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00:02Hey, do you remember that water rail dreaming in us here in 2013?
00:07Oh yeah, it was so gorgeous, wasn't it?
00:10And what about those bearded tits?
00:142015 Mimsmear, they were just dreamy.
00:17Sensational, wasn't it?
00:18Hey, hey, 2019, the crane fly dancing on the water, so good.
00:24Oh, absolutely beautiful.
00:26Do you remember, hang on a minute.
00:28What?
00:29Come on, live show, live show, come on Chris, let's go.
00:32You do it.
00:56Hello, and welcome to Springwatch.
00:59Oh, you decided to turn up.
01:00I knew you wouldn't let me do it all by myself.
01:02I couldn't trust you.
01:04It would just be fluffy owlets, wouldn't it?
01:06A whole show of fluffy owlets.
01:08Hello, yes, we're live at the Longshore Estate here, run by the National Trust in the Peak District National Park
01:13for the very last time, because this is the end.
01:15Well, it's not the end of everything, it's merely the end of our series, and we're going out with a
01:20bang, because tonight we're bringing you a new nest.
01:23A dinosaur nest.
01:25Not live, obviously.
01:26But I'm going to get a massive dopamine hit off of Mick.
01:30Don't you get that every night, Chris?
01:32Do you know what?
01:33It's sometimes leaking out of my socks.
01:35Yes, we're supposed to be the answer to that.
01:37As Chris said, it is our last night of the series.
01:41It always goes so quickly, doesn't it?
01:43And we will be celebrating the cast that is still remaining, because obviously a lot of them have already fledged.
01:49And let's one last time just enjoy where we are, because this week's been beautiful.
01:54Look at that lovely blue sky.
01:56The views of Longshore Estate have looked gorgeous this week.
02:00Our home for the last three weeks.
02:01It's not just our cast of fledglings.
02:04We've been seeing other ones as well, like this lovely little long-tailed tit chick, with its fluffy feathers exploring
02:10its surroundings.
02:11One of many species starting its life here in the Peak District.
02:15Peaking above the ferns, velvety antlers of red deer.
02:19This is a calm bachelor herd, chilling for now, but maybe they won't be quite so chilled when the hormones
02:25change for the autumn rut.
02:27Lots of habitats, lots of plants, lots of food for lots of different wildlife.
02:33From the wonderful goldfinch on the thistle to butterflies on the thistle.
02:38This one is a dark green fritillary, so-called because of the green underside of its hind wing.
02:44But I think that's not a well-named butterfly myself.
02:48I mean, it's really, really hard to see that bit of green, isn't it?
02:51But that's not the point.
02:52The point is there's loads of different species here, and it's been a brilliant place to be for the last
02:56three weeks.
02:57That's what we've been seeing and enjoying, but what about you?
03:00Well, just take a look at this extraordinary footage.
03:04This was taken by Delia Todd, who I have to say is 81 years old, in Perthshire.
03:09And it's two weasels really battling it out.
03:14Just look at them, they're having a go at each other.
03:17This is the extraordinary bit.
03:18They roll right across the road.
03:21That is synchronised rolling.
03:24They are not letting go of each other.
03:26That is unbelievable.
03:29Well done, Delia.
03:30It's mustered madness.
03:31It really is.
03:32It really is.
03:33I mean, do you know what?
03:34If I'd have seen that, let alone filmed it, I'd have been boring people with that story for absolutely years.
03:39Just that story?
03:40Just that story.
03:41I mean, two weasels fighting, rolling across the road.
03:44It's incredible, isn't it?
03:45We were very pleased to see this octopus.
03:48This was sent to us by Lewis Jeffries.
03:50Pleased but not surprised, because we'd already heard reports of an octopus bloom.
03:54That's what you call a large expanse of octopus in the seas.
03:57A large explosion in their population.
04:00And that had been reported this year down in the south west of England.
04:02Last one was 2022.
04:04The one before that, 1898.
04:06And we think that this is due to climate breakdown causing the water there to be unnaturally warm.
04:12That helps the octopus and it also helps them reproduce more quickly.
04:16Amazing animals.
04:17Look at this one here.
04:18Pulling some astonishing misshapes as it disappears into the rock.
04:23However, we also had some bad news.
04:25A Cornish fisherman claimed to have pulled 20 tonnes of those octopus out of the sea in just one day.
04:32And given that we don't fully understand the population dynamics of this animal,
04:36or why the bloom is taking place, that really doesn't sound like sustainable fishing to me.
04:41But if you're swimming in there, what a fantastic thing to see and film.
04:44Beautiful animals.
04:45Really lovely.
04:46Cornwall seems to be the place to be at the moment if you want to see things underwater,
04:50because these, if so, dolphins were spotted by Lauren Frape.
04:54Look, that one's white, but they do go white when they get a bit older,
04:58but they start off grey and they're very different to, say, a bottlenose dolphin
05:02that you might be more familiar with.
05:04Very stocky and they don't have an obvious beak.
05:07They've got that really sort of stumpy face.
05:11Very difficult seeing there.
05:13Elusive creatures normally found in much deeper waters.
05:16Amazing to have them here.
05:18As they get older, they get a lot of scars,
05:20and it's thought that that's interactions with each other,
05:22or maybe with the food they eat, which is squid and sometimes octopus,
05:27which may explain why they were seen off the coast of Cornwall
05:31when that octopus bloom was there.
05:32Yeah, and may explain why we ought to leave that 20 tonnes of octopus in the sea.
05:36Absolutely.
05:36Thank you so much for sending all your stuff in.
05:39You know, it's been some extraordinary things that you've sent.
05:41We really do appreciate it. We love seeing it.
05:43OK, moving on.
05:44Let's take a look at our live cameras.
05:46Here they are.
05:48We've had quite a lot of fledging, but we have still got some chicks in the nest.
05:52Let's go to the long-eared owls.
05:54You can see them there.
05:55They're glowing in that nest now.
05:58Quite sleepy at this time of day, of course.
06:00There were two there.
06:02Can you see any detail on those?
06:04No?
06:04I can see a large dipteran, a large true fly.
06:08We've done some nice flies early in the series.
06:11There we are.
06:12They're very tolerant of those flies, aren't they?
06:14Look at those two all smuggled up.
06:16I don't mind a little fly coming over me occasionally.
06:20The adults have been brilliant, though, at looking after them.
06:23You know, this is it facing up to two crows.
06:26This is what happens when death comes to town.
06:28She fluffs herself up.
06:30She's massive.
06:31She gets her ear tufts up.
06:33She stares with those bright orange eyes.
06:36And she successfully drove those two crows away.
06:38So this was all good news.
06:41It was going really, really well.
06:43Then, Monday night, things were a bit different.
06:46They disappeared earlier in the evening.
06:48The two chicks were on their own, calling for food.
06:51There we are.
06:53Clearly hungry.
06:54Adult comes back, three minutes past ten,
06:57comes in with some food.
06:58All's looking good.
06:59Except that they didn't come back at all.
07:02Not once throughout the rest of the night.
07:04So all they had to eat on Monday night
07:06was one whatever it was they brought in.
07:08So on Tuesday morning, they've gone a whole night now
07:11without any food.
07:13They're looking a bit grumpy
07:14because they're a bit hungry.
07:16And we're a bit worried about them on this occasion
07:18because we haven't seen either of the adults.
07:23Thankfully, Tuesday night, things picked up.
07:25Well, they picked up considerably, to be honest with you,
07:27because the adults brought in no less than 18 tray items.
07:31We couldn't see what they all were.
07:32A lot of them were voles.
07:35You can see one of the adults dropping them off here.
07:37And there it goes, down the chick, using esophagal peristalsis.
07:41And don't we love it.
07:43They brought in so much prey that some of it was dropped off the side of the nest.
07:47Some of it was cached.
07:48And on Wednesday morning, here, you can see the female tearing up what remains of that cached food.
07:55Small mammal there.
07:57And giving it to the chicks.
07:59They're looking good.
08:01Full of food.
08:03Prey delivery's picked up.
08:04No crows in sight.
08:06Oh, look at that.
08:09I think they're even less attractive than spud.
08:13Oh, come on.
08:14They've got happy little faces.
08:16They're content owls.
08:18They're not pretty, are they?
08:19It's been great, though.
08:20We've really had an owl fest this season.
08:22We've had the short-eared owls.
08:23They've already fledged.
08:24We've had those long-eared owls that are probably going to stick around in the nest for a while.
08:28And we've had my favourite, spud the tawny owl, who we would have caught up with.
08:32But unfortunately, we haven't seen him all day.
08:34But that's good news.
08:35Because it probably means that he's fledged or certainly branched further than the tree he's been in for the last
08:41few days.
08:42But thank you very much to all the owls who provided us with a lot of entertainment.
08:45Owl fest.
08:45It's been an owl fest, hasn't it?
08:47OK, let's see where Yolo is.
08:49He's in Northern Ireland.
08:50Let's see what he's trying to find for us tonight.
08:52Yolo.
08:55Well, I'll tell you what I'm not trying to find, Michela.
08:58Well, I'm not trying to find the rain because the rain has certainly found me.
09:02Do you know what I was thinking earlier?
09:03I've been involved with the watches now on and off for 16 years.
09:07And 12 of those years, it's rained non-stop.
09:11I might as well have done it under water, to be honest with you.
09:14But here at Mount Stewart, to be fair, it's been a mixed bag.
09:18Yes, we've had rain, but we've also had some glorious mornings.
09:23And best of all was yesterday morning, just after first light.
09:28Look at this.
09:29A scene of tranquil beauty.
09:32This is the lake by the big house.
09:35Seven acres in all, an elegant blue swan, floats by.
09:40And because it was sunny and quiet, we had dancing insects and a pair of dab chicks,
09:47or little greaves, nesting.
09:49Now, the wonderful thing about these is that that nest is like a raft.
09:52It's floating vegetation attached to some emerging plants.
09:56If it gets dry, the nest will go down with the water.
10:00If it rains again, the nest will come back up.
10:03And those chicks, well, they're often called humbugs.
10:06They're often called humbugs because of those stripes all along the back.
10:11Now, another bird we've been seeing a lot of here is the great spotted woodpecker.
10:17Now, you might think, well, what's it getting hot under the collar?
10:21About a great spotted woodpecker.
10:23We see those in the garden every day.
10:25Well, yes, in the UK as a whole, we have 140,000 breeding pairs, but it's a recent coloniser here
10:32in Ireland.
10:34The first bird we've seen in 2005.
10:36The first bred in Northern Ireland in 2006.
10:39And look at this.
10:39We have an adult feeding a chick.
10:41The chick is the one with the red cap there.
10:45Now, if you follow me around, let me show you this interesting building over here with all the arches.
10:51Look at that.
10:52Stunning old building.
10:53Now, this was the piggery for the big houses where they kept their pigs.
10:58And earlier in the week, I told you how important some of the old buildings are here for nesting swallows.
11:04More than 50 pairs, that's a healthy population.
11:07But buildings are important for all kinds of other wildlife, too.
11:11And that includes bats.
11:13The other day, I went out with head ranger Toby Edwards to survey a roost, a maternity roost, of brown
11:21long-eared bats.
11:22Now, it's under license, and the condition of the license is that we were not to disturb them.
11:27So we were in for 10 minutes and we had to use red lights.
11:30And Toby scanned, looked around, see what he could find.
11:34Small clusters here and there, ones and twos.
11:38And it came out with a total of about 14 to 15 bats.
11:44Which is not bad, because these bats, they don't form huge maternity roots, roosts.
11:4910 to 20 bats is just about the norm.
11:54Now, let's have a closer look at this animal.
11:56It's an amazing beast.
11:57Just look at this.
11:58It's got a body that's about 5 centimeters long.
12:02But the obvious thing are those huge ears there.
12:05Those are about 4 centimeters long.
12:07And when it enters its winter roost, sometimes it'll tuck those ears under its wing.
12:12Amazing thing.
12:13It's also called the whispering bats.
12:15Now, if you go out with a bat detector, other bats where you can hear them, they're quite noisy, quite
12:20loud.
12:21But this bat just whispers.
12:23And with ears like that, you don't really need to shout to you.
12:27And these, they glean insects from the foliage, from the vegetation.
12:33If it's a small insect, they'd eat it on the wing.
12:36If it's a big insect, then it may well land and eat it.
12:40And one of the rangers went into a building the other day and collected some prey remains.
12:46Now, if I can open this in all this rain.
12:48Let me show you a couple of them here.
12:50Look at these out.
12:52Let's get...
12:53See that wing there?
12:55Kind of an orange color.
12:57Now, that belongs to a moth called the Large Yellow Underwing.
13:03Now, those are out in abundance at the moment.
13:07Lots of them are around.
13:08And when I get home at the weekend, I'm hoping to put the moth trap out.
13:12And I can guarantee you that over half the moths that I catch will be large yellow underwins.
13:18But more interesting is this.
13:20Can I show you that?
13:22See that?
13:22That is the wing of a small tortoise shell.
13:26Now, that's a day flying butterfly.
13:28The warm weather we've had here recently, there have been lots of them flying around.
13:33So, what does that mean?
13:34Well, it might have gleaned them off the vegetation as they roost.
13:38But we've had a lot of rain overnight here.
13:41And it might be that the bats are being forced to hunt in the evening.
13:45Now, it's a momentous occasion.
13:48Let's go live to our remote camera.
13:51Because I do believe we have a live mammal for you.
13:54Look at that.
13:55A live red squirrel with a golden tail.
14:00Like a halo.
14:02Isn't that brilliant?
14:04Fantastic.
14:05Adam has earned his peanuts tonight.
14:08Well done, Adam.
14:10Now, the people I feel sorry for, other than the crew here stood out in the pouring rain,
14:15are the students at this time of year.
14:17Just as it's getting warmer, what are they doing?
14:19They're indoors, swatting, revising for their exams.
14:24And as they're sitting there sweating over the difficult questions,
14:27they took five minutes, took a peek out of the window.
14:31They may well see a garden snail.
14:33A garden snail's not worried about exams.
14:35No, no, no.
14:35The garden snail at the moment is thinking about scent, about slime and about pheromones.
14:46A university campus in the heart of England.
14:52It's exam time, so the students are hard at work, oblivious to the spicy activity in the grounds.
15:08After several months of hibernation, this garden snail is on the move.
15:17Sliding forward on its large muscular foot, it leaves behind the familiar tell-tale sign of a snail's visit.
15:30But this slime not only helps it glide across surfaces, it's also a scented love letter brimming with pheromones.
15:44And this individual has picked up the scent.
15:51With limited vision, it relies on the silvery ribbon before it to lead it to a potential mate.
16:00Bingo!
16:02The trail might have done its job.
16:06But the act of snail seduction is far from a straightforward affair.
16:14As hermaphrodites, each individual has both male and female reproductive organs.
16:22And they're picky.
16:24Each must convince the other their genes are worthy.
16:28In one of nature's most bizarre mating rituals.
16:36When it comes to courtship, snails are old-fashioned.
16:41They start with a dance.
16:47Circling around each other, they assess their potential mate.
16:54Both practically blind and deaf, they communicate through touch, delicately caressing each other for up to six hours.
17:05Not even mating is quick for a snail.
17:15However, there's a fine line between love and war.
17:19And this interaction is not as tender as it looks.
17:24In every encounter, it must be decided which hermaphrodite will be mother and who will be father.
17:32And the burden of having to produce eggs means that neither wants to be mum.
17:38So, how do they decide?
17:41With a duel.
17:44Secret weapons are unleashed.
17:49Known as love darts, each snail attempts to plunge its spear into the other.
17:55These harpoons deliver powerful hormones which cement the rolls.
18:00So whoever strikes first, wins.
18:07A hit.
18:09And their fates have been decided.
18:15Over the next ten hours, the loser will absorb the victor's sperm.
18:26For the champion, victory is sweet and they'll glide away scot-free.
18:32The love dart has done its job.
18:36And for the mum-to-be?
18:38Well, they'll spend the coming days investing a huge amount of energy into producing up to 150 eggs.
18:46Work so hard, it can actually shorten their life.
18:54When it comes to laying, a snail can choose when to do it up to 12 months after mating.
19:03After rain is a good time, and our snail has done just that.
19:11The clutch hidden in the moist earth.
19:15Now, the adult can return to eating and seeking a mate.
19:20Maybe next time, it will play the father role.
19:29As for the eggs, they'll develop safe in the soil for three weeks.
19:37And eventually, at less than half a centimetre, they'll break free into the world.
19:50These freshers will roam the campus for two years until they reach maturity.
19:57Just like the students, they've got a lot to learn.
20:05When I was a kid, reading about love darts under the bed covers with my torch,
20:11I imagined that they were microscopic little things.
20:15But as we saw there, they're not.
20:16They're about five millimetres in length, five or six millimetres in length.
20:20They're much larger than I thought they were.
20:22And now I've got an ambition.
20:24What's that then?
20:25I want to collect my own love dart.
20:27I thought you were going to say you wanted your own.
20:29No, no, I want to go out.
20:30I'm going to be looking at those snails and I'm going to try and recover one of those
20:33from my collection of love darts.
20:35Maybe get a picture in love dart monthly.
20:37It is extraordinary though, isn't it?
20:40They sort of choose which one is going to hurt the babies by shooting that love dart.
20:44Amazing.
20:45OK, I promised at the beginning that we were going to check up with our cast of characters,
20:49the ones that are left.
20:50And we haven't actually seen our dipper for a while.
20:52So let's check up on the dipper's nest.
20:55You may remember our dipper's nest was underneath the storm drain.
20:59And if we go and we can see it in there, there was just one chick left in that nest.
21:05And the parents were coming in and feeding it.
21:08And that was just a couple of days old by the time we got our cameras on it.
21:13And there we go.
21:14One dipper is sitting on it.
21:16Another one is coming in to feed it.
21:18And being an only chick, it was doing pretty well.
21:22But look, this is a very strange behaviour that we saw.
21:24We saw an adult coming, which we presume was the male being chased away by the female.
21:30And it had a beak full of food.
21:31So why did it do that?
21:32We were very confused.
21:33And then a little while later, this very intriguing behaviour where the female is ducking down and looking very subordinate
21:43to that male.
21:44And completely letting the male go and feed the chick.
21:47All very confusing behaviour.
21:49But as I say, just one chick got plenty of food and grew pretty quickly.
21:54It was doing extremely well.
21:56And this was it today.
21:58Look, look at that.
22:01They'll fledge from about 20 days.
22:03And we think ours is 20 days old now.
22:06They actually, interestingly enough, grow a lot in the first two weeks.
22:10And they sort of chill out the last week just sitting in the nest before they decide to leave.
22:15But yeah, who knows?
22:16I mean, we've got more.
22:17We've got over an hour left.
22:19Half an hour, I mean, of the programme.
22:20So we might see that live.
22:22What do you reckon?
22:22No.
22:23OK.
22:24No chance.
22:25But we have seen lots of dippers on the river.
22:28We don't know if this one is our dipper or another dipper doing what dippers do.
22:33Dipping.
22:34And in fact, our chick, when it does fledge, will be able to do that exact thing.
22:40Dipping and diving.
22:43They spend a lot of time, as you know, in fast flowing water.
22:46So they're going to have to be very, very good swimmers.
22:50They're also going to have to be extremely well insulated.
22:54Very thick feathers.
22:55They've got dense feathers, relatively dense, and they spend a lot of time preening, making
23:01sure those feathers are in good condition and water resistant for the aquatic lifestyle
23:07that it will lead.
23:08They're really lovely birds to spot.
23:11And with that bright white bib, they are quite easy to spot if you're by the river.
23:15Lovely bird to watch.
23:18Ooh.
23:19OK.
23:19We thought we had a live dipper for you then.
23:22Ooh, I love that.
23:22Ooh.
23:22That was why I went, ooh, like that.
23:24But unfortunately, ooh, it just went.
23:25Ooh, it's gone.
23:26It just went.
23:27Now look, we're not going to see that dipper fledge, but earlier this week we've seen
23:30a number of species leave their nest, all of those young birds.
23:33We've had tree pipit leaving.
23:34We've had willow warbler leaving.
23:36We've had pied flycatcher leaving.
23:37What about the garden warblers?
23:40They were our last nest that were on the brink.
23:43Here you can see both of the adults feeding.
23:46Five of those chicks have got very big in the nest.
23:49And these are classic semi-fledgers.
23:52So you can see the wing feathers there, but they're not big enough to fly.
23:55What they're going to do is jump off into the undergrowth.
23:59Exactly what we saw with our tree pipits and our willow warblers.
24:03So here one of them's gone.
24:06Adults still feeding.
24:10Ooh, they're a bit slow, aren't they?
24:12They're not showing the verve of the pied flycatchers.
24:15The second one goes.
24:16One's sort of half gone in the background.
24:19We know half gone in the background, don't we, Nick?
24:23You know?
24:23All people of our age know that.
24:25If they've got kids or stepkids.
24:28There we are.
24:29One left in the nest.
24:31Now this is interesting.
24:32Look, it decides to go.
24:34Off it goes.
24:35The adult comes in with food and it's drawn more to the nest than it is the bird.
24:41It ignores the chick.
24:43Starts hanging around the nest.
24:45And then the chick gets fed up and just falls down.
24:48I mean, ridiculous.
24:49Okay.
24:50They're all out.
24:51What are they going to be doing next?
24:52Well, firstly, trying to survive, of course.
24:54And those adults will be helping them for the next 12 to 14 days.
24:57Then they will be able to fly.
25:00But at a certain point in the near future, they're also going to have to learn to sing.
25:04How do they learn to sing?
25:05Well, okay, they're pre-programmed genetically, but they've still got to get it out and they've got to get it
25:10right.
25:10Richard Mooney is a neuroscientist working at Duke University in America.
25:15And he's been using some new tools and techniques to look at the chemical fluctuations in birds' brains.
25:21In fact, he's been using a protein that glows to study them.
25:26He's been looking at zebra finches, but they're a fair parallel to songbirds like the garden warbler.
25:31And what he's discovered is that when they're learning to sing, dopamine, that chemical that makes us and them happy,
25:38plays a really key role.
25:40And I think we can do a little demonstration of that now.
25:44Mick, I'm going to ask you to sing.
25:45Okay.
25:46Sing something.
25:47I'm going to sing our theme tune.
25:48Give it your best.
25:53I feel so good.
25:56Oh, I feel good.
25:57My dopamine is so high.
25:59Are you feeling good?
26:01Well, no, but yeah.
26:03But, you know.
26:04Okay, okay.
26:05You try it then.
26:06Well, I'm not going to sing the theme tune.
26:07I'm going to do a bad cover version of Common People.
26:10Okay.
26:11La la la la la la la la la la la la la la.
26:14Okay, enough, enough.
26:15That was quite bad.
26:17Do you know, I've known you 35 years.
26:18I didn't know you were tone deaf.
26:21Well, I know.
26:21That made me feel bad as well.
26:23But the key thing is, can I get it better?
26:24Okay, okay.
26:25I'm going to really, really try now.
26:27Come on, you can do it.
26:27I can do it.
26:40I can do it.
26:45I can do it.
26:46I can do it.
26:47I can do it.
26:55Look, this is a human's brain underneath here.
26:56And it has this area at the front here called the basal ganglia.
27:01And that's critical when it comes to learning song.
27:04And what we found is that when they practice their songs, they just sing anything.
27:10okay they get a little hit of dopamine like that and I can tell you they try
27:16hard because when those zebra finches that were being studied were learning
27:20their song they practiced get this ten thousand times a day in a month ten
27:27thousand times a day for a month yes and as they get better and better the
27:33dopamine gets bigger and bigger and by the time that they get really good and
27:39they're matching the signature tune then that dopamine gets into a great big
27:45smiley face can I just say so when you were doing it yeah it was the it was
27:50exactly that and you know I felt really good when I sung because it's like
27:57anything isn't it the better you get the better you feel yes but look when we're
28:02learning we learn through positive or negative reinforcement we're rather
28:06encouraged or we're told that we've done something wrong if you're a bird
28:09learning your song you're doing that in isolation so we think that the dopamine
28:14here is a compass which allows them to steer their own learning so it's a
28:19positive reward essentially that they're giving themselves to drive them to near
28:25perfection I like that though I like the fact that you get a dopamine reward do you
28:30know if I was president of a country that would be my rule I'd make sure that
28:33everyone just sang every day because then we'd all be full of dopamine and we'd
28:38all be feeling really great wouldn't you like that clearly not but just so we
28:45really appreciate the work that goes into being a brilliant soprano let's have a
28:51listen to the blackbird song
29:14now here's a really remarkable thing when I hear that blackbird singing I feel good me too I feel
29:20good we get a dopamine hit and that's been measured we respond to bird song in
29:25that way so that capacity to bring joy crosses species come on you can't beat
29:30that I'm gonna teach you to sing that's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna get that
29:33dopamine level going up what about me I can't sing Yolo have you got a good voice
29:38so you know male voice choir over there I sing in the shower I sing when I get a
29:45few single malts in me but other than that I will not sing in public which is
29:51probably just as well because I sing rather like a crow now all this week we've
29:57had a remote camera put out in a wood over the other side of the estate we saw
30:01the live red squirrel in it earlier on of course and a few nights ago we had two
30:06pine martin there as well now the situation with pine martins here is one of
30:11flux now unfortunately the dominant male was found killed on a nearby road a few
30:17weeks ago and the staff here believe that now they have two resident females and two
30:22possibly three males wandering around looking to set up a territory now let's
30:28have a look at those two pine martin we saw the other day you can identify them by
30:34the markings on their bibs it's like a fingerprint now look at the one on the left
30:39that is one that was known to the staff here previously they called it
30:43two spot if you look carefully of course it's got three spots you'll have to rename
30:48that one maybe and the one on the right now this was one that they'd never
30:52recorded here before but that has got a very distinctive notch on its bib and that
30:59one we have called notch another pine martin came to the feeders last night far less
31:07wary than the two we saw two nights ago it came along the fallen trunk there no
31:14problem whatsoever of course to a pine martin supreme climbers with that big
31:19bushy tail acting as a rudder looking around but not wary not nervous at all
31:27because they're omnivores they'll take advantage of any food even food that's put
31:30out for squirrels like this a few seeds some corn as well and we were all saying come on
31:36raise your head let's have a look which one are you and finally it raised its head
31:42and look at that there's a very distinctive notch there so this one we know is notch and
31:48notch has been around now for at least three days and somebody got used to the camera used
31:53to the infrared light will notch become the dominant male as yet we do not know
32:00now the first week if you remember we were in the middle of belfast and we followed a vixen
32:06and her cubs it was in a graveyard called fryer's bush and we watched it from the nearby ulster museum
32:15it was wonderful to watch her she had three cubs in all still suckling at that point and this morning
32:22just this very morning over breakfast we were there thinking i wonder how the foxes are getting on
32:27and you know what just an hour later this footage was sent in to us it was sent in by
32:35david fasco who
32:36actually works in ulster museum and that is one of the cubs look at the difference in that it's now
32:42about 10 weeks old almost weaned they're eating mainly solid foods and of course we saw the vixen
32:49bringing in rats gray squirrels as well as the odd bit of chicken those cubs are obviously very very well
32:56fed well after three weeks it's finally time to say au revoir goodbye to northern ireland but we couldn't
33:04leave without showing you some of our highlights
33:46so um
33:49and
33:59Oh, my God.
34:21It has been a magnificent road trip and we need to thank everyone in Belfast, Rathlin Island and of course
34:29here at Mount Stewart, all the National Trust staff and volunteers, particularly Toby and Sonny for looking after us so
34:37well. Northern Ireland, its people, its wildlife, you have been magnificent.
34:42As I hand you back to the glorious sunshine over in the Peak District, Chris and my killer, don't worry
34:48about us, we're going down the pub.
34:53Thank you, Yolo. And we do appreciate all the hard work you're putting in the rain there, but we also
34:57have to say Northern Ireland in the UK is an underestimated wildlife resource.
35:03It's got some beautiful landscapes. Rathlin Islands is absolutely sensational. So if you do get an opportunity to visit, then
35:10snap it up. It's brilliant.
35:12As you say, well done to the team. They've been working really hard, haven't they?
35:15Right, we're going to catch up with our nests that we've been watching. I'm just going to show you the
35:20variety.
35:22These aren't the ones we've still got. These are the ones that we've had over this series.
35:25Don't concentrate on what species they are. Have a look at the nests. Focus on the different types of nests.
35:33We've got nest boxes, open nests. We've got nests in trees. We've got all sorts of different nests.
35:39And looking at them makes you wonder, how did nests evolve? How did they become so many different shapes?
35:47Well, to explain, we've got to go back, way back, 150 million years back to the Jurassic time and the
35:55dinosaurs.
35:56Now, this is where dinosaurs, right back then, 150 million years ago, would have put their eggs, just basically in
36:04a pile of sand like this.
36:05So if we could do it like this, here we go, we can see, obviously not real dinosaur eggs.
36:10But there we go. We've got our model dinosaur eggs there. And just like alligators, they would have just left
36:17them there.
36:17There was no parental care. They wouldn't look after them. They wouldn't incubate them.
36:21They would just leave them and they would let the earth do its job and just let the earth basically
36:27incubate them.
36:28So that's what happened that long ago. Yeah, 150 million years ago.
36:32There is some evidence they were actually moving to places where there was geothermal activity.
36:36So the ground was warm and that was helping to incubate their eggs, but they were abandoning them.
36:41There's no parental care or very little. They could have been guarding nearby.
36:4490 to 70 million years ago, things changed.
36:47Mick, would you uncover the eggs? Because then the animals started to lay their eggs on the surface.
36:53And this was a real bonus. It meant that they could turn them to make sure that they developed properly.
36:58It meant that they could adjust their incubation period so that the thermoregulation, the heating of those eggs or the
37:06cooling of those eggs equally was manageable.
37:09Also gave them the opportunity to keep their eyes out for any predators and chase them away from the nest.
37:13And this was animals like Trudon or Oviraptor.
37:17And they had nests like this. And the reason we know it is that we've got fossils of these animals
37:23on their nests.
37:25So the eggs were underneath them. They must have been killed and fossilised whilst they were incubating them.
37:31OK, so is that like the curlew went then? That's the curlew, isn't it?
37:35I guess it's like not so much a curlew. It's more like some of the nests that we've seen here
37:40in the open.
37:41So this is a lapwing. You can just see the eggs down at the bottom there.
37:45And the lapwing comes in to incubate them.
37:48So like I say, there's a greater investment of parental care post-laying, but it's got some positive advantages.
37:55OK, so we move forward to just over about 60 million years ago.
38:00And then things change a little bit because birds start getting smaller and it means that they can use cavity
38:08nests.
38:08So if I turn this one around, this is that pied flycatcher nest.
38:12Whoopsie-daisy, here we go.
38:14And you can see there's the nest inside with the little eggs.
38:19And that's exactly what our red starts did.
38:23They nested in a cavity.
38:25So let's have a look at the red starts.
38:27Now, there are obviously positives to this.
38:29In goes our adult, because it means that they're sheltered from the elements.
38:35And as you know, I mean, last week, the week before, we had a lot of rain, a lot of
38:39wind.
38:40So those chicks were spared that.
38:42They were kept warm.
38:44Can be safety from predators.
38:46But then again, if a predator gets in there, it's all over for all of them.
38:49So there are positives and negatives for the cavity nesting.
38:53One of the negatives is, as we've seen here at Longshore, that those cavities can be in short supply.
39:00Remember we told you about the male pied flycatchers that were coming back too late to find all of the
39:05nest holes full of great tits, which were then killing 10% of them.
39:08Competition for nest holes would be high.
39:11And what about if you were nesting or wanted to nest somewhere where there were no trees or rock cavities,
39:15then you'd be out of luck.
39:16Building your own nest was the answer.
39:18And there is evidence to suggest that parrots can tell us how that happened, because a lot of those are
39:24whole nesting.
39:25But what happened is they start to bring material in underneath the nest to, you know, put some dishes in
39:31there to hold those eggs.
39:33And then they add a bit more and then they add a bit more until the entire hollow inside the
39:38tree is lined with twigs.
39:40And essentially what you've got then is a nest like this.
39:43You've got a domed nest and you don't need to be in the tree any longer because you've fabricated something
39:49which has got its own supporting structure.
39:51And this allows you to move out into the hedgerows like this.
39:56Now, we haven't been following long-tailed tits this year, but we have been following our wrens.
40:00And they make a domed nest, which is very similar to this.
40:04Benefits of this?
40:05Well, safe place to hide the eggs.
40:08Safe place to have it covered from the elements, rain, wind, so on and so forth.
40:13And, of course, it's a brilliant place to keep those chicks safe whilst you're feeding them too.
40:17So that brings us to the last step in the evolution of the nests.
40:22And it's that open-cut nest which we've got here.
40:25This is the song thrush nest with the eggs inside.
40:29Absolutely beautiful nest.
40:31And we've been following the song thrushes.
40:33Now, what are the advantages of this?
40:35Well, quicker to make, doesn't take so much energy.
40:38And if it gets trashed, it's quite easy to make another one.
40:41It is open to the elements.
40:42That's a negative.
40:44It means they can fledge out of there quite quickly.
40:46So it's quite interesting.
40:48I mean, it almost looks rudimentary compared to the earlier nests.
40:52But that's what it's evolved into.
40:54And, of course, if a predator comes and the chicks are at the sufficient size,
40:57they can bolt or the adult can get away.
40:59And we've seen that happening as well in some of our nests.
41:02Interesting that this nest was the most recent to evolve in its construction.
41:07I've got to say, though, that didn't do our song thrushes very well, did it?
41:10Because they did get predated.
41:12Well, they did, but it was at night.
41:14It was the ferocious tourney hour, wasn't it?
41:16OK, we're going to meet a remarkable man now.
41:19Remarkable man because he's made a time machine, an ecological time machine.
41:24He's taken an area of land that he owned as a farmer.
41:27He's now an ex-farmer.
41:28And he's turned it back, I don't know, 30, 40, 50 years to when things were better, brighter and more
41:35biodiverse.
41:47All my life I've been interested in wildlife.
41:54What I'm doing here is nothing clever or special.
41:58It was what the same practice that every farmer followed prior to the Second World War.
42:04But modern chemicals and fertilisers have disrupted nature somewhat.
42:18These are traditional hay meadows on 40 acres.
42:27The rest of my land is woodland and a couple of lakes.
42:38Nothing has been sprayed in this meadow at all for about 40 years.
42:46And there are some species that really remind me how far this land has evolved.
42:52Wild orchids need very specific habitats.
42:56Even if they like it, it will take four or five years to go from seed to flower.
43:03They're totally dependent on this mycorrhizal fungi in the soil.
43:09It's one of nature's remedies.
43:12So it's a wonderful signal that the soil has reverted to the right conditions
43:18that they've been used to for thousands of years.
43:26They've got every opportunity here and they're paying me back.
43:29And this is the first of the season.
43:32So we're back in business again.
43:39And it's not just the hay meadows that are rewarding me.
43:43In spring, the lake is another place that reminds me how far we've come.
43:5425 years old now, the lakes.
43:57The water that we've got here is very clean.
44:00It's all from springs.
44:03It's spring water, all of it.
44:07We could not have envisaged what it was going to be like.
44:12I do remember that a few days after the diggers pulled out,
44:16when they constructed the lakes and all around,
44:19that the wife and I were down here looking around.
44:22And we said, whatever have we done?
44:29And then my old friend, Mother Nature, came along.
44:35And over the next few years, she's done all the work.
44:56I've always had an interest for photography and mostly so that I can make a record of everything that I
45:03see here.
45:05And I think I've got about 114 or 15 different species on camera now that I've seen here.
45:16I mean, this is simply an extra aid to disguise myself from whatever bird might be here.
45:26Kingfisher is everyone's prize, and I'm so lucky that I've had them here for 15 years or more at least.
45:42Everything I'm doing here, it's so easy for other people to emulate.
45:50Being organic, that is the secret.
45:56We've got to think, what would Mother Nature do?
46:02She's in charge.
46:05All the species that are here now are Mother Nature's doing.
46:12Very satisfying to see this and to be able to show people what's happened.
46:20All in all, it's turned out to be wonderful.
46:27Philip Hambly is one of those blokes that when you meet them, even through the media of television, you just
46:33know, don't you?
46:34He's got it right.
46:35What a top guy.
46:36Can I tell you, 75 spider species, 25 butterfly, 206 plants and 304 moths, and still counting.
46:46He's rebuilt a part of Britain, and it's better.
46:50If only there were more people like Philip.
46:52Do you know what I loved? I loved the thing that he said.
46:55My old friend Mother Nature came along, and over the next few years, she did all the work.
47:00I just love that.
47:01Well, I think he's understanding. He's done a tremendous amount himself there.
47:04Mother Nature helped you, Phil, but you've done a brilliant job, mate.
47:07He let Mother Nature come in, that's the point, isn't it?
47:09And we have been trying to persuade people to do that for years in gardens.
47:14You know, leave your garden alone and the nature will come.
47:16Make it a wildlife-friendly garden.
47:18And we've been focusing on that in Springwatch Street, a street in Sheffield where people have done exactly that, made
47:24it wildlife-friendly.
47:25The wildlife has come in.
47:26And Jack Badden's has been there, exploring it all.
47:29Great to have you with us tonight, Jack.
47:31What's been the most surprising thing you've seen, or what have you seen?
47:34Well, we've had a real variety of mammals down on Springwatch Street.
47:38So we've had lovely foxes in the daytime.
47:41We've got this one in Harriet's garden here.
47:43Not as many foxes as we thought we might see, actually.
47:46When you think of cities, you often think of foxes.
47:48Hedgehogs.
47:48Lots of hedgehogs in all the gardens at Springwatch Street, which has been really lovely to see.
47:53And then the badgers.
47:54I mean, this is in the garden of Charlotte and Ben, where we were last night, where I had my
47:58amazing badger experience, watching them on the patio a few nights ago.
48:02Yeah, just a real nice variety.
48:04Well, the hedgehog, isn't it?
48:05I mean, when we were kids, everyone had a hedgehog in their garden, didn't they?
48:08But you're quite lucky these days to have hedgehogs.
48:10Yeah, there's a lot of them on Springwatch Street.
48:12Yeah, really good.
48:13Of course, you'll only get hedgehogs if you've got little stuff.
48:15What little stuff did you have?
48:16So we looked at the solitary bees, but we also caught a really nice rhinoceros beetle as well, because we
48:22could have done a whole separate series on the small stuff.
48:26So we found this lovely rhinoceros beetle burying into some of the deadwood that was at the back of Harriet's
48:32outdoor toilet.
48:32I'm sure she won't mind me saying that.
48:34But she's got this fantastic pile of deadwood there, and this was tunnelling all the way in there.
48:39So it was lovely to see.
48:39One of the reasons that we've done Springwatch Street is to try and encourage people to make their gardens even
48:44more wildlife friendly and to inspire them.
48:48And we've had lots of questions in to give to you, Jack.
48:51Fire away.
48:52So Steve Coleman-Williams, what makes a good wildlife pond?
48:56We're planning on putting one in soon.
48:57What should we include and exclude?
49:00And how big is too small or too big?
49:03So I'd say try and go soft edges if you can.
49:06Try and stick towards native plants.
49:08And too big or too small?
49:09Well, you can't really have a pond that's too small.
49:11Everything's better than nothing.
49:12You can have barrel ponds which attract lots of life, and dragonflies will lay their eggs in them.
49:17But if you've got the luxury, I was once told you'll never regret making your pond bigger than you think
49:22you might need it.
49:23So always, if you can, make your pond that little bit bigger than you initially planned.
49:27And it is obviously a brilliant thing, if you can, to have any sort of pond in your garden.
49:31Yeah, hugely increases the biodiversity.
49:33Okay, Janice Long, where's the best place to put a bee box?
49:36So, solitary bees, they like it hot.
49:39So somewhere south-facing, especially if it gets a nice morning sun.
49:42You could go one better.
49:43Well, I've become a bit obsessed with solitary bees.
49:46I'm in my solitary bee era at the moment.
49:47And I've done a bee bank, so just a big pile of sand in a sunny corner.
49:51Now I've got all the mining bees going in it.
49:53So, yes, somewhere nice and warm, south-facing on a wall if you're getting a bee hotel.
49:58Okay, time for one more.
49:59Gemma Beckett, what would you say is the best way to look after arachnids in your garden, specifically jumping spiders?
50:06Yeah, it's a bit niche, this one.
50:07Jumping spiders are really, really cute little things.
50:11The zebra jumping spider, lovely little thing.
50:13It's a picture.
50:14Look, it's a cute little thing.
50:16And I, when I was living in Bristol, I didn't have a garden, but I made these wildflower window boxes,
50:21sowed them with native seeds.
50:22Lots of insects came to them, and I had a little zebra jumping spider that lived in it.
50:26And then when those cornflowers went to seed, loads of goldfinches came, and then I could stand in my dressing
50:30gown in the morning, just watching the goldfinches, just the other side of the glass.
50:33So you don't need a garden.
50:35You can just do it in a window box or some pots on a patio.
50:37That's something you put in our head now, isn't it?
50:38Picture of you standing in your dressing gown by the window, doing your window boxes.
50:42I'm going to expunge that immediately and move on.
50:46And tell you that the Open University have put together an online hike, which allows you to explore the habitats
50:52that have changed in the 20 years that Springwatch has been going.
50:55To access that, you can scan the QR code, which is on your screen now, or you can visit bbc
51:01.co.uk forward slash Springwatch and follow the links to the Open University.
51:06OK, it's time to get mindful.
51:08I think it's been a mindful series, hasn't it?
51:11And I know so many of you enjoy our mindfulness moments.
51:14So enjoy this one.
52:32Absolutely beautiful, really beautiful.
52:34OK, let's take one final look at our live cameras, see what's going on.
52:40Oh, what's our eye drawn to?
52:43I think the owls.
52:44Should we go up to the owls, the long-eared owls?
52:50It's lovely, isn't it, just to see them for one last time, because our cameras will be turned off after
52:54the programme.
52:55And if you have been watching them online, I hope you've really enjoyed all of our cameras.
53:00One of the key habitats here, though, that we've been exploring is moorland.
53:04One of the birds we haven't featured is this, the wheatier.
53:08Mark Yates went out and found these birds, and they had a brood of fledged youngsters.
53:14You can see they're quite well hidden amongst those rocks.
53:16They like this short turf so that they can access all of the insects when it warms up.
53:24These are migrants.
53:25They're going to go all the way back to Africa when they leave here at the end of summer.
53:31There's one of the youngsters there, learning to peck away, find its food.
53:36Look at that.
53:37What a handsome bird.
53:39Related to robins, one of the chats.
53:42Super.
53:42Let's show you something that has a bit of excitement in it, shall we, because just take a look at
53:47this.
53:48It all looks like a lovely, calm scene, doesn't it?
53:52Some ducks just swimming around.
53:54Carol Williams taking a picture.
53:56And then what happens?
53:59What's come through?
54:01It's a buzzard.
54:03Oh, my word.
54:05I mean, if they hadn't got away, then that could have gone wrong.
54:08That was a good bit of work by the female duck there, wasn't it?
54:12Spotting that buzzard.
54:14Let's have a look at some butterflies, because we love it when you send stuff in.
54:18And just look at this.
54:19So this is male and female mating, and another one trying to get in on the act.
54:25Don't you hate that?
54:27But this is something that commonly happens.
54:29Two males will try and mate the same female, and they'll both be trying to get their sperm
54:36into that female and fertilise her eggs.
54:39Beautiful butterflies there.
54:42Absolutely stunning.
54:44What have you got?
54:45Hey, now, look.
54:46Yeah.
54:46We've been trying to show this photograph for the entire series, OK?
54:49We really liked this photograph of this common wasp with all of the Jews across it.
54:53We really did.
54:54Anyway, we finally got it in.
54:56Thank you very much.
54:57And a big thank you to everyone for sending all those photographs in.
55:00And a big thank you to Longshore Estate.
55:03We have had the most amazing three weeks here.
55:06And as I say, every time I can't believe how quickly it's gone.
55:10Thank you very much to the Peak District National Park, to the National Trust and Eastern Moors Partnership for having
55:16us.
55:17Big news.
55:18Big news.
55:18We are moving to Northern Ireland for Winter Watch, to the National Trust Mount Stewart Estate.
55:24But until then, we're going to leave you with this.
55:27This is the collective highlights of not just this year's Spring Watch, but Spring Watch over the last 20 years.
55:34So until the winter, when we might be shivering, goodbye.
55:38Bye-bye.
55:46What is watching?
55:49To see, yes.
55:52To observe.
55:56But it's so much more than that.
56:00It's an opportunity.
56:04To learn and understand.
56:11We do our best to demonstrate.
56:13The tree slug.
56:16It's a televisual highlight.
56:19But of course, it's nothing like the real thing.
56:25Yeah, peregrine.
56:26Two of them.
56:27Oh, yes.
56:28Oh, yes.
56:29I see it.
56:30Oh, yes.
56:35The tree slug.
56:36Watching so intimately gives us the chance to passionately follow the ups and downs of wild families.
56:44Their moments of tenderness and sometimes tragedy.
56:51Down on the scrape, we saw the badgers feeding on our avocets.
56:57It is one of our chicks.
57:00We see both sides of the struggle to survive.
57:05This is a venomous snake coming to have a go at the chicks.
57:09Can they fend it off somehow?
57:11Oh!
57:16Super stoked.
57:18Fantastic.
57:18We celebrate those who go further.
57:25He's come back.
57:26Oh, wonderful.
57:29Who strive to know Britain's wildlife better and to help it thrive.
57:35I just want to say thank you.
57:37That's a pleasure.
57:39A pleasure.
57:41Nobody watches wildlife like we do.
57:45There's a night job.
57:47We see things we couldn't even dream of.
57:52Oh, wow.
57:53One, two.
57:55Lying under soprano pipistrels as they go off to hunt.
58:07Spring never fails to deliver.
58:14And it's our privilege to bring its wonders to you.
58:18Thank you for 20 years of watching.
58:52Until then.
58:53Stay next day.
58:57Stay next time.
58:59See you.
59:01Bye-bye.
59:02Stay next time.
59:02Bye-bye.
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