Epic birding in the high alps - 2

it's that time again - spring breeding bird surveys are happening all over the northern hemisphere and the alps are no different. except that they need to happen a little later in the high mountains. last year we risked life and limb to do a survey at the beginning of june, which - in hindsight - was probably a very silly thing to do given the meters of snow still covering the mountains in the bird survey region.

So this year we did the survey a little later and were greeted by surprisingly little snow up high. The different conditions also made a dramatic difference to our bird survey results - lots more northern wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe, Gewöhnliche Steinschmätzer) and markedly fewer Water Pipits calling (Anthus spinoletta, Bergpieper).

Stunning scenery up in the high alps. the weather looked like it was going to turn nasty any minute. it never did. the big mountain is Acherkogel (3008m asl) overlooking Oetz / Oetztal on the other side of the mountain. Notice the faint trace of watermelon alga red in the snow.

My personal birding highlight of the trip was a wonderful male Rock Ptarmigan that showed for us (Lagopus muta, Schneehuhn). I have only ever seen them at a distance and found them to be quite flighty, but evidently spring is the best time to "stumble upon" them like this. And so we did.

Digibinning shots of Rock Ptarmigan on our hike through my Swarovski 8x32 binoculars. Learn more about digibinning here.

We came across alpine marmots fairly often during the day - normally given away by their high pitched "there's a golden eagle overhead" whistle.

Alpine marmot track in the snow

An earwig in the snow at 2500m. No idea how something this small and this exothermic could be active up at these levels right now.

The view from the top of a feather-thin ridge, looking down towards Oetz, Piburgersee and the Inn valley in the background.

Now just at about the tree line, the rocks stop looking rock-coloured and start looking green. This means that entire hillsides are green with these lichen-covered rocks. The photos may not look that stunning, but the in-person views are stunning.

A green lichen-covered rock up close and personal.

A hillside with green lichen-covered boulders.

Kazakhstani beetles look like this ...

Well, maybe they don't all look like this. And this wasn't even a beetle, but just that hard remains of an exoskeleton discarded in the rocky desert.

I had been looking for some cool bugs to photograph for Joan while in Kazakhstan, but was finding very little interesting. And when I did, there was normally a much more exciting bird nearby that stole my attention. I found this beetle while hiding up against a rocky slope, waiting for some Grey-necked Buntings to come out so that I could videoscope them. It was in these minutes of quiet and solitude that the exoskeleton presented itself.



This is my favorite of the shots as there is nice depth, looking out across the flat desert to the Tien Chan mountains in the distance (on the border with China).

Dale Forbes

Diginocking in the mountains

After last weeks' fun taking photos through my ELs, I decided to do a little more of it this morning. Last night we had taken a hike back in to the mountains to a most gorgeous of spot: Solsteinhaus, a hut set way back in the mountains on the edge of my favorite mountain in the whole wide world (Große Solstein - on the right in the first photo).


I was admittedly lazy in getting up this morning, but when I got out there was still something to be seen. The Alpine Accentors were not very vocal at all and we ended up playing an interminable game of hide and go seek. I was not the one hiding. No useful photos there.

But the Ring Ousels were far more obliging. Weary, but far more interested in singing from the "tree" tops to be too worried about me. I don't have the little Snap Shot Adapter anymore - it was borrowed - so these were all taken by just holding my camera to the binoculars. As you can see, I am still learning how to focus effectively.

I also spent some time trying to get some shots of the Crossbills, but they were proving elusive:

catching one taking off was completely by accident:


Here is a habitat shot:
Mostly grassland with some stunted trees (mostly below head hight). Also about were some Grey Wagtails, Wheatears, a couple of ravens and a few other little bits and pieces.

A couple of digibinned insects:

This digibinning thing really is a whole lot of fun. and it means that I can still take bird photos even if my huge digiscoping setup is a home.

Happy birding
Dale

Digibinning, Diginocking or simply BAD photography

A few weeks ago, I asked a question on birdforum.net about what people call taking photos through a pair of binoculars (kinda like digiscoping's little sister ;-). I was calling it diginocking. I liked the silliness of the name and it added a bit of lightness to my attempts at taking photos (and videos!) through my binnies.

Last year we visited Kruger National Park in South Africa (amongst other lovely places there), and I managed to get some half decent leopard, black rhino and elephant photos through my SLCs but I always struggled to align the camera lens with the binoculars. Most of the time I managed to avoid too much vignetting but I still often got a washed-out blue haze over many of the photos. I continued to practice and got my best results with some friendly ducks in Lago di Garda a few months ago.

Then last Saturday, I went out with the guys from Natopia and Tirol Werbung (related to a project they are doing with Swarovski Optik called Nature Watch) and got to play about with their quick-shot adapter. I had heard a bit about it but I never expected anything near the results I got.

I had sooo much fun!

The little plastic job fit on to the top of my bins and held our little camera in place quite nicely. I am not the biggest fan of our camera (Casio ex-z110) but still I was quite happy with the results.

I took some lovely photos of Luke Pfeiffer through my ELs: a beautiful young man with a sharp mind hiding behind deep eyes (I'll just wait for his folks' permission before posting them here).

It seems that most people on bird forum call this digibinning but my absolute favorite was BAD photography - Binocular Assisted Digital Photography. Gotta love that!

Here are a few other photos from the day:

Happy birding
Dale