Episode 4 Springwatch in the Afternoon

This programme is about damp places, fresh water, and what is the best

creature you could possibly hope to see in the river? It has to be one

This used to be an incredibly rare animal, but I'm pleased to say it

has recovered from decades of persecution and poisoning, and now

you can find them up in nearly every county of the UK. That is

They are incredibly secretive, generally. The film we show them on

Monday is an exception to the role, they are very secretive, and when I

arrived here on the Tim Peake said a few days ago, I learned of a few

footprints down the river, so I set out with our wildlife camera

We are looking for signs of otters. First thing we look for is nice

muddy banks, where the otter might have left his footprints. That is

our first sign. Otters love, clean, quiet rivers with cover on the

banks and lots of places to hide up in. Where ever you find otters you

know you have a pretty healthy river. What do you have over there?

A snake. It has to be an eel, surely. It is a snake. Grass snake.

Wow! I bet you that was otter. the a boot full, and another one.

That is too late. Worth it though. Look at that! I have never seen

this before. I have seen them take eels that is why I thought we had

eels. This is a grass snake. It's a sad situation. I'm fond of grass

snakes. I'm also fond of otters. Otter has take an few bites before

giving up entirely. That is great find. The main diet for otters is

fish, they are opportunists and take whatever they can find, be it

frog, crabs, small mammals and even odd things like grass snakes. We

have found otter dinner, or the left overs from otter dinner. Now,

we are looking for one of the easest field signs for otter, which

is a spright, that is posh talk for otter droppings, basically. We are

having a crack at it this afternoon. The cameraman is joining in. Look

what he has found? Well done. We have got what I reckon are probable

meek, smaller than the otter. Oh, look, we have an otter. It is a

bigfoot print. The Menzies is a smaller print. That is a rare

scenario, beautiful for compare and contrast. Couldn't get better other

than if if we had one sitting in between the two. We don't. We will

find one now, aren't we, Josh? Otters leave footprints in the mud

of the river bank, but also when they cross land into neighbouring

rivers and lakes leaving the tell- tale signs behind. I have one. We

have gone down the river. We have returned back to the original sight

of the original exciting discovery. The grass snake is down there. Up

here is a site. You can see the bones and teeth and scales. If I

get down and give it a sniff. Some say it smells of Jasmine. Others

say it smells of summer meadows. To me it just smells slightly fishy,

but not unpleasant. That is fresh. You can see how oily that. Is he

has wiped his bum on the bark. That is good enough for any other otter

to know who has been here and when. That was pretty good. We could do

better. If you saw yesterday's show you know I'm fopbld of these --

fond of these trail cameras. The chances of me getting an otter were

slim. I had only had three nights of having that camera out on

location. I set them none the less. This is what we managed to film. A

blackbird! Then we got this. Unmistakibly the tail of an otter.

That would have been good enough for me. I have never captured an

otter before. Look what happens now. There is it its profile. It comes

back. It gets better. It sticks its bum on the log, and does a wiggle.

We identified that site and we got the result. I will show you again.

I know you are having your tea. I don't care, this is worth seeing it

again. Watch for that wiggle of the bum. He wipes his bum on the bark.

There he goes. He is off. I say, he, I don't know if it's a he or she.

Sexing them is difficult in the field. We have been asking here on

Springwatch in the Afternoon for your favourite signs of spring.

This is from Beverley Westwood. She says, "I love seeing the blossom

which has been spectacular this year." My favourite is the crab

apple. We agree with her. A cracking sign of spring much we ask

everybody what their favourite sign of spring. Everybody. That means

Chris Packham doesn't get away. What I wait for is the male

butterfly. Winter is fading. Have you this firework of yellow.

Pulsing like that across the lane as you drive past. Then I know that

spring is here. Of all the places here at Springwatch I have two

favourites, one is this truck and the other is the reserve itself.

Come up here. It's lovely in here. Look at this. I will take a breath.

Hello, Laura. It changes every day. Every time we come in here there is

somebody else. I can't keep up with it. You are one of the, what is

your job? Story developer. I think of an old man coming up with these

ideas. It is coming from the cameras and the live feeds. You

have some sleep issues, haven't you? We have. What is your daily

ree teen? We are up at 3.00 am, we are here from 4.00 am, 12 hour

shift. It's an early start and a long shift. This is our second week

and trying to get into the shifts. Last night was the first night I

managed to get six-hours sleep. have been looking like the living

dead. Grey. You look lovely today. What have we got? What are the

highlights? The buzzards have been interesting today. We have had

seven feeds. The parents have been coming back, mostly the mum, coming

backs with frogs and v voles and a Gosling chick. A technical issue

with the camera. It does happen. It's surprising it doesn't happen

more often. That is being adjusted. That will be back live very soon.

This one, this is a new one. It is. That was launched yesterday on the

evening show. That is our meadow pipits. They are sitting at the

bottom of the nest. Let's look at action we had earlier on. There is

the parent bird. They are very subtle birds, lovely. A bird of

grassland. Here comes the parent. Look at the babies. They are some

of my favourites of the British bird nestling sthrefplt that fuzzy,

punky awkward looking. This is about wetlands and freshwater. We

sent a very well-known British mammal to go and see another very

well-known British animal, an icon of our rivers and waterways. The

water vole is in really serious trouble. Is there anything you and

I can do to help? Well, yes, there is. Here in Cumbria I have come to

help out with an important project that is trying to boost water vole

numbers. Alison Reid has been breeding water voles in captivity.

She and a team of local volunteers will prepare them all for release

into the wild. Do they bite much? They do. They do, oh, good.

other thing that happens quite often. When you are trying to catch

them they go up your trouser leg. Up your trouser leg and bite!

Fantastic. No-one has been bitten yet. There is a first time for

everything. We can't be sure there Their years, his little face!

just going to put a tube this way, in case he decides to run. There

are two of them. Put your hand forward. Well grab! Fantastic.

you would like to get a hold of him. There is the other one, a little

sweetie! He has got a little brown face with whiskers. And little need

ears and soft, silky fur, the book is right! Alison and her team need

to prepare 60 today, each one gets microchip so she can try to monitor

them once they are released. Sorry, this is not very elegant, it is

doing a good, but she does not know it! How are your knees? Saw!

never knew conservation could be quite so painful! The following

morning, a team of volunteers are on site to give them their first

taste of freedom. What makes this such a good spot? This site has

been chosen because it is a fantastic habitat with fantastic

vegetation. Food and a great place to burrow. Yes. What about

predators? That is a really big issue? That is the biggest problem

for them, and this site has been predator controlled for the last 10

years. Our there mink here, or not? There are not many, it is really

good news. You cannot just chuck them out into the wild. These cages

will allow them to gradually integrate into their new home, and

they are not actually released. They dig their own way out when

they have acclimatised. Until then, it provides shelter and food. So

this is it, the moment of truth for him, you must have quite mixed

feelings now. I have got a very mixed feelings, because these are

the baby's eyebrow at last year, so they had been with me for a year

now. It is great to set them free, rather than being in captivity, but

it is an anxious time, because you want them to survive and breed

successfully. I want to reach out and give him or her a stroke, but I

don't think I will! He will bite you quite viciously! Alison and her

team of volunteers have done everything they can in their battle

to save the water vole, and so far it looks like they are winning. Do

you really live by the river, said the mole? What a jolly life! On it

and in it, said the rat, it is my Is it me, am either only one who

wants to tell a water vole to shut its mouth while it is chilling? I

am pleased to welcome Derek, who is Mr waterboard, responsible for

reading a lot of these animals, welcome. Thank you for bringing

that vole with us. That film was made a little while ago, he can

tell by Martin's have. How is the water vole bearing? You are looking

at progressive decline of the species in some parts of Britain.

Increasingly, they are concentrated in specific areas and disappearing

in many parts of the wider countryside. Some of the

reintroductions we have done over the course of the last 10 years or

so are doing very well, but we are working on a landscape scale, with

smaller projects. What are the main threats? War of the main problems

for the animals is that it lives in a very tight corridor, right next

to streams and river slides. He's facing threats like introducing

normal American mink, a predator that hunts in a way that no native

predator would. That animal has had a disastrous effect. He said that

and he woke up! It is patchy, they are doing better in some areas.

some areas, they are doing very well, in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk,

areas where you have got the remnants of the old wetlands and

massive ditch systems, they are doing well, populations expanding.

In other parts of Britain, it is not quite so good. I think we have

got a water vole in front of us, about four times the size of a

regular vole. What are the top things to look out for if any

member of our audience are thinking of having a look? If you see the

animal in a stream aside situation, it is like a clockwork toy,

burrowing across the surface of the stream. They have quite a round,

blood fees, small ears, a short tail, a darker colours and a more

than a brown rat. It does not have the long pigtail or protruberant

ears. Very different. Thank you very much for bringing him in. Has

he got a name? Ratty! That is an original name! These are a creature

river starts in the uplands, and there is a creature that lives

there, one of our favourites, and we send a wildlife cameraman to see

Only a few minutes' drive away, Ian Llewellyn has been getting some

lovely shots of a dipper. This one is nesting, precariously, as they

sometimes do, under a waterfall. Not only do you need a good eye to

see them, you need a good telephoto lens to get these kinds of shots,

especially of such a small bird. You cannot normally get that close.

Beautiful! Is it me, or our wildlife cameraman becoming more

eccentric? We have the best wildlife, the much fancy technology

and fabulous moustaches, and we have the most fabulous sound man!

What are you doing, Gary? It is not just about pictures, it is the

sound that gives the pictures emotion, ambience and sheer beauty

and poetry. Absolutely. What are you doing? Ian with his long lens,

let's say he is trying to film a bird 100 metres out, fine, he can

get a tired shot. As a sound recordist, I need to get the

microphone close up. So I have to think out of the box and put a

remote-controlled boat with a microphone on it. I disguise it as

a great coups. Out it goes. I have been wondering what the goose is

about! I'm sure some of our viewers have as well, this has been in the

background, like a toy, but it is a professional piece of equipment!

didn't work, they were scared of it! It has got an evil eye, that is

why! The next idea, a bit of basket-weaving, disguise it as an

island. From audio cruise to audio Ireland. The idea is, microphones

and there, that is going to go on there and slowly out towards the

bird. Does it work? Let's say it is a work-in-progress. We might even

see it working by the end of this series! The challenge today is

Oh, my goodness me! Can you give us a clue? It was filmed at night time,

in the wind, obviously! That bothers you! We do not like wind

noise. I don't know, is it something snoring, something

chilling? I might have a guess at this, but I want you to have a

guess, get on to the website and let us know what you think, we will

reveal the answer later on. It is not a one-way street, I have got a

challenge for you. You let of that you were listening on your day off,

and I want you to go out and get as the sound of a singing bring it,

you have got plenty of time. It is a lovely, beautiful bird.

Absolutely cracking bird, the mountain blackbird, the symbol of

spring in the uplands. It is a beautiful bird, more people need to

know about it, and Gary is going to learn all about it. Why you are

having a lie-in at the weekend, Gary will be on the wind the slopes

of the mountain trying to find one. Before dawn! Good luck, thanks a

lot! I do not think he is that pleased, he is shaking his fists

now, in between weaving. Let's go to art block camera, no, there is

nothing happening there, most of the action there is at night, but

this is from last night. We have got our wood mouse, and I know we

have seen the one mouse before, and it looks a bit like what we shot

yesterday, but it is completely different footage, and we also have

the footage of a shrew, there we are, the same sort of thing as

yesterday, and that is probably because it is, different shots of

the same animals. They are territorial, just like the birds.

Our cameraman has come a long with a great they block full of fruit,

they think it is Christmas, and they are making the most of it. CEO,

we have got a vole! This came into the trap last night. This is a

first for as, for this Springwatch, of the water vole, but it shares a

lot of the same features. Anyway, a lovely, but back to the theme of

the show, which is fresh water. If you want to get into fresh water,

there is no better way than pond Now, it is almost certain that

wherever you are, you will be close to some body are still fresh water,

a pond, a ditch, even a puddle with some kind of life. For the most

part, we take them for granted, we do not bother to get underneath the

surface. What I strongly recommend this to take with you a field

assistant, this is my daughter. Even if you are of the older

generation, I tend to find that taking the young person with you

not only is good for them, because it is a great family activity, but

it also enables you to see the world through totally different

eyes. That is right, get it in the vegetation, see if you have got

anything. I have got something! Yes, you have got a pond snail,

first one of the day! We have got loads of cruel things. A water

woodlouse, it is called a pond lies. What else have we got? These little

things are water fleas, see those? They are brilliant, because

everything keeps them, so if you a healthy pond. That black squiggly

thing, what is that? If you look at his flat head, it is like a

hammerhead shark. That is a flatworm. Do you know what is cool

about a flat when? It has got a mouth but no bottom! That is right,

it eats its food and does not prove. -- poo. So you get the idea? That

was one net full, not even a whole night, it was your first dip, and

already we have an incredible selection of incredible creatures.

There is lots of family bonding that goes on, learning together and

exploring, and that is exactly what we are doing now. Where has she

Dad, look what I have got! What have you got? A dragonfly, look!

look! Do want to pop in in there? Yes. Very gently. Oh, brilliant,

look at that, well done! That is the best catch of the day! Just

look at this trait, it is heaving, this is the contents of a couple of

net falls, nothing more, and a new look at the amount of water, look

at the rest of the pond, just think how much more life is in that pond.

If you want to see wildlife, go Now, while you were watching that,

on a marsh camera, it has gone now, just a second or two ago, this is

what we saw! We had a grey heron, had topical as that? One of the

more easily recognisable of our wetland birds, and I believe he is

hunting, stalking around, they are very cunning predators, of all

things aquatic, beautiful, brought to you by one of our other cameras

that is at there on the marsh, obviously. Now, this is Springwatch,

and Spring leads into summer. Just as that happens, we are having a

summer of wildlife, all part of the same thing, and it is here, this is

all the information compiled and distilled into one booklet. This is

everything you need to know about how to get to grips with the

British countryside and its wildlife, and you can go online and

order your copy. There is something order your copy. There is something

I would recommend even more, because every page of this is

available online, you can save paper, print of what you want or,

better still, just look at it and enjoy it, drink it in, then go out

and practise it in the field. There is a whole page in his arm pond

dipping, and I strongly recommend you check it out if you have not

had a look at this sort of stuff before. The beauty of the pond for

me is that it is easy to take it for granted, but you can see some

very cool things. If you look at the little things, throw your fresh,

childish eyes, you will see some amazing things, and this is what we

do in a macro studio, full of fresh childish eyes and very expensive

cameras. There is the studio and action, we popped in the other day,

and a film this, the lava of a great diving beagle, one of the

more splendid half-volley pond Beatles. Kit is known as a pond

tiger, for obvious reasons. He is tucking in in gruesome detail, and

you can even see the people swallowing, how mean it and cool

and groovy is that! Chris Packham has a few favoured pond creatures,

In my opinion there are a few creature that we spend our lives

live with, but never pay enough live with, but never pay enough

attention to. I might list them as wasps, wood lice, worms and, today,

pond skaters. For a start, they are insects, they are true bugs. What

about that skating? How do they achieve that, these little miracles

achieve that, these little miracles of nature? Well, on their limbs and

theired abouties they have hydro phobic hairs, microscopic hairs

which repel the water. In every square millimetre of their body

they have no less than 1,000 of these hairs. It's that which allows

them to rest on the surface of the water and create these sparkling

little ripples. Also when it comes to skating their limbs are

important too of course. Their behind limbs support their body

weight. Their centre legs row them across the surface of the water.

Their four limbs rest on the water surface. With these they sense the

struggle of their prey. They are sensitive to vibrations coming

across the surface of the water. They will skate across when any

luckless thirsty insect falls in and begins to struggle. They stab

it and they poison it with a toxin. They inject an enzyme to turn its

insides into a meaty soup, then they suck it up. One last thing.

Where do you think pond skaters go in winter? This puzzled me from a

young age. I thought they possibly survived as eggs or maybe at the

bottom of the pond. No, adult pond skaters like this will fly long

distance, several hundred meters they will hibernate as adults under

logs and stones, folding up their delicate legs. When the sun come

out in spring they reemerge to fly back to the ponds to start all over

again. Are you getting it now, ponds are fantastic places. They

are full of excitement and drama and splendid creature. If you want

to find out more, there is an ofrgs organisations called Pond

Conservations. They are doing the Big Pond Dip, a national tur vai of

our ponds and ditches. -- national survey of our ponds and ditches.

Look, they are piling it on at the moment. They have that black glossy

cap of the adult bird. The adults are coming backwards and forwards

all the time. Look how much they have grown? Watch that nest

expanding. That nest expanding as the chicks swell. They are being

fed on caterpillars. We are down to five. We had seven or eight. They

are getting bigger and bigger every day. Will they fledge over the

weekend? I don't know. I tonight think they will. Who knows. It is a

will happen. There are predators about. That is always a possibility.

Stay tuned on the web cams if you want more information. If you can't

stand the suspense of waiting until next week. There is a bird which

lives on our rivers, when you see one there is nothing like the

Kingfisher that is out there. It's a bird which absolutely splendid.

It brings a spike of excitement into all our lives. Here it is.

Wildlife cameraman has been filming kingfishers for 20 years. In

childhood he used to bunk off school, allegedly, to watch them.

What he doesn't know about kingfishers, no-one does. I'm

outside the nest. I think the chics have -- chicks have arrived. I'm

sitting here quietly hoping to catch a glance of an adult bird

flying into the nest with a fish. I'm not seeing anything. However

experienced we are, we can all make mistakes. I have forego then my

chair. Now I'm getting pins and needles. That's in the nice. That's

the first rule of sitting in a hide, It's the male bird. He's got a fish.

All lined up, ready to grks when he feeds it to the chick he can feed

it head first. They always eat head first. He has gone into the nest.

Yes, fantastic. I'm really chuffed. Later that spring Charlie returned

to the spot where the King fisher pair were now busy feeding their

hungry chicks when he witnessed something he had never witnessed

This female has just arrived odd out of nowhere. Our house female

has just flown off. I've no idea who she is. It's weird he is not

aggressive towards her. I wonder if he has two girls on the go? It's

not unheard of, but it's really rare. The house female isn't happy

and decides it's time it get rid of This is incredible. It's completely

mad here. There are kingfishers over the top of my hide constantly.

It's like the Battle of Britain. You see these streaks of kingfisher

going past. It's like a house of It has suddenly just gone

completely quiet much I guess the house female has gone off down

river as she has to feed her chicks and herself. It's unfair. Now the

new female who turned up gets the bloke and the nest. I'm joined on

my hay bale sofa by Gary. We will tuck into this lot in a minute.

What do you think of that sound? Fantastic. You wanted to be there

recording that? Absolutely. wasn't you? No. Will you reveal...

What is the Sound of the Day? Let us hear it one more time? What on

earth? It sounds like a soldier marching on a gravel path. In short

bursts! No idea. What do you think that is? What do you think that is?

I have no idea. I think it's something chewing, am I right?

Absolutely. It was recorded in? Scotland. Something famous in

Scotland that chews. I reckon beaver chewing a piece of wood?

Absolutely at night-time. Who got it right? Let us find out. Thank

you very much. Let us start with who got it wrong. Emma said a

hornet. It could have been. Jess said someone eating crunchy nuts,

breakfast c cereal. Not sure you are allowed to say thrafplt are

other breakfasts. Adam Fox, Cameron and Simone Barter, well done you.

While we have our tea and cake, we know you are having your tea and

cake, you have written in and told us, we will lay on a musical

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 61 seconds

You will help your self- -- yourself. The summer of wildlife is

about everything you are seeing around you, all about what

Springwatch is about. There are thousands of events going on around

this very weekend. It kicks off this weekend for a lot of people.

If you want to know what is going on and how to get involved it's

on and how to get involved it's easy. Go onto the website and will

you go to the bit where it says - things to do. Click on that. Enter

your postcode. It will give you, by the magic of technology, it will

bring you all the information that you want. It will all come up there.

There are loads to get involved with. Not sure if we are doing

sound recording courses. It is all. There our cake is looking dry. I

think it will rain. We will have a look at the live cams quickly

look at the live cams quickly before we go. There is the buzzards.

They are feeding again. Not sure what they are feeding. Can't see

that, there is themarsh cam. Isn't that nice. A swan preening away,

lovely bird. Anything else for us? No, they have decided not to. We

have a couple of birds on there. We are just about over now. Remember,