video description challenge: Wildlife in Pennsylvania Edition

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks to tamsin on the new stayinside comm, here's a delightful video: a year’s worth of wildlife interacting with an old log over a small stream in wildest Pennsylvania.

The footage is from a high-quality camera that continuously captures images day and night. Robert Bush, Sr. owns the camera, directs and edits the video, and makes a cameo in the last frame.

The other actors, in order of appearance:

Raccoon
Black bear
Chipmunk
Porcupine
King Fisher
Growlers
Muskrat
Bobcat
Coyote
Crow
Whitetail deer
Gray squirrel
Bullfrog
Mallard duck
Beaver
Sandpiper
Bluejay
Gray fox
Turkey versus great horned owl
Bob

If you’re looking for a challenge, I’d welcome video descriptions of each of the performers in comments:
- what's the animal?
- do they notice the camera?
- how do they move relative to the log and stream?
- are they swaggering, limping, striding, flapping, slithering?

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[sonia]

Here's some. I might come back and do more later. I added timestamps from the bottom of the video, water level, and a bit about weather.

7/21/18 7:11pm daylight, raccoon pads across the stream on the log toward the camera. Water is low. It's raining lightly.

6/29/19 3:19pm daylight, duckling hops up on the log and then down the other side, moving downstream. Water is low. Sunny.

6/24/18 11:29am daylight, black bear obscures the camera and then carefully crosses the stream on the log moving away from the camera. Water is medium-high. Sunny.

4/13/19 3:45pm daylight, great blue heron, stalks with splayed stick-thin feet partway across away from the camera, intently watching the stream, presumably fishing. Water is low. Sunny.

6/28/18 4:00pm daylight, chipmunks race across toward the camera, and one races back to the far side. Water is low. Sunny.

7/21/18 3:54am dark, porcupine waddles across toward the camera. Water is low.

6/09/18 6:42am daylight, kingfisher sits on the log, whacks the fish it has in its mouth against the log, and makes some attempts to swallow it.

7/02/19 7:58am daylight, quail (?) makes little meeping sounds near the camera. A quail chick appears on the far side, hops onto a fallen branch near the log. Mama keeps meeping. Eventually the chick flies across. Water is low.

[jesse_the_k]

Great work!

I enjoy creating descriptions because a) it's more access, b) text is more durable than images online and c) it makes me deeply examine visual material

[sonia]

Here's some more. I think I'm going to stop here. It was great to spend some intensive time with this video. It shows ambient temperature at the bottom of the screen as well! I imagine all the extra info would get annoying with a screen reader, and I realized the dates are ambiguous for non-USians... I had included the water level because later there are frames where the water is rushing over the log. It seems redundant here though.

4/06/19 10:37pm dark, 22F, muskrat slinks part-way along the log toward the camera, stops to scratch, then drops off the log into the water on the downstream side. Water is low.

7/04/18, 10:21am, daylight, 100F, skinny bobcat haunch looms large in front of the camera, then bobcat ambles along the log to the far side. Water low.

11/19/18 7:21pm dark, 14F, coyote strides past the camera and along the log. Pauses at the far side to sniff the end of the log. Rain.

6/25/18 3:28pm daylight, 69F, crow walks from the middle of the log to the far side, pauses at the end to look around.

4/1/19 4:26pm daylight, 31F, an elegantly colorful male wood duck stands on the log near the camera. A female wood duck with more subdued coloring stands a little further down the log. The male duck turns his head swiftly away and then toward the camera and makes high-pitched sounds. Water is medium-high.

10/25/18 8:43am daylight, 14F, a black bear lumbers carefully along the log from the far side. One hind foot slides off into the water. The bear recovers with the opposite front foot, passes close to the camera filling the frame, and keeps going. Water is low.

[jesse_the_k]

Your April 1st is particularly elegant!

I had included the water level because later there are frames where the water is rushing over the log. It seems redundant here though.

An excellent case where contemporaneous description fails -- once you've seen everything, and assessed the average water level, you can begin with "A weathered log crosses a seasonal: camera viewpoint is at ~6ft on one end of the natural bridge. Log is generally between 6 and 18 inches above stream levels" and then point out extremes when they occur.

I doubt the info visible at the bottom of the screen is accessible to screen readers; it's probably burned on to the image by the camera itself.

[maric]

I'll do this later, My head hurts right now.

Trust me, they're aware of what's going on with the camera, but mostly they ignore it in favor of continuing their journey around the area unless something about you interests them. If they noticed the man/person with the camera, and tried talking to him, he's a good guy. Don't worry. Animals usually flock to good people. That Disney Princess/Prince syndrome is real, yo.

[oulfis]

What a soothing and sweet video!