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When the new NL 10x and 14×52 mm binoculars were announced by Swarovski, even though I find this series a bit oversized for my tastes, I was still curious about the 10s. I mean, which birder uses 14s? Do you know anyone using such a high magnification? Exactly, neither do I.
In between now and then, I will spend a week and a half in California, in the land where birding may mean walking on paved paths, or even on a wooden boardwalk built through the middle of a salt marsh. In all the usual measurements, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar, I still test very well.
“I don’t know anyone else crazy enough to try 12s,” my friend answered when told that I am about to test NL Pure 12×42. Are 12s right for birding? Or have you ever birded with 12s? If you spot a small bird with, e.g., 8s, you will walk towards it until you get a better view. What do you think? compared with 20.5
After the first 7 days dominated by daily compound-wide Covid tests and being locked down inside the compound, I went outside on the compound grounds on days 8 and 9. Still, seeing a few birds is better than seeing no birds, even though this Shanghai suburb can hardly make a claim to be a hotspot of biodiversity.
In my previous blog Bird Photography Equipment Lens and filters I compared two telephotos which I use regularly, the 300 f/4 IS USM which is an excellent prime lens, and the 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS USM is the best zoom lens commonly used for bird photography. I also tried the Canon Extender EF 1.4X
It was also great to finally travel overseas again, meet a lot of people I did not know (and some I did), to be in a new country… and not just the new country, but its best birding area, where almost all local hotspots are yellow (150+ species) and several are ochre (200+ sp.), impressive for Central Europe.
For the last two decades, Europe and the greater Mediterranean have been covered by one of the best field guides anywhere: “Collins Bird Guide” by Lars Svensson et al., published in the US by Princeton as “Birds of Europe”. Unlike “Collins Bird Guide” (CBG) with 416 pages and 1.7 And my first impression is: Wow!
When it comes to tropical birding, field guides regularly deal with well over a 1000 birds and tend to be on the hefty side. Travel guides are mostly lighter, but this “where to watch birds guide” is truly lightweight and traveller friendly. Each site gets from 2 to 5 pages (but mostly 3-4).
It is that special time of year when I’m out and about and someone comes up a bit sheepish and says, “You know, you’re going to think I’m crazy but I saw this bird that was red like a cardinal but had a tiny little black head. Theory 2: for some individual birds, this is the way they molt.
As you might surmise, I spend an inordinate amount of time every day thinking about both birding and blogging. As the owner of what has been called ( by me ) western New York’s leading test prep organization , I have to meticulously analyze every aspect of these crucial college entrance exams. You’re better off birding!
10,000 Birds is running a series of articles by and about tour guides, tour companies, eco-lodges, and other birding travel organizations. We want to help the birding tourism industry come back strong from the COVID pandemic. That’s what makes us such good company: No birds to be seen at the moment?
Jason Kessler is back with the funniest birding movie of the year. Sh*t Birders Say delivers more laughs in 3 minutes than… well, actual birding! Take the test: if you laugh at least twice, you are definitely a birder. Even the credits are amusing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaX7i1Q7-Rw v=NaX7i1Q7-Rw a.
I was especially looking forward to take some better photos of the birds I saw last time, which I only managed partly. After all, I’d rather call myself a birder than a bird photographer, although I have to admit that I enjoy doing both more or less equally.
That summer generally signals a decline in local avian diversity probably hasn’t sunken in yet, but rest assured the birds you saw this weekend may grow tiresome in another month. Corey enjoyed camping with family and friends for the long weekend after getting tested for COVID and coming up negative. How about you?
I was reading Carrie’s post last month and got to thinking about car birding in general. Personally, I am a big fan of car birding, despite the necessary fossil fuel burning that is involved. For many birders, the thought of car birding is as natural as using a field guide. You will see more birds.
A quick bus ride brought us to the border crossing near the International Birding & Research Centre, a fantastic birding site in Eilat. I was panicking and working through in my head how we would maximize the day without our gear – all those birds just too far away, the pictures we would not be able to take.
First, let’s start with the good: Scientific testing of drones near birding hotspot Cape May, NJ has been postponed to avoid messing with Red Knots and Piping Plovers (like the cutie above that Corey photographed there a few years back). (On Sea World San Diego just welcomed the world’s first “test-tube” penguin.
Shaded dark, even when focused – out of focus, like watching some early Charlie Chaplin movie and trying to ID the birds flittering in the background. The morning I first tested them was filled with migrating flocks of European Bee-eaters and their constant bubbling voices. Still, testing binoculars on a bright sunny day?
I started to bird from a kayak. For a while, I birded from the least birdable white water racer, the one with those flares behind the cockpit. And when you spot a bird, you stop paddling and reach for binoculars. Back to spotting a bird. I always take notes of my birds. No birding is complete without a notebook.
Indeed, you only live twice: your second life starts when you bird Costa Rica for the first time. And, yee-haw, this would be my second attempt at a second life: three weeks ago I was invited to bird Costa Rica! Do you ever manage to get ready for a birding trip in a calm and orderly fashion? Update: true.
I knocked down several first birds of spring this weekend (not literally) but will always give Best Bird honors to a Saw-whet Owl , especially one showing as well as the one Ivy and I located at Owl Woods on Easter. Corey was extremely pleased to finally get out and about birding again after his family all caught COVID and recovered.
I may have to buy a smartphone : For more than a year, Berres (and his graduate students, of course) have been testing and improving the fruit of that inspiration: WeBIRD, the Wisconsin Electronic Bird Identification Resource Database. This is going to be good.
In my previous blog about Bird Photography Equipment , I reviewed the Canon EF 300 f/4 lens with the teleconverter Kenko C-AF 2X Teleplus Pro 300 DGX. I have had a couple of weeks of testing this configuration and further testing revealed some additional amazing results that I did not expect. crop factor) = 960 mm !!!!
As a result, some of the most popular and exciting birding destinations in the world run on Tico time. Having visited quite a few outstanding ecolodges in my blessed life, I’ve learned that exceptional birding destinations must first and foremost harbor exceptional, accessible birds. A handsome Crimson-collared Tanager.
Summer birding gets a bad rap, especially around here, but July offers one highlight. As soon as the test began, so did the monotonous cheeping. My conjecture was confirmed three hours into the test when that streaky little bugger hopped out into the open. I blame Baby Bird Week. What was your best bird of the weekend?
One of the defining characteristics of birds, besides the obvious features of wings and feathers, is their bills. From toucans to curlews and from hummingbirds to flamingos, birds display an almost otherworldly diversity in these body-parts. Bills are instrumental in defining three of the senses in birds – taste, touch and smell.
My business trip to Florida to host the Tests and the Rest Winter Conference 2020 was more than just a professional success. January in Florida always delivers on tasty birds. Corey was so bummed about having to lead an Owl Prowl in an area with no owls that he decided there were no good birds this weekend. How about you?
While not on the scale of bird migration, it is routinely and somewhat lazily described as the biggest annual migration of humans in the world. Like a film star wearing a whig and big sunglasses in a public place, this bird at first glance looks fairly nondescript. Once the bird takes up a different position, it gets more interesting.
Some birders like to see just birds, while others like birds, but don’t mind stopping or even taking detours to see other creatures along the trail. I like to see birds for a long time and hear their vocalization; even if these are common species. Elliott’s and Possibly a Markham’s Storm-petrels (bird on the left).
Birding in the Amazon Rainforest has its pros and cons. However, rainforest birds live in specific microhabitats and are often much easier to hear than to see in the dense multilayered rainforest. This Birding Rally’s competitors were companies that specialize in birding and nature tours.
Bird Navigation is an amazing, mysterious thing. For years, birds have outsmarted scientists over this issue, mainly I think because people looking into navigation originally made the incorrect assumption that birds are birds and there is a navigational method that they use. Also, consider this. But what about pigeons?
Birds are a subset of dinosaurs (See: Honey, I Shrunk the Dinosaurs. Prior to the extinction of all of the other dinosaurs, resulting from a cosmic impact event about 65 million years ago, the ancestors of modern birds were different from modern birds in many ways, but also similar in many ways. So how did beaks evolve?
As someone who has recorded over 80 episodes and counting on the Tests and the Rest podcast, I’ve learned that hosting interesting guests can be really enjoyable. Check out this episode at the Bird Banter homepage or using one of the following links to your preferred podcast platform: Apple Podcasts. Google Play.
Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Fascinating, no? Where did you see an eagle?
When I saw the NL Pure in a webinar for the first time, immediately – before the webinar ended, I asked my Swarovski sales rep for a pair to test. I kept them in my backpack until yesterday, didn’t want to hold them, to get any impressions… I wanted to test them as a tabula rasa (a clean slate). And today I did.
As I crept through the forest and wondered where the birds were, a hint of movement caught my attention on the other side of a tree fern. They give you an unfair, unnatural advantage and anyone who watches them doesn’t know the real deal when it comes to birding. The moth sheet : This is one heck of a sweet bird feeder invention!
In Costa Rica, our July birding news usually consists of interesting sightings during the mid-summer tours. These and other important birding related questions come to mind and during a normal July, I would be personally and actively helping answer them. Which tours saw the most roosting owls?
This, 2022, has been a curious year for books about birds and birding. Dragan]: Europe’s Birds: An Identification Guide , by Hume, Still, Swash, and Harrop is a photographic guide. The artwork of “Europe’s Birds” is dazzling, the text condensed and comprehensive, and the layout and design are without peer.
In the previous period I wrote mostly book reviews (but of some really great books ), yet I cannot remember when the last time was that I wrote of birding itself? Perhaps in my December posts on birding Colombian Amazonia ? Driving with open windows (to hear the birds) becomes unbearable and I am heading out of this fish farm.
They form bachelor herds where they test their strength against their peers, finding their natural place in the hierarchy. The purpose is to test each other, not to receive or cause injury. Birding Impala South Africa' A pair of young bloods were pushing each other back and forth near the visitor centre at Pilanesberg recently.
home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / Conservation / Want to Go Bird Banding in Amazonian Peru? Want to Go Bird Banding in Amazonian Peru? One way volunteers help is by participating in a bird banding workshop called Bird Ringing Forever.
so I’m a bit behind in my intense pursuit of scientific findings related to birds. First, the bird butts. It is interesting to note that the vast majority of birds flying by out there are going the other way. But I do have a few items. All I see are their buts. But that’s not the most interesting thing I’ve seen recently.
Photography is a great tool to improve bird ID accuracy as explored in my previous post Photography and Birding. This is a great addition for a quick macro photo of insects, flowers, or even bird feathers if the opportunity comes. Speaking of filters I ran a quick test of a UV that I added to my lens. macro of $1474.
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout … Depending on where you live in the world, winter birding can test the spine and mettle of any naturalist. Where will you be this weekend and will you be birding? Also be sure to come back Monday to share your best bird of the weekend ! Birding January weekend'
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