:00:00. > :00:11.We're back! It is week two from our fabulous new home up here on the
:00:12. > :00:21.Suffolk Coast and there is lots going on. There is' plenty of news
:00:22. > :00:29.to catch up on from our bitterns to our blue tits. Who knows what will
:00:30. > :00:33.happen in the next 20 minutes? Stand-by for action, it's
:00:34. > :00:55.Springwatch! Yes, hello. Welcome to Springwatch
:00:56. > :01:01.2014. It is week two. Coming to you from this beautiful RSPB reserve up
:01:02. > :01:09.here on the coast of Suffolk. It is a fantastic reserve. It has been
:01:10. > :01:12.sculptured by the RSPB from the days when Dad's Army was out here. From
:01:13. > :01:18.the air, you can look down and see the great range of habitats we're
:01:19. > :01:25.enjoying. All the fantastic reedbeds. There is' woodland and
:01:26. > :01:29.grassland and there is a range of species and our mission for the
:01:30. > :01:32.three weeks that we're here is to explore the habitats and all the
:01:33. > :01:36.species and we've got our nosey nose into everything, haven't we? We've
:01:37. > :01:41.got live cameras all over the place. Let's look at a couple of them. This
:01:42. > :01:51.is what we're calling our scrape cam. There is lots of black
:01:52. > :01:56.headed-gulls. Some have chicks. The adult bird is sitting on eggs and
:01:57. > :02:00.hopefully maybe tomorrow, those might hatch, but wherever there are
:02:01. > :02:05.ground nesting birds, there are lots of predators. So that can be the
:02:06. > :02:09.scene of drama. This is another one of our live
:02:10. > :02:15.nests. This is our bittern nests. It is doing it for Chris, this nest! We
:02:16. > :02:18.have seen some amazing action on this particular nest. Remember, this
:02:19. > :02:24.is a bird that's rarely seen. It is shy. It is elusive. So we're
:02:25. > :02:32.privileged to be able to see it and its two chicks. Fantastic. Last
:02:33. > :02:38.Thursday we left you on a cliffhanger and it involved our
:02:39. > :02:44.bluetits. We started filming them on 22nd May and there were nine chicks
:02:45. > :02:48.in the nest and we had very attentive parents and the chicks
:02:49. > :02:53.started to grow up. They have got their feathers already. They are
:02:54. > :02:57.standing on top of each other. It must be so uncomfortable. The
:02:58. > :03:00.parents kept feeding them caterpillars and they grew and grew
:03:01. > :03:06.and last week on Wednesday in fact, the parents started to try and tease
:03:07. > :03:17.them to come out, offering them caterpillars saying, "Come out. Come
:03:18. > :03:26.out." " They would not go. So we just had to wait. I'm sure they were
:03:27. > :03:30.going to go. We thought we might get a live fledgling on Thursday. It was
:03:31. > :03:37.too cold and too wet and it got too dark, but in the wee hours of Friday
:03:38. > :03:46.morning this is what happened. 5.52am and our first blue tit pokes
:03:47. > :03:50.its head out and fledges. The second chick came out. It didn't take long
:03:51. > :03:57.for them to get the right idea. It was one or two minutes between the
:03:58. > :04:03.next chicks. No fuss. Up they hop. Look at the big, wide world and off
:04:04. > :04:13.they go until we get down to three, two and the final one. Now, this one
:04:14. > :04:19.was a bit reluctant. It decides to lighten its load before it gives it
:04:20. > :04:24.a go! It has a look out and thinks, " Keep I might go back in. I'm not
:04:25. > :04:30.too sure about this at all. : " I think it is getting too big to get
:04:31. > :04:35.out of that hole. It seems a squeeze. It manages to pull one wing
:04:36. > :04:44.out. It isn't sure at all. Decides to hang on for dear life. Look what
:04:45. > :04:49.happens! The adult bird flies in and pulls it off! That's harsh. Get out
:04:50. > :04:55.into the world. It had a quick look to see that it hadn't gone back!
:04:56. > :05:00.That's it. They've fledge. What tempts them out, Chris? We were
:05:01. > :05:04.thinking about this last week and I researched this and found that body
:05:05. > :05:10.weight is essential and until they get there, they won't think about
:05:11. > :05:13.going, then other factors, the rain and the damp and feeding rate of
:05:14. > :05:19.adults. One other thing I learned, the first birds out are male
:05:20. > :05:23.youngsters and they are males that are sired by extra pair males, not
:05:24. > :05:27.by the male that's been looking after the female that's been rearing
:05:28. > :05:33.the young or feeding them, but another one that snuck in. The extra
:05:34. > :05:36.pair males are out first. What's the advantage of that? If you are out at
:05:37. > :05:44.5am and you are first out, that would give you longer to learn how
:05:45. > :05:48.to fly and perhaps to find somewhere safe to roost up for the day. What I
:05:49. > :05:53.like about this, here we have a familiar back garden bird in winter,
:05:54. > :05:57.98% of us have them in our garden. We have 20 million pairs of these
:05:58. > :06:00.across Europe and two million in the UK and we're still finding out new
:06:01. > :06:05.things about them. Fantastic. UK and we're still finding out new
:06:06. > :06:12.come out first, you might get nailed by a predatory
:06:13. > :06:17.come out first, you might get nailed probably get the second one coming
:06:18. > :06:22.out! There would be advantages to coming out first. That's Chris'
:06:23. > :06:25.theory, I love it. The camera team were quick off the mark and turned
:06:26. > :06:28.their attention to another nest. This is a bird we've never had on
:06:29. > :06:33.Springwatch before. It is an exciting mystery bird and I'm going
:06:34. > :06:40.to give you a clue now. It's red. It's green. Often heard ha-ha, but
:06:41. > :06:46.seldom seen. If you think you know what the bird is, you can hashtag
:06:47. > :06:54.us, hashtag new nest and tell us, and we'll come back. I liked it
:06:55. > :06:58.Martin. I'm going to go where this mystery bird is over there and I'll
:06:59. > :07:04.see you later. Bye for now. He's a tease, isn't he? Our badgers have
:07:05. > :07:09.been teasing us. We've plenty of live cameras on two setts. We knew
:07:10. > :07:15.there were five cubs. The only reason we knew this is because the
:07:16. > :07:19.RSPB back in April filmed them on their camera. You can see there they
:07:20. > :07:20.are, five of them going off into the woods. Never really to be seen
:07:21. > :07:25.again. So we moved around some of woods. Never really to be seen
:07:26. > :07:34.our cameras and this is what we got this weekend. We got three of those
:07:35. > :07:38.cubs coming out from the warren sett. They are a lot bigger than
:07:39. > :07:40.they were. Having a good sniff around. They
:07:41. > :07:44.they were. Having a good sniff they get in trouble and mum decides
:07:45. > :07:49.to come along, grab that one by the scruff of the neck and pull
:07:50. > :07:53.to come along, grab that one by the out. We were really
:07:54. > :07:56.more of these cubs and we are quite confused why we're not seeing them
:07:57. > :08:03.and why we've only seen three now and not the other two. We'll be
:08:04. > :08:07.investing that further later on. Blue tits are great and familiarity
:08:08. > :08:12.breeds content and that Blue tits are great and familiarity
:08:13. > :08:19.is exciting and badgers are fantastic, I poked around for about
:08:20. > :08:23.five years looking for badgers, but they're not bitterns. The reason I'm
:08:24. > :08:28.making a fuss about this nest is that these birds are rare. That's
:08:29. > :08:29.the first thing. Only 100 booming males displaying
:08:30. > :08:35.the first thing. Only 100 booming we speak at the moment. They're also
:08:36. > :08:41.incredibly shy. They skulk around in the reeds and in summer when they're
:08:42. > :08:49.nesting, they are difficult to see and over the years few people have
:08:50. > :08:53.had the privilege of watching bitterns breeding. This is what we
:08:54. > :08:59.saw our bitterns doing last week. They started off small and here they
:09:00. > :09:06.are, they are chewing the beak of the adult. It is only the female
:09:07. > :09:10.that attends the nest. Started off feeding them small fish, but then
:09:11. > :09:23.this weekend, she brought in this larger fish. We think it is a tench.
:09:24. > :09:27.They have a specially large gape. They are looking spiky. Those are
:09:28. > :09:33.their adult feathers coming through and those feathers are covered with
:09:34. > :09:42.a little waxy covering and their job in the forthcoming weeks is to
:09:43. > :09:46.nibble that Shet sheath off. And they will slowly evolve into the
:09:47. > :09:55.beautiful form that is the adult bittern. Stunning things. We've
:09:56. > :10:00.learned a lot because at first the adult, the female laid four eggs.
:10:01. > :10:07.Three hatched and one didn't. Last week we saw the behaviour, one chick
:10:08. > :10:10.died and the mother ate it and regurgitated and lots of you have
:10:11. > :10:14.been asking about the other egg, what will happen to that? Will it
:10:15. > :10:22.hatch? It won't now because have a look at what happened. The two
:10:23. > :10:27.chicks that are left, the egg is in there as well. If you look closely,
:10:28. > :10:33.you can see that they're pecking away at something and it is in fact
:10:34. > :10:38.that remaining egg. That front chick lifts that egg up. Again, you have
:10:39. > :10:48.to look closely and you can see as it raises it, the embryo that's in
:10:49. > :10:52.the egg is slurked down. They're eating the egg. They're tidy birds.
:10:53. > :10:58.They push it out afterwards so there is no remains left. Ever seen that
:10:59. > :11:04.before? Not with bitterns I bet? Not with bitterns and I checked in the
:11:05. > :11:08.literature and it has never been recorded before. Last week, they
:11:09. > :11:12.were recovering the protein from their sibling which died and now
:11:13. > :11:16.they are taking advantage of a meal and the female was away for a couple
:11:17. > :11:22.of hours and they were getting peckish so they helped themselves to
:11:23. > :11:28.that egg. Oiled egg. Well, that had been boiled. But it is protein all
:11:29. > :11:32.the same. If you were watching Autumnwatch and winter watch, we
:11:33. > :11:40.began a project with the University of Brighton looking at urban foxes.
:11:41. > :11:45.We're working with Dr Dawn Scott and we have radio collared two groups of
:11:46. > :11:48.foxes. We have been able to follow the foxes closely and just like the
:11:49. > :11:53.bitterns, this is giving us an opportunity to understand a lot more
:11:54. > :11:59.about their urban ecology and one of the aims of the whole project is to
:12:00. > :12:08.see if we can find a way of living alongside urban foxes much more
:12:09. > :12:13.amenably. We are interested in the breeding behaviour. The animals are
:12:14. > :12:17.Sugar and Stumpy. They are two female foxes which are right in the
:12:18. > :12:20.city centre. Dawn has been out looking for them because they have
:12:21. > :12:21.been spending a lot of time underground which suggests they are
:12:22. > :12:33.denning and might have some cubs. It is early April. And after a long,
:12:34. > :12:41.wet winter, Brighton's foxes emerge to bask in the warm spring sun. Dr
:12:42. > :12:48.Dawn Scott and her student Naomi are closing in on the den site of Sugar,
:12:49. > :12:52.one of our tagged females and when they are using state-of-the-art
:12:53. > :12:56.satellite technology, pinning it down isn't easy. With GPS only
:12:57. > :13:01.working when the foxes are above the ground, Dawn and her colleagues are
:13:02. > :13:04.resorting to local intelligence. This morning I got an e-mail from
:13:05. > :13:08.somebody in this house here saying that they think they have got a fox
:13:09. > :13:14.den in the neighbour's next door garden. So hopefully it will be one
:13:15. > :13:18.of our foxes. We're going to go and find out. With so many properties so
:13:19. > :13:22.close together, it is hard to imagine where Sugar will find space
:13:23. > :13:31.to den, but Dawn's efforts have paid off. Home-owner, Chris, has had
:13:32. > :13:35.foxes coming here for years. Up on the decking, just the decking area,
:13:36. > :13:42.there is a couple of little holes here to get into the various gardens
:13:43. > :13:47.and then they can get under there to the area under the decking. There is
:13:48. > :13:51.so much space under here that they could possibly be in. This is a
:13:52. > :14:00.massive big decking and it is hollow under here. That sounds really loud.
:14:01. > :14:04.I think we've found our fox den and I think it is right below our feet.
:14:05. > :14:25.To find out if the den is active, the team sets up infrared camera
:14:26. > :14:32.traps. After dark, Naomi heads back onto the street to check Sugar's
:14:33. > :14:35.nocturnal behaviour. It is not until 1am she emerges from a narrow gap.
:14:36. > :14:42.There is the proof she must have cubs. Distended nipples that shows
:14:43. > :14:49.she must have been shuttling for at least a couple of weeks. Her
:14:50. > :14:56.worsening conditioning and thin tail reveals she is suffering. She must
:14:57. > :14:59.find food. Sugar makes a beeline for block of flats about half a mile
:15:00. > :15:06.away and then she disappears from view. Within the hour, she is back.
:15:07. > :15:13.Her collar reveals she is spending 23 hours a day in and around the den
:15:14. > :15:28.so it is a rare outing. Next day, they check the camera traps. Nothing
:15:29. > :15:34.on that one. Fantastic. Poking her nose out. OK, I can see it looks
:15:35. > :15:39.like Sugar from her tail and her collar. She is moving across on that
:15:40. > :15:45.one. She has come back the other way. That must be aware the den is.
:15:46. > :15:52.She is lactating and again it is Sugar. She is heading backwards and
:15:53. > :16:03.forwards. Then, a surprise. My second adult female. That looks like
:16:04. > :16:12.Stumpy. Unusually two females going in and out of this den. Stumpy was
:16:13. > :16:21.already missing the tip of her tail. Two vixens caring for the cubs. What
:16:22. > :16:26.is going on? It is a tantalising glimpse, but if there are cubs,
:16:27. > :16:29.moving the camera is further into the den would risk disturbing them.
:16:30. > :16:44.We have got to be patient. We have to wait for the cubs to reveal
:16:45. > :16:49.themselves. Urban foxes. I wonder if Chris will find those clubs? Have a
:16:50. > :16:53.feeling he might. We are on the grasslands on these wide open spaces
:16:54. > :17:01.and we quite often see foxes here, walking around. There is the
:17:02. > :17:07.picture. There is a fox. I have not think but respect for them. But you
:17:08. > :17:11.often see it with an item in its mouth. More often than not it turns
:17:12. > :17:16.out to be a rabbit. The rabbits are crucial to maintaining this. The
:17:17. > :17:20.rabbits gave us some uncomfortable moments last week, but let's enjoy
:17:21. > :17:26.them for a moment. Hamleys are very playful will stop they spend a lot
:17:27. > :17:32.of time lounging around doing nothing, about eight hours a day.
:17:33. > :17:37.But they also playful with one another, particularly family
:17:38. > :17:40.members. But there is a tough hierarchy in rabbits. There will be
:17:41. > :17:49.a dominant male and lots of subordinates. They do maintain that
:17:50. > :17:53.hierarchy. Fantastic. Rabbits are not indigenous. They were imported
:17:54. > :18:01.into this country by the Normans. They brought them as a food item.
:18:02. > :18:04.The first record of a warrant is from 1176 from the Scilly Isles.
:18:05. > :18:08.They were considered a luxury, a food fit for a king. But, the
:18:09. > :18:16.rabbits have cropped all this down here. It is allowed, various other
:18:17. > :18:20.animals we have been watching here, to live on the grasslands. Some of
:18:21. > :18:29.them are quite common, like the red deer. Some of the other ones, things
:18:30. > :18:36.like stone curlew, they are much rarer. But it also allows for this
:18:37. > :18:57.other cryptic animal I was talking about, the green woodpecker. Here it
:18:58. > :19:04.is. Yes, it is the Greenwood P. Lots of you got it right. Pat Connelly
:19:05. > :19:07.from East Sussex got it right. What we will do is find out why all this
:19:08. > :19:18.grassland is quite so attractive to the Greenwood hacker, when you come
:19:19. > :19:21.back. Meanwhile, Michaela. Where I am standing now is usually the
:19:22. > :19:30.habitat of the fiercely protective Chris Pack. But I managed to sneak
:19:31. > :19:36.in and take over the touch-screen. This is the grasslands where Martin
:19:37. > :19:40.was. That is our studio and cabin. Behind that is the woodland where we
:19:41. > :19:47.have the two badger sets with live cameras on. Let's look at those
:19:48. > :19:55.cameras now. It is a bit early for the badgers to come out. We know we
:19:56. > :19:59.have got two lots of badgers. One of them, we have seen three adults and
:20:00. > :20:04.the other we have seen two adults amplified cubs. We want to know the
:20:05. > :20:10.relationship between them, what is their lifestyle and what do they
:20:11. > :20:18.eat? So many questions. I decided to go out with Jenny, the badger
:20:19. > :20:25.expert, to investigate it further. What is the relationship between the
:20:26. > :20:31.two sets? It could be date separates, it could be date on
:20:32. > :20:39.neighbours and overlapping territory of one individual may be a super
:20:40. > :20:41.male which covers both groups. You have separate female groups. They
:20:42. > :20:47.could be they swapped around and separate at other times. The way to
:20:48. > :20:54.tell is to try baiting them where you feed the badgers different
:20:55. > :21:03.coloured pellets. These green ones are going here and the Red one in
:21:04. > :21:10.the Spinney? Yes, it won't do them any harm, you mix it with peanuts
:21:11. > :21:17.and syrup to make it sticky. But it down. Usually you do something like
:21:18. > :21:22.hide it under logs or stones so the squirrels and the birds don't take
:21:23. > :21:26.it. When the badgers come out they eat it and go round their
:21:27. > :21:33.territory. As they leave their droppings behind, they leave the
:21:34. > :21:38.markers. Sure enough, it proved too much for the badgers to resist. We
:21:39. > :21:45.are roughly halfway between them at this point. Badgers Mark their
:21:46. > :21:52.boundaries with pats Bailey sends arm. It can be sent from their tail
:21:53. > :22:03.glands. There is a huge pile of dung. There are the green things.
:22:04. > :22:08.What have you found out so far? On this boundary they found red and
:22:09. > :22:15.green pellets, so that suggests the badgers are both coming to this
:22:16. > :22:17.point and marking. Where they meet, our cameras have caught intriguing
:22:18. > :22:26.behaviour between what we think is a male from one set and a female from
:22:27. > :22:34.the other. You can tell an awful lot from this? Yes, the badgers can tell
:22:35. > :22:39.a lot more. It is worth collect in bees to look at what they have been
:22:40. > :22:47.eating. It is clear they do know each other. Could this be our super
:22:48. > :23:00.male, mating with females from both sets will stop. I will pick up the
:23:01. > :23:08.whole dropping. That is delightful, I will take it back to the studio!
:23:09. > :23:18.Off we go. We will be dissecting it later in the week. You will look
:23:19. > :23:21.forward to lack? If you had not paid your licence fee, that is all the
:23:22. > :23:28.stimulation you need. You can learn so much from it. What do you think
:23:29. > :23:33.is going on? We're not seeing that much of them, it looks like there
:23:34. > :23:41.are two different families? Marking the food and recovering them will
:23:42. > :23:49.tell us if we have two set groups. We may not have two separate groups.
:23:50. > :23:54.Earth worms here are low-density and that means they cannot mark an
:23:55. > :24:04.exclusive territory, so their ranges have two overlap. Then we see donned
:24:05. > :24:11.turns up on each other's territory. Another thing it might be, seeing
:24:12. > :24:18.those two animals together is a case of men behaving badly. What we see
:24:19. > :24:22.in badgers is 54% of the young in any group being sired by males
:24:23. > :24:28.outside of the group. So we might have a male moving from one group
:24:29. > :24:32.into the territory of another to mate with the female. He was showing
:24:33. > :24:36.a lot of interest in that female. This is difficult without the
:24:37. > :24:41.science having been done, but I am sure once we recovered the plastic
:24:42. > :24:47.beads, so we can see where they are going and where they are marking, we
:24:48. > :24:56.will have a better idea. What could have happened to the two extra cubs?
:24:57. > :25:01.They could be moving around. Perhaps those cubs have split up now, three
:25:02. > :25:10.in one place, two in another. Perhaps they were birthed by two
:25:11. > :25:14.separate females and they have gone their own separate way. It typically
:25:15. > :25:20.comes down to availability of food. As we go through our three weeks, we
:25:21. > :25:22.will make more observations and conduct those experiments and I
:25:23. > :25:34.think we will have a better idea of what is going on. You will no one of
:25:35. > :25:40.the stars of the Winterwatch series where the black grouse. They were
:25:41. > :25:46.showing off and you can see the males doing it here. They wear
:25:47. > :25:52.protect doing their traditional breeding site. They do it for most
:25:53. > :26:00.of the year except July and August. It is great to see it. It seems a
:26:01. > :26:05.long time ago now. It was Spec Pakula viewing. They are jostling
:26:06. > :26:11.for the best position at the centre. The older, fitter males will get
:26:12. > :26:15.that and keep it all the way through to the spring. The one thing we did
:26:16. > :26:27.not see in the winter where any females. They only turn up in April
:26:28. > :26:32.and May to breed. Did one of our cameraman as welcome as we wanted to
:26:33. > :26:39.see them together. It is spring in the Cairngorms, and the weather is
:26:40. > :26:51.as changeable as ever. But the black grouse are still here. It is more
:26:52. > :27:01.frantic and more fierce than it was in the winter. The grouse have
:27:02. > :27:08.something to fight over because the Brown feathered females have
:27:09. > :27:18.returned. They have come to choose a mate. But the only stay for a few
:27:19. > :27:21.hours a day so time is of the essence. The males want to mate with
:27:22. > :27:35.as many females as possible and the bigger and tougher they are, the
:27:36. > :27:43.more they become. -- attractive. The centre is the most fiercely
:27:44. > :27:48.contested. But something stops the fight. A golden eagle. These
:27:49. > :28:04.magnificent hunters will easily take a black grouse. They scatter and
:28:05. > :28:08.take cover in the nearby forest. The grouse wait until they are certain
:28:09. > :28:18.the Eagle has moved on before they return. The males have lost valuable
:28:19. > :28:35.time. All of their attention turns to winning a mate. Once a male has
:28:36. > :28:44.claimed his patch, he fans his tail feathers, sums up his red eyebrows
:28:45. > :28:54.and gives a bubbling call. -- plumps up. Crouching low to the ground, he
:28:55. > :29:00.shows off his impressive plumage. The female at the centre is spoilt
:29:01. > :29:05.for choice, surrounded by the biggest and strongest males. She
:29:06. > :29:08.signals her interest by crouching low to the ground. Then she changes
:29:09. > :29:32.her mind. Success at last. Just. Morning
:29:33. > :29:53.drifts into afternoon. The females have left the lek to go and feed.
:29:54. > :29:56.This male takes advantage and preams his tail feathers.
:29:57. > :30:03.And the chicks should be hatching out right now. I'm down, I plunged
:30:04. > :30:09.right down into the grassland here and let's examine it. All this is a
:30:10. > :30:14.cropped off by the rabbits here and because of that and because the soil
:30:15. > :30:19.is very, very poor, it grows slowly and that allows all sorts of very
:30:20. > :30:26.special, quite rare plants, to grow here. If this grew up another ten
:30:27. > :30:30.centimetres it would overgrow everything and none of these would
:30:31. > :30:52.be able to grow. So let's see what's growing down here. This is curious
:30:53. > :30:57.when you look up close. This is a scarlet pimpernel this. Is mossy
:30:58. > :31:00.stone crop. It is very rare. Now, I'm going to give the cameraman a
:31:01. > :31:06.real tough time. If you can see there is one of those very rare
:31:07. > :31:11.ones. That's a smooth cat's ear. It is tiny. It is a minute little
:31:12. > :31:16.flower. Talking about small, there are lots of very tiny little insects
:31:17. > :31:21.around here as well. I have just seen a baby grasshopper running
:31:22. > :31:26.around. Let's look at baby grasshoppers down here. This
:31:27. > :31:31.grasshopper is two millimetres long. If you can believe that. It has a
:31:32. > :31:35.long way to go. Grasshoppers grow by shedding their outer skin. Insects
:31:36. > :31:40.have their skeleton on the outside and they will have to shed their
:31:41. > :31:51.skin six or seven times before it is an adult. When it is little, it
:31:52. > :31:54.can't make the lovely singing sound. A gorgeous thing. They are all
:31:55. > :32:02.around. I bet loads of you have seen this over the weekend. I did. It is
:32:03. > :32:07.cuckoo spit. What's inside it? Let's look at what makes it. It is this
:32:08. > :32:13.tiny little frog hopper and you can see how they do it. They actually
:32:14. > :32:17.produce the bubbles out of their bottom! Yes, they're blowing wind!
:32:18. > :32:23.The bubbles get more and more and more and that in the end produces
:32:24. > :32:30.the cuckoo spit which protects them and also keeps them from drying out.
:32:31. > :32:35.Fabulous. All these little creatures and here is all this sand here is an
:32:36. > :32:39.ants nest. There are ants everywhere around here. Let's give the
:32:40. > :32:45.cameraman a real job now. Go on Scottie, can you see those little
:32:46. > :32:53.ants? Can you see them? These are yellow meadow ants. I hope
:32:54. > :32:58.they don't bite. Oh, they do! LAUGHTER
:32:59. > :33:01.Just carry on. These ants here are themselves little predators as I can
:33:02. > :33:09.feel. We can have a closer look at them. Here they are teaming away.
:33:10. > :33:16.They are very busy. This is a pupa and this nest has been disturbed so
:33:17. > :33:21.they are trying to rebury the pupa. They have got very powerful jaws and
:33:22. > :33:26.it is a tug-of-war going on there. They are trying to pull the pupa
:33:27. > :33:31.underground. They can't bite too hard otherwise they will rupture it
:33:32. > :33:39.and it will die. Those are yellow meadow ants. The presence of the
:33:40. > :33:44.meadow ants explains why that mystery bird, the green woodpecker
:33:45. > :33:50.is here because the green woodpecker feeds almost exclusively on ants. We
:33:51. > :33:55.can have a look at the green woodpecker in action. Here it is.
:33:56. > :34:00.Feeding on ants. You may have seen this in your garden. They don't eat
:34:01. > :34:05.anything else and they are adapted for it. They have an enormously long
:34:06. > :34:09.tongue. You can see it. It looks like it is eating a worm, but that's
:34:10. > :34:14.the green woodpecker's tongue. Let's look in slow motion. There it is.
:34:15. > :34:21.That great long tongue. It's very sticky. It hasn't got barbes on it
:34:22. > :34:27.and they can poke the tongue way down into the ant's nest and draw up
:34:28. > :34:31.a load of ants and pupa. If you look carefully, it is so long the tongue,
:34:32. > :34:35.it goes round the back of the head, through the groove and it ends up
:34:36. > :34:40.inside that nostril of the green woodpecker. This is a green
:34:41. > :34:44.woodpecker skull and here let me just show you how that works. There
:34:45. > :34:49.is the tongue there. All the way around. It goes from the nostril
:34:50. > :34:54.around the back of the head and out to there and it is not the end. It
:34:55. > :35:01.moves around under the ground as they pick up the ants. They will eat
:35:02. > :35:06.2,000 ants every day and the green woodpeckers out here are eating more
:35:07. > :35:13.than that and there is a reason for that because Chris found the nest.
:35:14. > :35:18.They don't peck wood to find their food, but they are peck wood to find
:35:19. > :35:21.their nest. We've found a woodpecker's nest up here in the
:35:22. > :35:26.woods of the it is high up in one of the oak trees. Here it is. Now that
:35:27. > :35:33.nest hole is excavated mostly by the male and it can take him up to 30
:35:34. > :35:39.day tosses hack it open -- day to say hack it up. It is a nice, neat
:35:40. > :35:43.fit for the woodpeckers to get into the hole. That keeps other predators
:35:44. > :35:47.out. Let's go live to our woodpeckers now to see if there is
:35:48. > :35:52.any action at this time of the evening. Light is dropping here, but
:35:53. > :35:58.that doesn't mean they won't still be out. Whilst Martin was out on the
:35:59. > :36:01.grass, I saw a green woodpecker flying over his head.
:36:02. > :36:03.grass, I saw a green woodpecker have just miss add feed. Inside that
:36:04. > :36:08.-- missed a feed. Inside that hole, -- missed a feed. Inside that hole,
:36:09. > :36:12.it is not a savoury place to be. It could be up to 30 centimetres deep
:36:13. > :36:16.and # 0 centimetres could be up to 30 centimetres deep
:36:17. > :36:21.centimetres wide and the youngsters can be in there for 27 days. It gets
:36:22. > :36:28.very hot. Very sweaty and very dirty. Initially the adults remove
:36:29. > :36:34.the faecal sacks, but after 15 days they give up and it fills up with
:36:35. > :36:38.poo and if you think that things are unpleasant down in the bittern nest,
:36:39. > :36:45.this is the plaque hole of Calcutta, you wouldn't want to be in there.
:36:46. > :36:50.Here, we have seen them attending the nest. The young are big enough
:36:51. > :36:57.to climb up the inside and take food from the parents and the food is a
:36:58. > :37:05.regurgitated porridge of ants. Look carefully at the mouths of those
:37:06. > :37:10.birds. You see those swollen warts. That's unique. I haven't seen that
:37:11. > :37:14.on any other species of bird at all. What are they there for? A clever
:37:15. > :37:21.reason. When the chicks first hatch and they are 50 penth sent meet --
:37:22. > :37:24.50 centimetres down on a dull day, it is
:37:25. > :37:28.they find the gape to regurgitate they find the gape to regurgitate
:37:29. > :37:29.the food into? It pecks around until they find the gape to regurgitate
:37:30. > :37:32.it touches one of the highly sensitive warts which causes
:37:33. > :37:33.it touches one of the highly young bird to open its mouth and
:37:34. > :37:37.then the adult can put the young bird to open its mouth and
:37:38. > :37:41.it. Really neat. Now, the other thing that we have seen at
:37:42. > :37:45.it. Really neat. Now, the other is that it has been attended not
:37:46. > :37:50.only by the woodpeckers, but near neighbours. Jackdaws. The lower nest
:37:51. > :37:54.is our woodpecker's hole, look further up the tree, about a meter
:37:55. > :38:01.up on the right, it is possibly last year's woodpecker hole. It has been
:38:02. > :38:06.taken over by the jackdaws. Woodpeckers will never use the same
:38:07. > :38:11.hole twice because the young left it full of poo, but jackdaws will fill
:38:12. > :38:16.it up with twigs and they're in and out. What's worrying here is what's
:38:17. > :38:21.going to ham. We know that jackdaws are nest feeds. Green woodpeckers
:38:22. > :38:26.are not nest thieves, but there are nest feeds. Green woodpeckers
:38:27. > :38:30.bound to be conflict between the two and that's something we're going to
:38:31. > :38:35.keep our eye on. I like green woodpeckers a lot. What I like even
:38:36. > :38:36.more is their relatedness, the connection they have to the rabbits
:38:37. > :38:42.out there. connection they have to the rabbits
:38:43. > :38:43.woodpeckers to feed and without connection they have to the rabbits
:38:44. > :38:53.them, the woodpecker wouldn't prosper. We
:38:54. > :38:59.them, the woodpecker wouldn't beauty of things. You
:39:00. > :39:02.That's why there is a thing called the
:39:03. > :39:05.That's why there is a thing called it is important
:39:06. > :39:07.That's why there is a thing called UK to replace any species which
:39:08. > :39:10.disappear UK to replace any species which
:39:11. > :39:20.of these is the beaver. They have been gone for 400 years. Now, we
:39:21. > :39:23.have been looking at the behaviour of beavers and we are going to
:39:24. > :39:26.have been looking at the behaviour at a project running for
:39:27. > :39:28.have been looking at the behaviour five years to investigate the
:39:29. > :39:33.reintroduction of beavers into the UK. We have had a fantastic weekend
:39:34. > :39:36.up here on the West Coast of Scotland. The weather has been
:39:37. > :39:40.superb and that means we've been able to get out and about and
:39:41. > :39:45.explore the surrounding countryside and I have to tell you, it is
:39:46. > :39:50.jam-packed full of all kinds of wonderful wildlife. Much of it, very
:39:51. > :39:55.dimp to what -- different what you will see down there, and that
:39:56. > :40:01.includes the beavers. This past weekend, the five year Scottish
:40:02. > :40:06.beaver trial came to an end. In 2009 four beaver families were introduced
:40:07. > :40:11.here and it was a trial reintroduction because they wanted
:40:12. > :40:16.to see how the beavers would adapt to living in the UK after a long
:40:17. > :40:19.absence and they wanted to see how we would adept to living with the
:40:20. > :40:23.beavers once more. A team of scientists has been following the
:40:24. > :40:26.beavers every step of the way, but all that research won't be written
:40:27. > :40:29.up and won't be published for another 12 months. So I went along
:40:30. > :40:39.to see how the beavers were doing. As soon as the beavers arrive,
:40:40. > :40:42.construction commenced. The beavers felled trees, moved mud and blocked
:40:43. > :40:51.streams shaping their world to suit their needs. Ponds formed behind the
:40:52. > :40:58.dams giving the beavers safe access to the trees and reeds they need to
:40:59. > :41:02.feed the family. Once the ponds appeared, fish, amphibians and water
:41:03. > :41:08.loving insects moved in. But beavers don't just build dams. Simon Jones,
:41:09. > :41:13.project manager of the Scottish Beaver Trial allowed me a glimpse
:41:14. > :41:18.inside another example of beaver engineering. So this is a beaver
:41:19. > :41:25.lodge? Indeed. This is an abandoned lodge. That's the only reason I'm
:41:26. > :41:30.poking around it now. We're on a have structure that's five meters
:41:31. > :41:35.long by a meter-and-a-half high. This is built by a pair of rodents
:41:36. > :41:39.and that's quite impressive. Because beaver construction work changes the
:41:40. > :41:44.landscape, not everyone is keen to see them back permanently. There is
:41:45. > :41:48.concern among locals that their appetite for construction about
:41:49. > :41:54.affect fisheries and farmland. Some of the trial team's research has
:41:55. > :41:57.been exploring whether scents from other animals could help control
:41:58. > :42:04.their movements. Beavers love apples, but how do they respond when
:42:05. > :42:08.the field operations manager plays a squirt of wolf urine nearby? An
:42:09. > :42:17.infrared camera filmed the beavers reaction. I joined Roisin to view
:42:18. > :42:22.the results. Come on then, did it work? You see the beaver. It doesn't
:42:23. > :42:26.want to stay beside the experiment. When it lifts the apple it returns
:42:27. > :42:36.back to the water's edge where it feels safer. It is recognising there
:42:37. > :42:41.is predators in the area. Over the past five years, what would you say
:42:42. > :42:45.are the main foundings? What has been seen is that beavers can live
:42:46. > :42:49.here. They carry out the natural range of behaviours that we have
:42:50. > :42:55.seen. So we have seen they can build lodges, dams, ponds, they will fell
:42:56. > :42:59.trees and they establish pairs and they've bred and dispersed. So all
:43:00. > :43:03.the behaviours you expect of a beaver population, even a small
:43:04. > :43:06.trial one like this which we have seen would suggest that beavers can
:43:07. > :43:09.definitely live in Scotland again and the decision is whether we
:43:10. > :43:17.really want them to live in greater numbers. History will see whether it
:43:18. > :43:22.was something that ended up being a success or not I suppose? The
:43:23. > :43:25.research will be handed in to the Scottish Government in a year's time
:43:26. > :43:29.so you have got 12 months to come up here, at least 12 months, to come
:43:30. > :43:32.and see the beaver for yourself and if at the end that time period the
:43:33. > :43:38.Scottish Government decides that it doesn't want the beaver here, do you
:43:39. > :43:42.know what, I might shove them in the back of my car and take them down to
:43:43. > :43:46.Wales. I spoke about the big differences in the animals and the
:43:47. > :43:51.birds up here and what you're seeing down there, but we have one species
:43:52. > :43:57.in common and that's the cuckoo. We have been seeing and hearing them
:43:58. > :44:04.everywhere up here and it was nice to see Chris the Packham catching up
:44:05. > :44:10.with Chris the cuckoo. For England and Wales there has been a decline,
:44:11. > :44:13.but here in Scotland, the decline is only 5% and in some areas they are
:44:14. > :44:18.on the increase. Why the decline nationally? No one is quite sure
:44:19. > :44:28.yet, but I'm convinced it is something to do with food and for
:44:29. > :44:34.cuckoos food means hairy caterpillars. Their poisonous. These
:44:35. > :44:44.birds found a way of getting rid of the poison by biting off the
:44:45. > :44:54.caterpillars head before swallowing the cat erpillar. Let's slow that
:44:55. > :45:02.down and look at it one more time. That is the shake and there go the
:45:03. > :45:07.guts. Fantastic behaviour. Except, if you are a caterpillar. That is
:45:08. > :45:15.all from us today, but tomorrow we will be on the trail of a rare
:45:16. > :45:23.creature in Scotland. Flying caterpillar guts! We were
:45:24. > :45:30.watching those cuckoos in West Scotland but we have been watching a
:45:31. > :45:38.nest in Norfolk. It was a reed warbler's nest. This is what we saw
:45:39. > :45:44.last week. For eggs in there. The reed warbler comes in and feeds it.
:45:45. > :45:53.But Colquhoun chick pushes out the three remaining eggs so it is the
:45:54. > :46:02.only one left. -- Colquhoun chick. That chick grows incredibly quickly.
:46:03. > :46:09.You can see that orange gape, the massive target which is encouraging
:46:10. > :46:15.the reed warbler to put lots of food in it. You can see it regurgitating
:46:16. > :46:34.some insect food. The cheque is also big, it is having trouble brooding
:46:35. > :46:54.it. -- the cheque. Oh my word! It is monstrous. Cuckoo-zilla! I do like
:46:55. > :46:55.them. What we will see if we are lucky as we watch this youngster
:46:56. > :47:06.developing, lucky as we watch this youngster
:47:07. > :47:14.birds have to purge on its head and then feed it into its beak.
:47:15. > :47:26.It will be giant nor must. There is a Western on Twitter and Daniel
:47:27. > :47:31.Batz, why do the cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds nests? A
:47:32. > :47:35.Colquhoun will lay beta been five and 20 eggs. She could
:47:36. > :47:40.Colquhoun will lay beta been five clutch of that size on her own,
:47:41. > :47:45.incubate them and feed her own. By spreading them out she has a greater
:47:46. > :47:48.chance of getting her genes into the next population. She does that
:47:49. > :47:55.because those birds continue to feed her one youngster. That reed
:47:56. > :48:01.warbler's nest would have had five young and it would have been split
:48:02. > :48:08.five ways, now it is going into just one Colquhoun. It makes the
:48:09. > :48:24.Cuckoo's life easily. But not easy for the reed warbler. We happen nest
:48:25. > :48:31.we have a live camera on. They are on for eggs. The prediction is they
:48:32. > :48:34.could hatch tomorrow. We have moved one of our cameras so if they do
:48:35. > :48:41.hatch we have the chance of seeing that. One of the things we did
:48:42. > :48:44.notice last week is the parents are very attentive and they change over
:48:45. > :48:49.very quickly. A couple of seconds between them. But that has changed a
:48:50. > :48:56.little bit in the last couple of days. One adult goes off and leaves
:48:57. > :48:57.those eggs exposed for about 30 seconds before the other adult comes
:48:58. > :49:08.back. There will be the longer changeover period and
:49:09. > :49:13.leaving the eggs unattended? It could beat the birds are losing
:49:14. > :49:17.condition. All of the time they are incubating, they are not feeding and
:49:18. > :49:17.keeping their body reserves up. So maybe they
:49:18. > :49:28.keeping their body reserves up. So there for that long. The
:49:29. > :49:29.keeping their body reserves up. So the nest, remove one of the eggs and
:49:30. > :49:33.laid their own within the nest, remove one of the eggs and
:49:34. > :49:45.If the reed warbler is off the nest for 30 seconds,
:49:46. > :49:46.If the reed warbler is off the nest warbler's nest? ! It would the
:49:47. > :49:53.great. warbler's nest? ! It would the
:49:54. > :50:00.weekend, but I feel it is warbler's nest? ! It would the
:50:01. > :50:09.It is going to be on predict double. But I cannot predict the weather,
:50:10. > :50:13.but we know an man who can, Nick Miller and he is with us live from
:50:14. > :50:23.the BBC Weather Centre. I am glad you have been enjoying the weather.
:50:24. > :50:27.What is ahead this week? A mixture of sunshine and a soaking. Tomorrow
:50:28. > :50:29.there will be some sunshine around but across the UK the threat of
:50:30. > :50:38.heavy showers. This is coming in for Wednesday. Low pressure which will
:50:39. > :50:41.not bring just showers, but rain. On the eastern side of the UK into
:50:42. > :50:46.eastern Scotland, where it could be still raining on Thursday. That is
:50:47. > :50:51.what those newly fledged birds such as loot its don't want to see. Their
:50:52. > :50:59.feathers are not completely waterproof yet. It is cool also. The
:51:00. > :51:04.coolest day of the week and that may mean fewer insects around. It looks
:51:05. > :51:10.like Wednesday is going to be the most challenging weather day of the
:51:11. > :51:16.week across the UK. Showers are possible on any day, but Wednesday
:51:17. > :51:21.is a fly in the ointment. Not sure how much rain you will get, but
:51:22. > :51:35.heavy rain will raise water levels and threaten the bitterns. No! We
:51:36. > :51:39.don't want more rain. We should cheer ourselves up with a new nest.
:51:40. > :51:44.We have had on owls before but now we will bring you a different owl.
:51:45. > :51:52.See if you can guess what it might be. It is nesting in a tree and it
:51:53. > :52:00.looks like this. We are only giving you a cryptic look. Any guesses of
:52:01. > :52:18.what it could be? Looks a bit like a gremlin. It is a tawny owl. There is
:52:19. > :52:24.the chick. It is calling. It is the usual time it wakes up. Mum has been
:52:25. > :52:33.in. She might come back in again. It is just one chick. That is unusual.
:52:34. > :52:38.They usually have three or four. It looks a bit fluffy to me, we don't
:52:39. > :52:44.think we will see it fledging live on Springwatch. But you never know.
:52:45. > :52:50.It is very late? To see one youngster that small app this time
:52:51. > :52:56.of year, it could be that the first nest failed and it is odd just to
:52:57. > :53:04.see one and less there has been a tragedy and the others have been
:53:05. > :53:08.lost. The female might young and inexperienced and in poor condition
:53:09. > :53:15.and only capable of laying one egg. We have been watching the adult
:53:16. > :53:19.bringing food to the chick and it has dub a constant stream of food.
:53:20. > :53:28.Some of it, not what you would expect. The first one was a newt. It
:53:29. > :53:34.is bringing amphibians, generally. That is another amphibian, frog or
:53:35. > :53:40.something. Then he goes for something more conventional next.
:53:41. > :53:47.Look at its face, it is a bit messy. It is a messy chick, that. Rodents.
:53:48. > :54:03.The next thing is extremely tragic to me. Down it goes! This is
:54:04. > :54:12.tragic, Chris. How did it catch it? It is a tree creeper. How did it
:54:13. > :54:24.catch it at night? Must have courted around the roost. Now it is bringing
:54:25. > :54:37.in slugs. The chick is undecided about this. Drops it, does not want
:54:38. > :54:49.it. Slugs can produced... That is awful, it is like a snotty child.
:54:50. > :54:54.Look at its face! Look at that! The cameras are on the tawny owl night
:54:55. > :55:04.and day so you can follow it online or on the red button. I want to get
:55:05. > :55:09.a cloth and clean it. The weather is going to get worse, so let's
:55:10. > :55:13.celebrate the sunshine we had before it becomes a distant memory and see
:55:14. > :55:17.what the cameramen got over the weekend. This is one of my
:55:18. > :55:25.favourites. It is the first time we have seen the otters. Every time it
:55:26. > :55:30.comes out it takes a little breath before it dives under again. It is
:55:31. > :55:41.in glorious sunshine. Make the most of that! Isn't that fabulous? You
:55:42. > :55:48.might be lucky enough to see a adder. Chris and I went out and we
:55:49. > :55:57.enjoyed watching them. We will see it later on. This is a female and it
:55:58. > :56:03.looks glorious. Very beautiful. The males tend to be black and white.
:56:04. > :56:13.The female is more brown. But we managed to see the adder mating.
:56:14. > :56:22.There has also been some bees at a swarm. At the base of this fallen
:56:23. > :56:31.tree, there is part of the swarm. If this is going to be a colony, they
:56:32. > :56:34.will have to find a hollow tree. Once they are in that they will
:56:35. > :56:45.prosper as long as they have space to fill it with honey. Have you ever
:56:46. > :56:49.put your hand inside? I have, it is really cool inside. Maarten you have
:56:50. > :56:59.a mosquito right in the middle of your forehead. We are going to the
:57:00. > :57:05.live Nightingale nest. They have grown quite a bit. They were only
:57:06. > :57:13.just peeping out when we saw them on Thursday. This is a nest not very
:57:14. > :57:16.well-known. Bit like bitterns. Many people don't get to watch
:57:17. > :57:25.nightingales, they are normally hidden. One particular thing that
:57:26. > :57:29.has been interesting, is the types of food being brought in. If you are
:57:30. > :57:38.watching on the red button, let us know if you see anything unusual
:57:39. > :57:45.brought in. Don't go away we have an extraordinary gentlemen, Jason
:57:46. > :57:51.Singh, who is a vocal sculptor who creates the natural world with his
:57:52. > :57:59.own voice. I want to see that. You can watch the live cameras
:58:00. > :58:04.overnight, the bitterns, the Owls. You can join the breakfast show
:58:05. > :58:16.online and on the red button tomorrow morning. We are going to
:58:17. > :58:20.explore. We have a thermal camera to see what is out there under the
:58:21. > :58:25.cover of darkness. I will be catching up with those urban foxes
:58:26. > :58:35.in Brighton to see if they have any cubs. Will there be drama with our
:58:36. > :58:42.avocet? We will find out tomorrow at eight p.m.. So, goodbye for now.