The Secret Life of Birds (2010) s01e04 Episode Script

A bird’s life in Wales
must be wonderful.
A life made in heaven.
Anything but.
Birds have to work from dawn
to dusk to find food and water.
If they don’t, they die.
They have to battle
with the elements too.
Survival, especially during
winter, is always difficult.
And during the spring,
they’re busy raising families.
They also have to put up with us
and find a way of surviving
in our artificial landscape.
In this series, Ill be
finding out what a birds life
is really like in Wales.
I’m going to be discovering the
vast array of species we have here.
And Ill be probing
into their secret lives.
A young swallow
is waiting to be fed.
It’ll be one of the last feeds
hell get from his parents
before he begins a mammoth journey
south to Africa.
He spent the Welsh summer
at this farm near Colwyn Bay.
A few weeks ago, he was
tucked away in a nest
with his brothers and sisters,
all vying for the biggest mouthful.
They grew up watching and
listening to human activity.
And other animals sharing
the accommodation.
Experience has taught the adults
that this is a safe environment.
Like many other urban birds,
these swallows have adapted
to live side by side with people.
In this programme, Ill be looking
at the different ways birds make
use of the landscape we create,
the structures we build,
and the materials we discard.
Birds are so much at home
in our towns in Wales,
we’ve got used to them.
We tend to ignore
each other largely.
These two male blackbirds
are fighting over a piece
of park in Newtown
and the dispute
is hardly noticed by anyone.
Early morning in
Roath Park, Cardiff.
A goldcrest is busy looking
for insects amongst the ivy.
Most of us don’t realise
that such a beautiful bird
can be a real towny.
Beside the main road
in the west end of Pwllheli,
a fantastic wildlife show
is provided by herons.
They’ve set up a nesting colony.
It's really unusual to be eye level
with nesting herons like this,
especially in the middle of a town.
Usually, they nest right at
the tops of the highest trees,
but here, they’re
low down in willows.
You can see how early it is.
The pussy willows are out.
They’re actually flowering now.
It's the beginning of April.
Some of these are feeding chicks,
which means they laid eggs
in the middle of February.
I like herons.
They’re kind of primordial birds.
They look as if they belong
1,000 years ago, not now.
They’ve got this prehistoric
look about them.
They’re such great birds to watch.
It's incredible to think
that huge birds like that,
they are four and a half feet tall,
they nest in trees.
I always expect them to nest in
amongst reed beds, but they don’t.
They nest high up
in trees like this.
Whats fantastic about these herons
is that you can watch
the whole breeding season
in full, uninterrupted view.
I particularly like
their courtship ritual.
Every time one of the adults
returns to the nest,
they greet each other.
And remember, you can see this view
right in the middle of Pwllheli.
The chicks are one of the most
dishevelled looking birds
you’ll ever see.
Herons have one of the longest
breeding periods of any Welsh bird.
This is probably one of the best
entertainments shows in Wales
and the performance lasts four
months between March and June.
The views are exceptional because
the herons are used to people.
But the best bird shows of all
are often even nearer home.
It's in the back garden.
This wonderful one is at
Pentrebeirdd near Welshpool.
It's a fabulous collection
of flowers, trees and shrubs.
A great setting for
people and birds alike.
When we usually think
about man-made landscapes,
we think about a habitat
that’s quite poor for birds.
But it’s not always the case.
You take gardens now.
There’s an apple tree here.
The birds will come in when
they’re ripe and eat the apples.
Flowers, shrubs and bushes.
They’ll attract the insects.
Food for the birds.
They’ll nest in there,
they’ll shelter in there.
Every garden, virtually,
has got a lawn
where they can feed
on earthworms and grubs.
And were talking here about birds
like blackbirds and robins,
who would have originally
been woodland birds.
But they’ve found in our gardens
a habitat that’s even better.
These woodland birds
have found the perfect place.
Their equivalent of paradise,
where they’ll find all they need
in one rich habitat.
And birds occasionally make clever
use of the plants that we grow.
These are the gardens of Gregynog
Hall near Newtown in Powys.
Foreign conifer trees have been
planted beside the main lawns.
Although trees like these have only
appeared on the Welsh landscape
during the past 200 years,
one local bird has already taken
advantage of the new opportunities
that these exotic plants provide.
This is a great tree. It's a
giant redwood or a Wellingtonia.
Exactly the same as
the big giant redwoods
you have over in California.
This is only about 150 years old,
so it’s got a long way to go yet.
One of the unique things about it
is this thick, soft bark here.
A common woodland bird takes
advantage of this bark
to roost overnight on these
freezing cold winter nights.
What it does, it digs a little hole,
tucks itself in there until the
early morning and then flies off.
But if we want to see it, we’ve
got to come back here after dark.
And this is it. It's a treecreeper.
The bird has dug himself a little
hole into that soft bark,
knowing full well hes going
to be insulated all around.
His face and his belly
and feet have gone right in
and all that sticks out
are his dense back feathers.
He also knows that any passing owl
is never going to see him
because those feathers blend in
perfectly with the surrounding bark.
And that’s one of the
coziest roosting sites
that any bird could possibly have.
Buildings provide an endless
variety of possibilities
for birdlife.
Jackdaws use chimneys as
alternative nesting sites
to rocky cliffs and tree holes.
During winter, chimneys also have
the added bonus of a source of heat.
You often see jackdaws
warming themselves up
on a cold winters day.
These are at Betws-y-Coed.
Pigeons nest in nooks and crannies.
These have discovered
useful gullies
in the walls of Raglan Castle.
Before people, wild pigeons
nested on coastal cliffs.
But holes in buildings
probably provide
better protection for their chicks.
All over Wales,
birds use buildings.
High up on the Black Mountain
in West Wales,
house martins are
assembling mud nests
under the eaves
of a waterworks building.
Naturally, they too would
build them on cliffs.
Here in the uplands, this
building presents the martins
with an ideal nesting site.
An opportunity that
otherwise wouldn’t exist
in this open landscape.
Derelict buildings also provide
very useful habitats for birds.
Because they’re usually
in a ruinous state,
they’re easy for
the birds to access
and there are plenty
of places to hide.
This building is on farmland
near Abergavenny.
There’s a lovely old barn here.
I love exploring old barns.
In a corner of the field,
abandoned, surrounded by nettles,
sheltered by trees, and one end
is completely covered in ivy.
Birds love places like this.
They go in there to shelter
from the wind, from the rain,
some from the sun even.
Some will nest in here too.
It's a great place to nest.
So many nooks and crannies.
But we associate old barns like
this with one bird in particular.
It's a barn owl.
They naturally nest in tree holes
and cracks in cliffs
and a few still do.
But this family
is using a nest box
which has been placed
especially for them in this ruin
to help sustain the population
of barn owls in Wales.
They’re being filmed with an
infrared camera in complete darkness
to avoid any disturbance to them.
There are five chicks
and at around eight weeks,
they’re just about old enough
to leave the nest.
It's clearly been a good
season for them, as all the
chicks are big and healthy.
There must have been
plenty of food around
in the surrounding countryside.
In a bad year, only the strongest
survive and are preferentially fed.
The weakest perish.
But all is well this year.
One of the parents, probably
the male, returns with a vole.
He gives it to the female,
who then takes it to the chicks.
For hundreds of years,
farmers have gone out of their way
to accommodate barn owls
as they help keep rodents
at bay on their land.
On Mumbles Pier,
across the bay from Swansea,
gulls have also taken advantage
of a nesting opportunity
provided by an
artificial structure.
These are kittiwakes
and they’re nesting on the pier
during late spring and summer.
There must be 100 or more of them.
I don’t know anywhere else in Wales
where you can get this close
to nesting kittiwakes.
Kittiwakes are usually shy birds,
but not Mumbles Pier
kittiwakes obviously!
If you look at it from the birds
point of view, this is a sea cliff.
It's isolated, it’s safe, the seas
around here are full of fish.
They can gather their nesting
material from the sea,
usually seaweed,
although one or two of these
have been inland
because I can see moss
on some of the nests.
If anything, this is actually
better than some of the
wild kittiwake colonies
I’ve seen in parts
of Pembrokeshire and Anglesey
because there, they’re exposed
to some storms and huge waves.
Here, you’re in Swansea Bay,
so you’re perfectly safe.
And what a backdrop! Look at that.
The city of Swansea over there.
If I was a kittiwake, this is
where Id come to nest, I think.
Kittiwakes first nested here
nearly 20 years ago.
They’ve gradually learned
that this is a safe spot.
And generations of chicks have
returned each year as adults,
increasing the population
that nest here.
They get their name, kittiwake,
from the constant "kitti-wake,
kitti-wake" call they make.
Over winter,
they’ll stay out at sea.
But during the spring,
they arrive to build their nests.
And use all sorts of material.
They only stop building once
the chicks have hatched,
presumably because with the
arrival of hungry youngsters,
they’ll have little time
to keep up with the nest work.
The male constantly feeds
the females to get them
in good condition to lay
and shell usually lay two eggs.
Compared to sea cliffs,
the pier offers added protection,
as the hustle and bustle
of visitors keeps predators,
such as foxes, away.
And with many people around,
those who would do them harm
are less likely to disturb them.
In the port of Holyhead
on Anglesey,
another sea bird
has taken advantage
of a landscape created by people.
It's a setting that
couldn’t be further
from our understanding
of a natural habitat.
This is a black guillemot.
They’re beautiful birds
and quite rare.
They usually nest in cracks
and crevices in sea cliffs.
And currently, there’s only one
natural colony in the whole of Wales
and that too is on Anglesey.
These, together with
a pair at Fishguard,
are the only black
guillemots in Wales
that nest in an
artificial landscape.
There are two pairs here
and they’re using holes in the
harbor wall as nesting sites.
The holes are deeper and safer
than those that they’ll
find on the coast.
The location is perfect for them.
There’s plenty of food in the
harbor to feed their chicks.
This one has caught
a small flatfish.
Birds make use of all sorts
of unnatural structures.
The artificial landscapes created
in our urban surroundings
are particularly great habitats
for birds who’ve hatched
and grown up in the town.
It's incredible just how adaptable
some of our wildlife is.
I’m right in the middle
of Cardiff here
and yet a pair of coots
have decided to nest here.
The nest is just against
this metal grill over there.
A pile of twigs with
a bit of plastic in it.
Look at this from a coots
point of view.
It's got everything they need.
It's got a lot of food.
I can see the vegetation in here.
There'd be a lot of invertebrates in
there as well. It's got a nest site.
And if there is any danger,
they can scuttle away
and hide underneath this vegetation
right along the banks.
In some ways, it’s even better
than a pond out in the
countryside for them.
The nest is big and they’re
still finishing it off.
Coots dive for their food.
They also go underwater to collect
some of the nesting material.
This is a perfect site for them.
Naturally, they would choose
an area of river, lake or pond
where there is an obstruction
caused by dead wood.
Or an area of water where
there’s deep plant growth
holding firm to the bottom.
Here, the anchor point
is provided by a metal grill,
which has become stuck
to the canal bed.
This plastic bottle may well be
used to provide extra support.
It’ll eventually be a giant stack
and they’ll defend it
very aggressively.
Although in the middle of town, the
nest is reasonably safe from people,
as few will venture into the water.
The only danger here
is from predatory birds,
such as gulls and herons.
When the female has laid her eggs,
and there could be as many as 10,
shell usually cover them
with weed to hide them.
Birds often use artificial
landscapes in ingenious ways.
This is the River Leri
near the Dyfi Estuary.
The river is crossed by the
Cambrian railway, which joins
Machynlleth with Aberystwyth.
Crows are a common sight
throughout Wales.
But these are resourceful crows.
They’ve discovered that the
railway track has many uses.
They collect mussels
at low tide on the estuary.
Their beaks, however,
are not the correct shape
to prize open the shells.
But they’ve worked out
a solution to the problem.
They drop the shells
on to the railway track.
This behaviour is not only
a measure of intelligence,
but also shows how birds
learn how to improvise
and use whatever we build.
A watching kestrel seems
impressed by the activity.
Pretty much everything
we build can be used
by one species of bird or another.
And birds also use
what we throw away.
It's 6:00am on a beautiful
June morning.
Cardiff is waking up.
Gulls have been active
since first light.
They’re patrolling the streets,
looking for food.
It's an activity that you’ll only
see on a big scale during summer.
In the Riverside and Grangetown
areas of the town, it’s bin day.
Today, all the scavenging
efforts of the gulls
will be concentrated here.
They’re mainly lesser
black-backed gulls.
There are also herring gulls
with light Grey wings.
Sometimes, a lesser black-back
is boss of the bag.
Sometimes, a herring gull.
But one gull always
seems to dominate others
once a bag is opened.
This herring gull is making this
clear with his warning display.
Gulls are not popular with the
council or with the residents.
They cause havoc on the streets.
Love them or hate them,
and it’s mostly hate,
all they’re doing is adapting
to an environment
that gives them what they want.
And bags of it.
And this is very important
late spring.
These gulls are eating
far more than they need.
And there’s a good reason
why they’re being so greedy.
It's the breeding season.
And the city also has excellent
gull nesting sites.
On an industrial site
near the center,
a flat roof is an ideal base,
a short flight away
from the feeding zones.
The gulls take off and land
with food for their chicks
from dawn to dusk.
With their gullets full,
they return and regurgitate
the food for their chicks.
There must be 50, maybe even 60
pairs of gulls on this flat roof.
They’re mainly
lesser black-backed gulls.
There are a few herring gulls
dotted here and there as well.
This flat roof is exactly
like an off-shore island, like
a beach on an off-shore island.
It's really safe.
No foxes, no cats, no dogs
can get up there.
They’re kind of like urban vultures.
These gulls in the middle of Cardiff
are really intelligent birds
because they know when it’s bin day
over in the middle of the city.
They’ll rip up your bins and
they’ll get the food out of that.
Each gull pair will have its own
small patch of space on this
artificial nesting site.
Although the chicks
are safe from predators,
they’re not safe from other gulls.
If they venture
from their own patch,
there’s always a possibility
that other adults will kill them.
Gulls are only in the city in big
numbers during the breeding season,
between April and August.
The rest of the time, they’ll go
elsewhere in search of food.
They don’t provide one of the most
beautiful views of the bird world,
but you have to admire
their intelligence.
Birds are very special
living creatures.
They can do many things
that we cant.
And because of the range of
habitats that we have in Wales,
we have a fantastic
range of species
which have become specialists
on their own patch.
In my next Secret Life of Birds,
Ill be looking at the various ways
different bird species have
adapted to the Welsh landscape
and how the birds of different
designs cope with life in Wales.