Springwatch viewers left 'crying and throwing up' by 'never before recorded' scenes of brutality that 'none of the BBC crew could work out'

Daily Mail​

11-06-2025

Springwatch viewers were left 'crying and throwing up' by 'never before recorded' scenes of brutality that 'none of the BBC crew could work out'.
Tuesday's instalment of the show saw Chris Packham and Michaela Stratchan return to our screens from Longshaw Estate in the Peak District.
The pair gave viewers updates about the wildlife that they have been reporting on, and one particular segment about a nightjar nest left some feeling sick afterwards.
They played out some footage of the night jar moving its head and a fascinated Michaela described it as 'robotic'.
'Franky it's bonkers,' Chris said.
Michaela went on to say: 'Then of course, it's a nocturnal animal, so we had our infrared cameras on it and we saw something really astonishing, and really surprising.
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'Well, quite frankly, shocking.'
Footage of the night jar then played out with Michaela explaining: 'There it is, feeding its chick.
'That's what it's doing. Beak in the beak of the chick. Feeding.
'Then as it stood up, we saw the egg of the second chick that had hatched. It's got two chicks in there as it flies off, flying off to get some food to bring back.'
She continued: 'We were watching these chicks and it was absolutely delightful to watch them.
'Then as we say, we saw something really shocking.
'When the adult came back, we thought it was feeding the chick, then we saw the chick being picked up.
'It's still alive! And then the night jar swallowed the chick alive and whole.
'That had never been seen before. Never been recorded. No one could quite believe that it had done that.
Those watching at home rushed to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their shock over the shocking scenes
'None of us could work out why! But again, it's a rare sighting and we only saw that because we have those amazing infrared cameras.'
Those watching at home were utterly shocked by what they watched on their screens.
'#springwatch has really upset me tonight seeing the bird eat its own offspring. I've been crying and throwing up since watching it.'
'Not sure I was ready for that Nightjar clip #springwatch.'
'Some of the things I've seen on #springwatch are truly shocking. A nightjar eating its chick whole, shudders Nature can be brutal.'
'That nightjar clip was just shocking, why would it gobble down its own chick? We have no idea. #springwatch.'
'Woah hadn't seen that nightjar clip before #springwatch.'
It comes after Springwatch has been bombarded with more complaints as viewers blasted the BBC for 'leaving thousands crying and in distress' with its harrowing scenes.
Monday's instalment of the popular nature programme saw Chris Packham, 64, and Michaela Strachan, 59, discuss the wildlife at Longshaw Estate.
Towards the start of the episode, the co-presenters looked at footage of a tawny owl and songthrushes, before things took a turn for the worse.
Chris recalled how on May 28, the songthrush chicks were doing well and had grown a lot over the course of a week.
One of them decided to leave the nest while others stayed behind, which Chris described as a 'big mistake'.
'A little later on, we saw our tawny owl bringing a bird in to Spud, and when Spud jumps down into the box, you can see it's not just the bird, it is a fledgling songthrush,' he explained.
Chris added that there was 'no proof' that the bird was the same that had just left the nest.
'But what happened next at 11.06pm was the tawny owl returned and obviously it would come to this nest and grab those chicks,' he went on.
'Very rapidly it killed the chicks in the nest using its talons and then took hold of one of them and make its way out of the back of the nest.'
The presenter clarified again: 'Like I say, no proof that this is Spud's parent of any kind. It could be another tawny owl, however I can tell you that these two nests are 250m apart so it's getting increasingly likely.'
However, the scenes proved to be upsetting to some viewers who took to social media to share their thoughts.
One watcher posted on X: 'Savage scenes on #springwatch.';
'What a shame about the song thrush chicks, but an owl's gotta eat #springwatch.';
'Oh no not the thrushes :( #springwatch.';
'Well done #springwatch Tens of thousands of children now crying and in distress! They're not all heartless like you, horrible BBC.';
'Woah Springwatch was carnage at the beginning, I'm surprised Spud can move let alone fly with all those chicks inside his belly! #springwatch.';
'Sad part of nature…. That poor thrush nest with chicks, an owl took them.';
'That was brutal but the owls have to do whatever is necessary to live #springwatch.'
It comes after an episode last week left viewers horrified at 'hideous' cannibalism scenes that saw an animal pulled apart and eaten alive.
Chris and Michaela returned to National Trust 's Longshaw Estate in the Peak District to give fans an update on a short-eared owl family.
The pair introduced the grassland species and their nest during the first week of the brand new series.
However, the scenes proved to be upsetting to some viewers who took to social media to share their thoughts
Chris explained: 'Last week we introduced short-eared owl's nest that we had found, the first time we've shown you these birds live on Springwatch.
'Absolutely beautiful. There were six youngsters in the nest, but they started to disperse pretty much straightaway.
'We kept an eye on them and last night there were only two left in the nest area, although they were scuttling out and back again.'
They then shared a clip of them doing so, with Chris explaining: 'Here they were yesterday, coming back into that nest. The other four that we know are there have spread out into the Heather. It's a way of avoiding predators.
'[The] largest chick was screaming a lot, it was hungry, the adults delivered because they brought in two voles and then a pipit, which they had captured.
'Things is, it was only the large chick that was getting the food, it ate the two voles and swallowed the pipit hole.'
He explained that they ended up bringing more food back, but the larger chick stole it.
Michaela added: 'You may remember yesterday when we showed you the six chicks, there's a big size differences between the youngest and oldest one.
'They hatch at intervals, so the younger might be more than a week younger than the oldest chick in the nest, and very often if there's not enough pretty to go around, the younger one will perish.
'That is usually when they are very little. It seemed like they were all being fed and just yesterday I said that one was doing really well, but I'm afraid in that nest, things took a turn for the worse.
'And it really surprised us. It is a little bit shocking.'
Springwatch then played the footage of the chick eating its sibling, with Michaela adding: 'As you can see, that little one became weak and defenseless and the stronger sibling took complete advantage.
'It started pecking at the younger one which was still alive and I'm really sorry to say, I know it's hard to watch... but it pecked it to death.
'That was really surprising for us.
'As Chris said, they were fed four times, the little one could have taken some of that food, the bigger one took it, plenty of prey around, they were branching out, old enough to survive. We thought all of them were going to survive.
'But very sadly as you can see, that younger one didn't. It died.
'The older one made the most of it. It got rid of its sibling and it was very very hard to watch.'
Springwatch airs on BBC Two and is available to stream on iPlayer.