Episode 2 Springwatch

We're live on this beautiful sunny and warm evening in Wales! Bringing

you a show which is absolutely packed with wildlife that we find

on this beautiful reserve. $:/STARTFEED., we have got a

Springwatch first, incredible underwater footage of gannet, the

gold medalists of seabird diving world. A truly awesome bird.

Sinister goings on at the jackdaw nest, someone is inaccident on may

help. I lied! It's absolutely pouring

with rain, I'm terribly sorry, we failed to get complete control of

the weather. Nevertheless, welcome to programme 2 of Springwatch for

our 2013 series. We are here at the beautiful, although it is we had,

reserve in Wales. This is in fabulous part of the country. It is

nestled down here in the estuary. In amongst all those fields, that

greenery and all of those woods are 700 hectares of one of the best-

managed nature reserves I have had the privilege of visiting. I have

to say. We have bugged it, all the birds are under close scrutiny and

we are unravelling the secrets of their family lives. Tonight you

need to be of a tough disposition. Some of those secrets, some of

those stories are tumultuous. I have got a serious question for

It is a damp spring and we will talk about the effects of the late

spring we have been having and see how it affects all our animals.

First we have had a lot going on on our real stars of the show, the

nest birds, the nesting birds. Let us introduce you, we did yesterday

to the jackdaws. They have two chicks. Little faces peeking out.

Let's remind you on Springwatch it is nature that writes the script.

Already it is getting dramatic. Yesterday this is what we saw, two

intruding jackdaws coming into the nestbox. That is the adult chasing

them off. Well they didn't stop, this morning, just in the early

hours of this morning 14-times they came back. There are the chicks

inside, in comes the intruder, it starts to get very aggressive. That

adult is pecking the chicks, it is stamping on them. We were wondering

yesterday if they were just being inquisitive, clearly they are not.

That is aggression. The parent comes back chases them off. Now

we're all wondering if the chicks are OK. They don't look very good.

I should think they are completely shell shocked by what's happened.

The other parent comes back with some food goes in, one of them is

straight up, obviously OK, begging for food. The other one, is it OK,

it doesn't look good, yes, thank goodness for that. It lifts its

head up. That is not good. That is definitely something to be

concerned about. It is if you are the parents of those jackdaws, what

about the pair of jackdaws coming in because they haven't got a

nesting space. That is what is happening here. They are very

hierarchical, socially, it is likely the two birds are coming in

and taking the youngsters have failed to get a nest this year

because they are low down the social order. Their only chance of

being able to breed next year is to nab a nest site now. That is why

they are going in there. It is not unusual for jackdaws to kill the

young of others and take them out and claim that nest site. What

these young have got going in their favour is their size. They are

about half grown so they are quite robust, this means they can

withstand a certain degree of pecking. Also the adults have

invested a lot of time and energy in their care. They will fight to

keep them alive vigorously. If there are any chicks in any nest to

what stand these sorts of attacks, these ones have the right profile

to do so. It is a nest to keep an eye on. Let's have a look.

Fortunately they are covered with that rain. That's interesting,

because the adult is brooding them. That is probably because they are a

little bit delicate after that attack and cold. It is cold. It has

been cold here again all day, compared to the normal temperatures

at this time of year. That is why they are brooding. Fingers crossed

for those chicks. Slightly worried about them. Let's move on to a quiz.

We have a little quiz for you. Can you see those, very small, what are

they? Let me turn one around for you, what has made them? If you

know that get in contact with us on the website.

Or hashtag spring swach. We will re -- #Springwatch, we will reveal all

later. We were asking yesterday would the egg and chick hatch out

from the Baz standards. This is a bit of -- buzzards. Terribly

important, it is terribly wet. Important that the female buzzard

should sit there and protect the chick and the egg. We didn't think

it was going to. We prerecorded it, let's have a look at what happened

earlier today. Sure enough there is the chick, the other egg hasn't

hatched out. That means it is not sad, but that does mean it will be

an easier job for the parents to feed their chick. Just have a

listen now? ( that is -- that is jackdaws in the background. The

parent looks nervous, there was always that persistent danger from

the crows. Here she is being fed a shrew. That surprises me. A lot of

birds avoid them. They have distasteful glands, a lot of things

avoid shrews. The old buzzard has such a broad and Catholic diet it

will eat all sorts of things. pertinent we have a small mammal

there, if you were watching the recent watching, you will know that

we have a rodentorium, we pinched it from one of the viewers, it is a

hollow log, on one end at the pointed cameras into the log. We

set it up close to the production village. Let's club live to the

interior. You can see inside there there is masses of bait. When it

comes to baiting animals we are not cheap skates ob Springwatch. There

is a bountiful supply of food. We are hoping it will attract rodents.

What has it had so far, not much at this time of day. During the night

we saw these animals, wood mice, feasting on the supply of seeds and

nuts that we put in there. Not only wood mice, we have had a common

shrew, same species with the buzzards. As it goes up to the stop

here, it breathes out, and you can see a little puff of shrew breath!

When was the last time you saw a little puff of shrew breath live on

TV. Fantastic. Then the shrew went off with a nut which was odd, these

are in sect ivous animals. Stick with it, it will be on the red

button. It won't just be wood mice and shrew, if you watched during

winter watch we got a pine marten. We hope to get a stoat or weasel.

Also on the website there is all sorts of information about the

summer of wildlife. Which we launched last night. The summer of

wildlife, there is lots of there is a huge range of information to help

you get out there and enjoy our lovely wildlife. We keep pushing

you to go outside and enjoy the wildlife. I'm going to take my own

advice and I'm going to go outside and go to a brand-new area, perhaps

a surprising area, and look for a bit of extra wildlife. Will you

excuse me! Pud your hood up you will get wet. See you later.

The lovely Yolo Williams have been out and about further on from

Martin. He's gone to a special island on the east coast of

Scotland to experience and find out more about the success of one of

UK's true wildlife spectacles. This is vast rock, at this time of the

year the island this is possibly one of the UK's best wildlife spots.

The rock turns white as the gannets return from the winter. They arrive

with one thing in mind. It is the breeding season and each and every

bird on the island will have returned to exactly the same path

and the same partner. Gannets mate for life and they are remarkably

long lived. A pair can be together for almost 35 years and amongst

gannets divorce is incredibly rare, they are faithful birds. Although

they may have been together for decades, couples perform an

elaborate greeting every single time they meet.

There is courtship, pair bonding. They will fence like this with

their break, they will wagle their -- breaks. They will waggle their

heads. With so many birds crammed so closely together, the odd

squabble is inevitable. Each pair will have the own little territory

and a nest in that, they are all about the next patch, they are

vicious birds defending their own patch. The sheer numbers here are

remarkable. At the peak of the season, when the eggs hatch, more

than 150,000 birds are jam packed on to this tiny island. With so

many birds you can smell the rock before you see it.

You never forget a visit to the gannet colony, you can close your

eyes because the sound and smell is unique. Although it doesn't look it

on a day like today, this year's long cold winter has been punishing

for many of the UK's seabirds, looking at the numbers there. It

seems the gannets are doing well. To find out why this might be the

case I'm meeting a man who has a unique insight into the lives of

these birds. Brian Nelson spent three years living on Bask Rock.

Some of my best memories were on there, the noise is deafening and

intoxicating. Brian is now 81 and he's still considered the world

expert. I was supposed to be studying blackbirds in Oxford. I

found it so boring and when I tried to find out about gannets I found

that they had never been studied. Here was Britain's possibly most

dramatic seabird in the whole of Britain, but the basic biology was

a closed book. I decided that was what I wanted to study, this was

the best decision I ever made. the help of his wife June, Brian's

research on the rock forms the basis of everything we know about

gannets. You can't get to grips with ecology and life history with

odd visits. You have to know subject intimately. Would you spend

most of your working day just studying gannets? Absolutely. We

worked the whole of the day and writinging up stuff into the night,

it was non-stop. Brian's years of dedicated

observation leave him with little doubt about what makes these birds

so resilient. Gannets of all British seabirds

have a unique feeding niche, they are the only British seabird that

can travel hundreds of miles from base and dive deeply. No other

British seabird can do that. They have access to a huge food supply,

which is, you know, unique. From what Brian says it sounds like

I should take a closer look at the gannet as hunting strategy. Most of

their feeding is done far out at sea. To find out why their hunting

technique is so effective, I'm going to have to get into the water

with them. The glamour of TV, it is absolutely pouring. What a

wonderful film, I was talking to Yola a little bit earlier on, I'm

so jealous he got out to the rock. He will be with us later on, if you

have questions for him send them in to the website and he will try to

ask them. Here we are. In the farmyard, complete with proper cows.

What sort of a place would this be for wildlife, why would we come

here. Actually it is a great place for wildlife, because there is all

sorts of shelter everywhere, it is not too manicured this farmyard.

There is lots of possibilitys of getting food. Let's have -- pockets

of getting food. Let's have a look and see what we might find in our

See there's loads of wildlife, it is lovely. Now, when we first

arrived there was something superspecial here, because I don't

know if you can see, there is a sort of Little Rock face there,

just over there. And when we appeared here, when we went past it

there was all this cheaping and tweeting, there was a very unusual

nest there. Let's have a look at what we recorded. Here is the nest,

just in the rock face, look at that beautiful bird. That is a grey

wagtail. There is also a yellow wagtail, I always want to call them

that. There were five chicks in this nest. Constantly wagging, that

lovely lemon yellow. This is a bird you would find by running water and

stream, they are feeding on insects off running water and stream. What

on earth are they doing here by the farmyard. I think it is because

there is lots and lots of insect life and they fed on that. As you

see they are actually fledgling, this happened over the weekend.

There is a youngster there, trying to get the first meal for itself.

It gives up. It has to wait for mum. You can see they are bobbing

already, they are never stop wagging their tails these wagtails.

They think it may be, to be honest nobody knows why they wag their

tails. They think it might be to break up its body shape against

running water, camouflage, nobody is sure. One more nest here. Watch

out for the dung pile, lots of places for insects. There is a

second nest that hasn't fledged. They haven't hatched Van Outen.

There is a post and gate down there, I don't know if you can see. Let's

go life to that nest, creeping in. I don't know if you can see it

there. There is a mother Mallard up there. Poor thing, ducks, water, we

don't know how many eggs she is sitting on, we haven't disturbed

her. She's sitting nice and tight to protect the eggs. We filmed her

earlier on, let's have a look at mum. Mum does all the incubation.

There she is sitting on the eggs. Look at that beautiful sizzling

speculumthere. When she leaves the they, the mother covers all the

eggs up with lovely warm down. She often plucks those feathers off her

very own chest. There she is. We will keep a very careful eye on

that nest there. The only problem for her is that, yes, this is quite

a nice place to be, but there are a lot of potential threats to her and

her chicks. There are lots and lots of corvets,

those crow, it is like a scene from the Birds here. There are rats here,

they would have the eggs and the chicks. That naughty jackdaw,

highly intelligent, always on the lookout. There are, here we are,

this we filmed this fox just a couple of days ago.

That Mallard mum will have to be very careful. Touch wood so far

everything is fine. There is one final thing. What she has to do,

she has to talk those ducklings when they hatch out, across here,

and all the way down there just underneath the trees, that is where

the river is. She has to get them down to the water. Hopefully she

will be able to do it. We will keep a very careful eye on that. Now it

is time to peer into the mysterious life of another animal, making the

way down to the water this time to breed.

This is the story of an extraordinary journey made by a

daring heroine. A female common toad. Her mission

is to ensure the survival of her kind. But the route ahead will be

fraught with danger. It is early spring, and in the wood

life is returning after months of winter.

This female toad has spent the last six months hidden away. Surviving

on her stored fat reserves. But now, her long hibernation is over.

Her sensitive skin detects moisture and the rising temperatures to

Bambi seven degrees. -- balmy seven degrees. The time

has come. She must start the journey tonight. Under cover of

darkness she makes her move. Goided by a memory of -- guided by a

memory of where her old life started, she sets off in search of

water. To a toad the forest floor is

extreme obstacle course, unlike frogs toads can't hop. The going is

tough. But she won't let anything stand in her way. And despite not

eating for six months there is no time to stop and feed. She isn't

alone in the woods, tonight thousands of other toads are also

making this annual migration.. This hasn't gone unnoticed. Although the

toads use the cover of darkness, nocternal hunters are on the prowl.

Our female will march the egive lent of a marathon in her quest to

reach water. But her pace is slow. She must reach the pond before dawn.

Finally she reaches the end of the woods, but now she faces her most

dangerous obstacle. It's thought that around 10,000

toads get squashed on the UK's roads every year during their

migration. But help is at hand. And our toad is one of the lucky ones.

Across the country around 1400 toad patrollers man over 400 crossings.

Keeping at least some toads out of danger. Thanks to their help she's

now making excellent progress. From smelling the air she knows her pond

is close. And her pace quickens. But just ahead an ambush. Male

toads. Smaller and lazier than females. They are trying to hitch a

ride. Special nuptual pads on his toes help him hang on to her. Male

toads can outnumber females by 3-1. By grabbing a female now he isn't

just getting a free ride. He's trying to make sure he is in a

position to breed, but our female must now battle on carrying an

extra load of half her body weight. They have made it, finally she can

do what she has come here for. She lays a string of up to 5,000 eggs

which the male fertilises. A huge amount, but only one in 400 of

these will make it through to adulthood. She is exhausted but she

has beaten the odds and left her own legacy.

I have always admired a female toad, they are determined, they are fit,

they are strong, they are dominant, strong characteristics, I like that.

You have modelled yourself on female toads. Luckily not your

complexion. Let's have a look at how this late spring has affected

toads. It has affected them. According to Frog Life, one of our

conservation partners most of them have spawned about five weeks late

this year. They usually begin at the beginning of March, some of

them did start to move about that time, then they stopped, and then

there was a peak around a couple of days in mid-April. How is that

affecting the toads, there is positives and negatives.

Interestingly enough once they did start to migrate the clocks had

changed, which meant they were crossing the roads later in the

dark, after the rush hour. So perhaps less squashed toads on the

roads. But, the negative is possibly, we don't know yet, but we

are those female toads are carrying their eggs. It is 20% of their body

weight and they don't eat until they spawn. So if spawning is too

late they give up and they reabsorb the eggs. This is something that

happened last spring as well. So if it did happen to a lot of toads

this spring, it could be a problem for the population. It could be a

problem. 10% of our toads that live near roads get run over. The toads

there normally only live there for three or four years. Away from

major roads a toad can live for 40 years. It wouldn't be a problem.

With an increase of the traffic it could impact on urban and suburban

toads. We introduced you yesterday to a

nest I never thought I would see on Springwatch. An extraordinarily

rare bird, a shy and skulking species, the water rail. We found

it here on the mire. An area we have moved to explore this year.

Here is the female. We pre -- presume it is sat on the reeds.

Look how it is close to the water. It has been pouring with rain over

the last couple of days. The water level will go up, marginally at the

moment. What the birds do to cope with it is constantly add to the

nest. If the water comes up, as this bird is doing here, they will

build that platform up so they can raise it right above the surface of

the water. Let's go live now to see just how wet our water wail is.

There presumably she is. You saw her blinking there, you can see her

eyelid was closed, she is dosing. Water droplets on the back, nice

and waterproof of course. Incubating the eggs. We think there

are perhaps seven eggs in that nest. But of course it is difficult when

you get a view like this to appreciate exactly what the bird's

anatomy is like. Luckily we have had pictures sent in to our flikr

group. This is from eet, and this one is from another viewer, there

you can see and appreciate how these birds are members of the rail

family, and closely related to things like moor hens and coots and

things like that. If we get a chick you will be down there to get

photographs. If those eggs, the magnificent

seven I will be ecstatic. Close to the water rail is another

little bird, an unassuming brown bird, a dunnock. There it is. And

it was in the reeds there. Actually not in the reeds, it was in the

shrubry. It has five chicks. All five were doing well and both

parents were feeding them regularly. Until this happened. There are the

chicks begging for food because they know something is coming

towards the neck, it is a hungry weasel. It takes the first chick,

it struggling I'm afraid, comes back, one by one it takes the

chicks out of the nest. This whole thing took one minute seven seconds.

Now it is easy to look at the weasel and paint it as the bad guy,

but remember this is spring, so many animals are fighting for

survival, it is likely that weasel has its own nest with its own

little babies in that it has to feed. Unfortunately it is feeding

them on our dunnock chicks. But of course that dunnock will probably

mate again. This is wildlife, this is what happens. The weasel looks

around a bit. But what happens next is a little bit sad because the

parent comes back. What does it see, it sees an empty nest, I'm afraid.

I know, a lot of people out there will be thinking that weasel should

go straight to hell. Because somebody got murdered. But that is

how it happens. That is the story of life. The weasel might have had

a hungry nest. It won't have wasted those chicks, it would have killed

them and stashed them and it will return to them. You have to think

of it as going to a supermarket and finding it full of food. You don't

go one can of beans and go home, you take five cans of beans with

you. It is cruel and harsh in one way. But it is the cycle of life.

That is what it is all about in spring time.

Of course there are other nests down on the mire there which are

equally vulnerable. Let's take a look at the reed bunting, we go

live to that nest. Lightning strikes not once but twice

sometimes. And these birds, the reed buntings have an astonishing

failure rate. Sometimes between 50- 80% of their nests fail before they

fledge. That is due to weasels and stoats and crows and grass snakes

and all sorts of things like that. But they do have strategies which

allow them to escape that predator, we will tell you a bit more about

that tomorrow, fingers crossed they are still there. Hopefully the

weasel doesn't find that nest as well. Fortunately some birds build

their nests away from predator, it does mean their nests can look

precarious. I visited one such nest nearby at the weekend. In and

around the reserve there are so many habitats great for wildlife,

this one is one of my favourites, you can hear it before you can see

it. It is absolutely beautiful. It is the waterfall on the river.

There is loads of different animals all around the river, but there is

one particular bird that we spotted on a nest just by the waterfall. If

we are lucky we might see it flit across. The bird I'm looking for is

the dipper. Are you filming Lindsay. And

wildlife cameraman Lindsay, has been keeping an eye on one

particular family. The nest is right in the moss is it? Just

behind this outcrop here. You will see them come up. There he is.

him on the edge of the rock. You can hear the chick now screaming.

He has a mouth full of food for the chicks. There he goes. Do you know

how old the chicks are? They were here when we got here two weeks ago.

They were young, they are roughly two weeks old. Probably another

week to go before they fledge? should start to see them hanging

out the nest, we will know exactly how old they are getting.

What are they feeding on mainly here? They have been coming back

with all sorts. Mainly in a rfr like this you would find stone

flies under the rocks, that is what they will feed on. They have been

coming back with dragonfly lava, and other lava, -- lavra, and other

lavra, this is teeming with life. Do you know how many chicks there

are? Four or five, it won't be any more than that. They are so well

hidden, it is difficult to see them before they come out? It is perfect,

unless the birds were there you would have no idea the nest was on

the far side. Doesn't it look lovely sat on the water with food

in its mouth waiting. They usually have two broods, do you know if

this is the first or second? This is probably the first. These are a

lot later than they usually would be. Everything is put back with

this spring. I'm pretty sure it is their first. They are known to be

early breeders, sometimes as early as February, like so many birds

they are really late? These things have been hit. When we arrived the

river was a lot higher than it is now, I think they have been lucky

to last as long as they have done. I love a dipper me. Because some

how whenever you see a dipper you are in a beautiful place, some

quiet little stream or something like that, dippers will have to

keep a careful eye on that nest. Obviously nesting right beside a

raging torrent like that is a bit dodgy. They are adapted for it.

When they pledge they will know what to do. Here is one fascinating

bit of information. Dippers are very, very faithful to their nest

sites. And one nest site has been used by dippers for 123 years. That

is faithful isn't it. That site we have just seen could have been used

for decades by those birds. Right, remember that quiz, let us now

remind ourselves. I asked you what these were. OK? Now I will just

have a look, some of the answers. Here we go, I like this one very

much. This is coming from John on Facebook, he said they look like

his wife Gloria's sausage rolls and considerably more palatable too!

John you are on borrowed time. But many of you, Becky, Eric, Lou and

Batman, they all got it right, 98% of you got it absolutely right.

These are caddicefly lavra cases. The fly lives inside, it is soft

the body of the caddicefly, it needs to protect itself by making

the case. How do they do that. Let's go to microworld. We are in

the production village again to find out how they do it. We have

minature habitats, we have a pond, a bog and the forest here. We

filmed inside here, we actually filmed the flies. Let's have a look

at what we found. They are the strangest creatures, the soft

insect is inside the larva, it has created this protective shield. In

the UK we have 180 different species of this fly, often you can

identify the difference type of fly by the materials that they use to

build that protective case. Strange-looking creatures. Very,

very familiar. Fishermen know them very well, they call them sej flies.

-- sedge flies. We are steaming up, that's TV. How do they produce the

protective cases. Let's have a look. They actually create a little bit

of sticky silk, which they attach to the little piece, each

individual piece and then stick it to one another. It is beautifully

constructed, look at that. It is like a little bit of crazy paving.

They are fatastically good at building them. It is wonderful how

they cement them together. Beautiful little animal. They are

very, very good, a terribly important part of river ecology,

the dipper we saw, they eat them too. What does the adult look like?

That is an adult caddice fly, immense antenna it has got. We will

come back to microworld. Now let us leave the small and go to the huge

and dramatic. Back to those gannets. I have been finding out more about

life of one of the UK's most impressive seabirds, the gannet.

Their success may be down to their unique hunting style, and today we

are going to try to capture that in action.

Back to the rock, and you think with nearly 60,000 pairs of gannet

on there, it would be the easiest thing in the world to film this

spectacular fishing technique they have. Actually it is quite

difficult. So fingers crossed. That maximise our chances I haven't

come empty handed. Mackerel are one of the gannet's favourite foods.

The fish soon get their attention. See the birds circling, we have

hundreds of birds overhead. They will do this when they come over a

shoal of fish. This can happen miles off shore. With their

streamline shape and a wing-span of nearly six feet, they are perfectly

adapted for life on the wind. When food is scarce they have been known

to travel over 1,000 miles in search of fish. The birds here

today haven't had to travel that far. They still have a healthy

appetite. Unlike other seabirds they can eat

the fish whole under water. The big advantage of that is when they come

up they are not going to be mobbed by other gannets and the bigger

gulls. But it is the spectacular plunge

dive that is the gannet's trade mark. That is what I want to find

out more about. I have come prepared with a team of experienced

divers and high-tech kit. What we will try to do with the camera is

get slow motion pictures of the gannet as it hits the water and

goes after the fish. If we can get that and slow it right down that

should be superb. The water is currently a bracing

seven degrees! But if this works it will be worth it. All of a sudden

the sea is full of gannets. I can feel the impact when they hit the

water, it is one of the most incredible wildlife experiences I

have ever had. It really is. They are big birds, big, big birds.

It is fascinating to witness, but each dive lasts just seconds. To

see what's really going on we need to slow it down. The results are

Now I'm really beginning to understand what makes gannets so

special. They hit the water like missiles at speed of over 13 miles

an hour. The impact on their bodies must be extraordinary, but gannets

are built to dive. An air bag in their chest inflates to cushion the

impact. As they enter the water their wings fold back like arrows,

making them super streamlined. But beneath the surface wings turn into

flippers, allowing them to dive deeper than most other birds and to

catch their prey. Seeing them in action like this it

is no surprise to me that gannets are doing so well. Wow, to be up on

the boat watching gannets dive into the water is something, to be down

here with them really is an experience of a lifetime. Wow is

the word for it. That was amazing, you're here with us. I'm so jealous,

that must have been a fantastic experience? If I had a wild life

bucket list diving with plunging gannets would be up there with the

best. You are a lucky boy. We asked for questions, we have a pertenent

one about the gannets, what top speed can gannets reach when they

are diving? They can dive from about 30ms up. That is 100-foot.

They can reach speeds of 100kms an hour. 60 miles an hour. That is an

incredible impact when they hit that water. I have a gannet skull

here, they are streamlined. There is a smooth joint between the beak

and the skull. Birds have nostrils out of the beak, and gannets'

nostrils goes in so the rushing water doesn't damage the eyes or

the brain. We have some film showing them coming into the water.

Here they come, look at that. They have air sacks behind the skin of

the face and the chest too. They have these incredibly strong necks.

All of that acts as a buffer for this amazing impact that they have.

Were you not worried under the water that one might hit your head,

that would hurt at that speed. did think I would leave the water

with a gannet stuck in my skull. But I didn't. They have binocular

vision when they look down, they can see fish from a great height.

They knew where I was and the fish of. Once they get underwater their

vision isn't good, it is like ours'. You don't need good vision if you

get the fish. Is that why three went after the fish? Squabble, we

were throwing in fish. They will go over 100 miles to look for food. We

are throwing in food right under the rock. They gathered in masses,

they came down, they squabble on the surface and under underwater.

There is a debate as to whether gannets swallow the fish whole

underwater, or not. We saw one swallow one whole. You have been

filming throughout the spring, what can we look forward to over the

next few days and weeks? I will be looking at hen harriers, a

beautiful male here. Another stunning bird of prey is the kite,

I will be in Oxfordshire. Look at that. Talon-grappling pair. Also up

in Aberdeen looking at bottlnoseed dolphin, up there they grow to four

metres long. We will look forward to all of that. Thank you very much

for coming in. Chris you must have been to the

rock some time? I have, it is a global spectacular. I have come

down now on a very dingy evening to the edge of this bank. In amongst

the trees is our great tits nest. We go live there. One of the birds

is in there brooding them. Just like the jackdaw, this doesn't

surprise me at all, it is a cool evening. He has five chicks

underneath him. They have been busy all day. Doing what? They have been

in and out, despite the rain. One of the little chicks decided to go

for a squirm around the nest. This paid dividends because it was out

and therefore perhaps more noticable than the others so when

the adult did come in, after it sort of leered at a camera, it got

a catterpillar for the trouble. There we are. Look at that,

fantastic. The other thing we saw today was our great tits were

testing to me which of their young wanted the catterpillar the most.

Look at the way it is putting it in and out, in and out and finally

depositing it. Something is going on there. The nuances of which we

probably don't yet fully understand. Behind me, if you look down and

across the murky, grassy field here, you can see some barns. Last year

and the year before, if you were watching Springwatch, these were a

hive of activity. They were filled with babey barn owls like this. And

we all enjoy some groovy times watching these bird. They were

great characters. But what's going on over there at the moment? Well I

can tell you that everything is much later. Just like the bluebells,

the toads, everything else, our barn owls have only just started

laying their eggs. They are, this is the male, presumably bringing in

food to the female. When we last looked there was just one egg in

there. What this means is that throughout the course of our

programme this year we are not going to rig them, because

basically we just get shots of a foe male barn owl sat there

incubating the eggs. Does that mean we will get chicks this series?

might at the end of the series. won't rig a camera until the eggs

hatch. Even if they hatched right on time it would be at the end of

the certificatesy. It could be good news for the barn owls, just

because it is cold and late. It doesn't matter, plenty of voles in

the summer. It is not unusual to see baby barn owls late in the year,

even up to Christmas. Right by the barn owls and the barn we saw baby

rabbits. There they are. I know you probably don't like fluffy little

rabbits, but you have to admit that is quite sweet. These are wonderful

animals, we understatement the social life and biology of rabbits.

They get up to all sorts of fascinating things underground, as

I found out in my burrowers series later on in the year. Could it be

fodder for the barn owls, a bit big? Unlikely. There is another

bird we can go live to our buzzard now, these are very fond of eating

rabbits. It has got very dark underneath the trees. I think in a

contest to find the world's most miserable, sodden buzzard, this is

a contender. But it is also a buzzard that is doing a great job.

I can tell you that tomorrow it is meant to be sunny here! Great news

for us. But perhaps great news for that really stoic female buzzard as

well. I think the film we showed yesterday that definitely deserved

thes could ar for wildlife drama was the update on our Ospreys.

Monty the Osprey and his love nest. The drama continues tonight, it is

a bit of a love tangle. At this Wildlife Trust reserve, up

the road from us, the male Osprey, Monty, is alone. His long-term

partner, Norah didn't return from Africa this year and is feared dead.

Monty did attract another female who stuck around for a few days,

taking advantage of Monty's fishing skills to feed up after her long

journey. But she soon disappeared. Had she just used Monty to provide

some convenient meals before heading off to find another male?

Now Monty has been left alone again and the breeding season is in full

swing. But he's not single for long, a new female arrives in the estuary.

She's a Scottish bird and was ringed back in 2010 near Loch Ness.

As a three-year-old this would be her first breeding season. Monty

works hard to impress this new female. He provides ten fish within

24 hours. But she still shows no signs of allowing him to mate. Is

she unimpressed, or perhaps as a breeding novice she is just too

young and inexperienced to understand his courtship, she seems

to be easily confused. She could just be pulling his leg!

Fortunately Monty appears to be a patient and tolerant partner.

Eventually she settles on the nest and looks quite at home. But who is

this? Flying in like a rocket. Serin, she is back and she means

business. After looking around and realising that monthy is quite a

catch afterall, she has decided to fight for her man. Serin soon sees

her off, and takes her place back on the nest. Monty seems confused,

he just wants to breed. And all this hunting to provide fish for a

succession of females must be exhausting. Now Serin and Monty are

running late and need to get on with courtship and breeding if they

are to produce chicks this year. Just as the situation seems to have

settled downed there's yet another intruder. The very next day a

massive female turns up, she has a leg ring, blue 12 that shows she's

from Rutland and was ringed in 2010. This is also her first breeding

season. She circles over head and Monty now tries to see her off.

There is an almighty chase that goes on for an exhausting seven

hours. But all the while Serin is hungry, she relies on Monty to

bring her food, but he's busy engaged in aerial combat. Monty

continues to chase off her for a couple of days, defending his nest

from this intruder, but this big girl is persistent and she wants

him and his nest. Monty has a difficult decision to make. Does he

carry on defending Serin or accept this third mate. In the end the

decision is made for him. Serin appears to have thrown in the towel,

who can blame her for conceding defeat. This is one of the biggest

Ospreys known. Finally monthy accepts her. It is an unusual way

to would a girl -- woo a girl, but ultimately successful. She settles

in for the long haul, after all the mate swapping shenanigans, have

they left it too late to have young this year? What a to do! Three

ladies all after Monty. Have they left it too late Chris? It is a

long process isn't it. Incubating and rearing their young and

building up strength to get back to west Africa. It will be touch and

go. It will be a great story that's for sure. It has provided a lot of

drama already. A quick look at some glorious

photographs. Look at that. That's very pretty. Andy sent that in.

That is gorgeous, on a British bluebell. I have got great tit

versus meadow pippet from Kathleen. I have got this one, Barbie Lindsay

it is a rove beatle on dand lion. Like the abstract nature of that.

Look at that, bee fly. This one is a duty, a kestrel over car. This

was hovering right above his van. This ties in very well. Tomorrow

comes a film about a bird I have obsessed about since I was a

teenager, the kestrel, we will investigate their decline,

launching a survey and find out what we can do to help their

numbers. We have cling hangers galore, what

will happen in the jackdaw nest. Remember we have got those

intruders, the chicks are all right now, but will they be all right

tomorrow? Now our Mallard, she is sitting on those eggs. Look at the

glom. When will they hatch out? Will they make it to the river. We

are back at 7.30, not 8.00, after Springwatch we have Springwatch

Unsprung and we have more photos and listening to your observations,

and we are back at 3.00 for Springwatch in the afternoon. And