Wildlife and Landscapes of Yellowstone and Grand Teton - FX6 & Z750

[Doug Jensen]

Yeah, it is fun to practice tracking a jet moving at a constant speed in a linear direction, but its an entirely different from tracking and anticipating the random motions of birds in flight. I find that if I haven't filmed birds for a few weeks I will get really rusty and it takes a lot of time to get back into the swing of things. I live in an area Florida where there are a usually vultures flying around and I like to practice on them so that when there is an eagle or hawk n the air there is a much higher chance I'll be able to track them and get something worthwhile.

[Roger Van Duyn]

Thanks for the tip about practicing on the buzzards flying around. Plenty of them around here too.

[Doug Jensen]

Yeah, if you can follow a vulture smoothly then you'll be ready for any of the big raptors.
BTW, I think the easiest birds to shoot in flight are pelicans. Very big, very smooth flying, and hardly any sudden changes in direction.

[Bob Safay]

Doug, great shots of the plane, what a great idea! I managed to get a couples of hours in at Merritt Island NWR on my way south. I guess I lucked out. I got to video quite a few spoonbills as well as ibis, herons and other waterbirds. Just for fun I shot a lot at 120/29.97. Had fun. That was about it for birding for the rest of my trip. Next week I am heading out to Wheeler NWR in norther Alabama. The sand hill cranes are supposed to be migrating through. Take care and safe travels. Bob

[Doug Jensen]

Hi Bob, yes you did lucked out. I noticed a sudden uptick in bird numbers this week, so finally the numbers are starting to rise. I'm sure all the snowy weather farther up the coast is the reason why the birds begrudgingly decided to fly farther south. Nevertheless, the bird numbers have been so low that the internationally known Space Coast Birding and Wildlife festival has been cancelled. Partly for Covid reasons, but I was talking to the director of the festival this week and it's also because there aren't that many birds this year. They fear that if people come for the festival, don't see that many birds, and have to put up with all the Covid related crap on top of that, they might never want to come again.

Don't meniton sand hills cranes. I waited patiently on a trail last night at sunset because I know where is a pair of cranes that fly over almost every evening at sunset on their way back to their roost. Last week they flew over just as I gave up and put the camera away. Last night I waited and waited, but got side tracked by a lousy Ibis splashing in the water . . . as the cranes flew over and I was caught unprepared. Dumb!! I need more footage of an Ibis like I need another hole in my head.
Usually the cranes make a lot of noise so you know they are coming, but they didn't honk this time until they passed. I seriously think they are screwing with me.

[Bob Safay]

Well Doug, I head out this morning. If I see any Sand hill cranes, I'll send them your way. Safe travels, Bob

[Roger Van Duyn]

Hey Bob and Doug, I got pretty close to three Sandhill Cranes this morning while hiking out at Circle Bar B Reserve not far from my house in Lakeland.

YouTube (Short URL)

[Doug Jensen]

Nice clean sound with no cars, planes, or people! Hard to get these days.

[Roger Van Duyn]

Thanks! It was pretty early in the morning. Nobody else was around yet. The traffic on the highway was still pretty light. The wind hadn't picked up yet either. It got pretty strong later. Plus, I cheated a little. I used Audacity's Noise Reduction filter to get rid of what traffic noise there was. I'd used that technique to get rid of noisy air conditioning and similar sounds back when I filmed corporate and legal video. Our world has become very noisy.

I've saved the sound file from that clip for future use.

Also, the Wild Hogs are out rooting about early in the mornings there. My last two trips I've gotten some good photos of them.

[Bob Safay]

I lucked out. I got to Wheeler NWR in Decatur, Alabama at the height of the sand hill crane migration. There were thousands of birds there. This is just a short I put together. All clips shot with the Canon XF705, Sennheiser MKE 600 mic and Sachtler flowtech 75 tripod with Ace XL head. Slow motion was at 120/29.97 and max zoom was 765 mm. Unfortunately, a major highway runs right by the refuge so I will have to clean up the audio in my final video. Enjoy! Bob

Wheeler NWR.mov on Vimeo

[Doug Jensen]

Very nice. There is something really relaxing about listening to the nat sound of the birds with no music or anything. Nice tracking on the birds in flight and I really like the early shot where there are birds at different distances from the camera and flying in opposite directions. I wonder it it would be possible to take a portable blind out into the middle of that cornfield and shoot close-ups from just a few feet away.

[Roger Van Duyn]

Really good job Bob!

[Bob Safay]

Thank you both for your comments. There were also very large flocks of pelicans, but they were to far out and the boardwalks going across the ponds were closed for repair. Doug, they have the fields roped off to prevent people scaring the birds. The refuge has several permanent blinds set up as well as an observation tower, however the tower has thick tinted glass. I am going to put together a longer version and post it on Vimeo. Stay safe. Bob

[Doug Jensen]

Very interesting about the roped off area. I was picturing a wild location with nobody there but you.

[Bob Safay]

The only area that I saw that was roped off was from the main road (HWY 67) to the visitor's center. I believe this was to prevent people from parking on the side of the road and walking into the fields during the crane festival which I believe was this weekend. There are plenty of other fields all around the area, but some are private property. The NWR encompasses property on both sides of the Tennessee river. While I was there I only saw a handful of photographers.