Wednesday, April 30, 2008

North Park, March 23, 2008

Easter Sunday 2008, the weather was a little milder than yesterday with warmer temperatures and less wind. I decided to go straight to “Old Faithful” which would be Marshall Lake at North Park. I had equipment troubles yesterday in a target rich environment and I really wanted to make up for that.



Before I even got to the parking area I saw Hooded Mergansers and Wood Ducks on the lake so I pulled over right away. Hoodies and Woodies, what a great way to start the day; I quickly set up the equipment and sneaked to a bush on the lake shore. The bush hid most of my movement so there was no alarm raised by the ducks.


After getting shots of the Hoodies and Woodies I moved to the normal parking area and walked to the island. I wasn’t even at the foot bridge to the island when I saw a few Common Grackles perched on one of the pine trees on the island. For what appears to be a simple black bird, when the light hits the Grackle’s head right, it shines with a brilliant blue iridescent color which makes it a site to see.


Thirty minutes into the day’s outing and I already had good shots of three species but I wanted more!!!! I made my way across the foot bridge to find Buffleheads in the water near the north end of the island. Something about these little waterfowl just fascinate me, I don’t know what it is but anytime I see them I have to get pictures.


I’ve said before here that I really don’t take that many pictures of Mallards and Canada Geese unless I have the chance to get some outstanding shots. Today I had that chance: I had a Mallard pair doing some ritual bonding on the west side of the lake and a Canada goose that followed me on my way around the island. The goose didn’t make any alarm calls or try to chase me from a nest; it seemed he was just watching me. I finally gave in and took a few shots of him. Would you believe it, after I took his picture he flew off to the other end of the lake? I guess he was just a ham.


While I was getting the Mallard shots I saw a couple of drake Wood Ducks along the far shore so you just know that I had to take some more pictures of them. Especially since the sun was up a little higher in the sky by this time making their colors really stand out.


I was happily snapping pictures of the woodies when I saw an odd species of duck. Upon further inspection it turned out to be a hen and drake Green Wing Teal. The pair was slowly making its way to the same area where the woodies were. This was Great! I didn’t have to move the digiscope or mess with the focus much at all.



During the three hours that I was out today I went through two batteries and filled a 2GB memory card. It was a great morning and turned out to be the best morning of Digiscoping that I’ve had this year, beating the morning on the rivers. Well the best so far anyway.



Stay Tuned to the blog, coming up in the next three posts I’ll relate to you the story of my three day trip “Up North”. Some of the highlights include elk, deer, bison and 20 avian species.

Monday, April 28, 2008

North Park , March 22, 2008

I belong to a group called Meet-in.org. This is a social group where members come up with ideas for events then post those events online; members that are interested then RSVP to attend the event that you’ve posted. These are the people that I go to Elk County with every year. On our last trip to Elk County, some of the folks mentioned that I should host a digiscoping event. Today was the day for the event. I had a few RSVP’s but due to the cold weather and early hour only one person besides myself showed up for the event. Beth and I met at the old bait shop at North Park at 7 am.

I was going to show her one of my regular spots where Pine Creek feeds into the main lake at the southern end of the park. The only problem was that the police had the road closed for a race of some sort. It was a little cold to walk the ½ + mile to the spot so we went straight to Marshall Lake which is a second lake in the park near the ice skating rink. This spot is one of the best places that I have found that’s close to home. While she was growing up Beth was an avid bird watcher so I had good company for the morning.

After we pulled into the parking area I pulled my binos up, scanned the lake and saw a Bufflehead. We quickly and quietly made our way to the footbridge to the island on the lake. Beth was already excited because she had never seen a Bufflehead before today. We went to the south end of the island and I found that my camera was acting up; I wasn’t able to get it to focus properly. I changed some settings and got the camera to work.




While I was fidgeting with the camera Beth was busy finding other new-to-her species: Hooded Mergansers and Ringneck Ducks. I was able to get some shots of the Ringnecks and Hoodies. Beth was enjoying herself because the first three species that we saw were some that she had never seen before. I was happy because I love to see people enjoy the outdoors.



We walked to the other end of the island and saw a few more Buffleheads as well as a Ring-Billed gull. My camera problems weren’t finished yet, the vinyl sheath on the cable release cracked causing the cable to work only intermittently. Needless to say I wasn’t very happy now. We watched a few more of the antics of the Hoodies then we both went on our way. I had an extra release at home so I wasn’t really in a big bind.


This morning I decided that if the spare release that I had at home worked, I would return to North Park the next morning to spend Easter Sunday with the critters. I also decided that I was going to take a few days off from both jobs and go “Up North”.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Deer Lakes Park, Route 28, 9 Mile Run and Mom’s house. March 1, 2008.

The morning dawned clear and cold; I decided to make a run to Deer Lakes Park to see what I could find there. On my way north on Route 28 I saw many hawks perched on light posts and trees on the side of the highway but I didn’t have a chance to get any pictures of them. I arrived at Deer Lakes Park only to find nothing but Mallards and Canada Geese. I turned right around to try for some of those hawks that I saw on the way north. I was no sooner back on Route 28 heading south when I had my first chance at a Red-Tailed Hawk. However, by the time I had the equipment set-up the hawk was gone. Back into the truck I went. Down the road another mile or so I saw another Red-Tail in a tree alongside the highway; this time my kit was already set up so I was able to start shooting less than a minute after stopping the truck. I was on the side of the road for a little over 5 minutes but I got more than 20 pictures of the hawk in that amount of time.



About 40 minutes after shooting the hawk pictures I pulled into the parking area at 9 Mile Run on the Monongahela River. Right away I saw two photo opportunities: On an old pier piling was perched a young Ring Billed Gull; A second Ring Billed Gull was walking around the parking area. The shots that I got of the first gull would remind you of the type of sea gull pictures that you see on Oceanside resort brochures. I also got plenty of shots of the second gull as he moseyed around the parking lot. Not counting the pictures of the hawk I already had 75 good pictures for the day and I didn’t even look at the river yet which it was time to do.





Since I was in a more open area I had the Teton binoculars on my harness. They give me a better visual reach over longer distances. Looking north on the river, towards Pittsburgh, I saw a few mallards swimming towards me. This time of the year is the start of the Spring waterfowl migration north so I knew that there had to be other species around this area. I turned to face south which is actually up-river(The Monongahela flows south to north) and oh boy what I saw!!! About 100 yards up river from the mouth of 9-Mile Run there was a handful of Canvasbacks, Redheads and Ringneck ducks! The Canvasbacks and Redheads are uncommon in Western Pennsylvania but are more common along the Susquehanna River system. These guys were way off course but I was going to shoot them while I had the chance. Quickly I came up with a plan of attack. I would cross the small bridge over the creek as quietly as possible then try to sneak up river to get some closer shots of the off-course ducks. I started towards the bridge when I heard one, loud “QUACK!!” from the mouth of the stream. That’s an alarm call so I pulled my binos up to my eyes and scanned the creek. I saw several mallards plus a drake and hen Pintail. The drake pintail was looking right at me. It was then that I realized that I was silhouetted against the sky and the Pintail drake gave another alarm call. I tried to set up fast enough to get a shot of the Pintail but he took off before I could do anything. The Pintail species is another that is uncommon in Western Pennsylvania but more common in the central and eastern parts of the state.




Pintails, Canvasbacks and Redheads are extremely wild ducks unlike the Mallards and Canada Geese that nest in relatively close locations to humans. These species of ducks will migrate to and from Northern Canada each year, only passing through Pennsylvania during the migrations in spring and fall. They will always be on the alert for humans and other predators and will spook as soon as they believe that they are in danger. Visit your local lake or pond where Mallards and Canada Geese nest each year and see how soon those species will spook as you approach them. You’ll find that you can get quite close which isn’t the case with the wilder ducks.




Well, after standing as still as possible for a few minutes, I slowly crept across the bridge to check the Canvasbacks and Redheads. I was in luck, they weren’t spooked by the Pintail drake. I checked the creek mouth again to find that the Pintail hen was still there. I set up as quickly and quietly as possible then I was able to get several shots of her. I would have liked to have gotten shots of the drake as well but I will settle for the hen for now.




I now had the task of creeping up on the Canvasbacks and Redheads. One thing that I didn’t factor into my plan was the hard crunchy crust on the snow. I wanted to get as close as I could manage to the ducks while having as few tree branches as possible in my way. The crunchy snow prevented this so I worked my way back to the parking area. I knew that I’d be able to get shots from there with my 40x eyepiece.

I got back to the parking area and connected up the 40x lens. With that on the scope I was able to get some decent pictures of the Canvasbacks and Redheads which were now moving up the river away from me. I had to act fast and I did. The pictures weren’t as good as they would have been if I had been able to get closer to them but they will satisfy me for now.




After I got back to the parking area I noticed that a large flock of gulls landed on a giant chunk of driftwood on the river. When I finished getting the pictures of the ducks I again switched eyepieces and got some shots of the gulls on the driftwood. I’ve had a great day so far and I packed up to leave so that I could hit one more spot.


Earlier in the week I had promised mom that I would stop by for more pictures of “Her” birds. Twenty-five minutes after leaving 9-Mile Run I was pulling up the driveway at mom’s house. I set up my equipment as I did the week before and I quickly snapped another 75-80 shots. My memory card was full and I decided that I had enough for one morning.


After 3 ½ hours and over 700 pictures I sat in mom’s living room and played with her dog while sharing with mom the stories of my best digiscoping day of the year…so far.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Mom's House February 22, 2008

Mom’s House February 22, 2008
For as long as I can remember my mom has been putting out bird feeders during the winter months. This year my sister bought her one that blocks the larger birds from getting to the seeds and allows only the smaller birds to feed. This helps the little guys eat and keeps them from getting chased away by the larger birds. She’s been bugging me since Christmas time to come over and take some pictures of “Her” birds. Well finally this week I knew that I would have the time and that there would be snow on the ground so that would almost force the little guys to use her feeder. I really didn’t mind heading to her house for several reasons: chance to see mom; got to sleep in instead of waking very early and driving in the dark for an hour or so; chance to play with mom’s dog; could go inside of the house and get warm whenever I wanted.




She has the bird feeder set up outside the living room door of her house which is actually on the second floor. This allowed me to set up my equipment at the corner of the house and to be partially blocked from the birds view. I knew that I would spook them if I was too far in the open and they wouldn’t use the feeder. The distance from the feeder to the objective lens of my scope was approximately 14 yards. Being at such a short distance would give me the chance for some great shots on these little birds.



Once I was all set up and the birds accepted my presence I was treated to a steady relay of Black Capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmouse. It was a treat this morning watching these little guys fly into the feeder. They were using the lilac bush and the evergreen trees for staging areas. They’d zip from the staging tress, go in for a quick bite then wait their turn again in the staging areas. I counted 5 different Titmouse and 7 different Chickdees



Deer Lakes Park February 16, 2008
For the two weeks or so before this outing we had some very cold weather and several inches of snow. This in turn will lead to most open water being frozen. On my last outing I saw that Lake Arthur at Moraine was a little less than ½ ice covered and that was two weeks before this trip. A few days before this trip I made some phone calls to park offices to find out the amount of ice coverage on the lakes at area parks.
Lake Arthur – 85-90% covered, some waterfowl on the open water on the main lake.
North Park – The person that I talked to must beam herself to the office because she said that she didn’t drive past either of the lakes at the park. (You can’t get to the office without going past one of the two lakes there.) She said that she had no idea how much ice was on either of the lakes.
Deer Lakes Park – The person that I talked to was very knowledgeable and helpful. They installed aerators in the lakes to keep them open for waterfowl during the winter so each of the three lakes had some open water. He also told me that there was the usual Canada Geese and Mallards plus some other uncommon types. Needless to say I was heading to Deer Lakes Park.



I had never been to Deer Lakes Park before so I didn’t know what to expect. I had a rough idea of the layout thanks to the map I found online but that doesn’t replace actual knowledge. So using the GPS I was able to find my way to the lakes with no trouble at all. At the lakes I found a small flock of Canada Geese and the usual Mallards as I was told. So after setting up the equipment I took some warm up pictures of the mallards. Some of these pictures actually came out rather well, I was surprised. Most of the ducks was standing around on the edge of the ice. I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t want to go in the water this morning either, the temperature was in the high teens.


While walking to the other end of this lake I saw a very strange looking duck, I couldn’t get any pictures of him at the time though. I made my way to the far end of the lake and found a new duck species to me. I wasn’t sure at the moment what it was so I just started taking pictures. It was a diving duck so I got into his rhythm and eventually got some pictures that were keepers. The entire time I was shooting the diver I kept my eye on the odd duck and persistence paid off when I was able to get a handful of pictures of this strange duck.



With the cold temperatures and the snow/freezing rain mixture that was falling I barely lasted two hours on this outing. So I was on my way home wondering what those two ducks were. When I got home I checked my reference books and found that the diver was a Common Goldeneye but I had no luck with the odd duck. I didn’t find out what it was until almost two months later; I saw a post on PA Birdline about a Cinnamon Teal-Bluewing Teal hybrid that was seen on Canonsburg Lake in Washington County which is south of Pittsburgh. The post said that pictures were available at the user’s online album. I went to the album and sure enough there was the mystery duck or one just like it. Now this was an odd hybrid because to my knowledge Cinnamon Teal rarely if ever migrate east of the Mississippi River and Blue Wing Teal rarely if ever go West of the Mississippi. Anyway somehow a pair of them got together and made at least one youngin’ and I was lucky enough to get pictures of him.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Pittsburgh’s Rivers February 2, 2008

On the morning of February 2, 2008 I decided to visit a couple of spots on Pittsburgh’s rivers. I had a new 40x eyepiece to try on the scope and the rivers seemed like a good place to go.



My first stop was near the Highland Park Dam on the Allegheny River. I had heard earlier in the week that there was a variety of ducks in that area. Unfortunately the river was running very high so the ducks weren’t around on the Allegheny. I did manage to test out the new eyepiece on some seagulls that were roosting on the Highland Park Bridge. The wind was out of the Northwest and was blowing pretty well so the wind chill was in the low 20’s, after about 45 minutes I’d had enough on the Allegheny.



I got into the truck and drove to the mouth of 9-Mile Run on the Monongahela River. Again the river was running high and fast. I was able to get a few shots of a Ringneck duck and some Mallards on the river itself.



I eventually meandered to the stream itself. There the water was much calmer and the lighting was great. I got some really outstanding shots of a pair of Mallards. Due to the really cold weather this morning, after shooting the Mallards, I decided that I had enough for one day and went on my way to my warm house.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Moraine State Park Dec. 27, 2007


After a long Christmas season I decided that I needed some time outdoors. If you recall, I work two jobs, one in retail. You know how retail is during the Christmas season…it’s NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The entire month of December I was working 65-70+ hours per week total between both jobs. So since I was on Christmas break from the university I had most of my days free during the week between Christmas and New Years. I chose to go to Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park.

My first stop was the Old Route 422 boat launch. All that I saw there were Canada geese. In my part of the country it seems that you can’t swing a stick without hitting a Canada goose. Needless to say I won’t shoot pictures of them unless I can get a great shot.

I’ve been going to Moraine since I was a wee lad fishing with my dad. Every now and again I would see a vehicle or two at a part of the lake where there were no roads that I knew of at the time. Well today I found how to get there. I wanted to test the 4WD in my new truck anyway so off I went. I didn’t get any pictures while I was on that road but the truck got muddy so I suppose that you could say it was a fun little ride.



After playing in the mud I moved to the South Shore Recreation Center at Moraine. It’s basically a large swimming and picnic area on the lake shore. There I finally found something worth shooting: Coots and Buffleheads. I had only seen one Coot before and never saw a Bufflehead so it was kind of a treat for me. Both of these species are divers which mean that they dive completely under water to feed. Even though they were both grouped together I mentally separated them and got into the rhythm each was using. The Buffleheads were constantly diving but after watching them for a while I was able to figure out the general area where each would surface again. I was able to do the same thing with the coots and even got some shots of them on land.




After about 250 pictures I decided that it was time to move on. I put the digiscope outfit into the truck and went closer to the main part of the lake. I thought that the flock of 30-40 Coots at my previous stop was a large flock; near the shore on the main part of the lake was a flock that numbered in the hundreds!!!! I grabbed the digiscope from the back of the truck and realized that I wasn’t careful enough when putting it in; the shutter cable release was broken!!! DAMMMMMIITT!!!!!!!!!!! I still used the scope to see what else was there. In addition to the Coots there were Redheads, Canvasbacks and Ringneck ducks to be seen. Oh well.

Friday, April 11, 2008

The First Post

What is “Digiscoping”?
Digiscoping is the combined use of a spotting or terrestrial telescope and a digital camera for distance photography of wildlife. If you are familiar with SLR cameras, the equipment that I use gives me the rough equivalent of a 1200 -2400 mm lens.

I use a 60mm Nikon Fieldscope, a Nikon P3 digital camera and either a 24x or 40x eyepiece for the scope. The camera has a 3x zoom so then with the 24x eyepiece I get a maximum magnification of 72x (72 times closer image or 24x3) and with the 40x eyepiece I have a maximum magnification of 120x (40x3). Depending on the size of the animal that I’m photographing I can have the range of nearly ½ mile under the best conditions.



Picture from http://www.nikonusa.com/

About Me:
I’ve been digiscoping for about a year now and I can honestly say that I’m addicted to it. I’m always thinking of what kind of shot I can get when I see an animal. The main problem for me is finding the time to get out and get the pictures. You see, I work two jobs; the first is at a major research university and the second is at an outdoor outfitting store. It was at this store that I first discovered digiscoping. I’m based in Western Pennsylvania and concentrate on waterfowl but will take pictures of any animal that comes my way. I’d eventually like to have a collection of every type of waterfowl that resides or passes through Pennsylvania.

Equipment That I use:
I’ve already mentioned the digiscope outfit so here’s a list of the other equipment that goes with me on each outing:
-Alpen Teton 10x42 binoculars


picture from http://www.alpenoptics.com/









-Brunton Eterna 8x45 binoculars









picture from http://www.brunton.com/





-Realtree APG camouflage
-Merrell boots
-Native Eyewear
-Brunton tripod and head
-Manfrotto tripod
-Springfield Arms XD-40
-Garmin Etrex Legend Cx


About This Blog:
I’ll mainly be using this blog as a record of my digiscoping outings; however you never know what you will find on here: I could be recalling funny times from my past; I might be venting about the world today; I might talk about guns or the work that I do every day. You'll notice that the first several posts will be of the "Flashback" type where I'm catching up on the trips that I've made so far this year(2008). They'll be like that until I'm fully up to date.

The opinions expressed here are my own, yours may differ, I really don’t care because this is my little corner of the internet. Unless stated, the pictures displayed on this blog are my property and may not be duplicated in any way.

That's about all for now, on my next post I'll go over the last trip of 2007 or the first real trip that this blog will cover.