All language subtitles for Great British Winter 02

The British countryside in winter.

Cold, unforgiving, bleak.

As temperatures plunge,

the skies open, the winds rage
and the light fades early.

This winter we've seen
extremes of weather -

mild, wet and freezing cold.

Conditions that challenge
both wildlife

and people that try to survive here.

In this series, I'm going to uncover
a side to winter that few of us

get a chance to see.

I want to shine a light

on the bleakness of the British
countryside in winter

to reveal its harsh
but subtle beauty.

I'll be exploring five of our
most extreme winter landscapes.

I'll also be including some of
my BBC colleagues' experiences

over the years.

Together we'll reveal
what's really out there

during this challenging season.

Today I'm looking at
lakes and rivers,

and where better
than the Lake District.

I'll be meeting an expert
on Lake Windermere...

May I come over?

..a sheep farmer who actively
embraces the cold,

and a naturalist keen to show us
a lakeside winter spectacle.

Hey! Fantastic. Hooray!

Welcome to the Great British Winter.

The British Isles have
a magnificent range of landscapes,

from snow-capped mountains
to thick forests.

And, thanks to our famously wet
climate and landscape, vast networks

of rivers and lakes.

In the summer,
these freshwater bodies
sustain a rich variety of life.

However, in the winter
things seem very different.

At first glance they appear
lifeless - deserted.

But scratch the surface
and it's a very different story.

This is the Lake District.

The iconic scenery has been shaped
by 500 million years of ice ages

and geological processes,
but today it's a landscape defined
by the fells and by water.

Not only is it the largest
national park in England

but it's also the wettest,

with 30% more rainfall on average
so far this winter.

A huge annual rainfall -
of over three metres in parts -

is channelled off the mountains,
forming spectacular rivers

that feed the 14 major lakes
that give this area its name.

The scenery might be awe-inspiring,
but for those who live
and visit here,

the winter conditions
can be treacherous,

which is why it's vital
to have accurate,
up-to-date weather information.

This important, often dangerous
winter job falls to Jon Bennett.

His reports of weather conditions
on the top of the fells
could save your life.

Hi there! Hello. You all right?
Very well indeed. You? Good, yeah.

Between December and March,
Jon braves the elements

and climbs 3,000 feet to the top
of Helvellyn, one of the highest,

most popular mountains
in the region -

a job that must be done every day
during these challenging months.

You must burn a fair few calories
getting up to the top of Helvellyn.

It's a good excuse to eat a few
chocolate pizzas, I must admit!

I can't imagine anything more
revolting than chocolate pizza!

How long does it take to get up?

It varies from an hour and a half
to get up to two and a half hours,

depending on the conditions,
how many times you have to stop,

what the snow's like,
whether it's soft.

That grinds you down, this soft snow,
you know, plodding into it.

But when it's nice, crisp snow,
it can be quite quick.

What do you do
when you get to the summit?

What does your work involve?

Going up, we actually assess the snow
and ice conditions to see what
the snow's like - if it's soft,

if it's hard, if it's stable,
or most important, if it's unstable.

When we get to the summit,
we take wind measurements,
wind-chill, temperature.

So rather than being a forecast,
which is computer-generated,

this is something that
somebody's physically gone up

and had a look at it, so people
going up the next day

have a very good idea

of what conditions
they should be able to expect.

And we put all this information
on the website

when we get back down
to the Ranger base.

We're catering for a lot
of different people as well.

We cater for people who want the
snow, so it's important to say what
conditions are like for the snow,

but also it's equally important
that some people don't want to
go anywhere near the snow.

They don't have the experience,
they don't really want to do that,

they want to stay underneath the snow
level, then they can judge their
day accordingly, and plan their day.

How have you found this weather in
particular, this particular winter,

and how does that compare
to winters past for you?

At the moment it's extremely mild,
very unusually mild.

Normally - what we're walking on
here, we'd be either in snow here,

or certainly looking at snow
over there on Catstycam.

And literally just two weeks ago
there was lots of snow here,
so this is very unusual.

I've been doing the job
for five years and we've always
had snow at this time of year.

And sure enough,
only a week after I visited,

Helvellyn received over two feet
of snow at the summit.

The harsh winter conditions can make
Helvellyn a perilous climb -

but over the centuries
that hasn't stopped people
being attracted to it.

In 1805, a 21-year-old aspiring
artist set out with his dog

for the summit.

He was never seen alive again.

200 years after he disappeared,
David Dimbleby followed his trail.

It's believed Charles Gough tried
to reach the summit of Helvellyn

by climbing a precarious ridge
called Striding Edge.

The path is narrow and dangerous
with drops on either side.

People still get into trouble
up here, and it's here
that Gough's trail goes cold.

Look at this.
It's real, natural beauty.

I can't see anything.

Yes, you can. The frozen tarn. Snow.
This is as natural
as we get in England.

And it's really untamed
on a day like today.

You certainly feel that nature
predominates here, not man.

Absolutely. Nature tolerates us
in a place like this.

It's not a question of being
conquered by man or anything.

Nature lets you in on her terms.

I hope she lets us out.

I would say so.

Hello, little dog.

Charles Gough wasn't so lucky.

Three months after he disappeared,

a shepherd found his body at
the edge of a lake called Red Tarn.

He'd fallen to his death
from Striding Edge.

Gough's belongings - a sketchbook,
a pencil, and a Claude glass -

suggested he'd died in search
of the perfect view.

There was one mystery
about Gough's death.

When his body was found,
the bones were scattered all around,

whitened and with no flesh on them.

And beside him,
keeping guard, was his dog.

Now, some people said
the dog had been there,

faithful all those weeks,

just looking after
his master's dead body,

but others pointed out
that the dog was suspiciously fat.

Despite their dangers,
and tragic stories like Gough's,

people continue to be drawn to the
Lake District fells, even in winter,

when unpredictable weather
can lead many of them into trouble.

'And in the Lake District,

'seven hill-walkers were trapped in
driving snow for more than 12 hours.

'They were finally rescued this
morning. Four of them were injured.'

'..walkers had to be rescued from
the Lake District today
after getting stuck.'

Because of the high number
of people who come to
the Lake District to climb,

trained volunteers from
Mountain Rescue teams

are at hand 24 hours a day,
365 days a year.

Only last year, I met up with
a climber who experienced

the vital work they do first-hand.

And one man who was lucky to escape
with his life is Al Phizacklea.

Two years ago, he was at
the centre of his own rescue drama

after a climbing accident.

Today he is returning to the scene
for the first time.

So, Al, this is the spot, then.

Yeah, I was climbing up there.

I was very close to the top,
when apparently I fell off,

and I landed amongst
the boulders just here.

That's not a soft landing.
These are solid rocks.

Absolutely.

That's an enormous height.

Probably about 10-11 metres.

It's far enough to hurt.

That's an understatement. Al was
in a bad way with serious injuries.

Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue
gave him urgent medical attention

and organised an airlift.

Before I had this accident,

I used to think the Mountain Rescue
Team were just there

for rescuing people
who'd got lost in the hills

or just slipped on easy paths
or something like that.

But when it does happen to you,

when you have an accident
like I had here,

it just brings it home to you,
when you do need them,

and by God, you do need them. Yeah.

Because they are
a fantastic set of people.

And, you know, I...

I certainly owe a lot to them.

On average, the Lake District's
rescue teams

receive around 600 calls a year,

of which 25 to 30 are fatal.

And, before the 1930s,
if you fell, you were on your own.

There wasn't any kind of operation
here until 1933

when the Stretcher Committee
was formed

to carry people down the mountain
who'd got into trouble.

And only after
the Second World War in 1947

were more permanent
rescue teams established.

The first, at Lake Coniston,
in the 1950s.

We had a couple of stretchers,

various splints, rope, of course,

a big first-aid bag,

a few storm lanterns,

and that was about it.

We didn't even have proper footwear,
we went in clogs.

Norman remembers
the dramatic day in 1947

that saw the start of Coniston's
first ever rescue team.

It come a real bad snow and all the
quarry men said, "We'd better go.

"We don't want to
get stuck up here."

So off they went.

And Jim said, "Oh, I forgot
to knock that motor off."

And back he went to his motor.

The other guys waited, waited
and waited and he never came.

Anyway, and they went searching,
it was blanket, big snowdrifts.

And there's a chap just
poking into the snowdrift

and he felt something soft.

"Oh," he says,
"there's sheep in here."

It wasn't, it was Jim.

He was in a poor state,

but he got over it.

After that, they formed a body of men

in case something like that
happened again.

Over the last 60 years,
many people have owed their lives

to the invaluable work
of Mountain Rescue volunteers,

especially in winter.

But though it might be
treacherous for humans,

there is one resident of the fells

who can survive out here all year
round whatever the weather.

The Herdwick sheep.

First introduced by the Vikings,

they've evolved into
the hardiest hill sheep in Britain,

pregnant in the winter
so they can lamb in the spring.

Hi, Jimmy, how are you doing?

All right, and you? Yeah, good,
thanks. Can I come on in?

Yeah, get among it.

So these are your Herdwicks?
These are the Herdwicks, yeah.

What are you up to there, then?
Just trimming this one's hoof up,

cos it's got a bit long and
it needs sorting out. Oh, yeah.

Hopefully... Good-looking feet,
off you go. Ha-ha!

So what is it about Herdwicks

that make them so ideal
for this type of environment?

Well, it's just the fact

that they've been here for I don't
know how many hundred of years.

And it's the environment,

they're just so suitable
for the environment.

You know, they're hardy sheep,
they're good mothers.

You know, they don't take
a lot of looking after,
they look after themselves.

They'll... You know,
if they find some green grass,

they'll be in there
and be eating it.

They're just natural thrivers.

So they manage to find enough

during the winter months
out there for them to eat?

Yeah, they find enough to eat to
be able to keep themselves going

and also, keep that lamb inside them
going, ready for the spring.

It's a tough season, isn't it, to be
pregnant in? It's very tough, yeah.

And this fleece,
this is lovely and thick.

Yeah, the fleeces are
quite coarse and, you know,

they keep the snow
and the hail and the rain out.

What do they eat out there
in the middle of winter?

Merely styans and bracken
that you can see.

What's styans? I don't know
that one. Stones. Oh!

It's Cumbrian dialect for stone.
Oh, styans! Styans.

SHE LAUGHS

'Of course, they don't
literally eat stones,

'it's Cumbrian dialect meaning
they eat whatever they can find.'

They find what grasses there are
up there, you know,

what's left, basically.

This winter's been
really mild and really wet,

so I can well imagine
how they survive out there.

But what about when it's thick snow,
ice, blizzards, the works?

If it's really bad, you know,

like the last two or three winters,

we would maybe take some hay up
for them on the quad bike

and also we'd put a feed block out

that they come and nibble
and they get energy from that.

So that sort of keeps them going if
they can't find any grass, you know,

if it's like four foot of snow
or something stupid.

You'd think the mild start
to the winter we had earlier

would be an advantage
up here in the fells,

but for farmers like Jimmy
and his Herdwick sheep,

the reverse is true.

Because the summer has been so wet

and there's been
so much water around,

we've had a big problem
with the fluke, which is a worm,

it's like a flatworm which
burrows into the sheep's liver.

It causes, you know, untold damage
and eventually it can kill them.

So that's been a real problem

with it being so wet
all summer and all autumn,

and, obviously, the winter's wet as
well, so that's not helping. Yeah.

So, ordinarily, there'd have been
the nice cold temperatures

and that just killed them off.
It doesn't kill them all off,

but it'll kill, you know, a
percentage of them off, yeah. Yeah.

And it lowers the burden
of the worm. Yeah.

You could do with a bit of
a cold snap, really.

We need a cold snap,
that's exactly what we need, yeah.

-14 or something,
that would do the job.

Extreme cold weather
has its benefits,

but also its downfalls.

Farming up here in the winter
is tough,

but it's not much easier
elsewhere in the country.

And when the snow hits,

there's a whole other
set of challenges to face,

as Cotswold farmer Adam Henson
knows all too well.

Snow like we had
at the beginning of the year

and the massive snow dump three
years ago in the South of England

created a lot of extra work
for farmers like Adam.

One of the major problems in this
weather for livestock is water.

Frozen.

The sheep are OK,

they can just lick snow
and get enough moisture from that,

but the pigs and the cattle
need to drink.

These conditions are pretty unusual.

It's about -10 at the moment.

Colder in Britain
than it is in parts of Russia.

So it just means you just have
lots of extra jobs,

you don't usually have to
cart water to things.

Right.

'We're coping pretty well, but the
snow's been far worse for others.

'In Scotland, the sheer
weight of snowfall

'has caused barns to collapse,
trapping animals,

'and dairy farmers
have had to throw away milk,

'because the tankers couldn't
make it up the frozen farm tracks.'

I feed these pigs on this
concrete pad and the powder,

so I've just got to
clear it off a bit.

HE CALLS THE PIGS OVER

Pigs are really hardy.

They'll live out in these pig arks,
you know.

We've got a wooden hut there
and then just arks of tin,

fill them with straw
and they just lie out in it.

They're absolutely fine,
particularly these Iron Age ones,

they look like a cross
between a wild boar.

They've got such a thick coat.

Whereas the Gloucester Old Spots
are a little bit softer,

haven't got quite as much hair, and
they were all tucked up in their hut.

'The pigs are as happy
as they can be,

'but there's plenty more animals
to check on yet.

'Next is the sheep.

'They may be hardy,
but it's really extreme weather,

'and I want to see that they're OK.

'It's a chance for the dogs
to have a bit of a run-around too.'

So these are
our primitive ewes, really.

This is a little North Ronaldsay
there, there's two of them there,

and a Castlemilk Moorit next to it.

All of these ewes
are heavily in lamb now,

they'll be lambing in April.

And you can see the North Ronaldsay,

she's got icicles
and snow on her back.

It's cos her body warmth
is staying under her wool,

not melting the snow on her back.

All these ewes will be lambing
outside in this field,

so hopefully by April
the snow would have gone.

'These sheep have a natural instinct
to dig for the grass,

'which they know
lies beneath the snow.'

Under here is my winter barley.

Marisota is the variety
that I'm growing for making beer.

And, when it's underneath snow
like this,

although the ground is frozen,

it's actually fairly well insulated.

It's better off under the snow
than being exposed and frosted.

Because these leaves
would break off then.

It's actually sitting
under here reasonably happily.

'Even in these harsh conditions,

'growers have to
harvest winter veg.

'Not easy with the ground frozen.

'Next job is the cattle troughs.

'I've had a call to say
the water supply pipe is frozen

'and that's something I need
to put right straight away.'

They've managed to
dig a hole in the ice.

What you've got to do is take
the blocks of ice out of the water.

Otherwise, it just freezes up
pretty quick.

I'll get the gas.

There we go.

So whether it's Adam's
snowy Cotswold fields

or Jimmy's wetter fells,

this is one of the most challenging
seasons if you work on the land.

Winter is not just
a busy time for farmers,

here in the Lake District

visitors can number
15 million a year,

most of them treading the paths
in the summer

and that can cause
some huge problems.

Popular paths, such as this one,

leading to the spectacular
Aira Force waterfall,

take a particularly hard battering.

In winter, it falls to people
like John Pring and his team

to repair some of
the summer's damage.

And it's no small undertaking.

How are you doing, John? I'm fine,
how are you? Good, thank you.

This is looking terribly industrious
for a busy winter's day.

It is, yes.
Would you like to help us?

SHE CHUCKLES

I've got a shovel,
I might as well, hey.

So what's involved
in repairing paths?

This particular path, Aira Force,
is very, very popular.

And has become very eroded
over the years.

You can see the old line of the path
there as it ran up the bank here.

Yeah. And so, it was
too close to the edge,

too many visitors falling in...
off the cliff face,

so we tried to remove it
and move it inland here.

And do you always use stone
as the materials for the paths?

It can either be gravel or stone,

depending on what
suits the path best.

This is a countryside location,

so natural stone is better.

Yeah, absolutely.

How do you get the materials here?

It's not particularly accessible,
is it?

No, with this particular site here,

you can't get very much
in the way of machinery,

so materials have to
come in by helicopter.

Just for this job,
we had 80 bags of gravel and rocks

delivered by helicopter,
which took half a day.

In winter, this is when we can get
the bigger, practical jobs done.

So this is when
we do jobs like this.

So the hardest work happens
during the winter months?

Yes, indeed, indeed, indeed.

It's just when it's a bit quieter
and a bit easier to get on.

And have you got a deadline
when you have to have it finished,

everyone starts piling
back into the lakes?

First half-term in February

is when we like to try
and get things sorted by. Right.

And certainly by Easter,
at the very latest.

'I can't help but be impressed

'by the commitment of all
the volunteers working here,

'who put in so much
time and effort

'to help preserve the Lake
District's outstanding beauty.'

The landscape here is stunning,

and it's easy to see why
it's inspired so many people.

Perhaps most famously,
at the turn of the last century,

William Wordsworth, as I found out

when I came to the Lake District
back in 2011.

"All hail, ye mountains!

"Hail thou morning light!

"Better to breathe at large
On this clear height

"Than toil in needless sleep
From dream to dream:

"Pure flow the verse,
Pure, vigorous, free and bright,

"For Duddon, long-loved Duddon,
Is my theme."

It is one of 34 sonnets

that Wordsworth wrote
about the River Duddon.

And he's well-know for writing about
the whole of the Lake District.

There was something about this
valley and this river in particular

that seemed to have
a special place in his heart.

'He called the Duddon
his favourite river.

'But why did it mean
so much to him?'

The Lake District is clearly
such a good-looking landscape

that it's easy to understand why
Wordsworth was so inspired by it,

but why did he seem so particularly
taken with the Duddon Valley?

It's a place he knew
when he was a boy.

We know that he came fishing here.

He came back many times in his life.

And, I think for Wordsworth,
it had the natural landscape,

it had the remoteness,
it had settlements, it had history.

And it has a way of
inspiring the imagination.

'But the Duddon sonnets weren't just
some of his most personal works,

'they would also revitalise
his literary career.'

Up until this point,

Wordsworth had been treated
badly by the critics,

really quite severely
in certain circumstances.

And he was pleased
with the reception
from the critics this time.

He was 50 years old,

this was the first real
universal praise he'd received.

And it did encouraged him then

to republish most of his poetry
later in the same year.

"For, backward, Duddon!
As I cast my eyes

"I see what was and is
And will abide;

"Still glides the stream,
And shall for ever glide;

"The form remains,
The function never dies."

'Our rivers in winter
have their own unique beauty,

'but there's a lot more going on
in them than first meets the eye.'

It's during this season
in rivers like these

that salmon begin their lives.

But, at just a few months old,
they're swept out to sea.

After a few years in the open ocean,

they are ready to start
their epic journey

back to the rivers
where they were born.

The reason - to breed.

It's carefully timed so
they arrive at the start of winter,

when the cold,
well-oxygenated water

provides the perfect conditions
for incubation.

They risk life and limb to get here,

battling uphill against the flow
every step of the way.

And it's only the memory of the
river's taste that leads them there.

They don't eat or rest until
they've got to their birthplace,

if they haven't died trying.

The ones that make it here adopt
their breeding colours - a rich red.

And males acquire hooked jaws,

because their battle is now
against each other.

Females turn their tails
from swimming

to the task of digging a nest.

Males focus on the job they've
come here to do - wooing a mate.

Once they've spawned,
the adults' job is over.

The rivers in winter provide

not only the perfect temperature
for incubation,

they also flow fast enough
to prevent a build-up of silt,

which would otherwise
bury the eggs alive.

From now on, the cool, fast river
will look after the eggs

until they hatch in April.

For the adults,
it's the end of the road.

Exhausted from their efforts,

for most of them, this is
the last journey they'll ever make.

Salmon can be found
throughout the UK,

but a close relative,
the Arctic char,

is one of the rarest fish
in Britain,

found only in cold, deep lakes
like this one.

'It was during the Ice Age,
12,000 years ago,

'when the ice melted, that some was
left trapped between the valleys,

'and lakes like Windermere
were formed.'

With such a wealth of history
contained in the muddy lake bed,

it's no surprise that researchers
have been studying the lakes' health

since the 1930s.

'And now, the corer
is just about to go.

'Compressed air fires the coring tube
deep into the mud.

'And up it comes.

'A tube full of Windermere history.'

And records have been continued
ever since.

Dr Ian Winfield, from the
Centre For Ecology And Hydrology,

has been studying this lake
for the past ten years.

Hi, Ian. Hi. Nice to meet you.

Welcome aboard. May I come over? Yes.

Oh, there we go.
As elegantly as I can.

'Winter is a quiet time on the lake,

'with cold temperatures and little
food forcing fish to become slow

'and close to hibernation.

'But one fish, the lakes'
longest living resident,

'doesn't just make it
through the winter months,

'it actually depends on cold
temperatures for its survival -

'the Arctic char.'

So, Ian, where are
the Arctic char now?

They're out in the main body
of Windermere. So they're not
at the edges,

they spend almost all of their
life out in the deep water.

And the way we find out exactly where
they are is by using this equipment.

How does this work? How does
this tell you where they are?

This is an echo sounder,

so we use sound to see
where the fish are, if you like.

So, the part in the water sends out
a stream of sound into the water.

And that produces echoes of targets.

We record those echoes,
then we can look at them

very precisely in the laboratory
and count which are fish

and which are things at the bottom
of the lake or plants and so on.

Are you even able to tell
which are Arctic char?

We could tell the size of the fish.

The bigger the fish,
the stronger the echo. I see.

But we can't go directly
to species yet,

so we do do some netting to determine
the different species, as well.

So, what is this telling you?

This is showing a real-time display
of what's underneath the boat,

so if you look at this picture here,
this echo-gram,

this is a moving
display of the water column.

And the thick green line is
the bottom of the lake.

And then these marks above it,
these are individual fish. Ah, OK.

So at the moment,

we're at the depth of about 46
metres down to the bottom.

Here, it's quite a soft,
muddy bottom, and so we can actually

see individual fish lying
just above the bottom of the lake.

And they're likely to be the char?

These are likely to be individual
char, yeah. Fantastic!

Why are the char
sitting at the bottom of the lake?

Well, the char spend almost
all their life out in the open

water of the lake,
and to some extent, they will move up

and down, depending on where the
zooplankton is

and the time of the day.

As far as the char are concerned,
it doesn't matter greatly to them

about what kind of depth
they are, cos at this time of year,

the temperature is the same
all around.

Ah, OK. During the summertime,
it may get too warm for them,

right up near the surface.

So this temperature at the bottom
of the lake stays consistent

throughout the year?

Pretty much consistent, yeah.
I can show you here.

These are measurements from last
year. Right.

So, this is 2012, going
through the year.

So, this is January, February time.
This is the temperature here.

And this time last year,

the temperature was about five
or six degrees.

And it's something similar to
that at the moment.

The blue line's the top of the lake,

and the red line is the very
deepest point of the lake.

And the difference is
quite substantial.
The temperature's quite high there.

As we go through the summer,
we can see the surface warms up

to something like 20 degrees,
in a good summer. Yup.

But at the same time, at depth,
the water stays really quite cool

and gets to about six
or seven degrees.

This would be too
warm for Arctic char. Right.

This is absolutely fine for them,

so they spend a lot of time moving
up between the different parts.

And as they lay their eggs
in the shallows,

if they were to do it the wrong time
of year, this would be far too hot?

Exactly, yeah.

And in fact, once you
get above five degrees or so,

it's getting
warm for an Arctic char egg.

Wow, so 18 is just way too high?

Yeah, the eggs would just
die in a matter of minutes

if they were into
this kind of area.

'By monitoring the population
of Arctic char through

'hydroacoustics and netting,
as well as documenting the lake's

'oxygen levels, temperature,
and plankton, the last ten years of

'research has begun to build up
a picture

'of the conditions in Windermere.'

So, how are the winters changing
here? Well, they're changing.

They're becoming much more variable,
as they are in many parts of the UK.

You can see this winter is
relatively mild.

And we're really at the limits
of what the Arctic char eggs can

stand in terms of temperature.

So if it gets much warmer,

the char will really have a
problem in reproducing.

So we could potentially see them
disappearing altogether
from the lake,

if temperatures warm up that much?
If temperatures continue to carry on,

I think the eggs are at the most
vulnerable stage.

'Since Ian's research began
in the 1990s, it's estimated that

'Arctic char populations have
declined by 60%.

'To lose the Arctic char from the
Lake District would mean losing

'part of our country's natural
history for ever.

'Even if our British winter feels
pretty chilly to us right now,

'there have been much colder
ones on record.

'And as well as scientific research,

'there's anecdotal
evidence to prove it.

'The last time that Windermere froze
was back in 1962,

'a winter known as the "big freeze"
that turned lakes here

'and across Britain into adventure
playgrounds.'

'At Ruislip, the water skiers manage
to adapt themselves

'to the new conditions.

'With a car instead of a motor boat
to do the towing,

'a new sport was born.

'A pointless one, but new.'

'It is also perfect
weather for another,

'more Orthodox winter sport,
ice yachting.'

'On the East Coast of Britain,
freezing winters were once

'so commonplace that a particular
type of skating in the Fens became

'a regular British tradition that
dates back 250 years.

'Three years ago, Katie Knapman
visited the Fens to witness this

'age-old sport first-hand.'

It's speedy...

..it's slick...

..and, although you may not think
it,

it's a sport in which Britain
once reigned supreme.

'It's speed skating,
but maybe not as you know it.

'This is the original version,
Fen skating.

'And it's been happening all over
East Anglia for hundreds of years.

'Championship races were regularly
held on the Fens,

'but milder winters mean
they rarely happen these days.

'The big freeze of 1962-63 was one
of the best winters for Fen skating

'since the War.

'And this year looks like being
the first time the championships

'have been held for 13 years.

'Today is practice day for some,
but not for others.

'Still, the odd tumble doesn't
put people off.'

I actually learnt to skate
on Bury Fen, some 45, 50 years ago.

And I've been coming every time
there's been any ice since.

I've now got my two children here,
and they're skating around,

bringing the sledge.

Yeah, it's a cold day out! But nice.

'Fen skating has a rich tradition.

'To find out more about it, I'm off
to the nearby Norris Museum to

'meet a man who knows more than
most.'

So, Bob, this is one of the skates
that the original Fen skaters

would have used?

Certainly, this goes right back
to Victorian times,

the 19th century, you know,
using skates like this back then,

with the wooden body,
what they call the footstock,

there's the metal blade with
the curved prow on the front cos

we're not skating on smooth,
indoor ice like the skating rinks.

It's outdoor ice with humps
and bumps and twigs

and things frozen into the ice.

So the prow means you can ride nice
and smoothly over the humps

and bumps in the ice.

So you've got to have
this on an outdoor skate.

How did the competitive Fen skating
come about? I think it's natural.

The Fen people,
like everybody else, I suppose,

have always been naturally
competitive, anyway.

We know that skates with
metal blades,

like the one you've got there,

were in the Fens as far back as
the 1660s.

And the first skating race we've got
a record of took place in 1763.

So, almost 250 years ago.

So, it's a very old tradition in
this part of the world.

So, who were the superstars
of the sport?

They were well-known
Fen skating champions,

all of whom had nicknames.

So Turkey Smart. Turkey Smart?

He was the big skatesman one always
hears of. A great name!

So, he more or less invented
the modern style of speed skating,

where skaters...

They bend over forwards, don't they?
Yeah. A skater going forward.

A bit of that, isn't it? Exactly!
You've got it! That's right.

You haven't seen me on the ice!
Very, very convincing imitation.

Now, Turkey Smart invented that.

They thought he looked
like a gobbling Norfolk turkey, with

the head stuck out forward, clucking
away, and the arms going like wings.

So they called him
Turkey Smart. Very good!

But when he won all the races,
and became the Fen skating champion,

they copied his style, and that's
still being used nowadays.

He was indeed smart. Oh, yes.
Bit like the wind.

Smart by name, smart by nature.
That's right.

'With a good dose of British
eccentricity and imagination,

'there's no end to the enjoyment

'that our frozen countryside
can provide.'

But it's not just intrepid skaters
who have to contend with the ice.

In the winter, ducks can often be
seen making their way frozen lakes

and ponds,
often with a lot more grace than us!

Chris Packham explains exactly how
they do it.

You know, one question I frequently
get asked about birds is how

do species like these ducks manage to
stand on the ice without their feet

melting it and them falling through,
or freezing and sticking to it?

Well, if you can take
a couple of minutes of geekism,

I can explain why.

Now, first things first, their feet
are very different than ours.

They're not fleshy.

They're mainly made up of bone,
of tendon,

and they're covered with scales,
which are dead tissue.

They've also got very few
nerves in those feet,

so they don't actually feel
the cold as much as we would.

But they do stand on it,
and they do sleep on it,

standing in one
place for a long time.

And they've managed this,
the whole process,

by having a biological
counter-current flow heat exchanger.

It relies on a remarkable network of
blood vessels called rete mirabile.

Basically, they cool the warm blood
coming from the heart,

down through the arteries,

by exchanging heat with the cold
blood, which is coming back up.

Now, this means that the cold
blood is pre-warmed,

so it doesn't shock their system
and their metabolism,

and the warm blood going down to
the feet is pre-cooled to pretty

much ambient temperature,
which is just above freezing.

Therefore,
their feet don't melt the ice

and they don't have the embarrassment
of falling through them.

And one last thing.

How is it that they don't
stick to the ice

when they're standing
there for a long time?

Or why is it that birds,
when they're landing on metal

perches in the winter,
don't stick to those, either?

They have dry feet.
Their feet don't sweat.

And with no moisture,
there's nothing there to freeze,

and therefore, there's nothing there
to stick. So there you go.

That's how they do it.
It works for them and...

..not me!

It's not just the fish and fowl who
make the most of the rivers

and lakes at this
time of year, either.

There are also millions of insects
that thrive here during the winter.

'While terrestrial insects die off
or hibernate over winter,

'this is the time of year that
aquatic invertebrates thrive.

'Entomologist Dr Ian Wallace has
been studying the Lake District's

'smaller beasts for 40 years.

'He's going to show me what's going
on in the rivers today.'

Right, Ian. Let's do a bit of field
work! It's been too long for me!

Right, OK.

Kick sampling, which is making
use of the fact that the water

current will carry anything which you
dislodge into the net.

So if I stand the net there,
then you kick. I'm doing my kicking.

It's so strange, isn't it?

Especially on a day like today,
in the middle of winter,

it's hard to imagine that there is
so much life.

Oh, yes. With the vertebrates,
particularly, you think,

"Oh, there can't be anything."
There's a lot, isn't there?

Yes, there is. Right, shall we have a
little look at what's in there?

Look at that! Oh, juicy!

You've done fairly well,
Ellie, for somebody who's...

The fact is, you've done very well.
Well, thank you very much.

Right, Ellie.
Let's see what you found.

Most of the creatures here are doing
well, because winter is the time

when there are dead leaves,
which have fallen from the trees,

into the streams.

And dead leaves are a major
food source.

For example, these leaves here,
if you look at that one,

it's been turned into...

Oh, wow! ..A lace curtain! Oh, yeah!

And that's things
such as the freshwater shrimps,

but also, caddisflies have eaten
the leaves completely. Goodness!

Yeah, they have.
What else have we got in here?

We've got this caddis larva.

Now, that's one of the species which
is responsible for turning

the leaves into skeletons.

This is very easy to miss, isn't it?

'For this particular insect,
leaves are not just food,

'they're also cleverly
used for protection.'

It's made its case
out of pieces of dead leaf

and sticks and some small stones.

And it's camouflaged,

so that it's protected from fish or
birds looking for it.

That's fantastic, isn't it? So it'll
be growing through the winter?

Through the winter, yes.
It's almost fully grown, that, now.

It's such a perfect shape.

How do they make something
so uniform like that?

They cut tiny little pieces of leaf,
which they then join together.

They make silk, and they use that to
glue the pieces together.

Do they vary much? They do, yes.

Different species make
different cases.

Now, that one there has concentrated
on using sand rings. My word!

Sticking each grain of sand on. Each
grain, yes. That's so intricate!

And it'll have chosen the grain.

It'll have very carefully gone around
and measured the piece of grain.

"Yes, that's the right size for me,"
and then stuck it on.

Isn't that extraordinary?
I know. It's completely marvellous.

'And while the leaf detritus allows
plant-eating insects to feed,

'these in turn provide food for
carnivorous insects who have

'also made this river their home.'

Ooh, look! What have we got? Oh,
that's nice! Well, that's enormous!

What's that? It is. By God, yes!

That's the nymph
of the golden-ringed dragon fly.

It's called a sit-and-wait predator
because it just sits and waits until

something, and it could be a
caddisfly larva,

comes within its grasp.

So the leaf fall begins what is
a very active ecosystem

throughout winter?

Yes, it does. Yes. Yes.
It's all fuelled by this leaf fall.

And, of course, without them,
the leaves would clog up all

the streams, the lakes would be just
full of dead leaves.

Yeah.

A lot of these insects thrive
in the winter

but not all of them survive.

They themselves are a great source
of winter food for other animals.

Like the dipper.

Thanks to aquatic insects,

there's enough food for these birds
to stay in Britain all year round.

And for birds that
live in colder climes,

our winters are literally
a life-saver.

In countries like Iceland,

sub zero temperatures cause the lakes
to freeze over,

and with them the food supply to
birds like the whooper swan.

With their offspring as young
as three months old they make

an epic 800-mile journey to the UK,
the longest overseas flight made

by any swan, to reach our warmer
climes and the food that they offer.

In 2001, Bill Oddie was lucky
enough to witness

the arrival of a group of winter
visitors as they ended

their epic migration to Martin Mere
in Lancashire.

These are whooper swans

and they've literally just
flown in from Iceland.

They do it in a non-stop flight.

800 kilometres day and night
if necessary.

Flying at speeds of getting
on for 100k per hour.

Why do they come here?

Well...

hard to believe, actually.

It's flipping cold now,
I'm telling you.

There's an east wind blowing
and I'm freezing, but these birds,

they think this is
the tropics, basically.

Right now in Iceland
when they breed it would be ice,

it would be snow, but more to
the point, the ground would be

frozen solid and they simply
wouldn't be able to get any food.

But down here, oh,
bask in the Lancashire sunshine

and nibble away.

Mind you, as if this isn't
enough for them,

the Wildfowl And Wetlands Trust

have a sort of supplementary
diet programme going.

There they go.

Well, at least we know
they won't go hungry

and can stock up on food before
they have to make their epic

return journey back
to their breeding ground next spring.

These swans were one of many
animals to catch

the attention of an eminent
18th century naturalist.

Hugh Alexander MacPherson,
a Victorian clergyman

who spent two decades researching
and recording the animals that

lived in the Lake District year
round, even in the worst of weathers.

In his time, MacPherson
recorded 421 types of vertebrates

and 262 different birds.

Most of the species he documented
can still be found here today.

But some, like the stoat,
are now very rare.

Usually reddish brown in colour, in
winter something remarkable happens.

The drop in temperature

and daylight hours triggers
a dramatic change in hormones

turning them almost entirely white
to camouflage against the snow.

'One man who has carried
on in MacPherson's footsteps,

'naturalist Stephen Hewitt,

'has been following one of the Lake's
more elusive creatures.'

This is a beautiful spot, Stephen,

but what have you brought me
down here for?

Well, this stretch of the lake
at this time of year in particular,

is a really important
place for otters.

It's only during
January/February time

that they're using this stretch
of shoreline.

'And the reason is that this is
the time of year

'a fish called the schelly
spawns in these shallows,

'providing a tasty feast
for the local otters.'

What we need to do is look for
the droppings of the otters,

and hopefully we might even see
the remains of the prey that has

attracted them to this area
at this time of year.

So we need to have a little
search on this shoreline.

Yeah, let's walk along here.

We're looking on rocks for droppings
and other signs. OK.

Ah, so here's our first sign.

We've got a spraint right here.

I don't want to tread on it.

It's pretty fresh, isn't it? There's
one here and another one here.

The way to tell an otter spraint,

usually they're full of fish scales
and bones and look quite spiky.

They're fairly
distinctive to look at,

but the sure-fire test
is to have a sniff.

No, that one doesn't really
smell at all. That's a better one.

That's fresher. There's no
doubt about it to my mind.

I'll take a second opinion
from you, Ellie.

No, that one's not smelly at all.

'Yep, undeniably otter.'

And we've got some fish scales here.

Yes. These are interesting.

These scales are actually
the scales of the schelly.

In fact, you can see these
scales are in the spraint.

Yeah, quite clearly. So the otters
have been eating these,

but these haven't been through
an otter's body,

so this is where an otter
has brought a fish ashore,

landed it, and eaten it on shore,

and all that's left of that meal
is this patch of scales.

So it's just for this short
window in winter that we get this

flurry of otter activity?

Yes, it's only when the fish
come in to spawn that the

otters can get them,
but they really do focus in on them

and you can get huge numbers
of spraints, lots of signs of otter.

Most freshwater otters are nocturnal
and extremely skittish,

so very difficult to see,
but I want to catch at least

a glimpse of this winter spectacle,
so I've got hold of one of these.

An infrared camera trap.

Having seen all that
evidence of otter activity

I think this spot gives us
a good chance of catching them

on camera when they come
here for their night-time feast.

The otters are pretty lucky here.

Every winter the schelly come
and spawn in the shallows

and give them
a good source of food,

but elsewhere in the world
like Yellowstone National Park,

the season can be much harsher.

In 2009, the BBC were there to film
a family of otters struggling to

survive the bitter winter.

Now that the rivers are not only
frozen but covered in deep snow,

they are struggling to find
open water to fish in.

They can't fish here. The
fast-flowing water is too dangerous.

Somehow they need to find
a way past the falls.

With the falls safely behind them,

the otters are forced to
keep moving on.

Open water has become a rare
thing in Yellowstone.

The otter family has
arrived at Yellowstone Lake.

Here they can fish in the holes kept
open by the underwater geysers.

But every time
they catch something...

..this coyote has been watching
and waiting.

The otter dives under the ice to
hide its fish from the coyote.

The coyote can't see the otter
because of the thick cover of snow.

But he can hear him.

The otter emerges without the fish.

He's stashed it somewhere under
the snow, but where?

A huge Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

With the help of the otters,
a wily coyote can catch fish, too.

A beautiful winter's morning in the
Lake District, and I can't wait

to see if we've caught any of our
British otters on our camera trap.

This is the exciting bit, Steve.
Yes. Find out what we've got.

Anything at all.
Oh, don't, I can't bear it.

Right.

It's daytime.

Waving grass in the wind.

That's a whole minute of grass
waving. That was good.

Disappointing, disappointing.
Any more?

Fingers cross. Ah hah!

So... Something anyway.
Magpie. Magpie.

A heron. It's a heron, right there.

Oh, buzzard. Oh, wow! Lovely.

That's fantastic.

Do you see many buzzards down here?

Never caught a buzzard on camera
before. Wow, a first for you.

Yes, really good.

Oh, some eyes, some eyes. It is
an otter. Hey! Fantastic. Hooray!

Look at that. Fantastic.

Oh, that's brilliant.

Grooming's really important to
regulate their heat?

Yes, they have to keep their fur
very clean. This is brilliant.

Oh, is that schelly there?

There's a fish just there. Is that...

It's enormous! It is.
What a catch. Fantastic.

Gosh, that's a really big fish.

This is what I struggled to
get previously,

is to actually see the fish clearly,
what they're eating.

Look at the size of it.
So, clearly, enough for two

and they're happy enough to be
feeding together. Yeah.

Ah, a cheeky fox. Yep. Wow.

THEY GASP

That's an otter chasing the fox.

It seemed to pounce on it, there.

The otter was obviously
still in the vicinity

possibly with food of its own
and it's chased the fox away.

It's driven it off,
defending its own food resource.

Without having seen that,

I would have struggled to know which
would have come out better.

A fox is bigger. Yeah.
That's just brilliant.

What great footage.

It's not just otters benefitting
from the schelly spawning.

It seems to be herons, foxes,
we've had a buzzard.

Yeah, there's a lot of things.
It's a food bonanza.

It seems to be this bonus
material in the winter. Yeah.

There's lots of things clearly
finding an extra food resource here.

Just following in behind the otters.

That was fantastic, wasn't it?

That was brilliant.
Thank you very much. No, not at all.

Thank you for showing us
where we needed to come.

So much life in the winter.
That's fantastic.

You've got some stuff there
I've not seen before.

To see them actually eating the fish
was brilliant. Really good.

Yeah, fascinating stuff.

Winter on Britain's rivers and lakes
is a time of contrasting fortunes.

For humans and animals, the season
can be harsh, forcing them to adapt

their behaviour and
even their appearance.

But for others, like these otters,
winter can offer times of plenty.