Thursday, June 10, 2010

Videos: Phoebe time-lapse and fishing heron

It's time for some new videos! The first is a time-lapse video that Dave (awesomely!) stitched together that encompasses the entire first nest attempt (and success!) of our resident Eastern Phoebe pair, from the first days that the Phoebes claimed and fixed up the nest up to the fledging of the 5 chicks.  It's 7 weeks of activity compressed into 5 minutes of footage.  Dave sums it up as follows:
Videos were taken from 3/19/2010 to 5/8/2010. Videos were triggered by a motion sensor so the time is not linear. Periods with more activity such as when the young birds were being fed are disproportionately longer than those with less activity. Fifty two hours of video were compressed (by removing frames) to this five minute video. Nest repairs began on March 19th. Eggs were laid around April 5th. Eggs hatched around April 19th and the last bird fledged on May 8th.
Here are some highlights to look for:
0:00-0:50 - repair and refurbish pre-existing nest
0:50-2:00 - egg laying and incubation
2:00 - eggs have hatched, feeding begins!
2:25 - look for heads to start popping up
2:50 - the young ones are now easily seen
3:10 - getting bigger...
3:49 - more activity and movement from babies
4:38 - 2 birds leave the nest
4:49 - #3 leaves the nest
4:53 - #3 comes back
4:55 - #3 leaves again
4:56- end: #4 and #5 argue about who's leaving next
5:04  - empty!

It's amazing to watch the progression of the nest being shored up, and the way the babies grow.  Enough of my babbling, though.  I know you guys want to actually see the video!

The 2nd video is one I captured just the other evening when we were out for a leisurely paddle on Fox Lake. The lake was thick with Great Blue Herons - I've never seen so many there at one time. They weren't too crazy about sharing the shoreline with each other, even though there was plenty of room to accommodate them all. There was one spot that seemed to offer up some great fishing, a spot well worth defending, as you will see in this video. Enjoy!

5 comments:

Ginnymo said...

What a great way to get all that footage together. Great job Dave! Real cute video Heather! Both of them!

KaHolly said...

You both have the patience of Jobe! My goodness, Dave, you did a tremendous job stitching that timelapse video, and Heather, you video of the heron is remarkable. I see herons all the time and never have I seen one so active. They can stand and stare at the water for hours it seems!! ~karen

Jain said...

The Phoebes are amazingly marvelous, Heather & Dave! I felt a little sad as the nest emptied and had to remind myself, "That's the whole point of it all!"

I've sat till my bum was numb and not seen this much activity from a Great Blue - nice capture!

Heather said...

Ginny - Yes, Dave did a fantastic job. Glad you enjoyed them.

Karen - You're right, the herons are usually the masters of playing "statue," but they just happened to be VERY active on this day. We were lucky to be there to observe it!

Jain - It is always sad to watch the baby birds leave the nest, but their nesting success means that we will have Phoebes to come visit us for years to come!

Avila Kaylen said...

Great post