Friday 27 December 2013
Adult Male African Fish Eagle (Linda Wright!)
Time for a bit of a rant I think. I just watched Earth Flight well at least I did until I got too angry to watch it. Someone needs to give all these cameramen and probably the editors a lesson in ethics. If you know your birds you can see that to get the large flocks flying dramatically (away from them please note) so that they can have dramatic film, they are either flying a remote helicopter with a camera or a small plane over to upset the birds, it is so obvious and in my book totally unacceptable. If these birds are stressed in that way and yes of course it is stressful for them, it just makes their survival that little bit harder. I don’t know my mammals as well as my bird, but I have concerns about how they get the footage they do with many of the hunts. A little more thought about the wildlife and a little less about dramatic film would be a good idea. 
Ruppell's Vulture
 
The pictures from the Ruppells vulture and the African Fish Eagle which are from camera’s mounted on their backs are very poor and very misleading, as I suspect the backgrounds were put on afterwards in most cases. The species of the vulture that is being spoken about changes several times – do these people think we don’t notice!!!
 
No your average vulture does not fly at five miles high, one Ruppell’s vulture was recorded at 36000 above sea level, and please note that is sea level, it did not state how high the land was  below it, and this a onetime siting I might add. And normally vultures are flying at up to 10,000 at the most. Why do these presenters always want to give you the utmost fact without qualifying it with the norm. Its again misleading and can be dangerous to the species. However I suspect they don’t think about consequences, they are only out to get the most spectacular film regardless of how they get it.
African White-backed Vulture
 
I was just sent a link for a CBBC series – Deadly I think it was, the camera crew actually came here and we tested their ring of camera’s for them in my field, and actually the birds were amazing and I think we could have got some great stuff. They said they wanted to get wild footage of a Bald Eagle snatching a fish from the circle of camera’s – I have to say, knowing raptors as I do, I was pretty sure they would fail, and what we got was some very average footage of a trained Bald Eagle with overly long jesses picking up a floating bit of plastic with a bit of fish tied to it!! – out of a large black bin full of water. Then you saw some very poor flying of a trained peregrine (the usual 200 MPH quoted) flying to the presenter swinging a lure, well sort of swinging it. The back ground was heavily treed and the bird maybe got to about 100 feet, the speed was probably about 50 – 60 mph!! They would have done better to film it here with us, our falcons don’t have over grown beaks, and the background is a lot more open.
 
Oh and by the way team, the Bald Eagle is not one of the largest eagles in the world. The White-tailed Sea-eagle is larger as a general rule and the Steller’s Sea-eagle makes a Bald Eagle look tiny!!!
Why don’t you ask experts to help you with your commentaries, it would be far more sense.
 
Have you noticed how many adverts there are for gambling on the TV, all this bingo rubbish, how to get people to lose their hard earned cash, it’s a great shame in this age of hardship, still not to worry there are about as many adverts for loan sharks on there as well so if you lose all your cash gambling you can borrow more at an exorbitant rate of interest. And then if you fall over a stone, or trip down some stairs, you can use one of these lovely lawyers who tout for business, I have always thought that the fact that you see the adverts of the back of lavatory doors is extremely telling!!
 
Ah well, back to work!
 
 

0 comments:

Hello

I have to say that keeping a weblog can at times become compulsive and at other times a chore. Sometimes I am berrated for not keeping it up and sometimes I get wonderful comments from people who follow the news of the Centre.

It is fun to share the daily goings on here, some good and some bad, some funny and some sad, but all a part of our daily lives.
And as I said before its a pretty cool to be here and it is a great place to visit, you should try coming and watching the birds and meeting the staff and of course the dogs.

An interesting video on Lead

An interesting video on Lead

I find it staggering that people who want to hunt don't see the value in changing their ammunition from lead to a safer product. We have stopped using lead in petrol, in paint, in our water pipes, but they still want to use lead - ah well, apparently eating it not only kills birds but leads to reduced intelligence in humans......................

NO ONE is asking you to stop legal and genuine hunting, they are just asking you to change your ammunition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHZGQ8i8AwI

HC

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