:00:10. > :00:12.It's been a wild and windy weekend here at Sherborne,
:00:13. > :00:50.This can only mean one thing. It's Springwatch!
:00:51. > :00:57.Hello and welcome to Springwatch 2017, coming to glorious Sherborne
:00:58. > :01:02.papa estate in Gloucestershire, run by the National Trust, and this is
:01:03. > :01:06.our third week here. Typically in Springwatch, we ensconced ourselves
:01:07. > :01:09.on nature reserves, but the be all and end all is making it great for
:01:10. > :01:13.wildlife. There is a lot of that going on here but this is also a
:01:14. > :01:16.working landscape. We wanted to visit that part of the countryside
:01:17. > :01:20.where wildlife has to coexist with our desire to produce food. We
:01:21. > :01:24.wanted a realistic look at that, and I'm very pleased to say that what we
:01:25. > :01:28.found so far is that wildlife here is having a great time.
:01:29. > :02:08.So the wildlife has been amazing, which is more than can be said for
:02:09. > :02:11.the weather! It has been a bit chilly, hasn't it? Norman of the bit
:02:12. > :02:15.this week. But if you people are a bit confused about where we are, and
:02:16. > :02:22.there's a reason for that, because there are two Sherbornes. There is a
:02:23. > :02:30.Sherborne here in Dorset, that is not us, we are this Sherborne, in
:02:31. > :02:34.Gloucestershire. That is where we are. That is where we have been and
:02:35. > :02:38.that is where we are staying! That is the Sherborne we are in. We have
:02:39. > :02:44.live cameras all around the estate, we will check some out. First of all
:02:45. > :02:47.the one that is closest to us, actually in Sherborne Village, which
:02:48. > :02:53.is just my left, and it is in the church, and it is the nest of the
:02:54. > :02:59.kestrels. Here they are, live. There are four chicks, 15 to 18 days old.
:03:00. > :03:02.They have been Absolutely Fabulous birds to watch, and a fantastic
:03:03. > :03:05.place to rest as well. Let's see what they have been getting up to
:03:06. > :03:09.over the weekend. We left them on Thursday and we were extremely
:03:10. > :03:13.worried about that little one in the middle, which is considerably
:03:14. > :03:16.smaller than its siblings. Ie in the tequila was concerned about its
:03:17. > :03:20.future. But I'm not now. I have been watching it over the weekend and I
:03:21. > :03:26.tell you what, this little one has got spirit, it's got fighting
:03:27. > :03:29.spirit. -- we were particularly concerned. Desperately try to get
:03:30. > :03:33.hold of that meat, and doing a good job. But now it is a bit like a
:03:34. > :03:40.rugby scrum. The siblings get hold of it and do a tug-of-war but watch
:03:41. > :03:46.him get that, brilliant expat! The run to get the prize and baubles off
:03:47. > :03:49.with it. Mum is not quite happy about that. Goes and fetches it and
:03:50. > :03:55.starts to share it out, because as we know sharing is caring! As we
:03:56. > :04:02.say, I was really pleased to see this. And this is what we have also
:04:03. > :04:07.noticed, that the parent birds do take time to give that little one
:04:08. > :04:16.its own share of food. And you can see by its crop that it is getting
:04:17. > :04:19.plenty of food. Only two days difference between the oldest one
:04:20. > :04:22.and the youngest one, such a great size difference. That difference has
:04:23. > :04:25.been exaggerated or the way through because that one has been getting
:04:26. > :04:28.less food all the way through. The large ones are grown proportionately
:04:29. > :04:33.more, I think that is what is going on. I think it will be all right.
:04:34. > :04:37.Because it is a feisty package, we need to give it a name. I will
:04:38. > :04:45.suggest a name, Maradona, because he was quite feisty. That won't go down
:04:46. > :04:48.well with the viewers, is it? It was the Argentinian footballer who
:04:49. > :05:00.cheated us in the World Cup! What has he got, has that Castrale. The
:05:01. > :05:08.wing of God or something -- that kestrel. Send your suggestions in. I
:05:09. > :05:12.guess you don't like that name. It was just that game, one of the most
:05:13. > :05:19.painful nights of my life watching that Argentinian man punching the
:05:20. > :05:22.ball over Peter Shilton. There are grown men you have registered tears.
:05:23. > :05:30.If you are watching last week, we were watching the fortune of a
:05:31. > :05:34.family of blackcaps. They had five eggs, then they had five Youngs, but
:05:35. > :05:37.very unfortunately the nest was canted to one side. They started
:05:38. > :05:41.feeding all of them but very soon they started to fall through a hole
:05:42. > :05:44.on the left-hand side of the nest. We rapidly lost two of the
:05:45. > :05:47.youngsters. They fell into that area, they could not be brooded, and
:05:48. > :05:52.then another one of the remaining three died. Two remained and then we
:05:53. > :05:55.saw this. They got so cold in the wet and wind at the end of last
:05:56. > :05:58.weekend over the weekend that when the female comes in with this
:05:59. > :06:04.caterpillar, they haven't got the energy to take it. At this point, we
:06:05. > :06:09.were pretty certain they were on their way to perishing. The men one
:06:10. > :06:13.of them even fell into the hole, and was riding around unable to get out.
:06:14. > :06:16.Thankfully it finally freed itself, they continue to feed them, they
:06:17. > :06:19.gave them some much food that they did grow considerably, and I'm
:06:20. > :06:30.pleased to say that on Sunday morning they fledged. So here they
:06:31. > :06:34.were in the nest. Doing their wing stretching, bitter flapping,
:06:35. > :06:36.preparation. This is a sort of semi-fledging, as Michaela calls it,
:06:37. > :06:41.because they are not flight worthy at this stage. They do a bit of
:06:42. > :06:44.practising. And then in the afternoon, just before five, the
:06:45. > :06:48.first one leaves the nest. As you can see, not flying, but hopping off
:06:49. > :06:53.into the dense herbage. We have seen a lot of the birds do this, the chav
:06:54. > :06:57.chavs, the Robins, they want to get out of that nest where they are the
:06:58. > :07:01.former ball to predators, all the chicks in one basket, as at work
:07:02. > :07:05.must adjust after an hour later, the next one hops out. And of course
:07:06. > :07:10.they will be fed by the adults for another week or two until they are
:07:11. > :07:13.able to fly and find food for themselves. I think it is great to
:07:14. > :07:17.see they have fledged successfully, at least two of them, because we
:07:18. > :07:20.didn't think any would make it. That nest was on such a slant and they
:07:21. > :07:23.were having such problems, so really good news that they manage to
:07:24. > :07:26.fledge, and they weren't the only ones flapping the anyone's flapping
:07:27. > :07:31.freedom at the weekend. Our bullfinches were too, and there were
:07:32. > :07:34.only two chicks left there as well. Started off with five eggs, two
:07:35. > :07:37.didn't catch at all, one disappeared, we don't know what
:07:38. > :07:42.happened, so there were two left, and this is what happened to them
:07:43. > :07:44.over the weekend. We predicted they would probably fledge possibly
:07:45. > :07:52.Friday or Saturday, and that is exactly what they did. The first one
:07:53. > :07:55.left at 8.38, very confidently went. The second one wasn't quite so sure.
:07:56. > :08:01.Thought about it, and decided to sit it out for the night. On Saturday
:08:02. > :08:10.morning, 7:06am, it decided was ready. Or maybe not. That really is
:08:11. > :08:13.semi-fledging with that one. It came back, decided it needed a little bit
:08:14. > :08:23.more time. Gets back in the nest, does a bit of wing stretching, and
:08:24. > :08:29.then by 11:12am, it makes the break, and the same as with the blackcaps,
:08:30. > :08:32.although they have fledged, it is a semi-fledging because they will stay
:08:33. > :08:35.around that nest for another couple of weeks while the parents, can
:08:36. > :08:39.provision them but it is really great news. We had two nests, both
:08:40. > :08:44.of them successfully fledged, and a lot of you were watching that on the
:08:45. > :08:47.webcams over the weekend. You say it is good news, I may have to
:08:48. > :08:57.introduce a small bucket of cold water at this stage. Only two got
:08:58. > :09:01.out of each nest. Basically, our blackcaps fledged too, but the
:09:02. > :09:09.average over the last few years, it is well over two, two .5, 2.6, 3.2.
:09:10. > :09:13.So they fledge less than the average that they seemingly need to to keep
:09:14. > :09:19.that population growing slightly. If you look at the ball -- the
:09:20. > :09:27.bullfinches, these mothers are much less than two very often, 0.8. We
:09:28. > :09:33.know that between 1966 and 2014, actually 67 and 2014, we lost 40% of
:09:34. > :09:37.our bullfinches in the UK, and this may well be because the young are
:09:38. > :09:40.not fledging from the nest successfully enough, not enough of
:09:41. > :09:45.them. When you think that we had five eggs and only two got out, two
:09:46. > :09:49.of them died at least in the chick stage. You may be putting a bit of a
:09:50. > :09:54.dampener on it but I am putting a ray of sunshine on it now by saying
:09:55. > :09:58.that both of those birds will have a second brood. Maybe with the
:09:59. > :10:03.bullfinches, they might even have a third. So things could be looking
:10:04. > :10:07.up. We could be more sunshine than raining on that one. Let's keep our
:10:08. > :10:11.fingers crossed and let's hope they do have a second brood. I am still
:10:12. > :10:17.getting over Maradona, it is the greatest act of cheating in the
:10:18. > :10:21.history of England's footballing... Back to my ray of sunshine. Martin
:10:22. > :10:25.is a ray of sunshine, and he is pretty rusty tufty, as we know, and
:10:26. > :10:29.one of his favourite hobbies is rock climbing. So at the beginning of
:10:30. > :10:33.spring, he went to the Peak District with his rock climbing gear to find
:10:34. > :10:40.out about a lesser-known Upland species with quite an unusual name.
:10:41. > :10:53.MUSIC I'm in the Peak District, in Derbyshire, and for rock climbers,
:10:54. > :10:57.this place is steeped in history. Some of the most famous climbers of
:10:58. > :11:01.all time, Joe Brown, Ron Fawcett, Colin Curtis, had made their
:11:02. > :11:08.reputations putting a dramatic new routes right here. But the towering
:11:09. > :11:13.cranks and rugged cliffs are not only a magnet for extreme sports
:11:14. > :11:19.enthusiasts, they are also irresistible to some rare and
:11:20. > :11:24.unusual British wildlife. So, can the two things exist side-by-side?
:11:25. > :11:29.Kim Leyland, ecologist for the Eastern Moors, is trying to make
:11:30. > :11:33.sure that they can. We are here to talk about ring ouzels. Now that is
:11:34. > :11:39.a tricky bird. They looks a bit like a blackbird, doesn't it? Yes, with a
:11:40. > :11:43.white collar. A mountain blackbird, it inhabits high places. They went
:11:44. > :11:47.in Morocco then arrived back in the spring and then comes here to settle
:11:48. > :11:51.down and breed for the summer. What type of habitat are they looking for
:11:52. > :11:56.here? There is a whole range of different things. Who will get some
:11:57. > :11:59.that will nest up on the crags in these Heathery breaks, some will be
:12:00. > :12:04.down on the ground amongst the dead bracken, others will be maybe wedged
:12:05. > :12:07.under a boulder. I know that Countrywide ring ouzels are not
:12:08. > :12:11.doing very well but what is the story here? We carried out a full
:12:12. > :12:15.survey here last year and found 30 breeding pairs. That number seems to
:12:16. > :12:18.be at least stable if not increasing in this area, so here we are hoping
:12:19. > :12:23.it is more of a positive story than the rest of the country. Part of the
:12:24. > :12:27.reason the ring ouzels are doing so well here is down to Kim's hard
:12:28. > :12:32.work. As the birds arrive in spring, he's out every single morning to
:12:33. > :12:37.plot exactly where each territory is. So we've got a couple of
:12:38. > :12:41.territories here, which is the outcrop there, and the next one
:12:42. > :12:45.there is Kyle Walker with another territory, and then moving onto
:12:46. > :12:48.Burberry self to the quarries in the distance. So some of these nests
:12:49. > :12:53.will be in more exposed places and some will be safe. That is one of
:12:54. > :12:57.the things, to identify which nests are likely to be at the most risk
:12:58. > :13:01.and protect those, and the ones that are in a safer location we can just
:13:02. > :13:07.leave and they can get on with it themselves. Once a nest site has
:13:08. > :13:10.been identified as at risk, Kim passes the information onto the
:13:11. > :13:16.British mountaineering council, who assessed the site and how best to
:13:17. > :13:19.manage it. And Adam from the BMC has offered to show me an old nest,
:13:20. > :13:25.which gives me a chance to get on the Rock again. This work is
:13:26. > :13:30.beautiful, really gripped the! Having said that, I'll probably fall
:13:31. > :13:36.off! -- really quickly. Thank you very much, Adam. Well met on the
:13:37. > :13:41.face. And this is it, this is what it's all about, there's a nest here.
:13:42. > :13:46.Yes, so this is a perfect nesting site for ring ouzels, way out of the
:13:47. > :13:52.way of any predators. This is an ideal spot. What is the role of the
:13:53. > :13:55.BMC to protect these ring ouzels? We are helping to bring the
:13:56. > :14:00.conversation community and the climbers together really. Kim will
:14:01. > :14:04.pinpoint where he thinks the nest is, then I will lift up, have a
:14:05. > :14:07.look, see if there are any XML, if it is being used, and if there is we
:14:08. > :14:11.might put a climbing restriction on it, and then we find the climbers
:14:12. > :14:15.will police it really effectively, keep passers-by off as well. Will
:14:16. > :14:22.they really? Gosh, so they have taken the ring ouzels the heart, the
:14:23. > :14:26.climbers? Absolutely, it is the emblem of this area. More and more
:14:27. > :14:31.people are coming together in this community to help these enigmatic
:14:32. > :14:34.birds. People like John Hall's Croft, a local recreational bike and
:14:35. > :14:39.a volunteer for the ring ouzel project. In this area, there's a
:14:40. > :14:43.tremendous amount of cooperation between land managers, ecologists
:14:44. > :14:48.and people who just enjoy this magnificent place. So everybody is
:14:49. > :14:52.getting stuck in and doing their bit. There are so many around here,
:14:53. > :14:55.clearly what you are doing is very important for their survival. And
:14:56. > :15:01.because of all this, the ring ouzels are benefiting significantly. Seems
:15:02. > :15:04.to be, we are bucking the trend, not just in ring ouzels, but other
:15:05. > :15:08.species where the number is looking good. We hear enough bad news, don't
:15:09. > :15:14.we, at the moment, so it's really good to be hearing some good news.
:15:15. > :15:27.Great to see climbers and birders working together to look after this
:15:28. > :15:32.PCs. They declined by 72% in the UK and what's unusual about the decline
:15:33. > :15:37.of this bird is that it's doing OK across the rest of its European
:15:38. > :15:40.range. It is a migrant, it goes to Morocco, and there's a lot of
:15:41. > :15:44.deforestation taking place there. It seems we can't blame that because
:15:45. > :15:49.over the rest of Europe it is holding its own. It's something
:15:50. > :15:55.peculiar to the UK precipitating its decline, more than likely the
:15:56. > :16:02.management of our uplands. You've got to say hats off to them, top
:16:03. > :16:06.work to the climbers and birders. I've got even better news because
:16:07. > :16:14.we've got a new nest for you. It may be weak free but we aren't slacking.
:16:15. > :16:20.Here it is, it is a blackbird. It's the stockier cousin of the ring
:16:21. > :16:24.ouzel. It's one of our most common birds, 4.9 million pairs. There are
:16:25. > :16:30.three chicks in that nest and they are about a week and a half old.
:16:31. > :16:36.Let's see what's going on. It's actually on the right of that fence
:16:37. > :16:40.in the bush. If we go into it you can see, there are actually five
:16:41. > :16:46.chicks. Often you only see three chicks but there are five. That's
:16:47. > :16:50.the mail coming in there. Look at its eye, something has obviously
:16:51. > :16:55.happened to his eye. We think it could be blind but it looks like an
:16:56. > :17:01.old injury, obviously not bothering it. The female comes in with a
:17:02. > :17:06.beaker full of worms. Worms are extremely important to blackbird
:17:07. > :17:10.chicks. We've had a lot of wet weather so it's a good time for them
:17:11. > :17:16.at the moment because it's easier to get the worms out if the ground is
:17:17. > :17:23.soft. It's very hard to get the worms out of the ground when it's
:17:24. > :17:27.dry. We've got another nest in the same brush, it's the nest of a
:17:28. > :17:34.chaffinch. It's slightly higher up in the bush. The chaffinch is a very
:17:35. > :17:40.numerous bird. Nearly 6 million pairs in the UK. There are three
:17:41. > :17:42.chicks in this nest. They are resting. We've been watching them
:17:43. > :17:48.all day and they've been very active. Quite a lot of wing
:17:49. > :17:53.flapping. Here's the female bird feeding them a mixture of things.
:17:54. > :17:58.They've got a really broad diet. They'll be trying to feed them as
:17:59. > :18:05.many insects as they can. When the blackbirds come in and their chicks
:18:06. > :18:08.get excited, the chaffinches think it's their feeding time too and they
:18:09. > :18:19.leap up in the thinking they are going to get some as well stop. They
:18:20. > :18:23.looked like they might be off! Both those nests are right on the other
:18:24. > :18:28.side of the estate in that direction. We've come down to what I
:18:29. > :18:32.think is the prettiest part of the estate, the river. There are two
:18:33. > :18:43.rivers here on the estate. There's the Sherborne Brook and the
:18:44. > :18:48.Windrush. Both very beautiful. It supports plenty of life. Here are
:18:49. > :18:53.the mayflies, we saw an enormous hatch a few weeks ago. Lots of
:18:54. > :18:57.wildlife make use of it, including the brown trout. Lots of water birds
:18:58. > :19:02.make the river their home. Swann is looking lovely in the sunlight
:19:03. > :19:09.there. Tufted ducks making the most of what the river has to offer. It's
:19:10. > :19:26.a great habitat for all of these birds. We've got a nest of grey bike
:19:27. > :19:31.tales. And coots. -- grey wagtails. We've also seen nesting wrens. This
:19:32. > :19:34.is a visiting kingfisher. Possibility that it could be the
:19:35. > :19:39.Kingfisher we've been following or it could be a different one but
:19:40. > :19:49.lovely to see. We've got plenty of live cameras on the estate. We can
:19:50. > :19:54.go to that one live on the river now. Nothing there at the moment but
:19:55. > :20:02.if you minutes ago, we saw this. A Kingfisher happily fishing. In fact,
:20:03. > :20:08.successfully catching a fish. Probably the same Kingfisher in the
:20:09. > :20:15.boathouse. Could well be! We've got another camera over here behind me.
:20:16. > :20:20.If you look at the bottom of the weir, we've moved it down so it's
:20:21. > :20:26.under all of the falling water. We can cut to that one live. We've got
:20:27. > :20:33.some weed... Hovering there on the left-hand side is a fish. I can't
:20:34. > :20:36.quite see what it is. Let's go live back to the other camera. We are
:20:37. > :20:46.going to switch around from one end of the river to the next. There he
:20:47. > :20:52.is! That's the mail. Black beak. The whole branches moving and he's
:20:53. > :20:58.staying still, how does he do that? It's like the kestrel, they've got
:20:59. > :21:04.an auto gyro in the head. We saw what was in their in the water in
:21:05. > :21:08.the weir, let's have a look at what we've been catching over the rest of
:21:09. > :21:11.the day. There was a fish hovering. What we've been seeing most of the
:21:12. > :21:17.time, in fact the only fish I've seen on this camera are brown trout.
:21:18. > :21:21.They are a native species here. I think what they are doing is hanging
:21:22. > :21:26.in this water beneath the weir. There's an element of still water,
:21:27. > :21:32.looking for anything getting washed down. Comes over the top of that, if
:21:33. > :21:39.there's anything floating on the surface then they snatch it. That
:21:40. > :21:42.provides food for a huge variety of birds and there's one in particular
:21:43. > :21:49.that we really enjoy seeing on the river. It's a bird that is a
:21:50. > :21:52.relative newcomer to the UK. In fact it's only seen in significant
:21:53. > :21:57.numbers here in 1989 and only started breeding in Dorset in 1996.
:21:58. > :22:02.It's a really lovely bird, it's always a delight to see particularly
:22:03. > :22:05.on the river. It's even better when you can see it in large numbers in
:22:06. > :22:17.their breeding colonies in the trees.
:22:18. > :22:31.Winter on the Somerset levels. A place of myth and legend, of Avalon
:22:32. > :22:42.and King Arthur. It's late February and the misty shroud envelops this
:22:43. > :22:49.low-lying region. Out of the gloom, ghost like apparitions appear with
:22:50. > :22:55.scaly feet, piercing eyes and diaphanous white plumage.
:22:56. > :23:07.Mysterious. These fairy tale creatures are little egrets. They're
:23:08. > :23:14.gathering in a country garden in a small village on the levels, brought
:23:15. > :23:18.here by an old tree. The dense evergreen vegetation provides
:23:19. > :23:30.protection from the elements, and despite the season, the tree is
:23:31. > :23:34.already busy. The egrets are small herons and shared the oak with their
:23:35. > :23:43.bigger, brasher relatives, grey herons. The herons have already been
:23:44. > :23:50.in residence for several weeks, and have well established nests. Many
:23:51. > :23:53.with eggs already in them. Which means, for the little egrets, just
:23:54. > :23:58.finding a good spot to build their nest is a challenge in itself. A
:23:59. > :24:08.challenge that falls to the males, who are first on the scene. Like
:24:09. > :24:11.clumsy soldiers on parade, they clamber and stagger along the
:24:12. > :24:21.branches in search of the perfect nest site.
:24:22. > :24:28.Once found, and aggressive forward display tells the other males to
:24:29. > :24:36.keep their distance, along with a few well timed vocalisations. Nest
:24:37. > :24:42.site secured, they must now attract a mate. For that, they dressed to
:24:43. > :24:47.impress, making the most of two long feathers that streamed down their
:24:48. > :24:52.necks, and a beautiful, gauzy plumage. With females gathering, the
:24:53. > :25:00.males start with a spot of preening to ensure they are looking their
:25:01. > :25:04.best. Then they crouch, point their bill skywards, erected their head
:25:05. > :25:21.plumes and pump their neck straight up and down, giving another call.
:25:22. > :25:26.It's paid off. This boy's got lucky. Until recently, sites like these
:25:27. > :25:30.were extraordinarily rare. Gradually, little egrets colonised
:25:31. > :25:35.the lower half of the UK, and by the late 90s these Mediterranean
:25:36. > :25:40.migrants were here in numbers with the first chicks born in Britain
:25:41. > :25:46.just over 20 years ago. Now, colonies like this one are
:25:47. > :25:50.increasingly common. As winter's grip loosens in Somerset, more and
:25:51. > :26:02.more little egrets are arriving to stake their claims in this high-rise
:26:03. > :26:07.heron -- heronry. One pair have wasted no time getting down to
:26:08. > :26:13.business. With four eggs freshly laid, these early birds are weeks
:26:14. > :26:17.ahead of the rest. But, with the unpredictable weather of a Somerset
:26:18. > :26:23.Spring, this is a risky strategy. The next few weeks will be crucial.
:26:24. > :26:31.This pair have taken a huge gamble and the stakes are high. Losing
:26:32. > :26:38.would mean disaster. It's not very often we can go from a diary of
:26:39. > :26:42.birds in a nest to one live. I can see a little egrets fishing. We can
:26:43. > :26:48.go on the live camera and have a look at it. We regularly see these
:26:49. > :26:53.little egrets on the river behind us. I said it was amazing to see it
:26:54. > :26:57.in colonies but of course it's very exciting to see it here on the
:26:58. > :27:01.river. Such a beautiful bird. We'll be following the story of the
:27:02. > :27:06.colony. They are a species that's arrived in the UK. We now have 700
:27:07. > :27:10.pairs nesting, some people have been worried they might be taking the
:27:11. > :27:16.food out of the beaks of herons. It's unlikely that the case, our
:27:17. > :27:19.heron population seems to be stable. So why haven't they impacted on
:27:20. > :27:23.that? Probably because they hunt in slightly different ways and they are
:27:24. > :27:29.different sized birds. We've been watching both of them foraging on
:27:30. > :27:31.the Sherborne Brook. Here's the egrets, it's relatively mobile. It's
:27:32. > :27:38.constantly walking through the Walker. -- through the water. It is
:27:39. > :27:42.looking for small fish. It's using its feet to stir up the bottom.
:27:43. > :27:48.Their bright yellow feet are used to stir the bottom. This one has caught
:27:49. > :27:52.a fish. Herons, on the other hand, are more sedentary. They find a spot
:27:53. > :28:00.and then, as you know, they sit there and wait. Here the bird is
:28:01. > :28:05.stalking very slowly forward. They have the capacity to turn their eye
:28:06. > :28:09.so they can face forward, they've got very good stereoscopic vision.
:28:10. > :28:15.As soon as they target their prey, they jabbed their beaks extremely
:28:16. > :28:19.fast and catch the fish. They are far more patient. They are also
:28:20. > :28:24.bigger so they can catch bigger fish. This one loses the fish, very
:28:25. > :28:29.careless. Well, loses it temporarily. A wounded fish
:28:30. > :28:35.wriggling away from a sharp eyed heron hasn't got much hope. There we
:28:36. > :28:41.see the heron retrieves it. In terms of being able to catch those fish,
:28:42. > :28:45.how do they do it? I said they've got great stereoscopic vision, but
:28:46. > :28:48.what they have to do is jabbed their neck forward incredibly quickly and
:28:49. > :28:54.accurately. You may have noticed when you've been looking at herons
:28:55. > :29:01.and egrets, there's always a kink in their neck. That is down to the six
:29:02. > :29:06.vertebrae in their neck. Rather than being in line, they are joined at
:29:07. > :29:12.right angles and connected with tendons that run all the way down to
:29:13. > :29:17.the breast muscles. It's these large breast muscles which can contract
:29:18. > :29:20.and calls the head to catapult forward using basic vertebrae as a
:29:21. > :29:27.hinge. This means it can shoot forward very, very quickly. Little
:29:28. > :29:30.protrusions on the side of the vertebrae means they do it in a dead
:29:31. > :29:36.straight line. Once the head hits the water it's got to pierce the
:29:37. > :29:42.water. We took a look at the heron and we measured the sharpness of its
:29:43. > :29:48.bill. There's 15 degrees, a very acute angles showing how sharp its
:29:49. > :29:49.bill is. When we look at the little egrets, it's slightly sharper, 14
:29:50. > :30:00.degrees. Can punch into the water without
:30:01. > :30:04.displacing any of the water and displacing its prey. Let's look at
:30:05. > :30:09.this, because this is of the Kingfisher, which has a similar bill
:30:10. > :30:14.obviously, and a similar angle, 16%. But the Kingfisher has a very
:30:15. > :30:23.different way of fishing. You can see it is a much smaller bird. Its
:30:24. > :30:28.technique is to dive. As it dives, it has got to get its whole body in
:30:29. > :30:33.the water, and it has evolved to cut through the water without generating
:30:34. > :30:42.a splash. So that it can surprise its prey. Doesn't always work. That
:30:43. > :30:48.dive didn't get anything. But it is all about minimising the water
:30:49. > :30:55.displacement. So just watch it now. In it goes. There's a tiny splash,
:30:56. > :30:59.diving speed of about ten mph. It is a lot harder in these shallow
:31:00. > :31:03.waters, because obviously it can't dive is deep. As I say, in that
:31:04. > :31:07.particular instance, it did eventually get something and it's
:31:08. > :31:11.enjoying its endeavours on that branch. So as I say, a very
:31:12. > :31:15.different way of diving, but do you know that has inspired not only the
:31:16. > :31:19.bullet train in Japan, but also professional divers have been
:31:20. > :31:26.inspired by the kingfisher. And if we take a look at how Tom Daley
:31:27. > :31:34.dives, look at that. Beside the kingfisher. Tiny splash from both of
:31:35. > :31:40.them. Let's have a look at it again, watch both of them. And they hardly
:31:41. > :31:47.displaced the water. Now I can tell you a little bit about this, because
:31:48. > :31:51.I was a contestant on Splash!, which was the show we completed against
:31:52. > :31:57.each other. Was it called big splash, the episode you on? No, mine
:31:58. > :32:02.was a little splash, thank you very much! They try to get us to do ten
:32:03. > :32:05.metres, I got the 7.5. You have to break the surface of the water with
:32:06. > :32:09.your hands and then try to get your whole body into that little hole.
:32:10. > :32:12.That it really hurts your shoulders, because you keep hitting the water
:32:13. > :32:17.like that, we are obviously not built for diving, whereas the
:32:18. > :32:21.kingfisher is perfectly adapted, because it has a very stocky, robust
:32:22. > :32:27.neck, so doesn't get the sort of pain that I got when I was training
:32:28. > :32:31.for splash! You mentioned the kingfisher was diving into the water
:32:32. > :32:35.at ten mph, how fast you think you are hitting the water had you gone
:32:36. > :32:42.from a ten metre board? I haven't got a clue actually. 35 mph. Faster
:32:43. > :32:48.than the kingfisher. No wonder I had such a headache! Put that on your CV
:32:49. > :32:52.and smoke it! Let's move away from diving and back into the garden,
:32:53. > :32:56.where if you make a little bit of effort to plug the right sort of
:32:57. > :32:58.plants in your garden, you can attract the most exciting and
:32:59. > :33:00.colourful visitors in the springtime. We talking about the
:33:01. > :33:12.orange tip butterfly. With the arrival of spring, a
:33:13. > :33:16.country garden bursts into life. Flowers, dormant over the long
:33:17. > :33:25.winter, emerge in a crescendo of colour. And in a forgotten corner,
:33:26. > :33:35.the son's rays hit a chrysalis, and the Butterfly inside begins to stir.
:33:36. > :33:47.It is a male, and his first job is to crack open the tough outer layer
:33:48. > :33:52.which has protected him from both predators and for the past nine
:33:53. > :33:56.months. Free, he climbs up the stalk to position himself in the sun. His
:33:57. > :33:58.wings are damp and crumpled. They need to be dried and pumped up with
:33:59. > :34:12.blood. As they expand, they finally reveal
:34:13. > :34:17.his true colours. A male orange-tip butterfly, one of the first
:34:18. > :34:21.butterflies to emerge every spring, the adult life of an orange-tip is
:34:22. > :34:30.fleeting. He must get to work if he is to secure the Next Generation.
:34:31. > :34:40.After so long in his chrysalis, his energy levels are lower. His first
:34:41. > :34:45.task is to find food. The Jack by the hedge or garlic mustard is in
:34:46. > :34:51.flower. It is an orange-tip's favourite, and he settles down to
:34:52. > :34:59.drink, digging his proboscis deep into the flour for the energy rich
:35:00. > :35:08.nectar. Plants like these are vital in every stage of the orange-tip's
:35:09. > :35:13.lives. As a caterpillar, this male, fed on garlic mustard too, absorbing
:35:14. > :35:18.the pungent oils, and making him distasteful as an adult, and the
:35:19. > :35:23.orange flashes on his wings display that repugnancy to any would-be
:35:24. > :35:32.predators. Nearby, another butterfly is feeding. Easily mistaken for
:35:33. > :35:35.another species, this is a female orange-tip. She is distinctly
:35:36. > :35:39.different, with subtle black tips on how wings instead of the flashy
:35:40. > :35:43.orange. That's because while the male flies about looking for a mate,
:35:44. > :35:51.the female sits tight, and with less time on the wing, camouflage is a
:35:52. > :35:53.better tactic. It doesn't fool our male, though. Fuelled by nectar, his
:35:54. > :36:14.back on the wing, looking for love. After a successful meeting, the
:36:15. > :36:22.male's job is done. It's now down to the female to find a suitable spot
:36:23. > :36:23.to lay her eggs. But while she searches, and unexpected shower
:36:24. > :36:49.arrives out of the clear blue sky. Danger over, she drives off in the
:36:50. > :36:55.sun, and is on the move once more. -- she dries off. She lays her eggs
:36:56. > :37:02.directly onto the stem of the garlic mustard flour head. One egg to one
:37:03. > :37:13.stem, giving each the best chance of survival. Over three days, the act
:37:14. > :37:18.turns from green to orange. A week later, a tiny caterpillar, smaller
:37:19. > :37:23.than a pinhead, it's his way out of his protein rich shell. His next
:37:24. > :37:29.course is right before him, the energy rich seed pods of the garlic
:37:30. > :37:34.mustard. After three weeks of continuous eating, he'll be an
:37:35. > :37:42.incredible 800 times heavier than when he first hatched.
:37:43. > :37:48.Soon, he'll build himself his very own winter home, emerging next year
:37:49. > :38:03.as the Herald of a new spring. One of my favourite butterflies, a
:38:04. > :38:07.real little beauty, and that film shows just what you can do with a
:38:08. > :38:11.very small space when it comes to conservation. But I'm afraid I've
:38:12. > :38:15.got to get out my little bucket of cold water here again, because in
:38:16. > :38:17.May of this year, Butterfly conservation University of Cantona
:38:18. > :38:21.centre for ecology and hydrology published a study which has look at
:38:22. > :38:26.butterfly populations over the last 20 years. And they showed that in
:38:27. > :38:34.urban areas they have declined by 69%. Which were the species losing
:38:35. > :38:36.out? We can take a look at those, certainly the small tortoiseshell,
:38:37. > :38:45.you will have noticed these disappearing in recent years, 87%.
:38:46. > :38:48.The wall butterfly, ask yourself, when was the last time you saw one
:38:49. > :38:55.of these in your garden. And the Brown Argus, a shocking decline of
:38:56. > :39:00.94%. The answer I'm afraid is us. The Royal horticultural Society are
:39:01. > :39:03.doing a study at the moment, an initiative, called Greening the
:39:04. > :39:06.great, and they are looking at how we have changed our gardens. In the
:39:07. > :39:09.last ten years, there have been three times the number of front
:39:10. > :39:16.gardens that have been completely paved over. They now number 4.5
:39:17. > :39:19.million gardens. We are basically doing away with our clients, we are
:39:20. > :39:24.doing away with that tiny amount of space that each of us had for
:39:25. > :39:28.wildlife. What can you do about it? If you can't dig up the gravel, the
:39:29. > :39:34.decking or the paving, you could put a pot they are, and butterfly
:39:35. > :39:37.conservation are running a scheme called pots for pollinators, and
:39:38. > :39:42.basically it is pretty simple. You get a pot and you put some plants in
:39:43. > :39:47.it which appeal to nectar searching insects. The details of all of that
:39:48. > :39:51.are available on our website. OK, I am afraid it is back to the pot
:39:52. > :39:55.again. Those are the butterflies struggling in the urban environment,
:39:56. > :39:58.what about the rule environment? That same study published in May
:39:59. > :40:02.showed the butterflies in this environment have declined by 45% in
:40:03. > :40:08.the last 20 years. The species that are suffering out in the wider
:40:09. > :40:12.landscape? We've got the purple hair Street, down by 88%, used to see
:40:13. > :40:16.them buzzing around the top of oak trees. Painted ladies, a migrant
:40:17. > :40:21.butterfly. They had a bumper year a few years ago but on average they
:40:22. > :40:24.are down by 74%, and lastly perhaps one of the most familiar butterflies
:40:25. > :40:31.in our landscape, the peacock butterfly. Down by 41%. These really
:40:32. > :40:35.are quite shocking declines. If it is not as paving over our gardens in
:40:36. > :40:42.towns, what is happening out here? Same old story, intensification of
:40:43. > :40:47.agriculture. This is what we have got, we have monocultures over very
:40:48. > :40:51.large swathes of our countryside. I have to say, you might be wondering
:40:52. > :40:56.why these declines have suddenly grown so much steeper in the last 20
:40:57. > :41:01.years. Well, in the 1980s, we had butter mountains, and we had cheese
:41:02. > :41:04.mountains and wine lakes, and the European Union decided in 1988 that
:41:05. > :41:08.some of this had to stop, and one of the methods they come up with was to
:41:09. > :41:12.ask farmers to take land out of production. It was called set-aside.
:41:13. > :41:17.Initially it was a voluntary thing, then it became mandatory, that by
:41:18. > :41:23.2008 when it had reached its peak, there were 342,000 hectares of land
:41:24. > :41:27.under set-aside herein the countryside. Then they decided it
:41:28. > :41:31.was going to be the end of it, they would go back into production, and
:41:32. > :41:36.that time is perfectly with the decline of the species. I have to
:41:37. > :41:41.say all is not lost. Because you can make a difference. Look at this. If
:41:42. > :41:48.you farm with wildlife in mind, then you can turn back the clock, not the
:41:49. > :41:54.2008, but to even before that. Now there are stewardship schemes,
:41:55. > :41:57.countryside stewardship schemes, which run higher, and entry-level
:41:58. > :42:01.stewardship schemes. That is very difficult for us to contrast the
:42:02. > :42:06.figures with that 320,000 hectares that there were way back in 2008, so
:42:07. > :42:09.we can't give you exact figures. We have spoken to natural England and
:42:10. > :42:13.Defra, but the recording methods are different, but it is safe to say
:42:14. > :42:19.there is less land available for wildlife, and that is a great shame
:42:20. > :42:23.indeed. Look, these are not only places for things to come and find
:42:24. > :42:28.nectar, they are also corridors that lead from one part of the landscape
:42:29. > :42:33.to another. Routes where insects, birds and mammals can cross, birds
:42:34. > :42:38.like yellow wagtails can nest without being mown or crushed by the
:42:39. > :42:43.wheels of agricultural equipment, and what about that for a view of a
:42:44. > :42:49.field? That is absolutely stunning, absolutely stunning. And that field
:42:50. > :42:54.is here. A couple of weeks ago, Martin went out on the other side of
:42:55. > :42:57.the estate to meet Jonty and Mal Bruni a. They have been farming for
:42:58. > :43:06.wildlife and making a real difference.
:43:07. > :43:13.The obvious first question, how did it all start? I grew up in a farming
:43:14. > :43:16.family but I also have a passion to conservation union environment. 11
:43:17. > :43:21.years ago I got a National Trust scholarship and they gave me a
:43:22. > :43:24.chance to practice what I preach, create a wonderful farmed
:43:25. > :43:28.environment but also quality food. Turning old arable land that was not
:43:29. > :43:31.in great condition back to this wonderful diverse meadow we see in
:43:32. > :43:37.front of us. It is not just the flowers, you have livestock here as
:43:38. > :43:40.well. Deadly, our animals are our raising tools. Most habitats in the
:43:41. > :43:44.UK are man-made particularly by farming, meadows and pastures have
:43:45. > :43:47.to be grazed or cut, so we use sheep, we have got Cotswold sheep,
:43:48. > :43:53.rare breed traditional Hereford cattle, and they do the managing,
:43:54. > :43:56.grazing, ripping and dunking, important for insects. Presumably
:43:57. > :44:01.you don't want animals that are too heavy or will chew up the ground, so
:44:02. > :44:04.do they have to be fairly light fitted? The cattle particularly,
:44:05. > :44:08.they are smaller, three quarters size, they stay out all the year.
:44:09. > :44:13.You're you have to be careful with cattle and sheep, cattle are quite
:44:14. > :44:17.indiscriminate the way they graze. It is a sweetie shop for the sheep,
:44:18. > :44:20.they picked the flower heads. Let things flour and in the sheep coming
:44:21. > :44:31.afterwards after things have flowered. And what about wildlife?
:44:32. > :44:38.You can hear skylarks. Corn bunting is as well. Numbers have increased.
:44:39. > :44:42.We see lapwing here, which we see regularly every year. We have two or
:44:43. > :44:48.three pairs that we see every year. One of our biggest habitats that we
:44:49. > :44:52.merely almost forget is the soil. We know more about the space and the
:44:53. > :44:55.planets than we do about our own soil, bacteria and fungi and all the
:44:56. > :45:00.worms and insects that is where it starts. This is your finest wild
:45:01. > :45:07.flower meadow, can you take us through? We have bacon and eggs
:45:08. > :45:12.there. Fervour truffle oil. One of my favourite grasses, rubbish
:45:13. > :45:19.farming but quaking grass was the I can see why, because the seeds just
:45:20. > :45:25.fall off when it blows. These are daisies about the flower. Some
:45:26. > :45:26.yarrow leaves here. Just a small selection, how may different species
:45:27. > :45:36.in total? We think there's about 100 in this
:45:37. > :45:40.meadow alone. This is the one we're trying to spread around other areas
:45:41. > :45:45.of the farms. When these are in seed you harvest the seed and transfer
:45:46. > :45:50.it. You don't buy it? We did ten years ago to make a start, but we
:45:51. > :45:56.are now working with the local magnificent Meadows project to
:45:57. > :46:01.spread it out even further. Where did this passion come from? Chris
:46:02. > :46:10.Packham and the really wild show! LAUGHTER What a fantastic legacy,
:46:11. > :46:19.doesn't get better than that! He has a lot to answer for! You inspired
:46:20. > :46:25.them, do you know you are just such a little ray of sunshine! Stop it!
:46:26. > :46:29.LAUGHTER A fantastic piece of work there. I was just having a thought.
:46:30. > :46:33.We are talking about farmers having to look after the landscape but what
:46:34. > :46:38.about if we looked after the farmers and looked after ourselves a little
:46:39. > :46:43.better? One third of all the food we buy we waste. Imagine idealistically
:46:44. > :46:48.if one third of all of this landscape didn't need to be farmed
:46:49. > :46:53.because we weren't wasting the food produced. We could play an enormous
:46:54. > :46:57.role in allowing more space for wildlife out in this landscape. What
:46:58. > :47:01.they are doing on that part of the estate is truly fantastic. Not just
:47:02. > :47:05.bringing back lots of plants but all the insects that eat them and then
:47:06. > :47:08.the other animals that live there. There's no doubt that the reason
:47:09. > :47:15.we've got kestrels breeding successfully is because there are
:47:16. > :47:20.voles in fields like that. Now we can go live to our barn owls. The
:47:21. > :47:24.female barn owl has been spending increasingly long periods away from
:47:25. > :47:30.the check. She's been away for up to three hours at times. Is that a
:47:31. > :47:34.concern? I think it's because we've had that wet weather, chicks are
:47:35. > :47:40.demanding more food, the male isn't supplying enough so she is having to
:47:41. > :47:45.go out and hunt as well. Here she is. This is when she came back the
:47:46. > :47:51.other night, soaking wet. She did manage to get something. The
:47:52. > :47:57.youngsters, here they are. You can see the size difference. It's
:47:58. > :48:05.profound. Oh no, that's not looking good. The little one. Oh my
:48:06. > :48:11.goodness! I find that quite sad, actually. You say that but this is
:48:12. > :48:15.what's happening. She's bringing food in and the large animals that
:48:16. > :48:20.can feed themselves will eat it in one go. That's how they are designed
:48:21. > :48:30.to swallow their food. Here the largest one of all has a slippery
:48:31. > :48:35.frog. When those two have had enough food, when they are completely fill
:48:36. > :48:42.up, then she will feed the food to the very smallest one. I think
:48:43. > :48:48.what's going to happen here is if the male and the female can bring in
:48:49. > :48:54.enough food for the biggest chicks they will eat it. But if they can
:48:55. > :48:58.get extra food it will be fed to the little one. I reckon they are going
:48:59. > :49:05.to need to catch at least four or five voles for the biggest chicks.
:49:06. > :49:09.Plus they've got to feed themselves, so that's 16. If they can get more
:49:10. > :49:17.than 16 voles per night, the little one might make it. That's a lot of
:49:18. > :49:22.voles! That sounds like a tall order! I thought he was going to
:49:23. > :49:26.make it but I might have talked myself out of it! They've been
:49:27. > :49:29.hugely popular. I sent out a tweet at the weekend asking everybody what
:49:30. > :49:33.their favourite was, what they thought the star of Springwatch was
:49:34. > :49:44.so far. Lots of people said the barn owls but guess what came out on top?
:49:45. > :49:48.Mayflies? No, the peregrines. At Salisbury Cathedral we've got a
:49:49. > :49:52.remote camera on our peregrine. Don't panic! They are breathing,
:49:53. > :50:01.they are sleeping. This has been such a popular nest because it has
:50:02. > :50:05.an adopted chick. It was an orphan chick. Our nest in Salisbury
:50:06. > :50:09.Cathedral became the surrogates nest and it's gone remarkably well so
:50:10. > :50:15.far. Let's see what's been happening over the weekend. You can see the
:50:16. > :50:22.size difference. There is an age gap between them of about a week. The
:50:23. > :50:26.oldest one is extremely vocal. I think it's about four or five days
:50:27. > :50:35.but there is a significant size difference. The male has come in,
:50:36. > :50:46.first of all he has a duckling. This is very civilised. The two chicks
:50:47. > :50:51.are sharing. It is now brought in a woodpecker. The little one is a bit
:50:52. > :50:54.unsteady. They are both doing remarkably well and they've
:50:55. > :51:06.tolerated each other extraordinarily well. The older cheque -- the older
:51:07. > :51:09.chick is more mobile and we've been watching him wandering around, quite
:51:10. > :51:17.comically sometimes. He seems to like peering at the camera. The
:51:18. > :51:22.younger one is screeching for food. It doesn't want to be left in the
:51:23. > :51:28.nest box all by itself, it definitely wants to join in its
:51:29. > :51:38.sibling on the ground. It tumbles out! Not very elegantly. It does get
:51:39. > :51:44.down on the ground. SCHREECHES. This has been happening a lot, that's the
:51:45. > :51:53.female and off she waddles. It's quite comical. She's taking that
:51:54. > :51:57.extra food to the larder. The two chicks are left. We think they are
:51:58. > :52:02.both males. Those adults have stepped up to the challenge of
:52:03. > :52:09.feeding two chicks. This is the amount of feeds a day when it was
:52:10. > :52:19.just one chick. Once the new chick came in, it was six and a half feeds
:52:20. > :52:26.per day. They've taken on the challenge and they've done it
:52:27. > :52:30.remarkably well. It's fantastic. Peregrines can feed on almost
:52:31. > :52:35.everything. Ducklings, woodpeckers, pigeons. They are doing a great job
:52:36. > :52:39.of providing for them. The weather plays a big part in what a lot of
:52:40. > :52:48.our birds of prey are bringing in. What does the weather have in store?
:52:49. > :52:53.It's Nick Miller who can tell us. If they don't have a good week, no one
:52:54. > :52:58.can blame the weather. If the weather and the wind has been
:52:59. > :53:02.ruffling your feathers over the last few weeks, put those headers neatly
:53:03. > :53:07.back in place. With high pressure building in across England and Wales
:53:08. > :53:11.for the next few days, something drier, quieter, calmer and warmer is
:53:12. > :53:16.on its way. For parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland, some breeze
:53:17. > :53:23.and rain. Even here a bit of an improvement is on the way. For our
:53:24. > :53:28.newly fledged chicks like the bullfinch and the black cap, the
:53:29. > :53:33.humidity should bring bugs and insects for the parents to feed
:53:34. > :53:37.them. And for the peregrines being so exposed, not always a good thing
:53:38. > :53:42.but hopefully this week riding high with barely a care in the world. For
:53:43. > :53:46.so long, the Springwatch weather has been showing its teeth but this week
:53:47. > :53:52.with lighter winds and some warmth at times it's giving us a smile.
:53:53. > :53:56.It's giving us a smile but I don't entirely believe it because he said
:53:57. > :54:02.it's going to feel like summer this week! It's a bit chilly. What about
:54:03. > :54:10.the mammals? We've had cameras out on a couple of badger sets. We can
:54:11. > :54:14.go live to the one at Sandy Hill. No, we can't go live but we can see
:54:15. > :54:21.what they've been up to. They've been training for trapeze acts and
:54:22. > :54:29.tight rope walking. This is one of the youngsters. They aren't
:54:30. > :54:33.independent but they are able to roam free. All of the wet weather
:54:34. > :54:40.has meant the badgers have had a great time catching worms. I think
:54:41. > :54:47.it actually loses it in the end and the worm escapes. The badger dig
:54:48. > :54:51.seriously but it can't get it. That one makes it look easy. They can
:54:52. > :54:56.gently pull them out. Do you remember pulling worms out of the
:54:57. > :55:01.soil?! You have to be careful. The badger makes a masterful act of it.
:55:02. > :55:05.It's great to see badgers, a lot of the mammals have been a bit elusive.
:55:06. > :55:08.That's what I love about Springwatch, the wildlife decides
:55:09. > :55:12.whether it wants to be the star of the show or not. We did get our
:55:13. > :55:18.camera teams up with some thermal imaging cameras and they saw this. I
:55:19. > :55:25.know this looks like a bear but I promise you it's a badger! It's been
:55:26. > :55:30.marking its territory at night. Foxes. Obviously, there's lots of
:55:31. > :55:34.fox cubs around at this time of the year. The ones here seem to be quite
:55:35. > :55:40.wary, we haven't seen that much of them. We've seen plenty of rabbits.
:55:41. > :55:44.There are lots on the estate. Look at this creature, not an easy one to
:55:45. > :55:52.see at night or day, it's a little wood mouse. Lovely to see those.
:55:53. > :55:59.They've been very elusive. What about the mammals in your garden? At
:56:00. > :56:04.the beginning of the series we launched Spring tales. Doctor Dawn
:56:05. > :56:10.Scott is interested in mammals into directing in your garden if you feed
:56:11. > :56:15.them. She sent us this, here are two hedgehogs. This one week posted on
:56:16. > :56:24.Facebook and if you people looked at it. Look at what happens. How very
:56:25. > :56:29.rude! LAUGHTER 3.4 million people saw that on Facebook, Twitter and on
:56:30. > :56:33.the website. If you want to be involved and be part of the
:56:34. > :56:37.Springwatch family, you can like us on Facebook, joined Twitter or go on
:56:38. > :56:42.to the website. That's also where you can see the live webcams that
:56:43. > :56:49.are on 24 hours a day. That's also where you can catch Brett Westwood.
:56:50. > :56:53.He's absolutely fabulous, he's like an encyclopaedia of British
:56:54. > :56:58.wildlife. Brilliant naturalist. What brought you to Springwatch? A love
:56:59. > :57:04.of animals and nature and the British countryside. Also, I love to
:57:05. > :57:10.learn. That's where you come in, my darling. It's amazing to be had, I
:57:11. > :57:19.love the outdoors and the sense of adventure. Here's Lindsay Chapman.
:57:20. > :57:25.Helen Glover, Kate Humble. A very special animal. Be back tomorrow at
:57:26. > :57:30.8am. Thank you for joining us. I'm going to be a guest tomorrow at 8am
:57:31. > :57:34.or 8:30am, it depends on when I have my breakfast! We want to leave you
:57:35. > :57:43.with something very, very special indeed. This is one of our kestrel
:57:44. > :57:53.chicks. How about that for a total white out? It should be total
:57:54. > :57:58.wipe-out! I feel really sorry for the Joe because he has to clean
:57:59. > :58:05.it... We've had a couple of people send in some good names. Frodo, Yoda
:58:06. > :58:10.and Ronnie Corbett had been suggested. We'll be back tomorrow.
:58:11. > :58:14.Gillian and Martin will be in the Isles of Scilly looking at puffins.
:58:15. > :58:20.That should be pretty good. Plenty of stuff going on at Sherborne,
:58:21. > :58:32.including this. We will of course be following our feisty family of
:58:33. > :58:40.stoats. . Will also be looking at the egrets on the diary. Goodbye!