Wednesday, 9 March 2016
My friend Johanna van de Woestijne, a skilled photographer who lives in California and has come to London several times to take pictures in the park, had the idea of making a video piece about the birds. She asked me to shoot some footage and record sound, and has edited my very rough contributions into a fine twelve-minute film.
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Good stuff Ralph (and Johanna)! Have you acquired a tripod, or all handheld? The pigeon mating ritual is rather lovely in motion isn't it.
ReplyDeleteWhat's a 'tripod'?
DeleteReally good clip Ralph and Johanna.
ReplyDeleteWhich day did you share the locations of the Little Owl in the video?
I really must find an owl at some point!
Thanks
Thanks. People keep asking more how to find the Little Owls, and I have saved the directions, so here they are again.
DeleteLittle Owls 1
The pair are in a tree near the leaf yard, which is the railed enclosure that has the Peter Pan statue on the east side. The tree is an old, very broken sweet chestnut 50 yards from the middle of the south side of the yard, and it has brambles around its base. View it from the west side. On the left of the trunk, the second thick branch from the bottom has two horizontal slits in it next to the trunk. The upper one is the entrance to the owls' hole.
Little Owls 2
From the Albert Memorial, walk north towards the statue of Physical Energy. When the path intersects the bicycle track, turn left and walk along the track for 50 yards, to the next path that crosses it. Right on the near left corner of the crossing is a big oak tree. Look left for a nearby plane tree. Between these two trees is another oak tree, and the owls' hole is in this. Stand under the plane tree and look at this oak. The hole is in a big branch sticking out the right hand side a little above horizontally -- a large round hole in a large round bulge in the branch.
Little Owls 3
You will need binoculars. Go to the southeast corner of the square enclosure around the sculpture -- that is, the corner on the path nearest to the bridge. Look up the hill to the old brick buildings on the left of the Magazine. One of them has a chimney. The Little Owls' tree is directly in front of that, and the hole is in the left fork of this Y-shaped tree. It's maybe 60 yards up the hill from the path. Don't step off the path when looking: any movement towards the owl makes it dive into its hole.
Sorry to keep bothering you, but is there a map of the park which is accessible via the internet, as I was just hoping to get an idea of where the nests are.
ReplyDeleteNo. There is a printed map that is used on park noticeboards, not available online, and no use for exact locations. The Royal Parks web site just has a Google map with annotations of no interest to owl fanciers. Although I could give the location of the trees as accurate coordinates worked out from the Google Maps satellite view, this is little use in practice because civilian GPS is not accurate enough to pinpoint a tree. I already tried this with the Tawny Owls, and no one was able to find the tree with it. So you're better off with my directions working from landmarks.
Deleteactually the printable map used on the notice boards is available as PDF file from https://www.royalparks.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/41639/hydepark_english_map.pdf
Deletebut as you say it is not really detailed sufficiently to locate the Owl trees without using your written directions.
Lovely film, Ralph and Johanna.
ReplyDeleteRalph, maybe we could do a little video about the park owls, their trees, competitions for the space, and how to approach them etc, before the trees leaf in. You do have a long history with them and know them quite well. Although, it seems like they might be too high up for video without a long lens and tripod.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lovely idea, but we've got to find the Tawny Owls again before anything can be done. Actually the leaves won't stop it. Little Owls choose places where they can see down, so you can see up. And I've been able to get perfectly OK pictures of the Tawnies through gaps in leaves for several ideas. In a way, having leaves makes the search more helpful, because that's what people will have to contend with.
DeleteI really enjoyed the film. Plenty of coverage of all my favourite birds - I am assuming the Little Grebes had stage fright and refused to appear!
ReplyDeleteFrom a Canadian admirer...SUPER film Ralph and Johanna!!! As always, GREAT commentary, Ralph!!! MORE, please!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind words. It was good to meet you in the park.
Delete