- 1 week ago
Spring migration at Lake Kerkini opens with a cold dawn, mist rising off the water, and a rich mix of birds arriving at the lake. After a -2C night, the sunrise creates beautiful conditions for filming water birds, with white storks, pelicans, cormorants, grebes, herons, little egrets, and more moving through the frame.
The day also brings a long-awaited search for Penduline Tits along the canal, where the overgrown banks make access difficult but the reward is worth it: a pair building a hanging nest in a tree. The footage captures the birds carrying nesting material, working on the structure, and revealing the remarkable false entrance and concealed chamber that make these nests so unusual.
Along the way, the video feels like a calm birdwatching field diary from northern Greece, mixing wildlife photography, nature filming, and spring wetland scenery. It is especially suited to viewers interested in bird nesting behavior, migration at Lake Kerkini, and close-up observations of water birds and small songbirds in their habitat.
SEO: Lake Kerkini birdwatching, spring migration, water birds, Penduline Tit nest building, wildlife photography, nature documentary, bird nesting behavior, wetland birds, bird filming, and relaxing nature viewing for anyone searching for birds of Greece, spring wildlife, and close-up bird habitat footage.
The day also brings a long-awaited search for Penduline Tits along the canal, where the overgrown banks make access difficult but the reward is worth it: a pair building a hanging nest in a tree. The footage captures the birds carrying nesting material, working on the structure, and revealing the remarkable false entrance and concealed chamber that make these nests so unusual.
Along the way, the video feels like a calm birdwatching field diary from northern Greece, mixing wildlife photography, nature filming, and spring wetland scenery. It is especially suited to viewers interested in bird nesting behavior, migration at Lake Kerkini, and close-up observations of water birds and small songbirds in their habitat.
SEO: Lake Kerkini birdwatching, spring migration, water birds, Penduline Tit nest building, wildlife photography, nature documentary, bird nesting behavior, wetland birds, bird filming, and relaxing nature viewing for anyone searching for birds of Greece, spring wildlife, and close-up bird habitat footage.
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TravelTranscript
00:00Thank you for listening.
00:46Thank you for listening.
02:25Hello again, my friends.
02:26And it's another gorgeous day here at Laker Guinea.
02:32And I have for the last couple of weeks been wanting to make a video about spring migration.
02:49And finally, the last couple of days I've had enough time to actually get out and do something.
02:55And I'm headed now down to the little port at the northern end of the lake called Livabia, which is
03:12normally this time of year.
03:16And the water has risen a little bit and the lilies have started spreading across the surface.
03:25And it's a good nesting spot for various water clouds, coots and greets, the like.
03:33So I'm heading down to see if I can get any footage of that.
03:43And it's a freezing morning.
03:45It's a freezing morning.
03:46It's minus two, but the sun has just risen.
03:50And it is absolutely gorgeous.
03:52And it is absolutely gorgeous and the steam is rising off the lake.
03:54And it looks absolutely stunning.
03:57So hopefully we'll get a few images.
04:02So hopefully we'll get a few images down here and because I'm late hopefully I won't scare too many birds
04:07off.
04:10Normally I would come down in the early hours and try not to just try to be there before the
04:19birds have arrived so I was not going to disturb them.
04:25But it was a late start this morning.
04:31So whilst I'm doing this I shall leave you with a little sequence of the first arrivals, spring arrivals here
04:41at the lake, which as usual was the storks, the white storks.
04:50So there's a couple of pelicans out here and some cormorants and some greets and the harem.
05:06Let me just go down a little bit further I think, right to the water's edge.
05:11And I will stay in the car and use this as my hide and see what I might be able
05:19to get from here.
05:22Okay so enjoy the storks whilst I set myself up here.
05:32Let me just go down a little bit further.
05:43Let me just go into the water and come to the water.
05:56PIANO PLAYS
06:24PIANO PLAYS
06:47PIANO PLAYS
06:47PIANO PLAYS
06:47PIANO PLAYS
07:08So it is absolutely beautiful down by the harbor then,
07:15and there's plenty of signs of spring now, with the crested grebes doing their courtship
07:26behaviours and I even saw a squacco heron, which is the first one I've seen this year.
07:34Lots of more hens, a few herons, on the far side there was some egrets as well, so the
07:51little egrets have arrived as well. What else? A few pelicans in the distance and I managed
08:01I think to get some nice footage before I went down to the actual harbour side itself, from
08:08up here on the embankment, with the steam rising off the water in the early morning. It looked
08:19absolutely amazing.
08:27But I think to get some really good stuff down by the water side, I'm going to come back tomorrow
08:34morning, hopefully it will be another beautiful day, and I'll have similar conditions. And
08:40I think I'll probably just set up the hide there, and so I'll come down whilst it's still dark
08:48and before the birds have arrived hopefully, and set that up and spend a couple of hours
08:56in the hide, see what I can get there. And now what I'm doing is driving back along the embankment,
09:09and for the last couple of weeks, apart from wanting to do this video on spring migration
09:18out here, and the early arrivals, like the stalks, I've been hearing, but not seeing, Penduline
09:2710. And so I'm going to drive along here, and scour the canal which is normally in the
09:39area where they nest, in the trees overhanging the canal, and see if I can spot any. The difficulty
09:48has been this year, because of the lockdowns, and there's been very few people come to the
09:59lake this year, and also the buffalo have not been grazing along here at all, which means
10:10the embankment along the canal here has become incredibly overgrown with brandles, and getting
10:16through has been really difficult to the waterside for most of it, other than a couple of openings,
10:24like where I set up the camera track. So I'm going to head down to a spot that I can
10:33cross
10:33the canal over to the other side, because I'm feeling that I'll have a better view of the
10:42trees along the canal from the other side. So I'm going to do that, and see if I have any
10:51more luck trying to spot a Penduline nest from the opposite side. So yeah, I shall catch up
11:01with you once I've parked up, and got no more on the other side, so I shall see you in
11:08a minute.
12:01I'll see you in a minute.
12:31I'll see you in a minute.
12:39Okay, so as I came across the water, I could hear a Penduline calling, and he was calling
12:47to the right of me, and down by those trees where I stopped to have a look, just over there.
12:54And then he flew off in this direction, so I left my camera gear there, and I wandered down
13:03here, and there's a tree, a lone tree, which you can see just along here, where my tripod
13:08is pointing, and I could hear calling coming from there. So I wandered over here, without
13:19carrying all my gear. And lo and behold, there was a half-built Penduline's nest, hanging off
13:29one of the lower branches. So we'll head up there now, and it should make for some nice
13:40footage and images, because it's really close. And at the moment, with the sun over there,
13:48it's beautifully backlit. So I'm going to set myself up just down here, and see what we
13:59might come up with. Oh, and they're on the nest now. Fantastic. Okay. Let me just set up.
14:12I don't know if you'll pick it up on this camera, but it's hanging low, where is it, just there,
14:19on one of the lower branches. Okay. Let me set up, and I'll be back with you in a second.
14:25I can't stand.
14:26...
14:27...
14:38...
14:39...
14:41...
14:43...
14:43...
14:59Okay, so I've set up the video camera pointing at the nest and all I've got to do is hang
15:07on and wait for them to come back and carry on building. It looks like it's not
15:15quite finished. The amazing thing with these nests and these little birds who
15:21create these hanging basket nests with just their beaks using spider's web, fluff
15:30from the reeds, some...oh is that him back? I'll just press record. He's just flown into the
15:41nest. Yeah, so the amazing thing with these nests is that they build them using
15:52spider's web and grass and leaves and fluff from the reeds and the daisy fluff, that
16:04sort of thing. It's beautiful, he's just outside the nest with a bit of fluff.
16:13Oh, they're both there actually. I missed that whilst I was talking to you. So an
16:21incredible thing is they build two entrances to the nest, one of which is a
16:27false entrance and leads to a false chamber and their actual entrance to
16:33where they lay their eggs is a concealed entrance with a flap which they lift up
16:38to go in, which is incredible when you think about it. These little birds can
16:47create something of that complexity just with their beaks. Stunning. Okay, I'm gonna
16:57put this camera down and grab my stills camera so I can get some stills of it as
17:02well.
17:34I'm gonna keep an eye on.
17:35And I'll just put this camera down and grab my stills camera.
17:37I'll just put the camera down and grab my stills camera down and do them.
17:44It's fine. I'll do it, I'll just put the camera down and do it again.
17:52I'm gonna have to say a little bit, I'll just put it on.
17:54Now, listen if I can move it, I'll just put it on the top of my stomach.
17:56It's really easy for a little bit.
18:04Stunning little birds, just left the nest and gone to forage for more building materials
18:11I'm guessing so I'm going to hang around here for a little while and see what other footage
18:17I can get and shots.
18:19I might even move location because I'm side on to the entrances at the minute so I might
18:23move around so I can get them coming out of the nest towards me, so we shall see.
18:31See you in a bit.
18:59Okay, so I've changed position and I've come round to the side so that I can get some shots
19:07of the openings and it's a fantastic vantage point because you can see the penduline in
19:15the nest itself padding it out, sorting it, sorting out all the fluff inside and then
19:23popping out of the opening and then the other one comes and brings more supplies as they're
19:29doing it.
19:32It's not as nice lighting wise because I have the light to the side whereas before it was
19:39beautifully backlit but it's a better shot in terms of being able to see the birds themselves.
19:50And I've grabbed a couple of stills which I hope are okay but holding the 500mm by hand
19:57and it's not the best.
20:02So I'm hoping those will come out, the video looks amazing.
20:11So I've got shots of them coming into and out of the nest and then actually working on
20:18the nest itself so what I'm going to try and do now is get some shots of them on some
20:25branches so that I can show them in the sequence, I can show them flying to the nest.
20:34So off the perch to the nest is the next shot that I want to get but they're so quick
20:41and
20:43they don't hang around very long on the perch before flying into the nest.
20:50They're not there just at the minute so they're off foraging for more materials I'm guessing.
21:03And any stills that I've taken will be at the end of the video so if you can hold on
21:08to
21:08the nest then or if you want to skip forward to see those by all means.
21:37Okay, back with you in a little while.
21:44Okay, I think I've got enough for the moment of this pair for a little sequence and I'm
21:52going to wander off down the canal and see if I can find another one.
21:58Because I'm sure if these guys are here they can't be the only ones.
22:01Okay, so I'm going to pack this up and wander further down.
22:06I shall catch up with you in a little bit.
22:32I shall catch up with you in a little bit.
22:39Let's get up with you.
22:50I'll see you next time.
22:52Okay, about the first time.
22:53I want to get up with you until this place.
23:01And if you are going to come to your next place, I will just get to keep your next place.
23:06Ok, I thought I could hear one, and he's really high up in the tree over there, so I'm going
23:16to carry on further down and see if I can get a better shot of it, but it's really high
23:21up this one.
23:59We are just going to make a better shot of it.
24:09This one is really high up in the tree and there was a couple on it and they've come
24:18off it.
24:18Now there could be one still inside, I'm not sure.
24:23But it's a lot more, yeah there is one.
24:29There's one just poking his head out of the nest now.
24:34It's a little bit more messy in terms of the background as well because of all the branches
24:40and it's right in the shadow of the tree as well.
24:44Anyway, I'll stay here and do a couple of shots of this and see if I can get a sequence
24:49of this pair as well.
25:05Okay, so I think I managed to get a decent little sequence of this pair up here.
25:11Despite the fact that they are so high up in the tree, their nest, it's well out of reach
25:18of my stills camera even with the 1.4 converter on the 500mm.
25:25But I think with the video camera, because it has crop sensor, I can get that much closer
25:30in.
25:31So I think the sequence will work nicely.
25:35I think I'm going to call it quits for the day there, otherwise this video will be just
25:41too long.
25:44But I will be filming and shooting more over the next few days of spring migrations here,
25:51and all the other new arrivals.
25:55So please do stay tuned for that in the coming weeks.
25:59And in the meantime, all that remains really is for me to say thank you for watching and
26:05subscribing and doing all that YouTube stuff, it really does help and I really am grateful
26:10for it.
26:12So thanks again and I shall see you again soon.
26:14Bye for now.
26:35Bye.
26:37Bye.
27:06Bye.
27:07Bye.
27:35Bye.
27:36Bye.
28:12Bye.
28:13Bye.
28:37Bye.
28:38Bye.
29:09Bye.
29:10Bye.
29:36Bye.
29:37Bye.
30:05Bye.
30:07Bye.
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