:00:00. > :00:13.We've only just begun and already the wildlife is delivery pure drama!
:00:14. > :00:22.Britain has a lot of wildlife talent. Flying fish, frolicking
:00:23. > :00:26.foxes, some magnificent mayfly, and tonight we bring you jostling jays.
:00:27. > :00:33.And Gillian and I are at an old World War II airbase...
:00:34. > :00:35...on a heated mission to uncover some if it's more
:00:36. > :00:59.secretive inhabitants. BOTH: Welcome to Springwatch!
:01:00. > :01:06.Hello and welcome to Springwatch 20s and 19, coming to you from the
:01:07. > :01:14.glorious Sherbourne Park estate in lost issue. Look at it, and
:01:15. > :01:18.unintentional twirl. It is a fantastic place run by the National
:01:19. > :01:22.Trust. The reason we have come to typical countryside and not a nature
:01:23. > :01:27.reserve, our mission is different this year. Typically, we gravitate
:01:28. > :01:33.to nature reserves where everyone is working 24 hours a day to farm
:01:34. > :01:38.wildlife. This is made up of farmland. What we have done here is
:01:39. > :01:43.explore how wildlife lives alongside farm animals, farming practices, and
:01:44. > :01:49.how it struggles to do that sometimes. That is our mission. But
:01:50. > :01:53.the wildlife mission at this time of year is to reproduce. There are
:01:54. > :01:58.broods and litters of animals across the landscape struggling to survive
:01:59. > :02:01.and stay alive. They have all sorts of threats, predators out there, of
:02:02. > :02:06.course, but there is one universal threat to all that wildlife, and
:02:07. > :02:12.sometimes to us, too. It is the weather. Last night it was the rain.
:02:13. > :02:18.Where did the blue skies go? And why is it raining so? It is so cold, I
:02:19. > :02:22.can't sleep tonight, everyone is saying, everything is all right.
:02:23. > :02:26.Still, I can't close my eyes, I'm seeing a tunnel at the end of the
:02:27. > :02:29.light. Sunny days, where have you gone? I get the strangest feeling
:02:30. > :02:36.you belong. Why does it always rain on me? Is it because I lied when I
:02:37. > :02:40.was 17? Why does it always rain on me?
:02:41. > :02:46.I can't believe it. You have started the show with a 12 and a song. It is
:02:47. > :02:51.musical theatre! What is happening? Lovely, Chris. You saw at the end,
:02:52. > :02:59.the jays. They were bedraggled. Last night aftershow, torrential rain.
:03:00. > :03:06.Being wet is not their only problem. This is the nest we introduced to
:03:07. > :03:12.you yesterday, in this spruce tree at you can see our camera there, and
:03:13. > :03:17.the camera is on the nest. Looking at the nest, it is ludicrously
:03:18. > :03:22.precarious, it is like a leaning Tower, at a ridiculous angle. At the
:03:23. > :03:27.end of the show last night on Twitter, there was a vote, will they
:03:28. > :03:32.fledge awful? By the end of the evening, at 84% of you reckoned they
:03:33. > :03:38.would fledge, 16% said they would fall. An optimistic audience. Very
:03:39. > :03:44.optimistic, given the slope on the nest and the rain. Let's see if
:03:45. > :03:50.either of you were right. This is what happened at 5:23 this morning.
:03:51. > :03:58.You can see at the bottom of your screen, there is one of the chicks
:03:59. > :04:03.out of the nest. It didn't fledge, it fell. So, 16% of you were right.
:04:04. > :04:08.It is flapping its wings and trying to get back up, and it is falling
:04:09. > :04:12.through the foliage. The question, I guess, that is on everyone's lips
:04:13. > :04:19.is, did it survive? Well, let's have a look. Did it
:04:20. > :04:27.survive? I'm pleased to tell you, it did. It survived the day. There it
:04:28. > :04:32.is. Looking sorry for itself. Those feathers to me look like feathers
:04:33. > :04:37.that are ready to fly. It is partly because it got so wet. There it is,
:04:38. > :04:45.having a good, old stretch. It starts to call, and the adult bird
:04:46. > :04:49.comes in. And starts to feed it. Obviously, that chick is very
:04:50. > :04:55.vulnerable at this stage. You can see it flapping its wings, but not
:04:56. > :04:59.managing to take off. That was definitely a fall. What about the
:05:00. > :05:03.others? Did they fledge awful, are they still there? There is one way
:05:04. > :05:10.to fight out, take a look at the live nest. Looking at it live, you
:05:11. > :05:15.can see it is empty. There were four chicks in there, now there is
:05:16. > :05:19.nothing at all. What do you reckon? Fledge awful? This happened a fewer
:05:20. > :05:27.hours ago, and you can judge for yourself. Yet, they fledged. The
:05:28. > :05:33.last three definitely fledged. You can see the way it is branching,
:05:34. > :05:40.semi-fledging, flapping its wings, and successfully fly in a bit of the
:05:41. > :05:44.way. All of those four jay chicks are out of the nest now, and we will
:05:45. > :05:48.keep a close eye on them. They are all quite vulnerable at this stage.
:05:49. > :05:53.It is fantastic that they fledged, but it is a little bit of a shame,
:05:54. > :05:57.Chris, because it is the first time we have ever had a jay nest on
:05:58. > :06:01.Springwatch. By Day two, they have all gone! We will keep an eye on
:06:02. > :06:04.them to see if the youngster close to the ground survives. There are
:06:05. > :06:09.plenty of threats, plenty of buzzards. Buzzards often take the
:06:10. > :06:13.young out. When they make all that noise out of the nest, it makes them
:06:14. > :06:21.vulnerable, but we will keep an eye on them. The jays are nesting down
:06:22. > :06:25.in this block of woodland. It is a nice block of woodland. Quite a few
:06:26. > :06:28.mists are down there. When it comes to terrestrial habitat in the UK,
:06:29. > :06:32.woodland is the most important, supporting more life than any other.
:06:33. > :06:38.How much woodland do you think we have got in the UK? Is it about 13%
:06:39. > :06:44.of our land mass? Land surface, 30%. It adds up to 31.36 million
:06:45. > :06:49.hectares, which sounds like a lot of woodland. But I have to tell you, it
:06:50. > :06:54.is the second lowest in Europe. Only island and the Netherlands have less
:06:55. > :06:57.woodland than the UK. The good news is, since the end of the Second
:06:58. > :07:01.World War, we have doubled the amount of it. Clearly, if we want to
:07:02. > :07:04.improve things for wildlife, we have to keep planting. In the Cotswolds,
:07:05. > :07:10.we have 20,000 hectares of woodlands. Here we can see the
:07:11. > :07:16.woodland in winter, transforming into spring. It balloons with all of
:07:17. > :07:19.those leaves. All the leaves are highly edible, lots of things are
:07:20. > :07:24.eating them. And things are eating the things that eat them, and one
:07:25. > :07:28.species that does precisely that is the blue tit. They aren't nesting in
:07:29. > :07:33.the woods in a nest box. Let's go to it now. Here is the exterior of that
:07:34. > :07:39.box. You can hear the youngsters calling. There they are, inside
:07:40. > :07:43.there. There were nine of them in that box. They might have just had a
:07:44. > :07:48.feed, they are quite active and vocal. If you have been watching
:07:49. > :07:53.those on the red button or WebCam, you will notice of the line, two are
:07:54. > :08:01.smaller than the others. A couple of rumps in the brood. -- runts. They
:08:02. > :08:08.seem to have been breezy over the last few days. We have been doing
:08:09. > :08:12.food counts. Here they are, slightly younger, lots of caterpillars going
:08:13. > :08:17.in, those are the things eating the leaves. The blue tits are eating the
:08:18. > :08:24.things that are eating the leaves. We have calculated they need 900
:08:25. > :08:31.caterpillars a day, a brood of nine new tits. At the moment, they are
:08:32. > :08:38.getting 450 something. Rain watches caterpillars off the trees and makes
:08:39. > :08:43.them inaccessible to the tips. A lot of hard work for the blue tits to be
:08:44. > :08:51.doing down there at this point. We will keep our fingers crossed for
:08:52. > :08:56.the two. If the weather stays fair, there might be a chance for them.
:08:57. > :09:01.You pointed out that the nest is down there, the same area as the jay
:09:02. > :09:04.nest. As we know from last year, if you remember last year's
:09:05. > :09:14.Springwatch, we had a blue tit nest box that had this happen to them. AJ
:09:15. > :09:21.comes and snatches the chick out of the hole. The Jade took three
:09:22. > :09:24.chicks, leaving just one. I am pleased to say the final one did
:09:25. > :09:33.fledge and survive. We called it Gloria Gaynor. You called it Gloria
:09:34. > :09:39.Gaynor. As in I survived. What about this year? The nest box is near the
:09:40. > :09:43.jays, are jays going to be a problem? Not at the moment, but
:09:44. > :09:48.there is another bird that could be. This one, the great spotted
:09:49. > :09:54.woodpecker. Look at it. It is listening in the hole. It can hear
:09:55. > :10:00.them tweeting away. It had a jolly good look. That was on Sunday. We
:10:01. > :10:05.have seen the woodpecker twice near the hole. It happens, though. It
:10:06. > :10:10.often happens. They do, it happened one year in my garden, I had a
:10:11. > :10:14.couple of wooden boxes out. One Saturday morning, I was woken up by
:10:15. > :10:22.the tapping. Half an hour later, no great tips. As the chicks become
:10:23. > :10:25.more and more vocal and start climbing out of the nest hole, that
:10:26. > :10:29.is when they had to watch out. We will keep an eye on that. Another
:10:30. > :10:32.iconic bird of our woodland this north of the border in Scotland, a
:10:33. > :10:37.huge member of the grouse family. We can rate it as one of the most
:10:38. > :10:40.boisterous and bolshie birds in the UK, clearly a braid man -- brave man
:10:41. > :10:55.had to confront it. With its stunning mountains and
:10:56. > :10:59.beautiful glens, it's no wonder that tens of thousands of people visit
:11:00. > :11:04.the Highlands every year. And for the bird watchers that come up here,
:11:05. > :11:10.they would choose the bird more than any other, not the golden eagle or
:11:11. > :11:12.white tailed eagle, a woodland bird that has been in decline for four
:11:13. > :11:23.decades. It's the capercaillie. In the 1970s, population estimates
:11:24. > :11:30.of these striking birds stood at around 20,000. But today, they have
:11:31. > :11:33.dropped to only one or 2000. It makes the capercaillie a red listed
:11:34. > :11:38.bird, and extremely difficult to find. Those that are left are
:11:39. > :11:43.closely monitored to see how they are faring. Today, I am joining
:11:44. > :11:46.Gareth Marshall from the RSPB, who carried out daily studies on a vital
:11:47. > :11:51.population in one of their Scottish strongholds.
:11:52. > :11:58.Why is Speyside so good for capercaillie? There is an abundance
:11:59. > :12:01.of Scots pine woodlands. They feed on the needles most of the year,
:12:02. > :12:06.particularly in the winter. It provides the right light and ground
:12:07. > :12:15.conditions to get play brie and the ground. It is a key plant for the
:12:16. > :12:19.capercaillie. The chicks feed on the insects that live in it. These are
:12:20. > :12:25.big birds, like a woodland turkey. They are massive. A male
:12:26. > :12:29.capercaillie is four kilograms. The wingspan is 1.2 metres, typically.
:12:30. > :12:32.That is a big Bird, I wouldn't want to bump into one of those on a dark
:12:33. > :12:37.night! When the birds come together, it is
:12:38. > :12:42.an even more impressive sight. Every spring, the males gather on sites
:12:43. > :12:47.where they displayed to each other and attempt to win over a hen. In
:12:48. > :12:54.order to establish a hierarchy, the males lack make clicking and popping
:12:55. > :13:01.noises. If that doesn't happen, it can result in real violence.
:13:02. > :13:08.Where is it here? Over there. There is nothing about the area that is
:13:09. > :13:13.specific, you wouldn't go there specifically, but it looks like the
:13:14. > :13:17.rest of the forest. We know it is a site because of hard work and
:13:18. > :13:21.fieldwork going out and looking for signs of capercaillie. By that, we
:13:22. > :13:25.mean droppings, looking at capercaillie droppings. Here, you
:13:26. > :13:28.have two male droppings at the front, and two female droppings at
:13:29. > :13:33.the back. You can see the difference. The male are thicker and
:13:34. > :13:35.chunkier for a bigger bird and skinnier are still big, but skinnier
:13:36. > :13:41.for a female. We know the capercaillie are around.
:13:42. > :13:48.To check on the numbers, our best chance of seeing them is to be here
:13:49. > :13:49.at first light. The hives go up and we make ourselves comfortable for
:13:50. > :14:13.the night. It is now just after 5am. I woke up
:14:14. > :14:19.this morning to a series of clicks and pops, followed by wheezing
:14:20. > :14:30.noises all around me. It's unique. No other bird has a
:14:31. > :14:37.call anything like this. They are quite spread out. Most of
:14:38. > :14:42.them are behind me, at least two, maybe three behind me. One maybe two
:14:43. > :14:48.are amongst the crease in front of me.
:14:49. > :14:50.What a weird, alien noise this is. A very odd thing to wake up to.
:14:51. > :15:15.Amazing, though. Well, what do you think? The males
:15:16. > :15:21.was quite spread out. I think a count of six males. I know it is
:15:22. > :15:26.early days yet but does it look as if the population is holding its own
:15:27. > :15:32.this year? Yes, it is remaining relatively stable. A few ups and a
:15:33. > :15:37.few downs and others but on average holding its own. Well, you carry on
:15:38. > :15:39.packing away your hide and I'll pack away mine and the least I can do is
:15:40. > :15:57.buy you a cup of tea. Thank you! What a fabulous bird. Well, I am up
:15:58. > :16:09.on an old World War II air base and you can see the old control tower.
:16:10. > :16:13.This is RAF Windrush. If we get some old photographs we can see what this
:16:14. > :16:19.place looked like during the Second World War. Here are some people, the
:16:20. > :16:24.crew, the jolly crew around an aeroplane which is being serviced
:16:25. > :16:28.there. And if you have a look, they also had barrage balloons here, set
:16:29. > :16:33.up to try and bring down enemy aircraft, and also, if you go above,
:16:34. > :16:38.you can see the whole site. You can see the runways there and all the
:16:39. > :16:42.outbuildings, some of which are still here. And extraordinarily,
:16:43. > :16:47.lying around, if my beautiful assistant could just pass this!
:16:48. > :16:52.This, believe it or not, is an actual bit of a German bomb. It is a
:16:53. > :16:57.huge lump of shrapnel and these bits and pieces still turn up here. That
:16:58. > :17:02.was 70 years ago but things have changed, have a day, Gillian? They
:17:03. > :17:06.have indeed because today nature is reclaiming this site. If you look
:17:07. > :17:10.behind me there is a pillbox which is almost completely overgrown. Over
:17:11. > :17:12.there to my right you can see a woodland that was planted just after
:17:13. > :17:35.the war to hide the buildings there, the barracks and
:17:36. > :17:38.the bomb stores. But today it looks completely different, and if we take
:17:39. > :17:40.a look at these shots, you can see what I mean. Absolutely beautiful,
:17:41. > :17:43.tranquil, peaceful. It is so hard to imagine this was once a wartime hub.
:17:44. > :17:47.Life is literally bursting through all the relics there. Some of our
:17:48. > :17:55.favourite wildlife now makes it home. A little owl, gorgeous. As
:17:56. > :17:58.well as little owls there are other birds like skylarks, yellow hammers
:17:59. > :18:03.and farmland birds that perhaps you would not see so commonly around the
:18:04. > :18:10.UK now. As well as those things, there is something a lot more
:18:11. > :18:14.secretive here, I hare. The hares hideaway in the ground here and
:18:15. > :18:20.every now and then you get a tiny glimpse of them. Watch this, there
:18:21. > :18:24.they go. The ears of a hare. The ears are longer than a rabbit's and
:18:25. > :18:31.the eyes are more to the side of the head. They do not go to boroughs
:18:32. > :18:36.like rabbits do, they will go to the field and they will feed mainly at
:18:37. > :18:41.night. They are incredibly difficult to find, really difficult to find so
:18:42. > :18:45.we are going to have a go at finding them using a bit of super high
:18:46. > :18:54.technology. How will we do it, Gillian? Ladies and gentlemen, be
:18:55. > :19:01.prepared to meet Ronan cam. Drones have become a familiar sight these
:19:02. > :19:12.days but this one is different -- drone cam. This one has a heat
:19:13. > :19:17.imaging sensor. This might be a site you don't want to see down a dark
:19:18. > :19:22.alley! This is hot tea which I am trying not to burn myself with.
:19:23. > :19:27.Hopefully Lee you can see it is glowing white. And if I do this, I
:19:28. > :19:33.have no idea if you can see that but hopefully it is white hot. And now I
:19:34. > :19:40.am guessing everyone will want a cup of tea! The plan is that we will try
:19:41. > :19:44.and send this drone up into the air and the thermal camera will scan
:19:45. > :19:51.around the fields and try and see if we can find a hare or a leveret, a
:19:52. > :20:00.young hare, lining up in its fawn. Shall we back off? Can we spark it
:20:01. > :20:09.up, please, Kevin? I fell down a whole! Lets if we can a picture of
:20:10. > :20:12.this. Here we go. Hopefully, you are seeing some thermal images from
:20:13. > :20:17.that. Comeback in the little while and we will see if we managed to
:20:18. > :20:22.find a hare or a leveret out there in the field.
:20:23. > :20:25.See you later. It is slightly barking but at the same time
:20:26. > :20:31.wondrously brilliant, using a thermal drone to look for a hare.
:20:32. > :20:35.There is another species of animal that we find here on the Sherborne
:20:36. > :20:39.Park estate which you do not need a drone to find at all, I'm talking
:20:40. > :20:42.that rabbits. Rabbits are a non-native species. They were
:20:43. > :20:47.brought here initially by the Romans and then certainly by the Normans as
:20:48. > :20:51.another introduction, all the way from Iberia. They proliferated.
:20:52. > :20:54.There are millions and millions of rabbits across the UK. They have
:20:55. > :20:58.been in critical decline for some time but there is no doubt at this
:20:59. > :21:04.point in time, they represent not just a beautiful sight in our
:21:05. > :21:07.countryside for the bunny huggers out there, but also they are bunny
:21:08. > :21:14.burgers because same in the animals eat them. Foxes and buzzards, there
:21:15. > :21:19.population is dependent on them. I have really felt for bunnies. Did
:21:20. > :21:23.you know only 10% of them make it to add altered? Everything eats them.
:21:24. > :21:26.They are bunny burgers and the other thing the eats them is this creature
:21:27. > :21:34.we have been filming over the last couple of days. One of our cameramen
:21:35. > :21:41.spotted this adult female stoat. It is climbing a stone wall. This is a
:21:42. > :21:45.great habitat for this animal to hide out. It can run along the wall,
:21:46. > :21:51.it can hide in the wall and it can make dens on the wall. They make
:21:52. > :21:54.multiple bends in their territory. So lucky to see a state like this.
:21:55. > :22:05.Some often you see a fleeting glimpse, you cannot say if it is a
:22:06. > :22:10.state or a weasel but we can see this is a stoat because there is a
:22:11. > :22:14.black tip on the tail which is lacking in a weasel. We have noticed
:22:15. > :22:20.it is going into this then. This is its nest. They move them. It is
:22:21. > :22:25.using it for its kit. You might have noticed a bit of movement behind the
:22:26. > :22:31.adult and now you can clearly see the young. We can see a couple
:22:32. > :22:37.there. Our cameraman spotted three or four he thinks. There could be
:22:38. > :22:42.anything up to six or nine which is an average litter. They are
:22:43. > :22:45.obviously quite old. They are quite big! They will be bursting out of
:22:46. > :22:52.that den and running around and exploring quite soon. The females
:22:53. > :22:57.will move them from dented den. I'm not surprised they have chosen to
:22:58. > :23:03.have a dome inside one of these dry stone walls. The key is in the name,
:23:04. > :23:07.dry stone walls. The core of the wall is dry and they can remain dry
:23:08. > :23:11.for hundreds of years. They are a great place for wildlife. All sorts
:23:12. > :23:16.of things make their home in there. We spoke to the dry stone wall
:23:17. > :23:19.association and they said the most familiar thing they founded there
:23:20. > :23:25.were toads but also lizards, rodents, rabbits, all sorts of
:23:26. > :23:32.things. Also these jackdaws. Perhaps the jackdaws are after insects at
:23:33. > :23:36.this point in time. Here on this estate in the Cotswolds, these stone
:23:37. > :23:41.walls are very much part of the landscape, some of them dating back
:23:42. > :23:48.to 3000 years, although not in wall form. The same technique was used to
:23:49. > :23:57.build burial mounds. One of them built in the 1740s is a particular
:23:58. > :24:03.gem, made from a type of limestone. And where to think we might find
:24:04. > :24:08.70,000 tonnes of illiterate limestone crafted into one of the
:24:09. > :24:13.most magnificent edifices in the whole wide world? Bath? Wrong.
:24:14. > :24:19.Salisbury Cathedral. You can keep your Taj Mahal. When you walk into
:24:20. > :24:22.Salisbury Cathedral and UCB magnificence spire, it would stop
:24:23. > :24:26.the heart. It would certainly stop the heart if you had climbed or the
:24:27. > :24:33.stairs. That is where our cameramen been going to film the peregrine
:24:34. > :24:40.falcons. They had a peculiar laying pattern this year.
:24:41. > :24:51.It is early May. For the last three and a half weeks our female has been
:24:52. > :24:56.incubating a clutch of five eggs. It has not been an easy task,
:24:57. > :25:09.particularly in the unpredictable British spring weather.
:25:10. > :25:18.Her nest site is pretty special. A parable that 70 metres up on the
:25:19. > :25:23.south side of Salisbury Cathedral. It makes for a pretty spectacular
:25:24. > :25:35.home and it mimics the cliff sites that peregrines traditionally on.
:25:36. > :25:43.Peregrines strike other birds in midair at speeds of up to 200 mph.
:25:44. > :25:55.They are fearsome apex predators. With the female largely confined to
:25:56. > :25:56.the nest, the male must keep her well fed and he has been religious
:25:57. > :26:16.in his attention. This black bird is today's offering.
:26:17. > :26:24.But the Cathedral surroundings provide a rich and varied menu.
:26:25. > :26:27.Recently, he has brought his mate great spotted woodpecker and there
:26:28. > :26:41.are also kingfisher feathers littering the floor. Pigeons are a
:26:42. > :26:45.favourite food of peregrines. But because most praise killed on the
:26:46. > :26:51.wing, this would pigeon is probably safe.
:26:52. > :26:58.Although you would think there must be far less risky twigs to be found
:26:59. > :27:13.elsewhere. The female does most of the
:27:14. > :27:28.incubating, but the male does relieve her from time to time. He is
:27:29. > :27:30.a third smaller than she is, and also it makes it impossible for him
:27:31. > :27:45.to cover this large clutch. The female returns and order is
:27:46. > :28:05.restored. Back in 2013, this pair laid their
:28:06. > :28:12.eggs on the bare stone walk way. They failed to hatch because they
:28:13. > :28:15.kept rolling apart. After that, the Cathedral and the local RSPB
:28:16. > :28:23.installed a nest box to help keep the eggs together. But it seems she
:28:24. > :28:31.has not forgotten that first attempt and she carefully shores up the
:28:32. > :28:35.nest. But even with such attentive care, nothing is guaranteed. With
:28:36. > :28:47.such a large clutch, some of the eggs may not make it through. They
:28:48. > :28:48.should hatch in the next week, with this unpredictable pair, only time
:28:49. > :29:03.will tell if they do. What a place to nest. If I was a
:29:04. > :29:11.peregrine falcon I would choose the top of a cathedral like that. I
:29:12. > :29:13.would choose the Cathedral. A beautiful place and the beautiful
:29:14. > :29:19.view. I would not want to nest in the Taj Mahal or the pyramids of
:29:20. > :29:23.Giza, a load of rubbish. Well, they are world Heritage sites, not
:29:24. > :29:26.exactly rubbish. Let's move on. We saw some of the food they have been
:29:27. > :29:31.eating there. We have got some of the feathers here. This is the one
:29:32. > :29:36.from the kingfisher. You can see the blue which identifies the back of
:29:37. > :29:41.that bird. I love the colours of that one, that is great. You could
:29:42. > :29:50.make a pair of earrings out of them! Old macro good idea. These white
:29:51. > :30:00.spots are indicative, they are unusual species for a peregrine.
:30:01. > :30:07.This is a song thrush and this one? That has got to be a blackbird. It
:30:08. > :30:12.is about that. And this one is a female black bird. A guy called Ed
:30:13. > :30:17.Truitt who wrote a book about urban peregrines has been looking at food
:30:18. > :30:23.and recovering feathers and he has found no fewer than 98 different
:30:24. > :30:29.avian prey species brought into those nest sites.
:30:30. > :30:37.What is interesting is, clearly these birds are not trust feeding on
:30:38. > :30:39.urban species such as pigeons, jackdaws or goals, they are
:30:40. > :30:51.venturing into the countryside. There are few king -- kingfishers,
:30:52. > :30:56.or we wanted to see where they were foraging. So we climbed the tower
:30:57. > :31:01.and caught the male bird. Here it is in the hand. We were hoping to put a
:31:02. > :31:09.tag on the male, because this is doing most of the hunting. We fitted
:31:10. > :31:14.it with a colour ring. But when Ed Wade the bird, it was underweight
:31:15. > :31:19.for the tag. It is important not to put too heavy a device on them, so
:31:20. > :31:24.we had to release the male. It was a particularly small male. Thankfully,
:31:25. > :31:30.the female was a regular size, so we colour ring this bird, and she was
:31:31. > :31:34.big enough to have a satellite tag fitted to her. This is a practice
:31:35. > :31:39.that is tried and tested with other bird, a light device that sits on
:31:40. > :31:50.the back. She came back to the nest within an hour or so, and was
:31:51. > :31:54.brooding and integrating the! -- the eggs there. We should be able to
:31:55. > :31:58.follow the bird to winter, and see where she will find food for the
:31:59. > :32:02.young, and what she does after that. Many urban peregrines stay on the
:32:03. > :32:06.territory, roosting on the cathedral, or church where they have
:32:07. > :32:09.chosen to breed. It is a great project. Thanks to the guys are
:32:10. > :32:13.climbing up and fitting the tag. We will follow that up in Autumnwatch
:32:14. > :32:17.and Winterwatch. Peregrines are not the only ones that have chosen
:32:18. > :32:23.religious real estate, we will introduce you to a brand-new nest.
:32:24. > :32:28.This is such a beautiful place in Sherborne Village, in this old
:32:29. > :32:34.church. Absolutely picture perfect. You can see the window there, it is
:32:35. > :32:39.a window that they nest in. The village is just over there. Let's go
:32:40. > :32:45.live to our kestrel. Let's look at them. Here are the chicks. That is
:32:46. > :32:49.the adult. It is quite surprising to see that the adult isn't brooding,
:32:50. > :32:57.though. It is feeding them instead. That is highly likely to be a role.
:32:58. > :33:02.Just before we came to be shot, we heard that it sneezed all over the
:33:03. > :33:09.lens. You can see it is smudgy. That is fantastic! That is what you pay
:33:10. > :33:16.the licence fee for!! Kestrel 's not! Oh, yes! Lovely! Let's see what
:33:17. > :33:22.they have been getting up to other bands sneezing. This will be the
:33:23. > :33:26.female, usually the female kestrel broods the eggs and looks after the
:33:27. > :33:32.chicks. The mail comes in. You can see a lot of vocalisation between
:33:33. > :33:39.the two of them, bringing in, highly likely again, to be a vole. It flies
:33:40. > :33:42.off into the distance. This is the female picking of little bits to
:33:43. > :33:51.feed the chicks. If you look at the chicks, they have got very white.
:33:52. > :33:55.While they are that colour, they can't regulate their temperature, so
:33:56. > :34:01.they have two be rooted all the time by the female. After 10-11 days, it
:34:02. > :34:07.will turn darker, and they can firmer regulate. Great to see. It is
:34:08. > :34:10.a first for us, a kestrel nest in a church, and it will be great to
:34:11. > :34:15.follow their progress. Look at it, snuggling down and keeping them
:34:16. > :34:20.warm. Let's go back live. Is she still the? Come on, it look at the
:34:21. > :34:26.sunlight glinting on the side of the unit it limestone. The chicks being
:34:27. > :34:32.fed a vole last thing in the evening, that is great. Kestrel are
:34:33. > :34:36.having a good year. We spoke to a lady called Emily Yocham, who is
:34:37. > :34:41.working in Wiltshire, watching 55 pairs of kestrels, and she has 12
:34:42. > :34:45.pairs with six eggs, normally 4-5 has been the limit in recent years.
:34:46. > :34:49.And one with seven. The first time that has been recorded for 35 years.
:34:50. > :34:52.They are having a good spring. Some of her young are more advanced than
:34:53. > :34:59.the ones in our nest. She sent us this picture. They have the second,
:35:00. > :35:03.grey coat. They do look quite comical. They have got a comical
:35:04. > :35:08.look. Sensational things. The reason we think they are having a good
:35:09. > :35:16.spring is because we had a mild winter, which means lots of voles
:35:17. > :35:20.survived, which is food for them. We are on Day two of Springwatch, and
:35:21. > :35:25.we are still exploring the surroundings in Sherborne. We saw
:35:26. > :35:29.yesterday, Chris did a look around, did a mammal survey, and a couple of
:35:30. > :35:34.wins ago, I came here to look at what is in the ponds. To give you a
:35:35. > :35:45.clue what I was looking for, Chris will do an impression...
:35:46. > :35:49.That's really good. Gormless. That's why you are so good at it.
:35:50. > :35:56.Here in the UK, we have three species of newts. Smooth is the most
:35:57. > :36:05.widespread, spots on their either side, and they can grow up to ten
:36:06. > :36:10.centimetres long. This species lack the spots on the ropes. The great
:36:11. > :36:17.crested is the largest, up to 50% bigger than the other two, and also
:36:18. > :36:19.the rarest, fully protected under UK law. Newts spend the winter
:36:20. > :36:25.hibernating, but as the weather warms up, they emerge to start to
:36:26. > :36:29.mate. I want to discover which species live around the Springwatch
:36:30. > :36:36.HQ. And to do that, I have enlisted expert help. David Dewsbury has
:36:37. > :36:40.invented a neat, little trap, which safely catches large numbers of
:36:41. > :36:46.newts. I will help him set some. Can I look at a track? Of course. That
:36:47. > :36:53.is your lunchbox, not a trap. A big difference to a normal trap. His
:36:54. > :36:58.ingenious trap has a slot along one side, lined with netting, so the
:36:59. > :37:03.newts can get in but can't get back out again. Instead of a lid, there
:37:04. > :37:07.is a plastic bag with a float attached, and a small hole to let
:37:08. > :37:12.air in. It gives the newts plenty of space to move around. The most I
:37:13. > :37:17.have caught is 88. 88?! I don't expect to catch that number of
:37:18. > :37:21.newts. The box feels with water and sinks
:37:22. > :37:26.to the bottom of the pond where the newts are most likely to stumble
:37:27. > :37:29.into it. We place several around the edge of a small pond to maximise our
:37:30. > :37:33.chances. Is that it for this pond, just
:37:34. > :37:41.three? Just three should it, hopefully. Now it is off to a second
:37:42. > :37:46.pond. Ready? One, two, three... This one is a lot bigger, so needs
:37:47. > :37:53.more traps, best positioned in the deepest parts towards the middle.
:37:54. > :38:02.So that is it now? Until tomorrow. Let's take a bet, how many will we
:38:03. > :38:08.get? 30. I will go for 35. We will find out who's right
:38:09. > :38:11.tomorrow. Newts are most active in the evening, so relieving the traps
:38:12. > :38:16.overnight means we're more likely to catch higher numbers.
:38:17. > :38:22.The next morning, I am full of excitement to see what we have got.
:38:23. > :38:31.We start with the smaller of the two ponds.
:38:32. > :38:35.Yes, we have got one! Usually, a female smooth newt has spots under
:38:36. > :38:41.the chin, and has bigger spots. This one has hardly any, actually. So it
:38:42. > :38:49.is quite easy. Definitely a female. Something in there. Look, we have
:38:50. > :38:53.got lots. Fantastic, how many are there? Six? Yes, two males, four
:38:54. > :39:04.females. We have a fewer again. We have loads. It is a great crested
:39:05. > :39:08.newt. Look at the size difference. He looks like a monster in
:39:09. > :39:18.comparison. You can see that is a male. With the white stripe. He has
:39:19. > :39:22.a crest. The quest will come up? Yes.
:39:23. > :39:30.He really is rather handsome with his orange belly and large crest and
:39:31. > :39:32.dark, warty skin. It is completely unmistakable.
:39:33. > :39:37.One of my childhood memories was when I was nine, going on ten,
:39:38. > :39:41.seeing my very first male crested newt, and I saw the white stripe
:39:42. > :39:45.disappearing down into the water. I thought, that must be a dragon or
:39:46. > :39:49.something! Little did you know, decades later, you would be making a
:39:50. > :39:55.trap to catch them. Here I am, 60 years later.
:39:56. > :40:00.It is fantastic that these rare amphibians are using a small pond.
:40:01. > :40:04.And as well as the great critic, we also found 14 Palmeiras newts. But
:40:05. > :40:10.that's not all. We still have another pond to check. Straightaway,
:40:11. > :40:14.it is looking promising. In fact, we have caught more newts in the first
:40:15. > :40:20.two traps than we have in the whole of the other pond. And unlike the
:40:21. > :40:23.last pond, these are all smooth all common newts.
:40:24. > :40:29.If we have got our calculations right, that is 57. 57, thereabouts.
:40:30. > :40:35.Wow. This is the kind of nude that people most likely get in their
:40:36. > :40:38.garden pond. They see the crest, which is quite striking, and they
:40:39. > :40:42.think it is a great crested newt in their pond. But you would agree,
:40:43. > :40:47.having seen that one before, you couldn't really mistake them
:40:48. > :40:51.side-by-side. You couldn't, no. I am really impressed and amazed at
:40:52. > :40:57.how many newts we have caught. It is all thanks to your trap, the
:40:58. > :41:01.Dewsbury trap, named after you. I looked up to see if there is a
:41:02. > :41:04.collective noun for newts, and there isn't. I think we should call it a
:41:05. > :41:15.lunchbox of newts! Yes! Do you like that? A lunchbox of
:41:16. > :41:24.newts, I think it is quite good. No. What would you have? Acorn of newts.
:41:25. > :41:32.I will have that registered as the official collective noun. -- a call.
:41:33. > :41:39.We saw the species we were hoping to see, but we didn't see one of these
:41:40. > :41:42.newts. Look at this, sent in by Leeson House field studies Centre.
:41:43. > :41:47.It is at the bottom. The yellow wee one is a leucistic newt. That's not
:41:48. > :41:54.an albino newts, it is a mutated gene that events the pigment getting
:41:55. > :41:58.up to the skin, feathers or the fur. Extraordinary looking. It is. You
:41:59. > :42:03.see quite a feud this is that animals, I have seen a leucistic
:42:04. > :42:06.badger. People tweet pictures of leucistic blackbirds. But look at
:42:07. > :42:12.this, Mark Douglas has found a leucistic puffin. I'm not up for
:42:13. > :42:17.that one, it is not symmetrical. But I am up for this one. Brace
:42:18. > :42:25.yourselves. What about that, a barn owl. Terry has a super photograph of
:42:26. > :42:29.one of the best birds in Britain. That is extraordinary. Stunning.
:42:30. > :42:32.Keep them coming in, we love to see them, there are plenty of ways to
:42:33. > :42:42.get in contact with us by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr. All the
:42:43. > :42:47.details are coming up. Time to get back to the airfield, to see how
:42:48. > :42:53.Wing Commander Hughes and Burke are doing using the drone.
:42:54. > :42:59.We have been out here during the show, looking for hares and
:43:00. > :43:05.leverets. We have a drone with a thermal camera to help us. Martin,
:43:06. > :43:10.what have we got? Suck it up, all the people saying it is a
:43:11. > :43:21.harebrained scheme. We have got one! Let's have a look. It is on the
:43:22. > :43:31.move. We keep losing it. Can you see it? It has just disappeared. Anyway,
:43:32. > :43:34.that was it. OK, so the thermal camera did manage to see... Syahrin
:43:35. > :43:43.you have it right now. There it is. There is a little dot. I will zoom
:43:44. > :43:51.in on it. It is sitting totally still. OK, we have lost it now.
:43:52. > :44:01.Fantastic. That was great. It can be done! Well, that was amazing. So the
:44:02. > :44:07.question is, why... We think it is a clever, if not, it is a hare. Why is
:44:08. > :44:14.it sitting quite so still in that field? What is going on? Let's look
:44:15. > :44:18.at shots of leverets. It is hard to see these, but these are some
:44:19. > :44:23.beautiful close ups. It is a treat to see them like this, actually. But
:44:24. > :44:27.it is this leading, because leverets spend very different time,
:44:28. > :44:34.especially at this age, moving around. -- very little time.
:44:35. > :44:40.What happens is, almost from the point where they are born, the mum
:44:41. > :44:44.leaves the leveret as a way to avoid attracting predators. When they are
:44:45. > :44:50.on their own, the best thing they can do is stand still for almost the
:44:51. > :44:54.whole day. It is only in the evening that the dough will return looking
:44:55. > :45:01.for her litter, maybe up to four of them. When she does, she will stop
:45:02. > :45:08.and look around, and they will come back towards her and have a feed. A
:45:09. > :45:12.fantastic bit of behaviour. They could be four leverets, spread out
:45:13. > :45:16.in the undergrowth, and in the evening about now, as Gillian says,
:45:17. > :45:20.they will come together to the place where they were born and meet up
:45:21. > :45:24.with their mum for suckling. It is difficult to film that, but we have
:45:25. > :45:30.got a photograph, a still of that actually happening. Look at this.
:45:31. > :45:34.There is the mother, and there are the two Leveretts suckling, that
:45:35. > :45:37.might last five minutes, no longer. Then she will go away and leave
:45:38. > :45:44.them, extraordinary. But there is a problem. There is a problem because
:45:45. > :45:48.quite often, occasionally actual, people go out for walks and come
:45:49. > :45:50.across a Leverett, they will look around and won't see the mum
:45:51. > :45:56.anywhere. The assumption is they have been abandoned. And that is
:45:57. > :46:01.exactly what happened to this one. We have got to be quite quiet and
:46:02. > :46:09.move quite slowly, because this is a rescue leveret. Look at that.
:46:10. > :46:18.They are very nervous. A well-meaning person picked this one
:46:19. > :46:23.up. It is probably about six weeks old, this little leveret. The good
:46:24. > :46:31.news is that Susan, who is looking after it, at the Hare preservation
:46:32. > :46:35.trust. They will gradually release this and it will have less and less
:46:36. > :46:40.human contact and it will be gradually back into the wild. What
:46:41. > :46:47.is the crucial message? If you do come across these, it is best to
:46:48. > :46:54.leave them alone. Unless they are in obvious danger, really, they are a
:46:55. > :47:01.pair. I don't think we should handle it too much! Lets go from one place
:47:02. > :47:08.that is returning from an industrial site to another teeming with
:47:09. > :47:17.wildlife. The yard is about half an acre,
:47:18. > :47:21.mostly car parts, now overgrown. You leave the front of the premises,
:47:22. > :47:27.come through the garden, into the back of the yard and the whole world
:47:28. > :47:31.changes. It is like a little paradise. Peace and tranquillity.
:47:32. > :47:38.Birdsong which you can probably hear. It is a different world. The
:47:39. > :47:47.wildlife thrives here because it is understood. Whenever you stop
:47:48. > :47:54.moving, things start growing. My family bought the plot in 1899. Then
:47:55. > :48:01.in 1932, my grandfather established the yard and started vehicle
:48:02. > :48:06.braking. I have lived here all my life, grew up in the yard, played in
:48:07. > :48:13.the yard and have worked in the yard ever since. I have grown up and
:48:14. > :48:17.everything has grown up around me in that time. Early memories of
:48:18. > :48:26.childhood and nature, collecting newts. One or two slow worms in the
:48:27. > :48:39.garden. Grass snakes and then in the yard we had foxes and fox cubs. The
:48:40. > :48:44.bats are up in the EU. -- they are in the eaves. Sometimes we find a
:48:45. > :48:52.little pile of moth wings where the bats roost and they the moths. All
:48:53. > :49:04.sorts of insect life in the yard. A few weeks ago I discovered some
:49:05. > :49:09.unusual bees in the garden. And they would just hover in front of a plant
:49:10. > :49:16.like a hummingbird, from one flower to another. Even the tiny little
:49:17. > :49:28.forget-me-not heads, they would plant their proboscis in the centre.
:49:29. > :49:37.I found it quite fascinating. Last year we had wasp spiders which I've
:49:38. > :49:46.never seen knew nothing about will stop. I then Chile counted 30
:49:47. > :49:51.cocoons in the garden. A great variety of creatures live here. One
:49:52. > :49:55.spot we have lizards, they come out in the sunshine, they bask in the
:49:56. > :50:05.summer. They seem to thrive in that environment. The way the yard has
:50:06. > :50:10.grown and developed it, it no longer functions properly as a business
:50:11. > :50:16.premises, it is more of a nature reserve. I sort of subsidise a
:50:17. > :50:21.nature reserve basically. It is just unique. You can't produce it
:50:22. > :50:31.overnight. It has taken 80 years to get to this stage. It harms nobody
:50:32. > :50:37.but benefit the wildlife. I disappear down here and it is just
:50:38. > :50:41.heaven. I spend more time looking at things and watching things and less
:50:42. > :50:51.time working which does not please my good lady! The future of the
:50:52. > :51:00.premises is a conundrum. I would like the yard to stay as it is
:51:01. > :51:07.forever, but unfortunately, times change, because I shall be the last
:51:08. > :51:14.person here to run the yard. What happens after them, I don't know.
:51:15. > :51:25.Maybe sold and then redeveloped, or hopefully, it will stay as it is.
:51:26. > :51:31.What a marvellous location. I would love to go and take some still
:51:32. > :51:35.there. It would be great. All the rotting old bits of mossy car with
:51:36. > :51:40.the wildlife growing. I hope you can find someone to keep it going as a
:51:41. > :51:46.scrap yard. For sale, a pile of rusty old cars in a wood, a few blue
:51:47. > :51:50.tits. Good luck! But it is a fantastic place. We are running out
:51:51. > :51:52.of time that I would like to introduce you to a new nest. Let's
:51:53. > :52:08.have a look at the outside of it. It is in
:52:09. > :52:11.a hedgerow. Very nice hedgerow. You can see the of camouflage material
:52:12. > :52:13.there. That is hiding some of our camera. The bird that is nesting
:52:14. > :52:19.here is one of our favourites. It is an absolute treat. Let's go live to
:52:20. > :52:26.the Bulfinch now. We have two macro chicks in this nest and the female
:52:27. > :52:30.should be brooding. She might have just nipped off. Both parents have
:52:31. > :52:34.been attending them regularly. We will come back to it. In the
:52:35. > :52:39.meantime, let's have a look at what they have been up to. These birds
:52:40. > :52:47.are special. There is the male on the left. He is regurgitating some
:52:48. > :52:52.seeds. There were five eggs initially. One of them got stuck to
:52:53. > :52:57.the female. Probably because it was cracked. We saw it dangling from her
:52:58. > :53:02.breast. Three of them hatched. At the moment we are down to two
:53:03. > :53:06.chicks. Both parents are attending them. Sometimes the male comes and
:53:07. > :53:11.passes the food to the female and he cannot resist feeding them himself.
:53:12. > :53:17.Look at the beaks of those little birds. They are already quite a big
:53:18. > :53:27.powerful bill. That is what gives them their name, Bulfinch. They are
:53:28. > :53:32.such handsome birds. They are like posh and Becks. They'll
:53:33. > :53:37.good-looking. They are obviously a Springwatch favourite. We featured
:53:38. > :53:42.regularly on Springwatch but last week introduced you to a nest which
:53:43. > :53:49.is a first for us, the nest of the red kite. This is it live. There are
:53:50. > :53:54.three chicks in there. One of them is having a good snooze. Two of them
:53:55. > :54:00.are sleeping. That is the adult we can see the back of. It looks like
:54:01. > :54:03.it might be feeding the third chick. Once they have gorged, they have got
:54:04. > :54:08.nothing else to do at this stage, other than sleep it off and
:54:09. > :54:11.digestive and eat some more. We have seen a little bit of wings
:54:12. > :54:16.stretching and flapping the feeding is what it is all about at this
:54:17. > :54:24.stage. They certainly do a lot of sleeping but they also do a lot of
:54:25. > :54:26.squabbling. I think they are a bit squashed in that nest, they have had
:54:27. > :54:30.too much of each other. You have done this with your sister and I
:54:31. > :54:37.have with my brother where I have had enough of him. Except my mum did
:54:38. > :54:43.not ignore me, I was sent to my room. Does funny that that adult is
:54:44. > :54:47.not doing anything! They are all bickering and squabbling. And then I
:54:48. > :54:53.love this. They all settle down. How gorgeous is that? This one finds
:54:54. > :54:58.eight week and starts bashing its sibling over its head! The sibling
:54:59. > :55:04.is not putting up with that nonsense. Get off, I am having a
:55:05. > :55:11.kip. That is an annoying twig. Every time it comes up it hits it in the
:55:12. > :55:15.chin. It is annoying me. But I would not get it and bash you over the
:55:16. > :55:23.head with it! I think there is a good chance that you might. We are
:55:24. > :55:26.running out of time. Michaela, have you got any questions? Let's go to
:55:27. > :55:32.the swallows. This is the female sitting on a nest in the barn. We
:55:33. > :55:36.reckon the eggs will hatch by Friday. Fingers crossed they will
:55:37. > :55:46.hatch while we are on air on Thursday. But if it is on Friday you
:55:47. > :55:52.can see it on the webcams. We have a question, from Elsie Burroughs. It
:55:53. > :56:07.is funny because it is about heads and rabbits. -- it is funny that her
:56:08. > :56:13.name is Burrows. There is very short grass and not many pesticides. Once
:56:14. > :56:23.I spelt a delightful day on Belfast Airport looking for Irish hares. It
:56:24. > :56:37.is a very good place for them. Have a look at this jay. It is having a
:56:38. > :56:47.fantastic bath. It has a prominent crest. A striking bird. And this is
:56:48. > :56:54.wildlife does the funniest things. This is the stoat we have been
:56:55. > :57:00.following and these are the kits. How embarrassing, I fell off the
:57:01. > :57:04.wall! The sibling is saying, what are you doing, youthful! Martin,
:57:05. > :57:11.Gillian, you are back! I have brought you a World War II German
:57:12. > :57:16.bomb. Oh, my word, it is so heavy! That went better than expected out
:57:17. > :57:26.there, didn't it? It was a buzz, it was amazing. It was a harebrained
:57:27. > :57:29.idea. Martin, you are leaving us this evening to go on great journey
:57:30. > :57:33.of the UK. I am going on a grand tour to look at some of the
:57:34. > :57:35.highlights of England, or Wales, Scotland and fingers crossed we
:57:36. > :57:42.might get down to the Isles of Scilly. I have had to run here! You
:57:43. > :57:48.will be out of breath. I am not going to run, we will go in a car!
:57:49. > :57:52.Tomorrow we will take a look at some badgers. There are a large number of
:57:53. > :58:00.these animals and we hope to get them far better and we will also be
:58:01. > :58:03.keeping an eye on our kestrel. Look at that, what a beautiful sight.
:58:04. > :58:10.Four chicks in there. We will see if all of them get to fledging stage.
:58:11. > :58:15.And did they fledge Horsfall? They did both. We will keep our eye on
:58:16. > :58:20.them and see how they get on. I think we have time for another very
:58:21. > :58:27.quick question. Actually, that might be pushing it a bit. We will save it
:58:28. > :58:33.for tomorrow. Goodluck Jonathan your travels! Thank you very much. Have a
:58:34. > :58:38.fantastic time and we will see you tomorrow night. Goodbye! -- good
:58:39. > :58:42.luck on your travels.