World Digiscopers Meeting and great life advice from Justin Carr

February 5, 2015

I get copied on emails to my buddy Clay at Swarovski from time to time. Over the year I kept seeing emails from some guy named Robert Wilson about organizing a digiscopers meeting a chance for pole to come learn about digiscoping but a also a chance for those of us who have been digiscoping for years and sharing our work online to get a chance to meet.

And somehow...it happened.

Viera Wetlands aka Rich Grissom Memorial Wetlands in Melbourne, FL. A great place for photographing birds and alligators and perfect for a digiscoping get together.

As I put this blog together I realize I was a complete dork and didn't get pictures of the people who attended, I simply practiced the technique and learned quite a bit from the others. But it was a totally international affair and people came from Europe and Neil Fifer even flew in from his home in Hong Kong.

What I enjoyed most about it was the chance to listen and watch other people's techniques in the field and try it out with my equipment. And just hang out with guys like Danny Digiscoping--he and I are two peas in a pod. We like to play and get people excited about digiscoping. We aren't trying to be the best, but we want to inspire others to try it and let them shine as the best. Do check out his site, he offers lots of great tips.

American Bittern digiscoped with Nikon V1, TLS APO adapter and Swarovski ATX 85mm spotting scope.

One really cool aspect was a day long competition. All of use were partnered up with someone and our team could only submit a total of 10 entries and we were given 8 categories. To prevent someone like me from submitting nothing but birds our categories were:

Birds
Non Birds
In The Air
Man-made/Weather or Landscapes
Macro
Video no editing
Video - a story told in less than two minutes

Robert Hunt, my digiscoping partner. That's right, he's using a telescope for digiscoping.

My partner was a complete stranger to me and rather than using a spotting scope like I do...he goes out with a telescope. That's him with his telescope above. It's not my style of digiscoping, but he does astronomy programs in Florida, that's his equipment and he wants to see what he can do with it, He can do some amazing things, but his set up takes longer. The bittern photo above was one of bout 250 that I took while he was still setting up his gear. However, once Rob is set up and going, he can do fun stuff like this.

The dude digiscoped the sun...and sun spots. But that wasn't even the coolest thing he did. He digiscoped fish. You heard me correctly, he digiscoped frickin' fish:

Fish (a very tiny one, like a guppie) digiscoped by Robert Hunt.

One advantage that Rob has was the ability to switch out lenses for different types of subjects. Though that may not be my style or interest for birds, for versatility...and building upper body strength, it worked for him. I tried it with my iPhone.

My attempt to digiscope a guppie with an iPhone 5s, Swarovski iPhone adapter and Swarovski ATX 85mm spotting scope.

Not quite the artistic shot that Robert got, but good enough to make me consider attempting it again when I'm around fish...or when I'm bored. I think that's what of the main things I learned from digiscoper Justin Carr. He's a Brit who has an uncanny knack of getting flight shots of birds. When first speaking to him, he was referring to others as the best of the best, but I think he gave me some of the best photography advice ever:

"I was bored and there weren't really any birds so I tried to digiscope a common swift."

Here's a link to his shot...yeah, so he was bored and just, you know, digiscoped a swift. This is one of the most difficult birds to shoot and he got that.

So from now on when I'm bored, I'm going to try the hardest thing that I can in that moment. That's not exactly bad life advice.

Speaking of astronomy, Rob got me interested in that so I've been playing around with digiscoping the moon in the time lapse feature on my iPhone. Here's a bit that I got the other night while doing bird surveys in Texas. Digiscoped with the Swarovski ATX 65mm and iPhone 5s:

Not bad. Thanks for the inspiration, Rob.

A double-crested cormorant with a chill photobombing great blue heron behind it. I was eavesdropping and listening to Tara Tanaka give photography tips while I took this. She has inspired me to find more art in my digiscoping.

One of the things I was really looking forward to was meeting Tara Tanaka. She's an award winning photographer and does it with digiscoping. Her set up is a bit more complicated than mine, but man does she get some incredible shots. Check out this rabbit nose bump. I took the time while working on the above photo just listen to her talk as other digiscopers asked her questions. She's slow and methodical in her approach--like a little blue heron. I'm more of a trip-colored heron, excited to see if new possibilities and technology can work, running around and frantically squawking.

Most of the digiscopers there were hot for the Panasonic GH4 with a Digidapter attaching it to their scope. I've been playing with this new adapter and though it only works with Zeiss, Kowa, Leica, Swarovski and Celestron scopes its a good sturdy adapter that works with multiple cameras with a pancake lens. I highly recommend it and when I get some time, I'll go into more depth. One thing that I really like is that it has an easy set mechanisim so you always know where to place your camera on the adapter so it will fit with your scope. Check out the webpage and if you get one, tell the Birdchick sent you--see if it gets you anything special along with your purchase.

Tri-colored heron flying at sunset. One of the things that I love with the iPhone is that it thinks for you and helps you digiscope some beautiful shots at dawn and dusk without having to make any adjustment. — Tri-colored heron flying at sunset. One of the things that I love with the iPhone is that it thinks for you and helps you digiscope some beautiful shots at dawn and dusk without having to make any adjustment.

The GH4 is a heck of a camera and there was even discussion that the video quality is so good it's super easy to just take fantastic stills from it and if you do that, is that too easy, is it still photography? As I was drooling over the camera, Clay told me that he got one and we can play around with it on our next round of the web series. He didn't think it was the camera for me. And that may be true--I don't like to deal with bells and whistles. Whereas Tara is the sort of person who likes to control every bit of the situation to get the shot she is looking for--controlling ISOs, exposure, metering, I'm the sort who likes the iPhone because it does so much of the thinking for me...good grief, I sound like Ilsa when she tells Rick in Casablanca, "You have to do thinking for all of us." Maybe I should rename my iPhone Bogart.

Not the greatest photo ever but most of the time I'm more interested in capturing something interesting rather than making it the perfect photo--like this belted kingfisher lurking under a great blue heron nest.

Tara assures me with some time, practice and patience I could do all this. I'm not so sure. I am certainly set in my ways when it comes to digiscoping, but at the same time maybe I need to challenge myself more to keep myself interested?

We shall see, Tara.

So of course I had to make a video and iMovie templates make throwing together a quick trailer remarkably easy. Here's the 90 second trailer I came up with for the Digiscoper's meeting based on video that I took in one day for the contest:

If you'd like to see the winning images from the Digiscoping contest, here's the album. Do check it out. One of my favorite images was one that Justin Carr got of a flying butterfly...are you kidding me, Justin? That's nuts.

Birdchick Podcast #183 Birder Humor

January 27, 2015

I just can't stop giggling at this from a Tumblr.

Remarkable semi-palmated sandpiper journey.

Western seabirds taking a beating this winter from goop to possible starvation.

How women can pee standing up starting on page 18 of this PDF.

Not Doing A Big Year

January 3, 2015

I'm not doing a big year--just wanted to say that because so many people start them now, but I'm not one of them. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I applaud those who want to, if it trips your trigger, go for it. It's not what I like about birding. I tried the digiscoping big year for a fundraiser, but I just don't have the drive to chase and I'm fascinated by those who do.

Speaking of big years did you see that the guy doing the "Biking For Birds" ended 2014 with 617 (give or take a few depending on records committee acceptance) and 17,830 miles on a bike. Now that guy has drive...or should I say pedal? Hoo boy. There's part of me that looks at that and things, "Yeah, birding for a whole year, on my bike (two things I love) that would be cool."

But I also like sleeping in, dinner with friends, not biking in pouring rain, sipping a bit of scotch late into the night while watching John Wayne in the Quiet Man next to Non Birding Bill on the couch...I do not have the will power for a big year, even as I type this an ivory gull is a mere 7 hours away and I have a 48 hour window to twitch it before I have to fly to an undisclosed location to do a bird survey for work, but I'm choosing to stay home, take a day to relax before work and sharing some chicken pot pie with non birding friends.

I did do a little bit of birding on New Year's Day. I checked the BirdsEye app on my iPhone and saw there was a Townsend's solitaire reported not too far away in a cemetery and people were seeing snowy owls around the Minneapolis/St Paul Airport.

NBB tagged along for the car ride. There was a solitaire in a cemetery in 2013 and that was a fun challenge to pick it out among the headstones and I thought it would be a fun bird to pick out. Although, there were already some birders milling about waiting for it show. They had staked out a spot that it would periodically return to and there were taped calls (literally a boom box was used). And I instantly lost interest in the solitaire. I'm not 100% against using taped calls--they have their time and place. But a stake out bird that's been getting called a lot, a boom box played to loud...just not how I wanted to see the bird. We tried driving around the cemetery for other potential spots then gave up on it and headed to the airport.

I drove down cargo road to where the bird is generally reported. With all the snow, the owl would be a challenge to find. We saw other birders scanning, they hadn't found it yet. Just as we were about to head out, I noticed a small building with what looked like a wedge of snow. I pulled over, grabbed my binos and said, "Ah, there it is."

I have the binos to NBB and got my scope out of the trunk. While I was doing that, NBB posted this photo and caption to his Facebook page:

He asked, "How did you see that?"

"It's what I do," I said. "This is what I look for on bird surveys."

"You were driving!"

"I just looked for the anomalies," I said.

But it's not just a matter of it being what I do. The secret that many birders know, especially the ones who like to look for owls is that we are looking all the time. We are coming up empty 90% of the time. We never tell people when we don't see the owl, only when we do see the owl. That coupled with the number of times I've been to the airport and looked for snowys, knowing where they are likely to perch and knowing what all the buildings look like give you an idea of when some thing white is on a building that isn't normally there.

A very distant snowy owl digiscoped from behind a chain link fence. A Hipstamatic filter added because it's not a great photo anyway.

But I think that the puzzle part of it is what I enjoy most about birding. Finding the hidden the owl, figuring out where the solitaire is going to pop up in the cemetery. Noticing that a large eagle has a dihedral shape and bang, it a golden eagle. I should be into gulls since I like puzzles so much...but not yet.

If big years are your bliss, have a great time. I will admire your determination while I sleep in.

Birdchick Podcast #182 Women vs Men birders...

December 22, 2014

Someone apparently did a study confirming what many of us suspected about male and female birders...we're passionate, but different.

Speaking of which, I have an article in the current ABA Birder's Guide on how women can pee in the woods standing up. Yes. I tested everything.

Gift ideas for young birders. Gift ideas for older birders.

Can birds sense storms?

Biologist got her car.

Norwegian guy saves goldeneye.

And now for a funny woodcock video:

I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS VIDEO except uploading it. It was sent to me by a friend, and I thought it was too funny to NOT share. Hope you like it! Song: "Shine" by Collective Soul Video: "The American Woodcock" by The Music of Nature

Birdchick Podcast #181 Can Owls Swim?

December 12, 2014

Good news on the Vikings Stadium. 3M is set to step in an test out a film to prevent bird strikes. This seems hopeful.

World's oldest living wild bird is back and ready to mate at 63 years of age. That is one heck of an albatross. Cool video of a peregrine diving after pintails.

Can owls swim? Kinda. Especially when forced into one of the Great Lakes by a peregrine falcon.

Here's the Nissan ad that pissed Sharon off.

For cleansing purposes, a budgie that can sing like R2D2:

We taught Bluey the budgie how to do R2-D2 and now he drives us crazy! He has two other budgies in his cage, and I think he's driving them crazy too! Bluey was our first budgie and our seven-year old daughter hand-raised him.

The rufous hummingbird controversy--well intentioned people mistakenly capture winter hardy hummingbird and now it's in limbo.

Brace yourselves, snowy owls comin'. Again.

Winter Wings Bird Festival

November 12, 2014

One of the cooler places I visited this year was the Winter Wings Bird Festival in Klamath Falls, Oregon on the California border and not that far from Crater Lake. For some, this might be a bit of a challenge to get to, the nearest airport is Medford, Oregon about an hour and a half drive through a mountain. If you aren't used to snow...consider renting a vehicle with four wheel drive.

This festival is strong on photography, I was there for some digiscoping workshops and though while I was there the sun wasn't as cooperative as I would have liked, the views were still well worth it.

Winter Wings is great for people who enjoy photography, adventurous landscapes and eagles. This place is loaded with eagles. — Winter Wings is great for people who enjoy photography, adventurous landscapes and eagles. This place is loaded with eagles.

Going through all of my digiscoped images, I didn't really do justice to all of the bald eagles one can see in Klamath. If bald eagles are your spirit animal--this festival is for you, this place is lousy with eagles and the landscapes offer a great background to get shots. There was one particular eagle I was hoping to see. I noticed on the Winter Wings Facebook page that there had been sightings of an adult bald eagle with "diluted plumage." We went out scouting with a local guide for our digiscoping field trips and sure enough he helped us locate it.

Dilute plumaged or leucistic adult bald eagle surrounded by Brewer's blackbirds.

I do enjoy going for a chase to see a rarity but I found it particularly fun to sort through the hundreds of bald eagles to locate this particular bird.

For birders in the eastern US who are looking for ways to rack up some western lifers, this festival is ideal. Above is a golden-crowned sparrow but you get all sorts. Even I got a couple of lifers on this trip.

My lifer Barrow's goldeneye--I had what I felt was an uncountable one for years. I was digiscoping a huge flock of common goldeneyes and when I downloaded my photos, I noticed one very distant bird in the back of the flock was a Barrow's. I just cou… — My lifer Barrow's goldeneye--I had what I felt was an uncountable one for years. I was digiscoping a huge flock of common goldeneyes and when I downloaded my photos, I noticed one very distant bird in the back of the flock was a Barrow's. I just couldn't bring myself to count it since I didn't notice it while I was out in the field.

The town locals really seem to get into the festival. Because it was so rainy, going out to digiscope wasn't always an option and many people opened up their homes and bird feeders so my classes could keep their cameras dry while getting pictures of birds.

Oregon junco viewed while in the state of Oregon.

Western red-tailed hawks trying to dry out after some rain.

But I think where this festival really stands out is the opportunity to bone up on raptor identification. There aren't many places where you can have a dark-morph red-tailed hawk soaring with an immature bald eagle and adult golden eagle. This place really gives a variety of raptors in a variety of plumages and you really get a great chance to study the difference.

A bonus for me: a dark morph ferruginous hawk.

A very wet coyote moving amongst the waterfowl.

On top of raptors, there's quite a waterfowl concentration here with loads of opportunities to see tundra swans, snow geese and greater white-fronted geese. The Klamath Basin has struggled with a water shortage the past several years so I'm not sure how that's going to impact the numbers at future festivals...or of western migrating waterfowl.

This shows the drought in the western US. You can see how Extreme Drought covers the Klamath Falls area from the Hi-Def Radar App.

Due to the extreme drought the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge doesn't get the water it needs and the waterfowl that rely on it during migration are forced to move elsewhere. I'm not sure how much that will affect the festival. There are plenty of other birds but it's rough when we can't be reasonable about our water usage and spare some for waterfowl that rely on it during migration.

Digiscoped petroglyphs from Lava Beds National Monument.

We did cross over into California to Lava Beds National Monument. I was bummed that the trails to the petroglyphs were closed because some people had gone in and vandalized it but I had my scope so I was still able to see and digiscope quite a few of the petroglyphs which was pretty cool. Petrolgyphs are all up and down this rock formation as water levels have shifted over the years, so enjoying with a spotting scope or binoculars is not a bad way to go.

So if you're looking for a fun February getaway for some western birds, put this festival on your list, especially if you're a photographer (and that includes digiscoping). I say that because I had one guy try to argue with me that digiscoping was not photography. Yes, it is, dude with the big lens, it's just a different technique.

I will warn you that this isn't the warmest festival one can go to in the winter (though compared to Minnesota in February, it was downright balmy) but the views more than make up for the chilliness.

Birdchick Podcast #180 New Sibley and TMZ Tackles Diversity in Birding

November 2, 2014

The downside to birding becoming mainstream...it gets covered in a very cringeworthy segment on TMZ.

Guy in trouble for "rescuing" eaglets.

There's a Kickstarter for a "Shazam" app for bird id called Warblr, meanwhile we still await the arrival of BirdGenie and I've been playing with something called Twigle.

A revised Sibley is out.

More on ortolans and poaching. Thanks, Craig!

A new printing of The Sibley Guide to Birds Second Edition is available and you can see a difference from the first printing with just the back cover. Note the bolder font on the book on the left. — A new printing of *The Sibley Guide to Birds Second Edition* is available and you can see a difference from the first printing with just the back cover. Note the bolder font on the book on the left.

You Can Relax Now, It's Safe To Purchase A Second Edition Sibley

October 29, 2014

Hey, remember last March when we were all excited to see the new and improved Sibley Guide to Birds Second Edition and there were some color issues? I'm happy to report that there has been a second printing and I would say that it is safe to purchase this one of a kind bird guide.

Mine just came in the mail and it's clear that the publisher listened to people's concerns which included the reds were too dark, the font too light to read and some of the greens were a little off.

Scarlet tanager comparison from left to right: screen shot of Sibley iPhone app (first edition), Sibley Second Edition first printing, Sibley Second Edition second printing.

The first page I went to when the second edition came out (both times) was the scarlet tanager page. That was the first clue that the reds were off with the first printing. With the newer edition the scarlet tanager is brighter. Not as bright as the app, but it works for me. Now many people said that they didn't mind the darker reds--they know a tanager despite how dark it looked in the book. But if you have a Sibley, you want that guide for the harder to id birds and that's where the reds need to be better.

Here's a comparison of the red-shouldered hawk page of the Second Edition Sibley: first printing on the left, second printing on the right. An improvement!

Some greens were corrected as well, here is a vireo comparison page. First printing on the left, second printing on the right.

Typos like the white-winged crossbill sex mixup have been addressed as well. First printing on the left, second printing on the right.

So if you were holding off on purchasing the new Sibley, now is the time to purchase it--the Second Edition includes more than 600 new painting and 111 rare species were added. There are many additional notes on how and where to watch for birds and flight patters. Some taxonomy is still out of date--but isn't it always with field guides? There is no Ridgway's rail in this edition.

However, it truly is a magnificent book and I'm happy that the publishers took the time to give David Sibley's illustrations the proper printing they needed. That man knows how to communicate bird id so elegantly with his brush strokes. So much hard work went into this book and I think that's what made the first printing so disappointing, it's truly a thing of beauty to see Sibley paintings how they were meant to be seen.

If you want to know if you are purchasing a second printing of the Second Edition Sibley, go to the copyright page and look for "Second printing, July 2014." If it only has "Second Edition, March, 2014" you are getting the darker guide.

I would be wary of purchasing this guide online because you wouldn't be able to tell if someplace like Amazon would ship you a first or second printing. When you have the book in hand, look for the copyright page (the back of the title page) and look for "Second printing, July 2014." You could also go to page 541 and look at the scarlet tanager.

No word yet on when there will be an app version. My guess is that is on the back burner since they clearly worked hard to get the second printing of the second edition where it needs to be to make all us picayune birders happy.

I've been asked if people can trade in first printings--I have no idea. You would have to take that up with whoever you purchased your guide from or the publisher or the company that printed the book (note photo above: Knopf or Scott and Nix). Who knows, maybe the first printing could become a collector's item? I would love it if I could get my first printing autographed with a, "Whoopsie, David Sibley." Or even better, "Are you happy now??? David Sibley" on my second printing.