:00:14. > :00:24.the Afternoon. We are live from the RSPB Ynis-hir reserve. It is
:00:24. > :00:42.
:00:42. > :00:47.glorious, the sun is out. I am even Were you out and about at the
:00:47. > :00:53.weekend? I do hope so. The weather's been glorious for most of us. After
:00:53. > :00:57.all the BBC's Summer of Wildlife is well under way. There's been garden
:00:57. > :01:02.bioblitzes and a lot of other things happen happening over the weekend.
:01:02. > :01:07.It will continue throughout the summer. More details on our website
:01:07. > :01:15.and more coming up about it on today's show. We are about to get
:01:15. > :01:20.you off your sofa to get you some action for yourself. But it is also
:01:20. > :01:24.about the wildlife cams. It is a while since we caught up with our
:01:24. > :01:30.characters, so let's see what they've been up to since we last
:01:30. > :01:37.checked in with them. It has been a warm weekend at RSPB
:01:37. > :01:45.Ynis-hir. We've got a great spotted woodpecker, some beautiful red
:01:45. > :01:50.starts nesting in a hollow tree. And we've got a blackbird nest. We even
:01:50. > :01:55.managed to capture some eggs hatching on camera. Superchick and
:01:55. > :02:01.his great tit siblings are getting closer to fledging every day. They
:02:01. > :02:07.are going to go soon, maybe in the next 45 minutes when we are on air!
:02:07. > :02:15.Who knows? But it is not all happy in the mammal log. There have been
:02:15. > :02:18.mouse fisticuffs but blink and you'll miss it. And finally, our
:02:18. > :02:22.jackdaw chicks are getting bigger but they are still suffering those
:02:22. > :02:27.brutal attacks from the nasty neighbours. The parents are doing
:02:27. > :02:33.their best to defend them but the violence is really ramping up. If
:02:33. > :02:36.you watched last night's show you'll be aware of the big and rather sad
:02:36. > :02:39.news. We've lost one of our main characters. This is what happened.
:02:39. > :02:42.It is a little uncomfortable to watch, so I will prepare you for
:02:42. > :02:46.that. This is what happened yesterday. In the morning the chick
:02:46. > :02:52.is doing pretty well. It is looking like it has looked for the last ten
:02:52. > :02:57.days or so. These are old shots. But it was feeding well, it was eating
:02:57. > :03:02.moles and voles and grass snakes. Then yesterday morning this buzzard
:03:02. > :03:08.chick is starting to look less healthy. Over the day yesterday it
:03:08. > :03:14.did fade out. This is at a quarter to nine last night. The female picks
:03:14. > :03:19.up the chick and flypasts away with her. So it is a pretty sad story but
:03:19. > :03:28.it does happen. To find out more about how this happened I caught up
:03:28. > :03:33.with Martin earlier this morning. I've been doorsteped! Well and truly
:03:33. > :03:40.doorsteped. Before you run off and get on with this evening's show, the
:03:40. > :03:45.big news yesterday was rather sad news, our buzzard chick. Very sad, a
:03:46. > :03:49.real shocker actually. We were rehearsing, heard nothing about it.
:03:50. > :03:55.We thought, let's go live to the buzzard nest and we thought, hang
:03:55. > :04:00.on, it doesn't look live. The flies were around it. We were peering into
:04:00. > :04:05.the monitor there and Chris said, I think it is dead? And Chris so, no,
:04:05. > :04:10.it is not, they always have flies on the nest. Yes, because they are
:04:10. > :04:17.quite untidy animals. And to our horror, we thought, it is dead. That
:04:17. > :04:21.was a big shocker. It was going to be a big story, because it was a big
:04:21. > :04:24.bird, a lovely character and the mum had been great protecting the chick.
:04:24. > :04:29.It was horrific. We've all been sort of wondering as to why this might
:04:29. > :04:35.be. Lots of speculation going on. Are you, do you have any information
:04:35. > :04:39.on it? No, we thought initially sometimes these chicks gag, they get
:04:39. > :04:45.something down their throat, but that's really obvious, as you can
:04:45. > :04:50.see it. But they hadn't seen that. It seemed is when we reviewed the
:04:50. > :04:55.footage it seemed to fail. But it is not all bad news? No, we've got two
:04:55. > :05:00.nests today and the dippers are going to fledge. Lots of good stuff.
:05:00. > :05:05.Good luck with that. I will see you later. Cheers.Bye. It is the other
:05:05. > :05:08.side of the cone we see so many happy stories of fledglings
:05:08. > :05:13.succeeding but often we see the other side when it doesn't work out
:05:13. > :05:19.as planned. That is I guess a full lesson in the brutality of biology,
:05:19. > :05:23.but these birds are doing what these birds do. We've got some footage
:05:23. > :05:28.from earlier today, just before breakfast, the two birds turned up
:05:28. > :05:31.at the nest. The male and female are there. They are still hard-wired
:05:31. > :05:34.into feeding their chicks. The behaviour is programmed into trying
:05:34. > :05:38.to get the chick to fledge. That's pretty much their own chance to do
:05:38. > :05:44.it this year. Over the next few days that instinct will fade and there
:05:44. > :05:50.won't be the stimulus for them. And they will slowly by surely get back
:05:50. > :05:55.to being adult buzzards. It is a sad story but it happens all the time.
:05:55. > :06:00.This programme is about open spaces, parks, meadows, mountain or
:06:00. > :06:07.moorland. As long as the tree cover is sparse. Up there we have
:06:07. > :06:13.something called the voil. That's been calling all through last week's
:06:13. > :06:19.live programmes. I had a chance to explore. You there, there be tigers.
:06:19. > :06:23.This is the place to be, away from the hustle and bustle of the
:06:23. > :06:28.Springwatch HQ just down there. You can see the farm and Ynis-hir nature
:06:28. > :06:31.reserve. What a beautiful location. But we are not up here just to
:06:31. > :06:40.admire the view, we are here on business. You see, today is the
:06:40. > :06:45.perfect day for a tiger hunt. This is no ordinary tiger. Instead
:06:45. > :06:50.of stripes it has spots in a sea of vivid neon green. There's no fur on
:06:50. > :06:56.its legs, just thousands of minute sensitive hairs and bristles. But
:06:56. > :07:02.like its namesake it is a voracious, stealthy predator, fast and deadly.
:07:02. > :07:06.OK, you get it, I'm looking for an insect, the tiger beetle, the green
:07:06. > :07:11.tiger beetle to be precise. This kind of open habitat is one of its
:07:11. > :07:18.favourite hunting grounds. But first off I've found something else. It is
:07:18. > :07:26.a bit grassy here for our tiger beetle but here is another of my
:07:26. > :07:31.favourite beetles. The adult is the bloody-nosed beetle. At the back of
:07:31. > :07:35.his bottom he has an extra organ to hang on to grass stems. When you are
:07:35. > :07:39.out for a walk in open countryside, it pays to keep your eyes on the
:07:39. > :07:44.ground, as there's all sorts of specialist creatures that live here.
:07:44. > :07:50.On the face of it these open areas, whether they be a bit of grassland
:07:50. > :07:55.in the park, the local heath or, in this case, the side of the slopes of
:07:55. > :07:59.a mountain may seem a bit dull, but all the creatures, all the birds,
:07:59. > :08:05.all the animals, all the insects are all in one place - and that is on
:08:05. > :08:09.the ground or just above it in the grass or bracken. There is a huge
:08:09. > :08:15.range of creepy-crawlies, insects and other invertebrates here. They
:08:15. > :08:22.may be install but up close they are as fascinating and beautiful as any
:08:22. > :08:25.other animal on earth. I chanced upon some larger creatures, two
:08:25. > :08:29.fellow Springwatch in the Afternooners, Gary Moore and Brett
:08:29. > :08:34.Westwood, a radio presenter. They are both top naturalists. Perhaps
:08:34. > :08:40.they can help me find my tiger. There is a bit too much grass here.
:08:41. > :08:47.You will see a tiny foot path, a public foot path. You go down there
:08:47. > :08:52.and it opens up, it is gravelly. Thank you, top tips. Let's see. Gary
:08:52. > :08:57.and Brett were right. It is not long before I see my quarry. Tiger
:08:57. > :09:01.beetle! Spotting it is one thing. Catching it is another thing
:09:01. > :09:05.altogether. Sometimes they can put up a bit of a fight. The in my
:09:05. > :09:10.defence it is one of the fastest land predators in the world. In
:09:10. > :09:20.proportion to their body length it can move ten times faster than Usain
:09:20. > :09:23.
:09:23. > :09:31.Bolt! I can see him, right there. No more Mr Nice Guy. Is my backhand any
:09:31. > :09:39.good? Yes! We got him. We've finally... Ow! Just sat on some
:09:39. > :09:46.gorse. I'm so pleased he's in the box. That for me is every bit as
:09:46. > :09:50.magnificent as if I had caught a glimpse of his furry feline
:09:50. > :09:57.namesake, but to show you its true magnificence I have to return to
:09:57. > :10:01.base with this and take into it the microworld and our macro . Let's see
:10:01. > :10:08.if we can get some cracking little shots of this. You will see what I
:10:08. > :10:13.mean. Badgers and beetles in the same film? It doesn't get better
:10:14. > :10:17.than that. That beetle is so fast, in my defence, it is like firing an
:10:17. > :10:21.arrow. They go so fast that light doesn't get to their eyes so they
:10:21. > :10:27.have to sight up on their prey, go for it and just hope they crash into
:10:27. > :10:34.it. Let's look at what the macro managed to achieve with our beetle.
:10:34. > :10:39.Bear in mind this is a solar powered insect. In the studio they are a bit
:10:39. > :10:44.calm, which allows us to appreciate the details. Look at those long,
:10:44. > :10:50.lithe legs, perfect for speed. Their big googly eyes perfect for sighting
:10:50. > :10:56.prey. And the antennae and the mashing mandibles. Those will ruin
:10:56. > :11:03.the day of many an invertebrate or creepy-crawly out there. I hope you
:11:03. > :11:06.are appreciating why I get so excited by the Beetles. These open
:11:06. > :11:14.spaces are cracking habitat for our remember tiles, they like the sun.
:11:14. > :11:17.They are powered by the sun. With me I have Mark Barber from the reptile
:11:17. > :11:21.amphibian conservation group and you've brought with you some heavily
:11:21. > :11:29.guests. We are starting off with the snake-like animal. This isn't a
:11:29. > :11:33.snake. What is it? It is a legless lizard, a slow worm. It looks like a
:11:33. > :11:39.snake but it is in fact a lizard. Talk us through some of the ways you
:11:39. > :11:44.can tell that is a lizard and not a snake. Slow worms have eyelids and
:11:44. > :11:49.they close and shut their eyes, whereas snakes don't have eyelids.
:11:49. > :11:56.They have scales which go over the top of their eye which is are
:11:56. > :12:02.transparent, which they said when they shed their skin. So the if --
:12:02. > :12:09.so if the animal is blinking it is a lizard? Yes. It doesn't have much
:12:09. > :12:15.pat in ination. That's your legless lizard, the slow worm. And now we've
:12:15. > :12:21.got a beauty. This is a grass snake. I was expecting you to bring in a
:12:21. > :12:25.monster grass snake. They can grow very large. Generally in the UK they
:12:25. > :12:28.can be up to a metre in length. I didn't bring in an adult, because
:12:28. > :12:33.they are mating at the moment, but the distinguishing features of the
:12:33. > :12:36.grass snake is a black and yellow collar on their neck and they are
:12:36. > :12:41.olive green. It is distinctive that collar when they are swimming
:12:41. > :12:49.through water. You are looking for a very clear yellow, because sometimes
:12:49. > :12:56.it is white? The colour can change. Just get a look at its face. I think
:12:56. > :13:01.they have a friendly face. We don't have an adder with us but we do have
:13:01. > :13:08.a picture. Look at the add earthquakes, are in comparison. It
:13:08. > :13:14.is not really grumpy. It is just as gentle and lovely as the grass
:13:14. > :13:18.snake. They were not doing too well are they? They are one of the ones
:13:18. > :13:25.that we are most worried about. They are ven mouse but they are not out
:13:25. > :13:32.to get anyone. If you come across one, they will try to flee. If you
:13:32. > :13:39.see one, enjoy it? A distinguishing feature of the adder is this zigzag
:13:39. > :13:45.pattern on its back. If you see any reptile in open spaces, thank you
:13:45. > :13:53.very much to Derek Hatton for that. A brilliant picture. If you sigh any
:13:53. > :13:56.snakes or reptiles of any kind, send your records. More details on the
:13:56. > :14:02.website. Thank you. Open space is pretty much
:14:02. > :14:10.everywhere, even your lawn is open space. Even our urban spaces are
:14:10. > :14:17.great places for this, as my mate dividend found out on his local
:14:17. > :14:27.patch here. I live close to this place, Wormwood scrubs. I am an
:14:27. > :14:30.
:14:30. > :14:35.urban birder. I come to Wormwood scrubs because this is my garden.
:14:35. > :14:40.Some people go jogging. Some people walk their dogs in the morning. I
:14:40. > :14:44.come here to watch birds. The best time to come is early in the
:14:44. > :14:54.morning, because migrants that travel by night make landfall. When
:14:54. > :14:56.
:14:56. > :15:00.they are flying over the city, pockets like this are magnets. In
:15:00. > :15:05.the spring, you have the normal migrants, the swallows that fly
:15:05. > :15:10.through, the white-throats and willow warblers and chiffchaffs that
:15:10. > :15:15.breed here. These birds have travelled and seen so much. They've
:15:15. > :15:25.been in Africa and in a few days' time they'll be in Scandinavia. They
:15:25. > :15:28.
:15:28. > :15:35.come to this ordinary park. It is birds, even as a small boy. When I
:15:35. > :15:45.was at school I spent a lot of time in between lessons reading my bird
:15:45. > :15:52.
:15:52. > :15:59.can visit on a regular basis. But a place will not give up its secrets
:15:59. > :16:03.on the first visit. I remember coming here and spending maybe seven
:16:03. > :16:08.or eight days, coming every day, and not seeing anything. On the eighth
:16:08. > :16:18.day, when I was beginning to lose patience, suddenly I started to see
:16:18. > :16:28.
:16:28. > :16:36.thrushes. I say very common, they are a species that have declined a
:16:36. > :16:41.lot in Britain, but here there is quite a lot of them, which is nice.
:16:41. > :16:44.I think one of the biggest challenges of urban birding is that
:16:44. > :16:49.you have to imagine you are in the middle of nowhere. When you ignore
:16:49. > :16:59.the fact there are people around you, ignore the trains going past,
:16:59. > :17:06.and imagine yourself as a bird, and how they see this place, this is a
:17:06. > :17:10.total haven in amongst an urban environment. A lot of people find my
:17:10. > :17:14.passion for birds hard to believe. They see me during the day, wearing
:17:15. > :17:19.my suit. They see me at night sometimes DJing and partying and
:17:19. > :17:26.stuff, I think that some girlfriends can't believe when I get up at 4. 00
:17:26. > :17:33.am in the morning, leaving them to go and watch birds. This time last
:17:33. > :17:39.year I was in Mexico. I was watching fantastic birds, dancing to great
:17:39. > :17:46.music, you know, but my mind also sprung back to here. I was wondering
:17:46. > :17:52.what I was missing here. At the end of the day, you always come back to
:17:52. > :17:56.your local patch. It's like coming home, really. Great film there. He
:17:56. > :18:01.is a proper mate. One of the nicest people. What a smooth operator as
:18:01. > :18:05.well. Talking of smooth operators, Gary has just turned up in his van.
:18:05. > :18:10.If you are watching last week's shows you know that Gary is our
:18:10. > :18:18.wildlife sound recordist. I set you a challenge last show, last
:18:18. > :18:23.Thursday. You did, indeed.I set you a challenge to find a ring oozel.
:18:23. > :18:28.This is the mountain blackbird. A classic bird of open spaces. It is
:18:28. > :18:33.sadly in decline throughout its range. It is getting rayer and
:18:33. > :18:40.rayer. That is is why I sent Gary off after it. I had every faith in
:18:40. > :18:46.you. How did you do? It late in the year. They are saving their energy,
:18:46. > :18:52.that is what they are doing. They have gone quiet. That was unfair of
:18:52. > :18:57.me. You will get your revenge today. If you want to see a film of this
:18:57. > :19:04.brilliant challenge, he filmed it on his mobile phone. It will be on our
:19:04. > :19:08.website later on. If you are into mammals, middle age men in lyrca,
:19:08. > :19:13.it's a film for you, it's quite scary. What is your Sound of the
:19:13. > :19:23.Day? It was recorded on location. You don't need expensive equipment
:19:23. > :19:24.
:19:24. > :19:28.to go out there and get great songs. Here we go. I have no idea. I
:19:28. > :19:33.thought... I thought... Wow! That has left me speechless. I thought I
:19:33. > :19:43.was pretty good at this. You are not making it up, that is a creature?
:19:43. > :19:44.
:19:44. > :19:51.Absolutely. Not some sort of track. More than one. Us a clue?Filmed
:19:51. > :19:54.here on location. Much of a clue. Have you have any idea, get in touch
:19:54. > :19:58.by the website and we will reveal the answer later on. Thank you for
:19:58. > :20:03.that. We will let you get back to the van. He has got me there. That
:20:03. > :20:09.is, revenge is sweet in Gary's world. Let's look at the cameras on
:20:09. > :20:14.the nest. We will go to our redstarts. These are new nests. We
:20:14. > :20:19.have redstarts, they are glorious birds. Classic upland, oak woodland
:20:19. > :20:29.birds. There is nothing going on in the nest box at the moment. Look at
:20:29. > :20:29.
:20:29. > :20:31.the web cams throughout the rest of the Springwatch run. Look out for Mr
:20:31. > :20:41.and Mrs Redstart, the male is very classy. Let's look at the footage
:20:41. > :20:42.
:20:42. > :20:45.from early on. Here is the male. Stunning, silvery cap, black mast
:20:45. > :20:49.being. There is Mrs Redstart. They have spent a lot of time
:20:49. > :20:58.bird-watching in oak woodlands. When they disappear into a hole in the
:20:58. > :21:03.tree, that is, it we pick up where your binoculars left off. We have a
:21:03. > :21:09.common garden bird. Here is our blackbird. Another new camera. This
:21:09. > :21:13.is live at the moment. It's shiny on my screen. The female is coming in.
:21:13. > :21:17.She is at the nest. Odd things are going on in this nest. We will go to
:21:17. > :21:23.footage earlier on which is fantastic behaviour. We rarely see
:21:23. > :21:27.this, another one of those springwatch exclusives, hatching
:21:27. > :21:33.chicks. They are hatching out of the eggs. We have another cool bit of
:21:33. > :21:39.behaviour. She swallows the egg shell and about 5. 40 am this
:21:39. > :21:44.morning she does this. Sadly, one of the chicks did not make. It one of
:21:44. > :21:48.the young died. She is being very practical. She is taking the
:21:48. > :21:54.youngest and the smallest of the chicks that did not make it through
:21:54. > :21:58.the night and is dumping the body away from the nest. The smelling of
:21:58. > :22:03.the decomposing bird won't attract predators to the nest. It's
:22:03. > :22:09.practical and hygienic as well. She is incubating eggs and they are
:22:09. > :22:13.hatching out at different times. Normally they hatch at once, she
:22:13. > :22:18.starts at the same time when she has a full clutch. That is that. We go
:22:18. > :22:23.to our meadow pipit. This is a classic bird of open countryside.
:22:23. > :22:33.This is them live. It's really hot today. We have our shirt sleeves on,
:22:33. > :22:37.
:22:37. > :22:41.as you can tell. These chicks are panting. That nest is quite
:22:41. > :22:47.difficult to get a scale of that nest. It's tiny. You could get the
:22:47. > :22:50.entire nest and the chicks in one hand, they are that small. At the
:22:50. > :22:58.weekend I got a brilliant opportunity to go down and see them
:22:58. > :23:04.for myself. So those are the meadow pipits in their nest. How do we get
:23:04. > :23:11.the pictures of this nest all the way back to you on your sofa? Well,
:23:11. > :23:21.here is the camera. This here is the infra-red light. If will follow the
:23:21. > :23:21.
:23:21. > :24:09.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 47 seconds
:24:09. > :24:14.pictures that are streaming to the web, and to the TV show, these are
:24:14. > :24:24.our live feed coming in from the nest is going through this little
:24:24. > :24:24.
:24:24. > :24:30.black thing right now. Where we see all the pictures then we beam them
:24:30. > :24:34.to you. So now you know how we get the pictures from out there to here,
:24:35. > :24:40.to the camera truck. The next bit of course is simple, that is simply
:24:40. > :24:44.beaming them to your TV set. While I'm by the camera truck I will look
:24:44. > :24:48.and see what is going on in here. What is going on in here? Loads of
:24:48. > :24:55.stuff is going on in here. I have to adjust my eyes to the darkness in
:24:55. > :25:00.here. They have turned the lights on, but it's bright outside. This is
:25:00. > :25:09.the Springwatch nerve centre. You might have seen it last week. The
:25:09. > :25:15.This is Nigel. You are a natural naturalist, camera whizz. That is
:25:15. > :25:20.very nice of you. Jack of all trades. Good at all of them. This is
:25:20. > :25:28.where you look at all the feeds. You control these cameras. This is our
:25:28. > :25:33.meadow pipits? That is rightment we can... This is live? This is live.
:25:33. > :25:38.You were watching the web you would see the camera zooming in live. You
:25:38. > :25:41.can see their mouths open, gasping away and panting. Aren't they
:25:41. > :25:46.gorgeous? You are zooming backwards and forwards, you can control that
:25:46. > :25:52.camera? Exactly.Is that a simple camera, have you others out there?
:25:52. > :25:58.That is simple. We have other that is will pan and tilt. So, for
:25:58. > :26:03.example let us go to the jackdaws. If you see the cameras moving on the
:26:03. > :26:10.live feeds, on the web, on the box or the red button, this is what you
:26:10. > :26:16.see, this is how you are doing it. That was timely. Who is that?
:26:16. > :26:20.it's one of the parents. Of the parents or impostor birds. We will
:26:20. > :26:25.soon know. We are inside the box now. Let uses have a look. Is that
:26:25. > :26:33.an impostor? Let us look.It's difficult. One jackdaws looks very
:26:33. > :26:38.much like another. It 's a parent bird. She is nest tidying maybe?
:26:38. > :26:41.This is what it is about. You can play with the cameras, switch
:26:41. > :26:47.between cameras, it appears to be a gloerified games console? A little
:26:47. > :26:51.bit like that, yeah. We know what Nigel did with his childhood. It
:26:51. > :26:55.wasn't wasted time after all. Fantastic. That is what is happening
:26:55. > :27:03.with the jackdawses at the moment. Thank you very much for that, Nigel.
:27:03. > :27:08.We will look at what happened earlier on. While we are in this
:27:08. > :27:15.very van, something interesting happened. Our producer was crumbling
:27:15. > :27:23.there was nothing happening. The impostor birds turned up and started
:27:23. > :27:28.hammering the birds again. It's difficult to watch. I'm used to
:27:28. > :27:32.seeing nature being so brutal. Interesting behaviour. We can assume
:27:32. > :27:36.that the impostor birds are more dominant than the birds in the nest
:27:36. > :27:40.they are trying a nest box takeover. I don't think they are necessarily
:27:40. > :27:44.succeeding. We don't know, that is why we are watching this carefully
:27:44. > :27:47.over the next few days, if they do it may be investing in the future.
:27:47. > :27:52.They could be looking at this box for next year for their own
:27:52. > :27:56.purposes. Keep watching and we will keep you posted. We have this nature
:27:56. > :28:04.reserve wired. There is cameras absolutely everywhere. This show
:28:04. > :28:11.isn't all about the marvels of micro engineering, we have big cameras
:28:11. > :28:16.with long lens out there too. This is Lynned day McCrae. Three of us
:28:17. > :28:21.run around with the bigger cameras, Ian, Pete and myself. We are
:28:21. > :28:25.different to the remote team. They put the remote cameras in our nest.
:28:25. > :28:30.When that wildlife moves out of view our job is to follow that wildlife,
:28:30. > :28:35.whatever it is doing away from the other cameras. I have done a lot of
:28:35. > :28:41.stuff on the hill. Filming the birds up there. A lot of them are still on
:28:41. > :28:46.eggs. That is nice seeing birds sitting on the nests. I have done
:28:46. > :28:50.quite a nice few early mornings on the lake in front of the studio. And
:28:50. > :28:55.around the farm there has been a couple of hares, which have been
:28:55. > :28:59.interesting to watch. As people who operate cameras we have never happy
:29:00. > :29:03.with what we get, it hasn't been too bad so far. You have to make the
:29:03. > :29:08.most of the best conditions really. There is something happening where
:29:08. > :29:12.ever we are. There will always be something going on in front of us.
:29:12. > :29:16.The past four or five days the weather has been really good.
:29:16. > :29:24.Whenever there is a good weather window, you have to get here before
:29:24. > :29:29.the sun comes up. At the moment, that 4. 3 o 0 am or 5. 00 am. If
:29:29. > :29:33.it's like today the sun won't drop until gone 9. 00pm it will be
:29:33. > :29:39.difficult when your alarm goes off every morning. I'm doing what I
:29:39. > :29:45.love, I'm not that bothered really. You just know, if you look out the
:29:45. > :29:55.window and it's crystal clear, it will be a stunning sunrise and
:29:55. > :29:59.
:29:59. > :30:06.hopefully get some bits to put in crag the man himself. Thank you for
:30:06. > :30:16.joining us. Good to see you. You are joining us because you are going to
:30:16. > :30:19.
:30:19. > :30:20.show us what it is all about. What is it like being a wildlife
:30:20. > :30:22.cameraman? Brilliant. Fantastic.And how do you get the shots? With this.
:30:23. > :30:25.This is a big posh camera right? The secret is in this bit, the long
:30:25. > :30:33.lens? Yes, it is an incredible piece of kit. Why do you need this long
:30:33. > :30:40.lens? We don't want to be too close. We want the best shots, so that's
:30:40. > :30:43.the best thing for the job. don't need to know any more than it
:30:43. > :30:49.is an incredible lens. We haven't got anything flying around at the
:30:49. > :30:55.moment, so we've got our own Springwatch bird down there, I'm
:30:55. > :31:05.referring not to Clare! She is a producer, and she will have my guts
:31:05. > :31:07.
:31:07. > :31:12.for garthers when she hears that. This is a normal camera, sorry Ali,
:31:12. > :31:18.it is not your fault. Lindsay's there... It works! You can see just
:31:18. > :31:22.how effective that is. Look at the zoom on that. We are way up here and
:31:23. > :31:29.that bluetit is practically filling the frame. That gives you an idea of
:31:29. > :31:39.the magic of this operation. Lindsay, come away from your camera
:31:39. > :31:44.
:31:44. > :31:45.for a second. I wish bluetits would is it that still. One of the things
:31:45. > :31:49.that's very important, you've been a friend of Springwatch for some
:31:49. > :31:54.years. I've been digging around in the archives. You may be a bit
:31:54. > :31:57.embarrassing by what I'm about to do. I knew this was coming.This is
:31:57. > :32:01.a film Lindsay made for Springwatch eight years ago? Almost.Keep that
:32:01. > :32:11.fact in your mind when you watch this.
:32:11. > :32:17.
:32:17. > :32:26.I've just arrive arrived. The wind is pretty damn cold. I'm just hoping
:32:26. > :32:30.that (Inaudible) is going to be the case. Most important thing I make a
:32:30. > :32:34.priority is that the badge badgers don't know I'm here. I've got the
:32:34. > :32:44.privilege of watching them but I don't think it is fair to them to be
:32:44. > :32:53.
:32:53. > :32:59.squared each evening. As long as -- as long as they don't know I'm here,
:32:59. > :33:03.I'm happy. How did that make you feel? Speechless.Passion overrides
:33:03. > :33:09.everything. Every member of the Springwatch team, naturalists or
:33:09. > :33:12.camera people, are all very much ruled by passion. When we are
:33:12. > :33:16.talking about passion, if you want to become inspired, which is where
:33:16. > :33:22.passion starts, you can do a lot worse than getting your hands on one
:33:22. > :33:26.of these. This is the Summer of Wildlife hand book. It is available
:33:26. > :33:32.on the website - bbc.co.uk/springwatch. Slightly more
:33:32. > :33:36.ecologically sound, you can download it. Loads and loads of ideas of
:33:36. > :33:45.things to do and how to get involved. That's where it starts. It
:33:45. > :33:50.is brilliant for that. So, we are going to have a quick look into
:33:51. > :33:54.another one of my favourite nest boxes, they are all my favourites,
:33:55. > :33:59.but you get the idea. Live shots inside the great tit next box. They
:33:59. > :34:04.haven't fledged yet but they might. It is so close. They really are
:34:04. > :34:09.hours away. I might be proved wrong of course, nature has a tendency to
:34:09. > :34:17.do that. Superchick is there. If you see it from the top sometimes you
:34:17. > :34:21.can see a big bigger bird. If you can just about make out a slightly
:34:21. > :34:25.bigger bird, usually the highest one in the next, at the front of the
:34:25. > :34:29.box. We've been watching over the last couple of days, the birds
:34:29. > :34:33.looking out of the nest hole. It is imminent. Here we've got a bit of
:34:33. > :34:38.what happened earlier. We've got the chicks right up. They are eye
:34:38. > :34:42.balling the outside world. He's stretching his wings. This is all
:34:42. > :34:49.part of the preparation for the big wide world. Up until now they've
:34:49. > :34:54.only known the safe confines of the nest box. They really are going to
:34:55. > :34:59.go any moment now. If they don't go now they may well go by this
:34:59. > :35:03.evening's programme. We don't know. You'll have to stay tuned in to find
:35:03. > :35:08.out more about what happens there, see how that story ends up.
:35:08. > :35:14.Now, open country for me is all about big skies and the grandeur of
:35:14. > :35:20.the land scale. Right next to the beautiful details and minutiae of
:35:20. > :35:30.the actual world that lives there. It is your teatime treat now. Power
:35:30. > :35:30.
:35:30. > :36:41.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 47 seconds
:36:41. > :36:47.yourself some tea, Kickabout back And breathe. Wasn't that lovely? I
:36:47. > :36:53.love open places for lots of reasons. You can lie on your back in
:36:53. > :37:00.the middle of a meadow or heath land and shut your eyes and you can hear
:37:00. > :37:04.life. That may be the buzzing of the bees. With me is the Professor Of
:37:04. > :37:14.Biology at the University of Sussex. Dave has just written a book called
:37:14. > :37:17.Sting in the Tail, a book about our bees. It has been serialised on
:37:17. > :37:21.Radio 4 recently. It has indeed. What's going on with our bees? We
:37:21. > :37:26.are losing them aren't we? We were losing some of them. It is quite
:37:26. > :37:30.sad. They've been declining for decades in the UK. Three of our
:37:30. > :37:37.bumblebee species are extinct. The reasons are complicated but there is
:37:37. > :37:42.one really big one, we used to have lots of flowery hay meadows and
:37:42. > :37:47.they've pretty much all gone. Without flowers, bees need nectar
:37:47. > :37:52.and pollen. If there are no flowers there are no bees. It is a no
:37:52. > :37:57.brainer. There are there are reasons to do with disease. The combination
:37:57. > :38:06.of the three things has hammered them. But the biggest issue is
:38:06. > :38:09.flowers. There aren't enough. enough flowers in the world. These
:38:09. > :38:19.flowers are flowers we've picked up in a market at the weekend. These
:38:19. > :38:24.are the sorts of flowers were talking about. Acquis Liegia Liegias
:38:24. > :38:34.and hoppies. Before we got them out of the truck bees were pollinating
:38:34. > :38:42.them. This is a bee pollinating this flower. I apologise for the buzzing
:38:43. > :38:49.of the bees. This is also where the Eurofighters like to train, so I
:38:49. > :38:59.apologise if the sound is iffy. What else can people do to help bees?
:38:59. > :39:08.Don't grow the wrong plants. Don't buy begonias or buzziliesies or
:39:08. > :39:14.horrible pansies, they might as well have plastic flow ers in the garden.
:39:14. > :39:18.They've been so intensively bred they've lost their purpose. Flow
:39:18. > :39:26.Flowers evolved to attract bees. These old cottagey plants, you don't
:39:26. > :39:33.have to buy them every year Just one laveren ter in a window box in --
:39:33. > :39:42.just one lavender in a window box and London and you will see bees.
:39:42. > :39:46.What are you urging people to do? There is an organisation call called
:39:46. > :39:51.the Bumblebee Organisational Trust and it runs a number of skis that
:39:51. > :39:56.anyone can take part in. Go to the website. For example you can take
:39:56. > :40:02.part in a thing called Bee Watch. All you have to do is go into a
:40:02. > :40:07.local park or into your back garden and that take a digital image of a
:40:08. > :40:12.bee. You can even do it on a mobile phone. E-mail it to the address on
:40:12. > :40:16.the website. You can take a guess if you know what it is, but you don't
:40:16. > :40:21.need to. It will be identified for you. As long as awe send the
:40:21. > :40:27.postcode and the date you took it, that will be a dot on a map, and you
:40:27. > :40:30.will get an e-mail telling you what species it was. So you can help the
:40:30. > :40:34.bees and get tips on identification. If you want help on bee
:40:34. > :40:38.identification we have a rough guide to the groups of bees you might find
:40:38. > :40:44.in your garden. First up is the honeybee. This is a common insects.
:40:44. > :40:51.It makes us honey. Don't queues them with Wasps. Look for the amber
:40:51. > :40:55.colouration and the fuzziness. Bumblebees look like furry pom-poms.
:40:55. > :41:01.You can identify them by the colour and the position of their bands on
:41:01. > :41:11.their body. Another bumblebee is a ginger bee. Look ought for them,
:41:11. > :41:12.
:41:12. > :41:16.they are quite common. On the same pom-pom theme is this one. There's
:41:16. > :41:20.225 of these, their identification is a little more complicated.
:41:20. > :41:30.That was a rough and ready guide. If it is inspiring you get your hands
:41:30. > :41:32.
:41:32. > :41:37.on one of these. If you haven't discovered them, the Field Studies
:41:37. > :41:44.Council in association with Bug Life have this. More details are on the
:41:44. > :41:53.website. We talk about bees having fantastic olfactory powers. They
:41:53. > :41:58.canner? Out a -- they can sniff out a flower from miles away. Gary is
:41:58. > :42:07.the soundman. Gary, you set us the sound of the day. It has got me
:42:07. > :42:14.completely mystified. Let's hear it again.
:42:14. > :42:21.I've got absolutely no idea. I initially thought it was some kind
:42:21. > :42:27.of cecada. We've got some wrong answers here. Cathy thought it was a
:42:27. > :42:35.grasshopper warbler. A good guess but not right unfortunately. Cameron
:42:35. > :42:44.says a bubbling noise, I'm thinking nightjar. Well, you're wrong. And
:42:44. > :42:50.I'm looking for an answer here. Who got it right? Rob Thurrock. What was
:42:50. > :42:58.the answer? Is it was kingfisher chicks in a burrow. You are kidding
:42:58. > :43:08.me! No.And here is a picture. I had no idea. You got me there Gary.
:43:08. > :43:09.
:43:09. > :43:14.Brilliant. We are going to now talk a little bit about a draw that the
:43:14. > :43:19.cameramen come up with. They come up with all sorts of footage. We don't
:43:19. > :43:23.have time to explain it but you might hear this in your garden. It's
:43:23. > :43:28.a wasp collecting wood fibre from deadwood. We are running out of