Episode 21 Green Balloon Club

# Gather round, one and all

# You gotta answer the call

# Listen up, look around you

# There's a magical world to explore

# There's a nature adventure

# Coming your way soon

# So come and join us

# In this Green Balloon

# And when we fly

# We're higher than the moon

# So join us

# Ah, ah

# In our Green Balloon. #

Got it!

It's a proper autumn day today.

Hello, there. It's getting cold, shall we go inside?

-Hello!

-Hello!

-Welcome to the Green Balloon Club.

It's a bit windy today, make sure you hold on tight.

I think I'd better close this window.

You know it's autumn when the wind blows the leaves.

I love autumn.

Me too, Lily-Rose.

Is everybody here? Lily-Rose?

Wee-ee-ee!

We-ee-ee! Lily the leaf is here.

Are you an autumn leaf today?

That's right. I feel a bit dizzy now.

Lily the autumn leaf is here.

Ant?

Shwoo-shwoo!

Autumn Ant is here.

Oh, I see, you're being a leaf too.

OK. Skipper and Cat. Shall we be leaves too, Skipper?

Shwooooo!

We're here.

Let's see... Jay?

Swaying Jay is here.

Are you an autumn leaf too?

No! I'm an evergreen.

That means I never lose my leaves, I just sway in the wind.

Woo-oo!

Swaying Jay is here. Sky?

I'm definitely an autumn leaf.

Flitter-flitter-flitter-flitter.

Autumn Sky's here.

And what about you? Are YOU here?

Be an autumn leaf with us.

-We-ee-ee-ee!

-Flitter-flitter.

-Shwoo!

-Wo-oo-oo!

That's everyone present.

-Shall we do the Green Balloon Club chant?

-Yeah!

ALL: We love animals, plants and birds

We love snails and slugs

Large and small, we love them all And we never, ever step on bugs

Cos we are the Green Balloon Club!

Sky, have you noticed the way the trees have changed colour?

Yeah, they look great at the moment.

Why does that happen?

-Well...

-Sorry to interrupt you, Sky,

but I can see some Green Balloon Club members.

HELLO!

-Who is it?

-It's Polly, Tim and Oliver.

Oh, perhaps THEY can show us some autumn trees.

Hello!

We've come to the forest today

to look at all the beautiful autumn colours.

Come on, let's go and see them.

At this time of year the trees are getting ready for the winter.

The chlorophyll that makes the leaves look green

begins to break down.

The green fades away

to show other colours that it has been hiding.

The reds and yellows

all come through.

It's a beautiful sight.

In the autumn the leaves start to die and fall off the trees.

You can find lots of colourful leaves on the ground.

And you can have so much fun with them.

We like kicking around in the leaves.

And throwing them up in the air.

We are collecting some up to make a giant autumn tree picture.

I'm collecting twigs for the tree trunk.

I must go and stick them on...

..to make the trunk.

There, the trunk is done.

These are the leaves from a red oak.

I'm putting my red leaf on. Sticky-stick stick.

I found a brown leaf from a chestnut tree.

I'm putting my big brown leaf on.

Our tree is nearly finished.

It's our autumn tree picture.

We hope you like it.

You should go and see the autumn magical trees yourself.

ALL: Bye!

Bye!

MUSIC FROM THE NUTCRACKER

Look at all these beautiful autumn leaves, Lily-Rose.

Look, you can get yellow cherry leaves, orange cherry leaves,

and red cherry leaves.

I think I'll keep these ones because they're the prettiest.

I can put them up in my room.

Yes but, Lily-Rose, they won't stay the same colour.

But that's not fair!

-Why can't they stay pretty like this?

-When they die, they go red.

They keep on dying and then, well, they just...go like this.

Oh, but I want to keep my pretty leaves forever!

-Would you two like to help me with a leaf experiment?

-BOTH: Yes!

-What do we have to do, Sky?

-Right, I think

I might have an idea how to keep the colour in the autumn leaves.

Why don't you pick out your favourite ones and put them in here?

That's nice, Lily-Rose. That's really nice, Ant.

Bring them carefully over here.

-What's this?

-It's called a laminator.

I need to do this bit because it can get really hot.

-Here you are, Sky.

-OK.

It seals the leaves in a layer of plastic.

Does that mean they'll stay the same colour?

I'm not sure. I think it might. The air can't get to the leaves.

The air dries them out and makes them brown.

So I can keep my pretty leaves forever!

-Look, Sky, they're coming out!

-They are.

-That's so clever.

-Thanks, Sky.

-That's all right.

Can we cut them out and hang them up?

That's a good idea. We can decorate the balloon.

Special report! Special report!

-There's Jelly with a special report.

-I wonder where she is today.

I'm in Bill Oddie's garden.

Oh, oh, Bill! What are you doing? Why are you taking the birds' house down?

It's OK, Jelly, I'm not actually taking it away.

I'm just going to take it down and give it a little clean inside.

You should never disturb a bird's nest.

No, not while they're using it,

but they've finished nesting, so I'm going to give it a...

well, not a spring-clean, an autumn-clean. OK?

-BILL HUMS

-That's better, isn't it?

Bill, what birds actually lived in that?

-Ah, good question. It was a family of great tits, right?

-Oh.

When I saw them, the mum and dad were really tame.

I knew they had babies in there cos they were in and out.

-But then, one day, I didn't see the mummy great tit ALL day.

-Oh, no!

I think maybe a cat got her, but there was still Dad, right?

-But there was a problem there because he'd broken his leg.

-Oh, no!

-I don't know how but he had one leg dangling...

-Oh, poor daddy bird!

Poor daddy bird. I used to call him Limpy.

He hopped around. I thought, "I'd better help him,"

so I put out mealworms for him.

-He took the worms and popped in and out of his nest box here.

-Mm.

But one morning I came down and it was totally quiet...

-Oh, no!

-I thought, "Is this good news or bad news?"

-I hope it's good news!

-Then what?

-The next morning, I was over by the feeders

and I could hear "mi-mi-mi-mi", just like in the box.

There was Limpy the proud dad saying, "Look, I did it!"

All the baby birds! I don't believe it.

-I'm so happy about that!

-Jelly, shall we have a look inside?

-The nest should still be there... and there it is!

-Oh, yeah!

Funny to think of all the baby birds.

-Are you taking it out, Bill?

-Yes.

-Oh, look at the nest!

There you are. Look at that. It's mainly made of moss,

all round the outsides there, but inside you've got a lot of hair.

-What hair is it?

-I don't know. It's probably squirrels' hair.

There's a bit of string.

-There's a couple of great-tit feathers there.

-Oh, yes!

-I want to keep them.

-You want to keep them?

Yes. So, Bill, shall we put the nest back in the box?

No, we don't put this back because they like a nice clean box

to start again to build a lovely new nest for the babies.

I really hope they come back and use your nest next year.

So do I. There's a good chance of it.

If they do, it'll be early spring -

probably March they'll come back

and have a look and make sure it's clean.

Steady and all ready to welcome them back!

-Yes!

-I think you should come back and watch them actually nesting, yeah?

Yes, oh, I will. Thank you very much, Bill. Yes, I will.

I hope Limpy likes his clean box when he comes back.

Autumn is the time when many birds fly away

to spend winter in a warmer country.

-Do you think that's where he's gone?

-No, he's a great tit.

He stays here for the winter. So do many other garden birds.

The robin definitely stays. CHEEP, CHEEP!

Ooh, and the blackbird! CHEEP, CHEEP!

I like this one.

-CHEEP, CHEEP, CHEEP!

-Oh, I like its call.

-So do I.

It's a green woodpecker. I often think it's laughing.

-Does the green woodpecker goes away for the winter?

-I'm not sure.

-How can we find out?

-Why don't we ask the Ground Crew?

-Send them on a mission!

-I'll go!

WOODPECKER CHEEPS

Why not become a nature spy and have a close look at things that fly?

DING!

Cool, looks like we've got ourselves a mission.

-What does it say?

-"Why not become a nature spy

-"and have a close look at things that fly?"

-Cool!

-Who's ready to become a nature spy?

-ALL: Me!

Let's go!

-This is our hide, Nature Chris.

-It's lovely.

It's called a hide so we can hide from the birds to look at them.

Shall we see what we can spot?

Look, Nature Chris, there's a swan!

And just next to that, cleaning itself,

that's a bird called a little egret.

It looks like it's standing on a post!

That's cos it's got long legs.

It's a bit like a heron, but it's all white.

It's quite a long beak.

It uses that to catch things in the water.

If you look carefully at that bird,

it's got a ring on its leg. The reason we do that

is so we can find out more about them.

I know someone around here who puts rings on birds' legs.

-Shall we meet him?

-Yeah!

-ALL: Hello!

-Hi, Ground Crew!

-Hello.

-Hi, there.

This, this is Fraser.

We've got a bird here we're going to put a ring on.

We have a special licence to do this. You can help me.

Emily, you write the information down.

Here we are, great spotted woodpecker.

We have to hold it in a special way so he doesn't escape,

and so it doesn't hurt him at all.

-First, we need to put a ring on.

-OK.

The number on this one is C-A-N...

-6-0-4.

-6...0...4.

The ring goes over the leg like that, and these special pliers

-which don't hurt the bird...

-That's really clever!

We need to measure the wing.

133.

Let's go outside and let this one go!

WOODPECKER CHEEPS

Ready to let him go? Stand back a bit.

Bye!

Anyone know what that is?

ALL: Wow, it's a kingfisher!

-That's right.

-It's so pretty!

-It's nice.

-You've already ringed him.

We can read the number and look back and see when it was done,

and how old it was then, then we know how old it is now.

-It's beautiful.

-Time to let him go.

Yeah!

-Ready?

-He's gonna...

-Bye!

-Bye!

Well done, Ground Crew spies. We learnt all about the birds today.

ALL: Yeah!

There's just one thing left to say.

Mission accomplished. Back to you in the Green Balloon!

ALL: Bye!

Wow, wasn't that kingfisher amazing? Fantastic colours.

-And the woodpecker too!

-CHEEP, CHEEP!

But it wasn't like you, it was a greater spotted woodpecker.

I know one place to find a green woodpecker. On our website!

Is it this week's secret picture password?

We've got some autumn leaves, and a green woodpecker.

Which one shall I choose?

Well... I do like the laughing woodpecker.

Ha-ha! I think I'll go for that.

Yeah!

The green woodpecker is the secret picture password.

Right! Now we're in, let's have a look through the telescope,

and see what we can see.

Look, it's the seaside!

And look! We can explore all around.

Here's a shell!

I wonder what would happen if we click on it?

It's Lily-Rose and Ant,

showing us how to make a shell mobile. Isn't that great?

Why don't you go online and explore for yourself?

-Here's another one, Ant.

-Thank you, Lily-Rose.

You can feel the veins in the leaf.

There's another one, Jay.

Thank you!

-They're coming out really well.

-We could do with something else here.

How about these autumn pictures from Green Balloon Club members?

Aren't they great, Skipper? I really like this one, a nice colourful tree.

Great job, Victoria!

And I especially like this one, because Thomas has done

a great stormy day. I like the way he's done the leaves dropping down.

I like this one, by Jennifer,

because she's actually used real leaves to make a tree.

This one's my favourite,

by Isobel. I like the way she's done the squirrel's tail,

and I like the leaves especially.

I spy some Green Balloon Club members -

Annabel, Tilly and Jessica. It must be time for this week's spot.

Hello!

This week, we're spotting magpies.

Come on, it's time to spot!

Magpies are one of the common birds in the UK.

They can be found living in trees and bushes, in hedges

and open spaces. They are quite large birds,

with a long tail and glossy white and black feathers.

The black feathers shimmer a beautiful blue and green.

You can hear it chattering! CHATTERING

Magpies are very cheeky and confident birds.

They love shiny objects.

I hope they don't steal your headband!

THEY LAUGH

To spot magpies, remember these clues.

They are found in trees and bushes, hedges

and open spaces.

Their black and white glossy feathers.

Their noisy chattering.

Why don't YOU spot some magpies?

Remember to put your shiny belongings away first.

Bye, Green Balloon Club!

-Bye!

-Bye!

-One for sorrow, two for joy.

-Three for a girl.

-Four for a boy.

-Five for silver, six for gold.

-Seven for a secret never to be told.

Why don't YOU try to spot a magpie? Or even seven?

But before you start looking, hold on tight.

We're coming in to land!

-And whenever we land...

-It's time for a song!

# See the leaves in a spin

# Tossed and blown by the wind

# It's like they're waving summer

# Goodbye

# And the colours change to gold and brown

# Flying high as they leave the ground

# Till they're just a speck against the sky

# I see them flying

# Watch them flying

# To places that are wonderful and new

# Do you see them flying?

# It's just like angels on the wing

# Can we come flying too?

# See the birds, how high they swoop

# Full of grace, they loop the loop

# Living free so high above the crowd

# And they're making circles in the sky

# Calling out it's migration time

# I wish that I could soar beyond the clouds

# You'd see me flying

# Watch me flying

# In circles, just like life

# That will renew

# The birds are flying away

# Returning in the spring

# Still come flying

# The sun will be shining

# We'll all go flying

# Too. #

Bye!

-Look out for signs of autumn where you live.

-Spot pretty leaves.

Watch out for squirrels gathering food for winter.

Perhaps you might see a woodpecker!

-See you next week!

-Bye!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd