Dipping my feet in
Post categories: Springwatch
| 08:16 UK time, Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Quite literally today, as I got a tip-off that some our camera team were off filming a dipper's nest, which they'd been watching near the dam at Lake Vyrnwy.
Cameraman John Aitchison was on a mission to fix a camera under a bridge to film the nest:
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As usual, we had a good mixture of sunshine and showers at the lake today and as usual, the moment I drove across the bridge, I got the showery part.
I arrived at the location and gave the camera assistant, Ed Charles, a hand lugging some of the gear over to where wildlife cameraman John Aitchison was filming.
By now everything was soaking wet (including the cameraman) after the recent downpour, so the rocks were all very slippery and at one point we had both cameraman and assistant lying on the deck, sliding around as one tried to help the other up out of the river!
The team wanted to put up a little 'dog cam' on the wrought iron grill in front of the nest, using a plastic camera grip and some gaffer tape and as you can see from the video, it was no easy task!
The 'dog cams' are frequently used on Springwatch to deliver those magical 'bird's eye view' shots with wide angles and close ups - perfect for filming birds on the nest and feeding behaviour.
The dippers were completely at ease with our presence there, and flew in and out with food at regular intervals.
I was suprised to find that they stayed away for far longer than other birds I've watched - at times taking up to 15-20 minutes to return with food. At other times they would hunt nearer the nest and deliver a quick feed before disappearing away for longer again.
The dippers were also swimming, duckdiving at warp speed, underneath the surface to feed on small fish and insect larvae. One even swam past our underwater cam so there might just be some great footage of a dipper swimming.
The 'dog-cam' gave us instant success as a parent bird returned within 10 minutes of us setting it up and as you can see there are at least four hungry mouths to feed, popping out of the nest.
It won't be too long before they fledge so keep an eye out for the footage on Springwatch soon.
Gull
Comment number 1.
At 2nd Jun 2009, owlbotherer wrote:Great blog post! Can you tell use more about the 'dog cam' is it wired or wireless? And is the quality good enough for TV or just for initial investigation purposes?
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Comment number 2.
At 2nd Jun 2009, Wildlife Filmer Adam wrote:Yes, I'm with owlbotherer, tell us more about the 'dog cam' please.
WFA
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Comment number 3.
At 3rd Jun 2009, king_bird2 wrote:I was there on saturday looking for dippers in my usual spot and never saw one. Annoyingly the ones that are being filmed are right down at the bottom of the bridge, and a good mile away from where i was.
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