The Chameleon Caspian

I spent about two hours watching this bird on the Pillinge at MVCP today. It was amazing to watch its head and body shape change depending on what it was doing. It went from 'classic' Caspian Gull to quite Herring Gull-like fairly quickly. Check out the very top, and very bottom shots to see what I mean. Second-winter Caspian Gull, The Pillinge, MVCP, 21st February 2010.

S90 Fieldfare

This Fieldfare's currently frequenting my garden, feasting on apples. Shot on my Canon S90, raw, iso 125, Swaro 20x eyepiece.

S90 images

Digiscoped with Canon S90, Swarovski ATS 80 HD, 20x and 30x eyepieces. Shot as raw files on iso 200. Raw files converted with Canon Digital Photo Professional. Resulting images cropped and chopped in Photoshop.

Digiscoping with the Canon S90

Just had a play with the S90 and my scope. Initial findings are
disappointing

Its very slow to take shots, although I have set it to raw (it appears
to make little difference time-wise to shoot jpegs or raw files). It takes
them at about one image a second. The centre focus is ok, but you
obviously can't move it away from centre. The only other option you
have is face-recognition focus - I'll experiment with this, but I'm not
holding out much hope for it to recognise birds faces!

Because its slow to take the shots (and consequently refresh the
screen), its very difficult to see what the bird is doing purely by
looking at the screen. The self-timer, although customisable, has an
annoying flashing orange light in between shots (and without it, the
camera would be quicker taking those shot!).

I've not managed a sharp (or what I'd call sharp) image yet either,
although the light is dull and grey, and I was hand-holding my camera.
In addition my universal adapter, which I was hoping to use with it,
doesn't quite fit the barrel of the lens, so I can't get the camera lens
close enough to my eyepieces for vignette-free images.

Having said that, the images, when you zoom in to them, are very good
quality, with very little noise. Time will tell, but needless to say, I
don't think this is going to be a classic digiscoping camera! My S80 by
comparison, had far more useful features, was quicker, and I could get
vignette-free images with my Swaro eyepieces.

Ho-hum.

Erithacus rubecula

Great, aren't they?

More wols

Here are a few more Tawny Owl shots from recent owl prowls. The header image is one Paul Hackett took digiscoping, with just the light of the torch for illumination. And yes, the bottom bird was very confiding!

Black-necked Grebe video

Black-necked Grebe, Broom, January 2010.