Tara Tanaka with THREE (count, them, three) videos gets the place of honor for the last Readers’ Wildlife slot before I leave. First, Tara shows how she modified her kayak so it would be sufficiently steady to shoot wildlife video. (Tara’s notes are indented):
This is a video that I made for the manufacturer of our kayak showing how I am using it to shoot video. I am using shoelaces to tie the legs of the tripod down and I have it mounted in the stern so that I can paddle unencumbered from the bow and just rotate the seat when I am ready to shoot. I have had both the 9’ mother gator and 13’ bull gator bellowing not far away when I was out there, sitting inches above the water. It can be a bit nerve-racking! There are great views of the swamp and paddling back to the house at the end:
JAC: I’m not able to embed the video here, so click on the screenshot below to watch it on Vimeo. Be sure to watch the whole thing so you can see the Filming of the Storks and Baby Egrets (egrets also below):
This was the very short ‘The big reveal!’ video of the nest that has the 3 egret chicks in it. You can just click on the two below to play them.
Two notes on this one:
This was shot out the living room window earlier this year with my dog jumping and barking under my tripod. It was a bit shaky 😊
Jim looked out the window and said “deer.” I started walking toward the window, and our very perceptive dog immediately knew there was something in the yard and ran to the window right below my tripod. The deer heard him barking and could see him jumping around in the window, but they were surprisingly more curious than afraid.
Inspiring adventure in Nature – beautiful.
Wow! Always such a special treat to see these great videos.
Nice videos! Your canoe looks so stable! My wife and I had kayaks for several years—for exercise and exploring mostly—but we also did some fishing (for non-native largemouth bass) and photography (my wife is the photographer). I never felt all that confident or stable in the kayaks, so we eventually got rid of them.
That boat is VERY stable. My husband and I paddled whitewater for years and used to flip over and roll back up, so being in flat water in that boat if very comfortable!
Nice job. Thank you. So peaceful out on the water. Enjoyed the ride.
Wonderful: your movie taken whilst paddling along the waterway was magical. The variety of life was astounding (I swear I could see the eye of an alligator waiting for your craft to drift closer!) . Adding to the visuals the sounds of bird and ? life (insects, amphibians?). I have a couple of questions: where is this and what is the name of the dominant tree in the area?
I KNEW that gator was close!! Almost all of those sounds were birds – wading birds, especially nestlings when they’re begging, can sound a lot like frogs or crickets. This is in NW Leon County, Florida – just west of the Tallahassee city limits. The main trees are bald cypress. There are a lot of shorter, bushy willows around the edges.
Fabulous footage, and I don’t even want to think about the gators.
Thank you everyone for the kind comments! I am just seeing them.