Episode 6 Springwatch


Episode 6

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This is a blue tit nest box. It's hidden in the woods and it's coming

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to you live. But what is in that nest tells an extraordinary story,

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one in fact that's worthy of being on the Jeremy Kyle show. And Iolo

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Williams has news of a world-of-record breaking bird.

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That another truly remarkable wildlife stories, it can only mean

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one thing, it's Springwatch! Yes, hello and welcome to

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Springwatch 2016. It's our second programme of our second week coming

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to you and a very fine evening here at RSPB. We have a super day and we

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have a super show coming up with astonishing revelations. I can think

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of at least three that we will reveal in an astonishing way in this

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programme. As Chris says, it's going to be a fabulous show. It's been a

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fabulous day. Let's start with the fabulous bird. This is our

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sparrowhawk live, she's patiently sitting on that nest. She's five

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eggs. We don't know when they're going to hatch but it could be any

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time soon. So, keep your eyes on the live cameras.

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Wonder when it's going to be? Shall we take a sweepstake? I reckon

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Friday. I am going to go Saturday, actually. A weekend. Keep your eyes

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on those nests at the weekend. I reckon Saturday. You could make a

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guess too. See if you are right. You know, having that camera on that

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nest means we have had extraordinary footage of that sparrowhawk. Our

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nest watchers noticed this rather bizarre behaviour. Keep your eyes on

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its eyes. Look at them. They're contracting.

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They're dilating, going off in different directions. It's really

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rather bizarre. Chris, what is that sparrowhawk doing, focussing on

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something? I think it is. I think it's focussing on different things

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at different distances and in different light levels.

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The thing about the muscle that controls the pupil is that it can

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move more rapidly. That rapid contraction is something that we

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see. At the same time, it can also shift the position of the lens in

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the bird's eye itself. It means it's changing the length of that. The

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bird is probably focussing on different things at different

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distances in different light and that's what it's doing,

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independently with one eye and the other at the same time. I could do

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that cross-eyed, can't do the contracting but I can do that and

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then that. It's not an attractive look! We apologise to all the

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viewers at home watching that in HD, that's not what you wanted to see!

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What you might want to see is this, we have been able to look at another

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as spect of the sparrowhawk's private life. There is a small pond

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in the woods. We can go live there. There is a log on the side. The sun

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is set off the pond now. People have been watching this camera and have

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been privileged to see something I have never seen in real life and

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it's this. The sparrowhawk at its bath. This is

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the male. It's come in earlier. It's there flapping away, as you can

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see. That is incredible. Imagine seeing

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that in your garden bird bath, Chris. Imagine seeing it in your own

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bath! Occasionally seen a poodle in my bath. He is jumping on to the

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side, obviously when the bird is sodden the take-off speed is

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reduced. They're vulnerable to predators. That bird has had a quick

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look around to make sure there is nothing there and gone back in to

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finish its bath. It's beautiful. Lit by the sun. Imagine photographing

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that bird now! Don't say that, that's upset me. I would love to

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photograph that. That's on our live camera. Privileged. Look at the

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reflection! It's just stunning. When it takes off, wait for this, a

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champagne explosion! That really would make a brilliant photograph.

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They have been visiting that pond, both the male and the female, pretty

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regularly. Do keep a look at our website cameras. You can look at our

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website. There are four to choose from and you can also do that

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online, as well, throughout the day and on the red button.

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On Thursday, we introduced you to a new nest, it's smaller and maybe a

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little bit duller than the sparrowhawk but it's interesting

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nevertheless. It is the dunnock. Here it is live. Let's look at

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what's in there. We can just about see one of the chicks sleeping, I

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think. Four chicks in there. They're ten days old. They're nesting in the

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gorse bush. On Thursday, you said don't underestimate the dunnocck. I

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said never. You said because they've an interesting and complex social

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structure. Can I tell you we have been watching our birds and it seems

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that ours haven't. They're actually quite ordinary. Our specific ones.

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Let's see what's going on at that nest. There is one female in

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attendance, of course. Three chicks in there at the moment. What we were

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hoping to see was the fact that the nest would be attended by more than

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one male. These birds can have more than one male and equally have more

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than one female in attendance but they can also be a group of males

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and females together. This is extremely unusual in the bird world.

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We do see it in dunnocks. It's only recently been discovered. Their

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social sex life has been a complete mystery. The reason they do this is

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during the breeding season both males and females have separate

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independent territories. The males overlap the females, therefore, you

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may have a male with two female territories he might be attending.

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Males can have supporting males, mates, if you like, that are

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subservient to them in their own territory. The benefit being they

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can keep out other dunnocks. The downside being that male will also

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be attending the female. It's a fascinating thing. We haven't seen

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it with this pair yet. But keep your eyes peeled because we used to call

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these things hedge sparrows, I think we should call them hedge swingers.

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Keep your eyes peeled! Where is Martin? He is in the woods with

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volunteers, some nets and rings, what could he possibly be up to

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tonight? You are absolutely right. I am down

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here in the wild wood T would be perfect but we are surrounded by

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mosquitos the size of World War II Wellington bombers! I am going to

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join in tonight with one of the most important surveys they do here,

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checking the bird population. Every ten days or so there is a stall set

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up and I joined them this morning. They will catch as many birds as

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they can and measure them and get all sorts of data.

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Look at that one upside down. They'll ring them and let them go. I

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should point out that you have to be licensed to do this. Before you can

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get into all that, checking them and ringing them, you have to catch

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them. How will they do that? Come with me. Don't know if you can even

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see this, I can hardly can. This is a net that designed if a bird comes

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along it gently stops it and it drops down here into that little

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bucket at the bottom. What they do is they check very regularly and go

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along and see if there is birds in it. The bird, if it approaches it,

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you can probably see it from the side, but if you were coming head on

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like a bird, does it disappear there?

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It disappears there. That's what it's all for. What type

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of birds might we expect to get here tonight? We might get a dunnock.

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Here is a chaff. Bullfinch, wouldn't that be ausome? One of the joys of

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this is you never know what you might catch in the net. You might

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even get, yes, a sparrowhawk. It has actually happened.

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Fantastic. Now, when you have the bird, you

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ring it, but what is the point of putting that ring on the bird? Well,

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as soon as you have a ring on it with the number you have got a sort

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of identity and I will give you an example and you can find out the

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history. They caught here recently a little white throat, a small bird.

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It was ringed, that ring told them that bird had been back and forth to

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Africa three times. It is four years old T had travelled a total distance

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they've calculated of 21,700 miles. All from that little ring. If they

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didn't have the ring they wouldn't have known any of that whatsoever.

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Fabulous bird. Now, that's the white throat. We

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have managed to get a camera on a white throat nest. Here it is live.

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Look at that! The parents are in there. There are six chicks in that

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nest. You can't see them all. Let's see what they've been doing

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the last few days. They're very good parents. Watch the chicks. We will

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watch them carefully, white throat chicks grow up incredibly fast.

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They're due to fledge probably on this weekend. We will keep a close

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watch on them. The parents are doing really well. A

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fly going in there. Another insect. Look it's ringed, as well. We even

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know the history of that one. OK. The nets are up. We have

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actually got six nests in three different locations here. We will be

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monitoring them every few minutes just to make sure if anything goes

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in we will get it. If we catch a bird we will process it a little bit

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later on in the programme. Back to Chris and Michaela. We look forward

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to seeing what you get, Martin. Our live cameras have revealed

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extraordinary things over the years. But the live cameras in the blue tit

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nest revealed something that surprised us all. Let's have a look

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at our blue tit nest. Yesterday we discovered that the blue tit nest

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and those chicks being fed by a blue tit female are, in fact, great tit

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chicks. How on earth did that happen? Well, before we explore that

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let's rewind a little bit to look at that amazing single mother.

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She is a blue tit mother. She had eight chicks to begin with. She was

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working so hard as a single mother feeding them. It's amazing any of

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them survived. Just four survived. You know what, she fed them twice as

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much as she should be feeding her own blue tit chicks. She brooded

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them. She fed them more. She cleaned the nest. As they started to grow

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feathers, we noticed that, in fact, they were not blue tits at all, they

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were great tits, which is is an extraordinary revelation. It is.

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It's a bit of a mystery. We thought we would try and solve the mystery

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by going straight back to the beginning to the egg stage. We were

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lucky enough to find this nest when it had eggs and start filming. Let's

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look at the eggs. Here is the clutch in that nest box. You might, if you

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are keen-sighted, see some look larger than others. They look the

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same size as the great tits illustrated on the right of the

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screen. When we break it down some smaller ones, we think four are blue

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tits eggs. Five appear to be larger and three or four we can't actually

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identify. Then, of course, when they hatch we

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had this single size group of young here. They all appeared to be the

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same size. A few days later when more of the eggs have hatched you

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see there is a size difference. The one at the bottom appears

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considerably larger than some of the others. After a couple of days when

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the adult had been feeding them there is no doubt about it at all,

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the four at the top of the screen are moch larger. Initially we

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thought this was because they were advertising more, getting food more

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quickly, they were growing more quickly. We didn't suspect they were

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a different species. These are the great tit youngsters. Those at the

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bottom and the poor little thing there on the right side of the

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screen are the blue tit youngsters. Then they disappeared. All those

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blue tits unfortunately died. At this stage we still couldn't see

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what they were. By 12 days old we were suspicious because they were

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yellow throated and there at 14 days old you can see they've got that

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yellow band at the back of the head. Yellow on the chest, black cap. If

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you contrast them with great tits - sorry blue tits of the same age

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they're distinctly different birds. Absolutely fascinating. It's been

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amazing to look back at that footage. None of us really noticed.

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Then when you look you can see it's quite obvious they're different

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chicks. Yeah. What happened, that's the question? We suppose it could be

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this. Firstly, could it have been egg dumping, one bird flies to

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another nest and lays eggs. That happens in some species, but not in

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tits. It's unlikely that the blue tit had a nest and the great tit lay

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eggs here. We think the great tit probably started the nest and laid a

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clutch of eggs and then something happened to them. They deserted

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them. Maybe they were even killed by our sparrowhawk. The blue tits'

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single mother was so keen to breed thieves prospecting, found the nest

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-- keen to breed. And she started to incubate them. The great tit eggs

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were there first and hatched first. Then she had an advantage and she

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fed those preferentially and when her own eggs hatched they couldn't

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survive. Particularly as we had that very wet weather here last week and

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that would have reduced the feeding and that impinged more on the

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development of the baby blue tits than the great tits and they were

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lost. That's a probably scenario. We will never know. All the Sherlocks

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and the Holmes have been at work here throughout the day and that's

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the best we can come up with. That poor, single mum has been

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working really hard. Work has been done on other species and it shows

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when it goes down to a single parent, and that is their own young,

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it actually impinges greatly on the ability for that adult to survive

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the rest of the season post-fledging fulsome she is putting an enormous

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amount of energy into rearing and other species young for no benefit

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whatsoever and she is wearing herself out in the process. A sad

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story. We would not know any of that we did not have those nest cameras

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in the nest box. It is amazing the insight they have given us. Do all

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animals have personalities or are we just being a little bit

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anthropomorphic. Martin has been delving deeper.

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She's loyal, she's a little bit greedy and she's as brave as a lion.

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But other dogs are quite timid, some are more aggressive.

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And dogs, like many mammals, have real personalities.

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But how about invertebrates, things like insects, spiders, snails -

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Well, there is one group - the molluscs - that may be

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just about to change our perceptions completely.

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Meet the cephalopods, otherwise known as octopus,

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And all of them can be found right here in the British Isles.

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What's fascinating is that new evidence suggests these

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underwater animals may have distinct and even complex personalities.

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Dr Gavin Cooke of Bangor University has been carrying out research

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To investigate this theory further, Gavin has set up an experiment.

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In one tank is a timid cuttlefish and in the other a braver animal.

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Both are siblings and will raise together in capivity.

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This one seems to be hiding away now.

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It's got the right colour, the right texture, too.

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You can probably see this one clearer.

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That's very distinctively different and yet they're siblings.

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For this test we're going to present each animal with two prey items

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of different sizes - one small crab and one large crab.

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Neither cuttlefish has been fed and both should be equally hungry.

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By analysing their reactions to the size of prey they choose

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to attack, we can determine the temperament of the individual.

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They often don't recover from their injuries.

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Bacterial infections can kill them ultimately,

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so risk-averse cuttlefish would treat their prey

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more delicately and be wary of them.

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Exactly as you thought, very, very little response.

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It's not become conspicious in any way so it's perhaps a little bit

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wary of revealing itself right now which would indicate that it's

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It doesn't overcome its fearfulness of the environment to hunt

:18:54.:18:59.

What will its sibling do when presented with

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Yeah, you can see it has seen the crabs.

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This is just one of several experiments Gavin has carried out

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on cuttlefish and his research clearly indicates

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cephalopods really do have distinct behavioural differences.

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So a shy, more cautious cuttlefish may thrive in an area

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with lots of predators, while a bold individual may take

:19:54.:19:56.

The right personality trait in the right environment could give

:19:57.:19:59.

It's easy to understand personality when it comes to dogs, like my Pip,

:20:00.:20:09.

yet it's truly remarkable to think of the possibility that all species

:20:10.:20:12.

Remarkable animals and incredibly intelligent, the octopus, the squid

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and the cuttlefish. Whilst there might be an advantage to being timid

:20:31.:20:35.

and shy, there must also be an advantage to being bold, otherwise

:20:36.:20:39.

evolutionary that would not persist. There is a species here at Minsmere

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we have been looking at where there is a difference between their

:20:45.:20:48.

personalities, this time between the sexes. It is the rabbits. At birth,

:20:49.:21:00.

dashes at birth, there is a sex ratio of 1-1 between males and

:21:01.:21:07.

females. Later there are three times more females than males. It is

:21:08.:21:10.

because the males have to be bold. They had to come above ground and

:21:11.:21:15.

there are established dominance hierarchies. Here we can see a bold

:21:16.:21:21.

mail. If you are above ground, being dominant, you are preoccupied by

:21:22.:21:25.

getting one-upmanship on other male animals, you are not looking out for

:21:26.:21:30.

predators. You are making yourself available to all the predators. The

:21:31.:21:37.

male population get weeded out and that is why there are more female

:21:38.:21:41.

rabbits underground than males on the surface. There is an advantage

:21:42.:21:47.

to being bold. If you survive the predators, you are the dominant male

:21:48.:21:51.

and you will pass on your genes. There are winners and losers on both

:21:52.:21:56.

sides of timid and bold. You have to think of the words of Maurice eagled

:21:57.:22:01.

he said, China. You from doing everything in life you would like

:22:02.:22:06.

to. I always say, fortune favours the brave. How about you? I do not

:22:07.:22:19.

know how to come back to Chris. We are trying to do a live bird ringing

:22:20.:22:24.

session. We have been lucky and caught birds. This is not a corn,

:22:25.:22:35.

ladies and gentlemen. Roger... -- a con. I was watching these GIF chats

:22:36.:22:51.

-- chiff-chaffs. I need to work out which way around they are. It is a

:22:52.:23:03.

black cap. The incredible thing about that is this is one of our

:23:04.:23:07.

birds. We have ringed it before here in a previous year at Minsmere. We

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have recourse in here tonight. The thing to do is check how old it is.

:23:20.:23:27.

One thing I can notice is this outer feather looks a slightly different

:23:28.:23:31.

shade. It tells me it is a bird born last year. It has one old feather

:23:32.:23:38.

from last year. This bird is one-year-old. It is male because it

:23:39.:23:43.

has a black cap. If I blow on its stomach, you will see what it has

:23:44.:23:49.

been up to. Whether it has had incubation on the nest. Shed some

:23:50.:23:55.

duties of the incubation of the eggs and looking after the chicks.

:23:56.:24:03.

Keeping them warm. That is right. A stunning bird. I would do a wing

:24:04.:24:08.

measurement. I have to process the bird and get on with it. 75

:24:09.:24:17.

weighing. We also have to weigh it. It looks a bit unorthodox. If I ask

:24:18.:24:22.

it to sit on the scales, you know what will happen. Both are used to

:24:23.:24:27.

being in dark places. I will pop it into the pot upside down. It will

:24:28.:24:34.

stay there for a fraction of a second. That is it. The bird has

:24:35.:24:40.

been processed. It will fly off and we will see it. Here we go. Goodbye.

:24:41.:24:53.

Fantastic! Beautiful! What a lovely job. Let's have a look at these

:24:54.:24:58.

rings. They asked me to hold the right way around. The rings vary

:24:59.:25:03.

from this whopping great exercise like that. That is an owl ring. They

:25:04.:25:09.

have asked me to hold it steadily. I do not know if that is the right way

:25:10.:25:15.

around. That is an a a ring. Fantastic! They are carrying on

:25:16.:25:24.

processing. I have to tell you last year they managed to find just to

:25:25.:25:31.

bullfinches. Just two. This year they have managed to ring eight.

:25:32.:25:37.

Numbers seem to be going up at Minsmere and we have managed to get

:25:38.:25:45.

a live camera on a bullfinch nest. Look at that! Beautiful! They are

:25:46.:25:50.

the most wonderful parents. We have been watching them over the last

:25:51.:25:54.

couple of days. They are lovebirds. They seem to do everything together.

:25:55.:25:59.

Here is the female. And there are the chicks. The mail comes in. He

:26:00.:26:08.

has chewed up the seeds and gives them to the female and they both

:26:09.:26:12.

share the duties of beating the chicks. They seem to do everything

:26:13.:26:27.

together. -- feeding. There are the chicks and here she comes. If she is

:26:28.:26:32.

there, seconds later, the mail comes in as well. It is a lovely family

:26:33.:26:41.

gathering. Four chicks. What a beautiful, loving couple. We'll be

:26:42.:26:45.

keeping a very close I on them. Meanwhile, from the bird ringers,

:26:46.:26:54.

back to Chris and Michaela. I like them. They are like the Richard and

:26:55.:27:03.

Judy of the bird world. A lovely couple. They sit on the sofa. Even

:27:04.:27:10.

throughout the winter time, the same male and female will be together all

:27:11.:27:13.

the way through the winter. One of the only species that does that

:27:14.:27:19.

during the -- in the UK. What is also rather lovely is that for the

:27:20.:27:22.

first time the sheet we have managed to get some cameras into the nest of

:27:23.:27:29.

a golden eagle and we have been enjoying fabulous images of these

:27:30.:27:32.

birds. The youngster has put on quite a lot of growth. Here it is,

:27:33.:27:38.

nearly three weeks old, standing upright. Not on its speed but on its

:27:39.:27:44.

haunches. It is resting on parts of its legs. -- it's feet. It has a

:27:45.:27:57.

crop, and expanding, muscular pouch which is used as a food store. It

:27:58.:28:04.

separates the end just of a part of their diet, the feathers and so

:28:05.:28:07.

forth so that they can produce a pellet. From this period, the young

:28:08.:28:12.

bird is just like the adults, producing perhaps a single pellet

:28:13.:28:16.

daily which it will squeeze out of its mouth with all the indigestible

:28:17.:28:22.

bits in it. We have been really lucky. We have seen gorgeous shots

:28:23.:28:27.

of the mother feeding the chicks. There was something rather

:28:28.:28:30.

interesting that we noticed. The first 30 days, the Motherwell have

:28:31.:28:35.

two of bits of flesh off to feed the chicks. -- the mother will have two

:28:36.:28:47.

care bits of flesh off. This is not endearing for the young. We wondered

:28:48.:28:51.

whether that was to lubricate the meat, particularly when it had fur

:28:52.:28:58.

on it or it was drive. Someone suggested maybe it was that fauna. A

:28:59.:29:06.

bit like us taking a probiotic. It has good bacteria and held it

:29:07.:29:11.

swallowed the food down. I am going for lubrication, without a moment of

:29:12.:29:22.

doubt. For the first few days, the adult does try to feed them meet

:29:23.:29:36.

without any of that. As for the gut fauna, saliva does have a lot of

:29:37.:29:43.

valuable bacteria, even our saliva, dog saliva. It is cleansing and

:29:44.:29:48.

helps to clean wounds. It is not ever recorded in birds and maybe it

:29:49.:29:53.

has to be investigated further. Why does it drivel? Lubrication, perhaps

:29:54.:30:07.

colostrum. -- dribble. We have also had a privileged view of being able

:30:08.:30:11.

to look inside the mouth of an eagle. This is the youngster and it

:30:12.:30:15.

is yawning. It is very different in mammals. This square here, opening

:30:16.:30:23.

at the back, it is where the nasal passages run down to the back of the

:30:24.:30:28.

throat. That happens at the roof of our skull and it is where the

:30:29.:30:34.

oesophagus starts, with stomach is starting, and it happens further

:30:35.:30:38.

down in our throat whether stomach, the oesophagus and the trachea,

:30:39.:30:42.

separate. Why is this happening in the mouth and not the throat of the

:30:43.:30:48.

bird? It is simple. The bird does not want to have all of this

:30:49.:30:52.

apparatus in its scope. It wants the skull to house its brain and how is

:30:53.:31:00.

two huge eyes. That is what an eagle skull is about. Small is and a small

:31:01.:31:04.

brain but massive eyes. That is why it had structured its anatomy

:31:05.:31:09.

differently. Amazing to get a picture like that. How money people

:31:10.:31:12.

ever looked into the mouth of a golden eagle chick?

:31:13.:31:16.

We have had lots of birds of prey on the show, golden eagle, sparrowhawk,

:31:17.:31:24.

last week we had that amazing falcon. The lovely white bird. With

:31:25.:31:29.

which is your favourite? I am going sparrowhawk without a shadow of a

:31:30.:31:32.

doubt. No contest. I thought you would. I go for the big large sexy

:31:33.:31:36.

birds, so the golden eagle I think is mine. To be honest, you have

:31:37.:31:40.

never really gone for the obvious, have you? You tend to always support

:31:41.:31:46.

the slightly less endearing creatures. Dare I say it, the

:31:47.:31:48.

smellier One Shows? The grass snake is one

:31:49.:31:53.

of my favourite animals. But it is very elusive and hardly

:31:54.:32:01.

anything is known about its distribution

:32:02.:32:03.

and population in the UK. So, when I heard there was a site

:32:04.:32:05.

just up the road in Norfolk where Angela Winnett

:32:06.:32:08.

was studying them, I simply How many of these have

:32:09.:32:10.

you got out, Angela? Not something you want to see

:32:11.:32:14.

in close-up. It is this smell they are producing

:32:15.:32:42.

to try to stop me predating them. When I was an eight-year-old,

:32:43.:32:56.

out catching snakes like this, if I smelt of that when I got home,

:32:57.:33:02.

I'd been successful. I suppose not many people

:33:03.:33:05.

are going to like that. Oh, it's quite heady

:33:06.:33:08.

when there are four of them. It's worth saying, Angela,

:33:09.:33:13.

once you start handling them, Rather than just the perverse

:33:14.:33:16.

love of the smell and admiration for the snake,

:33:17.:33:25.

what are you up to here? My work is focussed on counting

:33:26.:33:27.

them, trying to find out how many are on the site,

:33:28.:33:30.

as well as monitoring their seasonality and trying to see

:33:31.:33:32.

at what point throughout Already we have seen more

:33:33.:33:35.

than the peak of last year. We have seen 35,

:33:36.:33:42.

that's been the most. To find a site with over 35 snakes

:33:43.:33:44.

in one square kilometre Angela is using a unique

:33:45.:33:52.

attribute of the snakes You are doing something

:33:53.:33:59.

which I really wish I'd thought You are looking at their ventral

:34:00.:34:04.

scale patterns here, aren't you? Yes, they are a great

:34:05.:34:10.

fingerprint to be able The ability to uniquely identify

:34:11.:34:14.

individuals means that Angela's survey will avoid double counting

:34:15.:34:20.

the same snakes and give Are you ready to move

:34:21.:34:23.

your fingers away? Once you have got these photographs,

:34:24.:34:30.

it means you can identify these individuals and see

:34:31.:34:37.

whether they are moving around this site, whether they are coming

:34:38.:34:39.

back year after year. I hate to say it but it is

:34:40.:34:41.

smartly simple, isn't it? Something that could be done

:34:42.:34:46.

anywhere else in the country. Yes, we don't know how to conserve

:34:47.:34:49.

a species if we don't know It is very important

:34:50.:34:52.

for conservation to see what these snakes are doing and get

:34:53.:34:55.

out and find them. Let's put her back

:34:56.:35:00.

underneath her shelter. If that had happened

:35:01.:35:12.

when I was about eight, I'd be Snakes, fabulous. Can never get

:35:13.:35:39.

enough. Here are the photographs that Angela and I took that

:35:40.:35:43.

afternoon. You can see that this pattern here

:35:44.:35:47.

is very clearly distinguishable. One black mark here. One here. This one

:35:48.:35:51.

is very different with three. A couple of black squares on this one.

:35:52.:35:57.

It's retained from year to year even when the snakes shed their skins, of

:35:58.:36:00.

course. I have to tell you it's perfectly legal for to you pick up

:36:01.:36:03.

grass snakes. This is something that you could do for yourself. If you

:36:04.:36:07.

have a population of them. Can I ask to you get advice before you do

:36:08.:36:12.

that, because you have to handle them very gently. They're soft

:36:13.:36:17.

bellied and you don't want to damage their internal organs. Building up a

:36:18.:36:20.

database like this across the country and looking at various

:36:21.:36:24.

populations would be a good thing because we need to under-Stanmore

:36:25.:36:29.

about these animals, just as we do a species of snakes here. One of the

:36:30.:36:36.

way we monitor these is by putting out sheets. These are attractive

:36:37.:36:40.

because they warm up and these animals like that, especially first

:36:41.:36:44.

thing in the morning, here is an adder on top of a piece of steel.

:36:45.:36:48.

When it gets much hotter then that steel gets too hot for the snakes

:36:49.:36:54.

and they beat a hasty retreat. Beautiful animal, the adder, of

:36:55.:36:58.

course. Easily distinguished from the grass snake as you can see

:36:59.:37:03.

there, that zigzag pattern on the back of this female, no danger of

:37:04.:37:08.

confusing them. When it warms up they take shelter underneath the

:37:09.:37:12.

iron. We thought why don't we put a camera underneath there? What have

:37:13.:37:18.

we seen so far? We have seen a beetle. And we have seen a snail and

:37:19.:37:28.

we have seen... Um... A large slug but no adders. Keep an eye on it, I

:37:29.:37:34.

am certain at one stage an adder will sneak underneath there.

:37:35.:37:37.

It would be great to see one under there. I am jealous, four grass

:37:38.:37:42.

snakes. Beautiful. He was very stinky when he came back from that!

:37:43.:37:51.

He loves it. As we know Minsmera has a variety of habitats. One of the

:37:52.:37:55.

most famous is this one. We can go to it live.

:37:56.:37:59.

It's the scrape. It's a series of Islands that are sur round rounded

:38:00.:38:08.

by a shallow lagoon ideal for gulls, tern and avocets. There is plenty of

:38:09.:38:12.

action on that scrape at this time of night. We have live cameras also

:38:13.:38:20.

on an avocet nest. Here it is. It's just one of 101 pairs that are

:38:21.:38:25.

nesting on that scrape this year. That's 10% of the UK breeding

:38:26.:38:30.

population. They usually nest the third week of April so this pair is

:38:31.:38:37.

either late or it could be a second nest attempt. Very important nest.

:38:38.:38:43.

The RSPB manage that scrape specifically for these birds.

:38:44.:38:46.

They're very beautiful. So elegant. They're gorgeous. Lovely.

:38:47.:38:51.

Now the eggs of that avocet are due to hatch any time now. When they do,

:38:52.:38:55.

they're going to join a whole throng of other chicks down on the scrape.

:38:56.:39:03.

Especially these little ones, these are black-headed gull chicks moving

:39:04.:39:06.

very slowly. That's in slow motion there! They don't look anything like

:39:07.:39:09.

the parents at all. They're interesting. When they hatch out

:39:10.:39:14.

from the nest on the scrape quite quickly they'll leave the nest and

:39:15.:39:22.

move around looking for food. They can skrim, not very well. Being

:39:23.:39:27.

carefully looked after by mum and dad. -- swim. They reckon there is

:39:28.:39:32.

something like 2,000 chicks down on the scrape of various sorts. An epic

:39:33.:39:37.

number. Martin, they're not the only gulls on the scrape. There are

:39:38.:39:42.

black-backed gulls flying around. They are the pirates of the scrape.

:39:43.:39:46.

Plundering lots of the chicks. I warn you this is gruesome. If you

:39:47.:39:52.

can bear it, it's very interesting. This gull flies down. As soon as it

:39:53.:39:57.

gets down to the scrape it gets mobbed by all of the other birds.

:39:58.:40:04.

It's not going to give up, though. This is easy pickings for this gull.

:40:05.:40:11.

If you look you can see that the black-backed gull has a black-headed

:40:12.:40:16.

chick in its mouth. It flies off with it. Look what

:40:17.:40:19.

happens next. Doesn't waste any time. It swallows it whole. As

:40:20.:40:26.

Martin said, there are about 2,000 chicks here. The gulls are certainly

:40:27.:40:32.

making the most of it. It sees one in the water, it fights off a few of

:40:33.:40:38.

those black-headed gulls again. It gets the chick. It's having a bit

:40:39.:40:45.

of a problem flying off with this one because it's quite large.

:40:46.:40:49.

It has second thoughts and drops that chick. Maybe a lucky escape for

:40:50.:40:56.

that one. There are lots of chicks there. It gives them plenty of

:40:57.:41:03.

opportunities to have a very quick and easy meal. There goes another

:41:04.:41:09.

one. Straightaway swallowed it. It's not just chicks, Martin. Look at

:41:10.:41:13.

this one. It flies down again. It's getting mobbed. Goes to the nest. It

:41:14.:41:22.

takes an egg. In this case, the egg gets dropped. But they really don't

:41:23.:41:30.

give up. It's like a chick banquet. Those black-backed gulls are

:41:31.:41:35.

absolutely relentless. It's amazing that anything survives, actually. In

:41:36.:41:40.

fact, none of the acocet chicks so far this year have survived because

:41:41.:41:45.

they've all been predated. She just inhaled a mint while she was doing

:41:46.:41:48.

that bit, I would just like to say and she carried on. A proper

:41:49.:41:53.

trooper! We are surrounded by them now. -- inhaled a bug! It's not only

:41:54.:41:59.

gulls Kraussing problems potentially. They've -- causing

:42:00.:42:04.

problems potentially. They've trouble with the neighbours.

:42:05.:42:10.

Shelducks. Here is the acocet. Everyone is running away. In comes

:42:11.:42:16.

the shelduck with all the chicks making that poor avocet very

:42:17.:42:19.

nervous. Now she gets her own back here. The chicks are on their own,

:42:20.:42:25.

if she piles. Hassling them. This is a game of

:42:26.:42:32.

three halves. After that it goes back the other way again. There is

:42:33.:42:37.

the adult. Then back at the nest. Look at this.

:42:38.:42:43.

The shelduck comes in. That's a big bird compared to the avocet and

:42:44.:42:48.

takes a chunk out of here. Oh! A load of feathers taken out of it.

:42:49.:42:52.

The poor old avocets are having a grim time. They are this year. They

:42:53.:42:57.

had a better year last year. They had a good year last year. There

:42:58.:43:01.

were 60 nests and they managed to hatch out 58 chicks last year which

:43:02.:43:05.

is a really good year. Not such a good year this year. They only have

:43:06.:43:09.

to replace themselves in their lifetime to keep their numbers

:43:10.:43:13.

level. If they produce two chicks in their lifetime which could be as

:43:14.:43:16.

long as 15 years, on average seven years, then they've done it. They've

:43:17.:43:23.

achieved what they're on earth for! Now yesterday we enjoyed seeing the

:43:24.:43:31.

wild boar and their tiny humbugs, well, they weren't that tiny! They

:43:32.:43:37.

were out and about in the Forest of Dean in the sunset. We decided to

:43:38.:43:38.

see what they get up to after dark. The Forest of Dean looks rather

:43:39.:43:55.

glosly on our tight-time camera. -- ghostly on our night-time camera.

:43:56.:43:59.

After dark is when the wild boar are most active.

:44:00.:44:06.

This large social group of nearly 30 boar called a sounder has many

:44:07.:44:13.

mouths to feed. With the cooler evening

:44:14.:44:20.

temperatures, cold can be a killer for the little boarlet's.

:44:21.:44:25.

Their tiny bodies glow white hot on our special camera.

:44:26.:44:30.

But this is just the start for them of a long night of foraging.

:44:31.:44:38.

They're highly sensitive food-finding snouts leave trails of

:44:39.:44:42.

warm breath in their wake as they rootle.

:44:43.:44:50.

Moist knowses are key to picking up the scent of buried food -- noses.

:44:51.:44:57.

And as each patch of woodland is exhausted, the dominant sow keeps

:44:58.:44:58.

moving the sounder on. Fun night forays will bring them

:44:59.:45:18.

closer to people's houses. Cars are a real danger and the sounder has

:45:19.:45:28.

two stick together for real safety. In the dark they communicate with a

:45:29.:45:34.

variety of noises. Snorts of alarm, squeals of displeasure. And, as they

:45:35.:45:45.

are feeding, quiet rumbles of contentment. The continual snacking

:45:46.:45:50.

and walking can go on for up to eight hours during the night. A

:45:51.:45:56.

rolling wave of hungry snouts hoovering the forest floor. The

:45:57.:46:02.

lactating sows have to eat well to ensure their milk supply. With the

:46:03.:46:06.

youngsters in tow they must take time out to nurse before they are on

:46:07.:46:13.

the move once again. By dawn, the poor often circle back to their

:46:14.:46:20.

starting point, close to their refuge. They may have covered ten

:46:21.:46:28.

kilometres overnight and a seemingly never-ending journey for the tiny

:46:29.:46:36.

boarlets. Exhausted, they sleep, before doing it all again tomorrow.

:46:37.:46:45.

Entrancing views. Rather magical, like a fairy tale down in the woods.

:46:46.:46:53.

Unfortunately not everyone is taken by the poor and we will be

:46:54.:46:56.

investigating a human aspect of their relationship tomorrow night.

:46:57.:47:03.

We have been featuring lots of Superman 's and we will show you

:47:04.:47:06.

another one that inhabits this grassland. It is our mother stoat.

:47:07.:47:17.

Yesterday we saw it predate a rabbit. We followed her yesterday

:47:18.:47:24.

and we have some gorgeous shots of the kits. Here are three of the

:47:25.:47:30.

eight she has, which are moving. Where not sure how old these kits 's

:47:31.:47:39.

are. They start to make their own kills. They must be between six and

:47:40.:47:46.

11 weeks. We are guessing they are probably about 9-10 weeks old. The

:47:47.:47:52.

average date of birth in Suffolk is early April. She had left one

:47:53.:47:57.

behind. She stood up and called it. It took no notice and she went to

:47:58.:48:02.

get it. Now it is following her. Really lovely to see you. Absolutely

:48:03.:48:09.

beautiful. She has moved three and now she must move the other five.

:48:10.:48:16.

This is not terribly unusual. Once every couple of days, the stoats

:48:17.:48:21.

will keep moving their kits around. It is amazing how old they are.

:48:22.:48:27.

Sometimes they are incredibly shy. Look at this! The whole family

:48:28.:48:35.

walking right by visitors to Minsmere. Right by their feet! It is

:48:36.:48:41.

amazing to see them morgue trotting across the grass, to their new home,

:48:42.:48:48.

wherever that might be. She bounds across the ground and they slink

:48:49.:48:52.

across. When she is coming back here with the other five, they are stuck

:48:53.:48:57.

to her. They move almost as one animal. Like elders through a

:48:58.:49:05.

stream. Stoats and beg young move through the grass. Why are they

:49:06.:49:10.

moving? -- bear young. It could be the den where she has had them has

:49:11.:49:18.

been disturbed. There are not many foxes but badgers could have found

:49:19.:49:22.

them. It is equally likely she could be leading them to food. If she has

:49:23.:49:27.

caught another adult rabbits, sometimes she will go to them and

:49:28.:49:33.

move them to the food. It is a huge family to feed and a huge family to

:49:34.:49:38.

move. Imagine with eight kids in tow! If you have been reading the

:49:39.:49:46.

papers he may have seen a bird hitting the headlines. It is an

:49:47.:49:53.

Arctic turn, an extraordinary bird. Yellow Williams has managed to come

:49:54.:49:54.

face to face. -- Iolo Williams. Last year, some of you may remember

:49:55.:50:05.

that Springwatch's very own Nick Baker helped out

:50:06.:50:07.

on an exciting new research project on the Arctic tern colony

:50:08.:50:10.

here on Inner Farne. Dr Richard Bevan and Dr Chris

:50:11.:50:18.

Redfern from the University of Newcastle designed

:50:19.:50:22.

and successfully fitted 28 geo-locator tags to try and unlock

:50:23.:50:24.

the secrets of the incredible migration of Arctic

:50:25.:50:27.

terns from this colony. We have been waiting with baited

:50:28.:50:35.

breath to find out whether any of the birds would make it back and,

:50:36.:50:38.

if they did, what they might reveal Well, I am delighted to be able

:50:39.:50:42.

to tell you that many of them have been spotted back on the island

:50:43.:50:53.

and Chris and Richard have returned today to try to retrieve some

:50:54.:50:56.

of that data. Richard, Chris,

:50:57.:51:03.

how are you both? You must be like expectant parents,

:51:04.:51:04.

waiting for the birds to come back. I have to say, I thought

:51:05.:51:09.

I had the worst hat How has it been

:51:10.:51:13.

for the terns so far? They have been slowed to settle

:51:14.:51:25.

down, compared to last year. You don't want to get them straight

:51:26.:51:29.

after they have laid but a few days afterwards so that they have

:51:30.:51:33.

that bond with the nest. If it was me, I would be

:51:34.:51:35.

jumping up and down, Until you have the bird

:51:36.:51:40.

in the hands, that is The team used the visitor centre

:51:41.:51:43.

as a makeshift hide. Keeping their distance while waiting

:51:44.:51:50.

for one of their tagged birds We let her settle down and get

:51:51.:51:53.

in the zone for incubating her eggs. When she has settled,

:51:54.:52:17.

we will think about trapping her. There is a lot of waiting

:52:18.:52:19.

in this game, is now? After making sure the bird has

:52:20.:52:23.

started to incubate again, it is time to go out

:52:24.:52:25.

with master trapper Chris. The trap is carefully placed

:52:26.:52:27.

over the eggs and works Right, we should go and let her

:52:28.:52:30.

come back down. We will wait here while Chris

:52:31.:52:42.

goes in to get her. With the tag removed,

:52:43.:53:05.

it's time to release her. The important thing now

:53:06.:53:13.

is to let her go so she can get back As you can see she's

:53:14.:53:16.

a feisty girl, as well. Now we have the next worry bit,

:53:17.:53:20.

which is, is there data on there? The tags use a light sensor

:53:21.:53:37.

to record the day length and when this is combined

:53:38.:53:40.

with a date and time data, we can work out the bird's

:53:41.:53:43.

global position and plot Well, that's the theory

:53:44.:53:46.

anyway. This is still raw data at this stage

:53:47.:53:51.

and will take time to process. Off the West Coast of

:53:52.:54:03.

Africa, look. But already we can see

:54:04.:54:04.

that our globe-trotting tern has been all the way to the bottom

:54:05.:54:11.

of the world and back. I have to say that is actually quite

:54:12.:54:15.

mind-blowing because we are talking here about a bird that weighs

:54:16.:54:21.

less than 100 grams. About 100 grams, that's travelled

:54:22.:54:23.

all the way down off the Iberian peninsula,

:54:24.:54:27.

off the West Coast of Africa, all the way down around the Horn,

:54:28.:54:31.

down to Antarctica. It's travelled widely when it's gone

:54:32.:54:35.

down there, as well. All the way back up,

:54:36.:54:38.

not just to the UK, And then it's got the energy,

:54:39.:54:41.

when we go out, to attack us. I can tell you the team has

:54:42.:55:16.

recovered 15 of those data loggers. A lot more data will be forthcoming.

:55:17.:55:21.

We have a map of this remarkable journey. The young tern took off

:55:22.:55:30.

last July and moved all the way down here, round the south part of Africa

:55:31.:55:34.

and into the southern Indian Ocean where it hang around for about a

:55:35.:55:38.

month. Then it moved down to Antarctica. This is where it was

:55:39.:55:45.

active for that period. It stayed there for some considerable time.

:55:46.:55:49.

Then it went over here and ended up down here where it spent most of

:55:50.:55:58.

March. Then, remarkably, on 23rd of March, it made the return journey.

:55:59.:56:02.

It went up to South Africa and reached here about 4th of April.

:56:03.:56:07.

Another month and it was back here in the farm islands on the 4th of

:56:08.:56:15.

May. An incredible journey. -- Farne. That bird has travelled

:56:16.:56:24.

60,000 miles. That will make it the longest recorded bird migration ever

:56:25.:56:30.

in the world. Fact. It is a record-breaker. Fantastic stuff!

:56:31.:56:39.

More data to come. It could be longer. Let's have a look at our

:56:40.:56:48.

live owls. They are out and about. Could it be they are semi-fledging?

:56:49.:56:54.

They have laughed up. Look how different they are. -- fluffed up.

:56:55.:57:05.

Let's go to the bullfinches. A loving couple. Late into the night.

:57:06.:57:10.

We have been filming around the site. We have seen this. You know

:57:11.:57:21.

this feeling... So embarrassed. I will go down the hole! We are coming

:57:22.:57:28.

to the end of our programme. Do join us tomorrow on BBC Two. The last

:57:29.:57:40.

people to do some poems. Tomorrow night I should be going out and

:57:41.:57:44.

about. -- we shall ask the people. I shall be getting into the water with

:57:45.:57:51.

this little fellow. We follow one man's to introduce a long, lost

:57:52.:57:59.

species, the fabulous great busted. A unique opportunity for you. You

:58:00.:58:06.

have the opportunity to name this small species of clap. It was

:58:07.:58:10.

thought to be extinct for some time but now it is back.

:58:11.:58:20.

-- crab. Do keep an eye on our live cameras which will be there 20 hours

:58:21.:58:31.

a day. See you tomorrow. Goodbye. This woman is doing

:58:32.:59:01.

this amazing thing -

:59:02.:59:06.

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