This afternoon I abjectly failed to get an identifiable photo of a
Eurasian Wigeon on Green Lane Reservoir, Montgomery County,Pennsylvania. The bird has been on the water and ice there for the past two days, but I waited until the Junior Birdchasers got home from school so I could take them to see this bird which was a lifer for them (state bird for me). The light was harsh, the bird was far away. We all got to see it, but the best I could do digiscoping with my Android phone on video was this crummy shot showing (if you trust me) the reddish head of the drake
Eurasian Wigeon. For most of the video I had trouble keeping the image in the camera or the bird wasn't visible. So--Lifer (yeah!), Lifer (yeah!), State Bird (yeah!), photo (fail!).
Wow, Rob. Holy cow, that is one abysmal photograph. This post is like how video gamers occasionally remind themselves how much graphics and computers have evolved in our lifetime. (see http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2008/11/road-rash-1991.jpg)
ReplyDeleteThat one ranks mighty high on the long list of bad-photos-of-good birds that I've seen.
Took some guts to blog your efforts, and of course none of this takes anything away from the glory of actually seeing the bird itself. But from a fellow lousy & often frustrated digiscope-er... well done, sir!
I think you can see an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in there too if you look closely :-)
ReplyDeleteI always fail when I try to digiscope. Was it also windy? It helps if you can blame such photos on gail force winds...
ReplyDeleteI'm actually pretty sure it's a Pileated.
ReplyDeleteNice bird, Rob; I haven't seen one in PA, but someday....