Long-tailed Tit babies

 video taken with iPhone 4S + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

iPhonescoping: the return?

Mallard digiscoped through Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece, Apple iPhone 4S and bodged-together adaptor

The doves from above

It may seem amazing to you, dear reader, but to see Collared Doves in the garden is a rare treat for me. We're just that bit too far out into the sticks for them to consider our garden suitable habitat. They turn up occasionally but never stay for long.

These ones (well, I assume they're the same ones) have been visiting the garden sporadically for two or three days now, so maybe 2010 will be the year they colonise this remote outpost. It's only 54 years since they first bred in the UK.

I am actually enjoying watching them.

photo taken with Apple iPhone 3GS + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Who scared away all the birds?

photos taken with iPhone 3GS + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Jackdaws rule the roost

The birdfeeder seems to be depleted fairly quickly these days. There are a few Chaffinches and Greenfinches around, but I think the main culprits are probably the Jackdaws (pictured) and a couple of Magpies. The Jackdaws are quite bold but the Magpies flee as soon as they spot me...

photo taken with iPhone 3GS + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Phone + telescope + double glazing

Lots of Chaffinches around the garden at the moment, it seems.

photos taken with iPhone 3GS + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Cornwall 2009

The Brisons and Cape Cornwall, as seen from Nanquidno


Sennen Cove, home for the week

St Ives, and pumpkins in one of its greengrocers




Curlew at the Hayle Estuary - taken with the iPhone through my scope, Not too bad,,,

Green Woodpecker feeding

video taken with iPhone + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

The wonders of technology

Now that Flickr have released an iPhone app, I've been able to the use the phone for the entire photographic process.

I took the above photo with my iPhone held to my Leica scope (through the double glazing). Still on the phone, I cropped the photo using Pixelpipe - dead easy - and then uploaded the photo to my Flickr account, adding a title and tags along the way. The last bit was a little slow, but that was because of the bad signal in the building where I was. Isn't technology wonderful...

photo taken with Apple iPhone 3GS + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Swallow!

We're waiting to be fed. When's the next meal coming?*


Here it comes!





photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Apple iPhone*

Summer nights and other things

Saturday sunset


Barn barbecue (with Canon Powershot A640)


Swallow, iPhonescoped with Leica Apo Televid 77 + 20x eyepiece

Young Swallows have been queuing up on our garden fence and roof again. Though they've obviously been out of the nest quite some time, they are still receiving deliveries of insects from their parents!

Experimentation

What a soggy, miserable-looking Red-legged Partridge. 

It's not the most beautiful photo, but I took it with my iPhone through my scope. It's not cropped or edited in any way and once I'd found the optimum distance from my scope's eyepiece, there was no vignetting.

So far, so good, but it's quite fiddly to find exactly the right position for the phone. An adapter is most definitely required. I'm on the lookout for suitable materials - cardboard, the middles of rolls of tape, bits of pipe, maybe even margarine tubs - to manufacture something. Watch this space.

iPhonescoping. You read it here first (I think...).

photo taken with Apple iPhone 3G S + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Phonescoping with iPhone

Well, these pictures ain't gonna win no prizes, but I've been experimenting with my iPhone to see whether phonescoping is a possibility.

Conclusion: yes, for 'record shots'. For it to be slightly easier, I need to make a little adapter (which shouldn't be too hard).



Greenfinch on the sunflower seeds


Swallow wings and tails - sitting on the guttering above the window


Clouds on the horizon


With the vast variety of add-ons available, there must be some really good ones for birders. If you're in the States, you can get various fieldguides, but there doesn't seem to be much for the rest of us yet. Surely it's a matter of time?

Greenfinch photo taken with iPhone 3G S + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece
All taken through double-glazing...