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Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles - Season 1 Episode 1 -
Spring
Spring
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03:49We've got a bit in. We've got a bit in.
03:54They're so well camouflaged and they move and they look like reeds.
03:59You can see he's so well hidden. He blends in so well.
04:06If I zoom out there, I zoom out, apart from the eye, you can't see much.
04:13He just ducks his head down and then you can see how well hidden they are.
04:19People in the hide have just told me one of the bitters has landed in a little gully here.
04:30Let's just try and figure out where she is now.
04:37There she is.
04:41She moves super slow. She's trying to catch fish, invertebrates, so they can't move around too quickly.
04:49Oh, you are so beautiful.
04:57To be seeing these skilled hunters out in the open like this is unbelievably rare.
05:02Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Never thought I'd be seeing bitters like this.
05:18Their specially adapted downward-facing eyes allow them to hold their head high while searching for prey beneath the surface.
05:25Look at that animal. Just look how beautiful she is.
05:34We are being treated to a real show today.
05:39The bitters are foraging right in front of the hide just metres away.
05:43I am honoured to be getting such an intimate view.
05:47There you go.
06:05Do you hear that?
06:06That's the booming male.
06:08Male bitters produce a low, loud, booming call to attract a mate.
06:14It's otherworldly.
06:16A sound like no other bird or animal for that matter.
06:20Beautiful sound to be able to hear.
06:22I want to see it booming.
06:24And it's such a difficult thing to try and get.
06:27I don't think there's actually that much footage of bitters booming in the wild.
06:31And it's not just female bitters that the booming attracts.
06:36Thousands of people come here every year to try and catch a glimpse of this secretive and unusual bird.
06:45And there's a male here, guys.
06:47There's another male here.
06:49Very close.
06:50In the reeds in front of us.
06:54Oh, come on, Hamza.
06:56Get your camera straight.
06:59Gosh.
07:01This is phenomenal.
07:08It's a male-bit and booming.
07:10And I am absolutely chuffed.
07:13And he does this really cool thing where he gulps three times and he's filling his air sag.
07:22It's the loudest bird we can hear in the British Isles.
07:27You can hear it up to three miles away.
07:31Booming bitters?
07:33Now we're talking.
07:36I'm happy.
07:36Just when I thought this day couldn't get any better, another female appears.
07:42Do you know where she's heading?
07:44And then she's heading exactly to where the male is.
07:48Clearly, that booming has a massive effect on the females.
07:54If only I can boom like that, I might have a wife by now.
07:57Granted, it will be a feathered variety, but hey-ho.
08:01His loud, booming core has done the trick.
08:04He circles around her in a courtship display, showing off his impressive plumage.
08:10Kind of puffing up his neck feathers, kind of just saying, hey, look at me.
08:15And she hasn't moved from the middle.
08:19I've never seen this interaction before.
08:23To be honest, I've only ever seen one bitten at a time.
08:25And just to be able to capture that, gosh, I don't know if any of my camera peeps have actually captured it before.
08:36This day can't get any better.
08:39It's just wonderful to be able to see everybody talking to each other and spotting stuff for each other.
08:48It's a beautiful camaraderie between all ages.
08:52Anyone is welcome to kind of sit down.
08:54And if you don't know what you're looking at, someone will tell you.
08:56Oh, yeah. Well done, Alex.
08:59So that's the male bitten.
09:02You can see what he does is he takes three big gulps.
09:05So that's one gulp, second gulp, and third gulp.
09:10And he's filling his air sack.
09:12And then he goes, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm.
09:18And that's the booming that we can hear.
09:21I love watching and filming wildlife.
09:24But there's something really special about sharing that experience with others.
09:29I love today.
09:31What a day.
09:33What an absolutely amazing day.
09:35What do badgers like to eat?
10:00They like earthworms, frogs, mice.
10:04I think earthworms are their favourite meal.
10:07They say never to work with children and animals.
10:10But today, I'm throwing caution to the wind.
10:14Badgers are one of the most common large mammals in Britain.
10:18But these nocturnal creatures are very shy.
10:21So getting close enough to film them with my young nieces is going to be a real challenge.
10:26Now, how good is their eyesight?
10:30It's not too good.
10:31It's not too good, exactly.
10:32They've got bad eyesight.
10:34But they can still see shapes, can't they?
10:36Exactly.
10:36They can see motion.
10:37They can see shape.
10:38So what do we have to do?
10:40What's the first thing we have to do?
10:41Sit down and then be quiet.
10:43Exactly.
10:45What are the chances out of 100?
10:4817.
10:4985.2.
10:5285.2.
10:54That's pretty high.
10:56I think 50-50.
11:00So, have a look.
11:02Do you see the log?
11:04Yeah.
11:04That's their home, right underneath that log.
11:09Okay, so all we've got to do now is sit and wait.
11:14Badgers live in underground sets.
11:16They excavate a network of tunnels and chambers, which are passed down through the generations,
11:23with some being more than 100 years old.
11:26We have to make sure that the wind is blowing from them to us.
11:35Why?
11:36Because if the wind's blowing from us to them, they can smell us.
11:42Oh, look.
11:43So which way is the wind blowing?
11:44Lick your finger.
11:46Remarkably, Badgers' sense of smell is thought to be as much as 800 times better than ours.
11:51So if this family catches a whiff of us, they'll go straight back down underground.
11:57So that's good.
11:58That's good.
11:59Very good.
12:05Do you hear that?
12:09That's the Badgers.
12:12That noise is the Badgers.
12:14That noise.
12:15That noise was the Badgers, yeah.
12:17That noise is definitely awake.
12:18Definitely awake.
12:19Badgers are notoriously cautious around humans.
12:24Hearing them from underground is absolutely no guarantee that we'll see them.
12:30You look very stressed.
12:33I am stressed, yes.
12:35Why?
12:36Because I want you to see Badgers.
12:39It's fine if we don't see them.
12:40That's very true.
12:42That's part of nature, isn't it?
12:45Sometimes we go looking for stuff, but we don't always see it.
12:48I think it wants to come out and say hello.
13:15Did you see the Badgers?
13:30Did you see the Badgers?
13:30I think that one was a baby.
13:51It looked really small and fluffy.
13:52A little bit of silver.
13:54A little bit of silver, yeah, that's right.
13:58Badger cubs are born underground between January and March, but they won't emerge into this world until they're eight weeks old.
14:06It's likely to be their first few days above ground.
14:11They'll stay close to mum as she's still feeding them.
14:13So the mummy is the one on the left-hand side.
14:18Do you know why I know?
14:19No.
14:19She's got a very slender head.
14:22The boar, which is the male, has got a very big head.
14:30It's hungry work for mum feeding this many cubs.
14:34It's eight so far.
14:38It's eight so far.
14:48They're so cute.
14:50How do you feel seeing them?
15:09Amazing.
15:10Good.
15:10Watching this family of Badgers is really special, but sharing them with my nieces has been a magical experience.
15:29I want to reveal to you an extraordinary spring event that I can't even film.
15:36The Dawn Chorus.
15:37To fully enjoy its beauty, I've come to a place far from human sounds, where I'm joined by wildlife sound recordist Ellie Williams.
15:51So beautiful.
15:53You know, the one thing about the Dawn Chorus that I would love to do is to be able to film it, but it's notoriously difficult because it is so dark.
16:04So unless you have some super specialist kit that sees into the dark, it's so hard to be able to see it.
16:11But for you, you can hear it so easily.
16:15Yeah, this is just perfect for me.
16:17As this is a feast for the ears and not the eyes, Ellie places specialist microphones throughout the woodland to capture this natural wonder.
16:28In spring, birds call at dawn to attract a mate and establish territories.
16:37The still, cold, morning air carries their song up to 20 times further than later in the day.
16:44What time is it?
16:51It's quarter to five.
16:53Okay.
16:54It's early.
16:57It's very early.
16:59I can't see much, but that's what I love.
17:01I love it when you can't see and you have to rely on your ears and your imagination.
17:06Yeah.
17:07I often close my eyes when I'm recording, so it just helps me kind of tune in a bit more.
17:11See, for me, I'm such a visual person, but today I'm in your world.
17:16Yeah, welcome.
17:17It's good.
17:18It's lovely.
17:19That's lovely.
17:25With the first signs of light, the dawn chorus starts to kick off.
17:30The familiar blackbird begins the performance, joined by the robin.
17:44The voice of the song thrush cuts through with his clear, repetitive core.
17:57There's loads going on there, isn't there?
17:59There is, yeah.
17:59So many voices.
18:00You might walk here in kind of early afternoon and it would feel really quiet,
18:05but when you come in the dawn, you're like, wow.
18:09As dawn breaks, Ellie's sound recordings capture the full chorus as it reaches its crescendo.
18:15Just have a listen.
18:16Ellie's challenge now is to try and record individual singers from amongst the chorus.
18:42This is called Parabolic Reflector, and just basically it means I can focus on distant bird song.
18:50Right, okay.
18:50So I can kind of pick out individual calls.
18:53Ah, right.
18:54Do you want to have a listen?
18:55Yes, please.
18:56I'd love to.
19:00Nice.
19:00Can you hear that?
19:01And I'd hear what...
19:02Yeah.
19:02Oh, this is your life?
19:06Good, isn't it?
19:09That is cool.
19:13Using Ellie's microphone, we can single out and boost individual songs.
19:17Chiff-chaff?
19:23Yeah.
19:24Chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff.
19:30Summer visitors, like the chiff-chaff and the red start, migrate here across from Africa and Europe to breed during the warmer months.
19:40And the unmistakable cuckoo adds its voice to the chorus.
19:58For me, growing up in North Africa, we'd hear all this bird sound.
20:04But I remember coming to the UK and I'm going, you guys have no wildlife whatsoever.
20:11But as soon as I begin to hear all the beautiful sounds, I'm going, hang on, we've got sounds like this in Africa.
20:20It's the same birds that I'm hearing in Africa back here.
20:24Yeah.
20:24It was really wonderful.
20:26It was a comforting feeling to have.
20:27What I love thinking about is that this is just one tiny phrase of a long song that's travelling across the world with the sun's movement.
20:37Yeah.
20:38Oh, it's just, oh, it's gorgeous.
20:44I think everybody should have the opportunity to listen to a dawn chorus.
20:49Get up early.
20:52Fill your soul with music.
20:54Get a dose of this.
20:56Yeah.
20:56Yeah, it's beautiful, isn't it?
21:06And the wonderful thing about the dawn chorus is that everyone can hear it, anywhere in the UK, even in the heart of the city.
21:14Sometimes in our cities, it might seem like there's no nature.
21:29But if you just take a little minute, you'll be amazed at what you can find.
21:35Hidden in plain view, just a few minutes walk from the bustling centre of Cardiff, you can watch the most flamboyant courtship display of any British bird.
21:47I'm not much of a city person, but this is where I start feeling at home because I'm with the wildlife.
21:57I can hear the noises of the bypass and the cranes are working, but the chetti is kicking off.
22:07But I kind of like this.
22:08Because this is where I start feeling more relaxed and more at peace.
22:15Around March, great crested greeps start preparing for parenthood.
22:19What I'm hoping to capture today is the Holy Trinity, which is basically all the three kind of big displays that the great crested greeps do.
22:37There's the cat, where the male picks up his wings like this and they display and the ruffles are out.
22:44There's the head shaking.
22:45And then my favourite is the weed dance, where they kind of go down to the bottom, pluck a weed, and then they come back up and they show it off to each other.
22:52And they do this like, and they even like touch breasts with each other and they paddle.
22:58Ah, if I can get that, I'll be a happy man.
23:01Grooves are not easily identifiable between the male and the female.
23:09So, if they're next to each other, the female is just ever so slightly smaller than the male.
23:15But you might hear this gentle,
23:18And that's the female calling the male over.
23:25And she's trying to woo him out of the reeds at the moment.
23:31Oh, if Grebe's displaying, Grebe's displaying, ahhhhhhhhh.
23:45This is a beautiful display.
23:48This is exactly what I'm here to film.
23:51Look at that head shake.
23:53So, the male's on the left-hand side, it looks like, and the female's on the right.
23:58They kind of square up to each other, it looks like they're about to have a fight, but they're not actually fighting.
24:04And what they're doing is, they'll ruffle up their feathers, their crest, and they do this head shake.
24:10So, one will do a head shake, then another one will do a head shake, then another head shake here, then another head shake here.
24:17This is happening in the middle of Cardiff.
24:20Like, you don't need to go far.
24:30Grebe's must be sure that they've chosen the right partner, because they raise their chicks together.
24:36And dancing is their way of demonstrating their commitments to each other.
24:40Unlike mallards, where they kind of have a season together, and then they go their separate ways,
24:44Grebe's tend to stick together for quite a while.
24:48So, they do this display throughout the season, because they're constantly trying to reaffirm their bond.
24:54For humans, it's kind of like date night.
24:57Once a week you have date night, where the kids go off to grandma and grandpa,
25:01and then the parents have date night together.
25:03These guys constantly do it.
25:05Something's happened.
25:11Oh, they're doing the cat.
25:13They're doing the cat.
25:14Look at that.
25:15Look at that display.
25:17Oh, wow.
25:23Yeah, you ruffle your feathers, big man.
25:25You know, to think that I've only been here probably about three hours, maybe two,
25:31and these guys are putting on a show for me.
25:34Oh, and he's off on one.
25:45Oh, look at the cat.
25:50That is a prime description of what a cat display looks like.
25:54It looks like an unhappy cat when they go like, like this.
26:03He's showing off his plumage.
26:05And they fluff up their wings, and the crest just opens out fully.
26:08And it's just like, hey, baby, look at me.
26:11If I was a female grieve, I'd be impressed with that.
26:17See, this is the excitement that I love when I'm watching wildlife.
26:20I can hear the cities behind me, and every now and then there's a siren going past.
26:25I feel in my element here.
26:27I actually disconnect.
26:29And for a lot of people, that's the same case.
26:31Whether you're in the city or the countryside, we all need to be outdoors.
26:35Do you hear that sound?
26:38Yeah.
26:39That's them calling.
26:40That's the great crest of greaves calling.
26:42With a captive audience ready and waiting for the third act, the greaves take to the dance floor.
26:48Oh, here we go.
26:50Here we go.
26:51One of them's got weed.
26:52One of them's got a little bit of weed.
26:59Oh, yes!
27:01Come on!
27:06This is exactly it.
27:07This is my favourite display.
27:11They dive down, then they pick up a little bit of weed, they pluck it, and then they come back up to the surface,
27:16and they kind of go, hey, look, look what I've got.
27:19Hey, what have you got?
27:20They're just beautiful birds.
27:23This is exactly what I'm here for.
27:26I tell you what, for me, that's a ten.
27:30That's got to be a ten.
27:31You can't get any better than that.
27:38All this dancing will hopefully result in one thing.
27:42A brood of up to four cute humbugs.
27:48Mum and Dad will share all the parenting duties, from finding fish to offering free rides.
27:56Because it's weeks of shared work, it's a good thing that they've chosen their dance partner carefully.
28:01Of all the spring spectacles that the British Isles have to offer, boxing hares have to be one of the most iconic.
28:20Around March, male hares energetically pursue females, who are more than capable of fending them off.
28:39Eventually, these boxing matches subside, and the hares pair off.
28:44Just a few weeks later, the mothers give birth to babies, known as leverets.
28:54Trying to film these tiny balls of fur is why I've come to this rather special farm in Suffolk.
29:11Owned by Patrick Barker and his family.
29:14We spend day in, day out in this landscape, walking the fields, looking at crops, walking the dogs, and we've never seen them.
29:23And how long have you been here?
29:24Twenty-odd years.
29:26Twenty years if you've never seen a leveret?
29:28Yeah, you guys have set yourselves a massive challenge here, trying to find leverets over 500 hectares.
29:33Owned by Patrick's family since 1957, they've worked tirelessly to transform this arable farm into a haven for wildlife.
29:51Including a healthy population of brown hares.
29:54One duck down in the grass, right in line with that single tree sticking up on the horizon.
30:03Oh, beautiful.
30:13It's wonderful to see so many of them.
30:15It's nice light as well, isn't it?
30:16Yeah.
30:18This is a landscape that should support hares.
30:23Right.
30:24I think what we're able to do that's slightly different is just having grass all year round.
30:29So, in this cereal growing landscape, there's times when the combine has been out and maybe the soil has been turned over.
30:37Yep.
30:38There's nothing much for them to eat.
30:40What we're trying to do, we're trying to provide different food sources all year round.
30:44And for hares, it means we've got grass at a time of year when there isn't green grass everywhere else in the landscape.
30:51So, they just stay here, they breed.
30:54We can kind of build that whole annual life cycle.
30:57Whilst the adults are happy to appear on camera, the leverets have an expert strategy to avoid detection.
31:03Rather than hiding them underground like rabbits, mum leaves them in pockets in the grass.
31:11They can stay still until she comes back to feed them at dusk.
31:16Hares have to hide them, otherwise they're just vulnerable to all those different predators that are about.
31:20And we've seen buzzards, we've seen red kites, we know there's foxes about.
31:24And that's why they're so difficult to find.
31:26Yeah.
31:27Because that is their defence strategy.
31:28To improve our chances of spotting a leveret, we're moving to a field with a shorter crop.
31:33In the hope that a change in perspective will make all the difference.
31:38Drone taking off.
31:40Right, so I'm going to go quite high up and I'm going to turn it on to thermal mode.
31:45Trying to spot a brown hare in a brown field is difficult.
31:49So I'm hoping that this thermal drone will reveal the tiny hidden leverets in this massive landscape.
31:55Oh, look at that.
31:57Yeah.
31:58Isn't this such a cool tool to have?
32:02The larger adults give off a heat signature that we can clearly see.
32:08I'm going to switch back to normal camera.
32:14And you see how easily they disappear in that.
32:17We can see where the beans are growing and where they're not though, can't we?
32:20Which is probably useful for you.
32:21It's great to see the adults in this new way, but we're beginning to realise that the heat from the tiny babies just won't show up on the drone from this height.
32:32Do you know the funny thing and the slightly annoying thing is, we know they're here because you have so many hairs on your farm.
32:39As we get closer to dusk, my crew keep an eye on a group of mothers to see if they lead us to their babies as they return to feed them.
32:49Jelani, can you see if you can see that one straight down this hedge line?
32:53They're just running in circles.
32:54I think they're playing.
32:55They are playing.
32:57Every field we've driven past has got hairs in it, but trying to figure out which one of the babies are in is impossible.
33:02Yeah.
33:05Whilst my crew is still hoping for one of the mums to lead them to their hidden leverets, I'm setting out on foot with Patrick to find out why this farm is so special.
33:16You're not just thinking of one species here, are you? You're thinking of the bigger picture.
33:20We as a family, we want to create a balance over this whole landscape. We try and work out where can we do the important bit of actually making the money, growing food, growing crops.
33:29Yeah.
33:30But also the bits that just aren't cost effective to farm, the bits that are shaded or really wet headland.
33:35Yeah.
33:36We've taken all those areas and said actually there's a better use for these.
33:40And that is flower strips or it's wild bird food or it's places where we should be planting new hedges or having rough grassland for the barnhouse to be hunting.
33:48Over the last 55 years, wildlife has suffered a huge decline across the British countryside.
33:56But here, things are a bit different.
33:59This is a whole farm ecosystem approach.
34:02I know if we have healthy soil, if we have soil that is full of earthworms and full of bacteria and we have hedges that are just in some places out of control and really thick,
34:12birds will nest, insects will hatch, insects will hibernate, mammals will have places to hide and places to eat.
34:18I know that if we create this habitat, if we get everything right, then things just take care of themselves.
34:27And actually for me, I kind of love it as well.
34:29Yeah.
34:30I love going out and just seeing the wildlife, seeing the hares.
34:33I see you smiling.
34:34Having barn owls.
34:35Yeah.
34:36Nesting next to my house.
34:37What Patrick's approach shows is that food production doesn't have to come at the expense of nature.
34:44And I find that really inspiring.
34:46It's kind of remarkable to think that got big expensive cameras, thermal drones, my full crew going around your farm, and we still can't find these leverets.
35:00You've done such a good job at building the habitat and hiding them.
35:03You've made my life very difficult.
35:10Mother Nature has beaten me on this occasion.
35:12The leverets have evolved perfectly to survive and to hide.
35:16And I'm actually okay with that.
35:27When it comes to filming wildlife, the great British weather is often the greatest challenge, even in spring.
35:35The weather at the moment is blowing an absolute human.
35:3850 mile an hour winds, and to think that I am filming an absolute feeding frenzy, a phenomenon to be perfectly honest, in the UK here, south of Liverpool in the Wirral, is kind of mind-boggling.
35:52My next challenge is an extraordinary event that only happens a few days each year, and it's never been filmed before.
36:04Joining me is my friend and fellow cameraman, Simon King.
36:08When you look at this place, you could be forgiven that there's not a lot going on.
36:15No, it looks barren.
36:16Because it's a big salt marsh.
36:17Yeah.
36:18And why would anybody stand here, in the rain, looking at a giant salt marsh?
36:23I'm asking the same question.
36:25I'm beginning to ask that question.
36:27The thing is, we can't just pick and choose the day.
36:29We're on one of the very few, very high spring tides of the year.
36:32Yeah.
36:33And with these conditions, it could be super high.
36:37On just a few days each year, an enormous 10-metre high tide fills the estuary right up to the seawall.
36:44And when it happens, all the small mammals that usually hide in the salt marsh have to make a run for it.
36:56They have nowhere to go but out.
36:58They can either swim, they can drown, or they...
37:01Get eaten.
37:03..one of those options.
37:04So having both cameras operating is going to be great.
37:06OK, good.
37:07Because I don't think there's going to be any one thing that we both are focusing on.
37:11I'm excited.
37:14Simon's been here before, and he says that the tide comes in super quick.
37:29But, you know, for me, who is used to the normal tide, it comes up six hours, it goes down six hours.
37:35Simon says it's minutes, and it's going to be up here, so I'm excited.
37:40I'm just trying to get my eye locked in, ready for the action.
37:45OK, geese are up, geese are up.
37:47From our filming position, it's really hard to tell that the tide is rushing in.
37:52But a flurry of pink-footed geese taking off in the distance is an indicator that the water is racing in very quickly.
38:00Here it comes.
38:01It's coming in a lot quicker than I'm expecting it, to be honest.
38:09It's crazy how it creeps up on you, and on everything else, of course.
38:14It's time, I'm great eager at coming from that side.
38:28That is incredibly high.
38:29Wouldn't be surprised if it breaches and actually comes onto the road today.
38:36It's crunch time.
38:38With the tide right in, there's almost no solid ground left for the wildlife.
38:43There's a whole load of waders, red shank, that have just pulled into this little section.
38:48They're all crammed in next to each other, and you can see them kind of like jostling a little bit.
38:52Thousands of displaced wading birds crammed together for safety on floating reeds, turning this place into an all-you-can-eat buffet for predators, including the fastest animal on the planet.
39:14Oh, peregrine.
39:16Lovely, catch out, well spotted.
39:22It's a glut.
39:23Well, it's easy picking for it.
39:27It looks like a juvenile.
39:28Yeah.
39:33Something just tried to mob it.
39:36And the car goes away.
39:37And on.
39:38That was cool.
39:40The water is high.
39:43There isn't one square metre of salt marsh left.
39:47Now, the small mammals are in real danger.
39:50Forced to emerge from their usual hiding places and out into the open.
39:56You've got marsh harriers, peregrines, and short-eared owls that also hunt the area.
40:03Birds of prey usually hunt alone, but this unique opportunity brings them together in incredible numbers.
40:09There's gulls having a go at stuff, there's hen harriers moving around.
40:19It's all kicking off now.
40:21It's all kicking off.
40:22The shrews and the bolls are just basically trying to survive.
40:23They're fighting for their own life.
40:24The high water has even flushed out a mole.
40:38Their strong front paws, usually reserved for digging, make them surprisingly strong at swimming as well.
40:42And this brave rat makes a dash for it.
40:55At least this little guy has made it to safety.
41:11For now.
41:12I know a lot of people don't like gulls and they say, you know, they're mean.
41:17But they've also got to feed themselves.
41:19They will have chicks soon or they'll be sitting on eggs right now, it's early spring.
41:23What an amazing spectacle.
41:30I've never seen anything like this.
41:36To be seeing this, this phenomenon, this feeding frenzy, I would not expect it to be in the UK.
41:43I'm lost for words to be perfectly honest.
41:54What an event.
41:56The Wirral, you have delivered.
41:58Not only have you delivered in weather, because earlier this morning it was biblical rain and now it's sunshine and the tides already out there.
42:07But you've also delivered in wildlife behaviour.
42:10I can't believe what I saw today and what I witnessed.
42:15This landscape is so dynamic, it's constantly changing.
42:18And to be able to see the tide come in within minutes from three, four hundred meters away, right up to the wall here.
42:26I feel sorry for some of the mammals that had to keep on swimming.
42:33I want to come back here.
42:34I want to document this again.
42:36It is beautiful.
42:48By April, shy and rarely seen adders are emerging from hibernation in search of a mate.
42:58Most of us will never come across an adder.
43:01But with expert help, I hope to capture one on camera.
43:04Nigel Hand has been an ecologist for more than 20 years, working tirelessly to restore struggling adder populations at a secret site on the border of England and Wales.
43:18All right, what's the protocol?
43:20Because when I see an adder, I just kind of stand back, maybe get a photo on my mobile phone from a distance and I just leave it be.
43:26What you've just said is perfect, really.
43:30If we see one, stand back.
43:33Okay.
43:34Enjoy the encounter.
43:35Yep.
43:36But don't disturb it.
43:38As soon as I mention adders, I can see the smile on your face.
43:41Where did all the love start for them?
43:43It started when I was very young, Hamza.
43:45I was at school and I actually ventured out of the playground and looked on the bank and there were two male adders on the bank.
43:50Unfortunately, I've been back since and they're not there, the habitat's changed.
43:56So in my lifetime, they've gone and I've seen it not just there, I've seen it in a number of places.
44:02That must be worrying for you.
44:03It is. There's been a 40% decline in UK adders since early 2000s.
44:08At this key moment in spring, newly emerged males are searching for females and it's vital we don't disturb them.
44:15We don't disturb them.
44:17I'm just following Nigel's feet.
44:19Wherever he puts his feet, I'm putting mine.
44:22There's a male here.
44:23Oh, he's moving, he's moving.
44:24He's going back in.
44:26They do give off a smell.
44:28Yeah, it's a slight musty smell.
44:31Okay.
44:32I suppose I've been working a long time with them, so you get to sort of, I suppose you become tuned into all these things.
44:38Yeah.
44:39I'll tell you what it smells like.
44:40It smells like washing that's been left in the washing machine too long.
44:42Thanks to Nigel's keen senses, we've already managed to spot a few males, but they're disturbed by our vibrations and have moved away.
44:53Our best bet is to set up my camera in a warm sunny place, where the males are known to emerge, and see if they will come to us.
45:01One of the best ways of spotting adders is actually standing way back and not disturbing them.
45:10As you get close to them, they will feel your vibrations from your footsteps and they'll just sneak away.
45:16Oh, snake, snake, snake, snake, snake. There he is, look at that.
45:26Sneaking in. Hello, good morning.
45:30Good morning.
45:33Hello, he is moving slow.
45:35Have you spotted him, Nigel?
45:37He is just under that little bit of brush, isn't he?
45:43Can you see that iridescence on them as well? Yeah.
45:46Gosh, they are beautiful animals.
45:54Oh, another one, Hamza.
45:55I wonder if it's that one with the very dark head.
46:00Yes, it is. It is? Yep.
46:02It's amazing how he can just, from 15 metres away, he already knows which male it is.
46:08He's a good mature male, I'd say that's full grown, that one.
46:12Oh, beautiful.
46:14The patterns on their skin perfectly mimic the zigzag shapes of the bracken they bask in,
46:20making them incredibly difficult to spot.
46:25Any day now, these snakes will shed their old skins to reveal a striking black and white body
46:32and a deep red eye, ready to impress the females with their new outfits.
46:40Once they've shed their skins, these two will be competitors.
46:43Oh, look how they've flattened their tail.
46:45Yeah.
46:46What they do is they flatten their bodies to expose more to the sun.
46:50Remember, they are cold-blooded.
46:52Nigel has created small clearings, which he refers to as Adapatios.
46:58The spring sunshine heats the ground effectively, offering the snakes a place to bask and warm their blood.
47:05Essential for snakes to move, feed and at this time of the year, mate.
47:11And another one coming in to the party.
47:15From which direction?
47:16The left-hand side.
47:18Okay.
47:25There was another one coming to the pile.
47:26Oh, yeah. Okay.
47:28Four Adders all in one area.
47:30When my kids were growing up, we used to play pile-on.
47:32Well, this is an Adderpilot right now.
47:35There he goes.
47:49Five Adders in one area.
47:53To be looking at a ball of them, it's like a spaghetti ball of Adders.
48:03I am blown away by how beautiful they are and how gentle they are.
48:07I have such a newfound appreciation for Adders.
48:18They're just quietly getting on with their lives, aren't they?
48:23You can see how placid that animal is.
48:26Yeah.
48:27And how laid back.
48:28Okay, they're venomous, but they very rarely bite people.
48:31The last fatality to an Adderbite was 1975, you know.
48:36So, it's not something in the countryside that we've got to be alarmed about,
48:40you know, seeing or wary of.
48:43I think we need to learn to appreciate them more.
48:46Adders are very faithful to their homes.
48:51They will hibernate in the same spot each year,
48:54making them extremely vulnerable if their habitat is damaged.
48:59Shockingly, within the next 15 years, we may lose even more of our Adders,
49:05leaving them on the brink of extinction.
49:08So, more projects like this are key in ensuring the Adder's survival.
49:13I've been here 14 years doing habitat work,
49:18and I've put a lot of time and effort into managing those sites.
49:21We started off on very low numbers.
49:24There was 8 to 12 snakes on here.
49:27Okay.
49:28And since up to today, the numbers have risen, they've gone to 20,
49:31then now we've got 41, counted in one day.
49:3441 in one day?
49:35Yeah, there's a lot of sites in the UK where you're lucky to count 10 Adders.
49:39This is a pretty interesting site then to have.
49:41Yeah.
49:42What's the future?
49:43It almost brings a tear to my eyes actually thinking about it.
49:46Yeah.
49:50I think...
49:52I'd hate to think, if I'm gone,
49:55nobody's going to look after them.
49:57I'm sorry about this, I'm going to tear off.
49:58No, please don't.
50:00It's just, it's amazing to see someone caring about them so much.
50:03Yeah.
50:05They mean a lot to you, don't they?
50:06Yeah.
50:08Sorry about that.
50:09No, please don't.
50:11Please don't be.
50:13Please don't be.
50:15It is something I am really, really passionate about.
50:18I've worked with the community, which is great.
50:21Get people on board with them.
50:23And we've seen that happening more and more now.
50:25Yeah.
50:26That communities are taking Adders on board.
50:28And I think that's how it's going to work.
50:30It's just having that drive to think it's about looking after them,
50:34putting some effort into looking after them.
50:35Yeah.
50:36It's about looking after them and preserving them for the next generation.
50:39Yeah.
50:40Amen to that.
50:41Amen to that.
50:43Come here, big man.
50:44Come here.
50:46There are many threats facing our Adders,
50:49but we can all still make a meaningful difference in their conservation.
50:56By following local guidance and keeping dogs on the lead at key times,
51:00we can give these snakes the chance to peacefully live their lives.
51:05As the sun starts to set on this beautiful Suffolk Heath,
51:19and the spring days give way to long summer nights,
51:25a dust chorus begins.
51:35The star of the show serenades me from deep within the undergrowth.
51:45That, ladies and gentlemen, is the nightingale.
52:02Just listen to that.
52:04Here in the UK, they hide in all this scrub.
52:14It's super hard to see them.
52:18But why would you want to see them, to be honest,
52:20if you can hear them and let your imagination run wild?
52:23It's such a mythical creature, really, because hardly anyone really gets to see it.
52:36Because since the 1970s, nightingales have decreased by 90%.
52:41The nightingale can sing up to 1,000 phrases.
52:49Now, he collects these phrases as he travels from here all the way to West Africa.
52:55And he picks it up from all the other birds along the way.
52:59Now, compare that to the bird that we think is pretty songful and singing away.
53:04The blackbird.
53:06The blackbird only has 100 phrases.
53:09The nightingale, 1,000.
53:20You see, nightingales are here because of this scrubland.
53:24This scrubby, messy habitat.
53:27It gives them food, and more importantly,
53:29it gives them a place to hide and make their nests.
53:32But we humans love to keep everything nice and tidy.
53:39We want to mow our lawns and want to trim the edges and cut the trees back.
53:44But Mother Nature's not like that.
53:47Mother Nature's messy.
53:48You know, sitting here, I'd love to come back when I'm 90 and see this bird singing just like this.
54:09Singing just like this.
54:10Singing just like this.
54:11Singing just like this.
54:29wicked snoring dance.
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