This is the story of a girl and her spotting scope…
Oh, the adventures I have had with my Swarovski ATM spotting scope. It has literally traveled the world with me. We ascended Volcán Atitlánin Guatemala to see horned guans. We survived rigorous airport security in Kazakhstan to view breeding sociable lapwings on the Kazak Steppes. We got our lifer Syrian woodpecker outside a mine field on the Syria/Israel border. We even delighted in digiscoping tufted titmice at Neil Gaiman’s bird feeders. We’ve showered together when covered in sand and dust. In short: we have had a blast.
But, some partnerships must end and some things are so awesome, they should be shared. Swarovski hires me from time to time to teach workshops, test equipment and help out at booths. That means I need to have the latest equipment to take to events. When equipment changes, I have the option of purchasing the older equipment or I can send it back to Swarovski. With the debut of the new Swarovski ATX scope, it was time to change out my equipment.
This time I asked, “Hey, could I have a contest so one of my blog readers could get my scope and all the great birding mojo that has built up with it over the years?”
And Swarovski said, “Yes!”
So, anyone who reads my blog has a chance to win a FANTASTIC spotting scope. You will receive my ATM scope with 20 – 60 zoom eyepiece and my carbon fiber tripod (and I’ll even throw in my DCA digiscoping adapter). This is a scope and tripod that has been loved hard and used on a daily basis. I will send it in to Swarovski headquarters to get cleaned up before you get it (maybe Gail can finally get that heron poop stain off) and whoever wins it will also get the Swarovski Optik limited lifetime warranty with the scope. I love this thing, it has been such a wonderful birding companion and helped me id so many birds and I hope whoever wins it, gets the birds of a lifetime that I have gotten with it.
I really wanted to come up with a contest that would level the playing field. The logical thing would be a photo contest, but if you can get really great photos, you don’t need my scope. I want any birder of any age to have a shot at winning this magnificent, light-weight beast. I thought about a guest blogging contest but I know not everyone is comfortable writing, so Non Birding Bill and I kicked around ideas to figure out what would be something universal that anyone could do…and we landed on a contest that would truly level the playing field:
Birdchick’s WORST bird photo contest!
That’s right, kids, send me your worst bird photo: blurry, over exposed, under exposed, funny, weird, get creative. That’s right, I want to see the worst bird photo you can possibly take. There are any number of ways to do it, so you can go bonkers with this.
We will post our favorite images and then those that are selected as our favorites will be entered into a drawing and we will pick the winning name from that bank of entries!
Rules:
- Photo must be one that you have taken. You can’t just harvest a bad photo off of Wikipedia or Google Image Search. I have strong Google Fu and will find it if you do.
- Photo must be accompanied by a brief description or what you think the bird was that you were trying to photograph.
- Photos must be emailed to sharon at birdchick dot com.
- Photo submissions must include your first and last name in the email and your shipping address (so if you win, I know where to send my scope off to).
- Photos must be submitted no later than February 8, 2013. The winner will be drawn and announced on February 11, 2013.
Don’t be afraid to get creative! Good luck!!

















And now I wished I hadn’t deleted all my horrible pictures of birds. I’ve had some real stinkers.
RT @birdchick: Win My Spotting Scope!!: #birding http://t.co/gH90LBpq
I assume it’s only one entry per person, since only one picture can truly be the worst?
Once I find a horrible one that I haven’t deleted I’m really tempted to give Rick my camera and tell him to go take a picture of a bird too. It’s guaranteed to be poorly composed and out of focus!
@birdchick Open to non-USA residents? I have some appalling bird photos.
@birdchick I would love a chance at that scope so bad,,,but i don’t have a digital camera..I am so behind the times..
I suppose this is only open within the US?
RT @birdchick: Win My Spotting Scope!!: #birding http://t.co/gH90LBpq
This is open to where ever I can legally ship it and you can enter more than one photo…please limit it to no more than 8 entries per person.
Awesome! I’m spending the weekend on the Gulf Coast. Not. Deleting. Anything.
Looks like this is my weekend to get a crummy bird photo, because I’m going to be away for most of the contest! Here goes nothing
I have zero class or pizazz when it comes to boid photography…so this is right up my “instamatic”…….I know I will win because I have such looser pictures
OMG. This is what I’ll be doing during any breaks I take today.
SO many crappy photos (incl. ones I’ve posted in my blog!),
SO little time.
Wheeeee! =)
Isn’t that second picture from Birdemic?
The contest is secondary. Let’s have another photo of Birdchick in the Wild West-era saloon girl dancing dress
Wow what a competition. My 20 year old scope could do with an upgrade.
Wow, some days you wake up and find out you just won a contest. RT @birdchick Win My Spotting Scope!!: #birding http://t.co/f4wIWDZj
YAY! Somebody recognized a Birdemic shot!! It’s technically a shot of the movie screen of a showing of Birdemic when I saw Riff Trax do it live.
This is so full of win. You are truly awesome to do this! I just wanted to say that. Can’t wait to see all the photos! What a hoot!
Aw, thanks, Stacy. I feel like I have been given so many great opportunities and I’m grateful that I can pass some along.
Gosh I would love to win that scope!
Choices, choices, choices. I take plenty of bad photos. I just threw away some truly awful smears and bits of birds that flew away as I snapped their photo. I’ll have to go retrieve them from the recycling bin.
Oh how I would love to win this scope… unfortunately, I have never been able to afford a good scope… the cheap ones are useless. Makes me feel like a second class birder! I could really get more ducks and shorebirds with this!
This is so cool! I too delete most of my bad ones. I’ll have to look hard to find one worthy of the contest. A scope like that is a dream!
Oh my God. I have always deleted my worst pictures. Hmmm. Iam still searching in the archives.
There is still plenty of time to take lots of bad photos!
I’ve always wanted a scope, but could never afford one. I emailed you some stinkers today. I hope they’re bad enough to get me in the running.
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
Like many others I tend to delete my bad photos, but definitely going through my archives as I have always wanted to try my hand at digiscoping just couldn’t afford it.
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
What fun! Consider it done.
You gotta love it when you hold your breath, let half of it out, wait, pause, slowly ready to snap the shutter as the sun just peaks behind the clouds shining on it’s eye and then WHAM! You click and at the same time you get a rear shot. Ugh.
I hardly know where to start …so many bad photos…so glad I didn’t clear my card ….
A dead (really?) cowbird (I think?) on a NYS highway. A TV dinner (as in Turkey Vulture).
where is your email?? i just want to know what it is so i can enter
Well, these are eagles but the photo’s so bad! Nearly 12 eagles fighting over a scrawny bird carcas and I get this????? Please help me feel better!!!!!!
Black-capped Night HEron through a fence
Hi. I just read the announcement about the worst photo contest. I checked Recyle Bin but there was none there. Anyway I just started to birdwatch. This is a turtle dove.
sent some really bad ones in, keeping my fingers crossed
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
Ok, I’m guilty of deleting most of my bad photos but I managed to find 4 worthy candidates, duly submitted (crossing fingers!)
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
I would like to submit one of the last dozen I shot!!!!!! What about submitting a brief slideshow? Is that against the rules??
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151445089135709&set=o.249420846715&type=1&theater
It’s sharon at birdchick dot com
Just managed to get my photos emailed to you. Hope they make it through the system as I am on slow dial-up. Can’t wait to see the entries for this. Its always nice to know that even the best of the best get bad photos
I’m going to give some time to allow for slow servers and time zones. Pretty much, I’ll accept entries up until I pour my first cup of coffee Saturday morning.
Any news on this? I’m waiting with bated breath to see if the poor African Skimmers that I have insulted so badly with my horrible photo of them will receive any form of vindication such as winning a spotting scope
The winner is announced in a separate blog entry. I wish I could give scopes to all of you.
http://www.birdchick.com/wp/2013/02/spotting-scope-contest-winner/