Hi, my name is John.
And that's Kealan,
Sarah,
and Ciara.
Oh wow, look! You found one.
We all love and work with Irish wildlife
and we want to share our world with you.
Aw, look!
We're going to travel the Irish countryside with lots of different Wild Kids,
to show you the wildlife that's right under your noses.
Wild Kids!
Today we've come to this beautiful park that's absolutely bursting with life everywhere you look.
There's woods, meadows, flowers,
and, of course, my favourite area, the pond.
The pond is full of life and I can't wait to take the Wild Kids down
to look at all the different birds that live there.
But I'm more interested in all the animals that live underneath the water.
It's teeming full of life
and I can't wait to get the Wild Kids down to get our hands wet.
Will we go and meet the Wild Kids? Let's do it.
My name is Megan and my favourite place in the park is the pond
because all the ducks are there.
My name is Kealan and I love looking up into the trees in the woodland area of the park.
My name is Ryan. I like looking into the water to see what I can find.
ALL: We're the Wild Kids!
What animals do you think we'll find in the park?
Squirrels. Definitely. What else?
Maybe ducks? We'll look at a pond later so we'll hopefully see some ducks there.
Has anyone ever heard of a moorhen? No.
Is it a sort of chicken? It's a similar name, isn't it?
Hen. Yeah, very good.
A moorhen is a water bird and we'll recognise it because it has these lovely black feathers.
But what really stands out is its yellow and red face,
so we'll look out for those colours.
Parks are full of life. You can find all kinds of animals,
like bees and butterflies all around the flowers.
You'll also get plenty of birds and woodland creatures around the trees and the woods.
But the first place we're going to visit is the pond in the middle of the park,
to see if we can see some of the amazing birds that nest and live there.
There's a gap over here, so if we go over, we'll have a look at some birds that might live here.
I even have binoculars so I might be able to see what's about.
I see something at the back. I think it's a dog. Let's have a look.
I see something else. It's swimming, but I think it has a red neck.
It could be a different type of duck.
It's actually a bird called a little grebe.
Kealan, do you want to see what you can see?
They seem to be all around the edges of the water.
Over there! There's a swan. Do you see a swan as well?
Oh, look!
Isn't he lovely? He's cleaning himself.
What's that black thing over there? I think that's our moorhen.
It's nearly fully black.
Ryan, can you see the little moorhen over there? Yeah.
What colour are his feathers? They're sort of a black.
He's actually a young moorhen
and his beak doesn't turn that bright red/yellow colour until he's a bit older.
So he's growing up maybe? Yeah.
And he is quite big. He's nearly adult size.
Oh, there he goes!
Do you think maybe that's where his parents are? Yeah.
Maybe they have a nest in there.
Yeah, and all the brothers and sisters are in there too. Hopefully.
Will we see if we can get closer? Yeah. Let's go.
Guys, can you see, just in the water there, we have our moorhen.
So let's see how close we can get to him.
I'm going really slowly.
You can see there he's flattened all the reeds down.
Look at all the ones around him, they're so tall.
I'd say he spent a long time making that nest.
He's three big toes like that, that help spread his weight out.
He can walk along the top of all the plants in the water.
He doesn't sink down into them.
Kealan, can you see the shape of his beak? Yeah, kind of pointed. Yeah.
It is really pointed, but what colour is it?
Kind of black. Yeah, it's kind of that blacky-brown colour.
It's a very dark colour.
So he's a chick, and he's probably only a few months old.
I think all the birds are hiding in those reeds there
and I think the only way we'll get to see any of them is in a boat.
Will we do that? Yes. Let's go, okay.
So, before we get in the boat, what do we need to put on first?
Lifejackets. Yes, definitely. So grab those.
Kealan, you grab that. Pop them on over your head.
I think I look weird. You look safe.
Now! Great.
And Kealan, can you get in there?
Are we all set? Okay. I want to row.
We get our oars here and we're gonna push off.
I really didn't think there was all those plants in here. I know.
It's amazing when you get into the middle of the water
how many plants are actually out here. There's so much.
I can barely see the bottom. I know.
So all these reeds are kind of interesting plants.
They have their roots way down at the bottom of the pond. They're all under water.
Then, to get all the sun and the oxygen and air they need,
they grow up really tall out of the water.
So if you were a moorhen or a duck looking to make a nest to lay eggs in
you'd be delighted with all these reeds.
It's the perfect camouflage and the perfect place to hide.
Can you see anything that side, Megan? Nothing over there?
There's something down there. Ah, have a look.
Ryan, do you have your binoculars? Yeah. I have mine too.
So let's see if we can figure out what they are.
I think what we've got are adult moorhens.
So, Ryan, what colour are their beaks? Sort of a reddish-yellow.
Yeah, they've got their red and yellow.
And you can see all the things we were talking about earlier.
So you can see that yellow beak with all the red.
Can you hear him calling? Yeah.
What colour are his legs? They're similar to his beak.
They're a kind of orangey colour. Yeah, an orangey-yellow colour.
They really stand out.
Apart from its red beak and yellow legs,
you can tell moorhens apart by the way they move in the water.
They swim along nodding their heads,
and as they swim, they eat any little insects they can find off the surface of the water.
Now that we know what to look for, it's really easy to identify him.
And that's pretty cool because you'd never even heard of a moorhen this morning.
You didn't know what he was. I thought it was a chicken.
Does he look like a chicken now? No. No, definitely not.
I think it's time to go back to shore and leave them in peace. Yeah.
Keep rowing, Ryan. That's great.
The pond is bursting with life and birds of all shapes and sizes.
Guys, keep looking up.
But always make sure to check out the woodland area of your park.
No. No, not yet.
Make sure to look up for all kinds of birds and animals...
I see one!
...like the squirrel.
And the tree trunks and bushes will be full of loads of interesting insects.
I can see loads of different cobwebs.
I think there's definitely spiders in here.
This little guy got caught.
I've come down to the pond because I want to see what it is that the moorhen is feeding on
just on the surface of the water.
But apart from that, I want to see what's living underneath the water
because it's full of life.
And I can't wait to bring the Wild Kids down to show them what's living underneath here.
Hey, Wild Kids, how are you? Good.
Did you have a good time with Sarah? Yeah.
Do you remember when you were with Sarah and you could see the moorhens
and they were kind of picking on the surface?
What were they doing? Catching their food.
What food do you think they were catching? Insects.
I've been down here and I want to try and show you what insects.
First, if you look really carefully, can you see anything on the surface of the water? Spiders.
That's what we're looking for.
See these little guys here? These are special spiders.
They look like spiders but they're called pond skaters.
If you look at them really carefully, what they're doing is
they're able to walk on water.
So these guys are really fast and they skate seriously quick.
So I'm going to try and walk out around here
and I'm gonna try and scare all the skaters into this part
so you guys can try and catch them.
And we can put them in the tray so we can have a really good look at them.
Keep really still.
Get ready, Ryan, these ones are coming over your direction.
Yay, we worked as a team! Good man.
A couple of big ones there.
Aw no! I had it.
Got one. We've got loads, lads. Let's have a better look at them.
These guys can walk on water. And if you look at them carefully,
see the way their legs are literally floating on the surface?
And they hang really still, because do you know what they're doing?
What? They're waiting to hear a vibration,
some movement on the water.
And when they hear that, they'll know there's a little animal there.
They move really fast, don't they?
They go so fast they skate along the water, look.
See them zipping along?
And if you look really closely at them,
they've got like this little needle at the top of their head.
They inject it in and they suck out the blood of any animal they catch.
It's a bit like a spider waiting for someone to get caught in the web.
These guys are waiting for someone to get caught in the surface.
And once they hear a little sound, vroom, they're on top of them.
So why don't you look really carefully
and see if you can see their big feathery feet.
You can see really closely how they can walk on water. Look.
Right, skaters, ready to skate off?
Now we need to find out what's underneath the water.
So I want you to get your net and move your net really slowly.
This is called pond dipping.
Oh look! Look at him. Ooh! See him?
I've found something big. I think it's another big sand crawler.
Good man, put him in the tray and we'll have a good look at them then.
It looks like it's full of life. It is.
Look at these, your favourite. The water boatman.
See their back legs? They're like paddles.
See the black tips on them?
And they move them along like paddles
and that's what allows them to move in the water.
Do you know when you go to a swimming pool and before you jump into the water, what do you do?
Take a breath.
That's exactly what the water boatmen are doing.
They're coming to the surface and they're taking a big bubble.
The only difference is you can see their bubble, the big silver part,
and then they go swimming down to the bottom looking for their dinner.
So if you touch them at the top, touch them at the surface...
Okay, I need to.
All the way down. Agh, it's a bubble!
Now, see the way they've gone straight down to the bottom, look.
Look? With their little bubble of air
which allows them to stay under the water of the pond for long enough to catch their dinner.
What are those guys moving weirdly? Any ideas? No.
These are blood-sucking leeches.
Why is everything blood-sucking? Because that's the way they catch their dinner.
Do you see they've got the big mouth that attaches on?
They attach onto fish or other animals
and they suck into the skin and they suck all the blood out of the animal until it's completely dead.
Look, I'm going to take one up into my hand.
Look at him trying to get away.
My skin is really hard compared to all the soft things in the pond,
but if I was a little fish or something else in the pond,
he'd be sucking my blood right now. He's flying along.
Right, Ryan, are you ready for a blood-sucking leech? Not really!
It's the first time in your life you've had a blood-sucking leech in your hand.
What does he feel like, Ryan? Ticklish.
He kind of moves the way the slinky moves.
That's a good way of describing it. It looks just like a slinky.
These animals start life in the pond.
Then the fish feed off these guys
and then the birds feed off the fish.
So that's why these are really important. Food chain.
It's a food chain, and this is the start of the food chain.
These are baby dragonflies and they spend most of their life in the pond,
about five or six years.
Then they change into dragonflies and they fly out,
and they might only live for about two weeks as dragonflies.
Then they come back to the pond and they lay babies again
and the whole cycle of life starts all over.
So is the first five years of their life really boring so they just stay in the pond the whole time?
That's all he does, stays in the pond for five years of his life
trying not to get eaten.
I've just come down to the pond and left the kids up at the tray.
There was one species I was mad to find.
It's not easy to find. I had to dig down into the mud
because that's where these guys live.
And I've hit the jackpot. I've found them.
Bloodworms. Have a look at them.
These are live bloodworms that you only find in the muddy part of the pond.
These are the fishes' favourite food. Look at them really close.
See the blood colour?
This is them when they're babies.
And another hard question. What do these change and become?
Midges.
So then how do they get smaller when they get older?
Do you really want to know? Hmm...yes.
They eat their own bodies. Yeuck!
Nice and gentle. Time to put them back into their home.
They've had a fun day. It's a pretty cool place, the pond.
The first thing we saw was the young moorhen. It was really cool.
The moorhen have a red and yellow beak.
We found blood-sucking leeches, we found bloodworms,
and we found loads of other insects like beetles.
I really liked the water boatmen because they take up a big bubble of air
and then it makes them go silver.
I can't believe how many things live in a park like this.
Subtitles Frances Carr RTE 2019