High Water

I went to check a camera trap and discovered the road was flooded.  I had to choose between turning around or looking for something to photograph.  I drove to the next convenience turn around point and saw reflections along the road and then I noticed the songbirds. We have had about six inches of rain this week and it will take a couple weeks for the the water to recede so I can get the camera that fortunately it is on high ground.

Technical: Natural sound recorded with a Rode Stereomic. The overhead jet is just part of the world. 

Pattison SP Postcard

   

This was part of the week filming prairie chickens and sharp-tail grouse. Not quite as exciting as wildlife. The editing challenge is getting sound to match the intensity of the action and setting a pace with the clips that fits the mood of the morning. Enjoy!

Recording Growth

I am intrigued with the possibility of recording change on video and an attachment to a GoPro 4 seems like just the ticket. GoPro cameras are small,waterproof,  but have a fixed 16 mm (35 mm equivalent) lens. They are also limited by a 2 hour battery life.  The Blink intervalometer shuts the camera down when not exposing and image thereby significantly increasing the battery life. If you have a GoPro and want to play with this possibility check out: Blink Intervalometer

Technical: Recorded over two days for a total of 18 hours. Images recorded at 1 minute intervals, 16 second video from 18 hours of change.

It's my space

I'm easy game for talkative and sometimes annoying wildlife watchers that come and go as I stand for hours waiting to get that one shot. I felt like this pelican last week until I stepped back and listened. A lonesome 90 year old guy needed to talk so I  listened. The next morning I found this 2 minute video on YouTube: Billy Thompson
 
I discovered a treasure more important than any pelican story that evening. I'll come back for the birds another day and if someone wants to chat, the birds can wait still another day.

The Fight

This battle lasted most of the morning with intermittent breaks for rest and recovery. Only when the hen from the previous post arrived did the attention of these males turn away from fighting. I would have loved to captured this in slow motion but was afraid to switch cameras and miss the action. The light was also a little low for the higher shutter speed needed to record slow motion ( 1/250 vs 1/60).

Line Dancing Turtles

Recently I have been watching turtles and out of the water they do what turtles are know to do: move very slowly.  I decided to record their movements over 1 1/4 hours at 15 second intervals.

Courting the Lady

This frenzy of activity took place on the lek last weekend. The first two hours were spent keeping warm, watching males dance, and then stare at each other. The next hour flew by with this nonstop activity.  I hope this will entice you to visit the blind in the future.

Technical: Recorded one morning using a Canon C100 and Sony a7r2 with a 100-400 lens and Rode Videomic.

Storm at the Lek

The blind was reserved 2 months ago, the weather is miserable, and the forecast is for 2-6 inches of snow. Now what? There really wasn't a question of whether to show up or not since the birds would still be there. It was also no problem deciding what to wear - everything! The result was a unique experience to witness how prairie chickens survive on the prairie under some very harsh conditions.