Browse content similar to Estuaries. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
I'm Chris Packham and this is Hands On Nature - | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
your guide to the very best wildlife spots in the UK, | 0:00:04 | 0:00:08 | |
and today it's mud, mud, glorious mud, as we get to grips with the best of Britain's estuaries. | 0:00:08 | 0:00:14 | |
I'm on a boat cruise spotting some beautiful birds, including one with a strange twitchy leg. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:20 | |
Mike Dilger heads to the Wash, where you're guaranteed one of our great mammal spectacles. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:29 | |
The seals are all around us. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:34 | |
Just the best time of year. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:36 | |
And Janet Sumner discovers the beauty of the Humber Estuary. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:41 | |
This is just the most amazing view. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:45 | |
Yes, estuaries - where our rivers meet the sea, like here on the Exe estuary in Devon. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:59 | |
They are brilliant places for wildlife - there's a great range of habitats. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:03 | |
Everything from shallow water to deep water, to salt marsh, | 0:01:03 | 0:01:07 | |
and perhaps most importantly, lots of this - super mud. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:13 | |
Now, the Exe may be one of our smaller estuaries, but it supports a wealth of habitats. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:26 | |
As such, it deservedly has special environmental protection. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:31 | |
In late autumn, winter and early spring, this estuary is teeming with birds. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:39 | |
Thousands of them come from northern Europe to join our resident species | 0:01:39 | 0:01:43 | |
and take advantage of its rich pickings. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:45 | |
There's probably no better way to get a view of them than to come on this boat. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:50 | |
One of our first sightings is a really striking bird, the avocet. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:03 | |
Avocets are always popular, they are a very elegant bird. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
In the past they were a great rarity in Britain. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
They had been persecuted for the hat trade, millinery. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
They have come back and now breed in East Anglia but great numbers of continental birds come to the Exe | 0:02:15 | 0:02:20 | |
and you get super views of them. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
The avocet's most distinctive feature is its upwardly curved beak, | 0:02:24 | 0:02:29 | |
which it uses to good effect to find food. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:34 | |
When you watch avocets feeding, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:36 | |
what they are doing is scooping that very fine, up-turned bill through the mud. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:42 | |
They use that to detect any small crustaceans or shellfish that they can find in there. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:47 | |
This is the curlew, our largest wader. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
It has an easily recognisable down-turned beak, allowing it to probe deep into the mud. | 0:02:56 | 0:03:01 | |
Tony White, head of RSPB, thanks for the invite for the cruise, it's been fantastic. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
-What is so special about the Exe? -The birds, absolutely fantastic. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:10 | |
In the middle of winter here you're looking at 25,000 individual birds here using this estuary. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:17 | |
And the views you get of these birds are exceptional. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
It's a fantastic resource here as well, a huge amount of mud. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
A lot of people look at mud and think it's wasteland but it isn't. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:28 | |
If you look closely in that mud, you've got a massive amount of life. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
If you calculate the calorific value of the mud, you're not going to eat this if you're on a diet. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:36 | |
It is packed with energy, and that's why these birds are here. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:40 | |
Normally, we conservationists like to prattle on about declines, | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
but here it is the reverse, thank goodness. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:45 | |
Yes, a lot of these birds are doing extremely well. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:47 | |
Take the avocet, it is increasing in numbers | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
in terms of breeding and wintering down here, you are seeing more and more. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:55 | |
These are birds that are doing great, and it is excellent to be able to talk about birds that are doing well. | 0:03:55 | 0:04:00 | |
Finally, a Brent goose fly-past. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:06 | |
These birds have come from northern Siberia to feed on the grassy fields alongside the estuary. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:12 | |
What they do to stop overgrazing that area, they will feed in a spot, | 0:04:15 | 0:04:20 | |
fly away and go back precisely four days later. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
Precisely four days later, because in most situations it takes that long for the grass | 0:04:23 | 0:04:28 | |
to regenerate and produce the maximum amount of nitrogen, and that is what the geese are after. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:34 | |
The geese have got it sorted down here. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
The reason that all of those birds are here, the reason I am here, | 0:04:41 | 0:04:46 | |
and the reason I hope you are going to come here | 0:04:46 | 0:04:49 | |
is this great expanse of mud, which looks so bleak and barren but is in fact far from it, | 0:04:49 | 0:04:56 | |
as James Chubb, East Devon's Education Officer is going to tell us. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:00 | |
It's certainly not. The whole place is teeming with life, but you've got to get right down to appreciated it. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:06 | |
There are cockleshells everywhere. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
There are so many tiny animals because the place is full of microscopic algae and bacteria. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:14 | |
That is what the smallest of the animals feed on. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
In the mud is another creature, a large delicacy loved by the birds. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:22 | |
Here, we've got a lugworm cast, and that's where the lugworm has pushed out clean sand | 0:05:22 | 0:05:28 | |
that it's filtered all the algae from, | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
and this entrance hole is where the lugworm has been sucking water in. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:34 | |
If you imagine underneath the sand here there's a big U-shaped curve | 0:05:34 | 0:05:39 | |
going in about seven inches below the surface. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
So, it's in with the spade, and hopefully a lugworm will be lurking in the rich mud and algae. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:48 | |
-There we go. -Look at that! | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
Perfectly encapsulated. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:55 | |
-It's almost as if we put it there, but we couldn't have done. -No, that's come out of the Exe mud. | 0:05:55 | 0:06:02 | |
You've got the head end here, that sucks in water full of dirty sand. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:07 | |
The sand gets filtered through the stomach, and all the algae gets absorbed and digested from the sand. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:13 | |
Then clean sand gets pushed out of the rear end. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
Right, after a hard day on the mud flats hunting for worms, this is where a lot of the birds | 0:06:20 | 0:06:25 | |
come to roost at high tide. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:27 | |
You've got to check the tide timetables if you're coming to a place like this. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:32 | |
Bowling Green Marsh is in a narrow part of the estuary further upstream. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:39 | |
There are waders, plus a whole host of wild fowl. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
Widgeon grazing on the grass. There's a couple of shovelers. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
See the drake - very distinctly marked with that shovel-shaped bill, | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
which it uses for sifting through the water. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
That's a pintail up-ending there. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
Look at that. Lovely pointed tail. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
There's a couple of teal there. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
Under-rated the wildfowl, I think - quite a few of our species are really exotic birds. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:09 | |
Now, if you want exotic, this is the lapwing with its distinctive call. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:16 | |
And striking good looks, topped off with a wacky head crest. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:21 | |
It also has a great technique for finding food. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
It twitches its leg! | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
It's using the vibration to disturb the invertebrates in the soil. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:32 | |
When you're this close to birds, it is often tempting to try to get a good photograph of them. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:41 | |
If you've got a 35mm kit like this, with a big telephoto lens, this is an ideal opportunity. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:46 | |
Try and keep that lens as steady as possible | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
by resting on your coat, especially when you're in a hide. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
And choose a high-speed film as well - the higher the shutter speed the better, | 0:07:53 | 0:07:58 | |
because many of these species are always moving rapidly, and you'll need that to stop it from blurring. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:03 | |
And talking of speed... | 0:08:03 | 0:08:04 | |
..the arrival of a peregrine falcon panics a group of widgeon. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:11 | |
It powers into them, | 0:08:15 | 0:08:17 | |
but there's no meal this time and the ducks regroup and return to land. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:22 | |
I can't think of any other hides in the country that I have visited recently | 0:08:26 | 0:08:31 | |
and got views as close as this of these sorts of birds. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:36 | |
The hide is at Bowling Green Marsh | 0:08:36 | 0:08:38 | |
outside Topsham near Exeter. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:40 | |
It's open all year and it's free. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
For more details | 0:08:42 | 0:08:44 | |
check out our website... | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
You're watching Hands On Nature, your very own personal guide | 0:08:50 | 0:08:53 | |
on how to get very close to the best of British wildlife. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
In a moment, Janet Sumner sees what's flying in on the Humber Estuary. | 0:08:57 | 0:09:02 | |
What have we got? | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
It's a linnet, Janet, an adult male. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:06 | |
Fantastic colours. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
Do remember to take my advice of checking the tide times, | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
especially if you want to get the best views of the birds. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
If the tide is out, they will all be out feeding. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
If it's coming in, all the birds will be moving. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
And if the tide is in, they will all be roosting. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
One of the best ways you can check those tide times is to go to the BBC weather site - | 0:09:26 | 0:09:31 | |
something that Mike Dilger made sure he did | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
before he headed off to one of the best estuaries on the east coast. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:38 | |
The Wash - a vast estuary that stretches for over 100 square-miles. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:51 | |
And to fully appreciate it you need to take to the water, so I've come to Hunstanton | 0:09:53 | 0:09:59 | |
on the Norfolk side, where finding a boat is a bit of a challenge. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:03 | |
If you want to get on a boat, you need a jetty, but one slight problem, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
it's too shallow at Hunstanton. So if you want to see wildlife on the Wash, the boatmen have to be inventive. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:16 | |
The skipper of this bizarre-looking vessel is William Searls. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:22 | |
It's a boat that goes to sea, called an amphibian. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
I've never been in anything like it, where did you get it from? | 0:10:26 | 0:10:29 | |
We acquired it after a long search, | 0:10:29 | 0:10:32 | |
and we believe it was used in Vietnam to carry troops and tanks. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:37 | |
From the Mekong Delta to the Wash, and a sandbank known simply as Seal Island. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:44 | |
This is what we came for. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:51 | |
The common seals coming out to bask in the sun on the sandbanks. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:55 | |
And "common" is not a very good name for them | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
because there's two species of seal in Britain, the grey and the common. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:02 | |
The rarest is the common! | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
So really, maybe it should be called the uncommon seal! | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
The colony is here all year round, but the best time to visit is June or July | 0:11:09 | 0:11:14 | |
when the common seals have just had their pups. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
I keep hearing calls, what are those? | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
That's the pup calling to the mother cos the mother's just come off the bank to start feeding, | 0:11:22 | 0:11:26 | |
and he's got separated, but they will catch up again. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:30 | |
It looks sometimes as if they're having a surf ride with the mother - is that right? | 0:11:30 | 0:11:35 | |
Yes, they ride on the mother's necks, that's the newborn ones. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
-Then they separate a little bit. -Become more independent as time goes on. -Yes. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:42 | |
I've been given a fantastic opportunity to nip onto the sand bank. | 0:11:56 | 0:12:00 | |
The water's rising - we're almost going to get cut off if we are not careful! | 0:12:00 | 0:12:05 | |
But the seals are all around us. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:10 | |
It's just the best time of year. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
We've got adult bull males, mothers, really young pups. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:17 | |
It's just terrific. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
Minutes later, and it's all gone. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
The tide has reclaimed Seal Island. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
Two months on, in late summer, I headed to the other side of the estuary | 0:12:33 | 0:12:37 | |
in Lincolnshire to see what tasty morsels are hidden in its depths. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:43 | |
But to fully appreciate what's under the water, we're going to need one of these and an army of these. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:48 | |
Come on kids, let's go sea dipping! | 0:12:48 | 0:12:51 | |
-YEAH! -Are you ready to go kids? | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
Excellent! Most important thing, you've all got your shoes on? Because we've got weaver fish here | 0:12:54 | 0:12:59 | |
so we have to be careful of our feet. And you've got your nets? | 0:12:59 | 0:13:03 | |
'Some of the nets that Education Officer Kim Hudson has given us | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
'are made out of ladies' tights and plastic bottles!' | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
Are you ready to go? Let's go! | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
'Apparently, they are the ideal tool for sea dipping. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:17 | |
'And Gibraltar Point near Skegness is the perfect place to have a go.' | 0:13:17 | 0:13:21 | |
To the uninitiated, Kim, it looks mucky, dirty and polluted, but it's not, is it? | 0:13:24 | 0:13:29 | |
No, everyone always presumes that, but it's got a lot of mud in it because we've got muddy shores, | 0:13:29 | 0:13:34 | |
sandy shores, the rivers opening up into the Wash. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
Let's have a look at what you've got. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:45 | |
'Surely everyone knows the starfish, but few are familiar with its bizarre table manners. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:51 | |
'The way it engulfs and swallows its food.' | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
Do you know how these eat? It's amazing. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:56 | |
Their stomach is right in the middle, and they can eject the whole of their stomach outside | 0:13:56 | 0:14:01 | |
and completely swallow it back down again. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:05 | |
Kim, it's worth bearing in mind you've got to be really safe around the shore edge, it can be dangerous. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:11 | |
I would say little ones need to be up to their knees - they shouldn't go any deeper. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:17 | |
Always have an adult around. Make sure there is someone onshore watching them. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
Stuart, the lad with the big net, has found these two cracking little crabs. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:28 | |
And this one particularly, is a female. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
If you look under her abdomen, there's a massive egg case. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:36 | |
And of course, when you're holding crabs, make sure you hold them either side of the shell - | 0:14:36 | 0:14:42 | |
that way, you don't get nipped by the pincers! | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
Kim, we've done rather well. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
-Yes, brilliant catching. -What's your highlight, do you think? | 0:14:50 | 0:14:54 | |
I always love the pipefish. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:56 | |
'This is a relative of the seahorse. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:00 | |
'You can see the resemblance from its pointed snout. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
'And just like the seahorse, when the pipefish has young, the female takes a back seat.' | 0:15:03 | 0:15:07 | |
The man does all the work. The female will lay the eggs, | 0:15:07 | 0:15:12 | |
the male will have them in his pouch and brood those, and then they'll hatch out. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:17 | |
Thank you very much, kids, for finding such brilliant creatures. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:21 | |
But there's much more than sea dipping and seals, and to find one of the great Norfolk spectacles, | 0:15:21 | 0:15:27 | |
I'm going to have to get up tomorrow morning at dawn. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
It's a beautiful morning at the RSPB reserves in Snettisham. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:39 | |
It's not the early start that's critical. We've come here for one of the highest tides of the year | 0:15:39 | 0:15:45 | |
because the high tide brings the spectacle we're after. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
It's a gathering of the feathered clans. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
Wave after wave of birds are constantly on the move, | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
as the tide rises, covering their feeding areas. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
The reason why the Wash is so wonderful for waders is down to this - | 0:16:14 | 0:16:19 | |
mile after mile of mud. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
But when the high tide comes in, their breakfast, dinner and tea are completely covered, | 0:16:21 | 0:16:27 | |
so they have to go to roost in the pits behind, and with luck, they should fly straight over my head. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:34 | |
Some of the birds have already settled in the old gravel pits, which are a perfect refuge. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:42 | |
Out on the mud, there's a whole variety of waders, | 0:16:43 | 0:16:48 | |
but the final guests at this party are about to make a spectacular entrance. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:53 | |
15,000 knots. | 0:16:56 | 0:16:58 | |
One of the first migrants to return from their breeding grounds in the High Arctic. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:04 | |
It's still effectively high summer, and the birds have just arrived, | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
so a lot of them are still in full summer plumage, | 0:17:07 | 0:17:11 | |
which is this lovely terracotta, brick-red colour, right over their bellies. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:16 | |
These birds have just flown a huge distance from Greenland and north-east Canada. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:23 | |
The sea is just lapping against the edge of the flock. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:35 | |
On the edge, they're getting their feet wet and are flying over to the other side. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:40 | |
They're just not ready to go yet, | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
but I think it's going to be a question of any second now. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:48 | |
The oystercatcher and the knot are in one enormous flock. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
The oystercatchers are the first to make a dash for the gravel pits. | 0:17:56 | 0:18:01 | |
And as the last bits of exposed mud disappear, it's the turn of the knot. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:07 | |
The tide's just about in... | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
And look around me... | 0:18:15 | 0:18:16 | |
There are knot everywhere in a massive flock! | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
Look, right over my head. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
All I can hear is the sound of the lapping waves covering the mud | 0:18:26 | 0:18:31 | |
and the sound of thousands of knot flying over my head to the pits behind. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:37 | |
WHOOSHING | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
Fantastic! | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
To see that bird spectacle, | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
visit the RSPB Snettisham reserve | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
in Norfolk. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:52 | |
Late summer and autumn are best. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:54 | |
You can find more information | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
on our website... | 0:18:56 | 0:18:57 | |
Another one of our largest estuaries is in the North of England, at the mouth of the River Humber. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:09 | |
Just 25 miles downstream from Hull is a naturalist paradise. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
Janet Sumner has been to Spurn Point. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
Spurn is a fragile and unique environment. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
It's connected to the mainland by a three and a half mile thin strip of sand and shingle. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:30 | |
What makes it so different is it's a landscape on the move. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
Spurn Point is really a bit of an oddity. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
This side gets pounded by the North Sea every day and it's got a real coastal feel. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:48 | |
But on the other side, you've got the River Humber and one of the largest estuaries in Britain. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:53 | |
It's like two different worlds existing side-by-side. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:57 | |
This stretch of coastline is eroding away, | 0:19:58 | 0:20:02 | |
and you'll find a lot of the debris has been washed down the coast to Spurn. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
Forage on the beach and you'll find all sorts of rocks from further north | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
that have been pushed south by time and tide. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:12 | |
One of the best ways of understanding what's happening on the ground is to get a bit of height. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:20 | |
This is just the most amazing view! | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
From up here, you can see the big curved shape of Spurn Point. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:38 | |
There have been at least five Spurns. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
The others have all been washed away, but every time, a new one grows in its place. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:45 | |
Spurn's real claim to fame is its bird life. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:50 | |
Thousands of migrants pass through here. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
Bird watcher Mike Coverdale is qualified to monitor their movements by trapping. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:58 | |
Mike, so these are the mist nets, aren't they? | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
-Just incredibly fine. -Yes. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
They are made of very fine material, so the birds can't see them. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:09 | |
So when they are flying along, they fly into the net. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:13 | |
Then the people that are ringing birds look at the nets regularly, | 0:21:13 | 0:21:16 | |
take the bird out, ring it, let the bird go and it is totally unharmed. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:20 | |
-What have you got? -It's a linnet, an adult male. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
Fantastic colours. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:26 | |
Beautiful red on it. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:28 | |
Is it here on Spurn to breed, or just passing through? | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
This bird is here to breed. It will have arrived here in April | 0:21:32 | 0:21:36 | |
from southern Europe, spend summer here, raising at least two broods of young. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:41 | |
It will change these feathers, the bright feathers will wear during the year. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:45 | |
Once it's done that, it will migrate south | 0:21:45 | 0:21:47 | |
to southern Europe with the rest of the linnets and lots of other birds. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:51 | |
The birds aren't the only reason to come here. I've enlisted Pete Bowler to show me why. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:57 | |
Peter, we are on the hunt for Spurn's most beautiful reptile. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:02 | |
I've got an unusual piece of kit here that you made me bring along. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
-What am I going to do with it? -We are going to see if we can attract common lizards | 0:22:05 | 0:22:10 | |
to come out and sunbathe, warm up their bodies on this piece of wood with kitchen foil wrapped around it. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:17 | |
It helps the lizards to warm up. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
We'll leave that for a couple of hours and come back and see if we've got any luck. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:25 | |
Maybe we'll be lucky. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:27 | |
'While the lizard trap was warming up, it was time to do a bit of newt hunting on the salt marsh.' | 0:22:27 | 0:22:32 | |
You just have to be patient and persistent. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
-Hang on! -Have you got one? -I have. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
We nearly didn't see that. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:42 | |
Down in the corner, curled up, playing dead. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
So that's the female smooth newt, isn't it? | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
-It is. -Oh, she's off! | 0:22:48 | 0:22:49 | |
Spectacular, lovely golden-brown colour. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:52 | |
Nice dark stripes on the edges of the back. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
A cute little face. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
They've got really endearing faces. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
Let's put it back down where we found it, tucked in that corner. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:03 | |
-Where we found it. -That would be great. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
'We return the smooth newt to her home, and it's back to our sun trap | 0:23:06 | 0:23:09 | |
'which has been hotting up, but sadly has not enticed a lizard.' | 0:23:09 | 0:23:15 | |
We've had no luck with the suntrap, but there's definitely lizards on that wall. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:19 | |
It's a great site for lizards to occupy because it's a south-facing wall - catches all the sun. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:24 | |
The stones reflect the heat to help them warm up, lots of insects. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:28 | |
Look! There's one there at the bottom of the wall. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:30 | |
-Yes. -Just coming out of the grass. -Yep, I see him. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:34 | |
He's got lovely little spots along his back. Is that a male or female? | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
It's difficult to tell from here. If you're not sure whether it's male or female, | 0:23:38 | 0:23:42 | |
if you've got a camera, take a photo of it and check on the internet or in a book. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:46 | |
Whatever you do, don't try and catch it | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
because lizards can shed their tails as part of their escape mechanism. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
If the tail breaks off, they waste energy re-growing it and they become more vulnerable. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:57 | |
Oh! It's gone! Just dropped down into the grass. That was brilliant! | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
-I'm glad we've seen one. -Excellent. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
Spurn is one of those places that has wildlife oddities. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:22 | |
Sometimes you can get almost biblical plagues of creatures here. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
Recently, there have been massive numbers of garden tiger moth caterpillars. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
But this year, there's lots and lots of lackey moths. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
The striped colours of these lackey moths resemble the livery worn by servants or lackies, | 0:24:34 | 0:24:39 | |
hence their name. And you can often find them in these communal nests. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
It's like a caterpillar nursery. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:46 | |
Crucial to the survival of this landscape are its plants, and Denise Coverdale is going to show me why. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:55 | |
This stuff - I recognise that, that's really common plants for sand dunes, isn't it, these grasses? | 0:24:56 | 0:25:03 | |
Yes, they are. It's all marram grass and lime grass. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
Lime grass in particular is a stunning grass. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
These plants, these are actually holding Spurn Point together. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:14 | |
-They bind the sand dunes together. -Yes, they are. They come in quickly. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:19 | |
One example being that this winter we lost a lot of sand dune area | 0:25:19 | 0:25:25 | |
at the top of Spurn here. A lot more sand was brought in, | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
and within months all these have come back through again. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
Real pioneers! | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
Very much so. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:34 | |
-This has got really pretty flowers, and the bees are going mad for it! -Yes, they are. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:42 | |
It has a lovely smell. When you get close to it, a lovely scent. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:47 | |
-What is it? -Sea rocket. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:49 | |
Very fleshy leaves. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:51 | |
It does look a bit like rocket, the rocket you get in your salad. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:56 | |
And it has got incredibly waxy leaves. | 0:25:56 | 0:26:00 | |
Is that typical for plants on the sand or on the dunes? | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
It is the plant's way of retaining as much water as it can. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
That's quite good advice, not just to look things up in your flower book or take photographs, | 0:26:07 | 0:26:14 | |
but to get down and start feeling the plants and smelling them, because these do feel quite different. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:20 | |
As you leave the beachy side of Spurn Point, the plant life changes again. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
This is one of the best salt marsh habitats in the whole of the British Isles. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:31 | |
What is this strange little plant that you've brought me here to see? | 0:26:35 | 0:26:39 | |
It is rather strange. It has two names. One is glasswort, the other one is marsh sunfire. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:44 | |
Marsh sunfire - people recognise it as being something... People cut it and pickle it and then eat it. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:51 | |
It's edible! What does it taste like? | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
Rather salty. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:55 | |
Oh, it is! It's incredibly salty. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:59 | |
And it's got this waxy, sort of fleshy feel to it again. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:04 | |
Yes, it's like a lot of the other plants, it's trying to keep as much water in as it can | 0:27:04 | 0:27:08 | |
and protect itself from saltwater. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
It's amazing that these plants adapt themselves to live in quite horrible, | 0:27:11 | 0:27:17 | |
hostile, environments. It's remarkable. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:20 | |
Spurn is just 25 miles east of Hull. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
Stop when you get to the sea. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:30 | |
It's managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
Check out our website for more information... | 0:27:42 | 0:27:45 | |
Well, that's all we've got time for, but before we go, look at this. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
It's not just the birds that come down here to the Exe Estuary to gather shellfish. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
These ladies are here trying to fill their bucket with cockles, like this one, ready for their supper. | 0:27:55 | 0:28:01 | |
I'm told they boil them and then pickle them in vinegar, or they fry them in egg with breadcrumbs. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:06 | |
When we were kids, we used to crack them open alive and knock it back with a swig of whisky! | 0:28:06 | 0:28:11 | |
These days, I'll leave my share for the birds. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
Well, that's it for this series of Hands on Nature. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:20 | |
Time to stop watching the telly | 0:28:20 | 0:28:22 | |
and get out there amongst all of this wonderful wildlife. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:27 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:28:34 | 0:28:37 |