- 7 hours ago
Winterwatch - Season 14 Episode 2
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Short filmTranscript
00:00it's cold it's very very cold it's windy it's very very windy but hey we're here we're live
00:11we're bracing ourselves against the wind the wildlife is coping the big question is will we
00:18well we're gonna find out over the next hour because it's time for winter watch
00:30hello hello hello hello and welcome to winter watch 2026 coming to you live from the national
00:54trust mount stewart estate on the banks of strangford lock in northern ireland yes if you
00:59were watching yesterday you'll know that we've crossed the sea and for the first time we are
01:03basing ourselves here we got off to a strong start yesterday we introduced you to the scarlet
01:09caterpillar club not a rave of disrepute frequented by williams in the 90s but a bizarre type of fungi
01:17that infects moth larvae and pupae tonight lots more science coming up we've got a thermal drone
01:23and we're also going to be looking at the cognition of corvids but first we can start
01:28with a live badger and there it is oh half a badger the backside of a badger yes indeed that's a good
01:39start well it's the backside of a wet badger as well isn't it look at that but it's nice to see
01:43them look you know we've had a lot of badger activity and a bit later on in the program
01:47jack baddams and i are going to be reviewing some of that and there's some interesting observations i've
01:52got to tell you things that we've never seen before a good start because actually on a windy
01:57night you might not expect them to be out because let's face it the last 24 hours has been very windy
02:04we've certainly braced the elements we've been buffeted by the wind we felt it the trees have
02:12felt it and as you can see certainly made it very choppy on the lock not ideal for boats in that wind
02:20but in any weather it's an ideal habitat for waders flock of curlew coping well flying in a very
02:26straight line very impressive um but of course you know even when you get those crashing waves the
02:32mud flats are the place to be for waders that's what they've come here for to gorge on all the food
02:38that they can find in the mud you've got red shanks there turnstones green shanks coming for the
02:44abundance of food they don't care if the waves are crashing they're just getting their beaks in
02:49that mud but you know it's winter it's a challenging season and everything is just trying to survive
02:57we're very lucky here at mount shewatt we have such an amazing mix of habitats and we've sprinkled our live
03:04cameras here there and everywhere let's have a look see if we've has that badger gone or is that badger
03:09still on there i can't see it oh it's still there it's still there look at that yeah it's near the
03:15wheel he may well jump up on the wheel a bit of exercise look at the wheel we had this wheel last
03:22night because some scientists in the netherlands have been using these to see if wild mammals would
03:26run in them so come on badger get up there and show some athleticism that would be the best start to
03:32the program wouldn't it a badger exercising on there but the other night we saw something quite
03:40unexpected these are four seeker deer now it's an invasive species here in ireland the only native
03:49species they have here is the red deer they were introduced in 1860 these look to me like two stans
03:56two young stans two hinds you see the antlers they rot in october and then they drop the antlers and
04:04the antlers are regrowing that one's got a broken antler there probably not from fighting i would
04:09imagine it's probably run into a tree or run into a branch or something there but fairly unexpected
04:15they're not numerous in this area well that's a glimpse of some of the wildlife we're seeing here
04:20and we'll certainly keep our eyes on the live cameras what about what you've been seeing we love
04:24it when you send us some good stuff in and look at this we had a glimpse of a kingfisher last night
04:29on the program debbie lawson has had a very good glimpse of a kingfisher in kent interesting this
04:37because normally you see kingfishers perched on a branch and then they'll do a little bit of hovering
04:42dive down to get their prey this one you can see there's no trees nearby so nothing to perch on so it's
04:50had to do a jolly good impression of a hummingbird lots of that hovering it must be exhausting
04:55actually energetically expensive spends four or five times the amount of energy hovering than it
04:59would in level flight so it's only going to do that if it really needs to isn't it now we had a film
05:04on last night all about gold crest a delightful film explaining how they get through these freezing
05:09cold winter nights well ellie raptor simmons asked us how do you tell a gold crest from a fire crest well
05:17ellie take a look firstly look at the shape of the bird i think we can all agree that the gold
05:21crest is a little bit dumpy a little bit necklace whereas the fire crest has a more distinct neck
05:27but to be truthful the most obvious feature is that very distinctive black eye stripe on the fire
05:33crest in my opinion the gold crest looks a little bit unfinished so that's the thing to look out for
05:38because even if the crest erect their crests the gold crest is sometimes gold but also a little bit
05:44fiery so you can't rely on the color of the crest to identify the bird just look for the eye stripe
05:50both of them are tiny and you're really lucky to see either aren't you you are looking to see
05:54either they're fantastic birds do to uh continue to send in your photographs and videos to us we
05:59all like to see those you can use the usual social media platforms but we also have a new whatsapp
06:05number 0800 022 4776 and if you can't be bothered to type it into your phone then you can scan the qr code
06:14on the right hand side of the screen there and it will take you directly to that whatsapp so do send
06:18us your photos we love seeing them and i've got to say we've had some pretty good photos sent in so far
06:23and that's coming from me the uber critic the uber critic as i say you've got to be pretty good to
06:29be able to see a fire crest or a gold crest you've got to be a good keen birder now yolo and chris think
06:35that they're good keen birders and they can be pretty competitive let me tell you so we decided to
06:41send them out around here on a birding challenge yolo take a look at this this is a blue tit this one
06:50wood pigeon okay because i know you're struggling a little bit with your birds at the moment right
06:53so to get you back in practice we're gonna have a bird off see how many different species we can see
06:58in in 20 minutes okay can i just say one thing if we go you i haven't got a hope not a hope we'll see
07:06about that now i'm feeling really smug because i'm headed to strangford lot with this huge expanse of
07:12mudflats i'm going to see thousands of waders and thousands of wildfowl oh no but in
07:20case i didn't check the tide times frankly the conditions couldn't be worse so here is my
07:27stopwatch and i'm about to start it now i'm going to count the birds that i've already seen there's
07:33a black-headed girl going along there but on the way down i saw a blue tit a chaffinch a wood pigeon
07:38a hooded crow and a great black-backed gull meanwhile i've got a trick up my sleeve
07:46why choose the woodland you might think i'm mad oh no no no no bird feeders
07:53great tit blue tit colt tit chaffinch
08:01buzzard passing over blackbird over there as well
08:06so one two three six already after 50 seconds in the bag in the bag i might even have a little
08:18sleep if only i bought a cup of tea and some cake come on anything oh hold on ida oh my eyes are watering
08:35it's enough to bring me to tears really because at this point i i feel i could lose the yolo
08:46it's a red shank
08:58a couple of jackdaws going over oh that's nice long tail tit
09:03what are we doing time wise now all the birds have been pushed off to their roosts
09:11and those roosts quite clearly are nowhere near here
09:16wood pigeon going over oh and an oyster catcher and a hooded crow
09:22oh do you know what it's raining birds don't even need this
09:29oh i've got red-breasted meganza so far away that i think they could be
09:34heading to nova scotia lovely rook five four three two
09:4415 species 15 species ha the one time that you have to rely on your so-called feathered friends
09:55and they leave you quite literally up the lock without a paddle look one herring goal
10:03oh thank you thank you very much
10:17oh bravado yes indeed so how many did you get then well you go first no no no no no no you go
10:25no no no no i insist let's go together i'll have to consult my notes let's go together okay
10:29okay on three on three i'll count okay one yeah two yeah three 15. what did you get what did you get
10:4114. oh yes i don't believe it so now you can go to your grave knowing that yes
10:50you are an inferior bird watcher thank you
10:53i love him i love him really
11:04uh well i i i just got off the phone from my therapist and she said that uh probably with
11:11three or four years of treatment i'll get over it oh well then yeah well as you're here i want you to
11:15witness the coronation of a king i was actually going to ask you to put the crown on yourself
11:22but yeah thank you thank you thank you thank you i can be a good loser yes thank you my subject thank
11:28you i'm gonna wear this all week all week just to remind you you did cheat no no see i went to the
11:33woods yes there were bird feeders but i heard you on there saying on the way down i saw chaffinch
11:38blue tit wood pigeon it was supposed to be within the 20 minutes and if you can't get your tides right
11:44schoolboy error had i got the tides right had i got the tides right i would have undoubtedly won
11:50because the mud flats out on strangford lock are not only internationally important for all of the
11:56birds but they are packed through the an extraordinary ecology of organisms and microorganisms
12:03and michaela is going to tell us a bit more about them all now i am but first of all chris i'm going
12:09to say that was a rookie error i mean who goes to a lock at high tide to do a bit of bird watching it's
12:15obvious you go at low tide as chris said you know that's when the mud flats are revealed and that has
12:20all that rich life but you also get an enormous amount of life underneath the water and it is absolutely
12:30beautiful it may be gray above the water but under the waves it's full of color and if you brave the
12:38cold like diver bernard picton who's been diving in the lock for over 50 years then you're in for a
12:45real treat all sorts of colorful crabs starfish you might even see a lobster peeking out all sorts of
12:54colorful fish as well like that brass if you're really lucky octopus absolutely beautiful scenes
13:01as i say loads of color and loads of life doesn't bother the life underneath when that's when it's
13:09windy and you've got crashing waves above so that's what's under the water but as well the mud flats are
13:17full of life so when it's low tide the mud flats are revealed and they've got this sumptuous buffet
13:25of microorganisms and invertebrates for all of those wading birds with all of those different beaks
13:32that are probing to get their food and that's what makes the lock internationally important
13:39and such an important habitat for all those overwintering birds but you know there are so
13:44many organisms in that mud they're very difficult to see with the naked eye they're brilliant if you
13:49can get a macro camera so we've got a macro camera we've also got an expert thank goodness for that
13:55because they're complex a lot of these little organisms so thanks so much this is dr patrick
14:01collins who's from queens university belfast who's come in to show us some of the things that i've got
14:07to say i'm very impressed you collected today in the wind and the rain that's dedication what have you
14:13found we brought a small sample of what we get in the law because it is it's thousands oh there's a
14:18lot of it's a diverse biodiversity hot spot a lot it was very cold today tides weren't great so we
14:24didn't go out for too long but we got you some stuff to show okay the first animal is a relative of
14:30your earthworm it's what's known as a bristle worm or a polychaete now it's bright red and it looks like
14:34a strawberry and the english term for it is the strawberry worm now it's got a lovely and ornate latin name which
14:40is eupolemnia nebulosa and this is it's it's an animal that lives its entire life on its own
14:46it lives under stones and muddy areas uh the bright red color is because there's not a lot of oxygen
14:51down there so it needs hemoglobin in the blood and how it feeds is interesting so it lives in a tube
14:56which it never leaves for its entire life that tube it secretes out of its own mucus which is quite
15:00revolting lovely and puts bits of sand and bits of pebble on it and it sends its tentacles out over the
15:06mud because it can't move it's stuck in there and these tentacles are like gutters on the side of a
15:11house except they're made out of tissue and a little cilia inside it it sends it over the mud
15:16it finds little particles and it cracks them back through the tentacles through the little gutters
15:20with the cilia to its mouth and it eats them well i don't know if you know this we we love props on
15:26this show patrick so i've got a prop of this because uh you explained it beautifully but i think we can
15:31explain it even more beautifully with this so this is our strawberry worm underneath its rock that's
15:36what you said underneath its rock there it is and then if i pull these these are those tentacles that
15:43you were talking about uh very lengthy tentacles and it never needs to leave its little home and and
15:50it wafts those around and catches its prey do you like that it's good isn't it it's good isn't it okay
15:55what else have you got so that's an animal known as a deposit feeder so it sends its tentacles out over
16:00the surface of the mud we've got a relative of it that looks quite like it but it's a bit of a
16:06confused animal it's known as a sand mason worm otherwise known as in latin it's got a wonderful
16:11name lanis concha liga or if you're an american laniche concha liga i don't know why okay this animal
16:18is a deposit feeder but acts and lives like it's a filter feeder like the lovely fan worms you find on
16:22tropical reefs how it does this is i suppose a bit revolting it creates a home out of mucus where it
16:29attaches bits of pebbles onto it and it builds a lovely little tube and then it has what looks
16:34for all intents and purposes like the top of a palm tree on the top and what it does is it orientates
16:42that perpendicular to the water flow so the water flows this way and it's got the palm out like this
16:47and that creates tiny little microwetries and small little particulates that are in the water
16:53are brought in to these little palms and it sends it to the tentacles out and feeds on top of it
16:57so it's a fantastic creature and we've we've got a prop of that as well you knew we would have to do
17:02so this this is it so that's the mason worm and then and as you say it's got this sort of palm
17:09made out of sand and mud yeah and then the particles in the water come along so that's the seabed this
17:15is the sea although it's black um and they'll come along and get caught in the top of the oh one's
17:22fallen off and that's how they catch their prey they're really cool aren't they because they're
17:26you can see they're really long but it's only a tiny bit of it that if you were diving you'd see
17:30because it's only that part of it that sticks out they're juicy they're small and lots of animals like
17:35to eat them so their bodies are full of these little hooks that kind of stick it into the side of
17:40the hole and so that when it's threatened it can dart down quickly into it so only a small bit of
17:44it is out at any one time and what's the last one you've got to show us the last one we have is a
17:49small animal known as corofium it's a crustacean it's a type of amphipod um and this is basically
17:56they're the chips of the intertidal as in the edible chips yeah these are you can see there's two
18:02there's two little morphs there there's one really long antenna on the front those are the males and
18:07you've got ones with short antenna those are the females the male's got the big long antenna because
18:11the female can only reproduce uh after it's molten which doesn't happen very often so there's a lot of
18:17competition between males to fight that fight each other to get access and also to guard her because
18:23they're in the intertidal they get washed away he wants to keep held on they've the females have little
18:28pouches like kangaroos not quite like kangaroos but for all intents and purposes like kangaroos and they
18:33their eggs hatch on them and the little small versions of them crawl off and these guys can
18:37exist in absolutely phenomenal densities on the mud flats in our areas about 10 000 per meter square
18:44in the baltic up to 100 000 individuals per meter square it's insane and the birds what we
18:50tend to happen with all the waiters coming in the waiters time their arrival to when the abundance
18:55of these guys are at their maximum because they're a fantastic and easily gotten food source
19:00i find it absolutely fascinating i mean these are things that that you you wouldn't see unless you
19:05were going in the mud and sort of you know digging around and yet the stories of them are so
19:11interesting aren't they and they're so important i mean they're ecosystem engineers if if we lost all
19:17this the whole ecosystem would fall apart in the luck wouldn't be what it is thank you so much for
19:23coming in i mean it's one thing isn't it to see macro but when you go into microscopic then you
19:29see single cell organisms and there are whole dramas going on there as well this is one in particular
19:37and it's starring a little single cell organism called a stentor
19:46one thing is fairly predictable in the uk winter can be wet and as water levels rise rivers burst their banks
19:59and as water levels rise spilling into nearby fields but with disruption comes opportunity
20:12at the surface these temporary wetlands attract bird life as flocks gather to exploit the new habitat
20:18yet far stranger events are unfolding beneath the surface
20:32within these muddy pools lives a whole range of aquatic life
20:40amongst it something remarkable
20:43a stentor one of the simplest forms of life on earth this is an ancient organism
20:56although made up of just a single cell this stentor is a relative giant in the microscopic world
21:03capable of growing to one millimeter in length
21:07it's also a master of contortion able to stretch and contract into a trumpet shape
21:18a form it adopts when feeding
21:22other microscopic organisms are its preferred food
21:26but winter presents a challenge you see as nutrients become scarce some stentors turn to an ingenious solution
21:42whilst some are transparent this individual has a striking green hue
21:47so that they have been absorbed by the stentor but they have not met their end
22:04in fact this marks the beginning of a marvelous symbiotic relationship
22:09the algae are held within the stentor close to the cell wall
22:18here they gain protection from more hostile predators
22:23and their host receives nourishment in the form of sugary compounds released by the algae
22:31but there is a catch the algae only produce this food when they photosynthesize
22:39and for that they need sunlight and plenty of it
22:44for this microscopic organism deep within a murky puddle that requires some action
22:53as dawn breaks the sun's rays begin to penetrate the surface of the water
22:58it's time for the stentor to provide for its paying guests
23:17it's time to move the stentor makes for the surface hair light structures cause cilia propel it forward
23:26but at this tiny scale pushing through the detritus can take a herculean effort
23:42it settles just below the surface basking in the winter sun
24:04here using carbon dioxide provided by the stentor the algae begin to photosynthesize
24:16and the more they do the more food they produce and the more they excrete
24:21so the stentor can collect its rent with interest with sufficient sunshine its tiny lodgers can provide
24:32enough nutrition to sustain the stentor through the lean winter months
24:36and the effort of reaching the sun is not a one-off for the stentor if the surface of the water is disturbed
24:46it will retreat down before making its way back up to the light
24:51they might be eons old but the algae the stentor and the sunlight are a thoroughly modern thruple
25:06the stentor the stentor what a remarkable little organism just going to prove that you don't have
25:12to be big to be exciting and that's all happening out there in muddy puddles the wonder of life
25:19now i've come down here to the heart of the winter watch village this is where the action really
25:24happens i can tell you that inside these cozy warm cabins at the moment are all of our producers and
25:31directors sipping their brandy and eating their chocolates whilst the likes of myself and yolo and
25:36michael are out here with the crew getting soaking wet but look this is the tangle of wires that gives
25:41you winter watch this is where all of those cables from all of the cambers that we got out across mount
25:46stewart come together and they join in this truck now we've been in here before this is mission control
25:53if you like this is where all of our screens are being duly watched by our dedicated team of helen
26:02rachel ian jack joe and el got the names right good start wasn't it really then you can see this bank
26:10of screens here now at the moment is there anything like oh is it i just saw a mouse exiting was that
26:16it was that our live animal that we could have cut to is there anything joe is there anything there
26:22no nothing live there at the moment nothing live there at the moment there was a mouse only
26:27minutes before i tell you what let's go to that squirrel feeding station that we've been looking at
26:33because obviously it's dark now no chance of any red squirrels but we have been seeing pine martens
26:40there now no pine martens at the moment but during the daytime plenty of other activity with those
26:47squirrels and we can take a look at that now there they are chewing on those nuts now look lovely little
26:53ear tufts but look at the jaws of these animals incredibly powerful these are cob nuts giant hazelnuts
27:01so imagine trying to bite into one of those yourself a tough job but not for the squirrel
27:06because it has remarkable leverage and powerful muscles in its jaw which sandwich the nut between
27:13its tough teeth in its skull and its lower jaw and quite neatly snip through it like that of course
27:19they don't eat you all of them sometimes they'll carry them off and cash them and sometimes they'll
27:23climb onto the bird feeders and sometimes they're not very good at that are they they fall off now if
27:30you were watching last night you know that we featured an experiment that was conducted in
27:33the netherlands looking at whether wild mammals would run in wheels now if you've kept
27:39hamsters or gerbils or mice then you might put an exercise wheel in their enclosure and they would run
27:45around that would the wild equivalent do it well what they found was that they they did now we've
27:51tried to replicate that in some way by putting some wheels out let's go live to our mouse wheel
27:57well it's mouse less at the moment but we have had a mouse visiting this wheel we put some bait in
28:04there this is a young wood mouse it's on the wheel it's got the bait it needs always just thinking
28:11about it it's thinking about it but unfortunately this is one of life's lazier mice and this is not
28:18one that's going to show any degree of athletic alacrity whatsoever wasn't just that of course we've
28:23also put out a larger wheel which we were hoping that maybe i don't know badger might get on it let's
28:30have a look at what we've seen on that now there it is live no activity at the moment but look now
28:38this doesn't surprise us because obviously the smell of that mouse in that wheel has meant that
28:45the pine martin has come in for a sniff not looking to exercise itself of course but looking for
28:50a meal now again if you were watching last night you know that we started strong with our badgers
28:55we've got a good collection of badgers here and jack you've been out haven't you to take a look at
29:00the set in daylight yeah it's a great set that we've got for this uh winter watch and although we've got
29:05amazing views of it on the live cameras it's sometimes a bit difficult to get just the context
29:09of how it sits in the landscape so a few days ago i went down to check it out
29:22the signs of them are absolutely everywhere down here got a little snuffle mark where they've been
29:29foraging and there are tracks crisscrossing this wood all leading back to one spot
29:43behold badger tropolis
29:48this is one of the coolest badger sets i've ever seen it's huge there's a hole there there's a hole
29:52there there's a hole there there's one over there
29:54all of the bare earth shows just how active this badger set is these sunken pathways must have been
30:02used by generations of badgers to move to and from this set i mean have a look at that it looks like
30:08some sort of badger bmx track it really is quite an extraordinary setup here
30:16and get a load of this if we get down here we can see all along these tracks are hares now how can we be
30:21sure that these are badger hairs other than the fact they're outside a giant badger set well if we
30:26put them between our finger and our thumb and we try and roll them and the badger hair doesn't spin
30:31and that's because it's coarse and more oval in shape whereas lots of other animal hair is very
30:36rounded which means it spins quite nicely but this doesn't it's a good way of being able to tell what
30:42hair you're looking at if you find some while you're out and about obviously right now they're
30:52all tucked up underground sleeping but we've got our cameras and our infrared lights above to watch
30:57them throughout the night we've got some really nice shots of them in the spring and i'm really
31:01looking forward to seeing what we get over the next few days so jack we've got the lie of the
31:16badger land there but we've subsequently seen quite a lot of really interesting behavior we have yeah a
31:21couple of nights ago let's have a look at this clip we've got some really interesting behavior we've got
31:25here a badger standoff now i'm not going to talk too much because the sound is really cool
31:33but what we've got here on the right a male badger
31:40facing off against another that seems to be angling itself a little bit you'll see it
31:46scoops around to try and keep that male potentially away from the set
31:49but the vocalizations are really cool i've never heard badger sounds like this before personally
31:59it's definitely antagonistic it's not a friendly chunk
32:04occasionally they go for each other but there's a lot of this behavior standing face to face
32:09and then this sound is really cool
32:16do you know who's down in the set at this point so at the minute there's at some point
32:22there's there's points where there are other badges in there there's other points where this animal
32:26does just seem to stand at the set entrance and we're not sure if there is a badger
32:30blocking it or not but it's definitely in this case we can see in this instance a badger does come out
32:36but it's definitely avoiding going down it's definitely uneasy about going down a bit of
32:42aggression there yeah so what exactly is happening here we're not really sure that male badger then
32:49just walks off we never see it fully enter the set um we don't really know what's going on i mean
32:56one of the theories that we've heard is that that could be a male from another clan yep that's coming
33:01in to try and mate with some of the females because they do at this year time of year come into
33:06season as soon as they've given birth to their young of course um and but they do also extra pair
33:12matings so it's not just one mile so it could be a male coming in from another clan but there's not
33:17that much aggression there the other theory is that of course that could be a female badger
33:23protecting the place that she's going to give birth or maybe she's even given birth yeah it's not all
33:27out war in there they're not properly going at each other which makes us think maybe it's not a badger
33:32from another clan and there's maybe something a little bit more subtle going on keep your eyes
33:36peeled and we will go back to that i imagine tomorrow if we can get any more we'll get a better
33:40idea of exactly what's going on we'll be watching excellent lots of badger action here but of course
33:46lots of bird activity during the daytime and now yellow and michaela are going to be taking a much
33:50closer look at some of the species that we've seen on our live cameras
33:54yes indeed we are do you know what of all the habitats we have here i think the most valuable
33:59from a wildlife point of view has got to be the woodlands well that and the lock i guess well yeah
34:03no no i mean on the estate itself you know you've got mature uh deciduous mature conifers young trees
34:11as well that encourages things like the lower plants the the ferns the mosses the mammals we've seen many
34:18of those but also a wide variety of woodland birds many of which will be familiar to all of us
34:25our bird feeders there the robin is a regular visitor the red robin nice mix of tits as well
34:31we saw long tail tits on the bird race yesterday this of course is a great tit here and the cold
34:39tit but this cold tit is not all it appears to be because this is the irish subspecies look at the
34:45rufous flanks and the yellow cheeks our cold tit has got white cheeks so this is the irish subspecies
34:55jays well they visit the bird feeders as well but this jay like the cold tit is quite different
35:04because this is an irish subspecies of jay did you know that such a thing existed well i didn't before
35:13today it's really interesting isn't it if you look at them side by side you can see there is a distinct
35:19difference you've got the irish one on the left the british one on the right and the irish one has
35:24a lot less white on its throat and head and it you can see it's much darker richer in color i mean
35:31beautiful birds but amazing that there is that little subspecies going on and it is a significant
35:37difference when you see them side by side like that and jays well the member of the corvid family of
35:43course and they are excellent mimics now listen to these two jays listen to this first one
35:50one this jay is in sherwood forest right above a cycle track and it's mimicking the brakes of a
36:04bicycle they need oil in those breaks it needs a service and this one okay michaela what's that one
36:12mimicking that sounds like a bird of prey like a buzzer it is that's exactly what it's doing this jay is
36:18doing a perfect mimic of a buzzard's cat-like mule call isn't that fantastic brilliant mimics now
36:28why do they do well first of all actually let's give you the jay's normal call very different
36:37there we are harsh really harsh do you know what the welsh word for a j is i could give it a guess
36:43yes but i'd get it wrong it's cut in welsh we call them the woodland screecher because of that call
36:52now why do jays mimic well there are several schools of thought one is the fact that if a male mimics and
37:01adds these various calls to its usual repertoire he's more attractive to a female another school of thought
37:11is that the jays if they mimic raptors birds of prey then they'll scare other birds off a food source
37:19including other jays ingenious isn't it it really is ingenious that's the why but what about
37:26the how well jays are songbirds and unlike us we have a larynx they have a syrinx and that allows them to
37:35create different notes at the same time so they have this ability to make a range of sounds and they
37:41also have a large prefrontal cortex and that gives them the ability to decide what to do with those
37:48sounds so as yolo was saying they can decide to sound like a bird of prey which obviously
37:56is an advantage for them but they are incredibly intelligent birds and this was shown with something
38:04that was done to them they did an experiment and this experiment was something that was done for
38:09children and the children were given marshmallows and they were given a choice they could either get
38:15one marshmallow straight away or they could wait for the treat of two marshmallows and this experiment was
38:22adapted and it was tried out on the jays and here it is now this was done at cambridge university by
38:28professor nicola clayton and dr alex schnell and you can see they've got two boxes the jays down the first
38:35box it could have taken a bit of cheese very fond of cheese it's even more fond of mealworms so it waits
38:44for the better treat of the mealworms i mean that's amazing isn't it and do you know with that experiment
38:51all the other things that they've done with jays they actually think that they probably have a
38:55similar intelligence to chimpanzees they're they are amazing birds and they believe that
39:01this intelligence evolved due to their ability to cash and rediscover food so they'll go out they'll
39:10hide things like acorns sometimes thousands of acorns and they can rediscover over 85 percent of them
39:19but it goes beyond that because they they believe that uh jays are able to look ahead they've observed
39:26jays hiding soft food cashing things like fruits and berries and also hiding hard foods seeds and nuts
39:37and they always retrieve the soft food first because they realize that that is the perishable food that's
39:45the one that'll rot first the jay incredibly beautiful very intelligent and a fantastic mimic
39:55not a bird to be underestimated no not at all we're getting a bit wet out here aren't we i was going to
40:01say it's lovely it's all right when you go out into nature it can bring you great joy it can get you
40:08with the real elements but it can also bring you a great deal of calmness i mean the healing power of
40:14nature has been proved and for billy heaney he decided to embrace winter wildlife so the healing power of
40:21nature could work its magic
40:38having built my career around the natural world nothing makes me happier than being outdoors
40:44but in winter that becomes much harder at the age of five i was diagnosed with seasonal affective
40:54disorder often called the winter blues as the days get shorter and the nights draw in i notice my mood
41:04begins to slip the winter of 2019 was a particularly low time for me
41:11so i escaped to a friend's wildlife rich farm on the isle of isla it's become my sort of annual
41:19migration this safe harbor that i seek out every winter i can come up here listen to the sound of
41:25the waves hitting this beach i can just breathe as a zoologist and wildlife filmmaker it felt like the
41:35perfect place to reset that trip hasn't just transformed one winter for me it's transformed every winter
41:44since and that's thanks to one particular species
41:48this is just magic
42:00thousands of barnacle geese descend on isla every year escaping the cold dark days further north
42:09it's beautiful and noisy and food for the soul
42:19that is the sound of winter
42:24my affiliation with these birds runs deeper than just the spectacle we're both escaping darker days
42:31my mind races all the time but at this time of year those frantic thoughts that are usually quite
42:38positive and creative can get a little bit negative there were times i'm happy to admit where i was bent
42:45over a sink having panic attacks i was feeling that sense of worthlessness really hit home a couple of
42:50years ago came up here to watch the geese and have a reset and at that point i got the clarity i got the
42:58headspace that i needed and everything got a bit better from there
43:07and it's not just the barnacle geese here there's a much rarer visitor that i always look forward to
43:12seeing ah yes yes yes this is what i'm really here for greenland white fronted geese
43:23and these really are the best goose in the world
43:31they've got those wonderful black bands on their belly that iconic white patch that white front above
43:37their bill
43:41because these greenland white fronted geese return to the same field every year i've started to be able to
43:47recognize individuals i know these guys and sitting with them allows me to completely immerse myself
43:55back into my wildlife comfort zone what's really special about this group is the adults have these
44:03collars and they were actually ringed here two years ago in these exact fields and they've now returned
44:09this winter with last year's and this year's goslings migrating as a family has its perks
44:19by traveling around 3 000 kilometers with their parents young geese learn important life skills
44:25like migratory routes and where the best spots are for feeding just like this one
44:30so then the green and white fronts will be feeding on cotton grass white beak sedge and bog bean using
44:39their slightly chunky beaks to dig down and get in amongst the tubers which is really cool because
44:45they're here with barnacle geese and actually you'd think there'd be competition but the barnacle geese
44:49will be using their smaller bees to sort of clip the top hedges of the grass so by having this niche
44:55separation feeding slightly differently in the same habitat they can coexist here pretty nicely
45:04they spend most of their time here feeding up to prepare for the long journey back
45:08to their breeding grounds when the arctic winters subside and greenland begins to thaw
45:16but with the day drawing to a close it's time for these geese to head out to roost
45:25so thanks to this little pocket of paradise rather than fearing winter's arrival i now have a little
45:37something that helps me look forward to it and as long as the geese keep coming back here so will i
45:55see you
46:00sense and kindness has prevailed and our producers have allowed us to come inside the teepee
46:07thank you very very much indeed hey mic close your eyes a minute just close your eyes right imagine
46:11a clear blue sky watery winter sunshine and a massive flock of barnacle geese flying over wow
46:19that is our greatest winter spectacles and if you live anywhere near a place where those animals
46:27aggregate i urge you to go out and enjoy that you know i think there might be a gale later on i think
46:33there's going to be a storm just listen to that wind obviously it's getting worse isn't it but anyway
46:39today in this program we have looked at the woodlands we've looked at the macro marvels of the mudflats
46:45but we haven't really focused very much on the farmland because here there is a lot of farmland
46:51there's plenty of fields and if you look at them in the day they appear to be pretty quiet almost void of
47:00wildlife but if you take a look after dark then it can be a very different story now how do we take a
47:06look after dark well we have purloined i love that word purloined i love that it's nearly as good as
47:12invaginate but purloined one of these drones and this one is fitted here with not a normal camera but
47:19with a thermal camera and of course we've been out and about at night flying this drone now i've got to
47:24say we are flying it very high and it's got a powerful telephoto lens so no danger of disturbing
47:29any of the animals below but look this is what we saw drone went up and looking down on the fields
47:38you can see all of those little white spots each one of those is heat remember this is picking up a heat
47:43signature and these are birds the question is which type of bird are they now look at the one on the left
47:49there it's got an extraordinarily long bill and we all sat around and pontificated we think that's a snipe
47:56and we think that some of the other birds are woodcock badgers as well were spotted gambling across
48:03there scattering some of those waders that were out in these very very very very very very very very
48:09wet fields after earthworms it is amazing though isn't it because you just wouldn't see that normally
48:14and to put a thermal camera out and see just how much wildlife there is is a great thing to do
48:19so once we knew that there was a lot of wildlife we sent mark yates out there with a thermal wildlife
48:24camera to get some more close-ups and he had a pretty good time look at that that is indeed not
48:32a snipe but a woodcock probing away in the fields feeding itself and then there's a badger
48:39badger out and about and then two badgers being very active they are indeed that's what i call it
48:50i mean you know there's a biological term for that we could use mating um they could be around january
48:55is the peak time so they've obviously read the book and they're doing what they should do three of them
49:00there so three badgers joining in mating a lot of scent marking going on as well so yes very active on
49:08this field very very active very active indeed not the only mammals up in the trees what did we see
49:14very delighted to say it's a pine martin so yes there's a lot of activity in those fields at night
49:21that's a cracking view of a pine martin isn't it it really was lovely view but we also witnessed some
49:26unusual behavior on that thermal camera with the pine martins we saw them climbing around up in the
49:32trees now look at some times of the year trees will secrete sap and animals like this might go up and
49:39lick it off because the sugar in it if you watch this animal it's definitely sniffing around on those
49:44branches and at times it appears to be lapping something up what is it after well we thought about a
49:50number of things could it be invertebrates like beetles well it's been so windy any beetle of any
49:55size would be blown away could it be tree slugs well we thought if it had eaten a tree slug i mean
50:00last time i ate a tree slug it took me ages to masticate it and to swallow it down we haven't seen
50:05that joe charlesworth one of our camera operators said that he saw a bear once licking the moss of a tree
50:12to get the moisture from it so is it that this animal is actually simply drinking in the tree i'm not
50:17sure do you know what it could just be after tiny snails or wood lice or anything in those crevices
50:25fascinating isn't it really it's a mystery we've had a couple of mysteries this show haven't we the
50:30mysteries with the badges yeah and now the mystery of what the pine martin's doing up those trees but
50:35we can keep our eyes peeled of course and um you can do that from 10 to 10 on our cameras not that
50:41thermal camera but the other cameras now look whilst we're on pine martins we've got to say that for a long
50:45period of time pine martins were absent over much of northern ireland probably due to direct persecution
50:52but thankfully they've been making a comeback and jollo's going to tell us a bit more about that
50:58isn't it fantastic that that thermal camera you can use that to see a pine martin in the dark of
51:04night right up at the top of those trees beautiful animals and of course we've been seeing them on our
51:10live cameras too now they're omnivores they'll take advantage of virtually any food and that includes
51:17the squirrel feeding station all the food in there has attracted at least two pine martins there's one
51:25filling its mouth with seeds and berries and off it goes it's a little bit nervous this one maybe
51:33because it encountered a badger last night and then once it's eaten the seeds of course it needs a drink
51:39it goes down to the water and has a bit of a drink quite a delicate little one this may be a youngster
51:45and then it comes right by the camera and scats poos if you like and that's got it it's much more than
51:53just undigestible food it's got chemical messages in there for any other pine martin passing by and lo and
52:01behold later on another pine martin does come sniffs the scat and deposits its own so by these chemical
52:10messages what do i mean well it could have anything it could tell the other pine martin i'm a male
52:16i'm a dominant male i'm a young male i'm a female i'm a female who is receptive to a male at the moment
52:23and i'm going to break there for a mix i do think we actually have live pine martin as i speak let's have
52:30a look have we got a pine martin he's just got he's just gone into a hole into a tree doesn't
52:38matter it doesn't matter but the messages yeah the messages on those scats are vitally important
52:44now i was up here of course for spring watch and we saw two or three pine martins then and that got me
52:51thinking i wonder are we seeing the same pine martins again well you can identify them by the
52:57individual marks on their bibs there's one that we saw and there's zit that's the one we've seen in
53:04winter watch the one the middle is one we saw initially in spring watch and look at that isn't
53:10that amazing that one is the same one with the three spots that we saw in spring and you'd expect that
53:19as well because they will live for on average about three to four years and it's wonderful to see
53:25these mammals making a comeback here because for hundreds of years they were in steep decline they
53:31were hunted for their fur they were persecuted and also they lost their woodland habitats but they've
53:40come back with a vengeance especially over the last 20 years have a look at this map this map has
53:47recorded the sightings in northern ireland over the past two decades starts off slowly and then
53:53accelerates now they've given full protection in the republic of island in 1976 and here in northern
54:01ireland in 1981 and that has certainly helped has has the planting of trees too exactly how many pine
54:10martins that we have in ireland we don't know but today ulster wildlife is launching its all-island
54:18pine martin and squirrel survey so if you've got some records or if you'd like to help and get involved
54:25then visit our website all the information you need is on there right we are going to escape this
54:34the wind and the rain now for 90 seconds of our mindful moment and tonight we give you a starling
54:43murmuration over a winter reed bed
55:13им tourism
55:18MICHIC
55:23MICHIC
55:25MICHIC
55:30MICHIC
55:35MICHIC
55:38MICHIC
55:39MICHIC
55:40so
56:10Oh, the sound.
56:19Not the sound of this, the sound of those starlings.
56:24Absolutely stunning, isn't it?
56:25We're coming to the end of our programme.
56:27We can take another look at that pine marten on our live camera.
56:30There you can see it on the side of that tree.
56:32Look at that.
56:33In this terrible weather, that pine marten is climbing up
56:36into the naked boughs of that tree, which suggests to me
56:39there's got to be a very good reason for it.
56:41So we'll have to further...
56:42And up another tree.
56:43We'll have to further investigate that.
56:45But before we go, we want to show you this.
56:46Take a look at this.
56:47Is this a plucky or a psychotic stoat?
56:51The heron has no doubt tried to attack it and eat it
56:53because they do eat small mammals.
56:54But look at the stoat.
56:56I mean, talk about fighting back.
56:58That is brilliant.
56:59It's just fantastic.
57:00In the end, it drives the heron away.
57:03Wow, look at that.
57:04That's something a little bit calmer.
57:06But fantastic if you see this in your back garden.
57:08And tawny owl.
57:09This is the first time that Derek Simpson saw it.
57:12It was in Surrey.
57:13And it's eating worms, which is also a little bit unusual.
57:16It would be very unusual to see a tawny owl here
57:18in a garden in Northern Ireland
57:19because they're famously absent.
57:22Absent.
57:23Just got time to show you a couple of photos
57:26that you've sent in as well.
57:27Lovely robin sent in by Katie Nixon
57:29and a bearded tit sent in by Alan Lambert.
57:33That was taken at Leighton Moss.
57:34I like that.
57:35A fine photograph.
57:37Well, that's it for tonight.
57:39We'll be back tomorrow if we survive the gales.
57:43What will we be doing?
57:44Well, we will be shedding light on biofluorescence.
57:49Look at that.
57:50Look at the colours.
57:51Extraordinary.
57:52And we're going to be celebrating the success
57:56of the return of red kites to Northern Ireland.
58:01And, of course, we'll be keeping our eyes
58:03on those live cameras that we've got out there.
58:05Remember that you can watch them from 10 until 10
58:08during the course of the day.
58:10Go to iPlayer or our website.
58:12We'd love to hear from you.
58:13If you've got any clips like that,
58:14Stoke vs. the Heron,
58:15then definitely send them in.
58:16Remember the WhatsApp number, 0800 022 7446.
58:22Of course, we'll be back here tomorrow night
58:23at 7 o'clock.
58:25More news on the Pine Martins and the Badgers.
58:27Good night.
58:28See you then.
58:28Good night.
58:29Good night.
58:59Good night.
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