I’m absolutely thrilled to get this footage. I've been trying to get decent close footage of buzzards for years, and while I've passed within 10 feet of one and seen many others close up - it's always been when I’ve been driving! Or if I have stumbled on them while out filming, they've all flown off; and if they stayed in the area, they've been too far away to get good footage.
So imagine my surprise to discover that they live in and around the garden of the house I have just moved into in Scotland! I see and hear them every day, often they'll fly as close as 30 feet! But filming them is a tall order because they are so active and shy…
There’s a few telegraph wire and power cable poles in my garden - and adjoining it. In my neighbour’s grounds there’s one particular pole that has no cables - and I've seen a buzzard and a kestrel use it as a lookout. I register this as a good potential place to film these birds from. The problem is, there are several cables below it that obscure the view of the birds from ground level. However, the other day I was in the upstairs bedroom (which is in the roof) - which has a south-facing Velux window that I managed to open. I propped it open (because it is hinged at the top and so doesn't stay open by itself) and enjoyed what a great view there was. I also noticed that there was an unobscured view of the buzzard and kestrel look-out pole...
Today, while moving stuff into that bedroom, I thought I should set up the camera, and pre-focus it on the top of the pole - and have everything ready so that if a bird of prey perches on the pole, I can dash upstairs and be ready to start filming straight away... All afternoon there was good light, and I kept an eye on the pole. By the late afternoon I was in the bedroom and looked out the window. There was actually a buzzard perched on the pole - and it was sticking around! Calmly, excitedly, I gently prized open the heavy window (I didn't want any sudden movement to scare the buzzard away - it was only about fifty meters away), checked it was still there, quickly turned on the camera, checked everything was setup correctly, held my breath and stated filming… Thankfully it stayed about five minutes - allowing me to change a few settings to try to get better footage. After it flew off, I checked the footage - and was absolutely delighted to discover that my plan actually worked...!
10 сен 2024
