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00:00of new Springwatch.
00:05Life starts sleepily, soft, pure and white.
00:10But chestnut dapple grows and purity becomes fixed fury
00:15in the frowning eyes of the buzzard.
00:19Get ready to ride the roller coaster of life.
00:22It's Springwatch.
00:46Hello and welcome to Springwatch 2026,
00:50coming to you from the very beautiful National Trust Crumb Estate
00:53here in Fermanagh in Northern Ireland.
00:56First time we've based ourselves here.
00:58The sun's turned out and the wildlife started strong last night.
01:01Lots of birds.
01:02But don't worry, we haven't forgotten the mammals.
01:05We've had a camera on a fox den
01:08and we've seen some activity with those fox cubs.
01:11And of course it wouldn't be a Springwatch without fox cubs
01:13and it wouldn't be a Springwatch without badgers.
01:15And last night we said we had a live badger set
01:17and they were coming out at 8 o'clock and they didn't show up.
01:19Rest assured tonight, if a badger sticks its snout out of the hole,
01:23we'll be on it in a flash.
01:25However, cuddly fox cubs, beautiful badgers,
01:29nothing will touch monoterpenoids.
01:32Yes, monoterpenoids, chemical compounds that have radically changed
01:36the way that we think about insects and plants.
01:39A scientific first coming to you on Springwatch tonight
01:42and I can tell you I'm very excited about it.
01:45I mean, honestly, this is one of the best ones.
01:47It's going to be on everyone's lips from tomorrow, isn't it?
01:50Monoterpenoids.
01:50Everyone's going to know everything about them.
01:52On the tube.
01:53Yeah, they're all going to be talking about the water turpenoids.
01:57Let's remind you of where we are.
01:59This is our production village
02:02and it's nestled on the shores of Upper Loch Urn,
02:05within 2,000 acres of the Cromestating County for Manor.
02:09There's the Crom Castle in the distance
02:12and the dominating features of this whole area
02:15are the waterways and the complex mosaic of islands, bays and channels.
02:21And within that, you get these rich flower meadows,
02:25ancient woodlands, reed beds, wetlands,
02:28so many different habitats.
02:30And that makes it a haven for wildlife.
02:33It's an extraordinary landscape
02:35and it's a really important conservation area.
02:39We arrived here last week
02:40and we're capturing all the wildlife
02:43that has made from its home.
02:45And that's what we'll be focusing on
02:47over the three weeks that we're here.
02:50It's a stunning location.
02:52It's delivering stunning weather
02:54for the start of Springwatch.
02:56Look at that.
02:59Absolutely beautiful sunset.
03:01It's a bit sweaty, isn't it?
03:02Oh, stop it now.
03:03You're not going to moan, are you?
03:04Well, I'll just take a little shower.
03:06It might be nice.
03:07No!
03:08Just someone can stay.
03:09Jesting, of course.
03:10Now, look, we teased you with a buzzard's nest
03:12at the top of the programme.
03:14We've been following that nest.
03:16It's in an oak tree in the woods
03:18not far from where we are.
03:20It's a typical buzzard's nest,
03:22made of sticks, lined with sedges and grasses
03:25and they add green material to it
03:27throughout the course of the breeding period.
03:29There you can see the female on the nest.
03:31Male has been bringing plenty of food in
03:33and they're very cosmopolitan,
03:35as you might remember.
03:36We've had them on Springwatch before
03:37and they bring in a great range of prey.
03:39I mean, they feed on small mammals,
03:41foals, rats, small rabbits,
03:43lots of wood pigeons.
03:44They'll bring those in as well, so birds.
03:46But, you know, if times are tough,
03:47they'll get down on the ground
03:48and start eating earthworms.
03:50And when they do bring the prey in,
03:53just look at how delicate they are.
03:55Typical of all the birds of prey that we watch.
03:56So well-armed with those talons
03:58and that really sharp beak.
04:00But when it comes to feeding their young,
04:02they do so with such delicate grace.
04:05And there you can see that young buzzard
04:07getting a bit of a feast.
04:08The question is, what are they eating at the moment?
04:10Well, buzzards are very much creatures of habit.
04:12If they find a rich food source
04:14in one particular place,
04:15they'll just go back and back.
04:16And at the moment, they're on frogs.
04:18And you can see the characteristic legs
04:20of the amphibian there.
04:21And here it is, again, being fed to the youngsters.
04:25Now, there are three of them in the nest.
04:28And remember, they hatch asynchronously,
04:31meaning you end up with one small one,
04:32one middle-sized one, and one larger one,
04:34the one that hatched first.
04:36And this does lead to a little bit of sibling rivalry.
04:40And you can see here that larger bird
04:43pecking the smaller one.
04:45They employ something called
04:46the Cain and Abel strategy,
04:48where one of the siblings seeks to out-compete the others
04:52to guarantee its survival.
04:55And look, here we are.
04:57There's not fighting over food here.
04:59They've been fed.
05:00This is just naked aggression.
05:02And that bird is picking on a chick
05:04which is nearly the same size.
05:06It makes you wonder whether it's a personality trait.
05:08It's not just about size
05:09or how much food you've had.
05:11And here we see it picking on the youngest of all of them.
05:16Oh, vicious attacks taking place in the nest there.
05:21Let's go live now to see what's happening at the nest.
05:26And look at that.
05:27True to form.
05:28It's gone back to the edge of one of those lakes.
05:32And it's feeding.
05:33It's difficult to see there,
05:34but you can see some of the skin.
05:35That's another frog that it's feeding its youngster.
05:38And look at the front of that youngster.
05:39You can see that bulge on its chest.
05:42That's its crop, which is very full of food.
05:45So it does seem that the amphibians
05:47around the lakes here at Crumb
05:50are paying dividends for the buzzards.
05:54And we'll be catching up with the buzzards
05:56a bit later on in the programme
05:57because there have been some significant developments today.
06:00Let's have a look at the variety of nests
06:02that we have got live cameras on
06:03because obviously we've got the buzzard.
06:05We've got great tits.
06:07We've got swallows.
06:08We've got house martins.
06:09We've got starling.
06:10I'm going to take you to the robin nest.
06:13But first of all, I'm going to show you where it is.
06:15This is the exterior.
06:17It's in the woodland.
06:18It's in the bark of a tree.
06:20You can see the camera there.
06:21It's hidden by the ivy.
06:23That's the adult bird coming in,
06:25big full of food to feed those chicks.
06:29Let's go to it live right now and see those chicks.
06:32It's six chicks that are in there.
06:35Oh, they're looking quite exhausted, aren't they?
06:39They're a week old, very attentive, busy parents.
06:43I mean, it's actually cooled down a bit now,
06:46but they are looking hot.
06:47I mean, we said yesterday it's been a heat wave
06:50around most of the UK.
06:52Hottest day on record was recorded.
06:55Hottest day on record in May, should I say,
06:57was recorded in Kew Gardens,
06:58which, obviously, Bank Holiday Monday
07:01was lovely for a lot of people,
07:02but for the wildlife, it's really tough.
07:04It puts them in a lot of stress.
07:06And if we look at the robin's nest,
07:08this is what they were doing.
07:09They were panting.
07:11They had their mouths gaping.
07:13Birds don't have sweat glands
07:15to regulate their body temperatures,
07:17and chicks in particular are very vulnerable
07:19to the heat.
07:21They're very similar to dogs.
07:22They pant with that open beat.
07:24They breathe fast.
07:25Air rushes over the wet inside of their mouth
07:27and throat and lungs.
07:29The water turns into vapour and floats away,
07:32and the evaporation carries the trapped heat
07:34out of their body,
07:36lowering the core temperature quickly.
07:38But it is, it puts a lot of stress on those chicks.
07:42And, I mean, depending on where they are,
07:44hey, Chris, I mean, there's,
07:45I guess they've got the ivy around them.
07:47They're in a wood.
07:49Which would be cooling.
07:49They're in the wood.
07:50But, gosh, for some of those birds,
07:52they've chosen areas that are so hot.
07:54Spare a thought for our swallows.
07:55They're up in the apex of the barn.
07:57This was the swallows yesterday,
07:59and you can see, look,
08:00they've draped themselves over the side of the nest.
08:03They're trying to expose as much of their flesh
08:05as possible to the air,
08:06whilst gaping just like the robins were.
08:09And here in the great-tip nest box,
08:12again, tiny, hot chamber,
08:14and again, those birds are struggling.
08:16So whilst we might be enjoying the sunshine,
08:18spare a thought for those birds,
08:20because they are really struggling.
08:21Let's have a look at our great-tips live.
08:24As Chris said, they're in a nest box,
08:26also in a wood, in the trees.
08:28And then if we go inside,
08:30we can see it's going to be a squash in there,
08:33I'll tell you, as they grow.
08:34There are seven chicks, very crowded.
08:36They're about a week old.
08:37The parents are both feeding them,
08:40but they haven't been consistent.
08:43These are the chicks.
08:44The parents are coming in.
08:46This was Sunday, 18 feeds per hour.
08:50I know that sounds a lot,
08:51but that is low for great-tips.
08:53It should be more than that.
08:56I mean, they're doing the best they can.
08:58Both parents are flying out.
09:00They're coming back in.
09:01They're bringing prey.
09:02They're bringing plenty of large prey.
09:05But the trouble is,
09:06feeding it to the chicks.
09:08And look at this.
09:09It sort of keeps putting that caterpillar in one beak,
09:11taking it out again,
09:12not really knowing what it's doing.
09:15Our nest watchers watched that for about a minute,
09:18and they counted about 30 times
09:20that it tried to feed it to one of the chicks.
09:24If we fast forward, we can see,
09:26I mean, it's absolutely bonkers, isn't it?
09:28Eventually, it finds a chick that can gobble it down.
09:32So what is happening?
09:33Is this inexperienced parenting?
09:35Maybe it's just too big for the chicks
09:38at this stage.
09:39It did get a little bit better today.
09:42And when they were bringing in those large caterpillars,
09:44they noticed it was about four to five attempts
09:46before one of the chicks took it.
09:49And the feeding rate got better.
09:51It was up to 27 feeds per hour.
09:55And that's compared to 18 on Sunday.
09:58But as I say,
09:59it should be a little bit more than that.
10:02So we're going to keep our eyes on those great tips.
10:05I can't go for inexperienced parent
10:06because some of these birds don't live very long.
10:09They've got to get their breeding attempt right first time.
10:11They may not get a second time.
10:13But the one thing you've got to think
10:14is that these birds all have different characters
10:16and personalities.
10:17They may just not be good parents.
10:19Or they might be having an off day.
10:21I know the feeling.
10:22Well, I went to a supermarket once,
10:23came back with a pizza from Meg's,
10:24and I bought one with pepperoni on it.
10:26You fool.
10:26She doesn't eat meat.
10:28So I had to cook it and then pick it all off.
10:30You know, essentially bad parenting.
10:32And it took ages.
10:33And then I couldn't get it in her mouth
10:34because she kept...
10:35I mean, I won't go there.
10:36Enough from Northern Ireland.
10:37Let's go to Yolo Williams,
10:39who's over in West Sussex
10:41at the one and only Nepp Estate,
10:44one of the most famous and fabulous rewilding sites
10:46that we've got in the UK.
10:50Yes, indeed.
10:51Welcome to Nepp.
10:53And look at this habitat.
10:53Very different habitat to the one you saw me in yesterday.
10:57Now, yesterday,
10:58mekila thought it looked like I was in the Serengeti.
11:01Tonight, I give you the Okafenoki Swamp,
11:05the Everglades.
11:06Look at this place.
11:07Amazing.
11:08And this wetland has been created by one creature.
11:12The beaver.
11:13Or the European beaver, to give it its full name.
11:17Now, beavers were first introduced here in 2022.
11:22And they really are riparian engineers.
11:25They took to the area like the proverbial duck to water.
11:29Immediately began beavering away, pardon the pun,
11:33gnawing away at the wood, building lodges,
11:38transforming this wetland environment here.
11:41And you might be thinking, yours in the beaver pen.
11:44Quiet.
11:45They might come out.
11:46Don't worry.
11:46The beavers are a long, long, long way away.
11:49So we're not going to disturb them tonight.
11:51But what it does do is give me the opportunity to show you the effects that beavers have on their
11:57environment.
11:58Now, the obvious one is the tree, of course.
12:00I think this was probably a willow tree.
12:02They've gnawed away.
12:03You can even see the individual marks where they've been gnawing away with those orangey-coloured, iron-strengthened teeth of
12:13theirs.
12:14Do you think how much work has gone to fell that?
12:16And you might think, oh, that looks disastrous.
12:19Not at all.
12:20Because what they've done is they've cleared the canopy so the sunlight is now able to penetrate the ground level.
12:27And that has resulted in this real flush of flowering plants.
12:31Let me introduce you to just a couple of them.
12:33This one is watermint.
12:35Now, watermint smells divine.
12:39And my nain, my granny used to harvest that and put it on roast lamb.
12:43Lovely.
12:44One more I'll show you is this one.
12:45This is yellow iris.
12:48There's plenty of it out there behind me in flower.
12:51This is all new.
12:53And, of course, thanks to the beavers, in no time at all, this whole area is going to be full
12:58of flowering plants.
13:00And where you get flowering plants, of course, you get invertebrates.
13:03And already, it's very rich in dragonflies and damselflies here.
13:09Several species we've seen.
13:11This is a male-banded demoiselle.
13:14Probably the most beautiful of them all.
13:16Four-spotted chaser landing there.
13:18This is a group that's a large red damselflies.
13:21This is a group that's been largely unchanged for 300 million years.
13:26Broad-bodied chaser.
13:28Stunning blue male there.
13:30And, of course, where you get an abundance of invertebrates, you get birds coming along to eat them as well.
13:38The pied-wagtail, they're feasting on the insects.
13:42Now, pleased to say that the beaver here have spread within the estate.
13:47And recently, they found the beavers building a new lodge.
13:52Take a look at this technique.
13:54It's incredible.
13:54They use that broad tail to balance on their back legs, carrying mud with their front legs, mud that they've
14:03dragged out of the pond.
14:04They'll pack that down onto the lodge, making sure it's strong and warm in there.
14:11Isn't that an amazing thing to see?
14:14Now, the effect they're having at this new site is incredible, and that is best seen from the air.
14:21Take a look at these two drone shots.
14:24First of all, we go back to just before the beavers arrived, 2020.
14:28Look at that narrow channel there.
14:30Big gaps between the water and the trees.
14:33Then, once the beaver have arrived six years later, look at this.
14:37The water going right up the trees.
14:39A wetland has been created.
14:40Brilliant for all kinds of wildlife, of course.
14:42But we mustn't forget, at times of drought like this, it's also fantastic for domestic animals, for the cattle.
14:48And look at that.
14:49That's called Pencil Avenue by the volunteers here.
14:52So the beavers have nibbled away, and the tree stumps just look like pencils.
14:58Now, when we came off air last night, we gave our long-lens cameraman, Steve Phillips, a challenge.
15:04We said, Steve, pack up your hide and go off and find us some beaver.
15:09Go and film some beaver for us.
15:11Did he get it?
15:12Well, all I can tell you, when I saw him over breakfast this morning, he was grinning like a Cheshire
15:18cat.
15:19This is what he saw.
15:22Yes, indeed, he did get beaver.
15:23Look at that.
15:25They reckon they come out here at about 8.30.
15:27So Steve would have got there about quarter past nine.
15:30They're already out there waiting for him, just loafing about magnificently there.
15:37Isn't that brilliant?
15:39Fantastic.
15:40Now, Steve got his beavers.
15:41I have to tell you, the first creature I saw when he arrived here at Knapp was a beautiful female
15:47slowworm.
15:48Do you like your slowworms?
15:49I've got good news for you.
15:51Because this spring, we follow the trials and tribulations of one particular slowworm.
16:01An allotment in Bristol.
16:05These urban sanctuaries make up a tiny percentage of our cities, but they're one of the most biodiverse habitats in
16:13the UK, making them a lifeline for a vast array of species.
16:23During spring, as gardeners prepare their patch for the coming season, beneath their feet, one local resident is making its
16:33first appearance of the year.
16:37A slowworm.
16:41It has spent the whole winter in a dormant state, deep underground.
16:47The rising temperatures draw it out of its slumber, often mistaken for snakes, but actually a lizard.
16:58It has smooth scales to help it burrow, a slender body to slide through the undergrowth, evolution simply doing away
17:07with its legs.
17:12Like all reptiles, it's cold-blooded and can't warm itself.
17:18It absorbs warmth from its surroundings.
17:25Once its body reaches a balmy 25 degrees C, its metabolism is kick-started.
17:33And this slowworm has one thing on its mind.
17:38Food.
17:43Allotments provide shelter for many invertebrates.
17:49But the abundance of soft-leaf vegetables attracts one particular and favourite prey of the slowworm.
17:58Slugs.
18:03This slow-moving lizard just has to track them down.
18:12Despite the historic name blindworm, slowworms can see.
18:17But to track their prey, they rely on something far more sensitive.
18:22Their tongue.
18:26Flicking in and out, powerful odour receptors gather microscopic scent particles from the air.
18:39When retracted, the tongue touches these particles to the Jacobson's organ, a specialised sensory structure that decodes and analyses these
18:49smells.
18:49This identifies chemical cues for predators.
18:55Social signals.
18:57And importantly today, prey.
19:03It can even sense the direction of food without seeing it.
19:18A slug slime trail.
19:27For this slowworm, it's an olfactory treasure map, with lunch as the prize.
19:51The slowworm carefully locates the head of the slug.
19:56The slowworm carefully locates the head of the slug.
20:03Its pin-like backwards curved teeth are perfect for securing the slippery wet meal.
20:10And chewing forwards, the slowworm devours its unfortunate victim alive.
20:21Feasting in this way throughout the day, slowworms are voracious predators in this micro-ecosystem.
20:32Perfectly adapted for their slow and secretive lives.
20:43And being semi-fusorial, meaning they spend most of their lives hidden, even in spring and summer.
20:51Few gardeners will ever see their scaly allotment helpers.
20:56Though they may notice a few less slugs on their lettuces.
21:00A win-win for all.
21:06Mate, you know last night we were getting all nostalgic about frog spawn?
21:09Yep.
21:10Slowworms are up there for me.
21:11I remember Sunday afternoons, going to my grandparents' house,
21:14jumping over the wall into the brickyard, turning over the collagated iron
21:17and catching the slowworms.
21:19So good.
21:20I can imagine you doing that.
21:21Yeah.
21:22On your little bike, on your chopper.
21:25Chopper? You don't have a chopper.
21:26You have a chopper?
21:26No, choppers came much later.
21:27Oh, did they? Okay.
21:28I mean, get your time frame right.
21:30Get your Raleigh bicycle time frame right.
21:32All right.
21:33Listen, one thing I did have to learn was to be very gentle with them,
21:37because this can happen.
21:39Sally Elliott sent this in.
21:41In the foreground is the wriggling tail of the slowworm.
21:45In the top part of the frame is the actual animal itself.
21:48It's practiced something called autotomy.
21:51It has specialized vertebrae, which can essentially separate,
21:55and blood vessels, which immediately constrict so that the animal doesn't bleed to death.
21:59And then the tail wriggles around to distract any potential predator.
22:03In this case, it was a magpie that attacked it.
22:05Whilst the actual animal, you can just see it there in the grass, is making its getaway.
22:09And in fact, even after a few minutes, the tail of the animal is still wriggling around there.
22:17Now, the good news for the slowworm is that it can regrow its tail, albeit very slowly,
22:22but it generally can't autotomize it for a second time.
22:26But what we find is that 50% of all the slowworms that are recorded in the UK have at
22:31one stage lost their tails and regrown it.
22:34So it's clearly a really effective strategy when it comes to dissuading predators.
22:38It's always freaky when you see it though, isn't it?
22:40It just looks so weird.
22:42It is.
22:43Anyway, we've come down to the edge of the lock.
22:45And as we've been saying, this is an enormous water system.
22:50But to really understand just how extensive it is, let's have a look at the satellite imagery.
22:56Because look at this.
22:58You can see it's a patchwork of open water islands, channels and inlets.
23:02And as we zoom out, that pattern continues.
23:05It stretches for 12 miles, which is 19 kilometres across Northern Ireland.
23:10It's a fantastic maze of around 90 islands.
23:14And the lock, which includes the upper loch urn and the lower loch urn,
23:19is actually the third largest freshwater lake system in the UK.
23:23So it's really important.
23:25And it's got all of those invaginations, all of those islands,
23:28which means it's got masses of shoreline, like you can see behind us,
23:31with all of this swamp, fen and reed bed here, which is great.
23:35But look, the landscape that we're looking at here was shaped more than 10,000 years ago.
23:40It's a glacial landscape.
23:42Because before that, this whole area was under about a kilometre of ice,
23:48moving slowly across the surface of the ground.
23:50And as the ice did that, it combed up hills of rubble and rock and soil
23:56into tear-shaped, dropped, low, rounded hills that we call drumlins.
24:03Now, when the water came back, the tops of those hills became all of these islands,
24:08and the gaps between them became the waterways.
24:11So this is a very ancient landscape, which is quite particular in its form.
24:15I like that. I like the fact that we see today something that was shaped,
24:19well, 10,000 to 13,000 years ago.
24:21It really is extraordinary, isn't it?
24:22I love that shot when you look down on it.
24:24I mean, it's one thing to look down on it, it's another to get in it.
24:28It can be quite challenging to see what lives within all the different parts of the waterways,
24:33particularly in the reeds.
24:35But we like a challenge here on Springwatch,
24:37and we gave that challenge to our camera operator, James Stephens,
24:40and he came up with a plan.
24:48So today I'm rigging this canoe so that hopefully I can get closer to the animals
24:53with being in the water, nice and low down.
24:56And with a really big camera, you'll hopefully get some really nice shots.
25:02This setup is a bit random.
25:06So I've kind of got clamps, I've got straps, I've got tape,
25:09so I've done everything I can to make the tripod as secure as possible
25:12because it's a very expensive camera that I don't want to go in the water.
25:17All ready to go, I think. Wish me luck.
25:28As with anything with wildlife, it's always unpredictable.
25:31I might see loads of things, I might see absolutely nothing,
25:33but Crom is a really beautiful estate,
25:34so I'm really looking forward to seeing what I can find.
25:39I've got a sedge warbler singing already.
25:43If I can get a little bit closer, I might be able to see if I can get a shot.
25:53Most of the time when I'm out filming wildlife, I'm hearing before I'm seeing.
26:02I think what I like about working on a canoe is the fact that it's just really peaceful.
26:12I've got a swan coming to say hello.
26:17Looking really nice.
26:18It's just a really awkward angle for me to try and get a shot.
26:29I've tucked in the reeds here, I've got some great crested greaves.
26:37Very hidden.
26:43It looks like they're nest building actually.
26:49Really nice to see.
27:04And over the next three weeks we'll see what James comes up with.
27:07That's inspired me actually.
27:08This weekend I might get in a canoe or a kayak and go for a little explore myself.
27:13Now Chris at the beginning of the show showed us the buzzard nest
27:16and he said there'd been a bit of a development.
27:18Well let's go to it live now and you can see a very sleepy chick.
27:25And you can just about see two sleepy chicks in there.
27:30So what has happened to the third one?
27:34Well let's take a look at what happened today.
27:37Now we know what was happening is the larger chick was attacking the other two.
27:45And as Chris said it wasn't actually that much larger but it was obviously being aggressive.
27:50This is what happens.
27:51We wondered what had happened to that third chick.
27:54Had they killed it and kicked it out the nest?
27:58Could we maybe not see it?
28:00And then we got our answer.
28:03Because we could see the adult is actually feeding the dead chick.
28:08So that sibling had pecked it to death.
28:12And it's being fed to the other two chicks that are left in the nest.
28:17We've seen this before.
28:19And I know it seems brutal.
28:23But it's not going to waste that chick.
28:25You can see it's taking the leg itself.
28:30Very gently picking up little bits.
28:32That's what I find extraordinary when I watch this.
28:35It's difficult not to let your own emotions get involved.
28:38I mean this parent bird has gone to a lot of effort.
28:42Used a lot of energy to brood the egg.
28:46And then it hatches and it starts raising that chick.
28:49And then it delicately feeds the dead chick to the other two siblings.
28:54Dispassionate.
28:55But pragmatic.
28:58You have to be pragmatic don't you when you're looking at wildlife like this.
29:02The thing to say is obviously the aggressive chick remains in the nest.
29:06We've already seen it attacking the other one.
29:08What will happen now?
29:09I mean it will obviously get more food proportionately.
29:11Will that calm it down?
29:13We'll have to watch and see.
29:15Now it's been a very long time.
29:17In fact it was the very first series of Springwatch the last time this bird was featured.
29:21It's one of my favourites.
29:22I think it's enormously underrated.
29:24The little grebe.
29:26We've been watching this little grebe's nest down in the reeds.
29:30It's a typical nest.
29:31It's made out of rotting vegetation.
29:33So they drag plant material and they make this little mound and they typically lay four eggs into it.
29:40There are three in this nest and you can see one of the adults coming out there and then settling
29:47down to incubate them.
29:49Look at that charming little bird.
29:52Lovely chestnut cheek and that orange yellowy spot is only on the beak during the course of the summer.
30:00Very vocal.
30:01You typically hear them making a sort of a weird wickering sound down in the reeds.
30:06Yes.
30:07Now I'm calling them a little grebe.
30:08You can also call them dab chicks and they got that name from dip chick because they dive repeatedly.
30:14In fact there are loads of names for a little grebe.
30:16The Americans call them devil divers.
30:18But my favourite is the 16th century name from the UK which is arsefoot.
30:24Arsefoot.
30:25Arsefoot.
30:26Now listen, you may think that's crude and rude but when you think about it it's ornithologically accurate because their
30:31feet are right at the back of their body, the grebes,
30:34it's nice to allow them to push themselves through the water and then propel themselves down under the water when
30:39they're driving.
30:40So arsefoot is actually a pretty good name.
30:42Anyway, enough of that.
30:43Let's go live to the grebes now to see what's been happening today.
30:46Oh, now come on.
30:48Isn't that gorgeous?
30:49It's like a painting, isn't it?
30:51An Orientalist painting.
30:53Absolutely fantastic.
30:55There's the nest and that adult settles down.
30:59But what's hiding underneath that?
31:01Well, earlier today this is what we saw happening down on the grebes' nest.
31:08One of the eggs has hatched and there is a little grebe.
31:12You can already see the stripes because they're like little humbugs when they come out.
31:19Already relatively mobile.
31:20They will go down into the water and then come back onto the nest at this stage.
31:24And they're being fed on a diet of aquatic invertebrates.
31:28Things like caddisfly larvae, damselfly larvae, anything that the adults can find that's the right size basically.
31:34And look, there's a charming end.
31:36There's an antidote to the buzzard brutality.
31:38Oh no, that's what I was thinking actually.
31:40You know.
31:41Because look, there we are.
31:42Now let's see.
31:42Is she going to get fed?
31:43Yeah, look at that.
31:44Look, look.
31:45Tiny little marine invertebrate going in there.
31:48And the adults continue.
31:50Look, there's another one.
31:51I can't see what that is.
31:53Unusual.
31:54But it went down well.
31:56And they continue to put vegetation on that nest.
31:58As I say, it does sort of rot beneath the eggs.
32:00And they'll stay on the nest for two or three days before they leave.
32:03Once they've all hatched.
32:05And then they'll disperse out into the reed bed.
32:07The little grebe.
32:08The arse foot.
32:09The arse foot is giving me much joy.
32:11Excellent.
32:12Excellent.
32:13Pleased about that.
32:13After the buzzard.
32:14You know, for a lot of people that are into bird watching,
32:17there's a significant moment that inspired them.
32:20And for climate advocate Dominique Palmer,
32:23it was a chance encounter with one of UK's most colourful birds
32:27that helped her to get a deeper connection to the natural world.
32:40There's a noticeable difference in me pre- and post-bed watching.
32:45And post-bed watching, I feel like I'm able to handle stress better.
32:50I immediately feel this sense of calm and, like, the stress just washing away.
33:00I love when I hear chif-chafs.
33:03They sound really cute.
33:04They're like, chif-chaf, chif-chaf, chif-chaf.
33:07That's how you know you can hear one.
33:15That bird over there making a little noise is the wren.
33:20Very small, but very mighty.
33:26I love learning little ways of recognising birds.
33:33Listening and watching birds means a lot to me.
33:38As a neurodivergent person, I'm able to come out here somewhere that is quiet,
33:44apart from the sounds of birds or the rustling in the trees.
33:49And whenever I'm feeling that sensory overwhelm,
33:52it really gives me a good place to decompress.
34:01Bird watching is the second fastest rising hobby among Gen Z.
34:07And I think it shows this desire that my generation has to be outside
34:15and feel connected to the world in a different way than we're used to.
34:20We are a generation that has grown up with the fast development of technology
34:25and feeling so connected to each other online, but not always with nature and the world around us.
34:38So I got into bird watching a few years ago now.
34:41It was actually going on a walk with my fiancƩ and I saw a kingfisher.
34:47We both spotted it and got to see it for about 15 seconds before it kind of flew off.
34:52And getting to see a bird like that up close made me wonder,
34:55what else have I been missing by not standing still and taking the moment to look around?
35:03Right now we are on the Downs in Bristol.
35:08What I love about this place is it's right in the middle of the city
35:14and yet surrounded by birdsong.
35:22I'm not a biologist. I studied political science and international relations at university.
35:28Despite not having the background of a zoologist or a biologist,
35:33I still find so much joy in bird watching.
35:40As I've come here consistently, I've really gotten to know the different birds around me
35:45and what time of the day they come out.
35:50There's a green woodpecker that I would hear for ages in this spot,
35:55but I couldn't see it.
35:57And then slowly I started seeing it every single day.
36:02I feel like really developing this familiarity with the place
36:06has truly made me feel more connected.
36:12We are in a climate and ecological emergency.
36:18There are millions of species at risk of extinction,
36:22including almost 30% of the birds in the UK.
36:27One of the reasons that we're in a climate crisis
36:30is this lack of connection to nature and each other.
36:33Bird watching is such an amazing and accessible way to reconnect with nature.
36:40It really doesn't matter if you have access to somewhere like this or not.
36:46There are birds everywhere.
36:51It really is just about having fun and you don't have to learn every single thing.
36:58You don't have to know every single fact about birds in order to enjoy bird watching.
37:03You can just take a stroll with a bird identification app
37:07and just hold it out and see what birds are around you.
37:10And it's amazing sometimes thinking there are only like two different species of birds
37:14and you look on your phone and actually there's about 20.
37:18And it really just opens up a whole new world if you just stand and listen.
37:30Passionate, articulate and smart.
37:33Thanks Dominique. I think that was an amazing film
37:36and so heartening to see that young climate advocates or activists
37:39who may be suffering from climate anxiety, a very real condition
37:43are realising that spending time out in nature
37:46can really, really help their mental health.
37:49Top work. It was brilliant.
37:50I liked it when she said bird watching brings me joy.
37:53Exactly.
37:53I'll tell you a place that brings me joy to bird watch is our courtyard
37:57just because there's so much activity.
37:59We've got Swallows, Swift, House Martins.
38:01We've got Starling nesting there.
38:03And we sent down Mark Yates, our camera operator,
38:06live there with his long lens.
38:08There he is.
38:09Mark, what have you got for us?
38:10No doubt a house martin nest.
38:12There are so many of these in the eaves.
38:15And there he's got a lovely shot of a house martin
38:19hanging on to the outside of its cup shaped nest.
38:23And it's just under the eaves there.
38:26And as I say, we've got so many of these.
38:28We've got live cameras ourselves on these as well.
38:32Beautiful colourings.
38:33I mean, you really can see how stunning that house martin is.
38:36I love a house martin.
38:37I love a house martin.
38:38I couldn't wait to get down there.
38:39So I went down there yesterday morning with a rather bold plan.
38:52Just look at this.
38:53A whole row of house martin's nest under the eaves.
38:57And there's one outside working on its nest.
39:03Such neat and dainty little birds.
39:05I used to know them really well.
39:07They used to nest outside my parents' bedroom window.
39:10So when they got up and went to work, I would dash in there,
39:13hide underneath their duvet.
39:15Well, actually, it was an eider down in those days.
39:18And then watch and listen to the house martins.
39:22And listen.
39:24Yeah.
39:25So good.
39:27Oh, that's really, really charming.
39:30I've got to say, look at that one peeping out.
39:32Now, many of these nests are still under construction.
39:36House martins use wet mud to build the outer walls.
39:39And then they line the inside with grass and feathers that they find.
39:43And you know what?
39:44That's given us a great idea.
39:48Rosie.
39:49Hi.
39:49Have you got any feathers?
39:51I do indeed.
39:52Right.
39:52So the idea here is that Rosie is going to chuck some feathers out.
39:56We hope that the house martins are going to snatch them out of the air
40:00and take them in to line their nest.
40:02And I know you think that's possibly bonkers.
40:04Just wait and see.
40:06We've tried it.
40:07We've tested it.
40:08It worked before we got the cameras out.
40:10OK.
40:11I'll give you a shout when there's a bit of activity.
40:13Great.
40:13Sounds good.
40:19OK.
40:19OK.
40:22It's drifting towards me.
40:26Oh, it's just gone straight up onto the roof.
40:28They don't like it when it's on the roof.
40:30They don't want to have to land to pick up a feather.
40:33OK, Rosie.
40:34Let's try one now.
40:36It's out.
40:38This one's really rising.
40:42That feather's becoming celestial.
40:46Yeah.
40:47Yeah.
40:47Come on.
40:51Yeah!
40:53He got it.
40:54Nice.
40:56God!
40:56That was better than scoring a penalty in the dying moments of a World Cup final,
41:01when you're down to nine men playing Argentina.
41:05Oh!
41:06It wasn't the hand of God.
41:07It was the house martin of God that took that feather.
41:11Superb.
41:12Absolutely superb.
41:14Thanks, Rosie.
41:15Thanks, Rosie.
41:15I think we can score a point there for making a house martin happy.
41:19Excellent.
41:25Come on.
41:26That was brilliant.
41:27Come on, I know.
41:28That was brilliant.
41:28That was brilliant.
41:28Another house martin happy.
41:29Hull five, London nil.
41:31Come on!
41:32The house martin's so good.
41:34Your reaction was very heartwarming.
41:36It was, yeah.
41:37There was a real, you know, having seen it happen, we really wanted it to happen on camera
41:41and we got it.
41:41It doesn't normally happen like that, does it?
41:43Anyway, off we go to Yolo in Neptuson.
41:46He's showing us how those reintroduced beavers have reshaped the landscape.
41:54Yes, indeed.
41:55Just look at this wetland behind me.
41:56This really is beaver central.
41:59An amazing wetland here.
42:01But, I'm going to turn my back on this habitat here.
42:05Go over here.
42:05One of the things I've learnt here at NEP.
42:07Whoa!
42:07Speed wobble.
42:08One of the things I've learnt here at NEP is the fact that you should never underestimate
42:13the value of good scrub as a wildlife habitat.
42:17Especially scrub like this with a big tall hedge behind it.
42:22Brilliant for all kinds of wildlife.
42:25Now, this is one of the shrubs that benefits from the beaver opening the canopy.
42:30It's blackthorn.
42:31I'm sure many of you will identify it as the plant that gives you the slows for your slow gin
42:37in the autumn.
42:38Now, when I look at that, it looks like a tangle of branches and a few leaves.
42:42But for Neil Hume, a local ecologist, after dark with UV light, it's a whole different ballgame.
42:55My history with the land here goes back a long way.
42:59I remember coming to NEP in the 1970s with my brother.
43:03And even at that tender age, we were already obsessed with British butterflies.
43:09Tonight, I've come out into the southern block of the NEP wildland and I'm going to be looking for caterpillars
43:15that glow in the dark.
43:22A lot of caterpillars are very difficult to find in daylight because they're so well camouflaged.
43:28But some species glow under ultraviolet light.
43:34They stand out like a sore thumb.
43:39Oh, we've got a cracker here.
43:41That's a copper underwing moth caterpillar.
43:44And it's got a rather funky horn on its rear end.
43:49We've got several thousand moth species in this country.
43:53That's a nice find.
43:58It's lovely doing this to the song of the nightingale in the background.
44:09I'm looking here at a brown hair streak caterpillar.
44:13And that's the caterpillar of a butterfly that's very elusive.
44:17They're cryptically camouflaged.
44:20So in the daytime, they're very, very difficult to find.
44:24The diagonal lines on the caterpillar are mimicking the tiny veins which are running through the blackthorn leaf.
44:32I'm finding brown hair streak caterpillars everywhere.
44:35Oh, got another one down here.
44:40This is absolutely fantastic.
44:42This is the first time I've ever seen a brown hair streak attended by ants.
44:47There's two or three ants at a time caressing it,
44:51hoping to get a little sweet reward for their care and attention.
44:57We've really hit the jackpot tonight.
44:59I'm blown away.
45:04I can't tell you just how excited Neil was to see that.
45:08Now, he's never seen it before.
45:09And he got in touch with Professor Jeremy Thomas,
45:13who is the UK's expert on this particular species.
45:16And he said it's been recorded on a couple of previous occasions, both times quite recently.
45:24And on both occasions, it was after dark using UV light.
45:30Now, we know that quite a few species of butterflies have an association.
45:33Well, the caterpillars have an association with ants.
45:36But we're pretty sure it's the first time this has ever been filmed.
45:40Let's have a look at that footage again.
45:42I'll try and explain what we think is going on.
45:45The ants caressing the caterpillar.
45:47And that stimulates it to produce a sugary, nectary-like solution, which the ants drink.
45:54And they think that it kind of subdues the ants, prevents them from attacking that caterpillar.
45:59But it goes beyond that as well, because they will defend it against potential predators.
46:05Kind of like a butterfly bouncer, if you like.
46:10Now, that's the caterpillar.
46:11Let's have a look at the adult butterfly, because it's an absolute stonker.
46:16Look at this, this is the brown hair streak.
46:19Both photos taken by Neil.
46:22Beautiful.
46:22Oh, look at that.
46:24That, like a swirly biscuit-coloured orange underparts there.
46:29What an amazing-looking caterpillar.
46:31Quite elusive as well, actually.
46:34And speaking to Neil, he said when he first came here, they recorded 15 species.
46:40Now, it's more than doubled to 38 species.
46:45Isn't that amazing?
46:47Species like these.
46:49Now, this first one is a painted lady.
46:52It's a migrant.
46:53Comes up from Mediterranean countries, North Africa here.
46:57And the second one, this one here.
46:59Well, this is a real speciality.
47:01This is the purple emperor.
47:03Now, the female is the second biggest butterfly in the UK.
47:06Has a wingspan of over nine centimetres.
47:10The males have that purple sheen on the upper wing.
47:13And they hang around at the tops of trees.
47:16So, again, they're quite difficult to see.
47:18I was hoping to catch up with them while I'm down here at NEP.
47:22Unfortunately, I'm about a month early.
47:24So, I'm not going to see one on this occasion.
47:27But I have to say, Chris and Mikhail, having walked around NEP, seen the purple emperors there, the brown hairstreaks,
47:34the singing nightingales, turtle doves, what we need in the UK is more rewilding projects like this on a large
47:43scale.
47:45Fantastic stuff, Yellow.
47:46You're absolutely right.
47:47And the speed that it's happened as well.
47:49Amazing.
47:50Now, look, the purple emperor is a very glamorous insect.
47:52A little bit too glam rot for me.
47:54It's a little bit Bowie Bolan, that.
47:56But you like that.
47:57I do like a bit of glitz.
47:59But I also love the fact that that brown hairstreak is attended by ants.
48:03Because we know that they do that with some of the blue butterflies.
48:06I had no idea they did that.
48:08What an extraordinary thing.
48:09It's an extraordinary lifestyle, isn't it?
48:11So, from one species with a weird lifestyle to another, let's turn our attention to the European black oil beetle
48:19and some new science.
48:20This is what it looks like.
48:22It's UK's rarer native beetle species, mainly found in southwest England and along the southern coast of Wales.
48:29It's in grasslands and heathlands.
48:31It's quite large, about three centimetres long.
48:33It's weird looking.
48:34I mean, it looks like it's bursting out of its sort of waistcoat, doesn't it?
48:38Yeah, they are.
48:39Odd looking beetles.
48:39Odd looking.
48:40In fact, quite a lot of them is odd, as we're about to explain to you.
48:43So, firstly, the females can lay up to 40,000 eggs.
48:47They typically lay a thousand at a time in a tiny burrow.
48:50But what happens to those eggs?
48:52I've got a little diagram here.
48:54They go through what we call complete metamorphosis, as most insects do.
48:58So, here you've got the adult.
49:00It lays the egg, which typically would hatch into a larva like this, which would go through several instars, growth
49:07stages, before it finally pupates and then turns back into an adult.
49:12But not in the case of the oil beetle.
49:14It has a specialised stage here called a triangulin, which looks altogether different.
49:22It's got a rigid, hard body.
49:24It's got mobile legs.
49:26It can move around quite quickly.
49:27It doesn't need that much food.
49:29The question is, why have a triangulin?
49:33What's that about?
49:34Well, it's because the female doesn't lay her eggs near a food source.
49:39So, the triangulin has to find its own and it does that by using the art of deception.
49:46This is what it does.
49:49Once they hatch, those triangulates immediately exit the burrow and they then climb to the top of the nearest grass
49:57stem or flower.
49:59And you can see them all going right up to the top and I love this bit because of the
50:05colour.
50:06Look at that, Chris.
50:07Look at that.
50:07Amazing pink and that amazing colour of the triangulates.
50:11But why do they do that?
50:13Well, they're waiting and they're waiting for an unsuspecting female solitary minor bee.
50:19And that bee is going about his business, collecting pollen for its own grubs.
50:23And the triangulin hops aboard using the three claws on each foot to cling on and rides on the bee
50:30back to its nest.
50:31And once there, they take over, parasitising the nest.
50:36They devour all of the food stored for the bee's own offspring.
50:40They consume the bee's eggs and larvae and they absolutely gorge themselves before completing their hyper-metamorphosis.
50:50Hyper-metamorphosis. Don't you just love that?
50:53If you love that, you're going to love what's coming now.
50:56What happens if the oil beetle lays its eggs and they're nowhere near a flower?
51:02Well, thankfully, research done at the Max Planck Institute has revealed something utterly extraordinary.
51:07I'll tell you three extraordinary things now.
51:09The first thing is, if they hatch away from a flower, the first thing is that the triangulin rises up
51:16the grass.
51:17It climbs to the top of the grass there and it gets right at the top like that.
51:21And then it does something absolutely incredible.
51:23Yes, it releases a plume of 17 volatile organic chemicals called monoterpenoids.
51:32And they are exactly the same as the scents that are made in flowers to attract insects.
51:39Come on. Come on.
51:41And this is the first time we know of an animal that's reproducing the scents of a flower to attract
51:48insects
51:49so that essentially it can parasitise them.
51:52Monoterpenoids. That's the word they're all going to be talking about.
51:54Monoterpenoids.
51:55Oh, come on. Come on.
51:56Okay. Okay.
51:57But there's another thing.
51:58Second brilliant thing.
51:59Second brilliant thing.
52:00It doesn't only attract the bees.
52:03When the triangulin releases them, it attracts other triangulins that come up to the top of the flower like this.
52:12So you get a whole mass of triangular there together.
52:16And what about this?
52:17Here's a photograph of it.
52:18Look at them all in a little clot there, looking just like a flower, smelling just like a flower.
52:26Absolutely sensational.
52:29And of course, it works.
52:31Look, here is the bee completely covered in them.
52:35Look, it's going to weigh that bee down, isn't it?
52:36That is amazing, isn't it?
52:38So good. I love this.
52:39Look, I've got a bee. I'm going to demonstrate that.
52:41Not yet. No, not yet.
52:41You don't want me to demonstrate my bee yet?
52:43No, I've got another fact.
52:44I'll hold on to the bee.
52:45This is even more remarkable.
52:45Okay.
52:46They'll typically, when insects have chemicals that impact the way they taste perhaps, so perhaps if they're toxic or distasteful,
52:53they get them from the plants that they eat.
52:56Some caterpillars eat plants and then they take on board those chemicals and they become distasteful themselves.
53:02No.
53:03These animals are biosynthesizing the chemicals themselves with no contact with the flowers whatsoever.
53:09So they've evolved to produce this set of chemicals, which are exactly the same as those in flowers that attract
53:15the bees, but they're just making them themselves with no contact from the flowers.
53:21What about that?
53:21How do they do that?
53:22I mean, that's just evolution.
53:24It's just so, so good, isn't it?
53:27So, so good.
53:28Anyway, next up, the bee comes in.
53:30Okay, I've got my bee.
53:31Yeah.
53:32And then, of course, the triangular, all those little triangulants get onto it like that.
53:36Are they on?
53:37Yeah, they're on.
53:37Okay, and there.
53:38Off my bee goes.
53:39And off the bee goes carrying them away.
53:41Okay.
53:42What about that?
53:43And hey, a bonus fact.
53:44Bonus?
53:45There's not a bonus.
53:46There's a bonus fact.
53:47And that is this.
53:48The bee simply can't win.
53:51The bee's absolutely stuffed because it can't co-evolve to, you know, to think, oh, I can't, I'm not going
53:58to sniff those triangular.
53:59I'm not falling for that one because they're producing the same scent as the flower.
54:03The bee's got to go there to get its nectar and the pollen that it requires.
54:08These little creatures have completely thwarted the bee's ability to evolve around the problem.
54:14And we think we're clever as human species.
54:17I mean, it is mind-blowing.
54:20Monoturpenoids.
54:21I mean, honestly.
54:21Never underestimate the triangulin.
54:24What about that, eh?
54:25That's what you pay your license fee for.
54:28You knew that was coming, didn't you?
54:29It is really extraordinary, but it is pretty freaky.
54:33I mean, it is the sort of thing that inspires a horror movie.
54:36So I think we need a little bit of an antidote to that.
54:38And I think we need to just calm down a bit and have a mindfulness moment.
54:43This is something that all of us could enjoy any night of the year.
54:48A beautiful sunset.
54:50This particular one is a coastal one.
55:21Oh, yes.
55:32What?
55:39I think that's something we need to do with the genuine
55:39There is a battle against you.
55:41You know, don't be a little bit.
55:41You know, there'll be something that's called a tunnel close-up,
55:49and I can't get back to you now.
56:16It just didn't work.
56:18What didn't work?
56:19That didn't calm me down.
56:20I'm still hyper about the triangulants.
56:22It was beautiful.
56:24It was beautiful.
56:24It was beautiful.
56:25But not as beautiful as the triangulants.
56:28Let's finish off with some things that you've sent in.
56:31This is an extraordinary photograph.
56:33This is sent in by Mike Thrur from Gladhouse in Midlothian.
56:36And this is a red start with soldier beetles in its beak.
56:42And we think they were probably mating.
56:44But do you know what they do, soldier beetles?
56:46They release a foul-tasting secretion.
56:49Chemical warfare.
56:51So that poor red start, I don't think it's going to get quite the tasty treat it was expecting.
56:56But I bet you a pound that they get that chemical from plants that they've eaten.
57:00Yeah, I bet they are.
57:02Hey, what about this one?
57:02This is a great photograph.
57:04Two bitons here.
57:05We think they're two males possibly competing territorial combat there over a potential female.
57:12So it's a top thing to see a biton out in the open anyway.
57:15We know there's shy, skulking birds hiding in the reed bed.
57:18But to get a shot of two of them, antics like that.
57:21I mean, look at one at the bottom.
57:22It's a sort of comedy biton, sort of thing that Jim Warr might have painted, obviously.
57:27It's amazing to capture that.
57:29Yeah, it is.
57:29Absolutely incredible.
57:31Keep sending them in.
57:32We love to see them.
57:34OK, that's it for the second show.
57:36We'll be back tomorrow.
57:37Tomorrow, we will be meeting an extraordinary lady.
57:41Her name is Steph Tyler.
57:43And she has dedicated her life to conservation.
57:49And I'll be listening to the sumptuous sounds of the dawn chorus.
57:57Now, you won't believe this.
57:59But it's true.
58:00Tomorrow, we've got a parasitic wasp, right, which turns a ladybird into a zombie babysitter.
58:06Honestly, superb.
58:09Absolutely superb.
58:09If you can't get enough of our cameras, they are on from 10 in the morning and 10 in the
58:13evening.
58:14Keep your eyes peeled for those badgers.
58:15They didn't turn up live tonight, which is a bit of a shame.
58:18But nevertheless, catch us also on Facebook and Instagram as well.
58:22Look out for Hannah Stipfall, who's doing from Instagram lives.
58:26And if all of that isn't enough, do join us tomorrow for some more insect horror shows at 8 o
58:30'clock.
58:31Good night.
58:32Bye.
58:39Bye.
58:42Bye.
58:46Bye.
58:52Bye.
58:53Bye.
58:55Bye.
58:57Bye.
58:57Bye.
58:59Bye.
59:00Bye.
59:02Bye.
59:02Bye.
59:02Bye.
59:03Bye.
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