New Year, New Goals, New Camera and Scope

January 1, 2016

More so than most pastimes, hobbies and obsessions, the New Year for birders means the start of a new list.  Some years it's all about the total number of species, other years it is about birding in new places, discovering new habitats, or traveling to the rainforests of tropical countries.  For me, this year, it's a little bit of both.  For 2016 I'm not focussing on total species, but more on finding species I've never seen, both in North America and, this January in Panama, and getting photographs of the 40 or so species I've failed to get pictures of, or have taken lousy photographs of over the last four years.  In order to reach that goal I bought myself a new camera, a Cannon 70D with a Sigma 150-600mm zoom lens, and a Vortex Razer scope that is a huge improvement on my previous model.

January 3, 2016

I'll be saving my money and scheduling my time to chase more rare birds in North America over the next 12 months and will be building the World Life List in Panama later this month.  I did, today go out looking for a Townsend's Solitaire, hoping to get some good photos.  Back in October, closer to home in Col. Sam Smith Park I did get some great pictures, but alas they vanished from all my saved media.  Not sure how that happened, but I was given a second Chance this morning, and alas we were too late.  I'll give it a try again tomorrow.

January 4-5, 2016

Drat!  No Solitaire.  So I will have to wait for the next showing of this rare Ontario species to redo my photographs.  Meanwhile, I have been out shooting photos with my new camera...

The pair of Peregrine Falcons were taken on a very cloudy day, zoomed at 600mm way at the top of the lift bridge in Burlington, with no cropping.