Black-billed Cuckoo - August 17, 2008

Sorry for the late posting - still trying to label the shorebirds that I have taken. Went out to Pte. Moo where I ran into Mary and her niece. Checking out a few spots we headed out to Cell 3 where we found Jerry Jourdan digiscoping the shorebirds. Still learning what and when and where I can digiscope I set up my equipment and began photographing some of the shorebirds that were there. Jerry was kind enough to point out the different shorebirds out to me. After awhile a group from the Audubon came through and I decided to head over to Campau Road before heading home.

Campau Road is actually a nice little side track, you can drive slowly through and just listen - sometimes you can get lucky as I did. I had already traveled down the road to the gates where the HeadQuarters is and decided after checking out the little moor (that's what I call it) I made my way back down the road. Just before I got to the turn something flew across the hood of my vehicle, stopping ever so slowly I searched for the bird. With camera ready and as I spotted it I began snapping away. Turns out what I photogaphed was a Black-billed Cuckoo.

That was it for my day - til my next post.

Scattered Showers and In The 60's - 8/10

Cloudy - Scattered Showers and in the 60's - what a great weekend to be up north. Well we packed up the kittens and camera gear and headed up to Mio. Traffic going up was nothing less than herrific. Seems like everywhere you drive now in Michigan there's an alternate route leading you to somewhere. Saturday was dismal and rainy so when it stopped drizzling we decided to take in a little fishing and hope for a better day on Sunday.


Sunday wasn't any better. Scattered drizzle all morning and cloudy skies didn't stop me from trying to figure out what exactly I am doing wrong when I digiscope. Since all the other weekends when it was sunny there really haven't been any birds this past weekend was just the opposite. In the woods there were birds flying everywhere - so I had tall trees, no bright light and a lot of birds.


Determined to find out what I've been doing wrong I tested both of my cameras changing settings to try this and try that. In spite of the not having bright sun light I would say that I did considerably well with my photos (check them out).


My digiscoping equipment consists of the following: NIKON Fieldscope S50 ED; NIKON CoolPix S210; FUJI FinePix F50SE and two home made adptors that attach to the camers and scope. My subjects consisted of the Black-capped Chickadee; Blue Jays; a Downy and Hairy Woodpecker; Rose-breasted Grosbeak - male and immature males and females; a Red-breasted Nuthatch and a White-breasted Nuthatch. After packing up and getting ready to leave as I stepped out the back door there were three American Gold Finches on the feeder, one male and two female. It was a good weekend . Til my next post.