Episode 7 Autumnwatch Unsprung

Listen to that, that is the sound of a unique and rare urban visitor.

Grey plumage, a distinctive recoginsable bill, gives pleasure

to many of those that spot him, some would say he's an Oddie, it's

Bill Oddie, come with me, you are our special guest on Unsprung. What

a noisy audience we have tonight. They have to prove themselves. We

have levelledheaded Jo, waiting for all your commends, waiting for them.

Bill will be joining us on the sofa in a moment. That would be very

kind, I'm not just stuck on periphery like this. Not at all.

Come to the warm sofa. Especially considering, young man, that I have

sponsored your flipping cuckoo. I didn't know when I did it that it

was named after you, I said I will have that one, Chris, it looks

shriek, it looks fast and then later somebody said, that's Chris

Packham you know. You put your money on the wrong cuckoo, I have

been loitering around a town called Bimbo, did you know that. Honestly.

We were winning. I got hung up with a Bimbo. I will stop you boys

bickering, we have questions for you. I have a question for you.

What? That waistcoat, mate. Round of applause for the waistcoat! Do I

get a round of applause for my swan earrings. We have some questions c

from a guy called Crazy Owl, the squirrels in my garden have eaten

an entire sheep skull, they have actively looked at it when I moved

it around, why would they do that? This is habit of rodents, when I

was a young child scouring the woods for skulls, often when you

found them, I found they were chewed by things. I found tin

tensely annoying, wood mice, all sorts of things, would go to the

skull bones and chew them. They want the calcium for their own bone

growth. It is something you will find. I can imagine the squirrels

if there was a skull lying in the garden they would go and trash it.

We saw it with Simon. Calcium is difficult to access in certain

areas, it is the soil, if you have a lots of calcium in the soil then

you are all right, if you are on an acidic or neutral soil you need to

access calcium and skull chewing is one of those things. That explains

a lot, not your answer, but the fact you go around the woods

looking for kuls, it explains a lot. That answers Paula Smith's answer,

who wants to know why do garden girls select chalk and carry it

away. Matt from the 16th Royal Artillery

has given us this question, they are a group of soldiers on mission

in the Hebrides, they keep finding these catterpillars, surely it is

too cold? It is a moth, it is fox moth. I won't go any further, it is

fox moth. Do they come out when they are cold, I have seen them as

well. They move out when moving to pupate. When it has done all its

feeding, it may have fed in an I can't remember not suitable to

pupate, and that is often in soil. They will move away from the bush

or hedge they have been feeding on, and travel quite a distance until

they find a fisher in the ground and they will dissend and go into

the process of pupating, then you will find them. Food of the cuckoo,

if there were more of these in the countryside we will have more

cuckoos. They normally feed until September? The fox moth

catterpillar, you will see a few moment. I found a smaller moth

species wandering across my floor. What did you do? I put it outside

in a nice place. It is not every day you find an octopus hanging on

a hence half a mile from the sea. What do you think, it was found in

Scotland, was it from a bird? What do the audience think about that.

Gone for a walk? Not favouring that. I'm going to, not learning to fly,

I think I'm going for dropped by a bird. Nice to see an octopus,

better to see them in finer condition than that. Keep your

questions coming. What about our quiz, then. What we have here are

some drawings, and the combination of the drawings, if you identified

what they are, in combination, to tell you the name of an animal,

this one is an example, we can explain how it works. Shall we try

it out on the audience. I will point out what we have, I will

stand up. It is a bottle with pear on it, and fizz coming out. On the

other side we have a face, a very happy face. What do you reckon?

ideas which species? Well done, Peregrine, pear-green. This is A,

OK. That is fairly easy. Don't say it, don't say it. You said the

audience were good, fire him! management have the right to refuse

admission here! OK that is, let's move on, this one is B, I won't say

everything or I will give the game away. I will just point. This one

is C, there is patch here, it is drawing. Don't say it. Another

drawing, and a letter in the lower corner there like that. Now this

one is trickery. It is well thought through, well conceived, it is a

mosaic of colours, there is a D in the corner and an arrow there,

can't be any more precise at the moment. If you think you know the

answers to these, and this one is trickery, I will eat someone's hat,

if anyone gets that one. Do post the answers on the messageboard and

Level-headed will tell us if anyone gets the answer right. It is time

for the legendary moment, it is "whose poo?". You think you have a

waistcoat of distinction, wait until you see the smoking jacket.

Please tell me that's not your's? It's not mine, I'm surprised I have

to tell you that, you should have known. I have my Sheryl lock pipe

poised. What -- Sherlock pipe poised. What is this one? It is

still sticky. What does it say. found it under a pile of lotion

near Salisbury. A pile of lotion. Why is it blue, says Charley?

you know what I think this might be, I think sometimes when you see the

fuing GAL hyphi growing in wood it can be coloured blue or green, it

can be transferred to the poo, something that has beening the

rotting vegetation. I will go for a p -- that has eaten the rotting

vegetation. I will go for that what, hold on, I tell you what, it is a

mol le, sc or something. I tell you what, that smells like cider,

seriously mate, you have to try that, That smells just like cider.

Extraordinary, amazing cider blue poo, under a log, something that's

been eating wood with blue hyphy in it. Sometimes I feel like I'm in

I'm a Celbrity Get Me Out of Here with you two.

Sweet wrapper poo, from Matt, found in the nature reserve in

Hertfordshire. Beautiful, beautiful. Get rid of that quickly. That is

large. That is nice, that is nice. Basically, what we have here is a

predator poo of some kind. It is dark in colour, it is twisted, and

you can see that there is fabric inside it, that is typical of a

predator of some kind. I'm going to put this piece down and break this

piece up and see what we have here. We have fur inside here, rabbit fur

in here. Looking at the sides of this, it could be small fox. It is

too big for stoat, to be honest. This bit is nice, I'm going for fox

poo, and it has been eating rabbit, nice. Last poo, Chris, for you.

This is loft poo, in the envelope, Jeff from Berwickshire, is that a

county Michaela? I don't think so. We have to wrap this one up quickly,

poo apparently is becoming tedious. This was found in someone's loft,

again it is predator's poo, it is small and tightly wound, this could

be pole cat, it could be pine martin, it could be stoat. Where

was it found? In the loft. In which part of the country. Berwickshire.

It could be pine martins they go into lofts. I had the terrible

encounter with the stoat in the trap in the loft. I have a question

from Nathan aged seven, what is your favourite poo, you don't have

to answer that, he has told you, is it a poo-dle! It most certainly is!

A poodle, that's absolutely right. Shall we not bring on the star

guest immediately. Mr Oddie! Thank you very much. I get the koisyee

chair. I have to say, I never -- koisyee hair, I have to say I never

thought the Daewoo come when I was the one bringing a bit of dignity.

I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life. I try, Bill.

I try to bring it. We have lots of questions for you, we might as well

fire away. From Sea Carrot. Can I stop you for two seconds, your map

has gone, hasn't it, Woodcock, Hamstead heath, last week. Woodcock.

At last. If only you have your map. We have it on the map. They have

gone. I love moving a magnetic Woodcock from one side of the board

to the other. Don't we all, quite! He's in heaven, poo and Woodcock in

one sentence. From Sea Carrot, on the blog, hi Bill, do plastic fake

birds actually deter other birds such as her Rons. Not plastic her

Rons, they are not real! Actually this is interesting, anyone who has

seen my garden, a few people have, it has been on the tele,

occasionally, within the garden I have masses of plastic predators, I

have got a Peregrine, I have got about five little owls, I have got

a kes tral, I have an eagle owl and a plastic heron too. People are

throwing memory sticks at me. You're one of our's too. What was I

saying, within the seconds or a minute or two, little birds are

perching on their heads and so on. It is absolutely true, I timed it,

I put the plastic Peregrine on top of the shed, we have pigeons around

there. They are meant to be terrified of plastic Peregrine,

within five or ten minutes I got photographs and film of them just

walking around the Peregrine, and I have lovely pictures of Robins

perched on owls' heads. Birds are not stupid, but people are. If you

think about it, and you put a heron on to your fish pond, another heron

going by will not go, there's somebody there already, sorry, fair

dos, you take the fish, it is going to come down, because it thinks

there must be some fish in there. Herons perfectly happily will feed

together if there is fish. It really doesn't work. Save your

money unless you want to look at them asthetically. Save the money

on the heron, buy more goldfish and field them to the owls! Yes. Time

for another question, from Jack, why are Jays so colourful? Why does

the rainfall from the heavens, why does the sunshine! How long have we

got? Come on, In the bird world way's are not colourful, they do

have to be, as all of you will confirm, the bird which the public

tend to see and come up to you and say, Chris, I have seen this funny

bird, Jay. Extraordinary exotic species. It is Jay, it is a Jay. It

depends on which bit they see, they say I saw this bird with bright

white. Or white briet blue because they saw the bit on the wing. Who

knows why they are colourful, the one thing, both male and female are

the same with Jays. I will give awe slightly easier one to answer.

is quite easy to answer. pigeons only scared of Sparrowhawks

in flight. This is the reason they are asking. Because look, you have

a sparrowhawk eating a pigeon, with another pigeon looking on. Is that

unusual? Chris, I would say it is unusual. I would say that is

bizarre. He hailted him, didn't he. He was like, go on mate, get him.

He was like, I wanted to do that to Barry for years, he nicked my

roosting spot. I think that is right. That one hired the

sparrowhawk as a hit man! Take him out. It is a dangerous game. It is

unusual, unless it is camera trick. He's treading on the feathers, it

looks pretty good. We will have to ask you about the next one. Where

is that other picture of the pigeon. Here we go. We have the pigeon here,

look at this, I love this. The dead one or the live one. This came in

an envelope, it says I'm wearing my lunch. Basically it is a pigeon,

there we go. I tell you something. That is actually from a new branch

of McDonalds up the road, it is half a pigeon sandwich! If that

last pigeon was in trouble, that next one is toast! Thank God you

said that, Chris. What about our largest spider competition. We have

been running a competition to find the largest teg inaria in the UK.

Of what the lady's name, Emme suggested this, we thought this was

a great challenge. Once again, if you want to focus on the lower part

of your screen, this week we offer you cute squirrels, and they will

distract you if you are ar rack phobic, from the horrors we are

about to expose, including this magnificent specimen. Gosh, do you

We thought that was quite big, we went back and said can you measure

it. We then got the correct size of Teddy bear, it wasn't that big.

Unlike Pudsey who could do with a plug. What about the graph, which

has been extended. Here we are, here is the mini-spider, no points

for that, through the middle here a fine array of specimens making

their way towards the upper erb lons, right up here at 14 points --

14.2ms, what a magnificent spider that must have been. I was told

that's the width of a �10. I don't carry that, nothing less than a �50.

We have had a trophy made, here is the winning spider. Who is the

winner? I don't know, I can't see it. I do know. What, what, where?

Back of the graph, somebody is shouting. It is Les, 14.2cms, yeah,

the length of a �10, I wish I knew who he was. Look at that, imagine

that on your mantle piece, that is something to behold. What about

that? Superb, great idea, well done to Les. Some of your videos now,

this one is fantastic, this is from Phil Smith, have a look at this one.

Very, very special for me. He's made his own bird feeder and on it

is a greater and lesser spotted woodpecker. When do you get to see

those. That is a good sight? It is a good sight to see, every time I

see a picture like that which is so unusual, I have to say I haven't

seen a lesser spotted woodpecker up on the heath now for three or four

years. It used to be one of the best places in the country, we had

about six pairs. They are disappearing, any ideas. I really

haven't. Except that great spotted are definitely increasing. Some

people have suggested there is competition between the two, and

damaging the nests. I have not seen any evidence to support that.

Literally vandalism, I don't see why that should be, particularly. I

have no idea, I have no idea why they are going. To actually see the

two together is rather nice, it is rather nice that they are friends.

Greater and lesser spotted. You old softy. The farmers and the thingys

should be friend. A beautiful home made feeder, rustic. Another one

here, Kate, she has made this, have a look at this, she filmed this,

two mice, a vole, a mousse and the shrew, all together, she didn't put

them in, she set up this. Look at this brute of a shrew. He's a

toughy. Get out of it, get out of it. I like that shrew.

And don't come back! Shrews can be ferociously aggressive to one

another, hugely territorial, some have toxic saliva, they have nasty

glands which means things like owls and certain other predators won't

eat them because of that. They can be jolly feisty. When I used to

catch small mammals, the only thing I got bitten by were shrews and

yellow neck mice, I like them. can confirm that, the shrew, out of

the shrews, I think it was the water shrew, have you ever tried to

hold one of those. I have been bitten repeatedly by them. I had

one in a bag, and I had a couple of other small mammals, we had all

three shrews together at the same time. This one bit its way through

the bag in seconds and it was on noo my knee, it is seriously

painful. We are going to see our third video being sent in, this is

a highlight of Unspuing, as well as Bill. Of all the Unsprungs we have

seen. This was filmed by Sophie and Liberty on the Shannon River in

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 68 seconds

Ireland. It is astonishing. Look at Unbelievable. That is astonishing.

Beautiful. Have you ever? What is so lovely about it, is, yes we have

seen starling flocks doing amazing things, and various places,

Brighton pier, or Somerset, or wherever, but to actually be out

over the sea, near that little island. They went so close to the

water. They rk cona million birds. -- they reckon a million birds.

far do starlings travel to roost? They have to spread out to feed, in

the flocks you will see groups of 20-30s, flying horizon to horizon

to join up with the roosts, I would say many kilometres. I would agree,

if one should repeat this, if you get a chance to go to roost it is

fabulous, get there early enough to see the roost building up. That is

brilliant, there is the first one, five, 20, 30, it just gets bigger

and bigger and bigger. In fact, there is plenty of information on

the website about where to go, and when to go. There is a blog as well

for people to say when they went. So, yeah, get on-line and let us

know what you see. We have the quiz answers don't we,

has anyone got it right. They have, Hazel, and Keith, are amongst the

first, quite a few people have got it right. That is exorderry let's

run this past the audience. OK so here we are, the first one, anyone

in the audience get this one? Hold on a moment. Not horseshoe

bat? The lesser horseshoe bat, that is the smaller one! No points there.

B then, we have a bottle, lots of "no" and a flipper. You slightly

gave that away. This one is more trickery, anyone in the audience.

Grey fallow rope,. This one was really trickery, really trickery,

anyone in the audience? You got lots of blues here. Common blue!

Yes, Sir. Lots of blues, the most common of

the blues, very imaginative. Top work to Sam and Gavin for coming up

with that idea, I would say. I will wander over to the map, I will tell

you it is Children in Need, it has been happening on BBC One, we are

auctioning off a goody bad, with some autumn and Springwatch things

in. We are auctions off the cartoons by Mark Bardsley, all

signed, there they are, two Springwatch tea kosies, there are

links to how to bit for those. Tomorrow if you speak Welsh there

is a wildlife in Welsh at Newport Wetland's Reserve. On Sunday there

is a beach clean at Flamboroug h cliffs, there is the spot the

birdie in Glasgow, loads of events on the website. Try and get out to

see some starling roosts, that should be absolutely fabulous.

have to say, stay tuned if you would like to, we have our chat

coming up on red button and on the website. Chis Sperring speaking

about swans. Hope you enjoyed Unsprung, going for another