Episode 6 Springwatch


Episode 6

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Don't go anywhere, it is Springwatch.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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then it is about the islands providing good nesting habitat for

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

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

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

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

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

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have exported the idea overseas. I was in mortar earlier

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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of filming. that successfully? They lay eggs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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later. Everything is regurgitating, the

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

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myself in a minute. The avocet has been patiently

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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the streets. Tonight, torn by the demands of our

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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its strength and all of its determination, but eventually it

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Thursday to unfold a view more things about these foxes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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certainly can. Here we go, there it is.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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morning when I went down to film them.

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

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

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note something very interesting. Our birds have different ways of

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

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

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

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

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

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

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and she makes the decision where to go.

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

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

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

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

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

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leave any debris it might attract predators. This is beautifully

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cleaned. They are keeping it spotless.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

:32:13.:32:19.

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

:32:20.:32:27.

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

:32:28.:32:31.

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

:32:32.:32:39.

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

:32:40.:32:44.

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

:32:45.:32:48.

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

:32:49.:32:55.

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

:32:56.:33:00.

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

:33:01.:33:06.

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

:33:07.:33:10.

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

:33:11.:33:16.

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

:33:17.:33:24.

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

:33:25.:33:28.

You cannot tell the difference between the males and females by

:33:29.:33:32.

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

:33:33.:33:37.

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

:33:38.:33:43.

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

:33:44.:33:52.

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

:33:53.:33:57.

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

:33:58.:34:01.

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

:34:02.:34:11.

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

:34:12.:34:15.

Butterfly conservation Scotland would like you to volunteer to see

:34:16.:34:20.

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

:34:21.:34:24.

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

:34:25.:34:30.

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

:34:31.:34:38.

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

:34:39.:34:42.

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

:34:43.:34:48.

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

:34:49.:34:54.

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

:34:55.:34:58.

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

:34:59.:35:06.

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

:35:07.:35:09.

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

:35:10.:35:17.

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

:35:18.:35:19.

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

:35:20.:35:24.

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

:35:25.:35:32.

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

:35:33.:35:36.

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

:35:37.:35:40.

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

:35:41.:35:45.

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

:35:46.:35:50.

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

:35:51.:35:54.

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

:35:55.:36:01.

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

:36:02.:36:08.

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

:36:09.:36:14.

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

:36:15.:36:20.

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

:36:21.:36:25.

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

:36:26.:36:30.

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

:36:31.:36:37.

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

:36:38.:36:44.

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

:36:45.:36:48.

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

:36:49.:36:54.

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

:36:55.:37:01.

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

:37:02.:37:03.

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

:37:04.:37:09.

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

:37:10.:37:17.

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

:37:18.:37:21.

But this is an opportunity to see a bitterns booming.

:37:22.:37:31.

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

:37:32.:37:42.

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

:37:43.:37:47.

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

:37:48.:37:56.

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

:37:57.:38:02.

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

:38:03.:38:06.

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

:38:07.:38:13.

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

:38:14.:38:17.

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

:38:18.:38:27.

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

:38:28.:38:37.

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

:38:38.:38:44.

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

:38:45.:39:04.

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

:39:05.:39:09.

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

:39:10.:39:21.

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

:39:22.:39:26.

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

:39:27.:39:31.

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

:39:32.:39:36.

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

:39:37.:39:47.

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

:39:48.:39:50.

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

:39:51.:39:58.

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

:39:59.:40:03.

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

:40:04.:40:09.

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

:40:10.:40:13.

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

:40:14.:40:19.

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

:40:20.:40:24.

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

:40:25.:40:28.

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

:40:29.:40:35.

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

:40:36.:40:40.

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

:40:41.:40:49.

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

:40:50.:40:55.

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

:40:56.:40:59.

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

:41:00.:41:05.

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

:41:06.:41:10.

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

:41:11.:41:18.

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

:41:19.:41:22.

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

:41:23.:41:30.

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

:41:31.:41:33.

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

:41:34.:41:41.

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

:41:42.:41:44.

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

:41:45.:41:52.

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

:41:53.:41:58.

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

:41:59.:42:04.

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

:42:05.:42:09.

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

:42:10.:42:15.

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

:42:16.:42:21.

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

:42:22.:42:28.

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

:42:29.:42:38.

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

:42:39.:42:45.

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

:42:46.:42:50.

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

:42:51.:42:57.

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

:42:58.:43:01.

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

:43:02.:43:11.

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

:43:12.:43:15.

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

:43:16.:43:23.

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

:43:24.:43:30.

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

:43:31.:43:38.

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

:43:39.:43:44.

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

:43:45.:43:56.

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

:43:57.:44:00.

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

:44:01.:44:07.

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

:44:08.:44:12.

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

:44:13.:44:17.

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

:44:18.:44:29.

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

:44:30.:44:47.

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

:44:48.:44:51.

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

:44:52.:44:57.

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

:44:58.:45:00.

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

:45:01.:45:06.

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

:45:07.:45:09.

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

:45:10.:45:13.

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

:45:14.:45:21.

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

:45:22.:45:25.

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

:45:26.:45:29.

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

:45:30.:45:34.

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

:45:35.:45:42.

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

:45:43.:45:46.

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

:45:47.:45:52.

They have a phenomenal sense of smell.

:45:53.:45:58.

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

:45:59.:46:04.

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

:46:05.:46:08.

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

:46:09.:46:12.

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

:46:13.:46:15.

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

:46:16.:46:21.

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

:46:22.:46:25.

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

:46:26.:46:33.

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

:46:34.:46:36.

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

:46:37.:46:41.

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

:46:42.:46:45.

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

:46:46.:46:49.

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

:46:50.:46:57.

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

:46:58.:47:05.

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

:47:06.:47:09.

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

:47:10.:47:12.

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

:47:13.:47:17.

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

:47:18.:47:23.

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

:47:24.:47:28.

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

:47:29.:47:36.

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

:47:37.:47:45.

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

:47:46.:47:50.

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

:47:51.:47:54.

monuments including places like Stonehenge which happens to be

:47:55.:47:57.

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

:47:58.:48:02.

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

:48:03.:48:07.

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

:48:08.:48:13.

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

:48:14.:48:25.

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

:48:26.:48:44.

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

:48:45.:48:51.

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

:48:52.:48:54.

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

:48:55.:49:04.

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

:49:05.:49:07.

landscape starts coming back to life.

:49:08.:49:19.

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

:49:20.:49:28.

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

:49:29.:49:41.

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

:49:42.:49:44.

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

:49:45.:49:49.

secret abilities. They are exceptionally good at hiding.

:49:50.:50:11.

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

:50:12.:50:23.

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

:50:24.:50:27.

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

:50:28.:50:28.

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

:50:29.:50:52.

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

:50:53.:51:00.

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

:51:01.:51:11.

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

:51:12.:51:14.

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

:51:15.:51:20.

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

:51:21.:51:24.

lovely juxtaposition of winter and spring meeting.

:51:25.:51:34.

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

:51:35.:51:46.

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

:51:47.:51:53.

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

:51:54.:52:01.

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

:52:02.:52:05.

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

:52:06.:52:32.

with the movement of the sun and the stars.

:52:33.:52:38.

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

:52:39.:52:46.

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

:52:47.:52:51.

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

:52:52.:52:58.

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

:52:59.:53:01.

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

:53:02.:53:05.

time. This landscape is more than just

:53:06.:53:11.

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

:53:12.:53:19.

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

:53:20.:53:31.

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

:53:32.:53:34.

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

:53:35.:53:39.

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

:53:40.:53:46.

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

:53:47.:53:51.

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

:53:52.:53:56.

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

:53:57.:54:01.

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

:54:02.:54:05.

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

:54:06.:54:11.

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

:54:12.:54:19.

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

:54:20.:54:22.

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

:54:23.:54:27.

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

:54:28.:54:32.

headmaster had that and it made him look very scary.

:54:33.:54:40.

We all know that everybody needs good neighbours but unfortunately

:54:41.:54:44.

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

:54:45.:54:48.

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

:54:49.:54:56.

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

:54:57.:54:59.

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

:55:00.:55:08.

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

:55:09.:55:11.

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

:55:12.:55:23.

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

:55:24.:55:28.

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

:55:29.:55:32.

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

:55:33.:55:38.

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

:55:39.:55:45.

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

:55:46.:55:55.

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

:55:56.:56:02.

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

:56:03.:56:05.

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

:56:06.:56:13.

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

:56:14.:56:18.

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

:56:19.:56:26.

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

:56:27.:56:32.

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

:56:33.:56:46.

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

:56:47.:56:50.

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

:56:51.:56:54.

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

:56:55.:57:05.

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

:57:06.:57:09.

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

:57:10.:57:14.

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

:57:15.:57:25.

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

:57:26.:57:37.

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

:57:38.:57:45.

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

:57:46.:57:52.

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

:57:53.:57:56.

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

:57:57.:58:01.

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

:58:02.:58:06.

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

:58:07.:58:16.

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

:58:17.:58:17.

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

:58:18.:58:20.

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

:58:21.:58:25.

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

:58:26.:59:11.

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

:59:12.:59:15.

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