Cities Wild UK

Right now, nearly 4,500 miles away,

Matt Baker and the Wild Alaska Live team are witness

to the world's biggest feast.

After months of being frozen,

the arrival of summer brings a four-month rush to feed and breed,

attracting eagles, sharks, bears and wolves,

all triggered by the annual arrival of Pacific salmon

to this vast wilderness.

Wild Alaska Live is capturing this incredible spectacle on TV

and online.

The Alaskan wilderness may seem a world away,

but we are here every day this week to reveal the wilder side

closer to home, right here in the UK.

As a wildlife cameraman, I've travelled all over the world,

but the wildlife and wild landscapes of these islands

hold a special place in my heart and are full of both

inspirational and surprising wildlife stories.

As a zoologist, I love to get out and about to the wilder parts

of the UK, to discover the conservation projects

that help keep this country wild.

Over this series, we're travelling from rivers to mountains,

from forest to seas, and even celebrating some of our

wildest cities, to bring you the best our country has to offer.

The UK is a lot wilder than you may think.

And this is your daily dose of the best that it has to offer.

This is Wild UK.

Each day this week, we're looking at a different wilderness

and wild space in the UK.

Today we're looking at one of the more surprising wildernesses,

one that's found in our towns and cities - the urban wilderness.

Today we're in Glasgow.

Now, I'm not saying that this is the Serengeti,

but it's surprising how many creatures have

adapted to the hustle and bustle and noise of city life.

Just like we have, I suppose.

And it's not all concrete jungle.

You'd be surprised at how many wild pockets there are,

even in our busiest cities.

Where I live in East London, we've got allotments, parks, canals.

In fact, three quarters of our urban areas are classed as natural,

rather than built on.

And it's those kind of places that allow wildlife

to live out their lives in our most populated areas.

Later in the show I'm heading to Newcastle and Gateshead

to see a kind of bird that I have never seen in a city before.

I associate them with isolated islands and abandoned headlands,

but they've made themselves at home here.

We're joined by some familiar faces,

sharing their best past urban experiences,

and I'm meeting Dr Dawn Scott, who's discovering just how

the most cunning of our native mammals is making a success

of city living.

GASPS

-Yay!

-Badger!

How fantastic.

But first, time for a snapshot of the UK's cities and towns in 2017.

Across the UK, 90% of the population live in urban areas,

totalling a staggering 59 million people.

And that's before we even start counting the wildlife.

It may come as a surprise, but only 7% of the UK's total area

is classified as urban.

And, of that, over three quarters of the land is made up of green space,

rivers...

and parks.

Plenty of space for animals cunning and streetwise enough to make us

their neighbours.

Gardens have become a rich source of food,

and homes for some of our most recognisable birds...

..and even some surprises.

And in North London, gangs of fallow deer

roam the streets, looking for succulent grass.

As our industrial rivers have been cleaned,

wildlife thrives above the water...

..and that's because it thrives below.

Nature can find a home nearly anywhere, so keep your eyes peeled.

The UK is wilder than you think.

Throughout the week here on Wild UK,

we have taken you to some of the most remote parts of the country,

from the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland,

to the high mountains of Snowdonia in North Wales.

These are terrific wilderness areas,

with a great variety of wildlife to be spotted,

if you're lucky enough to get there.

But just how wild can it get closer to home?

Here in the UK, 80% of us live in towns or cities,

but if you know what to look for and where to look,

even the most metropolitan areas can offer up a wild experience.

In 2016, David Lindo took to the streets

to give his top tips for city wildlife watching.

Birmingham, our second largest city, a hectic, revitalised conurbation.

It's also one of our greenest cities and, perhaps surprisingly,

home to some of Britain's most iconic animals.

You just need to know where and when to look.

One of my top tips for finding wildlife at this time of year

in urban areas is to head for some trees.

But it does mean getting up early, but it's well worth it.

And in central Birmingham, this means heading for the city's canals,

the best place to experience the dawn chorus.

BIRDS TWEET

That's a wren.

It's got a classic loud voice with a trill at the end.

And in the very background, I can hear a blackbird.

I love the mornings, because no matter where you live,

it's just a different world.

All these voices come from nowhere,

voices that you may not have even realised were there.

A lot of research has been done on the songs of urban birds

and it's been found that, number one, they're singing a lot earlier,

due to streets lights

and the fact that the nights are a lot shorter to them now.

And also, their songs have changed.

Some birds have become a lot more higher pitch and louder.

Great tits, for example, their song has adapted

because they need to break the noise of the traffic,

and the rural great tits do not recognise

the city great tits when they sing.

Now, for tip number two, head high.

In the centre of Birmingham, the new library provides

the perfect place to spot one of the world's top predators.

Well, I'm staring at that tower,

which is one of the tallest structures in Birmingham,

because there's a pair of peregrines actually nesting.

So with any luck, we might see it fly out

and actually give us a display flying around.

Wow! That's amazing.

They have a very dynamic shape.

Surprisingly broad-winged for a falcon.

Peregrines have been nesting on this tower for 16 years.

Up to six pairs are now breeding in the city,

a massive increase in the last few years.

And a huge part of that success is down to the fact

that they've discovered urban areas.

The buildings that we construct are fantastic,

because they are artificial cliffs. They can nest in comfort.

To add to that, they have an abundant supply of food - pigeons.

Research has found that city life is so good,

peregrines hatched in places like this are choosing to breed

in other urban environments.

The thing I love about watching peregrines is the effortlessness

of their flight, the way they just drift on the wind

as if they haven't got a care in the world,

and then, with like a flick of a switch,

become this ultimate killing machine,

diving at up to 200 miles an hour to hit a pigeon and knock it dead.

And with that magnificence,

that is why the peregrine is the king of the urban jungle.

I tell you what, it's hard to top that

for an urban wildlife encounter.

Time for tip number three - keep an eye on social media.

Just north of Birmingham, a small town within earshot of the M6 Toll,

where council ranger Rob Taylor has been monitoring an

urban encroachment that sent the internet wild.

-So how many deer do you think you've got here?

-200-300.

Well, there's actually three there. How long have they been coming here?

Up until the 1970s there was no mention of red deer in this area,

cos all this used to be coal pits and mines.

You know, there wasn't many trees in sight, but since then,

the deer have been coming here because of the trees

that have been planted as part of this community forest.

It's just incredible to see such a large mammal

in such close proximity to humanity.

These red deer have spilled out of nearby Cannock Chase,

where a population approaching 400 is outgrowing the park.

As they get used to humans,

so there will be more close encounters like these.

I am truly blown away by the sight of 16 red deer

right next to a building site and also next to a housing estate

in an urban area.

I've never come across this before.

I think the thing to remember is, just imagine that anything can

turn up at any time. You might come across a herd of red deer.

You might come across something else amazing, so keep your eyes peeled.

David's right, you know. You never know what's going to turn up and,

you know, if you're walking to work, or on your lunch break,

if you keep a sharp lookout, you never know what you might see.

Absolutely. He might have seen red deer in Birmingham,

but very near where I live in East London,

there's even been sightings of a herd of fallow deer,

especially in the autumn and winter.

The deer are drawn in from the surrounding woods to graze

on the short grass of people's front lawns and road verges,

right in the heart of a housing estate

where the residents sleep, blissfully unaware.

There's a great deal of activity happening in our cities

under the cover of darkness.

You know, when we close our curtains and draw down our blinds

at night, all sorts of creatures come out, particularly mammals.

Badgers, bats, hedgehogs, and they go about their busy little lives

while we're fast asleep.

But of course, there's one mammal in particular, isn't there,

that's really become synonymous with urban living,

and that's the red fox.

And a couple of weeks ago, I went to Brighton to meet with Dr Dawn Scott,

and she told me how the fox has become such a city slicker.

Since they were first reported in urban areas in the 1930s,

fox numbers in Britain's towns have been steadily increasing.

Now on average, there are between two and 12 adult foxes

per square kilometre of urban area.

To find out why foxes are thriving in our towns, I've come to Brighton,

where Dr Dawn Scott is running a ground-breaking study

to get a better idea of how foxes are adapting

to the urban environment.

So why do foxes do so well in cities, then?

Well, cities provide foxes with everything they need -

secure places where they can den and raise cubs

and there's also loads of food.

So what I'm going to do is show you a few places in cities that

foxes like, which helps them to do really well.

Fantastic.

Our first stop is a local park, and it's the least manicured areas

that the foxes love best.

Scrub provides cover for them to have some security to have cubs

and raise them.

So we're going to look for any signs of cubs, and that usually is

worn ground, maybe shoes or tennis balls they like to collect,

and also holes on the ground, so they're about that size,

and you will get that really strong smell of foxes.

This is such dense cover in here.

Yeah. There's some very clear trails along here as well.

There's a worn area under there.

-Yeah.

-And if I look down here, there's a worn area

under here as well.

So it might be that the actual den entrance is covered underneath

the log pile. And that would be perfect, because they like to go

under sheds, very small spaces, to crawl in,

so that nothing else can get in there with the cubs.

These little refuges are gems in an urban area for foxes.

This is really what they need, and we need to keep these little rough

places of scrub to allow the wildlife to flourish.

Dawn has been using electronic tags and motion control cameras to follow

the lives of 22 urban foxes.

So I have some footage and these are two foxes that we

collared separately, Fleet and Fennec,

and we think one's a cub and one's an adult dog fox.

and when we started off recording them,

there was definitely a submissive behaviour in Fennec.

And slowly over time, Fennec became more and more dominant,

to the point where Fleet actually left the territory completely.

-Wow!

-Out of the city and into a rural environment.

-No, really?

-Yeah.

-He got booted out of town, then?

Yeah, he ran off.

When Fleet took to the country, he covered 315 kilometres

in less than a month, and that's a fascinating finding

of Dawn's study.

Compared with rural foxes, the territories of families

in cities are tiny, only a few streets.

Why?

Well, it's the easy pickings.

In the countryside, a rural fox will be living on all sorts of things,

like fruits and berries and earthworms.

What sort of thing are they eating here?

I mean...?

Opportunities here are different, very different.

When people get takeaways, they sometimes drop things on the floor,

so the foxes have an opportunity to pick those things up that we leave

behind, a bit like street cleaners.

A lot of people think of foxes going inside of bins,

but they're actually just...

We're leaving enough down on the ground for them to pick up

-and get a good feed.

-Yeah. If a bin is open and the fox can get in

and there's something tasty, they will have a go.

But a lot of the bins now are closed and protected,

so it's not as easy to get food, but there's plenty about for

them on the floor.

Foxes survive in our inner cities, but it's in the suburbs

that they really flourish.

-Hello.

-Hello.

Dawn's taking me to a house where they know they have

regular visits. We're going to stake out their their garden.

Gardens with veg plots, composting, decking and sheds

make great habitat for foxes, but there's one factor

that's the main draw -

people are increasingly leaving food out for them.

They're arriving in the gardens at the time when there's food,

they're visiting gardens that have food, and so they're completely

shifting their behaviour.

And the family groups tend to be bigger, so what you're

having is, you're changing the population dynamics of an animal

in this urban area as well.

How they respond to us is fascinating.

We're sort of evolving together, in a way.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Our stakeout isn't going very well.

It's half-past 11 and zero foxes, but Dawn has a backup plan.

This is one of the gardens where she keeps a camera trap,

so we're checking the footage from last night.

I think the record we've had is 20 different cats in one garden.

And hello, cat, again. Ooh!

-Yay!

-Badger!

-Fantastic.

-So it's no fox.

-Yeah.

We've got badgers and that makes me happy.

But we do have something there.

That does look fox-like, doesn't it?

Could be a fox cub.

Here's the badger again. We've just seen the fox cub,

so they're almost at the same time.

Sometimes the foxes come up and nip the badgers' bottoms to get them out

of the way of the food.

It's amazing what wildlife you can see in an urban area.

We're just talking about two animals here, foxes and badgers.

There's loads more.

Urban areas are incredibly special for wildlife,

-and we should savour it.

-Absolutely.

The interesting thing is, is that generally across the UK,

fox numbers are on the decline,

so it's great to see that they can really thrive in our cities.

Absolutely, and I remember, you know,

I grew up on the very edge of a city, and in those days,

I never saw a fox and now every time I go back,

I'm seeing them in broad daylight.

Now, that doesn't necessarily mean there's more of them,

perhaps they're just bolder than they used to be.

Absolutely. Now, if you are an animal that can adapt

to live alongside mankind, then that's only going to be a benefit,

because unfortunately, a lot of times,

our influence is more destructive.

And there's a real prime example of that.

Now, back in 1832, the very last great bustard was shot

in the UK, but now there's a move to bring back this long-lost beast.

Back in 2016, Springwatch went to Wiltshire to meet David Waters,

who has been a driving force behind this project.

I think I've always had a really strong interest in wildlife

and as soon as I was old enough to walk,

I had a pair of binoculars around my neck.

My parents bought me a subscription to -

I think it was a monthly magazine - the World Of Wildlife,

and I used to look at all the exotic or big,

exciting wildlife and it always seemed to be hundreds of miles away.

And then I learned of the great bustard.

Great bustards have a natural sort of aristocratic elegance about them.

The bill is often just slightly elevated

and you could imagine them as sort of Spanish grandees

as they strut about.

They really do look a classy bird.

When I learned that great bustards used to live not only in England

but in Wiltshire, where I lived,

and it had been persecuted to extinction,

yeah, I'm quite miffed about that, I'm very disappointed.

There was a place in Russia called Saratov,

where great bustard nests were actually destroyed

by their methods of agriculture.

I formed The Great Bustard Group and the idea was,

we could just go and rescue some of those eggs, rear the birds,

and release them.

Now we're actually able to go and source our birds from Spain

and then bring them back and do all the rearing here in Wiltshire.

When a great bustard chick hatches,

they're like little sort of Tyrannosaurus dinosaur type things.

Getting out of that egg takes up to 24 hours - exhausting work for them.

They can't feed themselves for the first five to ten days,

and they actually rely on Mum to bill-feed them.

I can't pretend I make myself look like a female bustard,

but I can at least disguise my features,

so the bustard doesn't realise I'm a human.

Currently, we've got somewhere, plus or minus a couple,

40 adult or sub-adult great bustards.

Early in the spring or the tail-end of the winter,

the males get together and they lek.

They do this very, very elaborate display

and they're really sorting out who's who,

who's going to be the dominant male.

The full display of a adult male great bustard is...

It's very, very spectacular, but it's also bizarre.

They've got this ability to turn their wings and tail

almost sort of inside out.

It's got this inflatable pouch,

a gular pouch, that runs down the front of the throat

and it inflates it right up.

All the under feathers are on display and they're white, very,

very bright white, and it's just this big white sort of powder-puff,

that doesn't look like a bird at all.

There's this white blaze, just appears on the hillside.

When the males are displaying, it's...

It seems to be about size and whiteness.

The great bustards see in ultraviolet

and we know the feathers of the great bustard are highly reflective

for ultraviolet. So what's bright to us is probably

sort of psychedelic to them.

The females will choose the big, heavy males with the best, brightest

plumage, and those successful males probably account

for a lot of the matings.

Nothing happens terribly quickly with great bustards.

Males are thought to need to be five years old before they breed.

I'm hoping that within the next three to five years,

we'll be able to say -

the UK great bustard population is self-sustaining.

That's always been the aim of the project, but the last

couple of years have really taken us close to that point.

To have created a new great bustard population would be

a fantastic achievement, I think.

They are seriously big birds.

Nearly as big as you, right, Colin?

You're not wrong. Well, the males can be about a metre tall

and they say they can weigh up to 18kg, which is about the weight

of a four-year-old child.

And, you know, I've got to say, hats off to David and his team

for attempting a reintroduction, because these sorts of projects are

really complicated, aren't they?

And they can have lots of unforeseen problems and actually go on

for a really long time.

So it's great that they have the security of that

Ministry of Defence land.

Of course, normally, wildlife decides on its own where it's going

to set up home, and there's one particular sea bird

that has decided to do just that in the cities of

Newcastle and Gateshead.

And I have never seen them in such a location before,

so I went there some weeks ago to check them out for myself.

Lucky you!

The city of Newcastle upon Tyne is one of the UK's busiest locations.

Together with neighbouring Gateshead, it's home

to nearly 500,000 people, and a hub of trade and industry.

But amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday life,

there are a few wild treasures, if you know where to look.

Roe deer, dippers, red squirrels,

and along the river Tyne, otters, seals,

and even a dolphin has been spotted.

But perhaps the most famous wild residents can be found

in spring and summer months, and thanks to its call,

it's not too difficult to find.

This is my first time in Newcastle and what a wonderful place it is.

I just love these bridges. They're absolutely beautiful.

But I'm not the only one who appreciates these.

Look at this. Dozens and dozens of nesting kittiwakes.

I have never seen them in a place like this before.

I associate them, you know, with isolated islands

and abandoned headlands.

But they've made themselves at home here.

Kittiwakes get the name from the calls they make.

Kittiwakes, kittiwake, kittiwake.

Maybe.

They seem to have established themselves on every little ledge

that they can find around this part of the city,

but they're not feeding around here.

These will only hunt out on the open ocean.

It's a long foraging journey in search of sand eels and small fish,

to feed their chicks.

There are many nesting sites around Newcastle and Gateshead,

but the most impressive of all has got to be the Baltic Art Gallery.

And I've joined Kirsty Pollard from the Durham Wildlife Trust to get a

closer look at these special birds.

The best place for a fantastic view into their private lives

is on the fourth floor.

I can hear them, anyway.

Here they are.

-These are our kittiwakes.

-Ah, look at that.

As you can see, looking at the Baltic building,

it's perfect replicant of a cliff edge.

So the kittiwakes are happy, but they're also very sheltered.

They're sheltered from the wilder elements here and they've also

got lower levels of predation here.

What's so lovely about seeing them so close up is being able to see the

parents really both taking a part in that role.

You know, it's a lot of head bobbing and they both feed the chicks and

when you see them doing that,

and the sort of bond they have between the mum and the dad,

it's quite heart-warming to see.

Now, they say that this is the most inland colony in the world,

but how do you think they got here?

There are natural nesting colonies not far from here up at Marsden

and North Shields - probably those colonies were just getting too full

and the birds were looking for extra nest spaces and, obviously,

the river is a natural sort of corridor for birds

that like water, and they found a quite happy place

at the Baltic and down at the Tyne bridges and made themselves at home.

They won't be here for the whole year, will they?

That's right. They arrive about March time,

and they're here usually until about August time,

so it's literally just coming in to build their nests,

raise their babies and then they go back out to sea

and that's where they spend most of their life,

and we just get to tap in and enjoy a little bit of them

while they're here with us.

It's wonderful listening to these sounds in the middle of the city,

because, you know, it's not every place would accept 1,000 sea birds

nesting right in the heart of their cultural centre.

It's very encouraging.

It means that, you know, in future,

perhaps our cities can get a little bit wilder.

Well, that weather was a bit wild, wasn't it, Colin?

It certainly was.

We were pretty damp at the end of the day, but I have always wanted to

visit Newcastle and Gateshead.

I think every person I've ever met from there over the years has just

been a lot of fun, so I reckon the kittiwakes have chosen a really good

place to set up home.

Well, of course, it's not just kittiwakes that have taken up

residence in our cities. Most town centres you'll find gulls,

but in Aberdeen there's a much more unusual sighting,

and that's the oystercatcher.

Oystercatchers naturally nest on the ground on shingle beaches,

but in the building boom of the 1960s,

many high-rise buildings were built with flat roofs covered in pebbles -

ideal places for them to nest. And, even now,

as roofs are being resurfaced without pebbles,

keen birder Alastair Duncan is providing the birds

with trays of little stones on the rooftops and they're thriving.

Wow! Oystercatchers nesting on a flat roof.

That's amazing, isn't it?

And it just goes to show that wildlife's everywhere

if you just take a look, and if you need a little bit

of extra inspiration, then here's our city guide

to where the wild things are.

It's not just small stuff that can find a home in our cities.

Even large mammals, like the red deer, can find space.

The autumn rut of red deer can be witnessed in Richmond Park

in London, where over 300 individuals run wild

less than ten miles from the centre of our largest city.

One bird has become synonymous with our city centres

and can easily be overlooked.

But don't.

Take a closer look and the feral pigeon is actually

a surprisingly colourful bird.

They can be found in most of our major cities,

where large buildings make great replacements

for their natural cliff nesting sites.

Our city waterways can be teeming with wildlife

and are great places for bird-watching.

At the weir in Dumfries, the fish and lamprey in the water

attract an array of birds, including herons, goosanders,

cormorants and grey wagtails.

And in Leeds, and doubtless other cities,

the mistle thrush is known to nest using the shelter

of the city traffic lights to protect its brood.

Forget rush hour, this is thrush hour!

In suburbia, our homes, parks and gardens play host

to nocturnal visitors.

Hedgehogs snuffle from garden to garden,

hogging the hedges and fences, and can be found across the UK.

It really is surprising, isn't it?

The wide variety of wildlife that's made its home in our cities.

It really is and, you know, cities do provide you with

a good opportunity to get close to animals.

So if you're into photography,

it means you can get some fairly sort of quirky shots,

because they don't run away from you.

So I would suggest, stick on a wide-angle lens

and try getting really close.

All week, we've been asking you to share your photos of wild places

on social media, using the hashtag "my wilderness"

and you've sent through some great photos of your cities,

like these ones.

This peregrine falcon perched high on Manchester Cathedral.

Or this peaceful scene across Richmond Park in the west of London.

All this week, as we celebrate the UK wilderness, over in Alaska,

Matt Baker, Steve Backshall and Liz Bonnin are exploring

the remotest parts of that region.

And, of course, they're there to witness this animal extravaganza

that's driven by the return of the Pacific salmon

to the rivers of Alaska in order to breed.

But of course, it's not just animals that are attracted

to this annual migration.

It's also important for some of the people that make Alaska their home.

On the final episode of Wild Alaska Live,

they will be revealing the life of a fisherman,

who can make an annual salary in one week

if the salmon return in good numbers.

But what's it like trying to film all this?

Wild UK went behind the scenes to find out.

This is Bristol Bay.

Almost half of the world's annual catch of sockeye salmon

will be caught here over the next few weeks.

Cameraman Mark Sharman has come here to film

this extraordinary fishing bonanza.

Tonnes and tonnes of fish come in fresh, and then there's a huge

cannery operation behind me.

It's so productive, these waters.

Mark will be spending the next 24 hours on a 32-foot fishing boat,

the Barnacle.

Deckhand Justin is into his third season aboard this boat.

Yeah, I mean, it's what we're here for.

I mean, it's entirely exhausting, but we've been waiting

for months and months for this.

It's crazy. It's crazy!

So this is the main cabin of the boat.

It holds all three of the guys and somehow I've got to squeeze in.

I think I'm going to be sleeping on the floor here,

but it seems like it's all work and no rest.

It took skipper Joe Trotter 20 years to save enough money

to buy the Barnacle, as he needs to catch a lot of fish

to keep his investment afloat.

I think they're just expecting a whole lot of fish,

which is a good thing.

We'll sleep next week, I guess.

Pat, you want to get your gloves on?

We're going to set here. OK.

To prevent overfishing, the industry is tightly regulated

and all the fishermen are given strict time windows

to make their catch.

This ensures that a large number of salmon can escape upriver to spawn.

These guys have only had about two or three hours' sleep

in the last 24 hours. They're just going to push on through,

cos whilst the fishing is good, they're going to keep fishing

and I'm doing my best to keep up with them and keep out of their way.

After a successful few hours of fishing, they fill their hold.

Now they need to off-load their catch to the tender vessel.

Did we get close to three bags full of fish?

Close to four.

OK, so close to 4,000 lbs.

The next location isn't proving so bountiful, but skipper Joe gets

a tip-off on where the fish have turned up.

We'll just head over there now, see if this show is still going.

Whoa!

Loads of them.

As the sun sets, the crew fight fatigue, but keep working.

They can't afford much rest,

as their fishing deadline will be up tomorrow.

Good first day. It's currently almost 1.20am in the morning

and it's time for a midnight feast and some wine.

It's the start of day two.

Joe's already up. He's been making coffee.

With the fishing cut-off looming,

the boats jostle for position at the best salmon spot of all,

the notorious North Marker.

It seems like every one of Bristol Bay's 1,500 fishing boats have

congregated here and they're all hoping to catch some

of the 300 million salmon that migrate through this point.

This morning, I wasn't quite sure if we were going to get that much fish,

but it ended up working out really well. Yeah, it was a good day,

I'm happy about it.

That looks like seriously tough work, but I guess it's a question

of making hay while the sun shines.

The summers are short and everything's got to make best use

of that annual bounty.

It's certainly keeping the Alaska Live team pretty busy,

and you can catch up with them and all the latest happenings

online and on social media.

Now, our cities are pretty noisy, vibrant, bustling sorts of places.

Not exactly where you would expect to find our most colourful bird.

But the One Show's Mike Dilger discovered

this isn't necessarily the case.

The kingfisher is one of Britain's

most beautiful and spectacular birds.

But they can only thrive on clean, healthy rivers

with a good supply of fish to feed on.

So you might be surprised to find they've recently been spotted on

an urban waterway right in the heart of South London.

Over the last few months, Tomos Brangwyn has been watching

and photographing these shy birds in the most unusual of spots.

-Is that a shopping trolley?

-Yeah, this kingfisher has sussed out that

there was a huge shoal of stickleback

using the trolley as an artificial reef and it just perched itself

on one of the wheels, and had a perfect view to catch a fish

-out of the shoal here.

-And I know these photographs have taken

an awful lot of work.

Oh, yeah. I grew up locally.

I've been watching kingfishers on these urban rivers for years

and it took about six months of my time.

And this one's amazing.

I've seen kingfishers in the countryside

and they use sandbanks and they dig their own holes, but here,

it's found a drainage pipe in a concrete bridge!

Yeah, they've just completely adapted to the man-made environment.

All they need is a bit of concrete, a hole and they can bring up

a whole family.

At first light, we head upstream to give ourselves

the best chance of seeing them.

In the 1980s, this river was essentially a drainage pipe,

polluted by human waste and industrial run-off.

Now, although on the surface it hardly looks pristine,

the water quality and habitats have improved enormously,

enough to bring back a healthy supply of fish

and, in turn, a kingfisher.

We cover ourselves in camo gear and get comfy.

A kingfisher's territory can be three miles long,

so it may be a while before it visits this section of the river.

After just half an hour, it becomes apparent how rich and varied

the birdlife is in this concrete riverbed.

They're just such a good sign that the river's in fantastic condition.

But still no sign of a kingfisher.

That is until a flash of blue shoots straight past us.

-TOMOS WHISPERS:

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was an enticing glimpse, but the kingfisher wasn't hanging around.

It was another three hours before our next visit.

There it goes.

Here we go, here we go.

It's so exciting!

There's a kingfisher on the branch just over my left shoulder.

-Here it comes.

-Wow! Look at that hover.

The kingfisher is searching the water for fish.

Nothing this time.

But, as we sit there watching, this stunning bird works its way

from perch to perch.

Whether it's an iron pole or a concrete wall,

each location is a vantage point the kingfisher uses to spot fish.

It's just gauging kind of, you know, whether it can catch the fish

or not, working out depths, working out angles.

Their eyes have evolved polarising filters, which means

they can easily see movement through the water's glare.

-Up he goes.

-Here he comes.

Down to the water. There we go.

It's diving for a fish.

Got it! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Back up. It's got a fish.

Yes!

Oh, it's using the bar to stun it...

..so it can swallow it.

And straight down the gullet.

What a little jewel.

Kingfishers have also been spotted on urban rivers in Leeds,

Coventry and Manchester.

This is crazy. That kingfisher's perching there,

just metres away from people walking past, to and from work,

on their mobile phones, and they have no idea it's there.

We do.

I love kingfishers and it's great to know that even in one

of our busiest cities, the water quality is good enough

to support them.

It's just goes to show, doesn't it, that if the habitat is right,

the animals will turn up.

Absolutely.

Well, it's the last episode of Wild UK,

so thank you for joining us and we hope you've enjoyed discovering

some of the best wildernesses that this country has to offer.

Don't forget, the last episode of Wild Alaska Live this Sunday,

BBC One, 7.00pm.

But for now, Lucy and I are going to leave you with some

wonderful wildlife images shot right across these islands,

that just go to show that the UK is wilder than you may think.

Thanks for watching.