Episode 1 Winterwatch

It was a beautiful

day here yesterday.

It was the warmest day of the year

so far. Typically the weather has

turned.

Perfect conditions if you

are a coot or aids duck -- a duck.

Welcome to a brand spanking new

series of Winterwatch!

Hello and welcome to Winterwatch,

2018. Coming to you from marvellous

Sherborne Park Estate in

Gloucestershire, 4000 acres managed

by the National Trust since 1987.

We're glad to be here because there

is an enormous mixture of habitats,

woodlands, rivers and a lot of very

wet meadows at this time of year. We

have a super series coming up, we

want to bring you the best of the

seasonal wildlife and the show is

going to start on a high because we

have special guests. Kate Bush and

Mark Almond!

Rulli and!

80s icons --

brilliant! We've been saying it's

been wet, certainly very muddy but

quite mild. It's Winterwatch and I

don't have a woolly hat on. Things

may change through the week. Where

are we? Let's have a look at the

map, we're between Cheltenham,

Bristol and Reading. In the heart of

The Cotswolds. That's where we were

for Springwatch and Autumnwatch and

it is where we ask all Winterwatch.

Our challenge is to try and document

the wildlife here at Sherborne

through the season. Let's try and

catch up with what we've seen so

far.

Spring started with clouds and

mayflies, flying fish and countless

chicks. There were highs and lows,

winners and losers.

As the seasons

moved into the rusty colours of

autumn, we saw a bounty of bats,

Randy stags and badgers with

interesting table manners!

That was

then. This is now.

UPBEAT MUSIC.

Oh!

It's drawn blood!

It's there, look.

Oh, look!

Oh, right in the top. A nest.

Looks good, doesn't it? That

hawfinch. Great stuff in this series

from around the UK but our mission

at Sherborne is to bug the estate

with cameras to see what's going on

and we have some new locations. One

of our cameras may be the great

Wall. Here we have a camera on one

of the old stone walls. Of course

they are an interesting feature of

the landscape and they are a good

refuge for landscape. Nothing

showing at the moment but what have

we seen earlier? Well, we've seen a

mouse. In fact we saw a wood mouse,

discernible from its large ears,

eyes and long tail. It is coming to

some bait which we've tempted it

with. These animals are using the

wall of shelter, there are plenty of

predators. We hope to catch a

glimpse of eight stoat hunting them.

Here we have a vole, trying to

determine if it was a field vole.

The size of the ears and the colour

of the tail, difficult to come up

with an answer. If you are Professor

Jimmy Vole, we'd like to know.

How

many different species are there?

If

you discount the Orkney vole, you

have the bank vole and the field

vole.

As well as a thrilling wall,

will we have the Woodland feeding

station. Let's go to that camera

now. There we are in the woods.

That's the feeding station there.

There's a variety of different food

we put down because we're not sure

what may come into the station. We

can't see a lot right now. Rather

lovely, like one of those

Neanderthal homes made with mammoth

bones.

It doesn't look comfy!

Let's

catch up with what's been going on

there. Look at this, do you know

what it is? About the size of a

large box, these are muntjac deer,

male and female. Often in pairs.

Quite a controversial animal, an

SKP. If you listen closely they make

an extraordinary sound -- escapee.

CHATTERING SOUND.

They are known as

barking deer, but that isn't

barking, not heard anything like

that. They are controversial because

they spread all over the country,

they started escaping in the

mid-20th century and they've spread

everywhere. They are very on edge,

the slightest thing would make them

jump. Beautiful rusty colour when

you see them in the wild. Oh, oh. We

think that was part of -- possibly a

puff of wind.

That squeaking is

extraordinary, it almost sounds like

my dogs!

Never heard it before, I've

heard them barking.

We can hear the

normal sound of the barking deer.

BARKING SOUND. It is an eerie sound.

I'd have a job telling that apart

from a roe deer.

It is more

guttural.

We are hoping to see them

tonight, either muntjac or may be

badgers on the thermal camera. Let's

have a look and see if the cameraman

has captured anything. Nothing and

the moment but we'll keep and you

know if we spot anything.

You may

have noticed that I'm dressed in a

slightly different way than usual!

Is the incontinence is reaching its

zenith, mate!

We've noticed

something extraordinary going on in

the...

Where are we? Sherborne!

The

incontinence isn't a problem but...

In the Sherborne book about a

kilometre away, some fascinating

biology going on -- Sherborne brook.

I'm going into the icy cold water to

show you this curious phenomenon.

I'm going to slowly limp away.

I

thought some icy cold water might

say they few problems!

As three are

in Sherborne, that's where we are,

Sherborne! Gillian is 500 miles up

the coast in Scotland. Let's see

where she is. You basically head up

north from Sherborne, you get to

Glasgow, turn left and go to the

inner Hebrides to Islay in the most

southern island. It's a most

fabulous place for wildlife and a

few good distilleries as well.

Welcome to the Isle of Islay. This

island is famous for its whiskey.

These casks are empty but in the

buildings behind me, there are

23,000 of these casks, that's 7

million litres of whiskey slowly

maturing.

We are having a few problems with

our outside broadcast in Islay.

Let's see if we can get Gillian

back. It looks like we might be able

to get her. Oh, we've lost her.

Earlier today we were quite canning,

we are canning here at Winterwatch

so we recorded the rehearsal that

she did, which was very good! We are

going to look at it now rather than

seeing her life. This is what

Gillian has been up to.

Welcome to the Isle of Islay. This

island is famous for its whiskey.

These casks are empty but behind me

in the buildings, there are 23,000

of these casks, that's 7 million

litres of whiskey. All slowly

maturing. But of course we're not

here for the whiskey, we're here for

the incredible wildlife.

the incredible wildlife. Islay. The

queen of the Hebrides. Bathed by the

warming waters of the Gulf stream,

Winters on this island are milder

than the rest of the UK, making it a

magnet for winter visitors. In their

thousands.

thousands. And it's short winter

days off are some of the best

chances of seeing some of the UK's

rarest and most elusive wildlife.

We're going to meet a lot of those

characters through the week. But

tonight, we're on the very northern

tip of Islay. Out in the darkness,

you can't see it, there are

mountains. To really get the lay of

the land, make sense of the plays,

we have to see it in daylight. -- of

the place. We're at a distillery

that was built in 1881, it's one of

the oldest on the island and like

all old distilleries it was built

right on the water. That's because

it made it easy to lower the casks

onto the ships that sail back to the

mainland to bottle up the whiskey.

The waters are also rich in

wildlife. I've been talking to

locals here who tell me that there

are all those that use the channels

and straits between the islands,

pods of dolphins -- there are orcas.

Posted here is one of the island's

most charming residents. And there

it is. We are talking about otters,

very active during the day unlike

their river cousins. This is the dog

otter, marking his territory. There

is a female, slightly smaller, who

has had some Cubs last summer and

they have now grown and they are

fully independent but with a lot to

learn still. What is absolutely

incredible is that these otters use

this patch of coast regularly, they

are seen in front of the distillery

and the slipway you can see, well,

that's exactly where I'm standing

now. A little bit further up the

coast, there is an overnight then.

-- overnight den. We had a live

camera on it, let's have a look.

What you can make out is some rocks,

set back from the high tide line.

The dark band is a whole in the rock

and to the right of the screen is

where we've seen otters coming and

going. We're going to keep an eye on

it during the show and later we are

going to talk about some winter

survival strategies and also how

those juveniles make it through

their first winter, the biggest

challenge for them. Winters in Islay

may be relatively mild but 200 miles

away in the Scottish Highlands,

cameraman Neil Anderson has captured

the essence of winter.

This is the height of the Cairngorms

in the Scottish Highlands. And this

is my home.

Each winter I wait eagerly for the

first falls of snow.

My job often involves travelling far

to find the wildlife but in this

season the wildlife comes to me.

My house is surrounded by forest and

as the snow sets in it provides a

welcome refuge for many species.

Driven off the exposed hillsides,

Red Deer seek the protection of the

trees.

The males were locked in combat a

short time ago but now they are

peacefully together. Their

magnificent antlers are now

redundant, the battles forgotten. In

the shelter of the woods, grading is

easier as the snow is then on the

ground. -- grazing is easier.

The forest is home to red squirrels.

These rodents feed on tiny buds at

the very tops of the pines.

They look particularly healthy

during the winter months and for

good reason. Winter is mating

season.

Males charge after females in a

dizzying chase.

It is thirsty work, but with the

usual supplies of water now frozen,

snow will have to do.

Much of their energy is expended on

courtship, so the squirrels are

always on the lookout for easy

pickings. Taking advantage of

anything they can find.

Some they immediately eat, but

others are taken away.

others are taken away. Nuts cast in

the forest will be a valuable food

supply throughout these harsh winter

months.

But it's not just the squirrels who

are tempted by my feeders. Amongst

the usual garden birds I get a

really special visitor crested tits.

With their punk-like hair styles,

they're unmistakable. Feisty and

territorial, they raise their crests

high to show dominance. They usually

prefer to forage among the trees and

it is often only their call that

gives them away.

But the cold of winter draws them

closer.

closer. They don't hang around on

the feeders for long. Eating back

under the cover of the trees is the

safer option.

Crested tits are a

Crested tits are a a real speciality

and only found in this part of

Scotland. It is winter that allows

me these intimate views, right on my

doorstep.

A cool bird - being an ex-punk

rocker yourself, hard to believe

now, that you look so smart - I

believe that is in your top ten.

I

like a crested tit because I live in

the south of England. They are not

top ten. They are a little scruffy

for me.

And a punk rocker isn't.

Some of us are relatively smart.

That is on Neil's doorstep.

Obviously here in Sherborne we have

plenty of wildlife on our doorstep.

One has been elusive - the badger.

We tried hard in Springwatch to get

to know it. We didn't have any luck.

We tried harder in Autumnwatch - no

luck. We will try and get closer to

it in Winterwatch.

In Springwatch we

worked with Dr Dawn Scott and

collared one of the badgers here we

called Madonna. She disappeared and

reappeared again, our hopes rose.

She disappeared again. Subsequent to

that we've had no signal whatsoever.

We think, because when we collared

her we identified she was an old

animal that she's probably died of

natural causes underground. That

means we have not been able to

record what she's been getting up

to. Subsequent to that, Dawn has

been back and we collared three more

animals. This is quite exciting. We

catch the animals at night. This is

a tried and tested method. No harm

will come to these creatures by

having the collars fitted. They look

a bit bulky. I can assure you they

are not intrusive. We've called one

of them David Bowie. In fact this is

David Bowie going in there at the

moment and making his exit, having

come around from the sedative. The

other couple we have named Kate Bush

and Mark Almond. There is David, off

into the night, transmitting away.

So, have we seen our badgers since?

Well, let's take a look. This is

where David Bowie was released. Now,

we have got badgers there. We have

spotted them. You can see that is

not David Bowie because it hasn't

got the collar. However, take a

close look through the trees and

there you go, you can see the

collar. So that is definitely the

badger, David Bowie. We are hoping

to see a closer view of him.

Hopefully he's not touch of a rebel,

rebel. Once he's used to the

cameras, he'll enjoy his fame, so

long as he's not under pressure to

perform!

What a cascade of pop

references.

references. We OK, so here they are.

Here are the badgers that we've

marked. We have David Bowie over

here. Then we have got Kate Bush

here and Mark Almond here. What is

interesting is there is about 1,000

metres between these two and not

much distance between Kate Bush and

Mark Almond. Probably not true in

real life, but for the animals here,

the case. Why are we doing this? The

badgers are behaving A-typically in

the way they use the landscape for

raging and locating their seblingts.

Kate Bush -- their sects. Kate Bush

and Mark Almond are closely related.

We have seen them doing a lot of

stuff, haven't we?

This is Mark

Almond, out snuffling around,

marking his territory there. He is a

male - he has a broad head. He is

relatively young as well. Nice

condition - not a lot of fighting

going on. A very handsome Mark

Almond. Got the dark marks around

the eyes, just like Mark's 80's make

up as well. At this time of the year

the badgers are out and about. It

has been mild. They have been doing

grooming. A lot of foraging going

on. No need for them to stay Down

Under ground because it has not been

that harsh, the weather. They say

hello. Then they wave goodbye. That

is pretty much the story of the

1980s.

We have live cameras on those

badgers as well. We don't have

anything on them right now but if we

see any badgers hopefully we will

see Kate Bush. I think she may be

running up that hill. Hopefully

she'll be back. It's not going to

stop, is it - all week! Now to

Martin, if he was an '80s icon, who

do you think he'd be?

Status quo.

That sage hair. I was thinking Bon

Jovi.

Less of the grey shagy hair.

Here I am. I am in the Sherborne

brok.

brok. The river is trickling past

me. A perfect winter's night. Back

in Autumnwatch we delved into the

magical underwater world of the

brown trout and I fulfilled a

childhood dream.

We weren't sure whether we could

find the trout, so I was dressed up

in these elegant clothes to try and

find them. I wanted to enter the

actual water. There they are. I got

very, very over excited.

There were two! There were not just

a couple of trout, these are brown

trout. I began to speculate, in

Winterwatch, where would they start

to lay their eggs? I thought I had

found the per text spot. -- perfect

spot. It turned out I was wrong. Not

completely wrong because I am a

kilometre downstream from where I

thought they would lay their eggs. I

want to show you something curious.

If you look down in the water here,

the substrate is... Oh, that is my

sweater gone! It's really dark.

These pebbles are really, really

dark there. The gravel, but now, if

I move out, you can see these

patches, much, much lighter.

Like that. I don't know if you can

see that. You probably can. Look, it

is steaming now. It is get oh cold.

During the day those patches of

light and dark are really, really

obvious. So what is doing this? Can

you see... This is where I am

standing now, during the day, look

you can see that very, very clear

light coloured area. And there are

also, now look closely, can you see

the mid-tofl -- in the middle of the

frame, there are some trout. One is

doing something curious. What is

happening here and it is probably

finished now, the females come to

these areas and they clean the

gravel. They get rid of all the

silt. They use their tail, bash it

up and down and they clear all of

this. Not one trout has done that.

Quite a few have done that. They

call it a redd. It is an ancient

word meaning to tidy up or to clean.

Once the female has done that and

tidied up and cleaned it all, then

the next stage of the process of

reproduction takes place, the males

arrive. Here is the female, with a

male. You can see what she's doing,

seeing how she is cleaning that silt

out of the gravel. The male has a

difficult job. He has to encourage

the female to spawn. He does that by

tapping her flank with his nose. And

he will come around to the other

side in a moment and just gently tap

again. Here he comes. Just tapping

her lateral line, trying to

encourage here to spawn. Once she

does, he will then, he'll then

fertilise the eggs and she will

cover them up with gravel. He's not

the only one there. Now the males,

this is subtle behaviour, he has to

drive the other male off. He does

that by erecting his fin. He does

that by looking threatening. They

actually have a bite at each other.

She's carrying on, getting that redd

ready for the eggs to be laid in

there. The male, they sort of

parallel walk, like we have seen red

dear. What a waste of time for those

lads, because there was a big, big

male trout waiting in the wings and

he's come in. So the male has to be

with the female on the redd all the

time because the minute she lays the

eggs, he has to try and fertilise

them. What do they look like? They

are beautiful. They look like little

orange jewels there. Imagine if she

laid those eggs directly into the

water here, they are so small, they

would be washed away instain

tapously. So, all this -- instantly.

So all this business of cleaning the

gravel, let me put water in this,

this is what is going on underwater.

Here are the eggs, they are trapped

now in the gravel. The female trout

has pushed over the top of there. It

is nice and clean, so the water can

travel through, oxygenating the eggs

as they develop. That is the

process. Let's see what happens once

she's laid the eggs. Here they are.

You can see the little fish inside,

just see the eyes. Here it is

starting to... Can you sea the heart

beating away? There is a large yolk

sack. The tiny trout will live off

that sack to begin with it. It is

getting bigger now. Now it has to

start hunting for food. There it is.

They will snap away at any little

thing that passes by. Trout here,

these are very small, they may lay

100, up to 300 eggs down there. It

will take a few months for them to

develop, quite slowly, dependant on

the temperature of the water. When

they do hatch out there'll be

crustaceans for them to eat. If you

go down to your river and see the

strange pattern of the dark and

light you will know what made it.

The process of the eggs hatching out

is very weather-dependant. What will

happen to the weather? Well, I know

a man who knows. It is time to go

over to find out.

Some rain this week. River levels

holding up. We have been mild to

cold a lot this winter and seen

unusual things. This adder out and

about in Devon. The sun is getting

stronger at this time of year. I

have seen bats flying at dusk. Mild

to cold and back again.

The forest is home to red squirrels.

It has been occasionally storming,

nothing too bad for the birds but if

you are doing some garden bird

watching you know it has been mild.

Turning colder this week, weather

systems working south, cold air

behind, some wintry showers. It's

already turning colder in Sherborne,

a frost is setting in and after a

mild start to the week, the rest of

the week will be single figures. A

lot of winter is left yet. The great

news is that there is a lot of

Winterwatch left yet too!

news is that there is a lot of

Winterwatch left yet too!

It's going

to be chilly, the woolly hats coming

out. At the weekend, loads of you

get involved in the bird watch. Some

of you may have done it today. Lots

of pictures on Twitter. That is

molar. I like how she has her

bird-watching books out -- that is

Lola. This is Batman looking for

Robin. He's dressed up and he his

binoculars. The old folk are doing

it as well, the Abbey Fields said

Alden 's care home have been

counting too. Well done to the body.

This is possibly one of the greatest

citizen science projects running in

the world, it has been running for a

long time, enormous numbers of

people take part, over half a

million last year so we can generate

real data. We have no data from this

year yet but we have a graft, the

last ten years. A couple of species

we can look at, it shows how many

birds are appearing in the garden

over the hour. Look at greenfinch,

declining rapidly over the last ten

years and the wood pigeon is

increasing. What's happening?

Woodpigeon, up 51.6%. Maybe because

they aren't migrating to the

continent and they are coming into

our gardens? Greenfinches are

declining because they are infected

with a disease in gardens which has

been knocking them out quite

seriously.

The RSPB will be putting

the results together and we will

know them in due course. When you

were doing your bit garden bird

watch, how many of you saw something

like this? This was sent in by the

wildlife gadget man. You can see a

rat coming out of the hedges to the

garden bird feeder. Keep watching

its eye in the corner. Keep

watching, watch closely, and look at

that! A tawny owl comes in. Did it

get the

that! A tawny owl comes in. Did it

get the rat? Let's have a look

again. It's in the bush.

get the rat? Let's have a look

again. It's in the bush. It comes

out... I don't think so, Chris,

because it would have been

struggling a bit more.

That is a

great prey item for a tawny owl, the

rat would have been 100 grams at

least. They are formidable nocturnal

predators, taking advantage of that

rat. We've just Mr seeing a badger

on the thermal cameras but we can

look at it now. It isn't one of our

collared individuals.

It is looking

gorgeous.

It is a thermal image,

what is white is warmer and what is

darker is cooler. We can see the

animals unobtrusively, there is no

infrared light. A bit of grooming.

With the wet weather, it is a

bonanza for worms, I think it's

getting them.

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Please get in touch, we love it when

you do. Let's go back to Islay where

Gillian is looking for otters that

are hanging around a whiskey

distillery, the perfect place to do

some wildlife watching, if you ask

me!

Welcome back to Islay. Yes,

we've come to a whiskey distillery

because we've been following four

otters to use this coastline

regularly. We have a live camera

which we want to go to straightaway

and see if we have any action. There

you

you can see, there's no action but

we've seen signs of otters

everywhere. Have a look at this. If

I live this up here... -- lift this

up. This is a couch, which is like a

daytime hideaway. If you look here,

the otter that's been using it has

been busy. Fragments of cell, bits

of crab shell here. This is

unmistakable -- fragments of shell.

Whoever is using this is having a

jolly good time. Winter is a really

difficult time for all animals,

otters are no exception and the

obvious reason, one of the main

thing is, they need to stay warm.

They've got to eat 15% of their body

weight each day to meet energy

requirements. That's not easy when

the water is hovering around 8-10d.

You don't have to take my word for

it, look at these pictures. They are

the mountain is here. Imagine how

cold the water is. That is our dog

otter, out on a foraging trip. As he

goes down he isn't chasing fish in

the water column, he's looking for

sleeping Fish, nocturnal fish that

are hiding away in cracks and

crevices. Each dive is 15-20

seconds, he comes back up for air

and then he dives back down again.

He knows the territory well, he

knows where he's had success and

caught fish before. This time when

he comes up he's got something.

caught fish before. This time when

he comes up he's got something. But

that's a tiny morsel, he'll have to

do that again and again through the

day. After 20 minutes in the water,

his body temperature will drop by

about 1 degrees and eventually he's

going

about 1 degrees and eventually he's

going to get out.

about 1 degrees and eventually he's

going to get out. You be seen your

dogs doing this, having a good shake

and the next thing they do is roll

around. He looks for a lovely

and the next thing they do is roll

around. He looks for a lovely patch

of seaweed and that looks like it

feels good! But the reality is that

grooming isn't just about feeling

good, it's absolutely vital to their

survival. Their fur coats are like

their survival suits and may need

maintaining. We've got this old pelt

here which I thought would be nice

to show you. It is absolutely smooth

on the outside, it has long hair,

but when you peel the layer back,

you can see this thick fluffy under

fur. It is so thick I can't actually

see the skin underneath it. There

are 50,000 hairs in a square

centimetre, about the size of mind

and nail. That acts to trap the warm

air by the otter's skin. To give you

a sense of how dense that is, a dog

has 9000 squares per centimetre. So

it's an incredible adaptation. The

adults are great hunters but what

about the juveniles? Let's have a

look.

about the juveniles? Let's have a

look. This is our juvenile here.

They can swim from quite young, but

they need about two years to become

expert divers. While they are

learning how to dive really well,

they have to go after the easier

prey, but less nutritious. That

isn't a fish, he has caught a crab.

You can imagine that crabs are not

easy to eat out on the water so the

juveniles have two waste a lot of

energy going onto dry land to

process the crab and eat it. When

he's done that he's going to go back

out again and find more. These

he's done that he's going to go back

out again and find more. These

juveniles are on an energetic knife

edge and this really steep learning

curve shows up in the statistics.

Less than half of all otters make it

to four years old and this first

year of winter, the first winter is

the most challenging time. But if

this couch over here and all these

scraps of shrapnel are anything to

go by, then we feel that these

otters here, the juveniles should do

well this winter. It's been so

lovely getting to know these

animals. Tomorrow we're going to be

heading to the south of the island,

where it's possibly the best place

in the country, all of Britain, to

see golden eagles. It's also where a

very passionate scientist has been

championing a little-known bird.

I am Jamie and I study a very niche

finch living in hard to reach places

called the Twite. They are a little

brown finch. You generally hear them

first and you wouldn't recognise

where the call is coming from. In

winter they move to the coast.

Currently they have a nature reserve

on Islay where we are looking at the

population which was planted by the

RSPB.

This large winter flock offers

Jamie the opportunity to study their

movements and survival through a

collaring programme.

To catch Twite

we need to use a net which fires

over the net as they fly in to feed.

Doctson, go! It means we catch the

entire flock at once and there is a

team to process these birds and

extract them -- Doctson, go!

We colour in the Twite as

individuals. With collaring is we

don't have two capture the birds

again, anyone can read them and send

us the data, it is a citizen science

project. We rely on bird watchers to

report them to us. We've had over

130 people reporting Twite in the

time we've had the project so far.

Twite and Lynette interestingly our

two of the only species that feed on

these seeds which have no in

vertebrates diet whatsoever which

mean that Twite rely on meadows.

Farming practices have meant that

the meadows are less viable and the

population has subsequently

declined. In the last ten years in

England we've seen them decline as

much as 50%. We know that the

decline is continuing despite

conservation.

conservation. The Welsh and Northern

Irish populations are very small

comedy in this one, probably less

than 150 pairs now. The Scottish

ones have several thousand pairs

although they are hard to monitor.

They are very remote readers and

easy to miss in the expansive

moorland -- remote breeders. They

are declining in places where we are

looking and they may disappear

without any of us noticing.

Research historically has favoured

charismatic species, they draw the

funding and time, they engage

collective imagination. Birds that

live a long way away in wet, windy

moorland, no one sees, they deserve

the same amount of protection. You

just get colder doing it!

It's so true, research favours the

charismatic but it's great to see

the little brown birds getting some

support.

Got to champion the

underdog. Let's go to the thermal

camera where we've got one of our

badgers, in fact two badgers. This

is as what we are calling the

century set meaning the animal you

see on the side of your screen is

Mark, after Mark Almond. They are

very busy at the sets at this time

of year, there's a lot of digging

going on, over the next month or so

the females are going to give birth

so they are cleaning out the set and

bringing in some bedding and you can

see some on the surface. This is

life but a few moments ago we saw

some badger behaviour. Here is Mark

doing some mutual grooming with

another badger in the set there.

Tickling its Soft Cells! Galan how

many of these are we going to get

in?

We've tried so hard to get them and

finally we have succeeded. We like

an experiment and we are lucky at

Sherborne because there are lots of

farmland birds, things like these.

We have Lynette 's -- linnets,

yellow hammers, skylarks. These

birds have been in dramatic decline

in recent years but there is active

management going on at Sherborne

which attracts them and makes a

habitat for them. At this time of

year they flock together which is

why we decided to do an experiment.

Many farmland bird species are in

trouble, loss of habitat, the

intensification of agriculture are

knocking them back but many farmers

and sign up to Stuart said --

stewardship schemes: putting down

seeds and some farmers put the seeds

out to make sure that the

populations prosper. We have a

mixture here, typical of the kind of

thing that goes out on the field for

those birds. But which seeds are

eaten by which species? We've got a

simple experiment, six trainees and

into each one of them we have poured

a different kind of seed. -- six

trainees. Days is whether flocks

have been coming to feed. We have

rape seed...

We will continue to monitor these

over the next few days, recording

which species appear so, we can see

which of these seized seeds are

beneficial and which are left. My

prediction is they will go for the

rape seed. If we get any garden

birds in, the greenfinches they will

go for them. What about you?

I think

maybe the wheat. No, sunflower. I

think you are right right. A lot

have visited the feeders. We will

look at that tomorrow. We have had

quite a bit of a success with that

already.

Those are not the only

species we see flocking together at

this time of year. If you were out

and about in the late afternoon you

might see corvids forming very large

and impressive flocks.

They are very

intelligent. Which is the most

intelligent? We decided to take the

two largest corvids and put them to

a test. It was an epic battle. It

was a feathery fight for supremacy.

It was the clash of the corvids, or

should that be... Game of crows? !

The carrion crow... It is the

ultimate battle of the brainy birds.

But which one will be crowned king

of the corvids?

There can only be one winner.

There can only be one winner the

Game of Crows! This is Bran the

Raven. He weighs 7.1 and he has a

wingspan of 1.35 metres. His

favourite toy is a stone. But don't

let that fool you because this is

the master mind of the bird world.

And that's why I'm I'm with him.

That sounds like a challenge. Let me

introduce you to Zim. She a carrion

crow. Although he's half the size,

crows are considered fearless, one

of our most clever birds. At 22

years of age, he's been through the

wars, but with age comes experience.

Which is why I'm championing Zim.

When you play the Game of crows, you

win or you die.

Not you, mate!

The raven and crow

will be set four games. Each

designed to test their

problem-solving abilities.

problem-solving abilities.

They have

been familiar rised with the props,

but not taught or trained to master

them.

Game one - the iron thrown. --

the iron throne. This will test

their ability for survival in the

wild.

The birds must out-compete

each other by removing the swords as

quickly as possible to get a food

reward.

And before the two-minute hour glass

runs out.

First up, Bran, the raven. About the

size of a buzzard ravens are the

largest member of the crow family.

Let it begin.

The sands of time are ticking.

So first up the raven. Straight in,

Martin. Look at that.

The accuracy

of the bill too.

You might think it

is big and clumpy.

Come on, do your

stuff.

In fact, the dexterity is

remarkable. Down goes the bait.

Oh,

he's got it. Looking for more. Well

done!

And the sands of time say 50%.

50%. That is a very good effort. I

am impressed.

Most people think the

beak of the raven is there to bash

out the brains and peck out the

eyes. What we have seen is a

demonstration of the fact it has

remarkable dexterity. Not only did

it remove the swords very quickly,

it did it neatly.

I think the crow

can do better.

Let's reset the iron

throne.

Bring on the ancient and

slightly grumpy crow.

Well done!

He's nippy! Look at this!

Good boy! He 's got it. Check the

sands of time. Oh! Only about one

third through there, mate.

Well

done. He's old... But he's bright.

1-0 to the crow.

Game two - the guillotine.

Game two - the guillotine. This

tests corvid curiosity. This is a

game to access food sources.

Here

they must act

they must act as executioneer.

Take two. About four grains.

Four

grains!

That was really impressive because

even if it didn't work he went for

it again.

it again.

They are both liking and

fearing new things. They need to get

the balance right. He came straight

in and the first thing he thought is

there is a piece of string,ly pull

it, something nice might happen.

I

am worried now, the crow may have a

little job on here. Come on... Good

boy. Pull the string, pull the

string, come on...

Oh, he's having a

look around! Hammering the blade.

He's got it.

Hold on!

Cheated.

Excellent. He does haven't to pull

the string. He's gone straight in

there and bashed away and got the

food. Impressive.

You say that, but

he's behaving like the hound, it's

all brute force with little brains.

It is effective.

It was mission

accomplished, but not as fast. I

think 26 grains of sand. So the

raven takes it.

Because he's so old

you must allow him a certain amount

of...

No, mate, not on Game of

crows. No mercy. Let's draw swords

for the next round.

1-1... All to

play for!

It is nail-biting stuff! You two

looked quite dashing in your

medieval outfits. You should wear

them more often. Who will be the

winning bird? Will the crow take the

crown or will the raven reign? Cast

your votes online, on our website.

We will reveal what you thought

tomorrow before part two of Game of

Crows. There can only be one winner.

Which bird will it be? All exciting

stuff. I am on the edge of my seat.

It is very difficult to tell the

difference between members of the

crow family. There are eight in

total. And the tricky ones are the

black-bodied one, the raven, carrion

crow and the jackdaw and rock. There

is the black bodied chuff. My

favourite birds. You only see those

on the coast. They are rare.

Beautiful red bill and legs. There

are the easy ones, the magpie, the

ja and the hooded crow. So the black

bodied one. Here is our handy guide

to telling the difference. First of

all, size.

One of the best props

ever devised. A pop-up raven. A

wingspan of 1.3 metres and a

distance between beak and tail about

65 centimetres, these birds weigh

about 1.3kgs. They are huge birds,

ass you can see.

That is -- as you

can see. That is massive. Are you

sure that is the size?

This is the

size.

Right, here we go, and this is

the carrion crow, much, much smaller

than the raven. I have a cheat on

the back here. The wingspan is 98kms

and the weight is about -- 98

centimetres and the weight.

The Rook is lighter. A 90 centimetre

wingspan. 310 grams.

wingspan. 310 grams.

She's reading

it off the back. This is the Jack

daw. It's 75% less than your rather

massive bird over there. It is

enormous.

When they are side by side

like this, it is easy to see the

difference.

That is if you see them

in the sky. What about if you come

face-to-face with these animals on

the ground. Look at them there. The

raven, a huge head. Massive bill,

black eyes and the fortitude of that

bill you should look at and its

fluffy beard.

Then there is a crow

there. A very egapt corvid. -- a

very elegant corvid. Smaller than

the raven. What about the rook?

the raven. What about the rook? That

is like the Owen Wilson.

The Jackdaw is very attractive. It

has a nice nose. I would say it is

more like George Clooney. That very

distinctly has those lovely blue,

sort of slaty eyes.

Have you got

Jackdaws dropping sticks down your

chim anies?

chim anies? -- down your chimneys.

That was your easy guide to corvids.

Now we are running out of time. Now

a look at the kingfisher. It is

displaying extraordinary behaviour.

Look at how it is keeping its head

completely still. This

completely still. This such a

re-election.

We are back tomorrow.

It is 8pm tomorrow. Not 9pm. It is

8pm. Let's see what we have coming

up. We will be with Gillian in

Islay. She will explore that island.

It is unusual, a couple of

vegetarians go out to the butcher's

shop. That is what we did in search

of a great bird.

I will have a

mesmerising experience with the Red

Kites. We would like to apologise to

Nick Miller for calling him my

father-in-law. See you tomorrow.

8pm, not 9pm.

See you then.