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Hello, I'm Chris Packham and this is Hands On Nature, | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
your practical guide to the best wildlife locations across the UK. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:10 | |
And today we're going to be wet and wild, both out at sea and inland, as we explore our waterways. | 0:00:10 | 0:00:16 | |
And I've got to tell you, they're amongst the best places to find some our most exciting wildlife. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:22 | |
I'll be checking out Northern Ireland's charismatic bird life. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:26 | |
Gorgeous, I mean, look at them! | 0:00:26 | 0:00:28 | |
Why don't they make cuddly cormorant toys? | 0:00:28 | 0:00:30 | |
Look at what Janet Sumner discovers in a Welsh river. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
We're looking at the evidence of a four foot-long sea monster. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
There it is, look. Oh, it's there. | 0:00:38 | 0:00:40 | |
And Mike Dilger finds a ghostly bird that patrols a Yorkshire canal. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:44 | |
This is Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, the largest sea inlet in the British Isles, | 0:00:55 | 0:01:00 | |
and the stats about this place are amazing. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:03 | |
Get this - every day 350 million gallons of sea water rush in and out here, | 0:01:03 | 0:01:09 | |
and it's one of the richest marine environments anywhere in Europe. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:13 | |
More than 2,000 species of plants and animals have been discovered here. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:17 | |
But it's the creatures that live above the waterline that I've come to see and one of the best times | 0:01:17 | 0:01:22 | |
to start to get to grips with them is at the height of the Northern Irish summer. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:27 | |
Strangford Lough is beautiful, wild and rugged | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
and it's a drowned ice-age landscape to boot. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
These small hilly islands have a special name. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
They're called drumlins and they were made when the ice age ended | 0:01:44 | 0:01:48 | |
and the sea levels rose. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:50 | |
Local folklore has it that there are 365 of them, | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
one for every day of the year. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
I haven't been counting them properly but there has got to be at least, hmm... | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
80, 85 islands out there, which is pretty impressive. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
But you don't have to stand here on the land looking at them. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
You can take a boat trip and that's also a brilliant way of getting close to some spectacular wildlife. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:18 | |
David Thompson knows this place like the back of his hand. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
Just the man to show me the highlights, including one special place called Bird Island. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:31 | |
You can see it from boat trips onto the lough, though landing isn't normally allowed. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:36 | |
Dave, the lough's vast, isn't it? | 0:02:40 | 0:02:43 | |
And it seems to have its own complement of communities. Its own little world, if you like. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:48 | |
It is. It's a huge sea lough, | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
almost landlocked, apart from these constricted narrows out into the Irish Sea. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:55 | |
-150 square kilometres in area. -Massive. -It's massive, and I think we worked out | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
there's 180 kilometres of shoreline when you add it all together. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
-It's so rich - lots of plankton, lots of fish. -Lots. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:05 | |
And vast numbers of birds. That's quite a show of cormorants. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:08 | |
That's brilliant. Isn't it fantastic? | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
They go up to 400 pair of cormorants here. One of the biggest colonies... | 0:03:11 | 0:03:16 | |
I sense we're cormorant fans alike? | 0:03:16 | 0:03:18 | |
Absolutely, I just love these creatures. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:20 | |
Brilliant. Full of character. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
We don't have that aversity to eating a few fish. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
No, not at all. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:27 | |
No aversity to watching them vomit up that fish to feed their youngsters. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:31 | |
That's a delightful practice, don't you think? | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
Course it is. Punk rock birds, cormorants - I love them. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:37 | |
These pre-historic looking creatures are found all over the UK | 0:03:37 | 0:03:41 | |
but it's their superb ability in catching fish that often brings them into conflict with anglers. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:46 | |
Today, though, I'm going to get really close to them by helping David with a bit of survey work. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:51 | |
These are big, healthy chaps. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
Yeah, they're really good strong youngsters. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
Look at the mouth! | 0:03:59 | 0:04:01 | |
This bird's mouth is opened to the size of a mug. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
No wonder they can swallow such massive fish, it's a superb adaptation. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:08 | |
Catch something big, get it down, digest it. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
Gorgeous. Look at them! | 0:04:11 | 0:04:13 | |
Why don't they make cuddly cormorant toys? | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
Seriously. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:18 | |
Gorgeous little things. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:19 | |
Look, this is what they're eating. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
-His dinner. -Oh, that's nice. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:26 | |
Look, there's some very young young here. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
They've just hatched. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:31 | |
A day old, two days at the most. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:33 | |
-Oh, my goodness me! -Blind. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
No feathers. Looking like reptiles. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
-And a clutch of eggs? -Yes. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
They're doing well. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:43 | |
Look at these guys here. Oh! | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
That's fantastic. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
Oh, look at you! | 0:04:49 | 0:04:50 | |
You wouldn't, would you? | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
Oh, you would! | 0:04:53 | 0:04:55 | |
This one's still got his egg tooth. That little white thing. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:59 | |
How about that for nest material? | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
Stolen from children! | 0:05:02 | 0:05:04 | |
Yes, they're wicked creatures! | 0:05:04 | 0:05:06 | |
Gorgeous little things. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
-Wonderful. -Aren't they brilliant? | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
Oh, they're just superb. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
At the southern tip of Strangford Lough | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
is the National Trust nature reserve at Killard Point | 0:05:31 | 0:05:35 | |
and in June it's just carpeted with flowers. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
A feast for the eyes. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:43 | |
-Look at that. -Beautiful. -A piece of paradise. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:45 | |
Absolutely. Where else would you find this? | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
Just about unique, really. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:50 | |
-This kidney vetch is bright yellow. -There's a sea of it. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
There were some spectacular wild flowers | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
but sometimes the really lovely ones aren't always the most colourful. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:06 | |
-Oh, wow. -You nearly knelt on that. I nearly knelt on that. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
You nearly knelt on that. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:11 | |
If I had knelt on that, | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
-you'd have had to beat me! -You'd have hated yourself for a week. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
-Frog orchid. -You're absolutely right, frog orchid. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:21 | |
-Now that is a monster. -They're good specimens here, aren't they? | 0:06:21 | 0:06:25 | |
Are you not used to seeing them so tall and lush? | 0:06:25 | 0:06:27 | |
No, on the chalk where I come from, they're stumpy little things, | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
but that's in its prime. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:33 | |
Very healthy. Doing well. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
Called a frog orchid because it's frog-coloured | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
and the flowers are said, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:40 | |
or WERE said by the Victorian namers, to resemble frogs. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
-Do you see a frog? -Not unless it's been run over by a truck! | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
But it's a beautiful plant. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:51 | |
Yeah, it's gorgeous. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:52 | |
But in the autumn, Strangford Lough changes again, | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
echoing to the sound of an entire species of bird on the move. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
This is THE place to witness the migration | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
of tens upon tens of thousands of Brent geese. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
There's plenty of truth in the old adage | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, | 0:07:09 | 0:07:11 | |
especially when it comes to getting to know your goose. Look at this. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:16 | |
It's a little star. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:17 | |
These Brents might come from the Arctic regions of Canada | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
but they're very certainly not Canada geese. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
They're a distinct species and you can tell the two apart easily. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:26 | |
The Brents here are much smaller. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:28 | |
Look, they're the size of a duck. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
And they have that small blunt beak | 0:07:30 | 0:07:32 | |
and they lack a very characteristic white facial panel. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:36 | |
Super little thing. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:39 | |
They might be small but these are remarkable creatures making an astonishing journey. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:45 | |
The entire world population of these light-bellied Brent geese | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
leave their Arctic breeding grounds to head for the lough. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
It's a 3,000-mile journey that leaves them on the brink of exhaustion. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:56 | |
The Wildfowl and Wetland Reserve at Castle Espie is the best place to see them. | 0:07:56 | 0:08:01 | |
The question for Brent goose expert John McCullough | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
is what makes this place so attractive for them. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
The reason is food. That's all they're interested in when they arrive here. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:19 | |
We have huge swathes of a thing called eel grass. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
They're coming to feed on this, as they've come through a huge journey | 0:08:22 | 0:08:26 | |
and they want to settle with us in the winter and just eat. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
When's the best time to come and see the whole 30,000 doing their stuff? | 0:08:30 | 0:08:34 | |
The best time to come is October. The month of October. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
You can see them from August onwards but October is the maximum time | 0:08:37 | 0:08:41 | |
when most of the birds have gathered and come in and settled down. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:45 | |
But you do have some birds which have satellite tracking on? | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
Hi-tech low-tech fusion. The low-tech fusion bit of it is that we keep these on with knicker elastic. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:54 | |
So you have a transmitter on the back of a little goose that costs us a fortune, | 0:08:54 | 0:08:58 | |
yet we put it on with knicker elastic and glue. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
Robo-goose! State-of-the-art knicker elastic. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:05 | |
Where are they now, then? | 0:09:05 | 0:09:07 | |
We caught them in Iceland in May of this year. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
We followed them into the Arctic and now they're on their way back. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:12 | |
What a bird, what a story! | 0:09:12 | 0:09:14 | |
And you can follow their fortunes on the BBC's Supergoose website. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:18 | |
One of the best things about watching Brent geese here | 0:09:41 | 0:09:44 | |
is that you can visit the WWT reserve at Castle Espie. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
They've got a great captive collection, birds from all around the world, | 0:09:47 | 0:09:51 | |
some of them even hand-tame, like these nenes here, | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
and an excellent tea room, a prerequisite of any good birding trip out. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
You're watching Hands On Nature, your practical guide to the best wildlife locations across the UK. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:07 | |
Coming up in a minute, Mike Dilger does some do-it-yourself pond dipping... | 0:10:07 | 0:10:12 | |
-Can I have a go with a tennis racket? -Yes. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
I fancy a comedy moment! | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
But first, water plays an incredibly important role in the shaping of our landscape, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:33 | |
particularly when it's draining down to the sea. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:36 | |
Now, the River Wye is the fifh longest in the UK, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
it rises in Wales and eventually goes on to form part of the border between Wales and England. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:43 | |
It's largely unpolluted and an incredible area for nature conservation. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
No wonder, then, that Janet Sumner couldn't wait to get her waders on | 0:10:47 | 0:10:51 | |
and explore a particularly beautiful stretch near Builth Wells. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:56 | |
This is part of an 11-mile stretch of the Wye Valley | 0:11:10 | 0:11:15 | |
that I plan to explore. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
The river passes through some of the most beautiful and unspoilt scenery you can imagine. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:22 | |
It's a river famed for the diversity of its wildlife, | 0:11:22 | 0:11:26 | |
including some of our most celebrated rare and endangered fish species. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:31 | |
Some of the Wye's most magnificent natural features | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
are where its tributaries tumble into the river, cutting deep into the rocks. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:41 | |
This is what I mean - huge waterfalls, | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
which is fine for us to come and admire, | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
but it also has an effect on the wildlife. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
Now, just imagine that you're an Atlantic salmon coming back up this river to spawn. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:58 | |
You've got to make it up this waterfall, so only the biggest and the bravest get to the top. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:03 | |
It's no wonder that the salmon in this river are famed for their size. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:07 | |
If you come in autumn, you might see these amazing fish in action. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:13 | |
They'll have travelled 6,000 miles from the Atlantic | 0:12:13 | 0:12:16 | |
and this is the last exhausting part of their journey. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
But even in spring, you can find salmon here in the Wye | 0:12:23 | 0:12:27 | |
and some other lesser-known but equally fascinating fish | 0:12:27 | 0:12:31 | |
making their own amazing migratory journeys. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
My guide to the river is local environmentalist, Simon Evans. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:44 | |
Hi, Simon, is anything biting today? | 0:12:49 | 0:12:51 | |
I had one on earlier and I almost had it to the bank to show you, but it fell off at the last moment. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:56 | |
-I don't believe that! -It's the fisherman's tale every single time. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:00 | |
It's funny, isn't it, because everybody knows that birds migrate | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
but other creatures migrate as well. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
Absolutely. In this river there are fish that come from many, many thousands of miles away | 0:13:06 | 0:13:11 | |
just to come back to spawn. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
Apparently there's an amazing mystery fish in this river that we know very, very little about? | 0:13:13 | 0:13:18 | |
Well, I hope to be able to show you one soon. I'm just looking for them at the moment. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:23 | |
It's a strange fish that's actually a species of herring | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
but here we are, 110 miles from the sea, and I'm fishing for herring. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:31 | |
-Got him! -Oh, have you got one? -Here we go. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:34 | |
Gosh, it's really bending the rod down. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
Oh, it's fantastic colours. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:43 | |
-Now, what does it remind you of? -Well, it looks like a sea fish | 0:13:43 | 0:13:47 | |
which is bizarre because we're in a river. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:49 | |
Do you want to know what the mystery fish is? This is a twaite shad. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:54 | |
-A shad? -A twaite shad. -It's really bright and glittery. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:58 | |
The scales are designed to be reflective so they reflect the colour of whatever's there. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
It's taking on the green of your jacket. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
No-one knows anything about these fish. There's only four rivers | 0:14:05 | 0:14:09 | |
in the UK that have decent runs of these. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
And the shad are only here for six weeks of the year. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
The adults come up for a month, they spawn, the eggs hatch, two weeks later they're gone. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
So I've been really, really lucky to see this, haven't I? | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
You've come at just the right time. Shall we let him go? | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
It'll just take a couple of seconds just to get his breath back | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
and then he'll disappear back into the depths. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
There he goes. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
-There he goes. -Wow! | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
Now, you don't have to be a fisherman to see fish or anythingelse in the water | 0:14:41 | 0:14:45 | |
but here's a couple of things that will help you. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
These are polarising sunglasses. They really cut down on the glare from the surface. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:53 | |
And if you want to take photographs, get yourself a polarising filter for your camera. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:58 | |
Now, our cameraman, Trevor, is going to show you how well these work. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
Are you ready, Trevor? That's with the polariser out. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:07 | |
And this is with the polariser in. And what a difference it makes. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:12 | |
I'm now at the lair of what is, believe me, a real monster fish | 0:15:13 | 0:15:17 | |
and here for just a few weeks in May and June. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
If we put our glasses on... | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
Yeah, use my glasses. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:23 | |
..can you see, there's a sort of scrape up here | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
where there are no stones, it's been taken back to sand, and then a pile of stones behind. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:31 | |
And if I just show you | 0:15:31 | 0:15:33 | |
one of the stones. | 0:15:33 | 0:15:35 | |
So this is a fish nest? | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
Yeah, and that's the sort of size of stones that they're shifting. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:42 | |
No way! Are you telling me that a fish moved something of that size? | 0:15:42 | 0:15:47 | |
This is the spawning site of a sea lamprey. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:49 | |
When they spawn, they clamp onto the stones, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
they lift up and then they twist back down and drop it back down. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:56 | |
You can still see the scrapers, | 0:15:56 | 0:15:58 | |
the double raspers where the lamprey's picked it up. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
-The fish moved all those stones? -That pile of stones there have all been moved by two fish. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:06 | |
But the thing about these fish, to shift these stones, these are big fish. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:10 | |
These are 4ft long, as thick as your arm, and they're predators. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:15 | |
-Are they in the water right now? -They are. They're probably... | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
The two that spawned this redd are probably in this pool behind us. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:21 | |
Before you get too worried, don't worry, like the shad, they don't feed in fresh water. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:26 | |
Can you believe that? Right here in the middle of the Wye Valley, | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
we're looking at the evidence of a 4ft-long sea monster! | 0:16:30 | 0:16:33 | |
The next day from that very bridge, we spotted that the lamprey were back. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:39 | |
Our cameraman captured this amazing footage. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:45 | |
The lamprey clamp their mouths to the rocks | 0:16:49 | 0:16:51 | |
to move them out of the way. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:54 | |
They're creating a safe nest. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
And they thrash their tails to make a dip in the river bed | 0:16:59 | 0:17:03 | |
in which to lay their eggs. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:05 | |
You don't need an underwater camera to watch them. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
This is the view from the bridge. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:10 | |
Out at sea, these 4ft-long fish are ferocious parasites, | 0:17:12 | 0:17:16 | |
clamping their lips onto prey | 0:17:16 | 0:17:18 | |
and literally sucking the innards out of them. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:21 | |
It's an extraordinary animal. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:23 | |
Now, another way to get close to fish in the Wye is to get your net out. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:33 | |
What we've found is a tiny baby version | 0:17:35 | 0:17:39 | |
of the Wye's most famous resident - the salmon. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
Oh, wow, no, there he is! | 0:17:42 | 0:17:44 | |
He's young of the year. He's hatched out of the gravel just a couple of weeks ago. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:48 | |
How do you know he's a salmon? | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
He's got giant petrel fins - those yellow fins on the side - | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
and he uses them to hold him on the bottom. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:55 | |
Fingers crossed, in five years' time he'll be coming back up this river, | 0:17:55 | 0:17:59 | |
4ft-long, 30lb, leaping up the waterfalls, | 0:17:59 | 0:18:02 | |
having been on a trip all the way out to Greenland. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
There's just one more creature that I'm hoping to see. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
He's a quirky little chap with an unusual mannerism. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
If you sit quietly by the river you might be lucky enough to see a dipper. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:24 | |
They love this fast-flowing shallow water | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
with lots of exposed boulders for them to use as perches. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:31 | |
Just needs a bit of patience. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:33 | |
There's one. Right now. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
On the boulders. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:43 | |
They've got this funny habit of bobbing up and down when they perch. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:47 | |
He's doing it now. It's a bit like they're doing tiny curtsies, | 0:18:47 | 0:18:51 | |
and nobody knows why they do that. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
It's one of the great unsolved mysteries of the bird world. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
Birds of prey dip their heads down to get a better sighting | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
on small mammals, but he's not doing that | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
because he's fishing for insects in the water. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
He could be communicating with other dippers but I don't see any more around today. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:11 | |
So the mystery remains. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:13 | |
A great way to explore the river is by boat and you can hire one | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
from Hay-on-Wye and other towns along the river. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
In the past, many of our waterways got a bad press for being dirty | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
and polluted, and in some cases that criticism was richly deserved. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
But over the last 25 years, we've gone a long way to improving our water quality | 0:19:47 | 0:19:52 | |
and where human disturbance has been kept to a minimum, wildife has been able to creep back in. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:58 | |
Now, Mike Dilger discovered just such a place near Pocklington in the North of England. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:04 | |
The Pocklington Canal might be only ten miles long, | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
but what it lacks in length, | 0:20:20 | 0:20:22 | |
it makes up for in its sheer diversity, | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
both above and below the water. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:27 | |
And to top it all, exploring it couldn't be easier or more relaxing. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:32 | |
And if you get to chance to take a boat journey on a canal like this, | 0:20:34 | 0:20:38 | |
I'd advise you to grab it with both hands. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
There's no better way to get a canal's-eye view | 0:20:41 | 0:20:45 | |
of all the water birds, plants, and lovely insects. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
These yellow pond lilies that are fringing the edges of the canal | 0:20:56 | 0:21:00 | |
are just lovely plants. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
There's a few species quite similar, actually. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
You can tell this one, the yellow pond lily, because it smells of brandy | 0:21:05 | 0:21:09 | |
and the big leaves are perfect launch pads | 0:21:09 | 0:21:13 | |
for the red-eye damselfly. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
Each male protects his own lily pad and says, "Get off, it's mine." | 0:21:15 | 0:21:20 | |
You can find 13 species of dragonfly and damselfly on the canal. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:26 | |
In fact, in just a few hours I counted eight, which is pretty good, | 0:21:26 | 0:21:31 | |
including this banded demoiselle. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
Just watch it waiting for passing prey. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
Gotcha! A protein-packed meal of a midge. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:42 | |
I tell you what, dragonfly-watching doesn't get better than this. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:50 | |
I'm watching Britain's biggest dragonfly, the emperor. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
The female is curling her abdomen round | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
and laying eggs underneath the weed. | 0:21:56 | 0:22:00 | |
Superb. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:01 | |
One activity that appeals to the child in us all is a spot of pond-dipping. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:14 | |
And to show me how it's done, I've enlisted the help of expert pond-dippers Geoff and Roma Oxford. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:20 | |
Gosh, this is fantastic catch. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:22 | |
-I think there are lots of very young... -Hello, chaps. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:27 | |
-Hi, there. -Ah, hello. -How's it going? | 0:22:27 | 0:22:29 | |
-Fine. -It's really interesting. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
We've found quite a lot of different aquatic invertebrates. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:37 | |
You've done phenomenally well already. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:39 | |
In terms of tools, this white tray's wonderful | 0:22:39 | 0:22:42 | |
because you can see everything that's inside. What about nets? | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
-This is a professional one... -This is very specific to pond-dipping? | 0:22:45 | 0:22:49 | |
..and it's really rather expensive. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
But if you're desperate and you don't want to use a professional pond net or an expensive one, | 0:22:51 | 0:22:57 | |
an old Wimbledon racket and a pair of your mum's tights. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
Maybe I'll give that a go later! | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
But what you pull out of the canal can be amazing. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:07 | |
-The thing that immediately strikes me is this little critter here. -Leech. Yes. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:12 | |
They're fantastic, aren't they? The way they writhe through the water. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
People get the heebie-jeebies about leeches, | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
thinking they're going to suck their blood, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:21 | |
but virtually all of the leeches you get in freshwater | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
eat nothing larger than snails or snail eggs. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
Further downstream, there's even more to find. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:34 | |
-Can I have a go with the tennis racket? -You certainly can, yes. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
I fancy a comedy moment! And if you have a go with that, we'll see what we can get. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:42 | |
I love it when the DIY techniques work as well as something you spent a lot of money on. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:47 | |
-Yes, that's right. -Well, yes. -Look at that! | 0:23:47 | 0:23:49 | |
What you catch in a canal depends on where you do your dipping. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
And in this stretch, which is oxygenated, | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
you'll find different creatures like these freshwater shrimps. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
If you're in any doubt about what you've got, | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
its worth taking a field guide along to help you out with any identification issues. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:08 | |
The water in this canal is really clear | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
and there's a good stretch that doesn't have any boat traffic, | 0:24:11 | 0:24:15 | |
so you've got a great chance of seeing eels... | 0:24:15 | 0:24:19 | |
..roach and dace... | 0:24:21 | 0:24:23 | |
..and even freshwater mussels, | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
which can lay a staggering 200,000 eggs each year. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:30 | |
Nick Askew has got one of the best jobs in the whole of Yorkshire - | 0:24:33 | 0:24:37 | |
studying an animal that's right at the top of everyone's must-see list. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
And the grassland that fringes the canal is a great place to start looking for them. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:47 | |
A great evening, Nick, but what are our chances of seeing the barn owls tonight? | 0:24:47 | 0:24:51 | |
Sadly, over the last century numbers have fallen from about 12,000 pairs in the '30s | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
to about 4,000 pairs at present. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:57 | |
But this is one of the few areas where numbers have remained quite stable. | 0:24:57 | 0:25:01 | |
In fact, they've been increasing over recent years | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
so you've got a really good chance of seeing a barn owl round here. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
But to see barn owls, a little stealth is required | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
and in a flat landscape like this, you need a bit of height. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
This is absolutely ideal habitat. You can see all the rough grass we've got | 0:25:13 | 0:25:17 | |
on the edges of the canal and in the fields. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
-So this is perfect barn owl habitat, yeah. -So, best habitat. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
-What's the best time? -Dusk is very good if you're not an early riser. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
If you are, then dawn's good as well. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
Especially during the summer, May to September. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:31 | |
They're nice, big obvious birds. Just keep your eyes open. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:35 | |
They've got a lot of things right here. The rough grassland is full of prey, | 0:25:35 | 0:25:39 | |
and watch out for these curious dog kennel-like structures. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:43 | |
These are barn owl boxes. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:45 | |
-There it is, look! It's there. -Yeah. I see it. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
-Fantastic! -That's it. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
Oh, wonderful view! | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
-I think you're right. -What unbelievable timing! | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
-Here it comes. -Just floated straight into shot. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
That's lovely. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:09 | |
This is classic barn owl behaviour, flying about 10ft off the ground | 0:26:13 | 0:26:18 | |
whilst listening and watching for prey. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
He's off to hunt to find some food for his chicks, isn't he? | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
He's got a lot of voles to catch. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
By now things were moving on, so it was time to help Nick with his research into barn owls chicks. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:35 | |
OK, so let's see... | 0:26:37 | 0:26:39 | |
-what we have here. -Oh, just fantastic. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
There's so much down as well. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:44 | |
Yeah, it's just falling off now. You can see all the quill dust as well. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
You can see that beautiful heart-shaped face. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:50 | |
We're going to fit them with rings. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:52 | |
It's worth bearing in mind that Nick is licensed to touch barn owls and nobody else can. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:57 | |
-So even though it's Hands On Nature, it's hands definitely off barn owls. -Unless you have a licence. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:02 | |
One thing you can get your hands on is these. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
-Yeah. -The old barn owl pellets. Most people think these are a kind of faeces but they're not. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:10 | |
No, these are vomit. These are the regurgitated remains... | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
-In a word! -These are regurgitated remains of their prey. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:17 | |
If we just put them in the water it helps break them up. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:20 | |
There we go. These are just full of fur and bones and they tell us exactly what they've been eating. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:26 | |
-I've got a skull here. -Oh, great. -So that's the upper skull as we look at it. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
And if I just turn it over, can you see those two rows of teeth there? | 0:27:30 | 0:27:35 | |
Can't believe how well we did today. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
We've seen adults flying around, we've seen chicks in a nest box, | 0:27:38 | 0:27:42 | |
we've analysed their pellet remains. I think we've had a pretty good day. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:47 | |
The Pocklington Canal Amenity Society run boat trips along the canal during the summer. | 0:27:56 | 0:28:01 | |
There's more information on our website... | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
Well, sadly, that's about it for today, but I hope we've given you a few ideas | 0:28:10 | 0:28:14 | |
of waterways that you can't wait to explore. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:17 | |
Let's face it, your sofa's nice but this is so much better. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:21 | |
That's it for this edition of Hands On Nature. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:25 | |
'Next time, I'll be catching up with one of our favourite animals.' | 0:28:25 | 0:28:29 | |
Look, there's another one! | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
I've got to try to control my excitement. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
'And Samjida O'Connell is in East Anglia...' | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
# Di-di-dee, do-do-do, do-dee-you. # | 0:28:39 | 0:28:41 | |
'..bowled over by birdsong.' | 0:28:41 | 0:28:44 |