Vulturs, Lammergeir & others
 

Hi

Here is a new clip Vautours & Gypaètes

This footage (not the best) is on Gyps fulvus, Gypaetus barbatus, Neophron percnopterus, Aegypius monachus and Fox.

I have some problems with Sorenson Squeeze 5.1 sound is not present on all the footage, saturation and gamma aren't good, there is "macro block", if you have presets tips you are welcome. For information the original footage is realy better.

I have 5 hours footage to mount and the job is in front of me. The picture come from an hide in Spain directed by the DMAH, it's difficult to obtain the autorization to use it (4 month), but there is others solution to observe these birds species. Fox is a bonus but the female eated all the Lammergeir food (F.....g fox) sorry.

The footage is very heavy 50 Mo i'm working on compression.


Gilles

Gilles,

Nice footage, may I ask before Brendan does, what camera & lens setup did you use

Thanks

Bob

Hi Bob

For this shot i use Canon XL2, standard zoom lens and the XL 1,6 extender.
ND filters are on 32, speed 1/50, 25P and f around f8. The presets are the bluebarn's from this site.

I'm not satisfied by the compression Squeeze 5.1 is a little bit instable!!!.

Gilles

Gilles,

Thanks for the info, I have the same setup but generally was not happy with the extender. I may change preset and try the bluebarns. I have been using a prest from one of our members, Tony but dont have the preset name on hand

Bob

Great shots of adult egyptian in front of black vulture; that's the most intimate and colourful clip of lammergier I've ever seen ... well taken and well edited. I'm guessing you were within the Pyrenees, perhaps on the Spanish side. Spanish Govt have closed most if not all controlled vulture feeding stations and restored to farmers the right to dispose of dead animals on their farms, subject to a few regulations. This was surely a local carcase and the birds were ravenous. Maybe the French Govt have a similar policy?

I must find out what bluebarn means and whether it's relevant to my NEW Sony V1E, ahem!
Did someone ask is my XL2 for sale? Yes, but being PAL I'll sell it local if I can.

Excellent footage - I hope the rest of the five hours is as good!! I kept wondering what was spooking the griffons - you have to laugh at them panicking and failing to get airborne. Was it the fox? And it always makes me laugh the way a fox has to make sure that he has every little morsel in his mouth before leaving the scene.

Brendan - when I was last in the Pyrenees (1993 or 1994), I was told that Spanish farmers could dispose of their carcasses, but had to bury them with various chemicals to stop them contaminating the soil. Is that what you mean by a few regulations, or are the farmers allowed to leave the carcasses out for the vultures now?

In Spring or Autumn for at least 3 years up to August 2008 I have been watching one pig farmer in Extremadura giving limited access to people from Medio Ambiente on to his land on which they had constructed an elaborate compound. In this compound they would unload offal, which I think (my Spanish is hopeless) was offal sometimes medicated to control diseases among the vultures, who came in hundreds to feed on the offal. During these years the vulture population thrived, particularly griffons and blacks. In August 2008 I had the opportunity to use the hide in this compound to film for 4 hours ... unforgettable, but as yet unpublished.

This Spring I was informed that the feeding compound was no longer in use. Enquiries revealed that this policy applied nationally and that farmers could now leave dead animals in situ, subject to advising the local vet of the circumstances and if necessary moving the carcase away from public road and perhaps other conditions unknown to me.

But, as you know, it's easy to spot circling vultures from a mile away and I have found several and usually good photo ops too.

Hi Thanks

The place is in Spain, on an official feeding area directed and controlled by the DMAH (governement). They accord permit to study or observe the Vultures, it's a little bit long to obtain it but not impossible. There is a second place in the province, a private place you can contact "Birding in spain".

For the carcasses there is an evolution of European laws, after the absolute interdiction it's now newly possible to continue "law amendment" but only on specific and restricted places.

All the instant of panick are the fact of the female fox, and every hours she come back for the food, bones after bones she pick up all of them.

Regards

Gilles

Good afternoon,

Some great footage. the xl2 is capable of making pretty awesome footage.

I really liked the Look of the smaller lighter colored bird, Lammergeir?

Brendan, Blu Barn is a small program for storing custom presets for the xl2. You can tansfer them dirrectly from computer into camera. Not suitable to your new sony hd camcorder. Unless they came out with a new one i do not know about, definitely possible.
I do not know if I'd sell the xl2. If you look at the footage on a new blu ray player, it upscales the footage and it looks 20% better than on a standard dvd player!!! Plus you can add a lens, eh?

I thought the video footage was actually pretty good, but you did lose your audio. I have had that compressing in the past. I went back used same settings and it came out just fine, go figure!!

The smaller lighter bird is the Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus).

The Lammergeier (bone breaker, or bone thief) is also known as the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) - it's the one with the beard and shaggy pants!

The crowd of birds were griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) - the most common vulture in Europe.

The black one are the Aegypius monachus, a little bit rare, but the Bearded vulture are really rare. You can found informations on "Quebrantahuesos.org" the spanish name.

I may have caused confusion by phrasing & punctuating as above.
The 3 birds mentioned here are Neophron percnopterus, Aegypius monachus & Gypaetus barbatus, in that order.
Thank you Annie & Gilles for sorting me out.