Episode 5 Springwatch

As the sun sets over Suffolk, in a corner of a secret woodland, a

female sparrowhawk patiently incubates her eggs. Live. Absolutely

stunning. And so is the weather, because the sun here has finally got

its hat on. We are certainly shouting hip hip hip hooray, and so

is a lot of wildlife. In fact, some of it is literally jumping for joy.

But it is not all fun and games. Tonight we have also got action from

creatures great small. It is sizzling, it is spectacular, it is

Springwatch! Yes, hello and welcome to

Springwatch 2016. It is our second week here at the RSPB Minsmere

reserve on the Suffolk coast. I have got to set the moment it feels much

nicer than our first week, because, I'm not embarrassed to say, that on

Thursday evening, despite the fact that it was June, I had my thermal

underwear and a puffer jacket on. It was freezing, wasn't it? People were

tweeting why are you wearing so many clothes? With the wind chill it was

down to about five. Things have improved, and for the animals too

because they have been enjoying the sunshine as much as us. Some

beautiful sunrise is a port all of the rabbits out, even doing a bit of

basking. That lovely warm, sandy soil. Lots of insects have emerged

and as a consequence one of the things that feast on those insects

have been extra busy, catching them and feeding them today young. I am

very pleased it has got a bit warmer because quite frankly I was running

out of clothes. Anyway we are going to show you wildlife from all over

the UK. We have got a feast of wildlife you but we stop right here

in Minsmere. Last week we were following the fight for survival

between rabbits and their presences, stoats. There was one stoat we got

to know quite well, -- their predators. It was a mother with

kits. We thought she had four, we have since found out she has eight.

She did a lot of this, moving her kits around. Eventually they moved

them from this grassland area into the woodland. We actually thought

that would probably be the last we saw of her and her family. But

something rather dramatic happened on Friday in a rather unexpected

place. And it was this. We saw this rabbit, we thought it might have had

myxomatosis because it is behaving a bit strangely. And then, look what

happened, the stoat comes into stub it is a bit gruesome this, it is

over very quickly. This all happened in our production village. Lots of

people around, we were all watching it. You can see the size difference

is incredible. That stoat probably weighs about 200 grams. The rabbit

about 1000, so it is five times its weight. And you can see it as having

difficulty taking that rabbit. Remember, the stoat has eight kits

that it needs to feed, and to do that it would need to provision

itself and its family with two and a half times its own body weight, so

that would probably last quite a long time. That is a monstrous

amount of food to have caught. It is bound to try and hang onto it and

get it to those kits. Butler but it is doing. It is dragging it over

branches, over brambles. I mean, it has the most amazing strength to be

up to do that. Then another rabbit comes in and chases it. Obviously we

have no idea whether that rabbit is related to the dead one, but the

stoat certainly is not going to give up its prey. It goes back and

transit and starts -- and finds it and starts trading it across the

grassland to where it's kits are. It really was an astonishing thing to

see. The cameraman started filming it on their mobile phones actually,

eventually got the proper cameras out and they followed it to 200

metres, it drank to that rabbit. Absolutely incredible. And we did

some calculations. We decided that would be the equivalent of me

dragging a red deer stag in my teeth for one kilometre. I have seen you

do it. It wasn't a pretty sight. It was remarkable, a record-breaking

attempt. Just because we're not broadcasting, doesn't mean that you

can't watch our cameras. If you gone to the website or our online

presence allows you to choose one of four cameras to click on it and to

watch those. You can do that for 20 hours a day. Last week, we left you

a good watching for us on Thursday night. We asked you to keep an eye

on a number of nests over the course of the weekend and one of them was

our sparrowhawk. We can go live to it now. In a woodland quite close to

our production village, in a pine tree. She is incubating five eggs.

We don't know when they were laid so we can't value exactly when we think

they will hatch. Typically they will hatch in the first week of June. We

are hoping this week could be the week. She is up in this mess to most

of the day because of this time of year the mail is catching all of the

food and bringing it to her. He does that on a plucking post, about 50

meters away from the nest. This gives us a great opportunity to see

what the birds are eating. If we can catch a glimpse of them before they

have all of their feathers torn out and they are consumed rapidly, like

the female will consume this little rant very rapidly, that gives us a

chance to look at the diet of these birds stash macro little Wren.

After a week of waiting, I finally got myself a pie diagram. We are

also pleased! I am very pleased indeed. What we have is the pray we

can identify. 50% of the things that came in we could not identify, no

detriment to the team's skills, if they haven't got any feathers it is

hard. Of those we could identify, we have great tits forming nearly a

quarter of the diet, then bluetits, Bencic apps. Then we have got

friends. -- and then Church House. And then wrens. -- and then

chiffchaffs. All of the birds being it in our small birds because it is

the male foraging. An incredible variety. It would be interesting to

monitor the birds and see if the male sparrowhawk is choosing

particular species or just because they are there in abundance. Alli it

would seem that the sparrowhawk is the top predator in the word, or is

it? Because look what this or over the weekend. This is a tawny owl on

the plucking post. We are thinking it came there may be to eat the

leftovers, or to see if it could catch a rodent eating the leftovers.

We know a tawny owl would take sparrowhawk chicks, but would it

take the sparrowhawk itself? Good question. We know that sparrowhawk

steak birds off their nests. We have seen it before. Magpies and wood

pigeons, tawny owls could take. Would they take a sparrowhawk? In

the dark. Mind you, the sparrowhawk, we have trump cards here. A wingspan

of 62 centimetres, female weight up to 260. Top speed 50 kph was that I

don't suppose you can comfort in the woodlands. I could absolutely,

because the tawny owl, a bigger size, April -- a bigger wingspan.

Top speed 65 kph. I don't know what sheep market you brought your trump

cards from. -- cheap market. It proves that the tawny owl could take

the sparrowhawk. I think we will have to do a test in the future. We

have had gyrfalcon against Peregrine, we have had Ross Hawkins

sparrowhawk I think we need sparrowhawk against tawny owl on a

speed camera. What about golden eagle? Trump this. Maximum wingspan

of 82 centimetres, 320 kph. OK, you have won. If you were watching last

week, you would know we have had some extraordinary views into a

golden eagle's nest and they continued over the weekend. The

youngster is mobile now and growing rapidly so it can get to the edge of

the nest to squirt its pool over the side. They doesn't want to make a

mess in the nest because it will have to sit in it for at least

another four weeks, I should imagine. The adult bird you can see

behind is the female. She has been very attentive up to this point,

only leaving the nest for at most two hours, and I imagine then she

has probably been sat close by just out of view. Here you can get a

sense of why she is top trump. Look at the strength there, those massive

talons as she stretches, repairing to take off, and leaving that

youngster. Beautiful light on the nest as well. What a stunning image

that is. Amazing to see how much that chick has grown. Much beefier.

Someone came up with a good name, Fluffy McFace. It might win the vote

but it won't get the name! More of an update tomorrow but if you can't

wait until then, you can see an exclusive clip online. Check out the

website. I have got another trump card for you. Style, seven. Bravery,

11. Stamina, eight. Hair, two. That is the giveaway. I think the bravery

is a bit questionable, but it is of course the one and only Martin

Hughes-Games thank you very much, the hair is doing a lot better

today, thank you. This wonderful weather has been great for all of

our wildlife, especially for our moths. Last week I went out moth

trapping on Tuesday and it was not a very good night, we got 60 moths.

Last night, same trap, we got 300, a fivefold increase, we got some

beauties. Let's see if we can get them out without them flying off.

Look at that. And I'd talk more. -- and eyed hawk moth. It says on the

books it is sombre until provoked. When it is provoked, it flicks the

wings out, reveals its eyes. A dynamic sponsor. Let's put that one

down. Right, we haven't tried this before. We have got another one

here, hang on. This is the shark moth. Look, look, the shark moth.

Now, again, let's look at your picture of the shark moth. Why is it

called the shark moth? Look at that Finn on the nose. Ladies and

gentlemen, I think you will agree that moth is absolutely terrifying.

I'm frightened! It is evening so it can fly off now, go on, off you go.

Thank you. It is a great time for the moths here, but there are all

sorts of other fascinating invertebrates. Let's go down, come

on down with me. OK, this is the inverted world, and you can do this

at home. There are all sorts of interesting creatures underneath the

leaves and so on. If you want to pick them up, you might use one of

these. It is called a pooter. You put that in your mouth, and if you

see an insect, there is one, hang on. Can't get it. Oh, I got it, I

don't believe it! You get it, and it sucks it up into here without it

going into your mouth. I once sacked and earwig up into my mouth without

a pooter, and it is not a very pleasant experience, I can tell you.

That is the pooter. We have managed to get quite a few animals just over

the last 24 hours and get close to them. Here is a wonderful millipede.

You can tell a millipede, it has two pairs of legs per segment, isn't it

only has one. Woodlice, we have over 30 species of woodlice. Only one can

roll itself up. Beetles, you are bound to find beetles. 400,000

species, more than any other animal. Why are they so good? They modified

the basic insect plan of having two pairs of wings. The front pair of

wings have become these hard, protective Electra, that protect

them when they are moving around. When they want to fly, they flip

them up, and they are away. Absolutely brilliant. Now if you

wanted to survey the insects, and they do want to do that here at

Minsmere, if you used your pooter it would take you forever. You want

something a bit tougher, bigger, something with an engine. A kind of

DIY insect sampling special power tool. How about this baby? Look at

that! We had a few problems getting this going, but let's give it a try.

Visit on? Choke on. Nearly. Yes! Oh, never mind. We will be coming back

to this one a bit later on to see what it actually does. What do you

think of that, Chris and the Kello? Yes!

In spring the Forest of Dean is a vision. Carpeted in delicately

drooping bluebells. The signs of life abound. But this is not any

bluebell wood, this is a special patch of woodland. After a 300 year

absence, the Forest of Dean is once again home to an extraordinary

species. Whilst boar. This area has the

largest breeding population of this bee she's in England with estimates

of over but boar normally take cover during the day but the hunger of a

growing family has brought them out into the open just before sunset to

feed amongst the bluebells. This group is made up of for cells and

this year they have 25 boarlets. Together they form a tight social

group called a sounder. With plenty of mouths to feed the female is set

to work routing and turning the earth. The eldest in the crash are

to months old and learning to forage by themselves. Boar have a varied,

and never as diet and use their powerful snouts to turn over the

soil, primarily for routes, bulbs, nuts and tumours, although they have

been known to eat mice, birds, eggs, snakes, vertebrates and even carry

on. -- carrion. The youngest are to weeks old. They are only just as

tall as the bluebells and are still very much dependent upon their

mother's milk. But they are not fussy and will cross - Sakho from

any female in the sand. If they get the chance. -- - cross-suckle. The

females have to keep foraging, to make enough calories to make milk.

By way of feeding the youngsters shed parasites and their favourite

scratching posts, reaching parts that the tree stumps simply cannot

reach. And then it is playtime! Finally, as dusk approaches, one

decisive ground from the matriarch sends the sounder trotting to

pastures new. I like a wild boar. And me, they are

very cute. They do a lot of digging, you do not want them in your garden

but they are fantastic and at one stage they were native in the UK,

they are back and playing an important role in managing the

ecosystem, we find out about that later in the week. Back they

certainly add to the biodiversity. Another important thing to have in

the ecosystems in the UK are predators. On Autumnwatch last year

we featured an ambitious project by the Vincent trust to put the pine

Martin back into its natural habitat in Wales. There is the lovely pine

Martin, believed extinct in Wales, a few sightings happened recently so

that was questioned but they needed to get more back into Wales. They

brought 20 of them down from Scotland, they put radio

transmitters on them, they want into an enclosure for while before they

were released into the wild. What happened? They put transmitters and

cameras on them, look carefully as one of the pine martens comes down

the tree, what is it carrying? A grey squirrel. This is interesting.

We had already seen a paper published in 2014 by Sheehy and

Lawton. They had looked at pine martens in Ireland. They had covered

their range into about 9000 square kilometres when no red squirrels

have been seen for 30 years. The red squirrels moved in alongside the

pine martens and then became common. When they investigated further they

found a positive correlation between the numbers of pine martens and the

numbers of red squirrels and a negative correlation between pine

martens and grey scrolls. Suggesting that if the pine marten would make a

full recovery over its range which would include Suffolk, then perhaps

the grey squirrels, the naughty non-natives, might take a thrashing

and the red squirrels could in theory increase. Amazing to have

pine martens across the UK. If the grey squirrel population went down

you would have to reintroduce red squirrels. It is all possible if the

research showed it was feasible. Great news. And more great news

because researchers noticed that the pine martens, the females, was

spending more time in one particular area, so they put up more cameras

and this is what they saw. Going up the tree the pine marten has

something in its mouth, they found in the nest there was a kit. Not the

only one. A larger one coming out-of-the-box and exploring its

surroundings. They know that at least three of the females had at

about five kids between them. Good news because it's a low number this

year and they need a lot of polls to survive. Maybe this is why they are

doing OK. Good news all round. It has exceeded expectations so far,

fabulous. Hats of to the Vincent Wildlife Trust. The reason they take

the grey squirrels is that they are lighter and spend more time in the

trees at the edges, the pine marten is heavier and cannot reach them,

the grey squirrel spends more time on the ground looking for food so

this is why we think the pine marten is taking the grey squirrel. One man

keen to hear about this is your Williams, a passionate Welsh

naturalist, years and in Wales at the moment, he's on the islands and

seems to have his hands full because they have more of their fair share

of drama. That's right, we've been on an emotional roller-coaster in

the last few days, now I'm on the farm which is the home of our

wonderful female, our loan shark and the Spring watch first, -- our

single shark, and the Springwatch first. And yes, perhaps is back!

Last week when we left you we had one a row with an egg being

incubated inside and I can show you the borough, it's right by the side

of the walkway. See the cables coming in? The camera is under my

hand and the entrance to the Barrow is there. We can go in and see what

is happening right now. As you can see one of the adults is still

incubating the egg. They take it in terms, roughly 24 hours each, while

one is incubating the egg the other is offshore feeding. Another thing

they do is, they will turn the egg periodically. To make sure that the

whole of the egg gets warmed up. Our second burrow, is in those metals.

When we last left them we wish you with a female was about to leave the

egg, this turned out to be a false alarm and then, disaster struck!

Part of the burrow wall collapsed. Are they still in there? Have they

moved further? We simply don't know and we don't know why burrow

collapsed. It did rain quite a bit one day last week, did that affect

it, did they dig too much? We are not sure. S we will let you know if

anything changes. In the meantime, we do have some good news for you.

You may remember that our shag, Cathy, spent weeks waiting for a

partner from last to return. But Heathcliff, as we now call him

returned to another nest entirely and shacked up with a different

female. Our hearts went out to poor Cathy. But she has finally woken up

and smelt the guano because after seven weeks of waiting live is very

much in the air for our female. Last week she took a shine to a young

male and since then has begun to make a nest with him. This is her

partner, this is the male. He's still got a lot of Brown on him so

he is very inexperienced. And this lack of experience has meant that a

few days ago the nest looked less like a nest and more like a scrape.

A pretty sad state of affairs! But know they might just be getting the

hang of it. Only yesterday the young male was seen returning to the nest

with some soft fur. So we are really helpful that Cathy may be able to

lay, soon. Schmeichel really helpful. With limited supplies, the

farm shags use whatever they can get their beats on. We have seen

seaweed, vegetation, dead rabbit carcasses and even the occasional

ornamental chair leg! Shags have to be quite creative with their choice

of soft furnishings! Come and look at this. I want to show you these

breeding shags. Shag number one, Sheikh Nimr to, shag number three is

right out of sight. They have stolen the blue rope that normally keeps

visitors away. And one has wrapped it around the nest and passed it on

to them too, was done the same, and you think, what level the sharing

birds. Number one is higher up and has pooed over number to, number

three is below and I hate to think what kind of a mess he's in! When it

comes to nest building it really is a shag each shag world! - shag eat

shag. When Bird sitting calm and serene throughout this is the

beautiful eider. Almost unmoved since we last saw her, she has been

sitting out in all the weather, the fog, Varane, the wind, hankering

down, simplicity and it out. Those eggs will hatch over the next few

days so we will keep a very close eye on her. And one last success

story, for now, at least, is the new age puffins in their TB. They are

still happily incubating and if we are lucky we may see a puffling

before the end of my stay. As you can see this season is still young

and it is only just kicking off. Stick with us, we have plenty more

to share with you over the next couple of weeks, especially as many

of the eggs are only just hatching. S for now, it's back down to Suffolk

and Minsmere. What I think the comparison stands for is the

closeness to wildlife. The Galapagos wildlife is famed for being ten,

when you get that it's right in front of you, follow in the

footsteps of your is my advice. This weekend many of you were on egg

watch, watching the live cameras to see if any eggs had hatched and you

also want fledge watched and many of you were watching our gorgeous tits

to see if any of them fledged. We left the nest bulging at the seams

on Thursday and the parents were incredibly diligent on Friday. They

were doing plenty of feeds. Gorgeous bird, I called it the Lulu of the

bird world, Lulu, the long-tailed tit, feeding their chicks. A huge

Caterpillar, taking it in. At peak they fed every to minutes, 29 tonnes

per hour. But Caterpillar isn't going down, Chris, we have all been

there. I is too big for the belly. In fact it is coming back up. Ludger

Beerbaum is watering! I thought you were talking about feeding a child,

not doing it yourself, I have never choked on a Caterpillar! It still

needs to lighten its load. It does what every child does, it throws up.

That is what babies do. It is true, they do other things as well, not

just that! They fledge the nest. Only it takes years and years. But

look at this. This is what happened on Saturday at five past seven. The

adult comes in, does not feed the chicks but tempts them out. This is

the start. It entices them. The first one is not too keen to go, the

second hops out more confidently. They gorgeous birds.

If you take a look at the nest, two more peeking their little faces.

This is the fourth one. That also lightens it slowed a little bit.

Then followed by a fifth one. And finally you can see the sixth one

poking its head out and coming out of that nest. Then the adult bird

flies in. Just to make sure that they are all gone, and have all

fledged nest. If only it was that easy. They all come back again in

real life! I like a long tail tit's nest, though. It can expand to

control the number of birds inside. They can have up to ten. Covered in

lichen, keeps it camouflaged, a fantastic piece of artistry. Great

to see the birds leaving. We are very pleased you have joined us for

our live programme now, that you can watch those programmes throughout

the course of the day. So how do you watch our cameras? It has never been

easier to follow Springwatch, wherever you are and whatever device

you are using. By going to the Springwatch website on your laptop,

phone or tablet you can enjoy Springwatch live at any time of day.

Catch the action as it happens with live webcams as well as updates,

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

Facebook, Twitter and the Springwatch Flickr group. To have

things to show you would have to go and find them, particularly the

nest. Martin thought he would try his hand at this.

Here we go. To find a nest in this dense watery bed, we form a line,

each of us just a metre or so apart. But even so, within no time at all,

I can barely see Neil to my left and Nigel to my right. It is amazing how

difficult it is to see, just a metre away and they are completely gone.

So to watch them and look for the nest is tricky. Within a few

minutes, Neil spot something. I have got one nest. It is an old nest. It

looks like a duck. Pass the eggs down, Steve. Duck. It is tough going

but then... Here is a nest! I have found one. He reed warbler nest. It

has got eggs in it! Four. They all looked to be the same, they are duck

egg blue with all of Splott is on them. There is no bigger egg as far

as I can see, no. They are looking for cuckoos, obviously. That is a

result. Now to market so the team can start to rig up a camera. Bingo.

I found a nest! Top work by Martin, finding a reed warbler, they are a

relatively common bird and not too difficult find. We have found a

number and we have got a camera on one of them, we can go to it live

now. Here is our reed warbler. You have to look carefully, the adult

bird, could be the mail or the female. Sat right on that deep cup

and it is a deep cut. All you can see is the breathing back of the

bird and its bill on the left-hand side. We have been watching this

very closely over the weekend. This is what we saw. When we first found

it it had four eggs. But look very carefully, the one on the right-hand

side appears to be a little paler than those eggs. This led us to

wonder, could this be the egg of a different species? Because the

species we are thinking about here is a bird which migrates to Minsmere

in the summertime to parasitise the nest, you know what I am talking

about of course, the Eurasian cuckoo. Here is a male calling away.

Reed warblers are the most familiar hosts of this nest. So was it a

cuckoo's eggs? We didn't think so but we thought we would check. We

spoke to Professor Nick Davies at Cambridge University. He is the

world expert and he said that is definitely a clutch of four reed

warbler eggs. No cuckoo in there, but it is typical for the last egg

laid to be a little paler and we don't know why. He then went on to

say it is unlikely that the female runs out or pigment when she is

covering those eggs. Rather it might be to benefit the egg by marking

that last one. One idea that he had was with asynchronous hatching it

might be advantageous to be able to identify the last laid egg as it

would then need a little bit more incubation to get it to hatch. That

is Nick's hypothesis. We fitted to the test straightaway, because we

watched these eggs straightaway and we saw which hatched, and in the

order. So at 6:13am yesterday, the first one hatched. It took about 20

minutes for the youngster to wriggle out of the shell. And eventually it

made it out. The adults began to arrive with food, and to offer it to

that youngster. But it wasn't too keen to take it straightaway. But

having gone to the trouble of catching that insect prey, the

adults doesn't waste it, it's follows it itself. This went on for

a number of visits. The adult came in, youngster didn't seem too

interested, that is not to -- too surprising. They often have a bit of

yolk left in the shell, which will label them to start. And then late

in the day, at 2:19pm, another one beginning to hatch, and then at

4:19am this morning another egg is hatching there. There is one left in

there and Nick was absolutely right. The pale egg was the last one to

hatch. Suggesting, again, that it might be that the female would

therefore know that it has got to keep incubating to get that last egg

to hatch. That is Nick's hypothesis. He is the sort of bloke that likes

to test those things so I'm sure he might be doing that in the future.

We will be watching the adults coming in. You can watch them live

on our cameras. They will require an enormous number of very small

insects, which they will find out here in the reedbeds. I wonder if

Martin will find an enormous number of small insects in his rather

curious device. BUZZING MACRO this beast is the insect Hoover, it is

not a Tory, it is real. Let's do some hoovering. -- it is not a

poorly. That's better. Let's see how this works, a very serious bit of

scientific kit. It is actually a leaf blower. You have probably seen

these at home. But it has been reversed, it sucks rather than

blows. Brown the end, you can see this gaffer tape, inside there is a

muslin bag, so any insects are sucked in, and the mesh is carefully

worked out so it doesn't damage them. Let's empty it out. We haven't

got very much there, but we have been sampling, I got one woodlouse!

Still, luckily, like Blue Peter, we have been sampling things before.

Oh, there is an ear week, my favourite animal! It is a female.

Careful, love. Let's look at some of these creatures close up. We have

got a spider here. Don't know if you can see this. A spider with an egg

sac next to a woodlouse will stop she is off. Let's go down this end.

There is a huge millipede here. I have never seen one they speak in

the UK. Isn't it gorgeous? Let's just see if we can get the ear week.

Hang on, there is an ear week. Look at her go! You can tell it as a

female because the calipers are straight on the back. I got really

carried away with this. Right, that's lovely! Sorry about that.

Now, you might think what is so important about these? They are just

inconspicuous invertebrates, why should we care? If you thought that,

you would be wrong. These are crucially important, and I'll tell

you why. Let's just have a look at some of the bird nests we have been

following this year on Springwatch. What are they being fed? That is a

dragonfly insect. Here we have got the bluetits. They are getting a bit

of spider abdomen. The owls, they are eating clock capers, a type of

beetle. -- they are eating cock-chafers. Bluetits, an amazing

statistic, they timed their meeting for prime Caterpillar time. It is

estimated that the bluetits in the UK have to eat to bring up their

chicks 35 billion caterpillars. So these little creepy crawlies here

are crucial to the survival of some of our favourite birds. So it is

very important to survey the insects. And of course, think about

it, the migrant birds, swallow, Swiss, they all come here because of

the richness of our insect life. This sort of thing, sampling these,

it is critically important and that is a very important little tool.

Inconspicuous but vital to the survival of many of our birds.

Should we just highlight the fact, what was it, one woodlouse, all of

that noise, LAUGHTER All of that terminator gay, comes up

with one woodlouse. If we did the trump card again, ability with the

Hoover, zero! Insects are so important, as Martin was saying,

this time of the year, for so mere var chicks in the nest, including

our little owls. -- for so many of our chicks. Remember, we have got

three gorgeous chicks in a hole in an oak tree. They have grown a lot

in the last week. They asked leaving at the moment. They are two and a

half weeks old, and the parents have been really brilliant parents, and

have said them very well over the last week or ten days. It might

surprise many people to know that little owls actually eat a large and

other of insects, they try to. Of course insects used to be much more

abundant until we used to freely all of the insecticides that we have,

particularly in the last 50 years, and as a consequence the population

of little owls has gone down. We have been trying to monitor whether

there is any influence on the weather which would affect insect

abundance. At night will negate infrared, you can see the adults

flying into the nest. -- when we go to infrared. A small mammal, looks

like a little mouse. On Friday, what were they up to? In goes the adult.

That one youngster had a cock-chafer, a large beetle. Here,

the adult comes in with what appears to be a moth. That might have been a

cock-chafer as well, I'm not sure. Insect prey without a shadow of a

doubt. On Sunday, though, in the come with worms. And we have seen

these birds feeding on lots of worms. That seems to be one of the

key things. That wasn't a worm, it was another insect of some kind. But

one of the key things they have been eating our earthworms. It is going

to be interesting to see, Michaela, now the weather is beginning to dry

out, there won't be so many worms on the surface. This would suggest that

the owls might switch to something else. It was a double treat for me,

a pied diagram and now a bar chart. Look at that smile. The young were

much smaller so they would not have needed so many visits to keep them

completely sated. Now there was a real dip on Monday. You will

remember that is when we had that horrendous storm. It meant the birds

could not forage very effectively. They did come in the next day with a

bluetit. But they're feeding rate were still reduce. This does show

you the impact that weather will have on the foraging capacity of

these birds. Luckily it was just one or two days and they are now hunting

effectively. 89 feeds, they are doing incredibly well. But they

could be small items. It will not be 89 with mice. Otherwise they would

be bursting. When you think about worms, a very high percentage of

water, I am going to guess about 80% water possibly. I have to say, after

all of that food what do they do? What every youngster does on a full

tummy. They have a little snooze. They try to, it is all a bit

restless and they fidget. See how much they have grown. I think that

one has been listening to your bar chart info! He's yawning! It'll be

interesting watching little owls in the next weeks because we will see a

huge change in size and their characters will come out. They

certainly will. I will take the insult on the chin. We will see what

happens off-camera in a moment, it is very muddy over there. The BBC

has launched a campaign, Do Something Great. On Thursday we

charge you to go out on the weekend and join in the National by the

Blitz. I am pleased to say that many of you did. We've had 1800 reports

of all sorts of animals you spotted like voles and frogs and I am

pleased that you identified 731 different species. These reports

continue to come in and out to our knowledge of the distribution and

diversity of species in the UK. Bio blitz is a great idea and Nick Baker

has gone somewhere posh, to another ISP reserve, a great one in Dorset

and he's gone there to conduct his own bio blitz over the weekend. I am

at RSPB Arnott and it is a great place that keeps drawing me back. It

is managed by a relatively small team so we don't know as much about

what they see as we'd like. That is what this weekend is about. The plan

is to use a team of experts and volunteers to find and identify as

many should be she's as possible in just 24-hour is. We will be using

all sorts of techniques and expertise and enthusiasm. It should

be fun. This is a great scene, somewhere at Heath peppered with the

people, it's such a fantastic place for rarities. It's so great were

rarities that we overlook the common things. This is a great way of

making sure we know what is here by getting everyone to record

everything they see. Even I might add something to the Arne list.

Everyone is piling in, the totals are mounting. This is just from me

collecting, every single individual on the reserve today, look at the

tubes, everyone has tubes in their hands. Already we are finding plenty

of invertebrates but plants and birds are also in our sites and of

course mammals including bats. This is the largest British bat with

gorgeous ginger fur, the fifth when we have seen today, we have found

common purpose trails, and Brian Long eared bats. It will be bat

paradise. After only six hours we have already gathered an incredible

amount of data. It has been a staggering day. We've only just

started to scratch the surface, processed 370 records. Godmother

your! And about 200 or 300 just from this morning. I've got more for you!

Lets go. As desk gathers time to head back to the Heath with some

very excited and methodologies. I have an flying around to the right.

Look at him, see the stiff wings. No bird song says heathland to me

like the sound of them might jar. As night falls, Rob takes me back, his

trap is already producing results. We will see where this is called

along is about. His is occurred belittle and when I let him go often

they will do this marvellous thing, stay on your hand, look around, put

up their ears, and then go. Great work. When we are only halfway

through our 24 hour blitz. At one time to check them off trap, first

up, moth Tiger. You don't get many colours like that in nature on the

same creature. It throws away this stereotype that moths are dealt. -

Strictly Come Dancing. Have his love of those before? Look at your face!

He just had his hand over his mouth -- have you seen one of those

before? And the caterpillars are even better, a proper monster! The

bio blitzers have caught six of the UK's native reptiles, just one more

to go, local speciality. Look about. The first time I've held a smooth

snake and it is pretty smooth. You need a license for this which you

have. I have. It makes it a red letter day when you get a day with a

smooth snake. And in the nick of time as well. I had better check out

the final tally. The results are coming in thick and fast. It will

take days to identify everything but preliminary results are astonishing.

783 should be she's recorded into the computer, master of coming in, I

think it won't be less than 1000 when we get everything processed and

with the 700 we have entered we have found another 152 species we had not

previously recorded on the reserve. You must be really pleased. The

numbers are one aspect of this but we have met so many people and find

so many new relationships and the technical knowledge from these

people is the nominal, now we understand more about the reserve

and why it is important, some of the requirements of the species,

hopefully we can enable the success of these species. To get involved

there is bound to be a bio blitz you, get in touch with your local

RSPB, and if there is not, set up your own bio blitz in the garden, in

the park, in the school grounds, just get out there and do something

great! Wise words, mate! It is worth doing. Nick's team did really well,

this and collected 1403 different animal species, and some plants and

fundi as well. Of those, 677 were identified Jewish dishes level and

306 new for Arne. I think they assembled specialists and looked at

groups of animals they have not looked at in detail and it brought

the total for Arne, not quite up to the 5500 bed and Izmir has yet but

we do have more reports to analyse. Great to see some new volunteers,

having such a great day, and if you did bio blitz on the weekend I'm

sure you did as well. Time to update you on our tit nursed back to Mac

nexts. Something fascinating to tell you. Let's look at the great tit

nursed. Both parents are in attendance, everything is going OK.

11 days old, the females generally stop brooding by now although she

does seem to be doing a bit of brooding. Let's look at our tit

nest. We know it is a single female feeding the chicks. Now that they

have feathers the eagle eyed amongst you may notice something absolutely

fascinating. Those chicks have yellow cheeks, yellow wheelbarrows,

you can see better and stretching its wings and exercising, and black

heads. This means that they are not blue chicks at all, they are great

tits. So in our tit nest week had great tits being fed by a blue tit

mother. Incredible, were just noticed that because they have

feathers no, we had no idea that was happening in that nest box. Have you

heard before, Chris? I haven't although reports of one species of

bird feeding and there are not uncommon. In mammals we see and to,

the urge to feed again when you are in breeding condition is very

strong. Hormonal. I can't think of the gnome of the hormone but it is

really powerful. -- can't think of the name of it. We will have to

investigate that further. We can go all the way back to the time that we

had eggs in the nest and hopefully we can go back and analyse what

happened. My theory is that a great tit sneaked in and laid some eggs in

that box. There were 13 eggs to begin with. There certainly were.

How they will prosper now will depend on the weather, like with all

the species. It is teeming with insects, including religious! --

including mergers. If they could all be removed but be fantastic. Nick

Miller, in the weather centre, is not likely to happen, whether be a

swarm of swallows for me? I am so happy that the sun has finally

arrived at Minsmere and the wildlife is having a better time together

with much of the rest of the UK away from the cooler used coast

temperatures were soaring today and will again tomorrow which means a

lot of insects for those busy bird families like the little owls. And

the reptiles as well, we have heard about the slow worms, they rely on

warmth from their environment to give them the energy they need to

forage for food, so look out for them. We have heat and nudity and

also thunderstorms and we will again tomorrow, some torrential downpours

in places. Some of the ground is dry which will bring more worms to the

surface of the blackbirds and the thrushes, many birds who come to the

UK are here now we are still waiting for lovely butterflies like the

painted Lady, they migrate all the way from Africa, some have been

spotted ladies keep an eye open this discouraging headwind for the last

leg of the journey so they may remain a treasured find. This is the

forecast for you this week. Maybe a stray shower although it is looking

fine on the whole and will turn warmer with more sunshine. The

wildlife is happier, I know that you are, this party has really started

now! Thank you, Nick, we like that, one

stray shower and more sunshine. Have you ever seen it appeared as big as

that? You did not get that in your hoover. We will go back to Eggwatch.

We ask you to watch over excellent we have not checked up on our

special one. I don't know if this is the male or the female, sitting on a

cheque, or on an egg? It did manage to be loyal and protect that egg

from predation. We know that but did it hatch? Let's take a quick look at

that egg, quickly. As Michaela says, it was meant to have hatched, six

days ago, sadly it does not seem to have done that. The RSPB plan to

investigate, I hope to go in with them and look at it. Tomorrow, news

from our avocet couple. And an entire family of shoulders, keep it

up, madam, or Mr! And we find out what wild boar till after dark. And

I will be back and we will have a very special guest. Then I Bethan

Will Junger, joining us to talk about his passion for wildlife. --

Will Young. The real Will Young! We will see you tomorrow night, during

us then! Goodbye! Joely us then! Goodbye!

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