Thursday, 18 June 2009

Digiscoping Skylarks

Yesterday afternoon I took a friend out to go check up on the Wallcreepers and on our way home we decided to stop in to check out the Ortolan Buntings in Silz. We found a good number of Ortolans singing and feeding on the ground in the potatoes, but I didn't get any great photos of them.

There were lots and lots of Skylarks (Alauda arvensis, Feldlerche), however - something rather unusual for Tirol (our skylarks are disappearing fast).

These Skylark photos were taken hand-held using a Swarovski Optik STM80HD scope, a TLS800 adapter and a Nikon 350D - the same setup I used for the Black Kites.

I just love their little crests - it makes them look so serious. And hearing dozens of them singing/displaying is absolutely wonderful. Listen to the Skylark song and then imagine a whole pile of them singing together! (the song was recorded by Niels Crabbe in Oulu, Finland)


Happy birding
Dale Forbes
at

4 comments:

  1. Sharon18 June 2009 at 12:53

    A very cute little guy singing a beautiful song:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gaelyn18 June 2009 at 16:12

    Marvelous. The crest looks like a mohawk cut.

    ReplyDelete
  3. bismuth19 June 2009 at 11:51

    Hello,

    I'm the redactor of www.ornithomedia, one of the most important French-speaking birding website, and we'd like to adapt in French some of your articles concerning disgicsoping, digibinning and identification (marsh/willow tit): would it be possible?
    Naturally we would promote your excellent blog
    Regards
    David Bismuth
    david.bismuth@ornithomedia.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wai Yien19 June 2009 at 14:23

    the first photo is my favorite, the grass add up the mystery to the photo/bird

    ReplyDelete