While I love this blog, I now pretty much only write on my other two blogs: BirdingBlogs.com and 10,000 Birds - I would love to see you there!

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Digiscoping workshop at the German Ornithologists' Society conference

As I mentioned in my last post about Grossglockner and Hohe Tauern National Park, I spent the end of last week and the weekend in Pörtschach am Wörtersee in Carinthia (Kärnten, southern Austria).

Swarovski Optik was the main sponsor of the German Ornithologists' Society's annual conference and we had a small stand there with some of our binoculars and telescopes. My "job" was to run mini digiscoping workshops with small groups of ornithologists that were interested in digiscoping: either as a first taste-test, or to pick up a few tips and tricks for the older-hats.

I didnt do too much digiscoping myself, but here are a couple of digiscoping photos I managed to pick up.

A wonderful Great Crested Grebe showing off for us (Haubentaucher)





look at that light! omg! A mute swan in all its glory

We were also blessed by flocks of Penduline Tits (Beutelmeisen) that hung out on the Schlangeninsel where we took most of our photos. I even saw a flock of at least 15 right in the center of Pörtschach - not bad at all.

oh, and on saturday afternoon, a group of ornithologists went up one of the local forest roads and picked up a Capercaille and his 4 wives! Right next to the road, sogar!

But the best thing about the DOG (Deutsche Ornithologen Gesellschaft) conference was the company - the organising committe from BirdLife Kärnten were fantastic to spend time with and I do hope to meet up with some of them again!

Happy birding
Dale Forbes

3 comments:

Gaelyn said...

Awesome captures and great networking. Sounds like the new busy job is going good. Keep it coming when you're able.

Chris said...

Hi Dale,
Well done. All these pictures are really nice but the first one of the grebe is really really wonderful. The tone of the picture and the colors are beautiful.

Shady Character said...

The waterfowl should be passing through in a while so I swear on a stack of Peterson's guides that I'll give digiscoping one more try. Maybe two. Great shots, although I found myself shaking my fist at the mute swan until I remembered it's where it should be in your case. They're not so welcome here.