Winterwatch Episode 2 Winterwatch

It was raining and then it was windy, then it was sunny and now

snowy, the weather is unpredictable. It may have turned winter and a

little bit chilly but whatever the weather, we have plenty to keep you

entertained. We got up early to enjoy the spectacle of black grouse

and we have some amazing golden eagle action. What happened to our

intrepid adventurer? He went up the mountain yesterday to see what it is

like to live as a mountain hare. Did he survived the night? Only one way

to find out. Yes, it is time for Winterwatch.

Yes, hello and welcome to what is very obviously went to does not

Winterwatch, from the beautiful Mar Lodge estate nestled in the

Cairngorms National Park. Very is puttable they are too. We will be

broadcasting live from here for the rest of the weekend is great things

coming up, so stay with us. Particularly in our eagle -fest

which continues later. Last night when we've finished we thought, here

comes the rain again but it wasn't, it was snow. Not quite as much last

night as we have just had now but not enough to put off this tawny owl

which came to the carcass we put in the woods. If you watched our series

last year you would have seen one before. We were excited because in

frequently have they come into carcasses like this and when it is

there it stays for up to an hour board June. Why would you go off

finding a mouse in the snow if you can sit on a dead deer? Absolutely.

The owl continue to eat, the snow continued to fall and this is what

we woke up to this morning. I opened my curtains and saw a winter

wonderland. What a difference a Day makes. Cameramen were out early,

filming the wildlife. There are the deer in the snow. Also red grouse,

perfectly adapted to these conditions, this is the sort of

winter they are more used to. And mountain hare. When it has its white

coat on it is perfectly camouflaged in the snow. When we come to an area

like this we put out remote camera so we can get extraordinary views of

in action. This year we haven't just got cameras at Mar Lodge but all

across the Cairngorms. More on that later. First of all, let's take a

across the Cairngorms. More on that look at that the carcass one a few

hundred meters away from where we are sat at the moment, on the banks

of the river. Nothing there live at the moment. If the tawny owl comes

back, we woke up to it so we get some great views. In the daytime

there has been a lot of activity. Are the jay, probably feasting on

acorns, but with this offer of static protein, it is not going to

say no. A lot of food in one place is a great invitation. Not great for

garden birds so far this year, and that is a good thing. It is so mild

they are still in the countryside. The RSPB told us today there has

been an upsurge this week in Rens, and gold tips coming in for the time

of the garden bird watch this weekend. Make sure you join in. The

last couple of days we have been testing the intelligence and memory

of the mice here at Mar Lodge. We set up a challenge for them, which

we called the mouse maze. We wanted to see how quickly they learned to

get to the stash of food and how much they remember the route. We

started off with a fairly easy maze, last night we put a more complicated

one out. The mouse enters and look how quickly this mouse finds it. It

has lots of other options and choices. Five seconds to get to the

stash but takes exactly the same route it is used to. Does it very

efficiently. Throughout the night it came back numerous times. Never

deviates. Never makes a mistake, and clears out the stash of nuts. That

makes sense because this is good story ball food and what it wants to

do is carry all of that food away to place it can hide it somewhere in

its territory where nobody else can find it and returned to it eat it

later. When the food has gone, then the mouse starts to explore the

maze. Don't think for one moment this mouse is lost, it is simply

hunting for more nuts and looking in every corner, sniffing around and

using its whiskers. This is dark, we're looking at this in infrared,

so it is using its sense of smell and whiskers to feel its way around.

Look at it. It does try every single bit of that maze to see if there is

any more food. When it decides it has explored it all, it goes back

and very quickly finds its way out. But he know what, we made a mistake,

we should not have called it the mouse maze, we should have called it

the small mammal maze because it is not just mice that turned up. This

little creature turned up, a vole. Look how quick it does it. How many

seconds? Straight to where the stash was. Yes, the Notts have all gone

but no deviation or hesitation, didn't stop to collect ?200! I think

that was following the scent of the mouse. Here is some evidence. That

is why you pay your licence fee! Seriously, I think the vole was

chasing the mouse. We felt a bit sorry for the vole, we put another

stash in there and here is the vole. It comes in and he is greedy because

he thinks, I have come all this way, I don't think I will take one, I

will try to take two. But struggled a bit. That is an optimal vole. He

or she spent a lot of energy finding those not is an running through the

maze and what it wants to do is maximise its return by taking away

two nuts at once. If they can carry them, that makes the whole process

more energetically rewarding. If you go to the supermarket you do not go

there and get one can of beans. I get a trolley full, not of beans but

I make the most of my visit. You are foraging, like the vole. We decided

to step it up another notch and this is what we are putting out tonight.

You can see that was the route in blue and now we have changed the

maze. This is the route the mice or voles will have to take. A lot more

complicated. Interesting to see how long it takes to suss that route

out. But what we do want to know is which one will suss it out quickest.

Will it be the mouse, will he be the mastermind, or will it be the vole?

We want you to vote on that. You can vote online. All the details are

online. OK. Now, we have our intrepid

adventurer, as I mentioned at the start of this show, Martin.

Yesterday he disappeared to the top of a mountain to see what life was

like the Martin have. To ask, do you fancy life as one of those hares on

the mountaintop? No. I don't fancy being a mountain hare, because

things have changed dramatically up here. I am up in southern Cairngorm,

about 2500 feet up on the side of a small mountain. I am here because

this is a territory of an animal we will be looking at a little bit

later on tonight. You may remember last night I decided to try and camp

out, to experience what this place is really like, what the animals

here have to go through. I set up in my little tent... Here I was,

inside. The wind was howling. Eventually I settled down, in the

company of a bottle of Madeira and some oatcakes. In the morning, this

had happened. I had absolutely no idea what was going on outside might

and -- outside my double. Oh my God, it snowed.

The mountain hares are now back in the mountain hare environment, it

has all gone white. The thing is... Excuse me! It is almost unbelievable

to me that those mountain has can live out here, at the top of the

mountains throughout the winter in the snow. Maybe -10, all winter, not

just one night like me. They are extraordinarily tough animals.

Now, what were those hares doing whilst I was snoozing inside my

tent? We had a heat sensitive camera out and we could see what they were

doing, they were busy going about their business, feeding. Have a look

closely at the hares. You can see they are losing heat, particularly

from their ears, from their eyes, losing a lot of heat. Last night we

saw how those hares managed to conserve heat, but how do they

create heat inside their bodies? Before I went into my tent I did a

little experiment. I put a heart monitor around my chest and I took

off all my clothes apart from a T-shirt and stood outside in the

freezing cold for 15 minutes to see what would happen to my heart. It is

very fascinating, I don't know if you can see that. That was my

heartbeat, very high in the live programme. Very exciting, live

telly. After the programme it dropped right down. Here I am

outside in the freezing cold, my heart rate soars again. As I get

into the tent into the warm, down it goes. I go to sleep and that is me

having a very exciting little dream. What is going on? I think what is

happening is as I chilled down, my metabolism needs to rise to warm my

body up, so the heartbeat rises as well, and that turns metabolism into

higher gear and warms me up. That is exactly what is going on inside all

of the animals around here when they need to warm up. That was experiment

number one. Then I changed up a gear. We got the thermal camera,

this very sensitive camera, pointed it at me and I took off my clothes.

Remember, the red is the warm up. Almost immediately I start to lose

heat. My periphery, my hands get colder and colder, green and blue.

My face does. The blood vessels on the periphery are shutting down and

they are putting the blood into my core. You can see the blood vessels,

an amazing camera. Now I'm getting colder on the outside, but the warm

blood is still inside my body. But look at this, I can't stop the

warmth coming out of my eyes and the top of my head. See that? The top of

the head, that is fascinating. You know you have to wear a hat when it

is cold and you can see why. The blood up there keeping your brain

wonderfully warm. That is exactly what is happening to the animals

here. That is their problem. They have to try to metabolise and keep

themselves absolutely warm. The animal out here we are going to be

looking at, that is its problem. An animal called the ptarmigan. When

you come back we will look at it in detail. It is an extraordinary

Arctic creature. It is a sort of grouse, there are many sorts of

grouse and a few days ago Chris and Michaela got up very early, about

3:15am and went to look for a very different grouse that lives in a

different habitat to this, the black grouse.

Morning, Chris, it is 3:15am, it does not get light until 8am. What

are we doing up this early question what is there a point? That is

slightly freaky! See you in the car. It is brilliant, isn't it? Not a

word that springs to mind right now. This is great, in the right place at

the right time, there is a strong chance we will score success. What

time do you reckon they will turn up? I think it needs to be a bit

lighter because they have to fly here and there are no trees nearby.

They are not going to walk. Interesting that they chose this

spot, miles away from any trees. Maybe they'd used to be trees here

or something and it is a traditional spot.

Did you see that? I did see that. What about that? I can see them

really clearly now. It is fantastic. They are very splendid. They are

extraordinary. As well as splendid. Because it is such a unique little

dance they are doing. And that white ruff. It is like showing frilly

pants. They are, they are can-can pants. A male bird with can-can

pants. Why do they look? Because they can-can! I think you may have

made up a joke. What a handsome bird. The scarlet is really bright.

Look that the now though, those two, did you see them? Yes. You see the

white in their wings as well. You have to ask, why do they bother at

this time the year? There is no females round, no-one to show off

to. This is a defined area where males come to display and hold

little territories. In the case of this species, the best piece of to

that is at the centre, the prime males will be there, in the peak of

fitness, you know, four, five years old, and displaying vigorously, of

course, the purpose of that is that the females are able to visit and

assess the quality of those males, through their behaviour, their

vocalisations and their position in the area. So it is a courtship arena

if you like. Weirdest thing is all of these birds

flew in together, they have been off there feeding somewhere in harmony,

as soon as they arrive here, they start fighting furiously.

Reminds me of football fans in the '70s. I suppose they were more

tribal. They would live in towns six days a week then on Saturday

afternoon they gravitate to a stadium and beat nine bells out of

one another. They will give up and have a chat. How did it go for your?

O I think my tail looked good. I took a peck to the eye, I remember

Barry tomorrow when I come back, he has a sharp beak and they are

chatting, I have gone like Jonny Morris. Oh my God!

I have to stop. Look, one is going. It is. It is

flying. Look. It is going to fly right over.

What about that? That is my sort of finale. Is that worth getting up at

3.15? ? From my perspective, very definitely yes. That was a good

performance. I got the impression you weren't satisfied by black cock

Michaela? I enjoy mid black cock experience, I love a performing

bird. I trained Azerbaijan a dancer a long time ago so I have huge

admiration for any bird that gets out on the arena, does a twirl,

showing his nickers and does a performance. And nine turned up. In

winter, in spring there might be more. They are going to stake their

claim and to do a rehearsal. Is what I admire. The cocks aren't just

strutting their stuff to attract a female. They are perfecting their

performance, in time for the spring when the females come back. I would

like that in a man. I would like it if you practised a bit and got it

right. Always practising! Just never got to the perfect stage. No.

Yesterday, we were looking at how animals are affected in the valley

when it floods, but what about the animals further up the mountain? How

are Shea coped with the relentless rain they have had up here. Well, if

they are sensible, they will take cover. Which is what these red deer

are doing. There is the rain, you can see it. We really have had a

tremendous amount of rain up here, three-and-a-half times the average

for Des, wettest December on record. They come down to shelter in the

forest. Now, most mammals, when they get wet they lose a lot of heat so

they lose energy, so if they can, they will take advantage of any

cover. Yes, down here, among the trees the deer are fairly happy when

it rain, there is no doubt about it. There are some animals who are new

trouble when it is rain. If a hard rain is going to fall they have

problem, it is a about the fact they can't forage. They can't catch their

prey. Martin found out more. It was the wettest 24 hours period

on record across the... Amber rainfall warnings have been issued.

Be prepared for heavy rain. On Saturday we had red warnings in

force for that heavy rain. December last year was the wettest month

since records began. In some places a month's rainfall fell in less than

4648-hours and it had a devastating effects. Winter is a tough time for

many animal bus here at the animal hospital in Lincoln something

strange is going on. Of the past few weeks they have been inundated with

birds of prey, hawk, buzzards and owl, so what is happening? This

wildlife hospital is run by Alison. Right now, in the hospital, what

birds of prey do you have in? We have buzzards, we have kestrel,

short-eared owl, we have a barn owl, we have had peregrine in and

sparrowhawk. That is a terrific number. Is that unusual that many

this time of year? Yes, very yuedge for us, normally we are very quiet

now, coming up to spring. -- unusual. Raptors often struggle to

find enough food during the winter and bad weather exacerbates the

problem. They take greater risks and use up minute it will reserves.

One of the casualties here in Lincoln was a juvenile peregrine.

Here we have a young looking peregrine, she was definitely

affected by the weather. Yes, this bird has made a remarkable recovery.

When it came in, it was what we call flat. Flat? It was very wet,

extremely cold and didn't have the energy to stand up at all. We didn't

think it was going to survive the night. Gosh. And this is two weeks

on. Look at the difference. That is amazing. What is the future now for

her h how much longer do you think she will be with you? At this point,

I would guess maybe a week to ten days. As little at that? Yes, we

want to make sure it is flying perfectly, and then it will be

returned to the area it has come from. Fantastic.

It is not just hawks and falcons that suffer in these conditions.

Owls can be particularly vulnerable. Their fetters have special

adaptations which allow them to fly silently while hunting, yet these

feathers lack the oils that make them waterproof. During heavy rain

the white of a barn owl can increase by 27%. -- weight. Reducing its

ability to fly and hunt. Inside the hospital, an owl casualty was

brought in that needed more intensive care.

So a short-eared owl, what is the story of this? This bird came in

having flown and been injured. It was taken to local vet. We found it

has a fracture to its wing. The wing was pinned by the vet and has come

to us for rehabilitation. So what is the next stage now for this

short-eared owl? Well, it has been on cage rest now for about three

week, so it has been eating well, he has recovered from the anaesthetic,

the next stage is to make sure it is doing OK, we are just checking the

wing today and it will be moved out into an aviary. Look at the eyes.

What we are looking at, one of the thing, several we look at is how

bright the eyes are. As you can see, we have got beautiful bright, clear

eyes, they are reacting with the light. You see with the mouth open

that it has a nice clean moist mouth. So I am happy with that too.

This is the good wing. He has got a bit of feather damage. But that is

due to cage rest. It is inevitable. Yes. And then this was the wing. OK.

What we try to do is extend it. And hopefully he will take it back in

and reposition it. It. I am happy with that. It is still not quite as

equal, but then, we are looking at muscle weakness. It is like human

whence they have broken leg, and they had them pinned. We have to

build up that muscle, so this is why we are now making that decision that

he can go outside. This short-eared owl will spent a

further two weeks in an out door aviary to build up its strength. For

all the birds here at the centre the ultimate aim is to return them to

the wild where ever possible. All they need now is a break in the

weather. I wonder how many animal cress cue

centres have been inundaipted with birds of prey, or otters? It would

be localised if there was heavy rain. Astonishing statistics there.

27% increase in weight after a light shower. If it gets caught out big

time they can increase their wait by 70%. Nothing can hunt in that. Let

us know if you have had Raptors in, send us a tweet or something. We

have had an update on the short-eared owl in the programme. It

is doing well and hopefully be released once the weather is better.

If you have been watching the news you would have seen the footage of

The Stranding whales in Lincolnshire and someone has sent a question in

about that. Could the storms have been a factor on the four whales

that beached? Susie was it? Lyndsey. The short answer to that is no. It

is not the storm, we don't thing it is the case. These whales have been

stranding throughout January in the knot sea. It started up here 234

Germany. The next lot stranded down here in Holland. There was a ten day

break before round the 20th of January, and on wards they were

stranding round the Wash here, nine washed up on the Continent and it

was 17 by the time the others washed ashore. They have been male sperm

whale, the key thing is they are very deep water feeder, they will

dive to two kilometres down, feeding on squid. The North Sea as most of

you know is shallow. Sometimes just 20-30 metres so we know that sperm

whales sonar won't work in this area. They are going to get

disorientated. There is no food for them. When postmortems have been

carried out we found the whales were starving and dehydrated. Something

might have confused them to cause them to come ashore but they were

already in very very poor conditions. How did they end up

here? That is the question. They winter up in the north Atlantic, and

at this time of year, they begin to typically head south, the males in

the bachelor parties to meet up with the females further south. Obviously

this group took the wrong direction and they came down here and they

have ended up in the North Sea. Of course, it has turned out to be a

very sad tragedy indeed. But, trying to find good news in there, what I

can tell you is that throughout the last century, in the UK, we had

about one sperm whale stranding a year round the entire coast. Since

1980, on average there have been six a year. Not good, but what it does

do, is point to the fact that their population may now be growing.

Whaling was file Lynn ceased in the '80s and we think the sperm whale

population is going up, that is why we are seeing more strandings. Not

good but signs of good things elsewhere. It is amazing when they

strand. That is when you see how enormous they are. People were

standing by the whale and you could see the sheer size. Incredible.

Amazing animals. This is the third year we have been doing Winterwatch

at Mar Lodge, each year we have been putting carcasses out hoping to

attract golden eagles. We haven't been very successful. We decided to

put various carcasses across Scotland to see what we would get.

We were pretty lucky with the one yesterday we had on the Isle of Mull

where we saw not only a golden eagle but a white-tailed one, we have been

very lucky with another carcass in the mountains in central Scotland

6789 now, this is our carcass. It is out in constantly changing weather.

One minute it is snowing, then it is raining, then snowing again. What

did itself attract? Crows to begin with. Hooded an carrion. Then at

night, a pine marten which is unusual. It is a long way from the

tree, then back in the daytime a fox. Nocturnal animal. Not usually

seen out and about in the open. Not like that. But then came after the

fox enjoyed a good feast there, came the one we were waiting for. The fox

is still enjoying his carcass there. And then, yes, this bird came in.

The golden eagle. This is what we have been hoping to film on a

carcass, and this is what we were delighted to see. What a beautiful

bird. What a stunning picture. Look at the sky. The snow. The eagle. You

couldn't ask for anything more. It is like a classic oil painting. We

are pleased that David Anderson has been helping us with this, he has

had that eagle camera out there for some time, on the carcass, because

he has been tracking these birds. In fact if we take another look that

the male eagle that came in, the eagle eyed might have noticed the

ariel in its back. That is one of the satellite transmitter, if you

are sharper eyed you might have noticed the ring on its leg. Yes.

Have a look at this. You zoom right in on that, you can see that its

ring number is 007. . So guess what, the eagle is called James.

We know rather a lot about this eagle because David has been

tracking it for some time. We have to call up the screen, that is the

wrong one. New folder, and this one... It was already there. Let's

pull that around. I'm just going to make sure I can draw on it. The

wonders of live television. Here is James' territory. It measures about

20 kilometres in this direction down here, and about nine kilometres

across its widest point. This is a very, very well mapped territory

indeed. David knows exactly where the eagle has been going. Sometimes

it flies out of its territory to the north and sometimes cross here to

the east and once or twice to the west, but most of the time it spends

all its time foraging in here. Interesting. If you look through

here, this area is a large body of water. Not doing a lot of successful

foraging now. What David is particularly interested in is the

amount of woodland in its territory. He wants to know whether as we

gradually try to increase the amount of woodland in Scotland, about 17%

at the moment and the target is 25%. Could this have a negative affect on

golden eagles, which typically forage over open areas? He thinks

not, because on the continent... I have trod on the cards, how absurd!

David thinks it won't have a negative affect on the eagles

because on the continent they do quite well hunting in open woodland.

He aims to study them, so we can better understand how to put trees

back into Scotland and keep golden eagles. Back to the carcass. It gets

better. It was not just 007 James Bond that arrived at the carcass.

There was another eagle. Is this male or female? You can see as soon

as it hops up it is a female, much bigger than the male. A very

impressive bird. If we have 007 James Bond, this has to be a James

Bond girl. It is actually a maimed so we thought we would name it...

Pussy Galore question what I'm not sure. Rachel Raptor. Send in your

suggestions using the #winterwatch. We will let you know what we choose

in the end. And we have some amazing action on that carcass yesterday.

All I'm going to say is two of the animals that you saw that arrived at

the carcass arrived at the same time and is a bit of a head-to-head.

Stavros here with my cat. Katz, domestic cats like this one are

famed for having nine lives. What we've been trying to uncover this

week is just how much more life is there in the truly wild Scottish

wildcat? Where do you come to find a wildcat

in 21st-century Scotland? Well, X Marks the spot. This is it. Behind

me ancient Caledonian pine forest. Blue breeze, Juniper, perfect for

Denning and out here, grassland that the small mammals, rabbits and

perfect for prey. But this is not a wilderness you might imagine. Over

there a couple of kilometres away is a major road at a railway line. Here

there are farms, cottages, houses. These animals have had to squeeze

themselves into the relics of wildness in our world, but

nonetheless I am confident, because for the last ten years one of our

cameramen has been trailing Wildcats right here. This could finally be my

big chance. Yes, Neil Anderson has lived in the

Cairngorms his whole life, and like me, he has always been fascinated by

these elusive cats. I have come to see some of the stuff he has managed

to film. You have been looking at these cats are in Britain years,

what have you got? This video here is from six years ago. As you can

see, it is during the day, so I have a great view. Look at that, look at

the tail. It is a proper club like tail. Those bands round it,

completely unbroken. Yes, what a beautiful animal. That is wildcat,

surely? It has to be. The colour, as well. The colour, the stripes,

beauty. That was daytime. This one is in the night. That's nice as

well. You can see a side view here, the striping and the tail curling

round. Look at that. Looks like he's just sitting there, listening on

that log. What is going on now? There is a cat, still here and I

have been staking out in a barn not far from here, we have cameras in

there, so let's go and have a look. This is it? Yes, the Ban the wildcat

has been using as a den to sleep in. It is ideal, dry, the roof is

largely intact. There is no rain pouring in. The cycle lights?

Infrared lights so it does not bother the cat in any way. -- these

are the lights? This is aimed at the stairs. Yes, and this store here.

This law is exit to the outside, it goes to a hayloft up the stairs,

nice and warm up there. Let's go and take a look.

There are some remains here, yes, look at that. Rabbit. And some fair,

as well. Typical cat 's Gatt. Not very fresh, I can't smell anything.

That's a shame. I've never smelt wildcat to before.

Amazing piece of technology, isn't it? Yes. The detail is absolutely

phenomenal. Perfect prey for the cat. These walls must be full of

mice and voles. Yes. We haven't unfair advantage over the cat, we

can see. So, plenty of prey, but so far no cat. Meal headed off alone to

see if he could find it. And sure enough, in one of the distant

fields, he did manage to catch a glimpse of it as it headed off on

its nightly hunt. But the difficulty of filming on

foot is it is really hard to follow this shy and wary predator. But we

have been capturing footage since early December. He discovered it

spends four out of every five days here, leaving as soon as night

begins to fall and returning just after dawn.

The beauty of these remote cameras is that we get a glimpse into the

world of one of the planet's rest mammals.

I am pleased to be joined by Doctor Andrew Kitchener, principal to rate

of a museum in Scotland. Before we had DNA you came up with a system of

scoring the pelts. Talk us through these animals. We have three skins

in front of us. The one closest to you is a wildcat. Interestingly and

spookily it is 18 years to the day since this is collected in 1936. The

thing you notice about wildcat says they have this bushy tail with

distinct bands and you see that most often because they are running away

from you. There are other features you can look for as well. There is a

stripe that runs along the back here, but it stops before it gets to

the tail. A couple of shoulder stripes and then these four stripes

at the back of the neck, which are always very wiggly, as if someone

has put their four bingo what would that score? Is there a points

scoring system? For a domestic cat we score one and then we top them up

for the seven different characters. This would be a perfect 21. But it

was taken 80 years ago? And very hard to find anything like that now.

Lot larger than the other cat. They have a reputation of being bigger.

About 25% bigger but a neutered domestic mail cat might get almost

as big. The next cat skin, this is an animal handed into a museum as a

wildcat. It is very small but it is a domestic cat. You can see the tail

is very slender and tapering. This line runs onto the tail, joining the

bands together. Very thin and straight, as if sanity has put their

fingers down a blackboard. You will also notice these stripes on the

rump have broken up into a series of spots, so it is quite different. If

you have one of those at home and you think your cat is a bit wildcat,

you are sadly wrong. What about this one? A blending of these two. The

tail is intermediate in its shape. There is a suggestion this dark line

comes onto the tail. The stripes on the back of the neck, they are

intermediate, a little wiggly but not as wiggly as in the wildcat. The

striking pattern here is breaking up God blotches and spots. Very much

intermediate between the two. -- raking up the blotches. What about

the hybrid? What about our cat question what we have pictures of

the cat we were watching, these are relatively clear. What do you think

of this one? I have looked through quite a lot of photos of this cat.

The back end is quite wildcat like but the front is domestic cat like.

Like a cut and shunt cat. I haven't seen a cat like this before. I have

dotted up the scores and is about 15 or 16. A fairly typical hybrid. Not

particular good? No, but it looks good running away from you. I have

never ticked off a Scottish wildcat. The problem is, there are very few

left in the wild, the best ones are now in captivity. That does seem to

be the case, but it is good news that there are some and efforts are

going on to still try and find the last few good ones in the wild we

could use the breeding. That is what will be coming up in our final film

tomorrow. Stick with us for that. And Armstrong starts after this

online and on the red button. If you have any questions about wildcat,

#winterwatch, send them in and we will do our best to get them

answered. Martin Hughes-Games has been exploring for us, up the

mountain. This week he has been our very own revenant Martin. Yes, what

a change it has been here. I was up here on the mountain a few days ago.

It was positively balmy and now it is bitterly cold. Before we go any

further I have to thank the guys Graham, Bill and all the people act

Glenshee ski area, without them there is no way we would be up here.

Why are we up here? This is the territory of the bird we want to

look at, the ptarmigan. It is dark now but in the light earlier this

afternoon this place looks absolutely marvellous. This is where

the ptarmigan lives, in the snowy peaks. The ptarmigan is generally

grey in summer, but They make a strange croaking sound.

Their plumage goes completely white so they are camouflaged against the

snow. They have feathers on their feet, as they can walk across the

snow, and they have a whole host of incredibly subtle adaptations to

enable them to survive here. Here is just one of those adaptations,

remember when I was doing that experiment. I took my clothes off

and the temperature dropped. And my body tried to compensate by pumped

blood in to the centre of my body. There is only one bit that couldn't

get rid of that heat, one bit we couldn't do anything about, that was

my eyes and head. Now that is the same for all the animals but

particularly the ptarmigan, let us look at a thermal picture of a

ptarmigan in its winter coat. Look at that. Can you see, its eyes and

beak are the only parts of its body losing the. Burr the ptarmigan has

an answer, a supersubtleance for that. Look closely now. Look at that

eyelid. It has feathers on its eyelid. When it shuts its eyes it

keeps its eyes warp. It has tiny feathers on its nose too.

Now, let us look at its feathers. The feathers, let us go back to that

picture of its nose, that thermal picture in its winter coat. You

might notice it is losing no heat at all through those white feathers.

Compare that to its summer feathers. Look at that. It is losing heat.

When the feathers are grey in the summer they don't conserve the heat.

But the white ones do. Here is an amazing thin, what happens is the

white feathers don't let any heat o at all. The the temperature drops to

minus ten, what happens it starts to metabolise, burn up fat, produce

heat and the heat comes out of its body but the feathers won't let it

out it is cosy in there. It has been calculated a ptarmigan is so well

adapted to this environment it could survive minus 93 Celsius.

Incredible. We have our thermal cameras up here

right now. Let us look round and see if there are any animals or

ptarmigan up here now. Look at that wind, whipping over the

top there. Look at the, is there anything there

at all? You know, anything is going to be hiding away. We did just see

some animals here. Let us look. Here is hares running round in this

bitter cold. They will need all that adaptations the three hare, mountain

hare, but they are tough enough to take it.

Fantastic sight. Now, these are hard, hard times up

here, but wild and wonderful. Back now, to Chris and Michaela.

. I have to admire him. He is up there, and earlier on he took off

his clothes. He is really going it. No wonder they call him Martin

Hughes-Games. All credit to him. We don't have to do it. Which is great.

We are cosy down here. Now as you know we have live cameras across the

estate hoping to see certain wildlife. We are hoping to so pine

marten, there is a cram in the wood. Let us look at it live. Nothing on

it right now. There is never anything on it when you want

something. This is what we showed you yesterday. This is the pine

marten up the tree, collecting an egg that we had actually put there

ourselves. Now, it is coming down the tree. Incredible it is not

breaking that egg. But we want to know, where does it take that egg?

Where is it hiding it? You see this is just like the vole and the mouse

earlier. It is storable food. There is a lot of food this animal would

have to eat straightaway. It wants to enesure it has something for a

rainy day if you like. We watched them doing it last year, we saw it

happening a couple of nights ago. We wanted to know how far it was taking

the egg and how it was hiding it. Hiding it in a tree or burying it?

Where was it putting it to hide and preserve it. An egg with a

transmitter in it. We sucked the yolk and white out, then we cut the

top off. Inside, we put a radio transmitter with exactly the right

amount of resin so it weighed the same, critical detail, as a real

egg. Because when the pine marten finds this, we don't want it to

think, there is an egg with a radio transmitter in, we want it to think

it's a real egg. So we put this egg out earlier, and we were hoping to

show you it live, a pine marten taking it away. While we were inside

having hot chocolate and chatting about what might happen later this

happened. The pine marten beat us to it. It

turned up early and it immediately found the radio egg, inside the base

of that stump. Its curiosity was aroused. It thinks it's a real egg,

after a double think. Comes back, rolls it out... And then look how

carefully. It doesn't wasn't to break I it wants to keep it whole.

It rolls it out gently and picks it out xhurning with its teeth, two

little holes, and then, watch this, it trots off into the woods. Then it

runs up, it runs up round the back. Now or challenge has been set,

because tomorrow morning perhaps not at 3.15 we are going to

get-up-and-go out in the woods with the receiver and try and find the

radio tracked egg. Toss a coin for that, you or me. I am keen to go.

That is what I mean, toss a coin, I want to go. It has worked. We should

find out something about the ecology of this animal which is fantastic

While we have been filming up here, we have had camera teams all over

the UK filming the wildlife. One of the cameraman is a guy called Pete

and he has been filming how this weird winter has been affecting the

wildlife on an estuary near where he lives in Devon, the other end of the

country. I grew up on the river Teign. This

stretch of river feels like home for me.

My dad grew up here as a kid. And then I followed. So I spent many

hours, if not days and weeks down on the river, exploring it.

I spent a long time away, filming in Africa, in a climate that doesn't

change much. So coming back here, I really wanted

to look at the way the seasons change from autumn to winter. One of

my favourite spectacles of growing up on the Teign is seeing the mist

round autumn, that. Cops in. It is a real low mist, it sits in

the valley. You feel you are in another world.

The mist is usually there for two or three mornings, and once it has

gone, you know that winter is on its way.

During the very early mornings, and very late evenings, I watched the

squirrels coming down, the oak tree, taking the last of the acorn, and in

doing so, they end up dropping them. One particular evening, this whole

flock of mallards came in and then I realised they were eating the acorn,

which was something I had never seen before. So it was fascinating seeing

the cross over of species. Everything is connected.

Thing is a special bird for me. -- egret. They are slender and

beautiful, and sharp and elusive. Yet at the same time they kind of

have this arrogance that the river is theirs.

I expected a really cold winter this year, and I was hoping for the

estuary to freeze over, which I have seen it do once or twice in my life,

but that didn't happen, and when the rain started coming, I thought, oh,

this is, this is just not going to work at all.

But actually, seeing all the creatures in the rain, the really,

it really opened my eyes. It is rather beautiful, it is only

when you slow down temperature rain, and you slow down the creatures in

the rain, that you can really appreciate it. This winter for me

has been really dark Moody and atmospheric.

The creatures are secretive along this stretch of river. It just adds

to the mystery of the place. I was concentrating on the egret

doing its usual thing, all of a sudden I noticed this whooshing of

water, going under him. Within the space of a couple of seconds this

cormorant's head popped up, out of of the wave in front of the egret.

Kind of had this moment together then the cormorant ducked back down

and shot off. The egret took Afzal Amin him and

proceeded to chase this corm ran. -- took off after him. Cormorant.

And the cormorant was going for stuff while the egrter, was chasing

him, going for little critters and shrimp or fish, anything the

cormorant stirred up. -- egret. I have learned so much

sitting on this river for the last two months.

This place keeps drawing me back, because you never know what is going

to happen, and it is always changing.

All rather beautiful, but one of the things that stood out for me, is

those mallards eating acorn, have you seen them doing that? Yes, ducks

will eat acorn, Mandarin and wood duck, non-native and they will feed

on acorn, a great resource, wood pigeon, Jays. That is how Pete saw

his local area, but we have been asking you to let us now how it has

affected you. We have some photos to show you. This is the first one. It

is an adder, this is taken in January by Richard who lives in

Norfolk. He says he has photographed an adder every month for the last 12

months. I am going to interrupt this. We can go to our cars a cam

where we have a tawny owl. Look that the. It is probably a bird which has

come in before. We can't be sure. It has just arrived. I am sure it is

going to gorge itself. There it is. It has started pulling away there.

That is fantastic to see. Going back to the weird winter. Keep sending

your pictures tastic to see. Going back to the weird winter. Keep

sending your pictures tastic to see. Going back to the weird winter. Keep

sending your pictures in usualing the hashtag #weird winter. We have

loads of stuff. Shall we have, before we do that, shall we look at

another photo? Have we are got time? We have got this one, great crested

green. Let us look at that. With young, on its back. This is

from Tom on the Thames. They shouldn't be breeding s look at

that. With young, on its back. This is

from Tom on the Thames. They shouldn't be breeding at this time

of year Lots of bird ( have been breeding every month. Barn owl. Wood

pigeon. Blackbird. As long as it stays mild it should be OK. We will

be bah tomorrow at 8.00. We have lots coming up, including this. On

the trail oaf a bizarre looking sabre-tooth deer.

And we are starlings, the bird that provides us with a huge sight and

sound spectacle. Ladies and gentlemen and young people of the

UK, get plastic sheeting to put over your sofas because our eagle fest

reaches its crescendo tomorrow, when the eagle and the fox meet on the

carcass, don't miss that. Chris will be doing unsprung On the Red Button

and online. Hopefully Martin, will he be joining us? I really don't

know. I am worried. How will I get down from here? Oh. By Jove, what a

bit of luck! See you tomorrow! Whoa!