Episode 4 Winterwatch


Episode 4

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It's our last show but the focus disappeared just in time to reveal

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another twist in our foxy story. We will find out how one of our

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favourite garden visitors is doing and is hairy little chap is in

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search of love in the cellar. Believe it or not, this is

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conservation in action. What's that all about? Welcome to Winterwatch!

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As I said, it is our last programme this week, broadcasting live from

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the RSPB reserve here in Dorset. We have a fabulous week although for

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much of it we have been immersed in a thick coat of fog. Thankfully it

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disappeared this morning and we could finally see the landscape of

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the reserve in front of us. Lots of history here, this attracts a huge

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and above wading birds and waterfowl throughout the winter. A lovely

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couple of lapwings. They are looking for worms in the fields. Castro came

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out first thing this morning, a young male there, looks like it's

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trying its wings. -- kestrel. And the deer, we have seen them on the

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salt marsh, they go down to the shore line, grazing. And with they

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finally finished, it wrapped up with some colour which you like. It has

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been jolly nice kissing colour because we spent three days in fog

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and that seriously affected the behaviour of some of our wildlife.

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For instant barn owls, this one we saw hunting in broad daylight right

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next to National Trust land. Is that unusual? We know it's a nocturnal

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animal but it does switch to hunting in the day in the winter with its

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prey is more active. How does fog affected? They are solid flyers,

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they have soft feathers which means that they are not very waterproof

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will stop -- silent flyers. They tend to avoid hunting in wet weather

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which includes damp fog. As a tough time of year for barn owls, they

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have to catch three - four volts a day, if they have a couple of days

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without being able to hunt, it affects them. And that fog was very

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damp, I'm sure it would have condensed on them and they would

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have been soaked. The fog may have gone but it's really cold tonight.

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Let's have a look at our live cameras. This is a camera we had in

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the same place yesterday, it our thermal camera. Once again, we have

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got book section. Yesterday we the box fox Andy Woodcock which was

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interesting to watch. -- and Woodcock. The bird takes off, it's a

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single lapwing, it should be roosting on the harbour, the Fox has

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missed it and also has missed that rabbit behind it. When it comes to

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hunting, these foxes are not too sharp! Got to render, it is dark at

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there! We've had lots of live cameras, and this is another one,

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looking at a pond down in the woodlands. We have allowed on it,

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posits, badgers, doesn't seem to be much there at the moment. We saw

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this, badgers again, to them and they are not very happy. In fact

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they're having a bit of a scrap. The first animal we saw, we thought was

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a male, so it's likely they are both males. This is the time of year when

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they are coming into their breeding season, soon as the Cubs are born in

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February the females go, these could be males biting about access to a

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female. There is a lot of trust pass, all was going into each

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other's territories, or they could be from the same territory and

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bickering over who is top badger. I think the one on the right could be

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judged to be the victor and the other one makes an inconvenience

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except. -- ignominious exit. I have seen badger fights, they can be

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nasty than that, they can inflict serious injuries, they bite each

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other in the neck and the rump and they have a powerful bite. I can

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tell that the quotient is 109, more than a leopard, which is 93. For

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their body size, they have a serious bite so they can input a lot of

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injuries on one another and even kill one another. It certainly

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sounded like a serious bite, incredible sounds coming from those

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badgers. Last night we played the sounds of boxes fighting, they have

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fabulous names, like mewling and watering but there is no official

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name for the noise we heard the badgers make.

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That's the noise. We want you to come up with some imaginative names

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for that noise. Please send your ideas in using the hashtag Baghram

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macro. It sounds like a mallet in the washing machine! -- Mullard. One

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always chucking money in on a Tuesday. Martin has been out on a

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challenge. He has caught a Woodcock in pitch black, it was pretty

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fantastic. Tonight he is out looking at another method of practical

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conservation which they implement here. The conservation work here

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goes on all year round, it has to be to maintain the diversity of

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habitats. If as part of that work you are faced with something like

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this, and hold course Bush it would be easy enough to chop it down, chop

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the branches down but then you get the down here. Don't know about you

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but I had to chop down a holly tree at home, took me about five minutes

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to chop the tree down and then two days of doing this to get the roots

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out! We're going to show you a brand-new idea for dealing with this

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sort of tough work, it was used here for the very first time today.

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Conservation work is a long-term thing coming to keep at it, couple

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of weeks ago Chris went to Somerset to look at a conservation project

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that has been opened seven years and is really bearing fruit. In winter

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the Somerset levels and morals are on the internationally important

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numbers of birds, over 10% of the country... Heel and shoveler is the

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roost here at this time of year. Along with another very special

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species. I want to RS PE West Sedgemoor for a spot of big birding

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with Damon. Look at that. What a spot. There is a massive waterfowl

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out there. Whereas the cranes? Where do they go during the day to find

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their food if not here? They tend to travel off to land where they can

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find worms, pulling up leather jackets, they will go to damp

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fastest but also go on to, they will be seen far from the wetland. In

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terms of the crane roost, they are looking for somewhere they are safe

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from ground Princes, they are worried about foxes. They are not a

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perching bird, so they can only relax with their feet in water. If

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all the cranes in this region came in to roost, how many might we see?

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We can see maybe up to 50 in different areas. I can see the small

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green trailer, which doesn't look terribly well integrated. All well

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provisioned. I can't see a lead to a flatscreen TV or even a toilet! But

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you have a plan? The plan is to head out there this afternoon and weight

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feed to get dark and cranes will come in to roost. -- wait for it to

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get dark. This makeshift hide was installed beside the crane's

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favourite roosting spot to give us the best chance of seeing them up

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close. This is the most generously ventilated hide I have ever been in

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and consequently the draft it and potentially the contest. The sky has

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clear, it's absolutely beautiful. But what it needs is an icon, 50 of

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them, in the form of cranes. You can hear the delicate bustle of

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all the other wildfowl out there. That is cranes, that people in call,

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I can hear them now. -- bugle in call. It's frustrating, we can hear

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them but not see them. You look out here and it's like

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standing in a Turner painting, it's so beautiful. Although the light was

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fading and it was difficult to see, we couldn't leave yet for fear of

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blowing our cover. An hour later we slipped out of the hide and addicted

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and snuck back in in the very early morning. -- undetected. We all slept

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overnight in the RSPB officers on the floor and arrived here just

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before six o'clock, 5.57 to be precise. We waited for the site of

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50 cranes roosting outside. We waited and waited, we waited and

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waited. What happened? Not a lot! Where are they? They're not here.

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They haven't roosted yet, they have a choice of sites, they have been

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using this one on and off but have decided to spend the night somewhere

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else. It is hot maintain the Enigma of the crane! -- helps maintain. It

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was far from a wasted journey. Our disappointment was completely

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overshadowed by several thousand birds taking flight before our

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bleary eyes. It's a whole bunch of lapwing out here, absolutely

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amazing, lots of starlings, will flock down, change speed, change

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shape, it's really spectacular. Who needs a crane? Who needs a

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crane? Long live the things! We have the greatest lapwing despite I have

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seen in years. Which, shoveler, teal, one of two swans... West

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Sedgemoor has just surged into my birding charts on a global level.

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Absolutely stunning. Who needs a crane? That lapwing

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narration was absolutely sensational, are you to visit that

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reserve, it was fantastic. Let's go live to our pond camera, we have a

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badger down there. We saw this the other night, I'd better come down

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and trunk from it's important for them. This one is eating. It is

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found something to eat. Either that or it has popped down for around two

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and its opponent hasn't turned up yet! We will keep an eye on that. As

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I said, it's been a body so we haven't really enjoyed the beauty of

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Arne for what it's well known for, which is its birdlife. -- it has

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been faulty. Arne is surrounded by Poole Harbour. 307 species of birds

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here it's this time of year that the wages and wildfowl turn up to

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overwinter. Why is it so important? Is one of the largest natural

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harbours in the world. It is a complex estuarine system which

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creates bays and creeks and provides excellent breeding grounds. A whole

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variety of birds come here, you have got the oystercatchers, the avocets,

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Khalid, -- curlew. Avocets are very important for these guys,

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spoonbills. I like a spoonbill, like the extension beak and there rifle

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hair. We made a robotic spindle which we put in the harbour, hoping

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to attract the resident flock and we weren't successful but we came back

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in Winterwatch with renewed vigour and I was certain it was going to

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deliver but unfortunately it didn't in this happened last night.

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Nice try, but no cigar. No cigar. But then you see in life there are

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those sorts of people who give up, and those sorts of people that just

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keep going. The hard-core crew were out late

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into the night, rereading Robo Spoony, having rescued it from the

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dustbin. But would it pay off? Let's take a look. There he is, down on

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the shore, in fact, quite close to the shore. At about midnight, the

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tide came in more than we thought it was going to and we thought we might

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have to rush to rescue it, because it's isn't waterproof. But then this

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morning, when we woke up, what did we see? Adjacent to Robo Spoony...

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LAUGHTER Just feel the satisfaction! What

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about that? The spoonbills! The spoonbills had come in. Absolutely

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fantastic! Just a few feet from Robo Spoony, so he delivered. What can I

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say? Extremely smug! He hasn't stopped all day. I do like spoonbill

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so. One of the things which is unusual, given that it has such a

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characteristic beak, we're not entirely show how the beak works.

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It's typically thought they sift through the water with it, as

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avocets do, but that seems a bit too random. A couple of new theories

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have come out, one is they are using a system of remote touch, they feel

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vibrations in the water. When you look at the microscopic structure of

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spoonbill's bill, you find it has up to 20,000 pigs in a honeycomb, each

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one of which has a little nerve ending, so it can feel things in the

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water. We have seen them chasing prey through murky water, so

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obviously they can't see it, they are using another sense. Another

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thought is they are using electro reception, just like duckbilled

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platypus. In fact, they can detect one nano vault, that's one one

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thousands of 1,000,000th of a vault of a charge being emitted by

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potential prey on the water, so maybe spoonbills are using that as

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well. Remarkable words. And then, you know, the spoonbill's job still

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wasn't done, was it? It delivered even more. Have a look, because this

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is quite funny. There's our spoonbill at night, not moving

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terribly. Look what turns up. One of the foxes. Look at the look, Chris!

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He gives Robo Spoony that puzzled look and trots off, can't quite work

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out what that is. Realises there's no point in trying to catch it! It's

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a fox deterrent as well, what about that, protecting the other

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spoonbills! Now, we all know that a very harsh winter can affect the

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survival rate of a lot of our wildlife. So last winter was very

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mild. So how did that affects one of our favourite garden visitors, the

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hedgehog? Gillian Burke went to rescue centre in Gloucester, to find

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out. It's hard not to love a hedgehog.

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Are unmistakable balls of spiny cuteness. So if we love them, and

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they love our gardens, then surely this is a good news story? Last

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year's warm Winter gave our hedgehogs along the breeding season

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than normal, but that meant some females gave birth to autumn babies.

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The late arrivals are too young to hibernate, so where highly

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vulnerable to rose dying of the cold weather and more susceptible to

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disease. Hello. How are you doing? And that has meant hedgehog rescue

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centres, like this one, run by Vicki Oliver, are overstretched. So I've

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come to help for the day. How many do you have in here at the moment?

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In this room, we have 33. Have they all just come in in the last few

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weeks? October onwards, the ones in here, yes. Is this what you would

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expect at this time of year, this money coming in? It's busier this

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year compared to certainly last year. I'm closed to admissions

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because we are full. It's just a lot of the small ones are coming in now,

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where they've been born late on, the cold weather is coming in, mum has

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gone off to hibernate, so they are left to their own defences a lot

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earlier. We have our work cut out forest. Yes. Make use of me! You

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will need some gloves! Ready. 80% of the hedgehogs Vicki sees at this

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time of year have parasite infestation is and they need

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treatment, for things like long worm and ticks. This little guy has a

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ring worm, which isn't actually a worm. It's a fungal infection which

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can cause him to lose a lot of the Sir off his face. If it gets really

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bad, he will lose his spines. He's not going to like this but really

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the best thing for him is a bath. Parasite infestations are more of a

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health risk to younger, weaker Hogwarts, but hopefully after four

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of these treatments this one will be clear of infection -- hoglets. He's

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nicely tucked up and hopefully will settle down after the bass. It's

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best to keep him in the rescue centre for the whole winter and

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hopefully he will be released in spring. Cleanliness is key to

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preventing the spread of infection. My goodness, look at that. So every

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day, every enclosure needs to be stripped. It's pretty fruity and

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here! Cleaned. And re-laid, with fresh bedding. Just grab a pilot put

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it in. -- just grab some and put it in. And last but not least, the

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all-important food and water. In the wild hedgehogs have a hugely varied

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diet, beetles, worms, slugs, pretty much anything they can catch hold

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of, but here they have cat food. If you are going to feed any hedgehogs,

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leave any food out for them, please, never bred or milk. Bread buns them

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up, and they are lactose intolerant. Two down, 31 to go. These two still

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have a long way to go before they are released.

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But anything above 500 grams and they are good to go. 777 grams. What

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a big hedgehog! This one is now clear of parasites and all that's

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left to do now is released him into the wild. Let's pop you back in

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here. Yeah, I mean, honestly, you've changed your home over. Our urban

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gardens can be the perfect habitat for hedgehogs, so this lucky boy

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will be released right here at the rescue centre. The last few hours of

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daylight now, and what we're doing is taking this big guy and putting

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him in that halfway house so he has a few hours to get used to the

:23:33.:23:37.

temperature and light levels and hopefully, by nightfall, he will be

:23:38.:23:38.

tempted out. And in no time at all, the scent of

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freedom draws him out. One healthy, happy hedgehog back in

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the wild. Presumably now he's found somewhere cosy and sheltered to

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hibernate, although they hibernate, they don't actually stay inactive?

:24:10.:24:14.

They don't sleep through the whole winter? No, they don't. It's easy to

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think of hibernation is a long, cosy sleep but it's not. It's pure

:24:19.:24:23.

survival. Temperatures are getting cold, food supplies are dwindling.

:24:24.:24:26.

They need to find a way to get through the winter, dropped their

:24:27.:24:29.

body temperature and save energy, and run their metabolism right down

:24:30.:24:40.

to the point where it is just ticking over. But there are a few

:24:41.:24:43.

instances where they do need to bring themselves out of hibernation,

:24:44.:24:45.

even in the middle of winter. Most hedgehogs, this is quite surprising,

:24:46.:24:47.

wake themselves up about once a week for a few hours just to get a few

:24:48.:24:51.

bodily functions sorted. Another reason would be they move their nest

:24:52.:24:54.

sites, at least once a year, sometimes a bit more if they get

:24:55.:24:59.

disturbed. The final reason is cold. When it gets freezing, there's a

:25:00.:25:04.

real risk of frostbite, of freezing solid, so when the temperature

:25:05.:25:08.

starts to approach one Celsius, they need to warm themselves up, to stop

:25:09.:25:12.

themselves from freezing. The way they do this if they need their fat

:25:13.:25:16.

reserves. The fat reserves aren't just there to get them through the

:25:17.:25:19.

winter, it actually needs they mean web macro -- they need them to

:25:20.:25:24.

restart their metabolism. When they get to the winter and if they are

:25:25.:25:30.

not at least half a kilo, they are not going to make it. That's women

:25:31.:25:35.

need our help. Say that a half a kilo is difficult to look at a

:25:36.:25:41.

hedgehog and wonder if it needs help. Most of us don't have our

:25:42.:25:45.

scales with it. Is there another way of seeing if it's a healthy

:25:46.:25:48.

hedgehog, ready for hibernation or not? That's a really good question.

:25:49.:25:53.

When we were filming that piece, I came across a lovely photograph.

:25:54.:26:01.

It's like a work of art. It's gorgeous. You can see there's a size

:26:02.:26:05.

scale as the hedgehogs get bigger. On the left, you have an apple,

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which is about 200 grams. On the right, you have a melon. It's a

:26:09.:26:12.

really great way to judge, without having to be hands on, because if

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they are big enough you want to leave alone. The apple is here,

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about 200 grams. Then you have got the melon, which is just over a

:26:21.:26:26.

kilo. Bang in the middle, roughly in the middle I should say, is the

:26:27.:26:30.

grapefruit. Basically, if you come across a hedgehogs that this size or

:26:31.:26:35.

smaller, it probably needs help. Any bigger around that and you can let

:26:36.:26:41.

it get on its way. We've always got questions on Facebook and Twitter,

:26:42.:26:44.

how can we help our garden hedgehogs? There's loads of

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different ways you can help. Some of them are very simple, aren't they?

:26:48.:26:52.

Yes, like I said in the piece, you can leave cat food, dog food, but

:26:53.:26:56.

without any fish because along with bread and milk, another thing they

:26:57.:27:01.

don't with very well. Also, don't be too tidy in your garden. Leave a few

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areas that are messy, a few leaves left around so they have somewhere

:27:07.:27:09.

to nest through the winter. Most of us love that advice! MS in your

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garden! We do know their numbers have dropped dramatically and part

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of the problem now is their population is fragmented, so it's

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really important they have wildlife corridors. There's lots of

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information about how you can help with wildlife corridors in your

:27:26.:27:29.

garden on the website. Please check it out, we really do need to look

:27:30.:27:34.

after our hedgehogs. Thank you very much. You may have just heard a big

:27:35.:27:39.

noise there. It's Martin, he's gone a bit Dad's Army honours. I'm not

:27:40.:27:44.

sure whether he's Captain Mannering, Sergeant Wilson, or is he maybe

:27:45.:27:51.

Private Godfrey? On you go! Drive on! Here we go. This is a WMC, a

:27:52.:28:04.

weapon of mass habitat construction. One of the reasons why this place is

:28:05.:28:12.

so fantastically rich for wildlife is the mosaic of different habitats,

:28:13.:28:16.

different habitats mean lots and lots of wildlife. But the trouble

:28:17.:28:19.

is, some of those habitats get old and overgrown. Take something like

:28:20.:28:25.

balls. A certain amount of gorse is great but when it gets old and

:28:26.:28:31.

straggly, it becomes a problem. Great thick 30-year-old roots are an

:28:32.:28:36.

absolute nightmare to dig out. It becomes expensive and needs a huge

:28:37.:28:42.

investment of man hours. Here's the thing. Where does this magnificent

:28:43.:28:48.

tank, an armoured personnel carrier, where does that coming? Look at this

:28:49.:28:53.

here. The these fantastic tracks? Let's -- lets back off and see what

:28:54.:28:55.

it can do. OK, Mike. Now that is a 14.5 tonne 300

:28:56.:29:15.

horsepower 19 litre steel plough. And when Mike and the tank go out

:29:16.:29:22.

under the guidance of the RSPB into those old, mouldy areas where the

:29:23.:29:26.

grass has got rank and the trees have grown up, well, this is what

:29:27.:29:28.

happens. Secondly work which would take it

:29:29.:30:26.

team of humans of weak to do. This is the sort of thing that the tank

:30:27.:30:32.

is having to grapple with, the stick approach, 30 weeks old, would is as

:30:33.:30:36.

ground away you end up with not much more than this. All this is not much

:30:37.:30:43.

more than compost, this isn't what the RSPB need, they will scrape this

:30:44.:30:49.

off, get back to basically ground zero, poor quality soil. Then

:30:50.:31:00.

animals meaty dive in to take advantage of the exposed ground and

:31:01.:31:04.

you can see here, we have a rain, and picking up grubs, insect larvae

:31:05.:31:13.

stopping is a robin. You know the Robins will follow you around and

:31:14.:31:21.

pick up stuff. But the immediate effect, that is what the RSPB are

:31:22.:31:24.

after, what they are looking for is what happens in spring and summer,

:31:25.:31:28.

where on the bare ground, new growth comes through and that is perfect

:31:29.:31:33.

for the specialist animals that live here. The sand lizards, the smooth

:31:34.:31:40.

snake... All these creatures are going to benefit from that mosaic of

:31:41.:31:43.

habitats, that's what they are after. The Dartford warbler, at his

:31:44.:31:51.

planned specialist there. And of course the insect life, the baseline

:31:52.:31:55.

for so much of the animals that live here. Tiger beetle, fantastic. Lots

:31:56.:32:03.

of people were involved in this idea but hats off to Mark Singleton from

:32:04.:32:08.

the RSPB here who had the genius idea of telling a weapon of war into

:32:09.:32:13.

a tool for conservation. That is genius.

:32:14.:32:18.

Turning something that was made for destruction into something which is

:32:19.:32:23.

created for conservation, top work. I decided to use from Dad's Army,

:32:24.:32:34.

Lance Corporal Jones! He is a bit! Over the last few days we have

:32:35.:32:37.

introduced you to our family of boxes here at Arne and yesterday

:32:38.:32:41.

without we had a completed cast list, they are all individuals, we

:32:42.:32:46.

have given them names. Last night our story developers noticed a

:32:47.:32:53.

different box, and it is this one. -- different folks. We can identify

:32:54.:32:58.

them by different marks on their faces or tails, if you look at this

:32:59.:33:04.

one, it's very nervous, it is a little notch out of the ear on the

:33:05.:33:08.

right so we are calling that one Notch. It is an interactive much of

:33:09.:33:15.

the other foxes but it's a new character to add to our growing cast

:33:16.:33:19.

list. This try and put that into some kind of context. A lot of the

:33:20.:33:25.

animals we have seen around the carcasses, we have been consulting

:33:26.:33:32.

with our fox expert from the University of Brighton, she is go to

:33:33.:33:38.

judge me on this, he was my theory. Cheetah, have been fox, this has

:33:39.:33:41.

been roaming around by the carcasses, she is a dominant one. I

:33:42.:33:47.

think that's our dominant fix and because in any social group we have

:33:48.:33:51.

a male and a female and those are the breeding animals -- dominant

:33:52.:33:59.

vixen. So an interesting altercation between her and Stumpy, she is

:34:00.:34:04.

dominant to Stumpy. We saw another one between Stumpy and Road. We know

:34:05.:34:12.

she is dominant to this female done here but in another frack, we saw

:34:13.:34:20.

Cheetah beating Road. So it's a slightly different hierarchy. There

:34:21.:34:24.

is another animal we saw, she is part of this social group, we have

:34:25.:34:27.

seen her at the carcasses, interacting, they are not driving

:34:28.:34:32.

her away but we haven't seen enough interaction to judge where she

:34:33.:34:36.

stands in the hierarchy. Lastly of course is our alpha male, I

:34:37.:34:42.

postulate that this is Tyson. He has been around a lot, he is alpha male,

:34:43.:34:50.

we haven't seen him with Cheetah, he is a big bruiser with a scar on his

:34:51.:34:54.

nose, he is dominant to these other animals. I think the carcass crew

:34:55.:34:59.

for the moment, is made up of these animals here. What about our guest

:35:00.:35:08.

stars? Yesterday we introduced you to issue who is blind in one eye and

:35:09.:35:14.

today we introduced you to Notch who has a notch out of his ear. We don't

:35:15.:35:18.

think these are part of the carcass crew, think they are outsiders. We

:35:19.:35:22.

know they are males so what is happening is these two are properly

:35:23.:35:27.

coming in, sniffing around, they are ready to mate. We saw them barking

:35:28.:35:35.

down on the shore! They will probably try their luck with

:35:36.:35:41.

Cheetah. She will go for multiple matings if she can at this time of

:35:42.:35:46.

year. What do you think we will get, out of ten? I don't know, I hope you

:35:47.:35:57.

get that straight! Forgot sake. We have really had quite a drama with

:35:58.:36:02.

this cast of characters, but as you know, wildlife trauma can happen

:36:03.:36:06.

anywhere, sometimes in really secret places. On Tuesday we showed you a

:36:07.:36:10.

mouse giving birth in the attic. That's what I like to call, Call The

:36:11.:36:18.

Midwife. Tonight we're showing another quest in the cellar, this

:36:19.:36:22.

one is like Poldark with insects, maybe not quite so sexy. The

:36:23.:36:30.

basement, warm, dry and dusty. Heat from the old boiler keeps it snug,

:36:31.:36:37.

creating a welcoming glow. And a forgotten pile of books provide a

:36:38.:36:40.

littoral relay for an unassuming addition to our hopes. This is a

:36:41.:36:52.

fire brat. These tiny insects crave warm temperatures and are becoming

:36:53.:36:55.

more common in our increasingly willing to houses. It's their unruly

:36:56.:37:03.

behaviour around hot bread ovens that gives this plucky little

:37:04.:37:07.

creature its fire brat name. With the temperature just right, the fire

:37:08.:37:13.

brat's mind can turn to love but first he has to find the right lady.

:37:14.:37:19.

No easy task in this dim, dark world. This won't be love at first

:37:20.:37:32.

sight. The Firebird has tiny, almost useless eyes so he feels his weight

:37:33.:37:36.

using a halo of sensory hairs. Darting into dark corners and

:37:37.:37:40.

crevices, he will have two particular bump into a female if

:37:41.:37:44.

he's to have any luck. Down here, love is truly blind. To keep up his

:37:45.:37:51.

energy comic grazes on a piece of starchy paper, consuming the lessons

:37:52.:37:58.

of literature. But when you are only a centimetre long and at the bottom

:37:59.:38:02.

of the food chain, you need to keep your wits about you. There are

:38:03.:38:12.

dangers at every turn. A female earwig. If she can catch, the fire

:38:13.:38:25.

brat might make a tasty snack. But in a move straight from the ages of

:38:26.:38:30.

Conan Doyle, a handy hiding place provides cover and she slips by.

:38:31.:38:35.

With the danger overcome his back on the case. -- he is back on the case.

:38:36.:38:44.

The basement has become a meeting place for a cast of overwintering

:38:45.:38:49.

characters, all sheltering from the elements. A dozy peacock butterfly.

:38:50.:38:55.

A dainty Seller spider. Thirsty lacewings. And a gigantic Seller

:38:56.:39:06.

slug. But the fire brat is craving the company of other brats. Where

:39:07.:39:10.

are they all? He heads to the local high-rise to try his luck but what

:39:11.:39:14.

this lurking in the shadows? Centipede. Nearly three times the

:39:15.:39:32.

length of the fire brat, this venomous hunter is top rate in this

:39:33.:39:35.

tiny world. -- top predator. Any fire brat, distracted by the

:39:36.:39:48.

dating game, went live to kiss and tell. -- won't live.

:39:49.:39:59.

The centipede is fast and unrelenting.

:40:00.:40:13.

Tripping over the stack of books commit you to antennae to feel for

:40:14.:40:26.

its prey. Pausing only to primp for maximum sensitivity, it closes in.

:40:27.:40:35.

Filling the brush of the centipede, our man looks to be toast but a

:40:36.:40:41.

final desperate move propels him from harm 's way.

:40:42.:40:47.

It is believed rather tough day but the thrill of the Chase hasn't

:40:48.:40:53.

dampened his order. -- been a rather tough day. At last, he bumps into an

:40:54.:41:00.

old flame and the good news is, she is hot. Fire brat needs to be to get

:41:01.:41:03.

in the mood to mate. But as the heat of passion rises,

:41:04.:41:19.

heading towards its conclusion, disaster. Any chance of a fireside

:41:20.:41:24.

filling is extinguished with the flame. Given the cold shoulder, the

:41:25.:41:32.

male fire brat strikes out again. Alone. Do you know, those animals

:41:33.:41:43.

from the fossil record have been around pretty much unchanged for 400

:41:44.:41:49.

million years? They have been making love in our sellers for that long?

:41:50.:41:57.

We didn't have sellers! We haven't been around that long! They are more

:41:58.:42:01.

successful than us! Put them in charge! Put them in charge! Move on.

:42:02.:42:11.

We have been conducting a bird feeder experiment over the last few

:42:12.:42:15.

days to see whether colour influences birds when it comes to

:42:16.:42:18.

food so we put a controlled experiment out first where we had

:42:19.:42:22.

three feeders, all natural colours. This is what happened. Over our

:42:23.:42:30.

experiment time, they all went down pretty much equally. So there was

:42:31.:42:36.

obviously no bias in any of the feeders. We then painted two of the

:42:37.:42:40.

feeders, one we painted red, when we painted blue. So what happened then?

:42:41.:42:50.

Now this is very careers. As you would expect, the natural colour in

:42:51.:42:56.

the middle went down the most. Chris Packham predicted that they wouldn't

:42:57.:43:01.

touch the blue ones, they would all go to the rate. By our results, he

:43:02.:43:07.

clearly got it wrong. They have hardly touched the red and they have

:43:08.:43:13.

gone to the blue. So you must make the minute ago about spoon bills and

:43:14.:43:16.

now you have been pushed off your perch because you got your

:43:17.:43:20.

prediction wrong. Getting things wrong is part of a learning

:43:21.:43:24.

experience, I don't mind getting things wrong, the consultancy

:43:25.:43:29.

experts, that's what we always do. We spoke to George Rayburn and Ed

:43:30.:43:33.

Solo from Weston-Super-Mare, typically when we go to experts

:43:34.:43:38.

which go to a university, or to somebody who has spent a lifetime

:43:39.:43:41.

studying the animals, let me introduce you to them. Yes! They are

:43:42.:43:51.

14 and 15! Fantastic! But they have been conducting experiments like

:43:52.:43:55.

ours only better with more detail and more replications, reducing

:43:56.:44:00.

extraordinary science. I cannot you how impressed I was with what I saw

:44:01.:44:06.

today. These are top guys. What are their thoughts on the red versus

:44:07.:44:10.

blue versus normal? They don't like the red, they think because that

:44:11.:44:12.

associated with warning colours in insects and although birds might go

:44:13.:44:17.

for red fruits and berries in the winter, throughout the rest of the

:44:18.:44:21.

year, they are after insects for the young and we know the red and yellow

:44:22.:44:25.

warning colours. That's why they don't go to them. But why do they go

:44:26.:44:30.

to the blue? In the guide's experiments, they went to the blue

:44:31.:44:34.

even more than the normal seed, it became even more attractive than

:44:35.:44:38.

they painted the Betis blue. They think it's down to the way the

:44:39.:44:43.

birdseed. Here is the visual spectrum that the human sees. We are

:44:44.:44:49.

trichromatic so we can see this part of the spectrum. Birds are Tetra,

:44:50.:44:55.

six they have an extra bit of vision on the end where they can see into

:44:56.:45:00.

the UV spectrum. The brightest colour in our field of view is green

:45:01.:45:04.

in the middle, that would stand out the most. Possibly that's why we

:45:05.:45:10.

like green. But in the bird's vision, blue is in the centre. So

:45:11.:45:14.

when they are approaching those feeders the thing that the standout

:45:15.:45:19.

most brightly our blessings. And the guys think that's why they are

:45:20.:45:21.

heading to the blue even more than the naturally coloured seed.

:45:22.:45:27.

You don't often get things wrong, you have redeemed yourself with that

:45:28.:45:33.

marvellous explanation. Do you know what? I love getting something wrong

:45:34.:45:38.

to 14 and a 15-year-old, because to me, that means there is hope. Stick

:45:39.:45:42.

with it, guys, one day you can have my job. In fact, if it carries on

:45:43.:45:47.

like this, possibly next week! We've seen lots and lots of tits coming to

:45:48.:45:51.

our feeders, blue tips, great tips, what you'd probably expect, but

:45:52.:45:57.

we've also seen long-tail tits. Gorgeous little birds. You've

:45:58.:45:59.

probably got them on your feeders in the garden now. You can hear them.

:46:00.:46:03.

This one was beautiful, it was actually drinking the condensed fog

:46:04.:46:09.

off the seeds and you can hear its friends. They are normally in a

:46:10.:46:12.

group, chattering away in the background. Lovely little birds. It

:46:13.:46:19.

hardly looks like they have a big, but then we managed to film one that

:46:20.:46:22.

got into the most awful trouble. It's literally stuck by its

:46:23.:46:30.

long-tail! So how on earth is it going to get out of this terrible

:46:31.:46:36.

conundrum? It's still stuck, so it gets it the ground in the end and

:46:37.:46:46.

tries to undo the not that has got tangled up -- it gets its beak out

:46:47.:46:49.

in the end. It's awfully scruffy. What a mess that tailors. Nothing

:46:50.:46:54.

that a jolly good session of jolly good old-fashioned preening won't

:46:55.:46:58.

sort out. Etxeita details tit, isn't it? This may be our last show for

:46:59.:47:05.

Winterwatch but it doesn't mean that used don't stop getting involved.

:47:06.:47:09.

This weekend is exciting, it's the Big Garden Birdwatch. We want you

:47:10.:47:12.

all to join in. Last year, 500,000 of you did it and you recorded 8

:47:13.:47:19.

million birds, which is incredible. We want to get more than that this

:47:20.:47:24.

year. Please get out, all the details are on their website. You

:47:25.:47:28.

know what, it really does contribute to our knowledge of what is

:47:29.:47:31.

declining in our gardens, and what is recovering. I urge you to do it.

:47:32.:47:37.

The biggest bird survey in the world. Its great citizen science, it

:47:38.:47:42.

takes an hour of your time, looking out of the window on Saturday,

:47:43.:47:45.

Sunday and Monday. What you will see in the garden will depend on how

:47:46.:47:49.

much food you put out and ultimately, the weather. What is the

:47:50.:47:52.

weather going to be like over the weekend of the big garden

:47:53.:47:57.

Worldwatch? Nick Miller knows the answer -- the Big Garden Birdwatch.

:47:58.:48:04.

This could be a really exciting bird watch, especially where it's been so

:48:05.:48:08.

cold. Today, there were parts of England that didn't get above

:48:09.:48:12.

freezing, although it was past 13 in far North West of Scotland. We had

:48:13.:48:15.

winter weather. The cold maybe did driving unexpected birds into the

:48:16.:48:23.

garden in search of food, not just goldfinches, but Siskin and Red

:48:24.:48:27.

Bull. Something more typical is arriving over the weekend, wetter

:48:28.:48:31.

weather whether it's been dried. Rain pushing up from the south on

:48:32.:48:35.

Sunday. Scotland is driest and sunniest for longest on Sunday.

:48:36.:48:40.

Along with a change to something better, something less cold, where

:48:41.:48:43.

it's been bitter. That might make life a bit easier for the hedgehogs.

:48:44.:48:48.

What about the rest of winter? It looks like the Atlantic driven

:48:49.:48:52.

changeable wetter, windy weather, less cold weather, will dominate the

:48:53.:48:55.

first part of February. Maybe something cold coming back at the

:48:56.:48:59.

end of February. Keep an eye on that. If you're looking for birds

:49:00.:49:08.

this weekend, listen as well. The woodpeckers are coming near me. It

:49:09.:49:11.

may look like winter, but there are sounds of spring. It's coming. Not

:49:12.:49:17.

in our barn, it's chilly! If you were watching Springwatch you will

:49:18.:49:24.

know one of the stars of the series was our golden eagle. We put a

:49:25.:49:27.

satellite tags on the bird, named Freya. It hasn't moved very far, no

:49:28.:49:32.

further than 20 or 30 kilometres on occasion from its territory. It

:49:33.:49:35.

still spending most of its time there. Come Springwatch, we will

:49:36.:49:39.

find out more about this fantastic bird. We have camera teams all

:49:40.:49:45.

around Arne, and up and down the country. Richard Taylor Jones has

:49:46.:49:48.

got out with his camera to a place that has very strong reasons for

:49:49.:49:56.

him. -- resonance, for him. Winter is a time of hunger.

:49:57.:50:07.

Some landscapes speak of it. Loudly. And the Hoo Peninsula, at the

:50:08.:50:23.

northernmost end of Kent, shouts its seasonal claim to be the hungriest

:50:24.:50:32.

of all. Here, human hunger for power dominates denuded marshes.

:50:33.:50:41.

This is power created far from towns and cities, hiding the unwanted ugly

:50:42.:50:50.

truths of our cosy, consuming modern world. Yet despite all we'd chuck at

:50:51.:51:01.

nature, here on the Hoo, nature clings on at the edges, hungry to

:51:02.:51:05.

battle against our industrial dominance.

:51:06.:51:15.

A Fox trots through the grazing marsh. A hungry pace to its speed.

:51:16.:51:23.

It stands, twitching, poor used to execute the kill. -- it is poised,

:51:24.:51:36.

to execute the kill. Success. A stomach filled.

:51:37.:51:46.

Above, a marsh Harrier hunt the reedbeds. Seeking its own

:51:47.:51:51.

fulfilment. Its arrival spooks vast flocks of

:51:52.:52:12.

lapwing and golden plover. They rise as one.

:52:13.:52:22.

The confusion of wings and bodies, unnerving to the hunter. A beautiful

:52:23.:52:29.

ballet of the winter skies. But how long to dance, to revel in

:52:30.:52:45.

the safety of the air? Long enough to avoid being lunch. But not so

:52:46.:52:49.

long it makes you hungry for your own.

:52:50.:53:00.

Nature must manage its hunger to perfection in order to survive.

:53:01.:53:12.

Unfortunately our appetite for destruction leaves wasteland

:53:13.:53:22.

landscapes everywhere on the Hoo. The metal skeletons of abandoned

:53:23.:53:27.

clay pits reach skywards, hiding the last hungry arrival of the day.

:53:28.:53:35.

Launching quietly into the crisp marmalade skies of winter's dusk.

:53:36.:54:03.

It dives the gain, and again, and again. It can find no parade. -- No

:54:04.:54:24.

one. It will hand day and night to escape its winter hunger. Silent

:54:25.:54:31.

wings work endless shifts to find satisfaction. And they shout of

:54:32.:54:37.

nature's hunger for life on the Hoo. As night falls and all that's left

:54:38.:54:49.

to see if the crackle and spark of the electric world beyond, I realise

:54:50.:54:56.

the Hoo says so much about who we humans really are. And what we've

:54:57.:55:02.

done to the natural world. And how it survives, despite us.

:55:03.:55:08.

I love the cons trust -- contrast between the man escape and the

:55:09.:55:19.

landscape, and how the animals are surviving, but how greedy we are,

:55:20.:55:24.

something that might have to change. At the beginning of the show we

:55:25.:55:25.

played you the sound of At the beginning of

:55:26.:55:28.

the show we played you the badgers fighting. This is the sound.

:55:29.:55:33.

We asked you to send in suggestions of what we should call that sound.

:55:34.:55:37.

Hundreds of you suggested things. I'm going to read out a couple.

:55:38.:55:52.

Wackering. Yackering. I like this one, scrowling. It might become

:55:53.:55:59.

official. Scrowling, I love it. This is the last programme, sadly, but

:56:00.:56:03.

you can keep in contact online. Facebook will have the latest news.

:56:04.:56:10.

You can share your photographs. The website is great. We have the films

:56:11.:56:17.

we have shown in this Winterwatch, and all the earlier films. Twitter

:56:18.:56:21.

is great to keep in contact and keep the chat going. Indeed. Shall we

:56:22.:56:28.

have a quick look? Let's look at the spoonbill can. Surrounded by wigeon.

:56:29.:56:33.

He was a great success, the highlight of the series. That's

:56:34.:56:41.

live! A Fox as well! We've had a lot of live action but sadly that brings

:56:42.:56:45.

us to the end of the show and the end of a series of Winterwatch. We

:56:46.:56:51.

hope you've enjoyed it. We'd like to thank the RSPB, our hosts, who have

:56:52.:56:56.

been amazing, the organisation that has got involved online, the BTO,

:56:57.:57:01.

and most of all you, for watching, thank you. And all those experts we

:57:02.:57:06.

constantly ring up and say, can you tell us about this? We'll be back in

:57:07.:57:10.

springtime. We hope to broadcast from a new, exciting location, so

:57:11.:57:14.

joiners in May. We are going to leave you with the highlights of

:57:15.:57:23.

winter 2017. Goodbye. Goodbye. We're here in deepest Dorset at a crucial

:57:24.:57:28.

time of year for wildlife. It's cold, the ground is frozen, and food

:57:29.:57:30.

is scarce. Look at that! Gorgeous. There's a

:57:31.:57:51.

cormorant caught in a Mornay moment. -- Monet moment.

:57:52.:58:01.

Pheromones. Femoral owns, smelly sex gas.

:58:02.:58:17.

How's that? I've messed up. Looks good. That's going to hurt people I

:58:18.:58:28.

love. That's the best, it doesn't get better than that. Nothing,

:58:29.:58:30.

nothing beats birding.

:58:31.:58:33.

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