:00:08. > :00:11.We have had a fabulous first week here on Springwatch. The words
:00:12. > :00:14.action and pact are not enough. The jays have jumped, the blue tits
:00:15. > :00:16.are being bothered, the chiffchaffs And tonight there's
:00:17. > :00:31.a new raptor on the scene! And I've come to the stunning
:00:32. > :00:37.Talacre dunes in North Wales We are on the Trail of real Welsh
:00:38. > :00:39.dragons! All will be revealed
:00:40. > :01:12.in tonight's Springwatch! Gabbay then Golden sunlight -- we
:01:13. > :01:16.are bathed in golden sunlight. We are live. If I were John Constable,
:01:17. > :01:22.I would set up Mike is all right here. I would pick up a brush and
:01:23. > :01:33.put some of this fantastic landscape onto canvas. It is really pretty. I
:01:34. > :01:38.would get a more hen into the frame. We have had a really busy week. Lots
:01:39. > :01:44.of action and fledging. Lots of fledging already. One of our nests,
:01:45. > :01:51.I think they are going to fledge by Monday. It is the blue tits nest.
:01:52. > :01:56.Let's look at it. It is in a nest box in the woods. There are nine
:01:57. > :02:00.chicks. They should be fledging between 18 and 21 days. So they
:02:01. > :02:08.could go this evening. It is a beautiful evening. If I was a
:02:09. > :02:12.polluted check Dennis Aogo -- polluted chick, I would. I think it
:02:13. > :02:19.is more likely in the morning. Never fledging to darkness. I will let
:02:20. > :02:23.them know. Let's see what they have been up to. There are nine chicks
:02:24. > :02:28.there. The nest box almost looks like it is getting too small. You
:02:29. > :02:31.can see they are really ready to go. They are flapping their wings and
:02:32. > :02:38.testing their strength. In the middle of that gorgeous ring, there
:02:39. > :02:43.is a runt. It is probably three days younger than the rest. What I like
:02:44. > :02:47.about this is it is quite feisty. In the past, we have seen ones which
:02:48. > :02:52.are very weak, they have been trodden on by the other chicks. This
:02:53. > :02:55.one is begging for food. It is very keen, not flapping like the one in
:02:56. > :03:01.front. The one in front is really trying to get attention. It didn't
:03:02. > :03:05.get fed there, but we have seen it get fled.
:03:06. > :03:13.The mother comes in. I think it could do OK. We have seen the
:03:14. > :03:17.smaller birds, we have had them in the past. We had won a couple of
:03:18. > :03:21.years ago, we had blue tits before. If the rest fledge, there is
:03:22. > :03:25.sufficient food and it continues to make a lot of noise, there is no
:03:26. > :03:30.reason why they wouldn't feed it for a couple of extra days. Having a
:03:31. > :03:36.runt like that, there is a good reason for it, it is security. The
:03:37. > :03:43.female blue tits has started integrating after the first few
:03:44. > :03:48.eggs. Forgive me, this is a spare. If it makes it, good, if it doesn't,
:03:49. > :03:53.it doesn't really matter. That is not its only problem. There is a
:03:54. > :03:56.much bigger problem for all of those chicks, a local predator. We saw it
:03:57. > :04:02.yesterday on the show. It is the woodpecker the great spotted
:04:03. > :04:07.woodpecker. It has been back. It has come to look at the chicks. It flies
:04:08. > :04:17.off. 30 seconds later it is back and look what happens. It is trying to
:04:18. > :04:23.get ahead in there. Look at the tongue. The chicks are hunkered down
:04:24. > :04:26.and they know it is a problem. That is a real worry for the chicks. They
:04:27. > :04:31.are ready to fledge, but the woodpecker knows exactly where they
:04:32. > :04:39.are. If you think that is extraordinary, look at something
:04:40. > :04:47.that a viewer has sent in. Very young blue tit chicks. The
:04:48. > :04:54.woodpecker gets the head right in. Look at that. Extraordinary. You can
:04:55. > :04:58.see the chicks were tiny, they did not know it was a predator, unlike
:04:59. > :05:01.the older chicks that are hunkered down. They started begging and
:05:02. > :05:06.thought it was the adult coming with food. I have to tell you, I'm afraid
:05:07. > :05:15.it did not end well for them. It ended well for the woodpecker. That
:05:16. > :05:24.was a woodpecker shining. Here's Woody! That will give us nightmares!
:05:25. > :05:32.We have a question on Facebook from Zoe. She says, why haven't you got a
:05:33. > :05:36.metal ring on the nest box to prevent predators? You can put a
:05:37. > :05:38.metal plate to stop things like grey squirrels or woodpeckers from
:05:39. > :05:44.chewing their way in. The first thing is, if you have a hole around
:05:45. > :05:48.the nest, the woodpeckers will go to the bottom and hammer underneath.
:05:49. > :05:53.The other thing is ethical. When we are putting up the wooden nest box,
:05:54. > :06:00.it is like a natural cavity. Woodpeckers need food. If they break
:06:01. > :06:04.into nests and get the woodpecker out, it is good for the woodpecker.
:06:05. > :06:07.We don't want to upset the balance of nature from stopping the
:06:08. > :06:10.woodpecker getting into the nest if they find it. We are trying to keep
:06:11. > :06:15.everything on an even keel. It is not just about blue tits. We have
:06:16. > :06:19.been watching swallows hatching. Let's go live to them now. These are
:06:20. > :06:27.in a barn, about a kilometre away from where we are. It is in the apex
:06:28. > :06:32.of the barn. Beautiful birds, in a nest. There were five eggs and they
:06:33. > :06:34.continue to incubate four. They have been hatching. Let's look at what
:06:35. > :06:41.has been going on today. We started the day with three chicks. They are
:06:42. > :06:47.pecking in the bottom of the nest. I think she might be after... My
:06:48. > :06:54.goodness. I have had a catastrophe. I have had an absolute catastrophe!
:06:55. > :07:04.What have you done? You have just knocked the swallow off. A beautiful
:07:05. > :07:12.facsimile of a swallow nest. You have lost the egg. I haven't lost
:07:13. > :07:21.the plaster egg. They weigh 1.9 grams. That is including the shell.
:07:22. > :07:26.When they hatch, here is the chick, a beautiful little model. Let's put
:07:27. > :07:30.that back into the nest properly. All back together. My conscience is
:07:31. > :07:39.clear, I haven't ruined everything! Butterfingers! It is beautiful. A
:07:40. > :07:43.scale model, built by researchers, before being destroyed by myself. It
:07:44. > :07:47.shows the size of them, they are weighing about two grams. That is
:07:48. > :07:56.less than a penny. Now it is my turn to fumble! It is extraordinary,
:07:57. > :08:05.isn't it? We are always shown you these chicks in close-up. You keep
:08:06. > :08:10.forgetting how small they are. A chick that size... It is going pear
:08:11. > :08:19.shaped! It is a little bit bigger. Maybe more like a 20p? We get the
:08:20. > :08:22.point! There is your taxi. From a stunning, sweet little bird to a
:08:23. > :08:28.large, sexy predator. Let's go to the peregrine. We put this camera
:08:29. > :08:32.live yesterday. It has been on the webcam, and a lot of you have been
:08:33. > :08:38.enjoying it online and on the red button. It's fantastic that we can
:08:39. > :08:41.continue to watch it. We saw the peregrine and the one chick
:08:42. > :08:48.developed. We filmed that in advance, but that is life. It is 13
:08:49. > :08:52.days old and we cannot see the chick in that shop. Let's see what has
:08:53. > :09:04.been happening during the day. The adults have been hunting. That is
:09:05. > :09:06.the mail. The ringed male. It has caught something. You can see it as
:09:07. > :09:13.a green woodpecker. What is interesting. It has decided to keep
:09:14. > :09:16.the bird for itself. It is enjoying it and tearing it apart. You can
:09:17. > :09:26.hear the female in the background, really screeching, wanting it to
:09:27. > :09:33.bring that to her and the chick. Why would he not? There is an enormous
:09:34. > :09:36.store of food. Fresh carcasses being kept around the ledges on the
:09:37. > :09:42.cathedral. They were expecting a brood of four chicks and they only
:09:43. > :09:48.have one. I think there was lots of food and the male just fancied a
:09:49. > :09:53.snack. It shows the range of food they are taking, Kingfisher, spotted
:09:54. > :09:57.woodpecker, now green woodpecker. We will be keeping an eye on that
:09:58. > :10:02.female, which is typed, to see where she is hunting. That should be more
:10:03. > :10:06.as the chick begins to mature. You can keep your eyes on the nest by
:10:07. > :10:10.going to the website, and also on the red button. Keep your eyes on
:10:11. > :10:15.that over the course of the weekend. One of the cameraman has been out
:10:16. > :10:18.looking at his own peregrines, but not on a man-made edifice but a
:10:19. > :10:29.natural cliff. They are living life on the edge.
:10:30. > :10:41.I live much of my life on the edge. The edge of our human world. Looking
:10:42. > :10:51.for the cracks between the concrete and the car parks. Slithers of
:10:52. > :10:52.emerald space, where nature makes use of what we can't, won't or
:10:53. > :10:58.don't. Going unnoticed, amongst our busy
:10:59. > :11:14.everyday lives. Cliffs are nature's definition of an
:11:15. > :11:19.edge, inaccessible to humans. Look beyond the unremarkable are fading
:11:20. > :11:23.fences and you might find the remarkable. The fastest animal in
:11:24. > :11:39.the world. The peregrine. They visit here, soaring
:11:40. > :11:55.effortlessly through the heavens, surveying supper below. In ultimate
:11:56. > :11:59.control, but mobbed by gulls, unhappy with their fellow flyer,
:12:00. > :12:05.keen to see danger moved on. And move on it does. The peregrine takes
:12:06. > :12:10.aim and plummets with murderous intent.
:12:11. > :12:24.A dark dove, falling from the heavens above.
:12:25. > :12:32.Returning with Ray, picking a favourite plucking post and proceeds
:12:33. > :12:45.to operate. A Starling is prepared. Carnivore
:12:46. > :12:49.confetti drifts upwards on the breeze. The only sign above as to
:12:50. > :12:58.what is going on below the cliff edge.
:12:59. > :13:10.Another edge land is to be found behind a petrol station. A hubbub of
:13:11. > :13:17.business, it is the back edge of the building where the real action is
:13:18. > :13:20.at. A south facing wall, catching the heat of the Sun, is home to an
:13:21. > :13:47.unruly bunch. Common lizards. They lurk here, jostling for the
:13:48. > :13:56.best spots to warm their bodies. Once hot enough, they set off to
:13:57. > :13:59.hunt this miniature man-made desert. They are looking for insects that
:14:00. > :14:13.have also come to take advantage of the heat. Not this time. Lunch makes
:14:14. > :14:20.its escape. These tiny dragons are constantly on the move, too, scared
:14:21. > :14:28.they may be slain themselves if they stay out in the open for too long.
:14:29. > :14:37.Edge lands are often forgotten places. But they don't need to be.
:14:38. > :14:41.They are everywhere, if you look. Even at home.
:14:42. > :14:50.Some decking, providing an opportunity to take a den below. A
:14:51. > :15:04.home for a family. Fox cubs, emerging in the warmth of
:15:05. > :15:17.the spring after six weeks underground. These furry balls of
:15:18. > :15:25.fun reminders more than any animal that the wild has adapted to our
:15:26. > :15:37.human world. Accepting the scraps of our lives we don't wish to control.
:15:38. > :15:47.From cliffs to petrol stations, an even our own back gardens, wildlife
:15:48. > :15:54.has crept into the secret corners of our lives, and personally, I'll
:15:55. > :16:00.never tire of living on the edge, enjoying this underwild, whenever
:16:01. > :16:06.and wherever it will let me. It's true, isn't it, a lot of
:16:07. > :16:10.wildlife really is a ge the edge. Some wildlife adapted well to living
:16:11. > :16:15.in a concrete jungle. Wildlife is all around us but we must look hard
:16:16. > :16:18.to find it. It's love that's all around us, not
:16:19. > :16:22.wildlife. I thought you were going to burst
:16:23. > :16:26.into song. Great to see the peregrine. This is turning into a
:16:27. > :16:32.pressure grin pest. It is. Let's bring you another
:16:33. > :16:39.raptor. We have another camera on another bird of prey, let's go live
:16:40. > :16:44.to our buzzard. The first chance to see this bird, one of the cameras is
:16:45. > :16:50.down there at the nest. Look at that. This is on the other side of
:16:51. > :16:54.the estate near the chiffchaffs. A beautiful-looking bird. Here's the
:16:55. > :16:59.site. You can see the field it is tucked into the side of the woods. A
:17:00. > :17:05.low tree for a buzzard. We have three pairs on the estate. They are
:17:06. > :17:12.doing well. One youngster, given that they normally lay two or three
:17:13. > :17:19.eggs, we are not sure it is doing its best to eat a piece of worm
:17:20. > :17:24.spaghetti. The adult is not helping. And it demonstrates that the buzzard
:17:25. > :17:31.is a species this feeds off almost anything when it comes to prey,
:17:32. > :17:37.worms, insects, amphibians, small mammals, they are cosmopolitan.
:17:38. > :17:42.There is a real variety of birds of prey at Sherborne Park Estate. It
:17:43. > :17:49.brings us up to four raptors that we have nests and live cameras on.
:17:50. > :17:55.Let's introduce you to the cast. The kestrel, in Sherborne church. Four
:17:56. > :18:00.chicks, four days old. The peregrine has chosen the Salisbury cathedral.
:18:01. > :18:05.One chick. And the buzzard, one chick and that is two-and-a-half to
:18:06. > :18:09.three weeks old and finally, the red kite, living in the woodland. Three
:18:10. > :18:14.boisterous chicks, three-and-a-half week's old.
:18:15. > :18:18.That's the cast list! And it is very important to show everyone where the
:18:19. > :18:23.animals are on the map of the estate. I will put the tee pee into
:18:24. > :18:30.the position here. That is for the Festival of Raptors.
:18:31. > :18:36.Yes. Let's put the tee pee on and the buzzard into position is on this
:18:37. > :18:41.side of the estate. The red kite is some distance from where we are, all
:18:42. > :18:47.the way down over there. Marvellous. Then the cast alwe featured. The
:18:48. > :18:52.kestrel is in the heart of the village in the church where it has
:18:53. > :18:59.taken a strong, fortified position with a good elevation to look over
:19:00. > :19:05.the enemy. The enemy vowels. And then to the peregrine falcon. I will
:19:06. > :19:10.leave you to put that into position. He is in the sight of the line of
:19:11. > :19:14.action. Here he is in the cathedral at Salisbury, ready to swoop into
:19:15. > :19:21.action if the enemy attacks. I don't think it is to scale. If it
:19:22. > :19:27.were the distance you would be on the other side of the field. A
:19:28. > :19:32.chance for me to take advantage. Corporal, come back over here! Let's
:19:33. > :19:37.remove the moustache and get down to sensible talk. What is interesting
:19:38. > :19:42.with the raptors on the estate, they are all living in the same place at
:19:43. > :19:47.the same time. In order to do that they have to find ways of avoiding
:19:48. > :19:51.competition. They are in certainly in competition. This kestrel here
:19:52. > :19:59.has a territory that ranges over ten square kilometres. Probably all of
:20:00. > :20:02.this distance here. The buzzard, it, depending on prey availability,
:20:03. > :20:09.somewhere between eight and ten kilometres and the red kite, a bird
:20:10. > :20:13.with a territory of one and 150 kilometres, so this bird here is
:20:14. > :20:17.probably ranging all over the estate when it is looking for food. So they
:20:18. > :20:22.are trying to share the resource. How? They feed on different things
:20:23. > :20:28.and they hunt them in different ways. The kestrel, is a hoofering
:20:29. > :20:36.hunter, hanging above the fields looking down for the field vowels.
:20:37. > :20:43.And the buzzard is a soaring bird. A higher altitude. Soaring around.
:20:44. > :20:48.Looking for the small rabbits. The peregrine falcons, they are the
:20:49. > :20:54.fastest organisms on the planet. Swooping at speeds of up to 200
:20:55. > :21:01.miles an hour. They are interested in killing birds in the air so. No
:21:02. > :21:10.competition with the kites, they are scavengers, or the buzzards on the
:21:11. > :21:15.ground mammals, or the kestrels there.
:21:16. > :21:21.The buzzard breaks up the air fro flow and the eye has a nick Tating
:21:22. > :21:27.membrane it pulls across the eye when it is stooping fast so that the
:21:28. > :21:32.eye is not damaged in the stoop. When they were developing the jet
:21:33. > :21:37.engine, they could get to a certain speed flying, then the engines would
:21:38. > :21:41.stall. Because there was a pocket of air on the front of the engine which
:21:42. > :21:46.would not go into it. So they put a cone there. Stealing the idea from
:21:47. > :21:52.the peregrine falcon. That allowed the air to go into the engine. So we
:21:53. > :21:56.have taken great ideas from nature that now allow us to fly around the
:21:57. > :22:01.world. That is bio mill I cannery.
:22:02. > :22:08.Mimicking nature. We can see the prey that the birds are bringing in
:22:09. > :22:14.because of the live cameras. The red kites have three boisterous chicks.
:22:15. > :22:20.The red kite is a scavenger, however they do hunt sometimes. This is
:22:21. > :22:25.clearly something that the adult bird hunted, a rabbit. The chicks
:22:26. > :22:30.are trying to scoff a huge piece of meat down, good reason, if they
:22:31. > :22:36.don't, the sibling will snatch it. It is a point of swallowing or
:22:37. > :22:42.getting it snatched. So they are eating meat. What else? This is
:22:43. > :22:50.interesting. A massive bone! As you can see! It is like the red kite has
:22:51. > :22:55.talent doing sword swallowing. Clearly having difficulty getting it
:22:56. > :23:00.down. Frankly, I'm not sure that will stay down. That looks very
:23:01. > :23:05.uncomfortable and difficult to swallow. It is not going to impress
:23:06. > :23:14.the judges is it? But it will not get it down and it will probably be
:23:15. > :23:18.regurgitated as it is demonstrating like the Seble with the feathered
:23:19. > :23:23.wing! I mean look at that. That is not good.
:23:24. > :23:32.No, I've seen you doing that on a Saturday night with a kebab! I don't
:23:33. > :23:39.eat kebabs! I'm a vegetarian! This is what we saw earlier. They are
:23:40. > :23:45.scavengers and this adult scavenged what looks like the leg of the a
:23:46. > :23:50.deer. The birds are light. They have weak feet so the biggest thing to
:23:51. > :23:56.hunt would be a small rabbit. The adult takes it back to the nest. The
:23:57. > :24:04.chicks are hungry and again, oh, look at that. This is Georgeous
:24:05. > :24:09.seeing them up close. But this is curious, the adult now has a great
:24:10. > :24:14.big bone. Why would it be doing that? It seems pointless.
:24:15. > :24:20.The thing is if there is meat left on the bone it could be in the crop
:24:21. > :24:25.long enough to have the meat removed arched then regurgitate the bone. So
:24:26. > :24:30.it could be that they are good scavengers so they will not waste a
:24:31. > :24:38.single piece of mental health on the bones. So, let's put a pause in the
:24:39. > :24:43.raptor festival to head off to North Wales where Martin is in pursuit of
:24:44. > :24:48.one of our most spectacular reptiles.
:24:49. > :24:52.I don't think he is listening! Typical of Martin. He is not
:24:53. > :24:58.listening to us. We can do something. There is a
:24:59. > :25:03.species of moth in the British countryside, it is not just because
:25:04. > :25:08.of its appearance, which is very beautiful but as it has some of the
:25:09. > :25:12.most extraordinary sensibilities. Gillian Burke went to find one and
:25:13. > :25:23.put it to the test. Would the male find the female? Dartmoor, home to
:25:24. > :25:27.many beautiful Heathland species, and the best place to find Britain's
:25:28. > :25:34.only representative from the silk moth family. And here they are. The
:25:35. > :25:38.emperor moth. I have a male and a female.
:25:39. > :25:46.I'm going to place them down here. Having the two side by side is such
:25:47. > :25:51.a great chance to see that this is a sexually diamorphic species. The
:25:52. > :25:56.male on the right is smaller. Occasionally you get a glimpse of
:25:57. > :26:02.this gorgeous orange hind wing. What is interesting about the emperor
:26:03. > :26:06.moths, the male and the female don't just look different but behave
:26:07. > :26:13.different. The females only fly at night. The males only fly during the
:26:14. > :26:17.day and the sole spurn to find a mate to reproduce. He must fly in
:26:18. > :26:23.the day to warm up the flight muscles from the energy from the
:26:24. > :26:27.sun. The female will conserve energy for flying once she has mated and
:26:28. > :26:33.will do that under the cover of the dark. She releases a cocktail of
:26:34. > :26:41.chemicals call pheromones that lure the males. To discover how effective
:26:42. > :26:46.they are, I have enlisted the help of entmologist, John Walters.
:26:47. > :26:50.John's deviced an experiment to demonstrate how far they can travel
:26:51. > :26:55.and how quickly the males respond. First, we mark the males. Some blue
:26:56. > :27:02.and some red. Does this harm them? No. It is just
:27:03. > :27:07.a surface paint on the wing. So, John, how are we going to run
:27:08. > :27:14.the experiment? What do I need to do? I will take the moth 500 metres
:27:15. > :27:23.and release the blue ones there. And if you can put the female moth in
:27:24. > :27:28.the net cage who will produce the pheromone scent and then fly towards
:27:29. > :27:34.her. Let's crack on.
:27:35. > :27:37.For the males to have the best chance of detecting a female's
:27:38. > :27:43.pheromone, the weather conditions play a critical role. A warm day and
:27:44. > :27:48.light breeze allow her scent to travel further, the males can track
:27:49. > :27:53.her down more quickly. That's the signal. Let's get this virgin female
:27:54. > :28:09.in and see if you can pull in the boys! And we're off! Already she's
:28:10. > :28:13.starting to poke out of her depositer, apart from where she lays
:28:14. > :28:18.the eggs it is where she gives off the pheromones. It doesn't take
:28:19. > :28:26.much, the air around her, the sun is out. Now it is up to the boys. The
:28:27. > :28:31.males have huge feathered antennae. This increases the surface area and
:28:32. > :28:40.the air that flows over them, maximising the chances of taking in
:28:41. > :28:45.the female scent. There is also tiny hairs called scincilla, they detect
:28:46. > :28:51.concentrations of the pheromones as low as seven parts per million.
:28:52. > :28:56.How did it go? They are all out. It is cloudy, we could do with some sun
:28:57. > :28:59.for the warmth to get the males active.
:29:00. > :29:05.We have the first male. It's a blue one. He has come from the ridge.
:29:06. > :29:13.He's a blue! That was the one released the furthest away.
:29:14. > :29:18.So the females released the plum of pheromone that can not see or smell.
:29:19. > :29:21.But it floated up to the ridge there and he picks up the molecules of the
:29:22. > :29:29.scent. That is amazing! If you imagine the
:29:30. > :29:34.amount of pheromone she released can only fit on a pinhead and he
:29:35. > :29:40.detected it from 500 metres away, this is incredible. But he is on the
:29:41. > :29:45.wrong target now! There she is! There is one now. And also another
:29:46. > :29:50.one flying around as well. The net confuses the males when they
:29:51. > :29:53.get close, so we must remove the female to allow nature to take its
:29:54. > :29:58.course. It's a good spot there in the sun.
:29:59. > :30:04.Hopefully the males that are fluttering around with a bit of luck
:30:05. > :30:09.will hone in on her scent and it looks like they blue males, so the
:30:10. > :30:16.red team have failed to show up. Maybe they found a different female!
:30:17. > :30:23.Maybe so. They could be off anything across the moor. He has found the
:30:24. > :30:28.female. He must mate quickly as another male could turn up and barge
:30:29. > :30:32.him out of the way and mate with the female. Once she is mating there is
:30:33. > :30:38.no more chance for the other males to mate.
:30:39. > :30:42.And win five minutes that male picked up the pheromoneses, located
:30:43. > :30:48.the female and is now mating. That is how effective it is.
:30:49. > :30:51.Extraordinary. All down to the antennae, picking up the pheromones
:30:52. > :30:58.one molecule at a time. Fantastic!
:30:59. > :31:06.That was such a great day out. Check this out. This is my proud mother
:31:07. > :31:10.moment. These are the very caterpillars that hatched as a
:31:11. > :31:15.result of that pairing. You saw them conceived. More Cupid than proud
:31:16. > :31:24.mother, actually, isn't it? These have shed their skin three times.
:31:25. > :31:29.The next time they do that, they will not look like that at all. They
:31:30. > :31:33.emerge as bright green, with blue dots, sometimes variable in colour.
:31:34. > :31:37.But they are spectacular caterpillars. This time next year,
:31:38. > :31:45.they will be back on the wing, Howard looking for mates. -- out
:31:46. > :31:53.looking for mates. They just need to mature, let's hope no chiffchaffs
:31:54. > :31:59.find them. The exciting thing was the antennae of the moth. They are
:32:00. > :32:05.very important, they serve all sorts of purposes. Sometimes they are used
:32:06. > :32:08.for mating, sometimes grooming, sometimes for brooding young
:32:09. > :32:16.animals. The most important purpose of all is the sensory one. I have a
:32:17. > :32:20.beetle. It is a longhorned beetle. Just look at the antennae on other
:32:21. > :32:27.people. They are longer than the beetle itself. They must have a
:32:28. > :32:31.purpose. Every form has a function. One can only imagine they are
:32:32. > :32:38.extraordinarily sensitive. Let's look at them in close-up. These
:32:39. > :32:45.antennae are covered in a lot of sensory cells. They are in tiny
:32:46. > :32:50.organs on top of the antennae, which are in three parts. They are
:32:51. > :32:55.smelling the environment, looking for mates, looking for food, looking
:32:56. > :33:02.for all sorts of things. They are amazingly sensitive. They use them
:33:03. > :33:08.to find the wood where they are going to lay their eggs. Fresh sap
:33:09. > :33:14.attracts them in particular. Amazing. I think I can better that.
:33:15. > :33:24.There are some even more extreme antennae modifications. This is a
:33:25. > :33:32.clock chafer. Look at that. It looks like they have stuck a flamenco fan
:33:33. > :33:37.on the end. The effect of that is to increase the surface area. As they
:33:38. > :33:47.sweep through the air, they can pick up more molecules. If we look at
:33:48. > :33:52.this, this is a male peppered moth. It is the same structure as the
:33:53. > :33:57.emperor moth that we saw earlier. What is interesting is the feathery
:33:58. > :34:03.adaptation means that they have such an extremely sensitive way of
:34:04. > :34:12.picking up pheromones in the air that they can literally pick up one
:34:13. > :34:18.molecule at a time. Amazing. I have an interesting, fun fact for you.
:34:19. > :34:24.Silk moths are related to the emperors and the peppered moths.
:34:25. > :34:32.They have a tiny surface area of four square centimetres. A human
:34:33. > :34:36.nose is ten square centimetres, the inside surface area. If we have the
:34:37. > :34:43.same surface area as a silk moths do, relative to body size, we would
:34:44. > :34:49.need a nose 28,000 times bigger than what we have got. One or two times
:34:50. > :34:54.in my life I have been sniffing for females, but I would not like my
:34:55. > :34:58.nose to be 28,000 times the size. It would be a strong look. It's
:34:59. > :35:02.extraordinary adaptation, I couldn't imagine living in their world. We
:35:03. > :35:06.are going to take a second attempt to go all the way to North Wales to
:35:07. > :35:11.seek if Martin and Iolo are going to be with us to find one of the UK's
:35:12. > :35:15.most spectacular reptiles. Yes! It is very dramatic appear in
:35:16. > :35:26.North Wales. I think a storm is coming in. We are in the Talacre?
:35:27. > :35:32.You have been trying to teach me how to say it all day. Let's go into the
:35:33. > :35:37.air and have a proper look at the dune system. It is six kilometres
:35:38. > :35:40.long, a site of special scientific interest because some interesting
:35:41. > :35:45.creatures live here. That lighthouse is weird, isn't it? Stuck out in the
:35:46. > :35:49.middle. It is a beautiful place, right on the northernmost tip of
:35:50. > :35:55.Wales. If we go around the corner, to the east, you have the estuary,
:35:56. > :36:02.home to 100,000 birds every winter. It extends to Prestatyn. In the
:36:03. > :36:06.distance, you can see the hills. Beyond them, Snowdonia, of course.
:36:07. > :36:13.To the north, Liverpool Bay and the huge wind farm. Gorgeous. Absolutely
:36:14. > :36:17.dramatic. Hopefully it will not pour with rain. This is where we are.
:36:18. > :36:24.There is Sherborne come down there. We have moved right up to here. That
:36:25. > :36:28.is where we are. Why are we here? We are here to try to solve a little
:36:29. > :36:37.bit of a mystery. If you look around on these dunes, you find tiny holes
:36:38. > :36:42.poked into the sand. They are too small to be nice or voles. It is
:36:43. > :36:48.almost like you poked your finger into the sand. What is going on?
:36:49. > :36:53.Welcome I can give you a clue. It is a reptile. I can give you a bigger
:36:54. > :36:59.clue, it is one of the lizards. We have three native lizards in the UK.
:37:00. > :37:02.The first one, the slow worm. Quite familiar to most of us, it looks
:37:03. > :37:10.like a snake, but it is a legless lizard. The second one, the common
:37:11. > :37:15.lizard. Very widespread, often seen in places like graveyards, on stone
:37:16. > :37:18.walls. But the last one is one we are interested in, the rarest one of
:37:19. > :37:27.the lot and the most colourful, the sand lizard. Look at that! A
:37:28. > :37:33.beautiful male in full breeding regalia. Let's have a more detailed
:37:34. > :37:37.look at the sand lizards. This was a film we shot here, this very site,
:37:38. > :37:40.in the sunshine yesterday morning. First, let's have a look at the
:37:41. > :37:47.female. Basking on the sand. They are exothermic, they use the heat of
:37:48. > :37:52.the sun to warm up. She is not far from cover, any threat and she
:37:53. > :37:57.dashes in. She is pregnant, this one. You can see the distinctive
:37:58. > :38:03.pattern. This species shows sexual dimorphism. This is the male. It
:38:04. > :38:09.means the male and female are very different. The male is very
:38:10. > :38:12.stunning, a big beast. 20 centimetres long. Lime-green, from
:38:13. > :38:18.his head all the way down his flanks. He will have that for the
:38:19. > :38:30.few weeks he is breeding. When he is not in breeding condition? Donal
:38:31. > :38:36.Brown. But he is a beauty. -- dull Brown. What do you think those are?
:38:37. > :38:48.Those are sand lizard eggs. The sand lizard that hatched from the eggs,
:38:49. > :38:52.they are in the dunes around us. The common lizard does not lay eggs, but
:38:53. > :38:59.sand lizards do. Isn't that strange? We can see them hatching. They lay
:39:00. > :39:06.about five to ten of them. After two or three months, a long time, the
:39:07. > :39:10.tiny lizard gets an egg tooth on the end of its nose and it bursts out
:39:11. > :39:17.from the parchment like egg. It takes about 24 hours to get out and
:39:18. > :39:25.come out of the sand. Classic, the spotted eyes, that is a sand lizard.
:39:26. > :39:30.OK, we wanted to solve the mystery of the holes. Clearly it is
:39:31. > :39:34.something to do with the sand lizard. Will you complete the story,
:39:35. > :39:41.Iolo? Imagine I am a female sand lizard! Easy to do! I have an
:39:42. > :39:47.expensive BBC proper. They find a south facing proper, the warm areas.
:39:48. > :39:54.She will dig holes. This is not a good place, but she will go in eight
:39:55. > :39:59.centimetres. She will dig holes all around. She is testing the
:40:00. > :40:03.temperature, she is testing the humidity, she is testing the sand.
:40:04. > :40:08.When she finds the right place, she will go in, she will lay her eggs,
:40:09. > :40:17.between five and 15. As she comes out, she back fills the hole. She
:40:18. > :40:21.leaves them there, they develop in the heat of the sun and they hatch
:40:22. > :40:25.at the end of August, into September. That, Martin, is what
:40:26. > :40:34.they are. We have solved the mystery! With a stick. When you come
:40:35. > :40:35.back, we are going to show you an incredible trick that sand lizards
:40:36. > :40:47.do to try to avoid predation. Hopefully we will rejoin Martin and
:40:48. > :40:51.Iolo later on the Trail of sand lizards. Here, all this week, one of
:40:52. > :40:59.our cameraman has been on the Trail of a shy, elusive creature that has
:41:00. > :41:06.made its home in one of the walls in the state. It is an adult female
:41:07. > :41:10.stoat. We now know that she has five kits, lots of hungry mouths to feed.
:41:11. > :41:15.They are eight to ten weeks old. This is a large rabbit. Look at
:41:16. > :41:22.that! It is almost as big as she is. In fact, they can drag anything up
:41:23. > :41:26.to nine times their own weight. The next thing she brings in is a
:41:27. > :41:31.juvenile jackdaw. As you can see, the adults are not happy about that.
:41:32. > :41:37.They are starting to mob her. They have good reason to be concerned. As
:41:38. > :41:43.we know from last year's Springwatch, once a stoat finds a
:41:44. > :41:47.nest, it will clean it out. It dragged that one particular juvenile
:41:48. > :41:51.jackdaw into the nest, and goes back, predictably, it gets the
:41:52. > :41:58.second one. Adults, not happy at all. It takes it into the nest, but
:41:59. > :42:02.it will be back. As I say, it knows where the nest is. It is going to
:42:03. > :42:06.make the most of the larder. And why wouldn't it? Look what happens now.
:42:07. > :42:15.I think this is the third or fourth chick that attached. Something
:42:16. > :42:22.swoops in. It is a buzzard. It steals the chick. That is when you
:42:23. > :42:29.can see the size. That chick looks small against the buzzard, but quite
:42:30. > :42:34.big against the stoat. It goes back into the den, where the kits are. If
:42:35. > :42:39.we look closely, we can see it is looking pretty manky. Not
:42:40. > :42:43.surprising, it has taken a lot of food in there and some of it will be
:42:44. > :42:46.rotting. We will keep an eye on the stoat over the weekend. Our
:42:47. > :42:49.cameraman will be out filming it. I reckon by Monday she will have moved
:42:50. > :42:55.them to a different then. Maybe then the kits will be more active,
:42:56. > :42:59.because we haven't seen much of them so far. A stone wall is an
:43:00. > :43:04.interesting habitat for wildlife. But what is this habitat? Think of
:43:05. > :43:10.somewhere that is cold, then extremely hot, wet, then dry. It is
:43:11. > :43:13.salty, then it is fresh. That can all happen in one day, those
:43:14. > :43:18.changes. An interesting habitat and one that you will know well. It is a
:43:19. > :43:21.rock pool. Delve deeply into the tidal depths and you will find a
:43:22. > :43:35.wealth of wildlife. Rock pools are some of the toughest
:43:36. > :43:40.places to live on the planet. Every six hours, the tide turns and brings
:43:41. > :43:49.extreme fluctuations of temperature, salinity and food.
:43:50. > :43:58.Life is tough for any creature that makes this their home.
:43:59. > :44:01.In spring, their battle for survival intensifies as new neighbours
:44:02. > :44:17.arrive. With their arrival, competition
:44:18. > :44:22.increases for a space to live within the rock pool.
:44:23. > :44:40.But there are some even more surprising pugilists in here.
:44:41. > :44:46.Enemies might appear sedentary, but a longer look reveals blazing
:44:47. > :44:49.bottles for territory. Twisting their flexible bodies, they
:44:50. > :44:54.aggressively swipe at each other, tearing off pieces of skin as they
:44:55. > :45:01.do. The loser has no choice but to find another place to settle.
:45:02. > :45:10.Having found a home, the rock pool residents need to compete for food.
:45:11. > :45:13.Luckily, the high tide brings relief in the form of oxygenated water,
:45:14. > :45:28.full of sustenance. To make the most of this bounty, the
:45:29. > :45:36.humble barnacle, opens up its plated armour to reveal feathery white
:45:37. > :45:44.legs. These sirri sift the water. The
:45:45. > :45:49.sensory hairs alerting the barnacle to any juicy titbits. Deeper in the
:45:50. > :45:58.pool, this shrimp's sense of smell guides it to a prize, a piece of
:45:59. > :46:04.carrion washed in on the tied. But a hermit crab has already ceased it.
:46:05. > :46:12.Fortunately, the crab has a blind spot that the shrimp can exploit and
:46:13. > :46:17.the shrimp tucks in too. In a rockpool, finding food can be
:46:18. > :46:32.hard but avoiding being eaten can prove harder still.
:46:33. > :46:41.And an emease' stinging anamatis packs a punch but more deadly is the
:46:42. > :46:50.starfish. It's strong, sticky tubed feet pose a threat to even the
:46:51. > :47:00.toughest mollusc's shells, slowly pulling them apart. .S. The limpett
:47:01. > :47:06.faces a losing battle but it has one final trick up its sleeve. Launching
:47:07. > :47:15.the shell before bringing it crashing down, a hasty retreat. But
:47:16. > :47:21.for now, safety for the limpett. For each of these ingenius
:47:22. > :47:26.creatures, daily life is one of fierce competition, protecting the
:47:27. > :47:34.home, dodging predators, eat or be eaten. This common shore crab has
:47:35. > :47:40.been running the rockpool gauntlet for the last two years but now she
:47:41. > :47:48.can complete her life's purpose. Beneath her she carries almost
:47:49. > :47:52.200,000 eggs. An attentive mother, she oxygenates the eggs by wafting
:47:53. > :47:58.them until they are ready to hatch and when the tied turns, the larvae
:47:59. > :48:04.are drifted out to sea where they live until it is time for them to
:48:05. > :48:08.hatch and face their own rockpool battles.
:48:09. > :48:16.Rockpool mayhem! What a drama. Who would have thought. The limpett
:48:17. > :48:20.having a go at a starfish! One of the most important habitats in the
:48:21. > :48:27.UK, and there are a few, are hedgerows. There are a whole load of
:48:28. > :48:37.these, 450,000 kilometres stretched across the UK. They are Lynne ear
:48:38. > :48:48.corridors that are habitats for many species. 600 plants, hundreds of
:48:49. > :48:58.species. And there are 450,000 kilometres of these but in 1945, we
:48:59. > :49:04.had 800,000. They are disappearing fast and managed to regularly. If
:49:05. > :49:08.they are managed too much through the year, they lose much of their
:49:09. > :49:15.fruit and wildlife. If they were to be left and cult only every three
:49:16. > :49:20.years, we would get three times the abundance of flowers and fruit. A
:49:21. > :49:27.hedge row lick this. This is what we want to see. Lots of song post, and
:49:28. > :49:32.many of these sorts of things means lots of wildlife too. So, we have a
:49:33. > :49:39.whole load of different things living here. Let's have a look.
:49:40. > :49:43.Look at what is on the farm. That is roe deer. Yellow ham. I love
:49:44. > :49:49.seeing those again and again. A variety of birds. Chiffchaff. And
:49:50. > :49:55.all the food that they get from the hedgerows feed the chicks. And of
:49:56. > :50:00.course the insects that are attracted from the nectar rich
:50:01. > :50:06.blossom. Just an incredible divert of insects, there is the orange tip
:50:07. > :50:10.and they, it is not just the nectar but the leaves and the food plant
:50:11. > :50:16.for the hosts that provides this incredible diversity for life.
:50:17. > :50:20.And it is not just food but shelter as well. If we are quiet, we can
:50:21. > :50:24.move to a nest that we are able to look at through a live camera that
:50:25. > :50:33.we have been watching through the week. This patch of camera netting
:50:34. > :50:37.and the camera tripod has a camera on the end which is on the
:50:38. > :50:43.bullfinches. Let's go live. There she is. In the nest four to five
:50:44. > :50:46.metres from where we are. This is the female, brooding a couple of
:50:47. > :50:51.youngsters we have been watching all week. Look at that.
:50:52. > :51:01.Very beautiful. They need the thick dense hedgerows. Otherwise the
:51:02. > :51:06.chicks would be stolen by the jays and the magpies, within this, they
:51:07. > :51:11.cannot get into the hedgerows. Bullfinches are shy birds, so the
:51:12. > :51:15.hedgerow provides great cover and the nesting site and the all
:51:16. > :51:21.important food. The stout bills mean that they can make the most of the
:51:22. > :51:28.variety of buds, seeds and insects on offer in the hedgerows.
:51:29. > :51:33.Interestingly, people ask how the chicks are rehide rated but there
:51:34. > :51:40.the adults are regurgitating that. Giving them a seedy soup. It is
:51:41. > :51:46.giving it lots of moisture. Nothing makes me more sad to see the flamed
:51:47. > :51:50.picket stumps. They are no value. We must look after the hedges that were
:51:51. > :51:57.made and look after them in the terms of the way that they are
:51:58. > :52:03.managed. A message to the farmers, we want hedgerows that look like
:52:04. > :52:11.these. Fantastic. Let's head to Martin, who is about to perform a
:52:12. > :52:16.remarkable demonstration. It is looking drake over here. We
:52:17. > :52:21.are up here on the Talacre dunes. We are studying the lives of the sand
:52:22. > :52:28.lizards that live here. It is not the safest place to be is it? It is
:52:29. > :52:31.not. You would think it is but here there are gulls, foxes, badgers, and
:52:32. > :52:37.they all want to eat the sand lizards. If you are a lizard, you
:52:38. > :52:40.need a trick you were sleeve to survive.
:52:41. > :52:47.And they have it! Look at this model! Here is a sand lizard. What
:52:48. > :52:53.happens is if the lizard is attacked, it does a thing called
:52:54. > :53:01.self-amputation and decides to rip off its tail. There is a special
:53:02. > :53:09.weakening in the vertebra. The muscles constrict and it snaps off
:53:10. > :53:14.and the blood vessels snap off a so it does not bleed to death. Now you
:53:15. > :53:20.have a tail here and what happens next? Watch this.
:53:21. > :53:23.The tail lashes about and it draws the attention of the predator and we
:53:24. > :53:29.can see the real thing happening. Here it goes... Look at that. There
:53:30. > :53:36.is the lizard. It is sad when it comes off of the but don't worry,
:53:37. > :53:41.they do grow again. Some of them really wriggle violently. Chris told
:53:42. > :53:46.me that there is one that the tail jump as metre in the air and makes a
:53:47. > :53:52.soaring noise. Do you believe that? If Chris says it, it must be true.
:53:53. > :53:56.I think it is an amazing fact. You have been involved in the
:53:57. > :53:59.conservation of the animals as they are still, despite the clever
:54:00. > :54:05.tricks, very much threatened? They are. And I remember the first
:54:06. > :54:09.release in Wales in 2003. I think we have footage of that. I was involved
:54:10. > :54:18.in filming that on the West Coast of Wales. A group of people from the
:54:19. > :54:23.reptile conservation, Chester zoo and private breeders all involved
:54:24. > :54:27.and we were reintroducing them to a former home on the West Coast and
:54:28. > :54:33.since then to five further sites. Here at Talacre, in the last four to
:54:34. > :54:39.five years they have released 500 animals.
:54:40. > :54:48.Let me show you the distribution of the lizards. Here at Kent, the north
:54:49. > :54:54.and west Welsh coast, Devon and Cornwall but the core area was
:54:55. > :54:59.Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey and the Sefton coast. But reintroduction is
:55:00. > :55:04.the start. There is a lot more hard work to do. And yesterday, the
:55:05. > :55:09.conservation teams were out on the dunes, working very hard. At first
:55:10. > :55:14.sight it looks dramatic. You think, what are they doing? But they are
:55:15. > :55:20.ripping out bits of grass and they have to expose the sand so that the
:55:21. > :55:26.sand lizards cannot just lay eggs but to bask. The horses are crucial.
:55:27. > :55:32.They have five horses. They crop the grass down it is all about exposing
:55:33. > :55:37.the sand to help the sand lizard survive. As we have said, the
:55:38. > :55:43.conservation work must go on and on and on. If we are lucky we may have
:55:44. > :55:50.a final chance to see a live sand lizard.
:55:51. > :55:55.We have. Look at that. Keep your snoring ale and kestrel snot, look
:55:56. > :56:01.at that. A male sand lizard. What a beauty. This is not a wild animal.
:56:02. > :56:06.They are breeding, this is an animal that has come from the Chester zoo.
:56:07. > :56:11.The good news really, is that they were extinct in Wales in 1960 but
:56:12. > :56:14.over the past 50 years they are doing very well and the future is
:56:15. > :56:20.looking Rosie. Great news. Time to go back to the
:56:21. > :56:25.studio to Michaela. What an animal.
:56:26. > :56:31.You love it. I really, really, really like sand
:56:32. > :56:36.lizards. They are like dragons. We should finish by going live to a
:56:37. > :56:40.camera. Let's go to the buzzard. Let's have a look.
:56:41. > :56:46.Oh, gosh, my heart missed a beat there! I thought it wasn't moving.
:56:47. > :56:51.But it is. It is sleeping. I saw it breathing and move its head that is
:56:52. > :56:56.one chicked. We introduced you that camera.
:56:57. > :57:00.Let's have a look at the kestrel. The female some in there. Four
:57:01. > :57:04.chicks. Peeping through there. A lovely view.
:57:05. > :57:10.Just a few days' old. That is all we have time for this
:57:11. > :57:17.week. Do join us next week. We are back at 8.00pm. But 6.30 on BBC Two
:57:18. > :57:38.from Monday to Friday it is Unsprung. I'm all of a spin today...
:57:39. > :57:48.An orange tutu, that is scary. Don't miss it! You are with us
:57:49. > :57:55.Gillian. Where are you off to? I'm off to the big bad city.
:57:56. > :58:03.I'm going to bust urban myths. And Martin? I'm heading north to
:58:04. > :58:06.taking the high road to Scotland to look at some beavers. See you next
:58:07. > :58:12.week. Full of enthusiasm! Let's have a
:58:13. > :58:16.look at the barn owls this week. There is the female brooding there.
:58:17. > :58:23.What about the bluetits? Let's have a look. They have not finish fledged
:58:24. > :58:29.yesterday, and there is your runt. Thank you very much. You can watch
:58:30. > :58:33.the live cams on the website and on the internet on the Red Button you
:58:34. > :58:37.can turn over right now and enjoy all of the live cameras. We are back
:58:38. > :58:48.on Monday. Have a great weekend. Goodbye!