Springwatch Episode 6 Springwatch

It's hard to believe we've already reached this year's half way mark!

But the wildlife is far from doing things by halves!

Predation, devastation, jubilation...

All will be revealed...it's Springwatch.

Welcome to Springwatch coming from this very wet estate in

Gloucestershire. The National Trust manage this place and do a very good

job. Last night it was wild and wet and tonight it is wicked and wet and

windy. We've had all of the weather today. Earlier it was thunderstorms,

the TP was nearly lifted off, we thought we would land in Kansas.

We've got a beautiful rainbow behind us. It is stunning. It was even

better five minutes ago. I wanted to dig up the treasurer at the end.

Wildlife has been battling against these conditions. Despite the

constantly changing weather, some decided to fledge over the last 24

hours. What kind of check would do that? It was the Robins. This was

one little bonkers Robin. It was a gamble but it landed on a nearby

branch and one of the parents came along and said it. What about the

other three. They decided to fledge here. I

reckon there must've been a break in the weather because when I woke at

5am, it was really windy. This was the only sensible one amongst them.

It's decided to stay put. Eventually it decided to join the others. It

seems crazy to fledge in this weather but they don't fly

straightaway, they stay for two to three weeks. Maybe it is quite

protected. It is quite sheltered. They've got plenty of food. A lot of

insects. We saw them being fed last night. Fingers crossed they will

make it. Johnny on Twitter says, do young birds steering and sheer

territory without getting attacked? That is sort of correct, they have

the spotty front instead of the red breast. That is for camouflage and

partly so the parents don't attack their own checks. The red breast is

used in territorial battles. They threw her head back, they shove

their red breast to the fore and they show off as much as they

possibly can. It is unnecessary for them to have a red breast because

they are not looking for territory at this stage. What are you looking

at me like that for? The expertise! I don't know why you are surprised

when I give a good answer. I am always pleasantly surprised! Arch in

Staffs and Jays have gone but we have found a new nest in the Barden.

We can cut to live. It is a nest within a nest. The top part of it,

you can see at least four youngsters in there. It is in the same farmyard

as the swallows. You can see the buildings where they were nesting.

Here is one of the parents with a mouthful of insects. There are all

sorts of things to feed them. They are one of the most successful birds

in the country. We will keep an eye on them. Lovely to have around.

Remember we have one before and we called it Sophia Lorenz.

One evening, it was very hot and sunny, we looked into the nest and

the youngsters were completely covered in mosquitoes. I had never

seen that before. They were smothered. Let's check up on the

bullfinches. We've got two checks, 12 days old. The parents are doing a

pretty good job. They are out foraging. Maybe they are collecting

lots of seeds. They will bring back a sackful. Let's have a look at what

has been happening over the last 24 hours. The adult female has had to

shelter the checks from the rain. Doing a very good job. You can see

how much they've developed. The beak, it is really looking like an

adult speak. They might fledge but for now they are contented. They

will get out of that nest, they are nesting in very dense brambles. They

could easily hop out. We've been enjoying a bit of a raptor festival.

Let's go to the kites to see how wet they are. A little bit dry cold. We

had a rainstorm. They are quite well sheltered.

One of the adults has brought in a young jackdaw. Doing a good job of

tearing it up. They are sharing the food. This was earlier in the

evening when they were getting this food. You can see that they are

quite well feathered. Things got quite windy. Here they are looking

sodden. That is exactly right. Joking aside, they are big enough

and it is not cold enough. They have been bringing it in since. It is

amazing how they are coping with this weather. Two weeks ago it was

boiling hot, we were all wearing shorts. It is a massive contrast for

them to deal with. That is what we love about Britain, isn't it? Last

week we saw Martin in Wales and he was looking for sand lizards. He

also went on a mission to look for a rather more warty creature.

I've come to the north-eastern tip of Wales, to the most of the DS

tree. Liverpool is just over there. It is a glorious coastline. We are

not here for the birds. We are here for something much rarer and

arguably, more exciting. This is a 165 acres of rear ecosystem. With

some local knowledge I can assure you exactly what I am after. This is

a toad but not just any old toad. How does it look different? It has

the same warty skin. Don't her back, there's a yellow stripe. The

crowning glory is the beautiful iridescent eyes. Let's put her back

where she wants to be. In the early 1900, people began to

live on the dunes and the Second World War, German bombing raids on

Merseyside saw many more fleeing to the safe retreat, eventually

driving the natterjacks away. They were finally reintroduced into the

most successful reintroduction site in Britain. All thanks to John

Buckley. Where did you get the natterjacks to repopulate this? They

came from the Sefton Coast. That is just over a near the Wirral. I

collected them and I drove them around down to here. So they are

descendants from your car journey through the tunnel? Yes. Fantastic.

April and May are the breeding season for the natterjacks and

though they are nocturnal, John monitors numbers by monitoring spawn

strings. Hang about. This is absolutely perfect. The eggs are

lying one behind the other in a single line. This will give you an

indication of the health of the population in this area. That gives

us an idea of the total breeding population. How is it doing? It is

getting better and better. They are breeding here but John needs to

study the adults to get a better picture. After dark, the males

emerge from the boroughs and call to the females from the shallows of the

ponds. They are very civilised. They are not like common toads. They tend

to be left to their own devices. Is that why it's called the common

toad? Natterjacks are famous for having one of the loudest amphibian

calls in Britain but not tonight. It is probably too cold for them

tonight. They will be here in the pond. They are sitting hunkered down

in the water. I should not have had so much supper. A little squeak. A

little crook. Do you reckon this is a male? I think so. I can see the

black thumb pads. So can I! Before we release him, John wants to record

some vital data to help him monitored the population of the

natterjacks. We try to get him to sit with his nose on one end. I

would be happy with 61 millimetres at the moment. That means this mail

is over four years old. Now for his weight. 25.2 grams. They give John

an idea of the overall condition and ultimately the health of the colony.

Let's put him back. Lovely. Excellent. Ready for his lady love.

Hopefully there is one tonight. She might come. The women of his dreams.

Let's look for another one. Hopefully, with more projects like

this, at Talacre, the natterjack could be on the road to recovery.

I like those natterjacks. 93% of them are found on sites of special

scientific interest. The RSPB is a press release out from a reserve in

Scotland to say that they have a record number of put there. 209 male

toads. John the man in the film. He buzz my

biology teacher at comprehensive in the '70s. No way! I have to say

something with clarity that I wouldn't be sat here today if it

weren't for him. My goodness. He was a fantastic mentor when I was a kid.

He is to blame! Blame John Buckley for that. Top bloke We salute you

John Buckley. A top bloke. We introduced you to a family of pine

martens who has chosen to nest in the loft of Ian Mason's workshop in

Pitlochrie north of Perth in Scotland. We showed you some amazing

footage and I am please to say we have more to show you. There are two

kits, and an adult female in this. One of the kits, it looks like it is

kissing its mother. This is probably bonding or it could be begging for

food. This is something I see my puppy do all the time when it meets

older dogs, it licks the side of their face hoping to get food. It is

very important for that strong bond to continue while they are this

young. Also you can see them doing a lot of playing. It is play fighting.

And between the ages of five to eight weeks it can get very

boisterous but it is important hunting training. They need to learn

to pounce, and they need to learn how to stealthily go up to any prey.

With our foxes the other day. This is about also setting up a

hierarchy, it lasts a live time. Look at that. You have heard of

pulling your leg, this is pulling your tail! One kit doesn't look so

happy about that. But that is a great somersault. That is

impressive. After a sort of tiring day, with a load of playing it is

time go back and snuggle up with mum. It almost look like they are

playing in cotton wool but that is roof insulation. Rolling round. It

is irritating stuff but with their fur they don't feel it the way we

do. Watching the animals has given us the opportunity to see what they

are eating so we have been trying to identify as many things as possible

they bring in. Here you see the female squeezing through the gap in

the roof. Dashing to where the den is S this is obviously a mammal,

that could be a vole or a mouse, can't see enough of it to determine

really. That looks definitely looks more vole like I think. That one has

decided to have that to itself. Oh no, a bit of fight taking place.

You can see them, it's a vole, definitely a vole. It is like a fold

vole well the short tail. Listen... There is a fledgling of

some kind. What about this. Look at that. Do you recognise the red tail

of that prey? It is a red squirrel. And the female brings it in and

initially tries to cache it underneath its bedding there.

Of course, as soon as her back is turned... The kits are straight in

the cupboard with their noses in the sweet jab and they have found the

squirrel. Now this is relatively unusual. I mean for pine martens to

kill red squirrel, in studies in Scotland and Ireland they only

appear between 0% and 5% of their diet. What is interesting, is they

do tend to focus on grey squirrels rather than reds. Reds. There are

probably a couple of reason, pine martens and red squirrels co-existed

together. Basically they are smaller and lighter and more agile and they

spend more time up trees. Grey squirrels, never very popular spend

more time on the ground. That is where pine martens forage most of

the time. A study that was conducted in Ireland in 2014 showed when pine

martens moved back to an area where greys had been dominant for as long

as 30 years, they reduced the number of greys and the number of reds

increased. So we are interesting in red squirrel conservation, aside

from shooting and trapping greys which is difficult, perhaps the

answer is to reintroduce pine martens. It has been done a Wildlife

Trust has put 39 animals back in to Wales, they will release some more

in the autumn. They are looking about more in the Forest of Dean.

Really interesting stuff. Let us go back to our pine martens, in the

loft, because on May 25th this happened.

Mum decided it was time to move out. This usually happens when the kits

are seven to eight weeks old. They start explore, it is the first time

they left the barn. She brought both out. You can see how incredibly

agile she is going down that wall. After she brought them out, they

disappeared. Did they come back? Tomorrow, Martin's going to be up in

Pitlochrie, in Ian's house to see if he can find them. Should be good. I

hope he does. Live pine marten would be fantastic. Fantastic. Interestly

if they are outside. Over to Gillian.

Wouldn't we all love to have pine martens in our loft. But we can't

all be as lucky as Ian may son, however, some of you might have

something like this in your garden. A badger. And a fox. And, wait for

it, who's that? If you do, we, along with Dawn Scott at the University of

Brighton would love to hear from you. And this is how you can get in

touch. Look an our website bbc.co.uk/Springwatch and click on

the link springtails. If you want to get in touch with us, here is how.

The easiest way to reach us at Springwatch is to goonline and be

our friend on social media. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Instagram

and tag us in your photographses or this is how you can get in touch.

Look an our website bbc.co.uk/Springwatch and click on

the link springtails. If you want to get in touch with us, here is how.

The easiest way to reach us at Springwatch is to go online and be

our friend on social media. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Instagram

and tag us in your photographses or this is how you can get in touch.

Look an our website bbc.co.uk/Springwatch and click on

the link springtails. If you want to get in touch with us, here is how.

The easiest way to reach us at Springwatch is to go online and be

our friend on social media. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Instagram

and tag us in your photographses or Tweet us using #Springwatch to make

sure we spot it. If you can't remember all of this, it is

explained on our web side. Get in touch. Send us your questions

and picture, we hope to catch up with the best at some stage. Martin

is after the pine martens in Scotland. We have been after badgers

here on the Sherborne Estate. We have got a couple of groups here,

there is one on this side where we think there could be five animals.

Over here, about, 800 metres to one,000 metres away, there is what

we can calling our Sandy hill sett, where we think there were seven

badger, we can go to that life. Let us look at what is happening. You

can see there is have been little ground vegetation, that is because

there has been a huge amount of badger activity. There were cubs

here and they have been cavorting all over the place, plenty of

digging going on. It was at this nest we marked one of our badgers,

about three or four weeks' ago, came up with Dr Dawn Scotland and we put

a satellite tracking device, we called it mad a, Madge for short. We

thought we would take a look. It has been rainy, we wanted to know if

this had any influence on her behaviour. That is where the sett

is. You can see she hasn't been spending much time there, she has

moved herself, up to this block of woodland here, and again, over to

this woodland here. Foraging down in fields here. Most of her foraging,

again along the side of this field, which is Durrantly full of oil-seed

rape, she is on the mar givens there. So why has she moved grey the

area we tagged her? Well, we know that there is a lack Taiting female

badger there, the dominant female with her cubs, and it is likely that

at this time of year she is keeping all of the other badger,

particularly the females away from the cubs. It looks like imagine has

been pushed out and spending her time in other parts of the woodland.

It's a same we haven't seen Madge the badge. But we have seen others.

In fact we have had an unexpected visitor. Here is one of the badgers

out and about. Look, this is Munt, the muntjac. It is mooching round

the sett. It is curious, but is the batcher going to be happy. Happy. It

is not. It doesn't stay away for very long. I decide to come back,

intr interested in picking up that leaf.

That interesting because this time the badger is tolerating it. This is

the sort of interaction that down Scot is interested in in her

springtails survey. It seems curious, it is coming up. It is

alert. Look at that very long tongue. And then another badger

comes, a not so happy about it being around, toll railway stations it for

a bit. But thing it has that enough, chases it off and the tail goes up

in that typical flight mode. Interesting stuff. Why is it doing

that? Well, I mean maybe it has just come for a bit of company, we asked

Dawn Scott, she says she hasn't seen it before, what she thinks is it has

come to find nutrients in the soil. It has a nutrient poor diet. Maybe

it was coming there to lick the salt. It cam back last night. If you

are watching the webcamings on the remember Button and internet. Let us

now. 5.31 this afternoon. Did it? That's news to me. I know. I was

looking at the screens this afternoon and the muntjac was back

on the sent. The deer frequently are lacking in certain mineral, we have

a problem with deer in the forest. They don't have to lick the soil.

They can eat the plants that are growing in that soil to get that.

Keep an eye on that. You might see the Muntz as well. One of Britain's

most popular birds or most colourful birds is the kingfisher. Robert

fuller who is an artist and photographer has been watching these

birds from a special hide close to his home.

Every time a see a kingfisher you get this adrenaline rush. They are

like little bolts of cobalt blue. You hear the missile and they go

flying buy. It is such a brilliant moment.

I have spend hundreds of hour watching them over year, I paint

them and I have probably painted more than any other bird. They are

an interesting subject to study. What I wanted to do this year is

learn more about them. What happens inside the nest.

Eknew a friend who had fishing legs and they had kingfishers nesting

there. The bank collapsed. I knew this was the moment to build an

artificial bank. I clad it with a render mixture, making the nesting

chamber, so it is a big project. It is all suspended over the water.

Kingfishers are such a sensitive subject, you have to have have a

licence for these birds. When the kingfisher first went into

the nest chamber I couldn't believe my luck.

Nesting chamber, so when the kingfisher first went into

the nest chamber I couldn't believe my luck.

It was like "Yes" punching the air, I couldn't believe that the

kingfishers had taken this nest chamber on.

The birds are part of the winter and they Coll breed in early spring.

There is always aggression but it is part of the courtship. It is like

gold almost. You are watching magical moments. Gradually over the

period a month it starts mating the female, which is brilliant. You know

then you have got it. The first egg came quite early. That

was a magical moment. I was there for most of the eggs being laid.

Quite incredible to think you are a metre away from a kingfisher laying

its eggs, you barely dare breathe. In between seven and eight every

morning she laid an egg for seven consecutive days.

The birth got interesting, she the steady one of the two. She is the

more highly strung, aggressive, demanding. I think she is a first

year bird. Inexperienced. Quite a special bird because she almost has

a necklace of blue markings and an orange bib. Tensions can still run

high with this couple. So he went to go and do a nest change over.

Instead of calling her out she wouldn't be call confidence out so

he went in. They ended up having almost a sword

fight. A tussle in the nest box. During this they cracked one of

their own eggs. It was sort of thing seeing eggs

hatch. -- so exciting. The small cheques are usually helpless but

Kingfisher checks stand proud. -- small chicks. They were quite

upright. You expect them to be beautiful but the chicks are like

little pink pterodactyls. They are very unusual things. You wonder how

they get these sticklebacks down and then but it's quite amazing to see.

Only four hatched out of the seven eggs. It is dark in there so it is a

difficult thing to do. Kingfishers are really unusual.

Because they live in a messy environment, they come right at the

last minute. 19, 20 days, showing a bit of colour, and all of a sudden

these beautiful feathers come through. Just starting to poke

through a little bit of colour. It has been an amazing experience to

have this sensitive subject so intimately viewed. It is a circus of

colourful characters. They are beautiful birds, kingfishers. An

insight into the private life of the Kingfisher. It is great to see

Robert being so enthusiastic. At this stage, they look like scruffy

adults and their curiosity will be excited by sparkling things. They

will plunge down and learn how to catch things for themselves. Robert

will be joining us on Thursday and I urge you not to miss that. He is

bringing a friend and a most amazing picture. Tomorrow we'll be looking

at the kingfishers we have on the Sherborne estate. Her cameramen have

been filming them. Such a beautiful bird. So often, you catch a glimpse

of them as the colour flashes by on the river. Another catch a glimpse

of is the stoat. We saw the mother bringing in

lots of food. With so much in the den it was getting fetid, attracting

flies and the attention of the kit. The kit started to get adventurous,

starting to tumble out of the den. There are five of them but as they

were going in and out, quite hard to count. But it seems like a jolly

good game. As they are getting the hang of it, mother comes along and

decide it is time to move. When you want to move quickly, it is easier

to drag them off. As we've seen, she has dragged rabbits pray. She's

incredibly strong. She's got five to transport and it is something she

will need to do regularly. She is back to explore the Stonewall. She

will continue to follow them but now they are out and about we should get

some interesting behaviour. From one to another, this one I am very

excited about. This long tube was constructed by our own 13. What do

you think they will try to entice into this? Rabbits. They are quite

flighty. They don't take easily to this kind of thing. Here is the

Warren. It is very active. They are quite suspicious. It was sometime

before I done came into the burrow. I don't know how old that wonders.

-- one is. You can see that it is a youngster. Immediately curious. One

came in and was then joined by his mate. Here are three. I knew

immediately. There could be as many as seven rabbits in a burrow we

placed beneath the ground. Top work! I did not think it would work. Seven

bunnies! That is what you pay your license fee for. Let's have a look

at them. What a shame, nothing there. We seem so much action. -- we

have seen. Let's have a look at what has been going on. It is tiring

being a bunny. That was a downward bunny. If you don't do joker that

has gone over head. -- Yoga. It has gone stratospherically over my head.

Keep your eyes on the live camera. The bar now although there, all the

creatures. When you think of British animals you mostly think of deer and

foxes and stoats. Maybe we remember the bats but do we ever think of

whales and dolphins? They are as much part of the animals as the

others, they just live in the sea. Some of these species are on the

increase. The number of sightings is up and there is some exciting action

up on the west country with a humpback whale. Sadly, it got

entangled in some fishing equipment so we went down to see how they

released it. I am here we are earlier this year

humpback whale was caught off the coast. Dragging the lines behind it,

the whale was struggling and the British divers monitoring the

situation decided to try and help the whale. The divers were present,

Dan Jarvis and Tim Coleman, and have the dramatic footage to prove it.

That is going straight from the onto the tail. They waited to get out of

the water to keep a safe zone. We've got three of our team plus the

fishermen, hauling the whale. Trying to cut the lines around it. You're

fighting a 15 tonne animal. This is genuinely dangerous work. They were

putting themselves at risk to help those whale. When it works, the

rewards are worth it. There it is. How do they get tangled up in these

lines? When they are fishing they come towards the shallows. That is

where the mines are. If it gets tangled in the first one, it gets

caught up. It swings round and drags the pots down. No sooner had you cut

it you loose than, a few weeks later, it came back, and it was

tangled up again. It was tangled in very similar deer. We got hold of

the ropes and brought it up onto the main winch. That made this rescue

easier than the first. With one quick cut, the whale is free once

more. It must be fantastic after all that hard work. Brilliant. The work

people like Dan and Tim do is of huge importance but prevention would

be so much better. What can we do to stop entanglement like this? Many

other incidents occur. I've come to meet Ross King, a third-generation

fishermen who has been using sound to keep animals away from his nets.

You are trialling new technology. What is it? It is called a banana

pinger, inside is a little device. It gives off a noise which they hope

will keep dolphins and porpoises away from the net. Yes, it gives

them a signal that it must be dangerous so they will avoid it. If

they were going along normally they might tangle it. You've been using

this for 12 months. Have you caught any? Still haven't. I have not

caught a dolphin in the net. It does not affect the way I fish with it.

That is good news. It is nice to see that fishermen can live alongside,

all fitting together. We like to see it as well. Riding the wave for 30

seconds. Around the world there is an effort to solve this problem.

There is effort to bring entanglement to an end. Over 300,000

whales and dolphins are killed worldwide by being entangled every

year. Would it not be wonderful if the pioneering work resulted in

these figures coming tumbling down? It is certainly a step in the right

direction. 300,000 whales and dolphins killed every year. Way too

many. The good news is it has been a bumpy year for sightings. There's

been more sightings than ever before. It includes this one. This

was humpbacks breaching. Look at that. An amazing thing to see. We

don't know why they do this but it is thought it is for immune

occasion. I have seen a lot of males do it around one female but it is

certainly exciting to see. How are they doing? A recent survey said

12,000 of them are in the north Atlantic sea. That sounds good, like

a lot, but there is no room for complacency, especially in some

areas. A recent study has concluded that Scottish inshore waters are

unlikely to sustain any population of humpbacks because of

entanglement. Foetal probability was 12%. That's a shocking statistic,

especially for such a strong animal. But new codes of practice are being

developed by the Scottish Government. What about the rest of

them rest in mark another survey was done in this part of the North

Atlantic, coming up from Portugal, around the coastline and past Norway

and Sweden. This survey is done every ten years to give an estimate

of what we had in those waters. This is what they came up with.

All those results were better than expected. But it's so important we

keep monitoring the surveys because there are so many pressures. How

many of you know the difference between a harbour porpoise and a

pilot wheel? We are with some life-size inflatables to develop.

I am in a field with an inflatable whale. If you wonder why, stick with

me. This is a life-sized model of a Minke whale. It is eight metres long

but it is only half the size of the humpback whale you saw in Iolo's

film. If you can imagine coming up alongside an animal that size,

entangled and obviously not very happy. I would say hats off to those

rescuers who rescued that whale. This Minke whale, this replica of a

Minke whale is the sort of thing a they would use to train, along with

these, this eare not souped up beach toyed, these are really important

training tools. And we will start with the smallest one. This is a

replica of a harbour porpoise. It is the thing you would most likely see

in British waters. Moving on, we have the common doll finger it has a

classic hour glass shape here, you can see that, running along its

flank. Much less common is the striped dolphin. It has white

flashes, they swoop up, almost meeting the dorsal fin up here. Last

but not least, we have the bottlenose here. This has a much

shorter beak and it has this bull Egyptian melon, waxy fatty melon it

used for echolocation. Sadly, lot Oz these animals turn up on the shores

dead, but they are still really valuable to science, because they

have loads of important information that tell us about the state of our

marine ecosystems, so if you are heading to the seaside this summer,

and you happen to find one of these dead, the UK cetacean strandings

investigation programme would like to hear from you. Of details of how

to accurately and safely report one of these dead strandings, visit the

website. But please, remember, if you find a live stranding, you need

to get in touch we the RSPCA or the British divers Marine Life Rescue,

details on the website again. Now, when it comes to hunting, this

weather can have a negative effect on certain species, one is the barn

owl. They don't like heavy rain and wind. They get blown round, they get

wet and they can't hear their prey. Let us watch one of them hunting in

good weather so we can see what it needs to get up to. This is the

technique, they go back and forwards across the fields. They are

listening for their prey. That large face shall disk is capturing the

sounds. Once they hear something, then they slow up and hover, and

look down, to see if they can actually spot it. This is where

their eyes come into play. They have exceptional nocturnal vision, it

seems to have not seen something. Quickly it spots something. Look how

it uses its head. It it as if it is going to headbutt the prey. We

didn't see the feel pulling round. Here you can see if you look at that

animal coming through, short tail, means it is a vowel, it has come

from a field. That is one of the most prey items for these animals.

We have several pairs. We can look now at this nest. We have three

youngsters in there. The oldest of which, the largest you can see, is

16 days old. It is eight days ahead oaf the smallest, which you can

equally see tucked in there. If adult oil is eating some of the food

itself. We have been concerned over the last 24 hours the birds wouldn't

get enough food because conditions have been difficult for the oils.

Well, I have a bar chart here. I love a bar chart. We can see the

number of items brought in every day, from the 27th May, all the way

through to yesterday. So what we see is a steady growth here, that as the

chicks are getting bigger they are bringing more and prisoner of war

prey in. Then it starts to rain over the last couple of days. Unusually

we will a spike. How can this be? Could it be they're hunting

successful or could it be that they have just eaten everything in their

cache, because that nest box had a lot of stores food. That is what

accounts for this. When things get tough they turn to the cache they

have there of all that food. Look, the food falls right down. If it g

going to be windy and raining tonight, things could be perilous

for that smallest of chicks we have there. They are not it will only

species after voles. During the daytime it is our kestrels are after

the voles. We can go live to our nest. We have four young in here,

they are all snuggled up together. It's a chilly wind here and the wind

blows directly in on that nest. So I am not surprised to see them

smuggling together. They have got this much thicker down coat now,

this grey down coat. That is will probably serve them well when it

comes to keeping them warm. I know we have been watching the adults

going in and out as well. Here is the female.

She has been coming in from time to time with food.

But on this occasion she is coming back to the nest for another reason,

which becomes apparent as she swoops in. Just listen.

She immediately turns round. That is jackdaws we can hear outside.

Chicks nibbling the tail. Your can see them swooping round there.

And eventually look at this. They are interested to find out what the

is inside that window. We have seen the jackdaws already removing the

swallow chick, I said although they spent 80% of their time feeding on

meat, they take chick, they took the swallows and they would take others

so that kestrel will have to be sharp. The chicks are big, they

might be able to fight off jackdaw, I am not sure so the kestrel will

have to be there. We showed you something extraordinary from the

nest and this was a kestrel sneezing on the lens. We think we can top it.

Preponderance look at this. The chick turns round and what a beauty.

You need to see that again. Look at that. It flexes its heinous and

empties its bowels all over the lens. Contrast that with those small

birds like the blue tips and robins that produce faecal sacks, they do

it to keep the nests clean and stop those being a sign that predators

would see and find the nest. Here the kestrels do something different.

They shuffled to the edge of the net nest and they spray their droppings

over the edge, and wrapped as a -- Raptors are good. They can shoot

their droppings far from the nest. Top pooing. Wet up an experiment and

we were looking at different colours of bird feeder, we had green, blue,

orange and red. We wanted to see which of these if any the birds

favoured. The minute we set it up we found a couple of young scientists

who were doing a better job than we were. So we teamed up with them,

they suggested they come up with good results and it now turns out

they will spin their results out into schools, they will get schools

to do this so they can learn more about the choices birds have. The

other day Michaela and I met up with Ed and George, down in the local

school here, in Sherborne, as they showed the kids there how to set

this experiment up. Ed and George's experiment use five

different colour feeders and analysed the effect colour had on

the birds' preference, they won a National Science prize for their

work, but they didn't want to stop there. They now want to take their

experiment national as well. I am very pleased to meet you, to have

young people like yourself doing such good quality science is

heartening for people like me, I have to say. What was the

inspiration behind setting that particular experiment up? We are

interest in science and I have been bird watching for a few years, it is

simple. What you came up with orange and yellow mean danger in some of

the colouration and it was the blue We came up with nine different

theories they may go for blue or green, one of the others was

evolution, so the first colour receptive cone was in marine animals

and that was blue, we could say blue is the most fundamental and most

developed. That would be one of the reasons they went for blue. So we

are at a primary school. What do you want them to do. They won't

understand the complete science you are doing. It is a case of repeating

the project. They will paint them and record them and see which goes

to which. It will be the start of a process of rolling it out across the

country. All we need is young citizens to do so. Science We need

these painted so I guess we need some help. Come on kids, let us have

you in. You know which colour you going to paint. Let's get painting.

We need one of the feareds plain and we need to paint the others four

different colours. -- feeders.

What about this? What a collection of artists, who painted this green

one? That is a beautiful job. Fantastic and the yellow, what a

beautiful job of painting you have done. They are looking splendid. As

far as the birds are concerned they are not of much use because they

have no food in them. Excellent, so here they are all. All lined up.

Full of food. All the same weight. Which ones do you think, if you were

a bird and you were out there and they were hanging in the tree which

would you go for? Blues and greens and reds, so what we need to do is

find the perfect spot to put the feeders somewhere in your school

grounds where you can keep a close eye on them and maybe weigh them.

I have to score a goal while I'm here. Oh, no I don't! Because that

ball is not round. I have an idea. Why don't we put the feareds here.

Hands up who is in favour? -- feeders. Unanimous, let's go to it.

So all we want to see is which birds go to which feeders. George, and Ed

will be analysing your results to see who comes top. The birds will be

happy because they will get a meal, like us, because it is time for

school dinner Michaela. Greasy spam fritters and yucky blancmange. It is

bound to be. Come on kids. Do they still make that? I have no idea.

That and spam flit fritter, how revolting. We have some results in

despite it was half-time. Do you want to hear them. Go on. In fourth

place it was red. Third the yellow, second the clear o joint first blue

and green. Same result then. Same result as us on Winterwatch and the

seem result as George and Ed had. It is compatible data If you would like

to join in the details are on a blog on the web side. If there is one

bird who benefits it is the goldfinch, for the mid 70s through

the to mid 80s the population of the birds fell. Gladly it has greatly

increased now. Between 2015 and 2016, the BTO conducted a survey in

gardens and found in the last 20 years the population of goldfinches

there increase bird 70%. That much? ? Yes. Their favourite food subpoena

sunflower hearts, that is what you put out to keep them happy. That

went well. We thought the inflatables would fly off. What are

you doing tomorrow? I am seeing Brett and doing an insect survey.

Fantastic, you can hear Brett on the webcams which are on the Red Button

and the internet. He is on an 8, 11 and 1. He has Sara Cox as one of his

guests. Coming up tomorrow we have kingfishers can down there on the

Windrush river, so we will take a look at their activities. And we

will checking out our black cap, we left them teetering on the edge,

literally. Remember, you can cap up we the live cameras all the time by

going on Red Button or the website. The bar now -- barn owls are out

there, the kestrel too. Log on and take a look. See you tomorrow at

8.00. Bye. Bye. With you beside me -

whatever life sends.