#SIBCLive with Michaela Strachan – Episode 37

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning we are coming to you live from the new forest and south of the UK we've had to move pretty swiftly and from our usual location to hide out in the barn because well it's raining spit cries now it's very grave okay but it's quite good lots of areas in the UK at the moment really dry and so this bit of rain is very much welcome to help it's gonna realize is it gonna be lush the countryside it's not on very green are very large but then that little dry mini drought that we've had has been a bit tough normal wildflower seeds are coming up we are in the barn you might be wondering why I've got my hat on as we're not outside that's because I haven't brushed my hair today and that's typically why you'll see me wearing a hat through on screen watch and I've got a hat on it's not because I'm interested in people my head dry it's because I'm going downhill you own this city needs counting look it's just it I look like a scarecrow like a taps it scares you were meant to cut it over the weekend then yesterday you've not got the scissors out let's get back to those turbines on Wakefield's is evil because that is a sensational view of one of the world's most sensational birds of course absolutely beautiful views of them there this morning now incubating that clutch of eggs they just looks just thinking herons are so and we're really lucky because wheat field watch and listen some brilliant clips showing us all of the different types of courtship behavior it see these birds display now the first one is really interesting it's when the male bowels down who lowers his head he lifts his tail feathers like this and he calls the female in the first bed we're seeing that clip there at the male the second treatment the female thing comes in and she also bounced her head down and what a beautiful thing that is of course out and strengthening that bond between the two before they breathe and lay an egg but it's something that has to be before they can lay an egg well they do have there is that they do have to copulate but they also have to create that's great their necks and this is something you can see you in this behavior when they're hunkering down they move their wings like this they lower themselves down and they scrape a bowl and Peregrine's normally nest on the edge of cliff tops and things like that and often where there's no kind of real substrate they don't build a nest they don't bring in material so they have to make that bowl that cup shape and in in the ground there we are scraping away scraping away top work I tried that bowing and lifting my tail to try and attract the females and was arrested anyway another clip here and this is of the incubation process now both of the sexes take part in the incubation and data from Wakefield this year shows that the mayor has incubated today 102 times average 3.4 time today for one hour and 40 minutes giving a total of 171 hours it's not bad I'm afraid you can't - the female 548 hours and 26 minutes she has been sent those eggs and they are due to hatch we think or hopefully at some stage tomorrow or Thursday so fingers crossed that will be the case but you know the disparity there between the you know the male's incubation he's putting into the students no doubt about that and the females is a bit like the washing up rotor in the kitchen just over there it's not that age of telling you next put a post-it on the fridge so that we could know who's feeling the most washing up that was a mistake well was it because the data determines that the washing up is very definitely being done by the male of the species well that may be the case however I have my own secret place that of my name which dictates how many times he's made dinner and guess what the female the species is winning they're talking about this is where they're bringing food in to that nest in the platform the male providing for the females like he's not hanging around doing nothing he's busy out he's hunting for that female bringing in those food resources but of course she can be more successful in incubating the eggs yeah she doesn't have to get off um it keeps her body weight upper body fat levels up obviously but got that corset feedings been going on long before they played the youngest because her condition would determine how many eggs are laid and how well she can incubate them and ultimately therefore how many of them were having survives of course you're clinically important what's great about the webcams is that you get to see what what they're bringing in yeah and the parents are out there sampling all of the bird fauna and we've seen their little greed that was one of the Play or iTunes and red shame too one thing that we started first watching these urban Peregrine's with our cameras is that what people were seeing a lot of birds which couldn't possibly have been living in that area and we wondered where the Penguins were getting them from turned out you know birds were flying over the city they were using the lights of the city to go up and hunt them whilst the birds were migrating so we've learned a lot actually in about you know what is moving above our cities and let's see quints okay we are looking give me a bit of a body part as we are all day every day this week this one look at this now I would say what type of area of the body this is but I mean I think it's kind of obvious and I don't want to give it away from it because they whip across we're giving them too easy most people are getting this already we've got a little bit missing everything we're gonna make it harder okay I'm gonna get really nasty tomorrow we're gonna get really nasty I'm gonna show you the stuff particularly structure of the back of summer swallows retina or something right now I don't know we'll come up with so do you reckon as people know the answer to the quiz then do send it into our social media the answer at the end and yes there might be more do now we've got a fantastic film coming up now by a top of the filmmaker called Matthew or Matt Moran naram I met him a few months ago to do what his podcast he's a fantastic guy I gotta tell you he's foodie but he put in he's living in London and this story is his interaction with some foxes that he discovered when he was out with a wolf out on the walk with his girlfriend and he became obsessed with the foxes and he's got some astonishing photographs and some beautiful film of them now it took a bit more about that and what he's up to often watch this film to take a look at this I used to think the answer to getting great images of wildlife is to go abroad I've been really lucky and visited some beautiful countries with credible national parks and wilderness areas and I've had some amazing wildlife encounters but it's taken until now the age of 43 to realise I was wrong there are equally spectacular wildlife counters to be had on our doorsteps and over the past four years I've been photographing a family of foxes close to my home here in North London and I've had some of the best experiences of my life they all started with a chance encounter my partner likes to walk after dinner I'm never really in the mood I'd rather veg out but she's right it's good for digestion and we were walking along a street we'd never been down before turned a corner and saw these two foxes hanging out on this green and the backdrop was perfect beautiful unbroken terrace of Victorian housing so I ran back grabbed my cameras and that was really the beginning of this beautiful relationship the very first Fox I photograph was a vixen and I'm still photographing her today which is extraordinary given her urban foxes average lifespan is only 18 months she is the bravest and most beautiful Fox just this confidence about them it she was the subject of almost all my early photographs I was doing this for about six months going back night after night talking to the foxes in the hope that they would get familiar with me wouldn't see me as a threat that way I could get intimate portraits kind of stuff that I was looking for in the hope to start to build up a significant body of work I've always loved foxes so this was an opportunity for me to learn more about their behavior in the city so that I could then in turn educate people I wanted to show that these are animals just trying to survive like us any food shelter water and somewhere safe to bring up their young a year later I was really fortunate and I got access to an allotment close by where the foxes were living and that's when things really started to get exciting [Music] I was seeing Cubs play fighting their uncle and aunts interacting with each other from previous years and of course the Vixen this was her domain and following the family life and all the politics and trying to capture it all on camera has been a total joy so last summer the vixen was on her third litter and it was such a privilege and a wonderful experience to watch her bring them all up and get to see and photograph their different personalities and behavior [Music] of course there's also the reality that it's a tough life for a fox out there and many of the Cubs don't make it beyond just a few weeks [Music] foxes are divisive creatures I understand that but I feel it's my job as a visual storyteller to shed some light on the truth you hear people say but they did not my garden I said well that's because they're storing food they're not doing it to annoy you as far as a fox is concerned that's its territory and they're saving food for later for leaner times they sent mark each location Isle where they make such a racket at night I said well yeah that's because we make such a racket in the daytime imagine trying to be a fox sleeping in the middle of the day with all the noise going on in a busy city like London ah but they tear up my bins and leave mess over my doorstep well you need to do a better job of putting your rubbish away foxes an opportunistic animal it's gonna get those easy pickings if it can but will it eat my cat no way cats reign supreme in that battle you know looking at it from another angle what about the services they provide like keeping the rodent population in check you know I think that Fox is a great example of an animal that can spark interest in Natural History for a child or someone that doesn't have access to a wilderness area [Music] what is a predator why are they here what does it eat where does it live these are all great questions in learning more about the wildlife on our doorstep I think there's still a lot of work to be done to help people understand how to live alongside foxes after all they're here to stay so let's open up our minds the Fox has done this to great effect adapting and establishing itself in our towns and cities and there's still so much to learn about these enigmatic animals this is one of our last great - restaurant creditors we hunted everything else to extinction such as bears wolves Lynx this is an animal that has been persecuted its whole existence and is still managed to survive so let's get curious about the Fox and start sharing more positive stories about an animal we are very lucky to have living alongside us [Music] this year I was curious to see whether the Vixen have made it through another winter I saw what looked like the entrance to a den set up a trail cam and the footage showed a fox with five Cubs I couldn't believe it where was this fox the vixen and really on a fourth-round of Cubs astonishingly yes looking as strong and as healthy was the first time I saw her and took those first pictures four years ago so looks like he'll be in for another busy summer of Fox activity and I can't wait to see what the future holds for these little ones [Music] gorgeous amazing oh my god a beautiful story about some animals around the corner of your house you can just engage with you know like you said in that video there are a fantastic species aren't they because they're so adaptable they live in so many different environments we knew that there's approximate 150,000 of them living in our cities there is something that everyone can go out and get connected to you know and that female having her third litter which is house max said you know very unusual they don't live that long normally in our cities unfortunately a lot will get run down for obvious reasons and and they struggle sometimes with food only about 50% of the food that they eat when they're in our cities is or anthropogenic food it's human based food they're still taking 50% of natural foods that we take in the wild rodents birds fruits obviously all those sorts of things great stuff though and beautiful photography let's not show you this picture from his Hampstead hate foot you see this here great faces great photo of a great crested grebe in its young swimming across the pool in the heat with a swimmer behind it Matt is an exception top of that not going to look at this book Hampstead Heath it's got lots of fantastic photograph is a cameo a lot of work and Matt Matt also runs a great website and you can visit that he does these podcasts and I was very fortunate food one of those for him at Matthew Moran as I say it's about em I am calm and also check out his Instagram because most active so we have our life cam of the day and this one is a bit of the special one isn't it this is the life and loyal come on you can see the one chick there and hunkering down of course that time difference at the moment we've had to get there pre-record dark scene New Zealand says entire row ahead in New Zealand and these pictures are put up on the Cornell Lab all about bird sight that's where you can find them Beato platform itself as well and by the Department of course in New Zealand but I mean in who'd of thought you know the washing albatross kids like now obviously throughout the course of the day our night that's the time to be watching this net there's very good chance at the adults will come in and feed that youngster and when they do is spectacular it's worth believing you're like a hat website albatross it told me birds as well of course amazing scene well they're two types of one out of southern and northern brought out the clock which one this is they're quite difficult to separate when you see them flying around they are animals that circumnavigate the Antarctic continent looking for their food flying thousands of kilometers in search of that food and they have the ability to maximize their you know so minimize the the use of their energy with once they're flying about they spend most of their energy in any sorting taking off after that they use the thing called slope soaring which means that they can go 50 metres forwards or sometimes up to 70 meters forward the winds right every time they drop one meter so they're going up a few meters and then they're just drifting down and they do this to cover faster new isn't Southern Ocean and they have a tendon between this part of their wing and this part of their out of their wing so they sort click it into place like that so then they don't have any use any muscle strength to hold their wings open it was being held there by the largest wingspan in the world after range that is three point five meters the royal albatross the one that we're staying on this life span isn't far behind it the close second and at three meters but however you would weigh the birds actually on max the royal albatross weighs more we can't lose our next guest of being a bulkier bird they tell you I've never seen anyone that's concentrate so much child I think at the moment I'm not I've heard a rumor that she's jumping around to 1980s Jane Fonda work have seen it of course is one only Michaela Strachan looking very fit and healthy and sunny in south more increased water in just a minute but first of all can I tell you five weeks of lockdown here in Cape Town in South Africa pretty similar to yourselves the good news is they're relaxing it a little bit on Friday so on Friday we're allowed to go out exercise outdoors and the best thing which is made well I don't know a collective sigh of relief from South Africans is we can buy alcohol again Friday five weeks we haven't been able to buy any alcohol only from the supermarket so I know that my supermarket only sells wine but I'm happy with that because my stocks lived on tonight I've cost a little bit low back Chris I've gotta say I'm max you know I think this five weeks of lockdown has sent everyone a little bit doolally and a little bit more eccentric than they usually are and if you follow Chris on Twitter you'll know that every night at midnight he does his punk rock midnight tweets and Chris has got this incredible selection of punk rock seagulls and you can imagine immaculate all in alphabetical order in his drawer and I mean we all know that he loves punk rock music but I have never ever dancing chris fat jiggling around subtle movement that you're doing I mean I have in the 28 years I've known you I have never seen you dance all sing what is - she's gone completely nuts in locks is that our stocks of Chardonnay what is that that you're wearing there's my name Armstrong Hoff do you sleep in that it's at your pajamas no I just it's my indoor where I always have a sort of an outfit that I wear when I'm indoors I'd use when I first met Megan I used to have this wonderful pair the yellow shorts are like a mustard color they were really sick I think my mom actually burnt them they burned them they burned hands I wore them every time you didn't understand it asked aspects people like myself like to have something which is the side multiplied so when we go in you know or when I go in I put exactly the same trousers and the same top on as soon as I can they were falling apart you'd be worn in for about 10 years and maybe just I mean they would oh no while you have been singing away to the Sex Pistols as you say I've I've done a little clear out of my garage and know what I came across all these workout videos from the eighties so this is what I've been tweeting I've been tweeting about Jane Fonda Geri Halliwell did yoga there was even an ant the aterna did the Y plan said Chris I thought maybe you and I could do the really wild show workout spring watch workout but I am very disappointed because I did a charity zoom Jane Fonda workout on Sunday which I did tell you both about neither if you were there with your leg warmers and your bandanna neither of you were jumping about to Jane Fonda for charity that's all I'm saying I did it and a few people did join in but I have to be honest I did hurt my kilise and ended up that I could go and look in my garden for wildlife and be a bit calmer than the mad Jane forms a workout and look though I'm really excited by what I saw because look at this this is what I saw in my pond on Sunday it's a Western leopard tote now these are endangered so really excited to see it in my ponds I haven't had one in my pond I reckon for about five or six years they grow quite big about the size of your hands they're about 140 millimeters and they're really heavy frogs heavy-looking frogs and they've got that very distinctive leopard print sort of pattern and each one is unique to them to their toes did I say it was a pocket to toes it's that it's a left of Toad and they tend to be very secretive and you don't normally see until it gets to August so again I was really lucky to see it now August is when they start mating and they they head to ponds aren't usually from people's gardens and they head to plan to do this mass mating but because they've really taken over here in the Western Cape it's very built up they have to often cross road so many of them get run over and so it's brilliant because they have these volunteers that go out and do night patrols and help the toads across the road and they save hundreds of them that way and then when the middle toadlets come back from the the ponds where they migrated to back into people's gardens the volunteers also help the little toadlets across the gardens so as I say a really really great toad to have in my pond we're very excited about that now I know this is called the self isolating Birds Club so I'm not just going to show you the toad I'm going to show you a bird and I know if you've been watching over the last few weeks I've been on a couple of times and I've shown you some of the birds that come through the feeders in our Gardens and I think we've had we've had some birds a boo-boo cake robin beautiful mouse bird in the wax builds but the one I was really hoping to get was a sugar bird and for some reason we haven't had them in our garden this this season on neighbor however has had a lot sand and have a look at them because they're really beautiful and they they love these flowers and this one's a female and you can see it's got that tail the tail is on a female about 50% of the length of its body I must say note to myself what Tinder's that once the knock downs over and I can get out and go to the garden center I'm going to get loads of protein ism's platinum in my garden so the maze it doesn't always have all this of the birds and I can have one of them in my garden because they really are beautiful but it's the male's that really are astounding look at this picture because then here the tail can be 65% of its body length if not more I mean I think that one it's it's a ludicrous length factor and they then long and they're whisky and they're flowing and what I love is when you see them fly mean it's lovely to see them on the flag but when they fly they almost look like a kite you got this little bird with this long sort of feathers there's tail feathers behind them they're really glorious to watch and like that they the toads the leopard toast they also mate in our winter but I remember we're in the southern hemisphere so we're actually in our autumn now going into our winter so they'll start mating in the winter and then they do this wonderful display where they flick the tail that long tail over their backs and and they really sort of flap to stand away and flap their wings so I've got that display to look forward to and there's something else I wanted to show you that we get on our bird feeders as I say in the past I've shown you the birds but let me show you the mammal that we get now this is very familiar to everybody watching it's a grey squirrel what's so remarkable about that I who say well I think because they were introduced here they're not native to South Africa in the same way they're not native to the UK they're native to North America they were brought over from North America to the UK and then they were brought from the UK to South Africa and they were introduced by Cecil John Rhodes who's a very well-known person in South African history he was an he was a British guy was a British businessman and then he was an empire builder and then he became a South African politician and he brought them over so he had a little bit of Britain in his back garden and about the beginning of the 1900s and they very quickly spread throughout the peninsula and not everyone's favorite to see on their bird feed as I know in the UK being an introduced species they pushed out red squirrels they've out competed red squirrels which means we've only got a few populations of red squirrels which are our native squirrels left in the UK here we don't have the problem with most squirrels but obviously they can grey squirrels can be a threat to nesting birds because they could eat on their eggs so they're also a bit of a problem here as I say not everybody likes them God put my hands up there I enjoy watching them on my bird feeders so those are other grey squirrels but then got another visitor that's been around in the neighborhood and I know you're gonna love this who some eggs and because well I don't know I think it was a couple of weeks ago during lockdown one of our neighbors was alerted to visited by their what finer dog he started barking madly they called the rescue services in they went into their garden have a look at this the visitor went down a mouse hole the rescuer had to try and get it out eventually pulled it out to reveal a Cape Cobra now these are amazing snakes I absolutely love them but they are dangerous extremely dangerous snake to have in your garden they there their toxin is a neurotoxin so they bite and then the saliva will block the neurons and then there could be enough of the venom to actually kill you if you don't get anti-venom in you and within half an hour you can really struggle to breathe so very dangerous snake that one you can see it's quite small it's a juvenile and that they tend to be more aggressive than the adults because they're predated more so really not a snake that you want in your robbery a juvenile came over so even during the lockdown and a snake Wrangler is thought of as an emergency service so he came in he got it out didn't harm it and I'm pleased to say he took that snake away and released it into the mountain where it's wild and safe and he can live his life out that snake we actually get two venomous snakes that you can see in the garden here the other one is a pup idea now I I haven't seen either than in my garden but just a couple of days ago one of our neighbors did see one in his rock quarry so there we go there's a puff adder so they're really around in the neighborhood at the moment and they're cytotoxic they that venom will damage your muscles and tissues and it can cause enormous swelling also obviously it can kill you so great snakes love this mace they need respect though and if you see them then you need to keep your distance particularly if you have dogs or young children now as I say I've never I've lived here 30 years I've never seen either of those snakes in my garden I've seen a mole snake which is harmless so that's fine but I have seen a cape cobra when I was walking my little dog way out in the mountain a couple of months ago before knocked down and we were walking andrea was in front of me and suddenly she was sniffing in the bushes jumped that look completely alarmed and I thought that SARS walked up to have a look in the bush to see what she'd seen and there was this massive Cape Cobra and then I thought well I'm pretty sure she hadn't been bitten I thought what I know if she's been bitten so I had a good look she's a white dogs I had a good look on her fur couldn't see any bite marks she was absolutely fine she wasn't behaving weirdly took me ten minutes to get to my card and I phoned back just to be safe and I said good I know they said well not necessarily because that fangs can be so fine that you might not be able to see it on your dog particularly like my dog is long-haired I said but surely she would have reacted by then and said sometimes they don't start reacting until it's too late I said so should I bring her in yes bring her in how long have I got 20 minutes 20 minutes before your dog dies I'd already taken 15 minutes to get to the cart and phone the vets had five minutes to get there so now I'm panicking not to the vet checked over the dog was absolutely fine so as I say I mean I love snakes I really respect snakes but when you've got a small dog you've really got to look out for them and if you get them in your garden here in Cape Town it's a very good idea to get the best news in to remove them and put them somewhere where they're not going to come into contact with small dogs or small children it was pretty exciting though to have that that snake rescue in our neighborhood and I can finish my last clip that I'm going to show you is it's just one to make me laugh it's a spur that it's so cool because they had Spurs on the on the back of their legs and it's also called the Kate Franklin and then my partner Nick is a cameraman he's the one that was filming those lovely birds we saw earlier they say he also likes to think of himself as a bit of a doctor do nothing and he likes to try and chat to animals so before I play this play just explain what's getting happen you can see that the bird is birth Bell when the how's not moving it's be that the noisy here is Nick imitating it so he imitates it off camera and then you see this birth bowel answer they have a looking to listen I don't know I just wanted to show you that calls me what makes me laugh Chris's you know everyone is to say it's going a bit eccentric and I mean you've always been a bit exceptionally let me just say but everyone's going a bit more eccentric than usual you know you're doing your dog disease and you're singing and you're in your funny pajama top and and your slippers and I'm doing nineteen eighties workouts retro workouts and Nick's trying to have fat chat with Franklin so makes I want to know what you're doing and I also think it'd be great if the audience maybe let you know what kind of eccentric things that they're don't keep it clean guys keep it clean trick things particularly if it involves wildlife so anyway that's enough of the world like I'm getting finished off before I finish off before I go into this let me just say you know thanks very much for having me on stay safe stay stay healthy stay sane but now I get to take you on a little walk down memory lane again back to nice in fact in 1992 and haven't listened to this Chris I've listened now you and I will instantly recognize that hopefully a lot of our viewers will as well and and it's not uptown funk by Mark Ronson it sounds very similar it is of course the people for the reading okay a few post crosser [Music] [Applause] [Music] wasn't me oh that theme tune honestly it's I feel like it's the best thing to never create I just hear that and I just get athletes that do a little jiggle there has been a actually diplomat we put it ripped off by a number of other recordist subsequently to that absolutely you know I didn't remember all of those members of course with enormous clarity anyway thanks a distraction from her garden there in Cape Town good cause reveal ah so lots of people were getting this one right so well done to everyone and so on Facebook we've got Helen Tammy and these Hayley shall be Dave Sharon Terry pon Twitter Dave glitz Meg Matt little wild Verity YouTube Alyssia Paula Hannah Luke min and Shane northern Gannet northern Gannet the beak of a northern Gannet yeah see the whole kitchen out for 2/3 they're very distinctive lines across here distinctly bill of all the bills you know you could have gone to nuking that's quite obvious but the next I'd say firstly there are a couple of birthdays today so we'd like to wish Michelle Cunningham a very happy birthday if you're enjoying your day as well as Sarah Owens as well happy birthday to you and so a couple questions coming in I thought we could just do one or two perhaps and what is a birds beak actually movable it's well there's missing class at the place of it obviously the phone part the skull and then overlaying that sometimes you can have some bony plates and then on top of that you've got the the beak itself or the Coleman and the two-party own band or and it's actually made out them to it fairly similar to our fingernails like Perry the beak is continually growing and sometimes you'll see their beaks were too close or grown for something that the reason they haven't been growing out to be there and you often see sort of blue tips is very long built or starlings and they'll say often if it does continue to grow and keep birds in captivity and they're not using using their people they were doing the world directly have to trim them just like anything else trimming the pads they thought that and so one more question this is from Gwen garden singling Garden City and I noticed that birds are quieter this morning is it true that Birds hunkered down and sing less than the rain I think it is I mean I think they like a clear morning definitely I'm fair in mind also that they starting to sing for earlier so it could be that if you're waking up at the same time you've missed it because as we move now into the beginning of May which is the peak of dawn chorus period a new k-state will start singing earlier so I think yes there will be introduced but you've got a new alarm clock on Saturday and there's also a photo that we got sent in to our station don't Cubs Facebook great this was a photo of Ed Lynn will and Charlie from Southampton looking into their pond and noticing a few tadpoles so great work you guys keep looking out those differences that those tadpoles change their bodies and grow even more so keep some and send us your updates keep sending these in this is we're loving seeing coming up well tomorrow we've got Lindsay and we'll be on looking through the things that you've sent in and asking some questions and answering them as well of course got the fantastic world bottles that Andy rouse will be on and a Lizzy gun foot we'll be talking about cyber oscillating birding from indoors as well lots of live lessons for you out there busy daily earth Wednesday afternoon at 2 o'clock next night doing one for thinking as well so that's coming up I know it is what it needs one o'clock with winds Wednesday I tell you what this is not will get the calendar out and check out the check out diaries received a warning about nine o'clock just feel it [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Chris Packham

Views: 5,948

Rating: 4.965517 out of 5

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Id: -hyd8CM11Hk

Length: 45min 21sec (2721 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 28 2020