:00:08. > :00:13.It is getting a bit damp up here in Suffolk, but we have got a great
:00:14. > :00:18.programme featuring some animals which have inspired sci-fi monsters,
:00:19. > :00:22.creatures that put the F in ferocious. From the weird and
:00:23. > :00:28.wonderful to the cute and cuddly, and sometimes comical, we will catch
:00:29. > :00:33.up with the family fox cubs. And I am down on the beach, so stand by
:00:34. > :00:55.for some real cliffhangers! Sorry! Welcome to Springwatch!
:00:56. > :01:02.Yes, hello and welcome to Springwatch 2014, and to you from
:01:03. > :01:07.the wonderful Minsmere RSPB reserve up on the coast of Suffolk. We are
:01:08. > :01:12.live to explore all of the fabulous habitats and the creatures that live
:01:13. > :01:17.here, and we are doing quite well. We have had a bit of booming, quite
:01:18. > :01:22.a lot of regurgitating, that has been working for some of them. They
:01:23. > :01:30.have been regurgitating to satisfy their young or their mates, I tried
:01:31. > :01:37.it last night! Regurgitated lunch does not do it for me. Chocolate or
:01:38. > :01:44.foam bats does it for me! Give me a simple gift! We have got live
:01:45. > :01:48.cameras all over the reserve, lots of them on our nesting birds, and
:01:49. > :01:52.there is a huge advantage of that for us, because once they hatch,
:01:53. > :01:57.they don't really go anywhere until they fledge, so we can get plenty of
:01:58. > :02:00.footage of them. However, it has been more tricky with the badger
:02:01. > :02:05.cubs. They seem to move around a lot, and they have been quite
:02:06. > :02:11.elusive. When we came here, we knew there were five, and we knew that
:02:12. > :02:17.because the RSPB had filmed them near one of the sets, the warren
:02:18. > :02:21.said. After we disappeared into the woods, we did not see them until a
:02:22. > :02:26.couple of days ago, when we saw this.
:02:27. > :02:33.We saw three of them, and we wondered where the other two had
:02:34. > :02:40.gone. Well, we were confused until last night, when we finally caught a
:02:41. > :02:46.glimpse of them. Interestingly enough, you can see the adult coming
:02:47. > :02:51.in with one of the cubs. If you look, there is a second one there.
:02:52. > :02:55.So it has answered a question that we posed, which was, first of all,
:02:56. > :03:01.where had they gone? Clearly they are moving around a lot. There seems
:03:02. > :03:06.to be two families, not one, and they are very nomadic. In fact, it
:03:07. > :03:11.is not really typical, textbook behaviour, is it, Chris? No,
:03:12. > :03:17.typically we would see them stable in one large badger set, not moving
:03:18. > :03:22.around, but obviously we have two females moving around, and they were
:03:23. > :03:30.obviously together when there were five of them. So this shows us that
:03:31. > :03:39.they are the same social group so these are related animals. They may
:03:40. > :03:44.well have a territory outside of that, we were looking for
:03:45. > :03:48.territorial boundaries, but they are all in the same social group of
:03:49. > :03:52.animals. If you continue to observe things and make decent nodes and pay
:03:53. > :03:58.attention, you can uncover the secrets of these animals. We did
:03:59. > :04:01.yesterday, we had a great day with our reed warbler is. Live to the
:04:02. > :04:10.reed warbler is now, here is one of them brooding. -- warblers. Three of
:04:11. > :04:18.the eggs hatched by the time we were on live last night. That is the
:04:19. > :04:22.behaviour we would expect, but what about the fourth age? This afternoon
:04:23. > :04:30.we had just about given up hope until about four o'clock, when we
:04:31. > :04:35.looked down and saw this. After a little bit more incubation, it
:04:36. > :04:39.opened completely, and there you can sit and eat the bill of the reed
:04:40. > :04:44.warbler, the youngster struggled out of the egg. She reaches down to get
:04:45. > :04:51.the shell, she will take that away. There you can see it. It is the
:04:52. > :04:53.check at the bottom of your screen, slightly more pink. Interestingly,
:04:54. > :04:59.the rest have gone a dark colour already. Maybe that is the formation
:05:00. > :05:05.of the down starting in their skin, because at the moment they have been
:05:06. > :05:09.hatched naked, entirely dependent on the female for warmth and security
:05:10. > :05:14.in that nice deep cover. They are extraordinary looking, like a little
:05:15. > :05:19.aliens, their heads are so big and their eyes. They have a big head
:05:20. > :05:23.because they need a big mouth. As soon as their yoke reserves run out
:05:24. > :05:28.a few hours after hatching and they have to be fed, they need a big
:05:29. > :05:32.enough mouth for the female to be feeding. It was funny yesterday when
:05:33. > :05:37.the eggshell ended up on his head like a helmet, I am calling that the
:05:38. > :05:41.helmet family! A question from Joshua Roston, who says, how does
:05:42. > :05:47.the reed warbler make its nest stick to the reeds? Good question, Joshua.
:05:48. > :05:51.Why have a nesting reeds in the first place? The simple reason for
:05:52. > :05:55.that is security from predators. If you look past the nest, you can see
:05:56. > :06:00.it is surrounded by water which will keep most of those predators away,
:06:01. > :06:03.ground predators like weasels and stoats and rats which would
:06:04. > :06:08.otherwise try to get to the nest. The female makes the nest, and from
:06:09. > :06:15.research earlier today, I can tell you she normally chooses 3.53 stems
:06:16. > :06:18.to make that nest! But how to does she tie them together? She gets a
:06:19. > :06:24.piece of grass and holds it in her foot against the reeds, and then she
:06:25. > :06:37.doubles it back and could say not in it, neighbours say not. -- nippers a
:06:38. > :06:41.knot. Given the reeds are swaying from side to side in the wind and
:06:42. > :06:45.they will grow and expand, one of the most important materials they
:06:46. > :06:50.use are spiders' webs, which are flexible, and that gives the nest
:06:51. > :06:55.the ability to move in the wind and expand as the young grow. I think a
:06:56. > :07:01.challenge for next Springwatch would be to put a time-lapse camera on a
:07:02. > :07:04.bird actually building the nest, it would be fascinating. You would have
:07:05. > :07:08.to predict where it is going to make the nest, that would be tricky,
:07:09. > :07:13.unless you caught it after it put the first ring in. It would be
:07:14. > :07:18.amazing, though, a challenge for the cameramen! One of my favourite
:07:19. > :07:25.quirky moments of last week was our where is Wally moment on the beach?
:07:26. > :07:32.Have a look at this. I have seen so many times, and I still can't see
:07:33. > :07:37.what is that beach! But look closer, and you can see, it is a ringed
:07:38. > :07:44.clever that we are looking for, and not until the last moment can you
:07:45. > :07:48.see that bird. -- plover. It is so well camouflaged. When we saw last
:07:49. > :07:52.week, it had chicks, how are they getting on? Really well, actually.
:07:53. > :07:57.This is the adult male who is keeping guard, because they are very
:07:58. > :08:01.vulnerable on that beach, and that is the female fidgeting a little
:08:02. > :08:08.bit. Underneath pop-out the two chicks. They are really fast
:08:09. > :08:16.runners, it reminds you of Roadrunner, the-beep! An amazing
:08:17. > :08:21.fact, the mortality rate is about 25%, which is actually pretty low,
:08:22. > :08:26.and that is because they have a few defence mechanisms. The Czechs, as
:08:27. > :08:32.soon as a predator comes, will hunker down, and you have seen how
:08:33. > :08:37.well camouflaged they are. -- checks. The adult bird will lead the
:08:38. > :08:42.predator away and feign injury. 25% mortality, you would think it would
:08:43. > :08:46.be higher. For a ground nesting birds, yes, with a chick on the
:08:47. > :08:51.ground before its ledges, but they must be very good. A top life on the
:08:52. > :08:57.beach, but this is one of the wildest parts of the UK. -- tough.
:08:58. > :09:02.This stretch of coast is one of the wildest parts. If you take a look at
:09:03. > :09:07.it from the air, it is not all about Minsmere, the reserve in the
:09:08. > :09:13.foreground run by the RSPB. It is also about the Keith slightly
:09:14. > :09:19.further to the north, which is National Trust, and if you look on
:09:20. > :09:28.the top left, a ribbon leading away is another reserve run by natural
:09:29. > :09:32.England. In fact, all of these are unified together one area of
:09:33. > :09:37.outstanding natural beauty from Ipswich all the way up the coast
:09:38. > :09:42.nearly two Lowestoft. This is 406 square kilometres of habitat, 30
:09:43. > :09:47.different nature reserves run by 26 different partners. A single
:09:48. > :09:52.isolated nature reserve is not going to be any good, it is not going to
:09:53. > :09:55.be sustainable in the long term, so it is important to these people are
:09:56. > :10:00.working together to join them up like this. And it is working,
:10:01. > :10:05.because it is a fantastic place to see wildlife. Talking about seeing
:10:06. > :10:13.wildlife, where is Martin? I can tell you that Martin is just, I have
:10:14. > :10:17.exaggerated one part of his anatomy! But he is just down here on the
:10:18. > :10:23.beach. Thank you very much indeed, Chris!
:10:24. > :10:29.Yes, I am down here at the National Trust's Dunwich heath reserve. But I
:10:30. > :10:33.am on the beach by the sea, use your imagination, imagine that you are a
:10:34. > :10:39.migrating spring bird that has come from Africa, through Spain and
:10:40. > :10:42.France, raced across the sea and gone bang into this. This is the
:10:43. > :10:48.first thing you will meet on the coast of England, this lovely clear.
:10:49. > :10:52.Amongst the first migrants is one of our favourite birds, the icon of
:10:53. > :10:58.spring, I want to show you my diary for this year. This is a week in
:10:59. > :11:02.April, put eggs in incubator, that in garden, this is how exciting my
:11:03. > :11:08.life is! The first swallow of the year. That was on the 8th of April.
:11:09. > :11:13.I always record the first one of the year. Last year it was April the
:11:14. > :11:22.4th. There are lots of other birds that look very like a swallow, and
:11:23. > :11:27.this is a little guide. This is the swallow with the long forked tail
:11:28. > :11:30.and the chestnut throat, but it looks very similar to a house
:11:31. > :11:35.Martin, which has not got the tale but a very obvious white rump. And
:11:36. > :11:45.then you have got the last one that we get, and that is the sand martin,
:11:46. > :11:50.it is Brown, much smaller. If you have a look, when they come across
:11:51. > :11:54.the water and land on the cliffs, they don't necessarily go over the
:11:55. > :11:59.top. If you look at there, there is a whole lot of holes, and that is
:12:00. > :12:04.their nests. They are not being used this year. But what is it that makes
:12:05. > :12:08.this clear and all the cliff up and down here so attractive to sand
:12:09. > :12:14.martin is? I am going to tell you a little story. There was a town
:12:15. > :12:19.called Dunwich, a big town, a very big town with churches Street, a
:12:20. > :12:28.port, a naval port, and it also had its own mint. It was a huge down.
:12:29. > :12:32.Where is it now? Come with me! Dunwich is 200 metres out there
:12:33. > :12:34.under the water about ten metres down. It is a sunken city, and the
:12:35. > :12:39.reason down. It is a sunken city, and the
:12:40. > :12:43.for that is that this whole cliff face is eroding every year. It goes
:12:44. > :12:48.back on average about one metre. It is one of the fastest eroding cliff
:12:49. > :12:53.faces in the whole of the UK. But that the very erosion makes it
:12:54. > :12:57.perfect for sand martins. Why? The reason for that is that the cliff
:12:58. > :13:03.drops away very sharply, and predators cannot get up into those
:13:04. > :13:11.nest holes. And the adults will dig a hole, the male arrives first, and
:13:12. > :13:17.he will move about ten centimetres a day, making a hole about one metre
:13:18. > :13:21.deep, then the female will join him. But one other thing - as well as the
:13:22. > :13:29.steepness, look at this. Excuse me. Now, it is all about grain size. I
:13:30. > :13:38.was reading a paper this morning from 2003, and he was studying these
:13:39. > :13:44.nests, and what he discovered, looking at 654 of them, he
:13:45. > :13:50.discovered that if the grain size was too small dust, they couldn't
:13:51. > :13:56.big a hole. -- build. The perfect size was 0.9 of a millimetre. If you
:13:57. > :14:03.get a sharp live and the right grain size, you can get hundreds of sand
:14:04. > :14:08.martins. -- sharp cliff. We filmed this at Minsmere, and they look like
:14:09. > :14:13.insects, enormous numbers of them. You can get up to 2000 in one
:14:14. > :14:18.nesting area, and there is a good reason for that, because if a
:14:19. > :14:24.predator turns up, such a small bird, they will already is out and
:14:25. > :14:29.attack it. Talking of predators, so many birds altogether like that in
:14:30. > :14:38.the will attack a predator, attract, get it right! And this is the most
:14:39. > :14:43.iconic predator of them all, this is a magnificent bird, incredibly
:14:44. > :14:46.agile. It has caught a dragonfly here, which is what they will be
:14:47. > :14:51.feeding on at this time of year, spring and early summer. A
:14:52. > :15:00.marvellous shot! Later they will turn their attention to the swallows
:15:01. > :15:04.and the sand martins. They migrate here with the swallows and the
:15:05. > :15:14.sandmartin 's. Their lives are inextricably entwined. -- sandmartin
:15:15. > :15:19.'s. It is more dynamic when they feed on
:15:20. > :15:25.those martins. Sandmartin is our charming little birds. But sadly
:15:26. > :15:31.they are in decline. Their nesting habitat is ephemeral. It is always
:15:32. > :16:25.collapsing. People have designed sandmartin nesting chambers. This is
:16:26. > :16:33.a fabulous example at That must really adds to the load. Sometimes
:16:34. > :16:39.quite a few. I remember back in 1974, I borrowed my friend's bike, a
:16:40. > :16:49.blue Raleigh! It is so Walter Raleigh, isn't it? It is not a
:16:50. > :16:54.rally! Is this too much detail? I picked up a dead swift on the
:16:55. > :16:59.roadside, and it had 18 of those flies on it. I put it in a bag, and
:17:00. > :17:04.by the time I had got home, and I have still got them in some alcohol
:17:05. > :17:09.in my wardrobe, what about that?! They would have been carrying them
:17:10. > :17:14.backwards and forwards from Africa. It is an incredible migration, even
:17:15. > :17:19.more so that they do it with... Bloodsucking parasites! Well, from
:17:20. > :17:24.parasitic intruders to intruders are they due to kind, let's catch up
:17:25. > :17:31.with our fox family who have made their home underneath the decking of
:17:32. > :17:35.a house in Brighton. They are now seven weeks old, and
:17:36. > :17:36.the cubs are becoming a lot more confident, even venturing out during
:17:37. > :17:47.the day. They are increasingly boisterous,
:17:48. > :17:55.and they will soon need to expand their horizons. To analyse their
:17:56. > :18:04.development, Dawn shows me the most recent footage. They almost as good
:18:05. > :18:09.as poodles! They will bring in not just food but always for them to
:18:10. > :18:14.play with. You have open days bring watch can of worms, I always get
:18:15. > :18:20.chastised by viewers, because I don't think that play exists. It has
:18:21. > :18:24.to have a function. I am not saying they are not playing, as we see it,
:18:25. > :18:30.but there is a reason they are doing it. Yeah, it is not playing for
:18:31. > :18:34.enjoyment, there are important skills in doing that. It is
:18:35. > :18:34.essential to their development, so they are
:18:35. > :18:38.essential to their development, so they doing it for a reason. There is
:18:39. > :18:45.a scientific backing for everything I ever said! Take that, viewers!
:18:46. > :18:52.What about the male? We have not seen a male, which is quite unusual.
:18:53. > :18:56.If she was on her own, the male might have brought food, but with
:18:57. > :19:03.two of them bringing food and lactating, they don't seem to need
:19:04. > :19:07.the male. In fact, it is quite common for females to work together
:19:08. > :19:13.like this. You see, it could be that Stumpy, the younger, subordinate
:19:14. > :19:17.vixen, has had an unsuccessful pregnancy, and this is causing her
:19:18. > :19:22.to lactate. This means she can suck all the young, while Sugar, the
:19:23. > :19:29.dominant vixen, is away feeding. In the absence of a father, this is a
:19:30. > :19:33.highly effective strategy. It would suggest they are closely related. I
:19:34. > :19:38.think it is mother and daughter. In terms of the space, it proves that
:19:39. > :19:44.urban foxes don't need much to have a successful den. A tiny garden, and
:19:45. > :19:48.the decking, on the concrete paving stones, not the most hospitable,
:19:49. > :19:54.cuddly, fairy tale den you have seen. No, but they don't have any
:19:55. > :19:58.bedding, they give birth on their ground, and under sheds and decking
:19:59. > :20:03.a very common places in urban areas for them to give birth and raise
:20:04. > :20:07.cubs. Things have been changing over the last few days. One of the cubs
:20:08. > :20:12.has already scrambled up the climbing frame, taking its first
:20:13. > :20:14.steps into the wider world. Probably realising this protected garden is
:20:15. > :20:17.now too limiting realising this protected garden is
:20:18. > :20:20.now too for her growing calves, Sugar takes matters in hand. She has
:20:21. > :20:23.got to find them a more suitable home. Getting them out of the garden
:20:24. > :20:32.is easier said than done. Not only does each one way more than
:20:33. > :20:34.a kilogram, but the rest of the litter is simply won't get out from
:20:35. > :20:49.under her feet. sugar manages to move all of the
:20:50. > :20:57.Cubs out of the yard. Where has she moved them to? Dawn is convinced
:20:58. > :21:03.they will not have gone far. We looked for some clues to find their
:21:04. > :21:10.new location. Peter Wright into somebody's kitchen! They have got a
:21:11. > :21:17.lot of lingerie on their line! I am not looking, seriously! I think they
:21:18. > :21:21.are probably a couple of houses down that way. After a spot of
:21:22. > :21:27.investigation, we home in on the garden meters from the original den.
:21:28. > :21:35.The signal I am getting is just down there. This garden is a bit more
:21:36. > :21:44.Overgrown. This is what you need, isn't it? Obviously! That looks like
:21:45. > :21:48.an ideal spot. Given the signal and given the quality of that habitat,
:21:49. > :21:55.they are probably tucked up in their sleep. All of them. Looks like sugar
:21:56. > :22:01.has found an ideal new home for the Cubs. It has got plenty of cover,
:22:02. > :22:06.plenty of slugs and insects for them to get their teeth into as they
:22:07. > :22:10.learn to hunt. All being well, they will soon be spilling out onto the
:22:11. > :22:17.streets. That is when their survival skills will really be put to the
:22:18. > :22:31.test. As they learn to live in Brighton's dents community.
:22:32. > :22:38.I have been very lucky so far this year, I have had four fox cubs in my
:22:39. > :22:42.garden. They are irresistible. The word cute could be applied to fox
:22:43. > :22:46.cubs. It is not a word we could apply to many of our checks, except
:22:47. > :22:53.for the tawny owl chick. He is rather cute. This is the tree that
:22:54. > :22:58.he is nesting in. We do not always see him poking his head out. Let's
:22:59. > :23:03.have a look. I think we could call him cute because he is pretty
:23:04. > :23:13.fluffy. We have also given it a name. Grob. He died very groggy when
:23:14. > :23:20.he was eating. If we are talking about food, this is a chick with an
:23:21. > :23:26.eclectic diet. Unbelievable, the variety of food. We saw it being fed
:23:27. > :23:36.a slog. He got very groggy from all the slime. Then it was fed a tree
:23:37. > :23:44.creeper. After that, a rodent came along. We could not actually
:23:45. > :23:51.identify what the rodent was but it was definitely a rodent. This was
:23:52. > :24:03.quite comical. It was the slow worm. Not comical for the slow worm! You
:24:04. > :24:13.called it a alive and. -- endoscope. Last night it got fed from. The
:24:14. > :24:19.feeding rate may slow down. An extraordinary variety of food.
:24:20. > :24:23.Indeed. We asked you if you're watching this film throughout the
:24:24. > :24:33.night, to let us know what you have anything. Generating lots of data.
:24:34. > :24:40.-- what the hell was eating. The first five diagram of this series.
:24:41. > :24:46.-- high diagram. With a 54% of things which could not be
:24:47. > :24:54.identified. The vast majority, 37, are invertebrates. Lots of them were
:24:55. > :24:59.slugs. We have fewer amphibians. I think that what we're seeing here is
:25:00. > :25:04.a reaction to the weather. It has been a means that there are lots of
:25:05. > :25:08.slugs and snails snails and worms. And also, those amphibians. The big
:25:09. > :25:16.question is, what is the young Al getting out of these invertebrates?
:25:17. > :25:27.You get 90 calories per hundred gram -- 100 grams activist love. They are
:25:28. > :25:35.not an ideal diet. Why cant they kept the mammals if it is raining? I
:25:36. > :25:42.will show you. The leaves are down. The owls cannot hear them rustling
:25:43. > :25:49.around in the woodland. They cannot hear them to hunt them. I should
:25:50. > :25:54.imagine if things dry out we will see more rodents and less slugs.
:25:55. > :26:02.There is a reason that is the only highly charged you have had so far.
:26:03. > :26:10.I know you love them! Let's go to the West coast of Scotland to
:26:11. > :26:14.explore the watery underworld of a Scottish sea loch. I used to think
:26:15. > :26:20.it rains a lot in Wales but that was before I came to the West Coast of
:26:21. > :26:25.Scotland. The water is the elixir of life. Where does it end up?
:26:26. > :26:31.Invariably it runs down the lens and into the locks. Below the surface,
:26:32. > :26:36.some of these locks are host to an incredible array of wildlife. A few
:26:37. > :26:39.days ago I took a journey down this lake to the sea in search of a
:26:40. > :26:47.gathering of some very special creatures. There are more than 100
:26:48. > :26:52.sea lakes on the West Coast of Scotland. It is a lock that opens
:26:53. > :27:13.out into the sea. The best way to explore them is by kayak.
:27:14. > :27:31.This is so and calm and quiet and swear this was a river. If I were
:27:32. > :27:33.going, -- I will end up in the open sea. This is where the channel' body
:27:34. > :28:03.of water this is where I get wet. On the surface they seem -- on the
:28:04. > :28:09.surface it may seem lifeless but underwater is incredible. We have a
:28:10. > :28:16.bottleneck. The fresh water is coming down and the sea water, as
:28:17. > :28:23.the tide comes in, comes back up. Both are carrying nutrients. It is
:28:24. > :28:34.so rich down here. In this fast flowing water, you have to be able
:28:35. > :28:36.to cling on to survive. But the waters are so fertile, those
:28:37. > :28:47.creatures that can withstand the current, the benefits. Snake lock
:28:48. > :28:53.anemones, sea urchins, crabs and starfish Wolfie in the rapids. What
:28:54. > :28:58.really surprised me was the carpet of brittle stars. They are
:28:59. > :29:04.everywhere, covering every available surface. There are two types. The
:29:05. > :29:09.common brittle stars with their tail spines and the smaller, black
:29:10. > :29:17.brittle stars. They are beautiful things. Let me show you this one. It
:29:18. > :29:25.is like a starfish that has been on a crash diet. Much more thin
:29:26. > :29:30.delicate. If you think they look beautiful here, and what they look
:29:31. > :29:31.ten times better. Amazing and beautiful things. -- underwater they
:29:32. > :29:51.look ten times better. That really was a. Like you are the
:29:52. > :29:56.world 's. We were so taken by the brittle stars, we decided to take a
:29:57. > :30:01.closer look. We put them in a time like this briefly. They trapped
:30:02. > :30:07.morsels of food between the spines. You can see the conveyor belt of
:30:08. > :30:13.those feet carrying everything was in the mouth at the centre. We left
:30:14. > :30:16.a time-lapse camera down there to see roughly how much they would move
:30:17. > :30:27.in an hour. You can see that they do not much at all stop and think that
:30:28. > :30:31.static. Then we put a clap down there and all of these, you could
:30:32. > :30:39.see a wave of brittle star moving in. Just like StarOffice, they are
:30:40. > :30:46.opportunists. They scavenge the sea bed when anything you violates the
:30:47. > :30:49.senses. Fascinating behaviour. The more we explore this fantastic area,
:30:50. > :30:54.the more wonderful things you cover. Join me again tomorrow when I will
:30:55. > :31:00.be getting another dose of West Coast wildlife.
:31:01. > :31:07.That was absolutely fascinating. I love exploring underwater. You
:31:08. > :31:12.always see something extraordinary. It is a world that many people do
:31:13. > :31:16.not have the opportunity to see. It is a bit like the nocturnal world.
:31:17. > :31:21.Lots of things happen in life that most of us do not experience. We
:31:22. > :31:28.sent our cameraman with a thermal camera in the night. Things look
:31:29. > :31:33.very different. You can see the reedbeds. You can even see Sizewell
:31:34. > :31:38.nuclear power station in the background. We have got a thermal
:31:39. > :31:48.camera in the woods. Some very little animals. We think this could
:31:49. > :31:58.be... You have the boxes of hunting. So many animals from a knife. --
:31:59. > :32:04.come out at night. It is amazing for a camera on a camera on a knife and
:32:05. > :32:12.see It is great for finding and observing them. The cameraman found
:32:13. > :32:16.a factor, too. When they leave, they are difficult to follow. For many
:32:17. > :32:22.years we thought that is for feeding worms, they suck them out of the
:32:23. > :32:30.ground. Even this one in a field. Look. It is holding the worm by his
:32:31. > :32:39.head, tail, in its instances -- incisors. Eventually the worm uses
:32:40. > :32:43.traction. You can see it again. The badgers swallows it. When his death,
:32:44. > :32:57.the worms are coming to the surface to pull the stand into their
:32:58. > :33:26.tunnels. Although they are small, is, you can we have had all the
:33:27. > :33:29.seasons in one day. And, we will report tomorrow on what he sees. We
:33:30. > :33:37.are expecting to see some sort of predator. I think that sometimes we
:33:38. > :33:41.see a disproportionate amount of interest in animals. We forget about
:33:42. > :33:47.the plans. Sometimes they provide an extraordinary spectacle.
:33:48. > :33:53.As I found at the weekend. Beneath the blue of the sky in the green of
:33:54. > :34:00.the corn, it is their the regal red poppies are born. So wrote the
:34:01. > :34:05.Victorian poet Clement Scott when he saw a field of poppies. How often do
:34:06. > :34:09.we see that today in these days of heavy use of herbicides? It is quite
:34:10. > :34:26.a rarity. This weekend in Suffolk some of the fields have quite
:34:27. > :34:30.literally exploded. Copies of one of our best loved wild flowers. This
:34:31. > :34:40.year's warm spring seems to have brought them out early. And in
:34:41. > :34:52.abundance. This is the cornfield Ostaad poppy, and this is a plant
:34:53. > :34:57.that likes disturbed ground. The bloom might only last week, but each
:34:58. > :35:03.one of these is capable of producing up to 3000 seeds, and once they drop
:35:04. > :35:09.into the soil, they can last, dormant and waiting, for up to 100
:35:10. > :35:13.years. So this field may not have looked like this last year or the
:35:14. > :35:26.year before that. In fact, there may not have been poppy is here for
:35:27. > :35:34.decades. -- poppies. The seeds like underground in photo dormancy. --
:35:35. > :35:41.lie. Protected from decaying by a thin coating, it is only when the
:35:42. > :35:45.soil is disturbed that the seeds are brought to the service and then even
:35:46. > :35:52.the smallest flash of sunlight can trigger germination. That ensures
:35:53. > :35:58.there is no competition for the germinating poppies. This need for
:35:59. > :36:02.light is why the poppy is so closely associated with the ploughed fields
:36:03. > :36:09.of agriculture, but for the last 100 years they become inextricably
:36:10. > :36:12.linked with something else. Many of the First World War battle is fought
:36:13. > :36:18.on the Western front were fought over farmland, but with hundreds of
:36:19. > :36:27.thousands of bombs dropping, there was no farming taking place. But the
:36:28. > :36:30.explosions disturbed the ground, the poppies germinated to produce a show
:36:31. > :36:34.of red like this between the trenches. It must have been quite a
:36:35. > :36:38.sight, to the extent that it inspired a Canadian lieutenant
:36:39. > :36:46.colonel, John McCrea, to write his poignant home, In Flanders Field Is.
:36:47. > :36:53.Bees have been used as symbols of remembrance for all fallen soldiers.
:36:54. > :36:58.-- these. But there is no denying that when they bloom like this, they
:36:59. > :36:59.represent one of nature's greatest spectacles. So if you have the
:37:00. > :37:24.opportunity, get out and see it. It is the anniversary of D-Day this
:37:25. > :37:27.week, the 6th of June, Operation Overlord, the landings on the
:37:28. > :37:32.beaches, a perfect time to be thinking about what the poppies
:37:33. > :37:37.symbolise. I did a bit of a search today, I can point you towards a
:37:38. > :37:45.farm in Kent, which has all five species in the UK. West entire field
:37:46. > :37:49.in Cornwall is another top spot. Salisbury Plains, the Chilterns and
:37:50. > :37:54.the Cotswolds, there might be some there. On account of remembrance,
:37:55. > :37:58.people have been out seed bombing, deliberately seeding areas, so you
:37:59. > :38:02.might find more there. Some farmers, and this is great to hear, have not
:38:03. > :38:08.been spraying herbicides to allow the poppies to come through, all of
:38:09. > :38:11.which is great. See them if you can, but there is something else you
:38:12. > :38:25.ought to see it again. We watched it yesterday, the blooming -- booming
:38:26. > :38:29.bittern. It is the last one that does it for me! Last night I was
:38:30. > :38:35.saying that, in my opinion, the way we try to express bird sounds using
:38:36. > :38:39.letters is pretty poor, so I threw out a challenge, #boomballs, to our
:38:40. > :38:47.Twitter followers, and I can tell you that Matt came up with this one.
:38:48. > :38:59.I do not think you are doing it credit! Shelley D, I can't wait for
:39:00. > :39:13.this, she has come up with this one! Shall I do it like that? I had not
:39:14. > :39:18.finished, do you mind?! I am done now! All I can say is, thank you
:39:19. > :39:22.very much for that, you have allowed my co-presenter to make a complete
:39:23. > :39:27.and that fool others up in front of 2.5 million people! One other letter
:39:28. > :39:31.to draw attention to, a really nice letter from Richard in Portsmouth,
:39:32. > :39:36.deer Springwatch, I love watching your programme and I wish I could
:39:37. > :39:41.contact you sometimes, but I don't have a computer, so I hope you get
:39:42. > :39:44.this letter. We are very pleased to receive your letter, and any others
:39:45. > :39:50.you would like to send us, it is not all about Twitter and Facebook and
:39:51. > :39:54.computers. From booming to a patch of brambles where we have quite a
:39:55. > :40:01.few nesting birds, this is the bullfinch. I think the adults are in
:40:02. > :40:06.there at the moment, but you can see it is quite a pretty nest. It is
:40:07. > :40:11.actually a bit of a perfect nest. The lovebirds are in there, that is
:40:12. > :40:16.what we are calling them, because they are quite loving. They do
:40:17. > :40:19.everything together. They always feed the chicks together.
:40:20. > :40:31.Obviously, that is the male with the crimson breast. Not only are they
:40:32. > :40:34.feeding together, bullfinch is often forage together. Sometimes they have
:40:35. > :40:39.to go a long way for seeds, and they will put them into their pouches and
:40:40. > :40:43.go back to the nest, but they are incredibly tidy at the nest. They
:40:44. > :40:49.really keep it clean, the perfect tidy neighbours. If they have taken
:40:50. > :40:53.a vow until death do us part, I can tell you that the other finch
:40:54. > :41:00.species, the Goldfinch, let's gold live to that, that is Steptoe and
:41:01. > :41:06.son! Look at the shabby yard they have got. That is not nice! If you
:41:07. > :41:10.have not been watching on the webcams, the young birds are
:41:11. > :41:16.defecating over the side of the nest. They are not producing foetal
:41:17. > :41:20.sacs that the adults are removing. I have seen this before, the first
:41:21. > :41:28.Springwatch I ever did. We had a Goldfinch nest, and they did exactly
:41:29. > :41:35.the same. By the time the chicks had fledged, it was a great big pile...
:41:36. > :41:41.It is not failing, they are going to pledge. Although it is an unusual
:41:42. > :41:44.strategy, and we know they produce foetal sacks to reduce bacterial
:41:45. > :41:49.load, the Goldfinch is somehow seem to overcome that, because they are
:41:50. > :41:54.not failing. We will investigate further. I would rather be a
:41:55. > :41:59.bullfinch, quite frankly! Last winter, I am sure you remember, was
:42:00. > :42:09.the wettest recorded for the last 100 years. We had storms and endless
:42:10. > :42:15.rain, 15 inches in southern England. One of the worst places to be hit
:42:16. > :42:20.was the Somerset Levels, with 66 square miles being submerged under
:42:21. > :42:24.water. Now, the floods had a big effect on the people living there,
:42:25. > :42:26.but what about the wildlife? Martin lives on the edge of the Somerset
:42:27. > :42:38.Levels, so he went to investigate. The Somerset Levels are home to a
:42:39. > :42:42.rich community of wildlife, all dependent on one another. To
:42:43. > :42:46.understand how the floods have affected the natural history of this
:42:47. > :42:54.area, I've decided to start at the bottom. I'm looking for worms.
:42:55. > :43:00.Tim Young is from the Somerset wildlife trust is taking me to an
:43:01. > :43:07.area which, until a few weeks ago, was underwater. He is trying to find
:43:08. > :43:13.out how the worms have coped. There are over 20 species of native
:43:14. > :43:20.earthworm here. I didn't know that. We have been tending to find red
:43:21. > :43:26.worms and green worms. A green one! Quite a small red one. They have
:43:27. > :43:30.survived, look at that. Both cancer via underwater for some time by
:43:31. > :43:36.breathing through their skin. -- both can survive. The Greens can
:43:37. > :43:43.survive for weeks. And vast tracts of the levels were underwater for
:43:44. > :43:48.two months. According to experts, 95% of worms would have died in
:43:49. > :43:54.these areas. Both the species have a strategy that helps to ensure their
:43:55. > :43:59.long-term survival - waterproof cocoons. Each cocoon contains
:44:00. > :44:06.between one and 30 acres. They can stay in the cocoon for up to five
:44:07. > :44:11.months. -- eggs. In a wet winter, they can just wait for the spring.
:44:12. > :44:15.Little time capsules, they can survive after the adults have
:44:16. > :44:23.drowned, then they will hatch out and recolonise the grassland.
:44:24. > :44:27.Wonderful little system! So the worm population would have been hit hard
:44:28. > :44:32.by the long winter flood, but it will recover in time. And for
:44:33. > :44:37.animals further up the food chain, that recovery can't come soon
:44:38. > :44:42.enough. Worms make up as much as 60% of a badger's diet, so the crash in
:44:43. > :44:47.numbers was bad news. But during this year's extreme flooding, the
:44:48. > :44:52.badgers here faced a far more immediate threat, and that led to an
:44:53. > :45:02.SOS at a nearby animal rescue centre. At Sigrid World, Simon is
:45:03. > :45:09.caring for three recent recoveries. In February, the undertook a daring
:45:10. > :45:17.mission. Blimey, look at that! That is the strip of land that is the top
:45:18. > :45:25.of the bank of the river. And there they are! Two adult badgers
:45:26. > :45:31.surrounded by a mile of water. What happened to this pair? You got them
:45:32. > :45:35.out? We got them back, they were in quite a poor condition, so we fed
:45:36. > :45:40.them up and prepared them for release. Sadly, one died, probably
:45:41. > :45:45.from delayed shock, but the other was healthy enough to be returned to
:45:46. > :45:51.the wild. Time for these guys to go back in. Is this the moment I am
:45:52. > :45:59.allowed to touch them? There you go, there is a reason! Look at you!
:46:00. > :46:05.Sorry, we are not allowed to do this, I just put you back into your
:46:06. > :46:09.box. You are so lovely! I am glad you have not got your full set of
:46:10. > :46:14.teeth yet! I did not enjoy that at all!
:46:15. > :46:21.Badgers weren't the only ones to suffer. Mice and other rodents would
:46:22. > :46:27.have been decimated. Even otters were flooded out of their homes, and
:46:28. > :46:34.several were reportedly hit by cars. But it hasn't all been bad news.
:46:35. > :46:39.Larger species managed to escape. They are already returning. And some
:46:40. > :46:52.birds have done rather well, especially those that lead in water.
:46:53. > :47:01.-- feed. Fifth Harry Padgett Wilkes from the RSPB has been monitoring
:47:02. > :47:09.this place for the last 20 years. An astonishing sight. I have never seen
:47:10. > :47:16.so many hours -- heroines. Have you ever read the lost world by Arthur
:47:17. > :47:28.Conan Doyle? They are just like pterodactyls! San Yellowknife gas
:47:29. > :47:38.from youngsters clacking. -- Yes, the youngsters are clacking. We have
:47:39. > :47:45.145 nests this year so far. I suspect many have come in from
:47:46. > :47:53.somewhere else. January and February around here, there were massive
:47:54. > :48:03.floods. That must have been a real draw for the birds. It is a fabulous
:48:04. > :48:06.site and it is lovely to see something that has benefited from
:48:07. > :48:16.this flooding and destruction. They are a weird. -- they are Wearden!
:48:17. > :48:26.Here we are at the cliffs again. Only now there are -- they are
:48:27. > :48:30.smaller. Don't be fooled, because there are many fascinating creatures
:48:31. > :48:34.here. We came down here with Richard Gilbert, a senior warden, and we
:48:35. > :48:38.stood and watched and waited on a lovely warm day, and gradually
:48:39. > :48:45.things began to reveal themselves. The first thing we saw was a tiger.
:48:46. > :48:49.A green tiger beetle. It is a process predator. They can move at
:48:50. > :48:59.lightning speed. Hard to tell the male and female apart. This is the
:49:00. > :49:01.female. Look at her face. Look at the eyes as well.
:49:02. > :49:08.female. Look at her face. Look at They have got very good site. The
:49:09. > :49:15.thing is, when they hunt, they move so fast. They lock onto their prey,
:49:16. > :49:18.make sure it is there and just launched straight at it like an
:49:19. > :49:28.emerald green Exocet missile. launched straight at it like an
:49:29. > :49:34.Fascinating. If we go down lower. We started to look around at the holes
:49:35. > :49:38.in the ground. That one is a little bit big for the next creature that
:49:39. > :49:46.we saw. The next thing we saw does dig holes like this. Here she comes.
:49:47. > :49:50.It is a sand wasp. About two centimetres long. Very elegant. They
:49:51. > :49:57.have a fascinating way of reproducing. She paralyse the
:49:58. > :50:01.Caterpillar. You know what is coming next. And she will drag it off to a
:50:02. > :50:09.chamber that he will have prepared. She will injected with then time and
:50:10. > :50:16.time again. Each section gets a dose and then she drags it off to the
:50:17. > :50:24.chamber and lay an egg on it. She lays an egg. You may put a few
:50:25. > :50:32.caterpillars down into that chamber. Then she will try to seal the
:50:33. > :50:37.chamber. She is worried that order -- other wasps may come along and
:50:38. > :50:42.try to pinch her caterpillars. She puts some stone and debris in there.
:50:43. > :50:46.She will shovel some sanding. Eventually the egg that she has laid
:50:47. > :50:54.will hatch and will eat the Caterpillar. It is gruesome. What
:50:55. > :51:00.will emerge from that whole will be another adult wasp. OK, we have seen
:51:01. > :51:06.a tiger. There is a lion down here. This is utterly fascinating. It is
:51:07. > :51:11.quite difficult to see. We have had a shower. This is a very rare
:51:12. > :51:15.animal. In fact, I have only ever seen them in Africa. I did not know
:51:16. > :51:25.they existed in this country. It is called an ant lion. You only find
:51:26. > :51:35.them in Suffolk. And in Norfolk. This is a trap. At the bottom is an
:51:36. > :51:53.ant lion lava. If you flick sounds as cliffs if this if I have this to
:51:54. > :52:00.do. We have of the live there are five... Look at those jaws. We have
:52:01. > :52:04.had to highlight them. The ant lion lava is down underneath there. It
:52:05. > :52:11.flicks of bits of sand at any passing and. What happens next is
:52:12. > :52:18.gruesome. Here is the ant. Flicking the sand. It is like some awful
:52:19. > :52:41.science-fiction monster. It will grab it. That will be the end. It
:52:42. > :52:47.has got it! For ant. Just like some hideous science-fiction. This is an
:52:48. > :52:54.enormous one that we have blown up. Look at those jaws. If these things
:52:55. > :53:00.work two metres long, we would not be wandering around so chirpily.
:53:01. > :53:05.Here is one more fascinating thing. They have no end this form. They do
:53:06. > :53:11.not excrete. They store up all the debris in their body. They will use
:53:12. > :53:18.that to create the pupal case before they emerge as adults. When they
:53:19. > :53:26.do, they will do a pool for the first time in their lives. What a
:53:27. > :53:31.relief that must be. From the small things to the larger things. Doug
:53:32. > :53:36.Allen is one of the world's leading underwater cameramen. Normally he is
:53:37. > :53:37.in Antarctica. We have asked him to turn his camera to the waters around
:53:38. > :53:52.our shores. I spend a lot of time at sea, in
:53:53. > :54:00.boats of all kinds. There is something about being at sea. It is
:54:01. > :54:03.so different from being on land. I cannot think of anywhere on land
:54:04. > :54:15.where you could see wild animals as close as this. I am a child of the
:54:16. > :54:25.60s. It is going to sound corny but as I grew up, there were two big
:54:26. > :54:35.frontiers. There was space. And there was underwater. There was no
:54:36. > :54:36.way I was going to the moon. So underwater was really the first
:54:37. > :54:58.passion that I had. I quite like it in a way when it is
:54:59. > :55:03.like this. It has got an air of mystery about it. You are never
:55:04. > :55:13.quite sure what you are going to see around the next corner. The ferns
:55:14. > :55:23.are quite low lying on the surface. I did not expect to find these deep
:55:24. > :55:28.gullies here. Off to each side there are splashes of quite unexpected
:55:29. > :55:38.colour like these dead men's fingers, as they call them, stuck
:55:39. > :55:43.into the side. The important thing when you are underwater is to go
:55:44. > :55:50.with the flow. Go with the ebb and flow of the swell and feel at one
:55:51. > :56:01.with the sea. Especially if you want to get close to other animals. It
:56:02. > :56:08.sounds crazy but you stand the best chance of seeing seals if you are
:56:09. > :56:19.not too bothered if you don't see them.
:56:20. > :56:27.And then when they do come macro inside, you do not look at them
:56:28. > :57:22.directly, you just want to give them a chance to get accustomed to you.
:57:23. > :57:30.Now when something like that happens, that is when you get a real
:57:31. > :57:35.borders. There is a completely wild animal that has decided to trust you
:57:36. > :57:45.enough to come up and give you a big course -- kiss on the front of the
:57:46. > :57:59.lens and ahead of how above have -- we are both happy. Plans and cancer
:58:00. > :58:02.if you see, I think we would be a long way towards re-establishing the
:58:03. > :58:19.connection string people in the natural world.
:58:20. > :58:25.You see seals on land and they are so ungainly. When you see them under
:58:26. > :58:31.the water they are completely transformed and beautiful. Doug
:58:32. > :58:36.Allen and Doctor John Scott will be on the red button at the end of the
:58:37. > :58:40.show. Chris and I have come down to the reed beds. Behind us in the
:58:41. > :58:47.distance by the beach is the scrape. That is where we have the avocet and
:58:48. > :58:50.the goals. It has become a scene of drama recently. It is not surprising
:58:51. > :58:59.because quite a few of the chicks have been predated. There are quite
:59:00. > :59:05.a few chicks there. Then there is commotion. This is regularly
:59:06. > :59:13.happening because of lesser back black goals. They work as a colony.
:59:14. > :59:21.Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And a lesser black-backed
:59:22. > :59:27.gull dole comes in and grabs one of those chicks, drops it in the water.
:59:28. > :59:33.It starts to swim. The adult comes in, tries to rescue it, but
:59:34. > :59:39.unsuccessfully. The lesser fact that my lesser black-backed gull takes a
:59:40. > :59:45.wave this is happening quite regularly. It is amazing that
:59:46. > :59:49.anything survives. One of the reasons it is happening one
:59:50. > :00:00.regularly is this. We are seeing a build-up of the number of large
:00:01. > :00:05.goals. As more and more of these herring gull chicks hatch, if these
:00:06. > :00:09.girls continue to predate them, we will see increasing agitation, and
:00:10. > :00:14.that is what we are seeing. What is worrying me in particular is that we
:00:15. > :00:19.have a single nest of an avocet down there. Audrey is down there, our
:00:20. > :00:24.avocet, and she is perched on the edge of this black headed gull
:00:25. > :00:29.colony. Typically, they nest in a group, and they want all their young
:00:30. > :00:32.to hatch at the same time so we see a phenomenon called predators
:00:33. > :00:36.swamping. There are so many young that they cannot eat them all. The
:00:37. > :00:41.problem is, if they hatch asynchronously, it is easier for
:00:42. > :00:45.predators to take them. I am somewhat concerned about the future
:00:46. > :00:51.health of those avocet chicks, we will keep our eyes peeled. They
:00:52. > :00:54.could hatch imminently. From black and white beauty to glorious
:00:55. > :00:59.Technicolor, a bird some people as a prize to see in our towns and
:01:00. > :01:17.cities. -- are surprised.
:01:18. > :01:24.It is the sort of thing you would see in a documentary about wildlife
:01:25. > :01:31.in Africa. They are fun, beautiful, exotic birds. Large, green
:01:32. > :01:42.feathered, blue tailed, red beaks. You cannot miss them!
:01:43. > :01:48.In the UK, these ringnecked parakeet is are at their highest numbers
:01:49. > :01:53.around Greater London, and in East Kent, the Ramsgate area. We have had
:01:54. > :02:01.reports of them as far away as Scotland is now, so they asked
:02:02. > :02:06.Reading. -- they are spreading. In Ramsgate, you don't have to go far
:02:07. > :02:11.to find them. You will probably hear them, they are an incredibly noisy
:02:12. > :02:15.bird. Once you are here, you get used to them very quickly, and they
:02:16. > :02:24.become as common as seagulls in the area.
:02:25. > :02:32.Their native range is very large. They come from all across India,
:02:33. > :02:36.sub-Saharan Africa. There is a couple of great theories as to why
:02:37. > :02:42.these parakeets are in the UK. One of them is that some of them escaped
:02:43. > :02:46.from the set of the African Queen, which was being filmed in London.
:02:47. > :02:50.The other is that Jimi Hendrix released a couple in Carnaby Street
:02:51. > :02:57.to inject some psychedelic colour into the streets of London. More
:02:58. > :03:02.realistically, it is likely that the parrots were STB is as a result of
:03:03. > :03:13.the captive breeding of ringnecked parakeets. -- escapees. The
:03:14. > :03:20.populations that we have got now well-established around 1969-70. The
:03:21. > :03:24.current population Estimates are at about 32,000, so they are one of the
:03:25. > :03:34.most rapidly growing bird populations in the UK today.
:03:35. > :03:39.The character of the parakeet is quite cheeky. They do not have a lot
:03:40. > :03:47.of fear of humans. Parakeets really are quite agile. They are very good
:03:48. > :03:51.climbers. They basically use their bills as a third hand, I would say.
:03:52. > :03:58.It is almost like a monkey with its tail. They have got a particular
:03:59. > :04:04.foot formation, where they have two toes at the front and two at the
:04:05. > :04:07.back. It is a grasping foot, which means they are particularly good at
:04:08. > :04:13.grasping onto branches and manoeuvring, grabbing food. So they
:04:14. > :04:20.are very agile, very nimble, very dextrous.
:04:21. > :04:26.The male is easier to distinguish from the female, or young males,
:04:27. > :04:33.because they have a brightly coloured ring around their necks. I
:04:34. > :04:40.have seen their meeting, I have seen the ritual to do with that. -- them
:04:41. > :04:49.making. The male will basically get on top of the female.
:04:50. > :04:56.The female will slightly turn her head from side to side, and he will
:04:57. > :04:59.literally head bang her, that is the only way I can describe it. It is a
:05:00. > :05:10.very strange thing to witness. I have also seen them in the
:05:11. > :05:13.branches of the trees when they do the regurgitation ritual, where the
:05:14. > :05:20.male parakeet regurgitates some foods that it has collected as a
:05:21. > :05:24.gift for the female. It is almost a sort of human type characteristic,
:05:25. > :05:29.almost like a kiss, which is quite strange to see. It cannot help but
:05:30. > :05:37.strike you that it is a tender moment when you see it happen. I
:05:38. > :05:41.love them, I study them and have done for the last four years, so I
:05:42. > :05:46.think it will be a long-lasting relationship. I think they are
:05:47. > :05:50.fantastic birds, and I think when people first to see them, they are
:05:51. > :05:54.amazed to actually see a bird like that. It is the sort of thing you
:05:55. > :06:01.would probably have to get on a plane to normally see, it is
:06:02. > :06:06.fantastic they are here. Oh, the parakeet head-banging
:06:07. > :06:15.foreplay was interesting, wasn't it? I am not going to break into it!
:06:16. > :06:20.Anyway, the parakeet scientist, Hazel, is doing a survey on
:06:21. > :06:25.parakeets. If you find parakeet feathers, send them to her so she
:06:26. > :06:32.can do DNA testing. All the details of that are on the website. Coming
:06:33. > :06:39.to the end of the programme, let's take a look at the live cameras,
:06:40. > :06:46.let's go to our tawny owl. We have got nightingales there. He is
:06:47. > :06:52.becoming quite active, quite cool this evening. The rain has stopped,
:06:53. > :06:55.maybe that is why he is not fully out. What the reed warbler is doing?
:06:56. > :07:03.I should imagine they brooding tight. There they are, one male or
:07:04. > :07:06.female, we can't tell, snuggled down on the nest keeping the youngsters
:07:07. > :07:12.warm. They will be up at about four o'clock, I should imagine, and to
:07:13. > :07:18.start collecting food. It has got quite cold, the son came out, we had
:07:19. > :07:24.a gorgeous sunset, but it has got a bit chilly now. -- the sun. Back to
:07:25. > :07:29.the nightingales, we have got a few seconds. They looked to be still
:07:30. > :07:34.active, they are not being brooded. They have put on a phenomenal spurt
:07:35. > :07:37.of growth, and it will be interesting to see when they leave
:07:38. > :07:42.the nest. They will sometimes leave after just ten days. So if you are
:07:43. > :07:49.watching those, keep your eyes on them. Martin, you back just in time
:07:50. > :07:54.to say goodbye! Don't forget to tune into the red button for Unsprung,
:07:55. > :07:58.Nick will be speaking to the underwater cameraman. And we are
:07:59. > :08:02.going to catch up with cuckoos tomorrow, the cuckoo chick which has
:08:03. > :08:09.been growing at an unbelievable rate! We will be taking a look at
:08:10. > :08:13.the bitterns and the nightingales, they are due to leave their nests
:08:14. > :08:26.quite quickly. The drama continues with the urban foxes, just look at
:08:27. > :08:30.that face! Come on, who didn't go aw?! Chris! See you tomorrow, we
:08:31. > :09:05.will see you, bye-bye! This is one of the most
:09:06. > :09:09.fire-prone regions on earth.