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00:00Welcome to the Newport Wetlands Nature Reserve. This place is packed full of a whole host of
00:25habitats, all supporting a plethora of wildlife, much of it hidden away. And in this episode we're
00:34going to be looking at some of Wales' hidden creatures. We're going to be delving into log
00:40piles and diving below the waves. Welcome to Winter Watch in Wales.
00:55Now some creatures can be very easy to spot but for others you've got to look just that little
01:17bit hard and maybe a pair of binoculars will come in handy. Some animals come out at night
01:22like badgers and owls and marine mammals, well they're hidden below the waves and some creatures
01:30are just so small they're difficult to find. But if you're out and about in your garden I ask you
01:36please do stop and have a look for those small animals. They are fascinating and you don't have
01:43to go far. Just outside your back door is a whole world of wonder as Michaela Strachan reveals.
01:50There's little respite from the weather in winter but tucked into the corner of the garden is a safe house
02:03for wildlife. Protected from the extremes outside, a chrysalis. Of the UK's 59 species of butterfly,
02:16the majority spend the winter in this state. And still deeper, hidden at the base of the log pile,
02:24a slug has laid a clutch of eggs. Slugs lay up to 400 eggs a year in batches of 50. During the colder
02:35autumn and winter, these will take a few months to develop and hatch. But not everything sleeps through
02:45the winter. And when food is scarce, these protein packed micro bites provide a tasty meal for a host of
02:52garden creatures, including a hungry centipede. Centipedes generally hunt moving prey and the front pair of
03:05legs is adapted into pincer-like venom injecting claws called forcipules. These not only help capture prey,
03:15prey, but they're also perfect for grasping and piercing. Temperatures in the log pile can be several
03:25degrees higher than those outside, meaning that it's not just centipedes that are out and about.
03:31Delve into the gloom and the barren becomes the busy.
03:37Violet ground beetles generally hibernate in winter, but living here means they can stay on the move.
03:53Having gorged on slug eggs, our centipede returns to the hunt.
03:58Its name means 100 foot, but in fact some have as few as 20 legs, whilst others as many as 300.
04:09All perfectly synchronised to ensure they don't get entangled.
04:16The flattened body is perfect for moving between the logs and twigs of this 3D world.
04:22Living in the dark holds no fear for this beast either, for centipedes don't have true vision.
04:29They can only detect light and dark, and rely instead on their sensitive antennae to search for food.
04:40Buried elsewhere, more eggs. But unlike those of the slug, these have an advantage.
04:47Their attentive mother is never far away.
04:58Female earwigs are the domestic goddesses of the insect world.
05:05Having kicked out the father while she was pregnant,
05:08this single mother lays a bundle of up to 80 eggs in early December.
05:13In this dank, damp world, her eggs are prone to fungal infection,
05:23and so each day she carefully turns and cleans the surface of the eggs,
05:28to ensure that they stay healthy.
05:29The centipede senses food is nearby.
05:46The mother detects danger.
05:59She uses her pincer-like Cersei to defend against any intruders,
06:14even those much larger than herself.
06:16Unusually for an insect, earwig mothers never leave their eggs,
06:31and will make the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect them.
06:35Today, however, victory is hers.
06:38But that doesn't stop her playing it safe.
06:46She moves her eggs to a more protected spot.
06:50Our female will sustain this level of care until the eggs hatch.
06:54If the winter proves a cold one, that could be for as long as four months.
07:06So this winter, spare a thought for the hidden metropolis
07:10in the corner of your garden.
07:12Who'd have thought there'd be so many little creatures living often underneath our feet?
07:29And invertebrates, well, they really are the unsung heroes of the animal world.
07:34They form the base of the food chain, they're the recycling kings,
07:39and they play a vitally important part in the formation of soil.
07:44And the good news is you don't need to build a big wood pile.
07:48Dead wood, of course, is brilliant for them.
07:51But if you're cutting your hedge or if you're picking up plants,
07:55just put a discreet pile in the corner of your garden
07:59and that will provide them with the perfect home.
08:03Time to move on now to slightly bigger creatures,
08:06and we're not looking under leaf litter.
08:08We're now looking up towards the skies and two birds of prey,
08:12the barn owl and the kestrel.
08:16Now, on the surface, it looks like these two are dependent on the same kind of habitat.
08:22And although they eat a wide range of prey, they often target mice and voles.
08:28And this could possibly lead to competition,
08:32especially in the winter months when the weather is particularly bad.
08:37Chris Packham and I wanted to investigate these two species
08:41and look at what gives them the advantage when the going gets tough.
08:46So we set up a controlled experiment using a tame kestrel called Ashley and a tame barn owl called Lily
08:57to find out how they creep up on an unsuspecting mouse or bull.
09:12We want to find out just how quietly these hunters can fly.
09:15And to do that, we've set up a series of microphones here beneath what will be their flight line.
09:24But first, for comparison, we're going to record a bird that doesn't depend on stealth for hunting,
09:30and that's Bran the Raven.
09:33He's our baseline, if you will. So how will his wing beats sound in our mics?
09:42Wow. Goodness me.
09:44That was incredibly noisy.
09:45It's like an old rag flapping in the wind.
09:47It was.
09:48And do you know what? I've been up on the moors when the mist has been so thick,
09:51I can't see anything, but I've heard a raven go overhead.
09:54Yeah.
09:55That's how powerful the wing beat is.
09:57But not a bird that needs to be quiet. It's not a hunter. It's not catching its prey by surprise.
10:02It's principally a scavenger, of course.
10:07Ashley, on the other hand, needs to be quiet. Here goes.
10:16I struggled to hear that.
10:17Yes. Yeah, which is incredible. Could you hear anything?
10:19No. No.
10:20That's remarkable.
10:21I think we'd better have another go.
10:22I think so.
10:23This isn't even harder.
10:24Let's flip it over. That was the A side. Let's listen to the B side of the Kestrel.
10:36Just about make out the wing beats.
10:38Yeah.
10:38Just about. Gary?
10:40Yeah, I can definitely hear something.
10:41Yeah.
10:42Once it got into that level flight, there's a whisper.
10:44Much quieter than I imagined a Kestrel flight would be, to be quite honest with you.
10:48Yeah, I was expecting it to be a lot, lot louder.
10:50So was I.
10:51Faster wing beats. Right.
10:53Barnau?
10:53Barnau.
10:54Barnau.
10:54This will be interesting.
10:55Okay, the master.
10:56Let's listen to the master. Or not, as the case might be.
10:58Not a flap.
11:08Nothing.
11:09Nothing at all.
11:09Nothing.
11:10No?
11:10Nothing. There must have been at least three direct wing beats over those mics we heard.
11:13Nothing.
11:14Not like the Kestrel, which was gliding. The bird was flapping. And there's nothing. Not a sound.
11:21You wouldn't want to be a mouse or a vole, would you? Out there at night. I mean, you are at an enormous disadvantage up against a bar now.
11:29Yeah. It's like a stealth bomber.
11:31It is.
11:34So Lily is much quieter. But Ashley the Kestrel makes up for a slight fluttering with speed.
11:41As we've seen, he's considerably faster on the approach, meaning that by the time the prey hears him, it's game over.
11:48In the winter, short days and scarce food mean the Kestrel has to hunt as late as possible.
12:02So at dusk, they're in direct competition.
12:05We want to see how the Kestrel can cope in low light. And we're starting in the extreme.
12:12Pitch black.
12:13Sorry, who's that?
12:14I'm here. We need some light, don't we? Let's have some infrared.
12:16There we are. Perfect. Let's try the Kestrel.
12:21The lure makes a tiny sound. But will he react?
12:28No. Nothing, Chris.
12:31Ashley wasn't even aware there was a twitching a few feet away.
12:36Now, to see how late he can hunt in the winter, we're going to give him a tiny bit of light to work with.
12:42We're replicating twilight, that time just after the sun has set.
12:47And there's no hesitation.
12:50Ashley pinpoints the movement and pounces accurately.
12:54The thing is, you know, they've actually got relatively large eyes for the size of their head. Nowhere near as big as the owl, of course.
13:03But it doesn't surprise me that they've got good low light vision.
13:06No, and I have once watched a Kestrel in an old house in North Wales perch up, waiting for pipistrel bats to come out of the roost.
13:16And I was surprised that he hunted in such poor light.
13:19Barn owls don't have to rely on their eyes, so it's back to black.
13:29So, Yolo, we've got the lure here.
13:32Oh, look at that!
13:33So she saw that.
13:36Or maybe heard it going through the long grass, because look at where she is, she's gone right into the middle of the grass.
13:43Hmm.
13:43So there's either just enough ambient light in here for her extraordinary nocturnal vision to have worked,
13:50or as you say, that was purely the rustle of the lure in the grass.
13:55Either or, that is absolutely amazing.
13:59And the Kestrel, meanwhile, was just sat in the tree.
14:03And, of course, the owl's ability to hunt after dark, when it's pitch black,
14:08is what gives these two species just enough niche separation so that they can both live in the same kind of habitat,
14:17feeding on the same kind of prey.
14:20It's incredible.
14:25That was a memorable day, watching those two masters of the air and their different hunting techniques.
14:38Of course, the Kestrel has the advantage by day because it's slightly bigger, it's faster, and has excellent eyesight.
14:47But when it comes to low light, that's when the barn owl comes into its own.
14:52It has excellent hearing, and it has that very silent flight.
14:57And I've seen Kestrels and barn owls hunting this area.
15:01These edges are full of mice and voles.
15:04And I've got to say, I would not want to be a small mammal in this area here.
15:11Now, plenty of creatures want to go under the radar.
15:14Whether you're a hunter looking to creep up on your unsuspecting prey,
15:20or whether you're a small creature wanting to avoid being eaten.
15:25But beneath the waves, some creatures are masters of disguise.
15:29Just off the Llyn Peninsula in north-west Wales, the tidal waters and shifting sands provide shelter for many.
15:41These shallow seas may look barren at first.
15:52But a keen eye reveals hidden life.
16:00Below this mounded burrow, a sand goby looks for an opportune moment to break cover.
16:07As a watchful greater weaver lies in wait.
16:16And the deadly shadow of a cat shark skims overhead.
16:21Predators are everywhere.
16:26And caution is clearly a goby family trait.
16:30Just a stone's throw away, a black goby sits tight.
16:37A third bigger than its sandy cousin, and with darker markings on its skin.
16:45But for both, eventually, hunger drives them out.
16:53Hunting for larvae and young insects,
16:55they scavenge the ocean floor.
17:02Amongst the jostling crabs, they must stay alert.
17:08Stay quick.
17:12And stay alive.
17:13When every mound can hide a hungry mouth.
17:28The black goby is having more luck on his search for a meal.
17:32Using his size as an advantage.
17:38While the sand goby can only watch on.
17:42As his bigger cousin snatches the spoils.
17:49But both are unaware that from the open shallows,
17:52danger has followed.
17:57An angel shark.
18:02A critically endangered species rarely seen in UK waters.
18:12At just 30 centimetres long, this is a juvenile.
18:16As the day draws on, the sand goby strikes lucky.
18:38An unfortunate crab has met its end.
18:41And the small, nimble sand goby takes full advantage.
18:51Both gobies now have full, happy stomachs and can make their way home.
18:58But not everyone has eaten.
19:00The angel shark waits for the perfect moment to strike.
19:10A sand goby's dance above its head, oblivious to the danger that lies beneath.
19:20But they are too small to be worth the shark's energy.
19:24A black goby on the other hand.
19:36The angel shark's strike is swift.
19:42And proof that these shifting sands hide far more than meets the eye.
19:54What an incredible creature that is.
20:01And we believe that's the first time an angel shark has ever been filmed in UK waters.
20:07Now partly because they're difficult to find, they're well camouflaged of course.
20:11But also, they're critically endangered.
20:14They used to be quite widespread in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
20:18But now they're on the red list.
20:21And we believe that the shallow waters off the west coast of Wales are really important for them.
20:29Now some creatures are difficult to see because they're well camouflaged.
20:32They live below the waves.
20:34And others might be because they're nocturnal, skittish or live below ground.
20:40This next animal is all three of those things.
20:44I'm talking about the badger.
20:47And it's particularly difficult to see in winter because they enter a period called winter lethargy.
20:55Now they feed up in the autumn when there's plenty of fruits and seeds around.
21:00They fatten up.
21:01But then in winter, when times are hard, they can stay underground for weeks on end.
21:08They will of course come out on occasion, but it's very sporadic.
21:13One badger enthusiast, Malcolm Ingham, set up camera traps all around his home in North Wales
21:20so that he wouldn't miss out on any badger action.
21:24Using remote cameras allows Malcolm to follow the fortunes of his badgers throughout the year.
21:41I worked for over 30 years in conservation with a large part in rehabilitating and raising badgers.
21:48This gave me a real connection to them.
21:50When we retired here to North Wales, I was delighted to find we were surrounded by badger clans.
21:59I wanted to find out more about them, so I set up a number of camera traps in the area.
22:06It's magic.
22:09You could have sat into badgers there for five years,
22:11and yet you wouldn't achieve the full aspect of that clan's life.
22:17Whereas with a trail camera, it misses nothing.
22:22We've got three main clans.
22:24The no-tailed clan, because the alpha boar at the time appeared not to have a tail.
22:30It was just a very stubby tail.
22:32And we've got the Dickens clan.
22:34The alpha boar had whiskers rather like Dickens.
22:38They are all great, but when it comes to entertainment, there is one that really delivers.
22:44Now we're at the nutter clan set.
22:47Why the nutter clan? Because basically they're a load of nutters.
22:52Charging around like idiots.
22:54They're just full of the joy of life.
22:56When the cubs are old enough to actually start playing, it's infectious.
23:03The adults join in, as though they can't resist it.
23:12When you actually see it on trail camera, it looks a much bigger area than it actually is.
23:19You don't realise it's relatively small.
23:22But this is where all the action happens.
23:25This tends to be the focal point for socialising and this sort of thing.
23:30It's taught me so much more about the life within the clan.
23:36It's a constant joy to me.
23:38I have accumulated an awful lot of knowledge about the species,
23:42but I'm also adding to that knowledge all the time.
23:49Occasionally you do get a chain barrow that will collapse,
23:52which creates a vertical hole.
23:55And a badger would jump into it and then constantly jump down like a jack in a box.
24:04To watch it is extremely amusing.
24:10Hopefully my footage can show people what badgers are really like.
24:15The softer side of the animal.
24:18Budgers are blamed for predating on sheep and lambs.
24:23My footage can contradict that theory.
24:27On the nutter clown set, there's always sheep laying around the set.
24:31You've got ewes with lambs, etc.
24:33Believe you me, the sheep are the boss.
24:45Come April, tiny cubs are making the first emergence above ground.
24:50Wobbly legs and what have you, and the following mum around,
24:55and some of the other clan members fuss over them.
25:00I'm going to be observing those cubs from first emergence from the set,
25:05all the way through to being yearlings and beyond.
25:08To follow them all the way through to adulthood is amazing.
25:16The most exciting thing for me is every single night we have
25:20three clans of budgers passing through the garden.
25:22I'm watching. It's the thrill. It's the thrill of anticipation.
25:35Dusk is falling and darkness is drawing in.
25:44And then you see this black and white face.
25:52That white stripe is so distinctive, it may as well be luminous.
26:03Then the budger starts to relax.
26:09Then a second one appears.
26:13The vast majority of wildlife fears human beings,
26:17with every reason to do so.
26:19But to have an animal that is totally wild,
26:23trust you to the degree where they can be around your feet,
26:27I'd still get the same thrill now as I did the very first time I ever did it.
26:32It'd be a very sad world without them.
26:34Malcolm's right, any day you see a badger is a red-letter day.
26:52And I'll never forget the first time I saw one as about five or six years old.
26:58I'd gone up into the woods at the back of our house at night, sat down quietly and watched as a young badger approached.
27:07It got so close, it sniffed the bottom of my boots.
27:11Back in 2020, I got the chance to have a close encounter with an even more elusive animal,
27:18recently reintroduced to Wales.
27:22Right, here we go.
27:23I've got a cushion, I've got a brilliant view.
27:25All we need now is a pine martin.
27:29Oh, you little stunner.
27:41I never thought I'd live to see the day when I could watch a pine martin in the wild here in Wales.
27:51I've got to pinch myself because this isn't Scotland, this isn't up in the Highlands, this is mid Wales.
27:56It doesn't matter where you are, north, mid, south Wales, you keep putting our food in your garden,
28:05there's a good chance you too might have pine martins there.
28:08Just think of that, how amazing is that?
28:16Well, I hope you enjoyed peeking into the secret world of Welsh wildlife,
28:21from creatures hidden under log piles, to an angel shark lurking on the seabed.
28:28Till the next time, Pwyr fawr, take care.
28:51KPEOK
28:57ос
28:58KPEOK
28:58ос
28:59Y
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