Winterwatch Episode 4 Winterwatch

Storm Gertrude has blown in with full purse and it has been wild and

windy up here today, but rest assured, I have control of my

elementary tracked and we have been braving the great outdoors. We have

an incredible insight into one of the largest birds in the UK and one

of the smallest. And will our resident rodents sold the final

challenge in the -- mouse maze. Batten down the hatches, get a cup

of hot chocolate and pipe and slippers because it is Winterwatch!

Hello and welcome to Winterwatch, or should I say windy watch, 2016. It

is the last of our programmes coming from the Cairngorms National Park.

We have had a fabulous week and we have seen some exciting things, a

few revelations and lots of nice new science and some fantastic animals.

I have to put in, it is good to have you back, we missed you last night,

for Chris wasn't very well. I am sure you want to go, I just couldn't

stop vomiting. I saved everything I ingested last night and gave it some

rudimentary analysis and you can see the percentage of carrot and

sweetcorn but most of it was cheese from 1967 which I found in the large

fridge. Too much information, but glad you are better. As I was

ricocheting between the bathroom and the toilet, the cameras carried on

rolling as Storm Gertrude came into Scotland and this is it, this is

Gerty getting shirty. That is the pine marten camera and you can see

that no pine marten would be mad enough to come out in weather like

that. The some strange reason, a squirrel was tempted by the nuts we

left out, thinking it could keep dry with his fluffy tale. One animal

that wasn't bothered was the mountain hare, an animal truly used

to living in the mountains in conditions like that, having a

wonderful time. That was last night, what did we wake up to this morning?

The storm continued and the rain continued and in some places it

snowed, and in some places there were floods, but the main thing was

the wind, at the top of the Cairngorms, wind speeds of up to 144

mph. The weather really was hectic. All of the Hardy animals were still

out and about, they have no choice but they really did have to cope

with extreme weather conditions and they have been carrying on on and

off all day. And we have live cameras out and about on the estate.

Happily, they have survived the deluge and we can go live to our

carcass cam right now. There is the carcass on the right-hand side of

the frame, nothing there, all tucked away in the nooks and crannies of

the forest but we have noticed something very interesting with the

carcass cam. That is jay. It shouldn't make that sound, it is

practising deception, calling like a buzzard. The jay is mimicking the

call of the buzzard and it is doing it to practice deception to make

sure all of the other animals in the area think a buzzard is there, a

bird of prey, and stay away, so the jay has the entire carcass all to

itself. Look at that crappy bird, it has done it. We know this occurs in

other species of jay, in North America they practised the same

thing and when I saw it, I thought it could be potentially be the first

time it had been recorded by the Eurasian jay, but research showed it

was first done in 2013, so we were just pipped to it. One could say it

is one of the world's sneakiest animals. We haven't just had live

cameras filming, all of the camera crews have been out and have been

enjoying fabulous views of the red squirrels on the state. These little

guys are pretty well-equipped for the winter. They spent the autumn

burying nuts, they have a good stash, plenty to eat. Up here in the

Cairngorms, they can supplement their diet with pine cones and they

have already started to court. It is the female that runs up the tree

first and she emits a paramount and that attracts the male, who chases

her round and round and up and down -- emits a pheromone. Sometimes it

is more than one male. It is something you may have seen with

grey squirrels in parks and gardens at home. So life is pretty good

until it gets really windy and they slowly get blown off the bird table.

I love that! If you have been following Winterwatch this year, we

have been testing the ability of mice and other small rodents to

negotiate mazes. We can go live to the updated mouse maze, it has

become incredibly complicated and we will find out just how successful

mice were in negotiating that later in the programme. Don't forget, you

can follow all the latest information and some exclusive clips

if you go onto the website. All of this week, we have had a bit of an

eagle fest. At the beginning of the week, we were lucky enough to have

two live eagles on the programme and looked at the differences between

them but we wanted to contrast their flight patterns and their hunting

styles, so earlier on, I went out with a couple of live birds and we

did these animals to do some of the filming for us.

All birds are equal, but some birds are more equal than others. In front

of me here we have got a golden eagle. It is an impressive bird,

there is no doubt of that. But over here, we have something even bigger.

This is the white tailed sea eagle. What we want to do is fly these two

so we can contrast their hunting styles and ultimately find out how

they can coexist in the same place at the same time by feeding on

different species. It is going to be quite a day.

Both eagles are trained to fly with cameras. And we are fitting them

with tiny GPS transmitters. Then we are going to release them high in

the Cairngorms, where we can observe their hunting techniques. Digital

tracking expert Steve Lee has a tablet receiving information

directly from the Eagles' transmitters. It is the stuff a

biologist dreams are made of. We will be seeing the data live as it

is happening. And recorded at the real speed of the bird, direction,

height and exactly where it is on the planet. The full works. What a

piece of kit, the best thing to do is get them in the air. Let's

piece of kit, the best thing to do unleash the eagle. First off, the

golden eagle. unleash the eagle. First off, the

above us. So we have a speed out of 27 mph, so motoring.

beat, just backing out, flaring the tale, you can see the tail

beat, just backing out, flaring the to turn it. Classic golden eagle.

beat, just backing out, flaring the have got 910 feet. So it is going

up. Looking at the map, we have some perfect Circle is going on. Oh,

yeah, look at that. These birds are all about gliding. They don't want

to be flapping their wings. Birds don't survive by using up energy if

they don't need to. You don't need to be spectacular to survive, you

need to be effective and that is what it is doing. At this time of

year, golden eagles can survive on carrion. But they specialise in

hunting fast, agile prey, like hares and grouse. To measure the speed of

his stoop, we call in the eagle. -- swoop.

He is 600 feet above us. 37 mph. He is speeding up. 40 mph. 42, 40 five.

-- 45. Look at the shape of the wings.

The legs are down. Fantastic. Hey! Apparently, he is really close now.

I have been waiting ages to say this, but the eagle has landed! He

reached 45 mph, by no means a top speed for a golden eagle. He was

just cruising. Now it is time for the white tailed eagle.

Oh, yeah. Much deeper strokes, broader wings. Completely different

flight profile from the golden eagle. The thing is, it's a heavier

bird but it has got a lower wing loading, so if you divide the wait

by the surface area of the wing, it is much lower than the golden eagle

which means they should be able to generate more lift in the same

amount of wind. Look at that. He is really trying to find some lift now.

Look at the tightness of the circles we have got, much tighter. She is

following back as well, that air as it is going, she is following it

along. We are cruising at a slower speed. The golden eagle was 20-30,

whereas that seems to be 15-20, so it is much slower. Like the golden

eagle, white tailed eagle is will often scavenge. They also hunt fish,

so we have placed abate. -- some bait. Look, she is dropping. Off she

goes. Yes! Fantastic. Carries it clean out of the pond on those

massive wings. That is one powerful beak. What was the Macs? So we had a

maximum of 55 mph. So to species with the same name which is sensibly

look pretty similar but in fact, they behave and hunt in different

ways, down to the shape of the body and the environment. Whatever way

they use, it ensures they survive the winter.

Now, there is a distinct difference. the winter.

In the winter time, the white tailed eagle spends a lot more time

scavenging. In the summer, it is feeding on fish and is taking live

sea birds, but in the winter, it needs those big, broad wings so it

can search over vast areas for carrion. The golden eagle, on the

other hand, remains more of a predator through the winter. It will

take 30% carrion but it is still after live animals and one thing

that Steve Lee told us and we couldn't show in the film is that

although conditions weren't that good for eagle flying for us, he has

have them sweeping at speeds of 150 mph, making them as super predator.

But what happens when an eagle super predator comes up against a

mammalian equivalent, the Fox predator? Earlier in the week, we

showed you this, because the remote camera has seen an eagle fighting a

fox. And a bit later in the programme, we will show you which

one of the two species prevail. From those two to another one, very

attractive animal we have been lucky enough to see here this week and we

have looked at some interesting science when it comes down to their

caching. Yes, it has been amazing to watch them do the caching. What is

it? It is when they pick up a food source and hide it to guarantee

against the lean times but the way the team have managed to do it is

amazing. It is known that pine martens will take eggs and they will

cache them. Here is a special egg, not full of yolk and egg white, but

electronics, a battery, a radio transmitter transmitting right now.

So we have put the eggs into the tree, along came the pine martens

and took them away and Chris and Michaela could track them down and

find where they cached them. We can go live now to the tree, is there a

pine marten? We put the eggs down in the bottom and up in the top. Two of

the radio controlled eggs. That isn't right, not radio controlled.

There is a mouse, always good to see. He makes it onto every camera,

doesn't he! Now, up until the time we put those eggs out last night,

nothing happened, it was really stormy. Nothing happened all day

today and then at five minutes to seven tonight, he arrived. There is

the pine marten coming in, takes the egg and hasn't finished, because at

20 past seven, just a couple of hours ago, the pine marten came in

again and watch this, watch the way it uses its tongue, its teeth and

its jaw to gently manipulate that egg, pick it up and backwards it is

going, doesn't drop it, get it down the tree without smashing it. It is

slippery and wet, the tree. I wonder if it is the same pine marten or a

different one? I would guess the same, it has learned that behaviour

and it must be getting pretty egg bound by now, don't you think which

Mark I hope it doesn't open those! And cashing in this weather is such

a good idea, because an animal doesn't want to waste any energy

coming out in the wet and rain -- caching. Why would it go and look

for food if it can go to the store? Like you at home, if it is wet and

rainy, you don't want to go to the supermarket, just to the fridge, so

it is sensible. And they don't just cache eggs, look at this photograph

that the ecologist here gave us. You can see a feather just sticking out

of all of the moss and that actually is a Merlin check that the pine

marten has caught and cached. A very rare bird, shame to see it like

that. You might think pine marten wouldn't

be used to a little chick but look at this. This is a grass of the

calories of the various food sources. This is an egg.

This is a bank vole. And this is a cheque. Because it has to stop

metabolising. So a little chick is a very, very good meal and

surprisingly much better than an egg. I suppose the egg is what

happens before the check so I guess that makes sense. Yes, that is the

mum and dad coming in. Can I tell you a story about caching? I have

chickens, as you know, and a fox came in and it killed 11 of my

chickens. Now, people always say, the fox comes in, just kills them

for fun. Nonsense. I left the chicken carcasses out and the fox

came back and it cached every single one of them so it could then come

back and feed itself and its cubs, so they were just doing it for fun.

It was very precise behaviour. At least they didn't go to waste,

Martin! It was my favourite hen! Now, yesterday we were introduced to

a very strange deer, the Chinese Now, yesterday we were introduced to

water deer, with fangs. Tonight we find out what they get up to after

dark. I mean Woodward and Fenn on the

trial of the elusive Chinese water deer. -- I am in. Yesterday I was

lucky enough to catch a brief glimpse of one of these bizarre and

mysterious animals. But I've been told 90% of their activity happens

at dusk. We've pinpointed a promising location for our hide. Now

we must wait for night to fall. It's about an hour after dark and it

really is pitch black out there, and I've come over to the hide, where

Lindsay has a thermal imaging camera, and we are positioned so the

wind is blowing into our faces, because in front of the hide is a

clear area, and that's meant to be the best area for deer at dusk and

after dark. It is dry at least but it's very windy and also remarkably

warm considering it is December as well. Wow, wow! There is the deer.

Probably about 200 metres away heading slowly away from us. They

are such an odd animal. The back and looks a bit like a links

are such an odd animal. The back and very, wrote a short tail, and

are such an odd animal. The back and front-end looks like the

are such an odd animal. The back and of Bambi and not to the vampire! A

really weird-looking thing. They are really chunky. This is looking

towards us as well. I can see the fur. And it is sticking with its

feet, trying to get some nutrients, maybe some routes. Getting some

fresh leaves. Having a bit a shake. When they graze, they can actually

flask these tasks back, pull them back a bit, which makes it easier

for them to grace the young vegetation. Primitive, yes, but

nature has thought of everything. A sound in the distance and the Buck

responds. He seems intent on proclaiming this meadow as his own.

And like red deer which wound RNs, water deer box set or territories on

good patches of grazing with the of boring in the dough at -- of

clawing in the females. of boring in the dough at -- of

the cold, frosty weather and then we will see some mating action.

the cold, frosty weather and then we The buck looks nervous as something

emerges from the reeds. It's only a fox but a good opportunity to see

the size of this diminutive deer. Then, another male deer. Oh, look at

that! That Then, another male deer. Oh, look at

animals. One animal chasing another one. Wow! One has disappeared into

the rushes and the other one is obviously the dominant one and he's

turned around and is just walking away. And he's defecating, look. And

what they do is defecate little and often all over their territory, and

any other male coming in will know instantly this is occupied and there

is already a resident buck here. I've only had a glimpse into the

Chinese water deer's private life but it's been an enlightening one.

It's a fascinating animal. It really is. And to be able to see it at

night is just a privilege, really. And it is interesting because it is

introduced. It doesn't belong here. But we know it doesn't have a

detrimental affect on any of our native animals, and when you

consider where it comes from, China and Korea, it's actually decreasing

rapidly and the population we have here is incredibly important in an

international sense. So maybe this is a species we should welcome with

open arms. What an extraordinary animal that

is! It looks like a cross between a Kangaroo, a hyena and a sheep! The

rotting has been badly disrupted by this very mild weather we have. I

say that. It is changing. The rut didn't go very well for them but

that won't affect the overall numbers. There are about 7000-10,000

of the Chinese water deer here in the UK. I had no idea there were so

many. They are in five different counties confirmed and three other

counties where they think they have them, including Somerset. I will be

going out trying to see my first ever Chinese water deer. Chris, have

you ever seen a Chinese water deer? Very sadly, Martin, I haven't. I did

go out looking for them on one occasion but they didn't show up so

it's an animal I have to tick off on my list, I have to say. Is the storm

getting worse by any chance? It's blowing an absolute bailout here!

One of the animals we've featured on this series is the eagle and

particularly a pair of golden eagles. The male had a tag, 007, so

he was called James Bond, and the female was named Feathers Galore on

a Bond theme! Will show you what happened when one of this pair met a

fox, another super predator, on a carcass.

This is what happened. This stand-off. Look at that. Neither of

them wants to get injured but both of them desperately want that

carcass. The eagle is having a go with its talons. That could do a lot

of damage. To the fox. And of course the fox, which is heavier than the

female eagle, could do an equal amount of damage. That's where we

left it last night. So who triumphed, Chris? Well, we asked

you, the audience, what you thought. Would it be the equal of a fox? 80%

said the evil and 20% said the fox. -- would it be the eagle all the

fox? This is what happened. The eagle snatched the head and pulled

it on top of it. After a short altercation the eagle flies off and

the fox gets to the carcass. What an amazing piece of behaviour that was.

There must be so much at stake for these animals grabbing at that

carcass. I tell you what. That was so good. We must see that again.

Let's see it again. Just watch this closely. The eagle which it out,

grabbed the fox in the mouth, pulled it on top of it. This is a ten

kilograms mammal on top of a potentially five kilograms bird. The

eagle could break feathers, a wing bone. The fox could get eight halon

in its eye. Either could get very injured. The fox needs to eat about

3-5 kilos of meat a week to get through the winter. But the eagle,

well, that carcass could last it for 40% of the entire winter period, so

you can understand how pressured it is, and that's why they are so

determined to protect it, but ultimately it was the fox that came

out on top. Did that surprise you? Yes and no. The eagle, had had the

advantage of surprise in the fox, may have been in a better place, but

once it's on the ground, the fox is the heavy animal and I'm not

surprised when it came to that's backed that it backed off. The

action continued and this is the following day. The fox is behaving

in a very different way. It's on the carcass and on the food but, look!

Eagle comes and attacks. It comes from above and that's very dangerous

for the fox. Then it's interesting what happens. The fox isn't being

aggressive now. There's a bit of a stand-off and you can see it's a bit

blurred with snow on the camera lens. But there's a stand-off

between them and they decide it's not worth fighting for any more. The

eagle knows that last time, the fox won and the fox turned its back on

the eagle. The eagle flies away and the fox enjoys a jolly good meal. It

is astonishing footage, that, isn't it? Absolutely. The reason 80% of

you thought eagle would triumph is because they do actually feed on

foxes. And the cameraman who gave up his time to film this said 4.3% of

the eagle's diet is domestic dogs or foxes, but look at this. This is a

photo David gave us and you can see our foxes in the foreground at his

eagle's nest. If you look at the centre you can even see there's a

tiny badger cub. But they are carbs and this means the five or six

kilograms eagle could carry that to its nest but it couldn't carry an

adult fox. The adult fox is about ten kilograms. It would maybe attack

the fox and possibly kill it difficult it by surprise but it

would have to eat it where it was. Some people have missed the footage

because the storm is cutting out or breaking up our satellite

transmitter a bit so we do apologise for that and we hope it gets put up.

Maybe they can catch it on the web later. Is those eagles were up here,

they would find the remains of a mountain hare, because that is one

of the main items of prey they catch. And a brilliant animal. We

seen a lot of it on this Winterwatch and it's a real treat when you see

it in the wild. So you might be quite surprised to know that nobody

really knows quite how many there are living up on the mountains.

The Cairngorms provide a perfect habitat for mountain hares. And yet

the last census suggests numbers have declined a staggering 43%

between 1995 and 2013. The problem for ecologists studying this native

species is obtaining accurate numbers. Doctor Scott Newey from the

James Hudson Institute is trying to get to grips with this surprisingly

rare mammal. Do you have any idea of population numbers? I don't think we

have a very good idea. An estimate in 95 suggested there were a few

hundred in the UK but the estimate was plus or -50%. -- several hundred

thousand. Some people are concerned there is an overall decline in the

population of mountain hares in Scotland. What would have caused

that? We can speculate but there is a land-use change. The moorlands are

being lost and sometimes deforestation. Certainly in some

areas it appears the numbers are being deliberately reduced for tick

control to benefit grouse. This is a virus which can have devastating

effects on red grouse and it is carried on the tick on the mountain

hares. -- the tick is carried on the mountain hares. However, we need to

remember mountain hares or a traditional game species and they

have been hunted for hundreds of years for sport and recreation, and

sometimes mountain hares can be very numerous locally and there might be

reasons why the numbers need to be reduced. So it seems crazy to me

that there is management of mountain hares in place before anybody really

knows the population numbers or the science.

But counting this secretive species in this tough to rain is a real

challenge. Scott is currently involved in a trial that aims to

find the most effective way of counting the mountain hare. His

technique involves trapping hares, marking them, releasing them and

then seeing how many marked hares are caught again. This method

results in strong, reliable data but is very labour intensive.

Scott is working with Doctor Cathy Pletcher from the game and wildlife

conservation trust. He is using another technique, which means going

on a night hike. We are just going to hope for the best! It is cold,

but it is not dark! Hopefully, it will be dark soon. Obviously we are

doing this in the dark because they are nocturnal. In the day, they lie

in the long heather but at night, they move around and look for food.

So we basically shine these lamps and look for them? Yes, we have the

straight lines, the GPS and the paperwork and we start on that and

swing the light and both watch the beam and hopefully we will spot some

hares. I don't know how much looking I am doing, I am looking more at my

feet. So how far do we have to walk? Well these are two kilometres and

then we go to the next one, two kilometres and back again. Oh, look,

I grouse. What a grouse. I should come out at night more often! There

is a mountain hare up there. Oh, yes, fantastic, we have got one. You

can see its eyes shining back really clearly. Yes, hares have a read a

high shine and they are a different colour to if you seek the sheep or a

goat out on the hill. The rain doesn't seem to matter. We can do

the surveys in the rain as long as there is good visibility. Cathy

plots each site using GPS so she can later totally cup -- calculate the

total number of hares in each square kilometre. Is that another one? It

is a bit closer, see you can see the long nice ears. It is going on to

the Heather, that is a great view. You can see its shape really

clearly. If only they were all standing out so beautifully it would

be easier to count them. When will you finish your population

survey? We have another winter survey season to go, so we will

finish, hopefully, summer 2017, we will be reporting back. And if you

find there are far fewer than you estimated, I presume that will

affect the management of them? Yes, when we find a robust, reliable

method of counting, we can roll that out across various areas of Scotland

and get a really good handle and that will feed into management plans

for the estate. It is obviously a very risky

business to manage and cull an animal when you don't know how many

there are, but you have to feel sorry for the mountain hare is, they

turn white to camouflage with the snow but then it snows and then

melts and when the snowmelt, they really stick out and it is really

easy for predators to get them and when it melts, it is a really bad

hare day! That is a bad hair day! We have had to come in because it has

become totally wild have had to come in because it has

left one of our cameramen out, Paulo chap, and that is what is going on

outside -- poor chap. Let's go to the pine marten camera live... It is

not quite live, 20 seconds ago, the pine marten was on the bird feeder

in the storm. It wasn't cowed by it, it has been out feeding, trying to

get the peanuts out of the little bird feeder. Let's go around to the

hare cam. Any other live cameras out there? There is the hare cam. I

would be surprised to see a hare in this storm, I was surprised to see

the pine marten. They have got to be out there, they have no choice, they

can't come in and watch the telly. They could shelter a little bit,

couldn't they? I am pleased we are in, I have a very soggy backside. I

mean Gary Lineker on Match of the Day, he never works with a soggy

backside, Dom on Gardner's World, he never has a soggy backside, you have

to persevere. We have an audience question from Kate Starkey on

Twitter, changing the subject completely, she says there must be

200 seagulls in my field doing battle with crows for sheep feed.

Why the gulls so far inland? Well, the gulls on the coast are in

decline. They are amber listed, some of the kittiwakes have not

successfully reared young for some time because overfishing in the

past, although we have a handle on that, and also a change in water

temperature due to climate change means there isn't the food

available. They are not finding food on the coast and as a consequence,

many of the gull species have come inland. They have and it is

noticeable, they disappear from the coast in winter and we sent David

out to try and find out what is going on.

It is dawn and fans of gulls are starting their day by heading for a

landfill site on the outskirts of London. OK, so this isn't

everybody's idea of a natural wildlife paradise, but during the

winter, this place is key to the survival of our urban gulls.

In Britain, we dump around 13 million tonnes of household waste

every day. The gulls know just where to come for an all-you-can-eat

buffets. -- parfait. I know this is a landfill site but I have to tell

you, it is absolutely amazing here. The ground shakes whenever they

heavy machinery passes by, the smell... Is indescribable. But the

me, the most beautiful thing for me about this ugly place are the birds.

The gulls are incredible, just look at them. This place is bred for an

urban naturalist, there is just so much going on and there are plenty

of species to pick out -- this place is brilliant. The largest, the great

black back gull. Then the greyback wearing gulls and the much smaller

gulls -- herrung gulls. Some of them are getting their plumage, an

indicator of the mild weather we have been having recently. But as a

bird, I am looking through this lot thinking I might find something

slightly rarer. We are looking for the Iceland gull and another that

has come from the Arctic, they both superficially look like herring

gulls and one or two might superficially be found amongst the

gulls here. Amazing to think that this place can attract birds from so

far away. Gulls are not everyone's cup of tea, but naturalist Peter

loves them so much that he has bought a flat overlooking this

winter hotspot. Giving him a unique perspective on this seasonal

phenomenon. It mostly amazing for you, Peter, to have all this on your

doorstep. This that likes a lot of birds to me but how does this

compare with previous years? There are less birds this year. In a

really cold winter, we can have up to 25,000 gulls or so. We have a

ringing scheme in place and we know some birds come from Lithuania, some

from Estonia, Poland, the Ukraine. So literally, gulls here are coming

from all over Europe and sometimes even beyond. If it gets really cold,

we tend to get larger numbers of Iceland gulls, coming down from the

north if there is a big Arctic blast. We haven't had any of that

weather so we have seen only one or two Iceland gulls so far. By early

afternoon, many of the gulls have gorged themselves and are ready to

move onto their next part of day. They are heading to a lake just next

door, which the management company is restoring for wildlife. So the

gulls are gathered here in what we call their pre-roost. They are

getting ready, getting washed, getting changed almost. I have found

and Iceland gull, it is the first winter bird, it is not quite a white

winger but you can see the lovely biscuit colours. Despite its name,

this bird has flown not from Iceland but from Greenland, around 1,500

miles away. Fewer than 200 have been recorded in the UK this winter, so

this is a real treat. Fantastic looking thing. Once the gulls have

spruced up, they are set for the final move of the day.

On the banks of the Thames, a series of huge reservoirs. Growing numbers

of gulls are appearing on the horizon. So the sun is about to set

and the gulls are coming from all different directions. It is

fascinating to think that gulls can travel up to 40 miles to get to

their roost site and they love vast expanses of water. There is a bunch

here, must be about 200 birds, just on the edge here and in this general

facility, there must be several thousand already. It is quite a

sight and proof that over the course of the day, urban gulls use our

man-made landscape to meet their every need. Isn't it great that we

provide them with lunch at a landfill site and then somewhere to

rest their heads and have a good night's sleep in the shape of a

reservoir? Fascinating stuff, but those huge

flocks of gulls on tips like that may soon become a thing of the past

because as our habits change, we recycle more and more waste, there

is less and less food for the gulls on landfill sites like that and it

does seem, the latest research, that the number of inland gulls like that

is starting to decline. the number of inland gulls like that

good if they are declining on the coast and inland. If you think,

gulls ar ubiquitous, they are all over the place but in fact, they are

in trouble. Now, all week, we have been testing

the intelligence and memory of our resident rodents by putting food in

a maze and just like the gulls you saw in David's film, they have

learned they get free saw in David's film, they have

landfill site, our mice have learned they get free food in the maze and

every night, we have put out a more complicated maze. This is the one we

put out last night, it is extremely complicated and this is

put out last night, it is extremely happened when a mouse made its first

attempt to solve the maze. We have happened when a mouse made its first

made this into a little Pac man, and anyone my age and above will

remember that, simple computer game in the 1980s,

remember that, simple computer game eat all the little circles, the

gulls. We wanted to know how much of the maze the mouse explores before

it manages to find the notes. Well, you

it manages to find the notes. Well, deal of it. This is the first time

it manages to find the notes. Well, it has ever been in the more

complicated maze. Will it get them all? It is doing a good job so far.

What is amazing is this is a bit of fun but it is revealing some amazing

science. If this was Pac-Man, it would go up to the next level.

Obviously, it takes the mouse quite some time, you can see we have

speeded this up, but it is going into every little knock and cranny.

It has already been there but it is having another little check. Go on,

get them all! Look at that. And finally, every single bit of the

maze. We would never have known it explored the entire maze without the

maze. We would never have known it dots. Fantastic. Now, it

maze. We would never have known it mez three minutes to do that

exploration, but look what happened once it got the hang of it -- it

took that mouse. Here it goes in, look how fast. Unbelievable, from

three minutes to seven seconds and now it selects the biggest and the

best, the juiciest peanut, before it goes out. It is actually weighing

them to choose the biggest, the biggest reward. Out it goes. It is

completely locked into that maze now, it can remember. Remember, this

is all happening in the pitch darkness. How many attempts did it

take to get from a long time to seven seconds? 12 attempts. From

three minutes to seven seconds. Time for our graph, I feel. Oh, dear.

results in strong, reliable data but is very labour intensive.

This is interesting, I think, because it shows the errors it made.

But if I draw a line to average these out, we see it comes down

pretty quickly like that, so that by the time it has made eight or nine

attempts it is making fewer than ten errors every attempt. We couldn't

explain these spikes except that could be a couple of different mice

coming in. OK, so that's the mouse, is going into the maze, is finding

the nuts, and what does this mean mentally? The mouse is exercising

its working memory and working memory is a type of short-term

memory. It is like us remembering a phone number or a grocery list. And

what happens is, the more you exercise that memory, it becomes

stuck in your mind and you can remember it. What's even more

interesting is that if you continue to exercise that working memory, you

actually become more intelligent. It can be interrupted. Scientists have

performed similar tests where halfway through solving the maze,

they take the mice out, and then they expose them to visual or

auditory distractions, like taking a mouse to a rock concert or something

like that! That didn't happen, probably! But I would have done that

before I been the scientist! But the interesting thing is, once it has

learned it it remembers it for a lifetime, and then if they test

those mice with other cognitive tests, they are considerably more

intelligent, so we've come along, we fed the mouse and we've improved its

level of intelligence. We've turned it into a mouse -mastermind!

Basically, the vole went into the maze and gave up because it couldn't

find it, bubbly because it didn't have long enough whiskers. Well, our

mouse wasn't content with being a superstar of the Mouse Maze camera.

It appeared on every other camera as well. Have a look at this. This is

our pine marten live camera. It skips through but if we slowed down,

have a look. Look, it has the knot in his mouth! So it has to be the

mouse that came from the maze! And the same mouse runs through the

shocked and this is our bird feeder. There's the mountain hare and it is

skipping around the mountain hare on the mountain hare camp. Where's it

gone? There we go, is looking very pleased for itself. It's found a

pedestal and it comes back to the mountain hare camp, where we've put

some apples. It has a sniff and thinks, ooh, do I fancy a bit? I do!

I'm going to carry that huge piece off! Isn't that amazing? We do do

some anthropomorphism on this channel but that's more Disney

Channel! That's the net -- it's no way that the same mouse! Really?!

Lunar is the same mouse. It's Michaela's mouse! That's our

mouse-mastermind! Very cute! You may have noticed this time of year in

your garden, you get more and more birds coming in to feed on the bird

tables, and that's given cameraman Mark a good excuse to pick up his

camera and all of his kitchen utensils and get out in the garden

to film them! The garden is a very special place

for me, particularly as I travel a lot. Every year I never know quite

where I'm going to go but it's a place I always love coming back to.

Garden birds for me are particularly special because it's the first

contact I have with wildlife when I was young.

You can see them really closely from far away so they will behave

naturally. The bird table tea party idea was an idea to create some fun.

But also to help show how agile they are when they are perching. They are

hovering and trying to land on moving, spinning teacups hanging on

a wire. Even though one Blu-Tack might look the same as any other,

after a time you get to know which one is bolder, more aggressive. --

loot it. Without doubt, they all seem to have personalities. -- loot

it. Every so often a woodpecker would appear and you know is there

because the other birds would just scatter. There's a lot of dynamics

going on which are fascinating. Little soap opera is playing out. --

soap operas. I always know when a long-tailed

tipped is in the air because you can hear them calling from quite far

away. Long-tailed tits are very special

for me because when I was really little and first saw one I was just

blown away by them. They are very delicate but very pretty in their

colours. And they are full of energy and full of personality. They are

very acrobatic. They have a charm to them as well which I find wonderful.

In January you hear the garden birds, they switch from their

survival feeding mode to looking ahead into spring.

Singing and marking their territories, reinforcing them and

looking to pair up with their mate for spring.

The great thing about garden birds is anyone can set up a bird table, a

feeder, and get them coming to their home and get pleasure out of

watching them, and you never know what's going to turn up either.

I have been totally inspired by those crockery bird feeders. I

particularly love the merry-go-round cup. Don't you, Chris? No! This

mishmash and flotsam of crockery dangling in my garden! Beautiful

shots. Thank you, mate, but don't decorate my garden! I thought it was

very pretty, very sweet. Another thing that happens this time of year

is that different species of birds gathered together in large flocks,

and we've seen this in a local farmer's field here. There's a huge

flock of chaffinches but also mixed in our branding is. They look very

like chaffinches but they look like they've been through the wash and

the colour has been washed out! Lookout for them because they come

in yet but they died come into your bird table. -- they might come. If

you see a bird that looks like a chaffinch it might be a bramling. Go

onto our website to find out the details that we have had from the

RSPB. Here's a handy ID guide. Just takes an hour of your

RSPB. Here's a handy ID guide. Just stage over the weekend. All you have

to do is stand there, hopefully with young people if you've got them, and

count young people if you've got them, and

individuals. And if you are going to do that, you might want to know what

the weather is going to look like. do that, you might want to know what

You can do that from inside looking out of the window but the weather

will affect the birds, so is this weird weather going to continue? You

two can't answer! But there is a man who can. Nick Miller!

Storm Gertrude, I don't know who will win, but Storm Gertrude is

moving away and as it does so, cold air starting to moving over the UK

just in time for the start of the weekend with even some blizzards in

Scotland. But by Sunday, milder air surging north again with more rain,

so another big swing this weekend, and that's why our wildlife doesn't

know whether it's coming or going. So if you are looking for the birds,

the Robin is there whatever the weather, but colder weather can

bring ventures into the garden so look out for a goldfinch like this.

Look up into the conifers and you could see a cult hit or the tiny

goldcrest. Don't miss it. -- Carl tit. This photo suggesting something

we knew already, the weather is milder and wetter. Big swings with

temperatures milder and wetter. Big swings with

degrees. This is day one on Monday. Low pressure close by and still

windy. We are expecting changeable spells by February but possibly

longer, cold spells. That's really bad news for any animals which

haven't hibernated yet, like the hedgehog, as if it's life isn't bad

enough already! And because I know you love into weather so much, I

found more snow in the Cairngorms live for this

found more snow in the Cairngorms log on the fire and consider it my

gift to you! Thanks, Nick(!) Very sadly that's all we've got time

gift to you! Thanks, Nick(!) Very We hope that over the course of the

week we've been able to explain some of the impact this weird winter has

had on our wildlife but we couldn't have done it without a great dinner

help, so I'd like to thank all the staff here at the lodge whose been

fantastic. And all of our contributors and guests without whom

we couldn't have done it. And for you for watching. Don't forget to

keep checking the website. There are constant updates. And join the

conversation on social media. We would love to hear from you. And

then we have Unsprung straight after this online and on the Red Button.

We will be back for Springwatch this Easter. We will leave you with some

of our finest pictures from this winter. Goodbye!

What an extraordinary winter! What unprecedented weather!

These are hard, hard times at here and wild and very wonderful.

No wonder they call him that! He's taken his clothes off!

There's no doubt at all they are very, very beautiful, very special

birds. I know there's going to be sitting rooms all over the country

going" aah"! Eight famous pensioners are looking

to retire to an exotic land... I had never thought about India

but...maybe. ..enjoying the fantastic local

cultures... Ooh!