Of fur, feather and scale

This is my first real video encounter with the elusive Moorhen.

Thanks to the assistance of Vimeo's resident celebrated Moorhen expert, 4Moorhens2 I have finally captured this shy creature. My ambition now is to get up close and personal with my framing.

After 3 hours of waving the camera around I finaly found something worthwhile to frame.

Watch out for part 2 where I depart from the norm, in persuit of the king of freshwater fish, the Carp.

Video captured with a Canon XH-A1.
Edited with Sony Vegas Pro 8
Video presented to Vimeo in the WMV format 1280x720x32

The mother Moorhen has a small piece of grass, or weed in her beak, she approaches the juvenile, but instead of handing over the offering she turns her back, and apparently looks at nothing in particular, keeping an eye out for the location of her offspring periodically.

When the juvenile goes out of sight she makes haste to find it, and then surrenders the present.

Is this some part of the weaning ritual?

Or just maybe I'm reading it wrong.

This is a job for super 4Moorhens2, and of course any passer-by who may just have a suggestion to throw in the pot.

I really must get out and dust off my Grandma's old fiddle to put a musical score to my video's. She got it from Ebay off a chap named Nero, it's a little scorched, but can still play a good tune.

Anyone got a mouth organ or Jews harp, or should that be a jaws harp?

Camer Canon XH-A1
Editing Sony Vegas Pro 8
I have cropped here, so video quality is not representative of the XH capabilities.

A bit of a rush job this, from leaving Trentham Monkey Forest to uploading within 6.5 hours, there's a lot of cuttings on the floor, but a whole lot more to be compiled, including the juvenile tree jumping and swinging which took place when the visitors thinned out.

It was a very busy day at the Monkey Forest in Trentham Stoke-on-Trent, so the use of a tripod was definitely a non-starter due to the narrow pathways. Apart from that, setting up a tripod could well spook the animals, after all, they wouldn't see a tripod, they would probably see a potential threat.

So, this video is a little shaky in some places and very shaky in others.

Apologies for the mess at the beginning, that's just me monkeyin about with Sony Vegas 8 (discovering the features within the software).