Episode 9 Springwatch in the Afternoon

the Afternoon. We were live from the RSPB Ynis-hir reserve in Wales. You

know what? I think we've got a carnival goes dancing off into the

British Summer Time. And it is the BBC's Summer of Wildlife, all about

helping you get outside and getting a little piece of this action for

yourselves. But before we get on to that, let's catch up with the

regulars and find out what they've been up to since the last time we

saw them. The glorious weather continues at RSPB Ynis-hir and that

means there's lots of insects to go around. The male redstart fed an

enormous cat er caterpillar to his checks. -- chicks. The willow

warblers all the way from Africa are singing their stingtive song. The

parents are working hard to bring the chicks a variety of insect food.

The mammal log doesn't look that spectacular on the outside but

inside it is a very different matter During the day we are seeing common

shrew and bank vole visiting but the night belongs to the mice. The day

before yesterday our great tit chicks fledged late in the evening.

The next Daily Politics our dipper chicks went as well, although it

looks like they've got a lot to learn when it comes to finding their

own food. And finally, it seems the ones to watch are the grass hopper

warblers. Those chicks seem to be getting fidgety. They are right on

the edge of the nest. Maybe they're about to fledge. We've got some big

news for you today and it comes into two words - water rile. If you had

seen last night's show you would have seen how excited everyone was.

We've been excited about this bird since we found the nest. Yesterday

the water rail was acting peculiar. It was vocalising in a different way

and then we saw this female, we presume it is a female, dropped a

piece of eggshell out of the nest. That means that one of the eggs

broken. But did we have any chicks? We simply didn't know when we went

off air yesterday. But at around 5ish this morning this is what we

saw. Have a look at this. It is a bit dark, because the sun hasn't

come out, but look! We've got baby water rails. You do not see this

sort of thing. It is exquisite. They are very advanced at the moment.

There's one popping out of the nest. These birds spend longer in the egg

than most others, so they will be leaving very soon. Maybe today,

maybe tomorrow. So keep on eye on them. Drink it in, because you never

see this stuff. It is really worth enjoying.

Now, don't just take it from me, we are getting very excited here, but

in order to find out just how exciting this event is I caught up

with Iolo Williams earlier today. Iolo, you were an RSPB warden.

was. In Wales. How special is that to see our water rail with chicks?

That's very special. What's really special is the fact that we've got a

camera on the nest and we are filming all of these. I'm pretty

confident we are seeing a lot of this stuff for the first time. I've

been looking for birds' nests for 38 years and I have only ever found two

water rail nests in all of that time. This is only the third one I

have ever seen, and it's the first I've seen with a camera on it. We

are finding out things that we really didn't know very much about.

She is keeping all the chicks in that nest. A lot of the rails will

kick the chicks away once they've hatched, but the water rails will

stay in that nest for 24-48 hours and then start to wander. That's it

really, Iolo's been walking the Welsh wetland all his life and this

is only the third nest he's seen and he wasn't there to see views like

this. Thank you Iolo for your insight on that one. I had to get it

from you yourself, I'm so excited by this. We are all buzzing. Be

everybody is. Chris said it is a global first. Do you know what? I

think it may well be. While I was in the camera truck earlier and

witnessed that, the it was on the screen. Next to hit we had the main

theme from the marsh camera. Otters! Amazing. As if the otters weren't

enough we had otters on the mash cam. It was all over Twitter and on

the Facebook page. Those were the same otters I managed to capture on

my trail camera last week. They are predators. I was thinking, water

rails? Ooh, otters! Wow. Otters are a predator. They don't just eat

fish. It is not Watership Down out there but watership town meets

Apocalypse Now. We've got shots of a wheeze well shot by a long lens. You

don't often see them out in daylight. We've got buzzards out

there and a bunch of other things. Just before we went on air today we

got a bit of news. I've not seen this footage yet. I'm told it is

pretty strong so be prepared for this. Prepare yourself for something

difficult to watch, let's say. Unfortunately it involves our meadow

pipit nest, so let's look at what was recorded. This happened just

before we went on air. Oh, no. We've got a grass snake, a predator, an

opportunist will take... No! Look at that. OK, right. It got, the grass

snake has got one of our meadow pipit chicks. It is really difficult

to see but again it is incredibly rare. Where have the other ones

gone? He's only got one chick, let's stick with the positives here. Had I

don't know what happened to the others. They popped ought all over

the place. This is a defensive strategy. It is the equivalent of

pulling the ripcord on a parachute or the ejector seat button. Goodness

knows where they've gone. Hopefully they've survived. Almost certainly

there will be a long lens camera man trying to find them. We are going to

check on the water rails to make sure it is still there. This is

live. We can see one peaking over the edge of the -- peeking over the

edge of the nest. That's a relief. It is a creature-eat-creature world

out there. It happens to even the little things. Think of the

caterpillars and the flies that the willow warblers are pulling in every

day. That's predation in another way. Where are these caterpillars

coming from? We went on a caterpillar hunt.

Caterpillars are amazing. They come in all shapes and sizes, in all

colours and textures. They feed on a variety of plants and trees but a

good place to start looking for them is on a nice sunny nettle patch.

What have we got here? This is the very spiky caterpillar of one of the

commonest butterflies in the British countryside, or used to be. The

small tortoiseshell or red admirable, very distinctive

caterpillars. The eggs are laid in large groups on nettles and the

caterpillars spread out. This spread out from the main herd. Caterpillars

are an important part of the Springwatch story. Many of our birds

are bringing in these insects for the chicks. They are a favourite

food, as they are full of protein and moisture, so caterpillars have

to do all they can to avoid being discovered and eaten. This guy is

basking in the sun. And he isn't underneath the leaf, because he is

covered in dark-coloured spines, saying I'm not very palatable to a

bird, so I will sit in the sun. they regurgitate their dinner. That

was a great find but we want to see what caterpillars the willow bushes

are hiding a. The best way to do this is place a white sheet

underneath and shake the bug vigorously. There's another

caterpillar! Do you know what these are? I don't, and that's the joy of

this. Sometimes you have to wait for them to grow up a little bit. The

small green ones you often have to take home and identify or come back

later to see how well they've grown. They change colour when they grow

up. We are going to take them back to the boys in the macro and below

your mind with these little green jobs. In here it is bustling with

activity. Hi chaps? Hiya.They are fiddling around with bugs and making

the little things look big for your deelect takes. Let's see what they

did with the caterpillars. What we've got here, that's the

caterpillar that Brett and I found, a lovely fella. You can see his eyes

and he is spinning silk, making himself a fold in the leaf. A

beautiful little creature. Unusual. And here we've got we've got - here

we've got an inch worm. You can see its heartbeating through its skin.

This is another one of Brett's prized specimen, a brain-tail

caterpillar. If you see hairy caterpillars, by all means enjoy

them, but don't touch them, because some of them will give you a bit of

a rash. We are going to another one of our

cameras now, we are going to the grasshopper warbler. That's live.

You can just about see them there. The they are right on the edge of

fledging. Will they fledge? I can't see them all there. Have any gone? I

don't think they have. They are just hiding a bit low. They are very much

ready for fledging. They could go before the end of the show. Just a

little thought. When we have a little... Can we look at one of the

adult birds? We can't. There we are! Think about that bird, it is a

little miracle. That little bird has come all the way from somewhere

lying Senegal in West Africa, all the way up here, maybe the Gambia,

all the way to here to breed to make the most of our bounty of insects.

Those followers of this programme will know we have a regular

challenge. One of our very own beautiful creatures. This is Gary,

our wildlife sound recordest. Gary challenges us every day to a sound

of the day. What is it today? Here we go.

Goodness me. It sounds like something chewing. It is an

invertebrate and we wheelchaired the family on today's programme.

invertebrate featured on today's programme. I've got no idea. Let us

know what you think it is and we'll reveal the answer later on.

Bbc.co.uk/springwatch. Newts are very much spring. How much

do you know about them? The other day Mark Barber joined me to talk me

through a few of their finer points. This is our Springwatch in the

Afternoon dummy's guide to newts. We have three species in the UK. Shall

we start with the commonest? Yes, the snooze newt first. This is a

male? Yes. The most important feature is its spotty throat. Smooth

and spotty. He is struggling a bit. Let's try to settle him a bit. Can

you see his spotty throat there? I won't hold him for too long. That's

the smooth newt. And we've got we've got another common newt. If you live

in an upland area you tend to get these. They like acidic water.

throat is pink, translucent. Nice and pink. That's the two more

difficult newts to identify. Spotty smooth, pink for palmate. And these

are great-crested newts? The most important thing is it is a big black

newt. There is no denying the fact. It is longer than my fingers. A

beautiful newt indeed. These are incredibly rare aren't they? Yes,

they are. What do our viewers do if they find newts in their garden?

most important thing to do is to let us know. You is submit your findings

to our website. Great-ed newt?All amphibian species but if people have

great-crested newts, do let us know. If people want to make their garden

more newt friendly, what do they do? The easiest thing they can do if it

is feasible is dig a pond. Any sized pond is of use to amphibians and

other wildlife species, or you can build habitat piles out of logs or

rubble. We tend to think of newts being just pond creatures but they

spend a lot of their life out of the pond? People think they spend a lot

of their time attached but they can also spend a lot of time out of it.

I used to have them in an old sunken seat in the garden and the newts

bred in it successfully. Thank you for joining us and thank you for

bringing three newt species here. Rarely do we see them altogether.

pleasure. When the sun is out like this, get into a pond, a rock, Rocco

Proulx, it's the way to go. Springer will end very soon, and we're not

going to leave you hanging with nothing to do. It is the summer of

wildlife but they going to give you an idea right now, I'm pleased to be

joined by a marine biologist. And coastal rock the Guru. I think you

are wonderful. Have got a wonderful thing called CB depressing. What is

this? I've always thought seaweed was an inconvenience to Rocco Proulx

really. It's stunning, and here are some I collected from the beach this

morning. A beautiful colour, really, really stunning. You need to look

about diversity of colour and how beautiful they really are so what

you do, you have a tray with water, sick paper or thin card, then press

it down into the water, and you need to get it nice and wet. Then get

your seaweed, which looks pretty unimpressive there. But as soon as

you get is in the water, then you can use a pencil or a paintbrush and

then just ease out all the detail, and you get the sense of how

beautiful the seaweed is, especially on a high tide. It's like a marine

forest. Once you have got that nicely laid out, you very carefully,

this is the tricky part, here we go. If you could open a newspaper for a

moment, just pray sit down there, and then lay some muslin or a J

cloth over that. It's a bit windy today. That's it. Newspaper on top

of there. And then get some books to put on top of that. Nice heavy books

they're on top, full of knowledge. Then press that for five days but

change the newspaper so it's bone dry, and then you get some really

beautiful seaweed images. Have you got any you've done already? Here's

one I made earlier. Look at that. They are beautiful. The lovely thing

is, you can take the whole seaweed and get the detail of the whole

thing and it's almost like a stained-glass window. It's like a

graphic, digital graphic. It actually seaweed, it's not a print.

It's a piece of seaweed. Absolutely glorious. It's very creative but you

are creating a collection, and for me, they inspire Hell bunch of

exploration. Perhaps people will go back to the same beach in 50 years

time and see at the seaweeds are still here. It's a way of seeing

whether things have changed because of climate change. They are quite a

dynamic a la rock pools. Here is an idea of an activity to do. There is

the seaweeds search. You can find some of them which indicate climate

change and basic species, some it's a nice thing to do to help science

research. Brilliant. You are so inspiring, I'm going to go to the

rock pool and do some CB depressing. Absolutely brilliant. -- seaweed

pressing. Now we're going to go to a new family, the ones we launched

yesterday on this show. This time yesterday, we had the willow

warblers. There they are. Most of our birds have a classic little nest

but these guys actually live inside a dome. They actually have a roof

over it. Once upon a time, these were called Willow Wren is because

they also had a ball shaped nest with a much smaller opening. They

look a bit like them. The sound of a summer for many bus business, the

willow warbler. -- for many of us is the willow warbler. Listen to this.

I love that downward kind of lilt. A descending tone of the willow

warbler, for me, just picture a leaf falling from the branches to the

ground. It gives you an idea of what it sounds like. Just listen for it

next time you out and about. A couple of days ago, we got great

footage of the dragonflies. Some dragonfly people told me that they

have been waiting for ages to emerge and a fork out at once. There is a

glut of them and the willow warbler is taking advantage of it. This is

the footage couple of days ago. Look at that, you got to feel for those

damselflies being shoved into the gullets of those monstrous chicks.

Look at that. He's got it stuck in his throat. Look at that. There is a

caterpillar, as well. It just keeps on going on like this continuously

but it's not just the willow warbler who see them as a sign of the summer

but you should too, so get out there, said by a pond, and have an

experience with them and here is a little film to show you the marvels

of dragonflies. Rory has dedicated the past 25 years to studying

dragonflies and preserving habitat for these stunning insects and her

sad at the national dragonfly centre in Cambridgeshire to share his

passion. We usually see dragonflies fly past on a summers day but they

spend most of their life as larvae under water, so Rory is taking the

pond dipping. What first capture imagination about these? There is

some magic which I find it completely impossible to describe.

One landed on my shirt in 1985 and I was carrying a camera at the time

looking for things to take photographs of, and it's like the

dragonfly had said, what about taking a photograph of me?

Photography seduced me to the insects themselves. What have you

got? This is a Southerner hawker lather. We have a piece of kit back

at the centre which will enable us to get a really good look at this.

This is a piece of kit that the dragonfly project... Lovely, isn't

it? Can you see the eyes and the antenna? Yes.Each one is a lens and

a photoreceptor. There's about 10,000 in that eye and 10,000 in

that eye. There is no potential for missing the gaze of a dragonfly.

Their backsides, look at that. Now, that is where they take in water.

They breathe in and out of their backsides and can suck in water. If

you give them a shock... Please don't try that at home in the bath.

They can suck water and then should you don't really fast so they can

move along in the water really fast. You can try that at home at

you like! Shall we go outside? do it. Add side, we have got our own

bit of specialist equipment, superhigh speed camera so we can

film the aerial acrobatics of the adult dragonflies. We analyse the

results. This is a shot of a couple of damselflies in tandem taking off.

That's giving them the maximum lest -- left, the way they are beating

their wings. It gives maximum left. Damselflies typically fly like that

but dragonflies, once they are up in the air, they use a different

system. We have some dragonfly stuff here. Here it is coming in from the

right, look. A little bit of a glide. Yes.That's terrific. Look at

that. That's tremendous. Those momentary glides are special to see.

You don't see it with the naked eye. Did you see how they synchronised

for a moment and now are back in the fall drive position. A complex

amount of flight methods being used in a few centimetres of movement

here. I'm very impressed. A day like today is perfect for a bit of

dragonfly watching. It's nice and still in sunny and I tell you

something for nothing, it is more addictive than bird-watching in some

ways. You get all the action, dogfights, feeding, mating and egg

laying, all happening near the surface of the pond. However, there

is another aerial predator who might get lucky to feed on them. It is the

hobby. There were tears. With its wings extended, they look like a

boomerang -- via is. But a boomerang which is incredibly manoeuvrable.

They switch back and forward incredibly quickly and we have some

super slow motion footage of one hunting. Watch this. It misses the

dragonfly and comes in again. It gets it this time. Just imagine how

manoeuvrable you have got to be. We are going to share with you again in

slow motion. How manoeuvrable had got to be as a burden to be able to

do that in the flight? It's happening incredibly fast -- as a

bird. But there are also over sewage works, towns, anywhere there's

dragonflies, they have an equal when it comes to sharing the airspace of

the summer and that is the butterflies. I don't need to tell

you they are amazing but look at emergence of a true British

Inspiration for artists. And adorning our countryside with

colour. Seeing your first butterfly gives you the sense that spring has

arrived. And the warm days of summer lie ahead. I look forward immensely

to seeing each new species of butterfly. Every season because we

have spring butterflies in high summer butterflies and late summer

butterflies, and it's reacquainting and strengthening our relationships

with old friends. And there's plenty to get to know. You know, we have

over 50 species of butterflies in the UK and they have been living

alongside for thousands of years in our woodlands, field margins, parks

and gardens. But butterflies are not just pretty faces. Oh no. Their

private lives can be complex and fascinating. Take the large blue,

for example. The caterpillars hatch out and feed on wild flowers but

then they trick a species of ant into taking them into their nest

underground and here, they eat the & Grubbs before emerging again the

following year. You've got to agree, butterflies have been in serious

trouble. And the statistics are fairly sobering. It's really bad

news for British butterflies, over the past three decades or so, three

quarters of them have declined. It's a massive loss of many different

species. Five species have become extinct in Britain completely and

many others are threatened with extinction. To understand why our

butterflies are suffering, we have to uncover their complex and

fascinating lives. To do that, we have to start at the beginning.

Female butterflies are notoriously picky about exactly where they lay

their eggs. Some butterflies only breed on a single species of plant.

White Admiral Bull, for example, only breeds on honeysuckle, but most

breed on plans from a single family. The purple Emperor breeds on a type

of Willow. They are very choosy, these butterflies, which makes them

sensitive. As soon as that plant is gone, they go extinct in places very

way. They respond very quickly to these changes. And the reason they

are so fussy is because of these. The key to a butterfly success is

getting the right food plans for their hungry caterpillars. And,

unfortunately, these plants have been disappearing from our

countryside. The big problem that British butterflies face is the loss

of traditional ways that we manage our farmland and our forests. They

are now increasingly restricted to small pockets of habitat, small

islands, in a sea of otherwise inhospitable terrain like the

intensive farmland or housing, roads and so on, and they need to be able

to move through the landscape. Changing so fast and such specific

and different needs it is no wonder they found it difficult to cope. But

there's a simple solution to their complex problem. Understand the

species and then make space for its needs. We are lucky we know a lot

about butterflies in Britain, probably more than any other country

in the world. They respond so quickly to change and we can reverse

some of these declines. Brilliant stuff. You saw in that film, and I'm

very, very pleased to welcome to my log that's perched on the crag,

which we are calling upstairs, Matthew, welcome. Hi there.Smooth

yew and I go back a long way, he is one of my butterfly mentors, so I'm

a bit nervous. I want to get this right. Tell me, butterflies, you've

got a butterfly net here. This is my old butterfly net, because I

collected them as a boy for five years and the inevitable happened.

They collected me. And I've been following them ever since. This is

completely redundant. Nobody collects butterflies any longer in

this country. We still need to be able to get close to them in some

way. Modern butterfly collecting is done with a camera. It is a

fantastic hobby. It gives you the thrill of the chase, it stimulates

the hunting gene, nothing gets hurt or killed and at the end of the day

you have fantastic memories. People collect memories, and wonderful

images as well. We were talking about collecting seaweeds earlier on

and it is the same process, and you get information about the habitat of

the butterfly as well? Absolutely. And our scarce butterflies, it takes

you into wonderful landscape, when they are at their zenith of their

annual cycle of natural beauty. people want to get close to

butterflies, and most people have a camera and want to get close for the

shots. How do you approach a butterfly? With care, no jerky

movements and never cast a shadow over a butterfly. I talk to them, I

confess. Beekeepers talk though their bees. It calms me down and it

calms them down. You need to learn how to move amongst butterflies

without disturbing them. So try it yourself. It does work. I believe

you. There's something people can do this summer, the big butterfly

count. Yes, that's starting soon. Everyone can get engaged with

butterfly conservation's Big Butterfly Count. What do they do?

Count the butterfly. Go online, look up Butterfly Conservation's website

and get involved. It is ease. Bbc.co.uk/springwatch

Matthew, thank you very much. It is brilliant to see you. If butterflies

are your thing we've got a Springwatch butterfly special in the

near future. And there's a butterfly week coming up, with all sorts of

events going on throughout. Let's have a little look at the cameras

again. And we have the blackbird. This is live. The chicks grow up so

fast. This is happening in a hedge near you. This isn't exclusive to

us. This is happening in a hedge near you.

Let's look at what was happening earlier on. There's daddy. Some of

which those might be butterfly caterpillar caterpillars and there's

mum as well. Blackbirds really are feeding all over the UK at the

moment, so you are most likely to see them anywhere in towns, cities

and gardens, feeding the chicks, picking up beakful bes of caels. --

beakfuls of caterpillars. There are the red starts, they are growing

really fast. Just to give you an idea of how much they are hammering

the insects here. Over 25 visits in an hour was recorded earlier today.

That's quite incredible if you think about. It. How many visits in a day

would that make? It is an awful lot. Fantastic stuff there.

We can't move on without catching up with our jackdaws. This is live. The

jackdaws are huge now. They are fully developed. They've lost that

ghost-like look. They are flying machines. I believe these are the

parent birds. There's the chick. Sometimes they are so big they block

the lens. Don't panic if you go to the jackdaw camera and you see

nothing but black. That will be a jackdaw. Their feathers are

developed and they are looking lovely. They are still being visited

by the intruders, and that will continue until they fledge. That

could happen soon. It may even happen over the weekend. I don't

think it will happen today. Let's hope they hang on until Springwatch

starts again at the beginning of next week.

This is the Summer of Wildlife so let's see what it is all about

The UK is home to so many amazing creatures. Who needs to go abroad to

see incredible things? This summer is the time to get out there and

The BBC's Summer of Wildlife brings you a whole raft of special

programmes across the BBC. This country really does have the most

incredible wildlife. It is a nationwide celebration of our

natural history. To be able to crouch here is beyond my dreams.

a chance to get involved. We want you to go out and about with your

camera so we can see what wild things are living no-one your

doorstep. If you want to see wildlife, go down to your local

pond. Look out for hundreds of wildlife events and a website packed

with top tips and guides. All the advice you need to get out

and meet your extraordinary Information and inspiration for a

truly wild summer. I've got some sad news for you. This

is sadly the last of our live Springwatchs in the afternoon but

don't worry, because Springwatch continues. I caught up with

Michaela, Chris and Martin earlier today to find out what's happening

in the rest of the series. Michaela, what have we got lined up

for today's show? You know the most exciting thing that we are showing.

No, what could it possibly be? water rail chicks. I could watch

them for a whole hour. But we were putting a bit of variety in there.

From a tiny bird we are looking at a much larger bird, the red kite. Iolo

is with us. He is looking at what's been a fantastically successful

reintroduction programme. He goes to the Chilterns in his film to see the

fact that red kites are numerous there now. Slightly further afield.

And what's coming up in the next week? Seagulls next week. They are

one of those animals that people in cities, they like them to begin

with, but when they are woken up at four o'clock in the morning...

bags under my eyes are caused by heron gulls. I hope when we see the

intimate workings of their lives we will like them more. We have a

plethora of activities which will be highlighted by other programmes.

Countryfile, the one show is involved, there are programmes on

CBBC, local radio and all of the activity on the net. The purpose of

which this whole project is to try and get as many people in the UK in

contact. Not watching with it on their own TV but out of their homes

in contact with wildlife in their communities. I'm excited by this.

We've highlighted that so many of our species in the UK are in

trouble. We talk about declines, and it is impossible not to do that. But

unless people engage with these things and engage and have a value

for them, they won't look after them. This is a great initiative not

only for the BBC but for conservation as well. Good luck with

the next week's worth of programming. I'm very jealous. You

can see all these stories come to some kind of a conclusion, good or

bad. I think we should give you a round of applause. Well done!

Welcome on board. I couldn't want for a better group of work

colleagues. They are mates now. This it is part of a big family this. The

I've had a great time. And now it is time to reveal Gary's sound of the

day. Let's hear it one more time. I have no idea what that is. It

sounds like something chewing. You said it was an invertebrate or it

has been featured on today's show. It could be an insect? Is it a

caterpillar chewing? A larval form of something chewing. The wrong

answer as, water vole, hedgehog, dormouse chewing a hazelnut. Great

guesses but they are all wrong. What is it? It is the caterpillar of a

moth and it is an oak egger caterpillar. So it is a caterpillar

chewing. Well done. Did anyone get it right? Nobody got it right!

What's wrong with you? We are going of a wren. That's the first of the

bird songs I think I ever learnt. This is a male. I can tell that not

by any subtle nuance of his plumage but because he is the one building

the nest. He will build several nests and take his prospective

female of a tour of his residence it's. She will select the one she

likes best. And one quick look at the cameras live. Those are our

willow warblers. No grass snakes. We don't know what happened to the

meadow pipits. Don't forget to catch up with the evening show for more

news on that. There's the marsh cam. A nice shot of the marsh and the

pond. I can't see any otters. If they were there all the time they

would be boring wouldn't they? It is always worth a little look. And our

star bird. That is our water rail. They may fledge any moment now. Some

say it may be a day. Some say it may be two days. You can see the egg

tooth on one of the babies there. That's how they got out of the egg.

Really good stuff. That's it. I've had an absolutely lovely time. It

has been a pleasure working with you Gary. And it has been fantastic.

Spring carries on. Springwatch carries on. Don't forget the evening