East Lyme - It's late in the afternoon and Evan Ehrlich just got home from school.He grabs a bite to eat and heads out immediately into the woods around his neighborhood with his Canon GL2 video camera, Sennheiser microphones and other technical equipment.Evan knows that making wildlife documentaries takes patience and it can't be scripted, so the 18-year-old East Lyme High School senior sets up his equipment, presses the record button and waits to capture the right moment.It might take a few hours, and he sometimes comes back with just minutes of footage, but the experience is gratifying."I like the mysteriousness of a lot of the animals. These are things that most people don't see," Evan said. "I've always been naturally curious about things around me. I can't keep myself out of the woods."Or out of trees for that matter.It was his sister's move-out day at the University of New Hampshire, but there was a katydid chirping in a tree and he was going to bring it down.So Evan dropped everything and climbed the 12-foot-tall tree to get the insect. Evan said it was unique because most times those insects are found in trees that are 70 to 80 feet high."I told him not to do it," Sue Ehrlich, his mother, said. "But it was really something."Sue said her son has opened her eyes to things she's never seen before, nature's beautiful events that she'd normally walk past.Evan traces his interest in animals to going bird-watching with his father, Owen, when he was a toddler. By kindergarten, he said he started recognizing bird calls.By the time he was in first grade, he was watching "National Geographic" wildlife programs on television. It was his Sunday ritual with his father, and his mother would tape the shows so he could watch them during the week.One documentary, "Lions of Darkness" by renowned wildlife filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert, inspired him. Years later, he sent a letter to Dereck Joubert in Africa and received a letter back from him. Evan said that was the point when he became interested in filmmaking.When he was about 10, he attempted to make his first wildlife film, setting up a brown blanket and toy lions. He would position them in scenarios, like lions swiping at zebras, and record the video using stop-and-go animation.That same year he got a JVC video camera for his birthday.Sue Ehrlich said when Evan was younger he would go outside with a little flashlight, trying to find things.As he got older, his curiosity didn't fade. He just became more mature with his subjects, narrowing things down to specific species and their behaviors."I'm very curious and interested in natural phenomenons that happen around me," Evan said. "I try to find those answers to why things happen."His first film, "Season of the Osprey," explored the life cycle of an osprey. It took him two years to complete the film, which was about nine minutes long when finished.Next, he made films about chipmunks, bluebirds and is working to finish a documentary about deer. He narrates his films, which he said often take years to complete, while music is played in the background.Evan said his family has been supportive over the years. He also cites Mark Russell, the video specialist at Groton Public Schools, and Grant Place, a video production teacher at East Lyme High School, as having helped him get started in filmmaking."He is self-motivated and really has done it all on his own," Russell said. "He is inspiring for the other students and shows kids what they could do."Evan has also volunteered at the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center for several years, helping to rehabilitate birds.Evan, a tuition student at East Lyme who lives with his mother and father in Mystic, will attend the University of New Hampshire in the fall for wildlife ecology and said he hopes to continue filmmaking in the future. His sister, Andraya, 20, is studying biology at the same school.a.renczkowski@theday.com