Jeff&Amy's photostream  

Jeff and I are birdwatchers whose enthusiasm for chasing rarities monopolizes our free time, strains our bank account, and elicits eye rolls from our saner friends. Here you may view the results of our efforts to document our sightings as cheaply as possible: namely, with a 25-year-old scope, two point-and-shoot cameras, and an adapter jury-rigged from a piece of PVC pipe. Our "native range" is in Chester County, Pennsylvania, but we roam up and down the eastern seaboard and beyond, seeking a glimpse of the latest rarity, and filling our gas tank with the money we could spend on a better camera (with which to take stunning photos of American Robins).

Jeff currently digiscopes with a Canon S90, a Kowa TSN-4 scope, and his home-made adapter. He has also used a Sony DSC-S600 and a Canon SX-110is. I shoot with an Olympus SP-590 UZ.

Several of the photos taken with this humble kit have actually been published! This accomplishment may owe more to the rarity of the birds pictured than to the quality of our photos, four of which have appeared in the "Birding Briefs" section of Birdwatching (formerly Birder's World) magazine: Violet-crowned Hummingbird (October 2009), Lesser Sand-Plover (December 2009), Ivory Gull (December 2010), and Lewis's Woodpecker (August 2011). Another of our Lewis's Woodpecker photos was published in the "Sightings" column of the American Birding Association's Birding magazine (May 2011). Our photos have also been used (with permission) by various regional birding newsletters, records committees, and on-line encyclopedias, as well as the National Wildlife Federation, and one broadcast journalist covering the efforts of local high school students to restore Swainson's Warbler habitat in Missouri. We are shocked and pleased by our (very moderate) success!

Update 8/11: Amy is now the Sightings Department Editor for American Birding Association's magazine, Birding, and newsletter, Winging It.

"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of nature are never alone or weary of life." -Rachel Carson