ATTENBOROUGH'S WONDER OF SONG

BBC & Mike Birkhead Associates

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Director of Photography 

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Sir David Attenborough chooses seven of the most remarkable animal songs found in nature and explores the significance of these songs in the lives of their species. I felt very fortunate to be DoP for this film as it involved filming both bird song and Sir David Attenborough, which is a lovely combination.  Production started during the start of Covid outbreak which presented with us with many challenges, getting out to film bird song during lockdown was tricky, and filming Sir David with social distancing was even more difficult. The majority of the filming was capturing bird song, and this meant mainly filming in forests and countryside near me so luckily filming could still go ahead during lockdown. Once rules began to relax a little, I headed to Knepp castle estate to film nightingales and turtle doves. It was my first time trying to film nightingales singing, and I found it was very rare to observe the birds singing in the open but after homing on on their territories and many hours in a hide, I was delighted to observe some nightingales singing from their secretive perches.  Turtle doves, I discovered to be incredible skittish and almost impossible to sneak up on but they seemed to use the same trees to perch and sing late into the evening. After setting up a hide for a couple of evenings I was given a spectacular turtle dove song in full view. I also travelled to Otmoor reserve in Oxford, known for its reed beds, many warbler species and cuckoos. 

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