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00:18Across the British Isles, there are magical places, our pride and joy, our gardens.
00:30Yet many of us are completely unaware of the wild world, right under our noses.
00:47Amazingly, some British gardens are almost as diverse as a tropical rainforest.
00:55And when our backs are turned, they come alive.
01:14From the wilds of Scotland to a metropolitan oasis.
01:22In each episode, we'll reveal the extraordinary dramas playing out within a single garden.
01:33Welcome to a hidden world right on our doorsteps.
01:57Nessling in the heart of Cumbria, an idyllic country garden.
02:05Cherished by owners Chris and Liz.
02:09Ten years ago, we decided to leave the city and actually live somewhere more rural.
02:17We found this house and garden.
02:19Actually, it was really the garden that we fell in love with.
02:23Absolutely, yeah.
02:24And it's become a bit of an obsession.
02:31Well, you'll normally find Liz in the greenhouse through here.
02:37Then there are these really lovely dry stone walls.
02:42My favourite place is the meadow down here.
02:46Then down in the far corner there is a really beautiful pond.
02:56Chris and Liz do everything they can to encourage wildlife.
03:03Every year we like to move some of our tools out of our tool shed to make way for the
03:09swallows when they return.
03:16We like to think of the garden as an ark.
03:20And it's incredibly rich in wildlife.
03:22But we know so little still about the secret lives of the animals that live here.
03:34One of the most secretive is the field mouse.
04:02This brave little female may be only four months old.
04:07But she's already looking for a mate.
04:14Field mice are abundant in this garden.
04:22The danger? Garden predators.
04:30A tawny owl has hearing ten times more sensitive than ours.
04:43And he can detect the slightest sound.
05:02But the mouse has her own sonic superpower.
05:10She listens out for a secret song inaudible to an owl.
05:23But if we slow it right down, it's the ultrasonic serenade of a male mouse.
05:37But her potential partner is on the other side of a wide, featureless lawn.
05:49To reach him and get back safely, she has a special solution.
06:00She creates a trail to signpost the way home.
06:09Field mice are the only mammals other than humans known to position objects as landmarks.
06:25Impressive.
06:27For a brain the size of a pea.
06:31For a brain the size of a pea.
06:56for a brain and
06:58for a tree.
07:01A fleeting romance.
07:16Spotted.
07:37Thanks to her signposts, safely home and ready to produce her first litter.
07:51Just as Liz and Chris hoped, a barn swallow.
08:02Coming to the end of an epic 6,000-mile journey from southern Africa.
08:19In a remarkable feat of navigation, he has finally reached the north of England.
08:41Of 25 million gardens in Britain, he returns to the one where he was raised.
08:53Home.
08:59He's made this hazardous journey to feast on insects that come with a British summer.
09:08And to try and raise a family.
09:13The male returns first to prepare their nest.
09:19Barn swallows mate for life.
09:27But the pair only come together to rear their young.
09:34Other couples are already reuniting after seven months apart.
09:42But his partner is nowhere to be seen.
10:06Time is not on his side.
10:09Time is not on his side.
10:54A palmate newt, barely the length of your little finger.
11:08She is embarking on her own intrepid journey.
11:20Her first step is to find a mate.
11:26But their numbers are in decline.
11:34In the last 50 years, we have lost half of our rural ponds, drained for farmland.
11:42So, garden ponds have never been so important.
11:55She enters a secret world.
12:03Full of boldly marked flirtatious males.
12:16Each trying to catch her eye, flexing their supersized feet, and wafting perfumes towards her.
12:34Larger males may attract her attention.
12:40But one by one, they run out of air.
12:51Until only one tiny dancer remains.
13:00His smaller size enables him to absorb all the oxygen he needs just through his skin.
13:16Once in a while, the underdog comes out on top.
13:29Closer to home, another hidden romance smells trouble.
13:41Mole hills.
13:53Less than a meter below the surface, a young male mole is frantically digging in search of a mate.
14:13He can tunnel over 20 meters a day.
14:20All that earth has to go somewhere.
14:28He only stops to feed.
14:33And can consume half his body weight in worms in a single day.
14:48But to find a female, you sometimes need to go above and beyond.
15:04He can barely see past the end of his nose.
15:11But that nose smells in stereo.
15:19And he can pinpoint a female's burrow from afar.
15:40It's not a warm reception.
15:46Female moles have unusually high levels of testosterone.
15:52And that makes them highly aggressive.
16:10Eventually, persistence prevails.
16:17In pursuit of the perfect lawn, British gardeners kill thousands of moles every year.
16:32Mole hills do drive Liz mad.
16:36But she also knows that they create fertile soil for planting.
17:06By late spring, the lonesome swallows' chances have become great.
17:11And becoming a parent look increasingly slim.
17:19Swallows only live for three or four years.
17:24This may be his last chance to breed.
17:35But fewer swallows are arriving each year as they face more unpredictable weather.
18:05Then...
18:15A familiar sound.
18:26After more than half a year apart, the long-distance couple are reunited.
18:40They have no time to waste.
18:55Across the garden, the breeding season is in full swing.
19:02The pond becomes the setting for a record-breaking romance.
19:09To see it, you need to get into the weeds.
19:18A male semaphore fly.
19:22A male semaphore fly.
19:23One of the 7,000 fly species found in the UK.
19:31A male semaphore fly.
19:35A male semaphore tierra.
19:57He performs a lightning flip.
20:13It's the fastest backflip in the insect world.
20:22Such a grand display attracts unwanted attention.
20:28A predatory dungfly, almost twice his size.
20:34But the semaphore fly is fixated on the female.
20:46Ah, well. Plenty more flies in the pond.
20:58Beneath the surface...
21:03..the female palmate performs her own extraordinary act.
21:12She delicately folds a leaf around each of her hundred eggs...
21:21..to protect them until they hatch in three weeks' time.
21:34Her mothering duties are complete.
22:01As the romance of spring turns to the baby boom of early summer...
22:10..a family of house sparrows leave the nest.
22:19Hundreds of young bees harvest nectar and pollen.
22:26Newly hatched newts are growing up in the pond.
22:40And just a month after reuniting...
22:46..the swallows have five hungry mouths to feed.
23:00Astonishingly, each chick needs a thousand insects every single day.
23:07Surely an impossible task.
23:20Nationwide, flying insect numbers have crashed...
23:24..due to pesticides, pollution and habitat loss.
23:34Swallow numbers have almost halved in the last decade.
23:40But here, next to a well-managed sheep farm...
23:45..the swallows can catch all they need.
23:55And closer to home...
23:59..chris and Liz's garden meadow...
24:04..is crowded with miniature life.
24:12Even a small patch of grass, left untrimmed...
24:17..can support hundreds of species of insects.
24:25..for now, at least, the chicks have a chance.
24:31..the chicks have a chance.
24:38Back at the dry stone wall...
24:40..the chicks have a chance.
24:46Newborn field mice...
24:48..depend entirely on their mother...
24:51..for the first three weeks of their lives.
25:02She must now brave the daylight to find enough food.
25:18..this time, with no waymarks to guide her home.
25:23This time, with no waymarks to guide her home.
25:42From over 40 metres away...
25:46..she has been spotted.
25:50..kestrels are prolific daytime predators.
25:55..catching up to eight rodents a day.
26:11..catching up to eight rodents a day.
26:16..the six rodents a day.
26:36..and I'm not far as leaving the middle of me...
26:36..and I'm worried about my friends.
26:37..she is back in the middle of a while...
26:58Made it.
27:06Mice have excellent memories, and she knows the greenhouse has a stash of food.
27:49I'm going to take a look at the garden of the garden, and I'm going to take a look at
27:59the garden of the garden.
28:00Here they are, seeds, packed with nutrients and energy.
28:21But she can't afford to stay long.
28:29She must feed her babies every few hours.
28:36While Liz continues her planting,
28:40another life-and-death mini-drama plays out right under her nose.
28:52One of over a hundred species of spider living in British gardens.
28:59A zebra jumping spider.
29:06He's smart.
29:09Able to use a variety of techniques when hunting.
29:17Spiders aren't everyone's cup of tea.
29:22But he eats insects that would damage Liz's precious seedlings.
29:33Garden pests.
29:43Unlike other spiders, he doesn't use a web.
29:51He actively hunts for prey.
30:02And with eight eyes, he's good at finding it.
30:11Six of them detect movement.
30:15While the two big front eyes focus on and identify lunch.
30:41A miniature pest controller.
30:44A miniature pest controller.
30:59With the coast finally clear.
31:02The mouse desperately needs to get back to her young.
31:16But the Kestor is still on the hunt.
31:20But the Kestor is still on the hunt.
31:35A major damage.
31:38The Gardein Air Force scrabbles.
31:43With newly hatched chicks,
31:46the Swallows won't tolerate any threat.
32:45As a single mum, she has to keep taking enormous risks
32:52to keep her pups alive.
33:01And just two weeks later, the youngsters are almost ready to leave the nest,
33:11which will allow mum to raise more babies before the short summer ends.
33:49Makes it a little slice of paradise with more species of plant than can be found in the patch of
33:58tropical rainforests.
34:08Left untouched, the meadow hums with life.
34:21At least 20 species of butterfly are found in British gardens.
34:36Each has a particular diet, and we can help by growing nectar-rich flowers for the adults,
34:47as well as the native plants, as well as the native plants their caterpillars will depend upon.
34:53Even a patch of nettle and bramble will do.
35:07The swallows are making the most of the sunny weather.
35:15Incredibly, all five chicks have survived.
35:33But Cumbria is the wettest county in England.
35:45And in recent years has been getting even wetter.
35:59Grounded by the weather,
36:05flying insects are suddenly three times harder to find.
36:12So the swallows will have to work three times as hard.
36:20If the weather doesn't improve, the chicks will die.
36:45If the weather doesn't improve, the chicks will die.
36:48They may be exceptional parents, but facing a wet summer, can they keep their chicks alive?
37:22While the swallows struggle to raise a single brood,
37:27the field mouse has reared her first litter and is eager to get going with the second.
37:38So she is following her ears to find another partner.
37:47At every turn, predators are lurking.
37:57Catching her offspring all over the garden.
38:05For mice, survival is a numbers game.
38:17Her strategy is to flood the garden with young.
38:28So that at least some will have families of their own.
38:44Soon, she'll be a mother again.
39:02A damp night brings out some of our most destructive garden beasts.
39:13As any country gardener knows, slugs can decimate a veg patch overnight.
39:27But help for the gardeners arrives unexpectedly.
39:34A palmate newt in search of food.
39:49Surprisingly, newts spend most of the year on land.
39:56Their slimy skin becomes rough and dry to conserve precious moisture.
40:12Another key member of the pest control army.
40:32By day, the meadow would seem an excellent place to hide.
40:38diagnose,
41:06Bye-bye.
41:10Phew.
41:18Although the newt isn't out of danger yet.
41:42But Chris has chosen a wildlife-friendly method of mowing.
41:50Traditional scything leaves plenty of wriggle room.
41:59The moment Chris leaves,
42:03real danger arrives.
42:17Pheasants.
42:21Native to Asia,
42:23but now released into our countryside on an industrial scale.
42:33Over 30 million every year.
42:40Eating vast numbers of insects, reptiles and amphibians every day.
43:12Over 30 million every year.
43:25I don't know.
43:56The field mouse has another litter of pups.
44:05Up until the end of autumn, she will almost always be pregnant or have babies, as many
44:14as six litters a year.
44:18If just two of her offspring have young of their own, her efforts will have been worthwhile.
44:36While the mouse spreads her risk, Chris and Liz's swallows put all their eggs in one basket.
44:49But the nest is empty.
44:59The devoted parents tried their hardest.
45:10And against all the odds, not one, not two, but all five chicks have fledged.
45:32The parents still have work to do.
45:39The yard is now a flight school for lessons with mum and dad.
45:49They must master the air to catch their own food.
46:05Oh, here it comes, here it comes.
46:07Oh, brilliant.
46:08Oh, look at that dive.
46:10They are such fast flies.
46:14Because they're here and then they're gone.
46:16Yeah.
46:17It's like each year as well.
46:18You know, it's like a glimpse and then they're gone for the year.
46:26Soon, the chicks will make their first epic journey, crossing continents and surviving storms.
46:42Thanks to Chris and Liz and their country haven, with its old shed and bug-filled meadow, the swallows may
46:57well return next spring.
47:01To join the many other animals which have made this garden their home.
47:25When the production team first got in touch, Liz and Chris were excited to have their garden secrets revealed.
47:34When Chris called me to say that we might be having some interest in filming the wildlife, on one side
47:41I was thinking, oh, that would be amazing.
47:43I am very curious to know who's doing what.
47:46But they were also nervous.
47:49However, I was thinking, wouldn't it be typical that if we say yes to this, the swallows won't come back.
47:55Wildlife cameraman, Lindsay McCray, has filmed on every continent.
48:00But he's Cumbrian born and bred.
48:03So this is the lake district and I grew up actually just over that hill.
48:07So I feel like I know this area like the back of my hand.
48:12The valley I grew up in was surrounded by small farms full of swallows' nests.
48:17Just became obsessed with them growing up.
48:19His mission now is to film a family of swallows in a country garden.
48:32As it turned out, Liz's concern wasn't completely unfounded.
48:40A male swallow has returned on time, but no sign of a female.
48:46Everyone knows it's a mammoth journey these small birds have to make.
48:49And I've not only just read about it, I've actually been to the Sahara and seen swallows flying across the
48:55desert.
48:56So I know what they've got to get through.
48:58It's a journey that's getting harder and harder.
49:01Over the last few years, we're definitely seeing fewer swallows.
49:05I think it's a story everywhere, isn't it?
49:08Even in my lifetime, I've noticed a huge, huge decline.
49:14They are the bird each spring, aren't they, that everybody wants to see first.
49:21Here it comes.
49:28They're such beautiful and characterful birds.
49:34Hopefully, the female that is too back here knows where she's going.
49:40While Lindsay follows the swallows' fortunes,
49:45Camerawoman Katie Mayhew is working the garden night shift.
49:53Her mission is to cover the garden's tiniest inhabitants.
50:00Down at the pond, she's setting up a complicated system to get beneath the surface.
50:06Right, idiots check.
50:08Is the camera going to fall in the water?
50:13OK, here we go.
50:15Shall we put it in the pond?
50:17I've got no idea until I stick this lens in the water what we're actually going to see.
50:24It's going in. We're going in.
50:29Look at that.
50:30I can't believe it. You can actually see something.
50:32Oh, there's something there.
50:33Oh, yeah.
50:33There's a...
50:34There's a newt.
50:35Yeah, yeah.
50:35There's a newt on the left.
50:37See it? It is a newt.
50:41An amazing first glimpse.
50:47And over the next few days, Katie captures all the newt behavior she could possibly want.
51:10Spring wears on, but still no sign of the female swallow.
51:20Until...
51:23There's one.
51:25In fact, there's two.
51:27And they have both dropped into the courtyard.
51:30I wonder if that's a female.
51:37It is the female.
51:39And with the pair back together, they'll soon have eggs.
51:47Before they do, Lindsay needs to get the camera set up in the shed.
51:53They're such good little birds to put cameras on because they're so...
51:57They're so brave when they're on the nest.
52:00Is that right?
52:00A lot of birds can obviously feel a bit nervous.
52:03When do you think they'll start laying then?
52:05Any minute, if there's feathers in the nest, that means it's lined and ready to go.
52:11And I reckon these feathers have just fallen on the floor at the end of the season and this pair's
52:16picked them back up again.
52:16Well, it's a reason not to be too tidy.
52:23It's now a waiting game.
52:34A few weeks later and the chicks have hatched.
52:38Five of them.
52:39The parents are working overtime to feed them insects.
52:53Lindsay struggles to keep up with the male swallow in flight.
52:59Swallows fly at around 11 metres per second.
53:03This one.
53:06Gone.
53:07Rarely in a straight line.
53:10Just these split seconds and they're gone.
53:13But with the camera slowing down the action ten times,
53:19his skill and perseverance give Lindsay an insight into the swallow's amazing aerobatics.
53:29I know it sounds crazy, but I swear our female bird's easier to film.
53:34The male is just so erratic in flight.
53:39Those longer tail feathers are the reason.
53:44Evolved to look good to a female, they also enable extreme maneuverability.
53:57But when summer rains arrive and bugs hide away,
54:02the swallows face their biggest test yet.
54:10I live here so I know how bad the weather in the Lake District can get,
54:13but this is ridiculous now.
54:20These summers in the lakes just seem to be getting more and more unpredictable,
54:24and it's life or death for the wildlife.
54:31The thought of those chicks just sat in the nest begging and nothing coming,
54:36it's just heartbreaking.
54:55When the weather finally clears,
54:58Liz is desperate to see whether the chicks have survived.
55:03Here's one.
55:06Here he goes.
55:07Oh look, it's going in.
55:09Will we be able to see it?
55:13Oh look at that.
55:15Oh I can see all the, like little smiles,
55:21the faces.
55:23One opening up.
55:28And we now have one, two, three, four, five chicks.
55:31Yeah.
55:34Very happy and tired aren't they?
55:36They are kind of like little monsters I have to say.
55:47Just two weeks later,
55:53all five chicks have fledged.
56:01Working with all the people from the film crew and all their specialities has really opened my eyes up to
56:10just the vast variety of creatures that are living in a garden.
56:15I just hope that everyone who's got a small garden, a medium garden, a bigger garden, a balcony,
56:26can just fall in love with them a bit more and understand what a massive impact we could all have
56:31if we just carved out a little bit of space to provide for those bugs and birds and animals.
56:41That to me is massively inspiring.
56:50Next time, a woodland garden in a Welsh valley where secretive and surprising wildlife is attracted to a magical glade.
57:09Discover the wildlife on your doorstep with the Open University's Secret Garden interactive experience.
57:17Scan the QR code on screen now or head to connect.open.ac.uk forward slash secret garden.
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