Exploring up in the hills, tunnels and finding wildlife

Just out for a quick walk today, fairly near where there's some abandoned mines, and normally it's absolutely jumping with wildlife. I haven't got the kids with me today, so I'm going to be super quiet and just basically creep about and see what I can find, taking you with me. Now these lovely old stone piles are often great for spotting lizards, adders, and also slow worms, as well as grasshoppers and all sorts of really unusual insects. So I'm going to creep over here and see what I can find. Unfortunately, I have to confess, I don't know what this butterfly is called. I think it's possibly a meadow brown. But if anybody's an entomologist out there, you'll be able to tell better than me. Ants by the hundred. There's got to be something under this big fella. Ah, there we go. A slow worm. It's actually a sort of legless lizard. It isn't a snake, although it does look, for all intents and purposes, exactly like a snake. And it's gone. They move extremely quickly. And there's also a nation of ants as well. Alright, watch this fella move. And we'll put him back under the stones. There you go, son. Now if you've looked under stones and you've found something, it's super important to put those stones back exactly how you found them to maintain that habitat. That slow worm would have been under there eating the ants, which are now crawling all over me. And that would be an excellent food source for it. So we need to put this back to maintain the ants' nest in order to maintain the food for the slow worm. That's it. Perfect. Multiple points of access to this big cavity that's underneath this rock. Ants of a different colour under there. Red ones. Last ones were black. Well that was a little bit disappointing because sometimes when I'm up there, lift up stones and you can see lizards. A very rare occasion I'll see an adder. Quite often I see slow worms. So I was just pleased that I did see a slow worm but even so it was still a little bit disappointing. I would have liked to have seen more because it's a beautiful day. It's just getting a little bit overcast now. So I think I'll have a look in the stream and see if there's any fish in there. Now it should go without saying that you have to be quiet if you want to see pretty much any sort of wildlife, especially anything close up. There's no point seeing something 100 yards away, having to zoom right in and then having the camera shaking all over the place. You want to try and get as close as you possibly can. So even when I'm going to be lifting up rocks to find things under rocks, I'm creeping up to where the rocks are, slowly lifting the rocks so there's no sudden movements, there's no boom, boom, boom on the ground. That way you'll stand a better chance of finding anything so taking that into consideration there's a stream just behind me here. I'm gonna creep up to the side of there, have a look over the edge and hopefully we'll see some trout. Last time I was here there was a few little brown trout. I wasn't fast enough to get the camera out. There was two trout down here. One of them shot away somewhere under there and there was a bigger one shot under here. I'm gonna see if I can tickle them out. Well that didn't work. The shelf goes way under, much too far for me to get my hand under but basically what I was trying to do there is reach under and feel the fish and if I had felt a fish what I would have done, imagine that's your fish, very big one, that's its dorsal fin. I put one hand around here, one hand around here just before its tail so you have one more or less over its eyes on the front pointed part of the fish to stop it going forward. And you'd wrap another hand around here to stop it going backwards and you'd basically just lift it out. You lift it out that way, that way or even sideways, it doesn't really matter. As long as you can get your hands in the right place you can lift the fish out. I'd love to be able to demonstrate that. It's very very difficult to film these fish in this little stream. They're just so spooky. There's one just in the middle of the picture there, a little brown trout, approximately six, seven inches long maybe. This is the same pool where I just saw that little trout. It was down the bottom end just past that wall there and we've got a hell of a habitat here for them, just look at that. You can get into the bottom of that dry stone wall, totally secure in there. Chances of catching one in there is pretty slim. You know I'm up here in the middle of nowhere, right up in the hills where the lead mining used to take place. I've got a really nice big patch of yellow loose strife here. It was quite a popular garden plant in Victorian times. And mixed in with that and all the nettles is an absolutely beautiful big iris. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Look at the colour of that. Now that's certainly not a native one because the native ones are yellow. That's a lovely sight. I hope you can see the tunnel there in the middle of the screen. There's actually one just here as well. And believe it or not, I'm standing on top of the stream. It flows all the way down here. There's a break in the tunnel here where we might see some fish. And then there's a bit more tunnel. And then there's another break. And talking of breaks, just next to my feet here, There's what looks like... I don't know, it looks like a man-made sort of a square hole. It's been filled in by a huge boulder. And I can hear the stream under there. Here's one of the breaks in the tunnel, but unfortunately I think it's going to be a little bit too dark to see any fish. Right, I can see a couple of fish here. There we go. Not sure how well this is going to come out, or how steady I can keep the camera. I've got a fish just in the middle of the screen there. And that's another brown trout. Really, you know, the pool that's underneath here must be absolutely jam-packed with fish. Because I saw about six, seven fish all milling around here. There's some in the top end of the pool as well, just where that other break is. And under here must be just be heaving with fish. Now just in case anybody was in any doubts as to what an active rabbit set looks like, this is what an active rabbit set looks like. Hee hee hee. They've gone absolutely berserk here, holes everywhere. And one of the good things about crawling around down in this sort of area is you sometimes find some nice little bits of spar. Look at that, not very purple but you sometimes get ones that are like really really purple. You get white bits of quartz and all sorts of lovely crystals in here. It takes some finding, but they are there. But enough about the crystals, we're going to have a look down into this tunnel. I've never been in this one before, but I've just shone the flashlight in there and I've realised that there's quite a nice pool in there. I doubt there'll be any fish living in it, but you never know. Pretty much absolute darkness in there, but we'll go in and see what we can find. There you go, full power, night into day. And there's the pool halfway down the tunnel, so let's go take a look. I see how the water's worn away all the rock, it's absolutely beautiful in here. Look at the patterns in the rock, lovely. Well that's a lovely pool, but I can't see any fish. I thought I might have seen some bats as well on the roof, but can't even see any bats. It's quite a nice lump of purple quartz, reasonably dark, would probably tumble and polish up quite nicely, but I'm going to leave that on a rock for somebody else to find. That tunnel behind me there goes in quite a long way into the bank side. There's also some little offshoots of tunnels come off it as well, so I think it's worth a look in there. We've certainly got the tool for the job, let's get in and take a look around. I don't believe it, I'm walking up the stream now making big clumping noises, splashing everywhere and there's a blooming fish just in front of me. A little brown trout, two little brown trout. Just inside the entrance now. I'm going to have a look up here and see what's up the top, have a look at the offshoots that go off it, and hopefully see something of interest. Then I'm going to leave my bag just down here in the entrance, in case any tragedy does befall me. If anybody looks in, they'll be able to see the bag and know that there's some fool up here who got stuck. It's really quiet in here. Extremely peaceful and very cool as well. It's about 25 degrees centigrade outside. It has to be half that in here. It's totally cool, look at that. That's not somewhere that's just collapsed down into this main tunnel, that's actually been made that way. See the arched ceiling? It's all made with dry stone walling techniques, as is this whole tunnel. There's no cement at all holding it together. Purely dry stone wall and it goes on for a long way. It must have taken ages. There must be hundreds and hundreds of probably thousands of tons of stone in here. Awesome piece of engineering. I'm not sure whether the camera's picking it up, but there's like a really eerie sort of a misty haze in here. Absolutely hellish. I'm sure it's just my breath and condensation in the air, but it gives a really spooky effect. The side tunnels, I have no idea how far that goes because I've no desire to climb in there. Although it does look very well made, I'll be worried of something happening and me being stuck in there. Now, unfortunately, we're at the top of the tunnel here and it's caved in. It's probably about maybe 150 yards from the main stream. So it's quite a long tunnel so unfortunately that's the end of the line but we've got another tunnel that comes in the side of here and really you'd be hard pushed to spot this one from a distance and you'd think oh well it's just natural fissures in the rocks just where the natural stream comes in but if you look in a little bit further climb in here yes there is a natural stream and look at the way it's worn away that rock but if we take a look at the sides they're They're all built up with dry stone wall and the top is made with huge slabs of stone. Now the top of that one looks like it's caved in, but it does look like there's some sort of flow regulation there. Like a little man-made dam of some sort. Yeah, there's definitely wood either side of there. And it looks like there's been some sort of sliding flow control. I'm not sure why that would be, but it's certainly interesting. Way underground, and I can't think of an immediate use for that. But I'm certainly intrigued. I've had that on boost. I swear you could just about fry an egg on the top of there. If you found yourself a little pigeon's egg or something and cracked it on top of here, you could probably fry it. That is red hot. Doesn't smell hot. Doesn't smell as if there's anything actually burning, but by God, you couldn't half warm your hands on that. Shove that into your coat, you could warm your whole body. Don't keep the boost on too long. It'll devour the batteries and it'll really, really heat this up. It hasn't nacked it, it cannot do it any good. Don't know how well this is gonna come out, but this pool here is absolutely teeming with fish. Hopefully you'll be able to see some of these fish. There's one there. In fact, there's one of them just gone right up into the head of the pool there. It looks like it's just headed up into that other pool. Strange behaviour, but there maybe isn't many places for them to hide in here. One just in the middle of the screen there. And there's one to about five o'clock from it as well. And there's one in the middle of the screen now as well. There's fish all over here. Unfortunately, I missed me catching this one. I've just caught that underneath another rock. It's a little common frog. And by the looks of it, it's probably about, hmm, 18 months, two years old. It's certainly not fully grown. I'm just walking through all these thistles and everything here, and I've noticed a very nice little orchid, and also a pheasant. Scared the big Jesus out of me, that. Ha ha ha! There's the orchid. The pheasant was actually just here. I suppose it would have got more of a shot than me. There you go. Absolutely lovely. And that has to be about two and a half feet high, growing in all these high weeds. Just spotted these big stones on the way back, so we'll give it a go under here, see if there's anything else. Oh, hey, up there. Ah, it's a slow worm just disappearing underneath that stone. Can you see it? And that's its tail. I don't know whether you can see, but it's actually lost the end of its tail. There we go, I've just got a hold of it. It's a nice chunky one. Just see its tail there. There he goes, way back under the rock. Now, for anybody that's worried about the state of that slow worm that I've just caught, having the very stumpy tail, Um, they can actually lose their tails, it's a defence mechanism, so when they get grabbed by something like a heron, herons eat pretty much everything, I'm not a fan of them, herons love slow worms, or even, I just spotted some dragonflies, I'll try and get some footage of the dragonflies, that's gonna be very difficult though. Anyway, back to the slow worm. When something grabs a hold of it, the tail can actually detach, and when it does detach it wiggles like hell, and that distracts the predator. The predator goes for the thing that's moving the most, And so the slow worm can actually escape, and it just leaves its tail. But certain lizards do that as well. It's a very useful defence mechanism. So when you see a slow worm, and it's got a little stumpy bit instead of a tail, you know that a predator's had it, and it's actually lost its tail and it's got away. So it's a good thing. That will grow back. Until it grows back, it's pretty vulnerable. Because if anything else grabs a hold of it, it's got nothing to shed. It's got nothing to distract the predator. So it's going to be lunch. That's why when I'm handling them... Very careful. You know, you don't want to restrict them. If it wants to go, just let it go. I'm getting eaten alive by midges here. I forgot to put my midge repellent on. It's getting consumed. My face is going to swell up like a pudding by the time I get home. I'll see if I can get some footage of these dragonflies. It's going to pretty much be potluck if you're going to see one of these dragonflies. Extremely difficult to spot. You might have to put this in full screen. But there's certainly a lot of dragonflies catching all the little midges. So there you go, whack it into high definition, stick it in full screen and you might just see one or two flying around. Sorry I can't get them any closer. I've got better agility than an attack helicopter. I can fly forwards, backwards, upside down, absolutely hellish. I mean, I can observe all this just with my eye, but I'm trying to capture it on film and I know it's not happening. It's just not happening. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this video. We did see little bits and bobs of wildlife. Not as much as I would like though, but it's certainly an interesting and very beautiful place. Exceptionally calm, really the only noise I can hear is the stream and the occasional sheep bleating on in the background. It's a really nice place to just come and relax. I will be back, and I will be back with a view to trying to catch some of those fish in the stream. I'll put them back of course, I've got no use for them, but I just want to demonstrate how How easy it is to catch them. With a plastic tube. So look out for that video. Thanks very much for watching, see you next time. I'm going home.