This is a shot of a nightingale I filmed in Portugal a few years ago: it’s towards the end of the sequence. It was a little difficult to find amongst the foliage, but as nightingale’s go it was extremely obliging. It sang and sang at all times during the day and left me believing that my wildlife cameraman’s luck was on a high when it came to filming nightingales. Even better, just a few yards away a lesser spotted woodpecker was nesting in an old telegraph pole. How often do you see them in the UK any more?
Last week I was filming in Kent at Blean Woods. Nightingales come here to breed each year. When I saw this on our list of things to film I felt very optimistic based on my Portugal experience, though easily forgetting other difficult filming attempts at nightingale back home. Our time was limited but we were encouraged by the sound of at least 5 nightingales singing profusely from sun up to midday. The problem was that they were all singing from dense cover, and despite at one point getting within 4-5 metres of one of the little blighters I did not even glimpse a nightingale the whole time we were there.
Wildlife filming, being a wildlife cinematographer, can be very frustrating and you can never have enough experience. It might be that we could go back to that same location with our acquired wisdom, a new approach and a bit more time and be successful. And then again…
Link to information about nightingales from the RSPB.