Episode 9 Springwatch

It is a final week of Springwatch but were on fire, I can promise an

inferno of natural science, art and culture. It has been a dramatic

weekend for some of the characters whilst others have been hanging

around and they literally hold the camera. Dim the lights - curtains up

for Springwatch. Welcome to week three of

Springwatch. Coming to you from the wonderful RSPB Minsmere Reserve on

the Suffolk coast. We have been based here and on the lookout for

all things new in terms of the and species here. The sun has got its

hat on. You would not be able to build a suitable hat for a giant

star! What fabric would be? Let us move swiftly on. This is a fantastic

place to be because it is 1000 hectares of superbly managed

habitat. The RSPB have done a wonderful job shaping this

environment to suit a range of species. Birds, mammals, insects and

plants. And here, one of the largest herds of red deer in the UK, freshly

emerged Porter Shell butterflies, the wonderful southern marsh

orchids. And a swan. I have a question, it is such a beautiful

evening, why the jumper? I got it wrong! I am not thermal regulating!

We have cameras all over this reserve and this weekend they have

been hot. Not just because it has been very sunny weather has been so

much dramatic action. It a lot took place on the scrape with wannabe

star characters, Audrey the other side. This drama surprised all of us

and we shall surely that later. It is not just Audrey who has been

busy, and a lot of checks have also been. In a lot of action over the

weekend, let us look at some of the nests. This was the Nightingale

nest. It is empty. And the bullfinch nest. The little chick has returned,

just on the branch. And as for the tawny owl, that had that little

grub. Why are the empty? They have all pledged! We shall show you some

right now. Grub on Thursday was raised on a diet of slow worms and

slugs. Let us look at him in the dark. He is being fed yet again,

probably another slug. Most of the time, we could see the front of you.

But very nice, he was very mucky. Another slug! Then, he did that, he

flew up into the tree and for the very first time, we realised he had

a lot of feathers, he was older than we thought. But he was not very good

at using them. He heard that! Good effort. Very good. So, he had come

on quite well and last Friday we had a look in the morning and this

happened here he is, 6:36 a.m., the parent comes in. They have been very

good at feeding him. But the choice of food is not great. He looks

around, he has a little to. He has lowered his body weight. He is

sizing something up. Will he? Yes! Heap robbery went straight down to

the ground. Look at that. There he is. So please with himself. He is

like a coiled spring, ready to lead. Well, maybe not. I am surprised he

made it to the branch, if we look at that wing loading, he is very heavy,

the feathers are not fully through and they will jump around on the

tree but they will not typically launch into the void like that in

the hope of bumping into branches. We will keep a very close eye on him

and the other birds. What about the elusive badgers? They have been a

bit shy on the cameras. But this weekend they came out to play. Two

of the Cubs, they seem to have a lot of energy. Are building up their

part. They have spotted the camera. It has bumped its nose! Naturally

curious. They must have their nose into everything. And that is a big

part of their sensory equipment, their eyesight is pretty poor.

Having a very good stuff. They have been at a lot this weekend. One of

the adults has also been very busy and we will catch up with that later

on. If you have been watching over the past few weeks, you will know

some of the smaller birds have a very neat way of keeping the nest

clean when the young develop. They produce little packages of mucous

membrane that enclose their species and the adults can transport that

away. To keep the nest clean. With the exception of the Goldfinch. They

are not using their strategy at all. They simply reach out and try to to

over the side. This is a stinking mass of material. No doubt. And with

all of that smell radiating from that part of the brambles, it is not

surprising that a certain predator was drawn to this. And this is what

we saw. This is an extraordinary piece of footage but if you do not

like snakes and predation, please look away. This adder has claimed up

to the nest, chest high in the brambles, and it is angling to take

one of the fledgling 's. Trying to get its head into the right

position. Look at that. It grabs hold. This is quite a large item for

this very small snake. The big question is, can eat it, up in the

bushes. It will try, quite girly. Extraordinary pictures. You can

watch adder Womack and the Goldfinch nursed all of your life and the

likelihood of seeing this is negligible. We can bring you this

because we have miniature cameras 24-hour as a day. It is gruesome but

also a remarkable sight. That was not the end of the story because

that adder was hanging around the nest for a very long time because it

did seem slightly confused. Here it comes. It makes you wonder whether

it dropped the other chick because it is coming back for more? The

problem is, it has to get the head of the chick, it cannot be bottom

first, that would be impossible, but it is not good at finding backend.

And we must say, this adder also needs to eat. It has probably just

got through the mating process and it is hungry. The parent comes to

feed. It almost does not realise what has been going on, the adder

has been retreating into the brambles. The chick is feeding just

fine. This is like a scene from the Jungle book. The chick is doing what

it should do, not big enough to flee, flap away, it is conquering

down to avoid the attention of any predators. Despite the fact that the

adder is persistent, it cannot get into the right position. The first

thing this young adder will have done after hibernation is try to

make and this might be its first meal of the year. The results are no

old in that snake, it perhaps did not swallow that very first chick.

It perhaps left and somewhere. It is not very big, look at that fly. That

gives perspective. It is still trying but just cannot get into

position. And the sense of smell is phenomenal, they have a nasal gland

and they stick their tongues into it and that catches scent particles in

the air and the push those forked parts of the tongue into that gland

and it is amazing sensitive. They have done experiments, they have

taken that gland away and SNP cannot find any food at all and,

interestingly, we have that nasal gland but ours regresses to nothing

as we grow at the foetal stage. We never have that capacity to smell.

What a shame! On Thursday said the brambles were a great place for the

nest because the magpies could not get in, I do not think about the

adder. Only 20% of Goldfinch nests are less than four metres and this

is only 1.5 metres off the ground. When we find goldfinches, they were

always right at the top of the tree, these spindly branches, perhaps they

have made a mistake nesting in a habitat they don't normally use. And

the snake made its way through the bush. A lot of people were watching

this on the Red Button and they commented that they did not know

that adders could climb. If the Goldfinch nest was clean, with the

steak have found it? Who knows? It might just have been exploring

anyway. Clare says, didn't survive? Let us look at the nest, live. Can

we see inside? It did actually survive. And there is one chick

left. And you can keep an eye on that and see how it does on the

website. That is the smaller stuff, let's get to the meat of the action,

the one and only temporary. Look at how much they have grown. 20 do days

old. They have become more robust. Bush drew 22 days. Look at those

flight feathers, still very small and stumpy. -- 22 days.

Semi-fledgeling. There is no danger of them being able to fly. That is

brilliant. Look at this. Selfie! I wish I was in it! That there is a

fantastic view. A young bittern. Looking at itself in the reflection

of the camera. What an extraordinary view of this bird. And the badgers

are also getting rather confident? There I am, in the picture. We know

from watching them that those read birds are the perfect habitat for

them, they provide nesting and camouflage and plenty of prey but

what are they eating when they fish? I went on a boat on a nice sunny day

to find out what it is that is keeping those chicks healthy.

We have seen the bittern fishing for a variety of food as they move

silently through the reeds. They have a particular liking for eel.

But what are the others? I have come fishing with Matthew and Graham to

take a closer look. But we're not using a fishing rod. The other

fishing with electricity. -- we are fishing. The generator produces an

electrical current and lure is a fish out of cover where the net

cannot reach. They are briefly stunned, allowing Graham to get them

into the boat. The premise of electro-fishing is to measure the

total density of fish in the reed beds, which determines how much food

there is for the bittern. It is believed that around ten kilos of

fish per hectare is ideal for them. In that short space we have quite a

lot? Look at the size of that! Beautiful. This is quite a good size

for this type. Normally the reed bed means the fish are smaller than in a

fishery or a lake, so this is a very valuable breeding age fish. We

measure them and can build up statistics about the population

change. How long can it be kept out of the water? Within five minutes.

This process does not harm them? Not at all. This off immediately. They

swim off immediately. That's a gorgeous looking fish. They are

absolute stunners. 116 grammes. These fish tend to live in bottoms

of fissures, in the mud. They are slimy and they are very muscular as

well, incredibly strong. They twist when they move which allows them to

Wade through the roots of the reed and push they wa in amongst the mud.

Beautiful colours as well. Incredibly well camouflaged.

Beautiful snack that one. This is the favourite food, isn't

city Lovely. Full of foot and gooden. What age is that? Four years

old. Stunning. Really nice looking one in a million. One thing people

don't realise is that a reed bed is a very managed habitat. If you left

it, what would happen? It would become a wet woodland. Bitterns,

harriers, tits and fish. Just as we are about to finish, a bittern flies

overhead. Look at that! I can't tell you how excited I am to get a

bittern flying behind us. I'm never going back to the studio again! I'm

staying here with you guys. Here we are in that habitat. I would

be if I could see down this be surrounded by some of those fish.

Nine species in total. Let's do a bit of identification parade of the

foremost common species of fish here. First of all, the Perch. They

call them stripy and you can see why. The strips cam flannel it when

it's in the shadows of the reeds with fins. Not good teeth because

it's a good predator. A Perch can swallow a fish nearly half its own

size. Next the tench. Here it is. Slippery customer, covered in slime,

mucous, very strong, olive green, tiny little scales. Used to be the

fish doctor because they thought other fish would eat the slime to

cure themselves of illness - how on earth did they come up with that? !

The Rudd and the roach next. The Rudd, here it is, the orangey fins,

it sticks out its bottom lip, makes it look a little sulky to me. It

does that because it swallows things, sticks its bottom lip down

pouting on things drifting down. The last one is the roach. This is a

thoughtful fish. You can see it's thoughtful. It's got the level lips

now, very similar. Chris told me that he can always tell a roach

because it's fish-shaped. Yes! I know what you mean.

Fish shaped! The bitterns down here will be eating the fish all in these

reeds all around here. But in fact, I'll try and get myself out a little

bit. They'll be eating the fish, but there's not that many fish around

here. There's six kilograms per hectare. To me, that doesn't sound

very much. Luckily, the bitterns eat other things apart from fish. The

bittern is coughing something up. If you look closely, that's not a fish,

but a rat. Where it got that, goodness knows. It will digest that

a bit more before regurgitating it for the chick once again. Let's look

at the habitat. This is like a tower block because down below all the way

up, let us have a look. In the water you have shrimp, you have got a

lava, stickle backs, of course, and it's magical down there. Break the

surface and suddenly we are into the bittern zone. This is where the

bitterns will be hunting. Here is a water vole as well. There's so much

life here. If it could take a rat, it would probably take a water vole

as well. Higher and higher, what about the next layer? The reed

warbler nest up here and finally a dear. People have told me they have

seen dear swimming in the water around here. Surprising to see red

dear amongst the reeds. Damselflies, then this bearded tit, a real

specialist here. People come here specially to see this. Then let's go

up into the sky and see a magical bird of prey. It was extinct, this

was just one female in 1971, it's the marsh harrier. That one female

was here in Minsmere. Let's go up, up, up, out of this,

way up into the sky and this is the realm of the marsh harrier up here.

Let's look at the marsh harrier in more detail. It's flying along. This

is a male. You can see it has black tip wings and grey wings. It's

drifting in. The female has a yellowy head there which you can

see. The female is considerably bigger than the male. Watch them

hunting here. They just drift slowly across. Fly about 0mph. They stall

and look down in the reeds trying to find something to eat.

Gorgeous. If they find something, bang, they drop down. Maybe a vole

or a mouse or a frog, something like that. Here it twos. The male will

hunt for the female. -- here it goes. If you find something, he

passes it do her. Look at that fantastic mid-air catch. That's

probably a mouse, we saw a long tail there. Where did it find a wood

mouse here? That's something you would generally find in a hedgerow.

Sometimes you will see the marsh harriers sky dance.

Gorgeous. She'll take that food back into the nest now which is down

there in the reeds. We know that there is actually a nest here out in

the reeds, but we haven't been able to get the cameras on it. In

Autumnwatch, we were at Leighton Moss. They have a harrier marsh

nest. We have pictures. This is a group of youngsters with the gold

and yellow heads, feeding on a dead coot just last weekend.

Fantastic. We'll keep an eye on them. We have a link to them on the

website if you want to watch the marsh harriers. Wonderful that they

have come back. If you want to see any of the cameras, it's

www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch. Chris, didn't you come down to this very

place to see marsh harriers in your youth? In my youth? ! Yes exall

those years ago, there were mammoths at that point! -- yes, all those

years ago. I managed to persuade my dad to drive up here to see the

females, they were down to one, but since then they have entertained a

massive revitalisation. More harriers. Great treat to see them

prospering here today. Over the weekend, we were watching

closely the nest cameras because there was a lot of action. On

Thursday, we asked you to help us with a food count of the chicks. We

asked you to watch different nests and see how many times the adults

were coming back to feed and lots of you joined in so thank you very

much. We had a comment from Annie J Howarth who said, she burnt her

toast while watching the reed warblers feeding.teringibly sorry

about that! Here is the result. Very pleased to present you with data,

yes! We have this bar chart here. So we have got the number of visits an

hour, which is what you recorded and species along the bottom with an

average number of visits here. So right at the bottom, you can see we

have got the goldfinches. They are only returning on average somewhere

between two and four times an hour. What's going on at the goldfinch

nest? Take a look. They are feeding by regurgitation from their crop and

the crop is quite a large storage organ. Within they do get back to

the nest, not very frequently, they are able to leave a lot of food to

their young. Why are they doing this? They can fly up to 800 metres

away from the nest to collect that material, grass seeds, weed seeds,

dock seeds and the like. If they are flying that far, it woulden make

sense to fly up there and fly back with three seeds, it makes sense

economically and energetically to collect all the seeds and bring them

back in fewer viz es. But what about the bullfinch. Can I just say, they

are like Fulham then aren't they, they have been relegated, but

hanging on in there would be Sunderland, the bullfinches, and

they'll be doing a few more feeds than the goldfinches. Let's have a

look at them. The reason for this, a few more feeds per hour, not many,

and the reason for that is, they don't store as much, they eat seeds

and put them into their throat pouches, come back and regurgitate.

The volume is not as great. We are not relegating them because it's

what happened this weekend. They fledged. This is Sunday just before

3 o'clock. The chicks are ready. One's off already and then two go

and the third one flies off, leaving one behind which was a little

stubborn actually and sat on that branch for a while looking a wee bit

bemused and finally, just sort of wanders off! Not very convincingly.

Perhaps that's the one that's come back. But that number of feeds was a

successful strategy. They fledged successfully. What were they again,

the Sunderland? Yes. Can't wait for the conclusion of

this football analogy. Next on the list are the reed

warblers, getting up to about 12-16 on average visits an hour, bringing

in insects. Let's move on to the nighting gales, there's a

significant leap going up here. This is about 20 feeds an hour, bringing

in lots of different insects. Is it working for the Nightingales? Let's

have a look. The fledglings were doing very well. One thing we

noticed over the last few days is the sound. Listen to this. RATTLE

SOUND. Whilst in the nest, the young birds

are producing a very unique clicking call. This is no doubt a contact

call to attract the attention of the parents.

Never heard a call like that before. Interesting. Blackbirds are a little

like that. They look very much like robins, but that is working for them

because they too were on the move. 28 feeds per hour. They are in the

mid league there! What is interesting about the Nightingales

is, they are what I called semi-fledgling, they don't fly out

of the nest, they do literally walk out of the nest. They won't fly for

another three to five days. Then they'll stick around, be fed by the

adults, look an adult's come back. You can see in the corner there, one

of the chicks and you can hear the noise, the calling. Must be

something about the characteristic of the clicking call which is

suitable for contact with the parents when they are in deep cover.

Once they are semi-fledged, they hop around right down in the heart of

that bramble bush, impossible to see. I'm going to present you with a

proper dictionary definition of semi-foreign which was prepared by

the one and only Suzie Dent from countdown in dictionary corner. You

came up with the term ornithological. It refers to the

fact that teenagers semi-fledge! You are taking the mickey. No! The last

set of birds, which you were watching over the weekend, they were

Top of the Pops, number one, they were the... Man City! I knew we had

that coming. When it came to feeding. The peak

number with 34 visits and we are counting the number of visits in

just half an hour, the birds are in and out, in and out, collecting a

lot of protein, insect food but very close to the The S. They are not

nighing 800 metres away to get it, they are hopping around in that very

group of brambles finding plenty of food and I'm certain they are going

to fledge if they can get the good summer season when it comes to

transfers! Go to the website and you will find the details about signing

up for Twitter. Or Facebook. We would like you to continue to submit

reports and sightings to us so they can be shared with the community.

That will be running all over the summer. Sign up and stay in touch.

We have been up in the West Coast of Scotland. We have the latest report.

Last week I went in search of a very rare and special butterfly, the

chequered skipper. It was not discovered in Scotland until the

1940s and until recently it was only known from five or six sites on the

West Coast. It was great to get to see them and to catch up with some

other butterfly enthusiasts. But the search was not over because the next

day I went north to Glen Coe to meet an old friend, Tom Prescott from

what flight conservation Scotland. -- otter fly. -- butterfly. The

chequered skipper has never been seen here before. Where are we

looking? In this one kilometre square, we're just to the east of

Glen Coe in this square. How have you predicted it will be here? We

don't. What we have done is we have looked at the distribution of this

butterfly and we have done some modelling based on the habitat and

the woodland and particularly, the climate. We believe this rare

butterfly is not as rare as we think. That is find a new site for

Springwatch. Brilliant. -- let us. Not much in the way of lecture.

There is some rural grass and I have seen only two bluebells. The survey

method is to spend one hour searching in each square. If you see

the butterfly, job done. I think I have got one. It has just from my

feet. Honestly? The wing is closed. Tricky to see. I can see those

antenna. Bright and orange, superb markings. What does this mean to

you? This is my favourite butterfly in Scotland, it is a great enigma,

only find here in the 1940s and we did not think this site looks

suitable from distance and here they are. This is a very big tick. I want

this renamed Springwatch! I will have a word with the Forestry

Commission. Springwatch hill. Good man.

I still cannot believe we find such a very rare otter fly at this

brand-new location. -- butterfly. It might not be as rare as we thought.

If you are visiting this week, Tom needs help. He is asking for

volunteers to survey some of these squares and if you want more

information, it is on the website so please do get involved, help Tom

help those butterflies. It is great fun and you might find a very new

site yourself. It is fabulous and since that first report last week,

when we ask you to go out and pick one kilometre and look, we have find

to new sightings for the chequered skipper. Top work. The major drama

of the weekend, we had a very big turn of events on the scrape. This

is a drama and is upsetting. It features Audrey, one of the main

characters, avocet. Patiently taking her turn. And we hoped over the

weekend, one of those chicks would hatch and we could show you the

little avocet chicks. There has been a lot of relation, with those

seagulls and the herring gulls. Watching last week, you will know

another predator had shown itself down on that scrape. We spotted it

one night using thermal cameras. The image we are looking at is the heat.

As it emerged from the water between those islands, it revealed itself as

a badger. It sett about finding all the black headed gull nests on that

particular island. And emptying them of their eggs. Over the weekend, it

was not surprising that the badger came back. And on Saturday, just as

it was getting light, the picture is grainy because is not much light.

But at 3:58 a.m., the first avocet league had hatched and one of the

adults is going to continue to brood and incubated the remaining eggs but

it was only on the nest five minutes before it became scared and flew

off, giving the alarm call, and then... To our surprise... The

badger has a little shake and it helps itself to that little chick.

The badger does not stop. It decides to go for the remaining eggs. And

rethink what it did was it cracked one of them open and took the chick

out that was just about to hatch. It destroys the nest. And then, it

roams round, using the nose, glued to the ground, all of the avocets

and the goals, complaining, it works its way around the island. This

black headed goal nest, visibly ageing the eggs. It runs about until

it finds no less than 20 nests. It took 90 minutes to clear out this

scrape of 20 nests. Quite astonishing. And when we look at the

calorific intake, this is a very substantial meal, and we estimate it

at around 4170 calories, and for an animal the size of a badger, this is

a monstrous meal. This is clearly a very successful strategy and it is

probably the same one. This individual has learned this is a

source of food and after helping itself to 20 nests, it swims off

into the reeds. It was not what we were hoping for Audrey Hunter

family. It is tragic, really. Just take a look at the aftermath. -- and

her family. All the birds are looking extremely bemused. This is

rather sad, actually. Audrey and your partner, they pick up what

looks like and dared chick, maybe the dropped it. Perhaps it broke the

egg and it fell out. And there is one remaining chick. This is the

black headed goal. And look, some of the birds are trying to start a new

family straightaway. One lucky chick survived. But there were another

that survive because it are very clever. Before any of this predation

happened, one of the avocet families had two different chicks and for

some reason, the adults decided to leave those chick is, leading them

away from the scrape that Audrey was on and they led them to what they

thought was a much safer place. And it appears that it is much safer.

Every look at this, you can see there is more cover, there? There is

a lot more vegetation, it is rockier, places to hide. Once they

are up and about like this, running around, they can find cover and when

the adult gives the alarm call there is a greater chance of surviving

after a few days. And when they just emerge. They are like the James Bond

family because the escaped! We have two other avocet chicks. In

perspective, we said last week, we stutter 's -- we study the badgers

for years and we know that it has negligible impact on the bird

population in the UK. This is an individual, this is a rogue died on

the scrape. But in a national context, the avocet is doing very

well. Let us look at this area from the air. You can see this is a very

large area and we must commend the RSPB for sculpting this, since 1947

it has been the avocet factory. It has been a fabulous place to breed

and we have 1600 pairs nationwide. All along the east coast, in the

Thames and the Medway and even nesting inland. In South Yorkshire

and the East Midlands. The work the RSPB have done here in producing

avocets is outstanding but we must keep the badger out. There is two

kilometres of fencing around this area and trying to get a badger I'd

is difficult but the RSPB will review what they do and will think

about how to change that strategy so we can carry on producing. One last

thing is that although it might be a disaster for Audrey and your partner

this year, these are long-lived birds. They are almost designed to

fail because they will only need to succeed a couple of times in their

life span and they can live 16 years. If she fails this year, maybe

next year or the year after, she will have a couple of chicks and

that'll the growth that is required to continue to fuel the recovery of

the avocet as a breeding bird in the UK, which is down to smear and the

work of the RSPB. Beautiful bird. -- Minsmere. Another creature that has

been doing badly but arrived back here in huge numbers this year is

one of our favourites, the eel. To some, the Severn estuary is nothing

more than a fat ridden of mud, and inconvenient obstacle in and out of

Wales. -- river. But for the young eels, this is a highway and times

gone by, billions would migrate up the Severn every year. By the 1980s,

numbers had crashed, some saying we had lost up to 95%. That led

scientists to use a chilling expression, they said that numbers

were outside biologically safe limits and that meant the eel was on

the path to extension. To make matters worse, the young that did

make it to the shores were awarded on their onward journey by a growing

number of man-made barriers. Today, at least 90% of elders never make it

upstream to their feeding grounds, leaving an entire food chain under

threat. But this year has seen a massive increase in the number of

young eels reaching our shores, which is great news and an

opportunity to bring the eel back from the brink. To find out exactly

what is going on, I will go out with the people who are monitoring the

eels on the Severn. I must wait for the tide to turn and darkness to

fall. I will might -- meet the elver men, whose skills are being

harvested to ensure the future of this creature. What is it about this

but? If only everybody knew, it is learned from history and experience

and the fish come here to contact around this bend. We have this

beautiful full moon. Will that have any effect? In the great tradition

of fishing, it is the high tide and the high moon that creates the

effect that stimulate them to run. Which is why it all of the elver are

out in force? This should be a magic night. Let's go. Tonight, there are

around 40 men are banned down the river. Do you go all night? Until

about four a.m., yes. We will finish at 3am because they must be at work

tomorrow morning! The skill is knowing where and when to dip your

net. Andy tests the water. Is it reasonable, that catch? No!

Vermicelli! That thin pasta. It is like a living work of art. One hour

later, the numbers are building. But is more like it. How many are there?

Half a kilo. How many are there in this river tonight? Billions. So

many fish this year. Unbelievable. The majority of the catch is not for

the pot. It will be used to restock the waterways beyond the weirs and

downs. This bumper catch is delivered to the Ile trader, Peter

Wood, a key member of the sustainable group.

Wow. Look at that! These tiny creatures have come what, 3,000

miles to be with us tonight? Yes, somebody said to me it's like us

trying to walk from here to the moon. Yes. Yet they still have

plenty of energy. They'll be rested and quarantined for the next few

days then transported across Britain and Europe to replenish depleted

populations. 60% of our production goes to conservation projects. In

the last couple of years, they have been remarkably good. How does it

compare with previous years? There's been a steady decline. 2009 was the

lowest catch we have had for many, many years. Now we are up to 30

million. Does anyone really know why that is? Nobody has any idea at all.

None at all. I mean, it's a complete mystery. What Peter does know is

that the eel's short-term feature lies in active management. Until we

can rectify the migratory path and blockages and overcome some of the

barriers involved in the flood defences, yes, this work is going to

have to continue. Long-term solutions are being attempted. Eel

ladders are being installed across the country helping traditional

routes to be followed upstream and turbines should reduce the damage

done to adult eels on their way back to the sea. But none of this explain

this is year's bumper numbers. Of course, the elder men have their

own ideas. Personal theory is, we had a jet stream. The Gulf stream

came down with it and I think it's probably back to its original level,

that's why we got the fish. That's Andy's theory, folks and it's

probably right. Good a guess as any! The fact is, they are here, that's

the important thing! Absolutely. Do you know what, just have a think

for a minute. Now, there's going to be, I'm certain, an eel within five

metres of where I'm standing. That eel hasn't been born here, it's come

- I find this mind-boggling to think about - from 3,000 miles away the

other side of the Atlantic to get here. Astonishing animals. From eels

to another astonishing animal. Not the mosquitoes that are biting me to

death. Down here, there are many, many of an animal that you may have

seen at home in your pond. They are one of the most colourful creatures

on earth, trafficon flies and damselflies, but how do you tell the

difference between those? Well, the dragonfly is the one at

the bottom and it holds its wings out from its body. The damselfly

holds its wings down the length of its body. That is one way of

telling. And here on the right, the dragonfly's eyes meet in the middle,

the damsel's eyes are sticking out almost like a hammer head shark or

something. You can also see that the damselfly is much finer, lighter in

body than dragonfly. Let's have a closer look at the eyes. This is a

damselfly. You can see the eyes. It's got about 12,000 tiny lenses in

that eye. They have fantastic sense of vision. A dragonfly goes one

better, dragonflies have about 28,000 individual lenses. If you

look really closely, you can see them in the eyes.

The question is, why do both of them need all of those lenses in their

eyes? 80% of a dragonfly's brain is concerned with its visual sense

processing visual information. The reason for that is, they are

brilliant hunters. They can move around, if you can imagine, if any

direction, up, down, side-to-side, back, forwards, like a helicopter,

and in one expert in America, they threw up prey items for them and

they caught 0% of them. They can't walk very well, but their legs are

for grabbing their prey. We have noticed something else going on down

here. Dragonflies an damselflies have been courting. -- 90% of them.

The female will mate with many other males and he wants his sperm to

fertilise her eggs. Look closely. She's laying eggs under the water

there. Here she is, the male is keeping

hold of her all the way through. And those eggs, they'll be all

around the place down here, they'll grow and develop and turn into

voracious predators under the water too. Now, that's the dragonfly, the

damselfly, you have sent us pictures of the beautiful animals. One in

particular fascinated us, from Chalto. Look carefully, you can see

the blobs. It's not es, that's parasites. We set ourselves the task

to try and find them for ourselves. We managed to do that. They are

fascinating creatures these. Gruesome. The little parasites grow

under water with the dragonfly or damselfly lava, but when they merge

as adults, they jump on to them and pierce them with a tube which grows

into their body and they start to suck the fluid from the adult. You

can see just moving there, the horrible little whites.

Probably getting covered in them myself! When the dragonflies have

those, it inhibits their ability the fly and they fly much more slowly.

That maybes them easy prey for the hobby. The hobby is a specialist

here. Looks like an enormous swift. At this time of year, trail be

grubbing dragonflies. You can see it's got a dragonfly in its tall

London and it's just picking off the wings -- trail be grubbing

dragonflies. You can see it's got a dragonfly in its tallon and it's

just picking off the wins. Absolutely astonishing to see that

in mid-air. The hobbies will be specialising in trafficon flies.

Later in the year, they'll turn their attention to the Martins and

swallows here as well, before they it is appear back to Africa. Time to

go to Nick in the BBC Weather Centre. What is the weather going to

be like for dragonflies, Nick? In a word, perfect. For damselflies

and dragonflies, they want ten degrees and try weather, yes, it's

all in the forecast. Dragonflies in the UK unite, you know the score, it

may be good for adders as well up to no good, they don't like warmth and

there's warmth in the forecast. When the temperature reaches a certain

level, they are more likely to go undercover into the bushes and maybe

encounter birds' nests. Some birds need to look over their shoulder

this weekend. Warmth in the forecast and a lot of dry weather too.

Showers around tonight and tomorrow but look at this. From Wednesday,

high pressure building in, settling weather down across England and

Wales in particular, temperatures heading up again, but still some

rain-bearing weather fronts at times in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

What does that mean for you at Minsmere? Maybe a shower tonight,

but the rest of the week is dry. Lovely weather for the bird to

fledge. With temperatures like this, you can semi fledge. You may see

something like this in the skies. Patrick sent this in over the

weekend. It's a cloud formation that looks like a hairy caterpillar. If

you see any bird or insect cloud formations, let us know. You may see

an avocet or bittern cloud, who knows! That would do it for me!

A bittern cloud. I might live long enough now to see semi-fledge

ornothological test. Are you all right? Slightly boil in

the bag! If you have been watching the previous series, we had a camel,

a hollow tree stump in which we tempted rodents and filmed them. We

have switched that to a nocturum. We have introduced buff tail bumblebeed

into the tree. This is the nest inside a stump where we have our

camera. And somewhere in amongst here, can't

quite see at the moment, but there'll be the Queen. She's right

at the top facing left, turning round, facing the camera now and the

top view, you can see her in the centre. The material she's climbing

over, these are the cells in which all of her workers, the sterile

females which she's produced since this spring, are storing the nectar

which they have been out to collect. Our bumble bees, collectively, in

the UK, are worthy of attention at the moment. They are very important

Pollenators for many species of wild flower. Sad to say that they are

very much in decline and there are things that you can do at home to

encourage bumble bees into your garden and to prosper there. Over

the next few days, we'll give you some tips. That's fantastic.

Fascinating insight into an insect nest. .

Interesting question from bees from Donna White who says, we have bees

nesting in the shed, how long should we wait before we can use it again?

All summer. Some animals such as Windsor Castles and horn hes start

with one nest and if it gets too small a space they'll move. -- wasps

and hornets. With any luck, if the nest prosper, they'll be in there

all summer. You can step into the shed, don't step into their flight

lines, you can take liberties with them and they won't disturb you. My

nest box has been taken over by bees, tree bumble bees, huge. I

filmed them but we haven't got time for it. Let's take a look at another

animal which we spotted out on the scrape over the weekend. The

fabulous spoonbill. It's doing yoga, just like the avocet was. Excited to

see this. This is a species which seems to be activelicologionising

the UK. They have been breeding recently and every summer we see a

greater number of adults visiting the UK and. We caught a glimpse of a

magical animal. This is a stoat. Let's see that again. It's got a

baby rabbit. So many creatures around here. They two so fast. Like

a bullet. It was running across the road. We thought it was a squirrel

until we saw the tail. It's been a beautiful weekend and we have seen

some amazing bird over the weekend. Have a look at this one.

This is a grebe on a floating nest. The hair style looks like yours in

the early 1990s actually, sticking out, yes. This is a very clef nest

because if it does rain tonight, although it's not look ing like it's

going to here, that'll just rise with the rising water levels because

it's floating. ? They continually add to it because it's perpetually

disintegrating. They have specific features of vegetation in place

which they whip over the eggs to hide them so they can't be seen from

any aeriel predators. Isn't that egg going to get wet The vegetation is

decomposing so it's generating a bit of heat. Marginal of course. A very

quick look at our heat camera. We'll keep an eye on it. -- heath camera.

We have a camera on the heath so we can see what goes on. We may see a

stoat. Don't go away. Unsprung is on immediately after this on the red

button and the web. We have got a graffiti artist. I hope he hasn't

been taking the Mickey out of us! Keep your eyes on the live cameras,

particularly the bitterns, they are likely to semi-fledge in the motion

few days and they'll be back on breakfast programme tomorrow at 7.

30. Monty the osprey is back tomorrow! I'm so chuffed we are

going to see his progress. See you tomorrow at 8. Bye!