Episode 1 Winterwatch

We are here in the wonderful Highlands of Scotland for the next

four nights getting to grips with some of the best of the UK's

wildlife and seeing how it survives this, the toughest time of the year.

As part of our Winterwatch Cairngorms expedition we have teams

out in the field as well as live remote cameras to bring you some

fantastic wildlife. Like these black grouse and the iconic Scottish

highland bird and one of my favourites, golden eagles. From the

other end of the country, Brighton in fact, the fascinating story of

our urban foxes. And I am going to be heading out into the wild up into

the freezing hills. Welcome to Winterwatch.

Yes, welcome to Winterwatch 2014, coming to you live from the

beautiful National Trust for Scotland's Mar Lodge estate in the

Cairngorms National Park, 4,500 square kilometres of some of the

best habitat in the UK, occupying 2% of our land surface and harbouring

25% of our threatened species. It's a top spot. Where is it? Well, let's

look at the UK and we can zoom in to where we are.

We are up here in central Scotland on the eastern side of the

Cairngorms. You can see we are west of Aberdeen and south-east of

Inverness. It's a beautiful place to be. What about our base? That's us

down there on the flood plain in amongst some fabulous relics of

Caledonian forest, Moorland and when we pull back completely you can see

the peaks of the Cairngorms mountains, currently covered in

snow. For the next four nights we are here, it's a top spot for

wildlife. We can guarantee a good series. I am going to try to give

you direct experience, so if you excuse me I am off. The plan is I am

going to give you a whistle-stop tour of the estate, trying to see

some of the habitats and meet remarkable animals. First of all, I

am going to go up there as high as we can possibly get. It takes about

nine minutes. See you later! Hopefully! He is like a rottweiler,

once he gets his teeth into a challenge you can't stop him. Her

for five seconds and he is gone. One of the reasons we have come here is

because it's known to be the coldest part much Britain with record

temperatures of minus 27 last recorded in 1982. So we were

expecting snow. But this has been such a wild winter -- mild winter

that even here there is only snow on the mountains but anything could

happen over the next four days. We will keep an eye on the wildlife to

see how it copes with whatever winter weather is thrown at it. Of

course, all the animals here are coping in different ways. Let's look

at our red squirrels that you see. They cope with the winter by burying

their nuts and going back to them when it gets cold. What about deer?

This is our red deer stag. He will have taken a lot of time eating up

in the autumn, making himself in peak condition. Black grouse,

perfectly adapted to living in cold conditions. When it gets really cold

tale take shelter in the forests. Here there's lots of nocturnal

animals, as well. We have live cameras out and about. Let's look at

the first one. This is otter-cam. Any guess why? Yes, we are expecting

to see otters! No otters on there at the moment but last night we got

this You can see otter comes out of the water and enjoys the food that's

been put on the bank. In fact, that little piece of water is behind us

here. It's about 400 metres away, close to where we are at the moment.

We also have our thermal camera here. If you were watching

Autumnwatch we introduced it then. White is cold, black is warm. It's

great for spotting animals at night, particularly if it's really, really

dark. We have been out with it already. Here is an owl we spotted

in the last few nights. A view down into the valley reveals a few spots

that turn out to be red deer. They've come down to the riverside

for the evening. Then lurking in the woods there is another deer species,

probably a roe deer. Hard to tell. We will hope to catch more on the

camera throughout the week. We are not just following animals here, we

are looking all over the Cairngorms. This is a landscape that's open to

the elements. It's remote. It's romantic. It's dramatic. But it can

be treacherous. We have come to the mountain

wilderness of the Cairngorms in the heart of the Scottish Highlands.

It's stunning. With this beautiful landscape, it can be unpredictable.

The changeable weather means each day brings a new challenge. The

rivers rise as storms drench the hills. Diving dippers must make the

best of their ever-changing home. The ancient Caledonian forest is

home to some unique wildlife. It's a refuge for red squirrels. And wild

cats. Up on the mountain-tops winter is in full force. These wind-swept

peaks are the highest in the country and test even the toughest

creatures. The Scottish Highlands are where winter hits hardest. So

the animals that live here have to be true survivors.

Such a beautiful place to be. And such iconic British animals. One of

the most charismatic has to be a bird that lives in the mountain, the

fabulous black grouse. We are really lucky that we have got a black

grouse lec here, a display area where every morning these birds are

coming out of the forest and starting to display and they present

quite a spectacle. Look at them. Fabulous! Rather exotic things. They

start just after first light which is why it's a little bit dull here

and they normally disappear after about an hour. All these birds are

males and there's a lot of them. Yeah, the males are called Black

Hawk, the females grey hen. These are all males out here. The females

won't arrive until later in the spring. It's unusual that they spend

so much time displaying out of the breeding season. It's a spectacular

display. It's also not just about what they do visually, it's also

about the sound. Absolutely Fabulous. They're great

birds to watch. To me they look like slightly angry ballet dancers with

their tutus and frilly white knickers! Sometimes the display

doesn't work and they'll end up fighting. This is great. They've

declined by 95% in the last century. To see these birds now you have to

go to parts of Wales and northern England, especially here to

Scotland, it means getting up very early so very few birders get the

chance to see them as well as this. This is going to be a treat and we

intend to watch these birds throughout the course of the week.

What we need is some good weather. They don't turn out if it's pouring

with rain. I love that sound, that can travel for up to three

kilometres. Later in the morning after an hour or so, they all head

off. The strange thing is that when the males are there on the ground

they're all fighting and displaying to one another, the minute they fly

off they get on perfectly well for the remainder of the day. You don't

have to just watch these in the evening with us, because we can

bring you leccing live, we have this camera at a different sight. You

have seen Lambing Live with Kate, one of our colleagues. A lamb is a

small sheep. It's not big. It's not clever. We can offer you Black Hawk

live first thing in the morning and nothing beats that. All you have to

do is go on the red button or visit our website.

At 9.00 am tomorrow morning if it's not pouring with rain here it will

be live, come on, in your own front room. Fabulous. Martin is trekking

live, he has been - he is being intrepid. Let's see where he has got

to. We are getting there, driving up the hill here. I can actually feel

it is getting colder and colder. The track's quite bumpy. We are bumping

up and down. But it is getting chillier. We are getting up to the

harshest, toughest part of the estate. Of course, lots of British

wildlife, lots of animals have clever strategies for dealing with

this, the harshest time of the year. During the depths of winter the

warmth of summer can seem a distant memory. The land can seem barren,

void of life, almost frozen in time. There's no doubt that food and water

are hard to find. But take a closer look and you will see life.

And plenty of it. To get through these hard times our

wildlife has developed ingenious strategies. The first signs of this

are a change in behaviour. Think back to the autumn, squirrels and

Jays start to hoard their food, stockpiling supplies during the

longer brighter days. Short-sighted moles bite the heads

off worms and then stash them in underground larders before the

ground freezes. Other animals, like foxes, they

prefer to carry their winter feud around with them. They feast -- food

around with them. They feast up. As winter takes hold some species

become team players. Safety conscious groups unite to low

indicate resources by day and then to keep one another warm at night.

Whilst our smallest wildlife makes use of thick blankets of snow

beneath which temperatures rarely fall below zero.

But as winter continues, more drastic measures are acquired. Our

wildlife's bodies begin to change as the cold sets in. Winter coats

thicken, acting like thermal long-ones in the cold.

Common shrews are true shape-shifters, they loose a third

of their body weight. They shrink their skeleton, reabsorb calcium and

cartilage and organs contract accordingly. They perfectly adapt

their bodies to winter as the quantity and quality of their food

declines. A few small bird species adapt to this cold by lowering their

body temperature each night. It's called nocturnal hyperthermia. It

safes the individual vital energy. Some, though, well, they take it a

step further and hibernation is the answer. Hedgehogs, bats and doormice

shut down to the point of barely breathing and then each one of them

will patiently wait whilst their periodic heartbeats slowly tick

their winter days away. Whilst some of our wildlife might struggle, the

huge number of these natural geniuses are equipped to make it

through. So whilst you're out and about, stop and take a closer look

and I guarantee it will be life you see, using every trick in the book

to get through these lean, dark times.

So far this year, our wildlife is not hard to cope with freezing

conditions although it's not the end of the winter yet and anything could

happen. The biggest challenge for wildlife this winter has been rain.

And there's certainly been plenty of it. Lots of areas have flooded. In

fact, even in the last week since we have been here, there has been

torrential rain. That's the River Dee, it's flooded, and gone into a

lot of the fields all around, so that can cause wildlife a lot of

problems. We were checking out our Flickr group and find the photograph

which had been checking in. This shows a deer moving from one place

to another to find some sort of security. All of this wet weather

means, that extreme weather, means there have been winners and losers.

Who are the winners? Well, with all of those flooded fields, that's a

great thing for our wild flower, -- foul. Geese, Coopers, and ducks can

get out the field, where they can graze safely on the grass, because

they are protected from foxes by all about surrounding water. Other

winners, they would include things like plants, all that water

disburses their seed and it can germinate later in the spring and it

fills up ponds which is good for amphibians, too. There will also be

losers. I would have always thought that one of the prime losers of

flooded fields would be these things. Earthworms. But, we spoke to

a doctor from the University of Central Lancashire and he reminded

me pertinently that these animals have evolved from marine species and

in fact, adult worms can survive sometimes for as long as 195 days

underwater breathing through their skin. The cocoons can survive

indefinitely some in the floods recede, they have to and they

quickly repopulate. Thanks, Kevin, for putting me about there. Other

losers will be hibernating animals like hedgehogs, barn owls, they

can't hunt if they are soaking wet, and even badgers. People of Saint

badgers taking refuge up trees, extraordinary. Tough times. --

people have seen. You would have thought an otter would revel it was

flooded. But if they are in built-up areas, they often use a storm drains

to cross roads but if they have been flooded, they are forced to cross

the actual road and of course it can end in a casualty. That's been seen

in many places. We see a lot of otter casualties when it has been

flooded because they can't cross roads very well. Not bad animals are

not waterproof, of course. We caught these pictures in the last couple of

days. Look at this pheasant showing how waterproof its feathers are.

They use their glands to cope those feathers in oil and the grouse are

showing a good shake can rid itself of a shower. I think it will follow

through with its head, as well. When it's happy nothing is going to grab

it, it shakes its head. Great shots from a slow motion camera, but

letters know what you have seen. We are interested to know how the

floods are affecting you so send us your observations. Do you know what

I find interesting? How animals are the same species cope with cold

weather. Look at us. How many layers have you got on? I have got a hat

and a scarf whereas Martin is quite rough, isn't it? An open necked

shirt. He's like a bulldog, stocky, built up for action. I think he's

like a waterproof pheasant, isn't it? Thank you very much, yes, we are

up here, it is wilder, surrounded by Heather. It's quite steep, difficult

for you to see, but it's quite steep. You might be able to see down

there, those lights are a cabin, where Chris and Michaela actually

are. Here we are, it's glorious up here but it's pitch black. Lefty but

this place looks like during the day. Absolutely stunning -- lovely.

Perfect Scottish countryside. That is the River Dee, we will be going

there hopefully later on. A stunning place to be but have a look at this.

We have got all this Heather here. Are you all right there? It's very

steep. You can see all these little sort of pockets, those seed

capsules. The Heather is ripening and the seeds are ripening in there.

That is terribly attractive to a surprising bird that you get up here

in the Heather. It is a bullfinch. I normally expect to see them on my

bird table but not here. It is coming up, feeding on the Heather.

It's a bonanza for them. It's dangerous for them to be on the

ground like this but words of prey could get them, so they tend to stay

together and lots of players of eyes looking out the danger. It's

counterintuitive because these little birds will move up the help

getting into harsher and harsher environments because the Heather

ripens as we go upwards. A real surprise to see bullfinch is here.

So that's the bullfinch. Come with me, watch out, there is a cable they

are. This is the most remarkable thing because I don't know if you

can see, but at there, there's a whole lot trees and beyond them, is

something quite astonishing because we had heard that there is a golden

eagle, such a rare bird, a golden eagle appear, further away. We had

heard it was there, so what we did if we put a camera in the hope of

getting a still picture may be fitful thought we didn't hold out

any hopes. And look what the still camera got. A fantastic shot of the

golden eagle. Absolutely superlative. So that was the

beginning anyway, so now what can we do? We tried to get moving camera,

video pictures of it, but it is difficult to do that but we did have

some clues. Look at this. You can see a tree there. Look at the top

corner therefore thought that branch had a bit of poo on it. So we put a

camera in. You'll never guess what, just moments before we went on air,

this evening, look what happened. Watch the tree. We were right. A

golden eagle coming in. Straight to roost. Absolutely fantastic. It is

up there now, we think. It's about one kilometre away, to be honest, so

we are not disturbing it, but we will try to keep an eye on it. They

are immensely difficult to see in the wild. We have thrown all the

technology we have got at it. Gordon Buchanan set himself a challenge to

go out and tried to film the golden eagle in the wild.

For me, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing this iconic

and majestic bird in the wild. But with only 440 pairs, scattered

over the whole of Scotland, they have to be one of the country's most

elusive creatures. I have set myself a challenge. I have got less than 48

hours to find and fill the golden eagle. But I have got a promising

tip-off. Eagle expert Roy has satellite tagged eagles and as part

of the Cairngorms and say right now there could be leased four eagles

within striking distance. How difficult would it be? Sometimes I

walk up here cover drive up here and I see two or three and other days, I

don't see any. At the present time, this is a nursery, learning area for

eagles, because get a succession of immature juvenile eagles here. You

have got young birds coming here. Really honing their skills on these

hills? Yes, a lot of it is learning how to live, bit like what you're

going to do today, across these bogs. Even though several juveniles

use this area, they can range over hundreds of miles. So they're not

going to be easy to find. This wind is quite incredible. This backpack

is actually like sale, so the wind pressure over the mountain top. This

is big country. In hospitable to man, and accessible to only the

hardest creatures. After a few hours of hard slog, I find proof that

there are young eagles in the area. There we go. This is feathers from a

golden eagle. It might not look a golden eagle feather, because that's

because it's downy feather from a juvenile. Look at this. We have a

pallet. And I would say, at that sort of size, this is from a golden

eagle. Like other birds, they regurgitate a pallet full of head

and those they can't die just. This one is follow the fair of mountain

hare. After several more hours of being battered about, I see another

encouraging sign. I find myself face-to-face with the eagle's

favourite food, already in its white winter coat. A mountain hare. Just

head on down there. -- hidden. His ears are a bit brown. You can

imagine a golden eagle soaring over this hilltop and seeing a white hair

running across the hilltop. It makes for an easy target. Oh, there he

goes. A disappointing day. No eagles. He

will be looking for some place to rest for the night. For me, this

place offers shelter and somewhere to recharge my batteries for another

day. A new day begins and there's

something positive on the horizon. A couple of ravens up there, which is

a good sign. Ravens and golden eagles are closely associated, they

feed on carrion found on the Hill in winter and there's lots of dead

animals around. They have met their demise up in the hilltops. I set off

again. The going seems tougher today and with every step, I become more

and more disheartened. I'm finding it hard to keep my spirits up and I

spend the rest of the day without a single sighting of an eagle. There's

only one hour left before I'm due to leave this mountain. Once the light

goes, my time is up. Then, in the gloom, I catch a glimpse of

something. Hang on. Here we go. We have an eagle. Yes! Let's try to

stay on it. Wonderful. OK, it's just... Stopped on a rock

there. How about that? OK. Great. Now it is very distant. We

are about to lose the sun. A glimpse like this is all the

reward but I really need. -- that I really need. They are the ultimate

emblem of nature in this country, the ultimate symbol of the wild.

I think Gordon has proved extremely difficult to see a golden eagle

close-up in the wild, which is a real shame, because they are

fabulous birds to see. We thought you might like to see one, so we

have cheated a little bit and brought in a captive bred golden

eagle. She is absolutely beautiful, she is called Orla and I would

imagine she is pretty heavy? About five and a half kilograms, slightly

more than an obese pic unease dog. Do you know, I have got a new lady

in my life, such an impressive bird, in beautiful condition. Absolutely

stunning. And to have a captive one like this allows us to look at all

the different features. Look at those talons, they are so strong.

You think of the parade of the golden eagle would go for, anything

from a small bird to a rabbit, even Fox, once I have called, they have

got to fly off with it and this time of the year, though, they go more

for dead deer and sheep and they will need those talons to rip the

meat. Extremely powerful. The beak, not so much for killing, they do

killing with feet but for tearing things up. This has to open a red

deer hide. That's why they've a powerful beak. Let's look at the

wings. A wing span of 1. 8-2. 2 metres. If I just gently rock her

you will see. Look at the size of her! Look at that.

Absolutely fantastic. About 440 pairs left in the UK.

About 5% of Europe's population. Goodness me! What a treat. Everyone

would agree this is a beautiful bird. It's what we call a sexy

A-lister. It's stunning and exotic. What about the small stuff? Let's

not forget the little things that live in your garden. They may not be

sexy, but delve into the log pile and you will see a fascinating

world. There's little repint from the

weather in winter -- respite from the weather in winter but tucked

into the corner of the garden is a safe house for wildlife.

Protected from the extremes outside, the 59 species of butterfly, the

majority spend the winter in this state. And tucked up between the

bark, a Queen wasp sleeps. Wings folded under her body for

protection, she will hibernate until temperature rises in the spring.

And still deeper, hidden at the base of the log pile, a slug has laid a

clutch of eggs. Slugs lay up to 400 eggs a year in batches of 50.

During the colder autumn and winter, these will take a few months to

develop and hatch. But not everything sleeps through

the winter. And when food is scarce, these protein-packed microbites

provide a tasty meal for a host of garden creatures, including a hungry

centipede. They generally hunt moving prey and the front pair of

legs is adapted into pincer venom-like claws. These not only

help capture prey but are perfect for grasping and piercing.

Temperatures in the log pile can be several degrees higher than those

outside. Meaning that it's not just centipedes that are out and about.

Delve into the gloom, and the barren becomes the busy.

Ground beetles generally hibernate in winter, but living here means

they can stay on the move. Having gorged on slug eggs, our

centipede returns to the hunt. Its name means 100 foot. In fact, some

have as few as 20 legs, whilst others as many as 300. All perfectly

synchronised to ensure they don't get entangled.

The flattened body is perfect for moving between the logs and twigs of

this 3-D world. Living in the dark holds no fear for this beast either.

They don't have true vision. They can only detect light and dark and

rely instead on their sensitive antennae to search for food.

Buried elsewhere more eggs. But unlike those of the slugs, these

have an advantage. Their attentive mother is never far away.

Female earwigs are the domestic Godesses of the insect world.

Having kicked out the father while she was pregnant, this single mother

lays a bundle of up to 80 eggs in early December.

In this dank, damp world her eggs are prone to fungal infection and so

each day she carefully turns and cleans the surface of the eggs to

ensure that they stay healthy. The centipede senses food is nearby.

The mother detects danger. She uses her pincer-like against

trueders, even those larger than -- intruders, even those larger than

herself. Unusually for an insect, earwig

mothers never leave their eggs and will make the ultimate sacrifice in

order to protect them. Today, however, victory is hers.

But that doesn't stop her playing it safe.

She moves her eggs to a more protected spot. Our female will

sustain this level of care until the eggs hatch.

If the winter proves a cold one, that could be for as long as four

months. So this winter spare a thought for

the hidden metropolis in the corner of your garden.

Well, here we are on the second part of our tour and we have come down to

the forest. Look at this gorgeous Scots pine. Before we go on, that

earwig, like buffed and polished amber, definitely my favourite

insect. In the wood here, Scots pine, a classic habitat. It has its

own floral and fauna. It's wet at the moment because of all the rain

we have been having. This place is drenched. Come up here. Yes, there's

lots of specialist animals here and they leave clues behind. We are

going to do a bit of detective work now, if I can see what I am doing.

It involves pine cones. There is a standard pine cone. And that was a

pine cone but that's a classic sign of an animal that's in here in these

woods, it's the red squirrel. Red squirrels absolutely beautiful

things. They're about half the size of the grey. Used to be all over the

country. But this time of year they usually are solicitor tree but you

will see them together -- solitary but you will see them together.

They're starting their breeding season. This is the display, the

courtship. You see them whizzing around trees. They're absolutely

lovely little creatures. Those little ear tufts they've got, they

only grow those in winter. In summer, they disappear. Red

squirrels, lovely. Here is another pine cone. Let me

see... Yes, there it is. It's been split there.

That wasn't done by my pen knife, I promise. That was done by another

iconic bird here, it's a crossbill. We can see how it did that. Here is

the cross bill, weird week twisted over and it uses that to open these

pine cones. It's extracting the seed there.

Come with me, I want you to just allow your imagination to flow now.

Look up into these trees. Imagine that there was - imagine you were up

in those trees. In holes in the trees you might find another iconic

animal here, a third. That's the pine marten. They're often up in

trees. They'll sleep, they'll have a den up there.

We know we have pine martens, cross bills, we have got red squirrels

here, as well. What else? We are going to try and find out and I am

going to show you this quickly. You may remember these. This is... Just

whacked my knee! This is a way of finding out what's around here.

Little things run in, put their feet in this and then they'll leave us a

little sign. We will come back and set these all over the place and try

and find out what else is around here.

Anyway, we are going off now, down to the river. You are heading off

back to Chris. Oops! I feel a little bit guilty

that he is out in the wilds with the weather. It's colder up there and we

are coming to our cosy cabin. We even have coffee waiting for us. I

feel about that guilty! No heart. Now, winter is the time when a lot

of our wildlife struggles to find food. There's no greater evidence

for this than looking at your bird feeders. They are very busy at this

time of year. A great range of species will be coming in. The

reason they're so busy is that these birds are concerned about their

bio-energetics, it's about the acquisition and expenditure of

energy. Now, during the day time they will have to spend 85% of their

time looking for food. We have short days remember, as well. Species like

blue tits weigh 11 grams and need to eight ten grams a day because they

lose 5% of their body weight overnight. You see they can't stock

up and become robust, take on lots of fat like some animals because

then they would be vulnerable to predators. They've got to take on

that food every day which means that choosing the right food is

incredibly important. It's thought that during the winter those birds

look for best sources of food in people's gardens and go back to

those sources of food before it gets dark so they can stock up for the

night. But it's something that Oxford University want to explore

more about. They want you to get involved. We want as many people as

possible this week to get involved in a bird table experiment. What is

the experiment? Let me explain. When your garden birds have to fuel

up at the end of the day what food would they prefer? Something sweet?

Like fruit? Or something fatty like a bit of cheese? There's only one

way to find out and that's to do a little experiment. Over the next

three days we are going to test this by changing the birds' menu. Day

one, put out your normal bird seed. Sprinkle that on the table. To get

an idea of the number of birds that normally visit your feeders in the

afternoon, you need to count them and Oxford University need everyone

to count in the same structured way. You watch for three minutes, see

which birds come down. Mark them down, if you know the species that's

great, if you don't put unknown. Put the numbers. Take seven minutes off

and go and make a cup of tea. After a cuppa count again for three

minutes. Wait for seven, and then do a third and final count. At the end

of day one you clear away your normal bird food. And then you put

out food ready for the day two experiment. That's either going to

be cheese or apple. If your surname is A-L put out cheese. If it's M-Z

like mine, Strachan, put out apple. On day two do the three-minute

counts in exactly the same way. At the end of day two take away

whatever is left on the bird table and put out the food ready for day

three. For me, that's cheese. Remember, if your surname is A lf L

that's going to be apple. So I hope that's clear. Do it

between three and four, start tomorrow. I want to make sure you

were listening, what were the rules? Tomorrow you put out normal food.

The day after if your surname is between A-L put out apple. M-Z put

out cheese. You count between three and four in the afternoon. Do three

minutes, take seven minutes off to make tea, pre-boil the kettle if I

was you. Then another three minutes and have another cup of tea if your

bladder can stand it and three more wins at the end. If not, there must

be details on the website. Details on the website and also download a

form. If you are still not sure, then you can join in with us live

tomorrow on Winterwatch Extra. Online and on the red button.

Indeed. The reason the pressure is on these birds is because it's

winter. We are having somewhat of an unusual winter. We are going to go

to the BBC weather centre now to Nick. What I want to know is,

firstly, why are we having a warm and mild and wet winter? Secondly,

what's going to happen in the next week and precisely here is there

going to be snow for us? I know you want snow. It is a mark of the

winter so far that the lowest temperature where you are at Braemar

has only been -5. I have been close to that in Bucks. The reason it's

been so mild, powerful jet stream across the Atlantic generating storm

after storm coming our way, and don't we know it? The flow of air

from the south, that's a milder direction, so the winter so far has

been stormy. We have paid a price and wildlife have, too. Part and

parcel of that is how mild it has been. Temperatures above normal. The

UK has had 82% of normal winter rainfall. We're only halfway

through, and that is a Brucie Bonus for wetland birds not expecting to

feed on dry fields. South-east England, the total so far represents

more than what we would normally expect to get ahold of winter. And

the Met office says unless something significant changes, we are on

course for a wetter than normal winter. To get snow, you need some

cold air. There's some in Scandinavia, close but not close

enough. The mild air Comet looks like it's going to win, producing

more later tomorrow. Clearing away by the end of the week, another wet

and windy system from the Atlantic could be preceded by a bit of snow.

This week, you have to go higher up into the Cairngorms to get that

snow. I'm afraid, for you, it's more likely to be a cold rain. That's

what we're expecting this week. I will talk more about that when I'm

back with you on Thursday. That's really not what we want to

hear. We want snow. Wet, wet, wet. It has been a very mild, wet winter

as we have been saying and that is fooled a lot of plants and animals

into thinking it is spring. Lots of you have noticed and you have said

you have snowdrops in your garden already. One person even saw this,

have a look. Frog spawn. You wouldn't expect to see this quite so

early. If it doesn't freeze over, that's going to perish, isn't it?

Yes, completely, it will. I think the frogs are taking a gamble,

getting and succeed. Let us know what you have seen, the early signs

of spring. Send ashore comments! That sent as your comments. Let's

take a look at the estate where we are on this map over here. Here is

the cabin. Here are the cameras. The bird feeder here, the eagle camera

is up here as well. That is the Otter Cam. You can see the river

valley down here, some high peaks. Down here, we hear Queen Victoria

used to like to go down there taking her collie dog with her for some

cucumber sandwiches. I bet she cut off the skin of a cucumber before

she ate them, as well. Where is Martin Hughes-Games at moment? If

that is us, he is down here, about there, is that right? That's exactly

right, Chris, on the third and final part of our whistle-stop tour or

today. Be careful coming down here. What out of there. I'm coming down

to the River Dee itself. Here we go, let's jump over. The river is right

here. It is a huge river, in fact, you can't see it in the dark we have

filmed it in the days to get a better idea. There it is. It's

exactly where I am standing now. There it is. A beautiful river. A

lovely soothing sound. Right, I'm going to get in it. Ouch! The river

is home to a fabulous little bird that needs these rapids, just like

this. The only find it in beautiful places like this, the dipper. It

looks like the Blackbird. Just wait to see what I can do. If a most

unlikely bird, like an underwater submarine, a Blackbird submarine. It

is hunting now. It has got something there, it is feeding on it,

completely comfortable, totally comfortable on the water. We will be

finding out exactly how it does that cover all the modifications it has

got. This is a bit dodgy! One more thing, down here, look at this. It

took us ages to find this. It just looks like nothing, doesn't it? Look

closer, this is fish bones, and here is a bit more. It smells like

violets or jasmine tea. It's quite nice. It is after poo, and they use

of the mark their territory is and we have seen them here. That otter

poo. Let's have a look at it. Here it is. There it is, quite difficult

to see full so we think it is marking its territory. It uses poo.

And also anal jelly. It leaves marks up and down its territory. A male

can do 70, it is up and down the river. A female, slightly smaller.

We will be following the otters. Further down the river, we have the

Thermo camera out. We are trying to see what other animals are in the

dark. Let's have a look live the thermal camera now. Fantastic, it

looks like a rabbit. Hunched up there. It's very exciting, this

camera, because it shows you things you wouldn't see any other way. Can

we move it around a little bit? You never know what you are going to see

with the thermal camera. Wait a minute. Very exciting. There's

absolutely nothing there at the moment. Anyway, back to the studio.

I'm just going to jump over, and we will go back to Chris and Michaela

Fulford see you later. Chris, you miss me a Scottish ?5 note, because

you tell me he fall into the river. I was wishing, yes. We have embarked

upon a study with the University of Brighton looking at urban foxes, and

we have got collared. Let's meet a couple of. Cast your mind back to

Autumn watch also this beautiful animal in a suburban garden, the mum

and dad. They are hanging out together. These were pictures back

in autumn. We have great views of them there, but now we can find out

a lot more about them quickly, because we have got them collared,

and these are the results were getting from the satellite tracking.

In real time, they tell is exactly where they are with each one of

these blue docks. -- dots. Delete spends his time there and then

shoots out over here. What's going on? Just after Christmas, I headed

back to Brighton. During December's cold wet nights, people were treated

early to their warm homes leaving Brighton's streets to the foxes. The

breeding beseeching is approaching for the last spring a Mac bass cabs

are fully grown and young males are potential rivals for their fathers.

I'm back with Fox expert Doctor Dawn Scott, armed with her latest

findings. Here we are in the heart of sweet suburbia looking splendid

and English. As usual. But also, the territories of the foxes. Remind me

a bit about their territories. Which parts of this area are they using?

We're on this junction and you can see from this range,

Fleet goes down here and then Fenwick, the Sun, has a smaller home

range and it literally this street. He's not crossing as much as his

dad. This is remarkable. Most of our viewers will be surprised how few

gardens are suburban fox needs to survive. That's a tiny area. These

are tiny local foxes. A small area, yes. What about their interaction

because we think they are father and son. They spent a lot of time

following each other around. To fully understand what has gone on,

we need to see some footage. OK, let's go. One of the local residents

has been feeding and filming the three-year-old Fleet and his son.

Dawn takes me to the garden where he has documented a surprising shift in

their relationship. This is where they come in. You can see that

Holder, and they get fed around here. I can show you some footage

and you can see that obviously they are feeding, competition for food

there. He is hanging back quite a lot. The dad is seeing him off a

bit. He's having first choice of food, isn't he? That was a bit bold

from the youngster, wasn't it? What he did was... He has done it again.

He is showing his dominance. He is kicking his father out and you can

see the posture, that he is back, but is allowing him to do it.

Fenwick is now becoming top dog and pushing Fleet out. He has got the

main plate. Sitting at the high table. I don't know what to feel

about that. I should be perfectly objective about it but I feel sorry

for the young boy, being pushed off his plate by a young

whippersnapper. I think it's happened to me! The thing is that

Fleet, he doesn't like there's anything wrong with him. He's not a

fading old man of Fox, is he? We do have some other footage that we can

hear something that suggests is not well. You can't see very well but

you can hear something happening. See if you can pick up what it is.

RETCHING SOUNDS. Its lung Wareham. When he has a

hacking cough, it can get in trouble -- lung Wareham. He was behaving

difficulty -- lung the old boy got a cough. Lost a bit

of weight. And the upstart is in there straightaway pushing him off

the food? That's what happened. It is still to them claw, isn't it?

Shall we find him? Of course. Urban foxes rarely live longer than a

couple of years. Diseases like lung Wareham can finish them off sooner

than that. If he survives, his next son will take over his patch. This

is the young pretender's chance to breed. Which way? We might need

binoculars. So, turfed out by his own son, Fleet needs to find a new

home. The question is, just how far as he prepared to go? So what

happens to Fleet? I just feel really sorry for the old guy. It's a

cliffhanger. I can tell you, if you're thinking of popping out for a

romantic evening meal tomorrow, forget it. Get an inexpensive

microwave meal and stay in because you won't want to miss this action.

He is a UK Olympian. Talking of Olympians, come on Martin. I just

saw a hair scamper across the ground over there. Wildlife. Let's have a

quick look at some of the highlights that we have seen. First of all,

look at that. Isn't that beautiful? Absolutely stunning. I love the

reflection the water, as well. I would like that on the wall.

Beautiful. This one, I love. This is a golden eyeful from watch its body

before it dives. Look at that. There was so little splash. Nine out of

ten. Splash. You had to go to dinner. Only you could do that! Only

I could do that. That brings us to the end of our first show. We hope

you have enjoyed it. We will be back tomorrow at a different time, 8pm.

What time, guys? 8pm. This is what we've got coming up. More fabulous

black cock. I shall be looking at would ants tomorrow. We will take a

look at these charming creatures, red squirrels, and putting them to

the test. If you would like to carry on watching a bit more Winterwatch,

Winterwatch unsprung is on after us. If you want to see it, very simple,

all you have got to do is hit the red button there. Nick Baker is

waiting for you. Tomorrow, 8pm. We hope you have enjoyed the show. We

look forward to seeing you tomorrow for a little bit more exciting

Winterwatch. See you tomorrow. I buy. -- bye bye.