Springwatch 2025 episode 9

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Transcript

00:00Nests

00:03Spring and the green meadows make for perfect frolicking and feeding but hold up who invited this foxy guest?

00:11Not the ideal companion, especially when it's a meat-eater

00:15Sorry, fawn falafel is not on the menu for you my friend. This is not an open invite for field to fork

00:22But it is an open invite for settling in for tonight's spring watch

00:30Oh

00:48Hello and welcome to spring watch 2025

00:51It's week three coming to you live from the National Trust Longshore Estate here in the Peak District National Park and rest assured

00:58We've got all the usual razzmatazz for you tonight a fledge-a-thon some greatest hits and a small quiz

01:05Cast your mind back through the 20 years of spring watch and see if you can remember

01:09All of the species that we've featured with our live nest I can tell you there's a surprising number of them

01:16And some of them are pretty special we're going to be taking a look at those a bit later on and then lastly for pure comedic effect

01:22Of course yolo williams is going to be bringing us now

01:26He's not so much a stand-up comic as a stood-up comic because he's going to be trying to bring us live mammals from Northern Ireland in a bit

01:34Something more than a sheep hopefully hey

01:36We may have taken a break over the weekend, but our cast of characters certainly haven't they have carried on

01:42Performing and there's been loads of action the star role went to spud our tawny owl chick

01:49Here it is there spuds that was on Saturday still looking up at that entrance remember we left him on Thursday flying out for the first time

01:59I say flying literally flying up to the exit of his box and being fed on the edge there

02:05And obviously he's been keen over the weekend to do that many many times

02:10Okay, so we've started with spud but now we're going to switch to a different species to continue the story cast your mind back to the song thrushes that we were showing you

02:20Not last weekend, but the weekend before they were quite small being tended by both of the parents in the nest doing very very well

02:28Of course by the end of the week Friday last they'd grown quite considerably as you can see

02:34They were on the brink of fledging and in fact on Friday evening

02:38one of them got a bit fidgety and thought I've had enough of this nest and

02:43Made that little leap into the great unknown there in the background one of the others thought well

02:47I might go to but then thought that's a bit late in the day. I fancy one more cozy night in the nest before I leave

02:54big mistake because a little later on we saw our tawny owl bringing a bird in to spud and

03:05When spud jumps down into the box you can see it's not just a bird it is a

03:10Fledgling song thrush now at this point of course

03:12We've got no proof at all that that's the bird that's just fledged from our song thrushes nest

03:18But what happened next at 1106 was the tawny owl returned and obviously

03:23You know it would come to this nest and then grab those chicks

03:30And that's what he did and very rapidly it killed the chicks in the nest using its talons and then took hold of one of them and

03:40Made its way out of the back of the nest

03:44Now okay, like I say no proof that this is spuds, you know parent of any kind

03:49Kind this could be just another tawny owl. However, I can tell you that these two nests are only 250 meters apart

03:57So it's getting increasingly likely isn't it obviously the owl returns once it's got a source of food

04:02It's going to come back until that source of food is completely exhausted

04:06So here it comes back and takes another one of the chicks out but

04:10Tellingly none of these are turning up at spuds place at this point a little later

04:16It returns and here it's interesting to see that it doesn't take a check now

04:20There were three in there when it launched its first attack and it's removed two

04:25Where's the third one? Maybe it bolted over the side to safety

04:30Maybe it's somewhere in the bottom of that bush doing okay

04:35Whatever the owl leaves on this occasion empty-handed having removed two of those youngsters still nothing at spuds until

04:423.37 hours later when a bird is brought in and the evidence suggests that it was a young song thrush and then the following afternoon a long while later

04:54We saw that and that was undoubtedly a song thrush chick

05:00Now just too much of a coincidence

05:02It's pretty obvious that the song thrushes were being removed there by one of spuds parents

05:09Obviously the adults came back to check, but sadly their brood had been completely extinguished and spud was the profiteer

05:16We've seen it before haven't we where one cast member eats the rest of the cast members a sorry end for our song thrush chicks

05:24But obviously that was a bounty of food for our tawny owl chicks. So what happened after that?

05:30Well old spud was absolutely full of our song thrush chick cast members

05:35He's full up. He's fueled and he's ready to fly

05:40Now remember at this stage. They're not very good fliers

05:43Normally, they would jump onto a branch and just explore but as we said at the end of last week

05:48The closest branch to that nest box is quite high up

05:52So to get there he has to not rock climb but bark climb and he's scrambling up that tree trunk

06:00Interestingly, he didn't go to the first bit of branch. He could have gone to

06:05He's seen the light. He's ready for flight and he keeps climbing

06:10And he keeps climbing

06:13Because this is a brave little soul and he goes pretty high up

06:19Then as it gets dark that's the parent that just flew in we've circled where spud is quite tricky to see but he's on the branch behind

06:25Because he will still be fed by the parents for quite a while as he's exploring that tree

06:32The parent goes off this morning 436. There he is on the branch. You can see by the movement of his head

06:39He's still so curious still sussing out his environment and then we saw him high up on the branch

06:45And then he goes from spud to spudnik yay

06:49Not so good. No, he falls down into the grass

06:52And remember last week we saw a fox prowling in that area

06:57So that was a bit of jeopardy and we were concerned about him because he'd make a little meal for a fox or probably a big meal for a fox

07:05So we were relieved to see him in this tree later on and in fact, he's remained look at that face

07:10It's a content face, isn't it? He's remained in that tree for most of the day

07:15Remember they're nocturnal so he will be resting I say he it could be a she but um

07:21It you can't call him it can you spud will be resting for the rest of the day

07:25So we're going to go to a live camera that's actually on that tree now to see if spud is still there

07:30You see that? Yeah, look there's spud. It's so great to see him out, isn't it?

07:35I mean he he will probably stay out now. I doubt he'll go back into that box when you've got this

07:42Environment to look at why on earth would you want to get back into just staring at four walls?

07:49He looks good doesn't he? I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but he's kind of has become my favorite

07:54He's kind of sat there in his underwear waiting for his adult feathers to grow

07:57You know, I think he'll be active tonight though moving around in that tree

08:00There's no doubt about it might get back into one of the bigger oak trees isn't that little looks like a willow or something that he's found some shelter there

08:08For today, we'll keep an eye on him obviously if he starts to fidget about we'll show you him later in the program now

08:13Yolo Williams over in Northern Ireland the live mammal fiasco has just been going on now

08:18It's in its third week

08:19I know he's feeling confident now because he thinks he's got a couple of species tucked up his sleeve

08:25But let's see if he can put them on our screens Yolo

08:27See the thing is I bring you live common seal not good enough like gray seal not good enough

08:36I bring you a memorable encounter with an Irish sea

08:40Still obviously not good enough, but tonight we are pulling out all the stops

08:45Oh, yes in a woodland over on the other side of the estate. We have set up our very own remote camera

08:53It's in a real hotbed for red squirrels

08:58So we are hopeful. There's the camera. It'll zoom around. It'll twist. It'll turn Adam

09:04There's young Adam

09:05Poised ready to go like a coiled spring there. He is recording

09:1124 7

09:14Now, let's go over live and see if Adam's got anything for us. Let's have a look

09:20Let's have a look. Anything there anything there. Let's have a scan around

09:26No, nothing at all at the moment, but we'll keep our eyes open

09:31There have been red squirrels in and out of there all day

09:34Doesn't matter doesn't matter doesn't matter. We still got time. We still got time

09:38And we haven't put all of our eggs in a remote camera basket. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no

09:46We have our long lens cameraman Steve Phillips in a hide 80 meters away from me over there

09:53Look at that man a man at the peak of physical fitness

09:58Just waiting waiting overlooking a badger set

10:02And before they end the program I can virtually guarantee you that we might have a badger

10:10We might might have a badger now

10:12Where exactly are we the first week if you remember we were in belfast then we went north up to rathlin island

10:19And now we have moved down south

10:22To the national trusts mount steward on the banks of strangford loch

10:29Why have we come here? Well, this is why it is a beautiful place the big house there

10:38and the gardens

10:40Beautiful gardens very very famous gardens almost a thousand acres in all this estate

10:46Great kitchen there too brilliant place for cakes. I can tell you that much and it's a mix of habitats

10:53It's got woodland. It's got lakes. It's got ponds

10:57It's got arable land. It's got hay meadows. It's got old buildings. It's got scrubland hedgerows

11:05stone walls

11:07And it's this mix of habitats that makes it a superb place for all kinds of wildlife now

11:15Over 60 percent of the estate is woodland and much of that is mature

11:19Beech and oak and sycamore and pine and that makes it a great place for red squirrels

11:26I've actually had a lot of red squirrel activity on our remote cameras

11:31Just look at that

11:33Beautiful little animals bright red with a big big bushy tail

11:38And the tufty ears. I do like red squirrels

11:42Now the national trust they are putting out bits of food for them. Why is that?

11:46Well, there are several reasons first of all

11:49There's a busy road nearby and that's to keep them away from that road and also last winter

11:54They lost a lot of their mature trees. So they're putting out

11:58Natural foods seeds

12:01Bits of corn there. Look at that one disappearing in its tail sticking out chasing each other up and down

12:07I have had up to five red squirrels at one time

12:11Coming in to those feeders there

12:13Beautiful and do you know what I love about red squirrels because where I am in mid-wales

12:19Red squirrels disappeared way back in the early 1980s

12:22So I don't see them very often when I see one it puts a real smile on my face

12:28Lovely lovely animals and the good news is red squirrels are actually doing okay over here in Ireland

12:35Let's have a look at the distribution map

12:37UK wide look at that virtually absent from England and Wales except parts of north of England still good population

12:44Parts of Scotland as well, of course, but in Ireland look at that. It's a real stronghold

12:49Particularly in Northern Ireland as well. Why is that? Well, there are a couple of reasons

12:54First of all pine martins pine martin numbers are doing really well here in Ireland now and pine martins will selectively target

13:05Gray squirrels gray squirrel

13:08An animal that was introduced from North America non-native of course carries the squirrel pox virus that kills red squirrels

13:17Doesn't affect greys at all

13:19So pine martins will target them

13:21They're bigger animals

13:22They can't escape as easily along small branches

13:26Spend a lot of time on the floor

13:28So they're easier for the pine martin to catch

13:31Also, there are some groups who are controlling gray squirrels and because of those two reasons

13:38Red squirrels are able to survive here in Ireland

13:42Great news, great news

13:43Well, Chris and Michaela over in the Peak District are actually looking out for a very different mammal

13:52We are Yolo

13:53We're looking out for a mammal which really only occurs here in this part of England

13:58It's called the mountain hare

14:01Now they weren't native here in historical times

14:03They were introduced in the 1870s and at a certain point their population built up to about three and a half thousand mounted hares

14:10So that I'm talking about here in the Peak District National Park

14:14Now they've suffered an 80% decline something changed and they're down to about a thousand

14:20So what's going on with these?

14:22Well, Dr Carlos Bedsen decided to investigate

14:26And he's been researching all of the things that have been impacting negatively on this population of animals

14:31Now I should stress of course that you find them in Scotland

14:34But in England this is the only place where they are hanging on and they are just hanging on

14:40Some of the populations that he's been looking at he thinks could be extinct within three to five years

14:47Beautiful animals

14:49Difficult to see

14:50Not the sort of thing we would attempt to show you live Yolo

14:54Because we know which side our bread is buttered on

14:57But they are fantastic things

14:58They are fantastic, but then it's not just the mountain hares that are here

15:02You also have European brown hares and they have very different habitats

15:07And if we have a look you can see their geographical niches two particular niches that they have

15:13So European hare lowland grassland

15:17So they eat grasses that are high in fat cereal

15:20So they've got lots of calories grains in comparison to that

15:23That's the sort of habitat you might find a mountain hare in

15:26Upland moors

15:28So it will eat moorland plants heather and birch

15:31More efficient metabolism so it can eat lower calorie food found at higher altitudes

15:37And if you see there you can see that the mountain hare

15:40Because it's normally found in much colder climates

15:43Its fur will turn to white in the winter

15:46But that here has become a bit of a problem

15:48It's got a bit of a problem and I'm going to demonstrate that using this wartime type

15:52Uh prop that we've got here

15:54You see the problem is in the winter time the mountain hare

15:57Goes to the top of the mountain hare

15:59Where typically there should be shut snow

16:02But thanks to climate breakdown

16:04There is no snow

16:05And therefore the mountain hare as this photograph shows you sticks out like a sore hare

16:10Making it extremely visible to any predator

16:13Everything from large raptors of course through to foxes and stoats

16:17Everything can see the mountain hare

16:19That's not the only problem it's facing

16:21I've got to tell you

16:22It's also facing a problem with rabbit haemorrhagic disease

16:26Which is a disease that's come into the country and is affecting rabbits and of course our mountain hares

16:31And very sadly our population of mountain hares is decreasing down to that haemorrhagic disease

16:37Not yet not yet not yet not yet another problem is that in the past these animals have been over exploited

16:44They've been persecuted and they've been hunted and that has impacted negatively on their population as well

16:51But the principal problem comes back to climate breakdown and the mismanagement of the habitat here because

16:58Overgrazing and overburning plus that warming have meant that

17:03The poor quality grassland at the top of the mountains has declined and and stronger tougher grasses

17:11Which would typically only be found growing lower down the mountain are able to grow further up the mountain here

17:18And this is opening an opportunity for the brown hair

17:24Yes, go on make move that here to basically climb further up the mountain and therefore it becomes

17:30Oh dear, that one's fallen over

17:32Mick

17:33That one didn't do so well

17:34That was a squadron of Spitfires in World War Two

17:36Right the Battle of Britain could have been a complete no-go

17:40Who do you think you are kidding mr. Packham?

17:43Right

17:44So yeah, so they basically so the mountain hares are being pushed further and further up to the uplands and then they become

17:52Isolated and then of course, there's a threat of inbreeding so as chris said with all of these problems

17:58Is that a mountain hares? Yeah, good job. I'm not colorblind isn't it? So there they are in their isolated population

18:05Being crowded out by these brown hares

18:09That are going further up because the vegetation is changing and now

18:14They it is a threat of extinction for these

18:17I'll pass you this one

18:18I've got but I've passed that over to you look

18:19Look at these these two are definitely isolated

18:21No, I know get that one can you get that one up there

18:24Up there up there does he go up there?

18:25Okay, he's up there

18:26Well done top work

18:27No, but it's really I mean you know we're mucking about a bit here

18:29But it's really it's a really sad situation is it because they're beautiful animals

18:33It's a composite of problems and and that's what

18:36Carlos found that we can't pin it on any one of these things

18:39But they've all impinged negatively on the population of these animals and very sadly as I said some of those groups

18:44Of the animals here in the peaks now are in very real danger of disappearing completely

18:49So we ought to be thinking a little

18:51About looking after things everything from the bigger picture and that's our climate to the way that we manage these animals

18:56And what he thinks is that if we could get them on to schedule five of the world's iPhone countryside act

19:01Which will prevent any more shooting any more persecution than they might be in with some hope

19:07Now I love life. I love all life actually and I'm very fond of plants

19:11But amongst the plants there is a group that I'm particularly drawn to the carnivorous plants and in the uk

19:17There's one which truly truly sparkles

19:20Morning mist rises over an english bog

19:36Years of decaying matter have created this acidic wetland

19:43The soil lacks the nutrients most plants need to grow

19:47Only the toughest survive here

19:54As sunlight hits the bank

19:58It's the signal for one to spring into action

20:01Like a crown each leaf is adorned with ruby red droplets

20:17Glistening in the sun

20:18They appear like a bountiful banquet of dew

20:29No doubt how the sundae required its name

20:35Once unfurled it stands poised

20:38Ready to welcome any passing insects

20:41And they're well positioned to fulfill that need

20:49Under the surface of the water

20:52Invertebrates are thriving

21:03Mosquito larvae

21:04They've spent the last two weeks feeding on algae and growing

21:12They use siphons like a tiny snorkel to breathe

21:20Some of the older ones have already pupated

21:23Ready to emerge into their brave new world

21:49A minute to adjust to their new life in the open air

21:53And then time to find food

21:58After all transforming into an adult takes a lot of energy

22:06They make for flowers to feast on nectar

22:14In their search they're tempted in by the inviting sustenance on offer from the sundew

22:23They make for flowers to feast on nectar

22:25This liquid is not a feast at all

22:30It's a trap

22:34A glue

22:35Designed to lure and entangle its prey

22:40And it's highly effective

22:42The mosquito's first meal may well be its last

22:54The struggle triggers the next stage of the sundew strategy

22:58The leaves start to curl

23:00Folding in on themselves

23:04Folding in on themselves

23:06Drawing the insect to the centre of the leaf

23:09Where digestion is most efficient

23:14Often the prey of the sundew will die from suffocation

23:17If exhaustion from escape attempts hasn't taken hold first

23:23Either way the sundew gets its fill

23:32And it isn't just mosquitoes that fall victim to this sticky end

23:36The sundew releases enzymes that dissolve its captives into nutrients which are absorbed by the leaves

23:53Each tiny victim is broken down into phosphorus and nitrogen

23:57Essential elements for photosynthesis and growth

24:02Without them the sundew would languish in this barren bog

24:07But with them it thrives

24:11And the mosquitoes well there's plenty more where that came from

24:21Beautiful and deadly

24:23I love insectivorous plants and they're not the only ones we've got in the uk

24:26We've also got bladderwort and butterwort

24:29And all of those three species occur in sort of acid grassland acid pools on moorland

24:34And i guess it's because the soil is so poor there they need to supplement the nutrients

24:40By predating insects and other invertebrates

24:42I don't think i'd ever say these words that i felt sorry for the mosquito in that film

24:48I'm like the way it pupates was really rather beautiful

24:51I've seen mosquitoes mosquitoes in a whole different light now

24:54Thank goodness for that at last

24:55Have a little blood share some in their community

24:58Okay now we had quite a lot of nests last week and many of the young were approaching

25:04Fledging just like those song thrushes at the beginning of the program

25:06They narrowly missed that opportunity because ended up getting eaten by spud

25:09But some of our other babies were at that sink or swim stage

25:15The willow warblers were itching to go

25:19And here they are on saturday morning

25:21Now they had been venturing in and out of their nest which is on the ground

25:26But then on saturday they started to finally leave

25:29And this is typical of what we see with these young birds

25:33If they can disperse into that undergrowth then unlike the song thrushes that were all in that nest

25:39And once the tawny owl nailed it it got all of them

25:42By spreading out in the undergrowth they were going to do a better job

25:45What's going to happen to them next?

25:46Well they'll follow the adults around for a few weeks

25:49And those with the greatest chance of survival

25:51Will be those with the biggest wings and those that are the heaviest

25:55And that is of course dependent on the food that they've been fed whilst they're in the nest

26:01Then of course they're going to migrate and the males are more likely to come back to this spot

26:06To breed next year when they breed for the first time

26:09So it's fingers crossed for all of those willow warblers

26:11We just had some people fledging behind us

26:13They were also fledging the nest I think

26:15And they weren't the only ones we had more fledging

26:18It was a very active weekend

26:19What about our robin's nest?

26:21Look at this first of all

26:23This was this was a bit worrying actually

26:25Because this chick seemed to get some vegetation stuck in its throat

26:30Who concerned it might choke just as it's you know ready to fledge

26:34Fortunately managed to spit it out

26:37So as I say they were ready to fledge I mean look at them

26:39They've got feathers and they're flapping and they're out

26:43Two of them go there are five of them to get out of that nest

26:47They also will be fed by the parents for another three weeks post-fledging

26:52So they won't go very far to begin with

26:55And then they'll only get that red or orange breast at about three months old

27:00And there's a reason for that because robins can be aggressive

27:04They're very territorial

27:06And so by the chicks keeping that sort of brown

27:09Uh brown chest instead of the red or orange chest

27:12Means that they avoid any aggression from the adults

27:15So there as I say there's a reason that they wait to get those chests

27:19With all the nest emptying we found we needed a few more new ones

27:22Let's go to our nine way now to take a look at what we've got here

27:26We see the dipper in the middle there that's that single youngster

27:29Then you can see the tawny owl there he's in his tree a bit more active Mick

27:32But let's go to a new nest that we've got for you

27:35Middle left this is a goldcrest now we have featured these before but they are extraordinary

27:41The nest itself is made of moss and lichens all woven together with spider's webs

27:47And that means it's flexible

27:48It needs to be flexible because they can lay quite large clutches

27:52Now we know that we're at least six eggs in here and they've now got chicks

27:56I'm not sure how many chicks they've got but they can lay clutches of up to ten eggs

28:00So when all of the young are growing to nearly their full size

28:03That nest needs to be able to stretch hence the materials that they use to make it

28:08But what a sight that is

28:10Britain and europe's smallest bird weighs the same as a 20 pounds piece as we always say the exquisite

28:17Goldcrest look at that

28:18It's beautiful, isn't it?

28:20I love the little gold flash of crest on its head

28:24Okay, we're going over to Yolo in Northern Ireland and we've set him a challenge to see

28:29um a mammal live on the program

28:31Yolo, just to show you how easy it is

28:33Just just follow me across here because you know, we just happen to have in the background

28:39um three red deer stags

28:41I mean, you know, not just one but three and not just that but it's a two shot

28:45So I don't know what you've got for us Yolo

28:48Water off a duck's back

28:52Look, water off a duck's back

28:56No bother at all, no bother at all

28:58Now we've already seen that the National Trust's Mount Stewart here is very good for red squirrels

29:05But it's also good for badgers

29:07Now if you follow me in here, I'm going into this hide now

29:10for a couple of reasons

29:12First of all, of course, it's raining heavily

29:14And secondly, if you just give me a little moment to myself

29:23No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm okay, I'm okay

29:25The real reason I'm coming in here is because 80 metres into the woodland behind me

29:30Our long lens cameraman Steve is ready and poised looking down at a badger set

29:38Steve, have you got anything for us?

29:40No, no, not yet, not yet, no

29:45Doesn't matter, doesn't matter, doesn't matter

29:47We've still got time

29:48We've still, still got a little bit of time

29:50Now there are four big sets here on the reserve

29:55and 10 subsets

29:57And we've been concentrating on the one in this wood

30:00And the last few days we've actually had a lot of activity there

30:07Beautiful evening

30:09The other evening

30:10And then the badgers all emerge

30:14Roughly the same time

30:16About 7.30 every night

30:18Except tonight, of course

30:21Having a look

30:22They're quite nervous

30:23It's not a well visited set

30:24So they aren't nervous of any strange sounds

30:27About five to seven females there we reckon

30:30Plus cubs

30:31A bit of anal rubbing

30:33And the cubs

30:34Well, they emerge about eight to ten weeks old

30:37In late April, early May

30:39So we reckon these are about

30:43These are probably around three months old, we think

30:47Now we've also noticed that quite a few of the badgers are malting

30:51Now especially the boars

30:53Especially the males

30:55It's quite a long process

30:56Starts in May

30:58Some of them start malting in May

30:59Look at them

31:00Obviously a very itchy business

31:02Now they've already

31:03They will have malted those under hairs

31:06And these are the guard hairs

31:08The long guard hairs

31:09The winter coats

31:11That they are now beginning to molt

31:14Really scruffy looking

31:16They spend a lot of their time scratching, scratching

31:18Getting rid of all of those old hairs

31:21Now let's have another look

31:23Let's have a quick look life

31:24Come on Steve

31:25Please, please, please

31:26Can you deliver for me?

31:27To deliver for me

31:29Just rub Chris and Michael's faces in it

31:33No, no, no, nothing at all

31:36Well, we've had quite a few badgers on our remote camera as well

31:42The one where we earlier we saw the red squirrel

31:45And we had a bit of rain over the weekend

31:47And this badger, well, he looked absolutely soaked

31:52This one here

31:54Here he comes

31:55Here he comes

31:57Here he comes, look

31:58They don't mind the wet weather

31:59Because they can forage in the open fields

32:02Looking for earthworms

32:03Earthworms form a lot of their diet there

32:06He's just coming along

32:08But he knows full well

32:10That there's plenty of food

32:11There's food that's been put out

32:14For the birds and the squirrels

32:16And look at him

32:17Sitting down on the log there

32:19As if

32:21He is just gonna

32:23Listen, we're gonna go live

32:25We're gonna go live

32:25Quick, we've got live badgers

32:27Can we go to Steve?

32:28Can we go to Steve?

32:29Now, can we go over to Steve?

32:32Oh, there we are

32:33Look, sneaking away

32:34You can just about sneak in

32:35We've just

32:36Oh, there's the face

32:37There's the face

32:38Live badgers

32:40Come back

32:41Come back

32:42Badgers

32:42Come back

32:44Don't go

32:45This is my fourth time

32:48Fourth time, right?

32:49Trying to get live badgers on Springwatch

32:53And I give you

32:54And I give you a distant glimpse of her face

32:56Superb!

32:57This is the highlight of my whole Springwatch career

33:00It's gonna be downhill from now on

33:02I tell you

33:03Steve, well done

33:05I will buy you a pint of Guinness this evening

33:09Now, Lyra Valencia is a young zoologist

33:13She's also very active on social media

33:16She's passionate

33:18Absolutely passionate

33:19About urban wildlife

33:21She's also a wildlife ranger

33:24How she packs all that in

33:25I do not know

33:26But we thought we'd give her a task

33:29To go in search of the most colourful

33:32The noisiest

33:33And the newest bird in town

33:42This is Graves Park

33:43One of Sheffield's largest green spaces

33:45And I'm here to find a big bold bird

33:48That's made its home here

33:49In the heart of the city

33:52I don't think it's gonna be that hard to find

33:54It's quite a noisy bird

34:03Marrakeet! Marrakeet!

34:07Where are you?

34:12They're behind me!

34:15I love this sound!

34:18See, I'm so used to this sound coming from London

34:20This is what I'll wake up to

34:23Very different to a lot of UK birds

34:25Which are very fluty, very light

34:28This is confidence

34:29This is, I'm here, I'm loud

34:31The male has a ring on its neck

34:36Which is often pink to black

34:39The female and young don't have this

34:43How did they get here?

34:44Well, there's a lot of different theories

34:46But the truth is a lot of them are just released pets

34:48That have flocked together because they're very social birds

34:51So then they end up thriving in faces like this

34:53These birds were recorded near Sheffield for the first time in 1974

34:59With a breeding pair first spotted in 2003

35:02But it's only in the last eight years that their numbers have boomed

35:06And here in Sheffield they have one of the largest populations of parakeets outside of London

35:1380 to 100 or more parakeets

35:17And I know what you're thinking

35:18It's kind of strange to see parakeets thrive in a space like this

35:21But they're actually really intelligent and long-lived

35:23So they can adapt to spaces like this

35:25What do you think about this?

35:32No

35:34I have just seen a first

35:36I don't believe this

35:37This is the Alexandrian parakeet

35:40I've heard about this bird being in this park

35:42But I didn't think I'd get to see it

35:44I didn't think there's sunlight

35:46Look at that pink on the shoulder pad

35:49This is like a parakeet but on steroids

35:52I'm shaking

35:55It's a bit bigger, stockier

35:58Oh it's beautiful

36:02I feel so lucky, I feel so blessed

36:06I can see a female

36:07And she's on the nest so she's in the hole in the tree

36:11And the male has a bright yellow eye colour

36:15She could have two to four young inside that nest

36:19And when she comes out you can see that long tail

36:21A bit longer than the ringlet parakeet

36:25She's very territorial chasing off other birds that come near the nest

36:31Poor wood pigeon

36:37Living in London is easy to get used to the parakeets

36:40But taking time to watch them here has been great

36:43And such good views of a new species

36:46A real surprise for me

36:49The ringlet parakeets have been here for decades

36:51And really they're here to stay

36:53But the Alexandrians are starting to breed

36:55And it makes me wonder are they going to spread across the UK too?

36:58I love parakeets

37:04Lyra I'm with you

37:06I get excited to see them

37:08But I was very jealous of you seeing that Alexandrian

37:11I mean how amazing

37:12Not just to see it

37:13But to see it breeding for the first time

37:16I know

37:16I mean we went out looking for ringlet parakeets

37:18Which I see all the time in London

37:20It's such a hot spot

37:21I'm so lucky to be surrounded by them

37:22But then to see the Alexandrian parakeet

37:25This was something special

37:26And it was yeah my first time

37:28And it felt really exclusive

37:30Because our friends from the British Trust in Ornithology

37:32Have said that this is the first time

37:34Seeing them breed in the UK in over 20 years

37:37Can you imagine?

37:38So yeah we are super super lucky

37:40And we have proof

37:41We have a photo

37:42We have a photo of a chick

37:44Oh look at that

37:45Yeah this is the same nest that we filmed at

37:47Um this photo is taken by Chris Greenwood

37:50From the Sheffield Birds Study Group

37:52And you can see here

37:53I mean it looks a bit like an adult

37:54Don't you think?

37:55It does

37:55It looks like the adult poking out

37:56It does

37:56But the difference is

37:57I'll tell you a little secret

37:58If you look at their eyes

37:59It's all black

38:00So this is different from the adults who have very colourful eyes

38:03So yeah a dramatic entrance

38:05Not just for spring watch but for UK wildlife scene too

38:08And this is our 20th anniversary

38:10You've bought us a first lira

38:12Well done

38:13Let's just have a look at this though

38:14Because I mean they do look incredibly similar

38:16You've got to know what you're looking for to see the difference

38:18Yeah

38:19So as you can see

38:20And this is the first thing I spotted by the way

38:22Is how much bigger the Alexandrine is

38:23Compared to the ringlet parakeet here

38:26I mean just look at that beak in comparison

38:28It's crazy right

38:29And the tail as well the tail length

38:31But the one thing I really love

38:33And something I spotted

38:34It really does stand out

38:35In you know the green foliage of the trees

38:37It's the pink shoulder pads

38:39So it's fabulous pink shoulder pads

38:41So yeah really really striking beautiful bird in my opinion

38:43Easy to tell the difference when they're side by side

38:46Yeah

38:47Maybe not when they're flitting through the trees

38:49Yeah

38:49But let's just have a look at the map

38:51Because I mean ring neck parakeets

38:53I was excited when I was younger to see them in London

38:56But gee they have really spread throughout the country

38:59And if we look at this map you can see it's the one as you look at the telly

39:02On the left you can see all those red dots are where you can now see ring necked parakeets

39:08They've gone all the way up to north of Scotland

39:10I mean who would have thought

39:12And to Northern Ireland as well

39:14So they've been an incredibly successful bird at spreading throughout the country

39:19On the other side is the Alexandrian and how they've spread

39:23So talk us through that Lyra

39:24So you can see they're not as prolific as the ring neck parakeet

39:27They haven't spread so fast

39:29But we do know that there are feral populations in warmer parts of the world

39:34So places like the Middle East the Mediterranean

39:36There are feral populations there

39:38So it indicates that they like warmer climates

39:40So maybe they won't do as well as the ring neck parakeets

39:44Because it is quite cold here still

39:46And the ring neck parakeets

39:47We have found that through genetic studies

39:50That their ancestors have come from Northern India

39:53From Pakistan which is actually really cold

39:55So they're really well adapted

39:57And you know it's quite normal for them to experience this type of weather

40:00But then again saying that you know

40:02We live in a warmer world

40:03There's climate change

40:05So maybe just maybe the Alexandrian parakeets might take advantage of this

40:08They might thrive

40:09Who knows it's still early days

40:11Who knows only time will tell they're not everybody's favorite

40:15You and I love them

40:16Some people don't because they are extremely noisy

40:19But will they ever be a problem for our native birds do you think

40:23Again you know there's not hardcore evidence to suggest this

40:26It's still early days

40:28There is that genuine concern because they use cavities in trees

40:31Like our woodpeckers

40:32And the hatches that we really love don't we

40:35So there is that concern like will they compete for this space

40:37Will they push out our native birds

40:39But again we just don't know what we do know

40:41Is that they are breeding here in Sheffield for the first time

40:44And I just think they're absolutely wonderful to look at

40:46Parrots in the UK I mean what this is crazy

40:48It is very cool isn't it

40:50Yeah

40:50Well one thing we do know is you and I love them

40:52We get very excited to see them

40:54Thank you so much for coming in and talking about them

40:56Thank you

40:57From parakeets to peregrines

40:59And sadly a bird that's had a long history of persecution in this country

41:03But thanks to a recovery program in the 1990s they were taken off the endangered list

41:10However as Megan's been finding out they now face a new threat

41:14The peregrine falcon is one of the world's most iconic birds of prey

41:23Built for precision

41:26Agility

41:27And of course they are incredibly fast reaching top speeds of up to 200 miles per hour

41:35As they're hurtling through the sky in pursuit of prey which they'll catch mid-air

41:41And for any bird lover of course it's utterly irresistible to watch

41:48But sadly it's this hunting prowess which puts them in serious danger

41:52Peregrines are becoming increasingly desirable to be kept as captive birds

42:01Peregrine eggs and chicks are frequently being stolen from nests across the UK

42:06To be illegally laundered into the falconry trade

42:11They are then sold for significant sums of money to buyers in the Middle East

42:16Where falcon racing is a high status sport

42:19Here a single bird can fetch up to a quarter of a million pounds

42:26And while it is legal to trade captive bred peregrine falcons

42:31Wild peregrines are a protected species

42:34And removal of their eggs and chicks is illegal

42:39But the large sums of money offered for wild caught birds

42:42Are tempting criminals to steal them straight from their nests

42:46It's a huge problem plaguing the UK

42:51And in southern Scotland one man is on a mission to protect the birds on his patch

42:58George smith has been volunteering his time for the scottish raptor study group for the past 39 years

43:06Recently we've had lots of chicks taken

43:07So when you say there are chicks taken there are people coming down illegally because they are a protective species

43:13They are indeed yeah

43:14And they're taking some eggs out of nests

43:17They take eggs and chicks

43:18And chicks as well

43:19Yeah

43:20It makes me very angry

43:22I've known some of these birds for 13-14 years

43:24It's their main aim in life is to have chicks and keep the species going

43:28And they just get cut off at the past they get cut off at day one eggs gone nothing

43:34George monitors around 60 peregrine nests here

43:38He rings and microchips the birds and takes DNA samples to keep a close eye on populations year on year

43:45Today George is checking to see if one of the females he monitors is on eggs

43:53It's not for the faint-hearted

43:56But he is an expert and importantly has a license to monitor the birds at close quarters

44:07And I'll be keeping a close eye on things from the top

44:15You can see immediately as George has abseiled down that she's got a little bit nervous and flown off the nest

44:23Gosh that is quite high

44:28Four eggs definitely

44:31Beautiful chestnut brown in colour

44:34And he is putting a reader around the nest and once George comes back up the female will fly back in sit on the nest again

44:42And we should be able to get a reading from her microchip which will tell us exactly who she is

44:47He's in and out in a matter of 30 seconds keeping disturbance to a minimum

44:53A great chance to get a look at this intimate time in a peregrine's life

45:02Four eggs George

45:03You have four outstanding eggs

45:05So we'll wait till they hatch see how many hatch see how many grow big and see how many fly

45:09So we keep counting them all the way through so there's about five visits a season

45:13So the work begins now really?

45:14Yeah

45:16With such regular monitoring George is able to inform the police when he suspects foul play at the nests

45:23And his intel has helped crack a huge peregrine theft case

45:28George has noticed the same eight nests in his patch suspiciously fail every year since 2017

45:36He shared this with the police who were able to gather enough evidence to raid the suspect's home

45:42DC's Stephen Irvin from the National Wildlife Crime Unit led the investigation

45:48We went into the living room and right in front of us there was two boxes that contained four young chicks

45:54And from there going through into another room we seen another three chicks and two eggs

46:01Thanks to the DNA database of wild peregrines that George has been contributing to

46:06The police were able to prove that all seven of the chicks had been stolen from the wild

46:13And they weren't the only ones

46:16We were able to identify 22 birds over over a three-year period

46:21If they were allowed to continue their criminal behaviour this could have ultimately led to the well peregrine falcon being wiped out in the south of scotland

46:30The culprits were timothy hall and his son lewis hall they made 110 000 pounds from selling the birds

46:38They both received community service orders and lewis was ordered to pay back 27 000 pounds of his profit

46:45Both were banned from keeping peregrine falcons for five years

46:50But sadly their conviction hasn't deterred others from committing this kind of crime

46:55The day before we filmed with George more eggs disappeared suspiciously from a local nest

47:01Prompting yet another police investigation

47:05But while the fight to protect peregrines is far from over there is some good news

47:11All seven of the chicks found during the raid were returned to wild foster nests by George

47:19All of them survived and are doing very well and one is actually breeding currently in the borgas really so you had three chicks last year

47:26That's nice good end to the story so there's no sign of slowing down or stopping no there's not

47:31I can't stop it now that I have to keep going until I stop moving it will continue

47:44Meg's ran me on her way home and she said she'd never met someone as passionate and as dedicated as George Smith

47:51He spent all of his life loads of his own money doing all of that work

47:55Hats off to George hats off to the national wildlife crime unit as well, but

48:01community service orders

48:04There is some good news though because look here are the chicks that you saw there that are hatched from those eggs

48:11And this is when they were briefly removed from the nest to have their rings put on

48:15And of course to have all of those biometric taken all of their dna samples you see that taking place here

48:21And I can tell you they were successfully put back into the nest and they fledged

48:27No one is going to get a community service order this year. That's fantastic isn't it?

48:32Top work George top work. Do you want some more good news? Yeah

48:35Yolo apparently is going to give us a live mammal. Come on Yolo got another sheep for us

48:42Yes, well, you know earlier on I got very excited showing you a live badger's bottom

48:49Well, while you were all enjoying the peregrine film we were watching this

48:54The two badgers came back in two of this year's cubs

48:59just cavorted around

49:02For about half a minute look chasing each other playing back and fall back and fall back and fall

49:08Isn't that superb? Badgers on demand as promised and okay?

49:15Okay, maybe they were about three minutes late, but live badgers

49:21Are we going to give that to him? No, no

49:24Three minutes late

49:26What score the winning goal in the World Cup final?

49:28Three minutes late

49:31Anyway, we've got a bit of a celebration because as you know, it's 20 years since spring watch started

49:37And and so we're celebrating some of the nest because you know many things have changed over those 20 years

49:43But what stays at the heart of spring watch are our nest cameras on our cast of characters on our nest

49:49So we've got a little nest here just to show you just how the cameras work

49:53So this would be a nest and then we've got the live camera there

49:58And i've got a joystick so i'm pretending i'm playing some sort of computer game here

50:02And then i can oh i need to go down a bit don't i

50:07Oh, oh it's it's not working is it not work. Oh, no, come on. What did I do?

50:13What have you done? What did I touch it? What did I do?

50:16No, no, it's not working

50:19It's not working. This is classic

50:21Your shoes. No, look, look. Oh, the light's coming on now. Is it is it remote?

50:26The light's coming on now

50:28You can see the camera moving anyway, but but we haven't got a picture

50:33Well, it's a good job that that doesn't happen on all our live nests, isn't it?

50:37But you get the general idea anyway

50:42Thank goodness for that, eh now in the past we had some uh cameras on pied flycatchers

50:47In fact, it was the second series that we ever did and here you can see the quality of the cameras is not

50:53What it is now so the highlights are blown out it's not terribly sharp and we were allowed to see things

50:58We've never seen before but not with the clarity that we get today so there on the right hand side of your screen is the pied flies

51:06Which are in that nest box and look at that so yes significant improvements in technology the cameras were a lot smaller

51:13Less obtrusive they're cheaper we can use more of them and they're equally more frequently in the hands of scientists that are able to learn

51:20A lot more a lot more quickly than people like michaela

51:25I didn't do anything. I just knew that was gonna happen

51:30I said let me do the camera bit

51:32That wasn't my fault. I think a thing came out of the back anyway chris asked a question right at the beginning of the show

51:38How many different species do you think that we've had in live nests go and give them the answer?

51:45The answer is a remarkable

51:48100 species on our live nest in 20 years

51:53Astonishing isn't it? That is incredible. What was the hundredth one?

51:56Tree Pippet. We're gonna gloss over that not the most glamorous at the end, but plenty of glamour before that

52:02And we're gonna say we're gonna set you a challenge to name everyone

52:06No, we're not really but you know over the years we have had some amazing memories

52:10So we're gonna go back and show you just some of them. Let's zoom back to

52:162005

52:17Swallows we had then jackdaws

52:20There's wrens 2007

52:22Weasel taking reed warblers and we're gonna stop on 2009 with these rather lovely lapwing chicks

52:29I mean if that one tumbling out of the nest

52:32They're precocial just just like we had with the curly chicks the other at the beginning of the series

52:38As soon as they come out of the egg, they're off. They're fluffy and they're off that year

52:43We were also very lucky. We had kestrel chicks in a nest box

52:47Obviously that kestrel needs to feed the chicks

52:51As it's heading towards the lapwings, it's being mobbed

52:54But it successfully dives down

53:00It's got a chick and it takes it back to the nest to feed the chicks

53:05Exactly the same as we saw earlier with our owl and our song crushes

53:10And there we are let's fast forward to this this was in us here

53:14It's water rail. I saw it dreaming. It's been forever in my dreams ever since and others i'm sure because of this moment

53:22Yes

53:23Look at this when you see the chicks together in the nest these fluffy i mean i'm going to say the word they're cute

53:31They're adorable

53:32Undeniably cute

53:33However

53:34We then went to minsmere and i mean

53:37These bitterns were a real treat and he light the water rail incredibly shy birds and the idea of filming them like this

53:44This is something that can really only be done with remote cameras

53:47I mean this is hardcore one of the chicks has died and the adult is swallowing it whole the chicks then tried to eat

53:53The eggshells that remained after they'd hatched there's such weird animals down in the reeds

53:59This was like a view back into the cretaceous and then look at that for a view on one of our cameras

54:05extraordinary extraordinary

54:07To be able to watch these birds and all of the intimacies of their private lives in close up boom boom

54:16for spring watch

54:19They were amazing birds to watch and then

54:222015 who could forget spineless side the stickleback but we're going to stop at 2016 minsmere as well

54:30And we had a green woodpecker nest we also had a family of stoats a gorgeous shot of the stoat there

54:37lots of kits lots of mouths to feed

54:40And the stoat proceeded to eat some of our cars went into the green woodpecker nest and came out with one of the chicks

54:49It actually went back for all of them to feed its hungry kits

54:54But this was what was astonishing is watching it pull that chick out

54:58I mean, it's the same size

55:00And then go down the tree frontwards with that incredibly muscular body

55:05And then we come closer to the recent past when we were at wild ken hill and we'd found some shell ducks in a burrow

55:14beneath the tree we'd seen the adults going in and out in and out in and out

55:19eventually

55:20the youngsters hatched they waited for all of them to hatch and then

55:25early evening they gathered around great excitement in the shell duck community

55:30And there they are

55:33the mother gets them together makes a cackling call and off they go and she led them

55:39was it 100 at least 150 meters wasn't it to water she kind of marked them didn't she amazing amazing stuff

55:47it's just

55:48really lovely isn't it looking back over all of the years and all those memories and those were just a few of them

55:54It's nice to reflect isn't it that's going to take us in for mindfulness moments

55:59We're reflecting not on past characters, but we're doing reflections on the water

56:24years of time

56:30we're very much of the littleiona

56:31But uh

56:32it's exhausting

56:35maker

56:36and

56:43we're

56:44not

56:47how

56:50you

56:52BIRDS CHIRP

57:22beautiful but sadly that's all we've got time for we will be back again tomorrow of course

57:31at eight o'clock we're going to be showing you the intimacies of the small blue butterfly what

57:37a creature look at that stunning stunning and i'm going to be enjoying mount stewart's beautiful

57:45swallows and here's something a bit different how does pollen help to solve a crime

57:52interesting stuff eh so that's all coming up tomorrow don't forget to keep your eyes on the

57:58live cameras on our website and on the iPlayer as well but for me and Chris we'll see you tomorrow

58:04at eight o'clock bye-bye for now bye-bye the Open University has created an online interactive hike

58:14where you can explore habitat changes that have taken place since Springwatch first aired to find

58:21it scan the QR code that's on your screen now or go to bbc.co.uk forward slash springwatch

58:27and follow the links to the Open University

58:30you

58:37The Ultimate Guide to Our Feathered Friends

59:07The Spring

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