Well, here it is - a bunch of short video clips I made a couple of nights ago of the Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars in action. These aren't NatGeo quality, but they're not bad given the short time frame, late afternoon, and I had to assemble the correct equipment (camera that had a quick release plate) and tripod, all before things quieted down for the evening. Then I had to squeeze in among the plants and try not to knock anybody off or step on any. Anyway, there's a few head jabs, some fun looks at how they devour the leaves one chomp at a time, like eating corn on the cob. Also just fun watching them move. There were a few ants in there too crawling around and I'm pretty sure they annoy the caterpillars. I did mention tripod, so any movement is the work of nature - a light wisp of breeze now and then. Do enjoy.
Tags: caterpillar Monarch larva larvae
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Since I discovered how easy it is to do these slo-mo videos with my camera, I started imagining subjects. The birdie bath place (a leaky sprinkler) at my local park was perfect, but it dried up. Then I put a low-budget pedestal bird bath out my kitchen window. Works OK, but not terribly natural looking. Today's Robin at another park was sheer luck. A couple of other birds were using the spot too. I had a chance to move a few yards for better light, and caught the tail end of the Robin's bath. Super fun stuff.
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A few of my local birdie photogs have been doing slo-mo videos and that's really piqued my interest. The juvenile Peregrines practicing their balance and building their flight muscles were a delightful subject. Then there's the observer doing the head roll. 😊
Tags: Peregrine Falcon juvenile raptor falcon slow motion
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This pair of Bald Eagles is so exciting to observe. They're just magnificent. They have just succeeded fending off at least two dive-bombs by a Red-tailed Hawk. I guess they were feeling pretty proud and celebrated with some special bonding. I hoped they might mate when they started talking to each other instead of yelling at the hawk, but shooting video never occurred to me. Rather, I rattled off 131 still frames of the 12-second moment. In post-processing, I decided I had enough frames to string them together and play them back at about half speed. So here they are, a few frames as he snuggles over closer to her, then hops on. It’s a little shaky – I **was** shooting stills with that 600 prime on a gimbal head, but it wasn’t locked down for a good solid video. So … beautiful stuff regardless, do enjoy your Valentine.
Sony A1 with that 600 f/4 prime, Feb. 8, 2022
Tags: eagle Bald eagle mating pair mating
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I went to say hello this morning to my two Praying Mantises, Mabel and Manny, and I found this big fat Monarch caterpillar, fast asleep. It woke up while I was watching (I did NOT interrupt its sleep) and started munching away on the host milkweed. It was alone; somehow its mama managed to find a decent area in my ravaged milkweed to make the deposit. And speaking of deposits, the caterpillar poops toward the end of the video when it starts moving around in the breeze, just in case you wanted to know.
I had a banner spring with the Monarch life cycle, it went into adults passing through the yard visiting the milkweed, but most all the activity has ended. I was surprised to see this guy since the milkweed is in pretty bad shape thanks to my war with aphids and others. I hope it makes it to the next cycle.
One thing I didn't get in the spring was decent video, though I tried. The slightest breeze sends those milkweed swaying as you see here, and I just tossed everything I did in spring because of breezes. So this was a treat to get a chance in almost completely still circumstances.
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