Springwatch Episode 7 Springwatch

It's been dreary, draftee and parky here the last few days. But with our

colourful kingfishers, our windswept kites and cuddly kits, our cast of

characters has kept our spirits high. I am in Scotland, hoping to

see those kits with my very own eyes. You will have had your tea,

it's Springwatch! Hello! Welcome to Springwatch 2017.

Coming to you live from the Sherbourne Park estate here in

Gloucestershire, run by the National Trust. Where we have been for the

last week and couple of days and for the last couple of days in the wind

and the rain. Earlier today it was sunny, it was actually beautiful

here. A bit of cloud across the sky, no rain whatsoever. But what's that

on my face? Oh, no, it's not raining, is it? Do you remember two

weeks ago, we were in our shorts, it was glorious. We have had such

changeable weather. In solidarity with the wildlife, we are staying

outside, even if it does rain. It is raining. Just spitting at the

moment. We can cope with that. Let's check on some of our wildlife and

start with our kites. Here we go. This is our live kite nest. Three

chicks, four-and-a-half weeks old. You know what, we are so privileged

to be able to look at this nest. If we were doing Springwatch 50 or 60

years ago... I would have been, hold on, six years old and arguing with

my sister about the ladybird book of kites. I would have been a baby. The

point is 60 years ago we wouldn't have had a hope of get ago camera on

these kites. We wouldn't have been able to see them here in

Gloucestershire because they were practically extinct in the UK.

Because of re-introduction around this area we are extremely lucky to

have those cameras on them. Let's see what they've been getting up to

over the last 24 hours. In a little break from the weather and the rain,

we had a little bit of sunshine and that's a jolly good time to do a

little bit of preening. One of the adults comes in. They've been

bringing in so many different items of prey. That's a squirrel. Normally

they squabble over the food. This time they're not squabbling but it's

a lady and the tramp moment, if you remember that film. A bit of sticky

spaghetti. It's sticky gut spaghetti. Who's going to win? Well,

that one seems like... I think it's equal at the moment. That one loses

concentration. And the other sibling manages to gobble it down.

Another bit of prey comes in. They're being quite polite today.

Look at that little one. He is trying to get in there. And

thinking I will try through the legs technique. He is doing a Diego

Costa! Doesn't seem to be working. The other two are getting bits. It

comes around the side. Now it's doing a David Luiz. In a minute it

will fall off the nest and lie still for at least ten minutes. Patience

pays off and it gets a hold. It gets a bone with a bit of dry foot on the

end. It will be able to get some meat off there. It's very excited.

It's celebrating with wing flapping. This is quite interesting, because

they will fledge in 60 days, eight weeks, so four-and-a-half weeks now,

I reckon they're going to do a bit of branching. Still a bit of growing

to do, get more confidence. We are enjoying a Festival of raptures here

at Sherbourne. We have had all sorts, not only the kites, but also

some buzzards, they're in woods behind me here. We can go to them

live now. There is an adult at the nest we can

see there. They've only got the one youngster.

You can catch a glimpse. There is its head peeping over the adult.

They've been doing a brilliant job of protecting that youngster from

all the wind and the rain, turning themselves into an avian umbrella at

times. Let's see what they've been up to

today. It was sunny here this morning. In

fact, this youngster had been without food for sometime when the

adult brought in this vole. It was ravenous, as you can see, it thinks

just give it to me, I am going to swallow that myself. It has the

right technique but hasn't quite got the gape for it yet. So the adult is

losing patience with this. The youngster says no, no, I am

definitely doing it. I can definitely do it, no, I can't! I

really can't. I can. I really can. I tell you, I

can. Oh, goodness me! I have made a mess.

Mum, help. Then mum does help and tears it up. It enjoys a little bit

of vole guts there. Determination of that chick. That's

what you call necking it down. It would be had it managed to do it.

Let's check on the nest we introduced you to yesterday. It's

our Wren nest. It's in the barn. Interesting enough, they built their

nest in an old swallow nest. I think that's probably quite a sensible

strategy with the weather as it's been, obviously it's very sheltered.

Let's see what they've been getting up to. They're actually doing very

well. The adults have been coming in feeding regularly. These birds have

a great advantage, because they're so little they manage to get into

little places out of reach of other birds to get things like spiders and

insects, even when it's raining. There are six chicks in there.

They're a week old. There are lots of hungry mouths to fill. This adult

has been very busy and has been feeding them extremely well.

Yesterday I said the last time we had a wren nest we called it Sophia

Loren and said we can't use that again. You have come up with names.

Lauren Bacall. Malcolm McClaren. Ruth says Ruth Wrendell. Our story

developers recommended Ralph Wrenen. And thank you for all those. What

are you doing? That's so rude. That's rude to our viewers. I like

them all, thank you very much. I like Wrenee. Would you like to read

my book? Now, many of our small birds here are dependent on a diet

of insects while they're still in the nest, whether the adults are

seed eaters or not and at this time of year you need an enormous number

of insects. Gillian has teamed up to go on to the estate for a Sherbourne

bug hunt. Around the Sherbourne estate some of

the roadside verges are left to flourish and provide an excellent

opportunity to spot some hidden gems. What's that in the back there?

A solitary Beagle. It has white hairs underneath, easy to identify.

Beautiful pelt of short orange hairs on the head. Then the red tail.

These are bees, they don't have a caste system. We have a female, she

gathers pollen, and lays egg on a cake of pollen. Useful pollinator,

it will have a go at lots of plants. It's not just flowers that attract

the insects, these nettles are a great habitat too. This is not

something you would normally want to do, but you have found something in

here. We have. Two weevils, nettle ones. They're

beautiful. They are. This is the time when they mate and lay eggs.

I have noticed these beautiful purple flowers. This is hedge wound

word. It's a purple colour. I love those two. Oh, yes, those are wound

wort shield bugs. These are exclusive to the hedge. I think

there is one other plant, that's all. These two are absolutely

stheled and happy. They are. Doing what shield bugs do in the middle of

summer. Many of the farmers also leave a

wildlife margin around fields which is beneficial to the wildlife and

their crops. Oh, look at this. Oh, yes. I was

hoping we would see one of these. You can see it has enormous vemors.

It's so well built it's called the Schwarzenegger. The male use the

legs to ward other males off. There are insects that have unique

symbiotic relationships. These are aphids that secret a sugary

solution. Theants get that. The aphids get protection in return,

like bodyguards. That's really is when you watch how careful and

gentle the ants are when they move around the aphids. You can see

they're tapping around checking to see which ones are about to secrete

the sugary solution to drink. It's this lovely little relationship to

watch. Just these two tiny patches, we have discovered a wide variety of

insect life which goes to show how vital these spaces are for the rest

of Sherbourne's eco-system. The road verges and those strips at

the farmers have left down the side of the fields is playing home to all

of those insects species. A message there for County Councils, Highways

Agency, leave the verges where it's safe to do so. Obviously, there are

public safety concerns around roundabouts and things like that.

But elsewhere they're a valuable resource and on farms the more of

those strips we can have the better it is for birds, no doubt about it.

We have live cameras on lots of raptures around the estate. We also

have a remote live camera on a peregrine nest in Salisbury

cathedral. Well, let me tell you we have had - they've been doing really

well. Let's look at this. There is the chick. 19 days old. It's been

thriving. It's had lots of weather to cope with. But the adults have

been sheltering it from the rain and the wind.

Both parents have been pretty doting. This is the male. They've

been bringing it in a variety of food.

In fact, they've brought in so much food that they've had to cache some

of it so there is a good store. You can see from the crop this is a very

well fed little chick. Things are going very well for our one

peregrine at Salisbury Cathedral. It's been great to watch. We have

been thoroughly enjoying it. Things are going well. Aren't they,

Chris? They certainly are. They're going well for peregrines generally.

Nearly 200 pairs now nesting in urban sites. In many parts of the

country we have more peregrines than we have had for hundreds of years.

Sadly, not everywhere. Last weekend, the RSPB were called to Shropshire

where they found a dead female and male peregrine alongside the dead

body of a pigeon. All three have been sent off for toxicology

reports. It is suspected a case of poisoning. Luckily they were able to

climb down to the iry and the young were unaffected and were taken

carefully out and then given a good inspection to make sure they were

OK. A delicate job this, you don't want

them to jump over the side, of course.

Safely they go into the bag. Here they are. En route to the vets for a

check-up to make sure they're OK. Then they get a good meal. Then a

question of what do we do with them? We want to get these birds back into

the wild to try and counterwhat has happened to their parents. To give

the chicks the best chance they need to be reared in a wild environment.

So the RSPB were looking for suitable surrogate nests to put them

in. I am very excited to tell you that they choose our nest to put one

of the chicks in. This is what happened just today.

The Foster chick was put in the nest around 8. 30 am this morning, it's a

male, 25 days old. So six days older than our chick. You can clearly see

the difference. It's more mobile than our chick.

It is keen to explore surroundings. Mum comes in with food. She's been

out hunting. You can hear the chicks screeching for that food. It feeds

her own chick first but that foster is obviously very keen to get some

of that prey. It battles a little bit to get back into the box. But it

soon finds a way around to be fed. The fact that female is feeding it

just goes to show that it is immediately accepted.

Our chick doesn't seem that bothered while it is gobbling down the food.

It is obviously very good although sharing. Looks grumpy, though, I

have to say! Looks slightly baffled. His little beak has been put out of

joint a bit. The mum flies off leaving the two chicks. The foster

chick eventually finds a way to hop up. It's a bit of a stare-off at

first. But it's not long before they completely accept each other. Both

the adults come back. You can see the two chicks snuggled

up. If you look at this picture now, you wouldn't know that was a chick

that was put in today. Mum comes in and is feeding them

both. They're sharing the food really nicely.

As I say, they look extremely comfortable, which is fantastic news

for the first day, looks like a normal peregrine nest with two

chicks, brilliant. What about that? I am pleased to say the other two

chicks have also been fostered into a nest in the Midlands. Let's go

live to our Salisbury peregrine is now to see how they are getting on,

look at that. So there is the adult bird, the new youngster, the faster

bird has got it back to us on the left, slightly more feathers coming

through. The adult is brooding the other one, that is a great site. The

original youngster's little head peeping out, Michaela. Why have they

chosen this nest? They wanted a nest where the chicks were roughly the

same size, not one where there would be competition for food, one that

was accessible, you don't want to risk disturbing the birds already in

the nest. So there are stairs to climb up at the cathedral to put

them in. It was the perfect nest for this foster chick, and equally we

had the cameras to monitor it to make sure everything was going OK,

and it is. We will certainly keep our eyes on them, and they are on

the live cameras. You can keep your eye on them all the time. There are

many cameras on the red button. Two very special Martins, our lovely

Martin, and the pine martens resting in the attic.

Thank you, Michaela. Where are we? We are geographically almost in the

centre of Scotland, more importantly we are at the home of Shelagh and

Ian Mason, this is their home, and all this week we have been following

the fortunes of the pine martens who have decided to share their home

with Ian and Shelagh, not the house, the pine martens are there, their

den is just about Ian's workshop. As soon as we came up here, before we

came up here, I was very worried, because 11 days ago, we thought that

the pine martens had gone. They had disappeared, and we didn't see them

again, so I was concerned. As soon as we came up, I came to meet

Shelagh and Ian, and Shelagh took me upstairs for a surprise.

Here we are, coming up, and it was a surprise. Now, just down where I am

looking there is a lot of insulation, and it kept moving

about, the insulation. Could we see what was underneath it I am only one

metre away, and there, totally relaxed, is a pine marten kit, two

of them there, totally unfazed by my ugly mug looking over the top.

Gorgeous looking animals, bigger than I thought, I was surprised how

big they were. Really thrilling to see them, that is me trying to film

them with my little domestic camera. Look at that! So, wonderful Liem,

they are back, and what is fascinating is how Ian discovered

they were back, he was in the workshop, and he heard this, which

he recorded on his phone. Do you hear that? That is a pair of pine

marten kits fighting, love it! Let's go and look at the nerve centre of

the whole enterprise, come with me. My boots are nice and clean, I hope

the crew's are! Let's go in, and here it is, Shelagh and Ian have

spent hours on our behalf sitting here watching, and you can control

the camera with a joystick, let's see if the kits are there now. I

don't think they are. But anyway, since they have returned, they are

there somewhere, but they move about the whole time. Since they have

returned, Ian and Shelagh have been recording their activity, and they

have changed. They spend most of their time fighting. You can see

this, you can see them fighting, this is different from before, they

pounce, and of course this is very, very good, as we always say, it

isn't just play, it is training. These will be absolutely top

predators once they get out. They are much too young to hunt for

themselves yet, but this is them busy training. We think they are

probably ten weeks old now, maybe a little older. They go on doing this

for ages and ages, six minutes at a time, seven minutes. Look at that

wonderful place they have chosen to do it, all that insulation. Their

mother is very tolerant, they sometimes end up jumping straight on

top of her. Extraordinary! Now, while those two are fighting like

that, mum is outdoors, and if you come with me, you can see why she

has chosen such a brilliant place. So this is the back door of the

house, and look, a fantastic woodland, perfect, absolutely

perfect for mum to go out hunting to feed those hungry kits. In fact,

just over the couple of days, we have seen her walk along this very

wall as she disappears into the woods, look at this. Here she is,

coming down the stairs. She is considerably bigger than the kits.

Very obvious marking which identifies as an individual.

Extraordinary to see her among Ian's woodworking equipment, oh deer! And

now she is on the wall that is just a couple of metres from me, and she

is out. And that is, much bushy tailed than the kits, and that is

her heading out to go and hunt, bringing in a lot of voles for the

kits. Absolutely brilliant, so when you come back to us later, we are

going to bring you right up to date with the very latest from here in

Shelagh and Ian's house. Meanwhile, back to Chris and Michaela.

Isn't that fantastic?! I can't believe how close he got to them! So

good that they came back. Time for a quiz - we all know that Chris is a

birder, but what about birdsong, because to identify it, you have got

to have a good musical ear? If you know his taste in music, you might

question that! I go to play you some birdsong, you have got to see if you

can guess what it is. It is difficult. Goodness me, that is

quite hard! Hold on... I can give you a clue. It could be one of the

auk family, young guillemot or razorbill? It has got an edge to it.

It is not a bad guess. It is a sea bird of some kind. Is it a baby...

It is a baby! Manx shearwater. Juvenile mags shearwater, extremely

difficult, that, because a juvenile as well. Birds don't just produce

sounds through their mouths, they will also produce sound

mechanically, so I am going to give you a test now. Oh deer! Listen to

this. That is a weird sound! I am going to make a wild guess, it is

something snoring. It is a nightjar's wing clapping. Quite a

few birds will actually clapped their wings behind their backs, like

that. Sometimes wood pigeons will do its diving out of trees. Here is

another one, try this one, and other mechanical sound from a bird using

its wings. Now, that is a bit more familiar, that is clearly some sort

of beating of the wings, it sounds like some sort of water bird, is it

these? Not bad, it is the mute swan, so named because they do not produce

a lot of sound using their mouth, they honk and growl and his. We

think they have evolved to make that sound so that if they are flying at

night or through bad weather, they can hear one another and stick

together. Most of the others one species which migrate like that have

a vocal contact call, so they use that. Not the only bird that

produces a mechanical sound, there is one that is an ornithological

enigma. About three weeks ago I went down to Somerset to get to grips

with this bird to find out exactly how it produces an extraordinary

noise. West Sedgemoor, an ancient landscape

and one of my favourite places to visit. It is also home to a fast

declining bird, a bird that at this time of year, for a couple of hours

just after dawn, makes an extraordinary sound. The thing about

this sound is that for hundreds, if not thousands of years, it was a

mystery, people would have walked out across this marshland here and

heard these birds, but they just couldn't figure out how the sound

was made. But before we try to unravel the mystery, we need to hear

it, and who better to help us than sound man Gary and his parabolic

microphone. Morning, Gary. Morning, Chris. The cranes. What else have

you picked up? Skylark dominating at the moment. Oh, my goodness! With

these headphones on, it sounds like that skylark is in the middle of my

brain somewhere! And there is nothing else in there, I have just

got a hollow head with this incredible song of the skylark. But

truth be told, none of these birds are what we have come here to hear.

I can hear it. That chip- microchipped- microchipped... That

is the precursor to the sound we have come to here, that is being

made, yeah, by a male snipe, that little wading bird, incredibly

difficult to see at this time of year when they are down on the

ground. That is the bird we are after, but not the sound. To hear

that, we are going to need to find one on the wing performing its

mating display. Oh! That was it! Out there. I have got them, Gary here

they come! Oh, yes! Did you get it?! That was the

drumming of the sniper! What a thing! I was actually watching him,

I could see him going up, and then they zipped down like that. As they

pull out of the dive, you have that fantastic whirring sound, drrr,

drrr. This remarkable sound and the snipe ancient nicknames, but how do

they make it? Well, Al-Ameen to demonstrate. -- allow me to

demonstrate. Here two outer tail feathers of the snipe, and they hold

those out from their tail like this at 180 degrees, and as those birds

are gliding down in that rapid flight, these tail feathers vibrate,

and they have got a very stiff vein there. All the other parts of the

feathered behind it are, again, especially evolved to produce that

sound. But why would you believe me? You have got no reason to believe me

whatsoever. Except that I can replicate an experiment that was

done in 1912 by a man called Philip Manson bar in a restaurant in London

in front of the audience of the British Ornithologists Club. He put

two snipe tail feathers in a cork like this, on a length of string,

and then he swung it around to replicate the sound of a snipe. Are

you ready? Oh, yes! Oh, yes, yes, yes! I have made my very own snipe.

And across the UK, on this fine sunny morning, there is not a

happier bloke! Fantastic! Points out of ten, come on it's my ten out of

ten! Look at that! Philip Manson Barr, I

salute you! Breakfast is deserved!

You are so pleased with yourself! So, so, so very pleased with myself.

Can I have a go? Can you have a go? Can you pop round my house and

juggle with my collection of Faberge Eggs? No. Can you take my front

racing racing Ferrari out for a spin? Can you have a go? Is that a

no? Come on, of course no one will ever have a go! Look at that. I knew

you would say that so I brought my own. That's not annoying at all, is

it? That's enough of that. I love that. Now at the beginning of that

film we saw another bird with a very dominant singing display and it was

the skylark. You see it regularly here at Sherbourne. Like the snipe

it has a wonderful flight display. Here's the bird.

This is the skylark. It might be a little brown but what it lacks in

colour it makes up in showy display. It's a spectacular song flight. It

is performed like an aerial dance to advertise their territories. The

bird rises vertically, you can see rapid wing beats. It can reach

anything up to 100 feet. It then hovers for a few minutes. As you can

see, it starts to dive down. Watch carefully. This is something

you won't see with your own eyes if you are watching this bird.

You see what happens, it shoots the legs out. Then it sort of parachutes

and glides down to the ground. It's a long complicated beautiful

song flight. It can last up to an hour.

It's a bird that you often hear if you are out in the right habitat.

You rarely get to see it as clearly as that. Usually you just see a sort

of dot in the sky. And you hear it. Fantastic, though. You want to know

why the legs were dangling? I was going to ask that. Why are the legs

dangling down. You were going to answer. Go on then. I am pleased to

answer that question because I can draw attention... I knew there was a

reason I didn't want to ask this question. I can draw attention to

the fact that this J-U 87 World War II German dive bomber used something

that is taken from that. These were famous and on the

underside of the wing they had devices fitted that were made the

horrible whining sound as they dived to the ground at speeds of up to

370mph. The pilots in here were pulling five to eight G. They didn't

want to crash. They had an auto pull up button they hit and these were

deployed. These are what we call dive brakes. It's these that compare

to the legs on the skylark. These are effectively skylark legs

on the back of this World War II bomber.

What about that? Absolutely amazing. They were also used for bombing the

infaumous squadron before the second world war started... Have you had

enough? I have, I thought it was going to go on forever which is why

I got a cup of tea. I have more. What about the history of the bird

itself? In the UK skylarks would have been a rare bird, we probably

would have only found them along the coast, once the area was opened for

farming, particularly when there were loads of sheep, there would

have been tens of millions of skylarks.

What's happened relatively recently, between 1972 and 1996 there was a

75% decline in our skylarks. Now we only have 1. 4 million pairs. Why is

this? Well, it's down to the intensification of agriculture and

changes in agricultural practice. The main reason is switching from

spring sown to autumn sown crops, they come up too thick. If the birds

nest they nest in tram lines where unfortunately they get trampled. On

areas of grassland rates have increased, so there is a likelihood

they'll be trampled. A switch from cutting to hay for sighage which

means more frequent cutting which means there is not enough time for

the birds to breed successfully. In some places skylarks are doing very

badly indeed. But not here. Yes, because a lot of farmers here do

banish their farm with wildlife in mind and they manage the crop with

these birds in mind in particular. Have a look at this. It's a drone

shot actually of a farm owned by Peter Summers on the estate. You can

see the skylarks normally will nest, you see in the tractor lines, that's

where it normally nests, but he has left this square bit completely

unplanted. It is brilliant. As Chris was saying in the track lines that's

where they like to land and nest on the sides and that means they're

open to predators. If there is that bear bit in the middle, they can

land, go to the side and nest and it's a lot safer. Top work, Peter

Summers. The proof is in the pudding. Look what we filmed here on

the estate on Peter's farm. A brood of skylarks down on the ground, no

danger of them being run over at all in his crops. They're alongside one

of those squares. Fantastic. Beautiful bird, definitely worth

looking after. Certainly. Stunning. Enough Larking around! Let's go back

to Martin live in Scotland. Thank you. Now this is Ian's

workshop right here. The den is up there. If we go further back you can

see we have a camera set up here. You can watch this end, in the

corner there, there is a sort of scalloped bit, that's where the pine

mar tense come out and go hunting. We are certain right now that

they're still in there. Let's go live and see if we can see them.

They're really difficult to see up here because they can hide

underneath. No, I don't think they're there. They are there, I

know, but we can't see them right now.

There have been a lot of changes in their lives recently. They've been

growing up and it's fascinating to compare them with what they were

like a few weeks ago. This is them very early on. Maybe five weeks old.

Their eyes don't open until they're five weeks, so they must be at least

five weeks. They're wobbly on their pins. Here they are now, so

confident. Jumping around. Much, much more agile now.

There they are on the left. Little face. The face a little compressed

and the nose is elongated and will continue to get longer, as well.

What's fascinating, look at this, I will put these down, now, pine

martens are in the same group, the mustelids group. This is a weasel

skull. Here is a stoat, here is a mink and here is a pine marten.

They're almost exactly the same structure. That long back bit. Those

fear some teeth at the front. The eyes on the front of the face. Here

is a remarkable thing. Look at the fear some teeth on the pine marten.

Actually, they will eat voles and eggs and rabbits. But they'll also

eat fruit and nuts. I am going to show you something remarkable. If I

can. In the old days, an old wives tale was you could get a weasel, it

would go through a wedding ring. If I can get mine off. Here is my

wedding ring. Could a weasel like the old wives tale get through the

wedding ripping? Let's try. -- wedding ring. Yes, it could. I

have this lovely vision of all those old wives sitting around. There was

no telly in those days, they had to entertain themselves.

We have been watching them with this camera at night. We have seen,

although they're growing up, they've still got a way to go. Look at this.

Here we are on the back wall at night. Here is mum coming in. You

can see one of on the right. Mum, up she goes and straight in,

effortless. But now How will this kit do? You can see

it's much more wobbly. Can it get in one go? Can it? Oh! No, it's not.

But it doesn't give up. It has another go.

This animal is going to rely on fantastic agility to hunt later in

its life. It has to learn its trade. Mum is at the top encouraging it on

with a little bit of squeaking. Can it do it this time? You think it

would, that wall is grippy. It gets up to the light. Now it's

got to struggle. Yes! It's got in. Can the second one do it? This is

the other kit. It goes a different route. Around the back of the light

and now it's stuck. It's like Winnie The Pooh when it ate too much honey.

Mum is still encouraging them in and eventually he makes it.

We won't go live again because we know they're difficult to see. A

couple of hours ago we had a camera at the other end of the building and

we did see this. Here is a kit. You can see it in

daylight. There is the mum. She's considerably bigger. They won't be

fully grown until they're six months old, the kits. They're about two

months now. It's wonderful to see them in

daylight. Unfazed, not bothered at all by Ian's gear there.

Massive, massive thank you to Shelagh and Ian allowing us to have

this view, this secret world of the pine martens, fantastic. I never

thought we would ever get into their nest. Thank you.

I love a man who has been into a mustelid's nest, I have to say. He

is going to stay on the road, he is travelling to another part of the UK

and we will catch up with him next week. I think he is in the Isles of

Scilly, he has a long drive. It was meant to be a secret! Now you have

told everyone. Next week Martin will be in the Isles of Scilly. Let's

just remind that! We introduced to you a nest on Monday. It was the

nest of some blackcaps. I hate to tell you it's not been a happy

story. Let's look at the nest live. At the moment that's the female

sitting on there. You can't see for fr that shot but there were five

chicks and now sorry to tell you there are only two left. And they're

seven days old. Let's see what has happened on that nest. It's not been

a happy story. We first found the nest and it had five healthy chicks.

By Sunday, the weakest was clearly being left out. It wasn't being

brooded. By Monday morning, sadly, it had fallen out and died.

As the day went on, the second chick got stuck in the hole. You can see

its leg stuck in the hole in that nest.

Again it's not being brooded, it's being left out.

That was Monday at 4pm. It hasn't got the strength to pull itself out.

By Tuesday, in the early hours, it had stopped moving.

We then noticed there were only two left. What had happened to the third

chick? The male comes in, looks down and

the third chick has also died. I don't know if it got stuck in a hole

or maybe it was the cold weather. Now we are down to just two chicks.

This is extremely worrying. Our nest watchers noticed that the second

chick is looking like it's got stuck in the side of that nest. It's

struggling. It didn't look like it was going to make it.

The male comes in and it manages to wriggle out of the danger zone.

If you look at them both, two left, they're both slipping down that

nest. It's at a precarious angle.

We are going to keep our fingers crossed for the last two chicks.

I have to be honest, my hopes aren't too high for those two. It's not

looking good. It's amazing, just the angle of that nest is enough to lead

to a complete catastrophe. Yet nests are amazing pieces of

animal arc texture. We have a small collection here. This you will

recognise as the typical nest, woven with thicker grasses around the

outside, then it is lined with thinner grasses and has moss in

here. This belongs to a yellowhammer.

It is situated down deep in the ground, it is about holding the eggs

and the young in one place, the installation is done by the ground

and the other foliage around it. But nests come in such a variety of

shapes and sizes, it is a feat of engineering, it really is. Let's

have a look at one of the smallest, I love this nest, look at it, it is

like a little woolly cup, tightly woven from sheets will, probably a

bit of spider's web in there as well. Who lives in a nest like this

one? Let's have a look, you can see that it is the goldfinch, and it is

very soft inside, it has got a nice woolly lining, and it is very

spongy. It has got a few more stakes than the one you can see there, but

I think that is gorgeous, it could be like a pom-pom on a hat. Lots of

birds actually use spider's web to weld their nest together,

chaffinches will use it as a base before they stick Moss to it, a very

important component. Not for this one, this is another nest that we

have been showing new, this is our chiffchaff's nest, we have seen the

youngsters fledge from this, again on the ground, a domed nests that

they can get inside. All of the youngsters fledge to successfully a

few days ago. And here, look, you can see, some of the feathers which

were lining it have come out, a pheasant feather there, that one

looks like it is from a Corbett. I ought to say that this is a nest

that we know has been used, we have seen it happening, we wouldn't go

out and catch a nest at this time of year unless we were certain they had

finished in their purpose. If you find a nest at this point, leave it

for a few months, then the birds will have finished with it. Let's

have a look at a slightly bigger nest, a perfect little ball made of

dead leaves and moss, there is a hole here, and it is lined with

moss, very cosy. Let's have a look lives in there, it is the wren.

Surprising that this is one of the larger nests for a small bird,

because it is a very small bird, but it is quite a big brood. Our wren

has six chicks, so it needs to be quite big. It is very solid, look at

that. And tightly woven together, unlike this last one, and again, at

the moment, this one has been compressed into a platform. In fact,

it belonged to our jays, and it was leaning at a precarious angle, as

you can see here. But they did successfully fledge from this nest.

One of them toppled out a little early, but to do them some justice,

I have to tell you that when it was constructed, it didn't look like

this. It was, in fact, like a slightly larger version of the

yellowhammer. It was just the activity of the youngsters that

compressed it into that flat mad. It is actually not the last one we are

showing new, because from this little one, one of the smallest, to

this, which is the biggest nest of any bird in this country. It is the

golden eagle. Obviously, we couldn't bring the whole nest in, so we have

just put a perimeter so that you can see how big it is, and it is made of

ranchers and little sticks that sort of bung up the side. Let's have a

look at it, this is the nest of Freya, the golden eagle we have been

following in Scotland. It is lined with dry leaves and would rush

called eagle brash, grass. It can be up to two metres. I feel like I

should be laying an leg. Why don't you squeeze out under leg? You could

incubated for a few weeks, we would all have some peace! The Wellcome

collection are organising an interesting exhibition. They want

people to contribute objects which have connected them to nature. It

could be anything, something they picked up as a child, a book that

inspired them, anything like that. Lucy has been to meet a young man

using a slightly unusual, very modern object to connect into

nature. Mobile phones are seen as an

essential part of everyday life, absorbing our time and distracting

us from our surroundings. But I'm meeting father and son Adam and Sam

who connects to nature by using their phone to go Giro catching --

geocaching. Hello, you must be Sam, are we ready to go? Geocaching is an

outdoor treasure hunt where clues are downloaded to your mobile,

allowing you to navigate to a set of coordinates where a prize is hidden.

What is it about that you enjoy so much? We like the countryside once,

we like going out on trails, and the reason for that is we find

interesting animals. Any animals in particular you like looking for?

Yes, reptiles. Reptiles, OK! Well, we couldn't have picked a better

spot. This area has two geocache betrayals and boast all six UK

species of reptile. We are getting near the first one. It says we need

to count the number of screws holding the sign. Four. Onto the

next one. For Sam, the biggest roar is seeing his favourite animals.

What is the top of your hit list? I would like to see a sand blizzard.

Are you excited to see them? I would be very excited. OK, guys, so this

is a good place for lizards, so this time of year we are right in the

middle of the breeding season. So if we are really lucky, we might see

some males fighting. Do you have some top tips on how to spot

lizards? I am looking for small movement and listening for Russells.

-- Russell rustles. There! And adult male, bright green! That was on your

hit list. Very happy now. So a new set of coordinates. I am determined

we are going to find something here. It says the number of landmarks on

the information board plus two. Seven, eight, nine. That is another

one done. Am's hope of seeing a smooth snake takes us to the lowland

heath, and it is not long before we strike gold. This is a slow worm, a

legless lizard, not a snake. This is a female, I can tell because of the

colouring. They have got these dark sides, and they normally have a dark

stripe down the centre. So this is all thanks to your geocaching, you

are holding a slow worm now. So that is a sand lizard and a slow worm,

and with the Final Cut ward and it is, it is not long before we find

our geocache prize. -- the final co-ordinates. Are! After recording

our find, we replaced the box, and there is one more treasure on offer,

courtesy of the head ranger, Robert Farrington. Wow it's my mood states

are only found in five areas of Britain and are so rare you need a

licence to handle them. They differ from other British necks because

their scales are completely smooth. Grass snakes and adders, there

scales have a ridge on them, so they are smooth one way, but rather the

other way, whereas smooth snakes do not have that. It is the ultimate

prize for reptile lover Sam. How about that, best geocache ever?

Definitely! It is a find that Sam will almost certainly treasure, and

who would have thought that the mobile phone would have been a way

of connecting us to nature? I am not one of those people who

moans about the mobile phone in the countryside, I use mine, I have got

field guides on it, also of useful things to connect me to nature. And

the Wellcome collection are interested in online exhibition as

well as the physical one, and they would like your contributions,

details are on the website. Yesterday, we showed you a beautiful

film about the colourful kingfisher, and we promised you more. Our camera

teams have been following a pair on Sherborne on the River Windrush.

This is the male, you can see that because of the black beak on both

sides. And it has decided to start to excavate a nest in this river

bank. It is remarkable how they do it, they use their beaks to hammer

out the mud. They use their claws to sort of get rid of it. There is the

female, she has got orange and the beak. She doesn't get involved at

this stage, she just likes to watch and view it but eventually she

decides that she needs to inspect it, so off she goes. She has a

little peek. He is not ready for a viewing, he chases her off. But it

is obviously a great place that they have chosen. It is top real estate.

That is where the kingfishers are, and just buy that, their neighbours,

it is a little wren's nest, and they seem to tolerate each other

perfectly well. It is a really pretty area, the Mandarin ducks and

ducklings around. And also these little grey wagtail fledgling is.

Interestingly enough, the kingfisher is not happy with them being there

and chases them away. Why do you think that is, Chris? They are

generally protective around their nests, it is unusual they have left

the wren stay, they don't seem worried about her. Maybe because it

is a little bird. We are launching a new nest on Springwatch tomorrow,

and if you would like a sneak preview, like us on Facebook, ten

o'clock in the morning you will see what the new nest is. Like us on

Facebook, ten o'clock, sneak preview. Is it a secret? Please

don't say what it is at this point! Just enough time to look at one last

thing, we have seen sneezing, we have seen them pooing, now they are

producing a palate. Look at that! And it deposits it very neatly on

its sibling's shoulder. What a treat! Do you know what that is

like? When a brother put a sticker on your back saying I am a loser?

What, like this sticker I put on your back earlier today?! We are

running out of time, what are we up to tomorrow? Let's have a look, also

is coming up, including this, a head to head with two birds of prey, the

kestrel and the barn owl. And we have got our stoat family, an update

with them. And we will be checking out our Gloucester peregrine insult

brick Cathedral. That is the youngster there. Join us again

tomorrow for 6:30 for Unsprung. I'm going to ask you a quick question,

yes, will it ever be possible to place a tiny camera on a swallow to

see its migration? I am glad you have asked me, I have got a model to

help the answer that! That really is all we have got time for... We will

see you tomorrow, bye-bye!