Swarovski Optik

Digiscoping Flying Buzzards

Thumbnail image for Digiscoping Flying Buzzards by DaleForbes 27 May 2012

Digiscoping flying birds is not exactly the easiest of things, but it has an appeal for a good deal of digiscopers. Having spent time trying to take digiscoped photos of birds in the heat of the day at massive distances, most people slowly come to the realisation that one has to get really close to [...]

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Interview with the Digiscoper of the Year 2011: Tara Tanaka

Thumbnail image for Interview with the Digiscoper of the Year 2011: Tara Tanaka by DaleForbes 20 November 2011

The results for the Swarovski Digiscoper of the Year 2011 competition have just been announced: http://digiscoperoftheyear.com/ This year’s winner is Tara Tanaka of Florida, USA. Although Tara has had some great entries in Digiscoper of the Year in the past, her entries this year really stood out; turning the heads of both the judges and [...]

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Vote now for the Digiscoper of the Year 2011

Thumbnail image for Vote now for the Digiscoper of the Year 2011 by DaleForbes 9 October 2011

Public voting for the Digiscoper of the Year 2011 is now open – all you need to do is go to the Digiscoper of the Year website, login, and then select your Top 10 favorite photos. Every year I am stunned by the quality of images that are entered in to the competition and this [...]

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Good start to Digiscoper of the Year 2011

Thumbnail image for Good start to Digiscoper of the Year 2011 by DaleForbes 4 July 2011

The Digiscoper of the Year 2011 competition started on 1 June, and being still early days, there have only been 41 entrants so far. Having said that, there are some wonderful photos amongst the first few. As with last year, you an follow the progress of the competition online, see all the photos that have [...]

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Digiscoping the African Wattled Plover (Vanellus senegallus)

Thumbnail image for Digiscoping the African Wattled Plover (Vanellus senegallus) by DaleForbes 8 May 2011

The African Wattled Plover (Lapwing)is found throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa and while it can be locally fairly common, it is typically not considered a common species. It is the largest lapwing in southern Africa and because of its crazy facial make-up always makes for a wonderful find. Whilst in the Hartbeespoort Dam area (just [...]

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A view from a new nest

Thumbnail image for A view from a new nest by CharlieMoores 31 March 2011

Writing for Birdingblogs.com feels like an adventure – shared with a group of very talented individuals. Importantly there’s more the feel of making an investment here than of simply hopping aboard an express train with no particular interest in the destination as long as it’s still going forward.

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Extremadura and the EL50 Swarovisions (guest post)

Thumbnail image for Extremadura and the EL50 Swarovisions (guest post) by CharlieMoores 17 February 2011

Okay, a new voice here on Birding Blogs? Well, hopefully not ‘new’ as in never heard of before, but new here for sure – invited on as one-off guest blogger to write about my recent trip to Extremadura (Spain) with the brand new 10x and 12x EL50 Swarovisions courtesy of Dale Forbes (that’s both courtesy [...]

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Spain, the EL50 and me

Thumbnail image for Spain, the EL50 and me by DaleForbes 6 February 2011

My life has recently been dominated by the launch of the new Swarovski EL50 Swarovision binoculars and all the million small details that need to be taken care of. This has been made easier by two things: 1. I really love this binocular, and 2. It is a really great binocular (fairly sure I am [...]

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new virtual Birding Game

Thumbnail image for new virtual Birding Game by DaleForbes 1 February 2011

So the basic idea of the Birding Game is that you can go virtual birding, click on the bird silhouettes and be presented with a bird photo which you need to identify. At the moment there are three locations: Corpus Christi, Texas Extremadura, Spain Lake Neusiedl National Park, Austria And you can choose to play [...]

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Notable mentions: Digiscoper of the Year 2010

Thumbnail image for Notable mentions: Digiscoper of the Year 2010 by DaleForbes 23 January 2011

What a stunning photo of a Madagascan Helmet Vanga (Euryceros prevostii) by Pete Morris – just one of the 2000-odd photos entered in to the 2010 Swarovski Digiscoper of the Year competition. There were tons of awesome photos but, naturally, not every great photo can be amongst the winners (see the DOY Backstory here; and [...]

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Interview with the Digiscoper of the Year 2010

Thumbnail image for Interview with the Digiscoper of the Year 2010 by DaleForbes 16 January 2011

The results for the Swarovski Digiscoper of the Year 2010 competition have just been announced: http://digiscoperoftheyear.com/ This year’s winner is the biologist Óscar J. González Hernández, of Salamanca in Spain, with a stunning image of a European Bee-eater (above). I managed to get hold of Óscar and ask him a few questions that were at [...]

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Spanish Steppe Birds, crazy awesome digiscoping

Thumbnail image for Spanish Steppe Birds, crazy awesome digiscoping by DaleForbes 14 November 2010

What a lot of fun! Being great big open habitats, steppes can often be very difficult habitats to photograph birds in, and the Extremaduran steppes of western Spain are no exception. Great big wide open spaces (with the forest having been cleared by the Romans to build cities) mean that there is little place for [...]

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