Episode 5 Springwatch

We're back! It is week two from our fabulous new home up here on the

Suffolk Coast and there is lots going on. There is' plenty of news

to catch up on from our bitterns to our blue tits. Who knows what will

happen in the next 20 minutes? Stand-by for action, it's

Springwatch! Yes, hello. Welcome to Springwatch

2014. It is week two. Coming to you from this beautiful RSPB reserve up

here on the coast of Suffolk. It is a fantastic reserve. It has been

sculptured by the RSPB from the days when Dad's Army was out here. From

the air, you can look down and see the great range of habitats we're

enjoying. All the fantastic reedbeds. There is' woodland and

grassland and there is a range of species and our mission for the

three weeks that we're here is to explore the habitats and all the

species and we've got our nosey nose into everything, haven't we? We've

got live cameras all over the place. Let's look at a couple of them. This

is what we're calling our scrape cam. There is lots of black

headed-gulls. Some have chicks. The adult bird is sitting on eggs and

hopefully maybe tomorrow, those might hatch, but wherever there are

ground nesting birds, there are lots of predators. So that can be the

scene of drama. This is another one of our live

nests. This is our bittern nests. It is doing it for Chris, this nest! We

have seen some amazing action on this particular nest. Remember, this

is a bird that's rarely seen. It is shy. It is elusive. So we're

privileged to be able to see it and its two chicks. Fantastic. Last

Thursday we left you on a cliffhanger and it involved our

bluetits. We started filming them on 22nd May and there were nine chicks

in the nest and we had very attentive parents and the chicks

started to grow up. They have got their feathers already. They are

standing on top of each other. It must be so uncomfortable. The

parents kept feeding them caterpillars and they grew and grew

and last week on Wednesday in fact, the parents started to try and tease

them to come out, offering them caterpillars saying, "Come out. Come

out." " They would not go. So we just had to wait. I'm sure they were

going to go. We thought we might get a live fledgling on Thursday. It was

too cold and too wet and it got too dark, but in the wee hours of Friday

morning this is what happened. 5.52am and our first blue tit pokes

its head out and fledges. The second chick came out. It didn't take long

for them to get the right idea. It was one or two minutes between the

next chicks. No fuss. Up they hop. Look at the big, wide world and off

they go until we get down to three, two and the final one. Now, this one

was a bit reluctant. It decides to lighten its load before it gives it

a go! It has a look out and thinks, " Keep I might go back in. I'm not

too sure about this at all. : " I think it is getting too big to get

out of that hole. It seems a squeeze. It manages to pull one wing

out. It isn't sure at all. Decides to hang on for dear life. Look what

happens! The adult bird flies in and pulls it off! That's harsh. Get out

into the world. It had a quick look to see that it hadn't gone back!

That's it. They've fledge. What tempts them out, Chris? We were

thinking about this last week and I researched this and found that body

weight is essential and until they get there, they won't think about

going, then other factors, the rain and the damp and feeding rate of

adults. One other thing I learned, the first birds out are male

youngsters and they are males that are sired by extra pair males, not

by the male that's been looking after the female that's been rearing

the young or feeding them, but another one that snuck in. The extra

pair males are out first. What's the advantage of that? If you are out at

5am and you are first out, that would give you longer to learn how

to fly and perhaps to find somewhere safe to roost up for the day. What I

like about this, here we have a familiar back garden bird in winter,

98% of us have them in our garden. We have 20 million pairs of these

across Europe and two million in the UK and we're still finding out new

things about them. Fantastic. UK and we're still finding out new

come out first, you might get nailed by a predatory

come out first, you might get nailed probably get the second one coming

out! There would be advantages to coming out first. That's Chris'

theory, I love it. The camera team were quick off the mark and turned

their attention to another nest. This is a bird we've never had on

Springwatch before. It is an exciting mystery bird and I'm going

to give you a clue now. It's red. It's green. Often heard ha-ha, but

seldom seen. If you think you know what the bird is, you can hashtag

us, hashtag new nest and tell us, and we'll come back. I liked it

Martin. I'm going to go where this mystery bird is over there and I'll

see you later. Bye for now. He's a tease, isn't he? Our badgers have

been teasing us. We've plenty of live cameras on two setts. We knew

there were five cubs. The only reason we knew this is because the

RSPB back in April filmed them on their camera. You can see there they

are, five of them going off into the woods. Never really to be seen

again. So we moved around some of woods. Never really to be seen

our cameras and this is what we got this weekend. We got three of those

cubs coming out from the warren sett. They are a lot bigger than

they were. Having a good sniff around. They

they were. Having a good sniff they get in trouble and mum decides

to come along, grab that one by the scruff of the neck and pull

to come along, grab that one by the out. We were really

more of these cubs and we are quite confused why we're not seeing them

and why we've only seen three now and not the other two. We'll be

investing that further later on. Blue tits are great and familiarity

breeds content and that Blue tits are great and familiarity

is exciting and badgers are fantastic, I poked around for about

five years looking for badgers, but they're not bitterns. The reason I'm

making a fuss about this nest is that these birds are rare. That's

the first thing. Only 100 booming males displaying

the first thing. Only 100 booming we speak at the moment. They're also

incredibly shy. They skulk around in the reeds and in summer when they're

nesting, they are difficult to see and over the years few people have

had the privilege of watching bitterns breeding. This is what we

saw our bitterns doing last week. They started off small and here they

are, they are chewing the beak of the adult. It is only the female

that attends the nest. Started off feeding them small fish, but then

this weekend, she brought in this larger fish. We think it is a tench.

They have a specially large gape. They are looking spiky. Those are

their adult feathers coming through and those feathers are covered with

a little waxy covering and their job in the forthcoming weeks is to

nibble that Shet sheath off. And they will slowly evolve into the

beautiful form that is the adult bittern. Stunning things. We've

learned a lot because at first the adult, the female laid four eggs.

Three hatched and one didn't. Last week we saw the behaviour, one chick

died and the mother ate it and regurgitated and lots of you have

been asking about the other egg, what will happen to that? Will it

hatch? It won't now because have a look at what happened. The two

chicks that are left, the egg is in there as well. If you look closely,

you can see that they're pecking away at something and it is in fact

that remaining egg. That front chick lifts that egg up. Again, you have

to look closely and you can see as it raises it, the embryo that's in

the egg is slurked down. They're eating the egg. They're tidy birds.

They push it out afterwards so there is no remains left. Ever seen that

before? Not with bitterns I bet? Not with bitterns and I checked in the

literature and it has never been recorded before. Last week, they

were recovering the protein from their sibling which died and now

they are taking advantage of a meal and the female was away for a couple

of hours and they were getting peckish so they helped themselves to

that egg. Oiled egg. Well, that had been boiled. But it is protein all

the same. If you were watching Autumnwatch and winter watch, we

began a project with the University of Brighton looking at urban foxes.

We're working with Dr Dawn Scott and we have radio collared two groups of

foxes. We have been able to follow the foxes closely and just like the

bitterns, this is giving us an opportunity to understand a lot more

about their urban ecology and one of the aims of the whole project is to

see if we can find a way of living alongside urban foxes much more

amenably. We are interested in the breeding behaviour. The animals are

Sugar and Stumpy. They are two female foxes which are right in the

city centre. Dawn has been out looking for them because they have

been spending a lot of time underground which suggests they are

denning and might have some cubs. It is early April. And after a long,

wet winter, Brighton's foxes emerge to bask in the warm spring sun. Dr

Dawn Scott and her student Naomi are closing in on the den site of Sugar,

one of our tagged females and when they are using state-of-the-art

satellite technology, pinning it down isn't easy. With GPS only

working when the foxes are above the ground, Dawn and her colleagues are

resorting to local intelligence. This morning I got an e-mail from

somebody in this house here saying that they think they have got a fox

den in the neighbour's next door garden. So hopefully it will be one

of our foxes. We're going to go and find out. With so many properties so

close together, it is hard to imagine where Sugar will find space

to den, but Dawn's efforts have paid off. Home-owner, Chris, has had

foxes coming here for years. Up on the decking, just the decking area,

there is a couple of little holes here to get into the various gardens

and then they can get under there to the area under the decking. There is

so much space under here that they could possibly be in. This is a

massive big decking and it is hollow under here. That sounds really loud.

I think we've found our fox den and I think it is right below our feet.

To find out if the den is active, the team sets up infrared camera

traps. After dark, Naomi heads back onto the street to check Sugar's

nocturnal behaviour. It is not until 1am she emerges from a narrow gap.

There is the proof she must have cubs. Distended nipples that shows

she must have been shuttling for at least a couple of weeks. Her

worsening conditioning and thin tail reveals she is suffering. She must

find food. Sugar makes a beeline for block of flats about half a mile

away and then she disappears from view. Within the hour, she is back.

Her collar reveals she is spending 23 hours a day in and around the den

so it is a rare outing. Next day, they check the camera traps. Nothing

on that one. Fantastic. Poking her nose out. OK, I can see it looks

like Sugar from her tail and her collar. She is moving across on that

one. She has come back the other way. That must be aware the den is.

She is lactating and again it is Sugar. She is heading backwards and

forwards. Then, a surprise. My second adult female. That looks like

Stumpy. Unusually two females going in and out of this den. Stumpy was

already missing the tip of her tail. Two vixens caring for the cubs. What

is going on? It is a tantalising glimpse, but if there are cubs,

moving the camera is further into the den would risk disturbing them.

We have got to be patient. We have to wait for the cubs to reveal

themselves. Urban foxes. I wonder if Chris will find those clubs? Have a

feeling he might. We are on the grasslands on these wide open spaces

and we quite often see foxes here, walking around. There is the

picture. There is a fox. I have not think but respect for them. But you

often see it with an item in its mouth. More often than not it turns

out to be a rabbit. The rabbits are crucial to maintaining this. The

rabbits gave us some uncomfortable moments last week, but let's enjoy

them for a moment. Hamleys are very playful will stop they spend a lot

of time lounging around doing nothing, about eight hours a day.

But they also playful with one another, particularly family

members. But there is a tough hierarchy in rabbits. There will be

a dominant male and lots of subordinates. They do maintain that

hierarchy. Fantastic. Rabbits are not indigenous. They were imported

into this country by the Normans. They brought them as a food item.

The first record of a warrant is from 1176 from the Scilly Isles.

They were considered a luxury, a food fit for a king. But, the

rabbits have cropped all this down here. It is allowed, various other

animals we have been watching here, to live on the grasslands. Some of

them are quite common, like the red deer. Some of the other ones, things

like stone curlew, they are much rarer. But it also allows for this

other cryptic animal I was talking about, the green woodpecker. Here it

is. Yes, it is the Greenwood P. Lots of you got it right. Pat Connelly

from East Sussex got it right. What we will do is find out why all this

grassland is quite so attractive to the Greenwood hacker, when you come

back. Meanwhile, Michaela. Where I am standing now is usually the

habitat of the fiercely protective Chris Pack. But I managed to sneak

in and take over the touch-screen. This is the grasslands where Martin

was. That is our studio and cabin. Behind that is the woodland where we

have the two badger sets with live cameras on. Let's look at those

cameras now. It is a bit early for the badgers to come out. We know we

have got two lots of badgers. One of them, we have seen three adults and

the other we have seen two adults amplified cubs. We want to know the

relationship between them, what is their lifestyle and what do they

eat? So many questions. I decided to go out with Jenny, the badger

expert, to investigate it further. What is the relationship between the

two sets? It could be date separates, it could be date on

neighbours and overlapping territory of one individual may be a super

male which covers both groups. You have separate female groups. They

could be they swapped around and separate at other times. The way to

tell is to try baiting them where you feed the badgers different

coloured pellets. These green ones are going here and the Red one in

the Spinney? Yes, it won't do them any harm, you mix it with peanuts

and syrup to make it sticky. But it down. Usually you do something like

hide it under logs or stones so the squirrels and the birds don't take

it. When the badgers come out they eat it and go round their

territory. As they leave their droppings behind, they leave the

markers. Sure enough, it proved too much for the badgers to resist. We

are roughly halfway between them at this point. Badgers Mark their

boundaries with pats Bailey sends arm. It can be sent from their tail

glands. There is a huge pile of dung. There are the green things.

What have you found out so far? On this boundary they found red and

green pellets, so that suggests the badgers are both coming to this

point and marking. Where they meet, our cameras have caught intriguing

behaviour between what we think is a male from one set and a female from

the other. You can tell an awful lot from this? Yes, the badgers can tell

a lot more. It is worth collect in bees to look at what they have been

eating. It is clear they do know each other. Could this be our super

male, mating with females from both sets will stop. I will pick up the

whole dropping. That is delightful, I will take it back to the studio!

Off we go. We will be dissecting it later in the week. You will look

forward to lack? If you had not paid your licence fee, that is all the

stimulation you need. You can learn so much from it. What do you think

is going on? We're not seeing that much of them, it looks like there

are two different families? Marking the food and recovering them will

tell us if we have two set groups. We may not have two separate groups.

Earth worms here are low-density and that means they cannot mark an

exclusive territory, so their ranges have two overlap. Then we see donned

turns up on each other's territory. Another thing it might be, seeing

those two animals together is a case of men behaving badly. What we see

in badgers is 54% of the young in any group being sired by males

outside of the group. So we might have a male moving from one group

into the territory of another to mate with the female. He was showing

a lot of interest in that female. This is difficult without the

science having been done, but I am sure once we recovered the plastic

beads, so we can see where they are going and where they are marking, we

will have a better idea. What could have happened to the two extra cubs?

They could be moving around. Perhaps those cubs have split up now, three

in one place, two in another. Perhaps they were birthed by two

separate females and they have gone their own separate way. It typically

comes down to availability of food. As we go through our three weeks, we

will make more observations and conduct those experiments and I

think we will have a better idea of what is going on. You will no one of

the stars of the Winterwatch series where the black grouse. They were

showing off and you can see the males doing it here. They wear

protect doing their traditional breeding site. They do it for most

of the year except July and August. It is great to see it. It seems a

long time ago now. It was Spec Pakula viewing. They are jostling

for the best position at the centre. The older, fitter males will get

that and keep it all the way through to the spring. The one thing we did

not see in the winter where any females. They only turn up in April

and May to breed. Did one of our cameraman as welcome as we wanted to

see them together. It is spring in the Cairngorms, and the weather is

as changeable as ever. But the black grouse are still here. It is more

frantic and more fierce than it was in the winter. The grouse have

something to fight over because the Brown feathered females have

returned. They have come to choose a mate. But the only stay for a few

hours a day so time is of the essence. The males want to mate with

as many females as possible and the bigger and tougher they are, the

more they become. -- attractive. The centre is the most fiercely

contested. But something stops the fight. A golden eagle. These

magnificent hunters will easily take a black grouse. They scatter and

take cover in the nearby forest. The grouse wait until they are certain

the Eagle has moved on before they return. The males have lost valuable

time. All of their attention turns to winning a mate. Once a male has

claimed his patch, he fans his tail feathers, sums up his red eyebrows

and gives a bubbling call. -- plumps up. Crouching low to the ground, he

shows off his impressive plumage. The female at the centre is spoilt

for choice, surrounded by the biggest and strongest males. She

signals her interest by crouching low to the ground. Then she changes

her mind. Success at last. Just. Morning

drifts into afternoon. The females have left the lek to go and feed.

This male takes advantage and preams his tail feathers.

And the chicks should be hatching out right now. I'm down, I plunged

right down into the grassland here and let's examine it. All this is a

cropped off by the rabbits here and because of that and because the soil

is very, very poor, it grows slowly and that allows all sorts of very

special, quite rare plants, to grow here. If this grew up another ten

centimetres it would overgrow everything and none of these would

be able to grow. So let's see what's growing down here. This is curious

when you look up close. This is a scarlet pimpernel this. Is mossy

stone crop. It is very rare. Now, I'm going to give the cameraman a

real tough time. If you can see there is one of those very rare

ones. That's a smooth cat's ear. It is tiny. It is a minute little

flower. Talking about small, there are lots of very tiny little insects

around here as well. I have just seen a baby grasshopper running

around. Let's look at baby grasshoppers down here. This

grasshopper is two millimetres long. If you can believe that. It has a

long way to go. Grasshoppers grow by shedding their outer skin. Insects

have their skeleton on the outside and they will have to shed their

skin six or seven times before it is an adult. When it is little, it

can't make the lovely singing sound. A gorgeous thing. They are all

around. I bet loads of you have seen this over the weekend. I did. It is

cuckoo spit. What's inside it? Let's look at what makes it. It is this

tiny little frog hopper and you can see how they do it. They actually

produce the bubbles out of their bottom! Yes, they're blowing wind!

The bubbles get more and more and more and that in the end produces

the cuckoo spit which protects them and also keeps them from drying out.

Fabulous. All these little creatures and here is all this sand here is an

ants nest. There are ants everywhere around here. Let's give the

cameraman a real job now. Go on Scottie, can you see those little

ants? Can you see them? These are yellow meadow ants. I hope

they don't bite. Oh, they do! LAUGHTER

Just carry on. These ants here are themselves little predators as I can

feel. We can have a closer look at them. Here they are teaming away.

They are very busy. This is a pupa and this nest has been disturbed so

they are trying to rebury the pupa. They have got very powerful jaws and

it is a tug-of-war going on there. They are trying to pull the pupa

underground. They can't bite too hard otherwise they will rupture it

and it will die. Those are yellow meadow ants. The presence of the

meadow ants explains why that mystery bird, the green woodpecker

is here because the green woodpecker feeds almost exclusively on ants. We

can have a look at the green woodpecker in action. Here it is.

Feeding on ants. You may have seen this in your garden. They don't eat

anything else and they are adapted for it. They have an enormously long

tongue. You can see it. It looks like it is eating a worm, but that's

the green woodpecker's tongue. Let's look in slow motion. There it is.

That great long tongue. It's very sticky. It hasn't got barbes on it

and they can poke the tongue way down into the ant's nest and draw up

a load of ants and pupa. If you look carefully, it is so long the tongue,

it goes round the back of the head, through the groove and it ends up

inside that nostril of the green woodpecker. This is a green

woodpecker skull and here let me just show you how that works. There

is the tongue there. All the way around. It goes from the nostril

around the back of the head and out to there and it is not the end. It

moves around under the ground as they pick up the ants. They will eat

2,000 ants every day and the green woodpeckers out here are eating more

than that and there is a reason for that because Chris found the nest.

They don't peck wood to find their food, but they are peck wood to find

their nest. We've found a woodpecker's nest up here in the

woods of the it is high up in one of the oak trees. Here it is. Now that

nest hole is excavated mostly by the male and it can take him up to 30

day tosses hack it open -- day to say hack it up. It is a nice, neat

fit for the woodpeckers to get into the hole. That keeps other predators

out. Let's go live to our woodpeckers now to see if there is

any action at this time of the evening. Light is dropping here, but

that doesn't mean they won't still be out. Whilst Martin was out on the

grass, I saw a green woodpecker flying over his head.

grass, I saw a green woodpecker have just miss add feed. Inside that

-- missed a feed. Inside that hole, -- missed a feed. Inside that hole,

it is not a savoury place to be. It could be up to 30 centimetres deep

and # 0 centimetres could be up to 30 centimetres deep

centimetres wide and the youngsters can be in there for 27 days. It gets

very hot. Very sweaty and very dirty. Initially the adults remove

the faecal sacks, but after 15 days they give up and it fills up with

poo and if you think that things are unpleasant down in the bittern nest,

this is the plaque hole of Calcutta, you wouldn't want to be in there.

Here, we have seen them attending the nest. The young are big enough

to climb up the inside and take food from the parents and the food is a

regurgitated porridge of ants. Look carefully at the mouths of those

birds. You see those swollen warts. That's unique. I haven't seen that

on any other species of bird at all. What are they there for? A clever

reason. When the chicks first hatch and they are 50 penth sent meet --

50 centimetres down on a dull day, it is

they find the gape to regurgitate they find the gape to regurgitate

the food into? It pecks around until they find the gape to regurgitate

it touches one of the highly sensitive warts which causes

it touches one of the highly young bird to open its mouth and

then the adult can put the young bird to open its mouth and

it. Really neat. Now, the other thing that we have seen at

it. Really neat. Now, the other is that it has been attended not

only by the woodpeckers, but near neighbours. Jackdaws. The lower nest

is our woodpecker's hole, look further up the tree, about a meter

up on the right, it is possibly last year's woodpecker hole. It has been

taken over by the jackdaws. Woodpeckers will never use the same

hole twice because the young left it full of poo, but jackdaws will fill

it up with twigs and they're in and out. What's worrying here is what's

going to ham. We know that jackdaws are nest feeds. Green woodpeckers

are not nest thieves, but there are nest feeds. Green woodpeckers

bound to be conflict between the two and that's something we're going to

keep our eye on. I like green woodpeckers a lot. What I like even

more is their relatedness, the connection they have to the rabbits

out there. connection they have to the rabbits

woodpeckers to feed and without connection they have to the rabbits

them, the woodpecker wouldn't prosper. We

them, the woodpecker wouldn't beauty of things. You

That's why there is a thing called the

That's why there is a thing called it is important

That's why there is a thing called UK to replace any species which

disappear UK to replace any species which

of these is the beaver. They have been gone for 400 years. Now, we

have been looking at the behaviour of beavers and we are going to

have been looking at the behaviour at a project running for

have been looking at the behaviour five years to investigate the

reintroduction of beavers into the UK. We have had a fantastic weekend

up here on the West Coast of Scotland. The weather has been

superb and that means we've been able to get out and about and

explore the surrounding countryside and I have to tell you, it is

jam-packed full of all kinds of wonderful wildlife. Much of it, very

dimp to what -- different what you will see down there, and that

includes the beavers. This past weekend, the five year Scottish

beaver trial came to an end. In 2009 four beaver families were introduced

here and it was a trial reintroduction because they wanted

to see how the beavers would adapt to living in the UK after a long

absence and they wanted to see how we would adept to living with the

beavers once more. A team of scientists has been following the

beavers every step of the way, but all that research won't be written

up and won't be published for another 12 months. So I went along

to see how the beavers were doing. As soon as the beavers arrive,

construction commenced. The beavers felled trees, moved mud and blocked

streams shaping their world to suit their needs. Ponds formed behind the

dams giving the beavers safe access to the trees and reeds they need to

feed the family. Once the ponds appeared, fish, amphibians and water

loving insects moved in. But beavers don't just build dams. Simon Jones,

project manager of the Scottish Beaver Trial allowed me a glimpse

inside another example of beaver engineering. So this is a beaver

lodge? Indeed. This is an abandoned lodge. That's the only reason I'm

poking around it now. We're on a have structure that's five meters

long by a meter-and-a-half high. This is built by a pair of rodents

and that's quite impressive. Because beaver construction work changes the

landscape, not everyone is keen to see them back permanently. There is

concern among locals that their appetite for construction about

affect fisheries and farmland. Some of the trial team's research has

been exploring whether scents from other animals could help control

their movements. Beavers love apples, but how do they respond when

the field operations manager plays a squirt of wolf urine nearby? An

infrared camera filmed the beavers reaction. I joined Roisin to view

the results. Come on then, did it work? You see the beaver. It doesn't

want to stay beside the experiment. When it lifts the apple it returns

back to the water's edge where it feels safer. It is recognising there

is predators in the area. Over the past five years, what would you say

are the main foundings? What has been seen is that beavers can live

here. They carry out the natural range of behaviours that we have

seen. So we have seen they can build lodges, dams, ponds, they will fell

trees and they establish pairs and they've bred and dispersed. So all

the behaviours you expect of a beaver population, even a small

trial one like this which we have seen would suggest that beavers can

definitely live in Scotland again and the decision is whether we

really want them to live in greater numbers. History will see whether it

was something that ended up being a success or not I suppose? The

research will be handed in to the Scottish Government in a year's time

so you have got 12 months to come up here, at least 12 months, to come

and see the beaver for yourself and if at the end that time period the

Scottish Government decides that it doesn't want the beaver here, do you

know what, I might shove them in the back of my car and take them down to

Wales. I spoke about the big differences in the animals and the

birds up here and what you're seeing down there, but we have one species

in common and that's the cuckoo. We have been seeing and hearing them

everywhere up here and it was nice to see Chris the Packham catching up

with Chris the cuckoo. For England and Wales there has been a decline,

but here in Scotland, the decline is only 5% and in some areas they are

on the increase. Why the decline nationally? No one is quite sure

yet, but I'm convinced it is something to do with food and for

cuckoos food means hairy caterpillars. Their poisonous. These

birds found a way of getting rid of the poison by biting off the

caterpillars head before swallowing the cat erpillar. Let's slow that

down and look at it one more time. That is the shake and there go the

guts. Fantastic behaviour. Except, if you are a caterpillar. That is

all from us today, but tomorrow we will be on the trail of a rare

creature in Scotland. Flying caterpillar guts! We were

watching those cuckoos in West Scotland but we have been watching a

nest in Norfolk. It was a reed warbler's nest. This is what we saw

last week. For eggs in there. The reed warbler comes in and feeds it.

But Colquhoun chick pushes out the three remaining eggs so it is the

only one left. -- Colquhoun chick. That chick grows incredibly quickly.

You can see that orange gape, the massive target which is encouraging

the reed warbler to put lots of food in it. You can see it regurgitating

some insect food. The cheque is also big, it is having trouble brooding

it. -- the cheque. Oh my word! It is monstrous. Cuckoo-zilla! I do like

them. What we will see if we are lucky as we watch this youngster

developing, lucky as we watch this youngster

birds have to purge on its head and then feed it into its beak.

It will be giant nor must. There is a Western on Twitter and Daniel

Batz, why do the cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds nests? A

Colquhoun will lay beta been five and 20 eggs. She could

Colquhoun will lay beta been five clutch of that size on her own,

incubate them and feed her own. By spreading them out she has a greater

chance of getting her genes into the next population. She does that

because those birds continue to feed her one youngster. That reed

warbler's nest would have had five young and it would have been split

five ways, now it is going into just one Colquhoun. It makes the

Cuckoo's life easily. But not easy for the reed warbler. We happen nest

we have a live camera on. They are on for eggs. The prediction is they

could hatch tomorrow. We have moved one of our cameras so if they do

hatch we have the chance of seeing that. One of the things we did

notice last week is the parents are very attentive and they change over

very quickly. A couple of seconds between them. But that has changed a

little bit in the last couple of days. One adult goes off and leaves

those eggs exposed for about 30 seconds before the other adult comes

back. There will be the longer changeover period and

leaving the eggs unattended? It could beat the birds are losing

condition. All of the time they are incubating, they are not feeding and

keeping their body reserves up. So maybe they

keeping their body reserves up. So there for that long. The

keeping their body reserves up. So the nest, remove one of the eggs and

laid their own within the nest, remove one of the eggs and

If the reed warbler is off the nest for 30 seconds,

If the reed warbler is off the nest warbler's nest? ! It would the

great. warbler's nest? ! It would the

weekend, but I feel it is warbler's nest? ! It would the

It is going to be on predict double. But I cannot predict the weather,

but we know an man who can, Nick Miller and he is with us live from

the BBC Weather Centre. I am glad you have been enjoying the weather.

What is ahead this week? A mixture of sunshine and a soaking. Tomorrow

there will be some sunshine around but across the UK the threat of

heavy showers. This is coming in for Wednesday. Low pressure which will

not bring just showers, but rain. On the eastern side of the UK into

eastern Scotland, where it could be still raining on Thursday. That is

what those newly fledged birds such as loot its don't want to see. Their

feathers are not completely waterproof yet. It is cool also. The

coolest day of the week and that may mean fewer insects around. It looks

like Wednesday is going to be the most challenging weather day of the

week across the UK. Showers are possible on any day, but Wednesday

is a fly in the ointment. Not sure how much rain you will get, but

heavy rain will raise water levels and threaten the bitterns. No! We

don't want more rain. We should cheer ourselves up with a new nest.

We have had on owls before but now we will bring you a different owl.

See if you can guess what it might be. It is nesting in a tree and it

looks like this. We are only giving you a cryptic look. Any guesses of

what it could be? Looks a bit like a gremlin. It is a tawny owl. There is

the chick. It is calling. It is the usual time it wakes up. Mum has been

in. She might come back in again. It is just one chick. That is unusual.

They usually have three or four. It looks a bit fluffy to me, we don't

think we will see it fledging live on Springwatch. But you never know.

It is very late? To see one youngster that small app this time

of year, it could be that the first nest failed and it is odd just to

see one and less there has been a tragedy and the others have been

lost. The female might young and inexperienced and in poor condition

and only capable of laying one egg. We have been watching the adult

bringing food to the chick and it has dub a constant stream of food.

Some of it, not what you would expect. The first one was a newt. It

is bringing amphibians, generally. That is another amphibian, frog or

something. Then he goes for something more conventional next.

Look at its face, it is a bit messy. It is a messy chick, that. Rodents.

The next thing is extremely tragic to me. Down it goes! This is

tragic, Chris. How did it catch it? It is a tree creeper. How did it

catch it at night? Must have courted around the roost. Now it is bringing

in slugs. The chick is undecided about this. Drops it, does not want

it. Slugs can produced... That is awful, it is like a snotty child.

Look at its face! Look at that! The cameras are on the tawny owl night

and day so you can follow it online or on the red button. I want to get

a cloth and clean it. The weather is going to get worse, so let's

celebrate the sunshine we had before it becomes a distant memory and see

what the cameramen got over the weekend. This is one of my

favourites. It is the first time we have seen the otters. Every time it

comes out it takes a little breath before it dives under again. It is

in glorious sunshine. Make the most of that! Isn't that fabulous? You

might be lucky enough to see a adder. Chris and I went out and we

enjoyed watching them. We will see it later on. This is a female and it

looks glorious. Very beautiful. The males tend to be black and white.

The female is more brown. But we managed to see the adder mating.

There has also been some bees at a swarm. At the base of this fallen

tree, there is part of the swarm. If this is going to be a colony, they

will have to find a hollow tree. Once they are in that they will

prosper as long as they have space to fill it with honey. Have you ever

put your hand inside? I have, it is really cool inside. Maarten you have

a mosquito right in the middle of your forehead. We are going to the

live Nightingale nest. They have grown quite a bit. They were only

just peeping out when we saw them on Thursday. This is a nest not very

well-known. Bit like bitterns. Many people don't get to watch

nightingales, they are normally hidden. One particular thing that

has been interesting, is the types of food being brought in. If you are

watching on the red button, let us know if you see anything unusual

brought in. Don't go away we have an extraordinary gentlemen, Jason

Singh, who is a vocal sculptor who creates the natural world with his

own voice. I want to see that. You can watch the live cameras

overnight, the bitterns, the Owls. You can join the breakfast show

online and on the red button tomorrow morning. We are going to

explore. We have a thermal camera to see what is out there under the

cover of darkness. I will be catching up with those urban foxes

in Brighton to see if they have any cubs. Will there be drama with our

avocet? We will find out tomorrow at eight p.m.. So, goodbye for now.