Original subtitles

CHIRPING

BUZZING

Across the British Isles, there are magical places.

Our pride and joy - our gardens.

LAUGHTER

Yet many of us are completely unaware of the wild world...

..right under our noses.

Amazingly, some British gardens are almost as diverse

as a tropical rainforest.

And when our backs are turned...

CHIRPING

..they come alive.

QUACKING

From the wilds of Scotland...

STAG GRUNTS

..to a metropolitan oasis.

In each episode, we will reveal the extraordinary dramas

playing out within a single garden.

EAGLE WHISTLES

Welcome to a hidden world right on our doorsteps.

Nestling in the heart of Cumbria...

..an idyllic country garden...

..cherished by owners Chris and Liz.

Ten years ago, we decided to leave the city

and actually live somewhere more rural.

We found this house and garden.

Actually, it was really the garden we fell in love with. It was.

Absolutely, yeah. And it has become a bit of an obsession.

Well, you normally find Liz in the greenhouse through here.

Then there are these really lovely dry stone walls.

My favourite place is the meadow, down here.

Then, down in the far corner there...

..is a really beautiful pond.

Chris and Liz do everything they can to encourage wildlife.

Every year, we like to move some of our tools out of our tool shed...

..to make way for the swallows when they return.

CHIRPING

We like to think of the garden as an ark.

And it's incredibly rich in wildlife.

But we know so little, still,

about the secret lives of the animals that live here.

One of the most secretive...

..is the field mouse.

MOUSE SQUEAKS

This brave little female may be only four months old,

but she's already looking for a mate.

Field mice are abundant in this garden.

The danger?

Garden predators.

A tawny owl has hearing ten times more sensitive than ours...

OWL SQUAWKS

..and he can detect the slightest sound.

But the mouse has her own sonic superpower.

GRASS RUSTLES

She listens out...

..for a secret song...

..inaudible to an owl.

But if we slow it right down...

..it's the ultrasonic serenade of a male mouse.

SQUEAKING

But her potential partner is on the other side...

..of a wide, featureless lawn.

To reach him, and get back safely...

..she has a special solution.

She creates a trail to signpost the way home.

Field mice are the only mammals, other than humans,

known to position objects as landmarks.

Impressive...

..for a brain the size of a pea.

SQUEAKING

She likes what she hears.

SQUEAKING

A fleeting romance.

Spotted!

FRANTIC SQUEAKING

Thanks to her signposts, safely home

and ready to produce her first litter.

Just as Liz and Chris hoped...

..a barn swallow.

Coming to the end of an epic 6,000-mile journey...

..from southern Africa.

In a remarkable feat of navigation,

he has finally reached the north of England.

SHEEP BLEAT

Of 25 million gardens in Britain,

he returns to the one where he was raised.

Home.

He's made this hazardous journey

to feast on insects that come with a British summer...

..and to try and raise a family.

The male returns first to prepare their nest.

Barn swallows mate for life...

..but the pair only come together to rear their young.

Other couples are already reuniting, after seven months apart.

But his partner is nowhere to be seen.

Time is not on his side.

Down at the bottom of the garden...

..after five months of overwintering in the compost heap...

..a more secretive creature emerges.

A palmate newt.

Barely the length of your little finger.

She is embarking on her own intrepid journey.

Her first step is to find a mate.

But their numbers are in decline.

In the last 50 years,

we have lost half of our rural ponds,

drained for farmland.

So garden ponds have never been so important.

She enters a secret world...

..full of boldly marked, flirtatious males.

Each trying to catch her eye...

..flexing their supersized feet...

..and wafting perfumes towards her.

Larger males may attract her attention...

..but one by one, they run out of air...

..until only one tiny dancer remains.

His smaller size enables him to absorb all the oxygen he needs,

just through his skin.

Once in a while, the underdog comes out on top.

Closer to home...

..another hidden romance spells trouble.

Mole-hills!

Less than a metre below the surface...

..a young male mole is frantically digging in search of a mate.

He can tunnel over 20 metres a day.

All that earth has to go somewhere!

He only stops to feed...

..and can consume half his body weight in worms in a single day.

But to find a female,

you sometimes need to go above and beyond.

He can barely see past the end of his nose...

..but that nose smells in stereo...

..and he can pinpoint a female's burrow from afar.

It's not a warm reception.

Female moles have unusually high levels of testosterone...

MOLES SQUEAK

..and that makes them highly aggressive.

SQUEAKING CONTINUES

Eventually, persistence prevails.

In pursuit of the perfect lawn...

..British gardeners kill thousands of moles every year.

Mole-hills do drive Liz mad...

..but she also knows that they create fertile soil for planting.

By late spring, the lonesome swallow's chances

of becoming a parent look increasingly slim.

Swallows only live for three or four years.

This may be his last chance to breed.

But fewer swallows are arriving each year,

as they face more unpredictable weather.

THUNDER CRACKS

Then...

CHIRPING

..a familiar sound.

After more than half a year apart...

..the long-distance couple...

..are reunited.

They have no time to waste.

Across the garden, the breeding season is in full swing.

The pond becomes the setting for a record-breaking romance.

To see it, you need to get into the weeds.

A male semaphore fly.

One of the 7,000 fly species found in the UK.

BUZZING

But this one has the most elaborate courtship display of all.

The ritual begins with four bursts of wing-waving a second.

Still, she is unimpressed.

Time to pull out all the stops.

In just a 25th of a second...

..he performs a lightning flip.

It is the fastest backflip in the insect world.

Such a grand display attracts unwanted attention.

A predatory dung fly, almost twice his size.

But the semaphore fly is fixated on the female.

Oh, well...

..plenty more flies in the pond.

Beneath the surface...

..the female palmate performs her own extraordinary act.

She delicately folds a leaf around each of her 100 eggs...

..to protect them until they hatch in three weeks' time.

Her mothering duties are complete.

As the romance of spring turns to the baby boom of early summer...

..a family of house sparrows leave the nest...

..hundreds of young bees harvest nectar and pollen...

..newly-hatched newts are growing up in the pond...

..and just a month after reuniting...

..the swallows have five hungry mouths to feed.

Astonishingly, each chick needs 1,000 insects every single day.

Surely, an impossible task!

Nationwide, flying insect numbers have crashed

due to pesticides, pollution and habitat loss.

Swallow numbers have almost halved in the last decade.

But here, next to a well-managed sheep farm,

the swallows can catch all they need.

And closer to home...

..Chris and Liz's garden meadow...

..is crowded with miniature life.

Even a small patch of grass, left untrimmed,

can support hundreds of species of insects.

For now, at least...

..the chicks have a chance.

Back at the dry stone wall...

..newborn field mice depend entirely on their mother

for the first three weeks of their lives.

She must now brave the daylight to find enough food.

This time, with no waymarks to guide her home.

From over 40 metres away, she has been spotted.

Kestrels are prolific daytime predators...

..catching up to eight rodents a day.

BUZZING

DRAMATIC MUSIC

Made it!

Mice have excellent memories...

..and she knows the greenhouse has a stash of food.

Here they are.

Seeds!

Packed with nutrients and energy.

But she can't afford to stay long.

She must feed her babies every few hours.

While Liz continues her planting,

another life and death mini-drama plays out right under her nose.

One of over 100 species of spider living in British gardens.

A zebra jumping spider.

He's smart...

..able to use a variety of techniques when hunting.

Spiders aren't everyone's cup of tea...

..but he eats insects...

..that would damage Liz's precious seedlings.

Garden pests.

Unlike other spiders, he doesn't use a web.

He actively hunts for prey.

And with eight eyes...

..he's good at finding it.

Six of them detect movement...

..while the two big front eyes focus on and identify lunch.

A miniature pest controller.

With the coast finally clear...

..the mouse desperately needs to get back to her young.

But the kestrel is still on the hunt.

FOREBODING MUSIC

Suddenly, something extraordinary happens.

The garden air force scrambles.

With newly-hatched chicks,

the swallows won't tolerate any threat.

As a single mum,

she has to keep taking enormous risks...

..to keep her pups alive.

And just two weeks later,

the youngsters are almost ready to leave the nest...

..which will allow mum to raise more babies

before the short summer ends.

At the peak of summer...

..the sheer variety of flowers in this garden

makes it a little slice of paradise...

..with more species of plant

than can be found in a patch of tropical rainforest.

Left untouched...

..the meadow hums with life.

At least 20 species of butterfly

are found in British gardens.

Each has a particular diet.

And we can help by growing nectar-rich flowers for the adults,

as well as the native plants their caterpillars will depend upon.

Even a patch of nettle and bramble will do!

The swallows are making the most of the sunny weather.

Incredibly, all five chicks have survived.

THUNDER CRACKS

But Cumbria is the wettest county in England.

RADIO: Looking at the picture in Cumbria, that's one of the places

that's seen lots of heavy rain today from our weather.

And in recent years, has been getting even wetter.

Grounded by the weather...

..flying insects...

..are suddenly three times harder to find.

So the swallows will have to work three times as hard.

CHICKS TWITTER

If the weather doesn't improve,

the chicks will die.

They may be exceptional parents, but facing a wet summer...

..can they keep their chicks alive?

While the swallows struggle to raise a single brood...

..the field mouse has reared her first litter...

..and is eager to get going with a second.

So she's following her ears to find another partner.

SQUEAKING

At every turn...

..predators are lurking...

..catching her offspring all over the garden.

For mice, survival is a numbers game.

Her strategy is to flood the garden with young...

..so that at least some...

..will have families of their own.

Soon, she'll be a mother again.

A damp night brings out some of our most destructive garden beasts.

As any country gardener knows,

slugs can decimate a veg patch overnight.

But help for the gardeners arrives unexpectedly.

A palmate newt...

..in search of food.

Surprisingly, newts spend most of the year on land.

Their slimy skin becomes rough and dry to conserve precious moisture.

Another key member of the pest control army.

By day, the meadow would seem an excellent place to hide.

ENGINE STARTS

DRAMATIC MUSIC

Phew!

Although, the newt isn't out of danger yet.

But Chris has chosen a wildlife-friendly method of mowing.

Traditional scything leaves plenty of wriggle-room.

The moment Chris leaves...

..real danger arrives.

DRAMATIC MUSIC

Pheasants.

Native to Asia,

but now released into our countryside on an industrial scale.

Over 30 million every year...

..eating vast numbers of insects, reptiles and amphibians every day.

The field mouse has another litter of pups.

Up until the end of autumn,

she will almost always be pregnant or have babies.

As many as six litters a year.

If just two of her offspring have young of their own,

her efforts will have been worthwhile.

While the mouse spreads her risk...

..Chris and Liz's swallows put all their eggs in one basket.

But the nest is empty.

The devoted parents tried their hardest...

..and, against all the odds...

..not one, not two...

..but all five chicks have fledged!

The parents still have work to do.

The yard is now a flight school for lessons with mum and dad.

They must master the air to catch their own food.

Oh, here it comes, here it comes! Yeah. Oh, brilliant!

Oh, look at that dive!

They are such fast fliers.

Cos they're here and then they're gone. Yeah.

It's like each year, as well,

you get a glimpse and then they're gone for the year.

Soon, the chicks will make their first epic journey...

..crossing continents and surviving storms.

Thanks to Chris and Liz and their country haven...

..with its old shed and bug-filled meadow,

..the swallows may well return next spring...

..to join the many other animals...

..which have made this garden their home.

When the production team first got in touch,

Liz and Chris were excited to have their garden secrets revealed.

When Chris called me to say that we might be having

some interest in filming the wildlife,

on one side, I was thinking, oh, that would be amazing.

I am very curious to know who's doing what.

But they were also nervous.

However, I was thinking, wouldn't it be typical

that if we say yes to this, the swallows won't come back?

Wildlife cameraman Lindsay McCrae has filmed on every continent,

but he's Cumbrian born and bred.

So this is the Lake District

and I grew up actually just over that hill.

So I feel like I know this area like the back of my hand.

The valley I grew up in was surrounded by small farms,

full of swallows' nests.

I just became obsessed with them growing up.

His mission now is to film a family of swallows in a country garden.

As it turned out, Liz's concern wasn't completely unfounded.

A male swallow has returned on time, but no sign of a female.

Everyone knows it's a mammoth journey these small birds

have to make and I've not only just read about it,

I've actually been to the Sahara and seen swallows

flying across the desert.

So I know what they've got to get through.

It's a journey that's getting harder and harder.

Over the last few years, we're definitely seeing fewer swallows.

I think it's the story everywhere, isn't it?

Even in my lifetime, I've... Oh, that's tragic, isn't it?

Yeah, noticed a huge, huge decline.

They are THE bird each spring, aren't they,

that everyone wants to see first? Yeah.

WHISPERING: Look, here it comes. Look!

They're such beautiful and characterful birds.

Hopefully, the female that is due back here knows where she's going.

While Lindsay follows the swallows' fortunes...

..camera woman Katie Mayhew is working the garden night shift.

Her mission is to cover the garden's tiniest inhabitants.

Down at the pond,

she's setting up a complicated system to get beneath the surface.

Right, idiot's checks.

Is the camera going to fall in the water?

OK, here we go. Shall we put it in the pond?

I've got no idea until I stick this lens into the water

what we're actually going to see.

It's going in! We're going in!

Gosh, I can't believe it. You can actually see something!

There's something there. There's a newt on... There's a newt!

There's a newt on the left. I see it. It is a newt!

An amazing first glimpse.

And over the next few days,

Katie captures all the newt behaviour she could possibly want.

Spring wears on, but still no sign of the female swallow.

Until...

There's one.

In fact, there's two.

And they've both dropped into the courtyard.

I wonder...

..if that's the female?

It is the female,

and with the pair back together, they'll soon have eggs.

Before they do, Lindsay needs to get a camera set up in the shed.

They're such good little birds to put cameras on

because they're so brave when they're on the nest.

Is that right? A lot of birds can obviously feel a little bit nervous.

When do you think they'll start laying, then?

Any minute! If there's feathers in the nest... Yeah?

..that means it's lined and ready to go.

And I reckon these feathers have just fallen on the floor

at the end of the season

and this pair has picked them back up again.

Well, it's a reason not to be too tidy!

It's now a waiting game.

A few weeks later and the chicks have hatched.

Five of them!

The parents are working overtime to feed them insects.

Lindsay struggles to keep up with the male swallow in flight.

Swallows fly at around 11 metres per second...

There's one.

Gone.

..rarely in a straight line.

Oh! Just a split second and they're gone.

But with the camera slowing down the action ten times...

..his skill and perseverance give Lindsay an insight

into the swallows' amazing aerobatics.

I know it sounds crazy, but I swear our female bird's easier to film.

The male is just so erratic in flight!

Those longer tail feathers are the reason.

Evolved to look good to a female,

they also enable extreme manoeuvrability.

THUNDER CRACKS

But when summer rains arrive and bugs hide away...

..the swallows face their biggest test yet.

I live here, so I know how bad the weather in the Lake District

can get, but this is ridiculous now!

These summers in the Lakes just seem to be getting

more and more unpredictable and it's life or death for the wildlife.

The thought of those chicks just sat in the nest

begging and nothing coming, it's just heartbreaking.

When the weather finally clears...

..Liz is desperate to see whether the chicks have survived.

Here's one.

There he goes. Oh, look.

It's going in. Will we be able to see it?

Oh, look at that!

I can see all their...

..like, little smiles.

Their faces, all opening up.

We now have one, two, three, four, five chicks. Yeah.

Very happy and tired, aren't they?

They are kind of like little monsters, I have to say! Mm.

SHE LAUGHS

Just two weeks later...

..all five chicks have fledged.

Working with all the people from the film crew

and all their specialities has really opened my eyes up...

..to just the vast variety of creatures

that are living in a garden.

I just hope that everyone that's got a small garden, a medium garden,

a bigger garden, a balcony...

..can just fall in love with them a bit more

and understand what a massive impact we could all have

if we just out a little bit of space

to provide for those bugs and birds and animals.

That to me is massively inspiring.

Next time, a woodland garden in a Welsh valley...

..where secretive and surprising wildlife...

..is attracted to a magical glade.

Discover the wildlife on your doorstep

with the Open University's Secret Garden interactive experience.

Scan the QR code on the screen now.

Or head to connect.open.ac.uk/secretgarden.

Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0