Rob Cadd Photography | Bittern : males - threat display & fight (dusk) : RSPB Otmoor @robcaddphotography | Uploaded April 2021 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
This video follows on from youtu.be/3V0wa_ZCHnM
A male Eurasian bittern (Botaurus stellaris) had previously emerged from a nearby reedbed, boomed a couple of times, and walked across to another reedbed (see youtu.be/3V0wa_ZCHnM ). After about two minutes, during which it was looking around a lot, it then started to walk back to its original reedbed. En route, it encountered another male, and after some crouched stalking, a booming call from one, a 'silent boom' (?) from the other, and another threat display, there was a brief fight. One #bird then flew off, pursued by the other shortly afterwards.
It was interesting to see the postures of the birds as they squared up to one another, and in particular the raised, light-coloured epaulettes, which seem to become really noticeable in low-light conditions.
This clip was filmed on an #iPhoneXs around half an hour after sunset at RSPB Otmoor nature reserve, Oxfordshire, UK, using the phonescoping technique. I was following the bittern through the phone/scope (I could no longer see it with the naked eye, partly due to the iPhone screen disrupting my eyes' night vision, and partly because it was very dark!) when the second bird wandered into view from the right.
The actual conditions were much much darker than it appears here; the necessary high-ISO filming resulting in lots of video 'noise' and lack of detail in the original file, on which I've had to work extensively to create an acceptable image. My knowledge of editing software, and of video noise reduction in particular, is somewhat limited, but the end result doesn't seem too bad (compared to the original, at any rate!); there's still plenty of noise remaining though.
Shooting at such a distance (around 175m) also meant that the boom call ended up being around half a second behind the image in the original clip, so this had to be adjusted in the edit.
This video follows on from youtu.be/3V0wa_ZCHnM
A male Eurasian bittern (Botaurus stellaris) had previously emerged from a nearby reedbed, boomed a couple of times, and walked across to another reedbed (see youtu.be/3V0wa_ZCHnM ). After about two minutes, during which it was looking around a lot, it then started to walk back to its original reedbed. En route, it encountered another male, and after some crouched stalking, a booming call from one, a 'silent boom' (?) from the other, and another threat display, there was a brief fight. One #bird then flew off, pursued by the other shortly afterwards.
It was interesting to see the postures of the birds as they squared up to one another, and in particular the raised, light-coloured epaulettes, which seem to become really noticeable in low-light conditions.
This clip was filmed on an #iPhoneXs around half an hour after sunset at RSPB Otmoor nature reserve, Oxfordshire, UK, using the phonescoping technique. I was following the bittern through the phone/scope (I could no longer see it with the naked eye, partly due to the iPhone screen disrupting my eyes' night vision, and partly because it was very dark!) when the second bird wandered into view from the right.
The actual conditions were much much darker than it appears here; the necessary high-ISO filming resulting in lots of video 'noise' and lack of detail in the original file, on which I've had to work extensively to create an acceptable image. My knowledge of editing software, and of video noise reduction in particular, is somewhat limited, but the end result doesn't seem too bad (compared to the original, at any rate!); there's still plenty of noise remaining though.
Shooting at such a distance (around 175m) also meant that the boom call ended up being around half a second behind the image in the original clip, so this had to be adjusted in the edit.
