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  • 5/29/2025
Springwatch 2025 episode 4

Category

🐳
Animals
Transcript
00:00Welcome back to the world's synchronised scratching championships and the pair from
00:09Sheffield are really treating us to a masterclass magnificent but oh what's this we've seen before
00:17they're easily distracted and once again it's derailed their performance but there is hope
00:22the rest of the team are in good form on tonight's spring watch
00:30Hello and welcome to spring watch 2025 coming to you live from the national trust beautiful
00:57longshore estate up here in the peak district national park now we got off to a strong start
01:03this week but we're not going to let that success cast any shadow on what we're going to show you
01:10tonight because we've got some stonking stuff coming up golden eagle soaring in the sky over
01:17mull oh it's stunning look at that come on come on and from here on the longshore estate some very
01:24very beautiful stunning oh charming little short-haired owls i jest of course but then we're
01:32also going beneath the sea to explore the world of selps look at that these truly are very very
01:38beautiful living in that mysterious abyss you know what that is don't you that's a jewel in the
01:44spring watch treasure box it does look like a jewel though doesn't it it's absolutely i was rather
01:49hoping that the treasure box had been buried and someone had thrown the map away if i'm honest with
01:53you come on they're all treasures they really are we're going to start off though with something
01:57curious take a look at this picture very curious picture sent in by matt mason what on earth is that
02:05well he's not the only one to see something like that linda dylan saw something similar in manchester
02:11sonia mcdavid saw something like that in sussex and vicky shufflebotham in staffordshire said what
02:17an earth created that well what an earth indeed was it a spider's web well it's not spiders it's
02:26actually the caterpillar of an ermine moth and if you take a look at this video which was filmed by one of
02:32our production team on their phone in bristol you can see a mass of these caterpillars and they're
02:41spinning this web all along that railing doesn't stop at the railing they've also in the branches of
02:49the tree behind and you can see there are hundreds if not thousands of caterpillars absolutely smothering
03:00the tree the railings the branches it's an extraordinary sight and as i say a few people
03:09have been seeing something very similar and it seems that we're seeing it more than usual we are
03:15seeing it more than usual we've found some here at longshore which has given us a chance to look at
03:19the caterpillars in close-up there are eight species of ermine moth and they're normally tied to a tree
03:25so you get orchard ermine moths or spindle ermine moths these are bird cherry ermine moths and make
03:31it's not thousands it's sometimes it's tens of thousands of these caterpillars which emerge en
03:35mass to spin these webs over the foliage and this gives them lots of protection from predators you can
03:42imagine it'd be quite tough for blue tits to break through that to take these caterpillars would they
03:46bother probably not it also keeps parasitic wasps away from them and they can be a real blight for these
03:53caterpillars and of course it insulates them from the wind and the rain so tens of thousands will
04:00seek shelter underneath there sometimes to the extent they would defoliate the entire tree although
04:04i've got to say the trees typically recover and after heavy rain most of those webs get washed away
04:12so you the longshore well don't start the longshore ones will you know have probably taken a bit of a
04:17beating this week now let's take a look at the adult moth so they all look pretty similar they're white
04:24with black spots um they can be a little bit tricky to separate those eight species but if you get
04:28yourself a good moth guide you we will be able to do it so there vicky is the answer to your question
04:34not spiders but ermine moths and we do like having your questions so please continue to send them in to
04:40the address below okay let's have a look at our live cameras that we've got here at longshore it's
04:46been a pretty good start to the week with our live cameras hasn't it well i say it's the start of the
04:51week start of the series because we had the curly chicks those very cute little chicks they've already
04:56wandered off we've got our short-eared owls two of them have branched off already we've got our active
05:03badgers pied fly catchers they could go at the weekend but i'm going to take you to the red starts
05:09let's have a look at them there they are all those chicks in there six of them crammed in
05:16to that hole in the tree they've begun to flap their wings quite a lot and they've really grown
05:22so come on let's take their bets chris what what what do you reckon when are they gonna when are they
05:26gonna fledge um next wednesday next wednesday you betting on wednesday yeah i think so okay i'm
05:33gonna bet friday we're not on air next friday or this friday in fact but we will report on it on
05:40monday so keep watching the live cameras over the weekend because you might see them fledge before we
05:45do all right now listen up there's no competition between any of the spring watch presenters especially
05:50when it comes to bringing you mammals live on the program so michaela and i sympathize completely
05:56with jolly williams who's failed in that endeavor to bring us live foxes and badgers tonight however
06:01he's plumbing the depths for a mollusk which we're pretty certain he might be able to bring live
06:09yes thank you for that fantastic introduction there chris no mammals i can promise you no mammals welcome
06:16to belfast actually welcome back to belfast harbor where we were on monday of course but this time
06:22i've come to look for a creature the soft and unloved and overlooked despite playing a vitally
06:28important role in our marine habitat i'm talking about our native oyster i'm going to join nick baker
06:36horn from ulster wildlife who also oversees the belfast harbour oyster project nick hiya hiya boy right
06:45let's get this out what exactly is this and what is the project all about so these are
06:51our oyster cages this is our what we call an oyster hotel looking after our native european oyster can
06:58i have a look at one can i hold one lovely take hold of that yeah so this is one of a few thousand
07:03that we have in the project we have a thousand here in belfast harbour on these uh strewn along
07:09this pontoon here we have a thousand oysters in in the harbour and they're just incredible creatures
07:13we're trying to bring back to uh belfast lock so what were they very widespread then at one time
07:20yeah if you rewind the clock thousands of years they would have been absolutely everywhere around
07:24our coast in uk ireland and all across europe there would have been just billions and billions of
07:30oysters and unfortunately through fishing and then later on through disease the the habitat these
07:36oyster reef habitats that we that we know are so incredible um were were made functionally extinct
07:41and wiped out to what i like about them it's all the wildlife growing on them you know you've got
07:46mussels you've got barnacles they must be a really important habitat for all kinds of wildlife yeah
07:52exactly they're fantastic habitat they create these massive reef structures once you have a big
07:57reef living out there in the lock and they all be able to have the mussels like you say and the barnacles
08:02and all that once they grow into these big reefs you get all the nooks and crannies all these amazing
08:06little places for fish to hide away in so they can be fantastic for commercial fish species to their
08:11juvenile fish to hang around in which is absolutely amazing and really one of the big superpowers of
08:16them is their ability to filter water they are massively fantastic at improving the water quality
08:22someone told me that they filter is it 200 liters of water a day yeah per oyster and then so if you
08:27think about if we get to those millions of oysters out there in belfast lock what an amazing job they'd be
08:31doing well earlier today we set up a time lapse with nick's help i better give you that to put
08:37back in thanks for that we set up a time lapse we got two tanks of belfast harbour water side by side
08:45we put native oysters in the one on the right hand side nothing in the left hand side let it run for
08:51now we're in 20 minutes just look at the difference look at the clarity of water in the one on the right
09:01how fantastic you can see the before and after there as well how fantastic is that so what's your
09:07ultimate goal with this then ultimately we'd love thriving reefs of oysters out there in belfast lock
09:13and then in the rest of our locks around northern ireland and really doing that super power for
09:17the water quality and bringing back amazing biodiversity to uh to our shores brilliant nick listen good luck
09:23i'll let you carry on with all your work there brilliant now we love a prop here our researcher
09:28claire's been hard at work look at this i know millions of you instantly recognize it as our
09:34native oyster it's a bival so i'm going to take off the top shell here remove that put that on the floor
09:42gently and what you have here we're looking underneath the gills these are cilia kind of sensitive hairs
09:49and the blue ones at the top are longer than all the others and these waft to draw in the water
09:56now any large particles this yellow one here can't get in so they are rejected immediately now the white
10:06cilia draw the water inwards if they feel nutrients food that is then wafted along inside the oyster
10:19it's kept in a groove here and then it slowly moved upwards into the stomach where it's digested
10:28and then eventually of course it is excreted out now the red ones these are non-food particles
10:39and this is where the pink cilia come in they waft the water outwards they don't want that inside the
10:46mollusk so it's stored in a groove there then it's moved up into the palps here and this is where it's
10:55covered in mucus the mucus is then spat out and the ball of mucus falls to the bottom that is why
11:05these are such fantastic creatures and why they play such an important role here now this project is
11:13just the beginning they're hoping to establish lots of others and in the end they're hoping to get free
11:19living self-sustaining oyster reefs just like this one this one is off the west coast of island look
11:27at that and the brilliant thing about it look at the clarity of the water and look at the amount of
11:34wildlife in there it's full of wildlife wouldn't it be brilliant to have that all around our coasts
11:40once more time to leave belfast now and fly up to the isle of mull to the king of birds of course
11:48i'm talking about the golden eagle and a pair of eagles that are rearing their young on a highly unusual diet
12:00amid the wild landscape of the scottish highlands
12:06royalty reigns
12:12a golden eagle surveys its kingdom
12:18golden eagles
12:20but he doesn't rule this valley alone
12:26every king needs a queen after all
12:31golden eagles mate for life
12:34and spring signals the time to reaffirm their pair bond
12:38by sky dancing
12:55this daredevil display sees the birds reach speeds of almost 200 miles an hour in their downward stoop
13:08with the ritual complete
13:31they seal their bond
13:36in early may there are extra mouths to feed
13:51and their parents do their best to satisfy both their appetites
14:03and their parents' backs turned
14:10but with their parents' backs turned
14:14rivalry ensues
14:20one chick is noticeably bigger than the other
14:23and here size and strength do matter
14:32golden eagle chicks will kill their weaker siblings if it ensures their own survival
14:42and on cold spring nights
14:51whilst the bigger chick tucks itself in for prime position under the female for warmth
14:57the weaker chick is left out in the cold
15:00it's fate is sealed
15:06the remaining chick is now the parent's sole focus
15:21and the spring menu is proving popular
15:32adders out basking in the warm weather
15:41are no match for an eagle's keen eyesight
15:53think of the high pitched
15:57and they need to be remembered
16:04and they do not know
16:06that if you know or do not know
16:07that they're not going to be able to make it
16:08and they do not know
16:09how do you know
16:12how do you know
16:14how do you know
16:14A month has passed.
16:37And the chick has grown well on its reptile-rich diet, now nearly the size of its parents.
17:02It's unusual to see such a specialism for one specific type of prey.
17:09But it's clearly doing the trick.
17:16Having shed nearly all of its downy feathers, it won't be long before this chick is ready
17:22to leave the nest and claim a kingdom of its own.
17:32It's always such a treat, isn't it, to see into the nest of a golden eagle and to see
17:37it feeding that snake to the chicks.
17:40But that's what happens when you have cameras in a nest, you can see extraordinary stuff.
17:46We've got a live camera out tonight in the meadow and I'm pleased to say we've spotted
17:50some hairs.
17:51Let's take a look at those.
17:52Oh, no.
17:53Look at that.
17:54How much of the hair can we see?
17:56Not very much of the hair.
17:58In fact, you can't even see that it is a hair.
18:00You can see the ears popping out.
18:01We're going to whip round and we can see a couple of red deer.
18:06I love it.
18:07They're just sitting there, chilling out, chewing the grass.
18:11But great.
18:12As I say, that live camera is out there tonight.
18:13So we'll cut to that if we do see anything else interesting.
18:16Let's have a look at our live cameras, though, that we've got here.
18:19There they all are.
18:20And I'm not going to take you to the one that normally takes my eye, which is the short-eared
18:25owl in the middle.
18:26I'm going to take you to the top left, which is the badger set.
18:31There we go.
18:32It's usually this time of the night that we see the badgers come out.
18:35But we see a lot of activity in the morning.
18:40That's when they're particularly active.
18:43This is them coming back in after foraging.
18:47They come back to the set after a night out.
18:50And this is around 4.30 a.m.
18:52You can hear that beautiful dawn chorus in the background.
18:56Now, they'll have been out foraging, looking mainly for earthworms, which form a large percent
19:01of their diet.
19:02And they've been foraging in the woods around and also in the fields, just the other side
19:06of that wall.
19:08Now, we've seen six individuals regularly, but there may be many more.
19:13This set is massive.
19:15Our cameras are focused on four entrances.
19:17Look at that badger.
19:18I mean, that's a great shot, isn't it?
19:20But our cameras can see four of the entrances, but we know that there are at least 15 in the
19:26woods.
19:27So, as I say, this clan could be much bigger than the six individuals that we're seeing.
19:32And we know that that set is 25 years old, at least 25 years old.
19:37But some of them could be hundreds of years old.
19:41This is what they regularly do.
19:43We've seen plenty of this, this grooming, this play fighting, this dominance copulation.
19:51Just listen to the sound.
19:54Isn't that an incredible sound?
19:57I love that.
19:58If you're in the woods and you hear that sound when you're going on a dawn chorus, you'll
20:03now know that it's badgers doing a bit of play fighting.
20:07So, as I say, that's when we generally see a lot of action is when they're coming back
20:12to the set and then they'll obviously spend the day underground sleeping.
20:17But just have a look at what we saw last night when they came out.
20:21Now normally, they'd just come out, there'd be a little bit of action and then they'd head
20:26off to forage.
20:28But last night, they hung around, they treated us to plenty of interaction.
20:34They were at the entrance to the set and they did plenty of grooming.
20:40I know we've seen lots of this, this scratching and stuff, but it's really important.
20:45And they don't just groom themselves, they groom each other as well so they can get to all
20:49of those little bits that maybe they can't get to themselves.
20:54But as I say, this isn't just part of the bonding.
20:57This is very important.
20:58This is a defence against parasites because they have plenty of them.
21:04In fact, they have a specialised flea called a badger flea.
21:08And in a study in East Sussex, 88% of badgers had fleas and 100% had parasites.
21:15Not only do they clean themselves, but they also have to get those parasites out of the bedding.
21:19This is the first time that we've actually seen them clean their bedding.
21:23They pull it out and they air it.
21:25It's full of leaves and debris.
21:28And as I say, they've got to get the parasites out of that bedding as well.
21:32But it's been great, hasn't it?
21:34I mean, we often have cameras on a badger set.
21:37Some years on Springwatch, we've been unlucky.
21:40Some years, including this one, we've been lucky and there's been plenty of action.
21:45And all of the action that we get on the live cameras will go back via cables to the truck
21:50that's in our production village.
21:52And that is where Chris is now.
21:53Chris.
21:54I am indeed, Michele.
21:55I've come down to the heart of our operation here, if you like.
21:59And this is the truck into which all of those cameras from the nest are running.
22:03So I'm going to go inside and introduce you to the team that are constantly monitoring those.
22:09Remember, we're looking at them for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
22:15So here we've got Ian and Henry and Joe over there.
22:19They're the guys with the expertise that actually installed these nests.
22:23Great naturalists, brilliant technicians, getting those cameras in place there.
22:28And then we see here all of those cameras that we're looking at at the moment.
22:32Now, we've been fortunate enough to be showing you the short-eared owls.
22:35You had long-eared owls, which was great.
22:37We've had curlew this week.
22:38We've got a couple of other new nests that we want to introduce before the end of the week.
22:42Joe, can you cut up the willow warblers, please?
22:45Here we are.
22:46Here's our willow warbler's nest.
22:48Now, can't see much action there at the moment.
22:51Willow warblers are, of course.
22:52Oh, no, there's the adult is actually on that nest, brooding the young.
22:55You can just see the tail in the centre of the screen, bobbing up and down as she's breathing.
23:02And there, again, you can just peep through the pheasant's feather, which it's lined its nest with, and you can see one of the chicks' heads.
23:11Willow warblers, sub-Saharan migrant, come here for the summer.
23:16Used to be very common.
23:17They were the soundtrack of my youth, but they've disappeared from the south and the east.
23:21So, it's a treat to see one of these nests here.
23:24We've got another new nest, though.
23:25Joe, can we have the song thrush, please?
23:28Look at that.
23:30Come on.
23:31I do love a song thrush.
23:32What I love most is the song of the song thrush, but it's a very pretty bird.
23:37So, it's got a nest here.
23:39We know it's got young in it.
23:41It's brooding them, and hopefully throughout the course...
23:44Oh, it's a bit fidgety there.
23:46Throughout the course of the weekend, look at those stripes beneath its eyes.
23:50Lovely yellow eye-ring.
23:52Very pretty bird, the song thrush.
23:53Famed, of course, for using its anvil, smashing up stones.
23:57Beautiful blue eggs with little black spots on and a mud-lined nest.
24:01More of that next week.
24:03Now, Ruth Peasey is here with me.
24:06Ruth, the shaker maker of the week, really, when it's come to all of our nests,
24:10has been the short-eared owl.
24:11Can we go to that live now?
24:13Absolutely.
24:14And if you can see there, you can just about see one of the chicks
24:17tucked under their adult mum.
24:19And the mum's been very diligently staying with those chicks for most of the day.
24:24Yeah.
24:25There are still two tucked under there.
24:27We've just seen them.
24:28It's not a great view.
24:29Let's catch up, because we didn't show the short-eared owl yesterday.
24:32We kind of skipped it.
24:33But there was quite a lot of activity yesterday.
24:36Yeah, there was.
24:37And as I said, this mum's been staying very attentively at the nest.
24:41She's on alert for something there.
24:43And you can see why she's called a short-eared owl with those ear tufts pointing up there.
24:48And she's looking.
24:49Something's gone overhead, hasn't it?
24:50Yeah.
24:51Yes.
24:52And she's actually still at this point.
24:55Yeah, she's definitely looking for something.
24:57The weather wasn't so great all day yesterday.
25:00We did have a moment of rain.
25:01And you can see there were still three chicks in the nest.
25:04And you can definitely make out the big size difference between them with the littlest one in the middle.
25:10And that big one was ready to go.
25:13And we were very privileged to see it leave the nest.
25:17So it's headed off into the heather.
25:19And this was what we'd said earlier in the week.
25:21You know, these young birds are moving off some distance away from the nest.
25:25We haven't been out to explore, obviously.
25:27But we know from previous studies they can go up to 200 metres.
25:30But, nevertheless, the adults have still got to come in and bring that food and find them.
25:34And, again, today we've had the male bringing in food, Ruth.
25:37Yeah.
25:38So this is amazing for us to be able to see the footage that the long lenses are getting.
25:43Because we don't see the male out hunting.
25:46So it's lovely to be able to see this.
25:48But what we do see is when the male drops into the heather.
25:52And we see the outcome of that when he passes the food to the female and she feeds the chicks.
25:58And here are the two chicks that are left in the nest taking some rodents.
26:02And the bigger of the two tries to take this vole and tries to take it feet first.
26:07But it doesn't quite work out for that chick.
26:10But the smaller one has a better approach and takes that vole head first down.
26:15And although it's still quite a struggle, it does manage it eventually.
26:21Goodness me. Honestly.
26:23Look at the relief. Look at the relief once it's gone down.
26:27We've all felt like that, Ruth. I know you have. I've seen you having a curry on occasions, you know.
26:32Yes, as well. Quite.
26:34And the female's back.
26:36And she's got another vole from the male there.
26:40And these chicks are so full at this point.
26:43And so they really won't take it even though she tries.
26:46What about that?
26:47Yeah. So she actually wanders off then with that, presumably to that chick that wandered off yesterday.
26:54Yeah, they've still got to find them out there somewhere, haven't they, underneath all of that heather that they're hiding in.
26:59I guess they've got a little contact call. They must be calling the adults in.
27:02Yeah.
27:03And these are the last two youngsters that we've got in the nest then.
27:06Yeah. And you can still see that big size difference between them.
27:09We've still got one that's much smaller than the other one.
27:11Yeah. OK. Thanks, Ruth.
27:13To be honest with you, I doubt they're going to be there on Monday.
27:16So do keep your eyes peeled watching our cameras on the iPlayer.
27:20Remember, they're on from 10 until 10 during the weekdays.
27:23And at the weekend, it's 10 till 6 in the evening.
27:25But I think we've probably seen the last of those before we get back next week.
27:30Now, earlier this week, we introduced you to Springwatch Street.
27:34We found a collection of houses in urban Sheffield.
27:37It's just about eight miles away.
27:39And I'm going to slide down here now to Jack Baddams.
27:44Jack, you very kindly introduced us to the street earlier.
27:47It's a top spot for urban wildlife and people who've been working very hard to encourage it.
27:51It is. Yeah.
27:52So the garden we've just seen there, that's Harriet's.
27:54We were in Deborah's earlier on Monday.
27:56But I'm currently just looking through some of the clips that we've had from Harriet's garden.
27:59In fact, there's one that I know you'll appreciate because I know you're a big fan of this animal.
28:03Let's have a look at the fox that we got down there.
28:06So this is, yeah, a beautiful daytime fox.
28:10And the great thing about Springwatch Street is obviously we're showing stuff that the residents that are living there don't often see.
28:16And this is half six, half eight in the morning.
28:19It came back a couple of times.
28:20And the fact that these cameras are left out, they're recording all the time.
28:24Anything that walks in front of them triggers them means that we're able to get these lovely shots of this fox popping up on the wall and having a look.
28:30A bit patchy there with the fur, but as city foxes go, looking pretty good.
28:34Yeah, a charming animal.
28:35And to have it in the back garden like that is just amazing, isn't it, really?
28:38And one can imagine it's not just in that one garden.
28:40It's probably going up and down the street, isn't it?
28:42Yeah, and that's what we're trying to do with Springwatch Street.
28:44We're trying to see how all those gardens connect together.
28:46And like I said, the thing I love most about doing it is getting to share that with the residents
28:50and really sort of vindicating their efforts for making them better for wildlife.
28:54So I actually caught up with Harriet a few days ago to show her what we've got in her garden.
29:07Harriet, I absolutely love this garden.
29:09It's just bursting at the seams with so much stuff.
29:13How long has it taken you to make this?
29:15Roughly about 23 years.
29:17It's evolved over different stages.
29:19But what you've got here is you've got like all the different micro habitats crumbed into a very small space.
29:25Yeah, I've got it to the stage now where I think that it really accommodates a lot of wildlife.
29:31Shall we sit down and have a look at the stuff we've filmed?
29:34Absolutely, I'm really excited.
29:35Let's do it.
29:37So, the star of your garden has been these guys.
29:42Let's have a look.
29:44Oh, look.
29:46This is just fantastic to see.
29:48They're coming every night.
29:49Yeah.
29:50They're here all the time.
29:51Every night, wow.
29:52They're here all the time.
29:53They're coming down the path between your raised beds.
29:54Oh, wow.
29:55I love that you get the stretch arm, strong limbs of a hedgehog that just pop out.
30:00Oh, that's beautiful.
30:01And do you know what warms my heart more than anything is that these guys are on the possible endangered list.
30:07Oh, yeah.
30:08It's just like, for me, and I'm really, really genuinely excited about this, is that this method and this progression of the way that you can garden is just the way forward.
30:19And you've created a garden that's not only great for the wildlife, but you can come and enjoy it.
30:23Yeah, we can enjoy it.
30:24What I'm proud of is the fact that it's proof that it works.
30:28Absolutely.
30:29Harriet's garden is really delivering, isn't it?
30:34Yeah, it's great.
30:35And what I love about it is, as I said there, it's a quite small, compact space, but she's done loads to get it great for wildlife.
30:40And those hedgehogs, yeah, really nice.
30:41Hedgehogs are great.
30:42But, I mean, again, she's used her imagination in that small space to diversify everything.
30:46Yes.
30:47And it's paying off.
30:48Hedgehogs in particular.
30:49I mean, do you know, I've got to be honest with you, I haven't had one in my garden for years.
30:52Really?
30:53Quite envious.
30:54Yeah, I'm lucky.
30:55I get quite a few hedgehogs in my garden.
30:56And Harriet's has delivered some really nice behaviour.
30:58I've got a clip here of, it's essentially Hedgehog Fight Club.
31:03We've got this little wall here, and right down in here, there's a bit of food there, and I say Fight Club, I mean, it's a bit one-sided.
31:10It's just one hedgehog.
31:11The smaller one, absolutely battering another hedgehog.
31:14And I've read the books, and it says hedgehogs aren't particularly territorial.
31:18Obviously, the hedgehogs of Sheffield haven't read the literature.
31:22And it's just, yeah, this one, I love this one.
31:24It shunts it up the side of the wall, just right up there.
31:29It's a bit Robot Wars-esque, if you ask me.
31:32It is a bit Robot Wars.
31:34The way they fight, they just use their whole bodies to shove.
31:37Just to shove.
31:38And there's the victor having a nice scratch.
31:40But this is all taking place in this little dry stone wall area.
31:43That's the same area where we have the fox as well.
31:45Harry, it's little Wonderwalls delivering, isn't it?
31:47Absolutely.
31:48To be honest with you.
31:49Absolutely fantastic.
31:50More Springwatch Street next week, which is great.
31:52And you're going to be on 10 past nine tonight, in here, giving commentary to all of the live cameras.
31:57Absolutely. BBC iPlayer, I'm going to be sitting down with Ruth, and we're going to be talking through the cameras.
32:00Excellent.
32:01Join Jack and Ruth for that at 10 past nine when we finish our programme.
32:05In the meantime, let's head back to Northern Ireland to meet Yolo.
32:09And he's fined a place there where you can really get close to wildlife.
32:13Yes, indeed.
32:17Thank you, Chris.
32:18Welcome back to Belfast Harbour.
32:19Busy.
32:20There have been large ships coming and going from here.
32:23Ferries, cruise ships.
32:25It's pointed down a little bit now.
32:27Now, I want to tell you about an amazing reserve called Window on Wildlife, the RSPB's Window on Wildlife.
32:35It's located, see the tall building with all those cranes just behind there.
32:41And the way it was formed is quite fascinating.
32:45We've got to go back to late 70s, the early 1980s, when they were dredging the Victoria Canal
32:51and they were dumping the mud in three lagoons over there, hoping to claim back the money.
32:57But the central lagoon, well, that kept filling up with water.
33:01So in the end, they said, well, there's no point in this.
33:04Let's just give it to the RSPB.
33:06So the RSPB took control and they've actually turned it into a cracking little reserve.
33:12It's kind of a shallow lagoon.
33:14This is time lapse here.
33:16You see the ferry in the background there, the cranes.
33:20It's right in the heart of the docks.
33:24And it's a brilliant place.
33:26I haven't been there for several years.
33:28I'm hoping to have the opportunity this weekend to nip over there.
33:31And it's a great place, especially if you're a bird watcher.
33:35Water birds, of course, as you would expect.
33:38Birds, some of them common birds.
33:40You see all of them gathered here in the middle.
33:43But birds like the coot.
33:45Also shell duck, quite a few shell duck around here.
33:49Black headed gull colonies.
33:51Now, Belfast Harbour is black headed gull central.
33:54And a much scarcer gull too.
33:56The Mediterranean gull, the proper black headed gull.
34:00It's got that black head, big red beak and that white circle around the eye.
34:05Still a scarce breeder in Ireland and in the UK.
34:10But this year, they have been very, very excited.
34:13Because this year, for the first time, they have got nesting sandwich terns.
34:20Sandwich terns are our biggest breeding tern.
34:24They spend the winter off the west coast of Africa.
34:26They're right back quite early as well.
34:28Late March, early April-ish.
34:31They're very, very elegant and easy to recognize with that black, punky hairstyle there.
34:37And that long black bill with a yellow blob nesting in amongst the black headed gulls.
34:43And the gulls, of course, offer them a little bit of extra protection.
34:47The fantastic thing is, not only are they back nesting, it's not just one or two pairs.
34:52We spoke to them earlier and so far, they have 50 adults on eggs.
34:5850 pairs.
34:59That is brilliant news.
35:01Now, we couldn't leave Belfast without having one last look at our family of foxes.
35:08Friars Bush Cemetery.
35:10This is what we saw earlier on.
35:13Now, it has rained.
35:15As you might have seen on Monday, we were rained on here heavily.
35:19And the foxes, well, they were rained on too earlier today.
35:23That cub does not look happy at all.
35:25Sat there, fed up, waiting for his mother to come back.
35:28And when his mum comes back, she also looks rather bedraggled and rather wet there.
35:33Of course, they're perfectly safe where they are.
35:37That thick coat will protect her and warm her.
35:41And earlier today, it was really quite lovely.
35:45But you know the ears flicking back and forth.
35:48The cubs are, despite being safe where they are, they're still quite wary.
35:52That was a car going past and backfiring immediately.
35:56They're alert.
35:57It's innate.
35:58Amazing animals.
35:59Brilliant to watch them over this week.
36:03Now, I've had the opportunity to walk around Belfast, meet some of the people.
36:08And they're very warm.
36:09And what I loved is that here and there, you've got these amazing wildlife murals.
36:15Painted on buildings, on football grounds.
36:20There's a wide variety of them depicting all kinds of natural scenes.
36:25It's been brought together by a project called Wild Belfast.
36:30And these are living murals.
36:33They're not just paintings, but they've actually put some boxes, bat mural, bat boxes in there.
36:40They've got house marting nesting cups.
36:43They've got swift bricks in there as well.
36:46It's brilliant.
36:47And the number of people here who've come up to us interested in wildlife has been quite overwhelming.
36:52I'd like to say a massive thank you to everybody in Belfast.
36:56There are some people I have to mention specifically.
36:59I've got to get this right, otherwise I will be sacked.
37:02I'd like to thank the Department of Communities, the RSPB, the Crescent Arts Centre, Ulster Museum,
37:09Ulster Wildlife, of course, we saw earlier on, and the Belfast Harbour Commission.
37:15We have to leave Belfast.
37:18Where are we going?
37:19Well, to the antithesis of this bustling city.
37:22Let me show you on the map here.
37:25We're in Belfast, about to pack up and leave.
37:28And then we head up northwest to Rathlin Island.
37:34And I am really looking forward to going up there and enjoying the island's wildlife next week.
37:41Michaela, I haven't been on Rathlin Island for about 27 years, so it'll be a nice reunion.
37:48Well, I'm going to give you a challenge, Yolo, because I know on Rathlin Island,
37:51they have the golden hare, the famous golden hare.
37:55So I'm going to challenge you to bring us a live golden hare.
37:59Do you think you can manage that?
38:02No, that is so unfair. That is so unfair.
38:04I'll find you lots of live birds, but sorry, no mammals.
38:08Oh, come on. You've got to accept my challenge.
38:12OK, well, as you know, we are celebrating 20 years of Spring Watch this year.
38:17And obviously, over that time, many things have changed.
38:20But still at the heart of the programme is the fact that nature writes the stories of the season.
38:26And we do that by peeking into the lives of the wildlife with our remote cameras.
38:31And over those years, imagine how many we've featured.
38:35Many, many different species have been featured.
38:39But the constant star has been the blue tits.
38:41So let me take you back, way back to when, Chris, you were young,
38:46and oh, I was so much younger, back to 2005, when Kate Humble and Bill Oddie were presenting the programme.
38:55And it was the first time that they put these cameras into a blue-tip nest box.
39:00And this is what they saw.
39:02And believe you me, we've got a sort of, it's a blue-tip mountain this year.
39:06It really is.
39:07One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine babies.
39:10Brilliant parents feeding them away.
39:12You can see they're absolutely raring to go.
39:15They're going to be leaving the nest in a few days' time.
39:18I mean, that was cutting-edge stuff in those days, 20 years ago.
39:22The camo's all blurry, wasn't it?
39:23But that was the best they had at the time.
39:25Times have changed.
39:26Yeah, I mean, technology has got so much better.
39:30And nowadays, of course, loads of people have got them at home in their nest box.
39:34But as I say, that was the first time little bees got in there.
39:37That was the first time we'd see it.
39:39And of course, since then, we've learnt so much about wildlife by having those remote cameras.
39:45But as I say, we've had blue-tits, well, almost every year on Springwatch.
39:50You know what, I'm going to say my favourite blue-tit nest was, don't you?
39:55Yes, I do, yes, I do.
39:56Minsmere.
39:57Yeah.
39:58And it was the curious story of the unusual nest.
40:00It was.
40:01In 2016, in Minsmere.
40:03And this is what we saw.
40:05Now we've got eggs in a blue-tit nest box.
40:08Nothing particularly unusual about that, except for the fact that some of those eggs looked a bit bigger.
40:12Now, eight of those eggs hatched.
40:14And as we watched them, we noticed that some of the chicks were much bigger than the others.
40:19You can see clearly they've got much bigger beaks.
40:22Over time, the four smaller chicks died.
40:27They perished.
40:28They were out-competed by the bigger ones.
40:31And this blue-tit female, she was a single mother, diligently fed the four remaining chicks.
40:39And as they grew, we noticed that their feathers showed that they weren't blue-tits at all.
40:44They were great-tits.
40:47So, it turns out that that female was actually brooding great-tit chicks.
40:54Quite unusual, and not the sort of thing you would have even noticed unless you had those cameras in the nest box.
41:00And we had various theories, didn't we, about what had happened?
41:03Egg dumping.
41:04Egg dumping.
41:05A great-tit had come into the blue-tit's nest and just dumped the eggs in there.
41:08That does happen, actually, with quite a few bird species.
41:11Don't know what happened to the great-tit parents.
41:13Maybe they got...
41:14Well, they could have laid the eggs in the first place and then left that nest,
41:17and the blue-tit could have come in and then laid its own eggs.
41:20We just don't know, do we?
41:21But what happened to those four chicks?
41:23Well, have a look.
41:24This is us commentating about it at the time.
41:27Tits are in a box.
41:30One jumps up, having a peep.
41:32Think about looking out.
41:33Here comes a J, and it's over in a matter of seconds.
41:37That is incredible.
41:40One pops its head out, but then it comes out a bit too far.
41:44It's flapping those wings, but, unfortunately, it falls to the ground.
41:47It's cheeping to try and attract the attention of its mother,
41:51but, unfortunately, it attracts the attention of that J.
41:56Two left in the box this evening, literally just over an hour ago...
42:01Oh, look at that!
42:02The J takes another one.
42:04So fast.
42:05I should imagine that little chick's feeling very vulnerable,
42:08being the only one left in the nest box.
42:11Finally, Sunday, just before half past eight, it flies out.
42:17I know what you were all thinking watching that.
42:23You were all thinking that none of them would survive, but one did.
42:27And, in fact, I remember what we called it.
42:29We called it Gloria after Gloria Gaynor,
42:32and I will survive if I put my wings up high.
42:35I know, I know.
42:36And that little chick lived happily ever after, let me tell you.
42:39You wanted it to live forever.
42:41I don't look back in anger, but I do look back with pragmatism.
42:44And I can tell you, right, that science shows that if a great tit grows up in a blue tit's nest,
42:50it ends up thinking it's a blue tit.
42:53It even sings a blue tit song.
42:55And later, if it's lucky enough to mature,
42:57it actually tries to mate with other blue tits.
43:00That doesn't mean that it won't still live happily ever after, surely?
43:03Just thinking...
43:04Stop crying your heart out.
43:06Frankly, it's probably not great news for that.
43:10It was a great story, though.
43:11And, as I say, that was one of my favourite blue tit stories.
43:15We've watched a number of blue tits over the years,
43:17starting all the way back with that very first show.
43:19And this has given us quite a lot of data.
43:22Now, I don't want to cast a shadow over what we can do on the watches.
43:27If you look at all of the nests that we've got here,
43:30that we've seen over time,
43:32we've calculated when they fledged.
43:35And here is a graph.
43:37So, here's the fledging time for the national average in green at the bottom here,
43:42starting in 2005 and going up to present.
43:44And I would say that there's a general trend down.
43:48Suggesting that the blue tits are fledging from their nest slightly earlier.
43:52Who knows?
43:53They may be adapting to the fact that those oak leaves are opening earlier,
43:57the caterpillars that they feed on are appearing earlier,
44:00and therefore they are nesting earlier.
44:02That's just conjecture.
44:03I've got to say, no pure science behind it.
44:05But look, the one thing that's consistent is that all of the spring watch blue tits are fledging later than the national average.
44:14So why is that?
44:15Well, that is a data bias.
44:18And it's down to us.
44:19Because we choose blue tits nests, which are a little bit later, so that we can show them to you on our programme.
44:26Because before we left to come up here, the blue tits in my garden had fledged.
44:30And in fact, we're here this year and we haven't found any that haven't fledged.
44:34But if there were some that was late, you can rest assured, of course, we'd have our cameras on them.
44:38So as I say, cast no shadow over the fact that this is real data.
44:43This is subjective.
44:44This is the good stuff.
44:45But we do what we can to measure everything on the watches.
44:49It's great though, isn't it?
44:50I mean, we've learned so much about blue tits and so much about so many other birds and species that we've had those cameras on.
44:57And as I say, that remains in the heart of Springwatch.
45:00But another thing we really enjoy is celebrating passionate people.
45:05Oh, we've got a live badger.
45:06Should we go to that first?
45:07Before we celebrate passionate people, let's celebrate the badgers.
45:10Look at that.
45:11There we go.
45:12Coming out at this time of night.
45:13As I said earlier, they're not usually that active when they first come out.
45:18They're going to be going off foraging.
45:19And that's exactly on cue what that one has done.
45:23It came straight out of the set.
45:26Didn't hang around.
45:28Didn't do all of that scratching and the grooming that we've seen.
45:31It's headed out to get some food.
45:33What badger ever emerges from a set and then doesn't have, you know, a fundamental scratch?
45:39Well, it had a quick scratch, didn't it?
45:41Never seen anything like it.
45:42Only on Springwatch when you get a live badger does it not have a scratch.
45:46You're having words with that badger.
45:48Celebrating badgers and celebrating passionate people.
45:51And we're going to celebrate David Hamilton and his daughter Heather, who every year go underwater around the coast of Cornwall to explore the wildlife.
46:00And this year they've seen something truly mesmerising.
46:07I was really lucky I grew up in and around the sea.
46:17Because you were so into it and you were so passionate about it.
46:20Kind of like a bonding thing.
46:21We've always really enjoyed both snorkeling.
46:24It's just something that, you know, it's so unique and special to us.
46:30And it's incredible that we both share that passion.
46:34Every time I do it, and just before I go in the water, I still get that same buzz, that excitement.
46:39It's just the unknown.
46:40You know, today, who knows what you might see.
46:43Once you put your snorkel mask on, you go underwater, there's nowhere else that you'd want to be.
46:49People don't realise how special our waters are and what's in it.
46:57All this diversity within the short distance of our coastlines.
47:07You know, even humble seaweed, that's just beautiful in its own right.
47:11When the tide's in and it's moving, I think a lot of us take it for granted.
47:18We go in all year round to try and get in as much as possible.
47:23This time of year now, early spring, coming into summer now, we are seeing the local residents.
47:29We see the spider crabs, spiny starfish.
47:33But that's what's so beautiful about it.
47:35That's, like, now, but probably in a month's time, which starts in the influx of summer visitors.
47:42April, May time, isn't it? The jellyfish start to come in for the season.
47:45Yeah.
47:47You've got the blue jellyfish, the compass jellyfish, crystal jellies.
47:53They're so exciting. They're full of colour.
47:58I love seeing them.
48:01Because we do snorkel quite regularly now, I think we're a pretty good indicator,
48:05especially on our own patch of what species there are at different times of years.
48:12For the last two years, we've seen some incredible sights.
48:14I'm not sure this is a good thing, but we've seen some very unusual stuff.
48:20Is that because of our warming waters?
48:23I just don't know.
48:25This one particular day in August, we actually drifted into a whole bloom of Moe Stingers,
48:32which is more of a warmer water species, actually.
48:36And literally hundreds, if not thousands, are around us.
48:39Still all around us, yeah.
48:40I love seeing the variety of our shores, but underlying that, there is a sort of slight worry.
48:50You know, should we be seeing these tropical species in our water?
48:55It's just so unusual to see something like that.
48:58Kind of makes you question, you know, what's changed in the last few years for this to start happening.
49:03Then we're on this one special August evening.
49:07Heather and I came down to this spot.
49:10And then we went into the sea and straight away, as soon as you put your head under the water,
49:15you're just surrounded by these big, kind of, chains of salops.
49:21It's a multicellular animal.
49:24I think they're one of the quickest growing organisms in the world, I think, the way they multiply.
49:28They are quite rare as well for our waters, but in the last two years, that's when they've kind of been thriving.
49:38Yeah.
49:40I think the conditions were perfect that day for the bloom to happen.
49:43I've been connected with the sea sort of 40-odd years, really, and, you know, I've never seen anything like that.
49:50How do you describe it?
49:52It looks like fairy lights, they do, because it was, you know, just before it got dark.
49:57Stars of the galaxy, I like it, too.
49:59Yeah, just before it got dark.
50:01For me as a father, for my daughter to be sort of travelling through that wonderful, natural spectacle,
50:11wow, that's something that's going to live with me throughout my life.
50:14Yeah.
50:22Wow.
50:24Now, you may think that those creatures have simply embraced the importance of being idle, drifting around in the sea,
50:30as food for jellyfish, turtles, fish species, but they are exquisitely beautiful, and they are fascinating, too.
50:38They really are, aren't they?
50:39I mean, as I said, that is a duel, a real duel in the treasure box.
50:42But what is it?
50:44It looks like a jellyfish, but it's actually more closely related to a sea squirt.
50:49Now, here's a weird thing. They're actually more closely related to us than a jellyfish.
50:53I find that a little bit strange.
50:55They are extraordinary creatures. Let's have a look at it.
50:58It's like a gelatinous barrel shape, and what it does is it has, it's full of cellulose and circular muscles,
51:05and it uses those circular muscles to take in water from the front end, and that goes through the body, squirts out the back, and that propels it to go through the water.
51:17And while it's doing that movement, it also filters the water, and then it will feed on the phytoplankton and the algae.
51:27And in the right conditions, when there's those huge blooms of phytoplankton, then it will grow at an incredible rate.
51:34It can mature in 48 hours, and it can grow 10% an hour, which makes it the fastest-growing single-cellular animal in the world.
51:46Extraordinary. Can I just say that's not to scale, by the way?
51:49I just thought I'd make that obvious point.
51:52They also have an extraordinary life cycle, and we can demonstrate that here.
51:59So, they start with this stage here, which is the asexual part of the life cycle.
52:06And what they do, inside the body of the creature at this point, they start separating single-cells, clones of this organism, into strings called stolon.
52:15And that's what you saw in that film there. Those long strings of material that were filling the water were the stolon,
52:23made up of clones of this asexual individual there.
52:28Now, that is going to look like this. So, this is a close-up of this.
52:34And all these are female, and they've got a single egg in them.
52:38Now, those will have to be mated by a male. And then, this is the female down here. Again, we've enlarged it.
52:47And inside... Oh, where does the male come from, first of all? I should say that.
52:51But we're going to get on to that, because we're not interested in the male right now.
52:54But, okay, so it's been mated by the male. It's been fertilised. The eggs have been fertilised.
52:58That's the egg growing inside the female. And eventually, it will give birth.
53:02And then, this little embryo will turn into an asexual single person. Um, um, one of these.
53:11Yeah, so, okay, yeah. And so then, what, so where's the male? That's the key thing.
53:15Where's the male? That's the key thing. These eggs have still got to be fertilised, okay?
53:18Well, the thing is that after this one has produced that asexual stage to start the whole thing over again,
53:24it changes its sex. Yes. Let there be love.
53:27And it's this that goes off to fertilise, not obviously this stolen, because that's where it's come from,
53:33but those other stolons that are in the water. What about that?
53:38So, asexual stage, clones itself into single shells which come out into those long threads running through the water.
53:44They're female, with eggs, which are fertilised by other females which have changed their sex afterwards.
53:50Got to hand it. Got to hand it to the south.
53:51I think that's the most extraordinary life cycle, isn't it? It's just mad, absolutely mad.
53:57And this, let's have a look at them, because they are beautiful, and obviously, you know, this is a model of what they look like,
54:03and this is what David and Heather saw. Absolutely stunning. Unusual to see in our waters, because you usually see them in warmer waters,
54:11but we are seeing them around our shores because our waters are getting warmer.
54:18We started keeping records, decent records, in 1982, and I can tell you that the waters around the UK and Ireland at the moment are the hottest they've ever been.
54:25Off of the west coast of Ireland, the surface water temperature is four degrees over the average, and many parts of the UK are seeing water temperatures on the shores there of 1.5 to 2.5 degrees centigrade over that.
54:40And this will have profound impacts on our marine life, there is no doubt about that.
54:46So, while species like the selp might prosper, because there's a lot more plankton for them to feed on, and they can sustain that prodigious growth rate,
54:54it may have a negative impact on lots of other species.
54:58This is climate breakdown in action, and we've just seen a real example of it.
55:02Amazing, though, I mean, if you are swimming around the Cornish coast, to be able to see that, so unusual and so beautiful.
55:10Time to take a deep breath, sit back, relax and enjoy a mindfulness moment with some spring flowers.
55:16Hm?
55:17TIRket
56:34Lovely sight there, but our time has begun to slide away, but we've just got time to show you this.
56:51We spotted this in the woods. Those badgers that have been so busy scratching had scratched out some of their hair, and this little chaffinch is collecting the badger hair on the floor outside the set, and it will be lining its nest with that. Chaffinch's nests are always lined with hair, horse hair, in this case badger hair. What a treat that is.
57:14It's going to be a cosy nest, that one, a cosy nest.
57:17That is all we've got time for tonight. We will be back tomorrow night, and we've got some super animals for you. Absolutely sensational. Not tomorrow night, next week, I mean. Sea eagles. Sea eagles next week.
57:29And if it's cuteness you want, well, we can deliver that as well. Look at these two very adorable leverets.
57:38Well, you've got your leverets, but I'll be going up to Rathlin Island in search of the unique golden hair.
57:47Don't forget, you can keep your eyes on the live cameras on the iPlayer on the website from 10am in the morning.
57:56We will be back, not tomorrow, but on Monday. No, not tomorrow. Definitely not.
57:59But you could be back tomorrow, I'm going to be back on Monday. I'm going to be messing around with poodles.
58:03Get yourself out, get yourself enjoying the wildlife. We'll see you on Monday. Bye-bye.
58:08Bye-bye.
58:38Bye-bye.