Greetings,
Thanks to a terrific response from 11 birding-aus contributors,
I had a drive along some highly recommended Superb
Parrot roads last weekend.
Clearly, as 3 dead individuals by the roadside can attest, that's
where Superb Parrots can be found. Unfortunately it was 43°C
at 5.30pm when we passed through Grenfell having been down
the "you can't drive this road without seeing Superb Parrots"
road. I know, everyone said that early mornings/late afternoons
are best, but it didn't work out that way, so, no parrots - almost
no birds at all it was so hot...
For those of you thinking of digiscoping but yet to buy a camera,
you might consider the Nikon Coolpix 4500 and buying one soonish.
I was in the US a few months back and it's been deleted there
already. Although the 4500 is only 4 megapixels (as against 5
megapixels of some other cameras - 5400, 5700 etc), the advantage
that the 4500 has (and before that the 950 and the 990 were the same)
is that the focussing and zooming all happen internally and it's not
got a very wide lens which although that means less light is available
in low light situations, it's great for digiscoping - small lens
counteracts
the problem of vignetting.
Shops in Australia don't seem to have heard that the Coolpix4500
is heading for oblivion but they're not surprised either. It's a great
camera for dentists and birdwatchers, but there are many more
sexed up cameras for the masses.
Consolation prize for missing the Superb Parrots was camping
at Rankins Springs and finding a new-to-me frog, Limnodynastes
interioris - the Giant Banjo Frog - with a range roughly equivalent to
the Superb Parrot. And I discovered the Coolpix4500 takes
great macro photos. In the absence of frogging-aus, I share my
excitement with you here.... If anyone wants to see a photo,
have a look at
www.geocities.com/lerista/Limnodynastes_interioris.jpg
Thanks again for the Polytelis advice.
Cheers
Philip Griffin
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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