Heavy-breasted-bedroom-thrasher
So, I’ve started twitching the birds in my guide book. There’s been a plethora of species hanging around our place recently, and a lot of them are crazy tropical ones so I’ve been trying to learn them. It’s also been a good way to get the hang of my new Nikon D50, which is a sweet piece of machinery.
The world of birding is full of enthusiastic geeks, just like the fly-fishing, baseball, and aquarium communities. Most of them keep lists of the birds they’ve seen. These lists have different names depending on the time period they encompass. For example, a day list, a life list etc… In the states they have a comp. called the Big Year, where crazy dudes compete to see the most species in one year (600+). The real die-hards have pagers so that they can keep up to date with sightings and go to the locations and make their own.
An interesting element of the birding hobby is the obsession with optics. This is most evident in the field of digiscoping, where cameras are attached to spotting scopes so that you get about 800x zoom. Using this technique you can get a shot of a flamingo’s eye from 500m away.
November 10th, 2005 at 2:32 am
it’s the ‘double-breasted-matress-thrasher’, and jason made that up
nice pigeon shot
November 10th, 2005 at 9:08 am
sky rats, I can think of a better pigeon shot… ask the kind army boys just over the hill about it.
November 10th, 2005 at 9:27 am
i’ll take a photo of a rifle bird for you then, shall i?
November 13th, 2005 at 8:35 am
speaking of double breasted matress thrashers is that last shot of a bird or a phallis?
November 14th, 2005 at 6:51 am
Here’s what’s been describred as the HOLY GRAIL of birding
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory
November 14th, 2005 at 6:51 am
Here’s what’s been describred as the HOLY GRAIL of birding
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory
November 14th, 2005 at 7:48 am
That’s really cool. I couldn’t see any of the field team in their photos though; they must be in stealth mode.
November 14th, 2005 at 5:13 pm
I have a mate who’s dad uses a D70 to shoot birds with the aid of a 100-400 pro lens. That’s a 600mm equivalent, good enough to get your teeth into. Start saving Tomo, I think then lens is about $4K.