Episode 4 Winterwatch

of Scotland. All across the UK, we have been plunged into the grip of

winter. We're all having to adapt to the freezing conditions. For us,

it's challenging. For our wildlife, it's a matter of survival.

wildlife has to stay out, but of course, you don't have to, so slip

us on - a nice cup of cocoa. Snuggle up on the sofa because for

the next 60 minutes, it's Winterwatch, programme four, very

sadly the last in our series, coming to you from the Aigas Field

Centre here in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland. Now, we have

been here this week, and every day we have been exploring the

strategies animals use to get through the hardships of winter, so

we've done a bit of science, but also, we have seen some fantastic

animals and some fabulous behaviour, and I can promise you there's more

coming tonight. Tonight we'll resolve some of the tests we have

set the animals, for example, the agility tests for our pine martens,

can they up the antsne and Professor Packham's test for red

squirrels - they look confused. They are confused. It's also a

testing time for the grey seal colony at Blakeney Point. It's

certainly no beach party for the adult males as tensions are

mounting and testosterone is bursting. I have to confess - I

nearly had a cardiac arrest last night when I saw those long-tailed

ducks. They were pretty special, but look what I found when I went

for a walk around my own patch - nothing less than a hawfinch! Come

on! After this programme, tonight, there will be Unsprung. That's

where things get a bit loose and, frankly, dodgy. We're going to

break with tradition because we always in that show have a little

quiz for you, and we're going to set the quiz right now, so here it

comes. You have to try to identify this animal. We have mixed up the

test - image A - what might that Now, image B - a little bit more

difficult, that one. That's tricky. That's tricky, that one. Then

finally, image C, the koala bear - no, it isn't. They're all British

animals. You can get on the website and have a guess. What do you think

they are? We'll resolve that in Winterwatch Unsprung. Can I say it

has been an extraordinary week since we started Winterwatch.

Before Winterwatch, it was quite mild, but now winter has set in. It

has snowed across many parts of the UK and will continue to do so next

week, but what does that mean for wildlife watching? Well, you can

guarantee one thing - you can get some good photographs. This is from

Mandy West, and it's a gull on ice and having a little bit of a

problem keeping its legs together. And I tell you what - I have been a

bit like that on ice myself - suddenly do the splits. It's not

just the birds that have been on the ice. The stars of our show have

been out there too. Take a look at this. This is one of our pine

martens that was on the show last night. It's heading out to the

frozen loch. You may wonder what on earth it's doing out there, but

these things are opportunistic omnivores. They're always on the

sniff for food. They have one of the naughtiest noses in the mammal

kingdom. What it's after - we don't know. It could be scavenging for

anything that died and floated this side of the loch but also it could

be sniffing for small mammals like voles that are there. It then

decides to go where no other pine marten has gone before, either that

or catch the boat to Cairo. It's off. Fantastic! Let's have a look

at our live camera and have a look around. We have seen lots, actually,

- two pine martens - there was one just a few minutes ago, which is

pretty frustrating. No pine martens, and up to the beaver lodge. Don't

tell me there was one there minutes ago. They're out doing stuff!

of people have been sending in questions. I have one from Jack,

"Why do beavers walk on ice?" They do it to get to the other side...

It wasn't a joke. That's exactly what they do. Their environment is

the loch. When it freezes over, it means they have two choices, swim

under the ice or walk on top of it. I guess it's just a personal

council. There may be an energy- saving device in there, might be

easier to walk than swim, don't get cold. They do come out. Have a look

at this. We're surrounded by the forests the beavers come into, and

all of these forests here are potential food, and not just

potential food because we can see they have been eating these trees.

Look at this here. In fact, all around this area you can see these

trees have been chewed off all around - little bits of - bits and

pieces all around. Now, they're really, really clever, these

beavers because they plan ahead because what they'll do in autumn

is they'll cut around a tree. They'll partially bite through it,

but leave it so that in the winter they come out and just have a few

little bites and down it goes. Now, with the freezing, life has got a

little tougher for the beavers. Have a look at this. Now, here's

one of our youngsters on top of the ice. As you can see, the ice isn't

quite thick enough to support it. We have noticed their behaviours

change as it's frozen. They're bringing in smaller twigs into the

lodge. Here is one of the kits bringing in a twig - much, much

more - a little bit of an argy bargy. I think that's something

delicious. The other one wants a bite. You can actually hear it

nibbling away. Here he goes. But they have definitely gone for -

sounds like a pencil sharpner! When they try to bring in larger twigs,

it's mmp more difficult. This one is really struggling. It's got a

larger bit of wood under the water. It did manage to get it in in the

end, but look at this. It hasn't got any bark on it, this piece. You

can see it's all been eaten off, so why is it bringing it into the

lodge? It's bringing it in to do a bit of DIY because they're

constantly moving things around in the lodge. We have seen them doing

a lot of building, but we've also seen something very curious we have

never seen before. Look at this youngster. Here it is, and it just

sort of pushes down its tail like a plate, and what is it doing down

there? What is - it's feeding. You can just about hear - it's eating

down there. Now, they have a very curious feeding system. It's called

sikatrophy. They eat the food once, but they can't get all the goodness

out of it. It's tough to digest, so they poo it out - it's not very

pleasant, then they reeat it, so they actually eat their food twice

to get the nutrient out of it. And some other animals do as well -

rabbits do the same thing. So that was a good word for you - I never,

ever thought I would see that in my life, an absolutely fascinating bit

of behaviour. I bet you like that word, sycotrophy. I shall be using

that word regularly! We have a good question from George, aged ten, "Do

males fight during the breeding season? ""that's a good question.

It's rare that they do because they tend to breed for life, but not

often, but sometimes they tend to fight over territory. Usually there

will be a mock fight. There will be a lot of tail slapping and teeth

knashing. Occasionally it will escalate into a full belly-to-belly

match. They sit up and swipe at each other with their paws like

that trying to push them over, but that's not often, so good question.

Thanks for that. I can't see beaver boxing catching on as a televised

sport. I like to champion the underdog, so we're now going to

show you an animal with a bit of an unsung reputation. Charles Darwin

fancied them. In fact, he recognised more than 200 different

varieties. The missus liked to stew, boil or bake them. Woody Allen, not

a great ornithologist, said they were rats with wings. Here is a

film about a bird which is quite simply steeped in shame and scandal.

Pigeons - whichever town or city you're, in they're absolutely

everywhere, even flourishing right through the winter. The domestic

pigeon has somehow managed to conquer urban spaces all around the

globe. There are 310 species worldwide. Some of them are very

beautiful. Some of them are very rare. Some of them, like the dodo,

are very dead, but due to our dislike of the domestic pigeon, we

turn our nose up at most of them just because we're tripping over

them on the railway platform. But you see, there's a lot more to know

about this very, very interesting The street pigeon of today has

descended from a shy coastal bird called the rock dove. Back in Roman

times this bird was domesticated. It was bred for its meat and

because of its legendary homing instincts. Over the century, many

of these pigeons escaped from captivity and set up home in our

towns and cities. They turned everything on offer there - the

food, the shelter, the water, everything - to their advantage,

enabling them to thrive even in the cold winter months.

Isn't it great to go birding and not actually need your binoculars?

All you've got to do is take five minutes in your lunch break, sit in

the park and enjoy birds. Look at the variety of patterning in their

plumage here. Every one of these birds looks almost like an

individual, and when you recognise birds as individuals, you can learn

a lot more about them. That is the case with dogs. Feral pigeons are a

domesticated species from which we created different breeds or types,

and pigeons are classified by their plumage. This one is called the

blue bar. It has those two stripes down its wing, and it looks a lot

like the wild rock dove. Checkered pigeons with their specifically

wing plumage are the result of intensive selective breeding by

people in the past. Less common is the pied pigeon. To be honest, it

looks like a bit of a mongrel and does indeed have a mixed genetic

heritage. Now, one man who thinks that all of this colourful plumage

could be the secret to the pigeon's success is Adam Rogers. He's a bit

of a pigeon fancier, but he's one with a passion for science. Good

morning, Adam. Good morning, Chris. I'm just going

to sneak in, trying not to disturb your feathered funs here. Aren't

they beautiful? Well, I think they are beautiful, but why are there so

many different varieties? Why don't they all revert to that wild type,

which is what you might expect them to do? You're right. Most feral

birds will revert to their wild, unsettled type, but the pigeons do

something called disassociated mating. One bird would rather mate

from a bird that is different from itself, and that keeps the variety

going. This is a crucial part of the pigeon success story - all of

this variety is a reflection on the underlying genetic diversity in the

pigeon population. Now, in-breeding can lead to genetic weakness, but

by choosing a mate that is genetically different to itself, a

pigeon can bolster the health of its chicks, giving them better

immunity to disease, something absolutely vital in our dirty and

crowded urban areas, but this is really surprising because this has

to mean that each bird must know what type of pigeon it is. Only

then could it choose to mate with a different type of pigeon. That's

what I find so amazing - so few animals have a sense of self and

can actually know what they look like. Pigeons have proven they can

recognise an image of themselves on a canvas screen or reflection.

You're telling me - that's a checkered pigeon. This checkered

pigeon now it's a checkered pigeon. It does. And would therefore try to

mate One Show of these pig beings over here? Absolutely. It can

compare itself to another and decide which one it's going to

choose. Which is amazing. We look in mirrors and recognise ourselves,

but very few species do. That's right. We're on par with

chimpanzees and the top animals. This is astounding. It's not the

only remarkable thing about feral pigeons. Because our ancestors

favoured birds that could yield the most broods in a year because they

wanted to eat them all year around, some feral pigeons have developed a

unique way to get ahead in winter. The checkered birds we see here,

these are able to breed even in the depth of January when all the other

birds maybe aren't. How do they manage to breed all year around?

They feed their chicks differently to other birds. They produce

something called pigeon milk. It's completely different to our

bluetits and spares... They need insects, don't they, which means

they can only breed in the summer and springtime. Absolutely. Pigeons

can turn any food into milk. pigeons produce milk, but it's only

the checkered ones that have developed the ability to breed

during winter. It's no co- coincidence they're now the most

numerous type of feral pigeon side? I don't mind! I find that so

interesting, best survival technique makes them so successful.

And it is down to that variety and that is what Adam Rogers is so

interested in. It is an on-going project and he would like your help.

The price of the help is half his sandwich on a park bench at

lunchtime! If you are in an urban area, try and record which pigeons

in relative abundance that you see. You can take those recordings and

visit our website. Then you can find your way to this form, which

Adam has put up. It shows you the key pigeon varieties, and you can

put in your results here. That is added to our knowledge of these

birds and bird biology in general. A good piece of cities and science,

so please join in. You should not underestimate pigeons. They played

a vital role in World War Two. You probably know that, but how many?

Roughly 200,000 pigeons took part in World War Two, taking vital

messages to the front line. Some of them did it so heroically that they

were awarded the animal version of the Victoria Cross. One such

example was GI Joe, who flew 20 miles to the front line and

delivered a message just in time to save 100 soldiers from being bombed

by their own plane. All down to a pigeon. And 32 homing pigeons got

that award. That is pretty good. I am impressed. That I was talking

about World War Two? That's my girl! Finally. It has all rub off

and come true! If you are fans of The Killing or The Bridge, you

might be interested in our next film. Martin has headed into the

heart of Bristol to see if he cannot solve the case of the

Here in the heart of the city, there is a serial killer at work.

There are bodies, there are clues, there is a mystery. But happily,

there is also a star witness. Sam Hobson is a wildlife photographer

with a passion for urban wildlife. I met him on top of a multi-storey

car-park in Bristol. Among the rubbish, there was a surprise. We

have got lots of feathers here. Do you know what they are? I am pretty

sure that this one is a female tail feather. And these small, stripy

ones, they could be a slight feathers. The teal is a small

migrate three dark and the slide is a wading bird. In the winter they

should be in the wild, and the last place I would expect to see them

would be in the middle of Bristol. What is going on? But feathers are

not the only find. Would you like to smell that? Detective work in

action. It smells like ponds, rivers. They like slow-moving water,

so rivers, ponds, lakes. And also you have found that. Feet, wings,

in the city. Based on this body of evidence, what is happening? Urban

peregrine falcons in the centre of the city. So the peregrine falcon

is the mystery killer. Clearly, these peregrines are hunting

Migrating birds at night, using the street lights to help them see

their prey. Winter migrants are probably an easy target. They are

flying across unfamiliar places in the dark and they may well be

disorientated by the lights of the city. Sam's detective work,

identify exactly which species the peregrines are eating, can tell us

a lot about bird movements this winter. Birds like this lapwing,

this was all in the last week or two. And they are birds on winter

migration right now? Yes. Woodcock, for example. These could have been

from Russia, the Baltic states. And as a response to the cold weather,

the peregrines of creating a Lada. This one was found with two

carcasses that had barely been touched and had washed down from

the top of the building in the night. Then it was a story and that

have been washed off? And then you found it? Fascinating. The

peregrines of farm -- are telling us what is going on. We are tucked

up in bed and now we know what is That guy is probably out looking

for peregrines right now. People heard that they hunted at night and

some of them has actually seen it. When people are in bars, drinking

cocktails, he is probably tramping the streets! I am envious! Those

little birds, how do they migrate? Well, they do. Water birds move at

night. You can go out into your garden, into the street, and stand

there quietly and very often you can hear things flying over. Waders,

geese, wild fowl, that sort of thing. Lots of these birds have

counter shading, dark on top and pale underneath. That is perfect

when they are swimming on the water so anything looking up cannot see

them, and nothing looking down, but at night, the street lights will

reflect off the pale belly and the peregrine can spot them. Let's have

another look at that peregrine, the killing machine. We think the eyes

occupy 50% of their skulls. They have also got marvellous talents,

killing machines, fantastically accurate. Despite their weaponry,

it is estimated that 50% of juvenile peregrines will die in the

winter because it is very tough for them. They are one of the most

dashing predators that we have. Another bird of prey that we have

does not have the same reputation and is known for being a worm. I am

talking about the buzzard. Look at this picture that has been sent in.

It is a buzz at -- buzzard chasing a sea eagle with a rabbit.

Ambitious! Perhaps things are tough and they are desperate? Then they

concentrate on career and, and we have had our carcass camera out. --

end, it does not feel entirely comfortable. They grab some of the

meat, and then the leap up, and they fly off. Extraordinary. Here

they have had their own cameras and they have seen a different bird,

the red kite. The red kite is a success story because it was

extinct in England and Wales at the end of the 20th century. There was

a population in Scotland. Since then, attempts to breed it had been

very successful and it has come back. It is a fascinating bird.

Take a closer look. Beautiful. Absolutely stunning. In the summer,

this bird will feed on birds and mice, things like that, but in the

winter it changes its strategy and it becomes a specialist on

carcasses. One of the amazing things, it can eat what other birds

cannot. Bowen's, Animal Fair, things that are buzzard would not

eat. -- bones and animal hair. There is a rooster near here and

another in Oxfordshire, near Stowe -- Stokenchurch. We have to get

their very early. Otherwise they are already in the trees. When they

have fed, the birds want to conserve energy. If they have eaten

in the morning, they will roost until the evening. Perhaps that is

a sign of how good they are. If they can afford to roost from 2

o'clock, they must have a good tummy. Let's go live to the beaver

lodge. We have one there. It is one of the kittens, judging by what it

looks like, and it has probably been in the water. It is chewing on

the sticks and we can hear it, that fabric beneath the bark. We see

them eating an enormous amount. They have to meet a lot of twigs.

As you have explained, they are not very good at digested it. The young

ones are trying to put on weight during the winter, and the older

ones are losing that which. Another close relative of the pine Marten,

the badger. Michaela was keen to see one, so we went to see what we

seeing badgers? I am not a betting man, but I would stake my house,

all of its contents, the lives of all of my family, a racing Ferrari,

and the night out with a supermodel on the fact that we are not going

to see any! Can I tell you something about badgers? They feed

principally on earthworms and the ground is frozen, which means it is

difficult for them to get them out. It is also January and we are in

the North of the UK. On all of the Knights of the year that I would

have chosen, it is a pleasure to be out with yourself drinking hot

chocolate, but it would not have been tonight. I would like to see a

badger, don't get me wrong, but I am being pragmatic. I know there

are some fat badges in at their house, in a state of torpor,

reduced body temperature, thinking that they should conserve their

energy, the ground is solid, no come back... Look! Fantastic. What

an animal. It has got one spot on the right hand side. It could be

one of ours. I have to consult the manual. I have to be honest, the

first time for me. To see one in the flesh? Absolutely beautiful.

They are totally active throughout winter? Yes. They have such a high

metabolic rate that they have to be continually. They cannot take on

fat because they have to pursue their prey and they cannot afford

beautiful coat. That was the beginning of their near end because

they were hunted for hundreds of years for their fur. We think of

them as a Scottish animal, but they are not. We find them all the way

through France and into Europe. They are only up in Scotland

because there were less people here a real treat for me, a beautiful

animal. I was just thinking, his nose is just like a poodle's nose.

It is. It's got a nose like a marten, you don't know how much I

was wishing a badger would poke its little nose. During the winter

sometimes they'll stay underground for 90% of the time. If you want to

see badgers and you're a casual badger watcher I would recommend

going in April or May. I was a bit optimistic, but what I did love

about seeing that is not only was at this time first time I'd seen a

pine marten for real, but I saw it in colour. Obviously, we've got our

infrared cameras live on the pine martens. We have got some fantastic

shots, but to see it in colour was special. We have got some great

pine marten shots, but what have we learnt? Quite a lot. We have seen

quite a lot of behaviour. That's a beautiful picture of a pine marten,

back lit. That got you very excited. Spraying, yes, they were marking

the log with the glands beneath their tail. The reason is there is

a second pine marten there. Yes, they're being very territorial. It

has a characteristic musky smell. It has given some of their

relatives a name - weasel means fart. Why? Because of the smell,

because they're very smelly animals. Some are called pinemart because

they didn't smell as bad. These are pine martens. We set up a challenge,

an acrobatic and gymnastic challenge for our pine martens to

see Just how agile they were. As you can see here, they're very

agile. They make pretty easy work of that. We have like a tightrope

between the two trees. It walks across it using that tail for

balance and gets the food, didn't seem the struggle at all. It didn't

struggle at all, no, not at all. We think one of the reasons they spend

more time up trees is to avoid competition with foxs that are

eating the same prey, small mammals. They're not catching small mammals

up there but allows them access to other animals like birds and their

nests. I think we have to thank the pine martens for giving us some

entertaining... I am going to miss them to be quite honest with you.

Can we just see - I know they weren't on the live cameras a

second ago, but let's have a quick look. Nothing - look! It's a

badger! You. You had me there. You genuinely did! We can see that we

set up that challenge - we made it a little bit harder, but actually,

we have had no interest in that today, have we? Not yet, but these

cameras will be on until later this evening, so people can keep

watching on the website. If they turn up, they might try to see if

they can reach down a little bit further. It wasn't just the pine

martens we were challenging. We also challenged our red squirrels

that we've got live cameras on too. We set them a little task that

Chris made up. It was quite a good one. They had three jars. We were

seeing which nut they prefer - either shelled hazelnuts, ones in

the shell or raisins, and you can see they absolutely didn't touch

the others. They went for the shelled nuts. We gave them then

three different nuts. Which did they go for? Still the hazelnuts in

shells. What was interesting if you were watching last night is they

picked the walnuts up, but didn't seem to be able to carry them.

no. Interestingly enough, we had someone - this is from Roderic from

Normandy in France - great to know you're watching over the water.

He's got red squirrels in his garden. He did a little test on

them as well, and he said they did go for the walnuts. They happily

collected them and seemed to have no trouble at all in carrying them

away. However, he did say they have a number of walnut trees in the

vicinity, so they were used to them. That's right. Now, those squirrels

were out there just thinking that tomorrow is just another day but it

wasn't because I'd come up with another cunning plan to test - we

know they're taking whole nuts because they want to cache them but

where? I thought if we got some ribbon and glued it to the nut,

non-toxic glue like this we could encourage the squirrels to take it

away, then we could see the ribbon and recover all the nuts. Did it

work? The squirrels turned up. They weren't put off by the ribbon

whatsoever. There was one initial flaw in my plan. The squirrel takes

it out, then delicately removes the ribbon. Oh, no! I know. At this

point I thought I had been foiled but thankfully they kept coming

back. Here, the squirrel goes back to cache that nut. Meanwhile,

another squirrel was lurking about, Michaela, and it sneaks in thinking

it can pilfer some of those hazel nuts. I don't mind, of course,

because I am hoping one run office with the ribbon attached. Spotted.

The other squirrel comes back and isn't happy, takes one of the

marked nuts. It's in the tree, so it starts to come down the tree.

This is great because this is precipitating a really interesting

piece of behaviour. Then they're chasing one another like this -

dust devil that one. Watch this. The one that's got the nut does

something interesting. He has got the ribbon attached. He digs, but

doesn't put the nut there. He's pretending. Then it digs again and

doesn't put the nut there. Finally, it digs and leaves the nut in there.

It is doing that so it knows there is another squirrel about, so it's

digging false holes to confuse it, but look - it's left the little

piece of ribbon there. You're so chuffed. I tell you, I really am.

They were carrying them great distances. Look, this one

disappeared into the woods. All that was left was for us to go out

and find those ribbons, so we set off at lunch time. We headed out

with our runner, Tom, and had a great look around. I have to thank

Tom as well because he was the one that glued all the ribbons onto the

nuts. We did recover some of them. Look. Then we also measured the

distance that they'd taken them away from our source. Look at that

- 25 metres... Quite a distance. We did one other thing - I was quite

careful. I didn't want to litter the Aigas Field Centre estate with

pieces of ribbon so we replaced them with hazel nuts. So the

squirrels will get their nuts. you learn something from that?

did. At last, the representation - the graph! The graph. Here are the

nuts we recovered, 80 out of 80, not bad. The furthest distance they

carried them, 65 metres. A long way. It's expending energy to carry a

nut out. There it's got to be worthwhile. If I have one message

here - I am not going to get a Ph.D for this - I don't expect one, but

you can do this with your kids at the weekend. Think what fun you

would have seeing those squirrels with bits of ribbon. Something to

do at the weekend. On Winterwatch, we have been following the winter

season of Good Friday seals at Norfolk at Blakeney Point. Our

first two episodes, we got a lot of you commenting quite emotionally

about the abandoning of the seal pup, quite understandably. In our

final instalment tonight, Richard Taylor Jones finds out things get

really heated on the beaches when testosterone is pumping. Warning:

it does get a little bit aggressive. We have been following a pup called

Millennium, who has a very peaceful life to date and is only days away

from being weaned and leaving his mother. As a result, she's now

coming into season and will soon be this duty is called Sebastian. He

has Millennium's mother in his harem of seven females. Sebastian

is fast asleep, but a male is approaching his territory. We'll

call him Mr Sneaky because his skirt around an outlying male

called Mr Red, who could potentially raise the intruder

alarm. This helps Mr Sneaky get close to Sebastian's females.

But Sebastian isn't fooled for long. He's realised there's a threat -

perhaps because of Mr Sneaky's scent or his vibrations in the

ground. GROWLING

the dunes above Sebastian's harem? Mr Sneaky has tried the low road.

Now it's the high road. The grass is a perfect cover. The females are

tantalisingly close. But dare he risk an approach? He has no time to

decide. Sebastian may be asleep again, but he's been spotted by Mr

defend. If he loses her, he loses his only chance to breed this year.

This is a fight about the right to create life. The stakes could

barely be higher. The contest is close and brutal. A display of raw

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 54 seconds

ferocity and sheer desperation. Red. He's exhausted, bloodied and

worn. He rests. These wounds will across Blakeney, males eventually

earn the right to mate, to pass on their genes. The breeding season is

now coming to a close, and couples are spread across the beach in

Millennium, who has been so sheltered from these dramas,

moments like this will be many years away. In the meantime, for

all the pups here at Blakeney, there is the difficult matter of

leaving mother and then learning to live out at sea. They all have a

huge life journey to go on, and it starts here in the cold depths of

at Blakeney Point there, and it's amazing that they choose to breed

in the winter. That was shot at the beginning of winter, but how things

change. Have a look at what it looks like today at Blakeney Point.

Obviously, it has been hard hit by the snow down in Norfolk, and

there's a seal pup. You would have thought it would be freezing, but

you know it has been a very cold year - over 1,200 pups born.

Believe it or not, another one has been born since Monday. They're

still giving birth, amazing. A heavy snowfall is forecast up and

down the country, and this is a golden opportunity, because if it

does snow, get out in the garden, and that gives you a chance to see

exactly what has been going on in there almost hour by hour, and

sometimes you can track something, a little mouse or something, and

then you see a little pool of blood. Then there's a whole story. The

snow is a wonderful tumt to get out and have a look at what's been

going on. Yesterday we showed you hierarchy on our bird freeders. We

showed you a treecreeper. I think I said you never get tree creepers on

bird feeders. I'll get my coat because this has been sent in by

one of our viewers and it's clearly a tree creeper on a feeder. It's

not eating the nuts because these are insect-eating birds. Then I

went to the textbook, and you won't believe this - they eat a very

small amount of pine and spruce seeds. Presumably, they use their

long beaks to reach inside the open cones. Can't be right all the time!

I don't mind. It's a learning process. I like that. You might see

a tree creeper on your bird feeder if you're really lucky. You might

also see one of these. I saw one last year. I thought there is

something wrong with that chaffinch. It's washed out, but it's not a

chaffinch. It's a brambling. As we have been saying, the colder it

gets, the more likely you are to get something unusual on your bird

feeders, and don't forget also, the last weekend of January it's the

RSPB Big Gardens Bird Watch. You can check the website for the dates

and things. We have had a couple of letters, people that have seen

something unusual... Letters, I like that. Not letters! This is

from Joe Black, currently getting up to 13 house sparrows, which is

adorable. They're not as common as they used to be. Michelle from

Truro in Cornwall saw five to six toads mating in her garden and

found frogspawn in her pond. Isn't that fascinating, even though up

here all sorts of animals are shutting down, things are already

starting to stir in our garden ponds, amphibians like frogs -

these are toads - are already preparing to mate. They're going

into position. They do it very, very early on in the year. Look at

that big toad. Many of you are getting ready to go on toad patrol

to help them as they cross the roads. Isn't that interesting? She

was down the Cornwall, wasn't she? That's where you would expect it to

start in the south and it's and toads, but how important? We

are asking you to get involved in a frogspawn account. It is simpler

than you might expect. Go out and count the clumps. That is what it

looks like, each one, and they want to know how ponds are important for

breeding amphibians. The details of that on the website. Now, no better

time for winter walk. The best place to walk is your patch. It

means most to you and you need to know what is there. I went out into

my patch, and look at what I found. The New Forest was created by

William the Conqueror in 10 of 79, as a royal hunting forest for him

and his nobles. They hunted deer and it was first called the New

Forest in the Domesday Book. But why was it new? Was there a forest

already here? There was. The people of 36 carriages had worked it and

he burnt it down and threw them out. -- 36 parishes. That is the history.

It is 26 square kilometres. That is the statistic, but what about the

reality? Reality is that it is fantastic. It is my home and it is

Forest, this is one of the highlights, one of the species that

people typically enjoy seeing. Fallow deer. There are about 1500

in the forest. Of course these ones are in their winter pellet, this

wonderful brown colour. That means that when they are in the woodland,

they are very difficult to see. Typically they are browsing animal,

selectively choosing which vegetation they eat. It is not a

random process. Throughout the course of the year they will be

visiting particular plants and selecting particular parts to get

certain nutrition. At this time of year, they are very keen on you

Holly growth. Very nice to see. -- Forest in winter is this. The

leaves are very important, it is quite deep, and it is a great food

source for many invertebrates which are fed on by the birds that come

here. You can see robins, Threshers, finches, rooting around and sorting

out the millipedes and the worms. It is breaking down and rotting and

as a consequence, it is warmer down here than it is on top. This lay-

off leaves for the winter period provides a layer of insulation for

the forest floor, keeping it a little bit warmer, mean the

invertebrates can be active, chaffinches feeding beneath the

holly tree. It is not a good winter in the New Forest this year. There

is not beech mast, which the chaffinches favour, so I do not

know what they are eating. Among them is a hawfinch, which has

brightened my day. They are mega birds, with mega beaks. We are

lucky that they are easier to spot in the winter time and that is a

real treat. That is worth, I estimate, 2500... 10,000

chaffinches. Yes! Only four bullfinches equal one male hawfinch,

which equals 10,000 chaffinches. Not that I am picky, all birds are

equal but some are more equal than over a beautiful mossy carpet of

natural history. This tree is history. It could have been 400

years old when it toppled to the ground. It could have been growing

when the Roundheads were clobbering the Cavaliers, when we lost America

and they signed the declaration of independence. This tree could have

been growing when there was a Spitfire in the sky and when Geoff

Hurst scored the winning goal. This was a great part of England and my

hope is that the New Forest will continue to be a massive part of

English history. But it will only do so if we look after it. That

said, look at this. This little beech tree is growing on top of

this fallen giant. Perhaps this is Come on, they are pretty special.

You do not see that sort of thing sitting on your sofa or in the

kitchen. You have to go outside and it for yourself. You can go to the

things to do section of our website and end your postcode to get some

ideas of things to do near you. We are set up for us know we weekend,

so get on your Wellington boots, but the children on a lead, and

find a hawfinch! Plenty of you have been out and about, sending in

photographs and for did. We -- and videos. We have two spectacular

much for those. I would say that is one of the greatest one love

spectacles on it, never mind in the UK. -- wildlife spectacles. Now it

is time to look back at our cameras. Come on, beavers. One last look.

think they are getting ready for Winterwatch Unsprung! They are not

there. They have been great. Many of you have already been up and

about and you have taken some great photographs in the ice and snow.

The kestrel is a super bird. else? Fox on the ice. Pine marten,

an opportunist, sniffing for something. Thank you for all of

your photographs. Sadly we are coming to the end of Winterwatch

but the wind is not nearly over. It has been such a strange year that

we might even get a very harsh winter even now. We might. But will

it be as harsh as 50 years ago? This is the 50th anniversary of the

winter of 1963. It was a mega winter. At 5:30pm on Saturday we

have got a Winterwatch 1963 special, exploring what happens not only to

the people in this terrible winter but to all of the Wired Love, too.

Catch up with that on Saturday. -- all of the wildlife, too.

remember that! Rubbish! I do, my toboggan. Anyway, what is the last

bit? I cannot remember. It is getting cold. Yes, what are the

beavers doing? I am too cold! is what we have seen them doing a

lot of and if I was not a pragmatic scientist, I would think it was

love! But it is just staying warm, conserving the energy, using the

planning that they did throughout the autumn storing food. They rest

for most of the day and only go out to recover some of their stored

food in the evening. Occasionally they bring it back, but it is just

a little bit too much of an effort. This beaver has actually fallen

asleep with the stick in its mouth, trying to get into the lodge. What

about that? Fingers crossed for those beavers. I really hope they

will make it through the winter. They have certainly provided plenty

of entertainment. That brings us to the end of Winterwatch and I would

like to say a huge bank you've to the centre up here and all of their

team. -- huge thank you. They have made us feel so welcome, not just

Winterwatch but Autumn Watch, too. We have been so well looked after

at this beautiful place. We have been very inspired by the winter