Category Archives: Digiscoping

Getting the Scope Out

I have been frustrated with blogging from the road where wifi is often slim or none. I can use 3G/4G with the iPhone or the iPad but handling pictures from the Canon SX50 is a hassle. Too much transferring and time taken .

So yesterday, I decided to get back into digiscoping with the iPhone so I’d only have to use one electronic device. I had gotten the scope repaired this winter but haven’t been using it. So, with the tripod and scope over one shoulder and the leash for the Vizsla in the other hand, off we went for a little test hop.

I guess that the Indigo Bunting that popped up first was a good omen. He posed cooperatively as he worked several apple trees right near our campsite. Here are a few shots:

It was rather quiet in mid-afternoon but I also found a Chipping Sparrow and several Black-capped Chickadees to practice with.

I have yet to master riding my bike with the dog attached and also carrying a tripod and scope. This endeavor should prove interesting. Stay tuned.

Sunday Afternoon Digiscoping

I took advantage of a damp Sunday afternoon to practice some digiscoping with my iPhone. The lighting was poor but the dog and I had several outings and got a lot of fresh air. I can see why people opt for carbon-fiber tripods- my aluminum one gets pretty heavy one long jaunts.

Here’s a female Northern Cardinal which I sometimes confuse with the Pyrrhuloxia, her Mexican cousin. (Thanks, Sue, for the correction.)

You can’t walk 100 yards here without seeing the Texas state bird, the Northern Mockingbird. They are singing and tussling for territory but unlike blackbirds, they don’t wear out their welcome.

Curved-bill Thrasher are amazing singers and seem to go on for minutes without a pause.

We went down by the lake and found this Great Egret trying to hide in the rushes

This Eastern Phoebe and a partner were actively feeding and calling. It’s nice to think that the “fee-bee” call will be in our Vermont woods in a couple of months.

Not to be outdone, this female Vermillion Flycatcher performed for us. There are perhaps four pairs in the park and while the males are the most spectacular in plumage, the gals do ok.

Vermillion Flycatchers are my kind of bird: easy-to-see, wonderful to watch in action, and inclined to return to, or near the same perch. What’s not to like?

An iPhone Red, White, & Blue Trifecta

This morning, a few of us brave souls met at the pier for a bird walk. I had every piece of warm clothing I had brought, including “hot hands” insert for my mittens, and managed to stay relatively warm. I was keeping score on my iPhone so that entailed working with bare hands but we had a good time. We recorded 40 species – nothing particularly unusual – but like many walks, too much talking, not enough looking and listening. It was too windy to steady the camera so I decided to do some shooting in the afternoon.

I brought the iPhone adapter along and did some digiscoping. The Red, White, and Blue Trifecta ( Snowy Egret, Roseate Spoonbill, & Little Blue Heron) was the first group of birds I encountered. They were at a distance but happily feeding away. Many of the other shorebirds were too far for clear shots, particularly on a cloudy, windy day. The Great Egret posed nicely for me before flying off so I called it quits to return to the snug trailer.

A Snowy Egret, Roseate Spoonbill, & Little Blue Heron in one scope view.

 

A Little Blue Heron.

 

A Great Egret posing for an iPhone digiscope.

 

So far, I have 76 species in three days in the County and would like to break 100 this week. We’ll see if improving weather stirs up some. We plan to drive down to the boat ramp tonight in hopes of getting a look at some Black-crowned Night Herons.

PhoneSkoping

I have pretty much transitioned to using my iPhone 5 for digiscoping using an attachment called a PhoneSkope. As I mentioned in a previous post, I always have my iPhone in my pocket and it’s a handy way to shoot through the scope. The quality gets better with each iteration of the phone, and an iPhone 6 may be on the not too distant horizon.

Each PhoneSkope is tailored for your camera and your scope. The cost is about $80 for case and adapter.

Each PhoneSkope is tailored for your camera and your scope. The cost is about $80 for case and adapter.

The setup is simple. You just put your phone or tablet into the case and attach it to the optic adapter by twisting and locking it in place. You then slide the optic adapter onto the end of your scope eye piece. It’s about a one-minute deal – I keep the case and adapter on the phone while I’m birding. (You can still use all functions of the phone.)

Here's what you see - and you can either photo or video, and change the scope setting to get in closer.

Here’s what you see – and you can either photo or video, and change the scope setting to get in closer.

There are lots of blog posts on using the iPhone (and other smart phones) so my suggestion is just to get out and shoot. It’s easy and even if there is some vignetting, you can reduce that through a finger swipe on the screen. The images are pretty good sized and  can be perfect for web work.

Here's what I lug around although I usually take the phone off the rig and zero in on the bird with the scope.

Here’s what I lug around although I usually take the phone off the rig and zero in on the bird with the scope.

Here are a couple of Mallards I got with the iPhone the other day -- nothing special but a nice easy shot as they cruised along.

Here are a couple of Mallards I got with the iPhone the other day — nothing special but a nice easy shot as they cruised along.

I know there are other adapters that folks use and like. PhoneSkope has worked well for me and I see that they have created them for the new iPhones and other tablets. Consider giving it a try – you’re likely carrying a pretty good camera in your pocket.

More iPhone Practice

I went up to Lamoille County yesterday to see if any waterfowl had shown up. Nothing new but a nice assortment of birds, many of which I couldn’t catch in the scope. Best birds were a Sharp-shinned Hawk right overhead and several handsome White-Crowned Sparrows. The lighting was not great but I did some more shooting with the scope and iPhone. (I’m not going to put every practice session up – this is it except for special birds or great shots.)

A Great Blue Heron hunting while a Mallard cruises by in poor early light.

A Great Blue Heron hunting while a Mallard cruises by in poor early light.

A White-Crowned Sparrow moving through the shrubbery.

A White-Crowned Sparrow feeding on the shrubbery.

There were dozens of sparrows moving here and there. Can you find the three in this bush?

There were dozens of sparrows moving here and there. Can you find the three in this bush?

When we returned home, I set up in the back yard for a while to get some feeder birds.

This Blue Jay, one of the eight or ten who hang out here, is giving me and my scope the hairy eyeball.

This Blue Jay, one of the eight or ten who hang out here, is giving me and my scope the hairy eyeball.

What's not to love about White-breasted Nuthatches?

What’s not to love about White-breasted Nuthatches?

And through it all, the Viszla was in stealth mode, watching the parade of birds as well as a foraging chipmunk. If her nose looks a little browner than usual, it’s the result of some major Fall excavation projects she has underway.

PennyW

Digiscoping Practice Session

I have been dabbling with digiscoping — shooting photos through my telescope — for a number of years.  I’ve used several good SLR cameras, a good digital point-and-shoot, and most recently, my iPhone. Once I bought the Canon SX-50 I gave up trying to digiscope since that camera works so well for me. I sold my good camera and the adapters that were needed to connect it to the scope.

As I watch the improvement in iPhone cameras, I’ve started to revisit that option of photography since I’m really looking for help with bird identification and for shots to illustrate this blog. I’m a birder, not a bird photographer.

As I plan our upcoming trip, I realize that I’ll be looking at a lot of waterfowl and shorebirds and be lugging my scope everywhere.  The Canon SX-50 is good but one more piece of gear to carry and I always have my iPhone in my pocket — so why not use it? I have an adapter from PhoneSkope for my iPhone 5 so yesterday, I took the rig out and did some practice shooting.

A couple of Killdeer were foraging along the Winooski River.

A couple of Killdeer were foraging along the Winooski River.

I spent a little time at Wrightsville Reservoir where an American Crow ignored me as I got out of the truck and let the dog run.

CrowW

There were a number of sparrows moving in and out of the brush, providing a pretty good challenge to getting them in the scope and shooting before they flitted on. There’s quite a crop of White-throated Sparrows this year.

WTSP2WThere were about eight or ten Northern Flickers feeding and flying off as we moved along. They must be gathering for their winter trip down south, although a few may stick around. They were less than cooperative but here are two shots:

Flickr2W Flickr1W

Penny, who is camera-shy, could not figure out what I was doing as she watched from afar.

Penny, who is camera-shy, could not figure out what I was doing as she watched from afar. Not the image of the left ear – the wind was moving it up and down and the iPhone camera speed did not stop it.

Later, we went for a walk in our woods where I grabbed this shot of one of her “friends” who sat, seemingly out of sight, but not for the telescope.

RedSW

So, it was a good outing and even though some of the photos are unclear and I missed many shots due to “always moving” birds (a winter wren taunted me as it bounced further and further into the underbrush), I am going to keep practicing.  Many birders across the country are quite adept and the newer 5S and iPhone 6 cameras have even more capability. I’ll still use my SX-50 for a lot of shooting but if I’m going to lug the scope, the iPhone is likely the way to go. Stay tuned.

 

County Bird #150

I started this year all cranked to do a County Big Year and got off to good start the first quarter.  Then a pinched nerve in my back took a couple of months to deal with and I missed a lot of the spring warbler season.  Then, this Fall, I tore up my knee and missed much of the Fall warbler season.  So, although I picked up some of the warblers, I scaled back my expectations and goals.

Recently, realizing that I’ll be out-of-state three or four weeks, I decided to get serious and get out there — and have added birds every week.  Yesterday was a banner day — four additions and one the day before.

Thursday’s bird was “incidental” to say the least.  I had been driving the back roads looking for Horned Larks, reported the day before, with no luck.  Driving home, I stopped at a local mini-mart for the paper and as I got out of the truck, I heard this loud bird song.  It seemed to echo and I thought it was a recording or something but followed it, to see a small bird high up in a bare maple, singing away.  “I know that call,” I thought as I raced back to the truck for my binoculars.  It had departed as I tromped into the store with bins around neck and a camera hanging from the shoulder.  All the way home, I was trying to sort it out — then went on to other stuff, thinking I’d work on it that evening.  Before long, I saw an eBird alert for a Carolina Wren at the same place, same time, by a friend who had seen it, but not me — and unknowingly, mentored me electronically.

Friday was more intentional.  The day before, my birder friend Patti saw three birds that I needed and we exchanged emails about location.  I packed up the dog early and off we went to Berlin Pond to check things out.  Right away, I saw the Pied-billed Grebe that she had reported and fiddled around with trying to digiscope it.  They spend a lot of time underwater and this one was out quite a ways, so the result below is simply for the record.

Pied-billed Grebe. Vortex Razor HD, 20-60 eyepiece at 20x, Canon SD4000, Vortex DCA & PS100 adapters.

Pied-billed Grebe. Vortex Razor HD, 20-60 eyepiece at 20x, Canon SD4000, Vortex DCA & PS100 adapters.

The pond has few spots for viewing but with the leaves gone, you can work around the branches and tree trunks and see the western shoreline.  There were over a hundred Mallards and mixed in, three American Coots, a Bufflehead (county year bird), and a Common Goldeneye (county year bird.)  It’s tough to park with your blinkers on and count Mallards through a scope through a forest — but worthwhile today.  It was too distant for photographs, especially given the branches.

I finished up, was heading homeward, and glanced out the one open spot on the road and saw some white — and thought it was just another hoodie.  I pulled over, got out the scope, and saw a bird moving fast, with lots of white, and one that I didn’t know.  Three Mallards caught up with it and the little flotilla paddled northward into an area where the bank was lined with trees.

Three Mallards and a Long-tailed Duck cruising northward.

Three Mallards and a Long-tailed Duck cruising northward.

I didn’t know for sure until I got home and checked my books that it was a Long-tailed Duck.  I’ve only seen one before and we don’t get a lot of them in Central Vermont.  It was a good bird to hit the #150 mark.  Now, to find those darn larks.

Here is a frenetic video of the LTDU moving back southward.  Poor quality but good evidence.

iPhone Digiscoping: Video Grabs

Drew Weber,  a young ornithologist originally from PA but now living in central New York, is pursuing a master’s degree at Penn State University studying grassland birds and their relationships with different agricultural practices.  Not long ago, he posted a wonderful article on the Nemesis Bird blog, the first part of which, I have included below.  Unfortunately, I have an iPhone 4 but this may push me to upgrade.

iPhones have dramatically expanded the number of people that are digiscoping, and successfully getting great photos while they are out birding, without having to lug a big SLR + lens around. With digiscoping adapter cases that fit most scopes, the barrier to digiscoping has been greatly lowered. Lots of birders are getting great images with less effort than they would have imagined just a couple years ago.

Sometimes you are not looking for a publishable photo however, and just need to be sure that you can get an identifiable image of a bird, especially if it is rare and you are trying to document it. In these cases, it can be extremely tedious to try to time your finger on the shutter so that you get a nice profile image. Or it is skulking low in the bushes and you are having a hard time keeping it in your view.

The answer is video. The iPhone, especially the newer iPhone 4S and 5 models, have stellar video capabilities. Instead of trying to time your photos, you can just leave the video mode running and then go back later and grab a still image from the video. There are two easy ways that you can do this.

For my examples I will be grabbing a clip from a following video I shot at Webster Park in Rochester last fall.

Native method

The method uses the iPhone native method for getting a screengrab. At any point, you can push the Home and Sleep buttons simultaneously and the screen will flash. Whatever was on your screen will now be saved as a photo in your camera roll as a 960 x 640 pixel image.

  1. Take your video.

  2. Open the Photos app and find the video.

  3. Play your video until you find an image that you want to save and tap pause. You may have to tap the screen first to show the pause button.

  4. If you took the video in landscape mode, hold the screen in portrait mode and double-tap. This will zoom in and if you are lucky your bird will be in the middle. If not, double tap again to zoom out.

  5. If the controls are showing, tap once in the middle of the screen to make them disappear.

  6. Press both the Home and Sleep buttons simultaneously.

  7. Your screen grab is now ready to upload to Facebook, Flickr (to embed in eBird) and to SMS out to your friends to tell them of your good fortune, or ask for ID help.

Read the rest of the article

Thursday Digiscoping

I went out with my larger camera and in spite of temperatures in the low 40’s and cloud cover, found some active birds to practice on.  I had forgotten my remote control so I shot in bursts to try to cut down on camera shake.  I fiddled with ISO settings, ending up with 2000 to get any decent shutter speed.  Here are a few birds I found:

A Ringed-necked Duck on Berlin Pond. Vortex Razor HD, 20-60 eyepiece at 20x, Canon EOS 60D, 50 mm lens, & Vortex DCA adapter.

I found a great spot for sparrows at Wrightsville Dam and in spite of the dog’s help, running to and fro, I grabbed a few images.  Sparrows have left our property and I was surprised to see so many species frolicking and singing away.  They won’t be around much longer.

We have recently started to see American Tree Sparrows migrate here and should have them around all winter.

This is the first Fox Sparrow I’ve seen this year. They are likely on their way through to a little warmer climes.

Hoodies Are Here

A visit this morning to nearby Berlin Pond revealed a few Hooded Mergansers, one of my favorite birds, and a raft of Black Scoters out in the middle of the pond.  Hoodies are fun the watch — the males look so dressed up and important, especially with their crest up.  The females often look like they’ve had a bad hair day with the rusty crest fluffed up.  I’m still figuring out which camera to use digiscoping but here’s some shots I took of them:

Hooded Mergansers on Berlin Pond – 10-31-12 Vortex Razor HD, 20-60 eyepiece at 20x, Canon SD4000, Vortex DCA & PS100 adapters.

Male Hoodies with their crest up look pretty spiffy.

A poor digiscoped shot through the trees of a raft of Black Scoters. I originally called these American Coots but the yellow beaks made me change my call.

I’m going to experiment again with my Canon 60D for digiscoping and see if that results in sharper images.  We’ll see if that helps with clarity — although I think that it just takes more practice and better camera settings to match conditions.  Nice challenge for this Fall.