Review of Migrations secrètes: Odyssées aériennes des animaux migrateurs (2018)

Moving picture, 3.8 hours

Seen in 2020.

Seen with disinterested US English-language narration on SVT.

Biologists studying four species of seasonal migrants: Nathusius’s pipistrelle, the painted lady, Eleonora’s falcon and the Eurasian blackcap warbler.

Nice 3D models and science outreach. For some reason, an apparently fake 2D GNSS UI is shown in the falcon episode instead of whatever services the scientists actually use, which probably look more like the ones in the blackcap episode. The latter—that is the fourth episode—is by far the most informative, going into some depth about the methods of orientation, genetic effects upon these, and the roles of climate change, human feeding, birders, nature reserves, software etc. The other episodes are a bit too slow for the level of drama they purport to reveal.

References here: When Whales Walked: Journeys in Deep Time (2019).

moving picture non-fiction nature series