked particularly
:20:00. > :20:04.beautiful but many of those species could have swum through it or flown
:20:04. > :20:06.through the storm, what about those that were on the ground? Some of
:20:06. > :20:10.the invertebrate, they would struggle. Well, you think they
:20:10. > :20:15.would, but look, as soon as sun comes out that little fly has been
:20:15. > :20:19.hiding somewhere, and it is out gathering nectar, that caterpillar
:20:19. > :20:23.is thinking somebody up there likes me. Because it has found a blade of
:20:24. > :20:28.grass, although it is eating his own perch which seems suicidal.
:20:28. > :20:33.Damsel flies, they are used to these sort of thing, here is a
:20:33. > :20:38.spail and that has found refuge on grass as well. Look at this
:20:38. > :20:42.resourceful spider. Walking across the wa tuck -- water, it has hide
:20:42. > :20:50.phobic hairs which means it doesn't breakthrough the surface, it is
:20:50. > :20:55.carrying its egg sack to safety. Lots of leaf hopper eggs under that
:20:55. > :21:00.cuckoo spit as well. We spotted this beauty wending across the top
:21:00. > :21:05.of the water. Out on the prowl. A grass snake. It eye looks all white,
:21:06. > :21:09.is that what I think it is. It is because it is going to shed. I
:21:09. > :21:15.suggest it is not looking for food because they don't typically eat
:21:15. > :21:20.before they shed, so perhaps it found refuge somewhere and it is
:21:21. > :21:24.heading back to that warm compost heap. That is amazing to see it
:21:24. > :21:28.swimming. Beautiful animals. Stunning. You could call them water
:21:28. > :21:34.snakes rather than grass snake, they spend so much time in the
:21:34. > :21:39.water. You could but you don't. The birds that did survive it became a
:21:39. > :21:44.bonanza for them once the sun came out. Not only did the insects
:21:44. > :21:47.appear but there were hundreds of toadlets. They would have hunkered
:21:47. > :21:52.down during the storm and the sun came out, they needed to warm up
:21:52. > :21:57.and feed, but it did make them very vulnerable to being captured and
:21:57. > :22:02.birds would have been having a feast on those as well as the
:22:02. > :22:05.snakes. Yes small snakes would eat them. They eefpbt tadpoles but the
:22:05. > :22:10.real winners here will be the thrushs, you know, if ever you have
:22:10. > :22:14.a pont and you get a big happen of toads all the black birds are down
:22:15. > :22:17.there having a feast. In the aftermath of the storm loads of
:22:17. > :22:22.wildlife came out and that allowed Chris to go down into the woods,
:22:22. > :22:26.the beautiful woods, the oak woods, and look into the productivity of
:22:26. > :22:36.an oak tree. And the different ways that different animals make use of
:22:36. > :22:46.
:22:46. > :22:49.An oak. An Oakwood land is an incredibly rich habitat here in the
:22:49. > :22:55.UK. It supports a vast amount of life. And the reason for that is
:22:55. > :23:02.that these trees have been growing here for longer than nearly any
:23:02. > :23:08.other species. So lots of invertebrate herbivores, things
:23:08. > :23:13.like caterpillar, bug, beetles, have learns to feed on them. But of
:23:13. > :23:17.course when I say invertebrates I mean food for birds, that is why
:23:17. > :23:24.Oakwood land is such a rich environment for them. How do they
:23:24. > :23:30.all live here at the same time, feeding on the same trees? They do
:23:30. > :23:34.that by using niche separation. They partition themselves, so they
:23:34. > :23:41.reduce the amount of competition, they find different ways of feeding
:23:41. > :23:46.in the same place, at the same time. How does it work? Well it starts at
:23:46. > :23:54.the bottom. The ground beneath the oak tree has plenty of insects and
:23:54. > :23:59.other invertebrates living on it. Food for Robins, black birds.
:23:59. > :24:05.Thrushs. Even redstarts. Then of course there is the trunk. The
:24:05. > :24:12.trunk itself is home to a couple of our most charismatic members of the
:24:12. > :24:19.oak community, the tree ceer. And the nut hatch. Tree ceers climb up
:24:19. > :24:24.the tree, carefully examining all of these ce e-- ce siss into which
:24:24. > :24:29.they put their fine bill to remove their prey. Nut hatches, they will
:24:29. > :24:33.go up and down too. Looking for similar sorts of things but their
:24:33. > :24:38.bill is slightly larger, and they also eat a bit of fruit on the side.
:24:38. > :24:43.Then of course you have the woodpeckers and if there is any
:24:43. > :24:49.deadwood here, the great spotted woodpecker will peck it open on the
:24:49. > :24:53.trunk and even excavated a nesting hole. As we go higher, and the
:24:53. > :24:58.trunk separates into its boughs and branches, you have a completely
:24:58. > :25:02.different set of birds that is feeding up there. Most notably of
:25:02. > :25:07.course, members of the tit family. The smaller the bird, the further
:25:07. > :25:15.it will go out, away from the main trunk, until it is right out here,
:25:15. > :25:19.hanging on those twigs. Turning the, looking for tiny caterpillarser and
:25:19. > :25:25.this means that this huge gild of birds can survive on one tree and
:25:25. > :25:29.its neighbour, at exactly the same time. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
:25:29. > :25:39.It is why if you take a walk in an Oakwood land, at the beginning of
:25:39. > :25:44.
:25:44. > :25:49.spring, it is bound to be rewarding, obvious, but it is raining, and it
:25:49. > :25:53.is looking a bit stormy. It is looking very grey, isn't it, but we
:25:53. > :25:57.would need a lot more rain to repeat that exercise. Let us hope
:25:57. > :26:00.not. Fingers crossed it doesn't rain too much. In your film you
:26:00. > :26:04.mention the redstarts and by Thursday, we saw the redstarts
:26:04. > :26:08.looking like they were about to fledge. Well, did they? Of course
:26:08. > :26:12.we didn't know because the power went off and our live cameras were
:26:12. > :26:18.turned off. We could only find out when we plugged in again and this
:26:18. > :26:23.is what we saw. An empty nest box. Is that bad news? Or could it in
:26:23. > :26:26.fact have been good news? I am feeling good about it because they
:26:26. > :26:30.were on the broifpbg leaving. As long as they waited for the storm I
:26:30. > :26:34.knew they would be OK and they did. Look at this they waited for the
:26:34. > :26:37.rain to end and the youngsters jumped out of the nest box. Our
:26:37. > :26:42.cameramen went out and they found five of them, and filmed four of
:26:42. > :26:48.them there is one of them in the tree. And they are doing really
:26:48. > :26:52.well. Female coming in and feeding them. Stunning. Stunning. You
:26:52. > :26:56.pretty things, look at that. Look at that. So they were fortunate.
:26:56. > :27:00.They had the shelter and they were taking advantage of all of the
:27:00. > :27:04.insects that became active after. It was very damp. When the
:27:04. > :27:08.temperature warmed up it was humid. That was perfect for flying insects.
:27:08. > :27:12.Look at that! Oh. They waited to fledge, after the storm. Very
:27:12. > :27:17.sensible because I would have stayed in the nest box. That, look
:27:17. > :27:22.at this though. I know. I know. Look at that for a lot longer than
:27:22. > :27:26.that. Much longer than that. I have to say. Might be the last we see of
:27:26. > :27:32.them. They will be off. They will be being fed for the next couple of
:27:32. > :27:36.week gis parents. They will find their own food before that, so yes,
:27:36. > :27:42.and then they will migrate back to Africa. Let us hope they come back
:27:42. > :27:48.next year. They were being fed a lot of food because there was a
:27:48. > :27:51.bonanza, it went from famine to feast. It wasn't just the redstarts.
:27:51. > :28:01.Look at these swallows taking advantage of the huge number of
:28:01. > :28:06.flies that were over the marsh, having a drink there as well.
:28:06. > :28:11.Everyone was after a meal and this sunshine and all of that water,
:28:11. > :28:16.very humid. Skylark here, down on a flooded road. Young wagtail. This
:28:16. > :28:21.must have been a bonus. And even the swift, which normally feed much
:28:21. > :28:26.higher up, on smaller insects were swooping low over the marsh, there
:28:26. > :28:29.must have been a bonanza for them. There was, when I went out once the
:28:29. > :28:33.sun came out I could see it. There were insects everywhere and the
:28:33. > :28:36.toadlets, there was a lot of life going on when the sun shone.
:28:37. > :28:40.Excellent. Now, every week we have been using a different type of
:28:40. > :28:44.camera to see the world in a way that our eyes can't perceive. To
:28:44. > :28:47.take a look at animals in way we would otherwise never understand
:28:47. > :28:52.them and Martin is moving the project on this week with a new
:28:52. > :28:57.camera what Jew got for us? We have already seen extraordinary close up
:28:57. > :29:03.and we have seen, we used a thermal camera to see difference in heat.
:29:03. > :29:10.Now we have a completely different sort of camera, have a look at this.
:29:10. > :29:16.Tell us a bit about this camera. This is a high speed camera it
:29:16. > :29:22.shoots high definition, up to 2,000 frames a second. So how much does
:29:22. > :29:28.it slow things down. By 80 time, so one second with this camera becomes
:29:28. > :29:32.80 seconds when you play it back. So we are looking at insect, how
:29:32. > :29:37.they are using their wings. We couldn't normally see it in any
:29:37. > :29:44.other way. It would be impossible. Last question, what is this one
:29:44. > :29:48.about? It is not a skirt?. This is so I can throw it over myself and
:29:48. > :29:58.the cam rand it stops reflections in the monitor. Go ahead. We are in
:29:58. > :30:07.
:30:07. > :30:14.days of photography, we're going back to that. Now I should say that
:30:14. > :30:18.Edmonson wards and I, -- Ed Edwards and I, the cameraman, filmed it
:30:19. > :30:24.last night. We're looking at insect wipbgdz and the differences in
:30:24. > :30:28.wings between different sorts of insects. Here is the basic insect
:30:28. > :30:34.wing pattern, on this dragon fly. They've got two pairs of wings,
:30:34. > :30:39.front pair and a back pair. You can see they almost move in a slightly
:30:39. > :30:45.different way from each other. That's a sort of basic insect
:30:45. > :30:51.pattern, four wings, a pair at the front and behind. Now beetles. This
:30:51. > :30:56.is a ladybird, the front pair of wings are modified into hard
:30:57. > :31:01.protective case that's cover up the flight wings. They have to flick
:31:01. > :31:06.them out of the way before they take off. Isn't that great! Now
:31:06. > :31:09.let's look at the bee. Bee has the basic pattern, the front and rear
:31:09. > :31:14.pair, they're slightly joined together n. Bees they always look a
:31:14. > :31:19.bit too small and have to work too hard. This is the most fascinating
:31:19. > :31:25.of all. This is a fly that we're coming to and have a look at this
:31:25. > :31:30.bizarre creature. That's a close up of a crane fly, Daddylonglegs. The
:31:30. > :31:34.front pair of the wings are for flight. But the we're pair, that
:31:34. > :31:38.looks like a pin is stick in it, that's all that's left of the rear
:31:38. > :31:44.wings and that's used as a gyroscope. Before they take off,
:31:44. > :31:49.that thing swings round and round and gives them a sort of gyroscopic
:31:49. > :31:54.action. That explains why flies are so good at flying. The world of
:31:54. > :31:58.insects, absolutely fascinating! Back to Chris and Michaela. Those
:31:58. > :32:02.specialist cameras are fascinating. They let us look at thing that's
:32:02. > :32:06.our eyes wouldn't naturally see. So they reveal proper science. That's
:32:06. > :32:10.why you love them. I do love them. Those little hairs, can you imagine
:32:10. > :32:13.having some of those on your sides so you didn't fall over. No, I
:32:13. > :32:19.probably can't. That's even stretching it for me. We'll show
:32:19. > :32:24.you more of that slow motion camera tomorrow. One of the birds that we
:32:24. > :32:30.weren't -- were particularly worried about were the owls.
:32:30. > :32:34.They're sheltered in a barn. By the end of the week they seemed to be
:32:34. > :32:38.getting a lot of feed. 17 before 2 o'clock. There was quite a lot in
:32:38. > :32:43.the nest for them. Let's lock at them live. Because I can reveal
:32:43. > :32:48.that they did make it. You can see, just about see four of them there.
:32:48. > :32:52.They're hissing a bit. There's one in the corner. One's moved round.
:32:53. > :32:56.That's the oldest one. That's the Big Brother one. It is. It's
:32:56. > :33:01.looking almost like an adult now. It's still a bit downy, not quite
:33:01. > :33:05.there. But it's making significant progress, that one. Now, you
:33:05. > :33:09.mention that they had all that food. They do cache their food. They keep
:33:09. > :33:12.it, if not in the nest then certainly in the barn. I should
:33:12. > :33:18.imagine with that amount of food coming in last week, that one or
:33:18. > :33:22.two days that we had here wouldn't impinge too much on them n. Other
:33:22. > :33:26.parts of the country with two or three days of rain, and without too
:33:26. > :33:29.much food they've lost some of the their broods, in Lincolnshire in
:33:29. > :33:36.particular. Ours are looking good. They had a busy weekend to be
:33:36. > :33:39.honest. As usual, plenty of exercise. They're still looking,
:33:39. > :33:42.you can see the age difference there between the largest one and
:33:42. > :33:47.those which are smaller. They still have the down. They're following a
:33:47. > :33:51.fly again, aren't they? They are following a fly. They're practising
:33:51. > :33:55.jumping and squeezing with their tallons. These birds kill their
:33:55. > :33:59.prey by squeezing it and stabbing it with their four large tallons.
:33:59. > :34:04.They'll spend a lot of time grabbing things and squeezing them.
:34:04. > :34:08.The fly's not backing off. There's probably some rotten old vole in
:34:08. > :34:13.the base of that nest some wr. They're fascinated by it. Another
:34:13. > :34:17.fly comes in and the alacrity of the barn owl pays off. The one in
:34:17. > :34:23.the foreground has caught the fly. Did you see the face of the one
:34:23. > :34:27.lying down. It's disgusted. "Oh, how due do that? That was clever.
:34:27. > :34:34.Did it taste nice? "Not really. Here you can see the difference of
:34:34. > :34:38.the big erchick. When it stretches its wick, it's obvious that bird is
:34:38. > :34:47.thinking about making his first trip. They've been active today.
:34:47. > :34:55.They've been spending a lot of time jumping off that platform. There's
:34:55. > :34:58.rotting voles, old pellets, lots of poo. They typically leave after 56
:34:58. > :35:03.days. Another bird we were really interested to see what had happened
:35:03. > :35:07.after the storm was the sandpiper. This is the bird that's nested
:35:07. > :35:12.right by the train track and often gets off its nest every time the
:35:12. > :35:17.train goes past. How would it cope with the flooding? Well I can tell
:35:17. > :35:22.you, it did survive! Here it is live, sitting on the nest. What I
:35:22. > :35:27.love about this, last week, we were saying it was a nutty nesting bird.
:35:27. > :35:31.Clearly not, Chris, because it chose a really good spot this
:35:31. > :35:34.weekend. It's up on an embankment. People build those so the trains
:35:34. > :35:39.don't get flooded out. Of course, it's well drained. That's the
:35:39. > :35:43.purpose of that railway clinker is so that it doesn't rot the sleepers
:35:43. > :35:47.or flood the trains. Being on the side of it, I should imagine that
:35:47. > :35:54.nest was very Westminster drained. Thing is, she's been on the eggs,
:35:54. > :35:58.she and he, they've been taking the -- turns, they've been on the eggs
:35:58. > :36:01.a long time. They haven't been turning them. That's unusual. We
:36:01. > :36:04.think that they must hatch before Thursday or there might be a
:36:04. > :36:10.problem. The next couple of days will be telling, we think, if these
:36:10. > :36:13.eggs hatch or not. Also the adult may be two, but definitely one
:36:13. > :36:18.adult has survived, but how has that weather affected the eggs even
:36:18. > :36:21.if they were turning them. If they were off them they could get
:36:21. > :36:25.chilled. The later during the incubation period that occurs, the
:36:25. > :36:29.more damaging it could be. We don't know. They could have been off them
:36:29. > :36:34.for hours or sat tight like the bird is now. Let's hope it's the
:36:34. > :36:40.latter: I'm pleased to see the sandpiper has survived. It's become
:36:40. > :36:45.quite a character. It's amazing it survived, because for a lot of
:36:45. > :36:48.ground nesting birds flooding is a major problem. Yesterday we sent
:36:48. > :36:58.Iolo Williams out to see how other waders fared during and after the
:36:58. > :37:08.
:37:09. > :37:14.the Dovey estuary is the most important area for breeding waders
:37:14. > :37:18.in the whole of Wales. You're talking about maybe 80 pairs of
:37:18. > :37:21.lapwing, about a fifth of the Welsh population. These fields here,
:37:21. > :37:26.three or four fields are the most important breeding sites for them.
:37:26. > :37:31.Look at it now, the water level is about 30cms higher than it should
:37:31. > :37:41.be. If this is wiped out the way it is, for the whole of Wales, that's
:37:41. > :37:45.
:37:45. > :37:49.disastrous. Look at this, look at that, just within probably two,
:37:49. > :37:53.three days of being able to fly, both of these chicks here. And it's
:37:53. > :37:57.the timing really that's disastrous. A month earlier the adults would
:37:57. > :38:02.have relayed, a week later, and most of these chicks would have
:38:02. > :38:06.made it. They'd be able to fly away. It's the speed at which this whole
:38:06. > :38:16.area was inundated with water. These and probably dozens of others
:38:16. > :38:18.
:38:18. > :38:22.have succumbed. It's tragic. One of our wildlife cameramen
:38:22. > :38:28.witnessed the flood and what happened to the birds. This road up
:38:28. > :38:32.here was, become a bit of a refugee camp for a lot of the chicks.
:38:32. > :38:37.have made it. I can see high ground away to the left and to the right
:38:37. > :38:42.here. That's right. There's a farmer's track, the burns on either
:38:42. > :38:49.side and there are chibgdz that made it. You have winners and
:38:49. > :38:54.losers too. If you have dead chicks, something is going to pick them up.
:38:54. > :38:58.Yes red kites have been picking the chicks up. The odd thing is water
:38:58. > :39:03.is vitally important for breeding waders and for wader chicks,
:39:03. > :39:07.because where you find water you find insects which is what they eat.
:39:07. > :39:15.But this much water all at once, it's a tragedy and this is one of
:39:15. > :39:19.the most important sites we have. This highlights, first I should say
:39:19. > :39:23.welcome, thank you for coming, this is your patch of course. Thank you
:39:23. > :39:27.for welcoming us to Wales. And for coming on the show of course. This
:39:27. > :39:30.highlights a conservation problem. It's all eggs in one basket. This
:39:30. > :39:36.It's all eggs in one basket. This percentage of lapwings on one site.
:39:36. > :39:39.It is, in an ideal world we would have lapwings widespread across
:39:39. > :39:44.Welsh farmland. But they've declined rapidly. We had 7,500
:39:44. > :39:47.pairs in 1987. What have we got, maybe 500 pairs now. Because of
:39:47. > :39:52.that, areas like the Dovey and Ynys-hir in particular are so
:39:52. > :39:56.important. What these birds couldn't cope with was the sheer
:39:56. > :40:00.volume of water, all at once. Had it been over a longer period they
:40:00. > :40:04.would have been fine. But they couldn't cope with it. It was heart
:40:04. > :40:08.breaking to go there and see these chicks, had it come a month ago,
:40:08. > :40:11.the lapwing would have relayed. A week later, they would have been on
:40:11. > :40:17.the wing. But it just hit them at just the wrong time. But there is a
:40:17. > :40:22.bit of good news in there as well, because they're long lived birds. I
:40:22. > :40:26.suspect we have about 80 pairs here. I suspect next year we'll have 80
:40:26. > :40:29.pairs again, but they will need a good breeding season next year.
:40:29. > :40:34.These freak events can be disastrous for colonial breeding
:40:34. > :40:38.birds. I remember being in Shetland and there was a guillemot colony on
:40:39. > :40:43.a rock at sea and there's a series of photos there, one freak wave and
:40:43. > :40:48.it wiped out the entire colony for that year. I bet they were all back
:40:48. > :40:54.the n. Year They're long lived again. There's another chance.
:40:54. > :40:57.Shall we go back to our Ospreys. When we left Michaela down at the
:40:57. > :40:59.osprey project, things were not looking that good. Let's go back
:40:59. > :41:04.looking that good. Let's go back and remind ourselves what was
:41:04. > :41:08.happening. The two chicks were there, looking very under par. This
:41:08. > :41:12.is agonising to see this. The parents have got food, but they
:41:12. > :41:19.cannot feed it to the chicks. The dreadful thing about this is that
:41:19. > :41:22.unless the chicks get up and beg, the parents won't give them food.
:41:22. > :41:28.I'm afraid to say another one of those chicks died. Now three chicks
:41:28. > :41:33.were laid, we were down to just one, what were the project going to do?
:41:33. > :41:38.Well the news is that they had to intervene. The weather here was
:41:38. > :41:41.dreadful. It was absolutely awful. I've seen of him wading chest deep
:41:41. > :41:45.through water to get in. They intervened. They got the chick out
:41:46. > :41:49.of that nest very quickly. It only took them 20 minutes I think. Here
:41:49. > :41:53.we are before they had it back. They dried it, fed it. Because it
:41:53. > :41:58.wasn't feeding at all. They got a lot of food into it, just to make
:41:58. > :42:02.sure it was strong enough when it went back into that nest for the
:42:02. > :42:07.mother to feed it once more. thing was their intention was
:42:07. > :42:12.always to get it out, warm it up, feed it, but get it back to the
:42:12. > :42:16.next as fast as they could. It was. I'm sure some people will so, hang
:42:16. > :42:19.on we shouldn't intervene n. Truth we've always intervened. If we
:42:19. > :42:24.hadn't intervened in the first place Ospreys would be a common
:42:24. > :42:27.bird. They're not, they're very rare. They became extinct because
:42:27. > :42:32.man intervened. To intervene once more, to help, I permly think is a
:42:32. > :42:35.very positive thing. When you think we only have two pairs in Wales, if
:42:35. > :42:40.we'd have lost this one, we're down to one. Hopefully, there's a long
:42:40. > :42:42.way to go yet, hopefully this one will survive and think of the
:42:43. > :42:47.education value tens of thousands of people will come and see this
:42:47. > :42:52.bird. If there's nothing there, they're going to think well, we
:42:52. > :42:57.won't go. Hopefully they'll come, be enthralled, they might join,
:42:57. > :43:03.spend money on conservation. This could become a toe temic bird in a
:43:03. > :43:08.toe temic species. Hats off to him. I think he did the right thing.
:43:08. > :43:12.Certainly did. What are we doing now? Oh, yeah. Let us look at what
:43:12. > :43:17.happened once that bird got back in the nest just to confirm this. They
:43:17. > :43:20.got it straight back in and there it is, looking much, much better
:43:20. > :43:25.now, begging properly and the parents feeding it there, lots of
:43:25. > :43:29.food in the nest, that's a great thing to see. Let us just hope the
:43:29. > :43:33.weather now doesn't get too cold again and that chick, the last
:43:33. > :43:39.survivor of the three carries on, does well and pulls through.
:43:39. > :43:43.Looking good. We hope so. Looking great. Right, now early on, we left
:43:43. > :43:47.Charlie Hamilton James looking for his otters. It was a family of
:43:47. > :43:51.otters, there were two youngsters and an adult. He worried about the
:43:51. > :43:54.youngsters. They're small and quite vulnerable. When we left him he was
:43:54. > :43:58.looking in drought conditions. He couldn't find them there. My
:43:58. > :44:06.goodness, talk about one extreme to the other. It went from drought
:44:06. > :44:11.to... Have a look at this: After the drought came the flood. Record
:44:11. > :44:20.levels of rain in April caused the rivers to rise more than six feet.
:44:20. > :44:24.It broke the banks. This is really worrying. The mother otter is
:44:24. > :44:30.powerful enough to cope with the floodwaters. The much smaller cubs
:44:30. > :44:36.could struggle with it and get separated from mum. At just a few
:44:36. > :44:41.months old, they'd be too young to survive alone. I returned as soon
:44:41. > :44:45.as I could, keen to find the otter family. Straight away, there's a
:44:45. > :44:50.surprise in store. I've got three otters, way, way down the river.
:44:50. > :44:55.And it's the mum with the two cubs. It's really exciting. It's the
:44:55. > :45:05.first time I've seen them for months! You can see they've really
:45:05. > :45:09.
:45:09. > :45:13.am determined to stay with them. These otters are so used to people,
:45:13. > :45:23.they are not bothered about them. Which makes filming them a lot
:45:23. > :45:47.
:45:47. > :45:51.healthy. They are swimming well and surprise, so do the cubs. So these
:45:51. > :45:56.cubs really are getting independent. They are just swimming round.
:45:56. > :46:01.Fishing. That is a real mark of independence. What is so
:46:01. > :46:05.interesting about this family, is they are fishing in the day. And
:46:05. > :46:12.not at night. Otters on the coast of Scotland do this, but this
:46:12. > :46:18.behaviour in river otters has always been rare. The mum is
:46:18. > :46:23.zooantly, just keeping an eye on us, she is pretty relaxed. But she
:46:23. > :46:30.wants to know who is who, where the humans are, are there any dogs
:46:30. > :46:39.round, every time she pops up she immediately have a little look. But
:46:39. > :46:43.she ain't going to let it get in the way of fishing. Otter mothers
:46:43. > :46:48.have to nearly double the time they spend hunting when they have cubs,
:46:48. > :46:56.so being confident enough to hunt in the daytime, gives this young
:46:56. > :47:05.family a head start in life. This is a new generation of otters, who
:47:05. > :47:11.are adapting to live alongside humans during the day. Really
:47:11. > :47:18.relaxed fishing session there. The best thing about it is it is about
:47:18. > :47:28.10.00 in the morning. Massive great main road next to them. These
:47:28. > :47:37.
:47:37. > :47:42.several hours. Watching them catch lots of small fish, but suddenly,
:47:42. > :47:51.the mum's skill comes into play, and she gets lucky with a huge
:47:51. > :47:58.catch. Whoa, we have an 'll here. - - eel here. Mum caught and eel. It
:47:58. > :48:01.was in the bushes so fast, I barely got to see it P --. Eels are a
:48:01. > :48:08.favourite food for otters but I am pleased to see one for other
:48:08. > :48:17.reasons. It is so nice to know there are eels in the river,
:48:17. > :48:21.because there aren't in eels round any more. But otters love them. I
:48:21. > :48:29.have been worried about the drought and the flood affecting this young
:48:29. > :48:37.family of otters. But they seem to be thriving. Oh, beautiful. I love
:48:37. > :48:42.it when they do that. Seeing mum teaching her two small cubs to fish,
:48:43. > :48:52.not only in daylight, but right under a main road, confirms to me
:48:53. > :48:59.
:49:00. > :49:03.that some British river otters are daylight. But to see an otter in
:49:03. > :49:08.daylight, terribly unusual. It is in the south of England these day,
:49:08. > :49:12.on the west coast of Scotland you will see them in daylight where
:49:12. > :49:15.they are tide pen dent but here it is a treat. What we have to
:49:15. > :49:19.remember is all animals are individuals and it may well be this
:49:19. > :49:23.female is just a tolerant individual. She has got used to
:49:23. > :49:28.people in this area where it is busy and therefore Charlie and now
:49:28. > :49:32.we are able to enjoy her, in daylight. Of course, in the past,
:49:32. > :49:37.they were ruthlessly hunted, they were much loathed animal actually
:49:37. > :49:41.into the '50s, people didn't like them very much. It was only Tarka
:49:41. > :49:45.the otter and Gavin Maxwell's ring of bright water that turned them
:49:45. > :49:48.into pin up stars, they have become popular. I thought it was a treat
:49:48. > :49:55.seeing it fish for the eels but this is a treat. This is something
:49:55. > :50:02.Charlie saw in the daytime. It is spots a bag tail on the bank, oh
:50:02. > :50:08.the otter thinks, it is quite interesting. And then it gets a bit
:50:08. > :50:14.disinterested and goes back. Comes up again, and what is on the bank?
:50:14. > :50:20.There it is again. The little wagtail. And then, they spot each
:50:20. > :50:25.other, and it's game on. The wagtail flies to the other side, it
:50:25. > :50:30.flies off again and the otter chases it. Is it hunting the wag
:50:30. > :50:34.tile? I don't think so. I think it is actually just playing. Don't
:50:34. > :50:37.you? Maybe the wagtail is player with the otter. I think that they
:50:37. > :50:42.are enjoying it. Calm down, calm down, they are not playing at all I
:50:42. > :50:47.think it would eat the wagtail if it could catch it. Otters do eat
:50:47. > :50:52.biers, it is not hunting it because it is making no attempt to hide
:50:52. > :50:57.whatsoever. But at certain times of year, up to, you know, 14-20% of
:50:57. > :51:02.the diet can be birds. Typically goose and moor hens but geese and
:51:02. > :51:12.swan, we have swans here on the marsh, let us see how many of our
:51:12. > :51:14.
:51:14. > :51:19.Signets are currently still going. -- signets. There is the first two.
:51:19. > :51:24.And there is the third one. there are otters out there we saw
:51:24. > :51:29.it on otter cam, and that is within tens of metres of where the swans
:51:29. > :51:34.are. They will come up like a Great White shark. They don't advertise
:51:34. > :51:37.the fact they are coming. Take them from under the water. A running
:51:37. > :51:42.theme throughout this whole programme has been these bizarre
:51:42. > :51:46.weather condition, that we have had just in the past few days here. But
:51:46. > :51:49.what about your spring, your experience of spring? We would love
:51:49. > :51:54.to see pictures of wildlife, strange things that have happened
:51:54. > :52:03.in this very odd drought ridden then too hot, too wet spring, so
:52:03. > :52:08.please do send us your pictures. We will try and put them together in a
:52:08. > :52:11.lovely montage. Shall we introduce a new test? It is amazing we can do
:52:11. > :52:19.this. This is extraordinary we can do this, I couldn't believe they
:52:19. > :52:25.had managed to do this, and this is a bird of my dreams. Look at this.
:52:25. > :52:30.There is the dead oak tree, we have driven past this every morning, in
:52:30. > :52:36.the crack, yes, it is a tree creep Ernest, again I never thought I
:52:36. > :52:40.would see this. It is a very active nest. Both a dulls are in and out
:52:40. > :52:45.the whole time. Can't see how many chicks there are yet. They look
:52:46. > :52:50.fairly well developed. It looks a bit shaky that little bit of bark
:52:50. > :52:55.there. But remarkable to have a brand-new, this was rigged up, we
:52:55. > :53:00.saw them rigging this up yesterday and there it. Wonderful to have a
:53:00. > :53:06.tree creep Ernest. I like them very much indeed. Let us go live and see
:53:06. > :53:10.if there is tree creeper activity at the moment. There is plenty of
:53:10. > :53:17.insects, you see the youngsters in there. If be can zoom in we might
:53:17. > :53:21.see. We don't know how old they are. By 2 days they jump about and they
:53:21. > :53:25.will climb round inside that cavity, and it is about 15 days when they
:53:25. > :53:32.finally come out. But both adults are been busy today, taking food in
:53:32. > :53:36.and out. You can't tell them apart, the male and female look the same.
:53:36. > :53:43.You find them in Britain, all across northern Europe, stretch
:53:43. > :53:48.across what was the former Soviet Union as far as Japan. I love them.
:53:48. > :53:54.Really successful, they fill that niche on the tree, so well, there
:53:54. > :54:02.are other species of tree creepers, not in the UK. There is just come
:54:02. > :54:07.in on Facebook from Ab Star, she says are they born with curved bee,
:54:07. > :54:12.do they curve in later life. They curve through the process of
:54:12. > :54:16.development. We saw some young tree creepers, the other day huddling on
:54:16. > :54:21.the tree. Once they fledge they will hide and stay warm by huddling
:54:21. > :54:26.on the tree. We got a unique view of that with tree creepers the
:54:26. > :54:31.other day, if you notice then their beak was already hooked because
:54:31. > :54:38.they have to look for food themselves pretty soon after they
:54:38. > :54:43.fledge so they need that hooked bill. Do other birds develop curves
:54:43. > :54:47.in their beak? There are birds who feed like the tree creeper, the
:54:47. > :54:53.neatest thing, I had one in the hand one, its tail, they have a
:54:53. > :54:58.tail just like a woodpecker, very very stick feather, if you get a
:54:58. > :55:01.treecreepers tail in your hand and you press it across your fingers --
:55:01. > :55:05.fringe o finger as you do, the feathers are really stiff this is
:55:05. > :55:09.because they rest on their feathers, if you watch them when they land,
:55:09. > :55:15.they fan their tail and they use it to support them on the tree, just
:55:15. > :55:19.like a woodpecker, that is why they have tatty tails because they are
:55:19. > :55:23.well worn, I am talking a lot about them because I hope it is going to
:55:23. > :55:27.come back. I think it is amazing we have managed to get a camera in
:55:27. > :55:31.there. We are just about to go to the cameras live to see what is
:55:31. > :55:36.happening and I am so excited on the able to say that, when I looked
:55:36. > :55:39.tat production site on Saturday, I thought it was going to be the end
:55:39. > :55:42.of Springwatch 2012. At the time it looked like we weren't going to be
:55:42. > :55:47.able to bring you a show at all, and we certainly didn't think we
:55:47. > :55:51.would be able to get our live cameras back, but with a lot of
:55:51. > :55:56.hard effort and people working long hours we did, so let me say with
:55:56. > :56:00.great excitement let us look at our live cameras. Shall we look at the
:56:00. > :56:05.goldcrest. The goldcrest that is in there at the moment. Brooding away.
:56:05. > :56:09.It will be fascinating to see how many chicks that were in there. We
:56:09. > :56:14.have never known how many hatch. We don't know how many survived, but I
:56:15. > :56:19.think we have seen them feeding, so there is... There is a good
:56:19. > :56:24.fledging rate. They get a lot of the young out of the nest. They
:56:24. > :56:29.build them on the edge of the branchs to keep them away from
:56:29. > :56:34.predators, the down side of course, is that the nest is very flimsy and
:56:34. > :56:41.gets blown round a lot. So there is a trade off going on.. It is now as
:56:41. > :56:46.a jaunty angle. Nicely jaunty. think I would prefer non-jaunty.
:56:46. > :56:50.Pied flycatcher, there was a bit of action going on there. Do you think
:56:50. > :56:54.the adult is coming in? Maybe not. I did see one of them do a bit of
:56:54. > :57:03.stretching, but you reckon they might go soon, don't you. Yes, let
:57:03. > :57:08.us go to the tree creeper. It just turned up. It is in the nest. Oh.
:57:08. > :57:15.Just a glimpse of the unique tail before it flew off. Still don't
:57:15. > :57:21.know how many chicks there are. There was movement.. It was a
:57:21. > :57:25.little tease. What about the barn owls? Let us look at them. A bit of
:57:25. > :57:32.a hiss. How many are there? I think two of them are round in the corner.
:57:32. > :57:35.He had fallen asleep there. He really has got fed up of sitting on
:57:35. > :57:38.the nest with the dead mice and voles. We should say people saw
:57:38. > :57:42.them lying down, and they were worried about this, thought they
:57:42. > :57:45.might be ill, but if they are well- fed and they are comfortable, young
:57:45. > :57:50.owls like this and birds of prey, young stirs in the nest will lay
:57:50. > :57:55.down on their chests, spread out like a dog in front of the fire.
:57:55. > :58:01.believe it's a strategy if they get threatened. Sometimes they will
:58:01. > :58:05.play dead when they are little. when they get bolshy. They lay on
:58:05. > :58:10.that back. When I saw them on Saturday, there were two of them
:58:10. > :58:16.lying down and you couldn't see one, for a minute I started to panic, I
:58:16. > :58:20.thought one hadn't made it. I was the same.. A lot of the birds have
:58:20. > :58:27.done so well. A quick look at the sandpiper eggs. I can hear the
:58:27. > :58:34.train. The train is coming. She's off. Brilliant. I think that is all
:58:34. > :58:38.we have time for. It is. Well, tomorrow, we will be looking at the
:58:38. > :58:43.basking shark, the second biggest fish on earth in British waters.
:58:43. > :58:48.And Chris and Martin enjoy a night out on the town, with a bevvy of
:58:48. > :58:51.badgers. And we will keep an eye on those tree creepers and hope to
:58:51. > :58:56.bring you more action from that nest. We will be back again