Category Archives: Digiscoping

Digiscoping is the act of connecting a camera to a spotting scope to take photos or videos of subjects that may be too distant for conventional camera lenses, or require getting so close to the subject that it ceases the behavior you want to capture.

Digiscoped Video – American Oystercatcher

On Saturday, May 22, 2010, I followed up on a report of an American Oystercatcher at a few locations in Laguna Beach. I tried Crescent Bay first, and was fortunate to find five Oystercatchers on the rocks below the point. There were three Black Oystercatchers, while the other two looked pretty good for Americans.

What are they?

Black and American Oystercatchers interbreed and their hybrid offspring can be anywhere on a cline from pure Black to pure American. We had to evaluate these birds for purity. J. R. Jehl, Jr. developed a rating system used by ornithologists to determine where on the cline a given bird falls. Because there are several genetic variations that are involved, we use ten different characteristics to judge the birds. Nine of them have a score between 0 and 4. The belly coloration goes from 0 to 6. A bird with a score of 0 to 9 rates is a pure Black Oystercatcher. One scored from 30 to 38 is pure American, and everything in between is a hybrid.

I took this video with a Nikon CoolPix P6000 attached to a Kowa TSN-884 spotting scope at a distance of 96 yards measured by a Zeiss Victory PRF laser rangefinder.

Is Either an American Oystercatcher?

The Oystercatcher in the center of this video has white upper tail coverts (Jehl’s score 4), basal half of all retrices were white (4), chest sharply delimited black to white on upper chest (4), belly entirely white (6), undertail coverts entirely white (4), thighs entirely white (4), greater secondary coverts 6-15mm (3), white present on some of inner primaries (3), underwing coverts entirely white (4), axillaries entirely white (4). The Jehl’s score for this American Oystercatcher is 36 out of 38.

The hybrid Oystercatcher, seen on the left as the video starts, has upper tail coverts black (Jehl’s score 0), retrices mainly black with some white in the vanes (1), black chest bordered by jagged edge on upper chest (3), belly entirely white (6), undertail coverts mainly white (3), thighs entirely white (4), greater secondary coverts 6-15mm (3), white present on secondaries but not primaries (2), underwing coverts mainly white (3), axillaries entirely white (4). Jehl’s score is 28 out of 38, so close, but not close enough.

Nix Nature Center: Winter Birding

The James and Rosemary Nix Nature Center opened on St. Patrick’s Day in 2007. Oddly, it remains to this day, one of the better-kept secrets of Orange County open space. Conveniently located, this unit of the Laguna Canyon Wilderness Park is always well worth a visit. I have been stopping by periodically ever since it opened, often going for an hour or so before work during the week.

Although its official hours are 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, I often find it open earlier than that, which is really nice! I go mainly for the birds, of course, but anyone interested in hiking or relatively easy mountain bike trails will find something to their liking here. And in wet years, the wild flowers can be spectacular too. Just a piece of advice: if you plan to visit Nix Nature Center on a weekend, get there early. To keep the place from getting loved to death, parking is deliberately limited to four small lots.

Digiscoping at Nix Nature Center – White-crowned Sparrow

Digiscoping Birds

I was working on a review of the Leica D-LUX 4 digiscoping system. Happily, the Nix Nature Center is a great place for pictures. It was a gray overcast March morning when I stopped by. Phainopeplas were busy spreading mistletoe to every available sycamore branch. Small flocks of Zonotrichia sparrows (just Golden-crowned and White-crowned this year) sang and fed nervously in the open spaces around the parking lot.

This sub-adult White-crowned Sparrow teed up for me in a luxuriant laurel sumac. First I took a picture with just the camera. The sparrow is that white dot at the top of the bush. But with the Leica Apo-Televid 82 scope in line, the charms of this young bird become much more apparent. These photos were not cropped in any way, to make the magnification of the unit more apparent. Always check the sparrow flocks carefully in winter. I’ve seen Lincoln’s, Savannah, Chipping, and Brewer’s Sparrows mixed in with the White-crowns, and a Black-chinned Sparrow in early spring. Generally, they’re feeding right out in the open on the ground.

California Towhee at Nix Nature Center

Local Residents

Generally, California Towhees feed near the parking lot, kicking the mulch and leaves with both feet as they root around. You can see the characteristic ‘pumpkin butt’ and hints of buff around the base of the heavy seed-eating bill. The canyons often echo with the loud “chink” calls of this common resident. A close cousin to the California Towhee and Spotted Towhees live here year-round. But I’m still searching for my first wintering Green-tailed Towhee there.

Western Bluebird, Nix Nature Center

Willing to take advantage of a nest box hanging anywhere, Western Bluebirds usually feed from low perches. They even frequent the parking lots unless crowds of people have chased them into hiding. I found this female hunting from on a bare sycamore limb. As usual, she was too shy to permit close approach. But the extra “reach” of the digiscoping outfit easily brought her in close without the need to disturb her further.

Nix Nature Center Habitat

Nix Nature Center sits on typical scrub land, with patches of oak-sycamore community in the wetter areas. However, a short walk from Nix brings you to other habitats. The network of trails links up with the other 6600 acres of the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. These include Dilley Preserve, Willow, Sycamore and Laurel Canyons, and farther away, Crystal Cove State Park. Walking under Laguna Canyon Road takes you to Barbara’s Lake, the only naturally occurring lake in Orange County. There you always find Pied-billed Grebes and herons. Occasionally, Least Bitterns nested there in past years. So when you get a chance, check out this wonderful little park, and see what you can find.

Digiscoping with the Leica D-Lux 4 System

We received a D-Lux 4 digital camera and several adapters from Leica to go along with the impressive Apo-Televid 82 scope (see scope review here) and have been happily field-testing it for several weeks now in preparation for a full review on the digiscoping outfit. This post is not a full review. Rather it gives people an idea of the capabilities of this adaptable and really easy-to-use outfit.

The rig consists of a D-Lux 4 digital camera, the digiscoping adapter and the Apo-Televid 82 scope and tripod. Given the weight of the scope, I opted for a full-sized carbon fiber tripod to counter-balance it. A carbon fiber tripod has the advantage of damping down vibrations. This is important when taking pictures, especially without a cable release. Unscrew the aluminum ring from the camera lens to reveal the adapter mounting threads. The adapter fits over the eyepiece (in this case, the 25-50x zoom eyepiece) and fixes in place with a set-screw. And that’s it! The whole operation takes about 30 seconds.

White-faced Ibis, digiscoped with Leica D-Lux 4 system

Photography

The first question most folks want to ask is: what kind of pictures can you take with this rig? Well, as it turns out, pretty good ones! For example, take a look at the detail in this basic-plumaged White-faced Ibis from San Joaquin Marsh Sanctuary. In winter, White-faced Ibis lack the white facial skin that gives them their name. Also, mottling appears on the head and upper neck. Note the pinkish tint to the tip of the long decurved bill, and the facial skin. The appearance of the back and wings suggests this bird undergoing pre-alternate molt. Highly iridescent green feathers replaced some of the dull older feathers on the head, belly and neck. While shooting, this bird got too close for photography, and to take these pictures I had to move back!

Whimbrel at rest

Image Richness

Another question is whether the image richness is sufficient to support really fine details of plumage and pattern. These resting shorebirds provided a good example proving it does. It also shows that the subtle plumage details stand out against a bright background.

Look at the feather detail in this Whimbrel. Note the pale buffy fringes of the wings and back and the warmer cinnamon tones of the breast. The rufous crown stripes stand out. The white eye ring pops, and the lower mandible is pink, while the legs are bluish gray. Even the rippling reflection below is rich with detail. The preening Long-billed Dowitcher is just a bit too far in front to be fully in focus. Still, some great feather details are visible in it too. Look at the dark-centered, pale-edged wing coverts to the dark chevrons on the sides of the belly. So, even in challenging light, surprising image detail is available.

Perched Vesper Sparrow

Portability

How cumbersome and slow is the Leica D-Lux 4 digiscoping unit? Well, it’s really not. In fact, using this unit, I can often capture sharp images of small and rapidly moving birds. This group of Savannah Sparrows kept hopping up onto a barbed wire fence and alighting for a few seconds before spooking and dropping back down into the grass. But with a bit of luck and timing, the D-Lux 4 still caught this Vesper Sparrow, an uncommon bird in Orange County, among them. Note the characteristic white outer tail rectrices and black inner ones. The wind ruffled its head feathers, giving it a ‘punkish’ look, but the thin white eye ring is visible around the black eye. The depth of field is fairly good here too. We took this photo in 16:9 ratio mode, which yields a broader shot.

Lesser Goldfinch feeding

This feeding male Lesser Goldfinch provides another example. This bird was only about 25 feet away when I took these shots. But he kept hopping from plant to plant in search of more succulent bits to munch. You can see a piece of his meal clinging to the edge of his beak. Our west coast LEGOs have greenish backs with black streaking. Whereas those of the interior sometimes show completely black-backs. And of course, the Danish LEGOs come in many colors and can be used to build amazing things? The camera and scope picked up the subtle markings of the bird along with details in his claws along with the brilliant orange hues of the flowers and their green foliage.

Conclusions

So that should answer your questions. Digiscoping with the Leica D-Lux 4 camera and Apo-Televid 82 scope is incredibly easy. Additionally, it’s a lot of fun. If you don’t hear from me for a while, it’s because I stole this unit and went on the lam!

Vortex Razor Spotting Scope: Digiscoping

Example of what you see without the Vortex Spotting Scope

Many spotting scopes these days provide the attachment options for digiscoping. Consequently, this offers the ability to attach a digital camera and use the scope as a telephoto lens to take photos. Digital photo adapters vary widely in their design, ease of use, and speed to deploy. They also range in their compatibility with respect to the cameras they can accommodate. The Vortex Razor Spotting Scope is a relatively recent entry in the spotting scope market, providing high-quality optical performance at a very reasonable price (see Vortex Razor Scope Review). Vortex offers a digiscoping adapter for use with the Vortex Razor Spotting, so I took it out in the field to give it a try.

Digiscoping with the Vortex Razor Spotting Scope

Photo taken with Vortex Razor Spotting Scope

Digiscoped with Vortex Razor Spotting Scope

I went out this past Sunday to Laguna Niguel Regional Park with the Razor scope equipped with its 20-60x zoom eyepiece, the Vortex Razor Digital Adapter, and my Canon 40D camera with a 50-mm lens. This was my first attempt to digiscope with this equipment combination, so the pictures here are mostly to show what is possible and do not represent fully optimized photography with this rig.

An Osprey eating lunch at the park provided an interesting and challenging subject for this demonstration. The bird was sitting in a eucalyptus tree in rather unfavorable lighting. So as an illustration, we first took the photo (above) with the camera only. This is to show the level of zoom with and without the scope in line.

Next, we zoomed the eyepiece on the scope to about 40x and took the same photo (right) through the scope. As a result these photos give a good comparison of what a dramatic difference shooting through a spotting scope makes. This camera/scope combination at this magnification is equivalent to about a 3200-mm lens. This will vary from 2000 to 4000 mm at this level of zoom depending on the type of camera. We have not cropped these photos in any way. They are full-frame shots. We have only resized them to fit the pages here.

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