Episode 2 Winterwatch

We are here in deepest foggiest Dorset at a crucial time of year for

wildlife. It's cold, the ground is frozen and food is scarce. In

winter, every day can be a struggle for our wildlife. No matter what its

size, from small garden birds, like blue tits, to large impressive

mammals like sika deer, it's a fight for survival.

The greatest challenge for some of our wildlife is to simply survive

the icy cold of a single night. It may be chilly out here but it's a

warm welcome from Winterwatch. Hello! Welcome to Winterwatch 2017.

Our second programme coming from the wonderful RSPB Anne reserve on the

west side of Poole harbour here in Dorset. It's a fantastic place for

wildlife, not just in spring and summer but winter too. A great

biodiversity with great rarities. There is a NSPCCsy found in three

other places on the entire planet. I did know that. -- species. How did

you know that? I read my notes! I want to make a film about that but

everyone says it's not moving around our mission is to look at all the

British wildlife across the country and explain how it gets through this

very hard and harsh season. As usual, we have the reserve bugged

with live cameras hoping to bring you any live action as it happens.

Let's have a look at one of those cameras now.

It's the pond camera. This is a pretty pond in the woods, lots of

animals come down here to drink. There is nothing there at the

moment. Let's see what we have had. We have had a badger, great to see,

but it's not just the camera we have got down there, we also have a Mike

rephone so we can listen. -- microphone.

You can hear it slurping. What badgers do is they actually sort of

scoop a bit of water up into the tip of their tongue and flick it to the

back and swallow. It's a lick, flick, swallow and that's what you

are hearing there. It's quite a satisfying sound. It is.

Nothing like hearing a mammal like that, it has been in the ground all

day, it has snuck to the pond with all that water and it's sucking it

up. Fantastic. Our cameras have been throughout the day. Today has been

problematic. It's been tremendously foggy down here.

All day long and the fog never lifted.

It's been a real pain for lots of people across the country,

cancellations of flights, difficulties travelling on the

roads, but I have to say, it's added quite a romantic air to Arne. And

this Wren out there in the mist and fog and this lovely. We have had fog

for a couple of mornings. We have been here for at least a week and

our teams have been out and filmed some absolutely glorious dawns.

Absolutely beautiful. I know you like a bit of black and white,

moody, misty. But I am more showy and like colour, that was gorgeous.

Why don't you get out and see a sunrise because in winter is a

perfect time, because you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to

see the dawn! Because it is later in winter. It's cracking later, you

still have to get up at the crack of dawn, it is just later. You know

what I mean, it's 7. 57 tomorrow, so that's a decent time to get out and

about. We want you to witness it and take your cameras and as long as

it's not foggy take a picture of the beautiful sunrise and send it to us

using the hashtag Winterwatch. A few people have already been out. We

found this fantastic photograph taken by Paul Silvers in Somerset.

This is a -- murmuration of starlings leaving in the morning. A

great picture F you get more please send them in.

If you are watching last night, mayor tin sent himself a tricky

challenge, to catch a woodcock in the fielding here. They pulled it

off, what a thing, it successfully flew away. Tonight he is down here

about 300 metres away in the car park seeing if he can find birds in

total darkness. Not quite total darkness, Chris, we

have a few lights around, but yes you are right I am here in the RSPB

Arne car park. Now it's very quiet, there is nobody

here, apart from the film crew and me.

During the day, of course, it's a very different story.

This is a very busy place. Lots of people powering in. It's also packed

with garden birds because they've lots of feeders here in the car park

and it's a wonderful spectacle. They're incredibly busy. With all

the birds that you would expect to see in your garden.

Lovely blue tit. But it's not just the more common birds, down here in

this very car park there's one of Britain's rarest birds, it's a tiny

little bird called a firecrest. Let's have a look at one.

This is a firecrest, that gorgeous flaming crest on its head that gives

it its name. It is much, much rarer than its

cousin, the goldcrest, which is more common.

As you can see, they look remarkably similar.

We have got a little ID now. This is the Winterwatch identification

guide. Let's see how you tell the difference.

You can see the firecrest has a white line above its eye. If you

look down at the wing on the firecrest it is much clearer defined

there, that golden yellow colour. Now you have all the tools to

identify the firecrest and the goldcrest, now I will give you a

test. What is this? Have you got it? It's a firecrest,

absolutely right. The white stripe and that clearly defined edge there

around the back of the head. What is this next one?

Isn't that gorgeous! That, of course, is a goldcrest. They can

flare those feathers on the top of the head and it looks dramatic.

You can't get really an idea of how big the firecrest and goldcrest are

from those pictures. But you can from this.

Now that is the actual size, that's a firecrest. Here is my

Here is my wedding ring. They are tiny.

We have been here in the car park during the day and we have been able

to film them moving around in the trees.

They move very quickly. This is partially slowed down.

You will be able to tell me what this is, of course.

This is a firecrest, luckily! They spend during the day 100% of

their time foraging for food. They have to, to feed, to - there is a

goldcrest now. They can eat almost twice their body weight in a single

day. They move so quickly you often

mistake them for a Wren and then you see that wonderful crest there. You

think, oh, it's a goldcrest or a firecrest!

They're quite hard to see actually, but of you ares you can always

listen out for their song. Well, you can but not everyone can hear their

song. Unfortunately, it's so high pitched some older people find it

difficult to hear. Let us test you now. Can you hear the goldcrest

song? Sad to say I can't! I normally can

at home. But I can't hear it. I think some of you at home will have

heard that. But I didn't, sadly.

OK, now during the daytime they're moving around the car park, all the

little birds are. But of course right now they've gone into the

trees around here and they're roosting. Let's look around with our

thermal calms ras and see if we can see -- cameras and see if we can see

any. Yes, we can! There is two. When you come back in a minute we

are going to try and find out how these tiny little birds, including

the goldcrest and firecrest, actually manage to survive these

freezing temperatures. They've some very clever tricks and physiology

that enable them to try and do that. Meanwhile, back to you.

Thanks, Martin. Did you? Did I what? Did you hear it? I did, yeah. You

did not! I promise you I heard it. I am young and my hearing is very

good. Did you? Oh, yes! Of course! I didn't hear it actually, very sadly.

Something, it's one thing to tell them apart in the daytime, no chance

at night. Let's be honest. Let's look at some of our other live

cameras. We have carcasses across the reserve and we have had a lot of

action. Let's see if there is anything on that camera right now.

Nothing now, but we have had a lot of foxes visit the car raps. We know

that we have got four different foxes We can tell them apart. A

couple of them it's easy. Take a look at this.

Watch the fox in front. You will soon notice that it is easy

o to spot. Look at the tail. It is stumpy compared to the one behind

which is very thick and bushy. That fox we are calling Stumpy. OK. Easy

one. This one is also easy, it's the one we showed you last night. This

is a male fox. It is an extraordinary colour. Look at its

face, it has a scar on its face. It is a very dark fox. Easy to

recognise and because of that scar and the fact that it is very stocky

we are calling that one Tyson. So far we have Stumpy and Tyson. They

are very easy. Take a look at this one. This is a more traditional fox.

It looks silvery on its back. It has a very, very distinctive mark

on its face. I have been talking to our expert Dr Dawn Scott at the

University of Brighton and she recently told me how to identify

these foxes and I will pass it on to you. Let's look at that one again.

That one with the black tier. You can see it there on the right of the

screen. We are calling this one Cheetah because it has that

distinctive stripe running down from the eye to the mouth like the

African mammal the cheetah. The one on the other side is less distinct,

it's more smudgy. I have got a drawing which I have prepared here.

You can equally do one of these sort of sketches yourself, if you are

watching the foxes on your patio. Here is Cheetah and as you can see,

it has this thick stripe that runs down here on to the jaw.

The other animal has a stripe which starts much further down and it

comes down like this. It widens out to at the bottom and

comes up here and is indistinct, I would say. This one is pale there.

Only this bottom part is there any thickness. For various reasons the

people who watch these foxes throughout the day have decided to

call this one Rogue... Oh, no, I spelled it wrong! I have messed it

up. That looks good. No one would know. That's going to hurt me. You

can be doing this and I have to say it's a clear way of identifying

those foxes. The benefit for us is that we can do it in daylight and at

night in infrared too. We have a good food resource with the car raps

-- carcass. Happens if more than one arrives at the same time. Have a

look. This fox has been chewing at that for sometime. We think that is

Rogue by the fact it hasn't a lot of facial markings. The one behind

comes in. We think this is Cheetah. They're both females. There is a lot

of posturing going on. Remember it's dark. I think they probably know

each other, don't they, Chris? They do. If these were foxes from

different social groups there would be more antagonism here. In each

group of animals living together in the same range there is a hierarchy.

What we are seeing here is these two animals displaying that hierarchy,

sorting out who is top fox. That is not really a fight, is it?

No. That is Cheetah pushing Rogue of the carcass. These animals are a

couple of females. That was a spat over the food. Great to be able to

watch those foxes but what Arne is really well-known for and that is

its bird. One bird that people come to see is rare. Because of the

microclimate it does pretty well. I went out with an RSPB warden to see

if I could spot it. A stunning morning, isn't it? A gorgeous

morning. So, what we're doing this morning is looking for what is

really the star bird of Arne. It is the species that triggered the RSPB

to get interested. Back then it was incredibly rare. Only a dozen pairs

in the country. Now we have 70 pairs nesting here at RSPB Arne. So, our

chances of seeing one are pretty high. Listen out here. Can you hear

that sound? Yes, I can hear that. It is about the size of a Wren, really

small with a really long tail. Study -- stubbly weans as well. Tiny wings

whirring away. There we go. Look at that! Gorgeous. That is the bird we

are looking for. Dartford warbler. That is the one. You can see the

long tail. I assumed he would be on top of the gorse bush for longer.

Sometimes they do. There are two now. They are starting to get each

other aggravated. That is quite distinctive. There is a small bit of

gorse in front of us. The reason that Dartford warblers thrive here

is this lowland heath is protected from the elements by Poole Harbour.

The RSPB manage the area. Copper zinc and keeping the gorse low and

bushy, the ideal habitat for the Dartford warbler. It is like a cosy

hotel room with a birthday breakfast. This is really spiky. --

buffet breakfast. The temperature is kept up two, three degrees inside.

Why are they susceptible to the cold? Spain is a great place to see

the Dartford warblers. They are very small and do not weigh an awful lot.

I am talking seven, eight, nine grams. They are really small.

Insects are not numerous in winter and it does get really cold. It is

easy to see why this gorse bush is so good at protecting them but not

so easy to see the food inside. I have a trick up my sleeve, which

hopefully will bring some of the food out and we can prove why this

is such a good Dartford warbler buffet. I have a chilling for. The

vibrations should bring it out. The tuning fork did not work, did it?

That is a bit old-fashioned. Who has one of those lying around anyway? I

have something far more high-tech. This is the latest version of the

tuning fork. It is a pink, sonic toothbrush. 20,000 vibrations a

minute, apparently. If we put that into the spider's Web, it should

replicate the vibrations of the fly. Look at the spider come rushing out!

He suggested this stupid thing? I reckon this one will work much

better. We have seen a view insects on that one. He is coming out. He is

coming out. Look at that! Oh, my goodness! He has come to attack my

toothbrush. Here he is, attacking. That was fantastic. You did not

think that would work, did you? I honestly did not think that would

work. That was a chunky spider. Showing off my spider knowledge, I

can name it. We have seen a Dartford warbler. Let's remember it is a rare

bird to see and we can charm the spider. All you need to see wildlife

with is a pair of binoculars and a sonic toothbrush. Perfect. What a

great use of the toothbrush! Every naturalist should have won. Great to

see the spider and great to see how the gorse is managed. If they did

not manage it, it would grow long and stringy and be almost like a

wind tunnel and provides no protection. That makes it thick,

bushy and like any glue. A lot of people ask, why don't they migrate?

-- an igloo. The Dartford warbler is a tiny bird with a long tail. It has

short, stubby wings. It is not a great flyer. It is not hard-wired

for long migrations. It can do short migrations were usually it is very

loyal to its breeding site. We have a question here from Henry Barnard,

a range from Surrey. He says he saw a Dartford warbler on his site. It

was not there in the summer. Could it have moved to an even more frozen

heath? They do disburse. They are stubborn but not completely stupid.

If times are tough where they are, they will choose a different

location. They are fantastic birds. I like the Dartford warbler. Not in

my top ten. They have a quiz with a tail flopping around. The tale is

very long. On top of the gorse bush and get a wind up their tail and

they topple over like a teapot. In the world of wildlife television, it

is fickle. One minute you are celebrating an animal and the next

minute it is sliding down the charts. Look at the sika deer! We

were focusing on their rutting behaviour and this time we have

hardly mentioned them. Champions one minute and in desperate, dire

straits the next. Let's see what they are up to this time of year.

The rat is over. They join up in groups and generally males with

males and females with females. The males have stopped rutting. They

appear to be rutting but they are not. There is no better minutes and

no purpose. The females are all pregnant at this time of year. They

have multiple through to their winter coats. They do not have any

spots. They are moving around in these loose, social groups. You will

see one with one group of animals one day and the next day it is with

another group of animals. There is a constant tooling and froing of the

groups, normally five, six .7 or eight animals. With other species

you will get larger herds. Sometimes 60 of them there. Very different

behaviour. They are still stars from me. They are the Chelsea of the

football world, still up there at the top of the league. The Chelsea.

Not paid as much of most of your Chelsea team. Perhaps if they were,

they would still be ratting. We love it on Winterwatch when you send us

amazing footage of wildlife spectacles you have seen. Let's face

it, sometimes seeing amazing wildlife spectacles means you have

to be in the right place at the right time. Palin Gray was in the

right place at the right time, on his dad's boat and he managed to

film this. He managed to get this humpback whale using a drone. He saw

it off the Shetlands. This is amazing to see, obviously. Is it

unusual? You are lucky to see but they do a big migration. They

migrate from South Africa, the Caribbean, to higher latitudes. They

will be going past the UK at some point. This is incredible to see. It

looks like it is a mother with a calf, which is slightly unusual at

this time of year. Fantastic to see. Thank you for sending it in. We have

been speaking to the sea watch foundation who say there is a small

breeding population of the Cape Verde Islands. The mother could have

given birth and come back to the northern waters. We think they are

taking advantage of an increase in the number of mackerel and herring

because we have relaxed the fishing quotas. The Wales are coming back

and this has been a bumper year for humpback sightings. The greatest

year ever, between 50 and 60. Some of the Wales could have been seen

multiple times but the significant increase. Since 1982 when the

International whaling commission stop whaling in the North Atlantic,

the population has begun to grow. That is a reassuring thing. There

are some problems. In a recent paper in 2016, one of the problems with

western Scotland is it can be a mortality sink for these Wales. They

get into the area and die because they become entangled with lines

attached to lobster and crab pots. A fantastic opportunity for someone to

go into Dragons Den. Surely we can invent a does not entangle the

Wales. Paul Smith from British Divers Marine Life Rescue Centre

??Nospace 'S Case Was Out Looking For These Wales Cleared To Make Sure

They Were Not Being Entangled. Another sign they are increasing. If

you manage to get any footage or take a picture of Wales or any

amazing spectacle, we would love to see it. Please share it on social

media. There are plenty of ways you can get involved. It has never been

easier to follow Winterwatch. Ever you are and whatever device you are

using. By going to the website you can enjoy the Winterwatch live page

throughout the week. Get exclusive updates on the action as it happens,

plus behind-the-scenes extras and expert analysis. On the red button

and I play is a daily round-up of all the action and a chance to get

your questions answered on Winterwatch wrapped up. This year

our younger fans can find Winterwatch games, quizzes and more

on the CBBC website. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter,

and on our Flikr group. Plenty of ways to get involved. If it is drama

you are after, sometimes you do not have to go very far at all. You can

get a wildlife drama right under your feet. In this particular case,

right above your head. Christmas is over and the decorations are shoved

back up into the loft for another year. They're a thought for what

else might be up there. -- bearer thought. While more we might use it

as storage space, the crowded roof can be a perfect winter home for

some of our natural neighbours. Amongst the discarded toys and piles

of junk, a female house mouse has made herself at home. She is heavily

pregnant. So constantly craves food. Her stomach is swollen and heavy as

her babies wriggle around inside her. This mouse is eating for 15.

The sheer effort of even moving around at this late stage makes her

quite breathless. But there is not time to rest. She must find

somewhere for her nurse before the babies come. -- nest. Every corner

of the attic must be explored to find just the right spot. And that

means she has to take some risks. She squeezes her frozen belly

through tiny gaps. And even have to walk the tightrope. Despite the use

of her balancing tale, clambering in her condition means her balance is

off. A false step but no harm done this time. This mattress could be

just what she is looking for. A warm corner in here will be a safe

spot for her babies. But she needs more than just foam to

make the bedding complete. So, it's back out on her scavenger

hunt. This stack of suitis cases might lead somewhere worthwhile.

Grain from a split wheat pillow will make a handy larder for later.

But our mouse doesn't have the attic all to herself.

The mattress is already occupied. Bed bugs. These parasitic blood

suckers can survive a year without feeding and are drawn to their prey

by sensing body heat. Luckily, she's chosen a nest site at

the other end of the mattress. As she continues her search, her

hypersensitive nose picks up a scent.

The irresistible lure of cheese. She better watch her step!

Saved by a whisker. With a belly full of cheese and

babies, the overwhelming hormonal urge to build her nest is getting

stronger. She finds an old cashmere jumper, the perfect nest liner.

But the soft natural wool has already been colonised by Moth

larvae. Undisturbed in the attic they have spent the winter chewing

their way through the fabric. Blue fibres visible in their digestive

tract. But for this mouse they're nothing more than a handy protein

snack. Gathering scraps for around the loft

the mouse's foraging is paying off and the nest is developing into a

comfortable and soft refuge in which to give birth.

And finally the blind and hairless babies are born. They will stay

utterly dependent upon their mother for nearly three weeks.

Thanks to the safe Oasis of a warm attic, this family are oblivious to

the changing season outside. Their mother has found all that they need

just by scratching around in the attic.

I love those films, absolutely beautiful. Just to remind you I am

down here in the car park at Arne and right now I will be surrounded

by rooting birds, all asleep in the trees around here. We have our

thermal camera and we are looking into the trees. Let's see what we

can see. Let's have a look. What can we see at the moment?

Nothing just at the moment. But just while we were rehearsing with this

camera we did see this. I think that's probably a Robin

there. It is glowing like a little furnace there. We have actually been

down in the car park here filming birds during the night. Let's look

at this. We can see how effective feathers are at keeping those birds

warm. We think this is probably a black bird or a thrush. Look at the

leaves around it glowing. It is radiating heat and the twig around

its feet is also glowing. We think this is a blue tit.

Much smaller. You see the heat. When the head pops out you can see how

much heat it starts to lose. We think that's a Robin. It is losing

heat all the time. You see how important it is for birds to keep

their heads tucked away under their wings and there they start to

conserve that heat. The feathers are crucially

important. When you look at a bird you are only seeing the outer

feathers, but underneath is all this going on. Don't know if you can see

those. These are down feathers. They're so light they are blowing

away on my hand and semiplumes. These are the ones that keep the

birds wonderfully warm like that. As well as the feathers these birds

have a lot of other behavioural strategies to try to keep warm.

Long-tailed tits are fascinating. What they do is they keep all their

members of the family, they snuggle up together and try to keep warm by

huddling. Actually if two birds are together they will reduce the heat

loss by about a quarter. Huddling is a very, very good strategy for very

small birds. The long-tailed tits will huddle outside. How much better

would it be if you huddled inside something? That's what Wrens do.

This amazing footage was sent to us by Anita from Cumbria. These Wrens

are all going into a house Martin's nest to roost. It's difficult to

judge how many there are. We think there are about 15 in the end all

tucked up inside that nest. Extraordinary. Thank you very much,

Anita, for sending us that. You might think 15 is amazing, the

world record for the maximum number of Wrens inside a nest box is 63.

Imagine that. What about something like a blue tit? Do they huddle

together? They don't. They have a different strategy. They sit out on

their own. They don't huddle up. They use shivering. They'll use

muscles to shiver to generate heat and do that all night sometimes.

These feathers, we exploit that same technique in our clothes. We will

use a thermal camera. I am wearing here a down coat.

The camera will look black on the outside. It's insulating me. If I

open it up, how is that? You can see all the heat being

released. If I was a bird I am zipped up inside my down I am

wonderfully warm. Of course let's think about those

goldcrests and firecrests we were talking about earlier, what strategy

do they use? They use all of those strategies, they huddle together and

will go underneath a conifer and will also shiver. Here is one

fantastic fact. A goldcrest, if it gets really cold can lose up to 20%

of its body weight in one night just from trying to keep warm. If I was

to do that I would lose about 16 kilos of my body weight, that's

about two-and-a-half stroen. What does that look like? -- stone. In

fat balls I would lose overnight about that and that.

In a single night. I wish! Back to you.

A new diet plan there! Go to the car park and take your clothes off and

lose weight. If you were a bird would you be a shiverer or a

huddler? I am not a huddler. I am a shiverer, then a huddler. As Martin

was saying at this time of year it's really difficult for our small

garden birds to survive. We often get asked this question, we had it

again last night, how can we help birds in the cold? The simple answer

answer is feed them, a variety of food, fat balls, food fruit, cheese.

If you are feeding those brings you are bringing them close to you so

you can watch them and watch what they want to eat. We thought we

would conduct a relatively simple experiment here. About 150 metres up

there we set this up. We have three bird feeders hanging in frames. It's

been there for about six, seven days. The birds have been coming in,

we have had a great variety. The feeders are very busy. This

means it's a perfect opportunity to see what these birds want when it

comes to choosing their food. What we were interested in is a

simple experiment which you can conduct at home. What is the

experiment? It's all to do with colour. These are our three feeders

looking perfectly normal, natural colour and with a bit of magic you

can see we have painted them. We have painted the frames and we have

coloured the seeds. We have done a natural colour in the middle. Blue

on one side, red on the other. Which one will they go for? What is your

prediction? I have the seeds here. They've the red ones and the blue

ones. We have dyed them I should say with a food dye which is safe for

humans. I will prove that. It's fine! We have dyed them and

dyed them blue and red. My prediction is that they will avoid

the blue. In nature, many - excuse me speaking with my mouth food. In

terms of human foods what blue foods do you eat? Don't say blue berries!

When we tried experiments with humans and offered them blue food we

were repulsed by it, we don't like it. I think the birds will avoid

that because of the toxins inherently in those pigments in the

colour blue. I think they'll go for the red because they always do. We

have seen the waxwings yesterday feeding on red berries, other birds

are drawn to red berries, that's probably one of the reasons they're

red. My prediction is avoid blue. They've already starting eating some

of the seeds. The birds have been coming in and we have been watching

them all day. We are going to see how many birds visit. We are going

to see which species go to which feeder. And of course we will record

how quickly the seed goes down and if they're busy we will tell you

tomorrow. We should be able to give you results tomorrow. Those birds

are very lucky because their diet is supplemented by our marvellous

experiment but a lot of birds have to work harder to get a decent meal.

In fact, some birds have to be tough, agile and have a thirst for

danger. Portland, the southern-most point of

Dorset. It is stretches out into the English

channel, forcing huge currents to smash together at its tip.

The coastline here has borne witness to 1,000 shipwrecks with vessels

falling pray to the treacherous tidal races. -- prey.

Its rugged shoreline and isolated position mean that a few tenacious

species call it home, most steer well clear of the crashing waves and

vicious currents but one winter visitor likes to buck the trend,

choosing instead to flirt with danger and secure exclusive dining

rights, the purple sandpiper, the hardest bird on the bill! A small

number of these unassuming looking birds spend the winter in this exact

spot every year. With one eye always fixed on the next crashing wave, the

sandpipers hug the rocks closest to the menacing sea.

With nerves of steel, they wait until the last possible second

before retreating from the ferocious white water.

Only to return seconds later to do it all over again.

They have an incredible ability to judge when they can simply square up

to a wave or when they need to make a run for it.

They almost seem to have an appetite for peril.

Their lightning reactions and taste for danger are all the sandpipers

have to help them tackle this most extreme of environments.

Their feet might be big but they are no help on the slippery rocks. One

false step with spells certain doom for these plucky little birds.

The constant sea spray smothers the sandpipers and salty water. Whenever

they are not feeding, they preen themselves by coating their feathers

with oil from a special gland by their tail.

By venturing web other waders feared to tread, the sandpipers have a rich

food source all to themselves. They survive and thrive by being quite

simply the toughest bird on the rocks.

What a bird! A tough little bird. I like a tough bird. Fantastic waders.

We have a live wader cam. Let's see what they have at the moment. Looks

like a moonscape. There is a lot of action but we cannot see it at the

moment. Do you hear that? There is something appalling. Could be a

widgeon. Let's move swiftly on. The star wader is this one. It's a

curlew. It is the UK's largest wader. It's very easy to spot

because of its extremely long legs and, of course, it's long curved

bill, which it uses in the winter to probe into the mud for a variety of

food. Why is it hurt? There is no definitive answer but there are lots

of advantages. A curved bill means it can probe ahead of its feet and

has a wider arc and can penetrate further. Look at what it is doing

here! It can actually probe further down than a straight ill could. It

can get under and into things. -- bill. It pulls up a worm. A curved

bill means it can probably pull more worms up without breaking them.

Pretty neat. That is key for it, getting the worm alcohol. To

contrast that with a black tailed godwit. It is foraging much closer

to its feet. When it grabs at prey, it has to pull it directly upwards.

So it cannot feed on things as big as the worm is a curlew is taking,

without the risk of breaking them. Loss of part of a worm is

disastrous. Basically, when the lug worms are in the mud, they are in

like this with their tail at the top and the head at the bottom of their

burrow. If it snaps here, unfortunately, the bird gets the

rotten end of the worm. What it is really after is the head. More than

60% of the nutrients in this worm are in this part above the top of my

finger and thumb. It is essential to get the head. I will demonstrate how

these two bird beats work. I have the black tailed godwit with the

straight bill. What I will show you is, if the black tailed godwit

sticks its built into the ground, when it turns to pull out the worm,

as you can see, it damages the soil, will drag the worm through the mud

and, as a consequence, there is a very good chance that worm will

break and it will not end up with the head. When the curlew puts its

bill into... Penetrates that OAC is, it comes out again and it comes out

pretty cleanly. Look at that! Down it goes. Due to the curved action of

the bill, it can withdraw a much larger prey item at the same time

the godwit would have real problems in getting it out. Britain's largest

wader, the curlew, can feed on those things and that is how it gets

through the winter. What a demonstration! Thanks. A fantastic

job! It is very cold now. Let's look back to the summer when it was

lovely and warm and Martin was out doing some really important work

with Montagu's Harriers. I am at a secret location, the

nesting site of an extremely rare summer visitor. The Montagu's

Harrier. They migrate here from west Africa to raise their young in

arable farmland. With only five pairs nesting in Britain each year,

it is vital to protect them, as well as trying to find out more about

their long journey. Up. Yes. Today I am helping a Dutch research team to

catch and tag a local female, who has a nest and two chicks nearby.

Why these particular birds? They are really elegant. If you see them

flying... They are really liked and have very long wins. They seem to

dance in the sky. Harriers have superb vision. They will not just

fly straight into our net. We need a secret weapon and this is it. A

stuffed honey buzzard. What do you think of it so far? Rubbish.

Montagu's Harriers are very territorial. The female will bravely

defend her chicks, especially against larger raptors like a honey

buzzard. We need to be clever. You will only attack into the wind and

crucially, when the buzzard isn't looking. So, with the stuffed

buzzard facing into the breeze and the net behind it, the trap is set.

She must be full of territorial aggression. It is really close to

the nest site. We retired to the card to wait it out. What happens

when comes in? Jump out and run, so we are quicker. The female returns

from a hand with some food and drops it down to one of the chicks. --

hunt will stop then, she notices our de Cawley. -- de Cawley. She does

not like the honey buzzard. She swoops at the honey buzzard. Perhaps

she is hoping to drive it away. Come on. But she does not hit the net.

Just pulled up. Did you see that? She must have been centimetres away.

Then, on her next pass... She is in. We got her. Well done. She's so

small. When you see her close, she is tiny. Well done! The bird is then

measured. Way over a metre wingspan. Wade and ringed. CP for Chris

Pakenham. The information is vital in building up a profile for the

bird. How old is she? She has round eyes. That means she is rather

young. What colour do they change as they get older? More yellow. This is

the satellite tag. Presumably as to be a very exact weight. This is only

12 grams. Because of this device you will know the exact migration path

this bird will take. If you think about the effort we are doing,

together with the farmers, protecting the nest, if there is a

problem in Africa, it could be we are doing all of those in vain for

that we have learned that northern Africa is quite important for them.

In spring, it seems to be a key site for them to refuel and prepare for

the migration back to the UK. If that area where to disappear, we

could lose the Harriers. Are you giving her a name? Sally. I think

she is nearly ready for release. You are going to release her, Martin. Am

I? What a treat! Three, to, one, zero. There you go, Sally.

Fantastic! What a privilege! It looks quite a big bird but there is

nothing to it. Quite a light weight. Because Sally has that satellite

tracked on her, we can follow her exact journey, her migration. She

went from Norfolk, all the way down here, passing Paris in France, down

through Spain, then she jumped across the med. She clipped the end

of Morocco, all the way through Algeria, through Mali, down here,

the Ivory Coast, and ended up in Ghana. I can tell you that, at seven

o'clock to nine, Sally was there in Ghana. How can I tell you? The RSPB

team gets an e-mail twice a day, 12 o'clock and seven o'clock telling

them where Sally is. At seven o'clock tonight she was right there.

Extraordinary. You can follow sell yourself. On the website there is a

link. With luck, late March, early April, she'll be making her way all

way back to the UK. That is about 5000 kilometres down there. An

extraordinary journey. This is some wonderful news. There were five

Montagu's Harriers nests in the UK which were all successfully hatched

out and 13 chicks fledged. Wonderful news. We have some Harriers

wintering at Arne. There were ten of these Marsh Harriers full stop they

are pretty good news. The numbers slumped write-down and in recent

years they picked up. More than 400 pairs of these birds and ten in

Dorset. The numbers are supplemented from birds in from the continent.

What is interesting, in the past that when I got into birds in the

70s, these were migrating species. They would go down through France

and Iberia, some into sub Saharan Africa. With the changing climate,

many of them are staying in the UK and they are wintering here. They

are changing their habits. Every chance of seeing them here. We asked

you to send in photos of sunrises and you have. Some beautiful

pictures. The sun is leaching through that stag in Richmond. This

is from Minsmere. Sunrise through frost. Then this one from Rich

Smith. Sunrise in HDR, hide dynamic range. That is the Yorkshire waltz.

Thank you for sending them in. Ingrid has just asked, any tips how

to attract Goldcrest into my garden? Plant a conifer. They like conifers.

That is our parting shot for tonight. We'll be back tomorrow and

we'll be taking a look at our foxes. We will try to work out how many

there are and also the social structure of the group we are

watching. What happens to our butterflies and moths in the depths

of winter question how do they survive? Find out tomorrow. More

about this handsome chap. The white, seeker stag, here on Arne. Make a

date for 8pm and enjoyed the dawn. Take a photograph and send it into

us. We might even show it on programme. From us, goodbye. Good

night. MUSIC: The Elements

by Tom Lehrer # There's Attenborough, micro.bit,

The Bottom Line and In Our Time # And Terrific Scientific

and Ten Pieces and All In The Mind # Inside Porton Down, Black And

British, Bitesize, City In The Sky