:00:08. > :00:14.I am closer to the action than ever before. I'm going to be reporting
:00:15. > :00:19.down here from the Scrape, where the battle for survival is reaching a
:00:20. > :00:26.crescendo. And I am down on the beach, where young animals are
:00:27. > :00:34.facing a fight of their lives. It has been a day of high drama in the
:00:35. > :00:45.woods. We've had a stoat on the rampage, and add on the attack --
:00:46. > :00:47.adder and before we came on air, and incredible encounter. Strap
:00:48. > :01:11.yourselves in for an incredible show. Oh, yes, it's Springwatch!
:01:12. > :01:17.What a day, I can't remember a day on Springwatch when we've had this
:01:18. > :01:22.much action. Switch the cattle off, there won't be time for a cup of
:01:23. > :01:30.tea. Stay on the sofa and watch some of the best wildlife action you will
:01:31. > :01:34.see for some time. Welcome, we are here at Minsmere, as we are at this
:01:35. > :01:39.time of year, and this is home to the Scrape, this habitat is home to
:01:40. > :01:43.15 different species of bird. One of the Keats PCs that we've got here,
:01:44. > :01:52.these black headed gulls Mac -- the key species. These islands, they are
:01:53. > :01:55.surrounded by shallow water and they choose them because they are secure
:01:56. > :02:00.from ground predators, things like foxes and badgers can't reach them.
:02:01. > :02:10.They are fenced out. They are having a great time breeding. But they are
:02:11. > :02:22.and are listed, so we have to look after them. Poor Amber -- Amber.
:02:23. > :02:33.There is a larger BC 's of Minsmere -- gull, the blackhead gulls. Trying
:02:34. > :02:38.to drive them away. This is in slow motion, you can imagine how this
:02:39. > :02:41.happens, the lesser ones are real masters at sweeping in, grabbing the
:02:42. > :02:47.check and within a couple of seconds they have swallowed the black headed
:02:48. > :02:51.gulls chick. Things are tough here, it is eight tough place and there is
:02:52. > :02:57.little place to hide if you are a check. One place we have been
:02:58. > :03:03.following, the avocet. We can go to their nest now. I can't tell you if
:03:04. > :03:10.it is a male or not, both of them incubate the eggs, but beneath this
:03:11. > :03:14.bird there are four eggs. They are very good at looking after them, I
:03:15. > :03:19.have to say. If anything gets too close, both of the adults will rush
:03:20. > :03:24.in and chase it off. We saw it last night, when the programme finished
:03:25. > :03:30.be carried on watching and look, a Canada Goose is having the temerity
:03:31. > :03:35.to stray within about five or six metres of the avocet's nest and
:03:36. > :03:40.immediately it chased it away. And here at the moment, while they got
:03:41. > :03:44.eggs, as long as the bird is sitting, that black headed gulls
:03:45. > :03:53.shouldn't be too much of a threat. The other member of the pair goes
:03:54. > :04:01.straight over and chases that gull away. This is a hive of activity and
:04:02. > :04:05.it has its own ecology, a lot of interactions, a lot of prey and
:04:06. > :04:12.predators. Let's see what we can find. There they are, that is the
:04:13. > :04:23.lesser black backed gull out on the Scrape or it could be a heron gull.
:04:24. > :04:28.One of the larger gull species. They might be nonbreeding birds because
:04:29. > :04:33.with the gull population you always get large numbers of loitering gangs
:04:34. > :04:37.of gulls like this. And some youngsters. That chequered one in
:04:38. > :04:42.the foreground, one of the younger ones. And in the foreground clearly
:04:43. > :04:50.with the charcoal back, the lesser black backed gull. We have about
:04:51. > :04:57.310,000 pairs of them in the UK but they are important, Amber listed
:04:58. > :05:02.because they are in decline. One of the predators here, as many of the
:05:03. > :05:12.gull species are, even the blackhead gulls art partial to eating others'
:05:13. > :05:20.young. This one is wolfing down gull's chick. Another one swooping
:05:21. > :05:27.in. This time they are successful at driving it away. And here's another
:05:28. > :05:34.predator. We see these birds all the time, I'm scanning around because
:05:35. > :05:40.they are normally in the air. OK, we can go live now, we have a lesser
:05:41. > :05:50.black backed gull that seems intent on raiding, taking a cheque. There
:05:51. > :05:57.are the blackhead gulls -- taking a chick. It seems younger, maybe it
:05:58. > :06:04.hasn't mastered the art of taking a chick. No, I think they've seen it
:06:05. > :06:08.off on this occasion. The colonial nesting habits has worked and that
:06:09. > :06:12.is one of the reasons they do that, if a predator comes in, you get more
:06:13. > :06:20.than one bird chasing it away. One thing worth saying, you mustn't
:06:21. > :06:25.demonise these gulls, it is tempting to anthropomorphise, eating these
:06:26. > :06:32.cute chicks but they have their own two feet -- they have their own that
:06:33. > :06:38.they must feed. They are rare birds, they need looking after. In fact the
:06:39. > :06:46.avocet, which we can go to now, is a bird which is on the increase in the
:06:47. > :06:50.UK. But we'll keep our eyes on the avocet and see what happens when
:06:51. > :06:59.they hatch. OK, let's have a last look around now. Here we are.
:07:00. > :07:03.Shelduck is another species that we see on this water. They don't breed
:07:04. > :07:07.here, they come here to feed and that is what that bird is doing,
:07:08. > :07:13.sifting from side to side, filtering out in vertebrates in the water. But
:07:14. > :07:20.it is too shallow for them to breed here. Martin is just down here, I
:07:21. > :07:26.can see him on the beach and that's the perfect place to explore the
:07:27. > :07:32.breeding habits of the shelduck. It is, I can see Chris over there on
:07:33. > :07:38.the Scrape, over there. I am here by and as Chris said, this is,
:07:39. > :07:44.curiously, is where shelducks might choose to breed. Why, bizarrely
:07:45. > :07:48.because they breed in burrows underground, often a rabbit burrow
:07:49. > :07:53.and this place along here will be a perfect place for them to breed and
:07:54. > :07:57.in fact they have done. When the chicks have grown up, the adult
:07:58. > :08:02.leads them out and they go to a body of water, sometimes up to a mile
:08:03. > :08:06.away, but not a mile away here, and they go out to sea. Generally that's
:08:07. > :08:13.a good idea but it doesn't always work out. Look at this, this is the
:08:14. > :08:19.beach and there are two shelduck ducklings, being knocked around by
:08:20. > :08:24.the water. Why are they there? Out at sea, the adult, that is the
:08:25. > :08:29.mother, the female and she has four shelduck ducklings with her. She has
:08:30. > :08:37.left these two behind and they don't seem able to get through the surf to
:08:38. > :08:41.join her. Oh, dear! It's a good idea for them to be out there in the sea
:08:42. > :08:46.because predators, they are quite advanced and they can dive under the
:08:47. > :08:52.water. Look at this, these are the gulls. When the chicks see it, they
:08:53. > :08:56.dive underwater. So it's quite a good protective mechanism to get out
:08:57. > :09:02.at sea but these poor little chicks, these ducklings, they can't get out
:09:03. > :09:08.to join the mum. It doesn't look great and there they are, left on
:09:09. > :09:13.the beach. Mum and their siblings are out at sea. But don't worry,
:09:14. > :09:15.folks, because there is another serious aspect of shelduck behaviour
:09:16. > :09:20.meaning they might be OK, the ducklings. We didn't see them
:09:21. > :09:25.predated, we think they are all right because shelduck ducklings,
:09:26. > :09:33.which is difficult to say, often join together in large crashes with
:09:34. > :09:37.other ducklings. They might be all right -- creches. Another bird that
:09:38. > :09:42.is well adapted to live on the beach, come with me if you can.
:09:43. > :09:53.Let's go down onto this shingle beach here. What word could possibly
:09:54. > :10:00.live on this? -- bird. It isn't very prepossessing. It is the ringed
:10:01. > :10:04.plover, the common ring plover is a misnomer because they are rare, only
:10:05. > :10:10.a few of them breed here. They make a nest on this. All they do, they
:10:11. > :10:14.scraped a little hole and that's it, that's good enough for them to have
:10:15. > :10:21.a nest. You'd think if they were sitting there, the gulls would wreck
:10:22. > :10:28.their nest instantly, so how do they do it? Superb camouflage. There is a
:10:29. > :10:35.ring plover nest in this picture. Can you see it? We are moving in.
:10:36. > :10:42.Can you see it now? It's just moved its head. You can see how
:10:43. > :10:46.brilliantly camouflage they are. We filmed the nest, the camera team
:10:47. > :10:51.found the nest, very rare, down here on the beach a few days ago and when
:10:52. > :10:59.we looked closely, we saw the eggs underneath. She's just keeping them
:11:00. > :11:06.nice and warm. Look closely at the egg, you can just see that there's a
:11:07. > :11:14.little bit of cracking. That isn't damaged, in fact it was just about
:11:15. > :11:21.to hatch, and hatch, it did. You can just see the little chicks, three of
:11:22. > :11:27.them hatching out. They are pretty social birds, they are ready for
:11:28. > :11:33.action as soon as they hatch out. Keeping cosy and warm, but not for
:11:34. > :11:37.long. When they start moving around, the camouflage is gone and look at
:11:38. > :11:44.these birds, when the little chicks come out, there is dad keeping watch
:11:45. > :11:47.in the distance, they are off! Scuttling like clockwork toys,
:11:48. > :11:53.whizzing around, packing away at the food. Not very good at finding the
:11:54. > :11:57.right food to begin with, they will peck at anything. The adults are
:11:58. > :12:02.very fierce in protecting them and they will attack anything coming
:12:03. > :12:06.close. When the chicks stop, they will disappear again into the
:12:07. > :12:12.camouflage. Marvellous, the common ring plover, which isn't common. I'm
:12:13. > :12:21.going to go in search of the rarest mammal here. I will have to delve
:12:22. > :12:26.into the watery world. I am in a very different location to
:12:27. > :12:30.Martin and Chris on the other side of the reserve. I am up the hill in
:12:31. > :12:35.the woodland and this is home to a variety of nesting birds, we have
:12:36. > :12:43.the sparrowhawk and the little owl and quite a few small garden birds
:12:44. > :12:47.nesting in trees. Let me tell you, there has been so much drama in the
:12:48. > :12:51.woodland today and it started at lunchtime with a bird that we
:12:52. > :12:58.introduced you to just yesterday, this one. It is the whitethroat
:12:59. > :13:07.family. Five chicks in there. Eight days old, they are due to fledge
:13:08. > :13:12.over the weekend. Both parents have been diligently feeding, bringing
:13:13. > :13:16.plenty of insects and the chicks have grown incredibly over the last
:13:17. > :13:20.few days, so things were going pretty well for the whitethroat
:13:21. > :13:27.chicks, until lunchtime today, when this happened. This is one of the
:13:28. > :13:33.adults, flying straight over the nest and it makes an alarm call.
:13:34. > :13:39.Look what happens, the chicks hunker down and then they exploded out of
:13:40. > :13:50.the nest. They are obviously not fledging, something has scared them
:13:51. > :13:55.away. If you look, we can see it is an adder. We have seen this on
:13:56. > :14:00.Springwatch before. This one isn't lucky because the chicks have
:14:01. > :14:06.escaped. This is a female adder which have very poor eyesight, so it
:14:07. > :14:09.hasn't seen the chicks and it is relying on something called chemo
:14:10. > :14:16.reception, which is like smell but it uses its forked tongue, like a
:14:17. > :14:22.modified nose. It is still smelling the chicks in the nest. It soon
:14:23. > :14:28.realise that there's nothing there. It comes up and has a good look at
:14:29. > :14:35.the camera. Obviously the chicks are extremely lucky to escape predation.
:14:36. > :14:39.We were watching that on the live cameras, as some of you were at
:14:40. > :14:43.home, and the first thing we wanted to know, where have the chicks gone?
:14:44. > :14:49.We sent out a cameraman and this is what he saw. He saw the adult.
:14:50. > :14:53.Obviously the first thing the parents have to do is locate the
:14:54. > :15:00.chicks. There is one, quite low down in the shrubbery. The nest is only
:15:01. > :15:08.about waist high. It has exploded out of the nest, landing there. This
:15:09. > :15:12.is the male looking for more checks gull chicks. They need to round them
:15:13. > :15:16.up as quickly as they can -- for more chicks. Here is the female
:15:17. > :15:20.coming back to make sure nothing is left.
:15:21. > :15:28.It is amazing to see that. It is only with those little cameras that
:15:29. > :15:33.we can catch that action. To see that survival instinct of the Cech
:15:34. > :15:42.is really something quite privileged. -- of the chick. As long
:15:43. > :15:46.as those parents can continue to find and feed them, they have a good
:15:47. > :15:51.chance of survival. But the drama did not stop there, it continued
:15:52. > :15:58.through the day, particularly in our bluetit nest box. We will tell you
:15:59. > :16:05.about that later. First let's travel north from Minsmere up the coast
:16:06. > :16:07.where we are still celebrating and still rather in all of the
:16:08. > :16:27.record-breaking turn. -- Arctic tern. Today we unlock the
:16:28. > :16:31.secrets of this little Arctic tern and her incredible migratory journey
:16:32. > :16:37.of almost 100,000 kilometres. That is truly amazing. I'm pleased to say
:16:38. > :16:44.she is back in her nest, happily incubating away. We've also since
:16:45. > :16:47.discovered that this Arctic tern is seven years old, which means she's
:16:48. > :16:56.travelled well over 600,000 kilometres in her lifetime. It's
:16:57. > :17:03.truly staggering. And great to see this little record-breaker's doing
:17:04. > :17:11.just fine. However, one of our other characters is not faring quite so
:17:12. > :17:15.well. You may remember Cathy, our shack, had shacked up with a new
:17:16. > :17:21.partner, and they were attempting to build a nest together in order to
:17:22. > :17:30.breed. Come and look at this. This is where the nest was. It was right
:17:31. > :17:33.here. No nest there now. We've had very windy days recently and I'm
:17:34. > :17:37.sure that would have blown some of the material off. I suspect what
:17:38. > :17:41.happened is these two pairs have stolen whatever was left. And Cathy
:17:42. > :17:46.has gone missing, we can't find Cathy. We will keep looking for her
:17:47. > :17:54.and if we come across her we will let you know. But in the meantime
:17:55. > :18:02.we've got some very exciting news indeed. Puffin X have finally been
:18:03. > :18:11.hatching over the last few days. How do we know that? We certainly
:18:12. > :18:17.haven't seen any puffin 's, they are underground, but we have spotted a
:18:18. > :18:21.lot of other activity. At this time of the year, puffin is up and down
:18:22. > :18:28.the country are returning from the sea laden with sand eels. We have
:18:29. > :18:34.been watching this feeding frenzy and whilst watching we observed this
:18:35. > :18:37.fascinating new behaviour. As the puffins has been toing and froing,
:18:38. > :18:55.they have also managed to catch another species' very BDI. Look at
:18:56. > :18:59.this. -- beady eye. What happens is because the puffin eggs has been
:19:00. > :19:05.hatching over the last few days, we are seeing this more and more. The
:19:06. > :19:10.puffin adult has to go to sea to bring back sand eels, the gulls know
:19:11. > :19:20.this and hang around and waiting for a puffin to come back, then they all
:19:21. > :19:27.jump on him. Normally a black headed gull will clip to parasitise alone.
:19:28. > :19:39.But here in the fans we've been seeing them doing it en masse. It's
:19:40. > :19:49.fascinating group behaviour. If the puffin is lucky, it manages to dodge
:19:50. > :19:52.the gulls. Now, personally, I've never seen black headed goals do it
:19:53. > :20:00.before but then again I've never seen a colony of puffins with black
:20:01. > :20:03.headed gulls nesting with them. It is quite an occurrence, to see this,
:20:04. > :20:11.it really is something quite unusual. The black headed gulls
:20:12. > :20:15.usually feed on invertebrates, large insects, earthworms, that type of
:20:16. > :20:20.thing, they would fly over to the mainland and feed on the wetland
:20:21. > :20:26.area there. Here they have a ready-made food supply brought in
:20:27. > :20:29.for them by the puffins. So why fly to kilometres to the mainland when
:20:30. > :20:34.you only have to fly 50 metres and get your food. It's like a takeaway.
:20:35. > :20:41.It does make sense when you think about it, though I'm not sure the
:20:42. > :20:47.puffins will see it that way. Thankfully we do have a puffin pick
:20:48. > :20:52.me up to report. We have an update from our collapsed puffin burrow. We
:20:53. > :20:57.cannot get any footage because the camera is completely covered in
:20:58. > :21:01.soil, but we can hear inside and we hear the birds. We see them going in
:21:02. > :21:09.and out of the burrow. So the good news is they are still alive and by
:21:10. > :21:12.now they may well be incubating an egg. With the recent hatching
:21:13. > :21:18.activity it really does feel like spring has finally sprung here. Look
:21:19. > :21:24.at this. Not just the puffin chicks have been hatching but the guillemot
:21:25. > :21:29.chicks as well. There is a herring gull down there, she can see that
:21:30. > :21:40.guillemot has got a cheque. A couple of the guillemots are really feisty.
:21:41. > :21:46.The gull knows that there is food she wants for her own chicks. She
:21:47. > :21:53.has given up and walked off. That's one for the guillemots. I do like to
:21:54. > :21:59.see an underdog win for a change. What a day. There's been hatching,
:22:00. > :22:05.catching and snatching aplenty as these birds battle it out for the
:22:06. > :22:13.next generation. It's all kicking off all over the Ireland at the
:22:14. > :22:18.moment. Hatching, catching and snatching, I like that. It's quite
:22:19. > :22:22.catchy, isn't it? But you have to feel sorry for those puffins,
:22:23. > :22:25.imagine coming home with your shopping, your bags are in your
:22:26. > :22:33.hands and you get mugged every time. By your neighbours! He did say that
:22:34. > :22:35.one of those puffin cameras underground has been trapped but
:22:36. > :22:41.don't worry because we have got another one and we still hope to see
:22:42. > :22:47.puffins underground. It has been a dramatic day, hasn't it? And there
:22:48. > :22:51.is more to come. There is. So let's take a breather and look at a nest
:22:52. > :23:04.that's had a rather, day, our little owls. -- a rather calmer day. They
:23:05. > :23:08.are fed well, huddled up. No doubt they will get lively later on,
:23:09. > :23:12.because they have been branching out a bit. They have been quite active,
:23:13. > :23:18.although they have not strayed outside the nest yet. Of course the
:23:19. > :23:21.thing about owls, a lot of the activity is nocturnal, so we've been
:23:22. > :23:26.out with our thermal cameras watching these little owls. Here is
:23:27. > :23:35.an adult perched on a post. That's the nest tree on the left. The owls
:23:36. > :23:39.are low out from late afternoon to early evening, taking advantage of
:23:40. > :23:43.the last of the light, catching insects. Plenty of earthworms. They
:23:44. > :23:48.sit on a post, listening and looking for their prey. This is a curlew
:23:49. > :23:54.that has found itself a very juicy worm. You can see the worm glowing
:23:55. > :23:59.like a bright piece of spaghetti, rapidly dispatched. Find the worm
:24:00. > :24:10.here, despite not to pursue it. Plenty of rabbits of course, and a
:24:11. > :24:13.hare. Larger ears, different gait. It looks like the rabbit is close to
:24:14. > :24:19.those fox cubs but there is a perspective difference. I love this.
:24:20. > :24:23.This is like our very own Maasai Mara, rabbits in the foreground, a
:24:24. > :24:28.pair of badgers in the left, the foxes just exited on the right, and
:24:29. > :24:34.in the background you can see the years of the red Deer. We have been
:24:35. > :24:39.looking at the stoats here. I don't think this is a stoat, the way it is
:24:40. > :24:46.moving and the shape of its head I think it could be a feral. It's like
:24:47. > :24:52.a night-time safari, isn't it? It is. There is just masses of stuff he
:24:53. > :24:57.has. It's really rather lovely. The last couple of nights we've been
:24:58. > :25:02.enjoying our wild boar family in the Forest of Dean but not everybody
:25:03. > :25:05.enjoys them being there. We have been looking at the rising
:25:06. > :25:07.population of the wild boar in the forest and seeing how that affects
:25:08. > :25:19.the people who live there. I've been around the 25 years and
:25:20. > :25:25.walked a lot of English countryside. But for the last ten years I've had
:25:26. > :25:29.a little companion. Now, we've both grown up in Gloucestershire but
:25:30. > :25:33.we've never actually been to the Forest of Dean. And what a day to
:25:34. > :25:40.come to find out about one of its largest inhabitants. Wild boar have
:25:41. > :25:45.been in the Forest of Dean for nearly 20 years. Since then their
:25:46. > :25:50.population has increased rapidly. And some of their activities are
:25:51. > :25:55.getting them into trouble. They root up the ground, leaving their mark on
:25:56. > :26:03.the Forest and surrounding areas. This has a cost to local farmers,
:26:04. > :26:05.businesses and residents. The job of monitoring and controlling the
:26:06. > :26:12.burgeoning population falls to Ian Harvey from the Forestry Commission.
:26:13. > :26:18.What we've got here is typical of the boars. They are rubbing mud onto
:26:19. > :26:24.their coats. Any parasites, ticks and insects will attach to them,
:26:25. > :26:29.then they rub on the posts. And the surrounding trees as well, same sort
:26:30. > :26:34.of thing. There is certainly boar in the area. What happens if you come
:26:35. > :26:40.across one yourself? What's the safest practice? Give them some
:26:41. > :26:45.space. If you've got a dog, keep it under control, on a lead if it is
:26:46. > :26:50.not well trained. Avoid heavy vegetation, stick to the main
:26:51. > :26:55.tracks. When the vegetation grows up it is hard to see the animals. Is
:26:56. > :27:00.the Forest big enough to keep a breeding population? You've got
:27:01. > :27:06.12,000 hectares of perfect habitat for them, nice climate, favourable
:27:07. > :27:09.conditions. They are thriving. Left unchecked the only major cause of
:27:10. > :27:16.fatality would be road traffic accidents. Their numbers can
:27:17. > :27:23.increase very rapidly. With no natural predators the only option is
:27:24. > :27:25.to limit the population by culling. As the population increases, the
:27:26. > :27:30.wild boar are coming into contact with people more and more. Would you
:27:31. > :27:37.believe it? Along this busy road we've just butted an entire family
:27:38. > :27:41.of wild boar. There's a mother. She's got five or six little humbugs
:27:42. > :27:46.with her. This is incredible. They've brought the entire busy road
:27:47. > :27:51.to a standstill. I've never actually seen a wild boar before. And now I'm
:27:52. > :28:01.watching an entire family cross the road. This is utterly, utterly
:28:02. > :28:05.amazing. But what do the locals and visitors make of this recent
:28:06. > :28:12.addition to the forest? What do you guys make of the wild boar here? It
:28:13. > :28:19.would be nice to see them. I like to see them. But I think there are too
:28:20. > :28:24.many of them. They are part of the ecosystem now. They do a lot for it,
:28:25. > :28:32.turning over the Earth. Some areas are completely dug up, it almost
:28:33. > :28:37.looks like a war zone. Culls are always difficult. Personally I don't
:28:38. > :28:41.think it is necessary. We have culls of squirrels and deer, so why not
:28:42. > :28:46.the wild boar? I think we have to keep numbers down. I don't wish to
:28:47. > :28:50.kill anything, but we couldn't sustain if it kept on growing.
:28:51. > :28:58.Reintroduced the wolf, that would keep them down. So the Wolf is your
:28:59. > :29:02.way to keep them down? Yeah. If there was a wolf, there would be a
:29:03. > :29:07.balance. Whilst not overly aggressive, the wild boar can react
:29:08. > :29:11.to dogs, the closest thing to a predator in these woods. Are you
:29:12. > :29:19.scared of them? Sometimes, if I've got the dog with me. Does he get
:29:20. > :29:22.excited when he sees them? Oh yeah. I've been trying to find them today,
:29:23. > :29:28.but they are one of those mythical things out there. If I bump into
:29:29. > :29:32.them, great, it would be amazing. After a 300 year absence from our
:29:33. > :29:34.forests, the wild boar are back. And while they are not problem free,
:29:35. > :29:36.they are here to stay. coming back to make sure nothing is
:29:37. > :29:48.left. They are really just so beautiful to
:29:49. > :29:52.see. They are not even bothered by the huge amount of traffic going
:29:53. > :29:58.past this road. This is a busy road we are talking about. The mother is
:29:59. > :30:06.just a bit further on, they know we are here.
:30:07. > :30:15.That was amazing! That is truly amazing. I had so many mixed reviews
:30:16. > :30:18.about these animals, but actually seeing them so close... It has blown
:30:19. > :30:32.me away. Be honest, you'd be disappointed if
:30:33. > :30:38.they didn't do this to me! I am down at water vole level, down on the
:30:39. > :30:41.water here. Water voles are one of our rarest mammals but there are
:30:42. > :30:47.water voles here, Minsmere is a stronghold for them. How do you find
:30:48. > :30:52.them? Let's have a look and see if we can see any real evidence of
:30:53. > :30:59.them. Now, I don't know if you can see, it's quite hard to see. Can you
:31:00. > :31:04.see a little hole there? It doesn't look like much but if I put my fist
:31:05. > :31:11.in, it goes right back and that's a water vole hole. Volunteers come
:31:12. > :31:16.along and they check all along the area, this is called transacted 11,
:31:17. > :31:23.and they look for water voles. How else can you see them? You can see
:31:24. > :31:27.runways along the edge here. They go into this secretive world here.
:31:28. > :31:34.Let's remind ourselves what they look like, water voles. Beautiful
:31:35. > :31:37.creatures, very busy, quite big, lovely brown. They are curious
:31:38. > :31:40.because they don't look like they should be very good in the water,
:31:41. > :31:47.they don't have webbed feet but they can move like the clappers. And
:31:48. > :31:59.there isn't very waterproof and they spend a lot of time cleaning it. --
:32:00. > :32:05.their fur. How can we be sure if there are water voles here? When
:32:06. > :32:10.they eat, they eat the end of the grass. I don't know if you can see
:32:11. > :32:16.that, they eat it at a 45 degrees angle. Can you see? That's very
:32:17. > :32:23.characteristic of water voles. They have to eat up to 80% of their own
:32:24. > :32:28.body weight every single day. Can you imagine eating 80% of your body
:32:29. > :32:37.weight? They munch through all of this vegetarian diet. Oh, there it
:32:38. > :32:41.goes! This time of year, the female water voles are very territorial.
:32:42. > :32:54.How do they mark out their territory in this watery area? They used their
:32:55. > :33:00.poo. I got this out earlier. Can you see that poo? It is just vegetable
:33:01. > :33:05.matter and if I picked up a bit and have a little sniff of it, it
:33:06. > :33:12.doesn't really smell of anything at all. No, not at all. Just vegetable
:33:13. > :33:16.matter. How do they make it smell enough to tell other females that
:33:17. > :33:24.this is their territory? They use a special glands on their feet and a
:33:25. > :33:29.drum onto the poo and they leave the message, the scent message, saying
:33:30. > :33:38.it is their territory. If the female ignores her, it turns into a girl on
:33:39. > :33:44.girl fight. Here they go. Look at this, two females, this is as tough
:33:45. > :33:54.as it gets with them. You can hear the pop sound, -- plop, that's a
:33:55. > :33:59.good way of finding a water vole, that sound. That can tell you that
:34:00. > :34:04.there is a water vole around. As I said, they are very difficult to
:34:05. > :34:08.see. What we've managed to do is to get a life water vole camera. Let's
:34:09. > :34:14.see if there's anything on it now. Absolutely nothing. A similar kind
:34:15. > :34:22.of area. Let's see what we filmed on that camera. We have a more Hend
:34:23. > :34:28.chick here, very gangly looking -- more Hend. Look at that, a giant
:34:29. > :34:36.water beetle, they can give you a nasty nip. Look at this, a water
:34:37. > :34:41.shrew! Our only venomous mammal. This is what we are really after,
:34:42. > :34:54.the water vole. Go on, jump! Go on, jump! Oh, it did it in the end. As I
:34:55. > :34:59.say, they are becoming very scarce. You can help because you can join in
:35:00. > :35:04.the national water vole monitoring survey. I got it right! There are
:35:05. > :35:09.details on our website and you can help by going out, maybe to these
:35:10. > :35:13.beautiful places, a bit smelly, and finding them for yourself. Now I
:35:14. > :35:20.will float around here for a while as we go back to Chris and Michaela.
:35:21. > :35:24.At the risk of sounding like an old geezer, when I was a kid, water
:35:25. > :35:29.voles were very common, we would stroll along and you would often
:35:30. > :35:33.hear the sound as they jumped in. Amazing how rapidly they have gone.
:35:34. > :35:37.If you see any, join in with the monitoring scheme. As you know, an
:35:38. > :35:41.Springwatch we nearly always have live cameras on a bluetit nest box
:35:42. > :35:48.and we really enjoyed watching the chicks grow and hopefully fledge but
:35:49. > :35:54.this year it has been an extraordinary story so far. This is
:35:55. > :35:59.our female, the bluetit female and the first thing you notice, she was
:36:00. > :36:08.on her own, feeding the chicks. Then we noticed that the bluetit chicks
:36:09. > :36:11.were actually great tits chicks. -- great tit chicks. She is feeding
:36:12. > :36:17.them really well and as you can see, they have been growing at an
:36:18. > :36:22.incredible rate. It is a bizarre situation, the female bluetit
:36:23. > :36:27.raising great tits but she's doing a great job and it is going along in a
:36:28. > :36:33.weird and wonderful way. It was until just after lunch today because
:36:34. > :36:40.then, we saw this. Look very carefully, there is the nest box.
:36:41. > :36:43.The youngsters have hunkered down. This is a behaviour you see when
:36:44. > :36:53.there is a predator around and here is the predator. It is a state. It
:36:54. > :37:01.has climbed up the tree -- eight stoat -- a stoat. It is a ferocious
:37:02. > :37:06.animal, it is on top of the box. It is never going to chew through that
:37:07. > :37:12.would, it would need to squeeze in. Very fortunately for these great
:37:13. > :37:17.tits, it is trying but it can't get in. You can see its nose and its
:37:18. > :37:22.eyes. They are hunkered down out of each and -- out of reach and it has
:37:23. > :37:29.one more sniff and then it disappears. And that is what we call
:37:30. > :37:35.a close shave! It has been a stressful day. Goodness me. Then,
:37:36. > :37:39.just over a minute later, ten minutes later, the female comes back
:37:40. > :37:43.and there they are inside jumping up. They know that it is her, she
:37:44. > :37:48.has produced a call, they hear her coming, they jump up and then they
:37:49. > :37:53.are being fed again and it is a sigh of relief. Like the whitethroat
:37:54. > :37:58.chicks, that was a lucky escape. It wasn't just any old stoat, it is the
:37:59. > :38:03.one that we have been following with eight kids to feed. Do you think it
:38:04. > :38:09.used our camera for its advantage? I don't think so, fledge are very good
:38:10. > :38:15.and climbing trees and it might have rested on top of the box. I love the
:38:16. > :38:19.way that it is joining up, the female stoat is interacting with
:38:20. > :38:24.that bizarre family situation, everything is going swimmingly
:38:25. > :38:31.well... Not exactly, I'm afraid. Just before we came on air, just
:38:32. > :38:40.before we came on, we saw this. The tits were in the box, one of them
:38:41. > :38:46.jumps up, and here comes a jay and it is over in seconds. That is
:38:47. > :38:49.incredible. My word. It must have been listening, the jay must have
:38:50. > :38:58.been listening to the chicks, just waiting for them to pop up, have a
:38:59. > :39:02.peep, thinking about fledging soon. What an incredible day for those
:39:03. > :39:07.chicks. Let's see if there are any more in the box. If you look, there
:39:08. > :39:14.are three of them. It's a shame because they were ready to fledge,
:39:15. > :39:22.they should be fledging this weekend. I tell you, the stoat knows
:39:23. > :39:33.about it, she can't get in, but now the jay knows about it. This is what
:39:34. > :39:38.we have been saying since the start of the programme, it is pray and
:39:39. > :39:42.predator, part of the ecology, it isn't horrid, that's the way the
:39:43. > :39:47.world works. But it didn't stop there, the drama continued in the
:39:48. > :39:52.woodland with another nest. Indeed, we found a nest, we put up a camera
:39:53. > :39:57.and started watching it. We were going to show you it pretty soon, it
:39:58. > :40:03.is a woodpecker's nest, about seven metres up. A green woodpecker's
:40:04. > :40:08.nest, you can see one of the adults exiting the hole. This is the
:40:09. > :40:15.female. We can hear the youngsters inside. We weren't sure how many
:40:16. > :40:18.were in there at this stage. Look at her throat, she is beginning to
:40:19. > :40:24.regurgitate some insect food that she is gathered. She passes it into
:40:25. > :40:37.the chicks. They climbing up to receive it. You can see the big of
:40:38. > :40:41.one of them sticking out, -- the beak. I like the green woodpecker.
:40:42. > :40:46.It is a great nest but there has been another drama. There is a bit
:40:47. > :40:52.of a gruesome bit, I must warn you. This was just a few hours ago.
:40:53. > :41:10.That's stoat is back and it gets into the nest. SHRIEKING. That nest
:41:11. > :41:14.is the birds calling for help. It is like being in the box with a
:41:15. > :41:20.terminator. You wouldn't want to be in there. Maybe it is looking to see
:41:21. > :41:26.if it has enough time to finish the job. That's exactly what the stoat
:41:27. > :41:34.does. It has killed one of the chicks and it is coming out. This is
:41:35. > :41:38.seven metres up a tree, so the stoat must have heard them when they were
:41:39. > :41:43.feeding and it has climbed all the way up. Then it is using its sense
:41:44. > :41:49.of smell. This is the same female, we think it is the same stoat, we've
:41:50. > :41:53.seen it killing rabbits, we saw Ed trying to get the tits and now it
:41:54. > :42:00.found a woodpecker's nest. It has eight kids to feed, Chris. Very sad
:42:01. > :42:04.for the woodpeckers. But brilliant for the stoat, what a diligent
:42:05. > :42:08.mother, working so hard in one day. She had a rabbit at lunchtime which
:42:09. > :42:16.we haven't shown you. I don't know what it is about Wednesday's and
:42:17. > :42:20.woodland, it is like prebeta read -- predatory Wednesday. We are going to
:42:21. > :42:25.show you more of the nest tomorrow but now I think we need to cheer
:42:26. > :42:30.ourselves up. Definitely. We have been promoting our campaign, do
:42:31. > :42:35.something great for nature and many of you have been out volunteering
:42:36. > :42:38.and making a difference. You know, some people are so passionate,
:42:39. > :42:43.they'd don't just do something great for nature, they do something
:42:44. > :43:07.extraordinary. David Waters is one of those amazing people.
:43:08. > :43:13.I've always had a really strong interest in wildlife and as soon as
:43:14. > :43:18.I was old enough to walk I had a pair of binoculars around my neck.
:43:19. > :43:24.My parents bought me a subscription, I think it was a monthly magazine,
:43:25. > :43:28.The World Of Wildlife and I would look at the exciting wildlife and it
:43:29. > :43:41.all seemed to be hundreds of miles away. And then I learned of the
:43:42. > :43:51.great bustard. Great bustards have a natural aristocratic nature to them.
:43:52. > :43:59.The bill is slightly elevated and you can imagine them as Spanish
:44:00. > :44:07.grandees as they strut around. They really do look like a classy bird.
:44:08. > :44:11.When I learned the great bustard used to live not only in England but
:44:12. > :44:15.in Wiltshire, where I lived, and it had been persecuted to extinction, I
:44:16. > :44:28.was quite miffed about it, very disappointed. There was a place in
:44:29. > :44:31.Russia, Saratov, where the nests are destroyed by their agriculture. I
:44:32. > :44:38.formed the great bustards group and the idea was that we could rescue
:44:39. > :44:43.the eggs and rear the birds. Now we can go and source our birds from
:44:44. > :44:48.Spain and bring them back, and do all of the rearing here in
:44:49. > :44:55.Wiltshire. When a great bustard chick hatches, they are like idle
:44:56. > :44:58.Joanna Soros -- like a little dinosaur, getting out of the egg
:44:59. > :45:04.takes up two four hours, exhausting work for them. -- up two four hours.
:45:05. > :45:12.They can't feed themselves for the first five, ten days and they rely
:45:13. > :45:16.on their mother to bill feed them. I can't pretend I make myself look
:45:17. > :45:18.like a female bustard, but I at least this guy is my features so the
:45:19. > :45:34.bustard doesn't realise I'm human. Currently we've got somewhere plus
:45:35. > :45:42.or minus a couple 40 adult great bustards. Early in the spring or
:45:43. > :45:49.tail end of winter, the males get together and they leck, they do a
:45:50. > :45:53.very elaborate display. They are sorting out who's who, who's going
:45:54. > :46:01.to be the dominant male. The full display of an adult male rate
:46:02. > :46:06.bustard is very, very spectacular, but it is also very bizarre. They've
:46:07. > :46:14.got this ability to turn their wings and tail almost sort of Inside Out.
:46:15. > :46:17.It's got this inflatable pouch that runs down the front of the throat,
:46:18. > :46:47.and it inflates it right up. All be under further 's art on
:46:48. > :46:51.display -- all of the under feathers are on display, and they are very
:46:52. > :46:53.white. It doesn't even look like a bird, it is a white blaze appearing
:46:54. > :47:08.on the hillside. When the males are displaying, it
:47:09. > :47:16.seems to be about size and whiteness. The great bustard season
:47:17. > :47:24.ultraviolence. We know the feathers are highly reflective for
:47:25. > :47:32.ultraviolet -- great bustard sees in ultraviolet. So the females will
:47:33. > :47:37.choose the big, heavy males with the best, brightest plumage, and those
:47:38. > :47:49.successful males probably account for a lot of the meetings. -- a lot
:47:50. > :47:52.of the matings. Nothing happens particularly quickly with great
:47:53. > :47:57.bustards. Males are thought to be five years old before they breed.
:47:58. > :48:01.I'm hoping that within the next three to five years we'll be able to
:48:02. > :48:06.say the UK great bustard population is self-sustaining. That's been the
:48:07. > :48:12.aim of the project but the last couple of years have really taken as
:48:13. > :48:13.close to that point. To have created a new great bustard population would
:48:14. > :48:29.be a fantastic achievement, I think. What a fabulously showy bird. I'll
:48:30. > :48:35.tell you, Chris, that is a bird that would win strictly. Quite absurd
:48:36. > :48:39.with its little dance. I always wanted to see one when I was a kid,
:48:40. > :48:44.and when I eventually saw one it was a big day for me because they are a
:48:45. > :48:49.big Bird. They are big, but you only notice the size difference when you
:48:50. > :48:56.put them together. You've got the male. Up to 16 kilograms and a
:48:57. > :49:01.wingspan of five and a half metres. One of the heaviest flying birds in
:49:02. > :49:05.the world. You can see the size difference is pretty obvious, but
:49:06. > :49:15.it's five kilograms, a third the size. Wingspan of 1.7 to 1.9. It is
:49:16. > :49:19.the largest sexual size dimorphism of any spaces, which basically means
:49:20. > :49:28.the difference between the female and the male. What a silly bustard.
:49:29. > :49:33.There is good news for that project. It is a brilliant project and David
:49:34. > :49:36.has had good news this year because he has had success with some of the
:49:37. > :49:44.wild chicks. There are five wild nests. One nest was lost. Two are
:49:45. > :49:48.still in debating and three have successfully hatched chicks. So
:49:49. > :49:53.there are three wild chicks this year and David reckons if you add
:49:54. > :49:58.those to the chicks from the Spanish eggs, in three to five releases,
:49:59. > :50:02.there should be 100 birds, which means they will be sufficient for a
:50:03. > :50:06.natural population growth. I've been following this project the years and
:50:07. > :50:11.I can safely say that I've never met anyone who has worked so hard on a
:50:12. > :50:15.project as Dave Waters has worked on this one. I mean honestly, the man
:50:16. > :50:20.has put absolutely everything into it. Fantastic. Done something
:50:21. > :50:27.extraordinary to nature. I think we've got a water vole. Then it is,
:50:28. > :50:33.on our water vole camera. I love the water vole. Do you? They are not
:50:34. > :50:36.your favourite, I know, but I think they are incredibly sweet. I'm not
:50:37. > :50:46.getting a T-shirt with one on. I might, actually. I might get a water
:50:47. > :50:49.vole T-shirt. Lets not go there. It's very exciting to reintroduce
:50:50. > :50:54.animals to the wild but equally exciting to rediscover them and
:50:55. > :50:57.biologist Gillian Burke has news from Cornwall about an animal that
:50:58. > :50:59.was thought to be extinct from British waters.
:51:00. > :51:11.My background as a biology biologist means I am naturally curious about
:51:12. > :51:17.this. There are very amazing things to see off the coastline. If you
:51:18. > :51:22.take your time, the reeds are full of life. Britain is a very densely
:51:23. > :51:26.populated Ireland. What I found fascinating is there are still areas
:51:27. > :51:39.of wilderness, still mega fauna that visit these shores. Basking sharks.
:51:40. > :51:42.Seal colonies. Dolphins. We tend to be way more impressed with the big
:51:43. > :51:47.things, the big animals. And of course they are impressive. But if
:51:48. > :51:52.you take your time and you take the trouble to investigate the small
:51:53. > :51:56.things, the little things, the Lilliputian world as I like to call
:51:57. > :52:01.it, our whole new world opens up. And there's a tiny creature that has
:52:02. > :52:07.recently been discovered not far from here that tells a huge story.
:52:08. > :52:11.What's exciting about this story is that you don't have to travel very
:52:12. > :52:15.hard to some exotic far-flung place. This tiny creature was discovered on
:52:16. > :52:20.a very unassuming beach in the middle of Falmouth town. It's the
:52:21. > :52:25.sort of place that you would rock up to with your deckchairs, windbreak,
:52:26. > :52:30.grab a crab Sammut and have an ice cream. This is where two months ago
:52:31. > :52:37.a group of volunteers made a find that I think is very exciting. What
:52:38. > :52:47.I'm looking for is a rock pool where there's lots of hermit crabs. Right,
:52:48. > :52:59.let's have a look in here? No sign of our little fellow.
:53:00. > :53:08.OK, there we go. That's the common hermit crab in there, don't know if
:53:09. > :53:14.you can see the little claw poking out? That's what I'm after. But this
:53:15. > :53:23.is in the right species. I'll just pop them back in.
:53:24. > :53:31.Hermit crabs are a type of crap that make use of empty shelf that are
:53:32. > :53:34.found all over the beaches. They are incredible animals with bags of
:53:35. > :53:44.personality. But the particular species of hermit crab I'm looking
:53:45. > :53:59.for is really not easy to find. Hah. Found him. Soldier crab, male, with
:54:00. > :54:04.red legs. And this one is being really obliging. Can you see that?
:54:05. > :54:10.It's come right out of the shell. You can get a really clear view of
:54:11. > :54:14.its red legs. What's remarkable about this, both legs are the same
:54:15. > :54:21.size. With hermit crabs, normally one is larger. It doesn't have a
:54:22. > :54:29.common name yet. So these little guys were found in Cornwall a long
:54:30. > :54:33.time ago. This is actually the northern limit of their range. They
:54:34. > :54:45.are found in Europe as well. But in the 1960s there was a massive oil
:54:46. > :54:49.spill. The clean-up effort involved the use of lots of toxic dispersants
:54:50. > :54:59.that cleaned up the oil but also wiped out a lot of invertebrate
:55:00. > :55:04.life. And our two tiny hermit crab officially became extinct from UK
:55:05. > :55:10.shores. That was until March this year when it miraculously reappeared
:55:11. > :55:15.on this very beach. This is one of the things that I love about the
:55:16. > :55:18.little things in life. The fact that these little animals have arrived
:55:19. > :55:23.back on these shores after what was, at its time, one of the worst
:55:24. > :55:27.environmental disasters recorded. It's an indicator that the Marine
:55:28. > :55:35.life along these shores may finally have recovered. I'd love to think
:55:36. > :55:41.that they are here to stay. Adrian Rollins, a wildlife photographer
:55:42. > :55:45.from Truro rediscovered that crab. That's fantastic, must be so
:55:46. > :55:51.exciting. He was out on a beach survey and he found that crab.
:55:52. > :56:00.This is the scientific name. And they are important, because they
:56:01. > :56:04.cross language barriers. So they do have a purpose, but they are not
:56:05. > :56:09.very catchy. The thing about this crab, it does not have a common or
:56:10. > :56:14.an English name as we sometimes call them. So we are offering you a
:56:15. > :56:17.unique opportunity, and an astonishing opportunity. How often
:56:18. > :56:23.do you get to name a rediscovered species of animal in the UK? That's
:56:24. > :56:28.what you pay your licence fee for. You've got until 8pm tomorrow to
:56:29. > :56:42.name this crab. Just please don't come up with Crabby McCrabface.
:56:43. > :56:51.Something like Sebastien clause? Looks like boiled to me. Boiled egg
:56:52. > :56:54.crab? You could do better than us. How did you get on? Very good,
:56:55. > :57:04.although I smell a little of the night. In transit 11, where I was in
:57:05. > :57:08.2013 there was one borough, by 2016 there were eight by Rose, so they
:57:09. > :57:14.are doing very well, the water voles. Please do join in the
:57:15. > :57:20.national water vole monitoring programme on the website. We've just
:57:21. > :57:25.about got time to look at a live camera before we go, and we'll have
:57:26. > :57:31.a look at our little owl, because it is feeding on... What is that? Is it
:57:32. > :57:38.a mouse? Mouse. I think it is, just the one on the left. They have woken
:57:39. > :57:41.up, they are busy. They are active. They are moving around. And I think
:57:42. > :57:49.we are going to see a lot more of that in the next few days. They will
:57:50. > :57:52.be out of that nest and branching. Fantastic. That's all we've got time
:57:53. > :57:57.for tonight. What have we got coming up for you tomorrow? Lots of stuff
:57:58. > :58:04.as usual. We'll be looking at the varied diet of our growing golden
:58:05. > :58:12.eagle chick. David will be out and about exploring the wildlife of
:58:13. > :58:15.Newcastle. On BBC Two at 6:30pm Spring watch unsprung, and I have
:58:16. > :58:20.the founder of the human league as my guest. I met him once before and
:58:21. > :58:26.he was working as a waiter in a cocktail bar. You just knew it was
:58:27. > :58:30.coming. Sorry. Hope you enjoyed tonight. More action tomorrow and we
:58:31. > :58:32.will bring you the story of what happens with those woodpeckers.
:58:33. > :58:35.Until then, good night.