Springwatch

In a few minutes we'll swap to our "bird feeder" camera. We may see mammals on the ground below.

Young bank vole

Roger Butterfield sent us this cute picture of a young water vole on flickr. Thanks Roger.

Bank voles have between four and five litters in a year, each one consisting of three to five young.

Male blue tits are generally monogamous but some have been recorded breeding with two females.

We say goodbye to the sun - swapping to "marsh cam" for a beautiful sunset.

.......correction two bats.

Only one bat left in the roost.

This time yesterday all our bats had already left the roost.

Scuffles keep breaking out on the "mammal table" between the squirrels.

Over the past hour the blue tit chicks have only been fed 25 times. This is very low compared to the 50 times we counted earlier today. However, it's nothing to worry about, feeding frequency can often decrease towards the end of the day.

Our blue tits and nutatch are winding up for the night. Luckily we have an infra-red camera in the blue tit box so we can watch them all night long.

The two beautiful ducks that flew off were Eurasian teal and the mother with ducklings are mallard.

We're seeing a boxing mach between a wood mouse and a bank vole.

Wood mice can often be confused with yellow-knecked mouse. They look similar in appearance and are closely related. They can be distinguished by a yellow spot that extends sideways to form a collar. They are also slightly larger than wood mice.

Lets hope the squirrels don't eat all the food on the "mammal table".

The bats are beginning to wake up. It wont be long until they head out to hunt.

Our wood mouse has come out early tonight. See it in the "mammal stump".

In a few minutes we'll swap cameras to our "mammal table". We have an infra red camera set up, so looking forward to seeing what comes out tonight!

BBC Weather reports "A fine, sunny evening across Wales and remaining dry and clear overnight. Another rather warm night" and another scorching day predicted tomorrow.

Not a lot of life on the lake this evening but isn't the view spectacular!

There are ten bats in the bat roost.

In a few minutes we'll go over to the bat roost.

Mallard ducklings on our "marsh cam".

Lest go over to "marsh cam" and see what's on the lake.

Here is a close up of our wren nestlings taken ten minutes ago.

There are 8.5 million breeding wren pairs in Britain, making them the UK's most common bird.

Keep watching the "mammal stump"

Wrens are surprisingly loud despite being so tiny. You can listen to wren song on the RSPB website.

Nuthatches can live for up to eleven years, whilst a wrens life span can be up to six years.

Still no sign of our second wren parent.

"Mammal stump" is back up and there's a vole in the hole!

On average our wrens have only been fed ten times per hour and we haven't seen the two adult birds together. Could this be another single parent family?

We are hoping to see lots of blue tit fledglings

Thank you Matt Debouge on flickr for this lovely shot of a juvenile blue tit.

We are on the BBC homepage!

From 2.00pm to 5.00pm our baby blue tits have been fed a whopping 121 times!

A wren's silhouette is unmistakeable

Our wrens are back online! We have received so many beautiful pictures of wrens on our flickr page I couldn't decide which one to post. Eventually I chose this one from from Crieffy - a brilliant illustration of the wrens' distinctive silhouette.

Grass snakes are quite at home in water

Dom Greaves sent in this brilliant photo of a grass snake swimming via flickr. We observed similar action on our "marsh cam" this morning.

Currently you can see three grass snakes on our "snake cam".

Iolo Williams got a nasty surprise in this grass snake video when he discoverd they give off a horrible smell to discourage predators.

Can you see the grass snake in the bottom left hand corner off our "snake cam"?

Grass snakes are the UK's largest reptile and our only snake to lay eggs. They can grow up to nearly two meters long

We are hoping to see some grass snakes.

Keep watching the hole in the middle of the grass mound - We have just spotted a snake.

Look out for the great spotted woodpecker on the bird feeder - we have seen both males and females.

We've just swapped our cameras over to see what else is happening around the Ynis-hir site.

Brilliant images coming through on our bat roost cam at the moment - you can really see that horseshoe shaped nose.

That's another feed for our tiny nuthatch. We are still very worried about it. You can really see the size difference between the nestlings now. Our littlest one also has a lot less developed feathers.

At least two of our little nuthatches have now opened their eyes. This means that we can take an educated guess and say that they are roughly ten days old. However nuthatch females often lay one egg per day so it is likely that the nestlings are of different ages.

Our tiniest nuthatch has just been fed. Phew.

There are currently nine bats in our bat roost.

This is a very typical wren nest, built in a hole in the bank. They also chose natural tree cavities and rock crevices. Sometimes they create a free-hanging structure on a branch, log, root mass, building, or underneath a bank of moss.

We think we can see three nestlings now.

The male wren actually constructs several different nests. The female will then select one which she feels is good enough to lay her eggs.

We can only seen two chicks in our wren nest. Wrens lay between one and nine eggs, and young fledge after 14 to 19 days. Our nestlings look quite big already.

The weather in west Wales today is absolutely glorious - a massive 26 degrees Celsius.

Welcome to Ynis-Hir RSPB Nature Reserve. My name is Maria and our second team of nest watchers will be taking over to guide you through the events of the day until 12.00 this evening.

One of our nuthatch nestlings nearly popped their head out of the nest hole! They really are developing quickly...

Did you the see the bank vole scurry past?

It's very windy on the bird feeder. Too windy even for the siskins?

We just saw the teal duck again. If you would like to find out some more information about the teal, or even to hear it's beautiful call, visit the RSPB website.

Did the see the mallards on the marsh? The mallard is a large and heavy looking duck. It has a long body and a long broad bill. The male has a dark green head, a yellow bill, is mainly purple-brown on the breast and grey on the body.

The nuthatch nestlings seem to have grown even since this morning!

I really hope the grass snake swims past again. Reaching nearly two metres, grass snakes are the UK's largest reptile and our only snake to lay eggs. Keep watching closely and you might be lucky!

The bank vole is back in mammal stump.

Did any of you see the grass snake in the marsh? Absolutely wonderful!

Did you know? The teal is the smallest duck in Britain and also one of the most widespread.

Did you see the pair of teal on the marsh?

Our nuthatch nestlings have begun to start trying to peep through the hole of the nest box. Well, except the smallest of the clutch of course...

Are goldfinches going urban? Goldfinches have been regular visitors to our feeder today. A survey by the British Trust for Ornithology suggests a record number of goldfinches visited gardens in the UK in 2011. They are now the 10th most common bird to be spotted in gardens compared with the 20th most common in 1995.

There is a beautiful goldfinch on the feeder.

Our smallest nuthatch nestling is being sat on by it's siblings!

The nuthatch nestlings are eagerly awaiting their next feed. The single parent has impressively fed the young an average of 20 times an hour.

The great spotted woodpecker is back on the feeder!

Blue tits - tiny criminals? Blue tits are known for pecking through milk bottle tops to get to the cream. If you get chance take a look at this clip from Birds Britannia, showing how Britain's blue and great tits taught each other how to thieve our milk.

Our blue tit nest is back up!

There are two stunning gold finches on the feeder. They are an increasingly common site on bird feeders today.

Lesser horseshoe bats are named for their fleshy nose-leaf structures. These amplify the ultrasonic calls that the bats emit when searching for food. For more information and to view some great videos on these fascinating animals, visit our BBC Nature website.

There is a lot of activity on the bird feeder at the moment. Let's hope the squirrel stays away from our siskins.

You can really see the lesser horseshoe bat's face here.

Did you know? The yellowness of a male blue tit's breast is an indication of how many yellowy-green caterpillars he has eaten. The more yellow his breast, the more attractive he is to females. Take a look our BBC Nature website for more interesting information on blue tits.

Now you can see the blue tit nestlings close-up.

The young nuthatches have such a wonderful cheep. Click on the individual webcams to hear the brilliant sounds of wildlife.

Here we can see our mute swan family. The little cygnets have now come off mums back and are happily swimming around.

Our producer Gavin is panning around this beautiful lake.

The nuthatch is a gorgeous looking bird: it is blue-grey above and whitish below, with chestnut on its sides and under its tail. They have a black stripe on their head, a long black pointed bill, and short legs. To hear their song check out the RSPB website.

Our smallest nuthatch nestling is not making much of an effort to feed...

Squirrel Alert! It's amazing to see how agile these squirrels are; using their strong arms and legs to cling onto the feeder, and curling their tails around to help with balance. You can really see why these animals are so successful.

Our bank vole friend is back again. You can find out some great details about bank voles on the BBC Nature Website.

We hope the baby blue tits are not cold - it looks very windy in their nest.

Did you see the gold finch? Their long fine beaks allow them to extract otherwise inaccessible seeds from thistles and teasels. A very easy meal here then...

The bank vole is back!

The bats are preening - very impressive whilst hanging upside down.

The blue tit nestlings have just been fed some wholesome and juicy looking caterpillars. They are being fed on average a whopping 60 times an hour!

The bird feeder is still dominated by the siskins. You can listen to their song and find out more information about these beautiful birds by checking out the RSPB website siskin page.

The bats are back! They have returned to their roost and you can see them hanging upside down from the beams. Night night bats.

We just saw a great spotted woodpecker on the feeder - a quick glimpse but a beautiful one nonetheless.

Did you see those two siskins just have a little fight?

Can you see the ducklings? We have seen two so far.

Let's have a pan around the lake...

We have just seen a tick crawl across one of our nuthatch nestlings. There is a very interesting video on the BBC Nature Wildlife website on how birds keep clean by our presenter, Chris Packam.

Can you see all three cygnets on mum's back? This allows the young to be safer, and they get a rest too! How wonderful.

Our mute swans are back and are being blown by the strong welsh winds.

The nuthatch nestlings are all huddled together for warmth. Interestingly last year Springwatch did a time-lapse in a nestling box and found that each young takes it in turns to be in the middle- just like penguins!

There is a lot of wing stretching going on in the nuthatch nest! All in preparation for the eventual fledge...

The blue tit parent is back on the nest, keeping the young warm.

Did you see the gold finch? Such a beautiful bird. The siskins did not want to share the feeder!

I have changed the live camera to the bird feeder as there is some great siskin activity on here. Take a look.

We have taken a screenshot for you to show just how large in proportion to the young this beetle really was! Fascinating stuff.

A pair of mallard ducks are foraging in the lake. Let's hope they find something tasty for breakfast.

Wow! Were you watching the nutnatches just then?! The parent brought in a very large beetle and it took one of our nestlings a lot of difficulty to swallow it.

We are eagerly awaiting what animal might arrive next in Mammal Stump...

A mute swan is foraging in the reeds for food. Let's take a closer look...

It is a beautiful warm morning here in Wales and the lake scene is stunning.

Nuthatch

Welcome back to our beautiful baby nuthatch nest. They have been fed 10 times in the last half an hour - a busy morning! Matt Mcnally on Flickr has taken this beautiful photo of a nuthatch about to feast on some seed.

Our baby blue tits are finally having their breakfast.

We have just spotted a bat! We believe it was a lesser horseshoe bat.

An early morning nest clean for the baby blue tits.

It seems to be very windy in the blue tit nest box. Good thing the parent has so many feathers to keep the young warm.

All quiet on the bat front...

A bank vole is happily foraging for breakfast in Mammal Stump.

Good morning from the Springwatch Story Developers! It's 4am and were ready to spot some amazing wildlife.

That's it for tonight folks! We'll be back from 4am with more live animal action on the web. Goodnight from the Nest Watching team.

Our wood mouse has been gorging in the "vole hole" for over an hour now.

Only another twenty minutes of todays live animal action, but don't worry we start up again at 4 am!

The lesser horseshoe bat's name comes from its odd (horseshoe) shaped nose. Over the next few days we are going to be doing regular bat counts in our roost. The last count stood at 21.

Action in the bat roost!

We will have lots more camera going online over the next few days so make sure you keep checking our live page.

In the winter wood mice will often share nests, sometimes with up to three other individuals. During the breeding season however the females become territorial and defend their area against other mice.

A second wood mouse has now entered the "vole hole". This one is female, she's found a meal worm.

Our blue tits are looking very cosy. The parents will only get a few hours rest before the nestlings need feeding again.

....and it looks like the wood mouse won.

Did you know the oldest lesser horseshoe bat on record was twenty one years old. They can live for much longer than most other European bat species.

A male wood mouse has just arrived!

Michelle and Ben from BBC Nature here. It has been great hearing about all your wildlife experiences and we look forward to having another in-depth chat on Monday 28 May from 5pm BST - just three hours before Springwatch starts on BBC Two. We're heading off now but the Springwatch team (Maria, Scott and Luke) will be keeping you updated with what's happening on the cameras until midnight tonight. The cameras will then be back on early tomorrow morning. Happy wildlife watching!

Don't worry if you've noticed that there is only one adult blue tit sitting on the nest. Both parents have been feeding the nestlings regularly all day but the male will probably be roosting outside in a nearby tree.

Both field and bank voles are active during the night and the day, but need to break up their activities with frequent rests. Interestingly, they become more nocturnal in the summer.

It looks like all the lesser horseshoe bats have now left the roost. The wetland area around the reserve has a rich diversity of flying insects and provides a great hunting ground.

As the darkness descends and we enter the 'graveyard shift', check out this amazing footage of the UK's "undertaker beetle"

What a beautiful evening at the RSPB Ynys-hir Nature Reserve. There's a lovely low mist over the marsh.

Even though the blue tit parent has only just finished feeding duties for the day it is still busy; reorganising the nest, removing faecal matter and parasites, and getting round to some preening of its own.

The day shift is ending so while we wait for the night shift to begin, why not enjoy this beautiful barn owl film shot by Paul and Ryan Edwards.

Goldfinches have been regular visitors to our feeder today. A survey by the British Trust for Ornithology suggests a record number of goldfinches visited gardens in the UK in 2011. They are now the 10th most common bird to be spotted in gardens compared with the 20th most common in 1995.

A woodpecker takes a dislike to a blue tit and chaffinches get vicious around a birdfeeder in this cracking slo-mo footage from Springwatch. Garden birdfeeders can be dangerous places!

As the light begins to fade, our blue tits are showing us how important it is for parent birds to make use of every available minute of daylight to feed their chicks - but there is the dilemna of when to call it a night. Stop too early and all the chicks may not have eaten enough (but at least they are safe to get more food the following morning)... Or stop later, meaning the chicks get more food (but this puts the adults at risk of being predated). It's not easy being a parent!

The most frequent bird on the feeder today has been the Siskin. Siskins have smaller bills than other finches and this is reflected by their diet. They like to eat cone seeds from birch, spruce, alder and conifer trees.

We think that was a bank vole that disappeared off 'Stage Left' on our webcams! Voles can have up to seven litters of young per year - which is just as well with predators like the kestrel around.

We hope to get two kinds of vole in our "vole hole": bank and field. Field voles have shorter tails and so are sometimes referred to as "short tailed voles".

Right - stop watching Iolo... there is a vole back in a hole!

Mint leaves aren't the only things blue tits might disinfect their nests with. They have also been seen using lavender leaves and curry plants!

On Springwatch two years ago we saw blue tits bringing mint leaves into their nest box. Apparently they often use aromatic leaves to disinfect the nest. Check out this BBC article for more information.

We're waiting for some small mammal action so in the meantime, why not take a trip down memory lane and watch when Iolo met the Skomer vole

A cheeky squirrel has scared all the birds off the feeder again.

Both parents will look after the cygnets until next breeding season.

We think our cygnets hatched three days ago.

The swans have brought out the cygnets for us and are on Marsh Camera right now!

Any blue tit enthusiasts out there? If you've been spotting them in your garden, the chances are you might have more of the colourful little visitors than you think! The RSPB say that a garden with four or five blue tits around a feeder at any one time may be feeding 20 or more of the birds.

Blue tits generally take about 15-23 days to fledge. So we should hopefully see these guys leave the nest before the end of Springwatch.

Blue tits = tiny criminals? Blue tits are known for pecking through milk bottle tops to get to the cream. If you get chance take a look at this clip from Birds Britannia, showing how Britain's blue and great tits taught each other how to thieve our milk.

We think our blue tits are about four days old.

Our nuthatches have only been fed 10 times in the last hour.

We've just got our marsh cam up and running. Somewhere around here are a pair of swans and their cygnets.

Good evening everyone! This is Michelle and Ben from the BBC Nature team and we'll be joining the conversation until 10pm BST tonight, so send us your interesting experiences of UK wildlife via Twitter, Facebook or the Comment here box. We look forward to hearing from you!

Apparently the yellowness of male blue tits' breast feathers is an indication of how many yellow/green caterpillars they have eaten. The brighter the breast the more attractive they are to females.

We think there are nine blue tit nestlings.

We have just swapped our nuthatch nest for a blue tit nest.

On average nuthatch adults would generally feed their young 15 times per hour rising to 20 times as the nestlings grow bigger. With only one adult feeding our little ones we are a bit worried.

Our tiny nuthatch has only been fed twice since 2:30pm this afternoon.

Our nuthatches have been fed 17 times in the past hour.

Our bats are all female. This is a maternity roost. We are hoping to see some babies towards the end of the show.

I wonder if we'll see anything exciting in the mammal stump tonight?

The bat is preening again

Did you know that nuthatches sometimes alter the size of their nest hole using mud.

Lovely vole footage on the mammal stump right now!

The nuthatch chick on top of the pile looks pretty big. I wonder if they will fledge next week?

There's a greenfinch on the feeder.

We have roughly 20 bats in our bat roost at the moment.

Nuthatches are generally successful parents and often five or six nestling fledge. I wonder if our single parent can manage to gather enough food for all six chicks?

Our tiny nuthatch just got fed. Hooray!

Birds are back on the feeder - siskins and goldfinch.

The vole is back.

Was that a wasp that just got fed to the nuthatches?

Another feed for the nuthatch family, but not for the little one. I hope it gets fed soon.

The bat in our bat roost is preening and stretching its wings.

Vole in the mammal stump!

...It looks like the adult nuthatch is cleaning the nest.

The nuthatch adult is sitting on the nest. This doesn't happen often as they are normally busy finding food.

Nuthatch chicks generally hatch on different days. If you look carefully you can see that some nestlings are more developed than others.

Our nuthatches are being fed!

The male siskins are brighter yellow and the females are brown with yellow markings.

....and a goldfinch - or seven coloured linnet as its sometimes known.

The siskins are back on our feeder.

We are very privileged to get these nuthatch shots. Nuthatches like t onest on tree hollows and rarely in nestboxes.

We'll be watching our nuthatch nest very carefully today. We want to find out if the adult of this single parent family is male or female.

So far on the bird feeder today we have seen Siskins, greenfinch, goldfinch and greater spotted woodpecker. I wonder what else we'll see?

One of our nuthatch nestlings must be very hungry because it's trying to eat the bark lining the nest.

Have a look at the lesser horseshoe bat on our Bat Roost cam.

In a few minutes we'll switch our blue tit nest cam to our bat roost.

Our cheeky squirrel is back on the bird feeder.

Hello folks. My name is Maria and along with my colleagues Luke and Scott I'll be taking over from the previous story developing team. We will be here with you until midnight.

The Nuthatch nestlings are eagerly awaiting their next feed.

Naughty Squirrel! The poor Siskins have been scared away and the Squirrel is having a feast.

The Blue Tit parent just had a spring clean of the nest.

There are some beautiful Siskins on the bird feeder.

I wonder what will arrive in our mammal stump?

There are nine tiny Blue Tit nestlings in this comfy nest, lined with sheep's wool.

There are six beautiful Nuthatch young in the nest. We just counted and the nestlings have been fed 19 times! This is very impressive as we believe that this is a single parent caring for them.

My name is Heather and I'll be updating this live chat. With me are Matt and Sam who are painstakingly watching all our live webcams for any exciting animal behaviour, or interesting characters that may arrive throughout our three weeks here.

A very warm welcome from the Springwatch Story Developers here at Ynys-hir RSPB nature reserve in Wales.

Bookmark this page and keep an eye out for any interesting action.

The Springwatch production team are settling into their base at Ynys-Hir in west Wales. We hope to begin providing commentary on the webcams later today.

Springwatch's webcams have gone live. We will spend much of today testing the cameras, to ensure they are working properly and capturing the behaviour of a number of our favourite species.