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.
