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Springwatch 2025 episode 7
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00:00I was an egg right and then I hatched and I was a chick and I was in a nest and there was loads
00:05of other chicks in there too with mum and then mum disappeared and I looked out there was a
00:09massive drop and all the other chicks started jumping out and I thought you've got to be
00:12joking surely I'm not going for that but I really didn't have a choice so I plucked up the courage
00:16and I leapt to be honest it didn't go very well I didn't have wings at that point it was a nasty
00:22landing I came down with a bit of bump to be honest with you anyway I've got wings now I'm
00:26a duck but it didn't matter because in the end I was famous because I was on Spring Watch
00:31hello and welcome to Spring Watch 2025
00:55coming to you from the National Trust Longshore Estate here in the Peak District National Park
01:00it's week two we've had some cracking programmes got another one coming up tonight we've got an
01:04adder fest or more of an adder feast to be honest with you we've got a nest which is new to Spring
01:10Watch we've never had one before got to say the bird is a little bit understated maybe underrated but
01:16it's one of my favourites and then we've got a remarkable sequence we're trawling through the
01:20archives of the last 20 years but this one is worth staying for marsh harrier versus brown hair wild ken
01:29hill it's really special sounds like you could show do you know what I might stick around yes
01:33thank goodness for that we're going to take you to a live nest it's not the one Chris was talking about
01:38that's a first for spring watch but it is a first for this series so let's go to it right now it's live
01:45this is a little robin's nest garden bird favourite you might even have one of these nests in your
01:51garden they nest in all sorts of places from trees to hedges to log piles to sheds hanging baskets watering
01:59cans wellies this one though I'll show you where it is because it's on the ground in that little clump of
02:06trees there's the adult with a beak full of food ready to take to the chicks and it goes there are five
02:13chicks in there they hatched just a couple of days ago and both parents are feeding them
02:19typically they feed them every 10 to 15 minutes so they have to work extremely hard in all
02:24weathers rain as well that one's looking a bit damp isn't it that beautiful red sort of orange really
02:31let's face it orangey chest but those chicks won't get those dark feathers until they're about
02:37two to three months old they fled after a couple of weeks and that could be a second or even a third
02:45brood they breed from April to August peak time is April to June what do you reckon second or third
02:53brood I think second they certainly started early back at my place had a nest in March so this could
02:58easily be a second one let's take a look at the rest of our live nests now oh quite a spread there oh
03:04goodness me go on I know what you're going to save me oh well your eye gets drawn to the middle one
03:09partly because it's in the middle but also because of the what looks like an orange let's go let's go
03:14live to the tawny owl the sleeping youngster there's something about him that I really like he's he's
03:20quite smug isn't he smug because he's got the whole nest box to himself there's no competition at all
03:25and at this time of year tawny owls diversify their diet they're typically dependent on small mammals but
03:31during may they'll branch out they'll start eating moles which are small mammals of course but also
03:36a lot of beetles including cock chafers now we've been keeping a close eye on the nest of course last
03:43night that youngster had three cock chafers we went through our archives and found that it had at least
03:4920 so these large robust beetles also known as mayflies are very much on the diet of this young owl
03:57now they are a beetle which you may be familiar with they've got a long association with humans
04:03because they were quite a serious pest of fruit trees and I can tell you that in 1320 in Avignon
04:10in France they took them to court they tried them for being a pest and found them guilty and then guess
04:15what they executed them they took the cock chafers to court yeah they did that's extraordinary medieval
04:21France what do you expect now what about the name cock chaffer cock chaffer what does it mean
04:25well it comes from the old english cock means large chafer means gnawer so these are if you translate it
04:35large gnawing plant eating beetles that's the name that's how they get their name i'm glad you've
04:42explained that because it is a peculiar name cock chaffer well they do have other names in other parts
04:47of the country one of them is a bumler bumler i won't explain that one a bumler but i tell you what
04:54look at this picture that's been sent in because this is a bummer for this particular cock chafer
05:00because it's extraordinary it's still alive but look you look in and it's had its insides taken out
05:07so it's still moving but it basically doesn't have any body bits inside it's not having its best day is it
05:15it's not having its best moving to the end how is it managing to do that well beetles like the
05:20cock chafer have got an exoskeleton their skeleton is on the outside all of their soft
05:25body parts are on the inside so if i remove the exterior part of our cock chafer here we can look
05:30at its nervous tissue beneath so they don't have a centralized brain like we've got they've got what
05:36we call segmental ganglia so you can see there's a couple of clumps of nerves here but they also have
05:41clumps of these uh nervous tissue around the rest of their body and this means that these segmental
05:48ganglia can control the movement of that body in a localized way so that means that they can continue
05:55to move even if you were to sever its head it's a bit like having a battery in your leg if you like
06:00to keep it moving and of course that one wow it's just going to keep going and going until it dehydrates
06:06i imagine yeah i mean how many days that's not going to last long surely no no the problem is
06:10that it will dehydrate i think it's been gutted by something like a great tip which would find that
06:15and then peck out all of the soft parts of the body because it doesn't fancy the hard parts but yeah
06:19what a miserable way to go it's a zombie cockchafer it sounds like a movie doesn't it anyway we solved
06:26one mystery i'm gonna throw another one at you and this one is for you to guess what it is what is that
06:32little creature do you think if you've got any idea then let us know on our social media channels
06:39i don't know let's go to yolo now in northern ireland on rathlin island in fact amazing place to be
06:45yolo can you guess actually no no don't guess because i bet you know what it is and then you'll spoil
06:49it all for everybody i've got to be honest yeah i i do know but i'm not going to say anything i'm not
06:57going to say anything welcome to the RSVB's west light seabird center and just look at this place
07:04look at that this is northern ireland's biggest seabird colony tens of thousands of seabirds here
07:14packed onto every cliff every crevice on the top of every single stack it is an incredible place
07:23sight sound and the smell smell of seabird guano seabird poo to you and i now the last
07:33full seabird census of the island was carried out in 2021 and the birds are actually doing pretty well
07:39a lot of them bucking the national trend then along came bird flu in 2023 and that affected quite a few
07:48of the species to find out the latest news and to get a long-term perspective i went out on a boat with
07:56RSVB warden liam mcfall
08:05how on earth do you count all these gillamots here liam there are thousands of them a lot of the places
08:11you can't count for the clifftop some of these awkward areas you do have to count from the sea
08:17it's 150 000 gillimots roughly on rapids 150 000 gillimots and 23 000 razor bills
08:25that's got to be the biggest colony in it's well in whole of ireland it's not
08:29uk is it it's internationally important the 23 000 razor bills is one of the highest
08:35razor bill colonies around the uk and ireland how are your kittywakes doing because i know
08:41over the rest of the uk they're not doing very well at the moment yeah i mean we have 14 000 kittywakes
08:47we had a few very bad years here as well but in the last few years since the last overall count we did
08:53in 2021 the numbers are increasing again and this year is definitely looking really good for them
09:01you've been an RSVB warden for what 35 years now you've lived on the island all your life
09:07what are the biggest changes you've seen probably the biggest changes would be in the fulmers
09:14over the last 10 years we can see a decline now i can see areas where there was fulmers that are
09:21hardly any now but puffins definitely you know there would have been lots more puffins on these banks
09:29above us here than there is today such a shame that they're gone yeah it'd be awful to think that
09:35you know my grandkids your grandkids couldn't come and see what we're seeing here today imagine what
09:41they'd be saying about us if that was the case and say well why did they not do something yeah
09:46it's why the preservation of a lot of these species that have today is so important
09:51well liam is another one of these rspb legends he can trace his family back on this island to the 17th
10:03century he's lived here all of his life and the first time he left the island to visit the mainland
10:09he was seven years old top look absolutely top look but very sad to hear him talk about the declines
10:16of the fulmer because i think of all the seabirds the fulmer has to be my favorite it's got that aloof
10:23look as if it's looking down its beak at all the other seabirds and it's called a tube nose you see
10:30those tubes there those are called naricons and above those they have a salt gland that takes salt out of
10:36the sea water so they can live life out on the open water there they're sight faithful returning
10:41to the same nest ear or near long live birds can live to be over 40 years old lay one egg and they'll
10:49incubate that egg for seven to seven and a half weeks now they look quite awkward on land but they
10:58really are the masters of the air they launch themselves off the cliff the legs are situated right
11:05to the back under the tail and once airborne look at that they have these long narrow wings like a mini
11:13albatross fly on very stiff stiff wings and even strong winds they hardly beat those wings i've watched
11:23them here just going back and forth and back and forth effortless absolutely effortless now you compare
11:31that with this raiser bull that we filmed in high winds here just the other day look at it buffeted
11:39by the wind the poor bird was actually trying to get down onto the ocean but the wind kept them up and
11:44of course these have got shorter wings adapted to diving diving underwater to catch their fish prey
11:54lovely birds both of them though now let's have a look live see what we've got for you anything out there
12:00oh look at this look at this the waves have been crashing against the rocks all day
12:08and just precariously positioned you've got some guillemots there you've got some oh look at that wave
12:14almost crashing into the lower kittywigs but the birds have positioned their nests and their eggs
12:20just above the splash zone it's actually quite mesmerizing to watch but don't worry
12:27those birds hopefully hopefully anyway are going to be okay well we'll be back with you later on
12:35but for now let's go back over to the peak district and join chris and michela once more
12:42thank you yolo now we've got our long lens cameraman james out tonight let's see if he's managed to find
12:48anything we've got a couple of red deer out in the field there lots of red deer here we've been seeing
12:55them pretty much every day haven't we yeah particularly this time of night yeah this time
12:58of night they've been coming out of the bushes and they're quite accommodating and get quite close views
13:03anyway yeah should we go should we have a look at the other live stuff that we've got yeah okay let's
13:08have a look at our live live nests there we're not going to go to the tawny this time i'm going to take you
13:14to a nest that is brand new not just to this series but brand new to spring watch we've never had it
13:22before it's a first for spring watch let's have a drum roll please it is are we going to go to it
13:30let's go to it there we go it is the garden warbler i know what you're thinking you were thinking it was
13:37going to be a sexy bird of prey but don't underestimate the garden warbler i mean if we go to
13:44it now i know that it is an lbj it's a little brown job i mean those are the chicks so it's not a great
13:51view is it but the adult is a little brown job i know that the most defining feature is that it has
13:57no defining features and its name is sylvia boring but it's not boring because it's got a beautiful song
14:04listen to the song there we go there we go look at the adult i mean yes yes as i say lbj little
14:12brown job but it it's and look look see what it's feeling at the cast pillar the green it's going down
14:16the neck of that one in the front i love that that is an extraordinary i love i love the garden warbler
14:21of a caterpillar it's got a song to raise the spirits did it oh i love the garden warbler oh well i know i
14:28mean i know as i say people might have been expecting a sexy bird of prey but look look look
14:33as it sits down it's kind of really fluffy and cute and rather adorable i think the subtle
14:40coloring of it and when you see them foraging through the bushes you know and they're quite
14:44difficult to watch because they tend to stay right within the bush you just get glimpses of them moving
14:49around a very svelte you know elegant little bird the garden warbler and we are excited because it's the
14:55first to spring watch ever and it's in the same bush as the song thrush let's go live to our song
15:01thrush now oh that's another picturesque view look at that look how big the chicks are getting nick
15:07there's no way that she's going to be able to brood those animals tonight is there that's crazy
15:12yeah look at that and look at that the colors that they have are very similar to hers as well aren't
15:17they when do you reckon they're going then well don't start that don't start that game never gonna get
15:22it right it'll be this week oh it's definitely i mean they an early an early fledge could be
15:27tomorrow certainly on friday so do keep your eyes on our cameras remember they're on 10 until 10. now
15:33when i was talking about the song thrush nest the other day i mentioned that it had a smooth mud cup
15:39on the inside of it and here is a real song thrush nest this one's been used don't worry we haven't
15:44robbed one of those thrushes of this so from the outside it looks pretty much like a blackbird's nest
15:49same size same proportions but then look on the inside that's how it is when they're using it
15:54it's got that smooth cup in there so what about the construction of this nest well they're using
16:01that universal material that many birds use on the outside and that is a structure a scaffold if you
16:07like which is made up of roots grass and twigs that's providing the shape of it that's what they
16:13put down first to build it and then if you look here you can see there's quite a bit of moss in it
16:18and they put moss and finer grass in to act as insulation and then lastly the female because
16:24it's the female that builds this nest goes out and collects rotten wood and and mud which she cements
16:31together with her saliva to make this beautiful and very deep cup now that's also there for insulation
16:39i've just come up with a theory and my theory is that when she's incubating and brooding i reckon she
16:45pretty much fits in that cup and because it's got this smooth surface around the top she might be
16:50therefore keeping the eggs and the youngsters in an airtight space further improving the thermal
16:57capabilities of this nest so you mean like like a tupperware so it'd be like a lid that fits on
17:04there's a thrush lid yeah on top it's not exactly what i was thinking but you know something along those
17:08lines do you know whenever i look at a nest so i just think it's extraordinary isn't it i mean imagine
17:13making that just with your beak fantastic hey we've got a live kestrel here we go look at that we've gone
17:20from a deer to a kestrel nice bit of hovering there look at that hanging in the wind what a bird obviously
17:29looking for something to hunt down in the grass there lovely stuff okay we set you with a challenge at the
17:37the beginning of the show we asked you what this was we had lots of guesses some of them were not
17:43correct i'm afraid kathy darby thought it was a fairy shrimp i can see why you think that kathy
17:48john gregory thought it was a crayfish liz bravely thought it might be a mayfly larvae well you got the
17:53larvae bit right not the mayfly we did have a few correct answers and they were from jackie porter
18:00phil harrison vanessa mckenzie and they all said it's the larvae of a lobster well that is exactly
18:08correct and let's have a look at it again because if you look at it i mean how does it go from that
18:13from that rather strange looking thing to the adult that we're all more familiar with well it's a very
18:20interesting life cycle the end of a balmy spring day and above the waves all is quiet and calm
18:38but underwater
18:42it's a different story
18:44here it's rush hour for the night shift
18:55common lobsters are out on patrol asserting their dominance over the seabed
19:06but some are keeping a low profile
19:08a female hides in the rocks
19:16carefully tucked away under her tail are around 40 000 tiny jelly-like eggs
19:26they're attached by a fine thread of sticky protein like grapes dangling on a vine
19:33for nearly 12 months she's held them close
19:38so
19:40frond-like appendages called pleopods are normally used for swimming but in female lobsters
19:47they're fringed with hair-like strands forming a protective cradle for those eggs
19:56now as the sea warms with spring's arrival the eggs are ready to hatch
20:01the female starts to wave her pleopods signalling to the young that it's finally time to break free
20:15with each waft
20:18larvae burst out of the eggs
20:20each one just a few millimeters long
20:30right now they look more like shrimps than lobsters
20:34a million miles from the females imposing stage presence
20:40they've a long way to go
20:41the female's work is done she can get back to lobster life as normal
20:57but her offspring who don't yet have the ability to steer themselves are cast adrift on the currents
21:03they float into the open ocean a swirling ethereal realm
21:14teeming with all the larval forms of countless other marine species
21:18they're a part of a great plankton bloom
21:31of course all this life in the water attracts attention
21:36predators are everywhere and some of them are huge
21:41the basking sharks can wipe out thousands of these planktonic forms in one gulp
21:55and it's not just ocean giants who make the most of this protein-rich feast
22:02some of the smallest inhabitants in the sea also have a voracious appetite for plankton
22:07and without being able to control their motion it's simply down to luck whether the lobster larvae are swept into harm's way
22:22but for the fortunate lobsters who make it through their first weeks things are changing
22:30they're growing fast molting their exoskeleton every week
22:37and by the third of these transformations they're gaining some control over their movements
22:50at one month old they can now control their direction
22:58with oversized claws held straight out in front of them this phase is known as the superman
23:04it's the only time in a lobster's life when it will swim forwards adults only ever swim backwards
23:22now it's time to sink to the seabed it's thought that only one in 20 000 lobster larvae make it to this stage
23:35hiding in crevices and scavenging scraps on the seabed
23:40but it's much safer down here and in around six years the transformation is complete
23:51it's been a fight against the odds but this lobster has made it
23:56now it can dominate the seabed for decades to come
24:07they're really rather beautiful aren't they stunning colors
24:09stunning colors they're stunning yeah amazing did you know tuesday is the very first ever crustacean
24:16compassion day it's a day to really appreciate crustaceans and think about their future conservation
24:22because their numbers are precarious and in the 80s and 90s their numbers declined dramatically because
24:28of over fishing and so the national uh the national lobster uh what's it called the national lobster
24:34hatchery stepped in and they took females from the wild that were bearing eggs and then they raised the
24:41young and then they put them back into the wild to boost the numbers so hats off to them because they
24:47really do deserve to be protected and respected because they're amazing creatures okay about 10
24:53miles away from here is a moorland plateau that's very famous it's called kinder scout the reason it's
24:59famous is that on the 24th of april 1932 there was an act of civil disobedience there called the kinder
25:05scout mass trespass basically people like you and i were forbidden from walking on the land as we are in
25:12most places in the uk but these people went up there and they got the law changed in fact we wouldn't
25:16have national parks and footpaths like we have today without that the trouble is at the end of a
25:22century of terrible mismanagement of the landscape up there acid rain the place had completely decayed
25:30and it was in urgent need of restoration as i say it had been burned it had been overgrazed the peat was
25:38exposed and that peat is a very valuable carbon store and a repository of course for an enormous
25:43amount of specialized biodiversity so in 2013 the restoration started they put in 492 of these gully
25:53blocks to keep some of the water on this peat bog they put heather back up there so that the seeds
26:00will germinate and more heather will germinate but most impressive of all they've been planting
26:05800 000 moss plugs they've already planted 130 000 of those moss plugs and those are sphagnum moss it
26:15holds the water and they are rebuilding this habitat after years of mismanagement and mistreatment and
26:23we've got a prop here to show just how effective that can be now in this particular gully we have an
26:31area that's been degraded there's lots of erosion so it's left bare peat and if i put water in there
26:37you can see there's even more erosion the water runs down doesn't hold any water at all now this one
26:44has the sphagnum moss in it so this has been regenerated if i pour water in there it completely
26:52soaks it up what's that so avoids any flooding i mean i'm doing the same amount of water and look at that
26:59that's incredibly effective isn't it what about this one this has got to reach the bottom i know
27:04it's good it's a good prop this isn't it it's a top problem then you've got these block gullies
27:09here and you've got a little bit of sphagnum moss put in there that's where they've started to
27:14regenerate and then you put that in there and it completely slows the water down and eventually it
27:20goes over the top but you can see by slowing it down it's going to allow the new plants to grow
27:27and stop it flooding well a little bit it's not so effective as when it when it actually
27:32does but these will fill up with sphagnum that's the key thing i know exactly i mean so so not only
27:37do you slow the water down but you create a whole new habitat and that's what they've done but it has
27:43given us a little bit of a mammalian mystery it has but before we get on to that we've got to say
27:48hats off to all of the people that have been doing this restoration work this is a great advert for
27:54national park life restoration but as you say nick you'd expect i don't know golden plover you'd
28:00expect curly to be coming back but what they found now right on top of this moorland plateau
28:06are these bats yes bats flying around what on earth are they doing up there
28:15well there's a question for you that we're going to answer because it's a bit of a mystery so therefore
28:19i'm going sherlock you're going watson we've taken our hats off and now we're putting hats on hey
28:25hats off and on here is the list of bats they've found eight out of the 18 british species of bat
28:31up there including noctual one of our largest long-eared bats three types of pipistreau and
28:37dolbentons and very very rare barbestell bats too so why on earth are the bats on top of that moorland
28:44what's changed to bring them up there well sherlock it was a mystery so we set off an investigation and
28:49this was the investigation yes a team went went to the peaks they went for two hours to the top of
28:56the peaks to try and find out the route that the bats had taken there was a lot of dedication and there
29:04were some bat detectors used and it all paid off because they found enough evidence to confirm their
29:08suspicions of the route of these flying mammals to the said peatland and so this is what they found
29:15basically that all these bats were coming in from different directions i mean that's kinder scout
29:19there and so these were all the bat roosts so they found out where they were coming from but what
29:26sherlock was the motive well the motive i mean you need a motive don't you if you're down here look
29:31at the look at the contours here this this is a bat that's flying a long way uphill to get to this
29:37plateau this peat bog at the top look at this one flying right up the steep ridge what was it after
29:44it was after this yes because of the restoration of this bog the insect population was boosted
29:51particularly things like tipulids crane flies but also a great diversity of moth species had returned
29:59and it was this it turned out that was tempting the bats all the way from their roost back onto this
30:06plateau so you see when you're rebuilding something and as simple as a you know as a peat bog it looks
30:11really simple from the surface in fact there's so much more to it and all of that effort all of
30:16those people down on their hands and knees putting that moss into the soil has paid dividends for bats
30:21i'll tell you case solved well done sherlock and while you were talking about that guess what we got
30:25on our live cameras i don't know we go straight to it and have a look we've got a barn owl obviously coming
30:31out and it's beginning to hunt so we've seen a kestrel hunting we've now seen the barn how about
30:37barn how the barn owl hunting that's really gorgeous isn't it stunning to get it this evening well done
30:43let's see what we get next day anyway going back to the plants obviously plants are vital for different
30:49ecosystems and for max moorcroft who is a plant scientists they've meant so much more to him than just
30:55being part of an ecosystem being in nature is something which i think everyone could benefit from
31:10there aren't any expectations when you're out in nature you can just be you because nature's just nature
31:15in my secondary school i would sit next to a tree that was similar to this type of lime tree and i
31:27would go there just to unwind and decompress from everything just through teenagehood which is
31:35i guess hard for everybody this tree became a bit of a friend
31:39it was a really reliable place for me to go a place that i could trust and that's where my love
31:48of plants really first started
31:55i have been caught in the rain with no water fruits and quite far away from my house but
32:01look at this orchid i'm studying plant science which means that i've got to study plants for the last three
32:08years of my life which was lovely join me surveying the longest hedge in my entire life the problem
32:16with liking plants is when i go cycling i often don't get very far i like to make little social media
32:24clips just about what i find really often just looking in detail at a few little facts you can tell
32:30that something's a bulbous buttercup because it has reflexed settles i'm really excited i can't
32:36believe that i haven't come here before lime trees have beautiful heart-shaped leaves but look a little
32:45closer and you'll find there's a whole lot more going on here you might see these here you usually
32:51don't see red things on trees but these are caused by the nail gall mite these overwinter in the buds and
32:59feed on the sap of the leaves and that's not the only botanical marvel at play here in early spring the
33:07the shoots of the lime tree are quite red in color you can see some of that in this bud here these are
33:13caused by anthocyanins which is a type of flavonoid this provides a protective layer from the sun a bit
33:22like a sun cream especially for those early shoots to give the shoots the best chance at life that they
33:28can and even some of our most common species have incredible adaptations
33:37ivy is so overlooked this is such a familiar shape these two lobes of the ivy
33:45ivy now all of these leaves here they are creeping along the ground and a bit more shade loving hence
33:54the slightly darker green color they'll then find a host and climb up this host on the shadier side
34:01until they find the light and at the points that they find the light that's when their leaf shape
34:09begins to change this is called heteroblasty
34:16and so these leaves have lost their lobes they're more of an oval shape and a lot lighter in color
34:23because they're out in the bright sunshine they need less green chloroplasts for photosynthesis
34:29which are what makes the young leaves so dark they also maximize the amount of light they can get
34:35by having a broader shape these then are getting enough energy to create flowers and fruits
34:46the great thing about cities is there are so many things to find there will always be a plant
34:53somewhere that you might not have really seen yet
34:56oh look what we found here an absolute great plant which always gets walked over
35:11this is a hand lens every plant lover's best friend it's pearlwort and yeah i can see all of it
35:20it's amazing it's amazing it's amazing it's amazing it's amazing to think how many people walk across
35:41them without even realizing it's only when you stop and look closely that you can really appreciate
35:56all the botanical wonders at work even in our most unassuming plants but the more i study them the more i
36:05realize there is so much still to learn and that makes me love them even more
36:22great to see a young person so enthusiastic about plants well done max keep it up keep it up
36:29now welcome back to rathlin island and did you know that rathlin holds 98 of northern ireland's
36:38breeding puffins and it's puffin well it's got to be nearly everyone's favorite seabird isn't it also
36:44called the sea parrot or the sea clown possibly because the colorful beak resembles the mouth of a
36:51clown but i reckon because it always makes us smile i do like puffins spend eight months out at sea in the
36:58autumn and the winter return in the spring of course a bit of spring cleaning digging out their burrows
37:04making sure it's in pristine condition they make for life and they return to the same burrow year after year
37:15they're actually very good flyers as well they beat their wings at speeds of 400 beats per minute
37:23and they can reach speeds of up to 55 miles an hour not bad for a small orc now earlier on you might
37:33have heard rsb warden liam mcfall tell me that puffins were in decline here on the island and i've only got
37:40to look over my shoulder to notice that something is wrong see this green slope here that is a real
37:47puffin des res not a single puffin on there at the moment but if you drop down below the cliffs where
37:55the orcs and the kittywigs are the puffins are gathered on an even more inaccessible area just above
38:03the crashing waves down there so what on earth is going on well i'll explain using this prop over here
38:12i've got to hold it because of the high winds now from the 1800s onwards really brown rats arrived
38:20on the island by accident coming across by boats then in the 1980s somebody on purpose introduced ferrets
38:31onto this island as well and these two had a devastating effect they went down the burrows they
38:38yet the eggs the chicks the adult puffins and the only puffins that are left now are lower down
38:46on these inaccessible slopes here they've had a devastating effect on the wildlife on the island
38:53on the seabirds in particular and puffins have declined by 74 percent since 1999 but there is some hope
39:05it's a project called the life raft led by the rspb and the rdca which is the raffling development
39:14community action and they are trying to eradicate these two introduced mammals from the island it all
39:23started in 2023 when they put out 600 ferret traps in a grid all over the island and now they
39:34started to tackle the mammoth task of eradicating the rats
39:41over 6 000 rat bait stations were laid out across the island at 50 meter intervals
39:50these were deployed and monitored by volunteers and the data compiled onto an app that tracks the location
39:59of every single trap on the island of every single trap on the island
40:04but of course rathlin isn't exactly flat and no area is left unmonitored
40:12so the team had to abseil to reach all the inaccessible nooks and crannies on the 23 miles of sheer coastline
40:20they even put traps on the sea stacks
40:27but that's not all they've done they brought in the big guns
40:34woody the labrador has been specially trained to sniff out ferret scats and rat scent trails
40:42and if he finds any signs he'll alert his handler wolf keller who'll lay more traps and intensify the
40:50monitoring in that area an incredible effort to protect the seabird colonies from these invasive mammals
40:59well the project is due to run until 2027 and the good news is that no ferrets have been detected
41:10on the island for 18 months but the battle is ongoing and the hope in the end of course is that both
41:17species are eradicated the seabirds and the other wildlife come back to their former numbers and chris and
41:25michela who knows who knows we may well even see a huge increase in concrete numbers how cool would
41:33that be well that would be absolutely amazing but i tell you it's often a disaster isn't it when you
41:39introduce rats to control a predator on an island we see it so often not bad animals they're just you
41:46know the right animal in the wrong place basically now think back to the beginning of the spring when
41:50the sun was shining it was nice and warm and we were all out there basking in the rays and we weren't
41:57the only ones because have a look at this adders adders were seen out and about craig strawbridge
42:04they're our only venomous snake they're extremely shy and very very difficult to see and it's very
42:12difficult to see this behavior just take a look at this darren must have been very excited to see this
42:19two adders it looks like courtship but it's not it's actually two males and they're exerting dominance
42:26in a territory fight and that's exactly what they do they size each other up by going alongside each
42:32other and then they sort of entwine their heads and their necks and um incredible to see incredible
42:39to see but that behavior had been documented before spring watch started this behavior which we spotted at
42:46minsmere hadn't because when i was reading all my snake books as a kid the diet of the adder was
42:51principally small mammals not birds not nestlings here are two nightingales we were so excited finding
42:58this nightingale's nest and then adder came in it's clearly after the chicks which sort of pre-fledged the
43:04nest they bolt from the nest the adults are doing everything they can to keep them away whether they
43:09succeeded or not we don't know it's likely of course that once those chicks are on the ground
43:14the adder went and found them and ate them because we saw that at arn not with nightingales but with
43:20reed buntings another ground nesting species but then the most extraordinary thing that we did see
43:26again at minsmere was adders climbing about two meters up into a bramble bush and predating goldfinches
43:35and blackbirds now we trawled through all of the literature looking at you know what was qualified
43:41as the diet of adders and it just as i said when i was a kid it was all about small mammals only after
43:47we spotted this did the birds start coming into that literature so one for spring watch though i think
43:54and it's amazing because the reason we can see that is because we've got those little cameras and
43:58we've got people watching those cameras so we do see some incredible behavior but look that was where
44:04we are we minsmere that was down here and all these places are where we've broadcast live from for the
44:10last 20 years because i think we might have told you it's our 20th anniversary right this year look let's
44:16go back to wild cairn hill it wasn't that long ago but this is one of the most extraordinary sequences
44:21we've ever had marsh harrier versus brown hair beautiful blue sky simple field this is a mother
44:30hare and she's got some leverets there now the marsh harrier has a very broad diet we'll eat everything
44:35from frogs to small birds but of course it takes small mammals just look at this battle she oh shadow
44:43of the bird panning down the hair there as she races back and forth trying to keep it away from her
44:49leverets which are hiding in that short grass but of course the persistence of the harrier
44:56is a real challenge for her she doesn't give up keeps her eyes on that bird bolts after it
45:05constantly leaping into the air doing everything she can to drive it away we don't know how many
45:10leverets she got could be one could be two could be three as an exception but then ultimately
45:15another hair gets in the way she loses concentration and the harrier drops down
45:25and gets its reward for all of that hard work and off it goes with her leveret what an extraordinary
45:33piece of behavior beautifully filmed by mark yates one of my favorite moments in 20 years it does make
45:40me think of water ship down and bright eyes though and yes i cried move on move on i cried move on
45:46okay let's move on to innis here 2011 you went to innis here 2012 i joined you and one of my favorite
45:54all-time nests and it's the common sandpiper an extraordinary story this you couldn't have made it
46:00up it was it was nesting on the ground like they do and it was nesting by the train track and every time
46:05the train went past which was on every live show that we did it would get off the nest with the eggs
46:12in it obviously and run towards the train it must have thought the train was a predator or something
46:18but it was an extremely dangerous strategy you can see it's bobbing up and down it's quite nervous
46:23because it ran out of shot so often and we thought oh no it's going to be hit by the train it's never
46:29going to come back again and then we were always relieved when the train went past and off it
46:35trotted back to the nest and sat on the eggs again and this happened time and time again we then had a
46:42flood at innis here in wales you may remember i know it was a long time ago and it we thought that
46:48was it we thought the eggs would be well cold and wet and wouldn't hatch the train kept going by it got
46:54a little bit used to it every so often towards the end of the series it didn't get off the nest
46:58and then right on the last show guess what happened the eggs hatched the cute little chicks came out
47:07i mean i love stories like that because as i say you couldn't write it could you i mean it started
47:13at the beginning of the series went all the way through had a bit of drama and a happy end don't
47:18you love that you love a happy end of course i do of course i do but listen i'm going to bring you back
47:23to longshore here we are and i'm going to take you to just a couple of days ago and in fact
47:30i went out with some bird ringers danielle hinchcliffe and brin richards brin brin
47:35roberts sorry brin roberts and we started to ring pied flycatchers in this very wood
47:42well danny it's certainly a very pretty place but why is it such a good place for pied flycatchers
47:54well pied flycatchers are woodland specialists so they absolutely love the oak forests here at
47:59longshore and they're really good for nesting and also for foraging for insects how are you hoping
48:04that the data that you collect is going to help the species as a whole we're really interested in
48:08understanding how our wildlife's responding to an environment that's always changing
48:13particularly for migratory species like the pike flycatcher so we're coming at it from all angles
48:18we want to understand how they choose which boxes and then when they choose a box it doesn't always
48:23guarantee that they'll have breeding success we want to understand what's driving that breeding
48:27success as well we're very interested in ecological environmental factors so you might notice on the
48:32side of our boxes these little yellow data loggers they measure fine scale temperature and humidity
48:38and you'll be surprised how different the microclimates are across these woodlands and then the
48:43adults have got a tag on that's right so the adults have a standard metal bto ring which is
48:49trust of ornithology ring but as part of this scheme and they also have a pit tag on them and the pit tag
48:55is what's detected by that antenna around the entrance to the nest box there so every time the bird flies in
49:01and out it detects that specific ring that individual so the chicks were just putting the bto
49:06ring on and then hopefully if they come back to longshore in future years they'll get a pit tag as
49:11well okay do you know how many chicks are in there i believe there are seven but yeah so let's go see wow
49:17are you ever worried that this is going to disturb them so naturally pie fly catches are quite
49:28protected so the parents are always nearby um so this is why it's really important we do things as
49:34quickly as possible and that everybody involved is fully trained fully licensed
49:38oh my goodness you know we see them in in such close-up on our cameras you forget how small they
49:47are okay do you want to get the first one out sure do oh there we go oh this guy's the perfect size
49:57very active as you can see um so we just gotta hold his leg out like do you get nervous yeah they're so
50:05delicate aren't they i think the trick's just to always be gentle there we go so you put it on
50:13like that and then i just spin it round and then just do it one more time to make sure that it's
50:18fully sealed there we go so demi as they grow though won't that get too tight we make sure that the ring
50:24is the right size and we take into account how the leg shape is going to change over time so with
50:29some species actually the chicks their legs actually shrink oh really yeah yeah so great tits for
50:35example but with the pied fly catcher that's not the case um that's pretty much going to stay
50:40roughly the same now with seven to ring we need to get our skates on
50:52the whole process has taken just 14 minutes
50:58safely back in the box i guess we better go and let the parents come back thanks for that danny
51:02that's brilliant it's great to see those little tiny chicks in their hand you're right about the
51:11sense of scale though they're much much smaller than you see you know when everyone's sitting at
51:14home with their massive great big tellies and actually they're tiny but there's been some very
51:18interesting discoveries on what could be affecting the nesting of those pied flycatchers might surprise you
51:25because it's this it is a great tit can you believe that the numbers have increased steadily since the
51:331960s due to things like milder winters they're opportunistic feeders they have a varied diet and
51:39pied flycatchers are not so opportunistic and there's always been competition for caterpillars but
51:46researchers found that there's also competition for nest sites and that's a new observation that didn't
51:52used to be a problem but there's a reason why that has changed and it comes down i'm afraid to climate
51:58breakdown in action this is a real manifestation of that and i can show you that here so as michaela
52:03mentioned here's the 1960s here this is when chris was in the womb and these are the breeding periods
52:09of the great tit and the pied flycatcher and you can see the dates down the bottom here so we've got
52:12february through to may so at this time the great tit had a distinct breeding season where it started
52:19just after the beginning of march and bred through to here and then the pied flycatchers would arrive
52:25remember these are migrants returning from africa and they would arrive after the great tits had
52:29finished and they could even use the holes that the great tits had already nested in things have
52:35changed of course because everything has changed these great tits are greater over winter survival there
52:41are more of them about they are filling up the holes much earlier in february but also extending
52:48their nesting season into april so that when the pied flycatchers get back from africa the great
52:55tits are still in those holes and there's direct competition for them and when i say direct competition
53:02i mean it the great tits are actually killing the prospecting male pied flycatchers we've got a picture
53:10here this is a prospecting pied fly gone into that hole hoping to make its nest there and it's been killed
53:17by a great tit and it's laying dead on top of that great tits nest the great tits coincidentally do eat
53:22the brains of them as they do other animals when they kill them off so what you see here is this
53:28overlap this is something that's out of time there's a phenological imbalance which has been caused by the
53:34changes in our climate so what can be done well if we have a look at our pied flycatchers the ones we've
53:42got a camera on they're in a nest box and what they're doing here is they're basically caulking
53:47the nest boxes until the pied flycatchers arrive until their migration stops and they're here and
53:54they're ready to breed so the great tits can't get in that nest box before them and that's made a huge
54:00difference ten years ago before they were doing that 88 chicks fledged from here 2024 308 i mean
54:11that's a fantastic difference to just goes to show that caulking those holes up in nest boxes here has
54:18made a difference but you can't caulk every natural hole in every tree around the country so this is one
54:23of those reasons why we've really got to focus on some of the bigger issues and the way that we look
54:28after or don't look after our climate is one of them something to be mindful of but let's not be
54:33mindful let's go for some mindfulness at this point to the sunny surface of a very beautiful pond
54:58so
55:05so
55:09so
55:11so
55:19Let's go.
55:49I just fancied, like, diving in.
56:09Do you?
56:10Yeah, yeah.
56:10With all those frogs?
56:11Rolling around with all those frogs and the spawn and that.
56:13Can you imagine?
56:15No, no.
56:16It made me laugh, actually.
56:17It made me smile watching that.
56:18We're running out of time, but earlier we spotted this.
56:21You know, we were showing you that live barn owl where we continued to watch it as it
56:26was quartering across the field here.
56:29And look, it spots something and dives down, albeit behind the wall, behind the wall.
56:35And then it pops up.
56:36What's it got in its mouth?
56:38Well, hold on.
56:39It definitely is carrying something, isn't it?
56:41It's bound to be a vole, isn't it?
56:42Well, it could be a shrew.
56:45More likely a vole.
56:46And that happened just seconds ago.
56:49Fantastic stuff.
56:50A kestrel and a vole we've seen on the programme tonight.
56:54That's all happening tonight.
56:55And deer as well.
56:57So, really lovely stuff.
56:59But that does bring us to the end of tonight's show.
57:02What have we got coming up tomorrow?
57:04Well, we'll be catching up with Springwatch Street.
57:08We will be seeing what creatures, including these hedgehogs, come into the gardens in Sheffield.
57:13Will we, won't we, finally catch up with a mythical golden hare?
57:23And also the magical ability of the barn swallow.
57:28When they're flying, are they not special?
57:30Those blue wings, the speed skirting over the water.
57:34Something to look forward to tomorrow.
57:37Now, we introduce you to that new nest tonight, the garden warbler.
57:40That's got plenty of chicks.
57:41There'll be lots of action inside there.
57:43The tawny owl.
57:43Keep your eyes peeled for cock chafers.
57:45I say this because you can watch all of these cameras, of course, from 10 in the morning until 10 in the evening.
57:52We'll be back tomorrow night at 8 o'clock.
57:54But stay with us now on the iPlayer or the website where Hannah Stipfel is going to do Watch Out with you, Mick.
58:01With me.
58:01I'll be sticking around as well.
58:03Stay tuned for more Strachan.
58:04See you tomorrow.
58:05See you tomorrow.
58:06Bye-bye.
58:08The Open University have designed an interactive online hike.
58:13which allows you to explore some of the habitat changes that have taken place since Springwatch first aired.
58:19To find it, scan the QR code on your screen now or visit bbc.co.uk forward slash springwatch
58:25and follow the links to The Open University.
58:28The Open University.
58:29The Open University.
58:30The Open University.
58:31The Open University.
58:32The Open University.
58:33The Open University.
58:34The Open University.
58:35The Open University.
58:36The Open University.
58:37The Open University.
58:38The Open University.
58:39The Open University.
58:40The Open University.
58:41The Open University.
58:42The Open University.
58:43The Open University.
58:44The Open University.
58:45The Open University.
58:46The Open University.
58:47The Open University.
58:48The Open University.
58:49The Open University.
58:50The Open University.
58:51The Open University.
58:52The Open University.
58:53The Open University.
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