Bird Watcher Let's Play

# Let's play!

# Let's play!

# Let's have an adventure

# Hooray!

# Let's play!

# Who could we be today? What could we do?

# I'd like to drive a racing car

# Fly to the moon

# I could be firefighter, a farmer or a vet

# A knight in shining armour

# Or I could be a chef

# Let's play

# Let's play

# Let's have an adventure today

# Let's play! #

HE WHISTLES

He's good at whistling. Let me have a go.

SHE BLOWS

Hmm.

SHE BLOWS

You all right, Rebecca?

I would be if I could whistle.

SHE BLOWS But I can't.

Come on, everyone can whistle.

HE WHISTLES A TUNE SHE BLOWS

-See?

-That's more blowing than whistling.

-I could teach you.

-Really?

-Sure. Make a kissy face

-Take a deep breath in.

-HE BREATHES IN

And then blow out gently.

HE WHISTLES SHE BLOWS

You're right. You can't whistle.

Maybe one day. BEEPING

-There are more important things than whistling! It's time!

-Great!

-It's time to play!

-Whose turn is it today?

-Let it be me!

-Let it be me!

-Me!

-Me!

Let it be me, let it be me!

Let it be me.

Let it be me.

BOTH: # Let it be me

# Let it be me

# I really, really, really, really hope that it's me. #

-Let...

-Let...

-Let...

-Let...

-Let it be me!

# Let it be me, let it be me

# I really, really, really, really hope that it's me! #

-Could it be me?

-Could it be me?

TICK-TOCK!

It's me!

# Yes, it's me! Yes, it's me!

# I'm really, really, really, really happy!

# It's me! #

Look, there's the dressing-up room.

# Let's play ! #

This is really exciting.

Let's find out what we're playing today.

Wow, so I've got a clown's head, a bee's body and a caveman's feet.

No, that can't be right.

BEEP

OK, great. Now this time I have on a woolly hat,

camouflage jacket and trousers

and walking boots.

So what are we playing today?

I know. We're going to play bird watchers,

and we're going to go spotting birds. Brilliant!

So what do we need to know?

BOING!

Bird watchers love watching all kinds of birds,

the more unusual, the better.

They wear special clothes to make sure the birds can't see them

and must keep really quiet

because some of the birds they watch are nesting

and they don't want to scare them away from the eggs.

There are more birds than people in the world.

One of the rarest is the Madagascan pochard duck.

It's brown with a white ring around its eye

and there are only about 60 in the whole world.

You can tell what type a bird is by the colour of its feathers

and the markings on its body.

It's not just what a bird looks like that makes it different.

They all have their own special call.

So that's what we need to remember about being a bird watcher.

And do we need anything else?

Ooh.

A cardboard tubey thing.

I wonder what I'm going to need this for. I guess we'll find out.

We've got everything we need. Let's go.

All I have to do is put my lips together and blow very gently.

Right, OK...

SHE BLOWS

They really won't work. What's wrong with my lips?

Guess what we're playing today.

HE WHISTLES You're a train spotter!

A whistling one with a hat on.

No! We're playing bird watchers!

And we'll be watching birds.

HE WHISTLES I wish I could whistle like a bird.

Instead of doing this! SHE BLOWS

Don't worry. I'll get you making the best bird noises when I get back.

OK, I'll keep practising. Or maybe if I do this...

-SHE BLOWS

-Er, yeah, OK. Maybe.

-See you later.

-See you later. Bye!

# Let's play! #

SHE BLOWS

Come on, let's play bird watchers.

Whoa!

Yippee!

# Let's play! #

Right, so, where are we?

Ah, the great outdoors!

The trees, the grass, the wind in my hat

and a chance to spot some birdies. Right...

Let's see if we can find a birdy.

-Hello.

-Oh!

-Who are you?

-My name's Lottie. I'm a bird watcher.

Ah, so am I. I mean, my name's not Lottie. I'm Sid.

But I'm a bird watcher, too. We're hoping to spot some birdies today.

I've got my own binoculars.

Hang on, everything's really small.

Here.

Oh! Yes. Silly me.

Will you be going to the sanctuary?

We haven't got time to go there. We'll too busy bird watching.

No, I mean the bird sanctuary.

-In there. The best place to look at birds.

-Yes, the BIRD sanctuary.

-That's what you mean. We'll be going there.

-Oh, good.

Apparently, the rarest bird in the world is nesting there.

I've spent a lifetime watching birds

but this is the one I want to see the most.

-Ah, see you there.

-OK.

Bye-bye, then, Lottie. Come on, let's go there as well.

Yes. And maybe we'll see the rarest bird in the world.

Let's go.

Oh, so this is a bird sanctuary, is it?

Right, let's find some birds.

Here, birdy-birdies!

Birdy-birdies!

Oh, look.

-There's one.

-BIRD TWEETS

Hello, Mr Blackbird.

I'm Bird Watcher Sid.

Whoa! Hey, wait! Come back.

HE SIGHS

That one flew away.

Any more over there?

Any more blackbirds? No?

Oh, there's one. It's a pigeon.

Right. I'm going to take a picture of you.

Smile!

Aw! That one flew away as well.

Oh, what's that?

QUACKING

This time it's a duck.

Right, I'm definitely going to get a picture.

OK. Hello, Mr Duck.

QUACKING

Whoa!

Oh, no, that one flew away as well.

Hey!

-Shh!

-What?

-I said, "Shh!"

-Oh.

You're asking me to be quiet? Oh, OK, I'm shushed.

Er, why are we shushing?

Your noisy voice has scared away all the birds.

And if you keep making noises like that, we won't see a sparrow,

-let alone the rarest bird in the world.

-Oh! I see.

Sorry. I just got a bit carried away.

Carried away?

You're being crazy.

How can I see any birds

when you sound like a hurricane in a bagpipe factory?

I think she's a bit upset.

The thing is, Sid, what is the first thing a bird watcher must be?

-Ooh.

-Hmm?

Er... Oh, I remember! Do you?

Yes, bird watchers must be really quiet

because some of the birds may be nesting

-and they don't want to scare them away from their eggs.

-Exactly.

-Look, another bird!

-Shh-shh!

(I mean, another bird.)

OK. Take your time, be very quiet and take the picture.

OK. Nice and easy.

-CLICK!

-Got it!

Oops! Sorry.

OK. Follow me and... shhh!

Shh!

CLICK!

-Oh!

-Oh!

I'm going to show you the quietest place to do bird watching from.

You'll get some great pictures

and, who knows, we might even get to see the rarest bird in the world.

Oh, stop. OK...

In here.

What? Me, walk in there?

Those bushes? I'm not going in there. I might get all messy.

Sid, sometimes bird watchers do have to get messy, you know.

-Do they?

-Yes. Come on.

Agh!

Wow, a den in the bushes!

Sort of. It's called a hide.

It's so we can watch all kinds of birds without them seeing us

-and getting scared.

-Oh, clever!

So, where are the birds? Do we just sit and wait for them to walk in?

No. We look at them through these spy holes.

Oh, right.

Yes.

Let's see what's out there.

If we're lucky...

we'll see lots of birds.

And maybe the rarest one of all.

The Madagascan pochard duck.

Its brown feathers, white ring around its eye...

I dream that one day...

I will see it in the flesh.

Yes, I'd like to see it, too...

Hang on. That sounds familiar.

Yes. I've heard that before.

Oh! I know. I remember. Do you?

One of the rarest birds in the world is the Madagascan pochard duck.

Yes, it's brown with a white ring round its eye

and there are only around 60 in the whole world.

And I think I took a picture of it earlier.

Yes. I went up to it and it flew away and...

Maybe I caught a picture. I'm not sure. Did I?

Oh! Yes, I did! Lottie!

Shh! I think I can see a seagull.

No, look, the bird, the one you wanted to see.

Not now. It's stretching out its wings.

I took its picture! The Madagascan pochard!

You can't have done. It's the rarest bird in the world

and hardly anyone has ever seen it and there's no way...

SHE GASPS The Madagascan pochard duck!

Whoo! The Madagascan pochard duck!

It's here! In this sanctuary!

-It's here!

-Well...

Tell me you didn't scare it away. HE LAUGHS

Tell me you didn't scare away one of the rarest birds in the world.

HE LAUGHS

I think I might have done.

Oh! No!

I kind of got excited.

Well, don't worry. I'm going to make sure you see that bird.

I'm going to go out and track it down for you

and I'm going to make sure that you see it!

Because, Lottie, that is what us bird watchers do.

That is what we do!

-Sid.

-Yes.

-Can we go now, please?

-Yes.

So, the picture I took had a kind of bush behind it

and a tree in the right-hand corner.

-Sid, are you sure this is the place?

-Absolutely certain.

This is the place where I saw the rarest bird in the world,

the Madagascan pochard, or, as I call it, a duck!

Oh, Sid! Come here, come and look.

-HE GASPS

-You know what that is?

That is a nest with an egg in it.

-But you know what makes that nest and egg so special?

-No. What?

That is a Madagascan pochard egg.

It must have been laid by that bird you saw.

There are only 60 of those birds left in the world.

And that egg is number 61!

Wow! Great!

-No, not great.

-Eh?

Not great. Oh?

Oh, not great.

Oh, no, of course.

Because if that duck doesn't come back, then that egg won't hatch.

-So?

-So we need to find the duck now.

-We certainly do.

You look that way, I'll look this.

Is that it?

-No, that's a tree.

-No, next to the tree.

-Oh, a sparrow.

-Oh.

Oh, how about that?

That's a pigeon.

Oh. I can't find this Madagascan thingy anywhere.

Neither can I.

Oh. All these birds look the same to me.

How are we going to find it

and how are we going to get it back to its egg?

Oh, no.

Oh, hold on! I remember. Do you?

It's not just what a bird LOOKS like that makes it different.

All birds have special calls.

We need to talk to this bird to try and get it back to its nest.

-But how?

-Hmm.

If we pretend that we're ducks, maybe she'll hear us and come back.

Like this. Quackety-quack, quack-quack-quack, quack!

Quack-quackety, quackety-quack!

-You're being serious, aren't you?

-Yes. You should quack, too. Quack!

-Quack-quack!

-OK. I'll give it a go.

Quack, quack,

quack, quack, quack.

-QUACKING

-Shh! Wait. Is that it?

Oh, no, that's a drake mallard. Wrong duck.

We're on the right lines. We've got ducks coming.

We should keep quacking. Quack-quacking.

Quackity-quack-quacking.

BOTH: Quack, quack. Quack, quack.

Look, this is no good. It isn't doing the trick at all.

-Any ideas?

-We need to call it.

-That's what we're doing.

-With a proper duck caller.

-Eh?

It's long and brown. You blow into it.

It makes a quacking noise. But I didn't bring mine.

That sounds like the sort of thing...

-Hold on!

-What?

-This duck-calling thing.

-Does it look like that?

-This is the exact thing!

I think I'll be doing that.

OK, well, we need to find somewhere to hide so it doesn't see us.

Right. How about over there?

Yes, great.

-OK, you need to blow on it very gently.

-Right.

QUIET QUACKING

-No, actually, a little bit harder, but not too hard.

-OK.

LOUDER QUACKING

-Nothing.

-OK, let's wait and see.

-And don't blow on it again.

-OK.

QUACKING

-I said don't blow on it again!

-I didn't!

Well if it wasn't you...

Then who was it?

BOTH: The Madagascan pochard! Sh! (Sorry.)

There it is!

QUACKING

The Madagascan pochard. It's there. It's actually there.

The rarest bird in the world.

-This is the most exciting moment of my life!

-Me too!

But we can't get too excited,

because we want it sitting on that egg.

Yes, of course. Look, hold on!

BOTH: Wow! Two Madagascan pochards!

This is so awesome!

Yes. Wow. What an adventure.

But we'd never have found them

without remembering everything we needed to know.

Bird watchers must keep really quiet

so they don't scare the birds away from their eggs.

One of the rarest birds in the world is the Madagascan pochard duck.

And all birds have special calls.

-Hey, look!

-What?

BOTH: Awww! A baby!

Another little Madagascan pochard.

Well, what a perfect end to a perfect day.

And I think it's time we went home.

Thanks for coming bird watching with me.

-Thanks for having me. Bye.

-Bye.

Then I made this quacking sound like a duck,

and two of the rarest birds in the world came back,

-and they hatched this baby duckling!

-Awww.

I know. So cute. And I saw loads of birds,

and they've all got different whistles.

Really? I wish I could whistle,

but it's still just... SHE BLOWS AIR

Ohhh. Well, we may not be able to make Rebecca whistle,

but we can certainly have you quacking like a duck. Try this.

Oh! QUACKING SOUND

GASPS How cool!

Better than a whistle any day.

Well, playing bird watchers was great fun,

but what do you like to play?

I like to play pirates and fly in a really fast plane.

I fly my plane like this.

My - name - is - Harvey - Robot.

Pleased - to - meet - you.

I like to play robots, and walk like this.

I like playing with divers and swimming with lots of fish.

I swim like this.

It's fun to play. Start playing today!

Go to bbc.co.uk/cbeebies and click on Let's Play.

See you soon!