Up close and personal

The past few days I have found my heart beating faster as I have been able to appreciate small interactions with the Natural World we live in. I haven’t been able to really document them because I’ve been working and haven’t had my camera with me, and even if I had of had it with me I wouldn’t have had the time nor the opportunity to set it all up the get professional footage or images before the wildlife disappeared.

Some of these interactions haven’t even been visual but audible instead, another subject that I love exploring (sound is so often underrated when making film). On that note Tascam if you happen to read this, please send me an FR-AV2 to review and possibly hang onto, I promise to look after it well and sing high praises of your expensive wonderful gear.

NZ Swamp Harrier gliding on the wind

Sound and sight

Lately I’ve been hearing the honks of Geese and Black Swans as they move up and down the Coast and across the neighbouring Farmland, for some reason this instills a deep sense of joy in me. I have domesticated Pilgrim Geese on my Small holding and they truly are the funniest and most intelligent creatures, their social interaction is something you could watch for hours.

I recently watched them fend off an NZ Swamp Harrier that they were sure was coming into attack.

There’s a scene in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator where Russell Crowe uses his Roman Army experience to form a barrier against the attacking enemy (or in the case of the Story, the victorious slayers of something or other) they form a shield facing outwards as the enemy circles. The Geese, ironically much loved by the Romans as quasi guard dogs in camps, did exactly the same thing, all moving into an outward facing formation to protect the younger less experienced geese.

All rather dramatic and truth be told the Swamp Harrier, one of three that frequent my property, wasn’t the slightest bit interested in the Geese but wanted the get to the last piece of meat offcuts that I put out for them as the Weather gets colder.

Aside from the geese and their antics it was breathtaking to witness just how large the Harriers are when you get close to them, as I sat in my office the bird was circling over and over again as it tried to land and get it’s food. As it arced around it got very close to my office window and despite photographing and filming then on numerous occasions I was shocked at how big they really are. Normally I see them from a distance and through a long lens, but as soon as they see a human they’re off and so you never truly get a sense of scale. When one comes within two meters of your window, wings fully extended as it does a fly by you do get a sense of scale and it’s VERY impressive!

Thyra “my” nesting Ruru female checking me out

Owls

Of course those that know me and read my stuff on a regular basis (I like to live in the belief that there are some of you) know that I have been privileged to have Ruru, NZ native Owls aka “Morepork” nesting and frequenting my property. This season they departed much quicker than previous years and I lament that I didn’t get to see more of them or spend more time with them, so I’m always over the moon to hear their calls or better still to see them when they do appear.

The last few nights I have heard them calling more and more on a regular basis and that’s great as is mostly means there are more than one in the area as they are calling to defend their patch, this always make me happy and I can often be found leaping out of bed in my PJ’s to go out in all weather of a night to see if I can get a glimpse of them. (It’s no wonder the neighbours are selling up!)

Kingfishers

This year I’ve seen some phenomenal pictures and film of sacred Kingfishers and while not quite as colourful as their European counterparts they are nonetheless spectacular birds to see in the wild. However for me all I ever saw was them sitting on wires as I was driving or hearing them calling over and over again close to but seemingly never on my property, that is until yesterday as I left the office to go and grab a coffee I spied something sitting on the calf shed roof that was too big to be a sparrow and just ever so slightly too colourful to be a thrush, and dare I say it larger (read rotund) than anything else that frequents my place.

I advanced slowly and found to my surprise a very fat kingfisher fledgling that had obviously gone on it’s maiden flight and landed further afield than it intended. It sat there long enough for me to go inside, put the kettle on, grab my camera, change lenses and go back out to film and photograph it.

A very podgy Sacred Kingfisher fledgling

I shot some footage but I’m sad to admit that without a tripod I’m like the blow up balloon man you see at carwashes and my handheld stability leaves a great deal to be desired, in fact it’s almost unusable, which makes me wonder if it’s just me as others seem to shoot amazing footage handheld all the time with the R5MKll.

A young Sacred Kingfisher fledgling, calling for someone after it’s maiden flight, at least that’s what I’m assuming

Later in the afternoon one of the adults turned up and sat on a branch near my office and was chastising me for not helping I guess, but what was I to do, I don’t speak Kingfisher! Naturally this time I had the camera ready and no matter how slow I moved it the Kingfisher was onto me immediately and buggered off, but I was still stoked, that was two kingfishers in one day!