When you visit the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in upstate New York, one of the first things you see along the wildlife drive is this marsh thick with cattails:
Here's a thermal infrared image focused on one part of the marsh:
Notice the white spot near the middle? (It's easier to see if you click above for an enlarged view.)
Zoomed in with a high-power lens, you see this:
It is the nest of a red-winged blackbird, with a female sitting on it.
Here's a short video of the same nest, taken with the ThermApp, but pay attention to the lower-left corner of the frame:
Did you notice a shape slinking away? That was a Virginia Rail, an elusive little bird that is seldom seen due to its secretive nature, skulking among thick marshland reeds. On this morning, with help from my ThermApp thermal camera, I was finally able to photograph one:
Here is a longer infrared video, with two clips showing the Virginia Rail in action:
I'm not sure if you noticed, but in the "chase scene", the camera focus actually switched from bird #1 to bird #2; after the chase, we're watching bird #2 forage while bird #1 is grunting from off-screen (somewhere to the right). I hadn't noticed this switch myself when taking the video in the field.
BTW, if you're a birder, you may have noticed some interesting species singing in the background audio, including Willow Flycatcher and Blackpoll Warbler.
Here's another photo of a virginia rail, this I believe is a different bird from the first photo above.
This all happened around 11am on a day with medium-overcast skies and ambient temperatures at around 60F (15C). While there was a fair number of other warm spots in the surroundings (cattail spikes, sticks), the birds still showed up quite clearly and could be easily tracked.
Here's a thermal infrared image focused on one part of the marsh:
Notice the white spot near the middle? (It's easier to see if you click above for an enlarged view.)
Zoomed in with a high-power lens, you see this:
It is the nest of a red-winged blackbird, with a female sitting on it.
Here's a short video of the same nest, taken with the ThermApp, but pay attention to the lower-left corner of the frame:
Did you notice a shape slinking away? That was a Virginia Rail, an elusive little bird that is seldom seen due to its secretive nature, skulking among thick marshland reeds. On this morning, with help from my ThermApp thermal camera, I was finally able to photograph one:
Here is a longer infrared video, with two clips showing the Virginia Rail in action:
I'm not sure if you noticed, but in the "chase scene", the camera focus actually switched from bird #1 to bird #2; after the chase, we're watching bird #2 forage while bird #1 is grunting from off-screen (somewhere to the right). I hadn't noticed this switch myself when taking the video in the field.
BTW, if you're a birder, you may have noticed some interesting species singing in the background audio, including Willow Flycatcher and Blackpoll Warbler.
Here's another photo of a virginia rail, this I believe is a different bird from the first photo above.
This all happened around 11am on a day with medium-overcast skies and ambient temperatures at around 60F (15C). While there was a fair number of other warm spots in the surroundings (cattail spikes, sticks), the birds still showed up quite clearly and could be easily tracked.