The day before this shoot was heavy
with rain due to the 'Hurricane Lee' churning around to the east of me, some
one hundred miles as the crow might fly.
This is my second attempt at a wildlife video. Be Advised, This video is
really long. (around 15 minutes). Deb, my Wife doesn't think anyone will watch
birds leaving the roost that long. Maybe not. Over half of this video was shot
in less than optimal shooting conditions.
My first wildlife video was of the
rookery at
Smith Oaks of the High Island sanctuary. Roseate Spoonbills was the
subject of interest. Someday I'll drag it out.
The intent was to arrive at this site (
Skillern Tract of the Anahuac National Wildlife
Refuge) just before sunrise and shoot the birds leaving the roost. I arrived
at 0500, pretty much dark thirty. Once the car light switched off, star and moon
light was the only ambient light. I set up the tripod and attached the camera.
Just in case there was a 'still' opportunity,I set up the remote trigger for
capturing the birds in flight. I settled back for a moment to check everything,
including the sources of noises that were pretty interesting.
I heard a Blue Heron squawking and thrashing about in the water below the
foot bridge. The heron didn't fly away. Maybe it was somebodies
breakfast.
If you look close, you can see the alligators moving around patrolling the
shore looking for food
With the camera in video mode I could see the ambient glow off of the
water created by the stars.The light level was too low for auto focus to work.
Even though were had clear skies, the clouds from Lee was affecting the early
morning light level. I was cranking around on the focus when I saw the white
dots in the trees appeared on the live monitor. With the 7D in Video and auto
mode, the ISO was automatically selected. It was kinda surreal, the objects that
were moving about looked like my old b&w TV on a rabbit antenna
(ghosting). I know what you are thinking (
whatsa rabbit ear)
The trees were saturated with egrets and herons of various types. At this
time I didn't realized the area also included a large population of Cormorant.
I don't know if the birds were in their FEMA approved hurricane evacuation
route or if this was their natural nightly roost.
Here is a link to the video on You-tube...
http://youtu.be/n7R9Z7Mq2rg
