Nature videos

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:05 am

Yours, someone else's, found on the Net. . . .

To begin, a murmuration:

http://vimeo.com/31158841

"A chance encounter and shared moment with one of natures greatest and most fleeting phenomena."

Two minutes. It starts as a slide show with sound (it's not the playback acting up). Then it becomes amazing.

Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:11 am

That's insane. (in the best sense of the word)

Post by **Teremia** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 7:41 pm

Oh, Prim! I just came into this thread to post a link to that very video! I just had something of a spiritual experience watching it: what an awesome world we live in.

And the amazed giggle of the girl in the boat seeing what we're seeing sort of caps the whole thing.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 7:44 pm

Doesn't it just?

Though I think I would have been giggling, too!

Post by **Lalaith** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:22 pm

That is so awesome!

It brings tears to my eyes, actually.

And I have experienced this with about half this many starlings. I was driving home from the lab one Thanksgiving Day, and this murmuration of starlings descended upon me and the only other car on the road. We both had to stop; there was no way to drive! I couldn't even see the other car most of the time as the birds flocked and swarmed all around us, swooping and soaring. It was insane! After a few minutes, they moved on, and the other driver and I sat there stunned.

It was totally cool!

Post by **Holbytla** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 10:16 pm

Amazing video. Similar to a swarm of locust.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 8:52 pm

An octopus goes for a stroll on the beach.

http://youtu.be/FjQr3lRACPI

(No, it's fine, I wouldn't have believed me either.

)

Post by **Lalaith** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 9:53 pm

That's crazy!

Tue Nov 22, 2011 10:14 pm

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:54 pm

Time-lapse HD video from Yosemite:

http://vimeo.com/couchmode/projectyose/ ... e/35396305

Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:03 pm

I saw that the other day. Pretty amazing.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:19 pm

I could do without the singing. The music on either side is OK, but for me, vocal music doesn't fit with images of unpeopled nature.

But the images are so beautiful. I've never seen Yosemite.

Wed Feb 01, 2012 12:21 am

My Mom had never seen Yosemite, and I had bugged her for years until I finally got her to come with us last spring. Needless to say, it was worth it.

You need to make that a priority. Pictures and videos like that don't at all do it justice.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 12:35 am

It's definitely on my list. Our retirement dream is doing a lot of long road trips in a van, camping most of the way through the West and Southwest and then seeing how far we get beyond that. Or maybe we won't have to wait for retirement, if things begin to go better.

Have you seen Crater Lake? If not, it should be on your list some July/early August. (That's about the only time the rim road isn't under 20 or 30 feet of snow.) Spending a night in the lodge there, maybe in winter, is another item on my bucket list. But just seeing the lake, and driving all around it, is an amazing experience. It really is that blue.

Post by **Holbytla** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 1:01 am

I've been to a fair number of National Parks, but sadly not to even a tithe of what I would like. For most people, there aren't enough days in a lifetime to see what they would like and I am surely in that category.

I would surely love to visit Yellowstone and Yosemite before I push up the daisies, but I am thankful for what I have seen.

Thankfully, Cape Cod National Seashore is close by and I have visited many many times. Maybe that and the visits to USS Arizona Memorial National Memorial, Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, and the numerous DC Parks will temper my wants for my lifetime.

Yeah not likely. Before my end I want to see a few out west beyond Trail of Tears National Historic Trail and this side of Muir Woods.

edit to add:

It is true that visiting these types of places can be life changing experiences. At least for me, visiting the USS Arizona Memorial National Memorial and Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park brought me some perspective and made some sort of life changing thinking in how I viewed life and what was important to me.

Though it isn't a National Park, standing atop Mauna Kea in the dead of a starry night, thousands of miles from any substantial landmass and closer to the stars than I ever dreamed possible, essentially changed my world.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 1:19 am

I suppose there are worse things than to live in a world so full of beauty that we can't ever come close to seeing it all.

Wed Feb 01, 2012 2:25 am

I have seen Crater Lake. And Lake Louise in BC, which is lovely.

Post by **Holbytla** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 2:47 am

Yeah I need to get back to more travelling. I have seen nothing between Chicago and San Fran and nothing between LA and Oklahoma.
And I really like camping so this should be a no brainer.

Fri Apr 20, 2012 3:54 am

If anyone is around right now, check out this web cam of the Peregrine Falcons nesting in San Jose. Feeding the young right now!

http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/nestcamSJ.htm

Post by **narya** » Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:17 am

Speaking of Yosemite, I just got my reservations for a week of camping there -the week following Labor Day - i.e. September 3 thru 9 this year. You are welcome to join me. You won't regret it!