Episode 1 Winterwatch

We are in the highlands of Scotland, where winter has truly arrived. The

days are short, the temperatures are down but the expectation is

high. Over the next four nights we find

out how the UK's wildlife survives the winter. For many animals, it is

the toughest time of the year. This area is covered in cameras. We

are watching how the wildlife around us manages to survive the

Yes, hello and welcome to Winterwatch. Winterwatch! Now, we

have had the pleasure of bringing you a few Springwatchs and

Autumnwatch but this is the first chance to bring you Winterwatch,

live. It is dynamic and the aim is as usual to bring the very best of

British wildlife. There is a down side, however, we are out in the

freezing cold! I can't tell you how many layers I have on. My colleague

is sporting less. I even have the baggy trousers on. We are based

here in the Aigas Field Centre in the highlands of Scotland this week.

We have fabulous stuff coming up. And my how it has changed since the

autumn. We have had snow today. It has come down and the icy fist of

winter clamped down and it has upped the ante for the wildlife

here. The scenery may have changed but the wildlife stars are still

here, but they have different challenges to face now it is the

winter. We are finding out how the wonderful family of beavers have

adapted now that the temperatures have dropped and there is the

spotlight on the pine matter ens to see how they work when the chill

sets in. And we have this on these birds, on

the north Norfolk coast a large colony of grey seals, there are

many cute pups and bolshoi dads too. We are looking at exotic animals,

and also the familiar. The robin. He is one of our favourite birds

but he has a dark side. Also, something exciting that is going on.

We have a waxwing here. This is a beautiful bird. They have poured in

from Scandinavia, 5,000 of them. You can catch them up and down the

country. Fantastic. I have not seen one yet.

You disappoint us! But before we go further, we have to establish why

is winter a tough and testing time for our wildlife? Winter it is a

season of extremes. Plummeting temperatures, frost and

even snow mean that food and water are scarce.

For wildlife, it is a real test of the fittest.

Right now, animals and plants are facing up to this challenge.

Especially those young animals, experiencing winter for the first

time. But they have got some clever

strategies to see them through. Some migrate, some hibernate. Some

take on fat supplies. Others store their food.

It is a time of cleverness and remarkable behaviour.

Winter also provides some of the For us, it can be beautiful but

this is the most difficult time of the year for every animal. We'll be

following their stories as they battle to survive.

Yes, we are looking at some of the fascinating strategies that animals

use to survive the winterment the winter, how cold is it right now?

Chris, my lovely assistant. Well, it is telling me on the

thermometer that it is 2 .4, but before it was 1.9.

As warm as that? Surprisingly, it is relatively warm here, but the

snow has hit many areas of the country today. Yesterday it was

minus 6 .2 in Cumbria. The winter is coming, that means that our

wildlife will go under the hammer. It will get stressful for them.

The cold weather means big changes for the wildlife, especially for

the beaver family that live on the loch behind us. The loch has not

frozen but what do they do if it does? Well, they do this. A little

bit of dancing on ice. This is one of the kids. It is not doing too

badly for the first time on ice. It falls in, that is the trouble. It

is very thin ice. Skating on thin ice, but he manages to get out, but

not own do they walk on top of the ice, they also swim underneath it.

It is difficult to see in that shot. So let's play it again and

highlight it so you can see the baefr under the water. Not

something that I fancy doing but they are perfectly adapted to do

that. What about when you want to get out? Tricky but they have

breathing holes, but at seven months told is a struggle to get

out of the water tonne the thin ice. You can see that little kid is

struggling, but it is fantastic we've been able to get these

pictures. It is brilliant that they are right here for us to have the

cameras on. It occurred to me, what happens

when it freezes solid? The beavers leave the lodge, how do we know how

long they can hold their breath for? They can hold their breath up

to six minutes, but when the adult toppled in there it started to chew

the ice. They do that, chewing air holes around the water that is held

by the dams to move from air hole to air hole to breathe.

They also bang them with the heads. So they bang the ice and break it

with their heads. Oh, come on? No, they do! We might

get it live on the cameras. Talking about cameras, we have a new live

camera. We have Carcass Cam. This is interesting. Let's find out

where this camera is. We can see here, that is the loch behind us.

To the right here, there is a beautiful mist in the valley, there

is the Carcass Cam. What it is, it is a road kill deer. We have staked

it out but we want to see what animals will feed on it. When it

gets cold, animals will take advantage of any food source. So,

what did turn up? Let's have a look at one of the first things. It was

a buzzard. Perhaps not surprising. The buzzard will be scouring the

sky, looking for food as it gets colder. The buzzards are so

powerful a bird. Do you think it can open up the deer? I am not sure.

They normally get in through the mouth or the eyes. Going through a

hide for the buzzard, before it decays it could be difficult.

He is getting a nice feed there as it is really already open.

It really looks like winter there. Now, another animal turned up that

was surprising. This, of course is the badger. That is a surprise to

me. A badger, 45% of the badger's diet is worms, but then, of course,

whether the ground freezes he will have a job getting to worms. So I

think that he is investigating this potential food source in its

territory. So if it gets colder it may eat them? They are not known as

scavengers but if it gets tough, they will not turn down meat.

It will be interesting. Here is a third thing, a small

thing that turned up, a robin. Now, that may be surprising if you are

not used to it, we see them eating the peanuts, but they are omnivores.

They will eat meat it is hard to see but we think it is picking up

scraps of meat. Quite a few garden birds will do.

In tough winters, starlings, all sorts of birds will turn to eating

their frozen cousins that they find liing in the snow. Needs must.

it gets colder you take advantage of whatever you can get.

If you were watching Autumnwatch you may have seen the same degree

of treats that we saw. There is a British mammal, it is restricted to

living in Scotland, a few of them in England but it is very shy, a

nocturnal animal. It is of course the pine matter en. Let's go live

to where we were watching them in the autumn. We have seen them

already this year. We have had the cameras et up for a few days --

pine martens. You can identify them by looking at

their bibs. They have characteristic patterns of spots.

This one we called Spike. And there is Spot on the left. I

think that one has appeared. Let's have a look. There he is.

These animals, they are only about 100m behind the camera where we are

speaking, so we are whispering. This is the first live pine marten

of Winterwatch. We have changed the set-up and put in upright branches.

What we wanted to see was howagile the creatures are.

He is coming. A beautiful back-lit shot as it approaches across the

top of the wall. It would be great to be able to see

the bib, then we can see which one it is.

I think that I may have seen a little spike on there.

Oh, come on. They are rare. They are very difficult to see. To see

them live like this is a real treat. Of course, we will keep you updated

throughout the programme and throughout the week as we explore

their antics. And you can continue watching them

24 /7 on the internet and we would like to see your photographs of any

wildlife that you have. Send that through to the website or to

Twitter. As Chris said we are lucky to see the pine martens. They are

very shy animals. We are also lucky to have the animal of the bofrs. I

want to remind you about the story of the beavers. They were

introduced to the loch in 2006. They have had numerous kits. There

are nine individuals that live here. They are managed, part of a

demonstration project. They live around the loch in lodges. There

are a few lodges. The last time they were the other side of the loc

had, but since the Autumnwatch they have moved to the other side of the

loch. The lodge is where they live. They

dig under the ground. They have Chalmers with an exit that goes out

on to the water. Let's have a look inside. We have a live camera in

that lodge it looks different to the one we were filming on

Autumnwatch. Nothing there now but we have had lots of shots of them

in the daytime. To get a picture of how they live, you really need to

go on a beaver safari in the Series Autumnwatch it, the beavers

have moved do that artificial log we go rebuild a few years ago for.

So they have been busy House moving. It is great to pick them die are

probably slipping now during the day, which is why we have the

cables here, so hopefully, we are getting shots of them doing that.

How many chambers are inside? just one big bedding chamber.

the whole family here? Just a few of them. It seems to be the mother

and some of her kids from last year. Why did they move? It could be just

for a change of scenery, but they do go from lodged lodge naturally.

How much have they changed since autumn? What will they be doing in

winter? They will be feeding on the food caches they have sunk under

the water to keep them going if the loch does not freeze. The kits will

be building up fat and there buildings -- body size, ready for

adulthood. The adults will be living off their fat reserves as

well as feeding on the food under the water. Adults may lose their

body condition over the winter, but we usually do not see that.

most interesting thing over the winter is there store food. We saw

them building it up during Autumnwatch. Now they are making

the most of it. Can we see the food Gosh, it is huge. It and went and

it goes a long way. So they have made this and then sunk it. I

thought they built their caches near their Lordships have it could

take the food into their lunch. that is what I always assumed until

I started seeing of the food caches around here. They have obviously

not read the textbooks! This could be new science! I wonder how long

that would last if this froze over and stayed like that for a mind?

These food caches can last up to six months. They have plenty of

food it. And they are adding to it all the time to keep them going.

could learn something from beavers. Yes. The store food while the going

is good. I was amazed how big that cash was and how far away it is

from the lodge. To give you an idea, here is a map. This is East - we

were filming. Have and that is our cabin. And this is where the old

lodge it is where we filmed during a Autumnwatch, and that is the

artificial much we are in now, called the Hilton, apparently.

because we have cameras all over the place, we were able to see the

beavers using their food store. So we managed to seep Lilley, the

adult female. She has died down under the ice, and she is bringing

up food. This fascinates me. They were thinking ahead. She was pre-

planning this. She could have put that through their months ago. And

now they are reaping the advantage. It is nice and fresh. It has been

kept refrigerated. It is the day length that triggers it. As the

days get shorter, they start to store food it. Winter has kicked in

a cross of the country. This map a of Europe will explain where you're

bad weather has come from today. It has come from the East. On the

right of the screen, it is terribly blue. In the main area, it is minus

15. In Germany, it is minus ten. D easterly winds are growing this

cold air to the UK, and that is why there has been snow today and that

was why it made sense for the beaver to start storing twigs

beneath the surface. Although it feels cold, some of you are

experiencing much colder weather that we are in Inverness. But it is

all relative, because close by is the Cairngorms, which gets extreme

weather. Beautiful place, but at this time of year, there is lots of

snow, high winds, minus temperatures. Who on earth would

want to explore the wildlife in such an inhospitable place? Face it,

it is like a bit of the Arctic in the UK. What about you? For their

chance. We need someone big and tough. We could not find one, so we

I am near the summit of Cairngorm, 1000 metres up, and it is proper

cold. I could possibly live -- I could not possibly live without

some specialist kit, and yet there is a small and insignificant bird

that is so superbly designed that it can live here in comfort. It is

the ptarmigan. Britain's smallest grass is super tough. It is found

in some other the most extreme Arctic environment across the

northern hemisphere, from Siberia to Alaska. If a ptarmigan, not much

bigger than a small chicken, can endure these harsh conditions, I

would like to at least try to do the same. I suspect that living

like one might be more tricky than I imagined. Finding a ptarmigan

here on Cairngorm turns out to be surprisingly easy. Three of them!

Pure white. I never thought they would let me get this close. That

is the male, and he has a jet bat - - jet black stripe. Looks very

handsome. This bird can survive temperatures down to minus 35

Celsius. So today is a walk in the park. But how do they do it? To

find out, I have teamed up with Keith Miller, a local ecologist and

mountain guide. He will help me understand more about the

ptarmigan's way of life. The Cairngorms have the highest ever

recorded wind speeds and the coldest temperatures of anywhere in

the UK. If I am to stay out hero overnight like a ptarmigan, I will

need a place to shelter. Once you have got through the surface, it

will go in. In it is quite tough. I am guessing you have done this

before? A few times. Now it will be softer. I am clearly not designed

for life up here. One minute, I am freezing cold, the next I am

boiling. The ptarmigan, on the other hand, have ingenious

solutions to these extremes. The snow white feathers that provide

their camouflage cover the entire bird at all the way down to their

feet. Feathers also cover their nostrils and even their eyelids.

They are perfectly adapted to that Arctic environment. These snow

holes took a few hours of work for Keith and I. The ptarmigan do a

similar thing, but they just come down, make a shallow dish grade in

the snow course it there and allow the snow to blow down and get over

them. They make a cosy snow hole that way, not with very off four

Let's go into our cosy snow hole. Four hours later, we have a home.

So here I am in my snow hole, just like it ptarmigan, except of course,

it is not like a ptarmigan, because I need a host of things to survive.

The ptarmigan needs none of this. And it does one other clever thing.

Before it goes to bed, it kind of fills up on carbohydrates. Through

the night, it's slowly digests vegetable matter, and that acts

like an internal central heating system, keeping it warm. That is

actually very good. Eat like a ptarmigan, live like a ptarmigan.

But just as I was getting used to ptarmigan life, disaster. Uh-oh,

that does not look good. When you have got to a potential melt, that

is not a good place to be. The snow was melting and our rich

threatening to cave in. All that work for nothing! Let get out of

here. It is now a two hour slog downhill. The mountain had beaten

us. But for it is interesting to discover first hand how difficult

it is for us humans to do the things a little bird can do so

effortlessly. The price soared that, I thought my definition of hell was

listening to Coldplay in a world without symmetry. But frankly, that

must have been hideous. It was not bad. I o, come on. But the but it

was fascinating to be like a ptarmigan, just for a while.

would have loved it. One fascinating thing about the

ptarmigan is, they will put on up to 50% above their summer body

weight at. They are 50% bigger in winter than in summer. And up to

35% of that is fat reserves. You would have thought that putting on

that much fat would make them really unstable. And it would be

hard to get around. But although they look as though they might be

disadvantaged, they are not. How do we know that?

He is going along with no trouble. No trouble on that treadmill. They

are measuring how much energy the fact ptarmigan is using. It turns

out that it is using less energy in winter, when it is overweight, to

get around and it does in summer. They are not sure how that happens.

The University of Tromso and Manchester have been doing that.

They have some theories. One of them has to do with the posture of

the bird when it has the extra weight. It has changed its centre

of gravity. It also has bring the tendons and its legs which allow it

to bounce. Third centralising your centre of gravity is what modern

motorcycles are doing. That is the latest thing in racing. The

ptarmigan got there first. We are was a kid, I would ask my parents,

why does a ptarmigan begin with the letter P it? If it is a silo letter

P? They never had the answer. So if you are watching, Dad, I now know.

It came from the Scottish Gaelic. But then in 1684, a fellow called

Robert, who was given to Greek, decided he would make it more

pretentious and he put the letter P in front of it. We also say that

Percy the ptarmigan, who we saw in that film, it is perfectly happy

living in retirement in Oslo. an exhaustive career. Now, in

spring watch, we had a new device. One of our viewers invited her into

a garden where she had set up a device with cameras which allowed

her to look at small mammals. We pinched the idea and built a

rudimentary then, but it was crude. So we decided to invite

international architects to the bid to build a new one. Many people

applied, but they were yesterday's men. This is what we came up with.

This is more than a stump. This is It is spacious. It is the perfect

arena for road and fighting. That is normally what we have been

seeing inside it. Nothing in there at the moment, but we have seen

mammal activity. We have had wood mice in there. Look at this young

gladiator as it approaches this fantastic chamber. In it comes, and

find some protein in the form of a mealworm. Martin, mealworms are

greasy things. As soon as it finishes feeding, it then goes into

a frantic cleaning frenzy. And then it takes a smack to take away. Keep

your eyes peeled for. If you are watching 24/7 on our webcam, we

will keep you updated with all conflict that takes part -- takes

place there. The now, does mice are just surviving in the winter. But

curiously, some animals choose to breed now. Are amongst those are

the grey seals. If they start to breed in the south, in the Scilly

Isles, around August-September. Gradually, their breeding season

goes all the way round the UK, right up the north, and now it ends

up in Norfolk. The last ever breeding colony are at the National

Trust nature reserve of Blick the point in Norfolk. We asked a

cameraman Richard Taylor Jones to go down there to try to find these

little pubs if they are being born now. These are the last of the last.

One was born on 7th January. It will face the harshest winter

It's mid-winter at PC Keith Blakelock.

-- Blakeney Point. Sand and shingles, on the north Norfolk

coast. Huts stand empty.

The lights in the windows, are just a reflection of the rising sun.

No-one is home. And yet, there is life here.

This National Trust reserve is home to England's third largest colony

of grey sales. -- seals. It is the end of the breeding season. In

temperatures barely above freezing, the landscape is packed with huge

bull seals. They are gathering now, when

females are ready to mate. Beyond the raucus world of the

beach at Blakeney, there are the quieter dunes and marshes. Here

there is a very late arrival to this harsh winter world. Pup number

1,000. Appropriately called Millennium.

Millennium's coat is barely dry. It is still stained yellow from the

afterbirth. This life is only hours old. The nearby placenta, is

further evidence of the recent arrival.

The sun is bright but it is bitterly cold.

If mother wants to raise a pup successfully in the winter

conditions, experience will be everything.

And the first real test is now at hand because Millennium must put on

weight fast. In only three weeks, it will time

to leave mother. Feeding is all this pup should be

thinking about. And mother is clearly of the same

opinion. Using her flippers she pats and

scratches, which seems to hurt but she is trying to encourage a move

down to the nipples to feed. Clearly hungry but confused, Mell

enyum seems unsure of what to do. -- millennium. He is smelling and

trying to suckle on the sand. He's got this first feed all wrong. The

smell should be directing Millennium to the source of the

milk. This time things are getting nearer the mark.

At last, success. For a pup in a hurry to grow, this

milk certainly pack as mighty punch. It's 50% fat-filled.

The feed lasts five minutes. A first step on the ladder of life

completed. Millennium's mother is making this

pup's life very comfortable. Yet nothing is comfortable about life

for the bulls. The har emhis mother is in is

overseen by Sebastien. With several females of his own, he is

constantly having to see off rivals. He is surrounded by the envious

eyes of Mr Red and the General. A one-eyed bull. Both would like to

steal his patch. The flets and the posturing are

building daily -- threats. It seems only a matter of time before we see

these bulls fight. Millennium had better keep his head

down. Now I don't suppose that I was the

only one that went, awww, very cute shots of baby seals and we are

following the fortune of Millennium over the next few days. He was the

1,000 seal to be born but he was not the last. The National Trust

did a count, and to date there are 1,220 pups that have been born and

possibly more to come. That is a record number. An incredible year

for Blakeney Point it makes it a real winter spectacle. If you get a

chance to go down to Blakeney Point in Norfolk, I recommend you do that,

but I don't recommend you to go in amongst the colony. You will

disturb the breeding and the pups. Our camera team and the wardens

have special access to do that I suggest that you get a boat that is

run by the National Trust. That way you will not disturb them. For

ideas to find places to watch the animals, go to our website.

That is at: Check out the blog too. At the top

of the show we were talking about strategies that the animals employ

to get through the winter. One of them is migration. We have lost

many birds from the UK who have gone south, but at the same time we

have gained 12.5 million visitors, who is come here to our 31,000

miles of coastline. When they come they provide some of our greatest

winter wildlife spectacles. This swirling flock of birds is

astonishing. A truly magnetic thing to go out and watch. Even if it is

a grey day, this is fantastic. Why are they here? Well, there is a

confluence of fly-ways that meet on this side of the Channel. As we are

away from the buck of the Continent, it is wilder here but it is also

down o to food. It is down to mud. British mud is

some of the best in the world. It is the finest. A cubic metre of

average British mud has as many calories as 14 bars of chocolate,

possibly. It is interesting, whether it is useful, I don't know.

Don't go digging for confection off your local beach! But as well as

the fantastic spectacles, of course, the birds coming in give amateur

birdwatchers like you and me a chance to see glorious wildlife. It

is the divertity! Here they are. Now, that is a bartell goblet.

Oyster Catchers. That plaint I have cry. All of them pouring in. There

is the kerliw. Fabulous.

Now, as well as those birds coming in, another bird came in, we talked

about it earlier on, the waxwing. This glorious bird came from

Scandinavia and gave many of you fantastic photo opportunities. Look

at that. Lack look at that from Steven

McGrath. The eyes of ZorrrO -- Zorro.

It looks other-wouldly. It does not like like it should have come from

Scandinavia. Any way, they came in November. Up to the north of the

country. We now have a special report from our northerly

correspondent, young Henry, aged 11 from Fair Isle.

They came out of the late autumn sky. They landed on the closest

thing to a try that they could find. We had heard the waxwing's song

before, so right away we put apples on the sticks and berries in the

window boxes. Then we watched and waited. In to 10, a large number of

waxwings showed up here. That is when dad and I learned how much

they liked apples and how intrepid they could be.

They are called waxwings. It is because they have this red colour

on their wing which looks like old sea wing wax.

-- sealing wax. Usually, we are lucky to see a couple of year. That

is because they come from Scandinavia and only come here if

there is not enough food. This kind of migration is called an eruption.

These are waxwings, bohemian waxwings.

Like the song from Queen, Bohemian R hapsody.

It was estimated that there were at least 100 waxwings on the island.

Hi there. Did you have any waxwings this

morning? By the weekend most of the waxwings had gone. No other kind of

bird has ever perched on my hand or looked me straight in the eye.

Goodbye! I absolutely love that shot. They are so tame the

waxwings! It looks like the beginning of a Hollywood movie.

It is, yes. A Special Correspondent from Henry. Thank you very much.

It has been a record year in Scotland. They reckon about had00

came into Skye and over 5,000 throughout the country. Why are

they here? They are here for the berries.

5,000 came from Scandinavia. They ran out of berries, so they are

here to look for ours. The trouble is we did not have so many berries

either. So they have split up into lots of smaller flocks to spread to

the south looking for the berries, but they have dropped right off.

There are probably only over 1,000. They are looking for more berries.

But one of the reasons there were so many it was a very good breeding

year for them. It was, yes, in Scandinavia but it is causing

problems as there are not enough berries around.

They have spread to the south. We have had lots of photos, we even

had a painting of waxwings sent in. It is lovely.

Gorgeous. This is from Jane Tomlinson from

Oxford. She called it Angels in St Giles. It shows that they moved

south a long way. They certainly have. I heard when

they were that far south, I had to go and see for myself.

I'd been following the movement of the waxwings as they came from the

north to the south on the web. Now, apparently they are here.

I've got them! They are right to the side of us. A golden

opportunity. Watch out Chris Packham, we have got waxwings! Oh,

you beauty. Gacha! Fantastic.

-- gotcha! There they are. Proof, right in the middle of suburbia.

Here we are in Cheltenham. They have come all the way from

Scandinavia to be here. The curious thing is that in Scandinavia, in

the simple they feed almost exclusively on insects. Now in the

winter they feed on nothing blueberries. That is why they are

here. You can see what is happening here.

The waxwings are in the trees all around but what they want is these

trees, they are covered in berries. They are coming in, feeding then

flying away again, but they are And it is not just me who has

turned up to see them. They are causing a bit of a stir. Are you on

the waxwing watch? Yes, we are! Have you ever seen them before? No.

They are exquisite looking birds. Almost look tropical. So you

weren't following any of the websites? No, my mum. Or my sister

on the school run would say, or the guys over there with binoculars.

Just in the last couple of weeks. Some little girls came past after

school and said, what are you looking at? And we said, they have

come from Scandinavian. And one of the little girls said oh, what an

amazing journey! Gorgeous, tropical looking waxwings, here in the UK.

Everyone is waxing lyrical about the waxwings. I saw them in the far

distance before, but never close up like that. It was a real treat.

Half of Cheltenham's into to come out to look. They were in the

middle of a really built up area. And it was not just the people who

were watching the waxwings. Now no. We had a mystery, because somebody

said to us, have you seen all these dead waxwings? So we looked around,

and there were dead waxwings on the ground. Look at this. Sadly, it was

really tragic, having seen these beautiful birds. We thought, what

has happened? We think this sparrowhawk was the cause of the

trouble. It was in the same tree, and we think it had learnt to spook

them. And they flew up into the Windows because they could not see.

They hit the windows and came down to the ground. Isn't that sad? It

shows how clever those sparrowhawks are to work out a hunting strategy

like that. I saw a sparrowhawk over the loch the other day, but I did

not have a camera to take a picture. Please let us know if you see

anything unusual and send your photos to us. Anything unusual on

the live cameras, Chris? Who let's cut to our pine marten camera to

see. There has obviously been a manner more up their this evening.

It is quiet at the moment. We have only been here for a few days, and

we are still learning the pattern of activities of these animals.

Let's try our beaver dam. This is holding the water back to ensure

that the stores of food they collected in the autumn are kept

submerged and fresh and accessible if this lake freezes over. So the

damage is a very important part of winter life for the beavers. No

beavers at the moment, though. We will keep an eye on those cameras.

You also can on our website during the week.

Now, when I was a kid, there was one bird that you would never see

in winter in our house. It was the blackcap, because blackcaps, when I

was a kid, were migrant warblers. They arrived in the UK in the

summer, they bread and then went back to south-western Spain or

north-western Africa for the winter. But now, people are seeing these in

their gardens. They are quite distinctive. The male is on the

left. It has a cleanly marked black cap. The rest of the body is great.

The female is on the right. She is almost identical, but with a

different cap, a milk chocolate brown. And they increasingly come

into gardens in winter. Just a couple of days ago, one of our

cameramen was in Inverness, and he saw this. Here are the usual

suspects, but if you look at the base of the fat balls, it is a

female blackcap. So what is going on? Why are there now blackcaps

wintering in the UK? Is it a case of some of the birds staying and

not bothering to my great? We have learnt what is happening. Hours to

go down to Liberia and north- western Africa. They leave in the

autumn. But as they leave, a new group of birds from Germany,

Belgium and Holland come across the North Sea and into the UK. We want

to know how many are arriving here and where they are coming, so the

British Trust from mythology are running a survey. You can find out

details about that on our website. Another garden bird, an icon at

this time of year that has flown off all have your mantelpieces and

of windowsills, is of course the robin. But as much as it is a

lovely, redbreast did little beauty, it also has a dark side. So what is

the secret of its success? Are what could be sweeter than a

robin? The nation's favourite bird. It seems everyone has a soft spot

for these beguiling birds, especially at this time of year.

But behind the cute black eyes and fluffy redbreast lies a resilient

and feisty little survivor. They need to use every strategy to get

through the challenging days of winter. Robins are primarily

woodland birds, but in the 18th and 19th centuries, things changed. As

the pastime of gardening grew more popular, many Robins left their

woodland homes, moving closer to our houses and into our hearts. Of

course, the affection is mostly one-way. Robins are really

exploiting us and our gardens for food and shelter. Indeed, British

Robbins arcana and friendlier than their European cousins. Over the

generations, they have adapted, becoming far less timid near raise

human. It is easy to see why the robin is known as the ploughman's

bird. They keep many gardeners company while they tidy the garden

up for winter. They are just there, waiting for a juicy were more grub

to be unearthed. And of course, before we became gardeners, these

Robbins would have followed wild boar, rooting around on the forest

floor. At this time of year, a helping hand can be crucial. Just

over a quarter of Robin's will live for a year or more, and winter is a

particularly tough time. Food is scarce, and plummeting temperatures

forced Robins to use valuable energy just staying warm. They can

survive for a few days on their fat stores, but if a cold spell sets in

and lasts for more than a week, Robins will perish. So the pressure

is on to defend their larder and there hunting ground. Any robin

without a territory might staff. In winter, each male and each female

defend their own patch. This is why both sexes have red breasts, and

both sing to mark their territory's boundaries and to ward off

intruders. And those females? Well, they are just feisty -- just as

feisty as the males. If the right chest is there war paint, then

their song is their battle cry. Robins have a complex, beautiful

song, and they will sing almost all year round. But in winter, it is a

fine balancing act between finding enough food and then using up vital

calories to sing and defend a patch. Each robin has its own unique tune.

This robin can recognise its neighbour's and avoid fights with

it. Any intruding robin will be dealt with swiftly. It fluffs out

its chest, showing off those red feathers, and then tries to find a

higher perch than his or her opponent. Most of the time, the

opponent submits and a fight is avoided. If not, the owner will

attack, and may even Peck the other bird to death. It is surprising,

but up to 10% of Robins might die in this way. But this apparent

intruder is tolerated. Why? For most species, winter is simply a

time of survival, but for these Robins, there is also love in a

cold climate. From late December onwards, their thoughts turn to

romance. But courtship can be confusing when both sexes look

exactly the same. The Mail might mistake her for a fighter rather

than a lover, and then try and see her off. But eventually, he

realises his aggression is not being returned and accept her. The

pair worked together to defend their territory. This ensures that

they have enough food not only to make its through the winter, but

crucially, so they can breed in the springtime. So the next time you

hear the friendly robin singing in your park or garden, remember that

that sweet song is not a serenade her. It is a battle cry. These are

fierce little warriors, and our gardens are there battlefield.

saw a bit of aggression in that film, but those feisty males can

get a lot more aggressive than that, as demonstrated in these

photographs sent in by viewers. They are just going for each other.

Straight for the head. That is not only aggressive, but a brilliant

photo. Not sure about the gravel backlog, but I am picky. What an

action shot. You will think of Robin's very different clean now

you know how aggressive they can be. We also have some footage. Look at

these two, fighting for their corner. Hopefully, one of them

managed to disappear before it got really nasty. But they're often die

during these fights. The audience have been noticing this as well.

Sally says, I have had a robin attack my bright orange lawnmower.

Annette says, I was attacked by a robin wants for wearing orange. It

came at me like a bolt of lightning. They really do go for that colour.

It is all about territorial behaviour. We have seen some of

this in our pine martens as well in the last few days. More than one of

these animals has been turning up at our feeding station. Obviously,

if someone offers you a free meal in the winter, you go for it. Look

at this one as it moves to the right. Look beneath the pine

marten's tale as it moves over. There was a little spray of urine.

I don't know why you pay your licence fee, but I know why I pay

mine, for that solid gold biology on Winterwatch! It is marking its

territory. But what about the agile ability of these animals? We have

seen them shinning up and down those tree-trunks that we put up.

They go up very easily. They have very strong for limbs and massive

shoulder blades, a huge scapula bones where the muscles attached.

The muscles are differentiated, which means it is easy for them to

climb. What about coming down? Look at the back legs. They behave just

like a squirrel's, because they have a similar flexible ankle which

can twist as the body twists. This means they can hang on with their

we're clause as they adjust and balance there body using the tale,

before they jump back down. Look at the way it turns around on a

vertical branch and then comes down. Top agility. We will be testing

that agility moreover the next few days. One quick question - Jack,

aged 10, says, can pine martens swim? The they can. I once saw one

swimming across a loch. I initially just saw its tail floating on the

surface and thought, what is that? Then I spotted its nose, just

beneath the water. That brings us to the end of the programme for

today. We will be back tomorrow at 8 o'clock. And the same time over

the next three days. Lots going on tomorrow. Yes. Gordon Buchanan will

be going out to Ireland on the trail of a marine feeding frenzy.

We will catch up with our grey seals on the north Norfolk coast,

where this youngster is trying to stay out of the way of some

bottling groups. You can keep watching the cameras online. After