Between jet lag and jumping right back in to my eagle surveys, my blogging this week has been slower than I expected. I will say, the upside to my freaky sleep schedule makes getting up 2 hours before dawn easy cheesy. However, staying up past dinner impossible. I'm kind curious how tonight will play out, I'm scheduled to be a guest at Camilla Parker Bowls at the Bryant Lake Bowl. Will I be awake? Will I make sense? Will it lead to me sleep table dancing in the middle of the show? I have a post up over at 10,000 Birds about using my iPhone 4s for digiscoping. I had lots of opportunity to use it and do side by side comparisons while in Israel. I actually ended up taking more photos with my iPhone than I anticipated and was pleased with the results, especially since I was hand holding it.
This is a Palestine sunbird--we got them within minutes of checking in to our hotel in northern Israel, the Pastoral Kfar Blum. Periodically one would even perch on the bush just off my hotel balcony. It's the Middle Eastern version of a hummingbird (although a bit larger, being about the size of a small warbler). But that long curved beak holds a tongue with bristles at the tip used to get nectar from flowers. Dynamite birds to tick off from your hotel, plus it's fun to have a bird with such an exotic name on your list. The above photo was taken with my Nikon D40 through my Swarovski spotting scope. Since the birds were fairly cooperative, I thought I would see what I could get with my phone:
The bird is in a different position and the light is not the best, but still, not bad at all for me just quickly hand holding the phone up to the scope. It won't be on the cover of WildBird Magazine, but it's perfect for sending a photo to Twitter, Facebook or email.
My article at 10,000 Birds links to a new adapter developed by Meopta that should make securing my phone to my scope a breeze. I'm practically salivating to test it out, but if it works well, I may never take my SLR in the field again. Looks like it won't be available until early next year so in the mean time, I'll keep practicing with my hand held technique.