Our new video series brings into view all four seasons in an urban Southern wetland
UPDATED!
This blog post will be updated as new seasons are filmed, until the year is complete.
This new video series breaks the year into four seasons, and includes photography and video of the wildlife and landscape of an urban wetland in Tennessee. Surrounded by pavement, commercial buildings, and streets, this spring-fed wetland is home to a host of creatures, including frogs, snakes, turtles, Great Blue Herons, Yellow-Crowned Night Herons, raccoons, beavers, muskrats, otters, and much more.
The birdlife alone is worth a visit.
SPRING
March, April, and May were exciting times in the wetland, when the critters were seeking mates and feasting on the fresh green plants and each other! The geese were loud and sometimes frantic. Snakes emerged, and frogs were everywhere.
Video: Springtime in a Southern Wetland
Watch this southern wetland come to life as critters emerge hungry, energized, and ready for love.
Video: How I Filmed the Wetland Wildlife Video Using Mostly Vintage Lenses
This brief video describes all the gear I used to record the wetland series videos.
Video: What’s Under There? Seeing a Wetland Above and Below the Waterline
The first wetland video, seen below, was all about looking under the surface of the water. At the time, I thought this would be a singular, one-time only wetland video. But the more I witnessed in the wetland, the more I wanted to tell a more complete story of the wetland environment.
For much of the video, and some of the photographs, I used my Sony cameras with a vintage 2006-era Canon 70-200mm L lens and a Canon EF 2X teleconverter, all mounted to the Sony with a Sigma MC-11 Canon EF to Sony E-Mount adapter.
The teleconverter turned the Canon 200mm lens into a 400mm lens on my full-frame Sony A7RIV, and gave the APS-C sensor in my Sony a6700 an equivalent 600mm reach.
SUMMER
Video: Epic Battle Between Large Male Snapping Turtles Over Territory
Male snapping turtles are solitary creatures and they prefer to bask alone. Normally, they appear to be calm, slow-moving, and docile. But they can also be quite territorial, especially if a dominant male finds another large male in his area. In this video, we recorded an entire 25-minute fight between two large male snapping turtles over a region of the wetland (edited down to around 15 minutes).
Luckily, both combatants came away unharmed, and the battle ended when one of them finally submitted and left the contested area. These fights can sometimes result in serious injuries or even death to one of the turtles. We saw the turtles wrestle, bump, slap, and bite each other, and they also attempted to hold each other under water.
Note: This video contains Amazon Affiliate links. I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases.