Episode 7 Springwatch in the Afternoon

the Afternoon. We are live from the RSPB Ynis-hir reserve. It is

glorious, the sun is out. I am even Were you out and about at the

weekend? I do hope so. The weather's been glorious for most of us. After

all the BBC's Summer of Wildlife is well under way. There's been garden

bioblitzes and a lot of other things happen happening over the weekend.

It will continue throughout the summer. More details on our website

and more coming up about it on today's show. We are about to get

you off your sofa to get you some action for yourself. But it is also

about the wildlife cams. It is a while since we caught up with our

characters, so let's see what they've been up to since we last

checked in with them. It has been a warm weekend at RSPB

Ynis-hir. We've got a great spotted woodpecker, some beautiful red

starts nesting in a hollow tree. And we've got a blackbird nest. We even

managed to capture some eggs hatching on camera. Superchick and

his great tit siblings are getting closer to fledging every day. They

are going to go soon, maybe in the next 45 minutes when we are on air!

Who knows? But it is not all happy in the mammal log. There have been

mouse fisticuffs but blink and you'll miss it. And finally, our

jackdaw chicks are getting bigger but they are still suffering those

brutal attacks from the nasty neighbours. The parents are doing

their best to defend them but the violence is really ramping up. If

you watched last night's show you'll be aware of the big and rather sad

news. We've lost one of our main characters. This is what happened.

It is a little uncomfortable to watch, so I will prepare you for

that. This is what happened yesterday. In the morning the chick

is doing pretty well. It is looking like it has looked for the last ten

days or so. These are old shots. But it was feeding well, it was eating

moles and voles and grass snakes. Then yesterday morning this buzzard

chick is starting to look less healthy. Over the day yesterday it

did fade out. This is at a quarter to nine last night. The female picks

up the chick and flypasts away with her. So it is a pretty sad story but

it does happen. To find out more about how this happened I caught up

with Martin earlier this morning. I've been doorsteped! Well and truly

doorsteped. Before you run off and get on with this evening's show, the

big news yesterday was rather sad news, our buzzard chick. Very sad, a

real shocker actually. We were rehearsing, heard nothing about it.

We thought, let's go live to the buzzard nest and we thought, hang

on, it doesn't look live. The flies were around it. We were peering into

the monitor there and Chris said, I think it is dead? And Chris so, no,

it is not, they always have flies on the nest. Yes, because they are

quite untidy animals. And to our horror, we thought, it is dead. That

was a big shocker. It was going to be a big story, because it was a big

bird, a lovely character and the mum had been great protecting the chick.

It was horrific. We've all been sort of wondering as to why this might

be. Lots of speculation going on. Are you, do you have any information

on it? No, we thought initially sometimes these chicks gag, they get

something down their throat, but that's really obvious, as you can

see it. But they hadn't seen that. It seemed is when we reviewed the

footage it seemed to fail. But it is not all bad news? No, we've got two

nests today and the dippers are going to fledge. Lots of good stuff.

Good luck with that. I will see you later. Cheers.Bye. It is the other

side of the cone we see so many happy stories of fledglings

succeeding but often we see the other side when it doesn't work out

as planned. That is I guess a full lesson in the brutality of biology,

but these birds are doing what these birds do. We've got some footage

from earlier today, just before breakfast, the two birds turned up

at the nest. The male and female are there. They are still hard-wired

into feeding their chicks. The behaviour is programmed into trying

to get the chick to fledge. That's pretty much their own chance to do

it this year. Over the next few days that instinct will fade and there

won't be the stimulus for them. And they will slowly by surely get back

to being adult buzzards. It is a sad story but it happens all the time.

This programme is about open spaces, parks, meadows, mountain or

moorland. As long as the tree cover is sparse. Up there we have

something called the voil. That's been calling all through last week's

live programmes. I had a chance to explore. You there, there be tigers.

This is the place to be, away from the hustle and bustle of the

Springwatch HQ just down there. You can see the farm and Ynis-hir nature

reserve. What a beautiful location. But we are not up here just to

admire the view, we are here on business. You see, today is the

perfect day for a tiger hunt. This is no ordinary tiger. Instead

of stripes it has spots in a sea of vivid neon green. There's no fur on

its legs, just thousands of minute sensitive hairs and bristles. But

like its namesake it is a voracious, stealthy predator, fast and deadly.

OK, you get it, I'm looking for an insect, the tiger beetle, the green

tiger beetle to be precise. This kind of open habitat is one of its

favourite hunting grounds. But first off I've found something else. It is

a bit grassy here for our tiger beetle but here is another of my

favourite beetles. The adult is the bloody-nosed beetle. At the back of

his bottom he has an extra organ to hang on to grass stems. When you are

out for a walk in open countryside, it pays to keep your eyes on the

ground, as there's all sorts of specialist creatures that live here.

On the face of it these open areas, whether they be a bit of grassland

in the park, the local heath or, in this case, the side of the slopes of

a mountain may seem a bit dull, but all the creatures, all the birds,

all the animals, all the insects are all in one place - and that is on

the ground or just above it in the grass or bracken. There is a huge

range of creepy-crawlies, insects and other invertebrates here. They

may be install but up close they are as fascinating and beautiful as any

other animal on earth. I chanced upon some larger creatures, two

fellow Springwatch in the Afternooners, Gary Moore and Brett

Westwood, a radio presenter. They are both top naturalists. Perhaps

they can help me find my tiger. There is a bit too much grass here.

You will see a tiny foot path, a public foot path. You go down there

and it opens up, it is gravelly. Thank you, top tips. Let's see. Gary

and Brett were right. It is not long before I see my quarry. Tiger

beetle! Spotting it is one thing. Catching it is another thing

altogether. Sometimes they can put up a bit of a fight. The in my

defence it is one of the fastest land predators in the world. In

proportion to their body length it can move ten times faster than Usain

Bolt! I can see him, right there. No more Mr Nice Guy. Is my backhand any

good? Yes! We got him. We've finally... Ow! Just sat on some

gorse. I'm so pleased he's in the box. That for me is every bit as

magnificent as if I had caught a glimpse of his furry feline

namesake, but to show you its true magnificence I have to return to

base with this and take into it the microworld and our macro . Let's see

if we can get some cracking little shots of this. You will see what I

mean. Badgers and beetles in the same film? It doesn't get better

than that. That beetle is so fast, in my defence, it is like firing an

arrow. They go so fast that light doesn't get to their eyes so they

have to sight up on their prey, go for it and just hope they crash into

it. Let's look at what the macro managed to achieve with our beetle.

Bear in mind this is a solar powered insect. In the studio they are a bit

calm, which allows us to appreciate the details. Look at those long,

lithe legs, perfect for speed. Their big googly eyes perfect for sighting

prey. And the antennae and the mashing mandibles. Those will ruin

the day of many an invertebrate or creepy-crawly out there. I hope you

are appreciating why I get so excited by the Beetles. These open

spaces are cracking habitat for our remember tiles, they like the sun.

They are powered by the sun. With me I have Mark Barber from the reptile

amphibian conservation group and you've brought with you some heavily

guests. We are starting off with the snake-like animal. This isn't a

snake. What is it? It is a legless lizard, a slow worm. It looks like a

snake but it is in fact a lizard. Talk us through some of the ways you

can tell that is a lizard and not a snake. Slow worms have eyelids and

they close and shut their eyes, whereas snakes don't have eyelids.

They have scales which go over the top of their eye which is are

transparent, which they said when they shed their skin. So the if --

so if the animal is blinking it is a lizard? Yes. It doesn't have much

pat in ination. That's your legless lizard, the slow worm. And now we've

got a beauty. This is a grass snake. I was expecting you to bring in a

monster grass snake. They can grow very large. Generally in the UK they

can be up to a metre in length. I didn't bring in an adult, because

they are mating at the moment, but the distinguishing features of the

grass snake is a black and yellow collar on their neck and they are

olive green. It is distinctive that collar when they are swimming

through water. You are looking for a very clear yellow, because sometimes

it is white? The colour can change. Just get a look at its face. I think

they have a friendly face. We don't have an adder with us but we do have

a picture. Look at the add earthquakes, are in comparison. It

is not really grumpy. It is just as gentle and lovely as the grass

snake. They were not doing too well are they? They are one of the ones

that we are most worried about. They are ven mouse but they are not out

to get anyone. If you come across one, they will try to flee. If you

see one, enjoy it? A distinguishing feature of the adder is this zigzag

pattern on its back. If you see any reptile in open spaces, thank you

very much to Derek Hatton for that. A brilliant picture. If you sigh any

snakes or reptiles of any kind, send your records. More details on the

website. Thank you. Open space is pretty much

everywhere, even your lawn is open space. Even our urban spaces are

great places for this, as my mate dividend found out on his local

patch here. I live close to this place, Wormwood scrubs. I am an

urban birder. I come to Wormwood scrubs because this is my garden.

Some people go jogging. Some people walk their dogs in the morning. I

come here to watch birds. The best time to come is early in the

morning, because migrants that travel by night make landfall. When

they are flying over the city, pockets like this are magnets. In

the spring, you have the normal migrants, the swallows that fly

through, the white-throats and willow warblers and chiffchaffs that

breed here. These birds have travelled and seen so much. They've

been in Africa and in a few days' time they'll be in Scandinavia. They

come to this ordinary park. It is birds, even as a small boy. When I

was at school I spent a lot of time in between lessons reading my bird

can visit on a regular basis. But a place will not give up its secrets

on the first visit. I remember coming here and spending maybe seven

or eight days, coming every day, and not seeing anything. On the eighth

day, when I was beginning to lose patience, suddenly I started to see

thrushes. I say very common, they are a species that have declined a

lot in Britain, but here there is quite a lot of them, which is nice.

I think one of the biggest challenges of urban birding is that

you have to imagine you are in the middle of nowhere. When you ignore

the fact there are people around you, ignore the trains going past,

and imagine yourself as a bird, and how they see this place, this is a

total haven in amongst an urban environment. A lot of people find my

passion for birds hard to believe. They see me during the day, wearing

my suit. They see me at night sometimes DJing and partying and

stuff, I think that some girlfriends can't believe when I get up at 4. 00

am in the morning, leaving them to go and watch birds. This time last

year I was in Mexico. I was watching fantastic birds, dancing to great

music, you know, but my mind also sprung back to here. I was wondering

what I was missing here. At the end of the day, you always come back to

your local patch. It's like coming home, really. Great film there. He

is a proper mate. One of the nicest people. What a smooth operator as

well. Talking of smooth operators, Gary has just turned up in his van.

If you are watching last week's shows you know that Gary is our

wildlife sound recordist. I set you a challenge last show, last

Thursday. You did, indeed.I set you a challenge to find a ring oozel.

This is the mountain blackbird. A classic bird of open spaces. It is

sadly in decline throughout its range. It is getting rayer and

rayer. That is is why I sent Gary off after it. I had every faith in

you. How did you do? It late in the year. They are saving their energy,

that is what they are doing. They have gone quiet. That was unfair of

me. You will get your revenge today. If you want to see a film of this

brilliant challenge, he filmed it on his mobile phone. It will be on our

website later on. If you are into mammals, middle age men in lyrca,

it's a film for you, it's quite scary. What is your Sound of the

Day? It was recorded on location. You don't need expensive equipment

to go out there and get great songs. Here we go. I have no idea. I

thought... I thought... Wow! That has left me speechless. I thought I

was pretty good at this. You are not making it up, that is a creature?

Absolutely. Not some sort of track. More than one. Us a clue?Filmed

here on location. Much of a clue. Have you have any idea, get in touch

by the website and we will reveal the answer later on. Thank you for

that. We will let you get back to the van. He has got me there. That

is, revenge is sweet in Gary's world. Let's look at the cameras on

the nest. We will go to our redstarts. These are new nests. We

have redstarts, they are glorious birds. Classic upland, oak woodland

birds. There is nothing going on in the nest box at the moment. Look at

the web cams throughout the rest of the Springwatch run. Look out for Mr

and Mrs Redstart, the male is very classy. Let's look at the footage

from early on. Here is the male. Stunning, silvery cap, black mast

being. There is Mrs Redstart. They have spent a lot of time

bird-watching in oak woodlands. When they disappear into a hole in the

tree, that is, it we pick up where your binoculars left off. We have a

common garden bird. Here is our blackbird. Another new camera. This

is live at the moment. It's shiny on my screen. The female is coming in.

She is at the nest. Odd things are going on in this nest. We will go to

footage earlier on which is fantastic behaviour. We rarely see

this, another one of those springwatch exclusives, hatching

chicks. They are hatching out of the eggs. We have another cool bit of

behaviour. She swallows the egg shell and about 5. 40 am this

morning she does this. Sadly, one of the chicks did not make. It one of

the young died. She is being very practical. She is taking the

youngest and the smallest of the chicks that did not make it through

the night and is dumping the body away from the nest. The smelling of

the decomposing bird won't attract predators to the nest. It's

practical and hygienic as well. She is incubating eggs and they are

hatching out at different times. Normally they hatch at once, she

starts at the same time when she has a full clutch. That is that. We go

to our meadow pipit. This is a classic bird of open countryside.

This is them live. It's really hot today. We have our shirt sleeves on,

as you can tell. These chicks are panting. That nest is quite

difficult to get a scale of that nest. It's tiny. You could get the

entire nest and the chicks in one hand, they are that small. At the

weekend I got a brilliant opportunity to go down and see them

for myself. So those are the meadow pipits in their nest. How do we get

the pictures of this nest all the way back to you on your sofa? Well,

here is the camera. This here is the infra-red light. If will follow the

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 47 seconds

pictures that are streaming to the web, and to the TV show, these are

our live feed coming in from the nest is going through this little

black thing right now. Where we see all the pictures then we beam them

to you. So now you know how we get the pictures from out there to here,

to the camera truck. The next bit of course is simple, that is simply

beaming them to your TV set. While I'm by the camera truck I will look

and see what is going on in here. What is going on in here? Loads of

stuff is going on in here. I have to adjust my eyes to the darkness in

here. They have turned the lights on, but it's bright outside. This is

the Springwatch nerve centre. You might have seen it last week. The

This is Nigel. You are a natural naturalist, camera whizz. That is

very nice of you. Jack of all trades. Good at all of them. This is

where you look at all the feeds. You control these cameras. This is our

meadow pipits? That is rightment we can... This is live? This is live.

You were watching the web you would see the camera zooming in live. You

can see their mouths open, gasping away and panting. Aren't they

gorgeous? You are zooming backwards and forwards, you can control that

camera? Exactly.Is that a simple camera, have you others out there?

That is simple. We have other that is will pan and tilt. So, for

example let us go to the jackdaws. If you see the cameras moving on the

live feeds, on the web, on the box or the red button, this is what you

see, this is how you are doing it. That was timely. Who is that?

it's one of the parents. Of the parents or impostor birds. We will

soon know. We are inside the box now. Let uses have a look. Is that

an impostor? Let us look.It's difficult. One jackdaws looks very

much like another. It 's a parent bird. She is nest tidying maybe?

This is what it is about. You can play with the cameras, switch

between cameras, it appears to be a gloerified games console? A little

bit like that, yeah. We know what Nigel did with his childhood. It

wasn't wasted time after all. Fantastic. That is what is happening

with the jackdawses at the moment. Thank you very much for that, Nigel.

We will look at what happened earlier on. While we are in this

very van, something interesting happened. Our producer was crumbling

there was nothing happening. The impostor birds turned up and started

hammering the birds again. It's difficult to watch. I'm used to

seeing nature being so brutal. Interesting behaviour. We can assume

that the impostor birds are more dominant than the birds in the nest

they are trying a nest box takeover. I don't think they are necessarily

succeeding. We don't know, that is why we are watching this carefully

over the next few days, if they do it may be investing in the future.

They could be looking at this box for next year for their own

purposes. Keep watching and we will keep you posted. We have this nature

reserve wired. There is cameras absolutely everywhere. This show

isn't all about the marvels of micro engineering, we have big cameras

with long lens out there too. This is Lynned day McCrae. Three of us

run around with the bigger cameras, Ian, Pete and myself. We are

different to the remote team. They put the remote cameras in our nest.

When that wildlife moves out of view our job is to follow that wildlife,

whatever it is doing away from the other cameras. I have done a lot of

stuff on the hill. Filming the birds up there. A lot of them are still on

eggs. That is nice seeing birds sitting on the nests. I have done

quite a nice few early mornings on the lake in front of the studio. And

around the farm there has been a couple of hares, which have been

interesting to watch. As people who operate cameras we have never happy

with what we get, it hasn't been too bad so far. You have to make the

most of the best conditions really. There is something happening where

ever we are. There will always be something going on in front of us.

The past four or five days the weather has been really good.

Whenever there is a good weather window, you have to get here before

the sun comes up. At the moment, that 4. 3 o 0 am or 5. 00 am. If

it's like today the sun won't drop until gone 9. 00pm it will be

difficult when your alarm goes off every morning. I'm doing what I

love, I'm not that bothered really. You just know, if you look out the

window and it's crystal clear, it will be a stunning sunrise and

hopefully get some bits to put in crag the man himself. Thank you for

joining us. Good to see you. You are joining us because you are going to

show us what it is all about. What is it like being a wildlife

cameraman? Brilliant. Fantastic.And how do you get the shots? With this.

This is a big posh camera right? The secret is in this bit, the long

lens? Yes, it is an incredible piece of kit. Why do you need this long

lens? We don't want to be too close. We want the best shots, so that's

the best thing for the job. don't need to know any more than it

is an incredible lens. We haven't got anything flying around at the

moment, so we've got our own Springwatch bird down there, I'm

referring not to Clare! She is a producer, and she will have my guts

for garthers when she hears that. This is a normal camera, sorry Ali,

it is not your fault. Lindsay's there... It works! You can see just

how effective that is. Look at the zoom on that. We are way up here and

that bluetit is practically filling the frame. That gives you an idea of

the magic of this operation. Lindsay, come away from your camera

for a second. I wish bluetits would is it that still. One of the things

that's very important, you've been a friend of Springwatch for some

years. I've been digging around in the archives. You may be a bit

embarrassing by what I'm about to do. I knew this was coming.This is

a film Lindsay made for Springwatch eight years ago? Almost.Keep that

fact in your mind when you watch this.

I've just arrive arrived. The wind is pretty damn cold. I'm just hoping

that (Inaudible) is going to be the case. Most important thing I make a

priority is that the badge badgers don't know I'm here. I've got the

privilege of watching them but I don't think it is fair to them to be

squared each evening. As long as -- as long as they don't know I'm here,

I'm happy. How did that make you feel? Speechless.Passion overrides

everything. Every member of the Springwatch team, naturalists or

camera people, are all very much ruled by passion. When we are

talking about passion, if you want to become inspired, which is where

passion starts, you can do a lot worse than getting your hands on one

of these. This is the Summer of Wildlife hand book. It is available

on the website - bbc.co.uk/springwatch. Slightly more

ecologically sound, you can download it. Loads and loads of ideas of

things to do and how to get involved. That's where it starts. It

is brilliant for that. So, we are going to have a quick look into

another one of my favourite nest boxes, they are all my favourites,

but you get the idea. Live shots inside the great tit next box. They

haven't fledged yet but they might. It is so close. They really are

hours away. I might be proved wrong of course, nature has a tendency to

do that. Superchick is there. If you see it from the top sometimes you

can see a big bigger bird. If you can just about make out a slightly

bigger bird, usually the highest one in the next, at the front of the

box. We've been watching over the last couple of days, the birds

looking out of the nest hole. It is imminent. Here we've got a bit of

what happened earlier. We've got the chicks right up. They are eye

balling the outside world. He's stretching his wings. This is all

part of the preparation for the big wide world. Up until now they've

only known the safe confines of the nest box. They really are going to

go any moment now. If they don't go now they may well go by this

evening's programme. We don't know. You'll have to stay tuned in to find

out more about what happens there, see how that story ends up.

Now, open country for me is all about big skies and the grandeur of

the land scale. Right next to the beautiful details and minutiae of

the actual world that lives there. It is your teatime treat now. Power

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 47 seconds

yourself some tea, Kickabout back And breathe. Wasn't that lovely? I

love open places for lots of reasons. You can lie on your back in

the middle of a meadow or heath land and shut your eyes and you can hear

life. That may be the buzzing of the bees. With me is the Professor Of

Biology at the University of Sussex. Dave has just written a book called

Sting in the Tail, a book about our bees. It has been serialised on

Radio 4 recently. It has indeed. What's going on with our bees? We

are losing them aren't we? We were losing some of them. It is quite

sad. They've been declining for decades in the UK. Three of our

bumblebee species are extinct. The reasons are complicated but there is

one really big one, we used to have lots of flowery hay meadows and

they've pretty much all gone. Without flowers, bees need nectar

and pollen. If there are no flowers there are no bees. It is a no

brainer. There are there are reasons to do with disease. The combination

of the three things has hammered them. But the biggest issue is

flowers. There aren't enough. enough flowers in the world. These

flowers are flowers we've picked up in a market at the weekend. These

are the sorts of flowers were talking about. Acquis Liegia Liegias

and hoppies. Before we got them out of the truck bees were pollinating

them. This is a bee pollinating this flower. I apologise for the buzzing

of the bees. This is also where the Eurofighters like to train, so I

apologise if the sound is iffy. What else can people do to help bees?

Don't grow the wrong plants. Don't buy begonias or buzziliesies or

horrible pansies, they might as well have plastic flow ers in the garden.

They've been so intensively bred they've lost their purpose. Flow

Flowers evolved to attract bees. These old cottagey plants, you don't

have to buy them every year Just one laveren ter in a window box in --

just one lavender in a window box and London and you will see bees.

What are you urging people to do? There is an organisation call called

the Bumblebee Organisational Trust and it runs a number of skis that

anyone can take part in. Go to the website. For example you can take

part in a thing called Bee Watch. All you have to do is go into a

local park or into your back garden and that take a digital image of a

bee. You can even do it on a mobile phone. E-mail it to the address on

the website. You can take a guess if you know what it is, but you don't

need to. It will be identified for you. As long as awe send the

postcode and the date you took it, that will be a dot on a map, and you

will get an e-mail telling you what species it was. So you can help the

bees and get tips on identification. If you want help on bee

identification we have a rough guide to the groups of bees you might find

in your garden. First up is the honeybee. This is a common insects.

It makes us honey. Don't queues them with Wasps. Look for the amber

colouration and the fuzziness. Bumblebees look like furry pom-poms.

You can identify them by the colour and the position of their bands on

their body. Another bumblebee is a ginger bee. Look ought for them,

they are quite common. On the same pom-pom theme is this one. There's

225 of these, their identification is a little more complicated.

That was a rough and ready guide. If it is inspiring you get your hands

on one of these. If you haven't discovered them, the Field Studies

Council in association with Bug Life have this. More details are on the

website. We talk about bees having fantastic olfactory powers. They

canner? Out a -- they can sniff out a flower from miles away. Gary is

the soundman. Gary, you set us the sound of the day. It has got me

completely mystified. Let's hear it again.

I've got absolutely no idea. I initially thought it was some kind

of cecada. We've got some wrong answers here. Cathy thought it was a

grasshopper warbler. A good guess but not right unfortunately. Cameron

says a bubbling noise, I'm thinking nightjar. Well, you're wrong. And

I'm looking for an answer here. Who got it right? Rob Thurrock. What was

the answer? Is it was kingfisher chicks in a burrow. You are kidding

me! No.And here is a picture. I had no idea. You got me there Gary.

Brilliant. We are going to now talk a little bit about a draw that the

cameramen come up with. They come up with all sorts of footage. We don't

have time to explain it but you might hear this in your garden. It's

a wasp collecting wood fibre from deadwood. We are running out of