Springwatch Episode 1 Springwatch

We've packed our cameras and brought them to a brand new home.

The Wildlife is a fabulous as ever and the line up is packed.

There are plenty of new faces, plus some old favourites.

Welcome to an action packed Springwatch!

Hello and welcome to Springwatch. After three years of being in

Sussex, we have come to the Gloucestershire countryside. We have

come to be wonderful Sherborne Park estate, run by the National Trust

since 19 to seven. It is pretty become a 4106 acres of rolling

countryside. All sort of different habitats. You can see the wet

meadows, all the open would pasture in the Valley, streams and rivers.

Scattered across it, plenty of woodland, too. We have adapted our

mission, you might have noted, this time. We have not come to a nature

reserve. We have played been to places where people have developed a

place for wildlife alone. Here, it is different. It is a working

landscape. These are farms. People here are producing food that we eat.

Wildlife is living alongside it, we have come to explore that

relationship, what is good about it, how is working, how it is failing,

and how it might improve in the future. We have come to explore

rather than reveal and celebrate. A new challenge, and we are going to

rise to it. If you zoom in, you can see Sherborne there, relative to

Cheltenham, Bristol and... Reading! I get no who chose Reading. It is

the Cotswolds which are so pretty. I feel like I am in a Jane Austen

movie. What have we done to this beautiful location? We have bugged

it with cables and cameras and sound so we can take a peek into the lives

of the wonderful wildlife which calls Sherborne its home. Let's take

a look at our live cameras. Springwatch would not be Springwatch

without these little guys, bluetits. There are nine chicks all doing

pretty well so far and they are in a nest box in the woods. And here is

another Springwatch favourite, the barn owl. This is arable land so

perfect for barn owls. There are five pairs of barn owls on the

estate. This is the one we have put the camera on, on a chick and an

egg. Another regular is the swallow. That is the female and she is an

eggs so hopefully we will see those hatch in the next few days. Look at

the light reflecting off the back. It is a gorgeous colour. It is

looking at us! Claire-macro fantastic. We have also got our

cameras on a tiny little chit chat nest. We think there four chicks in

that nest. Is there a chick just there? We will keep an eye on that

and find out how many there are. Also another nest, one of our

favourite birds. There is the female looking beautiful. We have two

chicks looking beautiful there. We will wait to see if the other ones

hatch out. The mail is being very proficient, he is coming in,

providing her with food and feeding the little chicks as well. Gorgeous.

We are here. We have settled down, we are settling in nicely but what

makes this place so special? Springwatch has got a new home and

this time we are not on a nature reserve, we are in the heart of the

great British countryside. There is a wonderful mix of habitats here and

these woodlands are home to some of our most iconic animal species. Two

rivers run through the estate and they are rich in wildlife. And the

surrounding water meadows provide a row habitat for a variety of unique

plants and insects. Part of the estate was commandeered as an

airbase during the Second World War, but now it is being reclaimed by

nature. And the surrounding farmland boasts an array of some of our

rarest species. In the middle of it all, a picture perfect village plays

host to some of the nation's favourite animals. Welcome to the

Cotswolds! Welcome to Sherborne! We have been rummaging around for a

few days and my favourite thing so far? What is that? The trees. There

are some fantastic trees, chestnuts, beach and line and I found an oak

yesterday, massive huge girth, been there for hundreds of years. If

trees could talk? They would probably tell you a lot of boring

things standing in fields next to cheap most of the time, hundreds of

years next to cheap! We have a new location but we also have a new

member of our team, Gillian Burke. Thank you, it is amazing to be here.

I have been chomping at the bit to get going. I will be looking at a

spring spectacle which happened a few days ago right here at this

beautiful river. Fantastic, we will be back to Gillian soon. Let's have

a closer look at some of our nests. They say it could not be done, crows

are notoriously difficult to get cameras on because they are very shy

and if you get near the nest you cannot get cameras on but this year

we have. Let's have a look at the sight of this nest. You can see that

as the camera up there. It is in a spruce tree. Unfortunately, it is

right at the end of one of the branches. Can you see what it is? It

is a jay 's nest. We have been following that nest. They said we

would never be able to do it but we did. Let's catch up with what has

been going on at the nest. You may notice something slightly worrying.

That whole nest is at an angle, those chicks are in danger of

falling out of the nest. The adults are being very solicitors. They come

in and feed the chicks on a mixture of beetles, caterpillars, fruit and

seeds, but the nest itself, as the chicks are getting bigger is tilting

more and more. The chicks are really starting to slither down the nest.

They are having to scrabble back-up. The other day, the wind got up and

we were seriously worried. Crows are meant to be highly intelligent.

Let's go live to the nest now and see the distilled air. It is. There

is one of the adults. Very difficult to see if it is male or female.

Those chicks are now so big that I think they would go at any time.

Possibly in the next couple of days. It is a race against time. Is the

nest going to go before the chicks go? It is a bit of a pig's ear. That

is not what I would call it! They are meant to be intelligent. Maybe

they built the nest when the branch was straight. It is just a build.

They went to Italy and saw the leaning Tower of Pisa. It is

fantastic because it is a first for Springwatch and we have another

first and it is this bird. Red kites. We regularly see them flying

overhead here. This is a bird that made a huge comeback. It was almost

extinct in the 1950s in the UK, but thanks to reintroduction programmes

and protection, it has now recovered. The last survey was done

in 2013 and there were 1600 pairs so it is a fantastic success story. The

Chilterns in Oxfordshire is their real stronghold but there are plenty

here in the Cotswolds. I'm going to ask you two question. Where do you

think they were first recorded breeding in Gloucestershire? Here?

Exactly right. 2013. You get ten out of ten. We read the notes! There are

now two to three pairs here. We are really excited we can get a camera

on a nest. Let's have a look at where that nest is. It is outside

the estate. It is in a private woodland high up in the trees. If

you look in the middle of the screen, that is where we are based.

Let's have a look at the nest live. There are three chicks in it. That

is the adults on the right feeding those three chicks. They are

actually looking pretty bedraggled. It has been raining here quite a lot

today. I have seen that nest, I did not think it was that exposed but

clearly the rain is coming through the leaves and getting onto the nest

because they are definitely wet. Let's have a look at what has been

happening with them. We will be watching them grow. They do not

fledge until they are 50 or 60 days old. They are really fluffy. This

was a few days ago. That is the adults coming in and feeding them

something like a vole which it would have caught itself. This is unusual.

This is the leg of a buzzard. The adults would not catch that itself,

so that is probably carry on, may be roadkill. It does not look as if

there is much meat on there. That chip is saying, that was absolutely

rubbish! This is then yesterday and you can see already they are

changing. A lot more than others. A sweet shot of the little chick

there. We will see these chicks developing. It was very hot

yesterday. That chick looks exhausted. This is the adults coming

in. This is the mail. It is difficult to tell the difference. It

is smaller than the female. You can see it is slightly bigger. It is

coming in with more prey. That will be a really exciting nest to follow.

That male looked shifty. It looked nervous! Great views. What a

fantastic bird. It will be very interesting. One of the greatest

joys in the countryside at this time of year is undoubtedly foxes. Fox

cubs if you can find them. In the city they are easy to watch, they

are used to people. Out here in the countryside they can be quite shy

and wary. One of our cameramen found a vixen and no less than six, maybe

even seven cubs. Here they are outside of their den playing around.

It sounds like a lot, typically four or five are born in a litter. If

there is a high mortality rate in foxes, the females will give birth

to larger litters. The record unbelievably is 13. She is off to do

some hunting. It is her who provides most of the food for them.

Occasionally, the dog fox will bring some feedback. At this time of year

if you can settle down and watch a group of fox cubs playing like this,

it is absolute bliss. I say play but there is a purpose to it. They are

establishing a hierarchy. By seven or eight weeks old, that one makes a

mistake and fools in the nettles! That hierarchy is probably already

established. It might be play but it is also very important. What about

that? This one looks a little bit smaller. The one on the right. It is

almost certainly from the same litter. It is unlikely to be a cub

which has come from another female that have given birth, because of a

subordinate female gives birth the dominant one will kill the cubs. It

is likely the little one is the runt of the letter but it seems to be

going OK. The people of the National Trust have been keeping a diligent

eye on the mammals but we wanted to take a more comprehensive look at

the whole estate to see which species where here. I called in my

very good friend Doctor Dawn Scott from the University of Brighton and

we set out to conduct an up-to-date census.

Here we are. This is our new home. Pretty spectacular, lots of

habitats. Spread out on the map you can see the field systems and the

woods and the rivers that run through it. We would like to get to

know the mammals better which is why we have dialled you and you have

turned up with a van full of paraphernalia. I would like to focus

on three different habitat types. I would like to go to the wetland

area, we will go into the woodland and I am interested in the linear

features like the stone walls. Our first mission is a recce down at the

water meadow to look for a aquatic mammals. The best way to identify

water vole activity is to look for their food stores, piles of nibbled

reads with an exact 45 degrees angle edge. And of course, what goes in

must come out. Waterfall poo, excellent. They poo

in the same place again and again to reinforce territory. It will be the

female. I used to do that myself, Dawn. It didn't pay off, I have to

tell you. There were males encroaching on my territory the

whole time. Anyway... But it seems it is not just water

voles living here. We think we just saw an otter, well

a glimpse. It couldn't have been anything else. It made so much

noise. Crashing through all of that. That was the last of him.

Signs of water voles and otters. But I want to know if water shrews live

here, too. So we set feeding tunnels along the river to find out. We put

casters into these. While they are eating, they poo in the tube. You

can tell the shrew by the poo. What about that. I would love to see some

water shrew. We headed to the woodland. Dear Prince back there. --

prints. What is the best thing you have ever

caught? A weasel. Yes! I got a weasel once in one of my, so heavy,

and the smell. You knew instantly what it was. You never know what

you're going to get in. We'll see what we get in the morning.

Wood mice, they are exactly what we would expect to find in a wood like

this. It is a wood mouse. These feisty little creatures have a

range that's in the trees. We have them climbing up in the canopy. It

has the tail for balance when climbing as well.

To start to build a picture of the structure of the population of the

small mammals here at Sherborne, Dawn sexes. That is a female. And

she weighs all that we find. That is ten with the bag.

Then there is just enough time for a slick, TV friendly release. Sorry!

She got out. On to the next chapter. When there is grass and the tunnel,

you know you are on for a hit. A common woodland rodents, and they

eat a wide variety of food, not just nuts, but insects, too. Their home

range is also much smaller. You can see the difference between

the voles and mice, they have smaller ears, more fur, and the nose

is stumpy. Big eyes as well. These have smaller eyes.

The last woodland trap is successful, too.

Another wood mouse. As well as water vole and otter, we

now know we have bank vole and wood mice, too. This is skimming the

surface of what is here. In the long term, we are putting out door mouse

nest boxes. What do you think? I like the tree,

it has lots of honeysuckle. And putting out hedgehog observation

tunnels. How much do you want to wager that

you get a footprint? Piece of cake. Piece of cake, of course, carrot.

Our last stop today is a small mammal trap left in the hedgerow.

Well, I never, yellow necked mouse. This is a male, he is a breeding

mouse. These animals are carnivorous, they

do not have insects as well, and they are quite carnivorous, in the

sense they will eat wood mice young in the nest if they find them. They

are pretty formidable animals. I've seen them bigger than this as well,

stronger. More powerful. The ultimate mouse.

Yellow necked mouse. I was so pleased to see them. The last time I

saw one, I must have been 15, and it was biting my hand furiously. They

do bite, mate. When you hold them, they can get their teeth into you.

Dripping blood. Pleased to see them, though. Also pleased to see the

shrew traps work. Yes, we found some poo in the water shrew tubes. The

question was, was it common shrew poo, or water shrew blue?? Here is a

photograph of that poo. Underneath the microscope. What you see here,

quite a lot of white fragments. These are the exoskeleton, the outer

skin of invertebrates that are found in water, aquatic invertebrates.

They have a clear exoskeleton. Those on land have a patent exoskeleton.

There is a little leg. That is potentially the leg of a caddis fly,

perhaps a mayfly, and 50% of the food aid, you get from the service.

We can add water shrew to the list. A thrilling animal, the UK's only

venomous animal. Fascinating. They produce then in their saliva. They

don't inject it through a hole like a snake, they have a crevice down

the side of the two. As they bite, the then trickle is down. -- the

tooth. In the 80s, are used to catch them. If they do bite, it will hurt.

You will feel the venom. I want to feel it. I can arrange that. I am a

member of a club that can arrange that. We will speak later! Chris

also put down those tubes for the stoats. They will leave footprints.

Sadly, it didn't leave any footprints, but we have seen a

stoped on the wall. Look at this, on this glorious architectural wall. A

little bit bigger than a weasel. It may have a nest in that wall. We

will be following it and trying to see if we can catch her with a

family of stoats. It wouldn't be Springwatch without a family of

stoats. One of our nest finders has been out looking for bird nests, but

he found this. Chris, no, no, no! This is a

glorious thing. It looks like a load of straw, but it is an animal I

studied for about a year, watched you think it might be? It is not a

bird. Thanks to the magical photography of Planet Earth Two, we

can see what made this nest. Any ideas? Have a look as we go in

closer. There it is. A harvest mouse, a tiny, little mouse. Only

one weighing eight grams, the weight of a 2p piece. Incredibly acrobatic.

Not quite so acrobatic, that one. They live their lives high up in

stalks of grass. You can see its tail, it around to give it extra

balance. I have often caught those and they

never bite me. I have never been bitten by a harvest mouse. Same

club, mate, if you are up for it! This is Gilbert White, published in

1978, and he identified harvest mice for the first time. He says, "I

procured a nest this autumn. It was about the size of a cricket ball

with the aperture so ingenuously closed, there was no discovering to

what part it belonged. It was so compact and it rolled across the

table without being discomposed. Eight mice, naked and blind. " That

is a bit harsh. There was a day when naturist could do that, to see if

the young fell out. Writing a bestselling book about it.

Brilliant. We are also looking for the hedgehog. We have set out traps

and tubes come like those for the stoped, in the village, because we

thought there was a good chance there. Here is the paper from one of

those traps. The village's dog pulled it out. Had it not, we

wouldn't have discovered that these footprints are the footprint of

hedgehog. This piece of paper, equally chewed by the village dog,

this one has been trampled by loads of mice and rats. If you look, there

are hedgehog footprints. It proves that there are hedgehogs peasant

on-site. We are putting together a much more competent picture of all

other mammals living on the estate. Over here, it is something really

fantastic. We have a map of the estate. Look at this. Here are the

fields. Here is where we are, up here, this is where our base is.

Here is Sherborne Brooke, Gillian is somewhere down here. The village of

Sherborne is on this side. He is the Windrush Valley. This is where we

found the bank vole. On that part of the Brooke is where we found the

water vole and otter. That was your games of to? Very exciting. Very

much a glimpse as well. The foxes were plaguing over here. We can move

these in, Martin. I'm going to move this squadron of water shrews in

over here are pressing down from North, in here. Where is it?

Somewhere over there, the stoped was there. Then we have a squadron of

harvest mice in that field, there. I am going to be this regiment of

hedgehogs all the way down here, and push them down into the heart of the

village, where they will act as a resistance to all of the mollusc in

the village's Gardens. They will go out and eat the slugs and snails,

making a good job of that. Making themselves popular. Chris, we will

add to this map. We certainly are. We have been waiting years for a toy

like this to play with! We have got our own map, marvellous! We are also

interested in the mammals you might have in your garden, but in a

slightly different way. What we would like to know is if there are

any interactions taking place. Because out here in the countryside,

most of these animals try not to bump into one another. They try to

feed in different places at different times. Even if they feed

in the same place, they try to come at a different time. If you put food

out for foxes, badgers, hedgehogs or next-door's cat, there is a chance

they might come together, and that is what we are interested in.

Interactions like this one. Look carefully. There is a hedgehog here,

and a fox. The fox doesn't attack the hedgehog, but steals all his

food. Dawn Scott is interested in this. If you can record any video of

similar interactions, go to our website and send it into us, and we

will pass it on. We will catch up through the series to see what we

have found, she will analyse it, and we will see what these interactions

mean. If we can just move Michaela here, this is where the studio is.

She is waiting for us right now. Bless them. I can't tell you how

excited they were to be given a military map to play with. It a bit

Dad's Army! I think we have established that we have a good

righty of small mammals on the estate, which is good news for large

predators, especially birds of prey. We have seen birds of prey all the

time here. There is a great variety. We have cameras on quite a funeral

guests. We introduced them to you at the beginning of the show, barn owls

in one particular test. Let's look at where the nest is. It is on a

working farm, and arable farm, bordering a water meadow. There is

the adult barn owl, and the nest is inside the barn. Let's look at them

live and see what they are up to. This is probably the female.

Usually, it is the female but in debates and broods chicks and the

eggs. I can tell you, underneath there, there are chicks, and there

is an egg. Let's have a look. You can see, there are two chicks, a

huge difference in size. The first one, the large one, hatched on the

21st, eight days ago. The smaller one hatched a few days later. Much

excitement this morning, because at 4:22am, the third one hatched. This

isn't unusual. This is typical, very deliberate. A female barn owl will

lay those eggs, probably, too- three days will be the difference between

the first, second, third or fourth, 4-6 is usual in a clutch. That means

it will obviously take anything from eight days to three weeks for that

whole clutch to hatch. So we have got three there. There is another

egg still waiting to hatch. Let's have a look at what has happened

over the last few days. This is when there are just two chicks, I think.

That is the male bringing some food. They are both roles, yes, they. This

more recently. That is the bigger chick. The bigger chick is already

trying to feed itself. It is struggling a little bit to get that

chunk of meat down. It took about ten minutes to gulp it down. But you

can see the female is still very tenderly feeding the other chick. We

will be able to keep an eye on those chicks. Our nest watchers will watch

closely to see when and if that egg hatches. You can do the same,

because we have the cameras on nest 24 hours a day, and there are plenty

of ways you can watch. The Springwatch cameras I live for

20 hours every day from 4am to midnight. To find them go to the

Springwatch website and click play or you can watch them on the red

button on your TV. Sit back, relax and enjoy the best of British

wildlife this spring. You can really enjoy Springwatch and

get totally involved. We want you all to become part of the

Springwatch family. As we know, nesting birds are an obvious sign of

spring but I think other people look out for other things like emerging

bees. That is another sign of spring as well. Do you know which one of

our UK bees is the first to emerge? I am not talking bumblebees, I am

talking a solitary bee which has a fantastically descriptive name.

It is mid-March and spring is in the air in this Devonshire churchyard.

The first flowers of the year braved the bright but chilly morning.

At-large among the foliage, a bee forages for food. His legs are

covered in feathery hairs, he is a hairy fitted flower bee. As well as

hairy feet, he swaddled in a thick fur coat, so he can fly in the cold

of early spring. Which means he has free run of the flower beds and the

early nectar on offer. His proboscis is extremely long. Like a straw it

reaches nectar deep within the flower's trumpet. This is his

favourite tipple. Great hyacinth will do as well. -- grape hyacinth.

Appetite sated, our male can turn his attention to matters of the

heart. Because the male bees are also at large in the churchyard. --

because female bees. Unlike their golden counterparts, the ladies are

covered in beautiful jet black hairs. Having breakfasted early, the

males are full of fuel and raring to go while the females are still

sluggish and peckish. Our male patrols the churchyard. Finally, he

spots a lady. Flower bees are aerial acrobats and are brilliant at

hovering. Wings beating 400 times per second, our male hangs behind

her. He waits patiently. Females are very choosy and only mate once so

winning one is a tricky business. Just a practice pounced to get his

iron. It is OK, no 14. Success! And now, the feathery legs come into

their own. A gentle caress to entice her to mate or a shoulder massage to

help her relax. In truth, the full purpose of this gentle dance isn't

known, a mystery still to be solved. Other males have spotted the amorous

couple. An abrupt end to an otherwise beautiful moment. As

evening nears, a south facing wall in the corner of the churchyard

sucks up the last of the sun's raise. Its surface is covered in

tiny holes, each home to a single flower bee. They like their own

space, as long as there are plenty others of their kind close by, but

not everything living here is friendly. A neighbour from hell.

The tube web spider. It is an ambush predator.

A grisly end for this bee. But for our male, after a busy day,

safety. Tomorrow, he will start all over again, rising early to have the

best chance to find a female and maybe mate again.

I have done my aerial acrobatics, I have pounced and now I am massaging

because I am the male hairy-footed flower bee and you are the female.

Is it working for you? I feel very stimulated! Seriously, Martin, it is

amazing behaviour. No one knows why they do it but it was reported in

1978 in a paper that Suzanne Batra noticed a female be stroking the --

the male was stroking the female. The female has definitely calmed

down. I think it is trying to prevent her being visually the

related because then if she is distracted she might buzz off

halfway through mating and no male wants that, do they? That would be

useless. I think what is going on here is Tomic inability. You can

hypnotise chickens and sharks. If you turned upside down they stopped

moving. Even with lobsters, there is a particular area, if you stray pit

they become static. I think this might be tonic inability to make

sure the female remains absolutely still during mating. The

hairy-footed female only mate once so it is really important for the

male to get his hairy feet over how whichever way, whether it is

drumming or Massiah Jen and successfully mate. Get his hairy

feet over her. Let's move on briskly! Friends of the Earth are

conducting the Great British Bee Count and it goes between the 19th

of May and 30th of June and they want your help in trying to identify

these. What you're thinking is, there too many, how can I possibly

identify all those bees? There are 250 different species but don't

worry, because they only want certain types to be identified and

help is at hand. If you go onto our website they will show you how to

download this app and this is how to identify these. That is great fun, I

want to do that. Disabling app, it is Fred descriptive, very clear and

it helps you learn your bees. -- it is a brilliant app, it is very

descriptive. They are a crucial part of the ecosystem. Let's have a look.

We have seen them. Aren't they hairy? Honeybee, crucial for us.

There is the hairy-footed. We know all about that now. We do! Look at

that, the longhorned bee, I have never seen one of those. Definitely

a good thing to get involved with. The problem is a lot of flies mimic

bees and they look almost identical. As you might have noticed, Chris has

left us. He has gone down to the river with Gillian to see another

sign of spring. We certainly are. I have never heard of the hairy-footed

flower bee. I feel bad about that. I really must get to grips with my

bees and that app would be perfect. Absolutely. Onto mayflies. Lastly,

this river was bursting with life for Spring's big event, the mayfly

hatch. When these insects begin life, they spend two years

underwater. Feeding, filter feeding and waiting for their big moment to

burst through the water surface and take flight. There are so mini

things to say about mayflies. One of the things you can see this

beautiful shot here, one of the things they say about mayflies is

there are many species. In the British Isles there are precisely 51

species and I am being precise because I know you like a bit of

precision! The devil is always in the detail. The other interesting

thing about mayflies is they have this developmental quirk in their

life cycle. Whereas most insects will emerge once they have their

wings they are raring to go and ready to mate. Mayflies have one

extra step to go through so the first flies we see emerging from the

water are not fully mature adults. They are called subimagos. If you

just hold the net. We have a few mayflies in here. That is a tiny

one. Let's try and get a nice big one. This insect here, I'm just

going to put it on my hand and hope it stays. If you just swing that net

closed, Gillian. Look at that. That is a spectacular insect. It has

three tales. It folds its wings above its back and that is a sign it

is a primitive insect. They have been around for 300 million years,

not this species but this type of animal. It reminds me of dragonflies

and damselflies. They cannot fold their wings flap over their bodies.

That is right. This is ephemera vulgata. The clue is in the name,

ephemera, it does not live long. Absolutely fantastic. When these

things urge, they do not do so in ones and twos. They do it en masse.

This is a juicy little insect. I will not eat it. In other parts of

the world humans deep them. They gather them up and eat them. Here

the humans do not do that. So many other species are gorging on the

mayflies. This is the lake and it is covered in housemartins, swallows

and of course, it is not just birds that are after them, fish as well.

This is an extraordinary bonanza. The larvae of the species are in the

mud, not accessible to these trout. As they come to the surface to catch

into their subimagos, the trout are having a complete feast. Look at

that swallow coming down and taking that one of the surface. So all they

water birds here are taking advantage of this enormous number of

insects, lots of protein instantaneously available. This is

what we call predator swamping. The idea is so many mayflies hatch out,

even if they are eating by Coutts and swallows and ducks and trout,

enough of them will survive. It is not just water birds who are after

them either. This little Wren has caught one. For a young Wren in the

nest, I have to say it is a little feast in itself. That is a decent

meal for a little rent. Those shots are a bit like mayfly Armageddon,

don't you think? If they get past all those hungry mouths, they have

to go through their last stage of their life cycle, the grand finale.

There are quite vulnerable so they find a secret little spot in a blade

of grass and discard their old exoskeleton and emerging their full

glory, fully sexually mature adults ready to go away and mate. You can

see the beautiful wings. And these huge eyes, particularly the males,

they need those defined their females. And of course, once they

take flight, once you get are these clouds of males who go into this

nuptial dance and they fly up and down. It is like a rise and fall, a

courtship dance, it is so elegant, absolutely breathtaking. The females

will fly through these clouds and the males with very long front legs

when they can, will grab hold of a female, hopefully we will see that

in a minute and once they start making, it doesn't take very long,

to be honest, it lasts a few seconds. They land and it is done.

They have paired sexual all organs. Why do you need two sets of sexual

organs? I had to dig out the facts. It is characteristic of this

particular group. There she is, once the female lays her eggs, she dies.

That's it. She's spent. Two years in the making, and that's it. Some, in

the adult phase like this only live a couple of hours. Some are not day

flies, as some people call them, they go on for a few days, depending

on how long they need to find a mate. They go upstream to lay eggs,

lay them in the water and drift down. The most amazing thing about

these things is the fact that they are capable of removing pollutants

from a stream, and keeping the stream healthy. Impurities settle in

the mud, where the larvae are, they absorb them, lots of organic

material. They emerge in such large numbers, they remove it from the

stream and keep it healthy. These tiny little things our ecosystem

engineers. These insects are manipulating and managing this

environment. Basically, it is a great sign to see them in this

river. It certainly is. What a treat. What an absolute treat. I

have got a friend for life here. This spring has been, in my opinion,

I was about to say it has been dry, but not in the last 24 hours. Storms

across the south of England, lightning and thunderstorms. The

question is, has the spring been dry? The answer is with Nick Miller

at the BBC weather Centre. Spring has been on the dry side for

many of us, and some dry moments in spring, particularly in April. In

Edinburgh, and in London at Kew Gardens, a funeral metres of rain. A

record dry April. But since then, things have got daft, in Scotland

last Friday, 29 Celsius, the UK's highest temperature of the year so

far. For many of us, turning back, Northolt in north-west London,

average May rainfall, but warmer on the Northumberland coast,.

Think about the wildlife, we have had torrential thunderstorms as

well. They may wake us up in the night, but think about the wildlife

going out to find food to feed chicks. Like the barn owls, it could

be a matter of life and death. For them and us, the weather is getting

quieter. More rain to come for a time tomorrow, but from midweek for

a few days, high pressure building in. The flow of pressure around

gives a favourable breeze, good news for that precarious nest. A very

light wind midweek, if it lasts that long. Good hunting as well in this

weather for the red Kite feeding their chicks. What about Sherborne?

Getting dry and warm this week, but there is still a lot of Springwatch

to go. For you and all the characters, a lot of Springwatch

weather, too. I hope it is not whether we have had

in the last 24 hours if I am honest. What it looks like it might be.

Could be. It is not just about the cameras here at Sherborne, we have

cameras all over the country. One of the most interesting we have set up

is down in Salisbury. Salisbury Cathedral, at its founding

stones were laid in the 13th century, and pilgrims have flocked

here ever since. But recently, these lofty spires, have also provided

sanctuary to some feathered residents. Peregrine Falklands. --

Peregrine falcons. Their nest is 70 metres up on the

south parapet. And the pair have successfully raised chicks here for

the last two years. Now in late March, they are getting ready to do

the same again. Heads held low, the pair cold to each other to reaffirm

their bonds. This early courtship is a brief

affair. It's just a quick catch up. Then, the smaller male is off.

Around the country, other peregrines already have a guess. But this

couple like to take their time. But this couple like

to take their time. The nest remains empty.

Days go by. But with the arrival of April, two

eggs are finally revealed. Peregrines normally lay between

three and four eggs at 48 hour intervals. They won't incubate until

the clutch is almost complete, but this doesn't harm the eggs.

Two days go by. The next egg is now late.

Throughout the laying process, the mail brings food to the female to

strengthen their bonds. The cathedral's tall spires are the

perfect bondage point for spotting prey. A more hen is going to make a

tasty meal. Once the incubation starts, she's

going to be stuck on the nest, so he needs to make sure that she's well

fed and in the peak of condition. He calls to the female to tell her

that he has food. But she is not at the nest.

Two more days pass. The eggs are often left unattended,

and in the absence of the female, they are vulnerable.

Jackdaws, they are attracted to the scraps dropped above the nest. But

an egg would make an even tasty meal.

The jackdaw spots the dramatic return of the female.

When the mail also returns, the couple mate. The process is

haphazard and clumsy, so meeting continues all the way through the

lady in period to ensure that its successful.

And it seems to pay off. Finally, more than a hundred hours after the

second leg, the third appears. Seven days later, on Good Friday,

there were not just four, but five eggs in the nest. I'm usually, it's

taken 15 days to lay them all. And now, finally, the hard work of

incubation can begin. What about that, not just beautiful,

but imposing, those peregrines. You get a sense of presence with them.

Unusual laying pattern their back. Stay with us, more from that nest

tomorrow. Now, we saw the swallows coming in, dipping in and eating the

mayflies, amazing pictures. I wonder if they were taking the mayflies to

this nest. There she is. She just arrived. This is another one, a new

nest for us, a swallow nest. The female has come back. We are not

sure how many eggs there are in there. There were five, but I'm not

sure myself. They are due to hatch the more we think, probably in the

next five days, those eggs. She is a beautiful bird, Martin, but she is

slightly highly strung. Take a look at this. She is sitting,, but

something disturbs her. In comes a wasp. She is scared by this wasp.

Mind you, we think it is a Queen wasp possibly looking for a new

nesting site. I would want a wasp nest next to my bed. The eggs are

tiny, much smaller than I thought. Fantastic. What are we doing now?

Yes, we had some questions. A tweet, someone has worked out the angle of

the jays nest, working it out with his protractor. I love that. 35

degrees. We have a hashtag that has got going on Twitter. 85% of you

think they are going to fledge. I love a positive audience! Very

optimistic. We had to make sure it is not windy in the next few days.

We are running out of time now, but I would like to show you this before

we go. Look at these may fly. It shows you the abundance of these

insects. There was a breeze blowing these insects across the river.

There are not tens of thousands, probably not hundreds of thousands,

but millions on the river when the hatch takes place. Truly

spectacular. Let's go live to the red Kite nest quickly. It is

beginning to rain again. Just as we are coming off air, it is starting

to rain again. The poor chicks in that nest. It has been amazing. It

was sunny, then training, dry for the show, and we get this at the

end. Sadly, that's all we have got time for tonight. Tomorrow, we will

move further afield to a World War II airfield. We are trying to get

friendly to find one of the rarest animals, difficult to see here at

Sherborne. We are heading to Scotland to meet perhaps the most

bolshie bird in Britain. We will also be introducing a new family, a

stoat and her kids. They were star characters last year on Springwatch,

and I am sure they will be again this year. It will be a stunning

show full of heavy highlights, stay tuned for tomorrow, 8pm. Goodbye!

We need to trap the beast which killed him.

Tear him apart! I want him found! Now!