Springwatch Episode 10 Springwatch

I have experienced many things on Springwatch today. The chattering of

beautiful birds, the grooming of hairs and the calming of ruffled

feathers. Then I carried on walking past Michaela having her make-up

done! Ha-ha! There is no making up the action on tonight's show. We

have dive-bombing bats. They've got contented kits. And there is a

stick-stealer in the colony. And we are on the Isles of Scilly, hunting

for a totally different sort of stick. I will be on the beach

combing for jellies. It can only mean one thing... It's Springwatch!

Hello! Welcome to Springwatch 2017. Coming to you for the third week

from the National Trust Sherborne Park Estate in Gloucestershire. I

have to say, Michaela, it's particularly fine evening. I know,

look at this! It's fantastic. No rain. And look at this, Chris, there

happens to be a couple of bales of straw in the middle of the field for

to us sit on. That's absolutely marvellous. Let's start today with a

quick whip around some of our live cameras. We are going to start with

the red kites. Let's look at them. We have red kites as you know, three

chicks, four-and-a-half weeks old. Look at that in the sunlight!

Beautiful. Our kestrels too up in the Church to

youer in the village are panting due to the sunlight. Look at this, the

sun is blazing through that nook in the Church and they're getting

overheated. The swallows in the barn even have a shaft of light. Wonder

what they're looking at. They're interested in something. Wrens in

the barn close to them and built into a swallows nest, five of them

in that nest. I am pleased I am not the wren at the back. I think they

probably rotate t would only be fair to. That's a quick whip around. Now

let's have a proper look at some nests. Let's start with one of the

prettiest nests I think, it's the grey wagtail nest. Let's have a

look. Look at that! It's so pretty. It's in the

brickwork there by the old water wheel. All the chicks look like

they're sleeping. There are five chicks in there.

Seven days old. Oh, look! We might be get ago field here... That was a

bit of a false attempt there. They thought it was - they thought they

were getting food. They have been fed very well. Let's look at what's

been going on today. They eat a lot of mayflies, that's the main prey.

You can see one struggling here. Look at that beautiful reflection of

the grey wagtail. Spots the mayfly. No trouble catching it. And taking

it to the nest. Wagging that tail. Feeds the chicks. They've been very

well fed. But mainly by the female, which is this one. Beak full of

Mayflies. She's looking very tatty on the feathers. What goes in one

end, has to come out. Look what she does. It's amazing, she flies some

distance to make sure she gets rid of that faecal sack and hides it far

away from the nest. It's great to see five chicks, seven days old. At

least another seven days before they fledge but they're all looking good

so far. We have another nest down here. In fact, just in the hedgerow,

about 18 metres over there. We can go live to our blackbirds' nest and

let's see what they're up to. Five chicks in here, as well.

Look at that, Michaela. They are warm this evening.

They're not there looking for food, that's them, rather like the

kestrels, overheating. They've been busy bringing all sorts of food in.

Lots of earthworms, even here not in a classic garden, they're feeding

lots of worms. Look at that mouthful the female brought in. All those

youngsters stretching up as high as they can clamouring to get food.

The bird singing is not the blackbird. Curiously, this is a song

thrush. Wonder if they'll grow up confused. Some birds learn the song

they're going to sing in their future life from their own adults

whilst still in the nest. These young blackbirds are being serenaded

almost constantly by a song thrush. They may end up singing the wrong

song. That's not great. I love the way they stretch. It's like a

contest of who has the longest neck, I love it. In that hedge is a nest

of chaffinches, as well. Let's look at them. Very close to the

blackbirds. Sometimes the birds get confused when they see the other

adult come by. Look at them! A fluffy head there. How many chicks

in there? It looks like there are just two. We did have three. Let's

have a look at what happened. They were ready to fledge. They're being

very well fed. That's the female. The male, though, was hanging around

with food a little bit away from the nest trying to entice them out. 11.

32 one of the chicks got very brave and decided to see dad. And was

rewarded with a little bit of food. We thought that was it. Great, it's

fledged. But at 11. 59 it defledged! That's the chick in the middle...

Defledged? Hang on, is that a proper term? It might be after tonight.

This went on for the rest of the morning and the early afternoon. It

was in, it was out. Out, in, shaking it all about. Then at 2. 38 it

actually decided that it was time to leave the nest.

The other two are still there as we saw in that live shot. Don't think

it will be long before they go. A beautiful evening, maybe they'll go

now. Keep eyes on the live cameras. I favour tomorrow morning at that

point. That would be better. The hedgerow there is fantastic. It's

not a horrid picket stump. It has branches that act as posts for the

birds. At the base is lots of vegetation, home for small mammals.

We caught a yellow necked mouse just over there. A suitable place for

barn owls to go hunting I am sure. Let's go live to their nest now.

Again it's not too far away from where we are. The adult is absent.

The female has popped out, probably in the barn finding space away from

her rowdy junksters sleeping off a number of voles they had last night

-- youngsters. Or maybe she's hunting. We have set our cameramen a

challenge. We tried it on Monday. We did actually see a glimpse of our

barn owl hunting. Tonight we are going to see if we can really get it

and get it in a beautiful sunlit evening. We have Pete and Mark out

there. Let's go to Pete's camera first of all. Pete's going to see if

he can see our barn owl hunting in this field.

Loads of sheep! Then let's look at Mark's camera.

Mark is in the field, as well. He can see the barn itself. We will be

able to see if we see a barn owl hunting, but that's definitely our

barn owl, because he will be able to see it go in and out of the barn.

That's the challenge. If we manage it we will show it to you. A good

chance if times are tough or they've got lots of hungry mouths to feed

they'll come out in the late afternoon and early evening. It's a

real treat. Generally watching nocturnal animals is difficult since

we are not nocturnal ourselves. One group is tricky and that's the bats,

of course. Often you can go out and see bats, you can stand by a river,

stand in your garden and see them in the sky. But which species of bat

are they? With an enormous amount of expertise you might be able to get

90% right but not 100%. Not until now. The other night I went out with

my good friend Gary to test a new device which I think is going to

radically transform batting. Here in the UK we are lucky to have

18 species of bat but because of their nocturnal habits watching and

identifying them can sometimes leave you in the dark.

There are bits of tech that can help but they can be unreliable and

frustrating to use. But sound recordist Gary Moore has a new toy

and we have come to test it in Sherborne village.

Gary, I have this bat detector here. It's a classic one. It's going to

convert the high frequency sounds of the bats into lower frequencies that

we can hear. That's right? That is right, yeah. This is history. It is,

hopefully it's history. I have a new little bit of kit, it's basically a

tiny little device. It allows any smartphone or any tablet to be

turned into a bat detector. But not only is it a bat detector... It

identifies the bat for you. It identifies it. We are going to pit

these two devices against each other in a test of classic versus modern.

All we need now are some bats. What time is it? Nearly quarter to

ten. You said half nine. I thought we would be in the pub by now!

Goodness me! Thought we would at least catch last orders!

Didn't see that one. Mine's identified it. What? There, look.

And a picture, as well! Honest rip -- honestly, that's

amazing. It has recorded it, identified it and shown you a

picture of the face. Yeah. Wow. Soon enough, we are witnessing a

mass exodus from the roost. Wow. Look at that What a treat!

But let's face it, we knew this was a roost of lesser horseshoes, it's

more like shooting bats in a barrel than a true test for the detectors.

It's time to move down to the river where we know there are all kinds of

bats and identifying them to species level in the pitch black will be the

ultimate test. Right, here we are, Gary. This is

the final showdown. OK. I am get ago bat at 44. 6 here. If I

consult the little bit of paper. Hold on.

44. 6. It could be a common... Could even be whiskered actually. Mine has

identified it. Honestly! Look. Maybe the sopranos are hunting up here and

the Commons are down there. When I was ten the only place you saw that

was on Star Trek. Now it's allowing us to identify a bat to species

level. In the dark. We are not even seeing the bats. Dear Santa... I

have been a good boy this year and really hoping that when when you

come down my chimney you bring me one of these new detectors like what

Gary has! Gary, I am sold. Yeah. Do you want my bat detector, ?10? No,

you can keep that. I will chuck in a bit of paper. All right, OK. Let's

go to the pub. It's closed, let's go to bed. I did promise you last

orders. It's worth it, it's a fab gadget.

Now, it is undeniably fantastic but you don't need one of those gadgets

to engage with and report bats sightings. The conservation trust

would love you to join in with their surveys and you can find details of

those on our website. Let's look at the bats we were looking at there.

You couldn't see them too clearly in the film. The first one are common

piperstills. Next one is soprano, closely related and Gary and I were

separating them by sound. Lastly the lesser horseshoe bat, the ones

emerging from the roost and they have a curious nose that gives them

the name. That's what they look like. How do they communicate? They

throw out a signal t bounces back to give the bat information on how far

away the object is, what speed it's going at. That is how they locate

and catch their prey. It's got to be efficient because 3,000 insects they

have to catch, it's a lot. Why can't we hear it? Well, it's because it's

at a high frequency, which is too high for our hearing range. This is

our hearing range. 20-20,000 hertz. This is the blue whale. Most we can

hear, some is too low. Bats, most is too high.

Most you can't hear. Lesser horse DUP shoe, you haven't a hope. That's

why we can't hear it. OK how effectively do bats use it?

We're trying to convert sound into images, that's the way we perceive

things. Hidden here in the picture is a gnat. I imagine you are a bat

looking for this, emitting all that sound, bouncing off the trees and

confusing your ability to find it, as it does visually for us. But here

is a gnat out over the water. We can see that much more clearly and when

the bats are using echolocation, because the water act as an acoustic

mirror, reflecting their sound perfectly, it's easier to pick out

anything in front of that mirror, such as these gnats. When bats are

hunting over water, you can see how this one has come over the

boathouse, it's raining, dimples overwater and can't see its food.

They frequently hunt overwater like this, this species, and you can see

it dipping down, perhaps drinking or taking insects. And then having

located at the insect to have to catch it. How does the bat do that?

It doesn't just make these clicks on a regular, ordered pattern. What we

have here Michaela is a sonogram of up bat moving for its environment.

Each one of these single clicks are navigating click. Flying along,

sending out broad information about its environment. As it progresses,

all of a sudden we get a rapid burst of little clicks like this. I think

we can hear this as well... Let's listen. There are the clicks. Click,

click, click, click. At the end, that sound, it's an increased

sampling rate. What the bats are doing are moving along like this and

then an increase in sampling, giving them more information about the prey

they've located and it's then that they catch it. We can see them doing

this. This. This is the great horseshoe bats, they've located the

moths and increase their sampling and then copying them and their

wings and scooping them up into their mouths. What about that? I

love that. I enjoyed that, so much so I have a batty T-shirt on. I

think they're great, I love going out at night with a bat detector and

listening to them. Not as fancy as the one you used!

Bats are not the only animals that hunt at night, so do foxes. These

two little cubs are not hunting but practising hunting. Some people call

it play even. They are pouncing, chasing, this is exactly what they

will have to do when they are adults. Interesting fact about

foxes, a recent survey said numbers have declined by 34% between

1995-2015. That is a huge decline. That's because of a decline in

rabbits, caused by myxomatosis, a new virus that is really affecting

rabbits and shooting, as well. That is a lot, isn't it? 34%. It is

significant. Urban fox numbers have steadily grown but in the rural

environment, as that study has shown, foxes are declining. I don't

see as many foxes out on about when I'm in the countryside as I used to

when I was a kid. The BDO's data means it's empirical. Martin has

been on a road trip and last week we saw him in Scotland. Gillian has

joined him this week they are in the Isles of Scilly.

Yes, here we are. Michaela, we've actually made it! We are on the

glorious Isles of Scilly. If they are, about 145 islands down here,

five inhabited by humans and many of others inhabited wonderful life

wildlife. There is prior and Samsung, after which my son is

named. That didn't come out quite right! Very poetic. This is an Area

of Outstanding Natural Beauty, as you can see. And legend has it King

Arthur lies in a tomb out there, not dead but waiting to come back, to

rise up in Britain's hour of greatest need. Top that! This is the

place of pirates and shipwrecks. Sailors that come across the

Atlantic make first landfall here. They shelter from Atlantic storms,

but this maze of islands and islets and rocky outcrops are a haven for

sea birds. They are so difficult to get through, but the wildlife love

it. Say you have the shacks, oyster catchers. It is a fine, fine

destination for birds. A lot of birders come here because there are

real rarities. Exactly where we are. This has been our tour all round the

country. Don't know if you can see hang on! There's Sherborne and we

went up to North Wales and then went all the way to Scotland to the

Beavers and pine marten for now we are down here, right in the Scilly

Isles. Let's have a closer look at where the Scilly Isles are, what

they look like. Here are all the inhabited ones. You see all these

tiny once dotted around full of wildlife, terribly dangerous for

shipping over the years. We are here on Tresco and Gillian and I are

standing almost exactly fair. When you come to Trescothick are famous

for their gardens, and there is all sorts of what look like subtropical

plants growing here. It is extremely beautiful. The colours. You get a

lot of succulence here as well. Look at that, I've seen one of those in

Mexico. Lots of exquisite... People come here just to see the beautiful

plants that grow here. You get lovely insects. There is a thing

called the Scilly bee. It's exotic and it's going to get more exotic.

Not just plants, there's some surprisingly exotic animals here,

and I've got one right here. I've got a little challenge for you. I

don't know if you can see this, so we're going to just move in... And

hopefully, if you have a sharp eye, you should be able to start to see

it right there. There it is. That's a stick insect. They come from the

Greek word meaning phantom or abolition. I think it's doing a

pretty good job of that. Right now it's, apart from camouflaging, it

showing its other defence mechanism. It's doing this gentle swaying. If I

blow on it it might do it a bit more. It does that to not just

looked like a stick but like a stick blowing gently in the breeze. I

think that is so clever. Absolutely fabulous, isn't it? I've spent

literally hours looking for these over here and never, ever found one.

Chris Timmins, our hero, found this one looking into red minutes. I wish

I could pretend I found that! In fact there four different species of

stick insect. This is the prickly one, there is a smooth stick insect,

a laboratory stick insect and... What's the other one? Mediterranean.

It seems the smooth and prickly arrived here around 100 years ago in

1909 and have been living here ever since. They reproduce,

fascinatingly, by parthenogenesis. Which means the female doesn't need

a mail at all. In fact, with a prickly stick insect, they've never

found a male. All that happens is the female lays eggs and they are

viable, they hatch out. So when they came over here, possibly with some

plants from New Zealand, you only need one egg in that soil and it

could have founded the entire colony over here. They are the most curious

animals. It doesn't look like they are doing any harm here, they are

invasive but they don't appear to be causing any trouble. So anyway, from

one very exotic animal to another, because when you come back Gillian

and I will let it down to the beach and we are going on and exotic

beachcomber. See you later. When you were a child, did you keep

stick insects in a jam jar with a loosely fitting lid and it escaped

and clambered down stairs and it climbed on top of your father's

Spitfire books in the kitchen? No, but I guess you did.

From stick insects to barn owls. Look at this. This is important.

This is a field margin, it has good old rough grass in it. Here, this is

a place where mammals can live, where voles can live. This is what

we like to see on farms. If you have this sort of habitat, you can

sustain barn owls. We can go live now to our cameras. Let's take a

look at what Pete's got. Has he found one of our hunting owls?

Nothing yet. Potential prey in the foreground. If a bar now takes a

sheep it will be a world first! Let's see what Mark has by the barn.

Good hunting ground for these animals. They need these rough

patches. If you have improved pasture, grass which has herbicide

put on it, no dead leaf litter... This is what small mammals need,

they need this, they need to be able to hide under this sort of stuff. If

the barn owl isn't out and about, let's see if it's back in the barn,

in to. It's not, so it must be around. The chicks are there,

obviously. We have three chicks, very different sizes. They are all

huddled together a bit. 21-day-old chick, 16-day-old chick and

13-day-old chick. If we have a look at what they've been getting up to,

you can see the size difference, it's quite dramatic. We've been very

concerned about that little one, but maybe we shouldn't be, because let's

watched the feeding. There has been a lot of food coming in. There's

been shrews coming in, that goes to the little check the bank vole, or

the shrew. He gets fed to one of the chicks. The bank vole gets fed to

the big chick, the large cheque. The youngest one is screeching away from

the -- for food, as you can hear. The more its creatures, the more

likely it is to be fed by the adult. You can see it's trying to feed

itself. It's trying to nibble at an old vole. Look at the big cheque,

down in one! Listened to it, screeching away. What is encouraging

is the mother comes in and shelters that little one and tries to feed

it. It takes the food, but that big one is having none of it and pulls

it away, and the little one goes hungry that time.

Don't worry, though, because there's more food coming in. They've been

amazing, these two adults. Just look at this, Chris, it is trying to get

this prey down in one gulp. Watch the wings, watched the wings! They

start flapping, it's like come on, get it down! And remarkably, it

does! Just with tiny little bit sticking out. Do you know what that

me of? I couldn't eat another thing! Mr creosote. Let's call him little

Chris. Good for him! I'm pleased to see that that's happening. Is good.

Last night we were offering some conjecture as to how many prey items

they would have to bring in to keep the little one alive. We said 16,

three each for the adults, we might not see those, they might even

outside the barn but ten brought into the youngsters. Guess how many

came in today? Eight. Nine. One off. Pretty good. Yes, and we were being

generous with that as well. Four large M3? Items for the largest

chick. He's in with a chance, little creosote. Let's take a look at

another one of our birds of prey, we can look at them live. These are the

red kites. They are in a very different part of the estate, in

fact slightly out of the state in a wood. Look at them resting in the

gorgeous even in light. Three chicks, for in a half weeks old and

they have really grown. Let's have a look at what they've been getting up

to. If you just glance at them you could think they were adults, until

the adult comes in. You see the size difference and you see that the

adult has got a much greyer head. We've seen it bring in these before.

It's a toad. We did see quite a lot of that when the weather was wet but

they've had a huge variety of food brought into them. One chick

certainly seems to be that. Look what happens now, a tug-of-war

between two siblings. We think that's probably a juvenile fox,

maybe a fox cub scavenged. A fox cub's leg, I think. Which one do you

think will win? The one on the left. Look at the third chick, it's kind

of spectating, watching it siblings may complete falls out of its. The

one on the right wins. Wins what, a dried old fox cub like scraped off

the A40? Look at this. Still only for and a half weeks and yet they

are jumping, their flapping, they are looking like they are really

spreading those wings and are making an effort to get ready for fledging.

A bit of a way off yet. Those wings are very important for kites, it's

their wing loading that's important. They are incredibly buoyant when

hunting. The reason is they have low wing loading. If you divide the

weight of the bird by its wing area, which is huge, and they only have a

tiny body, you get a figure of 27.4 newtons per metre squared.

It means they are buoyant and extremely manoeuvrable. This one

swoops down. It spotted some something in the brook there. The

adults keep the kite away on this occasion. But this is typical of the

hunting technique. They drift using as little energy as possible.

Any winds they can find. Many birds of prey, extraordinary eyesight

looking for things they can skafage but also small mammals they kill.

Here this one spotted a vole. Look at this.

It snatch it is without landing. If kestrels catch something, barn

owls catch something, buzzards catch something, they always land. But not

the kite. They never want to land. In fact, they can even eat those

voles on the wing. This reminds me of a hobby eating a dragonfly. Look

at that. The vole going down the throat and it drops a little bit of

grass it didn't want. You see the tail, I was watching the tail going

like this. A big rudder and massive span for touching that air to turn

that bird. They're manoeuvrable, thanks to the wing loading, 27. 4

newtons per metre square. Very precise. Maybe red kites have

inspired you to get more into wildlife, there are all sorts of

different things that inspire us to get involved. For many people it's

another member of the family. James, a documentary cameraman, tells us

how his grandad helped to inspire him.

Of all of Britain's wildlife haunts, the one that I love most, a tide

encircled island just off the Wirral coast.

From feeding grounds and gleaming sand, and mud, a high tide refuge in

the Cheshire Dee I choose. This is a poem my grandad wrote.

When I read it, it lit a fire in me, he was a passionate bird-watcher and

photographer and it led him to write a book about British waders. Being

here I get a sense of why my grandad loved coming here because it's a

serene place, it's where he developed a passion for bird

photographry. My grandad says I feel an expect apesy and exhilaration

that has a quality of its own. The photos that I particularly like

are the ones where he is at the level of the birds.

Seeing these waders just as he did all those years ago has been very

special for me. The most dramatic thing about Hilbre

island is the change you experience with the tides coming in and out.

My grandad says in his book, no two visits are quite alike. One factor

and one alone is constant, the rising tide. Before it everything

must yield. Hilbre is special in May, it's when all the passing

migrants come through, they're building up body weight for the long

migration north. When the tide leaves the island, you feel a bit

sad actually. But at high tide it feels really special because you are

there and the only things you are with are the birds.

Long before I could see them I could hear them.

By far and away the largest numbers of birds I am seeing are everywhere,

on the wing, over the high tide. They're heading off to Lapland,

they're using Hilbre as a sort of resting point for the long journey

ahead. They essentially feed all day on the

mud flats. And so the high tide is really the only chance they get to

sleep. If one of them gets alarmed, the

whole flock takes off. Just quite a beautiful sight.

As well as the dunlins there are other wading birds.

Most of them are breeding on the mainland.

They're cute birds and have a white ring around their neck. Smaer

smaller than the wader -- they're smaller than the wading species. To

be surrounded by wading birds when they have no idea you are there is

absolutely amazing. The other great thing about the high

tide at Hilbre is all these grey sales come up. I think actually the

tide brings in lots of food -- seals. They come to feed off the

rocks and they love the calm you get with the high tide.

The island is somewhere I will definitely return to. It's a really

beautiful place and more than recreating the photos, I was looking

to recreate the experience my grandad talked about.

So being here in Hilbre has given me a whole new dimension to my memories

and my relationship in a way with my grandfather.

I mean, he died when I was 14 years old. I always remember him as a

grandfather, but now I feel like I kind of know him more as a person.

That's really special. What an absolutely beautiful place.

Amazing to be inspired by your grandad's books. Now it's time we

should catch up with our stoats. It's a favourite for many of you, we

have been following this family of stoats here at Sherborne. Our

cameraman Mark has been filming them and filmed ones we had earlier when

he got amazing predatory behaviour. This year, he has amazing intimate

behaviour. These are the kits. There are five,

they're about 10-12 weeks old by now. This is the third den we have

seen them move to. This is mum. This is a rare moment for mum. She's

actually able to relax. We haven't seen her do much of this. Most of

the time she's out hunting, moving the kits around. One of the kits

comes in. This is very important bonding time, all the kits are on

top of her now. They're bonding. They're grooming. Playing a little

bit. Absolutely delightful to watch. Gets claustrophobic for mum after a

while, though. She's off probably to do hunting. You can see the kits are

pretty much the same size as her now. She leaves the kits behind.

They start practising what their mum is off to do, hunting. This is the

same as we saw the foxes do earlier. They're doing pouncing. They're

running, chasing. Of course they'll also have to learn to swim. They'll

have to learn to climb. Absolutely lovely to watch and Mark's got some

great footage of all of this. Have a listen now.

That noise is the stoats making that noise. It's a sort of churring

noise. It's a very sweet noise. Let's have another listen to it.

As you would imagine, it's a very soft sweet noise, and it is a very

friendly noise. It's a sort of welcoming between the kits and the

mother. Other mustelids do that, pine martens, weasels. They make

other noises, most are aggressive and hiss and Barking and that sort

of thing. I rather like that one. That's not the proper name,

churring. Chris, do you churr when you are pleased to see someone? ! I

don't! I am pleased don't churr at me on live TV. People speak anyway

about what's going on between us! Last night, it was my unenviable

duty to bring to you figures about the decline of our butterfly species

here in the wider countryside. Everyone reacted with great concern

on social media today. Sometimes the truth hurts. Here is a little bit

more pain. Tonight I am going to be talking about birds that have

disappeared, the first astonishing statistic, brace yourselves, this is

going to hurt, is that since 1970, since we were knocked out of the

World Cup by that astonishing goal and that remarkable save took place

in Mexico, 44 million birds have disappeared from this landscape. 44

million birds, individuals. What does that look like? I stand here at

this moment in time and thinking how can I conceive of 44 million birds?

What volume would they take up, what noise would they make? But they've

gone. Which birds are they? How do we know that? What scientists have

been doing since 1970 is studying specific groups of birds they can

accurately report in terms of their populations. Over here we have a

very rustic graph, pleased with this, it looks fantastic. A

brilliant job with this. Here is 1970. Here the white line is a base

line. We are measuring the declines and increases in birds since 1970,

relative to that point in time. The blue line here are the sea

birds. Then the red line are the woodland

bird species. As you can see, there's been a consistent decline, a

little bit of a raise in recent times.

What about the farmland 19 species they choose, kestrels,

Larks, yellow hammers and have been monitored since 1975 here. Look at

the graph. It's been a very, very steep

decline. Going all the way down here until we

get to a point which tells us that we have lost 51% of our farmland

birds since 1975. Which species are affected? The Lynette for one.

They've declined by 57%. We think a dramatic decline throughout the 07s

and 80s was because of reduced breeding success. The corn bunting

is another species. These have gone by 90%. A staggering 90%. The reason

we suspect here is a change from spring zone to autumn and winter

zone. No stubbles, no grain in the winter time, not much hope for the

corn bunting. The yellow hammer, down by 55%. Again similar reasons

for this one. The intensification of agriculture, the lack of winter

food. These figures are all pretty grim. Is there any hope? I have to

tell you there is some hope. The graph is showing an all but small

increase at the moment. Why is that? It's because perhaps those stud

aroundship -- stewardship schemes I mentioned are having an impact. One

farmer has seen yellow hammer population go from 13 to 30. The

linets are stable and so are the corn buntings. It's not just his,

it's also the other birds across the estate.

It proves that if farmers can take the trouble, if we can support them

enough to make it worthwhile to put these schemes into practice, we can

effect a recovery of these birds. If we don't do something after a

catastrophic decline I feel we might lose them very, very quickly indeed.

A sobering thought. Let's head back to the Isles of Scilly where Martin

and Gillian have headed down to the beach.

We are here on the beautiful Isles of Scilly.

We are 28 miles due south-west from Land's End and it's a beautiful

evening. We have the sunset happening. Martin and I are on a

beach comb. An exotic beach comb. You might find all sorts of things

on the beach, what we have here are live specimens of the sort of thing

you might find. Some lovely jellyfish. Not

everyone's favourite. What we have here is a blue jellyfish. Loads of

tentacles. And a lovely one here, a juvenile compass jelly. Let's take a

look at some jellyfish that might come across on the shores here, or

in the waters here, as well. These blooms of moon jellies,

sometimes people call them swarms, I prefer the word blooms. They're my

favourite. They can be up to a metre in diameter. And 35 kilos. Famed for

being the largest known species of jellyfish, two metres in diameter

and 37 metres long. And these the sort of thing you might find washed

up on the shores. I think they are such a fascinating group of animals.

It's soothing to watch them as they swim along like that. The marine

converbisation society, if you find lots of jellyfish washed up on the

beach they would love to hear from you, there is a link on our website

with a guide to the eight most common species, if you find them go

to the website and tell us where you found them.

tiny body, you get a figure of 27.4 newtons per metre squared.

When you think of jellyfish, what do you think of? Stings! Not all

jellyfish can sting us but it's good to be a bit careful. Why do they

sting and why? They sting to protect themselves but also, of course, to

feed. What happens is if a prey item comes in close range of those

tentacles, what will happen if those tentacles will sting them, triggered

to sting them and will gradually paralyse injecting venom into them.

This is a fried egg jellyfish. Never seen one of those! It eating other

jellyfish here. You can see how the tentacles are draped across the prey

jellyfish, stinging them, paralysing them and dragging them towards their

mouth. That's how they do it. Let's get up, let's analyse the stinging a

bit more. Their stinging cells are in the tendrils that all hang down.

There are literally millions of them. This is one that's massively

blown up. I don't know if you can see that. There it is. Hundreds of

millions of them all lined up on the tentacle. If the trigger is here

attached, if you brush against them, the pressure starts to build up.

When it gets to 2000 lb per square inch, this happens... I hope it

works! Yes! It flies out this long thread like that and pumps in venom.

Isn't that amazing, are you thrilled? He's loving it. Jellyfish

have stingers but something things fight back. I don't know, you might

be surprised to know there are predators like jellyfish that are a

real surprise. I love this. Of Violet Sea snail. It's the sort of

thing that washes up in Mao we and other tropical sounding places I

can't think of right now, but this one was found right here on the

Isles of Scilly. They are really curious things because the way they

find that prey is making these mucus bubbles, they help them to float on

the surface and when they float, they sailed the high seas and hunt

down one of the most notorious jellyfish, no less than the

Portuguese man a war. There are echoes, slurping down, tentacle by

tentacle. Astonishing, absolutely amazing that a mollusc can be

predatory like that stop you and so delicate and so beautiful, you'd

just never know. If I found it on the beach I would have no idea it

was munching Portuguese man-of-war! There is also human debris as well.

Our distant rid of this. This is fascinating. Nikki of the wildlife

trust has been collecting bits and pieces off the beaches for about 18

months and she has this. Can you see that seed? It is a sea beam, you

would find in Central America or the Caribbean and it has floated across

the see all the way to the beaches here in Scilly But this is where it

gets fascinating, look at this. That is lego. It was in a ship that sank

27 years ago, and yet they are still being washed up around these shores.

Ironically, this was Marine lego, meant to represent bits of seaweed

and so on. They are 20 years old. But look at this, smarty tops. These

have their own story to tell. This one, because of the lettering on the

shape of it and the size, we know that that top was made in the 1960s.

And incredibly, because of the writing, the style of writing, that

one is from the 1950s. That smarty top has been bashing around in the

sea for 70 years and it's still there. Quite astonishing. And by the

way, if you find the tops of Smarties, you can identify them and

if you have an exotic when you can sell it for five quid! LAUGHTER

Amazing what you can do on the Internet! But there is actually a

serious point here. They can be lots of fun finding Lego and Smartie tops

that this is probably what you're more likely to find on the beaches,

rubbish, plastic rubbish that doesn't disappear. And whether it's

Lego or Smartie tops all rubbish, this is where it all begins, no

hurdles. These are the building blocks of all the plastic products

that we use. And we've got a problem because these are finding their way

into the ocean. Thousands of tonnes each year get washed into the seas

and washed up on our beaches. They have a very romantic name called

mermaids tears but if you call them nurdles or mermaid's tears, you can

help. The great nurdle hunt is a campaign that encourages anyone who

finds these to report them. To find out how you can do that, go to our

website. And now for a complete change of scene, let's go to the

Somerset levels to catch up with that Egret family.

In early March and a cold dawn rises over the unique landscape of the

mystical Somerset levels. In a country garden stands in ancient oak

tree, high up in its evergreen canopy, a crowded cluster of nesting

grey herons and little egrets. Each pair of egrets is playing a high

risk game of when to lay eggs. Laying them too early and they will

be at the mercy of the weather, too late and the glut of spring food

will run out. We've been following one pair of

little egrets, the early birds. They took a huge gamble and laid their

eggs weeks ahead of the rest of the colony. After three weeks incubating

there is still no sign of chicks. Was it too early, perhaps?

Next to a grey herons nest is already full of checks, and it's all

hands on deck, with very hungry chicks to feed.

And it's not only the little egrets and grey herons, a whole host of

noisy neighbours have joined the oak tree, including a mock duck -- mob

of raucous rooks. By mid April, the tree is bursting with birds.

And then the crash, there are now more than 25 little egrets pairs,

many still preparing their nests. Both parents get involved in the

nest building and it is done with precision and care. Each nest is

about 30 centimetres wide and is an intricate cradle of sticks knitted

together, using nothing more than a week and claws. The colony's more

experienced birds have refined this art of meat nest building. And

sometimes a stick fails to live up to its name, many slipping and

falling back to the ground during construction. Whilst the females

continue to oversee the building work, it's the mail 's job to find

suitable materials. It's a slow process, one stick at a

time, and it can take several days to build their canopy crib,

especially when only certain sticks will do. One crafty little egret has

decided there an easier way to gather the goods. Hunt around on the

ground when you can pinch a stick from a neighbouring nest?

He's scared off at first, but it's not long before the adult heron

leaves and opportunity knocks for this cowboy builder, and it's time

to take his pick. Amongst the chaos of the building

site there is movement in the nest of our early birds. After an

incubation period of 25 days, and despite enduring some of the coldest

weather of early spring, the eggs have finally hatched. But winter

still has a claw hold on the levels, keeping these chicks warm and fed is

going to be a huge challenge over the next few weeks, and with stick

stealing neighbours on all sides, the early birds' nesting foundations

are still on shaky ground. And tomorrow we'll find out if the

gamble paid off for those early nesters. Amazing birds. They first

added to breed in 1996. 21 years later, 660-740 pairs. That is an

amazing colonisation, isn't it? It is. Let's take a bird similar to the

little egret, this bird, the cattle egret. As I say, very similar to the

little egret. A pair have been breeding in Cheshire at Burton Mia,

only the second time they've nested in the UK. The first timers in 2008

in Somerset. And there are others following those as well. Moving up

through the continent as climate change is in effect, and this is

another one, European bee eater. They typically don't nest north of

Paris but in recent years an increase in these. Since 2004, seven

pairs breeding. A couple on the Isle of Wight successfully. Also black

winged stilts, a species that hopped across the continent since 2014 when

there was an influx of those. We have nests this year. I looked on

Twitter this morning on the RSPB have announced two youngsters. Not

just birds, insects as well. The tree bumblebee. Some of you may have

seen these in your nest box, that's when you attend to see them. 2001

they first appeared in the new Forest. By 2014 they were seen north

of Glasgow. What about damselflies and dragonflies? 11 species have

arrived since 1995. This willow emerald, they have come from the

continent and are beginning to spread further north. What about

Chris Packham's predictions? Relatively soon we will have these

in the country. They have been seen in East Anglia recently and this is

a dead cert, I'm not sticking my neck out here. These have been

recently building nests that haven't bred successfully. This will happen

in the near future, I have no doubt. All to do with climate change and as

birds are coming from the south it is pushing birds north. A survey by

the RSPB and Durham University have predicted that European breeding

species are going to be pushed 300 miles north. We are getting arrivals

in the south, departures in the North, including red grouse,

mountain ringlet, mountain hare. They have to keep going higher,

retreating to the Scottish Highlands.

We are nearly out of time so eight chance for us to go to our live

website. We note 40 2 million viewers sat

with your smartphones, log onto our website. You can see the live

cameras. The moment we have the kites up on there. A choice of

those, you can look at the barn owls, the wagtails and everything

else. Take a look at this live on the website and the red button. That

is all we have time for. We will be back at eight o'clock tomorrow and

Unsprung at 6:30pm. Martin has gone out to the woods to meet this guy, a

cutie but what is it? And we will explore the wildlife down by the

riverside. And catching up with those egrets to see if they survive

a rather terrible storm. That's it from us but straight after the show

we are Doing a Facebook live with Lindsay from Unsprung to answer your

questions. Join us straight after the show and if not we will see you

tomorrow at eight o'clock on BBC Two. We will see you then, goodbye

for now.