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BIRDS TWEETING
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Early mornings, for me, are some of the best times.
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The dawn chorus comes and the reeds are full of birdsong
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and it's a wonderful, happy time.
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BIRDSONG
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It's a great time to be on the river.
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It's time to find food
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because you've been building up an appetite all night.
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Time to find a mate.
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A time to declare your intentions.
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This is still my patch. This is my part of this river bank.
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It's a wonderful, peaceful time of day.
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And the light, if you're out there at sunrise,
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sometimes the light is so, so special.
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There aren't many really wild places left in this country
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but on the Shannon river, you still get that feeling
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no-one has ever been there before.
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I want to see this river in all its moods, in every season.
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Not just how it looks but how it sounds, how it feels.
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I want to find the hidden places and the hidden creatures living there.
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FROG CROAKS
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I'm going to have no fixed agenda. I just want to wander.
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Wander and explore.
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This river is a lifeline for countless creatures who
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shelter in and around its waters.
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I'm going to follow them and see where they take me.
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Spring on the Shannon.
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The great awakening and there's such a sense of purpose in the air.
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The orange-tip butterfly is one of the first of the season
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and it's a real sign that spring is here.
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Just a couple of months ago, all this was under water
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and then the water recedes and they sort of appear out of nowhere
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and colonise these watery meadows.
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They're the most perfect little creatures.
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Their wings are so delicate and the colours are so rich.
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The two sexes are quite different.
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The female doesn't have those lovely orange tips.
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These must be some of the most beautiful,
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natural wild flower meadows left in the country.
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Never seen herbicides or pesticides.
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It's just the way this rough grassland, farmland,
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used to look in Ireland.
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The landscape really hasn't changed but there is something missing.
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This place should be resounding to the cries of the wading birds.
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The lapwing and the curlew and the ring plover, the redshank
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but they've all gone.
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They've all disappeared within about the last 20 or 30, 40 years.
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Some people blame the mink for this emptiness.
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Ground-nesting birds, their little chicks
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and the eggs have no protection against a predator like that.
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But, you know, nature tends to be more complex than that.
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The real reasons sometimes for the rise and fall of different creatures
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can be very hard to identify.
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Our countryside has changed dramatically in the last few decades
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and I guess the river is just reflecting that change.
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Now, you can travel for mile upon mile on this river
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and never hear the sound of the curlew or
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the call of the lapwing or the whistle of the redshank.
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It's all gone.
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It's very, very few and far between.
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There are one or two places left on the river where
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they still nest successfully.
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Now, these low lying fields are known as the Callows.
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This is exactly what birds like curlew and redshank
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and lapwing need to breed.
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And that is the warning call of a redshank.
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BIRDS CALL
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He says I'm too close.
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And it's a call that just says, "Potential danger.
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"Await further instructions."
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Now, if I was to get closer,
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if I was to get out of the boat, you would hear a very different call
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and that other call is a real warning.
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It says, "Not only have we spotted danger, but we actually have
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"to react to it right now" and it's a particular call they make,
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sort of a lovely, flutey whistle.
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And that tells the chick to go straight for cover.
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They're relying completely on the parent's vigilance.
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People sometimes call them the guard dogs of the Callows.
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I have a friend who lives in a remote part of the west of Ireland.
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The only way to get to his house is on foot and he can always tell
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if there are visitors on the way because he'll hear that redshank
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calling and he'll know there'll be a knock on his door ten minutes later.
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I don't see this as a journey from source to sea.
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I see it very much as a wander around the entire system.
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I want to be on different parts of the river
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at different times of the year.
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I have lived in Ireland most of my life
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and I guess the Shannon is something I feel I've taken for granted.
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I mean, this is the longest river in Britain and Ireland and it divides
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our country in two from, sort of, the wilder west to the gentler east.
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You have this feeling of crossing the Shannon.
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You know you're going to another part of the country.
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It reminds you of how time passes and the lives that were once here
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and you have to sort of wonder, what will we leave behind?
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Will the monoliths of the Celtic Tiger
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look as romantic as the castle ruins?
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I don't think so.
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BATS SQUEAKING
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Bats are one of the most unappreciated of creatures.
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There are so many nasty stories associated with bats.
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When you hear these stories and see the movies,
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it's always about vampires and giving them a bad reputation
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and that somehow seems to get engraved in our consciousness.
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They are utterly harmless to human beings, absolutely harmless.
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And they are not just harmless to us.
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They really benefit, I mean, any creature that
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goes around scooping up midges in the thousands is a friend of mine
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because some nights on the river you would wish you had an entire
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swarm of bats accompanying you every place you went.
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We have about 30 mammals in Ireland and ten of them are bats.
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If only we could totally reverse the way that many of us see them
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and look at them as the incredibly well adapted sort of ancient
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creatures that they are.
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These are Daubenton's bats.
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They are known commonly as water bats and that's
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because they are perfectly adapted for life on the river.
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If you look really closely, you can see the odd one flitting by really
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fast and what they are doing is they are hunting over the water surface.
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They're looking for little insects
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which are caught on the top of the water.
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As they struggle to free themselves from that surface tension,
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they make little ripples and what the bats are doing now,
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they are echo locating and finding where those little
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ripples are coming from and they can sort of scoop up the insects,
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either with their tail or with their feet.
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They have extra big feet and they use those to just lift
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the struggling insect from the surface of the river.
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Flitting back and forth there.
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The bats themselves live, I guess, in a different world.
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They perceive the world in a different way to me.
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Although their eyesight is as good as mine,
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it's not much good to you when you're flying about in the dark.
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So, as they fly up and down the river,
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they have their mouths wide open and they are effectively
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sort of screaming at the water and waiting for that echo to come back
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and that's how they discern their environment.
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That's how they see where they are going.
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They like to hunt on the calm stretches of the river
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because if the surface is too disturbed,
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they wouldn't be able to locate their prey.
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They're incredible aerial acrobats, constantly scanning the surface.
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Incredible creatures.
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Beautiful creatures.
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This weather is really tough on the creatures that live off the river
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and this wind has been continuously blowing for over a month.
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Not quite what I had in my mind's eye when I set out on this journey.
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I imagined those lovely, fine,
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April evenings as the days start to lengthen.
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Just listening to the birds singing, maybe sitting by a little camp fire
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but for the last four or five weeks I've just been huddled down like
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all the other creatures, waiting for this spell of weather to pass on.
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This year this weather came at just the wrong time.
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There should be great hatches of insects
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and not just for the birds but for the fish and everything, too.
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You know, everything is feeding voraciously at this time of year.
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For nesting birds it's not just that the parents might not be able
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to supply their chicks with enough food,
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but the chicks get actively hammered by the wind and the rain.
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But then it will be amazing if the conditions do pass and
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the first sunny morning, the whole place will just come alive again.
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There's nothing like travelling on a river.
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There's just that feeling of sort of peace and tranquillity.
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You can kind of drift in and out of animals' lives
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and they don't even know you've been there.
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You don't disturb them.
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When I'm paddling my canoe,
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I'm just wondering what's happening beneath me.
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That whole cycle of life, things meeting and mating
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and breeding and things killing each other, that's all
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happening in the water but it's something that's hidden to us.
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There's one fish that's found throughout this river system,
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seldom seen, but at this time of year their presence becomes obvious
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and that's because it's mating time.
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People call them the barracuda of the Shannon.
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It's very much the creature that, if you were a fish,
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you would want to avoid.
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They're superbly adapted for their environment.
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They can move very, very fast if they have to.
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Any fish that comes within striking range has no chance whatsoever.
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Some people look at predators as being cruel
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and this sort of thing but that's really not the case.
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If you're an animal that's been injured in nature,
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be you a deer in a forest,
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if you've got a tiger around, the tiger will kill an injured deer.
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If it breaks a leg, instead of dying slowly, a tiger will spot it
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and kill it and the pike are sitting there at the bottom of the lake,
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they're just not randomly chasing any fish.
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They're looking for the ones which are moving a bit slowly,
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or aren't doing so well, so they are sort of like an anaesthetic.
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They put people out of their misery. They put fish out of their misery.
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Right now, food is the last thing on their mind.
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They're just thinking about making babies.
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What the females are actually doing is,
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they're laying their eggs on those little bits of reeds and they will
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lay thousands of eggs, but they'll only last there for a few hours.
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And then they'll fall onto the gravel beds so you
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sort of wonder, why do they lay them on the reeds in the first place?
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Maybe it's because the eggs are more likely to be fertilised
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in mid-water. Must be something like that.
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The males are just hugging the females, waiting for her to decide
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to spawn and they're just going to hang with her as close as they can
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because they'll get a very limited opportunity to become daddies.
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When that opportunity arises, when she's ready to spawn,
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that's what they've been waiting for and it's that moment they've got
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to be right in there and that's what that splashing is all about.
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People are always talking about the climate and changing
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and is it changing and that sort of thing.
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The natural world doesn't lie.
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You can see an increase in temperature.
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Things are moving north and west all the time
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because they are able to tolerate living in those sort of
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warmer conditions that are now on offer there.
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BIRDS LOUDLY CHIRPING
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So, you get this gradual influx in species
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and the Shannon is going to...
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You know, things are going to start being able to live here
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that couldn't live here before.
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I remember the first time I saw egrets, it was in the south of Spain
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and I thought they were the most exotic thing I had ever seen.
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I was walking up in the hills and I came over by this little lake
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and there were these beautiful, pure white birds wading around in
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the shallows and I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing and little
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did I know that within, I suppose, 20 years, that those birds would
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have made it to Ireland and they are breeding alongside our herons.
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That's something I never thought I'd see.
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There's something about herons too, when you see them hunched up,
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they can look a little bit angry and a little bit fed up with life.
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The egrets are like the new, beautiful cousins that have
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just come along and taken their limelight or something.
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They seem to put up with them
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but the egrets, I guess, are just so much more elegant.
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Everything seems very calm.
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It's as if they've been living together all their lives.
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The two species seem to sort of accept each other's presence.
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Even though they must be in competition for feeding sites
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and nesting sites.
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My guess is there are so many fish in the river
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that there's no big competition.
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A CACOPHONY OF BIRD SOUNDS
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Great sounds.
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One of the parents has just come in and they're all just going for it.
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It's a real survival of the fittest.
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All the chicks have to be on their feet, as it were,
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and scrambling for food.
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00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:07,320
It's known as scramble competition.
247
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:11,120
You've got to make your presence known to your parents so that you'll
248
00:23:11,120 --> 00:23:15,480
be fed because if the parent doesn't spot you and you start missing
249
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:20,440
out on your meals, you'll end up getting weak and not making it.
250
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:37,480
My fear is that little guy has no chance, no future.
251
00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:45,000
It's sad.
252
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:48,200
Nature can be tough.
253
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:56,360
MUSIC: Maith Dhom by Kila
254
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,840
We live in a country that's undergoing rapid change,
255
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,800
in the last 30, 40, 50 years.
256
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:24,320
The landscape has changed fundamentally
257
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:26,800
and that's always happened a certain amount,
258
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:29,920
it's just the speed of change has been dramatic.
259
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,200
Animals aren't good at adapting to fast change like that.
260
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,080
BIRD CHIRPS
261
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:10,840
That's a sound now that's really rare in these parts.
262
00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:12,080
That's a corncrake.
263
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:17,840
I remember the days when they were so common,
264
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:20,760
they were found in pretty much every field in Ireland.
265
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,840
I used to listen to them just a few miles from Dublin city centre
266
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:25,680
when I was growing up.
267
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:29,320
But now they've really disappeared from so much of the country.
268
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:34,640
When you cut silage, you cut it early in the season so when you have
269
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:39,440
a bird like the corncrake that nests in long grass, it's just gotten
270
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:43,480
to the stage of finding a mate and the female is sitting on her nest,
271
00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:47,400
sitting on her eggs, and that's when the grass cutters arrive.
272
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:49,680
So, they don't have time to raise their young.
273
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:52,960
So, year on year, corncrakes have just disappeared all over
274
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:55,360
the country and it happened very quickly.
275
00:27:55,360 --> 00:27:58,280
And here on the Shannon, they've been making a bit of a stand
276
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:01,280
down on the Shannon Callows, probably because that land
277
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:06,480
was used a little less intensively than other parts of the country.
278
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:10,240
But unfortunately they've done really badly the last few years and
279
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:15,000
I've heard this year that there's actually just one male left calling.
280
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:18,240
THE BIRD CALLS
281
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:24,200
He's calling to establish a territory
282
00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:28,560
but to let a female know that he's about, because if you're a corncrake
283
00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:31,640
wandering around in the deep grass, you can't find each other,
284
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:35,920
so it's up to him to call in the female and if there's a receptive
285
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,800
female in the area, she should come and have a look at him but it seems
286
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:45,160
very likely, very possible, that there's no-one out there for him.
287
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:52,360
When I go to sleep tonight, there's a good chance when I wake up
288
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:56,760
in the morning, that little guy is still going to be calling
289
00:28:56,760 --> 00:29:02,840
because the only thing on his mind right now is finding a mate.
290
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:05,600
That's why he has flown here all the way from Africa.
291
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:08,520
He doesn't know that there aren't any other corncrakes here.
292
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:12,240
He doesn't know that there aren't any females.
293
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:13,960
Poor little guy out there now.
294
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:20,280
He'll be calling all night.
295
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:25,360
All day too, probably, if he doesn't have any luck.
296
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:41,480
The Shannon is going to flow through this area now
297
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,520
and not hear that call again.
298
00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:45,560
It's like being in another world.
299
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:52,560
Very peaceful, just the sounds of the reeds themselves
300
00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:54,360
blowing gently in the wind.
301
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,760
But all this activity that's going on, that's unseen.
302
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:03,600
All the birds building their little platform floating nests.
303
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,280
Sitting on eggs. Chicks hatching.
304
00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:08,840
That's all going on now all around here
305
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:12,880
and just by listening to the sounds you can tell that's what's going on.
306
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:18,120
None of the residents in here can see each other either.
307
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:23,320
That's why they're constantly calling.
308
00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:26,200
Letting each other know where they are.
309
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:29,160
Contact calling. It's lovely to hear.
310
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:37,480
There's always one animal every year that sort of somehow
311
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:41,080
gets into your mind, that starts to fascinate you.
312
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:43,880
And for me, it's been the great crested grebe.
313
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,360
The eggs hatch on different days
314
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:57,240
because as soon as the first egg is laid,
315
00:31:57,240 --> 00:31:59,280
the female starts incubating it.
316
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:07,040
Both parents are very diligent.
317
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:09,640
They have these amazing parental instincts.
318
00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:36,760
The little grebe chicks must be some of the cutest chicks on the river.
319
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:39,080
They have beautiful little striped patterns,
320
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:41,480
so different looking than their parents.
321
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:46,920
Grebe parents will actually pluck their own feathers
322
00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:48,520
and feed them to the chicks.
323
00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:53,080
It's a remarkable thing to see.
324
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:05,360
Beautiful birds.
325
00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:44,360
INSECTS HUM SOFTLY
326
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:51,880
It's amazing how the whole world seems to have gone silent now.
327
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:55,760
It's every year I notice around the 15th July or so, it's as if
328
00:33:55,760 --> 00:33:59,880
someone had just flicked a switch. The Shannon is no different.
329
00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:04,000
All the birds just stop making noise and that's because the breeding
330
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:06,880
season is over and they don't have to sing any more.
331
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:11,040
They don't any longer have to defend breeding territories.
332
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:14,080
They don't have to attract females.
333
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:18,760
They have no reason to sing and that's why they've stopped.
334
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:21,960
It really seems to happen over a matter of a week or so.
335
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:25,720
It suddenly just goes quiet.
336
00:34:25,720 --> 00:34:27,600
Absolutely quiet.
337
00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:26,680
The greatest angler on the river has got to be the kingfisher.
338
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,880
They're just master fishermen and they've got to be because
339
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,520
they can pretty much eat their own body weight in food every day.
340
00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:39,600
Most of the time you just see a flash of blue.
341
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:43,560
But to really see how beautiful they are, you've got to slow them down.
342
00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:46,440
I'm starting to see subtle changes in colour on the river banks.
343
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:49,560
Autumn isn't far away.
344
00:38:42,720 --> 00:38:46,160
Great to see the red squirrels around.
345
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:50,120
The Shannon, which formed a barrier to people long ago, has been really
346
00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:54,040
important for the red squirrel in Ireland because when someone
347
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:58,760
decided in their wisdom to bring the greys here, the greys never actually
348
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:04,240
managed to cross the Shannon and so that's why the reds are still here.
349
00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:06,800
The poor little blighters, they just can't compete.
350
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:09,320
It's not that the greys are physically fighting with them,
351
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:11,680
it's just that they find the food quicker
352
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:14,080
and they'll take food that's still sort of raw,
353
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:19,080
raw nuts and that sort of thing, and these little guys just can't compete
354
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:23,440
so the females don't put on enough weight and so they don't breed.
355
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:27,560
In saying that, earlier I found some pine marten scat.
356
00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:30,360
There's some sort of evidence that maybe
357
00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:35,800
they are able to catch grey squirrels easier than reds.
358
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:39,080
Reds are a little more agile, they can get to the outer branches
359
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:42,200
of the trees, maybe where the pine martens can't get to them.
360
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:46,840
It may be that, with the rise of the pine marten again,
361
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:50,920
greys are going to be disadvantaged and the reds might make a comeback.
362
00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:54,000
I mean, that would be great if that happened and it just might.
363
00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:21,080
SWANS CALL AND HONK
364
00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:28,840
For anyone who spends time on the water,
365
00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:33,680
they know that sound, that's just the sound of the Shannon in winter.
366
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:39,160
That wonderful, haunting sort of call.
367
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:43,880
The sounds of the whoopers arriving. The end of the autumn and beginning
368
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:47,200
of winter is when they tend to arrive and they've been chased
369
00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:50,680
from their northern breeding grounds by the cold weather up there.
370
00:41:50,680 --> 00:41:54,640
They fly south to avoid it, they come to the Shannon because there's
371
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:58,280
a great big larder here to keep them going for the winter months.
372
00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:04,360
You only have to watch swans taking off to see that flight
373
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:06,560
doesn't really come all that naturally to them.
374
00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:09,760
They really have to push those bodies up into the air.
375
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,880
You'd think that they'd be a bird that maybe couldn't fly all that far
376
00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:18,960
but they can fly all the way from Iceland to here nonstop.
377
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:36,480
Once you make a decision to undertake that flight,
378
00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:40,920
there's no turning back because you've nothing to turn back to.
379
00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:42,680
So, no matter what obstacle they hit,
380
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:45,360
or what weather they hit, they just have to keep going.
381
00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:10,080
They must be very, very pleased
382
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:13,800
when they see the ribbon of the Shannon river from the air.
383
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:22,280
Maybe they're calling because they're just happy to be here.
384
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:12,640
They must use up a huge amount of energy on that flight,
385
00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:16,440
but when they get here, they're as graceful as when they took off.
386
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:19,440
You'd swear that they've just come from down the road.
387
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:22,920
They're just looking absolutely perfect and pristine.
388
00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:28,160
Some journey to undertake.
389
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:31,800
But one thing's for sure -
390
00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:34,480
when they arrive here, there's loads of food.
391
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,880
They're vegetarians, they come here to feed on the grass.
392
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:39,200
It's what they like to eat
393
00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:41,600
and there's no shortage of grass in Ireland.
394
00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:49,120
We tend to spend so much of our lives indoors now and in cars.
395
00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:52,920
We are maybe losing touch with those sort of seasonal markers
396
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:56,880
which give you a sense of the time of year and where you are.
397
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:02,640
You know, our houses are probably as warm in winter now as they
398
00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:06,840
are in summer and we eat any kind of food we want at any time of year.
399
00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:13,440
Those sort of traditional markers of the seasons are sort of disappearing
400
00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:17,200
but in the natural world, of course, they're very much still there.
401
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:21,960
They're still driven by the climate, angle of the sun, day length,
402
00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:23,760
all those things.
403
00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:26,800
That wonderful sense of a year as something cyclical.
404
00:47:44,240 --> 00:47:47,960
This is a rare cold snap and it won't last long.
405
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:51,680
As soon as the temperatures rise, things will start moving again.
406
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:25,160
FROGS CROAK
407
00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:29,080
That's a great sound.
408
00:48:30,080 --> 00:48:34,320
Guess to lots of people, birdsong is the first sign of spring
409
00:48:34,320 --> 00:48:38,120
but for me it's the croaking of the frog.
410
00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:40,360
Breeding season has begun.
411
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:47,920
Male frogs, lots of them, calling to lure in the females.
412
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:57,760
Males await the arrival of the next female.
413
00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:01,960
This is an annual opportunity and they want to make the most of it.
414
00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:04,600
Some of these little males have spent
415
00:49:04,600 --> 00:49:08,280
the winter at the bottom of the pond, hibernating there.
416
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:11,360
It means that they're in position, they're in the breeding pond
417
00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:14,280
when the females arrive in the springtime.
418
00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:19,080
Females can be scattered out over this entire area.
419
00:49:19,080 --> 00:49:21,840
Something wakes them up, the same sort of cues,
420
00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:25,280
I guess, that wake up the males wake up the females.
421
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:28,640
They've been wintering under stone walls or under bits of boulder
422
00:49:28,640 --> 00:49:32,720
or under logs, and some of these females have to make this
423
00:49:32,720 --> 00:49:36,200
arduous journey across the land, laden with eggs.
424
00:49:38,720 --> 00:49:43,360
Some sort of instinct drives them back toward these breeding ponds
425
00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:46,600
and then it's the calls of the male that lure them in.
426
00:50:42,520 --> 00:50:43,960
But the poor females.
427
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:47,000
You've got to... You've got to feel sorry for them
428
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:50,840
because all these males have only one thing on their mind right now.
429
00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:58,480
She's on the edge of the pond and she's thinking, "Will I, won't I?"
430
00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:03,280
And when she makes that final jump in, all hell breaks loose.
431
00:51:30,920 --> 00:51:33,440
And these little males, what they're trying to do is,
432
00:51:33,440 --> 00:51:35,160
they're trying to grab the female.
433
00:51:35,160 --> 00:51:37,600
They have special pads on their little hands
434
00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:41,040
and what they're trying to do is get into the right position.
435
00:51:42,720 --> 00:51:46,600
They will wrestle each other and she is stuck in the middle.
436
00:52:10,120 --> 00:52:14,080
Once they're really tight on there and in the right position,
437
00:52:14,080 --> 00:52:16,880
they will hang on for dear life
438
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:19,640
and for the next few days they will not leave her.
439
00:52:21,520 --> 00:52:24,280
Life for a female frog is not very easy.
440
00:52:27,560 --> 00:52:30,560
The other males sort of know and they give up.
441
00:52:30,560 --> 00:52:32,960
"Right, she's taken."
442
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:35,520
And then they wait for the next one to arrive.
443
00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:38,080
Love frogs.
444
00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:18,320
Every evening.
445
00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:20,160
Every evening this happens.
446
00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:29,920
Small flocks of little starlings come together to form bigger flocks.
447
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:44,800
It's just remarkable how so many birds come from the entire
448
00:53:44,800 --> 00:53:48,880
surrounding countryside and all make their way back
449
00:53:48,880 --> 00:53:50,760
to this one little spot.
450
00:53:58,760 --> 00:54:00,800
And those flocks start to wheel
451
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:04,240
just a few minutes before they actually hit the reed beds,
452
00:54:04,240 --> 00:54:07,320
there's just those extraordinary abstract patterns.
453
00:54:07,320 --> 00:54:10,920
From a distance they could be, I don't know, a swarm of locusts
454
00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:14,720
or a swarm of bees, it's very hard to get a sense of scale.
455
00:54:49,960 --> 00:54:53,800
In many ways this is the greatest natural spectacle in Ireland.
456
00:54:55,160 --> 00:54:58,080
It's just some sight,
457
00:54:58,080 --> 00:55:00,200
and the sounds,
458
00:55:00,200 --> 00:55:02,920
the sounds of myriads of beating wings.
459
00:55:24,360 --> 00:55:27,720
It's better not to analyse things like this too much.
460
00:55:27,720 --> 00:55:31,120
Sometimes you just want to sit back and enjoy.
461
00:56:42,320 --> 00:56:45,160
Amazing sight. Just amazing.
462
00:57:11,280 --> 00:57:14,680
My journey is coming to an end now and I've learned
463
00:57:14,680 --> 00:57:17,000
so much along the way.
464
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:19,560
I've experienced this river in every season.
465
00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:24,160
I've gotten to know its moods, gotten to know its creatures.
466
00:57:24,160 --> 00:57:28,920
Somehow it's sort of gotten into me, it feels like it's a part of me now.
467
00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:33,040
It's no longer A river. It's kind of MY river.
468
00:57:40,680 --> 00:57:42,800
But it's our river.
469
00:57:42,800 --> 00:57:46,000
Its future health and wellbeing is up to us.
41756
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