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Golden-crowned Kinglets! - 08 Oct 2010
After dinner tonight, Robin, Buffy, Asia and I spent some quality time in the back yard, enjoying the sunny skies and warm October weather. As we sat on the driveway we were entertained by at least three Golden-crowned Kinglets that were feeding in the White Pine in the neighbor's yard. At one point all three birds were perched on the telephone wire just a few feet overhead.
I could've gotten some nice pics with the D300 and 400mm Sigma, but I decided to try to digiscope the birds, instead. So I ran into the house and grabbed the scope and Coolpix P6000. I really didn't expect to have a chance at catching these little speed demons w/ the scope, but I was itching to get some digiscoping in. The sun was beginning to set, and the only angle I had of the trees was from just inside the garage.
Amazingly, one bird popped into the open just 20' from me and stayed long enough for me to swing the scope and 40X eyepiece into view, focus and get the camera on the bird. I had to set the ISO to 800 in order to get a decent chance at a capture. The bird stayed long enough for me to get a half-dozen frames before bouncing off to a nearby branch. I was able to get a few more pics, but most of them were obscured by pine needles.
So, I give my props to guys like Mike McDowell and Kevin Bolton, who are able to regularly capture some brilliant images of warblers with their digiscoping equipment. How you do it is beyond me...
