A Busy Do Nothing Day

About four or five months ago, I wrote to a gentleman that worked for one of the clients of the company I used to work for. As his company created wildlife and scientific films, I wrote to his as I thought that he would, if willing, be best place to offer me some guidance. As I did not hear from him, I had assumed that he either had not got my letter or had decided to file it in the bin.

As our relationship had not been anything but a professional one, I had expected any reply. However, I had a telephone call that really surprised me. While the intended recipient had received my letter, he had indeed ignored it. But one of his colleges found the letter and phoned me. I was just enquiring about the technical challenges of filming things like insects, and he was very forthcoming with some help and advice. While many of my initial ideas were quite good, with the guidance he gave me I should avoid some of the pitfalls that I would have fallen into.

He did ask if he could see any of the film that I have shot already, so I directed him to You Tube and he was kind with his words, but I know that as I am still learning I am not anywhere near the ability of the quality I would like to be at. But I am grateful for the encouragement and advice. But of course I inflected them upon you folks first.

One of the problems that I have is that there is so much I want to do, that I cant find enough time to do all I would wish. For example I did want to film the Bluebells in the Woods, but other commitments prevented me from doing that. I wanted to do this as the native bluebell is in serious danger of becoming extinct. As gardeners have planted bulbs of the Spanish bluebell in their gardens, they are cross pollinating with our native species and our woodlands are losing part of their character.

One aspect of the conversation that I had with the film maker that was invaluable was guidance on video equipment that can film in Infra Red. While I cant afford to buy anything just yet, I can see real possibilities of filming the badgers. As my regular reader will know, I have had my permission to access one of the Setts that I watch temporarily revoked, but I still have other sets I can get to. In fact I went round the other night and it looks as though there are a total of about fifteen or sixteen cubs that have been born this year. Further scouting out the other sites enabled me to rediscover one of the young sows who I had thought had disappeared. She has a white tuft on the black stripe on her snout, thus I rather predictably called her tufty, I had thought that she may have become a road casualty. But it looks as though she has moved to another gang, further she appears to have two cubs herself. I can not be sure as the problem with the other locations is simply that while its possible to see the Badgers, it is much more difficult to sustain observations at close quarters. Thus making it difficult to be sure of the individuals. It is normally at night that badgers are active and very inconsiderate of them for us poor naturalists.

As I was talking on the telephone, I saw some of the newly fledged tree sparrows visiting my yard and feeding on the black sunflower seeds I put out for the birds. I could tell they were newly fledged as they still had tufts of down on their heads. I think there were seven. So when I finished I set up the camera in the yard latter so I could try and catch them on film if they returned. Following doing that, I sat down with a cup of tea, there is a developing economy that would collapse if I stopped drinking tea, and saw that there was a repeat of another Natural History programme of the episode that I had missed this week.

Because of the Olympics being healed in Beijing this year, the BBC have been showing a series of programmes about China. This one, Wild China, stands out as much of the wildlife that has been shown is relatively new to the western world. Also it has an anthropological aspect and shows the relationship that the people have with the landscape and the wildlife. Personally, I am learning more about this part of the world. While much of it is a delight, the programmes also highlight just how endangered much of the wildlife is.

While there is little I can personally do on a practical level about there, I do get involved with practical conservation work here. As my regulars will know I am learning how to handle and trap small mammals. This is not just for the fun of doing it, but with this skill I will be able to help do proper studies of wildlife populations and help with conserving the wildlife and preserving habitat.

Coincidently the picture was take one taken about Easter by the other students while I was learning some of the surveying techniques. I was lucky as anyone who read my previous post on that, will know that my ponytail got savaged by a dog. Someone had supposedly filmed this, but the goddess must have been being kind to me as he filmed over that bit of tape. So that's one bit of film that will not feature on You Tube.

Also today, its been a busy do nothing day, in the post arrived a book. Because of my recent problems with Spy ware on my computer, I have been reluctant to look for new books on Bay. But now my old 'puter is clean again, and no there was no risk of me infecting anyone as I had inadvertently locked the Spy ware out from on-line access. Anyway, this book is a field guide to the Rare Birds of Britain and Europe. I am delighted with it as it has images of many of the vagrants that come across from America. As I have several readers who are in the US, and talking birds, I am often left wondering what these birds look like. Well now I know what some look like.

I am still tempted to get my hands on a field guide to the US so I can see, in print at least some of these wonderful avians.