Episode 5 Autumnwatch Unsprung

It's time for Unspring. Now, Sun spring is a dynamic progress, you

never know exactly what is going to happen, it's completely unscripted.

So I don't think it's a programme that you want to introduce with

jazz or the blues. What we need to introduce Sun spring is a bit of

I tell you what, Chris, I think the glam rock has got our audience

moved. Say hello, audience. ALL: Hey. And amongst them is Richard

Taylor-Jones, who will join us. And the lady who produced the programme

you've just seen. Well done! So get your questions, anything you want

to say to us into Level headed. Live. What next? We must do an

official change ever of our tea cosy. We have a special tea cosy.

Look at that. What a work of art! What species is that, Chris? Can

you tell? I'm going to with hold judgment on that. We have a treat

here, because Lynn, hello. Here is the real person. She is the one who

makes these fantastic tea kosies for us and has done for years.

You have to put the tail up. It's beautiful. And you are going to

Croatia for us, live. This is live...An Apple cosy. And we'll cut

through to her to see how it is coming on throughout the programme.

Live Croatia, whatever next! We're at Slimbridge so let's start

with some goosey-type of questions. A picture from Ian W, why are these

geese hanging upside down. They really are. These geese are

whiffling. What they do to lose altitude very fast is basically not

fly! They flip on to their backs and it makes them entirely unaero-

dynamic and they fall from the sky. So if they're trying to land

quickly, to get away from a predator, or join their friends in

a small space, they will basically whiffle and turn themselves upside

down and tumble to the ground. you ever seen one of them get it

ronk? No, but I have - wrong? No, but I have seen one fly into things.

I saw a goose take off and hit a Impala directly in the backside, it

was rather ignominios end to the bird.

And don't forget that many birds can fly into your patio windows, so

do put stickers on them to help prevent that. And this watcher says

do Canada geese never, never shut up? Well, they have to communicate

with one another and when they're flying in the typical V pattern the

one at the front is doing more of the work because it's creating an

air flow to make it easier for the others to fly. So obviously the

poor goose at the front can't do all the work all the time, so they

do swap over so they have to communicate. But whether they do it

all the time, I don't know. One of the things they're worried about is

losing moisture when they're migrating they don't want to lose

moister. And if you're always hanging....! What are they saying

to each other?, "Your turn N." they don't want to lose their

youngsters, otherwise they'd be doomed. Keep your questions coming

in. It's quiz time. This week we've been very inventive, I think.

Because we have some wild foul which we've transformed into sort

of stained-glass images. You've got to try and guess what this abstract

image of a bird is. This one we're going to tell you. Here it is, now

watch it transform. And it will turn into the barnacle goose.

So these are part of the quiz. This is A. Try and identify this bird.

What do you reckon audience? Don't say. Did you get it? ALL: Yes.

is bird B. Slightly harder? Here is I have to say, this is the first

quiz that I think I've got all three right. If you sit at home

every week, like I do thinking, "I don't know any of those" you might

be able to get all of these. Last week, we were asked about giant

spiders. We're not coming to that yet. No, it comes later in our

running order, but we're telling you now. But we don't want to scare

all those people who don't like spiders off.

Now. Our live animals today are hedgehogs. But we'll come to them

in a minute. Now, we have been a little bit light on videos from you

at home up to now. We really, really want them. And all of a

sudden they've come flooding in. Let's have a look at some. This is

from John. It's a deer. What is going on? 4 And there you

just saw something jump up, and he's rushing around. Let's see what

it was. And it is a...fox! And not

surprising, the fox. And it had a youngster there, in the grass, and

it was very worried about that fox coming in and doing that youngster

a bit of mischief. That was very nice footage. Thank

you, John. This is from Derek. Oh that my

garden was like this! Have you seen anything like this,

Chris? These are goldfinches. They have become an increasingly common

garden bird. They're taking advantage of garden feed,. Look at

the lawn, it's covered and the tree too. There were about 80 to 100

there. Chris, do you remember this week we met someone who said, "Why

don't I have any birds in my garden this year? They've all gone there!

I think he lives near the countryside and they've been out

foraging, and they've suddenly discovered those feeders and

flocked in. Do they normally come in pairs,

frinches.. I had two in my garden. They were sitting either side of

the feed are. Very spiritual. But they didn't last for long,

because a great big sparrowhawk came in and got one!

David Bradley, this is curious, has sent us video of an animal that it

is hard to get exited about, but these are fresh-water shrimp.s.

They're climbing up a trickle of fresh water. And it had rained and

this pond had filled up and the shrimps were migrating up to it.

Theories. Firstly, they want to colonise new areas. So they could

be moving just to get into that new area. They might be moving from

stagnant water, with not a lot of oxygen, into fresh water full of

oxygen to keep them happy. It was fascinating. I've never seen

anything like it. Keep them coming in, they're brilliant.

And how are you getting on, Lynn? That is quick! But it won't fit my

head. I think it's time to bring in our

special guest, Richard Taylor-Jones. And I've brought you this. Thank

you very much. That's to stop me coughing. You've been a very busy

man because not only have you been doing seals, but all the other

guest presenter films. Yes, it's been a busy few weeks. There's an

update about the mystery seals. I wanted to know how many were

there, because nobody seems to know. We did a survey and it is reckoned

150 are there, which is the most recorded around the sands. And I

spoke to Brett Lewis, who has studied the seals for a number of

years. He thinks part of the issue is that more and more wind farms

are going up off-shore, around the Kent coast and those wind farms

could be acting as no take zones, so there are more fish and the

seals are benefiting from the more fish. So, wind farms can cause

problems, but it is an interesting take on it. It would be nice to

have a bof reason to champion - a positive reason to champion

sustainable energy. A couple of questions. Emma says,

"Why do seals lift up their heads and tails when basking. I knew

somebody would ask me this. don't know! If - I've been

Googleing all day. And the best I can come up with is that they're

really happy. But seals do get really, really hot so they want to

expose as much of their surface area to the wind to cool out and by

bending, as much as possible is exposed to the winds. But they do

like it hot, because they come out of the water to get more warmth to

digest their food. A lot of the reasons why we have so many grey

seals in this country is because we have so many islands so they're

protected from predators and humans. And it's there that they come out

of the water to do their digestion. We've been sent a video of a seal

that maybe went to sleep, perhaps to digest. And then had a nasty

surprise! Oh, dear, what happened to all the

water! He's gone to sleep and the tide's gone out. Poor thing. I'd

like to report that he did get off safely. It was a rather beautiful

belly flop. We've all done that. Fallen asleep somewhere strange.

Now, what next? Next week, we are chasing whales. It's weather and

timing. So you haven't found them yet? No, no. You have a programme

next week, you have to have something in it? And the highlight?

I think one of the best things we've done is bring eels to the

forefront. It's been a story that we've all talked about for years,

and it was finding a way to get the story on. Well, thank you very much.

You've done a great job with the guest presenters. And thank you for

finding the grey seals. We've been sent a picture. Chris

loves this. It's from Thomas, aged six. Thank you very much. It's a

buzzard, obviously. Thomas has sent a question too. He

says, "What is the loudest bird call?." Yes, loudest. We had a

dispute about this. I went for nightingale, because they are

really loud when they chuck out their song. One of our researchers

has dug up some facts. Urban noises can force nighting gales to sing

loudy to overcome them, so they break European rules! They can

elevate the volume of their song ten times to drown out the noise of

traffic. European laws have been against exposing workers to more

than 08decibels, but one singing at 90decibels has been recorded.

There's different types of sound This south is not about volume,

it's about distance travelled. And the very low frequencies of that

sound, it's like elephants using infrasound, it carries a further

distance. And these birds want to get the sound through all the reed

beds to communicate with other birds. So, the loudest, I've always

thought was the nightingale, but if you know better, do let us

know..Now It's time to crawl on the floor and look at these wonderful

hedgehogs. And bring in Annie. These come from the hedgehog

hospital which is very near to Slimbridge. It is at this time of

year we have to worry about them. It's Bonfire Night this weekend,

and they start to go into hibernation. But they're not doing

well, are they? No, they're in trouble at the moment. The latest

survey in June, in the 1950s there were 36 million in the UK and that

has now dropped, really worryingly to 1.5 million. That's a dramatic

drop! And there are so many reasons for that drop. One of the main

reasons is the second litter. The second litter is being pushed very

late because the first litter is being pushed late because of global

warming, I believe. No April showers or food for them to put

weight on. And unfortunately, the second litter - these little guys,

there's no way they could hibernate. But if you look, I've brought a few

along today. You'd probably look at this

hedgehog and think it could hibernate. This would be 400 grams

and this won't hibernate. It would die. What will happen is all of

these I've brought. I'll have to open the box. Oh, look, it's full

of them. Wow! This little one here is 300 grams. You'd look at it, but

it's not until you weigh them. If you see a hedgehog out, day or

night. If you could put garden gloves on, they're not going to

bite you. They're lovely. Weigh them in grams and if they're under

600 grams you need to go either to the Hedgehog Preservation Society,

where there are carers all around the UK. Or you need to contact a

local wildlife rescue. What can people do? We've had a lot of

people asking if they should still be feeding them at this time?

please. Keep feeding them, because A, you could collect them as well.

Meal worms, and biscuits. They don't have to hibernate, but they

probably will after four or five frosts when the food is in de clin,

but I have known hedgehogs not hibernate if they are continuing

being fed. It's only a cold spell that would drive them into

hibernation. This is the only one that is up to weight. All the

others would die if they hibernated. Thank you very much for coming in,

and it's a big subject which we don't have time to cover. But there

is a lot of information on our website. And never, never feed them

milk. And the bonfires. The only safe way to have a bonfire is in

the morning and make it, don't threev there. Because they do nest

in them. Now, to an animal that is not

cuddly at all. We asked you for pictures of giant spiders. At this

time of the year, they will come into your house because it's warm

and dry, because they love that kind of environment. We have some

photographs that people have sent This extraordinary picture here.

Look at the size of it. Here is a ruler that the photographer has

placed in the bottom here. And this is 6cm down there. That's a monster.

In fact, that was such a monster, Mike, we realised thaw must have

increased the size of it. So we don't want cheating!

But he was open about it. Now, we wanted you to give some

scale for the spider. I love this! So, your cat. We don't know how big

the cat is! I'm worried about the spider This next one. These are

slightly more sensible. You can see that this couple of spiders have

had rulers put beside them. That's the sort of thing we're after What

about this one! This is taken by Jamie. This is a pint glass

covering a spider. And I think we all agree that that is a monster,

monster spider Now, we put together a graph of the results that we've

had so far. I like this. This is a graph of distinction, to

be honest. We have body length against entire length, that's the

span of the legs. We have a couple of mini ones, and

a mass in that range, but at the moment there is one spider. That's

Jamie Barnet. Oh, so that's the pint spider, which is the biggest

one so far. I think one of them has been measured at 15.2cm leg-to-leg.

That is enormous. This one? another one, but it was squashed!

I think it was fine! But mine, I've been speeding mine up and

eventually it will make an appearance, once it is bigger.

you fattening it for Christmas? That's OK. So, folks if you have

spiders you can fatten up or exaggerate their size, we'd like to

see them. We want larger spiders to keep sending in the images, and a

degree of accuracy would be appreciated. Now, the quiz answers

Yes, Level headed. Most people have got them right. One viewer got them

right, even though he's colour blind. That's pretty good.

So, let's reveal the answers. 4 A Canada goose!

Let's ask the audience. ALL: Teal. The notable green And a golden

bottom. I worry about you! And the last bird is this one.

I won't even ask the audience because they've been swimming

around behind us all evening. If anyone at the wild foul and Wetland

Trust doesn't know what this is, you're fired!

It's a shell duck. And Chris, one for you. Can you, Chris...Oh,

at that. Can we reveal what this is? Beautiful! It's the lads.

Beautiful! Brilliant. Right, now you may remember, Pauline came in

last week with that little barn owl. Fantastic news, at least two,

possibly three chicks have been found and those people got in

contact with her, so that little barn owl now has friends. We wanted

to get a picture of them kudgesed up together, but haven't been able

to yet. So a good story for that one. Now, we are doing a Christmas

special. And this is where we want you to help us. We want you to

either really impress Chris with something special that you've got

wildlife-y, of course! Or ask him a question that might stump him. So

if you've got any unusual feathers, bones or a really, really

interesting question, please send it into us.. Yes, we're going have

Chris's Christmas grotto. If you've found something that you think is

absolutely brilliant, a covetious little object, a skull, a feather,

a pellet, it could even be....poo! If you have some super poo, we'd

like to see it, because we'd like to share your enthusiasm with the

nation. We never get through a programme without you saying poo;

Jan said she saw a buzzard swoop down into the garden and carry off

a live hedgehog. Sorry about that. As if they haven't got enough

problems. Is that usual? Well, hedgehog aren't palletable with all

those spines, so I would say it was highly unusual. And how would it

pick it up?. Now, I have to go to the map.

There is a whale fest and tomorrow there is an Autumnwatch wildlife

watch in bridge end. And there are grey and common seals at Blakely

Point. And there is a lot of information on the website. I

wonder what a whale fest is, that's interesting? They, it's a

celebration of all things in that family, so get a long to that.

Now, look at that. Television first! And that will fit in your