Iolo Williams explores the wild side of towns and finds birds and animals that have adapted to life on the street. They've discovered it's a great place to get food as well as a safe place to raise a family. Some commute daily to town. Birds simply fly above the traffic, while four-legged animals use their own 'rat' routes. For these wildlife townies, the street is a place called home. In his first wild town tour, Iolo stumbles on tawny owls in residence in an Abertillery chimney. They've been living there for over a year. Rats have their own thriving colony in the centre of Swansea; few humans passing by notice. A fox family is living in an allotment in Cardiff. The vixen has raised three healthy cubs. Little wonder with all the healthy veg and grubs around. In Wrexham, a pair of extraordinary dippers are living in a culvert. They fly underground below shops, offices and flats to get to different parts of town. Also in the programme, Iolo finds the best-fed swans in Wales, a heron comes to a Llanberis garden for his daily diet of junk food, and in Deganwy, crows are given an IQ test.
Iolo Williams explores the wild side of towns and finds birds and animals that have adapted to life on the street. They've discovered it's a great place to get food and a safe place to raise a family. Some commute daily to town. Birds simply fly above the traffic, while four-legged animals use their own 'rat' routes. For these wildlife townies, the street is a place called home. In this urban wild tour, it is spring in town. Birds and bees are active on the streets of Colwyn Bay. Robins, sparrows, tits, wagtails and pigeons are nesting in drain pipes, road signs, wall holes, security cages and, in Brecon, even on a traffic light. A family of badgers are having a midnight feast. Fox cubs wait for their mother on a garden wall as she returns from Newport's town centre. In the South Wales valleys town of Deri, what can only be described as a nature reserve has been created in the back garden of a terraced house. It has a fantastic pond full of newts, dragonflies and damselflies and a stunning hay meadow full of beautiful wild flowers, butterflies and maybugs. To cap it all, hedgehogs visit the garden at night.
Iolo Williams seeks the wild side of towns and finds birds and animals that have adapted to life on the street. They have discovered that it is a great place for food and also a safe place to raise a family. Some commute daily to town - birds simply fly above the traffic, while four-legged animals use their own 'rat' routes. For these wildlife townies, the street is a place called home. In this urban wildlife tour, it's summer in town. Gulls are rearing chicks and are causing havoc on the streets of Aberystwyth. On the outskirts of Aber, badgers are dodging cars on a busy main road as they set off on a nightly expedition for food in the town's housing estates. In Conwy, jackdaws have set up home on the castle walls. Pembroke Castle too has its jackdaws, and a beautiful mill pond which attracts otter families looking for eels. And on a warm summer's night, hundreds of bats come to feed on insects. Also in the programme, the fastest birds in the world - peregrine falcons - are hunting prey in Swansea city centre, and an alien species of toad is keeping people awake at night in Llandrindod Wells.
As the days get shorter, autumn and winter beckon. On a night hunt in Caernarfon, Iolo finds spiders that can give a good bite. In Cardiff, robins sing all night long. In Hirwaun, a mistle thrush fights with a car. Stunning birds from Scandinavia drop in at a retail park in Llansamlet. On a housing estate in Llangefni on Anglesey, rare red squirrels visit for their winter supply of nuts. Starlings flock together in Aberafan and hundreds of pied wagtails come to roost and enjoy a good night's sleep on a busy Newport roundabout.