Perched alone in the darkness on a steep, muddy slope at 3am, lashing rain making the ground more slippery by the minute… Wildlife cameraman Ben Cherry has filmed extensively in the tropical forests of Central Africa, tracking chimpanzees and gorillas deep in the jungle wilderness. But this assignment was different. This was early summer in the Welsh Wye Valley. In a garden. Filming baby owls.
Most owls are, famously, mainly active at night. Tawny owls are no exception, spending daylight hours roosting quietly, before setting out to hunt as the sun goes down. As you’d expect, filming such nocturnal animals is always a tricky prospect – everything becomes more difficult at night.
The technology for capturing video in low light has come on in leaps and bounds, from super-sensitive moonlight cameras, to infra-red lighting and even high-definition thermal imaging, but getting the best footage still requires someone to take that kit into the field and pull an all-nighter.
With these particular tawny owls, and this particular series, we did at least have one big advantage. Knowing that we wanted to feature them as one of our main characters, and that their storyline would be about a pair raising chicks, we didn’t have to search for a suitable nest out in the woods. We could welcome them into the garden, by providing a nest box, specially designed for tawnies – spacious, with a good size access hole, and tall enough that the chicks can’t climb out when they’re too young. And then, to minimise disturbance, we could rig that nest box with a hidden camera or two before they even arrived to set up home, to record intimate moments inside the nest itself.
So in the depths of winter, veteran cinematographer Robin Smith, whose very own wonderful woodland garden was to be the focus of the episode, found a suitable mature tree accessible by ladder, and fixed the nest box securely into the branches. Though high off the ground – around four metres up is best – he cleverly chose a tree growing at the base of the steep hill that runs up the back of his garden, which meant that a camouflaged filming hide could be placed up on the slope, almost on a level with the box.
His next job was figuring out the best way to rig it with recording equipment. He knew that once the owls started nesting, it would be practically impossible to access the cameras directly. Not only would he not want to disturb a wild animal, but also tawnies are renowned for their aggressive defence of their eggs or chicks – nobody wants to be knocked off a tall ladder by the sharp talons of a furious owl! With this in mind, the camera needed to be mains-powered, with a live remote feed, it needed to be small, with an infra-red light to see anything inside the box, and it needed to record footage of broadcast quality.
“I’ve rigged many small cameras over the years, to film everything from nesting dippers to burrowing meerkats, and each situation requires a bespoke setup – finding the right one for this job took a bit of trial and error!” explained Robin. “After a few tests I settled on a camera that would fit the bill, but then it took quite a bit of work to string up cables for the power and remote feed, ensure everything was weatherproof, and as well hidden as possible. Owl activity in our wood was steadily increasing, so I was keen to keep any disturbance to a minimum.”
With the camera and nest box set up, Robin steered well clear of the tree, leaving it to the owls to take the next step. This was the nail-biting part – if the owls chose not to use the box, all of his hard work would be in vain. With cables trailing back along the length of the garden to a monitor set up in the living room, he and his family were all able to keep an eye on the live stream for any sign of movement. And finally, after a worrying few weeks, there it was – a female owl investigating the box! Still no guarantees… but monitoring it more closely now, Robin started seeing a pattern of activity, as both male and female regularly checked the box, seemingly impressed by its potential.
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