Episode 4 Winterwatch

It might be our final show

but the action hasn't stopped.

We're going to burn out with a

fabulous last show.

Tonight we'll catch up

with some of our old friends.

And some chart-topping new ones.

It

sounds like a hit to me, welcome to

Winterwatch!

Hello and welcome to our final show

of Winterwatch, 2018, coming to you

live from the National Trust's

Sherborne Park estate in

Gloucestershire. We were here for

Springwatch and Autumnwatch and

we've enjoyed our time on

Winterwatch but it is sadly the

final show. Another good show, and

other scientific first and we've

also got some bad news. Mark Allman

and -- Mark Hendrie is limping badly

and I'm afraid to say we've yet to

hear from the lady. Honestly,

honestly.

Don't hold your breath!

It's been a fantastic week, we've

seen some great wildlife. Let's see

what our cameramen have been seeing.

This is the Cotswolds countryside, a

lot of grassland, rabbits and hares

you can see there. This time of year

is great for winter visitors and in

the tree at the back, the redwing.

This is a mixed flock, very common

at this time of year. Beautiful shot

of a kestrel. You can see a lot of

barn owls. We enjoyed them on

Springwatch. This one is hunting in

the day but I'm sure with the super

blue moon last night he made the

most of it, was probably out all

night. Beautiful. This is fantastic,

piece are -- fees are golden

plovers. Quite a spectacle. Lapwings

mixed in as well. A winter spectacle

not just to see but also to here as

well. I love it, don't you, that

white flash that goes across the

screen.

Gorgeous, suddenly turning

together. We've seen a lot of

wonderful things during the daylight

hours but we've also seen some

fascinating animal activity at

night. A

fascinating animal activity at

night. A couple of nights ago we had

a glimpse of a Woodcock and this is

another one that we recorded about

three minutes ago. Here's a Woodcock

doing what they do, going out at

night, finding food, worms, insects

and insect larvae. We have a

resident population of Woodcock but

they are swollen by about 1 million

migrants coming to us in the autumn.

A

migrants coming to us in the autumn.

A lovely bird. One of my favourite

Latin names. If I have any more

children I think I will call

children I think I will call them

Scolopax.

Scolopax. Have we still got it? Yes,

it's still feeding. You can see the

length of the bill, enormously long,

probing around.

Great to see because

you never see them.

probing around.

Great to see because

you never see them.

They go in

amongst the leaves and dates snuggle

down and apparently you can

amongst the leaves and dates snuggle

down and apparently you can tread on

them before they take off. Great to

see. Chris Kamara you're going to

show us?

This is a

see. Chris Kamara you're going to

show us?

This is a taxidermy

specimen to give you the idea of

scale, you can see how big is next

to this 50p piece and you can see

the remarkable plumage. When they

nestle down, as you say, in the

daytime, they are nearly impossible

to spot. Beautiful birds.

daytime, they are nearly impossible

to spot. Beautiful birds.

I once had

one in my hand, Chris, and I could

smell it. It was like

smell it. It was like Marc Almond

and herbs.

Let's sniff this one. --

it was like houmous and herbs. We've

been watching mammals using the

it was like houmous and herbs. We've

been watching mammals using the

thermal camera. We started with the

lapwing in the foreground but in the

background you can see the hares.

Quite a lot of hare activity. They

are in groups because the mating

season is coming up. You can see a

rather keen male chasing a female

and she turns around and gives him a

quick box. The females do the

boxing, driving away the unwanted

attention. This one seems to be

practising. We think it's actually

shaking water off of its feet. We're

not sure family hares there are in

the

not sure family hares there are in

the UK, there hasn't been an

up-to-date census. We know that

there are more in the east and fewer

in the south-west. Another thing to

McVeigh and introduced species. Most

people know that the rabbits were

introduced, but the hares are also.

48% of them are native and the rest

are not.

Punishing statistic when

you think about it, a lot of

non-native mammals -- astonishing

statistic.

Let's see what we

non-native mammals -- astonishing

statistic.

Let's see what we can see

on the thermal camera. We have a

hare.

Is it a hare or a rabbit?

That's a hare! It's

hare.

Is it a hare or a rabbit?

That's a hare! It's quite mild this

evening. An interesting week for the

weather because the temperature has

dropped over the last couple of days

but let's face it, the weather is

nothing when you compared it to

winter up in the Scottish Highlands.

The Cairngorms mountain 's,

Scotland's last true wilderness.

Winter brings a serene beauty to the

landscape. It's a majestic

monochrome Medley.

While much of the land is held in an

icy grip, some of the deeper locks

escape its grasp.

escape its grasp. A GoldenEye makes

the most of the opportunity.

the most of the opportunity. It is a

diving duck and must face the icy

water to find food. These ducks are

very well adapted to their

lifestyle. More compact and heavier

than other

lifestyle. More compact and heavier

than other waterfowl, they also

appear to shrink just before they

dive. Feathers squeezing together to

get rid of trapped air and reduce

buoyancy.

buoyancy. Resurfacing, the cold loch

is literally water off a duck's back

which is just as well because it

could otherwise be fatal.

The Cairngorms are the only place in

the UK that experiences a true

Arctic style winter. And the beauty

of the landscape belies the harsh

reality of life here. In the depths

of winter, animals are scarce. Only

the hardiest can survive.

Mountain hares are the largest

mammal is able to remain up here.

Having shed their summer coats, they

blend in perfectly. Only their ears

give them away. Mountain hares have

an incredibly thick coat with three

different layers

different layers of fur. To survive

in these temperatures they must rest

as much as they can. Food is scarce

on the mountain. The summer grasses

have died and only Heather remains,

hidden under the thick snow.

But hares are experts in knowing

where to

But hares are experts in knowing

where to

But hares are experts in knowing

where to

dig.

They aren't the only creatures

relying on this nutrient poor plants

to get them through the winter.

Ptarmigan are also abundant here.

Like the hares, these grouse have

special winter plumage. They are,

perhaps, the ultimate mountain

specialists and are fully equipped

to survive the cold.

to survive the cold. Expensive foot

feathers act like dual-purpose

snowshoes. Their nostrils are

hidden. And even their eyelids have

a feathery outer coating. But even

with all this protection, they still

need to hunker down to keep warm.

Snow holes give a degree of shelter

on these exposed slopes. But why dig

your own if you can steal somebody

else's.

A raised red eye: indicates that the

faith isn't about to give up his

spot in a hurry. -- the thief.

This is an unforgiving place to

overwinter but these ptarmigan, like

the other animals that live here,

have found ways to survive, even in

the UK's most extreme winter

environment.

It's absolutely beautiful in the

Cairngorms, isn't it? It has been

cold today, -4, which doesn't sound

so bad, heavy snow, wind is up to 75

mph, making it feel like -20! Now

that's cold.

And those ptarmigan are

still out there, hunker down in the

snow. You have to take your hat off

to them. We tend to think that we

know pretty much everything there is

to know about our British wildlife

but even species like the badger, we

don't know everything yet. When we

arrived at Sherborne we noticed that

the badgers weren't living like they

do in other parts of the country so

we've been working with Doctor Dawn

Scott and her team from the

University of Brighton to learn

about the ecology of these animals

here and we have tagged three of

them so we can learn about their

movements.

There are three different

setts. Let's see which ones we've

seen. This is the century would

sett, that's Marc Almond. We've seen

a lot of him, he's enjoyed the

limelight. This is the other sett,

and we've had glimpses of David

Bowie on the thermal camera. The

final sett is in a bush on the hill

and we finally seen the shy and

retiring Kate Bush. She was on the

wild and windy moors, but she came

home.

We named a badger after Kate

Bush and we respect the fact that

Kate is a rather private and even

slightly reclusive lady but come on,

Kate, but acknowledged the fact that

we named a badger after you! Not

everybody does. What about the

collars? Some people think they are

rather large. Dawn and her team are

very well qualified and well

practised, the whole thing is

strictly regulated and the collars

are very robust because they need to

be strong enough so the badgers

cannot scratch them off, they are

very strong animals. The battery is

large but it isn't heavy so the

badger isn't carrying a lot of

weight. Its large because sometimes

when we fit these tracking devices,

they are solar powered and these

animals are nocturnal, they can't

recharge the batteries so they are

carrying a battery which we hope

will last through to the end of

Springwatch, giving us later. Rest

assured, they've been tried and

tested and they aren't interrupting

the health of these animals. Let's

see what these animals are up to.

Let's take a look at the thermal

camera. Here is the sett with a

couple of animals. This is where

David is, he's just coming from the

left. That's David Bowery.

David is, he's just coming from the

left. That's David Bowery. Carrying

our collar. A bit of anal marking.

And look at this, this appears to be

mating behaviour. Whether it is

successful, we can't see because

they are being quite discreet,

making behind a tree. You can

definitely see that it is a male and

he is nibbling the nape of the

female which is typical when they go

through the copulating process. It

female which is typical when they go

through the copulating process. It

doesn't go well, she's quite grumpy

about it. This is the time of year

when they should be mating. If the

female has given birth than the

males tried to mate with them as

quickly as possible and they

practice delayed implantation, so

the embryos are implanted later in

the year so the female can regulate

the number of young she's going to

have in her litter in the

springtime.

We've seen a lot of

action and at this time of year they

don't hibernate but they will go

into winter lethargy and have long

periods of inactivity above ground

but that's not what we're seeing

here probably because it's been so

mild.

And they've been hanging

around the setts either because they

are giving birth or keen on mating.

A lot of activity from Marc Almond

but there has been a bit of a

development.

If you look closely you can see he

is holding up his left back foot,

clearly injured. He can't put any

pressure on it. We haven't seen any

other bite marks on him so we don't

know if this is from a fight, maybe,

maybe he has broken it. By quite

robust animals, so we are quite

hopeful that he will be OK -- they

are quite. He seems to be OK. He

disappears into the woods and there

is clearly a fight going on. This

was him at 3:41am this morning.

Tending that injured leg, doing some

preening. Interesting to know how

many badgers we have in this sett.

This is a different badger, there is

no collar on this and there is a

white patch on its back. We could

almost call that white patch so we

know which one we are talking about.

These are different badgers again.

They have markings. They are very

subtle but you can see the black

stripe, and the other one doesn't

have that. Subtle but enough to

determine that they are different

badgers and we know we have four

badgers in this sett and we think

there might be Cubs, as well, and

the reason we think this, this is a

female chasing off another badger

out of that hole, it doesn't happen

just once. Throughout the night it

happens time and time again. As I

say, we think she might have given

birth on the ground, and clearly

those Cubs will be tiny and

vulnerable, and the main reason she

is chasing the badgers away is

because infanticide is common in the

badgers especially with females, a

female badger might go down there

and kill the young badgers which

have been born by another female.

We

have had them coloured for a number

of weeks and this is what we have

learned so far, this is a map of our

sett. David Bowie has been ranging

over a large area and spending a lot

of time in the open pasture area,

may be feeding on worms, and a bit

of time in the woodland, we think

there might be some outlying setts

so he might be dividing his time

between a main sett and an outline

one. We have not seen much of Kate

Bush but we have been getting plenty

of good data, and she has been

spending some time in the woods and

also time out foraging in the fields

as well. Lastly, Mark Allman, his

behaviour is different, he has been

spending 75% of his time in the wood

-- Mark Allman.

Given that he is robust, he weighed

16 kilograms when he was collared,

he is probably potentially the

dominant male in that group, and it

could be that he is focusing his

attention in the woods so that he is

ready to mate. That limp is clearly

a concern but I don't think it was a

full on fight because if it was, we

would expect other injuries. He is a

very handsome badger and hasn't been

torn up around the ears and nose.

We

were keen to see what has happened

to him since and this is what we saw

earlier. That is not Mark because he

doesn't have a collar, but he is

still clearly limping. We have been

keeping a eye on him through the day

and it seems that he is OK. This is

interesting. We have heard

aggressive behaviour.

Look how

cautions that other animal is when

approaching him.

It is not

aggressive, though. Very passive.

Now some in all rubbing between the

two of them but no doubt who is the

top badger. It is marked. -- mark.

Often happens with badgers and

fingers crossed they will be OK.

We

will be monitoring him over the next

couple of weeks to make sure that

his injuries heal otherwise we will

try to get some veterinary care. Our

farmland birds are in big trouble,

we tell you that quite often, with

some quite serious declines, and we

know that this is because of changes

in agricultural practice in terms of

loss of habitat and impact on the

environment especially after the

Second World War, but there is one

species that have suffered more than

most, and its range shrank to a tiny

part of the South West, a very

beautiful bird and Gillian was lucky

enough to go down and meet it.

In the depths of winter our farmland

might seem completely devoid of life

but a field like this one is full

and has proven to be a lifeline for

one of our rarest birds. This

bunting, a close relative of the

yellowhammer, although never a

common, 100 years ago these

beautiful birds could be found on

farmland right across southern

Britain. But after the 1950s the

numbers plummeted and by 1989 the

entire population was confined to

one tiny corner of the country, the

coastal farmlands of South Devon. I

met with RSPB conservation officer

Cathy who came here 20 years ago to

try and save these birds from what

seems like inevitable extinction

from our shores. This is such a

beautiful part of the country, but

why have these buntings being able

to hang on?

This area is still a

area of mixed farmland, so we have

grassland and arable on the same

farm, and in their heyday in the

1930s, that is what all farms across

the UK would have had. But since

then we have seen farm

specialisation so in the east you

have big arable farms and in the

West is good for growing grass

because it rains and we have a lot

of Pastoral farms. Having this mixed

landscape which the buntings favour

has become rarer. Where we have

mixed farming is where we find them.

In summer they feed their chicks.

Miles of hedgerows provides the

perfect place to nest but it is the

arable fields and how they are

farmed that is crucial to their

surviving the winter. John Andrews

family have been farming this

stretch of Devon coast for four

generations La

generations La -- and for nearly 20

years he has been trying to bring

about a change of fortune for these

birds. How has farming changed in

your time?

Going back to the old

ways, the single biggest thing we

have done is shifting away from

autumn planting of our cereal crops

so we were planting in September and

October and then the club was

overwintering, but what we have done

is move back to sowing in the spring

and leaving the club residue over

Windsor and in so doing provide

feeding for overwintering birds --

over winter. So, Gillian, take a

look at what we have got here. Our

spring barley stubble but what you

can see is the weeds. These weeds

provide food. These tufty clumps of

grass, if we take some, and rub out

the seed, here, you will see there

is food here being provided for

overwintering birds and if we look

underneath we have some grains of

Bali. These will provide feed, as

well. If this was an autumn crop

this would now be the new crop which

would be harvested next year and

there wouldn't be any provision for

food in the autumn crop.

This simple

shift in sowing times is having a

dramatic impact on the birdlife on

this farm.

There, look.

Oh!

Overlook. Those markings, those

facial markings, they are beautiful.

Looking so magnificent. Perched

right on the top.

They have that

lash of markings right across the

eye.

Once you have seen that, you

know you have got one. Oh, that has

made my day.

And that proves that

what we are doing here on the farm

is working. It makes my day, as

well.

It must be a great have such a

rare bird.

Yeah, I'm proud to walk

round here and see that, to think we

are making a difference.

And he's

not alone for the there are now over

200 farms involved in the bunting

recovery project and is collective

effort has benefited these birds in

a big way.

a big way. Fantastic. Thanks to the

efforts of the RSP and those

excellent farmers in Devon the

number of buntings has gone up from

around 100 pairs to a thousand pairs

-- RSPB. Great news. Some of the

farmers here in Sherborne are also

putting themselves out on a limb for

the wildlife and especially for the

skylarks. The Skylark is a beautiful

bird. It flies up very high, the

mail, to display, and then it

parachutes down and you get this

lovely Skylark song. The lark

ascending and descending, absolutely

beautiful, and you start to hear

that song now, and by the end of the

breed you will hear this much more.

Very uplifting. -- by the end of

February. But they are difficulties

in studying the skylarks, because

when bird ringers want to catch

their birds they put up those missed

nets with very thin mesh so the

birds can't see it but skylarks tend

to live right out in the middle of

the fields and if you put these nets

up they conceived them very easily,

and that makes catching them to ring

them extremely difficult -- they can

see them very easily for them but

there is a brand-new technique and

in December I went out with a bird

ringers group to see them in action,

and they using a thermal camera,

much smaller version compared to

ours, to see the skylarks as they

are roosting in the fields at night,

picking up the temperature of the

birds. This is Anna Field, one of

the naturalists here at Sherborne.

She is brilliant at catching the

birds. She has got that Skylark. You

couldn't possibly have seen that

without the thermal camera. She puts

it gently into the bag. And then it

gets taken off to be processed and

that is what we did next, we had a

Skylark in hand. There we go.

Aren't

they gorgeous question at for a

little brown bird -- aren't they

gorgeous?

It is fascinating, you

hear them, the sound of summer, the

beautiful evocative sound but to see

them close up is a real treat.

Ring

number 37.

37.

We are doing a winger

measurement. 116. -- wing.

This new

technique allows you to catch many

more skylarks and ring them than you

had been able to do before, why?

It

is precisely because so few have

been caught in the past and it means

that we get very little data back

from those skylarks to enable us to

know where they moved to and how

long they live and changes in their

body size. It is a red listed

species, endangered.

We need other

people to use the technique we can

acquire more data?

Indeed, and then

our knowledge of the Skylark will

increase because we will get more

recoveries of birds that have been

ruined. -- ringed.

To give you an

idea of how successful the thermal

camera has been, they managed to

capture a total of... Let me get

this right, 200 birds. The whole

country, 200 skylarks, but in the

winter of 2016-2017, they caught a

total of 400 on just three separate

farms, so this is clearly very

successful, this way of catching

those very difficult birds. While we

were out on that trip, we didn't

just catch skylarks, we got

something else. This is a meadow

pipit, also a very difficult birds

to catch, but this was a golden

plover, and this was the first one

which is ever been ringed in the

whole of Gloucester. The whole

ringing group hope that this

technique can be extended to other

ringing groups up and down the

country so they can catch the very

difficult birds. Chris, this is a

great technique can others use it?

They have been using it, Ian

Livingstone and the Clyde ringing

group have been using them to catch

another enigmatic bird, the jack

snipe. Like the common snipe but it

is a winter migrants arriving in the

UK. We have no idea how many arrive

in the winter, maybe 100,000. Ian

and his colleagues last winter

caught 20 of them and fitted them

with geode locators, tiny devices

recording the information about

where the bird is. This year one of

them came back and they cod it and

where the bird is. This year one of

them came back and they cod it and

discovered something extraordinary.

They cod the bird last year in

December, it stayed the other side

They cod the bird last year in

December, it stayed the other side

of Glasgow on the western side until

February, then it flew over to

northern Germany where it spent

between March and April and then it

took an enormous flight out here to

the top northern part of Russia

where it stayed between May and

September, presumably breeding. In

September it went back over here and

arrived in Sweden in October and

finally it jumped back over to

Scotland where they recovered the

locator. The distance between

Glasgow and the reserve here in

Russia is 3500 kilometres and this

bird weighs just 55 grams. This is

the first time ever in the UK that

we found out where any of the Jack

Snipe are going to or from and is

the second time in the world. Great

piece of science from Ian and the

Clyde ringing group. That's what we

piece of science from Ian and the

Clyde ringing group. That's what we

like, those tracking devices are

teaching us a lot more a lot more

quickly about these animals so we

can better conserve them. Britain's

favourite mammal is in a

catastrophic decline and we are

really worried about it but we'll is

future be science fiction or science

fact? -- will its future.

Climate change has altered Britain.

Combined with unrelenting urban

sprawl, it's had a devastating

effect on the natural world. And for

some species, time is running out.

Do you like our hedgehog? It's not

artificial but it is increasingly

rare. Our spine manner should be

hibernating but this winter it's

just not cold enough. The drive to

find food forces her onto the busy

streets.

Quite an experience, to live in

fear, isn't it?

Cities aren't built with hedgehogs

in mind.

in mind. She's not equipped to deal

with this unnatural landscape. To

survive each night she must eat at

least 16% of her own body weight.

But in winter, food is scarce.

An upturned rubbish bin provides

temporary relief. And this meagre

meal may have to do for tonight.

In a metropolis full of synthetic

smells... She's drawn to the toxic

chemicals coating abandoned car

parks.

But hunger is not the reason here.

She's mixing the grease with saliva

to form a thick foam. She copes hurt

finds in it. Could this be a ploy to

deter potential predators with a

noxious taste and smell? It is

called self anointing and where once

she would have used became material

and natural toxins now she makes do

with man-made toxins. Nothing is

worse than having an itch you can

never scratch. Escaping the bright

lights, she struggles through a

small hole in a fence into a darker

territory. Holes like this used to

be commonplace. But now she's lucky

to find one.

to find one. Our gardens were once

an oasis for hedgehogs. But this

sterile environment replicates the

city around it, restricting what

life remains. An abundance of slug

pellets poisons her food.

This is no place to find a meal.

A new danger looms. A busy road is a

dangerous obstacle for a hedgehog.

Those self-anointed spines won't

save her here.

With the volume of traffic out of

control, roads have crisscrossed and

fragmented her brave new world. She

needs to find refuge before dawn.

Finally, a place where she can

retire.

retire. Do hedgehogs dream of

Electric slugs? She's seen things we

wouldn't believe, meadows blowing

under the consolation of Orion,

moonbeams listening by the garden

gate and if we don't act, those

moments will be lost in time, like

tears in rain.

tears in rain.

That may seem like a

very bleak vision of the future but

sadly, for some of our hedgehogs,

that's already a reality. They used

to be common but now you are lucky

to see one in your gardens. Since

2002 they've declined by 30% and we

think there are only about 1 million

left in the UK. This winter must be

very confusing because in so areas

it's been so mild. If you're lucky

to see one in your garden, please

put down some food for him, a tin of

dog meat. A lot of information on

the website. Go to the website and

check it out.

In the last couple of

days on-site in Sherborne we've been

hearing a curious sound.

RATTLING SOUND.

Have you been hearing that? What is

it? It is a woodpecker drumming.

They do it at this time of year, the

males do it to attract a mate and

define their territory. We managed

to film one doing its drumming. It's

right behind the caravan.

You can

clearly hear it.

clearly hear it.

DRUMMING SOUND.

It

was filmed this morning.

Extraordinary sound.

They can

actually hit the wood is 20 times in

a second as they are doing that with

that fantastic impact. You'd imagine

they get a headache. It is not any

old piece of wood, they are very

selective, to find the right one.

At

this time of year, all times of

year, you see them trying lots of

different trees and they are looking

to see which one is the loudest

because that's what they want. We'll

demonstrate it. You have to use your

imagination a bit! This is a

woodpecker, my drill! And this is

its beak. This is a solid piece of

wood. If I do that, pretty loud.

Quite noisy.

Let's try a hollow

piece of wood.

I will illustrate the

hollowness.

LOUDER SOUND.

Clearly that is a lot louder so the

hollow tree resonates the sound,

meaning it goes much further. They

are looking for a hollow tree. What

is truly remarkable is the force

that they experience when their beak

hits the tree. They can experience a

deceleration force of 1000 G, 1000

times the force of gravity. Now, if

we did that, then just 100 G would

be enough to kill us. So they can

cope with ten times what we can cope

with. So how have they adapted to do

that sort of head-banging?

Fascinating biology. There are three

things. Firstly the structure of the

skull itself, the bones. That is a

section through the skull of a

woodpecker. It looks very open but

that's actually very tough, light

but strong, so it resists fracture.

They don't fracture their skulls as

baits into the wood. Their brains,

they have very little cerebrospinal

fluid, so the brain fills the skull

and it doesn't move around as they

bang into the word. And this is the

most extraordinary thing, this is

the skull of a woodpecker.

most extraordinary thing, this is

the skull of a woodpecker. Can you

see these little bits going over the

top? That is a special bone that

acts like a safety belt. It wraps

around and as the skull goes in, it

grabs hold very tight to the skull.

Extraordinary bit of biology.

grabs hold very tight to the skull.

Extraordinary bit of biology.

Have

you ever tried head-banging? It

really hurts! You know, when you

were younger, to the music.

I

remember that!

From King wishes to

hen harriers... From Kingfisher 's!

Tonight Gillian is finding out why

Islay is one of the best places in

the UK to see them.

Welcome to a beautiful moonlit but

windy night on Islay. We are on the

RSPB reserve. Last night we were

down on the marshland and tonight

we've come to higher ground.

we've come to higher ground. This is

an open and wild country and it's

dominated by heather moorland. It's

managed by the RSPB for the benefit

of ground nesting birds and also

wildlife. What that means is that

they keep the cattle off and they

leave it alone and this is what you

get. This really tall heather which

is the perfect habitat for a very

special bird. The hen harrier. Now

that's a female. You can see the

white rump and that fail, sometimes

they are called ring tails. She will

fly low, using her very keen

eyesight, looking for prey but she's

going to listen for them. A bit like

an owl, the shape of the face

focuses the sound as she's hunting.

This isn't a different species, this

is the male with the grey back and

black wing tips, strikingly

different. One third smaller than

the female and very agile meaning he

can fly low and fast and flush out

birds that he hunts. This is a nice

night to try and demonstrate why

this is a great habitat for the

bird. If I hunker down by can

immediately feel the benefit of

this. I'm sheltered by the wind and

it actually feels warmer. This is

exactly where the birds are going to

nest and in the winter, come here to

roost. Now, this reserve has the

densest population, one of the

densest of hen harriers in the

country. Last year, six breeding

pairs successfully raised 20 chicks.

To put it in perspective, in England

where it's estimated there is enough

habitat to support 300 breeding

pairs, there were only three. So, in

the reserve, possibly the size of a

bit larger than two square miles,

double the number of breeding pairs

of fine harriers than in the whole

of England. -- of hen harriers. Hen

harriers have been persecuted for

centuries, especially in their

breeding grounds in the upper

heather moors. The RSPB has been

running the life project since 2014

to help these birds recover,

especially on the mainland. They do

this by monitoring their resting

grounds, talking to local

communities and landowners and

satellite tagging some of the

chicks.

All of this will hope to pinpoint

places of persecution but also where

the birds go in the winter and the

results of that are quite

surprising. There is a yellow track

up there in the North, that is

Orkney and there is a bird that

doesn't range very far but if you

look further south there is a red

track and that is a bird which was

born in Clyde and went across to the

Hebrides and back again. This starts

to show that these birds do range

further than we previously thought

and the next one was a real

surprise, however. Take a look at

this. This is a track of a bird

called Tony, starting off way up

north in Scotland and went all the

way and made landfall in the north

of Spain. These birds are ranging

much further than previously thought

and that means they -- their

conservation must include their

whole range and that starts in

breeding grounds like here on this

reserve where they are free from

this occasion. Beard is not just a

haven for hen harriers, it is a

haven for all sorts of Harriers --

Islay is not just a haven for ten

one.

We have seen a truly spectacular

landscape.

And all that is left to say is thank

you to all the people that have

helped on this island, everyone who

has helped, you know who you are,

that is it from tonight, it is back

to Sherborne. Thank you, Gillian. If

you were watching Springwatch in

2016 you will know we watched the

fortunes of a golden eagle, it

hatched on the 11th of May in

Scotland and we had cameras on the

nest and we watched this bird

growing. It was fantastic to see it

growing through this process. In

July I went to put a satellite tag

on this bird. It continued to grow,

and then on the 2nd of August 2016

she took to the air, we had a vote

to see which name you would like to

call the Eagle and she became known

as Freya, the Springwatch a go, and

since

since the 2nd of August 2016 no one

has knowingly seen Freya alive but

that tracking device gives us a lot

of data and we know exactly where

she is and she has been roaming over

a huge area, many thousands of

kilometres, typical of a young

eagle, looking for a territory. Good

news, just before Christmas, we

found her at a carcass. This is her,

the first time we have seen her. She

has grown into a fantastic animal,

you can see the tracking device on

her back, she also has a lot of

white in detail, showing you that

she is a young bird, and she went

start to breed until she is four

years old, another couple of years

before she is big enough to

establish a territory and that might

mean fighting with another

territorial female. A few days ago,

we saw her again, 60 kilometres from

where the film was taken, we got

these pictures of Freya our golden

eagle, so great to know she is still

out there and we will be keeping a

very very close eye on all of her

activities.

Greater note she is safe

and sound and fingers crossed it

stays that way -- great to know. In

December Keith Ross said in this

very interesting footage, this is in

Ramsgate harbour -- sent in. These

are two female kingfishers having a

go at each other, one is a adult,

with the red legs, and the other is

a juvenile, and it has a pale belly.

We wanted to know what happened

after that fight so we sent one of

our cameramen to Ramsgate to find

out.

The sun rises over Ramsgate harbour.

Glinting across the water and onto a

metal walkway. Revealing the

favourite roosting site of a

solitary kingfisher. Hidden from

predators and sheltered from the

storms, it is a perfect base from

which this little bird can hunt. She

uses the gaps between the wall and

pontoons like a river. And it is

quickly apparent why she is here.

Although kingfishers will eat prawns

and even crabs, this bird is after

fish. It swallowed headfirst to

prevent the scales from sticking in

her throat.

her throat. So, is this one of the

fighting females from Keith's

footage? With the same pale belly

and juvenile markings it seems she

is. But what about the adult bird,

is she still living in the harbour?

The pale bellied juvenile uses a

shrill territorial call, a sign that

another bird is in the vicinity. As

she retreats to safety a second

kingfisher does arrive and flies

daringly close.

daringly close. This one seems to

live near the fuel barges on the

other side of the harbour. But a

closer inspection reveals the brown

feet and Bill of a juvenile bird.

This is not the adult from the

fight. On rivers kingfishers hold

separate territories of up to five

kilometres and the pickings in the

harbour must be rich for them to

tolerate such close proximity. But

nevertheless, competition is still

high. The juvenile flashes by with

pale belly in hot pursuit. And then

a third kingfisher rockets out of

the old tunnels. Clearly another

territorial kingfisher but is she

the female we are looking for? A

close up view reveals bright red

feet and strong orange lower bill

markings. Finally it seems we have

found the adult female from the

footage.

footage. So, two juveniles and one

adult female kingfisher are sharing

the same harbour home.

But Ramsgate harbour's busy port

life means that the dynamics are

constantly changing. When huge

fishing boats dock along the

refuelling jetty one of the juvenile

is favoured hunting spots is lost.

Forced to move on she tries to use

the other bird's haunts but both

chase her off. It seems territorial

instincts are hard to lose

especially at this time of year when

food is at a premium. Only a quarter

of some adult kingfishers make it

through the winter months and it

seems at first that the ousted

juvenile could be one of the

season's casualties.

season's casualties. But then a few

days later something remarkable

happens. Not in the harbour but in

the town's old Victorian boating

lake a mile up the road. It is a

juvenile and the chances are it is

the one we have been following but

what is she doing at this abandoned

paddling pool? A successful dive

reveals the answer.

reveals the answer. Goldfish. They

were released into the pool by the

cafe owner a few years ago and now

there are hundreds. It seems the

juvenile has chanced upon a lucky

find. Which hopefully will bring a

happy ending, not just for her, but

for all three of these remarkable

birds, adopting their own tactics to

survive the British winter.

I love a kingfisher. It is a living

joule. I think. If I see a

kingfisher in a day it makes me

chirpy for the rest of the day. Some

of you have seen kingfishers in the

most extraordinary places. Can you

see that, the top left-hand corner?

It is waiting for a number nine.

I

was going to say that!

What is going

on there, that looks stuffed. This

is in the middle of the pavement.

Lovely, thanks for sending those in.

I'm afraid it is time for us to go.

It is goodbye from us.

Goodbye from

Islay.

Thanks to the National Trust

and the staff at the Sherborne

Estate and to the villages down in

Sherborne who have been tolerant of

our intrusion and lastly to the

scientists who have helped us in the

course of the series.

That might be

the end of Winterwatch but stay in

touch on Twitter and Instagram and

Facebook. We will be back for

spring, for Springwatch, but in the

meantime we will leave you with some

highlights of Winterwatch 2018. From

us, goodbye.

Goodbye.

Welcome to a brand spanking new

series of Winterwatch!

Oh! That was

a bird, wasn't it?

We have captured the essence of

winter.

winter.

I never thought we'd see

anything like this.

There's no mercy

on this game.

Look at this. It is

nail-biting stuff!

And check this

out.

out.

Anything could happen tonight.

Oh! That's my sweater gone.

This is

the winter, get your wellies on and

get your binoculars and get out

there.