Deer fawn pt 3

And today not only did we have Juliette catching and eating a deer fawn but her three tiny cubs were getting in on the act as well!

Deer fawn prt 2

Ok so two days ago I was sat with a deer fawn nuzzling on my lap.
Yesterday we were walking along a lane, tracking juliette, a mother of three as she walked parallel to us in the woods. Suddenly we hear a child like scream, we ran in to find the bear ripping a dear fawn to pieces.
This was a different image to the gentle lumbering vegetarian earth mothers i had been following
I took one step to close and BWAARR. A 250 lb killing machine with blood dripping jaws charges.
Ooooookkk fine by me, your the boss. I'll back off.
She then trundles off and feeds her cubs at the base of a ceder tree.

June in the north woods

I know, I know,
Things were busy I didn't write.
It's early June and I'm back with the bears. Young mum lily has abandoned her cub hope who is being kept alive out in the forest with food supplements.
We went out last night in torrential rain and filmed the little sodden ball of fur being hand fed blueberries by Sue. poor little thing. It's stirring up massive controversy across the state betwen the ' intervene' and ' and let nature take it's course ' camps.
I'm a fan of the nut cases, one of whom things 'hope' Is the Jesus Christ of bears !
Driving along this morning we spotted a White tailed deer and two fawns, we stopped to film and the mum disappeared and the two tiny fawns dropped into the grass and became instantly invisible. I moved closer and crouched with the camera. One of the fawns rose and shakily stepped over to me and settled next to me as I stroked It! A wonderful wonderful experience.

April 1st

Currently sat with Juliette - a 7 year old mum- and her three new cubs.
Spring has arrived. It was yesterday ! Yep all the ice vanished in about 48 hrs. It's now warm, barmy and the first midge has been seen.
Juliette's cubs have changed noticeable in the last couple of days. One is particularly adventuress and is clambering up any available branch, although Lilly's cub Hope seems way ahead of them, clambering 6 ft up a pine tree yesterday. She also got me in trouble.
I was quietly sat there with little docile hope off to my left and Lilly wandering off right. I turned to try and film a silhouette of Lilly in front of the lake. I turn and see that hope has spotted me and is stumbling toward me! I try and put her off with hand waving. Any second Lilly will turn and see me with her cub!
Hope gets to within a foot and shows no sign of stopping so I have to leap over a fallen tree. Hope screams, Lilly turns, bellows and come charging, I shriek and ruin another pair of trousers.
Don't trust cubs.

First days filming

Clambering down a steep slope through aspen and pine, a frozen lake is groaning and cracking as it starts to melt next to us. The sun is low, throwing a beautiful northern warm soft light over everything.
As we descend we call out ' hey bear, it's us bear'. Bears are petrified of other bears and reassured that were only humans.
This is Lilly, a 3 yr old, first time mum with a new cub. Today was the first day she had brought her new infant 'hope' out of the den and my first day trying to film bears.
We found them lieing under a fallen tree, hope was asleep and Lilly was keeping a very close eye on her and us.
I was down first, so took some pecans ( i tried to remember my lessons and tried to control my fear) i went to make peace. I approached cautiously as no one had seen Lilly for a year and she had a young cub, I kept talking to her and threw some nuts. Her long long Tongue snaked out and Hoovered them up. I threw some more and moved closer.
Continuing to chat away and let her know what I was doing I gradually eased myself to within about 3 metres and settled down with the camera.
It felt extraordinary to be that close to a large wild carnivore with young ! She soon decided I wasn't really a threat and turned her attention to hope who was now suckling and lieing on Lilly's tummy.
We managed to get some lovely shots of these two together, suckling grooming and playing . I gadualy eased myself nearer and nearer until I was under a metre away and could smell hopes ' spaniel puppy aroma'.
Although hope had been brought out of the den worryingly early, she was a fighter, letting her mum know in very strident, loud terms that it was milk she wanted and milk she was going to get.
After an hour or so, with the sun about to dip behind the lake, lilly moved away with hope. I followed at a distance and filmed hope struggling over a branch as lilly walked off out of my vision ..... BWAAARRR lilly mock charges me from my blind side, I fill my trousers and retreat.
Lesson learnt
Bears are very very gentle, trusting animals, but don't push

Welcome to America

I flew out to Minneapolis yesterday with Max (another cameraman) and twenty pieces of luggage.
I arrived in the U S of A with Max and one piece of luggage.
so rather than head up to the great wilderness this morning were
off to the ' biggest shopping mall in America' -which weirdly
also houses the biggest jellyfish collection in America-.
Whilst the worlds great superpower looks for our bags.

australia

Just back from an amazing trip to the northern territories,
We were following the story of Ben and his team who round up thousands of cattle on horseback, quad and helicopter.





These guys are extraordinary, flying below tree level, nudging cattle with the skids.
massive adrenaline rush, flying with them.





I think we got some great footage, with the low sun, massive amounts of dust, cattle, horses and helicopters.
We also had a cineflex system with us, giving stunning aerials.








Great shoot, great bunch of people.