00:00You've got the bug.
00:04It's gone to here. That was amazingly fast.
00:40Good morning. It's about 5 o'clock in the morning and I've come down to the Blue Harbour at Livadia
00:51on Lake Kilkini to set up the hive.
01:04I'm going to see what I might be lucky enough to see this morning.
01:11I'm sure as you saw on the drive up, the mosquito situation is quite severe.
01:20So I'm keeping the red light on at the minute because they're not attracted to that.
01:30And as you can see in here compared to when I drove up, it's relatively quiet but you can hear
01:38the hum.
01:39I'll be silent for a second and you'll hear the hum.
01:48At least I'm hoping the microphone is picking that up.
01:51Oh no, the battery is running out.
01:54Right, back in a minute.
01:57I've got to change the battery on this camera.
02:00So I'm back with you again.
02:03And change the battery.
02:06And as I was saying, the bug situation here on my lake at this time of morning is crazy.
02:16There's a few in here which you probably can't pick up on this camera in this light.
02:24So I'm dousing myself in mosquito repellent hoping that this will do the trick.
02:40Now I'm trying to protect my neck as well so don't look down with my neck.
02:48So yeah, I've set myself up down here in Hyde at the harbour in Livardia.
02:57I don't know what to expect really but I'm hoping for some nice wading birds and with any luck some
03:06glossy ibis.
03:10The sun is on its way.
03:14Still probably another 45 minutes to an hour before we get sunrise.
03:21So yeah, it's just a question of hanging on in here for a little while.
03:26Hoping I don't get driven too crazy by the bugs.
03:31And hopefully we'll get some decent light and some lovely birds.
03:38So I'll catch up with you nearer the dawn.
03:41See you in a bit.
04:00See you next time.
04:01See you soon.
04:18Continue to go.
04:21One of the three streams, rivers that come into the lake, comes out on the little delta
04:32here at Luabia Harbour, and at its deepest point of the channel here, all the little
04:41egrets have gathered, as well as seagulls, there's a few grey herons, there's lots of
04:49gulls, and they're just, I think something just lifted them off the ground, scared them,
04:56so they're all circling.
05:01It's quite stunning to see, hopefully they'll settle down again in a second, and we'll get
05:11some videos and photos as well.
05:13My glossy eyebrows just here.
05:20Lovely grey hair.
05:21Wait a minute.
05:23I anchor them here.
05:26jumps!
05:50This is pretty cool.
05:51a third fisherman coming along, and everything lifted off again, so much better location
06:04in the winter when there's no fisherman coming this early in the morning I guess, so I think
06:17I'll give it a little bit longer just to see if some birds do come back, because it is
06:25a really good feeding ground here, so I'm sure they'll be attracted back once the fishermen
06:30have gone, so it's just a question of being a little bit patient I guess. Thankfully
06:39it's much cooler today, we had massive thunderstorm in the evening, so it's cooled down quite a
06:45bit, and when I say it's cooled down, it's still 30 degrees, but much better than the
06:5240 it got to yesterday, so I'll give it a little bit longer, and hopefully a few birds will come
06:59back, and we'll see, otherwise I'll pack up and go get some breakfast I think, and see
07:06what the rest of the day holds. Lots of young squakos this year.
07:29they've got a full glossy high just turned up, so if any luck a few more might join if they
07:39see them there and make a little bit of confidence if they feel comfortable, and leave it on the
07:49It's still quite far away, so I'm only doing some video.
08:30There's something at least in this early morning light, their plumage looks so iridescent.
08:47I can see why they get the name glossy.
08:57Gorgeous birds.
09:16They're walking further away now unfortunately.
09:20I guess because the fishermen have arrived, they're sort of drifting away.
09:27So hello again.
09:30I've had my breakfast.
09:31It's now about just gone 10 and the sun is really well and truly up and burning hot.
09:40Which makes photography quite difficult in these very very contrasty light conditions in the middle of the day.
09:51So what I thought I might do is a little bit of macro.
09:55The embankment here up by the lake is covered with wildflowers.
10:00So I thought it might be nice to have a go at something a little bit different.
10:07So yeah, I'll stick the macro lens on the camera and give that a go.
10:12The good thing about it is that because the light is so strong, I'll probably be able to get away
10:21with a small aperture and a decent shutter speed.
10:29And the downside being that all the little butterflies and damselflies and all the insects will have been fully warmed
10:39up and be very very active now.
10:41So they're not going to be sitting that still for me to take their picture.
10:47But we'll give it a go and see if we can come away with anything.
10:52So yeah, I'll see you out there in a second.
11:26Yeah, yeah.
11:29Yeah, okay.
11:39You think your goodness is so strong with a general?
11:41Yeah, yeah?
11:42Yeah, yeah.
11:44Thanks, members.
11:45I think that was a plane.
12:39I followed this pair of mating damsels and was trying to photograph them
12:44in the air because they were hovering actually quite steadily and I followed
12:50them over to this bush I need to discover one of the biggest spiders I have
12:55ever seen very scary looking I think without being sure it is a wasp spider
13:16it's an absolute monster I'll try and get a few shots of it with the macro without
13:24disturbing him or trying to make him angry at me he's tucked away right in there
13:55that was amazingly fast a cricket got caught in his web just in that second
14:03wrapped it went back to the middle of his web to the other side and he's back on
14:07this side again absolutely incredible okay I found another wasp spider and this
14:14one is in a much better position is a bit deeper into the brambles so I'm gonna try
14:19not to step on anything that might hurt me and see if I can get a better shot and
14:23he's banging the sunshine as well so let's give this a go
14:39unbelievable and whilst I was there it caught a caught a bug I think I started out a bit out
14:47of focus
14:49I managed to capture it I managed to capture it wrapping the bug which is awesome
14:59I'm not sure if it didn't drop it afterwards
15:05what incredible spiders
15:12so I spent a long time doing this just just spent on this one spider on these two spiders
15:20here I should say because they are just so amazing
15:26I might I'm gonna do is leave this camera on the on the web for a while and see if
15:31anything
15:31falls into it and see if I can get anything on this camera as well
16:11well I'm absolutely dripping after that
16:15after that macro session in the in the heat of the day I had intended to talk a little bit
16:31more about macro techniques but with the heat it was just I didn't have the
16:38energy for it so I have to apologize for that and I'll make up for it on another
16:42occasion probably when I'm back in the UK and it's a little bit cooler I'll do a
16:48macro session and talk through my my thoughts and my techniques for getting
16:55macro images but anyway so I'll show you a few of the images and some
17:01the video that I got just now and hopefully you like those so not the end
17:07of the day just yet so I'm gonna go around to the other side of the lake I
17:10think it's a little bit breezier today so you won't have those still shots but it
17:17should make life a little bit more bearable in the heat and yeah I'll go
17:23around to the other side and see what images we can get what birds we might find
17:29so yeah I'll catch up with you on the other side of the lake see you there
18:02and I'll catch up with you on the other side of the lake see you there
18:02and see you there
18:02and see you there
18:17I've come down to the same spot that I was at yesterday afternoon this time I've arrived quite a bit
18:25earlier so two o'clock just now whilst it's still quiet on the pond here in the hope
18:35that I won't I wouldn't scare anything off by my arrival and with any luck some
18:44things will come for a feed this afternoon there's a couple of squakos out there just like yesterday
18:54grey heron fugger out there and a few more hens but other than that it's all quiet
19:07so I'm just gonna camp out here for a little bit
19:12and wait for the afternoon light
19:17and hopefully some interesting birds will come along
19:22dozens of scarlet darters
19:28dragonflies
19:30they're absolutely stunning
19:45glossy eyed missing god
19:47just the one
19:51for me they made the shield amazing
20:03the wings are so
20:04the iridescent plumage
20:09the light is amazing
20:17it's a really dark bird
20:19you don't realise just how gorgeous the plumage is until you see it
20:23through the legs
20:51you see it through the legs
20:56so
21:20i see your friend
21:59I think I'm going to call it a day there as far as this video is concerned and if I
22:09spot anything on my drive back home back to the hotel I'll show that to you as well but if
22:18not then I shall catch up with you in the next video so that'll be tomorrow.
22:23For me and next week for you so thanks again for watching and I hope you've enjoyed it and I'll
22:32see you next time.
