My buddy Dale over at Discovering Alpine Birds has been making a series of videos for digiscoping tips. This is a great video in an easy to understand format and it's short--so you don't get overwhelmed with too much info (something that happens to me when people start explaining photography to me). [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTFmonpa7cg[/youtube]
Digiscoping Skydivers
Last week, my neighbor Zoe mentioned she was going to go skydiving with some friends. We've known a few people who have done it and they always seem to end up with a cool video marred by cheesy music like Kenny Loggins waxing musical about the "Danger Zone." Zoe mentioned that she probably would not buy the video and I offered to come along an try to digiscope her with my Swarovski spotting scope and Nikon D40.
I arrived early to Skydive Twin Cities (which oddly enough actually jumps in Baldwin, WI) and watched some of the other skydivers and practiced on them. The only thing that was a bummer was the overcast sky. Had it been a sunny day, these shots would have been killer. With my scope, many assumed I was the staff photographer and asked for requests (even though I was dress rather unprofessionally in my MN Roller Girls hoodie).
I thought it would be harder to find the jumpers with my scope, but the colorful chutes were large enough and circled in a fairly predictable pattern that I was able to get the shots I wanted for the most part.
Here's another practice shot. As jumpers were coming down, I realized that they were going up in groups of 6 - 8 and that it would help a great deal if I knew the color of chute to concentrate on my friends as they came down. We did talk to the instructors who would come down with and my friends and they told us the colors and I noted that jumpsuits--my friends had on lighter colored suits so I would be able to find them easier with that too. I did find it amusing that all of the instructors smoked like chimneys between jumps. I supposed if you jump out of a plane 8 times a day, lung cancer doesn't seem that threatening.
It finally came time for my friends to jump and I followed their plane with my scope. Having watched it a few times, I knew the general route the plane would take.
And I was able to digiscope the plane! It was a bit easier to get a plane in flight than a bird--not as likely to get distracted by prey below it like a goshawk would. So I kept my scope on it and my camera at the ready. For the most part, people had left me alone when I was practicing getting shots on the other jumps. This time, when I really needed to concentrate, people started asking me questions or even asking for photo requests of friends. I was probably a little terse in my answers and finally said something to the effect of, "I've been paid privately by other jumpers to focus on them and no one else."
I almost lost the plane a few times as it was right overhead and disappeared in the cloud cover, but I managed to get the last two people jumping from the plane. Turns out the last two to leave the plane were my neighbor and my friend Ben. Above is Zoe free falling and Ben is about to leave the plane--you can see his limbs hanging out the side.
And here goes my friend Ben. Both of these photos were digiscoped from the ground while the plane was at 13,000 feet! Pretty darned cool! Again, I'm bummed with the cloudy and dark conditions but at least these are souveneir photos for my friends.
Here are a couple of other free fallers. These ended up being the camera guys who film you during the jump.
Here are my friends coming down. That's Ben in front and Zoe in back. Incidentally, that Ben is Ben San Del a local stand up comedian--he's very funny, I loved his show this summer A Nice Guy's Guide to Awkward Sex. Non Birding Bill and I are going to watch him open for Emo Phillips in November. Perhaps he will work in some skydiving humor? The instructor told me the wrong color for Ben's chute but thanks to my scope's clarity, I was able to pick out in his chute early on.
This has opened up a new world of digiscoping to me. I hope to go back on a sunny day--sounds like Ben and Zoe are game to do it again. Apparently, when it comes to skydiving, no one does it twice. You either do it once and never again or you do it for the first time and come completely addicted.
What other non birding things can I digiscope?
Reminder For NPS Event On Saturday @MerlinsRest
Don't forget that Saturday afternoon from 2pm - 4pm we will have our Mississippi Birds to Beers Event at Merlins Rest. We'll show our park movie and Ranger Dan will give his program on a History of Beer along the Missisippi River through the Twin Cities. We'll round it out with a Mississippi River themed pub quiz (that will start approximately 4pm) with fun National Park prizes. Heck, I think I might even throw in a jar of honey to the prize mix. The schedule so far:
2:00 pm Arrive for fun, get a beer hear some brew songs courtesy of the singing group DDT (Drunken Druid Trio)
2:15 pm Opening Remarks from MNRRA Superintendent Paul Labovitz
2:25 pm Movie: Mississippi National River & Recreation Area
2:45 pm Ranger Dan’s History of Beer on the Mississippi River
Break for mingling
4pm Mississippi River Pub Quiz!
Hope to see you there--it's chance to see me in ranger uniform. Rangers will be milling about ready to answer your questions about the National Park in the Twin Cities: Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. Here's our Facebook page.
The Birds That Got Away
One of the things I was counting on to give me an edge over Clay in our Digiscoping Duel was this mountain ash tree (or rowan as Mr. Neil calls it). It's ripe and the berries time perfectly with fall migration.
This tree can be loaded with all sorts of birds like the above female rose-breasted grosbeak and I did get shots of cedar waxwings right away, but as soon as the contest was over, all sorts of species flew in for a feast. The light hit the tree perfectly, so I stuck around after the contest was finished to get some shots.
Of course there were more waxwings. My first photo wasn't bad but they practically seemed to be posing now that the contest was over. Above is an adult cedar waxwing.
The younger waxwings that were hatched this summer will be stripey. If you have waxwings in your neighborhood, take a moment to watch them in your fruit trees--they attack the fruits and berries with such verve. They don't come to bird feeders--they don't seem to have any interest in sunflowers and millet. They will come in to birdbaths and you generally don't get one at a time, you get thirty (at least).
I love watching them gulp berries. These small, slender birds are easy to miss in tree branches. Even their calls blend in well if you are tuned into them. Here's a link to waxwing calls so you can know what they sound like.
Among the waxwings was this Tennessee warbler (dude, where were you during the digiscoping challenge--arg). Especially after the dreadfully blurry and ghostly image of that black and white. Ah well, win some, lose some.
Too small to grab a whole ash berry and gulp it, this bird used its dainty bill to pierce the skins to get at the juice on the inside.
The next bird that popped up was a male scarlet tanager already in his winter plumage--really, tanager, you're killing me here. I will say this, even though I tried to use a fence and bush to break up my silhouette from the sun behind me, it felt very cagey with my scope aimed on it. It ate three berries and flew off.
Even though I already had a photo of an eastern bluebird, I was sorry I couldn't use this shot of a juvenile molting into its adult plumage.
Here was another heart-breaking shot--far better than the image I got during the actual contest of a red-eyed vireo. Alas. I still had a tough time getting a shot of this bird. Vireos are known for their ability to flit about the top of a tree canopy and sing nonstop. The bird kept moving around so much in the tree that it had trouble stopping long enough to eat some berry. I always thought accipiters like Cooper's hawks and goshawks were ADD birds, but I suspect the vireo is even worst. Constant movement is a good strategy--good way to sneak up on insects and confust potential predators. Just makes going for stationary berries a challenge.
This tree is a good example of providing food for birds and other wildlife in your yard besides just bird feeders and water sources and it's part of what makes Mr. Neil's yard so fun for me to watch birds in and take their pictures.
To see more photos of the Digiscoping Duel, check the Flickr Album.
Get Paid To Tweet & Comment As A Birder
Well, now here is an interesting job opening for someone willing to Tweet and comment on bird blogs and birding forums as a birding retail website: Do you love to go birding? Are you familiar with different bird species? Are you a social media junkie? Do you know how to use facebook, twitter, and post information in discussion forums? Well, why not get paid for it!
YourBirdOasis.com is an e-commerce store that sells backyard birding supplies. We specialize in selling bird houses, bird feeders, bird baths, and other birding accessories. We are interested in hiring an Ornithology student to help us with our online social media efforts. We want to help people find the answers to their questions. We want to be internet stewards and provide useful and accurate information wherever possible.
Tasks would include:
1. Post 3 to 5 comments on 4 bird-related forums per day. These include birdforum.net, Birder’s World Magazine, Surfbirds, and Bird Photographers.
2. Answer two bird-related questions on Yahoo Answers each day. We will provide the username/password and each post will need to link back to our website.
3. Write two 350-400 word articles per week about a birding topic, such as: bird feeding, attracting birds, bird identification, birding during the different seasons of the year, etc. These articles will need to be completely original, informative, and accurate.
4. Comment on 5 bird-related blogs per day. If possible link back to our website in your comment if it makes sense to do so. 5. Be open to additional tasks as needed. This is a work-from-home part-time position paying $8 per hour to search the internet and talk about a topic that excites you!
We will provide you with all of the information you need to complete the tasks above. Please send us an email explaining your background in bird watching and why you are perfect for this position. If you have any social networking accounts (such as facebook or twitter) or if you maintain a blog that you would like us to review, please include these in your email. Contact: CHANTELLE SIMOES.
Goldfinch Looking Rough
It looks as if the above goldfinch might say in a Krusty the Clown sounding voice, "Ugh, I just had one helluva bender last weekend."
Fall molting is kicking in and our lovely golden yellow male goldfinches are losing their breeding plumage into their more camo friendly dull olive color. At least we will see them all winter, they may not be yellow, but they will be here.
Digiscoping Duel Results
The results are in from the first ever Twitter Digiscoping Duel:
My buddy, Clay Taylor of Swarovski Optik digiscoped from his yard in Texas and he posted photos of 31 species.
I set myself up at Mr. Neil's yard with the above digiscoping setup--lots of birds and easy Internet access. Alas, my final total was 28 birds. Cornell was kind enough to say, "But should there be a correction for higher diversity in TX," but I think that weather and internet connection can help even out the competition--there were 3 very common birds that I expected to get and did not: blue jay, pileated woodpecker and turkey vulture. I won't post all 28 photos, but I'll post some highlights below:
My first shot of the day was a red-tailed hawk flying away. I found another red-tail perfectly perched in great light later in the day, but I really liked the way you can see the rusty red tail on this guy. Besides, Clay and I weren't going for art, we were going for identifiable photos and well, it doesn't get more identifiable than that with a red-tailed hawk.
Early in the morning, things were going swimmingly. The showy mountain ash tree around the feeders was ripe and attracted loads of waxwings. I expected warblers and vireos would soon follow (the tree eventually did follow this pattern...after the contest was over).
As I loaded up photos here and there on Twitter, I even got a little cocky and added some captions. The above caption with the tree swallow was for Non Birding Bill and a nod to Jack Lemon from the movie The Great Race. I really enjoyed being able to interact with people throughout the contest. It was like being sequestered during a bird-a-thon or at the World Series of Birding. I could see what Clay was up to and see comments on photos...and even answer a couple of bird questions.
I did find the flocks of white-throated sparrows a bit sobering. A week ago today it was 92 degrees F. When I started today, it was blustery and in the 40s. And these sparrows are a sure sign of fall. Sigh.
I did see some crazy stuff going on, like the above immature goldfinches stripping off bark from a dead tree and eating it. I checked Cornell's Birds of North America Online and bark stripping is one of the many things goldfinches will eat.
When it came to the common feeder birds, I tried to get interesting shots--like the above black-capped chickadee. It's as if it's stalking me...and perhaps plotting my demise.
Not all of my photos were worth writing home about. I'm pretty sure that this is the worst shot of a black and white warbler in recorded history. I posted it as a joke and Clay let it go through, he said he could kind of see a black and white warbler...he was too kind.
Here's a candidate for Awkward Family Photos. What is that nuthatch doing--sneezing? Flipping seeds? Swearing? Either way, the rose-breasted grosbeak appears uninterested.
All in all it was a great time and I hope we can do something like this again.
Some of my favorite shots that Clay got are his zone-tailed hawk, yellow-breasted chat, purple martin, royal tern and his winning final bird Mississippi kite. He's got mad skills with birds in flight and digiscoping not to mention a crazy bird yard in Texas.
To see more photos from the day of the Digiscoping Duel visit the Flickr Album.
Twitter Digiscoping Duel #birding
I love digiscoping and I love blogging. After you've had a blog for awhile, you try to think up ways to keep it interesting for you and for your readers--otherwise it will just fall apart. As Facebook and Twitter have grown, my time spent blogging is now spent interacting with folks online. I try to divide up my time to upload posts, Tweet and Facebook, but still go outdoors.
I love to digiscope my feeder birds, but how many photos of white-breasted nuthatches can I post before readers go, "Oh, wow, another nuthatch photo. They eat nuts just like she says...all...the...time." I wondered how could I channel my love of digiscoping, birds and social media...then it hit me--I challenged my fellow digiscoper--Clay Taylor to an online digiscoping duel tomorrow on Twitter.
Clay lives in Texas, I will be at Mr. Neil's house. I set a challenge to see who can take the most photos of birds with digiscoping and post them to Twitter from their respective yards before 4 pm Central Time. You can follow this contest online if you have a Twitter account by following me @Birdchick and Clay @CTaylorBirder. If you used an application for managing your Twitter follows, we will also use the hashtags #digiduel and #birding as we upload photos of birds. Feel free to retweet photos you like them. With fall migration, we should get some interesting shots.
I love this idea because Clay and I can kind of bird together but in different parts of the country and we can share our birds for a compare and contrast for others to see--and we don't have to fly in a plane. I'll be curious to see how this pans out. Since he's in Texas, he could have more birds...but if the winds are weird or his online connection is wonky, I could post more photos before he can. Either way, there will be some awesome birds on Twitter tomorrow.
Friendly Hummingbird Reminder
Here is a female ruby-throated hummingbird that I digiscoped today. She was perched in a showy mountain ash tree and it reminded to me put in the blog: DO NOT TAKE YOUR HUMMINGBIRD FEEDERS IN ON LABOR DAY!
Well, you can take your nectar feeders in if you are tired of watching hummingbirds. However, if you have heard or read some where that if you leave your feeder out, it could prevent the birds from migrating south, that is not true. It's possible to see hummingbirds heading south all the way into early October up here in Minnesota--even later the further the south you live in the US. They can take the cooler temperatures--even a few nights below thirty degrees. Those later birds will appreciate the extra nectar sources if you keep your feeder out.
To track the southward migration of ruby-throated hummingbirds, visit here.
Oh and speaking of hummingbirds, check out this lighter colored one found in Ohio!
Cormorant vs Gull
Amidst all the staging, a double-crested cormorant captured a fish. The bird had pierced the body of the fish clean through. When it surfaced and tried to reposition the fish for better swallowing, a young ring-billed gull thought, "Hey, cormorant, your fish is relevant to my interests."
The cormorant struggled with the fish and the gull jockeyed for position and a game of bird and fish ensued.
Finally, the cormorant dove below the surface and waited for the gull to lose interest. Then resurfaced and swallowed the fish.