Wild birds. Tall grasses. And Wind.

Flocks of wild birds feast on ripening grains of tall grasses at an overlooked embankment beside a service road near Shoreline Park's dog park in Mtn. View, CA. On the other side of the embankment is the kite flying park, and on the other side of dirt road beyond the tall shrubs is a road and the Google bus parking lot. Lots of traffic and planes to shoot around. Anyway, in spite of the outward appearance of this humble dirt service road, Mom and I found it teeming with wildlife. We've sharpened our senses looking for birds and other critters of nature. Sometimes you just have to Look.

Shot with my Sony Camcorder MiniDV, DCR-HC96, which has an interent problem of picking up the high pitched motor noise of the camera. Using iMovie HD6's audio editing features, I got rid of most of it...but if you are thinking of getting this camera, buy an adapter to use a mic jack...and an external stereo microphone, with wind protection. I sat in the car protected from the direct blast so did not get much distortion.

Note: When the seeds are eaten from the grasses, the birds move on to other places, like the tables of the Shoreline Park's Lakeside Cafe.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• redwing
• blackbirds
• bird
• feeding
• wildbirds
• Hooded
• oriole
• nature
• birdwatching
• Shoreline
• Park
• Mountain
• View

[audiofreeq]

great audio track on this video what mic/mics did you use ?

[CarolJWright]

Mics...a challenge. This is mostly recorded with the camcorder, Sony DCr-HC96, which has annoying motor noise pickup and wind roar. Used filters to help remove bad stuff. I sat in car, yet very close to birds as they fed right at side of car. I used for part of it sfx file of wind-in-grass. The area was full of birds, eating grains. I have experimented with mics (have ext adaptor), but :-( . Today ordered a Zoom H4 Handy Recorder, and hope to splice in sounds. Will look at your mic tests.

[specialkvi]

Nice job Carol. I like the smooth fades and slow zoom-in on the birds in the tall grass. Your panning are well done. Great job of keeping the camera steady.

[CarolJWright]

Thanks, Larry. Wish I had the time to use tripod, but with Mom along, I go with EASY setting on the camera and hand hold the best I can.

[CarolJWright]

Can anyone identify the pair of yellow birds shown 7:08 - 7:20. The light one and the bright yellow one. Assume they are a pair, as they fly from tree to tree together. The bright one really catches your eye. We usually don't have bright birds around here.

[CarolJWright]

Still seeing neat birds at our service road viewing site, and also another birdwatcher with bird book and binoculars. Jim was his name, and he's spotted the yellow bird. Between my chart and his book, we decided it was a Hooded Oriole, and the female was lighter olive green/yellow. Her preferred nesting spot? A palm tree, just as I'd filmed on this video! Saw and filmed the male again, but not satisfactory close shot.

[CarolJWright]

Jim has spread the word about the Oriole and another birdwatcher showed up to look for it. He knew all about the bird and spotted a Bullock's Oriole as well, so now have to sort out my footage. I filmed the Hooded's very kewl hanging woven nest in the palm tree, made of woven palm threads. See video about the Killdeer, which I filmed also on this gravel road. Oriole movie to come.

[drunksingsheep]

Yeap!

Thsi iz cool

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