Peacock Palace My Pet and Me

-Welcome to My Pet And Me. I'm Ferne.

-I'm Rory.

We're about to give Gerty her dinner.

We have to remember to feed all the hungry animals every day.

-Plenty of water too.

-That's true. Very important.

Lots of animals make brilliant pets and we love

-coming to meet you and yours.

-We do.

What are you up to today?

I'm about to meet new friends, and you can come along too.

-See you later.

-See you.

-Come on.

# My pet, my pet and me

# My pet, my pet and me

# Down every street

# Are pets to meet

# Some big, some small

# Some scaly, some furry

# Some keep very still Some are always in a hurry

# Some have four paws

# Some have sharp claws

-# Some quack

-Some bark

-# Some purr

-Some moo

-# Some grunt

-Some squawk

# Some cock-a-doodle-doo!

# My pet, my pet and me

# My pet, my pet and me

# My pet, my pet and me

# Have you met my pet and me? #

Today I'm at a palace in Perth, Scotland,

that's home to some beautiful peacocks and peahens,

and I'll meet some new friends

and we're going to find out all about them.

Hi, guys. You must be Usman and Cerys.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-It is lovely to meet you.

-And you must be their mums. Hi.

-Hi, Ferne.

I hear there are some colourful birds

wandering around this palace. Should we try and find some?

-Yeah.

-Come on.

Bye.

SQUAWK, SQUAWK!

-Hi, Carol.

-Hi, Ferne.

Hi!

-How are you?

-I'm good. How are you guys?

Good.

-What are you doing?

-I'm tidying up the leaves,

but normally I look after the peacocks and peahens.

That is amazing! What a great job. How many do you have?

We have about 11 peafowl here.

That is great. Peafowl is a term used

to describe both males and females.

The males are peacocks and the females are peahens.

What is your favourite thing about them?

I like the colours of their feathers.

I like their legs.

They've got really long legs. And do they have a funny walk?

They just do one step at a time.

A bit of a strut, isn't it?

The males have these magnificent colours

to try and attract the females.

You'll see the peahens are a bit less colourful,

and their feathers are also shorter.

Peacocks have an average of 150 tail feathers, and once a year

they shed them, so there's space for more.

Do you think we'll find some of the ones they shed?

-Yeah!

-I hope so. Do the peafowl roam around freely?

They do cos it's easy to get food, and when it's very heavy rain,

they like to go under the trees for shelter.

Peacocks are also very self-sufficient -

they can get things easily themselves -

so we just check up on them and give them food.

That's really important.

Peafowl live for around 15 years and they are social birds,

so it's great there's a bunch so they can hang out together.

-Do they fly?

-They can fly, but they are very, very big,

so they can't stay in the air for long. Their flights are short,

normally on to a branch where they sleep or to escape a sneaky fox.

Rory, tell us more facts about these beautifully-coloured birds.

Of course, Ferne.

A group of peacocks is known as a muster or an ostentation.

Male peacocks are best known for their amazing tail feathers,

which is often called plumage.

They like to stand them up and form a lovely big fan to show them off.

Isn't it beautiful?

Peacock feathers make up half of their body length

and they're classed as one of the largest flying birds in the world.

Peafowl need care and attention

just like lots of other birds and animals.

Carol and the team take care of all the peacocks and peahens,

and there's lots of visitors every day to the estate,

so the birds always have plenty of food.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

It's wonderful these birds get so much care,

so what can we do to help?

Right now, you can clean out this bowl for me

and fill it full of fresh seeds for them.

-We can do that, can't we?

-Yeah!

-Yeah.

-I'll go turn on the water for you.

-Thank you.

-Ready, Carol.

-OK.

Wait, there's a peacock that's looking for food!

-He's not going to come for a bath?

-Maybe!

Make it nice and shiny.

This is going to look so much better soon.

Me and Cerys are going to wipe the rest.

Carol, you can put the water off now.

-OK, Ferne!

-Thank you.

-Right, shall we give this a little wipe down?

-Yeah!

This is looking so much better.

-Yeah.

-I think we're super cleaners.

Guys, what goes in here?

Food!

-Will you put them in?

-Yeah!

There you go.

Peafowl eat lots of different things like grains, nuts, seeds, fruit,

and sometimes even insects.

-What do we need to do now?

-Wash our hands!

That is right.

Do you think they'll enjoy their nice tasty seeds?

-Yeah!

-How about we leave it here for them and let's go?

-Yeah.

-OK, come on.

Look, they've found the food!

I think he enjoyed that.

Now we've finished feeding the peafowl,

local vet Fiona has arrived to give them a checkup.

-Look at those.

-They're beautiful, aren't they?

And look at Alexander, he's a bit different -

he's a white peacock.

Fiona, what are you looking for with these peafowl?

I'm looking at the behaviour of the peacocks,

the condition of their feathers and the skin on their legs.

The way they're naturally preening is good.

They do that to remove dirt and keep their feathers healthy.

Why aren't you picking them up to look over?

If we felt one had a problem with its feet or feathers

we'd have to catch them, but we try to avoid stress.

It's just a general check to see they're looking healthy.

We can get a rough idea of if they get enough food...

-They're looking good?

-Great, yes.

Fantastic. They've got shiny feathers,

the skin on their legs is healthy - we've got some happy peacocks.

My Pet And Me!

I think the peacocks and peahens here are very lucky

because there's so much space. What do you think they get up to?

Running around.

Play hide and seek.

That sounds like so much fun.

But if the peacocks and peahens could do absolutely anything,

what would they do?

If they could do anything...

..they would be ballroom dancers.

They would twirl around and around...

..and their colourful tails would twinkle in the lights.

Now the peacocks and peahens are happy, fed and roaming around,

we should play a game.

-Yeah!

-But we're going to need some friends first.

Come on, friends.

-Hi, Ferne!

-Hi, Ferne.

-Hi.

You must be Paris and Greg. I'm so glad you guys could join us.

Now, I've found lots of peacock feathers

and I've hidden them in a maze.

Shall we see how many we can find?

-Yeah!

-Shall we do that?

-Yeah!

-OK, let's go, quick!

This maze is fun!

I wonder how many peacock feathers they'll find.

There's one!

They can't find a way to go!

Keep your eyes peeled.

Have a look. Have a look.

Well done, everyone.

Whoo! Well spotted.

Go, go, go, go, go!

Yeah, we made it through the maze!

-Well, that was amazing.

-Yeah.

Wasn't it? It was so much fun. We've got lots and lots of feathers.

-Do you know what I was thinking that we could make?

-What?

Peacock masks!

Yeah!

-Shall we go and do that?

-Yeah!

-Come on.

We've got all of the outlines of our masks nice and ready.

-Do you think they look good?

-Yeah.

-Shall we cut them out?

-Yeah.

-I'm keeping the lines.

-You're doing really, really well.

Just a little bit in there.

Remember to always get help from an adult when using scissors.

-Shall we start decorating them?

-Yeah!

-I'm putting glitter on the cheeks.

-That's lovely.

That's a really nice idea.

Are you putting a crown on?

Pompoms on.

One for there, one for there.

So the next thing that we need to do, and we cannot forget it...

-Peacock feathers!

-Shall we stick some of these on?

-Yeah!

-Can you tell me what these are called?

-Eyes.

-That's right, they're called eyes.

They're at the top of the male peacock's feathers.

-What do you think they do with them?

-They show them off to the peahens.

That is exactly right.

They can have 150 of these and they just wave them around like that.

It's like a big hello, isn't it? Look at me!

Make sure that they're properly stuck down.

These are looking fantastic.

-Shall we try them on?

-Yeah!

-Do you think the peacocks will be impressed with these?

-Yeah!

Definitely.

What do you think of our masks?

Hello!

Are you doing peacock walks?

He's coming to have a look as well. THEY LAUGH

Hi. What do you think of our masks?

I bet they think our masks look fantastic.

I had so much fun meeting all of you.

It was brilliant, and we learnt so much about the beautiful birds,

-didn't we?

-Yeah.

-Thank you very, very much.

Oh, hug!

Oh, no!

SQUAWK, SQUAWK!

My Pet And Me!

-Hi, Rory.

-Hi, Ferne. How was your day?

-It was fantastic.

I made some really great friends and had such a fun day.

I've been busy cleaning out the stables.

-It's looking great, well done.

-Thank you.

Remember not to touch an animal unless the owner says it's OK first.

Two pets you definitely can play with, though, are ours.

Go to the CBeebies website and play the game.

What a fantastic time we've had. We love meeting you and your pets.

# Today we met

# A lovely pet

# We see how much you care for them

# Thank you so much for sharing them

# Time for us to

# Just remind you

# After you've played with your pet

# Wash your hands, don't forget

# It doesn't matter what pet you've got

# You might have one, you might not

# It's still fun finding out

# What having a pet is all about

# My pet, my pet and me

# My pet, my pet and me

# My pet, my pet and me

# Come back and see my pet and me. #

Bye!