Episode 11 Springwatch

It is Wednesday. And the most important sporting event for four

years has not just started. But our wildlife squad is fully fit and we

have plenty of support waiting on the bench. A returning Springwatch

star slithers into the limelight yet again bringing drama with it. For

the next 70 minutes we will be sharing our lives with some of our

beautiful British wildlife. It is Springwatch.

Yes, hello and welcome to the ultimate Springwatch of 2014, coming

to you live from the beautiful RSPB reserve at Minismere won the Suffolk

coast. What a place it is. This is just part of the Suffolk coast and

Heath area of outstanding natural beauty. There you can see Minismere.

Another important habitat we have here is the sandy lowland heath

managed by the National trust and also the Suffolk wildlife trust.

This is an important habitat for a unique Guild of species which

prosper here and nowhere else. It is a beautiful place for a special

group of animals. Sandy lowland heath is one of the most spectacular

habitats. It is rarer than tropical rainforests. Is it really? That is

an amazing fact to start the show with. I am going to tell you that we

have 24 hours left to make the most of our fantastic cast of animal

characters. Some have left us already. Some have not made it and

others have stuck around much longer than anticipated. They seem to be

making the most of their profile and enjoying the limelight. Particularly

our family of bitterns. They might be the stars of Springwatch. There

is their nest in the reeds and they are looking very chilled and

relaxed. Still doing it for me after three weeks. Still amazing that they

are doing it for anyone because we thought they would semi-fletch at

the weekend and we thought they would have gone by now but they are

still here. We will tell you more about that later. It has undeniably

been an extraordinary treat that we were able to get our cameras on the

bittern nest but sometimes it is the unplanned things which can be even

more surprising. Earlier in this series, we saw a snake attending the

nest of goldfinches. And I'd had climbed up and positioned itself to

strike at one of the chicks and it dragged it out. This was a surprise.

We know adders feed on small animals and on the ground, not at chest

height in the brambles. It was a remarkable observation. Let me tell

you that we were going to launch a new nest today. It was the nest of

quite a common garden species, a blackbird. This blackbird is nesting

quite low down in the scrub. It has four chicks about a week and a half

old. The adult female disappeared a couple of days ago and the adult

male is a super dad. He has been very attentive and is feeding the

chicks extremely well. He's about to really earn his stripes. Look at

this. This is what we saw yesterday. Three of the chicks have burst from

the nest. The male is agitated. You can see the approach of an adder.

Another one pops the nest. This is a female snake. It is a different one

to the other. The adult male is like super dad. He comes in and attacks

the adder. You can see the chick comes across the screen. It has

fangs out and jaws open wide. There is the little one coming back. It is

chaos in there. It is not a case of predation. This is the snake looking

after itself. It is being attacked by the adult blackbird. It is having

a sniff. It probably smelt the chicks and was curious as to what

they were. But it has got itself into some trouble because the male

blackbird was defending the nest extremely vigorously. Rattlesnakes

can strike at 14 metres per second. I am not sure how fast adders can

strike. In the end, the blackbird drives the snake off with a final

flourish. I think the adder got more than she bargained for. Good night

Sweetheart, off it goes. What an amazing observation. Incredible. To

see one I do predation is amazing for a series. To see two, I know it

was not successful. Over the last couple of days it has been extremely

hot here. You might think snakes like it hot but not as hot as it has

been. If it is 15 degrees in the air, on the ground it can be 40

degrees which is way too hot for these reptiles. One theory as they

have been going into the bushes to get away from the sun and the heat

and that is why they are hunting there aren't coming across these

birds' nests as well as the small mammals. Let's have a look at the

blackbird best live. It is empty. The chicks did not come back. The

reason is probably because they were due to fledge anyway. Their chances

of survival are pretty high. They have super dad looking after them.

They would have scattered into the vegetation and he will be feeding

them and the snake I would imagine has long gone. Martin is out and

about as usual. Where has he gone? About two miles north. Yes, I am on

Dunwich Heath managed by the National trust. This is heath land.

Our is to explore the specialised wildlife. If you look over there

that is where Minismere is about two miles away. Over here, we have got

our special lies heath camera. We can go to live and see what we have

got. It is panning about the heathlands. Nothing out and about

right now but we will keep watching throughout the programme because we

have seen some very interesting creatures. Last night, just after we

came off air, that camera was panning around and saw this. Two

young little fox cubs. All over the country, at this time of year, the

cubs will be emerging in towns and the country. Chris doesn't let me

say they are playing! It looks like it but he is right. All this playing

about has a purpose. These two are starting to establish some kind of

hierarchy, bouncing off each other, bumping. Look at that, I am the

boss. They look in superb condition and they look gorgeous, that russet

ground -- russet brown against the green of the heathland. They have

got to learn to do that characteristic jumping thing they do

when they leap up into the air and bounced down onto a vole or a mouse.

I love that. It is a specialised technique. It takes them a while to

get proficient at doing that. Fantastic. We will keep an eye on

the heath camera just in case. The news keeps coming. We got some

interesting news earlier in the spring, down on the south coast,

something odd was going on. We sent agent Packham to investigate.

This street in Sussex has a secret. And I am on a covert mission to

investigate the murder of an exotic Lady and the hidden treasure that

she left behind. Amanda, tell me the story from the

very start. What was happening, when and how the whole thing unfolded. I

was doing a bit of artwork actually. I wanted a butterfly. I found an old

book in our house with a swallowtail. It was the first

picture in the book. I had drawn half of it and my eyes were hurting.

I went out to see where Poppy, the cat was. She was in the process of

catching a swallowtail. Say you were drawing one, the first time you had

drawn one and half way through the process you see your cat catching a

real one in the garden. Yes, I came to rescue it but it was a bit

damaged unfortunately. This is the scene of a great crime. You have got

the insect here. Oh deer, look at that. But let's be positive.

Although Poppy the cat murdered the butterfly it had essentially done

its duty, it had laid some eggs. You No sometime in September we saw some

amazing caterpillars, eight in total. We contacted somebody from

the butterfly conservation trust. He became animated and then you

realised what a to fly gold mine you had in your garden. Michael quickly

identified the remains of the continental swallowtail butterfly.

Our British swallowtail is confined to Norfolk so this European vagrant

was quite a remarkable discovery. The British version is a darker

yellow with a narrow thorax and it only lays its eggs on milk parsley.

However, the continent to list but less fussy, laying its eggs on a

wider variety of plants such as the fennel in Amanda's garden. When you

got the phone call from Amanda, you probably didn't sleep, did you? I

was very excited. I said to Amanda the key thing is we have to find out

where they keep eight. But they all dropped to the ground pretty much

the same morning. Amanda was following one up the garden but then

there was another one. Sometimes they will go down. These

swallowtails could really move. She got her neighbours involved to make

sure they did not lose any. But amazingly, they chased them and we

know where everyone of the caterpillars has gone. You have got

some in a box over here. This green one looks like a little jewel. It is

a fantastic colour, very vivid. This is exciting times. Yes, we could see

the emergence of these swallowtails. It will be the first known an urgent

of the continental swallowtail in England. The best place for Poppy

the cat in my mind for the next three weeks might be in Tasmania.

It looks so innocent, doesn't it? But I think Amanda might have taken

your advice and sent Poppy the cat to Tasmania because look what

happened on May the 17th. This is the chrysalis. If you look closely,

it starts to fidget a bit which means something is going to happen.

Then we have emerging continental swallowtail butterfly. You can see

it is drying its wings there. It is hardening up before it is ready to

fly off. That is the first documented emergence of a

continental swallowtail in Britain ever, we think. Absolutely amazing.

We think five out of eight of those have emerged now. Those are the ones

we knew about in that garden. There could have been plenty more out in

the countryside. Already this year we have had reports of continental

swallowtails in Devon, Dorset and Hampshire as well. It could be these

insects are the vanguard of an invasion of butterflies coming over

to the UK. But, as we saw in the film, we do have our own

swallowtail. It is a subspecies of swallowtail and it is formed by

geographical isolation. It has been stuck here in Britain since the land

bridge to continental Europe closed. That is why it is slightly darker.

It has got itself into a bit of a botanical bottleneck because it only

feeds on milk parsley, nothing else. It is very difficult to keep Mark

parsley going and therefore to keep the butterfly going. The question

is, does it matter if we lose it? If it is such a specialist, it needs

open firm, milk parsley, is it really sustainable? That is like

opening a very dangerous can of worms because I made comments about

the panda asking if it was sustainable and I never heard the

last of it! In some ways yes, because it is a valuable subspecies

but in the long term we have to think that nature is dynamic and

fluid and if the other swallowtails come here, they would end up into

breeding with the UK subspecies and therefore, dilutes it and change it.

Sometimes I do not think we can be that precious and we have to focus

on conserving things we can achieve. In the meantime, I think we have to

focus on looking after the species we can. And Michael Blincoe who you

saw in the film will be talking online when we have finished and he

will ask you if you have seen any solid tiles. I wonder if Martin has

seen any? I guess he has not gone far enough North.

We will explore the wildlife here. Before we do, come up here a second,

look at this. A bit of cultural history. Can you see that trench

there. The Heath has been used, by the army, it was used in World War

II, to train, to see how we could defend ourselves against German

tanks. Those sort of ditches were some way to find out, how can we get

our tanks across. Here is how they did that? See that load of twigs,

put them on the ground and rode over it. The fantastic. Sort of cultural

history all around us as well. We are here to look for the animals.

This habitat here is fantastic for repitiles. We have already seen

adders in the programme. Let us have a look at another reptile. --

reptiles. Hello. Oh, dear. Here it is. The what a gorgeous tiny little

animal. This is a baby grass snake. It has the yellow collar around its

neck. It's calm this one. They can grow to be four or five feet long.

This has a lot of growing to do. It has the yellow collar, it hasn't the

zig-zag. If you see a snake that is more than two foot long it will be a

grass snake. Adders don't grow much bigger than that. It's like a living

jewel. The let us put them back. These will be released. They were

found in a site where there was going fob building. They will be

released, not here, but in a safe place. Now, look at this. If you are

very lucky, if you are digging in a compost heap, you might find one of

these. I will look into the difference between the breeding

strategies of a grass snakes and adders. Grass snakes lay eggs. You

can see one here. Here's the grass snake. Here is the egg actually

coming out. They will bury the eggs in maybe a compost heap, somewhere

warm where vegetation is fermenting, they need heat to help the eggs to

hatch out. Amazing shots. I've never seen any in my compost heap, I wish

I could. That is how grass snakes do it, by laying eggs. Adders do it

completely differently. They give birth to live young. In fact, when

they come out the young they have a membrane around them. The they soon

break out of that. Perfect little replicas of their mum come out. They

develop, the baby adders develop inside their mother, unlike the

grass snakes. That has a profound impact on how far, north and south,

the two different snakes can go. Because grass snakes, they need the

warmth. They can't go so far north. Adders, they are astonishing, they

can go above the Arctic Circle because of their breeding strategy.

Let us look at one more snake. You are screaming at me at home. It is

not a snake. It's a slow worm. It's a legless lizard. Beautiful things.

In fact, there are a few characters that still let you know it is a

lizard. If you look inside it has shoulder blades there. Even a pelvis

down the back. No arms and legs. There are a few other things. If you

look closely at the slow warm, it tells you it is not a snake, it is a

lizard. Look at its head. Here it is. Watch the tongue. It's forked a

little bit, but nothing like the tongue of a snake. Quite a big

tongue, isn't it? Look at the eyes now. A snake can't blink. It has to

have its eyes open all the time. There, you saw it blink. It has a

membrane that goes across. Let us look at that again. There we go.

They also have those round pupils as well. Adders have pupils like your

cat has. So has an adder. That is not very good. I love the slow worm.

I get them in the garden. I went outside one night and saw one eating

my slugs. Slow worms are great, the gardener's friend. We have lots of

repitiles, we have some very special birds -- reptiles. This bird here,

it's the Dartford warbler, this is a special at here. -- speciality here.

They are very rare. They are susceptible to harsh winters. In

1973 they were reduced to 11 pairs as it was a harsh winter. They are

doing well here. Like a junior roadrunner. They generally eat

insects. The crucial thing about them is that they cannot migrate.

They have to stay here, unlike so many of our birds. They need this

habitat. The natural trust manage the habitat for the Dartford

warblers. They have low grass. It is full of little insects. Low heathers

like this, grasshoppers, perfect for warblers. They want to nest in

something like this. What they also need is, if the winter comes, they

need somewhere to hideaway, get in there. Even if it snows they can

find spiders to feed on. That is the beautiful Dartford warbler. I have

forgotten where I'm going now! Another animal that you sometimes

see here. We have never seen one. It will be the hen harrier. That is

another specialist up here. We asked our wildlife cameraman to film hen

harriers in the north. All you will see here he filmed in just 24-hours.

As another day dawns, the wildlife of the upland stirs. A ghost-like

form skirts the ridge. It's a male hen harrier. His pale

grey wings, tipped with black, flash as he swoops by.

It's early spring, and our male needs to find a mate. He'll have to

work hard to catch a female's eye in this vast, wild land. Hattie, a

young female, lives on this moor. She is much browner than the male.

She was fitted with a satellite tracker last year. This is her first

breeding season. But our male knows how to woo a lady. He dances for

her. In a spectacular courtship display,

known as skydancing, a male hen harrier will repeatedly soar, then

tumble through the sky, showing off his aerial abilities.

Our male is interrupted by an intruder, a buzzard. The harrier is

much smaller, but it doesn't stop him from picking a fight.

Even though the buzzard poses no real threat.

The show of strength seems to be doing the trick. Hattie even helps

our male ward off the buzzard. The intruder has had enough, and

heads off to find a more peaceful part of the moor.

The male has won Hattie over, she begins to build a nest.

Hen harriers are ground-nesting birds, working together, they

collect twigs and grasses in a shallow depression in the heather.

Here, they can begin to build the foundations for the next generation

of one of our most endangered birds of prey.

I wish that human courtship involved a beautiful dance like that. I think

I would quite like it. I said "beautiful", Chris, that is just

weird! Stop it. You are freaking me out. The good news is, that Hattieh

five eggs and all the chicks hatched successfully, as you can see in the

photo there. That is brilliant news. Up in Scotland they reckon there is

just over 500 hen harrier pairs, those chicks will help to boost the

numbers up in Scotland. Natural England plans to put satellite tags

on this year's chicks we hope to follow them and we will bring you an

update on Often Watch. They are a beautiful fees species, they should

be breeding all over the UK. We seem to think of them now as a bird of

moorland they could nest absolutely everywhere. When you see them flying

around, they look stunning. They could be flying over the south of

England. We've calculated that 300 pairs of them could be nesting in

England. Last year, no young were raised by hen harriers at all. At

the moment, there are three nests, some with young and some with eggs.

What is the problem here? The problem is persecution of raptors,

it's not just hen harriers. On the black isle in Scotland no fewer than

22 birds of prey were illegally poisoned. They were red kites, birds

like this. They were buzzards too. We are taking this very seriously.

The RSPB have currently got a ?27,000 reward for any information

that leads to a successful prosecution in this instance. You

know, the other day I was recounting a story, when I was a kid I asked my

dad, begged my dad, do bring me here to see what could be the last pair

of marsh harriers breeding. He drove from Southampton to bring me up here

in Minsmere. What if there is a kid begging his dad to drive him to

Scotland to see a hen harrier. Lineker, 1990 to Robson it means -

think about it. You can think about it, you can help, particularly when

it comes to hen harriers. The RSPB have a hen harrier hot-line. What we

would like you to do is con be tact us, via our website,

bbc.co.u/springwatch, and let us know if you see a hen harrier. By

mapping them they can monitor them. If we can monitor them we might be

able to look after them. -- contact. We should have a hot-line for

Martin. He has spread himself around this area quite a lot during this

series, hasn't he? He certainly has. Maybe people could ring in - Or

satellite track him. I don't know where he goes all the time, to be

honest. He has strange habits! Let us have another look round this

heathland. It is good for reptiles and it's managed for some rare

birds. We have seen one of the biggest creatures, red deer. It is

an interesting time of year for the red deer. These young stags are

growing their antlers, they shred them in winter and have to grow them

from scratch again. You can see the soft velvet surrounding them. That

provides the blood and nutrients to grow the antlers. It's the fasting

known growing tissue of any mammal at all. They can grow up to an inch

a day. It's a fascinating to think those stags, they are eating

peacefully together at the moment, in autumn they will be mortal

enemies and at one another. at night and that is when it gets

really interesting. All sorts of secrets are revealed. We did not

know if we would be able to film the carbs. This is an infrared camera.

It is pitch black. Here is a young cast trying to suckle its young. The

mother will hide it away during the day. She will only suckle at two or

three times, keeping it completely hidden. You can see it has got some

spotty camouflage on there to keep it hidden away. It is a little bit

unsteady on its pins there. Fantastic pictures. Wonderful to see

the deer. By the way, this car here, this is where all our transmission

is coming from. You can see all the aerials and there is a little man in

there making it all happen for us. As well as the deer, this is a

wonderful place at night for some magical birds. Let me set this up

for you. We think we have discovered something brand-new here. There is a

little tiny bird here called they would laugh. It says on the books

they will go up and sing for two or three minutes. -- a wood lark. We

went out with our thermal camera and our sound recordist, Gary. We found

something completely different. There is Gary with his parabolic

listening. Here is the wood lark. Remember, it is completely dark. If

you were out here on the heathlands you would hear it. This bird is

displaying. It is a male and it is trying to show how strong and tough

it is to any female who might be in the dark. What we discovered was it

did not sing for two or three minutes. That little bird song for

two hours, showing just how tough and strong it was. Let's see what

the adult looks like. There it is. That is what it looks like in the

daytime, but nondescript bird better night it has a magical song. This

one is a real speciality of the heathlands up here, the nightjar.

This is with our thermal camera. You would never see anything if you were

standing here. The song is called sharing. The mail is making the

sound showing off to the female. He can make 48 notes per second and

change the pitch. She is picking up something about his song which makes

him more attractive. That was an attempted mating. Gary

the sound recordist says he thinks the sound changes tone as he comes

in towards the mating. We have been following the story of the enormous

white tailed eagles up on the island of Mull. The first time we saw them

was on the very first Springwatch ten years ago. In that programme, we

ringed a little chip. After we had run it the chick disappeared off the

radar and we thought it was gone. But Iolo Williams has some very good

news. I am heading to a secret location on

the west of Scotland to catch up with an old Springwatch favourite.

Leading us there is Dave Sexton. After white tailed eagles

disappeared from the UK, Dave has toiled for nearly 30 years to help

these birds regained their rightful place here. We are going in search

of a very special bird, aren't we? A very special bird indeed. He is

known as Ichi and he was the first chick that Springwatch featured in

2005. Itchy and scratchy were the stars of the first series. Half of

all the white tailed eagles do not make it through to being parents pet

Ichi's story was different. He fledged in July of 2000 is five. --

2005. You have not seen him for ten years? We know he has been seen in

the area. We hope he has got a chick but we will not know that until we

get there. I just want to see him. It is a chick I have held my arms

and now we will be doing it to his chip. It has come full circle. We

land a safe distance from the nest but Itchy and his partner are

nowhere to be seen. We have to move fast to minimise disruption to the

family's routine. We have got to be really quick from now on in. In a

cloud of midges, the team of licensed rumours and climbers get to

work. We want to discover if Itchy has fathered any chicks. See eagles

choose high vantage points for their massive nests and this is no

exception. A good 20 metres up the Scots pine. Then Dave spots an adult

eagle through the trees. A female, yes? I cannot see it had. It is so

hard to get a view. They are both there. There is Itchy. I can see the

pound. -- tag. Fantastic. He has come back. Wonderful! Ten

years on and he has still got his tag. Look at him. He looks all grown

up. He does look all grown up with his resplendent white tail. What a

difference from being scruffy looking to growing up to being this

enormous eagle. I just cannot believe it.

Meanwhile, the nest climb continues. White tailed eagle nests can be two

metres across and three metres deep. Climber Justin finds a chick. Itchy

has a daughter. Justin carefully places her in a bag

and lowers it to the ground. That is good. That is the chick

down. Yes, safe and sound. Hello. How old do you think this chick is?

About five weeks. The grade down is coming out and the new brown

feathers are coming through. It has another five or six weeks before it

is fully grown. I cannot get over how enormous it is. Defeat our

nearly fully grown. They will get better at moving and grabbing prey.

In another couple of weeks she will be grabbing prey and starting to

pull at it herself. The parents will still be feeding but for the moment

she is totally dependent on Itchy and his mate. Saw this weighing and

measuring it is a chance to make sure she is in good health? Yes,

there is a pretty good chance she will go on to take her first flight.

She is an absolute beauty. The chick, ringed and weighed, Justin

returns her to the nest, allowing this magnificent pair of birds to

get back to their parenting duties. Itchy has played his part in

fathering the next generation of Scottish born see eagles meaning

this incredible species is one stage closer to a full UK recovery.

What a fabulous bird. It has to be one of my favourites. It must be

amazing for days to catch up with Itchy after ten years. Iolo will be

joining us tomorrow. He is heading down from the West Coast of

Scotland. I am sure he will be covered image by its! Now, let's

talk badgers. We have had cameras on a couple of sets of archers ats.

They have been shyer than expected but we have seen them and all five

of the Cubs. Here are two of them. This one has been building his part

up a little bit and rather over enjoying the camera! We have asked

many questions about the badgers and one of them is what they are eating.

We know the sandy soil is not a earthworm rich. We know they also

read small chicks and eggs. What exactly are they eating? To find

that out we need a bag of to and someone who is prepared to analyse

it. It is a beautiful gift. I accept it. It is fantastic. That is a

moment of smug conceit because we are about to analyse agger done live

on BBC Two. It is a highlight, folks! Even my family might be

slightly proud. We have this magnificent microscope here. If I

had one of these and I was seven or eight, or even 53, I would be really

pleased. And we have a sample we prepared earlier. Not literally! It

is a sample of badger done. That is the win case of a beetle which the

badgers have eaten. When I was a teenager I looked at badger to every

Thursday night for five years and I learned Dutch amend this amount from

it. At last it is paying dividends. Take a look at this. When they feed

they ingest vegetable material. This is an oak leaf. I can tell you the

badger has been foraging in oak woodland. Then we can look deeper.

It has been eating beetles. But if you look further with some different

samples, you will find hair. Under the microscope of an expert we would

be able to identify this to species level, we would know whether it was

rabbit or fold. And there is also a vertebra there, a bone, it could be

from a bird or a mammal. The other thing we have to look for is this, a

little bristle which are earthworms have won the side of their bodies to

stop them slipping backwards through their tunnels.

stop them slipping backwards through their When we sample badger to we

count these. This will tell us how many worms the badgers are eating.

We do not need a microscope like this to analyse dong. You can get an

inexpensive magnifying glass and have masses of fun on your own

kitchen table or your own dining table and I strongly advocate that,

I really do! I can see my mother rushing out to get magnifying glass.

It is not too smelly. If you freeze it before you analyse it it keeps

the smell down. This is one meal I'm looking at here. Have you to get

lots of samples. That is why I did it for five years every Thursday

night. No Top of the Pops for me, I can tell you. This is a pie chart of

the average over the UK of what badgers are eating. I have made it

nice and colourful. It has my own design here. 51%. You are gone too

far! Don't be so rude. 51% earthworms. Just 5% birds. Our

badgers eaten chicks and eggs, that is unusual they are opportunistic.

If the worms aren't about they will turn to something else. That is what

you learn from looking at poo live on BBC Two. It's predictable we

would have a pie chart, it's surprising I'm holding it up and

being proud of it! What is unpredictable and very surprising is

the amount of adder action we've had on the series. What are you doing?

I'm liking the pie chart. We have seen adder predation. There seems to

be a lot of adder action - you are totally putting me off! Chris came

here in April with Martin after he had an adder spotter tip-off. Stop

it! In early spring adders emerge from their winter hibernation

looking for the chance to breed. As mince mean is a bit of a hotspot for

this increasingly rare reptile, Chris and I thought we would try our

luck at finding some. Skin! Quite big. Yeah, and fresh. Still soft.

It's from a female. It's a big adder. She has only just shed this.

If it was in the sun, it would dry out really quickly. She is around

here somewhere. The first one we spot is a male. Look at that. It's

beautiful. They are just gleaming. Do you think that male has just shed

as well? I think he's minty, spark ling, shining and completely He

wasn't fresh. The only one. We were soon surrounded by male adders. One

has gone off that way. Look at that. Moving so fast all the time, Chris.

I know. So quick. They are all around us, Chris. I know! I know!

Martin, Martin! Look at that. A female and a male. The colour of

adders varies from one individual to another. Females tend to be brownie

red, the males are striking black-and-white. What on earth do

you think is going on here? We have male and female? My theory is there

is a female adder here that has recently shred. Shed. They emerge,

feed then they molt and then they mate. We have got, what, two, three,

males here. Yeah. All looking for that one female? I think so. Wanting

to mate with her? I think that is what is going on. Normally, when you

see an adder, you are not looking for it, you disturb it you see it

wriggling away. You catch one basking. This is brilliant. We can

watch their behaviour. We are not annoying them. They don't know we

are here. They seem oblivious. One has gone in six inches from my boot.

You are fine. He is spreading his body onto the ground, both to get

the rays of the sun and the warmth from the ground. You frequently see

them do this. They stretch the rib cage right apart like that. Lizards

do it too. He is worn out, wants to recharge his solar batteries. When I

was a kid I was out after adders, every weekend when it was sunny. Had

to look for adders, catch adders, bring them home. Put them on top of

the TV. One gave birth on top of the TV. It was Saturday afternoon, when

the horseracing was on. Eight young adders. It was a top moment for me,

not sure about my parents. Poor mum and dad! These males clearly had one

thing on their minds. A few days later we capture this. A male adder

finally getting his girl. After some gentle sniffing, he

quivers against her to entice her to mate. Female adders only breed every

couple of years, but this male is in luck. She's receptive and accepts

his advances. Adder mating is a prolonged affair. The pair will stay

together for as long as two hours before eventually going their

separate ways. The young develop inside their mother, over the

spring, and in late summer, she'll give birth to around eight tiny

babies, each a perfect minuture of their mum. Fantastic. That was a

great little ramble, to be quite honest with you. It looked it. We

enjoyed ourselves much we watched the animals behaving naturally. They

didn't know we were there. They slithered around. Great to observe

them like that. It's been a surprise how much of a star the adder has

become. You come to mince mean and expect bitterns, but the adders have

performed. Let us look at our family of bitterns. Let us see if the

chicks are still there. They are still there, they are still

sleeping. Oh, listen! Is that the bittern making that noise? Is I

cannot see them moving. That is something else behind the camera. I

think you are right. I don't think it's near the camera. It would have

woken the bitterns up. That must be coming from somewhere else. You

don't think they are dreaming. That is them dreaming - It's a nightmare!

We are really surprised that there is -- those bittern chicks are still

there. We have been saying they are going to fledge. This happened

yesterday. The two chicks are doing what they have seen the parent bird

do. Climbing up on the reeds, enjoying the sunshine. Looking at

the world outside the nest. Look at the claws gripping on. That is

exactly what they are designed to do. Having a good explore. They have

basically been leaving the nest quite a lot recently. Then, today,

we thought this one was on the roll to semi fledge. . It leaves. In the

right hand corner the mother comes in to say - off you go. My mum would

talk about something, I would walk out of the room, I was told I was

being rude. That is what the bitterns are doing. You do it to me

sometimes as well? Fair enough! We thought they were semi fledging.

They were going to leave the nest. They won't fly yet. They will wonder

around the reed being fed by their mother. They are 24-days old now. So

we were - look, there is the mother flying off. We have seen a lot of

bitterns flying over here and a lot of people come from all over the UK

to enjoy that sight. A few hours later, both of the bitterns came

back to the nest. That seems to have become a little bit of a pattern.

Yeah, the seconds one is coming in now. The reason they are coming back

is that is because the parents come with food. At the moment, at least,

they are going back there so that they can be fed via regurgitation.

You have to be honest sometimes. We have exaggerated a little. We

bragged here on Springwatch we were showing you the bitterns nest for

the first time. We had a letter from Chris who says" the sequence on the

bittern at the nest showed viewers something never seen before on film.

I had a hide on a bittern's nest 56 years ago. Of course with the

equipment available to me the quality of digital picture taken now

exceeds anything I could have achieved. Five teams of cameramen

working for weeks before Springwatch started, not to mention the budget"

I have to tell you it's not that great "I venture the opinion that

our pioneering achievement was a match and much harder work. I have

now just turned 87, I'm still taking wildlife pick turts - just." Chris,

we salute you. What a top bloke. 56 years ago he was doing what we were

doing. It wasn't live. It was on a black-and-white camera, wasn't it?

Pioneer, Chris Mine. He has rained on our parade? Well he has and he

hasn't. Credit where credit is due. Martin introduced us to a newest

under the tunnel bit of the sluice behind us here. It was swallows, let

us look at it live. This nest looks really precarious. It has a few

chicks in there. It looks like they will fall out. We have been watching

them closely. They are phenomenonal feeders. Look at that. Mother is

coming in. They do 70 feeds per hour on average. Just in half an hour, 37

feeds were recorded. The feed lasts just half a second. Amazing.

Incredible. The other amazing thing we have learnt, that is that when

they are 16-days old the adults can identify the sex of their

youngsters. They know whether they are male or females, while they are

still in the nest. There is some evidence to suggest they can

therefore preferentially feed them. When they leave the nest it's an

equal sex ratio. After two years there were more surviving male

swallows than females we think it could be to do with preferential

feeding two years before when at the nestling stage. Sexist swallows

aren't they? They must be. There must be an adaptive advantage for

that. They must be choosing to feed the males better quality food than

the females. They are doing that. The subtlies of nature, you can

never under estimate it. When it comes to wanting to advance an

understanding of nature what you need is a life-long curiousity and

the ability to look at something in a child-like way. In a fundamental

way. Sometimes it helps to go back to basics. Here is a simple question

- what are flowers for? How does the relationship that they have with

insects actually work? Darwin popularised the study of

insect pollination. He realised it's all about mutualism. When an insect

visits a flower, both benefit. Insects are after fast-food, sweet

nectar. Meanwhile, the plants need a bit of help with their reproduction.

They have got to get male pollen to the stigma of another plant. Because

plants can't move, insects are the perfect match makers. To lure

pollinators in, plants have perfected the art of self promotion.

Rule one, smell good. Insects antennae are covered with super

sensitive receptors which detect chemical compounds released by the

flower. These result in the smells that we love. Some insects like

different smells. For flies it's the sent of urine. The Lords and Ladies

plant is happy to oblige. Rule two, look the part. Moody blues, deep

purples and simple reds. These vivid hues may look beautiful to us,

through a bee's eyes, another world is revealed. Monochrome petals

transform into striking UV nectar guides. Rule three, reward your

visitors. Nectar is a watery mix of sugars, it is easy to make and it's

high-octane fuel for frequent flyers. Pollen is a more

nutritionious mix. Perfect for raising lard have you back at the

nest. -- larvae back at the nest. Every year, pollinators contribute

almost ?500m to the UK economy. It's more than about money. Insect

pollination has been taking place since the time of the dinosaurs it

has given rise to an incredible diversity. It seems that foreevery

different flower there are matching insects. Without pollination, who

knows what life on earth would look like today.

It is said if bees become extinct the human race, as we know it, would

probably follow within 20 years. That is a sobering thought? Who said

that? I thought it was Einstein. It's a general saying. Pollinating

insect numbers have declined dramatically. The main reason for

that is Agra culture. We have lost 97% of our flower rich grasslands

since the 1930s, that is a huge decline. We can do something to

help. Councils are doing things to help, they are mowing verges later

to allow them to grow. If you have a lawn in your garden put a little bit

aside. Set it the aside. Don't mow it. Look at this picture. You can do

it at any age, clearly. This is Tom and Henry. They set aside a little

bit. They have their diggers there. Then, have a see what wildflowers

grow. Get an ID kit from Plantlife and let them know what is growing.

All the information for that is on our website. Bbc.co.u/springwatch

Tom and Henry, I expect on that patch of grass, they will get plenty

of bees. I was worried about the Queen earlier, she seemed to be

slowing down. We can hear them buzzing. They are building pots of

honey. Above the Queen and they are storing food. It goes through stages

this nest. The begin with she has eight workers are now she has more.

In might build up to 400. We can have a listen. It is an incredible

noise. It has gone a bit quieter. Can I tell you something, my friend

Chris Timmins has bees. He said listen to the hives. The first one

was quite quiet, then the next one was a bit quieter but then one was

really loud. He said those are aggressive. You can tell from the

bars how quiet or calm they are. There is 24 hours to continue

watching that live camera and our other cameras that you can still

stay in contact with Springwatch even when the cameras are turned

off. You can join that by joining Twitter and Facebook and you can do

that through our website. We will have general updates, we will tell

you about surveys and other news as well. Do you know how many people

have joined our Twitter and Facebook since the series started three weeks

ago? 24,000! Thank you. Do join us. One thing we have been keeping an

eye on is the great crane project. This is going on down in the

wildlife and wetlands trust in Slimbridge. They have been trying to

bring back cranes to the south-west of England. Let's see their two

heroes. There is Christine and the mail is called Monty like our osprey

but nothing like an osprey. That is Monty the crane. Last do they tried

to breed but they were not successful. Let's find out what

happened this year. Early spring in Slimbridge and sound

like no other echoes across the mudflats.

Christine and her partner Monty are back.

They check out last year's failed nest but will they try to breed

again? Cranes danced to renew their bonds

and even the rain cannot dampen the pair's spirits. Christine and Monty

begin their unique ungainly tango. The couple begin the process of

rebuilding their nest, painstakingly gathering huge quantities of

material. It is made April. Christine is

spending most of her time sitting in the reeds. She must be incubating

one or possibly two eggs. A month later, as Christine and

Monty forage close to the nest, something stirs at their feet.

Not one but two beautiful chicks, taking their first steps amongst the

buttercups. The precious youngsters are dwarfed

by their towering parents. It is early days. We'll very young

parents be able to protect them? Harsh weather and predators will be

constant threats. Gorgeous little animals, beautiful

chicks, but sadly they did not make it this year. But all is not lost

because those cranes are very long-lived birds. They can live up

to 20 years. Christine and Monty are only about four years old so they

will, in all probability, try to nest again and maybe next time they

will be successful. They are not the only cranes in the country.

The East of England has had them since the early 1980s. They have

spread out. Some have got as far as North Yorkshire. Lots have moved

inland into the Fens and some have bred in the south of England so we

have a growing crane population across the UK. What else have we got

here on the reserve? One thing we have got our these which is the type

of pony looking gorgeous. The stallions are bit of a handful. Only

fools would go near them. Only fools. And horses like this are

valuable conservation tool. There are great at maintaining the

marches. Just going back to the cranes, they were doing a beautiful

dance. I think you could learn a lot from our cranes. It was stunning.

You men could learn a lot from animals. Never enough, is it? Dung

analysis, worthless. Don't go away because immediately after the show

it will be Unsprung and tonight, a man called Michael Link oh will be

looking at butterflies in depth including those beautiful

swallowtails. Tomorrow, we will be back at eight o'clock and yellow

Williams will be joining us then to give us the latest update from

Scotland. Butterflies are one thing and ospreys are another. Tomorrow,

we will be joining Michaela's favourite bird, Monty, as he tries

to get his genes into the next generation. And we will be looking

at grubby faced Rob, the enormous cuckoo. And bitterns who have got

talent. And we will be back at eight o'clock tomorrow. Goodbye.