Episode 10 Springwatch

Viz are astonishingly intimate views of the sparrow hawk on her nest are

coming to you live. In mission control we have 30 cameras on all of

the wildlife in RSPB Minsmere. In the next few moments I will be going

out and checking up on that nest right there. This is live, this is

happening now. It's Springwatch! Hello and welcome to Springwatch

2016. It has cleared up, Michaela? It has, we have had rain, it has

been a bit cold, but now it is mild. Downpours this morning, but now it

is pleasant. I have said this before, I will say it again, we have

a cracking show. I can promise you the sound of a bird before it is

easy hatched. It is as the sea -- ecstasy. You don't get that very

often on BBC Two. Let's go live to our sparrowhawks. Here she is, the

female we have been watching from the first day of our series this

year. She is sat on five eggs and we are desperate at this stage for them

to hatch. We have seen a lot of the female and the mail. Let's see what

they have been getting up to. This is the mail. Beautiful shot. First

time we have seen it up in the trees. This is the female sitting

patiently on the eggs, keeping her eye out for any danger, any

predators. She has to be so careful. The male comes to the post and calls

the female. As soon as she hears that, she gets off the five eggs,

flies from the nest to accept her dinner. He passes it to her and she

starts her meal. Look at the size difference. The female on the left

is much larger than the male. She doesn't tolerate him very much, so

while she is having her meal, he takes advantage to fly to the nest

and check on the eggs. He is quite clumsy, not as careful as the

female. He treads on the eggs, without folding his feet up. That

could be disastrous for the eggs. He doesn't stay there long. She,

meanwhile, has had her feed and is cleaning her peak. This is

significant because she has lost the ball-macro tail feathers. You need a

very beady eye to have seen that and we will explain the significance

later. We have had terrible weather over the last week, so this poor

female has had to incubate those eggs, getting absolutely soaking

wet. When it is raining it is more important she keeps them warm. The

male, regularly bringing food, calling the female down. Gives us an

opportunity to see how dry she keeps the nest and the eggs. It is

important she does that. She doesn't leave them alone for long. She is

back in important she does that. She doesn't

leave them alone for long. She is back in the nest. This is crucial

because they are very near to hatching. She settles down again.

You may have noticed when she got off the nest, the tail feather.

Chris, that is significant, because it is in time with the possible

hatching of the eggs? It is crucial timing. She wants to make sure that

by the Young have hatched and grown to fledgling 's, she is in top tip

condition. The male will continue to supply her with food and the

youngsters, but when they get to a larger size, she has to share the

hunting duties. If she is malting then, she will be good enough

condition to catch the. So she wants to shed when she is on the net. We

don't know when those eggs were laid so we cannot predict very accurately

when they were going to hatch. This morning at 8am we were given a clue.

You will have to tell the kids to be quiet and this in very carefully.

But it is worth it. She comes in. She gives her dismissal call,

telling the male she is back on the nest and everything is OK.

SQUEALS that is the sound of the young sparrowhawks inside the eggs,

talking to her. So there is no doubt that when it is not her, when she

flies off, just listen. SQUEALS. What about that! Absolutely

incredible. Does that mean they will hatch very soon, how many days? Why

are they doing it? They could be talking to each other, to make sure

they hatch at the same time. It is likely they are communicating with

the female so she pays extra attention to them at the point of

hatching. We went to the expert, Professor Ian Newton. He said the

emergency will probably be in one, two days after the first noise from

the eggs. We first heard it this morning, so they could be set to

hatch on Thursday morning. I cannot think of any more reason to be sat

on those WebCams, forget the football, the Euros. You might see

sparrow hawk hatching. It is the most romantic thing I have seen this

year on Springwatch. Ever heard it before? Never. It will be fantastic

to see little sparrow hawk chicks. Let's have a look at the live

cameras on the scrape. Yesterday we left our avocet pair.

They had four chicks. But only two have survived. So what has happened

to the other two? They have brought them out of the reed bird. These

chicks have defined their own food, they are not fed by the parents. The

parents are very good, keeping them warm and dry. But they had to let

them forage for themselves. They go out into the shallow bodies of

water, sifting through. These birds are already scything the water as

they would doing as adults, in order to try and find tiny invertebrates.

It is trial and error. They are packing up things that are totally

inedible, but they slowly learn to pick up things which are edible.

They have probably got some of the yoke that was inside the eggs, to

keep them going for the first couple of days. Being in the open makes

them very vulnerable. Watch the chicks, they are in the grass. Watch

the head of the check on the right-hand side. The adult senses

danger. On this occasion, it is little head peeps back-up, it has

been lucky and the black headed goal mess. But sadly, just after one

p.m., this chick doesn't make it back in time. It is gone and we are

down to just one. About an hour later, in exactly the same place, we

can see the last remaining youngster with the adult. And look at this,

the adult senses danger and up it goes. And rapidly, not one or two

black headed gulls coming and snatch the last of our avocet chicks on the

scrape. What a shame, we were hoping they would survive. There have been

no avocet chicks that have survived on the scrape this time. The avocet

has a strategy to overcome these things, it lives for about seven

years. If they lay for eggs every year, it is 28 chances. The oldest

live to 24 so that is 96 chances of getting young into the population.

This year there have been more black headed gulls nesting on the scrape

and this has made life difficult for them. But there is hope. Let's go

live to our camera on the scrape now. Through the mist, there is a

bird sat down. It is an avocet, failed at the egg stage, perhaps the

black headed gulls have robbed it. This was slightly earlier. So they

might have nicked the eggs and have the youngsters, but this bird has

had more and is sitting on four eggs. The black headed gulls are at

the peak of their breeding, they have young and be ravenously hungry

so the adults are out after anything they can get, avocet chicks. By the

time those eggs hatch, it might be the black headed gulls are passed

their peak, some of them might have moved away, so there might be a

chance the late avocets, will survive. So there is still hope, but

for our little avocet chicks, it wasn't a happy ending. We have had

happiness with little owl chicks. Let's look at them live. Are they in

there? Yes, it is upside down. What is it doing? This is quite

interesting. It is trying to focus its eyes. They are not born with

great eyesight, it improves as they develop. They need to work the

focus. You see them doing it a lot, bobbing and twisting. I thought it

was watching a fly inside the nest. We were hoping to see them coming

out of the nest later. We have seen them doing that. If we see that

during the show, we will certainly show you. They have got to move

their head so they can judge distance. This young owl must be

practising. I do that sometimes, if I am looking at something intently.

I am doing it now! Coming out in sympathy with the owl. That is one

of three little owl chicks we have got. It is looking good for these

chicks. Nationally, and expect about two out of four to survive to

adulthood. Because in Minsmere, there is such a variety of habitats,

it is optical habitat for foraging and that means there is every chance

all three will survive to adulthood. You have to say, you don't have to

watch Springwatch on television. There are other platforms to enjoy

our programme. It has never been easier to follow Springwatch, where

ever you are and what device you are using. By going to the Springwatch

website on your laptop, phone or tablet, you can watch Springwatch

live any time of the day. Catch the action on live webcams, as well as

updates, news and expert analysis. You can join in the conversation on

Facebook, Twitter and the Flickr group. Martin enjoys a challenge. He

has tried to find water voles and then he submerged in a drain on

improving things then he submerged in a drain on

improving things for the lives of eels. Last night he tried to out

Colin Firth by donning a very low-cut cheesecloth blouse. Judging

by Twitter, quite a few of the ladies were encouraged by that. What

is he up to tonight? Martin? Tonight isn't physically difficult, but it

is difficult. During the course of the programme, we are going to try

to bring you live Nightingale Song. We want to hear one singing. It has

got to be one of the most famous birdsong in the whole of the UK. It

is quite a good time to listen, in the evening and at night. We are in

with a chance. In the hedge, in the Bramble hedge, almost unbelievably,

there is an Nightingale nest. We can go live to the nest... Here are the

Nightingale chicks. Just behind me, a few metres.

Let's go and see what they have been doing during the day. They're all

hunkered down in there. You can see all the brambles around it. Here

come the parents. They have been brilliant, coming in with lots of

food for the chicks. Oh, let's go live now, live camera now! Here

she's come in. There she is, just behind me. As I say, they have been

coming in with food all the time, little chicks - oh, she's gone

again, but they're doing very, very well indeed. OK. You might say,

look, if you've got Nightingales behind you here, why don't you just

hang around here and one will start singing? That isn't the case because

the male nightingale produces that song just to try to appeal to the

female, and once he's got a nest and they're actually nesting, he kind of

shuts up. All they do now is little contact calls, so it's very, very up

likely he'll start to call here. But let us listen to the nightingales

singing. You might think, well, what's all the fuss about? What's

that? Well, of course, that was only a tiny weenie bit of its song. The

whole song is astonishing. They choose between 600, like, notes.

They combine them into 250 phrases, and then they'll produce their song.

It is different every single time they sing it. They never repeat the

same song. Here is the very latest research. It seems that the female

nightingale selects the male on the quality of his song because the

nightingales that sing the best are the best providers of food for

chicks. Fascinating stuff. Here's a little bit of history for you. If

you go back to 1924, the very first ever live BBC broadcast on radio was

a nightingale and a lady called Beatrix Harrison playing the cello

to the nightingale. Let's hear it. MUSIC

There is the nightingale. Can you hear a cello? That is the very first

live BBC broadcast 92 years ago. MUSIC

Fantastic. If she did that that long ago, surely tonight we should be

able to find a live nightingale. We'll give it our best shot. We have

got a live nightingale camera up there. There is one. Let's have a

quick look and see if he's got the live camera. No, he has a rabbit. As

a matter of fact, if he had got the nightingale just now, it would be a

little bit disappointing because the job would be over. Here we go let's

drive off and leave that nest behind. Here is Gary, our cameraman.

He's got all of his fancy sound equipment. Can you get in the car,

Gary? We have to drive up. This happens all the time. Where's the

keys? Oh, they're here. Hang on. Now, as we drive off, OK, it's now

time for Robert Fuller's amazing epic story of weasels, the next

chapter. What happened to those lonely little kits? See you later.

Over the last year, Robert Fuller has been following the fortunes of a

family of weasels that live in his garden in workshire. -- Yorkshire.

We lost the female last year. It was really sad to lose this female, but

she's left us with a great legacy. One of her male kits held territory

here throughout the winter. And now lives in a nesting chamber just

behind this wall here, which is really, really exciting. Suddenly,

one day we noticed a difference with a much smaller, slimmer weasel on

camera, and that was like gold. We've got a female weasel again.

Oui weasels usually have a rather short and snappy courtship, but this

year's pair have given Robert a rather sweep surprise. We have had a

very gradual build-up of the weasels getting closer and closer to each

other. They've actually been curling up in the nesting chambers grooming

one another. These weasels almost look as if

they're in love. I've done everything in my powers to make it

work. They've got heating in there, so they've got little heat mats at

the bottom. We've got, like, everything that we can get - weasel

kits in the nest boxes this year. You can't help but go, "Oh! " I

mean, it's lovely to see them all snuggled up in their little love

nest. Let me tell you, it doesn't stay rosy for long. There is always

complications in a good love story, isn't there? I am afraid there are.

This is the update we have had from Robert. After they were snuggling up

in that little nest, the male leaves the female, and he wasn't seen

again. She was left in that nest there.

Then a new male comes along. You have to remember the female is in

season. She's not mated successfully. He's quite large, and

we think he's a more experienced male. He comes in. He sniffs her

out. Look at the size difference. He's much bigger than her, and then

he immediately starts to mate her. Now, he does this for about

two-and-a-half hours. It looks a little bit rough.

But this is normal weasel behaviour, and it stimulates ovulation. He

stays in the nest for a little while, but only during that day, and

then he disappears, and he's not seen again. We then see our little

female starting to rebuild the nest, and when she comes out, you can see

her tummy is swollen. She's clearly pregnant. It was a successful

mating, and you see in this shot that her tummy is really quite

large. She's got quite a few kits in there. If you look closely, Chris,

you can actually see them moving! I know. That is amazing to see that.

It's worth the licence fee alone, isn't it? Sparrowhawks cheaping in

their eggs, weasels wriggling inside the graved body of their mother. I

don't know what more you want. We think she'll give birth on the 20th

of June. Robert will expect somewhere between four, eight, six

kits, so another weasel explosion for Rob there. This season we have

been celebrating great mums but it's time for dedicated dads. Last year

we followed the history of one-these, the stickleback. They're

very dedicated dads. Let's go live to our camera we have down in the

same place we were watching it last year. This year the whole process is

slightly more advanced because that stickleback father has already fry

out of the nest, and you can see them there. They're still in the

vicinity of that nest, which is in the foreground, but he's well ahead

of things, but of course, as soon as the fry leave the nest - which is

something we didn't see last year - it does present him with a different

set of problems to deal with. It's actually - One of these is actually

just managing the young when they first emerge from that nest. See,

when they first come out, he's got to collect them and put them back

in. But before we see that let's just remind, everybody, Chris,

because it is fascinating, isn't it, the way they mate? The whole mating

behaviour of the stickleback fish? If you're not familiar with it or

maybe forgotten from last year - here's a reminder of what we saw

last year with spineless Sy. He was our real hero he's already built his

nest. It's the males that do that. They collect sticks, and then they

glue it all together with anal glue. It's called spigging. It doesn't

look very much, but that's his nest. Eventually, he managed to attract a

female. You can see she's full with eggs, so full, she hardly gets in

his nest. She proceeds to lay the eggs. You

can see them coming out. It takes a little while because there are so

many of them. She squeezes out the other side. He chases her away, then

he comes back into the nest to fertilise it. He then spends the

next few days protecting that egg and fanning it to aerate the eggs.

He needs to get oxygen to those eggs, so he really is a dedicated

dad. He's mending the little nest there, and we left him at the end of

the series last year when the eggs had just hatched into little fry.

And I think we can see them in that shot. They're tiny. They are tiny,

but that's where we left him. Really this year, we're taking it on one

step further. We're doing the next chapter, aren't we, Chris? Next

chapter so those young are out of the nest. It does become a

management issue, as I say. He's basically got to look after them

once they emerge. He does this in a very curious way. Look. That little

fish swum out of the nest, and he collected it in his mouth. Look.

Here we are. He then goes back down to the nest and chooses a right time

and place to actually spit it back in because at this stage, his

judgment is that they're too young to leave and be safe on their own,

and there - you can see spitting out some detritus. It's not quite a neat

nest, the size last year but it has been productive. Look at this. There

is a shole of fry there that have emerged. They stay in the vicinity

of that nest, though obviously at this stage there are too many of

them to collect and for him to spit back. But he's in attendance. He's

chasing away - look! He fancies himself. He wants a starring role,

without a shadow of a doubt. Stephen Fry! He need to stay there and chase

away other fish and to be aware of predators. Look at this. This fish

strays in, and he takes it out, because they will be cannibalistic,

because other sticklebacks would come in and eat his fry. They put in

a tremendous stint, when you think about it - build did nest, find the

female, get her in, fertilise the eggs, then go right the way through

to chasing other sticklebacks away until they can swim off. It's hard

work for a stickleback dad, isn't it? It's hard work. Let's catch up

with Yalo, who is discovering the amazing wildlife in the Farn

Islands, in particular, the abundance of wildlife. Tonight he's

helping out with a bird that you would actually be really lucky to

see nesting on the Northumberland coastline. I've come here just on

the coast from the Farn Islands to join a 24-hour vigil to protect the

UK's second largest seabird, the little tern. For nine month of the

year, the site blends into the vast stretch of unspoilt beach that is

Beadnul Bay, but when May arrives it becomes a temp rare I home to three

species of ground nesting bird, the arctic T are effects n, the ring

Plover and a bird so rare, it needs its own 24-hour security. Ranger

Kate Bradshaw oversees the full-time rangers here that do just that. How

is it looking? We have lower numbers this year. They have been struggling

a bit with the wind. We have had a terrible week. We have 12 active

nests at the moment. It might go up. There is still time for them to lay.

We have no idea. Those are only half the number from last year. So why

are these little enters so -- terns? They like a 3630-degree view. They

like to nest close to the tideline. We're going to encourage them to

nest in more sensible places, areas that are higher, less prone to

flooding. How would you do that? We have cut new areas and put decoys

out, which is fake terns. We also use a lure that gives a call, to

maybe give them the idea that there is other places to nest. But while

they prefer the exposed beach area for the nests, they continue to be

vulnerable to the elements, not to mention exposed to predators too. As

a result, the rangers have to go that little bit further working

around the clock to protect them. On the graveyard shift today is Rachel.

Hiya, Rachel. Hiya. You're on night duty, are you? I am tonight, just

watching over this area at the moment. This is our salt marsh area.

We have little terns on the spit nesting, we have arctic terns. If

there was a fox on the beach, what would you do? Depends what direction

it was coming from, but it would likely be spooked by me with the

torch. But if it's going to the colony, I would run down to

intercept it. So far, so good. Nothing yet. No. You have another

six hours or so to go on your shift? Yeah. Thank you very much. Good

luck. I hope you see nothing at all tonight. Yeah. The rangers will work

these shifts throughout the breeding season, and with every new day comes

a new challenge. On high tides, they will raise the little tern nests on

to crates. If the tide is very high, these boxes can be lifted further

onto palettes to try to stop the sea destroying the nests and washing

away the eggs. With high tide approaching, comes

the tense part of the day. You have all sorts of terns, and the Rangers

have gathered because it is a spring tide. The surge is pushing the water

in even more. We're having to keep a watch to see what it is going to do.

If it is going to be too much, we will have to intervene and help the

birds. Today's tide is so high, the Rangers and might have to go down

and temporarily move eggs from the high-rise nest rocks is until the

tide subsides. It is a nervous waiting game. I cannot help them

because it is a schedule one bird. We have got to have a licence to go

near the nest and they have got to do these things just to try and get

them to hatch the eggs, to get the young away. Even if they make it

through a series of spring tides now, it isn't finished. You have

foxes, crows, kestrels, stoats, hedgehogs and everything eats little

tern eggs and chicks. They really are up against it. But now, the

actions of a dedicated few have saved these terns today. They say

tide and time wait for no man, but these Rangers are doing their best

to challenge that on behalf of this beautiful little bird.

Just to remind you. Get this off. We have come up here because we are

trying to get a live Nightingale singing during the show. We know

there is an Nightingale up in this area. Gary, are sound recordist has

this special microphone. We are going to listen out and listen in.

Why do they call in the evening? There is a dawn chorus and an

evening. Because, it is very still, very quiet and so the birds that

call at that time, they can be heard much further. What have we got,

Gary? We have a jackdaw in the background, but no night in good --

nightingale yet. We are certain there is an

Nightingale there. We think it is a male that hasn't nested so it might

give us the full song. You have probably heard them singing in the

evening, and the blackbird is a classic. You have heard that. Can

you hear the Blackbird song? BIRDSONG.

I love that. A lovely, liquid song. You hear them in the evening, very

evocative, particularly in autumn. Robbins come right into town. It is

a beautiful mellifluous song. It is like liquid gold. And then another

one you will probably hear, the song thrush. Beautiful song.

BIRDSONG. You probably heard the Nightingale

that sunk in Berkeley Square. We always talk about that. Some people

say it wasn't an Nightingale, it was a robin. But it is the romance of it

all, but there wasn't an Nightingale in Berkeley Square. Gary is over

there. We have 25 minutes left, I am hoping to bring you a live

Nightingale. Now, back to Chris. Thank you, Martin. I am enjoying my

own little drive it spectacle down here at the moment. In the sky

behind me is a gathering of sand martins. I am down past the visitor

centre and behind me, this sandy bank is worth 320 pairs of these

birds have chosen to nest this year. They are delightful. We have a

camera and we can go live to it now. If you look carefully you can see

them sleeping in and out of their burrows. Each one contains a nest,

of course. About 65 centimetres deep. Little chamber at the end and

they lay for or five eggs. Lots of them have young. One flying in the

foreground. If they have a few young in those nests, they have to be

providing them with lots of food. They don't go far to feed, just down

here, swooping about. These things are trolling for aerial plankton.

They are feeding on very small insects, things half a millimetre to

1.5 millimetres in size. Things like aphids and midges. They fly low to

the water, take things off the surface of the water. And then take

them back and deliver them to their nests. The nests are over here in

the bank. They dig a new chamber each year and they form little

cubbyholes at the end of it. Only five or six centimetres in diameter.

They align it and you can see them on the ground collect ding material

for the nest. As we did the other day. I like to find an open area,

they don't like flying under trees. They get on the ground and they will

pick up tiny pieces of grass. Just like the other martins, swallows and

sweats they will also collect things in the air, and they can, feathers

and other pieces of vegetation. They fly with these back to the cliff and

they drop them into the nests. There they are over there, feeding their

young. We have been looking at this during the daytime and there were

lots of them. They gather at the nest entrance at this time of year.

A fabulous site, it really is fantastic. Look at this. Loads of

adults coming in. The whole cliff face is topped with holes. Here are

the youngsters. Just before they fledge, they come down to the

entrance, inpatient to get the food from the adults. The adults want to

get them out of the nests as quickly as possible and they will continue

to feed them for about a week after they fledge and then they will stay

with them for a couple of weeks. But they do want them out of the nest

because this is a species that double broods, so they want another

set of eggs are laid in that chamber this year. Let's go live to our

chamber again. You may think there is not a lot of activity at the

moment, because they tend to forage socially. There were large numbers

of birds over the reserve. And as a predator avoidance thing, they will

swoop back into the holes in one go. But they defined the word, dainty,

for me. They are migrants, they have been in Africa in the winter and

they have made their way back here for the springtime to breed. Now

from one migrants or another, not a bird, but a fish. How would you like

to see a cyclist own? A parasitic predator that has been around for

500 million years. You should have seen one by now. I am talking about

the sea lamp fray. I have got a diagram I drew earlier. It is

unusual. It has an nose on top of its head and then it has seven

gills. I have drawn eight. This is a mistake. It is very eellike. Couple

of fins on the back and won around the tail. But the mouth is the most

interesting and gruesome thing. You may want to look away. Imagine this

clasped on to you, rasping at your flesh, sucking at your blood. This

is what lampreys do in the sea. Look at all these gripping teeth. They

hang on to other fish and that is how they sustain themselves. But

after eight years, they make their way back into freshwater and breed.

Their breeding cycle is quite extraordinary and it is not

something we ever thought we would see until now.

The cool waters of the River Wye in early summer see the return of one

of the UK's strangest fish. The sea lamprey. These pre-historic, eellike

creatures spend their lives at the what migrate to freshwater

team-mate. Their disc shaped mouths are aligned with teeth and are

designed to suck on to land a rasp holes into living prey. Once they

have migrated up the river, they stop feeding and switch to breeding

mode. Their reproductive organs swell in place of their digestive

tract. They will never eat again. Instead they use their mouths for

moving rocks around on the riverbed, it giving them the nickname, Stone

suckers. They may move up to 40 stones in an hour to form a

barricade, which changes the flow of water, creating a spawning area

known as a red. At 15 centimetres deep, these riverbed craters can

remain visible for years. Their tails are use to fan the gravel into

position. Everything needs to be just right.

Once the pair are satisfied, the female anchors herself to a large

rock, and the male moves into position. Stimulated by her partner,

the female releases 300 thousand sticky, fertilised eggs, deep into

the gravel red. These adults will soon die, but after 12 days, the

eggs will hatch and in eight years, the next generation will return to

spawn. So interesting, but I am sure loads of people had never even heard

of a sea lamprey. Fascinating behaviour, but under appreciated. As

are most of the fish in British waters. One man wants to change all

that is Jack. What got you into fish, what set your passion of? From

a young age I was fascinated with sticklebacks and frogs. I put them

in an ice cream tub and watch them and that fuelled my passion for

them. You have had that throughout your life. You like a challenge,

last year you set yourself a challenge of filming all the

freshwater fish in British waters, so how many? 54. I have about ten to

go, ticking them off slowly. This year you decided to set up the first

ever UK, National Fish vote. What gave you that idea? Partly inspired

by you guys. Some people, given the chance will be slightly obsessed by

fish. We have these amazing behaviours, let's push them out to

the public and show off what we have. The vote closed today at

midday. Your favourite wasn't in the top ten. Have a look at this. This

is Jack, this is what he spent his time doing. Putting his wet suit on

and getting into the water to look at fish. And then this, what is

this? These are Grayling, members of the salmon family. They are

beautiful, they are known as the Lady of the stream. Those lamprey

have nothing on these guys. The males wraps the cloak over the

female and then they begin to spawn. It is the expression on their faces,

I will let people make their own minds up, but it is interesting.

They say fish don't have feelings, but that was experiencing pleasure,

I would say. Very passionate. You are here to announce the winner out

of the ten fish you voted for online. How many people voted?

Nearly 7000 people. Let's see the results. Some of these are

surprising, cod, 3%. Number three is the tench, 13% commie get them here

at Minsmere. Stickleback got to number two. I think we need a drum

roll. The winner is... The brown trout. 21%. Why do you think the

brown trout one? They are popular with flight anglers and all over the

UK from Shetland, all the way down to Cornwall, you find brown trout.

Let's have a look at them. Are they easy to see?

Yeah, they'll come out and wait for flies to hit the water, particularly

at this time of year when you have the may fly gluts. They'll be rising

to the surface and grabbing them. They're one of the most genetically

diverse invertebrates we have in the UK. You have tiny trout, sea trout,

the Farox trout which are cannibalistic. They all breed and

can have fertile offspring. What do they do at this time of year? They

root around and look for may flies, and sea trout, which are still the

brown trout, they'll be entering our rivers getting ready to spawn in the

autumn. That's fantastic. We have national fish. Let's hope it makes

people appreciate our fish more. Were you surprised the stickleback

didn't win? I thought with Springwatch pushing it, it may, but

it got second place, can't complain at that. If you're a stickleback

fan, you can watch our stickleback camera, the Sons of Si. Thank you

very much for coming in. We now have a national fish, the brown trout.

The 1st of July marks the hundredth anniversary of the battle of the

some, so Frank Gardener, a BBC correspondent and a key gardener

takes us back to that site in France to show us even during a bloody,

horrendous war, a glimpse of wildlife could give solace to the

soldiers in the trenches. This is the Somme. We're here on its

battlefield. It was one of the bloodiest and worst battles of the

First World War. And it was a 15-mile battle front where British

and allied troops faced off the German lines. It was just

horrendous. There was poison gas. There were mines. There were tanks.

There was barbed wire. It lasted from the 1st of July, 1916 to

November that year, and on the first day alone, Britain lost 60,000 men.

And overall, a million men lost their lives here.

I'm very proud of the fact my grandfather served here in the First

World War on the Somme in 1916. He was a captain in the Royal

Artillery, and he had to bring up ammunition to the front line time

and time again. Because trench warfare was just unlike anything

anybody who - all of these young men had experienced, people I think

clung to any familiar signs they could. Seeing and hearing familiar

sounds of nature which were few and far between, but you know, when the

skylarks raise up into the air, that reminded them of home, particularly

the country boys. I'm hearing black caps,

chiff-chaffes, other birds singing away. I have just heard a golden

Oriole which is wonderful. It has this tropical woop. It's

distracting. It's hard to think of the history here when you have so

much nature going on around you. Isn't that a lovely sound? So

tropical, that. The golden oriole is one of the birds that the soldiers

mentioned seeing and hearing in these woods a hundred years ago, and

they're back. It's extraordinary sitting here in this wood now

exactly a hundred years on from the battle that raged here because back

then, this would have tipped our wood. After a few weeks of shelling

it would have been shattered. There would be nothing but shell holes,

mud and trenches and pain and discomfort.

Nature is an incredible healer. Before the First World War, the wood

probably looked exactly like this, and now it looks like this again,

and it's just regenerated itself. It's a lovely symbol, actually, of

how the land can recover. This is the present. This is here and now.

The golden orioles and the cook coups we're hearing are right now in

2016 and life goes on. The wood has grown back up. Birdsong is back.

Well, the wood may have grown back, but the whole place will always bear

the emotional scars of the memory of war. Now, as we said, we have had

extraordinary weather here. We have had cold. We have had rain. It then

went warm. It was sunny today. I must say I am a bit chilly now. It

has gone a bit cold. That's obviously affected the wildlife here

but in particular it's affected the reptiles. We haven't checked up at

our snakes are on site. So let's have a look at our live camera. This

is our reptile refuge. We were hoping that - there is nothing in

there underneath at the moment. But we have been watching a female adder

here - she was in there earlier, and you can see this adder moving

through there. Look at the temperature - 17 degrees. At 17 to

20, she likes to be under the tin where it's nice and warm. Above that

it's too hot. She certainly wouldn't be on it at 28. She would cook. You

can see on the left-hand side it looks like she's had a meal and

also, various parts of her body look as if she's gravid. She's developing

eggs which will hatch into live young at the point of birth.

Beautiful animal. We know it's the same female - she has a little scar

on her back which enables us to identify her. Here, as things cool

down, she inches her way back on to that sheet of corrugated iron there.

She's going to use that to warm up her body. She's using an unusual

method of locomotion there. Look. She's beginning to flatten her body.

This is something we have seen her doing in the last few days, and look

there - looks like she's been run over, but this is what she's doing.

She's flattening that to maximise the contact between herself and that

corrugated tin so that she can warm up to operating temperature. Of

course, if you want to keep an eye on our snakes, you can visit our

website. We have the webcams there. Also tonight, we're not featuring

the golden eagles but if you go dot website, we can offer you a sneak

preview of some extraordinarily beautiful eagle pictures. So have a

look on the website for that. I think we've just got time to go back

to Martin. It's his last chance to hear a nightingale sing live on air.

What do you think his chances are? Slim. Slim.

I don't believe it - again - BIRDSONG Nightingale is singing.

Just a tiny bit. I promised you the whole song.

THAT IS A VERY INTERESTING POSSIBILITY AS as to why he's not

giving us the whole song. I'll come to that in a minute. I can't believe

it. We know that the nightingale is here. We'll keep this thing. We'll

keep this... Look. Gary did manage to record the full song up here on

site. Let's just listen to the whole song. Have a listen.

Remember, there is 600 elements there, combined into 250 phrases,

and then it sings a different song every single time. It never, ever

repeats itself. It's gorgeous. Well, we gave you a little tiny burst.

It's doing it again! It's a nightingale! That is fantastic.

This is live. This is live. That is pretty lucky. All I need now is my

cello. SHARP TWEETING AND TUTTING.

That nightingale, the male singing there, has come back to the same

place. He might have been here last year. Let me show you - here we go.

Which way around does this one go? Here we go. These are all singing

nightingales on the Minsmere site. I think there is about 27 of them, and

because they stay in the same spot all the time, that allows them to

count how many pairs they've got. Do you see this one up here right up at

the top there? That's the one we have been listening to live. Right

there. So of course, that has serious implications for

conservation, because if you chop down that tree there, that

nightingale is going to come back from Africa, and it won't know where

to go to sing its song. And of course, what's fascinating is

they'll fly 5,000 miles from Africa - they have a favourite tree in

Africa, so they'll leave that favourite tree in Africa, fly 5,000

miles to their favourite tree here. A bird of habit, I think you would

agree. OK. Still going. I was going to say, we just got tiny

bits of song before. It might be - here is a fascinating, wonderful

possibility. It might be because he's not singing the whole song, he

has got a mate in there, and I like to think that male has found a mate

and they're starting to nest in those bushes there. Wouldn't that be

fantastic if it's true? Let's go quickly to our live cam, the

nightingale, the other one. There she is, the parent. Look, the other

parent is coming in to feed them. Let's hope and pray that's what's

going on up here as well, and they're starting their nest.

Fantastic. OK. And on that thrilling note, it's back to Chris and

Michaela. I say! Ten out of ten. I never thought he'd get it. Wow. He

gets better results when he's got all his clothes on, but then we've

always said that about him, to be quite honest with you. Nightingales,

peeping sparrowhawks - what a show! What a show. You doubted him! Let's

have a look at our great tits. We haven't checked in on them much

because they have been eclipsed by the adopted great tits that were

already fledged, in the bluetit nest box. They should fledge any time

now. Keep your eyes on the cameras for great tit fledge watch! That's

all we have time for. Tomorrow we're on at a later time of 8.30. What

time? 8.30. David Anderson, our wonderful golden eagle expert, will

be joining us to give us a final update on those in Scotland. We'll

be catching up with our stoat, and all of her kit will be out, which is

fantastic. We'll be on sparrowhawk egg watch, keeping everything

crossed for chicks by the end of the week. Join me on BBC Two for

Springwatch Unsprung. Our guest is Lizzie, who will be telling us about

Wildlife From My Window. Piscatorial ecstasy! You like that! It was

extraordinary. Eel we'll see you tomorrow, 8.30. See you then.

Bye-bye.