Episode 9 Springwatch

After last week's upheaval, we had happier times here over the weekend.

Our super mother set to has been on the move. Some of our chicks are

growing up fast. They're getting active, and they're spreading their

wings. And I'm spreading my wings and flexing my pecs for wildlife.

Hunker down. It's Springwatch. Yes, do not adjust your sets. This

is not a costume drama. This is Springwatch 2016 coming to you on

the somewhat damp and dismal evening up here on the coast of Suffolk.

It's the RSPB's Minsmere reserve. It's a truly fantastic place to be,

even when it's a little bit damp and dismal. Lots of action last week. I

can promise you a great show tonight and throughout the course of the

rest of the week. We have some amazing things coming up. It was

certainly very dramatic last week. There was lots of drama so I am

pleased to say we can start off on a rather calmer note that one of our

nests, touch wood, is far there has been no drama, just positive things

going on. Let's have a look at our live little owl nest. There are the

three chicks having a bit of a clean. They're in the mess now which

is a good place to be when it's raining, but they have been very

active over the weekend. Lots of you will have seen some of this online.

On Friday, very early in the morning, 3.22, to be precise, this

little chick comes out of the nest hole for the first time. This is

very significant. The parent bird comes in to tempt it further with a

tasty worm. It branches out. It semi-fledges and will be exploring

its surroundingses, having a good stretch there for the next couple of

weeks. This is great to see, a lot of wing flapping. It's building up

its muscles. It's the only one that came out for a little while, wasn't

until the end of the day, 8.55pm that the sibling - one of the

siblings came out, a bit tentative at first. Again, the adult comes in

with a little treat. This time a vole. That is a very good meal for

that chick. Within the hour, 9.42pm, the third chick Peaks its little

nose into the big, wide world. They're not too confident at first,

but then we saw all three of them out in the daytime. It gives us a

fabulous view of these chicks. You can see how much they're growing and

again, they're flapping their wings, building their muscles up, spending

quite a lot of the time now just having a little look around their

surroundings. Of course, then the rain came today. They do what any

sensible little owl chick would do. They go back into their nest hole

for a little bit of warmth and a bit of shelter from the rain. It's been

absolutely great to see them grow up like that, because ours may be doing

well, but nationally, unfortunately, they're not. There has been a 65%

decline in the last 25 years according to the BTO. So scientist

Dr Emily Joachim and the Little Owl Project would like to know if you

see any little owls. Send in your sightings. Details of that are on

the website. Indeed. Little owls are on the decline, but a species that

has been brought back from the brink via teverlts of the RSPB and more

recently others is a very striking bold and beautiful bird. It is the

avenue set. We can go live to it now -- avocet. There it is on a damp,

dismal evening. There it is looking sublime, the Audrey Hepburn of the

world. A beautiful bird. I know why you like it. It's a simple design.

Simple lines no, complications, no unnecessary colours. This is the

antithesis of a goldfinch, these overdressed dandies. We just want a

simple bird like this. I am digressing completely. The fact is

for the last couple of weeks we have been watching avocets on a nest of

four eggs. What happened over the weekend? Here we are Saturday

morning. You can see highlighted there one of the eggs is beginning

to hatch. It's not necessarily a rapid process. As you can see, it's

not until Sunday morning that the first one of these four chicks

manages to break out of the egg. Ideally, this female - or the male -

looks as if they both incubate and brood - will be wanting all of them

to hatch simultaneously. A little while later, the second one does.

She's still turning eggs. If you look very carefully - I just caught

a little peek of the fact that egg was beginning to hatch too. One has

dried out. You can see it's sat alongside the adult there. The adult

is vocalising. I don't think that's to the chick. It's to the other

adult who is clearly fascinated by proceedings and has come back in,

and here, again, the little chick has come out. Look, as she - or he

lifts up, I think I can see three there, so three of the four appear

to have hatched out. Now, by this stage, a couple of them have already

scarpered out of the nest. She comes back. And hunkers down again. Now,

these are what we call precocial chicks. That means as soon as they

hatch, they can be on the move. This is what we see with these animals.

It's a strategy the birds employ. They basically incubate their eggs

for longer so more of the development is done inside the egg.

When you contrast that, say, to something like a bluetit which

produces a chick that hatches bald, blind, naked and highly dependent on

the parents, whereas here, look, after a few seconds, these little

guys are up and scampering about, already learning how to pick for

food themselves. And that's what they do. They're not fed directly by

the adults. They're protected and led but not fed. Look. Already this

one is sweeping its beak in the water trying to find food. We know

at this stage, if nutrition is in short supply, the food they do get

is put into growing not their beaks but their feet, because they need to

be mobile. They've got to get to feeding sites and also - watch this.

When the adult's alarm calls, these youngsters hunker down relying on

that camouflage patterning on their back. When danger has passed, they

need to be able to flee back to safety, and invariably, that means

getting underneath mum. But safety is something that's hard to find

down on the scrape. You see there are a vast number of black-Edded

gulls down there, and avocet chicks are on the menu, and this is what we

saw. Look very carefully here. Here is one of the chicks - one of the

four that's hatched. The adults begin to alarm call. Off one of them

goes. There is a black-headed gull there. Look, in the beak of the

black-headed gull is one of our chicks. So that little bird lasted

just a few hours. Here, though, as you can see by that leg count

beneath this bird - there are two of the avocet chicks remaining, and

these seem a little more sure of themselves on their feet, and here -

this is some good news here because the avocets have led them across the

water safely and they have taken them into the edge of this reed bed,

and I think they might be safer there from the predations of those

gulls because the gulls would struggle to get in among reeds. The

gulls like to take them when it's clear and open. They can swoop in,

snatch them and go, not so easy in the reed so that maybe is a more

sensible strategy. Let's hope so. Let's keep our fintioners crossed

because it would be absolutely fantastic if two out of the four

chicks sur vuefed, wouldn't it? It may be week three, but we don't sit

back and relax. Our team have been out working hard all week to bring

you some new nests and new characters. There is one in

particular we're very excited about because our team have been trying

for a few weeks now to get a camera on the nest of these birds. They're

fabulous birds. Let's have a look at them live. You wouldn't actually

guess what nest that is apart from the fact it's in the reeds, but it

is a bearded tit nest. Now, the adult is sitting on the chicks

there. It's a stunning bird. Four chicks. That's the female. They're

four to five days old. And they're reed specialists, these birds, and

it's amazing to get this glimpse. What we saw over the weekend. There

is the male. You can see the black beard. That is definitely the male.

And people come to see these birds from miles around. They're very

difficult to see. Here he is feeding invertebrates to those chicks,

things like spiders, may flies. But it's a real treat, and it was very,

very difficult. You can imagine getting in those reeds, finding that

nest and getting a camera on it. So it's going to be very exciting to

see the progress of those chicks over the week. Super birds. They are

absolutely stunning. You love an avocet but you have to love those.

Pretty smart. Time to catch up with Martin. What on earth is he doing,

last seen - what was it? Pole dark or one of the three muss Celteers? I

don't know. He was wielding something that looked extremely

dangs rouse. What are you up to? I have covered up because I was

worried about people's sensibilities with my shirt! I am up here on the

Heathland. This is right on the edge of the Minsmere reserve. Right now

it's grey. It's dismal. It's not great. But on occasions this place

can look absolutely fabulous. Look at this. Early in the morning if

you're up here. The low sun is kissing the top of the plants.

Holders of insects, which is a key thing here. Absolutely lovely. Oh,

and deer. This is where you see the red deer with their antlers in

velvet. Absolutely lovely. Now, the key reason why this is such a good

habitat is variety. Now, have a look. We've got heather all around

us here. There is gorse there, clumps of trees, open spaces, little

bits of grassland. They need that variety for the wildlife to thrive

up here. What would happen - it needs to be managed carefully

because if we just left it alone, the fir trees here would throw their

seeds all around here. We'd get little seedlings everywhere. They'd

grow up and overshadow all the heather, the gorse, all the habitats

here that are so essentially for rich wildlife so to maintain it, we

have to use this. I have never used one of these before. Hang on. Let me

get at this time right way around. This is a tree "popper. ". This is

how it works. Just there, it grabs hold of the trunk of the tree there,

and then you just roll it backwards, and it takes the tree out. That's

the plan. Look. Here is exactly that. Here is the little pine

seedling. Like I say, I have never used one of these. This is what

they'll do here. The volunteers will come along, and they'll just take it

- effortless. There we go. Look. What's so great is it takes all the

roots out as well. So anyway, the tree popper in action. I want one!

But - so look at this habitat. If you're a bird here, a great place to

find food, but a great place to nest. You could dive in here and be

hidden away, or best of all in that gorse where it's all prickly.

Predators couldn't get in. If you come up here with your binocular,

you're likely to see a range of birds. The stonechat - you're likely

to hear that before you see it, that tap, tap, tapping, like two stones

being knocked together. This is a gorgeous bird, feeds on seeds

mostly, but when they're nesting they'll come up here and get insect

food for their chicks. The Heathland is a perfect place to find those

insects, then the yellow hammer, one of my favourite birds. You'll see

them up here singing their song. When I am out on a bike, I often

here, not so often these days sadly, the yellow hammer, they always seem

to sit on top of a hedge and do that lovely call. Those are more generous

birds but there are one or two super Heathland specialists up here like

the woodlark. We have managed to film it. They went extinct in the UK

in 1960, but luckily, they're back. They nest right down on the ground,

and if you walk past this nest, a few feet away, you'd never know it

was there. And then there is the ultra-specialist, the Dartford

warbler. It's a lovely bird. This, again - this warbler, unlike other

birds it doesn't migrate, so when hard winters come along, like the

winter of '62, they're in real trouble. In fact, it was down to

just ten pairs in the UK. But luckily, this bird is back. You see

it up here in the heedland with that fiery eye. I have dropped my tree

podgeer, and now I am going to use my scythe. In a minute, I shall use

this, but it will be in the service of wildlife, so in a moment, you'll

see what this is all about. The Springwatch cameras have inspired

many, many people to set up their own little Springwatch sort of unit

in the back garden, and one man has managed to film some truly

astonishing behaviour. Robert Fuller is creating a haven

for wildlife. I've been interested in wildlife

reserve is very small and my dad was interested in wildlife, which made

it interesting for me. It has developed over the years to almost

an obsession. Every day you're watching wildlife and there is

something new to learn, that is the exciting part to me.

Robert has a passion for painting the natural world, and takes his

inspiration from the animals he captures on camera. But one

particular speedy animal has been giving Robert the runaround for

years. I've been photographing wildlife at

25 years, and painting and studying it but I have never photographed

weasel before because they are always too quick.

I saw them hunting in the garden, so I put some feeding boxes out. I put

them under all the bushes in the garden. About ten days later,

waiting very patiently, changing the mice every few days so they were

fresh, and making scent trails, dragging them across the path. I saw

her scoot off with a wood mouse. Then she was back again and I knew I

had this little weasel hooked. She stayed long enough to give me my

first view shots of the weasel. Little did Robert know this would be

the first of thousands of photographs, but he was about to get

an unbelievable insight into the weasels' world. One day we had a

mail and it was a spectacular moment, because he was quite a big

weasel. He carried her out of the garden to mate. I set about making

messing chambers and crossing my fingers hoping we'd get the weasel

having their kits. But the female gave birth in an old shed, but when

they were just six days old she moved them across the garden and

into Robert's nesting chamber. We now had this amazing opportunity to

watch inside the weasel nest. But then a formidable threat

appeared on the scene, a stoat. Much larger than a weasel with a black

tail tip, they will eat weasels and their kits.

To keep her kits safe, the female weasel moved on to another, safer

location. I had mixed emotions, because now I

didn't have a camera on the weasels in the nest, but what I did have was

the magical experience of watching the weasel carrying the small, tiny

baby kits through the garden at 17 days old. It was just incredible,

and I was almost shaking, that I had managed to capture this moment.

For the next few weeks Robert regularly saw the female weasel

ferrying mice across the garden for her kits. He stayed safely out of

sight. We'll most had a weasel explosion.

-- we almost had. I opened my curtains and there seems to be

weasels everywhere in the garden, everywhere you looked one was

popping up and running round. Then, one day there was a terrible

noise here behind us. I rushed over to see what was happening. The

female weasel was fighting with the stoat. Then I didn't see the female

weasel for two days. On the third day she came back with a nasty wound

under her chin, where she had been caught by the stoat.

Unfortunately this was the last time Robert was to see the female weasel.

And so, the five young weasel kits were left without their mother.

So close to independence, can they survive on their own?

So those gorgeous little weasel kits up orphaned and we will catch up on

their story tomorrow. But incredible to see, because they are very

elusive. You hardly ever see them in the wild, do you Chris? They are so

quick and so small, much smaller than a stoat. Magical to get an

insight. His own weasel explosion! I loved that. We are quite envious but

last week we had some totally amazing explosions going on here,

because we found a female stoat with eight kits and were able to follow

her throughout the course of the first two weeks. She was being a

fantastic mother. She tried to get into the great, tip box. Over the

weekend she was busy in our compound. Another rabbit here. There

were plenty of the map means me and they are undoubtably forming the

bulk of her diet. She is moving that animal towards her kits. We think

they have moved again. They were in the reeds, now they are in the

brambles. She is dragging the food is close to them as she can possibly

get it. You see some of the kits in action here. We can't approach these

animals too closely, we don't want to get them to move. It's not like

they are in a hole like the weasels. The female is always out and about

and easier to watch. Having a sniff along this log. We did see her last

week, climbing to that woodpecker's nest. Look at this, now we have

spotted a mile stoat. Larger, thicker pale, a bushy tip with a

white spot. That will help you identify this animal. Sniffing that

same log where the female has been, maybe sniffing her, but always on

the lookout for prey. So agile. But also agile when it comes to

climbing. I have to say, he's going up it like a squirrel. I'd never

imagined, up until this point, that stoats would be so agile. Here is

about ten metres up the tree, checking every little nook and

cranny every hole, every gap in the bark for presumably a birds nest.

There's a between the bark here and that is just the sort of place a

tree creeper would put its nest. In those that mile stoat to have a

sniff around. Nothing there. It's been fantastic, Chris, to see the

male and female and the kits. That may or doesn't have much to do with

the kits, it doesn't provision them at all. He may have mated with the

female kits in that nest if he was the father, but after that, no, it's

solely down the female to look after them. But nice to see the male. We

have had some fantastic views of these stoats. Our cameramen will be

out through the course of the rest of the week. The stoat is not the

only supermum that we have followed in the last couple of weeks. We've

also had our single blue tit mamma who has looked after a brood of

great tip chicks. It was going well at the start but then disaster

struck last week when this happened. Four in the nest, one popped out.

This one pops its head out and immediately gets taken by a jay. It

is all over quickly. Then another one comes out, it falls out of the

nest box. So many jays around, it's all over pretty quickly for that

chick. Two left in the nest. As you can see, AJ took that one as well.

So quick. Incredibly quick. One left in the nest and we were hoping it

would fledge over the weekend. Let's have a look at the live nest box.

There is nothing in it. Did it fledge? You can't presume it did,

because look at what we saw on Saturday. This is what we saw. An

empty nest box. Had it fledged? No, it actually just flew up to the top

of the nest box. It seems reluctant to actually get out of the box. It's

flying up and down like a little Zebedee. Incomes mum, a little

confused, doesn't know where her chick is. These bit at the top, goes

up and feeds it. I imagine that little chick is feeling very

vulnerable, being the only one left in the nest box. But you can see it

is practising flying, it is ready to go, it's just not very keen to go.

At night it goes where it it thinks it's safest, away from those jays at

the top of the nest box. Very curious behaviour. Keeps poking its

head out, we saw this weekend. Mum is three keen to tempt it out. Keeps

coming back and feeding it at the nest box hole. Oaks its head out and

finally, Sunday, just before 8:30am, it flies out. It fledge is. Mum

comes back and has, realises it's gone. We are all keeping our fingers

crossed it was OK. The cameraman went out and saw it in the trees.

Mum also went to look for it, and found it. In the branches.

I mean, we were rooting for this final little greattit chick. We were

so hoping it would successfully fledge and it did. I am calling it

Gloria the great-tit, after Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive. I like happy

ending as much as anyone, but a number of people asked on social

media, what will happen to that young great-tit if it survives, will

it be able to successfully mate because it has been reared by a blue

tit? I don't know if Gloria Gaynor has any kids or not about that

little great-tit probably won't have. It thinks it is a blue tit. It

can have a happy life, flying around in the woods here, but it will never

add to the genetic diversity of the great-tits in this area. But as you

say, it might be happy anyway. Some of us are happy not to procreate! We

know this because we have been liaising throughout the course of

our investigation of these blue tits and great-tits with Doctor Ella

Cole, an expert on great and blue tits. We sent are Porter Dalmatin to

find out. -- Gillian Porter. This is a living and breathing laboratory

that professors at Oxford University have been studying since the Second

World War. It is amazing to have such a detailed biological and

seasonal record that spans over 60 years, and that's why I've come

here, to understand how this spring is affecting our wildlife. Over the

last few months, the scientists in these woods have noticed something

very unusual with the budding of the trees. Some came early, where as

others emerged late. With such spread out timings, the onset of

spring has been very confused and I'm concerned there might be a knock

on effect. A real model like this shows how

everything in nature is connected. And if there is a problem in one

part of the system, it's likely to affect the whole food chain.

In this wood it is birds like the great-tit that are the most

vulnerable. I'm meeting scientist Doctor Ella

Cole, who comes it every year to monitor the new hatchlings, and just

like me, she's eager to find out how they're doing this year. I have a

box over here, they are due to hatch today. Let's take a look. Yes...

That's just hatched? Yes. Although tiny, this hatchling is looking very

healthy. There are five eggs still to hatch and they should hatch at

some point. That's what it has just come out of. Wow. What is that? 1.4

grams per in two weeks' time it will weigh more than its parents, ten

times, more than ten times what it ways now. Two weeks to do all that

growing? Yes. Daesh phenomenal. Bless. Let's put it in. --

phenomenal. The success of the hatchlings depends on how well this

living, breathing would can accommodate them. As the chicks grow

mum and dad will need to become feeding machines, with six hungry

mouths they must gather a volume of food that is the equivalent of us

buying over 300 bags of grocery shopping. And the main food source?

Caterpillars. But there's a problem. Caterpillars

don't stay caterpillars for very long. These little guys are winter

moths, and they're the tits' favourite food. In just a few weeks

they'll have finished growing and be ready to spin their silk cocoons and

be ready to undergo a miraculous transformation into moths but one

species miracle is another's headaches. They have a time hatching

for when there is a glut in the caterpillars. The question is how do

they do that when they have to lay their eggs weeks in advance? Dr Ella

Cole thinks these tits may be able to vary their own timings. Our

research has actually shown they could actually be using cues from

their local oak trees to kind of work out when is best to lay. So

even if the trees change, the tits can adapt. We're heading to another

bird box to gather the first vital clues to find out if this is the

case. Oh, look at that! The birds in this box were some of the first to

arrive this year. Ella is keen to find out how well they're growing.

Just gorgeous. Look at that. So this one is how old? Two weeks old, so

pretty much fully FTCerred now, just a little bit more left to go in

terms of wing and tail growth. Can I have a little hold? Is that all

right? Yeah. There we go. That's amazing. That's absolutely

incredible. It's remarkable to think just how tiny this chick was only

two weeks ago. Weigh this chick and see how much it weighs. Oh, that is

a tight squeeze. Yeah. He's quite a fatty, this one. What is that? It's

19.7. 19.7? Yeah. How many times - That's at least 13 times its

hatching weight. 13 times. So he's actually heavier than his parents?

Yeah, he's probably a couple of grams heavier than his parents. How

many caterpillars do you think that is? Probably about a thousand

caterpillars. A thousand! I think you've done well! Seven chicks in

this brood. 7,000 caterpillars in two weeks. About that. Busy parents.

Despite a very strange spring this healthy chick is a promising first

sign that even when the timings go wrong, the tits can still remarkably

keep in sync with their local oak trees and caterpillars, but to be

sure, Ella still has over 500 boxes left to monitor. And quite often

things do go wrong. Looking at social media, lots of you are

telling us you have had large clutches of eggs and they haven't

hatched but some have hatched but not many have fledged. That's

unusual, what's going on this year. What I can tell you is great tits

may lay their eggs, not complete the clutch and not incubate them. They

can leave them for two weeks before they sit on them. What determines

whether they incubate is the weather. What's happened this year

is some of the great tits laid their eggs and started to incubate them.

Those who did so early were very successful. They seemed to hatch

lots of those eggs and fledge lots of youngsters but those that decided

to wait, the later broods, if you like, haven't done nearly as well.

That's because the weather changed. We had lots of rain, and that washed

their principal food, their caterpillars, off the tree.

Coincidentally, Ella has told us this year is not a very good year

for caterpillars. On these oak trees here, in some years when they're at

their peak, you can get 255 caterpillars on one square metre of

oak leaves, but this year she's only found four caterpillars per square

metre. Of course, when it rains, like it has today, those are washed

off onto the ground. They become inaccessible to the tits. They can't

feed them to their young, and their productivity goes down. The good

news is it's a 12-year psych wl this caterpillar abundance, so if we're

at a trough this year, next year we'll be on the way back up. There

probably would be more food for the tits that are nesting in your

garden. Over the last two weekses, we have introduced you to a whole

cast of characters, but there's one particular character from last year

that lots of you have been asking about on social media. Now, this was

a star that went from zero to hero. It's what I like to think of as the

Leicester City of the Springwatch world. It went from the underdog to

champion! I am, of course, talking about spineless Sy, the stickleback

fish. I am afraid we can't bring you back Sy. He's no longer with us.

Typically, stickleback fish only last for one breeding season, but I

can bring you by popular demand another camera on a stickleback fish

nest, and we're calling this Sons of Sy! Let's have a look at it. It's a

very resplendent stickleback fish there. He's already got a nest, and

there are already eggs in it. He's managed to get a mate. And over the

weekend, we saw something quite remarkable. We saw some of those

eggs hatch. And if you look closely, you can see some of the fry. He's

obviously had a very successful breeding season so far. Let's have a

look at the nest live now, because you can see that there are plenty of

fry there. In fact, there are dozens of them! And what is brilliant about

this is that we left spineless Sy at the end of last series with his fry

just having hatched. This means because there are lots of fry out

now, we can take you to the next chapter of the remarkable story of

stickleback fish and how the dads look after those fry, and we're

going to be exploring that in the next couple of days. But you know,

stickleback fish are just one of about 400 fish in British waters,

and Jack Perks thinks we should be celebrating them more. He's a big

fan of fish, and anything with a fin or two, so he has set up the

National - the first ever UK National Fish Vote. Now, lots of

people have been voting online, but two weeks ago, we launched the top

ten for you to vote on, and in no particular order, here they are.

This is our first contender and I can feel the tension! Let's see how

the bass goes down. Cod knows this is a tasty contender. Also thrown

into the fishy mix, we've got troult, mackerel, roach and don't

tell them your name, pike. We have a shark in here. Will it be basking in

glory? Or will this stripy number knock it off its perch? Perhaps

we'll get our stickleback where it belongs, at number one. Well, I know

who I'll be voting for - (coughs) Stickleback! Not that I want to

influence you in any way at all. Those are our top ten fish. Lots of

you have voted online already, but if you haven't, you've got until

midday tomorrow, and Jack will be coming on to springs spring to

announce the winner, but can I just remind you all, you are voting for

your favourite fish in the wild, not your favourite fish on the menu!

Anyway, get online and get voting. Martin, who are you voting for? Or

should I say, what fish will you be angling for? Perch, Michaela, I love

a perch. It's got those tiger stripes and those beautiful little

orange fins. OK. Let me get my rhythm going. What on earth am I

doing? Well, I'm - atmosphere. Scything for - oops, scything for

nature. Missed that bit. Because this area up on the heathland has to

be very carefully managed. I was saying before, you've got to dig up

the trees so they don't grow up and overgrow everything. You have to

deal with this here this Bracken here because it will grow up and

stop all the lovely open areas. What's so great about the open

areas? Come on down with me. We have

already seen the heathland is great for nesting birds, but down here -

that's lovely. In this lovely substrate - it actually smells

gorgeous too, but this is a great place for a huge variety of

different insects. Now, you'll see amazing creatures up here on a misty

morning. You can see just how many spiders there are, their webs all

lit up with the due. That is tiger beetle, a ferocious carnivore, one

of the fastest running insects on earth, and look at its jaws. If you

were an ant, which is what they prey on, you would be terrified. This

here is a silver-studded blue butterfly. It's called that because

underneath its wings it's got these beautiful little light blue studs,

really, you can hardly see them there, but that's a silver-studded

blue. Sometimes you'll get thousands of them an enormous flock - a flock

of butterflies? Is that the right word. Look at this. This is a digger

wasp. What they'll do is grab a caterpillar in their jaws, dig a

hole for it, put the caterpillar down the hole and lay an egg on it,

and the egg will eat the caterpillar. One more thing - with

that digger wasp, they use tools. Can you believe this? When they have

dug the hole they have put the caterpillar and the egg down,

they'll use that and they'll actually bash it on the ground to

cover up the hole to seal the hole. An insect using a tool. How about

that? So you've got all these insects down here, but also, we have

been up here and on the heathland here, you get one of the rarest,

most specialised birds of prey that you can find anywhere in Mendis

Mendis -- Mensmire. Here it is. It's a hobby. They don't migrate at all.

They come up from Africa. They'll come up often together, the male and

the female. They're mating. When they mate, the female will make

encouragement or welcoming vocalisations. Lovely that they've

probably done their courtship down in Africa, and then they'll complete

this here. Now, they'll nest often in an old Crows Nest. They won't

build their own nest, but here, you can see that the male is coming back

for her. He's got a prey item. It's actually a dragonfly, and they

specialise in insect prey early on in the year. It doesn't seem all

that pleased with it, does she? But then later on in the year,

particularly when they've got chicks, they'll start to prey on

birds. Here is a champ inch. They're one of the few birds - they're

fantastically acrobatic in the air, and they will take twifts in the

air. That is the Hobbit. It's only recently been filmed, just

yesterday. We think they're about to start nesting. They haven't started

yet. They're latest inest iners. One other amazing thing, early on in the

year sometimes you get masses of these. Here, I was told by Adam, the

guy in charge, he saw 20 hobbies over the water, all breeders and

non-breeders coming together for who knows what early on in the system.

Amazing stuff. Chris, have you ever seen 20 hobbies together? I have had

that privilege. By a bizarre coincidence I saw them many years

ago down in the south of England when I was gog doing exactly what

you're doing, maintaining heathland, cutting down small pine trees to

improve it for sand lizards. It was a treat to see those coming in. Were

you danced like a pole dancer? I was dressed conventionally on that

occasion. I feel I have let the side down now. If you have been watching

the last couple of weeks, you know we have had the enormous privilege

to have cameras on a golden eagle's nest. We've got our cameras up there

in south-western Scotland. We have been getting fantastic views of

these birds. Here is the adult coming back into the nest. There

were two eggs. One hatched, and the chick, I am pleased to say, is doing

really, really well. Look how much it's grown now. It's got its

feathers coming through on its wing. These are its primary foter. They're

in what we call in-pin. They're covered with a waxy sheath. The bird

has to constantly nibble at that sheath to release the feathers. Look

what it's doing. This is a huge milestone for this little chick.

It's standing up. You can see how much it's grown. Massive feet here,

still resting on its ankles, though, Michaela, at this stage. More

preening. There you can see - you see those blue waxy sheaths there?

That's the pin we talk about. Here it is standing. Look at the backs of

its legs. You can see those two pads? Those are the two pads it has

been resting on up until now. Young eagles have these whilst they're

shuffling around in the nest to protect their ankles there. It's

great to see. It's doing a bit of wing flapping. Look at that. It's

very wobbly, but it's doing well. We have seen an incredible development

in this chick. The mother has brought in - or the father, in fact,

one of them, has brought in a nest of chicks to feed it on, but just

watch this, because there has been a huge change in how this chick is

feeding. We've seen a lot of this, where the mother takes little bits

off and feeds the chick, but now it's taking huge chunks off because

this chick is ravenous. Just watch what it tries to do now.

Tries to take the food itself. It was successful. We've seen it be

quite fussy in not wanting to swallow bits with fur on but clearly

not as fussy as it was. It can follow all that, small bones,

feather and fur. Once a day or cast a pellet out. This is quite

interesting, as well. The bird is reaching out, taking that food,

still sat on its haunches. That's the problem is, until it is strong

enough and big enough to pin the food down itself, it cannot tear

against it. But here, this... Small prey for an eagle. Initially the

bird tries to swallow it whole, but that won't happen unless it tries

headfirst and it's got it by the wing. It's trying to position itself

where it campaigned that underneath its feet, so it can tear against it.

Hasn't quite got the knack and is beginning to stray quite close to

the nest here. Just watch what the mother does. She senses this and

comes round in front of it, to stop it toppling off and falling out of

the nest. She has been a superb mother, hasn't she? Amazing, yeah.

Great to see the cheque trying. We will see more of that over the next

week. -- the chick. The adult pins it with its talons Tomaselli has the

ability to pull against it. As a feather, not sure if to eat it or

what to do with it. Eventually the feather flies off and just watch...

I love that. It has been an amazing privilege to watch that chick grow,

it has grown and is doing so well. It is indeed. They treat to have

those cameras there. Sometimes it is nice when you don't need your

cameras or binoculars but just stand in front of them. One of those

places is in the islands off of Northumberland. Let's take a look.

It is only just after 5:30am and I have come to meet the Rangers. I am

joining them out on their first sea bird Cliff count of the year, after

I'd had a cup of tea. The aim is to count the amount of sea birds

nesting on these cliffs, and as they feed during the day, we need to

catch them before they start fishing.

In order to count the thousands of birds that nest here, each ranger

takes charge of counting one species.

How on earth do you count them here? Slowly and meticulously. It is doing

those? It's me today. You have a hard job. There are lot of them. You

click and then... The final number, I multiply by ten at the end. I will

say in my head and we will see. OK, that's that section done. Hang

on! I only got about two meters. That was fast, incredibly fast.

This count is used to establish how many breeding pairs are on the

islands. Thankfully some clever eggheads worked out that 67% of the

total birds seen would be sitting on eggs or chicks. So they multiply by

0.67 to get their total, easy. How long would it take you to do the

whole island? All in one day? We would try and do it in a morning.

We aim to start about six o'clock and look to finish by about 9:30am.

About three and a half hours. I feel like a spare part here, not doing

anything. But you wouldn't want my count, maths was not a good subject

for me at school, I haven't got enough fingers.

The team at counted over 30,000 birds on this trip alone,

approximately 92% of which were guillemots. That is high-rise living

taken to an extreme. But they will repeat this process several times,

to get a more accurate estimation of the productivity of these islands

and while they get on with that, I am off to check out the birds on the

cliffs further down. Last week we helped Liz Morgan had a

female shack and I have come back today to help find out the results.

Hello. Still hard at work, well done you. You have been retrieving tags.

We managed to get it back a few days ago. Good. Have you downloaded all

the information? Yes, we have. Unfortunately when I put the GPS in

it to that we any have half the trip she did, the tag malfunctioned

halfway through. Anything useful? We know she was out foraging further

than we have known them go before. 14 metres, considering last year she

only went two kilometres... The dive data was fine, she had been diving

to 50 metres. Wow. Is that the deepest you have ever had here? Yes.

The previous one was 41 metres, so she has topped that by a good ten

metres. Good girl, but worrying signs because it might mean there is

not enough food close by for them. Well done, keep going. You are very

busy, thank you for your time and good luck. Cheers. Cheers, take

care. And speaking of super mums, I

couldn't leave this island without a quick visit to our globetrotting

celebrity, Arctic Turn 91. And here she is. Still sitting quietly on her

two precious eggs. Wouldn't it be brilliant if before we left this

magnificent place, we saw her offspring? No pressure, girl!

See the Taj Mahal? Thinking of going to Disneyland? Scrap your plans and

go to the farms because it is brilliant.

One of the things we've been looking at is what affects the birds and

pollution affects marine life and so does litter, especially plastic.

Last week we encouraged lots of you to do something great for nature at

the weekend and get out and do a two minute beach clean. I am delighted

to say loads of you did it. Lots of you spent more than two minute and

picked up masses of rubbish. We are on the beach, this is the

Springwatch team, we have bags and hopefully we will find rubbish. We

have two minute, are you up for it? Guests!

-- yes! Two minute beach clean up. Plastic.

It's a good feeling. Look at that, that was collected in

just two minutes, so please, get out there, get involved in the two

minute beach clean. Not for you, not for me, but for your children and

children's children. It was amazing just how much rubbish you could pick

up in two minute. In two minutes. Good to see you get out. I can't

take you seriously dressed like that! What do you mean? I'd don't

understand. I forgot to say, we did check that Brecon area very

carefully before I went scything. Did you get wet? I did, not too wet.

I woke up this morning at 4.10 by the rain thrashing down. Did you

hear it? It has been pouring on and off all day. Is it going to

continue? Let's find out with Nick Miller. The simple answer is yes,

more rain to come in the forecast, not just the Minsmere but the bulk

of the UK. This is how it looked in London today. I have to balance

things out, media logically and geographically at the other end of

the extreme, Shetland has had some brilliant sunshine and will

tomorrow, but for the bulk of the UK, repeat. Underneath an area of

low pressure, heavily to torrential downpours. Every rain causes

problems for our birds. It was as caterpillars from trees and for the

chip 's their feathers are not yet fully waterproof. We know it is a

dangerous world out there, hopefully when the storm comes they can go

back to a parent, shelter under a wing. The bearded birds are good

parents, there should always be someone on the nest protecting their

young keeping them warm and dry that I saw on the cameras today with

bullfinches and their wings spread trying to protect their young. The

owls can go back in the nest in the branch. The forecast, Minsmere you

have had an interesting ride. Two weeks ago that great cold, last week

the warm sunshine and now the showers have come, these storms are

in the forecast, at least the temperature isn't going down too

far. Martin, or should I say Mr Darcy, if you haven't perfected that

soggy, see-through shirt look, you will get more practice! Mr Darcy?

Thank you, Nick. Nick mentioned a bird we haven't looked at today, the

bullfinch. Let's go to it now. As Nick said, it has been hunkering

down, looking after those chicks. Here are the parents, four chicks,

nine days old now. You can see the male with that resplendent red

chest. I love these birds, they stick together like lovebirds, the

Richard and Judy of the bird world. Look at this, this was one of the

birds overnight, roosting, and a wood mouse has come in. Very cheeky.

Remember, it is pitch black here. The mouse is sniffing around, has a

little tug at the ball finch tail. Somehow managed to sleep through

that. This would mouse is here with a mission, they would take out the

chicks beneath that bullfinch. Eventually the mouse goes round the

front and ends up biting the bullfinch on the beak. The mouse

would take the youngsters from beneath that bird if it hadn't

fought back, finally, at that point. I wonder if it didn't feel it

tugging its tail at first. Amazed it didn't wake up. Maybe didn't know it

was there. It is incredible to see. We will be following the bullfinch

more over the next week. We have lots of live cameras on them at the

moment. It is our last week and we have an awful lot going on. You can

watch those cameras online and on the red button at any stage. Keep

your eyes on those. That is all we have time for. Join me for Unsprung

at 6.30 tomorrow. Amy Williams will be joining me. We are back at eight

o'clock four Springwatch. What we have coming up? We will find out

what happened to those weasel kits were orphaned. We also have me going

out and looking for singing nightingales, live, hopefully. Quite

late for that, singing nightingales, but son of Sy. Just look at them

all. Absolutely amazing. Fantastic. That is all we have time for. Join

us tomorrow at eight o'clock and for Unsprung at half past six. I vote

Pike! We could talk about some of these

sights I'd like to see. I really want to see

Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge. Oh! Canary Wharf. Oh, and the

Houses of Parliament.