WEBVTT

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Hi, my name is John.

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And that's Kealan,

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Sarah,

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and Ciara.

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Oh wow, look! You found one.

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We all love and work with Irish
wildlife

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and we want to share our world with
you.

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Aw, look!

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We're going to travel the Irish
countryside with lots of different
Wild Kids,

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to show you the wildlife that's
right under your noses.

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Wild Kids!

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Today we've come to this beautiful
park that's absolutely bursting with
life everywhere you look.

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There's woods, meadows, flowers,

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and, of course, my favourite area,
the pond.

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The pond is full of life and I can't
wait to take the Wild Kids down

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to look at all the different birds
that live there.

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But I'm more interested in all the
animals that live underneath the
water.

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It's teeming full of life

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and I can't wait to get the Wild
Kids down to get our hands wet.

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Will we go and meet the Wild Kids?
Let's do it.

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My name is Megan and my favourite
place in the park is the pond

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because all the ducks are there.

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My name is Kealan and I love looking
up into the trees in the woodland
area of the park.

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My name is Ryan. I like looking into
the water to see what I can find.

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ALL: We're the Wild Kids!

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What animals do you think we'll find
in the park?

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Squirrels. Definitely. What else?

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Maybe ducks? We'll look at a pond
later so we'll hopefully see some
ducks there.

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Has anyone ever heard of a moorhen?
No.

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Is it a sort of chicken?
It's a similar name, isn't it?

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Hen. Yeah, very good.

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A moorhen is a water bird and we'll
recognise it because it has these
lovely black feathers.

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But what really stands out is its
yellow and red face,

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so we'll look out for those colours.

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Parks are full of life.
You can find all kinds of animals,

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like bees and butterflies all around
the flowers.

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You'll also get plenty of birds and
woodland creatures around the trees
and the woods.

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But the first place we're going to
visit is the pond in the middle of
the park,

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to see if we can see some of the
amazing birds that nest and live
there.

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There's a gap over here, so if we go
over, we'll have a look at some birds
that might live here.

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I even have binoculars so I might be
able to see what's about.

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I see something at the back. I think
it's a dog. Let's have a look.

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I see something else. It's swimming,
but I think it has a red neck.

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It could be a different type of duck.

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It's actually a bird called
a little grebe.

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Kealan, do you want to see what you
can see?

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They seem to be all around the edges
of the water.

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Over there! There's a swan.
Do you see a swan as well?

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Oh, look!

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Isn't he lovely?
He's cleaning himself.

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What's that black thing over there?
I think that's our moorhen.

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It's nearly fully black.

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Ryan, can you see the little moorhen
over there? Yeah.

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What colour are his feathers?
They're sort of a black.

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He's actually a young moorhen

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and his beak doesn't turn that bright
red/yellow colour until he's a bit
older.

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So he's growing up maybe? Yeah.

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And he is quite big.
He's nearly adult size.

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Oh, there he goes!

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Do you think maybe that's where his
parents are? Yeah.

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Maybe they have a nest in there.

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Yeah, and all the brothers and
sisters are in there too. Hopefully.

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Will we see if we can get closer?
Yeah. Let's go.

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Guys, can you see, just in the water
there, we have our moorhen.

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So let's see how close we can get to
him.

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I'm going really slowly.

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You can see there he's flattened all
the reeds down.

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Look at all the ones around him,
they're so tall.

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I'd say he spent a long time making
that nest.

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He's three big toes like that,
that help spread his weight out.

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He can walk along the top of all the
plants in the water.

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He doesn't sink down into them.

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Kealan, can you see the shape of his
beak? Yeah, kind of pointed. Yeah.

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It is really pointed,
but what colour is it?

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Kind of black. Yeah, it's kind of
that blacky-brown colour.

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It's a very dark colour.

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So he's a chick, and he's probably
only a few months old.

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I think all the birds are hiding in
those reeds there

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and I think the only way we'll get to
see any of them is in a boat.

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Will we do that? Yes. Let's go, okay.

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So, before we get in the boat,
what do we need to put on first?

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Lifejackets. Yes, definitely.
So grab those.

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Kealan, you grab that.
Pop them on over your head.

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I think I look weird.
You look safe.

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Now! Great.

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And Kealan, can you get in there?

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Are we all set? Okay.
I want to row.

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We get our oars here and we're gonna
push off.

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I really didn't think there was all
those plants in here. I know.

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It's amazing when you get into the
middle of the water

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how many plants are actually out
here. There's so much.

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I can barely see the bottom. I know.

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So all these reeds are kind of
interesting plants.

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They have their roots way down at the
bottom of the pond. They're all under
water.

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Then, to get all the sun and the
oxygen and air they need,

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they grow up really tall out of the
water.

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So if you were a moorhen or a duck
looking to make a nest to lay eggs in

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you'd be delighted with all these
reeds.

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It's the perfect camouflage and the
perfect place to hide.

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Can you see anything that side,
Megan? Nothing over there?

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There's something down there.
Ah, have a look.

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Ryan, do you have your binoculars?
Yeah. I have mine too.

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So let's see if we can figure out
what they are.

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I think what we've got are adult
moorhens.

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So, Ryan, what colour are their
beaks? Sort of a reddish-yellow.

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Yeah, they've got their red and
yellow.

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And you can see all the things we
were talking about earlier.

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So you can see that yellow beak with
all the red.

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Can you hear him calling? Yeah.

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What colour are his legs?
They're similar to his beak.

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They're a kind of orangey colour.
Yeah, an orangey-yellow colour.

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They really stand out.

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Apart from its red beak and yellow
legs,

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you can tell moorhens apart by the
way they move in the water.

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They swim along nodding their heads,

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and as they swim, they eat any little
insects they can find off the surface
of the water.

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Now that we know what to look for,
it's really easy to identify him.

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And that's pretty cool because you'd
never even heard of a moorhen this
morning.

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You didn't know what he was.
I thought it was a chicken.

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Does he look like a chicken now?
No. No, definitely not.

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I think it's time to go back to shore
and leave them in peace. Yeah.

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Keep rowing, Ryan. That's great.

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The pond is bursting with life and
birds of all shapes and sizes.

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Guys, keep looking up.

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But always make sure to check out the
woodland area of your park.

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No. No, not yet.

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Make sure to look up for all kinds of
birds and animals...

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I see one!

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...like the squirrel.

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And the tree trunks and bushes will
be full of loads of interesting
insects.

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I can see loads of different cobwebs.

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I think there's definitely spiders
in here.

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This little guy got caught.

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I've come down to the pond because
I want to see what it is that the
moorhen is feeding on

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just on the surface of the water.

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But apart from that, I want to see
what's living underneath the water

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because it's full of life.

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And I can't wait to bring the Wild
Kids down to show them what's living
underneath here.

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Hey, Wild Kids, how are you? Good.

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Did you have a good time with Sarah?
Yeah.

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Do you remember when you were with
Sarah and you could see the moorhens

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and they were kind of picking on the
surface?

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What were they doing?
Catching their food.

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What food do you think they were
catching? Insects.

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I've been down here and I want to
try and show you what insects.

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First, if you look really carefully,
can you see anything on the surface
of the water? Spiders.

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That's what we're looking for.

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See these little guys here?
These are special spiders.

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They look like spiders but they're
called pond skaters.

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If you look at them really
carefully, what they're doing is

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they're able to walk on water.

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So these guys are really fast and
they skate seriously quick.

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So I'm going to try and walk out
around here

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and I'm gonna try and scare all the
skaters into this part

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so you guys can try and catch them.

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And we can put them in the tray so
we can have a really good look at
them.

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Keep really still.

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Get ready, Ryan, these ones are
coming over your direction.

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Yay, we worked as a team! Good man.

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A couple of big ones there.

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Aw no! I had it.

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Got one. We've got loads, lads.
Let's have a better look at them.

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These guys can walk on water.
And if you look at them carefully,

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see the way their legs are literally
floating on the surface?

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And they hang really still, because
do you know what they're doing?

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What? They're waiting to hear
a vibration,

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some movement on the water.

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And when they hear that, they'll
know there's a little animal there.

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They move really fast, don't they?

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They go so fast they skate along the
water, look.

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See them zipping along?

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And if you look really closely at
them,

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they've got like this little needle
at the top of their head.

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They inject it in and they suck out
the blood of any animal they catch.

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It's a bit like a spider waiting for
someone to get caught in the web.

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These guys are waiting for someone
to get caught in the surface.

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And once they hear a little sound,
vroom, they're on top of them.

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So why don't you look really
carefully

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and see if you can see their big
feathery feet.

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You can see really closely how they
can walk on water. Look.

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Right, skaters, ready to skate off?

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Now we need to find out what's
underneath the water.

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So I want you to get your net and
move your net really slowly.

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This is called pond dipping.

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Oh look! Look at him. Ooh! See him?

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I've found something big. I think
it's another big sand crawler.

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Good man, put him in the tray and
we'll have a good look at them then.

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It looks like it's full of life.
It is.

10:39.039 --> 10:43.720 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
Look at these, your favourite.
The water boatman.

10:43.720 --> 10:46.639 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
See their back legs?
They're like paddles.

10:46.639 --> 10:49.320 line:83% position:50% size:80%
See the black tips on them?

10:49.320 --> 10:51.840 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
And they move them along like
paddles

10:51.840 --> 10:54.480 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
and that's what allows them to move
in the water.

10:58.080 --> 11:01.080 line:83% position:50% size:80%
Take a breath.

11:01.080 --> 11:04.039 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
That's exactly what the water
boatmen are doing.

11:04.039 --> 11:07.080 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
They're coming to the surface and
they're taking a big bubble.

11:07.080 --> 11:10.480 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
The only difference is you can see
their bubble, the big silver part,

11:10.480 --> 11:13.840 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
and then they go swimming down to
the bottom looking for their dinner.

11:13.840 --> 11:17.240 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
So if you touch them at the top,
touch them at the surface...

11:17.240 --> 11:18.519 line:83% position:50% size:80%
Okay, I need to.

11:18.519 --> 11:21.000 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
All the way down.
Agh, it's a bubble!

11:21.000 --> 11:25.159 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
Now, see the way they've gone
straight down to the bottom, look.

11:25.159 --> 11:28.919 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
Look? With their little bubble of
air

11:28.919 --> 11:36.159 align:middle line:70% position:50% size:80%
which allows them to stay under the
water of the pond for long enough to
catch their dinner.

11:36.159 --> 11:39.799 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
What are those guys moving weirdly?
Any ideas? No.

11:39.799 --> 11:42.879 line:83% position:50% size:80%
These are blood-sucking leeches.

11:42.879 --> 11:48.039 align:middle line:70% position:50% size:80%
Why is everything blood-sucking?
Because that's the way they catch
their dinner.

11:48.039 --> 11:51.840 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
Do you see they've got the big mouth
that attaches on?

11:51.840 --> 11:54.519 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
They attach onto fish or other
animals

12:03.559 --> 12:05.639 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
Look, I'm going to take one up into
my hand.

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Look at him trying to get away.

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My skin is really hard compared to
all the soft things in the pond,

12:12.200 --> 12:15.919 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
but if I was a little fish or
something else in the pond,

12:15.919 --> 12:20.840 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
he'd be sucking my blood right now.
He's flying along.

12:20.840 --> 12:25.279 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
Right, Ryan, are you ready for
a blood-sucking leech? Not really!

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It's the first time in your life
you've had a blood-sucking leech in
your hand.

12:28.039 --> 12:31.519 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
What does he feel like, Ryan?
Ticklish.

12:31.519 --> 12:34.000 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
He kind of moves the way the slinky
moves.

12:34.000 --> 12:37.399 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
That's a good way of describing it.
It looks just like a slinky.

12:37.399 --> 12:40.240 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
These animals start life in the
pond.

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Then the fish feed off these guys

12:42.440 --> 12:44.639 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
and then the birds feed off the
fish.

12:44.639 --> 12:46.600 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
So that's why these are really
important. Food chain.

12:46.600 --> 12:49.039 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
It's a food chain, and this is the
start of the food chain.

12:49.039 --> 12:54.159 align:middle line:70% position:50% size:80%
These are baby dragonflies and they
spend most of their life in the
pond,

12:54.159 --> 12:56.000 line:83% position:50% size:80%
about five or six years.

12:56.000 --> 12:59.960 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
Then they change into dragonflies
and they fly out,

12:59.960 --> 13:03.360 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
and they might only live for about
two weeks as dragonflies.

13:03.360 --> 13:06.879 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
Then they come back to the pond and
they lay babies again

13:06.879 --> 13:09.879 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
and the whole cycle of life starts
all over.

13:14.240 --> 13:18.879 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
That's all he does, stays in the
pond for five years of his life

13:18.879 --> 13:21.720 line:83% position:50% size:80%
trying not to get eaten.

13:24.120 --> 13:31.039 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
I've just come down to the pond and
left the kids up at the tray.

13:31.039 --> 13:34.399 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
There was one species I was mad to
find.

13:34.399 --> 13:37.559 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
It's not easy to find.
I had to dig down into the mud

13:37.559 --> 13:39.720 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
because that's where these guys
live.

13:39.720 --> 13:43.240 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
And I've hit the jackpot.
I've found them.

13:43.240 --> 13:46.240 line:83% position:50% size:80%
Bloodworms. Have a look at them.

13:46.240 --> 13:52.080 align:middle line:70% position:50% size:80%
These are live bloodworms that you
only find in the muddy part of the
pond.

13:52.080 --> 13:56.440 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
These are the fishes' favourite
food. Look at them really close.

13:56.440 --> 13:58.440 line:83% position:50% size:80%
See the blood colour?

13:58.440 --> 14:00.679 line:83% position:50% size:80%
This is them when they're babies.

14:00.679 --> 14:04.919 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
And another hard question.
What do these change and become?

14:04.919 --> 14:06.320 line:83% position:50% size:80%
Midges.

14:06.320 --> 14:09.679 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
So then how do they get smaller when
they get older?

14:09.679 --> 14:13.679 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
Do you really want to know?
Hmm...yes.

14:13.679 --> 14:17.080 line:83% position:50% size:80%
They eat their own bodies. Yeuck!

14:17.080 --> 14:22.039 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
Nice and gentle. Time to put them
back into their home.

14:22.039 --> 14:25.799 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
They've had a fun day.
It's a pretty cool place, the pond.

14:25.799 --> 14:30.120 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
The first thing we saw was the young
moorhen. It was really cool.

14:30.120 --> 14:34.399 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
The moorhen have a red and yellow
beak.

14:34.480 --> 14:39.720 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
We found blood-sucking leeches,
we found bloodworms,

14:39.720 --> 14:43.879 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
and we found loads of other insects
like beetles.

14:43.879 --> 14:48.440 align:middle line:70% position:50% size:80%
I really liked the water boatmen
because they take up a big bubble of
air

14:48.440 --> 14:50.639 line:83% position:50% size:80%
and then it makes them go silver.

14:50.639 --> 14:55.159 align:middle line:77% position:50% size:80%
I can't believe how many things live
in a park like this.

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Subtitles
Frances Carr
RTE 2019