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  • 1 week ago
A hazy, humid day at Lake Kerkini turns into a close-up wildlife photography walkabout, starting among nettles and bushes alive with orb-weaver spiders, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles and a striking moth caterpillar. The camera lingers on a spider wrapping a cricket in its web, a green iridescent beetle, and other small insects and arachnids found while wandering through the undergrowth.

From there, the scene shifts to the harbour rocks, where water snakes, lizards, frogs and terrapins share the sun-warmed boulders. The search for a snake proves challenging in bright light and deep shade, but one large water snake is eventually found resting between rocks before slipping back into cover as the weather turns. Thunder, rain and a fading battery bring the session to an end, with a final set of photos saved for the closing moments.

Created for fans of macro photography, wildlife photography, nature filming and reptile spotting, this is a calm field session full of insects, spiders, snakes and shoreline wildlife. It also suits viewers looking for nature documentary style footage, outdoor photography ambience, and real-world animal encounters from Lake Kerkini and Greece.

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Travel
Transcript
00:00so hello again my friends I hope you're all doing well today was a bit of a hazy
00:06day is a bit of a hazy day and a little bit overcast a little bit humid and I
00:13thought I would do a little bit of macro photography which I haven't done for a
00:17long time and this bank of nettles and bushes here has a ton of orb weaver
00:26weaver spiders and I've got one in frame at the moment that has got hold of a
00:32cricket and has been wrapping I'm just trying out I don't know what it'll come
00:37out like a time-lapse there's the slightest slides the breezes so it's
00:41moving the web ever so slightly so I don't know how that'll work with a
00:45time-lapse but I thought it might be worth a go anyway to see him devouring and
00:52wrapping the cricket so what I'm gonna do is just wander around bushes here see
01:00if I can find whatever kind of bugs I can find there's also the possibility down by
01:05the harbor here there's quite a lot of water snakes so I might have a go at
01:11trying to film and photograph a water snake as well sort of more up close so
01:19stay with me and I'll be bringing you these images in just a second and
01:24hopefully you'll enjoy following along I've got in frame a beautiful little
01:32beetle it's one of these green iridescent green beetles which I think belongs to
01:39the chafer family of beetles but I'll check the exact ID hopefully I can find it
01:46and let you know what that is there's also a bunch of crickets here and
01:51grasshoppers which are absolutely stunning and I think it's one of these
01:56crickets that the the orb spider had trapped in his web so I'll move along here
02:04there's a different one there as well so I'm gonna have a wander through here and see
02:11what else I can find
02:44so
02:51yeah
02:52yeah
02:52yeah
02:53yeah
02:53yeah
02:54yeah
04:05I just found the most scary looking monster of a fly and I think it's either a robber
04:14fly or a cannibal fly, I'm not sure.
04:18Again, I'll have to try my video later.
04:20I'll have to try my video later.
04:49I'll have to try my video later.
04:55And it's caught this little beetle and it's just sort of stuck him from his carapace or
05:02from his back and he's sort of glued him to the web and he's just left him dangling there,
05:08spinning for a thing.
05:31Not sure exactly the species of spider.
05:35It could be a wasp spider.
05:41Again, I'll have to check both on the species of spider and the species of bug.
05:47There's actually one bug free here, same kind of bug.
05:51Let me see if I can get a shot of him.
06:21I'll have to try my video later.
06:23I'll have to try my video later.
06:27Okay, so, really hot and sweaty doing this, it's so humid out here, and I think it's building
06:38for a storm again, so I'm gonna call it quits after just finding a lovely moth caterpillar.
06:48Again, I'll have to look up the exact species of moth, but I'm pretty sure it's a moth,
06:53not a butterfly.
06:54It's absolutely huge, and beautifully coloured, and very hairy, so that was a bit of fun, and
07:04I'm gonna go down to the harbour side now, and see if I can spot any water snakes, so
07:12I'll catch up with you there.
08:06Okay, so I'm positioned now down by the rocks at the harbour and this is a location where
08:14there's lots of boulders that they've laid out here for the pier and the snakes like
08:21to warm themselves in the sun on these rocks, on these boulders, before going out to hunt.
08:28So as you can see it's a little bit of a moody day today so it might take them a
08:36while to
08:36warm up which is good for me in terms of spotting the snakes.
08:41They're likely to stay out on the rocks for longer until they warm up.
08:46So with any luck I'll find a snake to take his picture and do a little bit of filming.
08:55So I shall catch up with you as soon as I have something in my frame.
09:09Okay, I found one snake and as soon as I started focusing on where he was hidden underneath
09:18the rock which is a little bit difficult because it was, he's so in the shade underneath the rock
09:25and then around it is bright, bright sunlight. So it was a difficult exposure that I'm not
09:31sure if I nailed or not and I'm not sure if I nailed focus as well. But then I caught
09:35him coming out of his hiding spot under the rock.
09:42So he's gone again between some other rocks and I'm just waiting to see if he's going to
09:46poke his head out or if he's going to go down into the water to hunt.
09:56In amongst all the boulders though they're so well hidden it's difficult to spot them and
10:03get a clear shot.
10:09So not a lot I can do other than wait and hope that an individual pokes his head out from
10:15between the rocks and I get a shot at them. I have to be a little bit vigilant because they
10:21don't hang around for very long. They're also so well camouflaged that even though I'm quite close to them
10:30it's easy to confuse them with just a branch or a stick.
10:41So I've got one in frame.
10:44He's just come out from a crack in between two boulders and he's just laying there for the
10:51moment, lying completely still.
11:07This one is a water snake, an atrix, an atrix.
11:28This one is really big too.
11:35It's probably a meter, meter and a half long.
11:40and a really thick body.
11:55Let's see if I can get a stelletine as well actually.
12:01Let's see.
12:04Let's switch out the camera.
12:32There's another boulder in front of the one that he's at.
12:37He's just withdrawn underneath it and behind so I can't actually see him but he's still
12:42curled up there.
12:47Okay so unfortunately the rain has started coming down so I'm going to call it quits.
12:56and my battery is dying as well.
12:58So I've got a little bit of footage, a few photos and yeah.
13:08And there's the thunder.
13:12Before the torrential rain starts I'm going to pack up and head back.
13:18So yeah.
13:21I hope you've enjoyed.
13:23Stay tuned for the pictures right at the end for the photos.
13:27This will probably be one of the last ones I'm able to do from Kerkini because I'm headed
13:32back to Athens in a few days.
13:35I'm going to try and produce another one until then.
13:39But if not this is probably the last one for a while.
13:42So thanks again for all your viewership and I shall see you again soon.
13:47Bye for now.
13:56Bye.
14:30Bye.
14:31Bye.
14:58Bye.
15:26Bye.
15:56Bye.
15:58Bye.
16:26Bye.
16:27Bye.
16:58Bye.
17:00Bye.
17:29Bye.
17:57Bye.
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