Springwatch Episode 4 Springwatch

We have had a fabulous first week here on Springwatch. The words

action and pact are not enough. The jays have jumped, the blue tits

are being bothered, the chiffchaffs And tonight there's

a new raptor on the scene! And I've come to the stunning

Talacre dunes in North Wales We are on the Trail of real Welsh

dragons! All will be revealed

in tonight's Springwatch! Gabbay then Golden sunlight -- we

are bathed in golden sunlight. We are live. If I were John Constable,

I would set up Mike is all right here. I would pick up a brush and

put some of this fantastic landscape onto canvas. It is really pretty. I

would get a more hen into the frame. We have had a really busy week. Lots

of action and fledging. Lots of fledging already. One of our nests,

I think they are going to fledge by Monday. It is the blue tits nest.

Let's look at it. It is in a nest box in the woods. There are nine

chicks. They should be fledging between 18 and 21 days. So they

could go this evening. It is a beautiful evening. If I was a

polluted check Dennis Aogo -- polluted chick, I would. I think it

is more likely in the morning. Never fledging to darkness. I will let

them know. Let's see what they have been up to. There are nine chicks

there. The nest box almost looks like it is getting too small. You

can see they are really ready to go. They are flapping their wings and

testing their strength. In the middle of that gorgeous ring, there

is a runt. It is probably three days younger than the rest. What I like

about this is it is quite feisty. In the past, we have seen ones which

are very weak, they have been trodden on by the other chicks. This

one is begging for food. It is very keen, not flapping like the one in

front. The one in front is really trying to get attention. It didn't

get fed there, but we have seen it get fled.

The mother comes in. I think it could do OK. We have seen the

smaller birds, we have had them in the past. We had won a couple of

years ago, we had blue tits before. If the rest fledge, there is

sufficient food and it continues to make a lot of noise, there is no

reason why they wouldn't feed it for a couple of extra days. Having a

runt like that, there is a good reason for it, it is security. The

female blue tits has started integrating after the first few

eggs. Forgive me, this is a spare. If it makes it, good, if it doesn't,

it doesn't really matter. That is not its only problem. There is a

much bigger problem for all of those chicks, a local predator. We saw it

yesterday on the show. It is the woodpecker the great spotted

woodpecker. It has been back. It has come to look at the chicks. It flies

off. 30 seconds later it is back and look what happens. It is trying to

get ahead in there. Look at the tongue. The chicks are hunkered down

and they know it is a problem. That is a real worry for the chicks. They

are ready to fledge, but the woodpecker knows exactly where they

are. If you think that is extraordinary, look at something

that a viewer has sent in. Very young blue tit chicks. The

woodpecker gets the head right in. Look at that. Extraordinary. You can

see the chicks were tiny, they did not know it was a predator, unlike

the older chicks that are hunkered down. They started begging and

thought it was the adult coming with food. I have to tell you, I'm afraid

it did not end well for them. It ended well for the woodpecker. That

was a woodpecker shining. Here's Woody! That will give us nightmares!

We have a question on Facebook from Zoe. She says, why haven't you got a

metal ring on the nest box to prevent predators? You can put a

metal plate to stop things like grey squirrels or woodpeckers from

chewing their way in. The first thing is, if you have a hole around

the nest, the woodpeckers will go to the bottom and hammer underneath.

The other thing is ethical. When we are putting up the wooden nest box,

it is like a natural cavity. Woodpeckers need food. If they break

into nests and get the woodpecker out, it is good for the woodpecker.

We don't want to upset the balance of nature from stopping the

woodpecker getting into the nest if they find it. We are trying to keep

everything on an even keel. It is not just about blue tits. We have

been watching swallows hatching. Let's go live to them now. These are

in a barn, about a kilometre away from where we are. It is in the apex

of the barn. Beautiful birds, in a nest. There were five eggs and they

continue to incubate four. They have been hatching. Let's look at what

has been going on today. We started the day with three chicks. They are

pecking in the bottom of the nest. I think she might be after... My

goodness. I have had a catastrophe. I have had an absolute catastrophe!

What have you done? You have just knocked the swallow off. A beautiful

facsimile of a swallow nest. You have lost the egg. I haven't lost

the plaster egg. They weigh 1.9 grams. That is including the shell.

When they hatch, here is the chick, a beautiful little model. Let's put

that back into the nest properly. All back together. My conscience is

clear, I haven't ruined everything! Butterfingers! It is beautiful. A

scale model, built by researchers, before being destroyed by myself. It

shows the size of them, they are weighing about two grams. That is

less than a penny. Now it is my turn to fumble! It is extraordinary,

isn't it? We are always shown you these chicks in close-up. You keep

forgetting how small they are. A chick that size... It is going pear

shaped! It is a little bit bigger. Maybe more like a 20p? We get the

point! There is your taxi. From a stunning, sweet little bird to a

large, sexy predator. Let's go to the peregrine. We put this camera

live yesterday. It has been on the webcam, and a lot of you have been

enjoying it online and on the red button. It's fantastic that we can

continue to watch it. We saw the peregrine and the one chick

developed. We filmed that in advance, but that is life. It is 13

days old and we cannot see the chick in that shop. Let's see what has

been happening during the day. The adults have been hunting. That is

the mail. The ringed male. It has caught something. You can see it as

a green woodpecker. What is interesting. It has decided to keep

the bird for itself. It is enjoying it and tearing it apart. You can

hear the female in the background, really screeching, wanting it to

bring that to her and the chick. Why would he not? There is an enormous

store of food. Fresh carcasses being kept around the ledges on the

cathedral. They were expecting a brood of four chicks and they only

have one. I think there was lots of food and the male just fancied a

snack. It shows the range of food they are taking, Kingfisher, spotted

woodpecker, now green woodpecker. We will be keeping an eye on that

female, which is typed, to see where she is hunting. That should be more

as the chick begins to mature. You can keep your eyes on the nest by

going to the website, and also on the red button. Keep your eyes on

that over the course of the weekend. One of the cameraman has been out

looking at his own peregrines, but not on a man-made edifice but a

natural cliff. They are living life on the edge.

I live much of my life on the edge. The edge of our human world. Looking

for the cracks between the concrete and the car parks. Slithers of

emerald space, where nature makes use of what we can't, won't or

don't. Going unnoticed, amongst our busy

everyday lives. Cliffs are nature's definition of an

edge, inaccessible to humans. Look beyond the unremarkable are fading

fences and you might find the remarkable. The fastest animal in

the world. The peregrine. They visit here, soaring

effortlessly through the heavens, surveying supper below. In ultimate

control, but mobbed by gulls, unhappy with their fellow flyer,

keen to see danger moved on. And move on it does. The peregrine takes

aim and plummets with murderous intent.

A dark dove, falling from the heavens above.

Returning with Ray, picking a favourite plucking post and proceeds

to operate. A Starling is prepared. Carnivore

confetti drifts upwards on the breeze. The only sign above as to

what is going on below the cliff edge.

Another edge land is to be found behind a petrol station. A hubbub of

business, it is the back edge of the building where the real action is

at. A south facing wall, catching the heat of the Sun, is home to an

unruly bunch. Common lizards. They lurk here, jostling for the

best spots to warm their bodies. Once hot enough, they set off to

hunt this miniature man-made desert. They are looking for insects that

have also come to take advantage of the heat. Not this time. Lunch makes

its escape. These tiny dragons are constantly on the move, too, scared

they may be slain themselves if they stay out in the open for too long.

Edge lands are often forgotten places. But they don't need to be.

They are everywhere, if you look. Even at home.

Some decking, providing an opportunity to take a den below. A

home for a family. Fox cubs, emerging in the warmth of

the spring after six weeks underground. These furry balls of

fun reminders more than any animal that the wild has adapted to our

human world. Accepting the scraps of our lives we don't wish to control.

From cliffs to petrol stations, an even our own back gardens, wildlife

has crept into the secret corners of our lives, and personally, I'll

never tire of living on the edge, enjoying this underwild, whenever

and wherever it will let me. It's true, isn't it, a lot of

wildlife really is a ge the edge. Some wildlife adapted well to living

in a concrete jungle. Wildlife is all around us but we must look hard

to find it. It's love that's all around us, not

wildlife. I thought you were going to burst

into song. Great to see the peregrine. This is turning into a

pressure grin pest. It is. Let's bring you another

raptor. We have another camera on another bird of prey, let's go live

to our buzzard. The first chance to see this bird, one of the cameras is

down there at the nest. Look at that. This is on the other side of

the estate near the chiffchaffs. A beautiful-looking bird. Here's the

site. You can see the field it is tucked into the side of the woods. A

low tree for a buzzard. We have three pairs on the estate. They are

doing well. One youngster, given that they normally lay two or three

eggs, we are not sure it is doing its best to eat a piece of worm

spaghetti. The adult is not helping. And it demonstrates that the buzzard

is a species this feeds off almost anything when it comes to prey,

worms, insects, amphibians, small mammals, they are cosmopolitan.

There is a real variety of birds of prey at Sherborne Park Estate. It

brings us up to four raptors that we have nests and live cameras on.

Let's introduce you to the cast. The kestrel, in Sherborne church. Four

chicks, four days old. The peregrine has chosen the Salisbury cathedral.

One chick. And the buzzard, one chick and that is two-and-a-half to

three weeks old and finally, the red kite, living in the woodland. Three

boisterous chicks, three-and-a-half week's old.

That's the cast list! And it is very important to show everyone where the

animals are on the map of the estate. I will put the tee pee into

the position here. That is for the Festival of Raptors.

Yes. Let's put the tee pee on and the buzzard into position is on this

side of the estate. The red kite is some distance from where we are, all

the way down over there. Marvellous. Then the cast alwe featured. The

kestrel is in the heart of the village in the church where it has

taken a strong, fortified position with a good elevation to look over

the enemy. The enemy vowels. And then to the peregrine falcon. I will

leave you to put that into position. He is in the sight of the line of

action. Here he is in the cathedral at Salisbury, ready to swoop into

action if the enemy attacks. I don't think it is to scale. If it

were the distance you would be on the other side of the field. A

chance for me to take advantage. Corporal, come back over here! Let's

remove the moustache and get down to sensible talk. What is interesting

with the raptors on the estate, they are all living in the same place at

the same time. In order to do that they have to find ways of avoiding

competition. They are in certainly in competition. This kestrel here

has a territory that ranges over ten square kilometres. Probably all of

this distance here. The buzzard, it, depending on prey availability,

somewhere between eight and ten kilometres and the red kite, a bird

with a territory of one and 150 kilometres, so this bird here is

probably ranging all over the estate when it is looking for food. So they

are trying to share the resource. How? They feed on different things

and they hunt them in different ways. The kestrel, is a hoofering

hunter, hanging above the fields looking down for the field vowels.

And the buzzard is a soaring bird. A higher altitude. Soaring around.

Looking for the small rabbits. The peregrine falcons, they are the

fastest organisms on the planet. Swooping at speeds of up to 200

miles an hour. They are interested in killing birds in the air so. No

competition with the kites, they are scavengers, or the buzzards on the

ground mammals, or the kestrels there.

The buzzard breaks up the air fro flow and the eye has a nick Tating

membrane it pulls across the eye when it is stooping fast so that the

eye is not damaged in the stoop. When they were developing the jet

engine, they could get to a certain speed flying, then the engines would

stall. Because there was a pocket of air on the front of the engine which

would not go into it. So they put a cone there. Stealing the idea from

the peregrine falcon. That allowed the air to go into the engine. So we

have taken great ideas from nature that now allow us to fly around the

world. That is bio mill I cannery.

Mimicking nature. We can see the prey that the birds are bringing in

because of the live cameras. The red kites have three boisterous chicks.

The red kite is a scavenger, however they do hunt sometimes. This is

clearly something that the adult bird hunted, a rabbit. The chicks

are trying to scoff a huge piece of meat down, good reason, if they

don't, the sibling will snatch it. It is a point of swallowing or

getting it snatched. So they are eating meat. What else? This is

interesting. A massive bone! As you can see! It is like the red kite has

talent doing sword swallowing. Clearly having difficulty getting it

down. Frankly, I'm not sure that will stay down. That looks very

uncomfortable and difficult to swallow. It is not going to impress

the judges is it? But it will not get it down and it will probably be

regurgitated as it is demonstrating like the Seble with the feathered

wing! I mean look at that. That is not good.

No, I've seen you doing that on a Saturday night with a kebab! I don't

eat kebabs! I'm a vegetarian! This is what we saw earlier. They are

scavengers and this adult scavenged what looks like the leg of the a

deer. The birds are light. They have weak feet so the biggest thing to

hunt would be a small rabbit. The adult takes it back to the nest. The

chicks are hungry and again, oh, look at that. This is Georgeous

seeing them up close. But this is curious, the adult now has a great

big bone. Why would it be doing that? It seems pointless.

The thing is if there is meat left on the bone it could be in the crop

long enough to have the meat removed arched then regurgitate the bone. So

it could be that they are good scavengers so they will not waste a

single piece of mental health on the bones. So, let's put a pause in the

raptor festival to head off to North Wales where Martin is in pursuit of

one of our most spectacular reptiles.

I don't think he is listening! Typical of Martin. He is not

listening to us. We can do something. There is a

species of moth in the British countryside, it is not just because

of its appearance, which is very beautiful but as it has some of the

most extraordinary sensibilities. Gillian Burke went to find one and

put it to the test. Would the male find the female? Dartmoor, home to

many beautiful Heathland species, and the best place to find Britain's

only representative from the silk moth family. And here they are. The

emperor moth. I have a male and a female.

I'm going to place them down here. Having the two side by side is such

a great chance to see that this is a sexually diamorphic species. The

male on the right is smaller. Occasionally you get a glimpse of

this gorgeous orange hind wing. What is interesting about the emperor

moths, the male and the female don't just look different but behave

different. The females only fly at night. The males only fly during the

day and the sole spurn to find a mate to reproduce. He must fly in

the day to warm up the flight muscles from the energy from the

sun. The female will conserve energy for flying once she has mated and

will do that under the cover of the dark. She releases a cocktail of

chemicals call pheromones that lure the males. To discover how effective

they are, I have enlisted the help of entmologist, John Walters.

John's deviced an experiment to demonstrate how far they can travel

and how quickly the males respond. First, we mark the males. Some blue

and some red. Does this harm them? No. It is just

a surface paint on the wing. So, John, how are we going to run

the experiment? What do I need to do? I will take the moth 500 metres

and release the blue ones there. And if you can put the female moth in

the net cage who will produce the pheromone scent and then fly towards

her. Let's crack on.

For the males to have the best chance of detecting a female's

pheromone, the weather conditions play a critical role. A warm day and

light breeze allow her scent to travel further, the males can track

her down more quickly. That's the signal. Let's get this virgin female

in and see if you can pull in the boys! And we're off! Already she's

starting to poke out of her depositer, apart from where she lays

the eggs it is where she gives off the pheromones. It doesn't take

much, the air around her, the sun is out. Now it is up to the boys. The

males have huge feathered antennae. This increases the surface area and

the air that flows over them, maximising the chances of taking in

the female scent. There is also tiny hairs called scincilla, they detect

concentrations of the pheromones as low as seven parts per million.

How did it go? They are all out. It is cloudy, we could do with some sun

for the warmth to get the males active.

We have the first male. It's a blue one. He has come from the ridge.

He's a blue! That was the one released the furthest away.

So the females released the plum of pheromone that can not see or smell.

But it floated up to the ridge there and he picks up the molecules of the

scent. That is amazing! If you imagine the

amount of pheromone she released can only fit on a pinhead and he

detected it from 500 metres away, this is incredible. But he is on the

wrong target now! There she is! There is one now. And also another

one flying around as well. The net confuses the males when they

get close, so we must remove the female to allow nature to take its

course. It's a good spot there in the sun.

Hopefully the males that are fluttering around with a bit of luck

will hone in on her scent and it looks like they blue males, so the

red team have failed to show up. Maybe they found a different female!

Maybe so. They could be off anything across the moor. He has found the

female. He must mate quickly as another male could turn up and barge

him out of the way and mate with the female. Once she is mating there is

no more chance for the other males to mate.

And win five minutes that male picked up the pheromoneses, located

the female and is now mating. That is how effective it is.

Extraordinary. All down to the antennae, picking up the pheromones

one molecule at a time. Fantastic!

That was such a great day out. Check this out. This is my proud mother

moment. These are the very caterpillars that hatched as a

result of that pairing. You saw them conceived. More Cupid than proud

mother, actually, isn't it? These have shed their skin three times.

The next time they do that, they will not look like that at all. They

emerge as bright green, with blue dots, sometimes variable in colour.

But they are spectacular caterpillars. This time next year,

they will be back on the wing, Howard looking for mates. -- out

looking for mates. They just need to mature, let's hope no chiffchaffs

find them. The exciting thing was the antennae of the moth. They are

very important, they serve all sorts of purposes. Sometimes they are used

for mating, sometimes grooming, sometimes for brooding young

animals. The most important purpose of all is the sensory one. I have a

beetle. It is a longhorned beetle. Just look at the antennae on other

people. They are longer than the beetle itself. They must have a

purpose. Every form has a function. One can only imagine they are

extraordinarily sensitive. Let's look at them in close-up. These

antennae are covered in a lot of sensory cells. They are in tiny

organs on top of the antennae, which are in three parts. They are

smelling the environment, looking for mates, looking for food, looking

for all sorts of things. They are amazingly sensitive. They use them

to find the wood where they are going to lay their eggs. Fresh sap

attracts them in particular. Amazing. I think I can better that.

There are some even more extreme antennae modifications. This is a

clock chafer. Look at that. It looks like they have stuck a flamenco fan

on the end. The effect of that is to increase the surface area. As they

sweep through the air, they can pick up more molecules. If we look at

this, this is a male peppered moth. It is the same structure as the

emperor moth that we saw earlier. What is interesting is the feathery

adaptation means that they have such an extremely sensitive way of

picking up pheromones in the air that they can literally pick up one

molecule at a time. Amazing. I have an interesting, fun fact for you.

Silk moths are related to the emperors and the peppered moths.

They have a tiny surface area of four square centimetres. A human

nose is ten square centimetres, the inside surface area. If we have the

same surface area as a silk moths do, relative to body size, we would

need a nose 28,000 times bigger than what we have got. One or two times

in my life I have been sniffing for females, but I would not like my

nose to be 28,000 times the size. It would be a strong look. It's

extraordinary adaptation, I couldn't imagine living in their world. We

are going to take a second attempt to go all the way to North Wales to

seek if Martin and Iolo are going to be with us to find one of the UK's

most spectacular reptiles. Yes! It is very dramatic appear in

North Wales. I think a storm is coming in. We are in the Talacre?

You have been trying to teach me how to say it all day. Let's go into the

air and have a proper look at the dune system. It is six kilometres

long, a site of special scientific interest because some interesting

creatures live here. That lighthouse is weird, isn't it? Stuck out in the

middle. It is a beautiful place, right on the northernmost tip of

Wales. If we go around the corner, to the east, you have the estuary,

home to 100,000 birds every winter. It extends to Prestatyn. In the

distance, you can see the hills. Beyond them, Snowdonia, of course.

To the north, Liverpool Bay and the huge wind farm. Gorgeous. Absolutely

dramatic. Hopefully it will not pour with rain. This is where we are.

There is Sherborne come down there. We have moved right up to here. That

is where we are. Why are we here? We are here to try to solve a little

bit of a mystery. If you look around on these dunes, you find tiny holes

poked into the sand. They are too small to be nice or voles. It is

almost like you poked your finger into the sand. What is going on?

Welcome I can give you a clue. It is a reptile. I can give you a bigger

clue, it is one of the lizards. We have three native lizards in the UK.

The first one, the slow worm. Quite familiar to most of us, it looks

like a snake, but it is a legless lizard. The second one, the common

lizard. Very widespread, often seen in places like graveyards, on stone

walls. But the last one is one we are interested in, the rarest one of

the lot and the most colourful, the sand lizard. Look at that! A

beautiful male in full breeding regalia. Let's have a more detailed

look at the sand lizards. This was a film we shot here, this very site,

in the sunshine yesterday morning. First, let's have a look at the

female. Basking on the sand. They are exothermic, they use the heat of

the sun to warm up. She is not far from cover, any threat and she

dashes in. She is pregnant, this one. You can see the distinctive

pattern. This species shows sexual dimorphism. This is the male. It

means the male and female are very different. The male is very

stunning, a big beast. 20 centimetres long. Lime-green, from

his head all the way down his flanks. He will have that for the

few weeks he is breeding. When he is not in breeding condition? Donal

Brown. But he is a beauty. -- dull Brown. What do you think those are?

Those are sand lizard eggs. The sand lizard that hatched from the eggs,

they are in the dunes around us. The common lizard does not lay eggs, but

sand lizards do. Isn't that strange? We can see them hatching. They lay

about five to ten of them. After two or three months, a long time, the

tiny lizard gets an egg tooth on the end of its nose and it bursts out

from the parchment like egg. It takes about 24 hours to get out and

come out of the sand. Classic, the spotted eyes, that is a sand lizard.

OK, we wanted to solve the mystery of the holes. Clearly it is

something to do with the sand lizard. Will you complete the story,

Iolo? Imagine I am a female sand lizard! Easy to do! I have an

expensive BBC proper. They find a south facing proper, the warm areas.

She will dig holes. This is not a good place, but she will go in eight

centimetres. She will dig holes all around. She is testing the

temperature, she is testing the humidity, she is testing the sand.

When she finds the right place, she will go in, she will lay her eggs,

between five and 15. As she comes out, she back fills the hole. She

leaves them there, they develop in the heat of the sun and they hatch

at the end of August, into September. That, Martin, is what

they are. We have solved the mystery! With a stick. When you come

back, we are going to show you an incredible trick that sand lizards

do to try to avoid predation. Hopefully we will rejoin Martin and

Iolo later on the Trail of sand lizards. Here, all this week, one of

our cameraman has been on the Trail of a shy, elusive creature that has

made its home in one of the walls in the state. It is an adult female

stoat. We now know that she has five kits, lots of hungry mouths to feed.

They are eight to ten weeks old. This is a large rabbit. Look at

that! It is almost as big as she is. In fact, they can drag anything up

to nine times their own weight. The next thing she brings in is a

juvenile jackdaw. As you can see, the adults are not happy about that.

They are starting to mob her. They have good reason to be concerned. As

we know from last year's Springwatch, once a stoat finds a

nest, it will clean it out. It dragged that one particular juvenile

jackdaw into the nest, and goes back, predictably, it gets the

second one. Adults, not happy at all. It takes it into the nest, but

it will be back. As I say, it knows where the nest is. It is going to

make the most of the larder. And why wouldn't it? Look what happens now.

I think this is the third or fourth chick that attached. Something

swoops in. It is a buzzard. It steals the chick. That is when you

can see the size. That chick looks small against the buzzard, but quite

big against the stoat. It goes back into the den, where the kits are. If

we look closely, we can see it is looking pretty manky. Not

surprising, it has taken a lot of food in there and some of it will be

rotting. We will keep an eye on the stoat over the weekend. Our

cameraman will be out filming it. I reckon by Monday she will have moved

them to a different then. Maybe then the kits will be more active,

because we haven't seen much of them so far. A stone wall is an

interesting habitat for wildlife. But what is this habitat? Think of

somewhere that is cold, then extremely hot, wet, then dry. It is

salty, then it is fresh. That can all happen in one day, those

changes. An interesting habitat and one that you will know well. It is a

rock pool. Delve deeply into the tidal depths and you will find a

wealth of wildlife. Rock pools are some of the toughest

places to live on the planet. Every six hours, the tide turns and brings

extreme fluctuations of temperature, salinity and food.

Life is tough for any creature that makes this their home.

In spring, their battle for survival intensifies as new neighbours

arrive. With their arrival, competition

increases for a space to live within the rock pool.

But there are some even more surprising pugilists in here.

Enemies might appear sedentary, but a longer look reveals blazing

bottles for territory. Twisting their flexible bodies, they

aggressively swipe at each other, tearing off pieces of skin as they

do. The loser has no choice but to find another place to settle.

Having found a home, the rock pool residents need to compete for food.

Luckily, the high tide brings relief in the form of oxygenated water,

full of sustenance. To make the most of this bounty, the

humble barnacle, opens up its plated armour to reveal feathery white

legs. These sirri sift the water. The

sensory hairs alerting the barnacle to any juicy titbits. Deeper in the

pool, this shrimp's sense of smell guides it to a prize, a piece of

carrion washed in on the tied. But a hermit crab has already ceased it.

Fortunately, the crab has a blind spot that the shrimp can exploit and

the shrimp tucks in too. In a rockpool, finding food can be

hard but avoiding being eaten can prove harder still.

And an emease' stinging anamatis packs a punch but more deadly is the

starfish. It's strong, sticky tubed feet pose a threat to even the

toughest mollusc's shells, slowly pulling them apart. .S. The limpett

faces a losing battle but it has one final trick up its sleeve. Launching

the shell before bringing it crashing down, a hasty retreat. But

for now, safety for the limpett. For each of these ingenius

creatures, daily life is one of fierce competition, protecting the

home, dodging predators, eat or be eaten. This common shore crab has

been running the rockpool gauntlet for the last two years but now she

can complete her life's purpose. Beneath her she carries almost

200,000 eggs. An attentive mother, she oxygenates the eggs by wafting

them until they are ready to hatch and when the tied turns, the larvae

are drifted out to sea where they live until it is time for them to

hatch and face their own rockpool battles.

Rockpool mayhem! What a drama. Who would have thought. The limpett

having a go at a starfish! One of the most important habitats in the

UK, and there are a few, are hedgerows. There are a whole load of

these, 450,000 kilometres stretched across the UK. They are Lynne ear

corridors that are habitats for many species. 600 plants, hundreds of

species. And there are 450,000 kilometres of these but in 1945, we

had 800,000. They are disappearing fast and managed to regularly. If

they are managed too much through the year, they lose much of their

fruit and wildlife. If they were to be left and cult only every three

years, we would get three times the abundance of flowers and fruit. A

hedge row lick this. This is what we want to see. Lots of song post, and

many of these sorts of things means lots of wildlife too. So, we have a

whole load of different things living here. Let's have a look.

Look at what is on the farm. That is roe deer. Yellow ham. I love

seeing those again and again. A variety of birds. Chiffchaff. And

all the food that they get from the hedgerows feed the chicks. And of

course the insects that are attracted from the nectar rich

blossom. Just an incredible divert of insects, there is the orange tip

and they, it is not just the nectar but the leaves and the food plant

for the hosts that provides this incredible diversity for life.

And it is not just food but shelter as well. If we are quiet, we can

move to a nest that we are able to look at through a live camera that

we have been watching through the week. This patch of camera netting

and the camera tripod has a camera on the end which is on the

bullfinches. Let's go live. There she is. In the nest four to five

metres from where we are. This is the female, brooding a couple of

youngsters we have been watching all week. Look at that.

Very beautiful. They need the thick dense hedgerows. Otherwise the

chicks would be stolen by the jays and the magpies, within this, they

cannot get into the hedgerows. Bullfinches are shy birds, so the

hedgerow provides great cover and the nesting site and the all

important food. The stout bills mean that they can make the most of the

variety of buds, seeds and insects on offer in the hedgerows.

Interestingly, people ask how the chicks are rehide rated but there

the adults are regurgitating that. Giving them a seedy soup. It is

giving it lots of moisture. Nothing makes me more sad to see the flamed

picket stumps. They are no value. We must look after the hedges that were

made and look after them in the terms of the way that they are

managed. A message to the farmers, we want hedgerows that look like

these. Fantastic. Let's head to Martin, who is about to perform a

remarkable demonstration. It is looking drake over here. We

are up here on the Talacre dunes. We are studying the lives of the sand

lizards that live here. It is not the safest place to be is it? It is

not. You would think it is but here there are gulls, foxes, badgers, and

they all want to eat the sand lizards. If you are a lizard, you

need a trick you were sleeve to survive.

And they have it! Look at this model! Here is a sand lizard. What

happens is if the lizard is attacked, it does a thing called

self-amputation and decides to rip off its tail. There is a special

weakening in the vertebra. The muscles constrict and it snaps off

and the blood vessels snap off a so it does not bleed to death. Now you

have a tail here and what happens next? Watch this.

The tail lashes about and it draws the attention of the predator and we

can see the real thing happening. Here it goes... Look at that. There

is the lizard. It is sad when it comes off of the but don't worry,

they do grow again. Some of them really wriggle violently. Chris told

me that there is one that the tail jump as metre in the air and makes a

soaring noise. Do you believe that? If Chris says it, it must be true.

I think it is an amazing fact. You have been involved in the

conservation of the animals as they are still, despite the clever

tricks, very much threatened? They are. And I remember the first

release in Wales in 2003. I think we have footage of that. I was involved

in filming that on the West Coast of Wales. A group of people from the

reptile conservation, Chester zoo and private breeders all involved

and we were reintroducing them to a former home on the West Coast and

since then to five further sites. Here at Talacre, in the last four to

five years they have released 500 animals.

Let me show you the distribution of the lizards. Here at Kent, the north

and west Welsh coast, Devon and Cornwall but the core area was

Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey and the Sefton coast. But reintroduction is

the start. There is a lot more hard work to do. And yesterday, the

conservation teams were out on the dunes, working very hard. At first

sight it looks dramatic. You think, what are they doing? But they are

ripping out bits of grass and they have to expose the sand so that the

sand lizards cannot just lay eggs but to bask. The horses are crucial.

They have five horses. They crop the grass down it is all about exposing

the sand to help the sand lizard survive. As we have said, the

conservation work must go on and on and on. If we are lucky we may have

a final chance to see a live sand lizard.

We have. Look at that. Keep your snoring ale and kestrel snot, look

at that. A male sand lizard. What a beauty. This is not a wild animal.

They are breeding, this is an animal that has come from the Chester zoo.

The good news really, is that they were extinct in Wales in 1960 but

over the past 50 years they are doing very well and the future is

looking Rosie. Great news. Time to go back to the

studio to Michaela. What an animal.

You love it. I really, really, really like sand

lizards. They are like dragons. We should finish by going live to a

camera. Let's go to the buzzard. Let's have a look.

Oh, gosh, my heart missed a beat there! I thought it wasn't moving.

But it is. It is sleeping. I saw it breathing and move its head that is

one chicked. We introduced you that camera.

Let's have a look at the kestrel. The female some in there. Four

chicks. Peeping through there. A lovely view.

Just a few days' old. That is all we have time for this

week. Do join us next week. We are back at 8.00pm. But 6.30 on BBC Two

from Monday to Friday it is Unsprung. I'm all of a spin today...

An orange tutu, that is scary. Don't miss it! You are with us

Gillian. Where are you off to? I'm off to the big bad city.

I'm going to bust urban myths. And Martin? I'm heading north to

taking the high road to Scotland to look at some beavers. See you next

week. Full of enthusiasm! Let's have a

look at the barn owls this week. There is the female brooding there.

What about the bluetits? Let's have a look. They have not finish fledged

yesterday, and there is your runt. Thank you very much. You can watch

the live cams on the website and on the internet on the Red Button you

can turn over right now and enjoy all of the live cameras. We are back

on Monday. Have a great weekend. Goodbye!