Episode 6 Springwatch

Don't go anywhere, it is Springwatch.

Hello and welcome to Springwatch 2014. It is a rare sunny evening on

the Suffolk coast. We are live and our mission throughout this week and

the rest of next is to bring you the best of British wildlife ringing you

the rest of next is to bring you the with the technology we have got. I

have got to tell you, with the technology we have got. I

least two things I guarantee you have never seen before. Something

which is completely weird where an animal has something in common with

Alexander the great. And we have the cutest animals ever. It is going to

be fantastic. We are in such a beautiful place, it is 1000 hectares

of managed habitat which supports a great diversity of life. All sorts

of mammals live here, Marsh Harriers, bitterns, they are

feeding. The dear are here and they are chewing away. We have lots of

birds, including this little Wren. Doing a lovely performance. We have

cameras all over the reserve and we have exciting news because we have a

hatching. We predicted it would happen and it has. Let's meet the

proud parents. They are the reed warbler is. We don't know if this is

the male or female, they difficult to tell apart. If we look into the

nest, we can see three little chicks have hatched. The parent is in their

feeding them. There is one egg left. We will be keeping our eye on it to

see if the fourth egg hatches. But let's have a look at what happened

just after 2pm today. Quite fidgety. Looks down. Almost looks confused.

Something is obviously going on underneath. Indeed it is, the first

egg is hatching. She has a look in. If we take a close look, she comes

out with a bit of the egg showing us the trick -- baby. She removes the

shell so it does not attract editors. Then the baby uses the rest

of the shell as a helmet. Throughout the day, two others hatched as well.

We are extremely lucky to see this. It is the first for Springwatch. We

have never seen a hatching of one of those small, brown birds that has a

hidden nest before. We see things in the open hatching, but not like

that. Fascinating to see the adults turned over to feeding. It is almost

like they had never seen young before. They could be first-time

parents. When you left us last night we were enjoying the company of a

suite baby tawny owl. You called him or her Grub. Let's have a look Grub

now. Where is he in there? If you walk past the tree you would never

notice him. It is only when he moves. You can just see him moving

around in there. He is half asleep now and he will wait until it gets

dark and the parents will come in and basically stuff him with food.

Interestingly, we have been able to watch the parents. Definitely tawny

owl is going out and hunting. We have filmed at this over the last

couple of nights. It is pitch lack in reality. He is going down. We

think it might have been a worm or a baby Newt. It looks like the towel

is hunting using site. It is not, it is using its hearing. They generally

use their hearing as a primary way of hunting. It will drop down

silently and grab what is ever down there. It has got to feed itself as

well. It is having a nibble of something, cannot see what it is.

What was amazing is the number of prey items the Owls brought back. 18

different things. A huge variety. First of all it was feeding those

awful slugs. Then it brought a sort of a slug sand wedge because it had

leaves either side. Sensible really, to stop slime. Oh dear! Then the

adult came back with a strange prey. Difficult to see to begin

with. That is a fully grown adult slow worm and it is very much alive.

It is huge, Martin. How will it get that down? Every time it stopped and

took a rest, it tried to come out again. I feel sorry for that slow

worm, it is like a live endoscope. Can you imagine what the poor owl

alike with that wriggling around in its tummy. Live spaghetti. It had

not even finished then. It does look like hard work. This is also

fascinating. We were expecting small rodents, but look at this. Partially

hidden but that is a more hen. We weren't sure. It is a huge male and

a big thing for a tawny owl to grab and kill at night. Must have heard

it rustling around. Visit an adult? Is it a chick? We had a close look

at it. Those are pin feathers so we thought it was probably a very large

chick. It is a huge variety isn't it? Different things being brought

in, yes. Lots of you have been watching this online and on the red

button so if you have spotted something we haven't, let us know.

We have had a question on Twitter. Would a tawny owl get a adder? It

probably would. I'd don't see any reason why it wouldn't take it. What

if it was a black adder? It would never be seen. I am going to go off

and give you a guided tour of our production village over there. Let's

take a look at another live camera. This is a popular place for our

ground nesting birds. Black-headed gull is, we have seen avocets

ground nesting birds. Black-headed there. It is a busy place. Every

year it changes, it is very dynamic. It has different number of birds and

avocets. It is always busy and noisy. We have had a question, is

this scrape man-made or natural? It was one of the first man-made

wetlands in the world. The RSPB started working on it in the 1940s.

Underneath it is a complex system of pipes. There is water management and

then it is about the islands providing good nesting habitat for

birds like the avocet, sandwich turns and waders like this. They

have to control the water. It is fenced off to keep predators out.

They have spent a lot of time and effort working on it. When the

avocets first came back, there were just a few pairs. Now they have

increased that they are all round the southern coast of the UK. They

have exported the idea overseas. I was in mortar earlier

have exported the idea overseas. I them was designed by the guy who

built the scrape here. It is also about good feeding habitat. We have

been looking at the avocet on the nest, but let's look at them

feeding. They have these bills, and they go through the water and the

mud, holding them slightly open. And they can feel any prey in the water.

Shrimps, crustaceans, beta la vie, fly la vie. If they feel them in the

water and catch them, they will swallow them down. If there is a

rich patch of trade, we will seek communal feeding. One of the

benefits is it is easy to see the birds, it is a wide open habitat.

When you have a species as striking as the avocet, it will attract

attention. The courtship of these birds is understood and ritualised.

The bird on the left is the female and she is in the mood. She has gone

into a position which is soliciting the male. She is being very patient.

He is not really paying the correct amount of attention initially. When

he gets more interested in begins to splash her with water. Here he is,

he starts splashing her. It is important he does not pass in front

of her. It is a massive turn-off from her point of view. He makes his

way to the other side. She is being very patient. He is building himself

up for it. He climbs on top for a quick copulation. But look what

happens. He wraps his wing around her. Bowers down and walks off. They

do that every time. Beautiful copulation. It is, what are you

doing? Don't climb on top of me. Do you know what happens when they do

that successfully? They lay eggs. Look at this, it is a unique piece

of filming. that successfully? They lay eggs.

Look at this, it is a If you look at the bottom of the female, you can

see the egg beginning to appear. Being squeezed out and very gently

down onto the ground. The freshest avocet egg you are ever going to

see. It might look like it has just been laid on to the ground. But she

may have made a small ring of stones or a small amount of vegetable

material. She will lay another three and then she will begin to incubate

them. What a sight. It is not just the avocets, so have some of the

goals. It means the scrape is very dangerous and very dramatic, as you

will see. This is a lack headed goal chick. It has wandered away from the

nest, which is very dangerous. All of the other birds go crazy and

start mobbing it. It flies off. Keep your eye on the chick. It comes in,

gets the chick in its beak. It keeps hold of the chick. Takes a break and

swallows it whole. I was wondering if it was taking it back to its

babies, but it does not seem to be because then we noticed this. They

had a feeding themselves or they were feeding each other. This is two

goals which looks like they are fighting over this dead chick. This

is courtship behaviour. They are having a tug of war. The male would

have swallowed that chick and regurgitated it and given it as a

gift to the female. He is trying to get her into peak, breeding

condition. He did not digestive clean-up because it is still a

little bit tough and a bit big for the female. Eventually, the male

pulls it away and decides to give up and just swallow it himself. She is

following him. Doing that are being head which is a begging posture. He

will swallow it, re-regurgitated it and probably offer it up to her

later. Everything is regurgitating, the

Britons, the woodpeckers. Now we have got these things. I do it

myself in a minute. The avocet has been patiently

sitting on those X. What is going to happen when they hatch last remark

the chicks are going to be extremely vulnerable. Or drip at the other we

have called her full stop -- Audrey burn we have called her. Keep your

eye on her. You can keep an eye on the live cameras on the red button.

We have been back down to Brighton looking at our urban foxes. We have

been working with the University of Brighton we have got radio collared

foxes and we have found two females making a dent. We have located the

area and put the cameras in. We are waiting to see if any cubs appeared.

We now know that central Brighton is home to over 20 foxes per Square

Kilometre Array, a pretty surprising statistic given the apparent lack of

suitable habitat. But hidden behind this row of houses is a suspected

down. We know it is being used by two females. Our camera traps can

reveal just what they have been hiding beneath the decking. It is

just what we have been hoping for. Tiny cups, only about three weeks

old, so young they can barely stumble around in the dark. Dawn

wastes no time at all in introducing the owners of the house to their

beautiful new neighbours. Oh, my goodness, fantastic. Three cups,

they are all the same age. They are a bit wobbly on their feet. Five

cubs. Is it possible they could have two litters? I think it is one

letter. Maybe one of the adults has lost its other litter. They are very

close to exploring outside. They will be coming close in the next

couple of days, they will get more confident. You should see them

outside at any time. Even with help Sugar is suffering full stop victims

use a quarter of their body weight by the time their cubs are weaned

and her coat is thinning. She's spending less time at the Den. Her

cubs need more solid food. Sugar is going to faced competition out on

the streets. Tonight, torn by the demands of our

growing family, she returns to the garden. With just a supply of milk.

Now they are getting hungrier, the clubs of finally emerging from

underground. -- the cubs. And we can see that in fact there

are actually eight of them, and they are fiercely competitive for their

mother's supplies. Sugar suckles the best she can before the cubs'

demands for so back on to the street. -- force her back. Stumpy

has taken over cubs sitting. She has been spending much less time at the

Den but she provides valuable support. Under her watchful eye that

cubs free to explore. They are six weeks old and ready to learn the

rough and tumble of life. As they investigate the New World,

they are learning new skills. And different personalities seem to be

emerging. Some of them, they look a bit like future explorers. Others,

champion wrestlers. Some are honing their moves, others have aspirations

to be high achievers. Or not. And others are simply more

laid-back. After all, growing up is a tiring business.

Sugar returns, this time it is with some solid food, but it is not for

her full stop --. They must supply several deliveries and night for

this fast-growing letter. The cubs have a full set of milk teeth so the

sooner they are weaned, the better for them the well hidden, highly

fortified garden, has been a perfect nursery in some ways but it is

devoid of natural food or natural vegetation. The cubs will need

somewhere larger and wilder to prepare for the world beyond. Their

curiosity means they will not be contained for much longer. One of

the boulder cubs seems to have noticed where Sugar has been coming

in and out of the yard and spots is chance to escape. It takes all of

its strength and all of its determination, but eventually it

succeeds in clambering up the wall. It makes it out. With her cubs keen

to leave the safety of the Den, what will be Sugar's next move?

Entertaining, playful, mischievous and quite adorable. There are eight

of them, that has got to be to families. It would be difficult to

know for sure. The only way if we were to capture them DNA test them.

We can say female foxes typically have six, but they can push the

We can say female foxes typically out and have eight. There were two

foxes in attendance. There could be two litters will stop when we first

started looking at them some of them did appear to be smaller than the

others and they caught up. Perhaps Stumpy dropped the letter as well

and they crashed. Who knows? Doctor Dawn Scott will be worthless on

Thursday to unfold a view more things about these foxes.

Our fox cubs are about to explore away from the Den, many of our chips

are exploring away from the nest, and Martin is exploring a waif to

look at the production village. -- exploring away. I am in the heart

of wet Springwatch gets me. People are working right now making the

programme. To see the whole of the production village you have to go up

into the air. There is the reserve, Minsmere, and down in the corner,

that is the production village, that big tent, that is where we have our

meals. And you can see all the trucks lined up, that is where I am.

Here are the trucks. Down on the ground are these cables. We have 22

kilometres of cables, one of these cables here goes two kilometres away

from the back of this truck to someone else on the reserve. All the

cameras are coming in right here. If I was to get hold of that and give

it a good target, it would be very bad news. I would be in trouble. The

cameras are going in here to our story developers area. We will go

and meet a story developer. Watch yourself. This is where all the

stories,, they all comment. What have we got here? It is Nick. Have

you started your shift, Wendy do begin? I started today at 4pm, so I

am doing for BM until 4am. 12 hours. We do alternate 12 hour shifts. Do

you go straight home to bed? This morning I went out to be bitten

Hyde, did three hours filming so I caught water bowls in front of me.

--. Can you go live to the Britons? This is the closer. Mum is away. She

has been away since 7:30pm. She has been away about an hour.

The chicks, what are they doing, snuggled up together keeping warm.

Most of the time they huddle up together, stay warm. They have just

started to explore a bit more, to a half weeks old. Starting to get a

bit more bold. You can chose them being bowled. I

certainly can. Here we go, there it is.

We noticed one of them, the ginger and one, walks up into shot, looked

at the camera. Posed, and then went back to the nest. The size of the

feet, they are enormous. Sometimes they go through deep water. These

birds are quite small. Here is the mother, she leaves the nest. Look at

that. Using those feet to move sideways onto the reads, walks her

way through. Just gripping on. It is like being on stilts. I so up this

morning when I went down to film them.

Carry on watching, if anything exciting happens, let us know.

Because we have got all these cameras here it has enabled us to

note something very interesting. Our birds have different ways of

parenting. The bitten is a single mother, the males are still out

there. They are still booming, looking for a mate. You have got the

single mum, in complete contrast to our beautiful bullfinches. These to

work together very closely. The female is dominant, he is a bit of a

toy boy, she is two years old, he's only one-year-old. They work very

closely together. The mail tends to show the female possible nest sites

and she makes the decision where to go.

Very tidy, he has taken that away. That is a Bulfinch nest but we have

also noticed interesting things going on in the Nightingale 's nest.

The Nightingale 's, beautiful. That nest is immaculate. They keep it

absolutely perfect. They keep it completely clean. It is spotless. We

think that maybe because the nest is very close to the ground. If they

leave any debris it might attract predators. This is beautifully

cleaned. They are keeping it spotless.

Again, completely different to the next but we are going to look at.

This is a brand-new nest. It is a bird you may see in your garden is

these days. Years ago you would never see them, it is the Goldfinch.

Where is our Goldfinch? We have got a single angle. Both mum

and dad are away. You can see that life. Let's have a closer look.

Let's have a look around the edge. It is disgusting. There is to all

the way round the edge. The chicks poo all the way round the side. The

parents are picking it up and eating it. At first that looks revolting.

In fact, the chicks don't fully digest the food brought to them, and

actually the parents are getting sick nutrition from that food. --

getting some nutrition. Here it goes against we noticed this in previous

broadcasts, it is a characteristic of these birds. Beautiful birds. You

can keep watching. Just go to our website. Have them in the corner of

your computer at work. Now we will go from the cosy warmth of the

interior into the wilds of Scotland. Every time you have come up to us it

has been dry and most times it has been beautiful. The rain has finally

arrived but it is keeping the mosquitoes at bay. I have been

looking at animals on the West Coast of Scotland like the otter, the

beaver and the white tailed eagle. But there is another creature in

this area and it is difficult to find. But having come all the way

up, I had to have another go. Clinging to the south facing

slopes, this is the perfect habitat for a colourful secret naturists

have long made pilgrimages to see. Just got a four-week window to see

these creatures around the end of May and the beginning of June, that

is it. I have come from Newbury in Berks. I have come 500 miles. We

have come from Bedfordshire to see it. Have you seen it yet? Not yet,

but we are hoping. I have got one over here. It is here. Yes. This is

it, it is the chequered skipper. They became extinct in England in

1976 and now it is only found on the West Coast of Scotland and it is one

of our rarest butterflies. It is a real beauty. It's lack body and

orange and brown wings, is only here for four short weeks. It does not

have long to find a mate and lay an egg before the flying season ends.

But they are fascinating creatures, they like lots of nectar for food

and clumps of grass for the next generation. This is our purple moor

grass. It is the food plans for the Caterpillar. The female lays her

eggs on these green leaves, two weeks later they hatch out. The

caterpillars feed on this and in this area, what is critical, because

it is so mild and wet, believes stay green until October. That means food

is available to those caterpillars much later in the year than it is in

the UK. So it is key to their survival. The caterpillars have to

do their feeding before winter because once it turns brown, that is

it. It will not feed until after they pupate, this time next year.

You cannot tell the difference between the males and females by

looking at the abdomen. The females are full of eggs so the abdomen is

short and fat were as the male's abdomen is longer and thinner. If

the abdomen extends beyond the wing, it is a male. Like this one. They

are easier to spot than the females, who are hiding in the undergrowth

looking for a precious place to lay their eggs. It was such a lovely day

out. It was lovely to meet such an use elastic pilgrims as well. I can

guarantee you it is great fun. It is a charming little butterfly and

Butterfly conservation Scotland would like you to volunteer to see

if you can find a few more. If you are living in Scotland are going on

holiday in the next couple of weeks, you can choose yourself a one

kilometre square on our website. If you visit that website, you might

find one. If we don't know where the we cannot provide any conservation

for them. This is the bit of the show you have been waiting for. It

is bitten time. Tonight we thought we would look buttons away from the

nest. One of our cameramen is out there and is on top of a piece of

scaffolding. He is looking over the reeds. He has a Marsh Harrier.

Another one of the reed bed specialists we have here. We have

been watching these birds flying round. We have not managed to get a

camera on their nest yet. The cameraman will keep his eyes peeled

throughout the rest of the programme. But we have seen other

interesting behaviour including its hunting. They can't like a heron.

Still, standing in the reeds. A bit of stalking and then when they find

something, they snatch at it. Often they will change from one part of

the reeds to the other. It is the only chance you will get if you come

at this time of the year, of seeing the bitterns moving from one patch

of reeds. If you are lucky you will catch them at the edge where they

fish. They will catch small fish, crustaceans, amphibians, all sorts

of things. It is a rare piece of behaviour to see. It is swimming.

They can swim. Why it has chosen to do so across this narrow body of

water, I am not sure. Maybe it is being a bit sneaky and does not want

to draw attention to themselves. They are very shy and skulking

birds. That was a bit turn swimming. We have seen them in argumentative

mood. We have 11 males who are still booming, which means they are still

within a chance of mating. Maybe encouraging some of those females of

having a second brood. It is puffing up its neck and displaying. It is

agitated. What is going on? It goes to the right and then you can see

there is another one. It has flown, presumably, into that territory. It

has been chased out. They will fight and there are accounts of them

fighting to the death. But they tried to avoid that and then they

produce a sound. The booming we have been talking about will stop we have

heard the signs -- sound, the sound a red deer makes, it is remarkable.

But this is an opportunity to see a bitterns booming.

It is all puffed up. Head is down and it is pumping out that sound. We

have got to see that again. Right in the open. What an amazing

opportunity. How do they do it? Unlike most birds who sing through

the track ear, the bitterns throat sing like the green land it people.

They take in a huge amount of air. They have a Balfe in their mouth,

which means once they breathe in they don't let the air out of their

throat. They pump themselves up. They take in air until their

software does swells up until it is ten centimetres in diameter! --

oesophagus. Let's have it one more time. Booming away. I have been

reading through the literature and I have noticed people try to represent

this remarkable sound in letters. So they have come up with this. I

cannot imagine this. Never read so much rubbish in my life! If you

think you can represent the booming sound of a bitterns in 26 letters,

sent us a tweet. Scientists do so much good work but sometimes they

cannot get it right. Moving on, from an animal I have great passion for,

to a creature a lot of people haven't got a lot of passion for. It

is a shame because it is fascinating as Michaela has found out. With big

ears, dark eyes, long whiskers and a fairy coat, the rat should be cute

and love it. At the many, it is the opposite. The English-language is

littered with negative associations for the poor old rat. Things like

drowned rat, gutter rat, dirty rat, are all too familiar. What ever you

think, beauty or beast, there is no getting away from it, the rat is one

of the most successful invasive species ever. It is not surprising

they have a bad reputation. Rats were the cause of the Black Death,

the worst plague in history. And today rats are responsible for

spreading vials disease and other infections. But look past that and

you find a truly fascinating animal. There are two species in the UK. The

brown and the black. Neither is native. Both are Asian species. They

arrived here as stowaways on ships from as far back as Roman times. The

rat we see in our towns, cities and back gardens is the brown rat. Like

all rats, they have some interesting adaptations which have helped to

make them so successful. This large robust rodent can big, arrow and

swim. And it breeds at an alarming rate. Black or brown, the fear of

rats is one of the most common phobias in the entire world. For a

lot of people, having them anywhere near would send them into a complete

panic. I am here to meet Kate, who is a wildlife enthusiast, who not

only has them in her garden, but encourages these wild rodents. Kate

is an old friend of Springwatch and her garden is covered in mini

cameras. They filmed everything the wildlife gets up to, both day and

night. Where are the rats hiding out? I have a mature hedge. This is

perfect. On the far side there is a steep bank and networks, usually

underneath feeders. They are picking up the debris off the bird feeders.

Where you were read there might be a bit of conflict between the bird

feeders and the rats? Yes, I did worry how all of the wildlife would

interact. But the rats come out when the birds have finished. How many do

you think you have got? Two probably about 40. They are prolific

breeders. The most I have seen on the cameras is six or seven. To get

the best views of these visitors, she shows me her favourite clips. I

have picked a few clips. The first one is showing hedgehogs and wrap

feeding together. What I find astonishing is when you look at

that, how can anyone love a hedgehog and not love a rat? This is where I

found a little row so I put an apple there. So they hang around. If you

put loose food, they grab it and go back in. But here they are coming

out. Look at that beautiful face. Very cute. People think they are

dirty and horrible but they are very clean, always grooming. I have a

clip that was captured on my Fox camera. They come out to eat the

food I put out for the Foxes. No, Shane. Watch again, you have to be

quick. Straight in, got it. This is a nice one of them trying to figure

out how to get to the feeders, which are just out of reach. You can see

them gripping on with their back feet and using their tail to

balance. How frustrating. The other one is climbing on. Look at their

whiskers, you can see them twist Ching. That is how they judge

distances. -- twitching. Going to go for it on the next one. Total

wipe-out. If left to their own devices in the wild, they can find a

natural balance, becoming just another part of our rich ecosystem.

With up to 15 million rats living in the UK during springtime, whether

you like it or not, the rat is here to stay. Personally, I think they're

rather adorable and it is time we started to put them in a more

positive light. There we might need to manage the way we live alongside

them, there should be no reason to fear one of the most successful

mammals on the planet. How can you not love rat, look at that little

face? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want one in my kitchen, but out in

the wild, they are fabulous creatures. Because we have gotten

closer we can take a good look at them. Look at the eyes. Their

eyesight didn't actually that good, so probably look a bit blurry to

this brat but it can hear me pretty well. Bestival, it can smell me.

They have a phenomenal sense of smell.

Some people see them as a problem, others see them as the most

wonderful solution. In some places they are taking the place of sniffer

dogs, there are sniffer rats. They have been used to look for mines in

Africa and the one I like best of all is in Holland they are using

them in the police force. A lady called money is training them to

take the place of sniffer dogs. She says the rats are as good as dogs,

you can train them much more quickly, it takes about ten days,

and they are being used to find and shot residue of suspects and that

would normally take a couple of hours, but a rat can sense it in

seconds, almost immediately. We rang them up today in Rotterdam and they

told us the sniffer rats are still undergoing training but they hope to

be on active service soon. That is a great story. Stand-by sniffer rats.

I have got a rat in my pocket, what will I do? Especially as I think it

might be doing a poo in my pocket. Rats are denizens of the night and

we have had that special camera out looking round Minsmere trying to see

what else is out there under the cover of darkness. There we are. The

darker they are, the warmer they are. These are all the rabbits. It

must be quite a nice warm nights because they are losing a lot of

heat. Here is their nemesis. The Fox. It looks like quite a young

Fox. The head is quite big. This is in pitch black. It is a it is

listening, smelling. See how clean they are. I touched him and he is

having a thorough body wash. Around the UK we have lots of iconic

monuments including places like Stonehenge which happens to be

surrounded by grassland. Because it has been protected for hundreds of

years it is a very special place to visit. You can go there, not just to

enjoy the mystery of the stones, but also the fantastic wildlife that

surrounds it. As our cameraman found out when he went to film there.

I am drawn to Mystic places. Places that have an atmosphere. Everybody

thinks the stones marked Midsummer solstice. But a lot of current

thinking believes the most important time for the people that build these

stones was in fact the winter solstice. It marked when the days

are going to start getting longer, when there is rebirth, when the

landscape starts coming back to life.

If you go out early, if you are lucky, there will be missed burning

orange by the rising sun. You might see shapes moving about. It is

hares, it is their ability to appear and disappear that gives them

mysticism. People used to think they were goddesses or witches that had

secret abilities. They are exceptionally good at hiding.

You can see males crisscrossing the landscape, looking for a female.

Once a male has found a female in season he sticks right by her side

because he doesn't want any other male to get the opportunity to mate

with her. As a cameraman, if I stand still and

wait just as the stones stand still and wait, you will see life,

nature, pass you by. You just simply have to take the time to enjoy it. I

spotted a field fair, that is surprising to see a winter birds

still here. We flew down under the ground to joint starlings. Right

behind it landed a week here, they are a spring migrant. You have this

lovely juxtaposition of winter and spring meeting.

The landscape here is more than just stones themselves. So many more

things begin to reveal themselves. If you look carefully, you might see

a few bits of twigs and dead leaves tucked away in the looks and grace.

-- looks and crannies. Jackdaws with their beady eyes, asking what are

you doing? This is our place. These stones were engineered to work

with the movement of the sun and the stars.

The people that built them must have had a real connection with nature.

And with the world around them. Even in our busy, modern world,

wildlife adapts, changes, finds its way. But the stones have given the

animals are real chance. A huge nature reserve has been created

around them. This place will be protected for an incredibly long

time. This landscape is more than just

about our human history, it is about natural history as well.

get those stones there from Wales? get those stones there from Wales?

We introduced you to the new West, and our story developers noticed

something very odd. This is our green woodpecker. It has got a white

eye on one side which is typical, but on the other side it is brown.

It is an example of hat trick roomier parade. It is all to do with

the density of a pigment in the eye, the more melanin, the darker it is.

It could be it is an inherited characteristic, it could have been

injured or diseased. It is something we see quite frequently. Alexander

the great had different colour eyed. So has Simon Pegg. A lot of people

will be saying David Bowie. I checked earlier today, he has got

one people which is permanently diluted so it makes it look like it

is a different colour I've. You learn all sorts of stuff on

Springwatch. So full of information. Too much, probably. My old

headmaster had that and it made him look very scary.

We all know that everybody needs good neighbours but unfortunately

our woodpeckers haven't got them. These are jackdaws, and yesterday we

saw that they are nesting in an old woodpecker nest just above our new

woodpecker nest. And they can be a little bit bullish, they can be

noisy. They have got their own chicks in that nest that they are

feeding. This is the adult poking its head out. I am not quite sure

that hole is big enough. It did make it is self, it is greasing up a

whole. -- squeezing. Woodpeckers at the bottom, jackdaws at the top,

bickering all the time. They certainly are bickering. As we have

noticed plenty of times. The woodpecker is below the jackdaw. It

is putting its nose into the nest. I am not sure what is going on, I

think it is intolerance. They find each other irritating. The jackdaw

just comes in and pushes it away. It is displaying, a bit of a

depression. -- aggression. They would certainly have a job

getting the chicks out of those holes. Jackdaw versus woodpecker?

The jackdaw might go for the woodpecker chicks. I thought the

woodpecker might go for the jackdaw. It will be interesting to

see what happens. We will keep our eye on that. In all the ledge giant

have read, it hasn't happened before. The Ladybird book of jackdaw

gradation. Look at this. This was captured by an RSPB volunteer who

saw them popping out of the nest box and rushed down with the camera to

get the picture. Amazing. So we have a look at our live owl? It is a bit

sleepy. Waking up. I think it is waiting for one of its 18 feeds of

the night. What they want is people to watch tonight, what it feeds on,

and help the story developers and you can go and tell our story

developers what it manages to eat. I actually did say that at the

beginning of the show. We have one thing on twitter here, Brian

Atkinson, about the bit in booming. We have got to go now but don't go

away, Springwatch Unsprung will be right afterwards, we will be meeting

Russell Savory who got that incredible film of the bowls. Iolo

Williams will be up in Scotland going on a snorkel Safari of a

Seelaar and very colourful it is as well. Keep your eye on the live

cameras. 7:30am, you can watch breakfast and find out what has

happened overnight. cameras. 7:30am, you can watch

breakfast and find out what has We have got to go now but tomorrow

night we will be back at 8pm. We had to see you again. Goodbye for now.

This is one of the most fire-prone regions on earth.