Su Rynard

Songbirds in Costa Rica: The Proyecto Monitoreo de Aves (PMA)

in Director's Blog  by June 19, 2014 0 comments

Shoot Day: February 22, 2014 I had never been to Costa Rica, so filming there was amazing experience. After driving for hours on the single traffic-choked road that winds from San Jose we finally arrived at CATIE. CATIE is a Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre, located near Turrialba in Costa Rica. Here Alejandra Martinez-Salinas works both on research with the number one coffee pest – the Coffee Beetle Borer as well as manages the The Proyecto Monitoreo de Aves (PMA) .

Alejandra: “When I started working with songbirds I fell in love with the migrants because they were so tiny and fragile but also so strong and determined — I mean they really want to get somewhere and they usually get there! They move through so many different countries, it’s special just to hold an animal that’s been travelling so much, that’s been to so many different places …”

On our first morning of shooting we followed Alejandra and her associate Almilkar through their early morning songbird monitoring routine. At CATIE they monitor songbirds in different agricultural uses like abandoned coffee and cacao plantations. When we were filming they banded a few neo tropical migrants including a juvenile indigo bunting and a mourning warbler. The mourning warbler was a repeat band – it had already made the journey to North America and back and was re-captured one year later, near the exact same spot as the previous year. Even though I knew about this, to experience it was truly remarkable.

Related posts:

  1. Touring Costa Rica to film the birds
  2. Songbird Monitoring in Costa Rica with Alejandra Martinez-Salinas
  3. Shooting in Costa Rica: Songbirds and live Fences
  4. A Coffee Primer for Birds & People

Rain Rain Rain

in Director's Blog  by March 30, 2014 0 comments

Filmmakers Blog, May 29, 2013

Our first major shoot for SongbirdSOS was in the Netherlands and Turkey. It rained almost every day, all the time, everywhere we went.  On this day in the Aras River valley, we were not soaking wet, but the rain water had run down the mountains, trickled into streams that poured into the valley. In order to reach the bird banding site in Aras where we were filming, we had to cross streams that had grown from mere trickles to rushing rivers.  We had to carry, piece by piece, all of our precious camera equipment across the stream. The rocks were slippery and the tug of the water was strong. It was quite treacherous, and we had to cross at least six times during our short stay.  Luckily, our crossings were successful with very wet feet but amazing footage to show for it.

Related posts:

  1. Mike the ringer
  2. Amar Arhab
  3. The Messenger’s Cagan Şekercioğlu’s Environmental Request while Accepting a Prestigious Award
  4. The Secret to Filming Wild Birds in Big Cities & “Jungles”

Mike the ringer

in Director's Blog  by March 30, 2014 0 comments

Filmmakers Blog, May 28, 2013

This is Mike, a ringer from South Africa. He travels to Aras Turkey to volunteer at the bird banding station during migration season. How he got there is an interesting story… One year at the Aras Bird banding station  someone banded a “Turkish” barn swallow. This same swallow was later re-trapped in South Africa.  A dialogue between the banding stations started and Mike ended up following the swallows path, travelling to Aras Turkey to volunteer at the very place where the swallow was first caught. He’s retired now, spends each spring and fall banding birds at various places in the world and by doing so, contributes enormously to bird conservation. The planet needs more Mike’s.

 

 

Related posts:

  1. Rain Rain Rain
  2. The songbirdSOS experts talk about International Migratory Bird Day
  3. The Messenger’s Cagan Şekercioğlu’s Environmental Request while Accepting a Prestigious Award
  4. Çağan Şekercioğlu wins Award for Conservation Work

Filming at Lake Kuyucuk near Kars Turkey

in Director's Blog  by March 30, 2014 0 comments

Filmmakers blog, May 28, 2013

Filming at Lake Kuyucuk near Kars Turkey

Lake Kuyucuk is near the far east border between Turkey and Armenia, near the Dead Sea. It is a beautiful spot, made more beautiful because of the conservation work of the KuzeyDoga Society. We filmed here during spring migration with Çağan H. Şekercioğlu. Çağan with KuzeyDoga played a key role in gaining international Ramsar recognition for Lake Kuyucuk. The lake is home to over 40,000 birds of 227 species, a key habitat for globally Endangered White-headed Duck and Egyptian Vulture. It also provides a safe stop over site for migrating songbirds, and it is mecca for international birdwatchers.

 

Bird Banding Hut at dusk. Lake Kuyucuk  near Kars, Turkey

There is an international convention going on inside that caravan!  Me a Canadian director with a crew from France, filming tireless volunteers from different corners of the earth who have come to Lake each spring to band migrating birds.  With mist nests out every morning and late afternoon, they have documented hundreds of species over the years. Çağan H. Şekercioğlu won a Whitley Award in 2008 and again in 2013 for his work here, which aims to protect wetland ecosystems whilst bringing real benefits to local people.

Related posts:

  1. Çağan and road kill Near Kars, Turkey
  2. Çağan Şekercioğlu wins Award for Conservation Work
  3. The Messenger’s Cagan Şekercioğlu’s Environmental Request while Accepting a Prestigious Award
  4. The Secret to Filming Wild Birds in Big Cities & “Jungles”

Lights Out for Earth Hour will save migrating birds

in Conservation  by March 28, 2014 0 comments

Earth Hour is tomorrow! On Saturday March 29 between 8:30 and 9:30 thousands of homes and businesses across the planet will be turning off their lights to celebrate their commitment to the planet.

Humans should of course be concerned about the affect that light pollution and overuse of electricity will have on the environment every day of the year. Light pollution can be deadly for songbirds as they migrate at night. The Fatal Light Awareness Project (FLAP) estimates that between 100 million and 1 billion birds are killed due to window collisions in North America every year.

So even if it just for one hour, Earth Hour helps provide safe passage for migrating birds during spring migration season.

FLAP has just launched a new tool to alert people to the concentration of birds as they fly through the Great Lakes Region. Bird Migration Tracker can let people know to turn lights out at night and treat windows during the day. Bird Migration Tracker is free and available online, try it out yourself on FLAP’s website.

The tool is a live-streaming Web page that displays current weather conditions, moon phase and weather radar. Flocks of migrating birds are so highly concentrated that they appear on weather radar!

Alert levels range from low to extreme and are determined by a compilation of indicators displayed on the webpage. It is imperative to turn lights out at night during Heavy to Extreme intensity alerts.

Have you used Bird Migration Tracker? Tell us what you think.

Related posts:

  1. Scientist uses light study to prevent bird collisions
  2. FLAP launches birding apps for International Migratory Bird Day
  3. Pesticides Make Migrating Birds Lose their Way
  4. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Andrew Farnsworth