You are browsing the archives of digiscoping.

I am always intrigued by the multitude of opinions out there on various birding subjects, but lately none more than digiscoping. With all of the birding shows involved in my schedule I have the opportunity to hear many of these opinions. Often enough, I hear birders discussing digiscoping as if it were an after thought, [...]

Almost every birder who has birded within in the range of Megaceryle alcyon, better known as the Belted Kingfisher, knows the drill. The first moment you are aware of a nearby kingfisher is when you hear its rattling call as it takes off away from you. If you try to get closer looks it just [...]

A little while after the whole excitement of choosing and announcing the winners of the Digiscoper of the Year competition is over, I try to take a bit of a step back and have another look through the thousands of entries in the competition, and pick a few images that were not amongst the winning [...]

The image that made me look hardest in this year’s Digiscoper of the Year 2011 competition was that of a Little Owl (Athene noctua) by Mario Cea taken at night! Digiscoping is normally hard enough during the day and action shots with good light are doubly tough, but this was the first time I had [...]

I enjoy digiscoping–using a digital camera with my spotting scope to get photos of birds. It’s changed quite a bit over the years. Originally digiscoping started as a way to simply get a documentation or souvenir photo of a bird using point and shoot pocket cameras with scopes or binoculars. The cameras were inexpensive compared [...]

The results of the Swarovski Optik Digiscoper of the Year 2011 have just been published and once again, they show just what is possible with a telescope and everything from a cheap compact camera to a semi-pro DSLR. The winner this year was Tara Tanaka of the USA, with a stunning image of a Roseate [...]

The Buff-bellied Pipit* Anthus rubescens, which is known in the Americas as the American Pipit, is a bland little bird, and one of those species that are only known and noticed by birders.  If you mention to a random person that you saw a pipit without providing any other context the most likely response would [...]

Any day of birding in New York State that includes a sighting of a Vesper Sparrow is a better-then-average day. Between the two breeding bird atlases in the state – one done in the early ’80s and one in the early ’00s – the number of atlas blocks with Vesper Sparrows declined 49%, a decline [...]

Though it was pretty warm for an October morning when I spotted this bird at Fort Tilden, Queens, it was fluffed up as if it was suffering from extreme cold.  Maybe it was trying to be a big tough guy considering the volume of sparrows in the vicinity of where it was foraging?  Somehow, I [...]

Despite regularly hearing their bubbling song emanating from undergrowth and the fact that they are widespread and common I have never managed to get a really good picture of a House Wren.  Whenever one would show itself to me at close range I wouldn’t have my camera or the light would be bad or a stick would [...]

The Tennessee Warbler is a poster child for the boreal forests of Canada and the far northern United States.  Its population actually fluctuates in response to the availability of Spruce Budworm and though it nests on the ground it is entirely inseparable from the forests of the north during breeding season.  As autumn arrives and the days [...]

Just a little ways south of Bangkok is a system of wetlands, mangroves, paddies and salt marshes famous amongst local and international birders not the least because Laem Pak Bia and Pak Thale make up THE area to find wintering Spoonbilled Sandpiper. The thought of which takes me way off topic to think about this [...]

One of the coolest things I did in Thailand (we were just on holiday there), and undoubtedly one of the coolest things I have done since getting in to digiscoping, was to spend a day with Alex Vargas in a bird photography blind in Thailand’s Kaeng Krachan National Park – Kaeng Krachan is part of [...]

Doi Inthanon National Park in northern Thailand is a birding paradise (IMHO). I only got to spend a couple of days there, but the altitudinal range – and corresponding habitat and bird assemblage variation – really touched me. We were visiting Doi Inthanon with Jan and Tu – two of Thailands most extraordinary birders (great [...]

There are tons of interesting birds in this world and so, every now and again, I would like to share something of some of the exceptional people I meet along the way. So, meet Hannes: I first met Johannes early last year and his sponge-like desire for knowledge and a deeper understanding of digiscoping was [...]

Yellow-crowned Night Herons have a presence about them when they are hunting that reminds me of Buddhist monks.  If “The greatest prayer is patience,” as the Buddha is alleged to have said, then the comparison is perhaps apt, as nothing embodies patience more than Nyctanassa violacea.  I spent forty-five minutes in the company of the Yellow-crowned [...]

On the same day that I tracked down and digiscoped Cerulean Warblers at Doodletown Road I had the genius plan of also getting over to Sterling Forest State Park and digiscoping some of the Golden-winged Warblers that breed there.*  Now those who bird in New York State regularly are probably shaking their heads right now [...]

There are many reasons to visit Doodletown Road in Bear Mountain State Park, a jewel of a park in Rockland County, New York.  Perhaps it is the history of Doodletown that interests you?  Maybe you are hoping for an encounter with Crotalus horridus, otherwise known as the Timber Rattlesnake?  Or could the steep uphill climb [...]

Savannah Sparrows have been very kind to me over the last couple of years, whether at Brigantine, Breezy Point, or Lake Perris.  Passerculus sandwichensis just seems willing to be confiding, a trait about which I certainly can’t imagine complaining.  My recent outing with Seth and Mary when we found probable breeding Bobolinks in Queens was [...]

Just like last year when I spent a goodly chunk of a Saturday at the end of May at Jamaica Bay I spent this past Saturday birding one of the premiere birding destinations of the northeastern United States, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.  Though I had hoped for nice variety of passerine migrants I was disappointed by the [...]