Episode 2 Springwatch

This stunning bird is an avocet, and it's coming to you live from the

RSPB Minsmere reserve here in Suffolk. It may be beautiful, but it

is extremely vulnerable, and this spring, it's having a really tough

time protecting those eggs. The scene is set, let the drama unfold.

Curtain up, it's Springwatch. Hello and welcome to Springwatch.

While many of you have been enjoying blue skies and sunshine, it is a

very different story here on the east coast of Southwark. In fact, we

have had torrential rain, horrendous wind, and quite frankly, it feels

like Winterwatch, it's been so cold. I should have put on my thermals.

Some people in Cornwall got sunburned. It seems impossible. It

is a fantastic place to be for wildlife. We introduced you

yesterday to habitats, but one of the most important has to be the

scrape. But what is that? It is a series of man-made lagoon with

islands on them that had been scraped of vegetation and managed

for nesting birds that need their land to nest on. Especially avocets.

It is important for them. 6% of the UK's breeding avocets come here to

nest. We have double the number of pairs that we had last year. It is a

beautiful bird. And that is it live. Just before we came on air, we went

to it live and it wasn't there. Just the eggs. Two seconds to go. We have

been following their fortunes. Let's see what they have been getting up

to. They are very diligent parents. Here is one of them feeding. They

use their upturn bill to save the water. They are beautifully

camouflaged, the eggs, on the ground. The parent is settling down

on the eggs. They need to turn the eggs are little each time they come.

Here is the other one. They swapped over about once an hour. If you look

carefully, you can see the brood patch. It is a better bit of skin.

This one will lift the feathers up. You can just see it. And a one bit

of skin that just settles on the eggs and keeps them warm. They had

been doing well until this morning. It was hammering down. Look at the

weather. They changed their behaviour because of the weather,

probably. They were changing once an hour, and when it was raining, they

did it once every three hours, trying to keep the eggs warm. Be

scrape is so open to the elements. -- the scrape. Of all the birds we

are filming, the ones on the scrape are having the toughest challenge

this year. Not one avocet chick has survived so far. In fact, in the

last few days, all the chicks have had a tough time. It is because of

the neighbours, the gulls. They are taking complete advantage. That is

one taking a black headed gull chick. It is not just the avocets.

Remember two years ago, we lost most of the chicks to a particular

badger. A lot of gulls have taken over. We are facing gull hell this

year. I wonder how many will survive. It is proving to be quite a

tough spring. It is almost inevitable - so many calories just

sitting on the ground. All the birds when they nest together, will fly up

into the air to attack predators. But they can't avoid those gulls.

The last 24 hours have been very tough on lots of the birds here,

particularly because of the weather. The stone curlews, they had a storm.

They are out in the open. We think there was a warning call because

there might have been a fox in the area. The parents did not return,

terrifyingly, for one hour and ten minutes, allowing the egg to chill.

We think the egg is probably due to Hatch tomorrow, so this is the worst

possible time for it to have chilled down. Look at that, Martin. A

terrible shame. The parent is being incredibly diligent, sitting in the

pouring rain, looking absolutely miserable. It is absolutely sod. As

I say, it is so challenging for these birds. What do you think the

chances are of that egg hatching? Not that great? With my chickens,

and every thing goes back to them, sometimes they do come off and they

do chilled to a remarkable degree, but they seem to be able to pick it

up again. It gets more and more difficult later in the egg's

development. And it was chilly last night. And with the wind, not good.

A lot of drama going on on the scrape. We left you yesterday with a

bit of a cliffhanger in the woods. Drama down here makes Game Of

Thrones look tame. At this time of year, you have to think of this

woodland as a giant salad bowl. These trees can have up to 1 million

leaves on them. They are soft and luscious, delicious, and they are

being gobbled by millions of tiny moth caterpillars. They are being

gobbled up in time by our tit families. Let's go to our bluetits

down in the woods. We have been watching them intently. There were

four in the nest. They are being served by a single parent, we think

the female. Despite the rain today, she has worked very hard, and they

are still going. She started off with 13 eggs, she has four young,

she is doing well. Inside, you can see that there were five chicks

nesting. They are not getting as much food as the bluetits at the

moment, but that is possibly because they are smaller and they simply

don't need it. All the rain today is not a great help to these birds

because it washes the caterpillars off of the trees. It is great news

for the blackbirds and Robbins on the ground, but it is bad news for

the tits. Particularly with the great tits, they are going for

spiders, which is not unusual. In the first six days of feeding, they

seemed to actively choose spiders. We have here a female with the

abdomen of a very large spider. It is big and she tries for some time

to get the chicks to take it. Eventually, this one decides to give

it a go. And, after some perseverance, it manages to get it

down. What a meal, especially on a rainy day like today. Let's think

about the ecology. You have the leaves, with the caterpillars

munching them, the tits munching the caterpillars, but what is munching

the tits? The sparrowhawk, about 170 metres away from the nest. Here is

the female, live now. She is on five eggs. We don't know when they are

due to Hatch. I would say within the next 7-10 days. Look at those eyes -

they whose predatory nature. She is provisioning all the food. The male

comes in with food. He doesn't want to attract predators. You can see

clearly that that is a bluetits that he has captured and killed. This

time, the male comes in, and if you look at the tail carefully, you can

see those pointed, stiff feathers. That tells us that it is a tree

creeper. This is where things start to get exciting. Look at the same

post, but this time look carefully at the male that is bringing in the

next items of prey. Here is the male with the great tit. It is a full

adult male with a pale throat. He calls the female off, she rouses

herself. She jumps down, and they are, she takes the food and flies

off to carry on hunting, of course. She is entirely dependent on him.

But look at this. This is a different male. This is a juvenile

male. The chest is completely different. Look at his stripey

throat. And look at the pray that it has got - a swallow. You have two

different male is provisioning the same female at the same time on the

same nest, because we have been watching them. Both of them are

coming in, bringing pray, then they call the female off and she comes to

collect will stop this has been seen before, no doubt, but we will do

some more research. You can keep your eyes peeled on this because our

cameras are alive on the web on the red button all the time. What about

that swallow? An interesting story, cops that night because the swallow

we were watching about four hours ago has disappeared a stop it hasn't

been back. And this nest is about 175 metres away from the

sparrowhawk's nest. So, we could be at this point in time seeing a

situation where the sparrowhawk has taken the young swallow, provisioned

it and given it to the female. It is unusual for birds that are

incubating to be off for four hours like that. We have two different

males and we have lost our swallows - that is what I call drama.

Wildlife, when you think you have it sorted out, throws in a big

surprise. More drama down in the Somerset levels with our heroines.

We had three nests down there in the woods on the edge of the Levels.

There was the first nest, which we were calling the branch nest, then

we had the idea nest, then the canopy nest. These were all at

different stages in the breeding cycle. They had been gambling on

when to start breeding. Let's go back to the herons to see for whom

the gamble is paying off. It is Good Friday and a called Dawn

in this ancient woodland. -- a cold dawn. Of the herons breeding here,

we have been following three. Each pair started at a different time.

Each trying to get their tiny right to survive the unpredictable British

weather. In the branch nest, nearly four

weeks after they were late,... It seems we are having some technical

difficulties with the film. We will try to sort it out, but in the

meantime, let's think about another set of predators. We have been

watching the rabbits. They are underestimated, but their social

life is fascinating. There are plenty of them here. In fact,

earlier today, I asked the researchers to figure out how many

rabbits were here and how much meat was available to predators. There is

around 14.4 tonnes of rabbits out there. Of course, if you have all of

this prey, there must be a predator to take advantage. They are eaten by

foxes and badgers, but rabbits are also eaten by Stokes. We have been

lucky enough to get some fantastic views of these little creatures. --

stoats. This is a female stoat. This stoat is moving its kids from one

Bar road to another. Here it is, bringing one of the youngsters out.

It is quite well grown. -- from one burrow. It takes it across and moves

it into another burrow. She could have got a bit spooked, or it could

be that the row has gotten too fetid. They drag rabbits that they

have caught down into the burrow, and it begins to rot. Quite

unpleasant. We saw the same thing last year in pretty much the same

spot. It is not too unusual, I have to say. Absolutely fantastical stop

rabbits are pretty interesting. We don't need the stoats to be killing

them, they are fascinating. We have been watching intently. This mile is

easy to identify because of this nick in his ear. We were able to

follow him as an individual. In Rabbit Society, every -- there are

dominant males and then sub dominance. This mile is marking with

his scent. This one might be using his cheek to scent mark. Do you see

that? He sprayed her with your rent, which is one of the things they do

during the courtship process. -- you're eyeing -- you're in. She can

sense from that that he is the dominant male and will allow him to

break. They can produce young every 30 days and they will give birth to

3-7 of them. They need to do that because they have sstoats, buzzards

and all sorts after them. If they didn't do that, the strategy

wouldn't work. In a few days, that is what will happen - there will be

another litter bunnies out there. In the meantime, to keep them safe, all

the rabbits are extremely vigilant. They have their heads in the air,

looking out for predators that might possibly come in.

Now over to Martin Hughes-Games. Thank you. This year I'm trying to

join in the BBC's do something great for nature. I'm doing that here by

featuring some of the work that the volunteers do here and we are

looking at something unusual. I'm going to look at moths. Incredibly

there is about 2,500 species of British moth and about a 1,000 of

them have been found here at Mimsmere. When you look at them

closely, they're astonishing. If you see one doing this, it is warming up

its wings to get the flight muscles up to temperature before... It is

off! There are movts all around us. It has not been a great year for

moths, because it is cold. How do you catch moths? Here they use this.

You put this moth trap among these nettles. Thank you. How does a moth

trap work? Ow! You have what look like egg boxes, when the moths go

in, they want somewhere to hide. You put them at the bottom of the trap.

Always wanted one of these. Then you put the top on. This is a very, very

powerful light. When I was a kid I put pillowcases around the outside

light. This is a really power light and we will switch it on in a

minute. But moths are remarkable things. Particularly when you look

at them closely. This is an angle-shaved moth. It is very well

camouflaged, the eye is made of tiny lenses and some moths have 27,000 of

these tiny lenses. I wonder what the world looks like to them. Another

feature is the colours, how do they get that colour? Partly it is due to

this. Look at the wing tip. Tiny scales. Let's go closer. They look a

bit like roof tiles don't they? Of course, as they grow older, they

lose some of the scales. If you have ever picked up a moth, they often

leave a few scales in your hand. There are moths around here. We hope

to catch some. But all moths have either a weird name or an

extraordinary story to tell like this one. This is called the silver

V. Y. It has a Y on its wing. It doesn't come from around here. It

may have flown here from North Africa. A silver Y can travel 800

kilometres in a night. They lift off on a perfect evening, go into the

sky, catch the wind and fly up to eight hours. Here is the incredible

thing - if there a side wind, they can detect it and will fly at an

angle to the wind to be blown towards the destination they want to

go to. Quite unbelievable. We will come back later. Now with a bit of

luck, this is a business like Frankenstein, I'm going to turn this

one on. It will take a while to warm up and it is not good to look

straight into the lights. As they're powerful. The weather has been

giving the moths some trouble. It should warm up later. As the weather

has been difficult, it has been giving Iolo problems up in the

farms. -- Farnes. We promise you'd drama and we have got some. We are

being battered by gale-force winds and there no boats going out to the

islands. It is hard to believe that just last night we were enjoying

bright blue skies. Our Springwatch base is on the mainland and when the

weather hits like this we are cut off. We said it would be predictably

unpredictable. That is what it is. There are some huge waves crashing

over the harbour wall. It means you and I will have to wait for our

puffin fix. For now, our entire crew is stuck here. Whether we like it or

not. What a carry on! It takes all day, but the winds die

down enough for boats to launch. We won't be allowed to film on the

islands this late, but don't worry, I have a plan! I promised you a

puffin fix and if we can't get to them, they're going to have to come

us to. Hi, Ed. How you doing? All right.

What's going on. It is tropical out here. It was stormy on the coast.

Yes. How quickly it changes. I should have worn a pair of shorts.

The cards are in there? Yes. Thank you very much. I'm dieing to see

what is in here, the camera has been out for almost a week. Let's get

this safely back to shore. Wow. There is a bird having a probe

with its bill. But of course they will use the bill to hack away at

some of the sides, but it is the feet that are the real digging

machines. Here we go. It is like a clockwork little toy, the little

feet going mad. They have got to do a bit of maintenance. They have been

out at sea all winter. The burrow is not in particularly good condition.

So they're making sure that this burrow, this home, is perfect for

them. I tell you what, they can't half move some soil as well. They

have small claws and those are the ones that are so useful to dig away

the soil. Very industrious. They must be using a lot of energy to do

this. It shows how important it that is they get the burrow just right

for them. We are just so lucky to be seeing this. We are getting a

glimpse into the very secretive world of the puffin. Amazing stuff.

It is great. I love a nesting puffin. Many people's favourite

animals. I think they look better in black and white. Come on, it is the

colourful beak. And it is not only the view of nest. We have had

something extraordinary and look at this. For the first time we are

being able to bring you a camera on a Golden Eagle's nest, way up in

Scotland. We are indepted to David Anderson and the Forestry Commission

for allowing us to use their time and expertise. We are so privileged

to get these views. It is a fabulous bird and it is a fabulous mother so

far. She is five years old and reared chicks for the last two

years. You see how delicately she walks around the nest and she has a

precious cargo - a chick that is completely white and tiny in

comparison. The mother stays with the chick practically all the time.

She has chosen that nest well. It is well protected from prevailing

winds. But she is so delicate all the time for such a big powerful

bird. Great scenes. She won't leave it. Although it is on a steep

precipice, pine martens could get in or ravens or foxes. She won't leave

the chick. And something else we noticed. You will see alongside the

chick and beneath the female is an unhatched egg. That is not unusual.

They typically lay two eggs and employ a strategy that means they

have two young, but one will hatch in advance of the other and if there

is a food shortage, the older sibling becomes more aggressive and

will kill the smaller one and get all of the food. It is part of their

biology and the name comes from the biblical reference to the story of

Cane and Abel. I remember in the old days when I was hungry, I would turn

to my sister and think I fancy those beans on toast. But where is the

male? We haven't seen much of him. He is out hunting most of the time.

When the female pops off the nest, the male comes in. You can see the

size difference. She is looking very shabby. You can see that size

difference when the female comes in. She is much larger. What has he

brought in? It is a meal. But it is a whole nest with live chicks in it.

We think that they're crows. You can see the Golden Eagle chick is

getting very excited. We said the Golden Eagle chick was small in come

spar son to the adult Golden Eagle. But look at the size of the chick it

is feeding on. It is tiny. But this is a good strategy to take a whole

nest, because it means it has gone a ready made larder of fresh food that

could last a few days. The weather up there has been rainy and so it is

hard for eagles to hunt in those conditions. So this makes sense.

Have you seen it before? I haven't seen it before. When you think about

it, they don't want to go back and forward, if they can grab the nest

and if they survive it is fresh meat. I have seen goshawks grab a

whole nest and certain foreign raptors will do that. And take

things out as and when they want it. Imagine being a crow chick in a nest

and seeing this great big bird come and grab the whole nest and then fly

off with you. It must be really scary. I suppose so. It is fantastic

to get an insight into what happens in a Golden Eagle nest and it is

exciting, because we don't know what else we will find. We hope we can

help with the research. If you're watching yesterday, you will see

that Richard Hopkins had been filming badgers and gave us some

great pictures. Today another wildlife enthusiast has got in

touch, Steve from Sussex. He noticed something which was seasonally

unusual. Watch this. I have spent most of my life at the water's edge.

I have seen a lot of things. A lot of interesting things. But this is

something most peculiar. I have first spotted these fish about three

years ago and actually I was a keen fisherman then. It was such a

fascinating sight. There in front of me in an area the size of my front

room were perhaps a thousand fish. I have searched similar rivers near by

to find the same thing, but I haven't found it. These fish are

thin-lipped mullet. They're known as the grey ghosts or the uncatchables,

they are mysterious in a lot of ways. They don't look very

attractive from above, if you can get down close, they have got the

cutest faces. Elevenest they have got fins that are like little angel

wings and they glide through the water. If you were to get under them

and look up, it looks as if there is a load of sharks circling you. It is

a spooky sight. They spend most of the winter at sea. They go to spawn

around October or November. And around the new moon in February they

emerge out of the murky main river. This is where the river Ouse meets

the winter Bourne stream. The fresh water they need is shut off with a

sues gate. When the tide goes out and the water

behind the sluice gate build-up, it all comes bubbling out as beautiful,

clear water. They don't just sit there like inanimate objects, they

are swaying from one site to another and moving around, almost like a

flock of starlings. It is like a dance or something, a fantastic

thing to see. No one really knows what they are doing here in this

spring water outlet. Some people say they are spawning, which they are

definitely not. Some say they are feeding on something specific, which

they most definitely are not, although they do take some algae

occasionally. I think they are having a spa. When they first

appeared, around 75% of them have up to 20% of their bodies covered in

fungus. Perhaps the water is enough to kill that off. I have asked

people not to fish for them or disturb them. I think the month in

this water is critical to their life cycle, if not their life. There are

some ugly brutes. But I have got my favourites. There are some very cute

ones. This year, there is an unusual visitor, and that is a tiny one.

Somehow, it has got separated from its brothers and sisters and has

decided to tag along with the adults. I will call it Nemo, because

it is lost, for sure. I spent hours here. I come here whenever I can,

whenever the tide is right. I know they will be there, I bring my

lunch, I sit there and I'd watch. It is mesmerising.

A murmur ratio and of mullet enjoying a month at the spa. Mallett

are just one of 400 species of fish that we have in British waters.

Let's face it, fish are Rabbit underappreciated. We want to change

that and turn everyone into a fish fan. Jack, who is a fish

enthusiasts, is trying to establish what our top ten favourite fish are.

Here is the top ten. Here is our first contender. I can feel the

tension. Let's see how the bass goes down. Cordes knows, this is a tasty

contender. -- cod. We also have travelled, McEnroe, Roach and, don't

tell them your name, Pike. We have a shark - will it be basking in glory?

Or above this stripey number not it off its perch? Paps we will get our

stickleback where it belongs - at number one. I'll be voting for

stickleback. -- perhaps we will get. Go to the website and cast your

votes. Jack will be coming to the studio live on the 14th of June to

tell you the winner. We might even do a fish eye chart with the results

of our first ever Eurofishin' competition. Earlier, we should you

are Karen and a bit of the Heron diary before we had a technical

problem of -- our Heron. It is Good Friday, and a cold dawn in this

woodland. Of the ?85 of grey herons breeding here, we have been

following three. Each pair started at a different time. Each is trying

to get their tiny right to survive the unpredictable British weather.

In the branch nest, nearly four weeks after they were laid, two of

the four eggs have hatched overnight. With temperatures just

above freezing, one parent must be ever present to keep the delicate

young warm. Located on the edge of the colony, it is likely that this

pair are younger or less experience. While one looks after the nest for

four hours at a time, the other can hunt for food. They can fly up to 30

kilometres from the nest to feed. In the Somerset levels, there are

plenty of options on their doorstep. Herons have a hugely varied diet,

catching mammals, insects and even other birds. But they preferred to

stake out favourite areas of shallow water for fish.

A parent spends several hours filling its gullet before returning

to the nest. Back in the branch nest, the newly

hatched chicks take delivery of their first hot breakfast. A

steaming, semi-digestive schmo August board to share between them.

But there is a problem - it's still too lumpy for the nestlings to

stomach. The parent will have to eat it again to digestive further. -- to

digestive eight further. Like most new parents, they have a lot to

learn. In the IB nest, the chicks have had a few weeks' head start and

seem to be doing well. Their parents' decision to nest deeper in

the ward and earlier on looks like it is paying off this year. --

deeper in the wood. But odds are a threat, and so

are other herons. Every nest is watch. -- buzzards are a threat.

They are predators and would not think twice about taking an

unattended chick. Up in the canopy nest, after several

days of flirting, our lovebirds are finally taking the next step. The

male's hormones are settling down and the patient female can make her

move. The consummation is over rather quicker than their courtship,

but they'll continue to pair up over the next few days. Meanwhile, back

in the branch nest, there's another happy development. The third chick

is finally on its way. It takes hours to break free from its eggs.

Helped along as best it can by its parent.

But its timing may not be good. Storm Katie is heading across the

Atlantic, and this colony is directly in her path. The chick will

be lucky to survive the night. I wonder what effect Storm Katie

will have on those Heron checks what I will be out looking at monster

night. We have our trap here. It doesn't just attract moths. We are

by a stagnant pool, and there are thousands midges coming, and

unforeseen side-effect of stock last night, I was lucky enough to go out

with Clive Moore, the Moth man around here. He is an absolute

expert. He has studied moths for 13 years, and he can identify

practically any Moth in an instant. He reckons he can identify around

1000 different moths. Including, this is one we got last night, a

coxcomb prominent. The either have amazing names or an interesting

story. Here is one of the most exciting ones that we have seen. --

they either have. Look at that! Where is it? You can't see it

because it is a microbe moth. -- micro-Moth. It is called a

diamondback. They have only been coming in in ones and twos. 174

turned up last night, and they are amazing because they have come from

France. They had been blown into the North Sea and then blown towards us.

We haven't been doing tremendously well, but you out there have. We had

some great pictures. This is fascinating, and emperor moth, and

it shows what is called climatic behaviour. The behaviour is designed

to shock a predator and make it hesitate for a moment. A beautiful

moth, too. This one looks like a hornet. It is called a lunar Hornet

Moth. This is an elephant hawk moth. It doesn't look much like an

elephant, but it gets its name from its caterpillar. This looks like an

elephant's trunk. When it is threatened, it rears up and looks

like a tiny snake to frighten its predator away. Just the beauty, a

plume moth. Thank you very much, and keep those pictures coming in. The

light is one way to attract moths, but there is another way. Come with

me, this is my Keith Floyd. You can also try and attract moths because

of their fascination for smells and their interest in food. They also

have amazing and ten I. The antenna I are happy sense of -- are

hypersensitive. They can pick up aerial hormones, and they can smell

some of them from up to two kilometres away. There is even

anecdotal evidence that a male moth can smell a female moth from 11

mutters awakens imagine being able to smell your partner from 11

kilometres away. Or some! That has put me in my of my socks! Here is

another way of doing it. Because of that fantastic sense of smell that

they have, you can attract them. You can make a delicious mixture. We

have wine, you mustn't see that, that is advertising. We have the and

some brown sugar. You mix it all up. -- you have some beer. That is

irresistible. You hang it up here with the other ones. And honestly,

I'm not joking, moths will come and feed on that. If you don't have a

light trap, try sugaring. We'll carry on now, trying to do a bit

more moth trapping tonight, and we will see what we get before the end

of the programme. I will stay down here. Meanwhile, back to Chris and

Michaela. You can join in with mothing, too.

There are events. If you don't feel like sleeping your socks in sugar,

tried to get along to a conservation event and see some jolly good moths.

Details on our website. In the little owls nest there is a

species. This is a tiny moth that lace lays its eggs

in the faeces of the owls. Let's see if we can see one live in the nest.

We can't at the moment. I have spotted a few. But look at these

poor little owls. They are suffering from the cold. You can see the adult

is brooding the three quite large chicks. Let's see what happened last

night. It was a bad night for the owls, it was cold, raining and windy

and those are not good conditions for them to hunt in. It wasn't good

new force the adult and even worse news for the three chicks. It meant

they went a bit hungry. They only got six feeds, compared to 35 the

previous night. They ended up the three of them all huddled in that

hole for warmth. They will be huddling for night and I think I

might huddle. Do you mind if I do. I don't that sort of thing. It's got

cold and there will be less insect activity and Martin will be lucky

with his moths. Little owls depend on insects. So they will have to

switch to other things and they will do that. Small mammals and

occasionally birds. This is morning. After a night of fasting, one of the

adults came back, there was a bit of squawking. In it comes there in its

beak is a bird. If you watch as it turns it around, just there, look at

the head, that is the little bandit mask of a blue tit. That is an adult

blue tit. So the little owls have been resourceful and didn't find

insects and they have caught a blue tit. Pretty good going. Not good

news for our blue tits. These birds are suffering from the cold, the

rain and now the tits in the woods are suffering from predation from

the little owls. One Sparrowhawk may have taken one of the swal lows. We

can go live to the swallows nest. It could be this is the male and

therefore not incubating the eggs. We will have to keep our eyes peeled

to see if the other bird returns. Why wouldn't the male incubate the

eggs? I don't know. It may not even be the male that is related those

eggs. It could be a curious individual. They do investigate each

other's nests. Males will turf eggs out so they can get the female to

relay another clutch. That may not be related to our swallows. You can

watch online on the red button on our web-site. Those cameras are

there for the Sparrowhawk and the swallow. We are keeping an eye on

spring in Mimsmere, but our camera teams started at the beginning of

spring and right up north in the Orkneys our cameraman Raymond got

some early springtime Scottish beauty.

On a sunny day you could think it was a Caribbean island. But it is

the north coast of Orkney with its coast exposed to the North Sea. When

the Vikings named it Sanday, they kept it simple. It means sandy

islands. The sandy beaches are a perfect place to find the harbour

wildlife. You will find fulmars nesting on the sand. The beaches are

only pristine in the way they are, because they're protected from the

worst of the winter storms by a forest. But it is only a forest that

you're going to see at low tide. A massive kelp forest surrounds the

island, forming a natural break water against the rough seas and the

waves. The best way to see the kelp forest is to get in the water. If

you're lucky enough to be there when the sun is shining and the rays

there dapling through, it is a magical place. The spring and then

into the summer and the new kelp is clean and sleek and the stalk seems

almost black. Other creatures are among them, crabs and crustaceans

and you find the Stipes festooned with red seaweed as well. The whole

fasts that hold the kelp on to the rock are very strong and it takes a

lot of force from the winter storms to rip that off. But that is exactly

what happens and massive amount of kelp lands on the beaches and piles

high, almost two metres in places. It will come ashore at any month of

the year. For the bird and animals, it is most important that the kelp

is on the beaches in early spring. From a distance on warm days, the

kelp looks hazy. What it is is clouds and swarms of kelp flies that

have descended on the rotting weed too feed and lay their eggs. The

seaweed and the surrounding sand becomes a mass of maggots. This

doesn't go unnoticed by all the other birds.

The kelp provides migrating birds on passage through Orkney with a real

food bonanza. It is a migratory feeding stop. The biggest change I

have noticed this spring is the influx of a lot of new wading birds.

In particular a lot of turn stones have turned up in the last part of

April and also a nice number of sanderling as well. The sanderling

feed on the edge of incoming waves and they get pushed up and down the

beach by the tide. After one bird, they stand softer with the in coming

water. They feed on kelp maggots that have come up through the sand.

The Turnstules can pick the flies out of air. They don't need to work

hard. Within the space of three weeks, they have almost doubled

their weight and have put on around two and a half grams in fat a day,

which is an incredible amount. They can then fly direct to green

Greenland to their breeding grounds. One of the things I like to do at

Sanday is catch up with the local otters. Sanday is good for otters,

because the big kelp beds provide an environment to catch plenty of fish.

And as the year progresses, more fish will come in to spawn and to

hide and to hunt and the otters take advantage of that. One of the

fascinating things about Sanday is how everything is connected by the

kelp, either directly or indirectly. It is a wild and magical place and I

know that I will come back again each spring.

Stunning, marine algae provide rich pickings here and we have spotted

ringed Plovers taking advantage of this and it is replenished each day

with the tide. Here we have a ringed Plover looking for food. They're

visual hunters and look for things and then peck them up with that

short, stubby bill. Look at that with the light behind them. Do you

remember those sunny days a few days ago. Just about. It has been very

rainy and it has affected a lot of our birds. Here is a check on one of

our live nest, the stone curlew. This bird got off the nest for an

hour and ten minutes last night. It was due to hatch tomorrow. Let's

keep our eyes on that live nest to see if that egg will hatch. I don't

think it is chances are good. The egg will have lost a lot of

temperature and it is critical at the end, as Martin said with

reference to his chickens. How is Martin getting on. Is he still in

the woods with some sticky stuff. What are you up to? Hello. You are

still there? I'm loving my mothing and I look forward to seeing them

tomorrow. I think it has been at the sugar. We will be back tomorrow on

BBC Two. We have a guest, we have got Jason Sing who will do some beat

boxing and at 8 o'clock we have a predator fest starting with this...

Honestly. Oh, my goodness me, that is astonish. A Gey Falcon. And the

Goldie Hawn of the raptor world. We will see you tomorrow at 8 o'clock.

It is a Springwatch fest. We have an hour and a half show. We will show

you plenty of wildlife in that hour and a half. Make sure you tune in

tomorrow at 8 o'clock until 9.30 on BBC Two. We will see you then.

Goodbye. Once upon a time, there was

a great and glorious king. But they would

all see him destroyed. MUSIC: Kings Of The Wild Frontier

by Adam The Ants