I shot plenty of video while in Tenerife in December 2025. Unfortunately the format I use does not play well with my iPad which was what I had abroad to edit photos. So apart from chimping video clips in the camera I hadn't seen most of the movies until I got home and put the SD card into the PC reader. It was great to be reminded of the holiday in vivid colours and see some of the amazing creatures again. Some idiot had been shooting way to many clips of pigeons flying in circles in slo-mo but that is far better than too few. Or just shooting one and thinking I'd have to wait till next year to go back and do more of that. I have been quietly obsessing about the pigeon loft across the rooftops from the hotel since I first saw them flying there a couple of years ago. I might finally have enough material to make the sequence or film. Something to do in the dreich Winter months before Spring.
Here is a list of the stars of this video in order...
Four-striped digger bee Atlantic canary Kestrel Pigeons (domestic) Berthelot's pipit Millipede Red-veined darter (f) Red-veined darters in tandem Red-veined darter (m) Blue emperor Four-striped digger bee Red-veined darter (f) Barbary partridges West Canary skink Feral pigeons Canarian chiffchaff Sardinian warbler Monarch caterpillar and aphids Monarch butterfly Blue emperor Gallotia lizards Kestrel I also used Jon Hopkins again, I hope he doesn't mind. It is a favourite track, or rather couple of tracks which allow me to have a very attractive background noise that doesn't overwhelm the foreground footage. Plans are afoot to start recording my own soundtracks and hopefully 2026 will be the year I get around to recording some music.
Some notes. The pair of red-veined darters in tandem egglaying were at the pond at Parque de la Sortija and I was pleased the small white eggs are visible as they wash onto the pond surface. I suspect many are eaten by the fish who show some interest in the process.
The wee black lizard is I believe a Western Canary Skink. They move more like snakes than creatures with legs and feet. I only saw them on one afternoon when I lured them out with sunflower hearts. They were very shy and slink away at the smallest movement.
Following on from them the pigeons along the sea front were the other end of the shy spectrum and I was very amused by them hogging the limelight (or handout) and then lifting off in slo-mo as a gang.
The chiffchaff on the yellow flowers was down the barranco to San Juan de la Rambla. I thought it was eating the flowers or nectar until I saw the slo-mo footage which seems to show it taking aphids or small bugs from beside the flowers.
The Sardinian warbler was on the hike to Chinamada and compensation for the lack of Plain Tigers there this year.
The final shot of the kestrel close up was just as I was going into San Juan de la Rambla. I love its penetrating stare. Obviously it didn't consider that I posed a threat and happily it didn't fly off as I crept closer and closer. That probably marks the end of the holiday material although you never know!
No comments:
Post a Comment