petefeats
Asian Dowitcher
I had a day off midweek a while back and went out to the Port of Brisbane artificial wader roost to see if I could spot the Asian Dowitcher being reported from there. It is a real rarity for these parts.As i collected the key the desk attendant told me that everyone who had been out that day had came back pretty happy.
Well I couldn't spot anything with my 400mm on the 7D (no binos) so I started methodically snapping the large flocks of Godwits and chimping at 100% on the LCD to see if I could pick it out.
I had no luck after about half an hour (most birds had their heads tucked in) so I was turning to go when a few Chestnut Teal got nervous and took off over the biggest group of Godwits on the middle island. The Godwits, Whimbrels etc all turned and started moving further away (even though I was not very close at all). I quickly got the camera up again and took a stack of shots of every part of the moving flock.
It was very hot and I didn't have the patience to start chimping again so I just left it until I got home. On one of the last shots, after ages spent peering at loads of similar shots....bingo! There it was.
This is a 100% crop and a lousy shot but I'm putting it up as a record and a story of a bit of hard work and lots of luck paying off. It also illustrates the difficulty of picking this bird out of a group of Godwits.
I'd like to claim it as a sighting but I'm afraid it just doesn't feel like it. So now I have a shot of a bird I've never seen! :) I could go back with binos but apart from the chance of a rare sighting it is a pretty boring place IMHO.
Asian Dowitcher
I had a day off midweek a while back and went out to the Port of Brisbane artificial wader roost to see if I could spot the Asian Dowitcher being reported from there. It is a real rarity for these parts.As i collected the key the desk attendant told me that everyone who had been out that day had came back pretty happy.
Well I couldn't spot anything with my 400mm on the 7D (no binos) so I started methodically snapping the large flocks of Godwits and chimping at 100% on the LCD to see if I could pick it out.
I had no luck after about half an hour (most birds had their heads tucked in) so I was turning to go when a few Chestnut Teal got nervous and took off over the biggest group of Godwits on the middle island. The Godwits, Whimbrels etc all turned and started moving further away (even though I was not very close at all). I quickly got the camera up again and took a stack of shots of every part of the moving flock.
It was very hot and I didn't have the patience to start chimping again so I just left it until I got home. On one of the last shots, after ages spent peering at loads of similar shots....bingo! There it was.
This is a 100% crop and a lousy shot but I'm putting it up as a record and a story of a bit of hard work and lots of luck paying off. It also illustrates the difficulty of picking this bird out of a group of Godwits.
I'd like to claim it as a sighting but I'm afraid it just doesn't feel like it. So now I have a shot of a bird I've never seen! :) I could go back with binos but apart from the chance of a rare sighting it is a pretty boring place IMHO.