We Explore The Marsh (1974)

[Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] spring finally came and our teacher Mr day took us to the marsh it exciting there were lots of strange sounds and everything was really starting to grow Mr day had a book that told about the marsh it told about how the marsh is is a kind of wetland with water and islands of plants there are fresh water marshes and saltwater marshes and marshes CL swamp hey remember I saw the first animal and I saw the first bunch of flowers some Marsh flowers like on the willow didn't even look like flowers last year's Cattail flower sure looked funny they were all dried out what do you expect remember the redwinged blackb bird there were a lot of black birds in the marsh he kept showing off his colors the lady Blackbird wasn't bright she was too busy to show off she had to gather things for her nest it looked like she was almost finished yeah that's right remember the other blackbird nest we saw oh yeah the one with the eggs in it and the third nest with the mother Blackbird feeding her babies Mr J really knew where to find things he sure did yeah like those frog eggs he said they'd be hatched when we came back in the summer you think that was the mother we saw Maybe we sure scared her but we didn't scare the raccoon he was just looking for food remember when Tommy found those beetles near the shore they were kind of silly what were they called whirly gig beetles yeah whirly gig what kind of name is that I saw the Ducks first they were mards remember Mr day told us oh yeah and those ducklings were so cute I like the other bird better the [Laughter] green remember the baby GS that were Hatchy their nest was floating Mr day said Greaves can swim when they're born as soon as they're born I didn't hear him say that well he did right before he showed us the Muskrat I never saw a muskrat before wow can they swim they eat the roots of plants that grow underwater we were walking by the shore and Mr Dave found them uh salamander right salamander it can live on land or in the water just like the water snake we saw remember that oh yes we saw the snake right before we had to leave Mr day said there' be more things to see when we came back in the summer [Music] the plants were much taller the grasses and new Cattails were all grown [Music] up there were different birds too like the kill deer I wonder why they call it a kill deer I'll never forget that duck that dived underwater for food boy he could sure hold his breath a long [Music] time have about those Coots we saw they sure made funny noises maybe that's why they call them crazy Coots a Mr day showed us what they eat sometimes the duck weed ducks eat it too remember how it floated but what about the algae it looks like spinach but it didn't have leaves or stems or roots The Cattails were a lot different Jimmy said the flower was like a big furry hot dog it had a round stem it was different from that other Marsh plant with the flat sided stem the picko weed stem grew way up out of the water and so did the leaves but the water L leaves floated Mr day said the roots were in the mud with the whole stem underwater the painted turtle it was really [Music] neat Mr day said only certain fish can live in the marsh yeah like the bluegills and the Mudman my dad and I use mows when we go fishing crayfish can live in the marsh too yeah but they're not really fish no but neither were the tadpoles we found but they sure look like fish they were the babies that hatched from the frog eggs we saw in the spring Mr day said they'd be frogs yeah after they grew their legs and lost their tails one tple almost did lose his tail remember when that hungry dragonfly him bit him Mr day said the dragonfly lives the first part of his life underwater but then it comes out and begins to shed its skin after it leaves its old skin it swings dry and open it starts flying around looking for [Music] food I never knew there was so much happening in the marsh I wish wish we could have looked around some more hey maybe Mr D will take us back there again yeah and I hope it's soon let's ask him now that's a great idea