BIRDING TO THE EDG

The past few years Nikon has been building a ProStaff of professionals to assist with promoting our product nationwide. This last weekend we flew them out to Portland, OR for a little retreat. We do this once a year to build camaraderie and discuss new products available to birders. As always, the weekend was full of interesting and new experiences. We also were delighted to have other friends of Nikon present including Richard Crossley, Derek Lovitch (BIRDING magazine optics reviewer), Chuck Hagner (editor of Birder's World), and Tim Gallagher (editor of Living Bird). These friends have done such a great job of providing unbiased opinions in the past and we feel it is very important to gain that perspective in order to be successful. Above pictured, Derek Lovitch of Freeport Wild Bird Supply and Forrest Rowland of Nikon Birding ProStaff discussing the finer points of birding on the west coast. These two guys are killer birders and a wealth of knowledge!

Our time in the field was spent between filming our prostaffers for YouTube.com optics tips/website and birding, of course. The filming was done in the lowlands where birds like Lazuli Bunting, Western Scrub-Jay, and Tree Swallows dominated the avifauna. It was really nice to have some of these birds in the background as we were filming, just for the added touch. For much of us, including I, it was our first time being filmed intentionally. WOW, let me tell you that it is amazing how your knowledge just flies out of your head right after the camera is rolling. When I first got on camera I had trouble stating my name and occupation.....PATHETIC! Nevertheless, after that everything went smooth. I spent some time discussing ED glass (Extra-low dispersion) and how it applies to our new Nikon EDG Fieldscope. You will have the chance to see the clips rather soon. By the way, this new fieldscope is ridiculously clear. The eyepiece has a larger ocular than we have seen in the past with our Nikon Fieldscope III, including the zoom eyepiece. It feels like you're looking through an over-sized toilet paper roll for your field-of-view. Just amazing! The image really, "POPS," because of it. Not to mention the new dielectric coatings which helps even further in bringing all of the different color wavelengths on the same plane, including purple. Doing this eliminates color fringing around your subject. Combine all of this with increased field-of-view and far improved depth-of-field (which makes sea-birding and hawk-watching easier). I'm stoked to get this new EDG in my hands soon!

Our Nikon Birding ProStaff can be characterized as fun-loving, easy going, and down-to business types. We have been able to develop a close relationship to one another during the past few years becoming more of a family. As the year progresses, I will discuss some of our prostaffers to update each and every one of you out there about Nikon's birding programs and the faces behind them.

The photo above Adrian Binns of Wildside Nature Tours and Shawneen Finnegan (freelance artist and Nikon Birding ProStaff) in the foreground and Tim Gallagher of Living Bird magazine in the back peering through the canopy in search of a Western Wood-Pewee that was incessantly giving off it's "PEeer."

Just so you all know.......we found the bird along with some other delights such as a Black-headed Grosbeak hanging low in the canopy preening itself.


The weather was a bit rainy (go figure) in the area so many of the birds we hoped to get were very difficult. For instance, numerous times we heard a Sooty Grouse calling it's WOOF-WOOF-WOO-Wooo-wooo, but were not able to find the bird. This boom they give can be felt just as easily as heard. Tough dang bird to see. I have heard many in my life (maybe a dozen or so) and never have been able to get one out of the bush. Still a nemesis for me.

This Black-throated Gray Warbler above graced us with a visit to water drip while at Tualitin Hills Nature Park just west of Portland. You might ask why there isn't a black throat? Good question! The female Black-throated Gray Warblers have white throats and chins, outside of the few that might just have some streaking on the throat. This female is very fresh and even has a very dark crown. I would expect normally for the crown to be broken up with some streaks and not as uniform as the male's crown. These birds breed in the western United States only and are most often associated with Pinyon Pine and/or oaks of some kind. The key is to look for a mixture of semi-arid habitats that may often include live-oaks. These birds are very active in their foraging nature occupying anywhere from ground level to thirty feet high in vegetation. They actively glean off branches looking for insects while sometimes hovering as well. A welcome surprise to our group since at that point in the day we were all getting a bit tired!

I ended up being so busy taking candid shots with my wide angle lens that I wasn't able to do as much bird photography as I wanted. I'll live! We spent one day on the coast looking for seabirds where I once again could not get the look of Rhinoceros Auklets that I have been yearning for. Silhouettes do not count in Mike Freiberg's book! I guess I will have to try another time. We visited Haystack Rock on the coast of NW Oregon to look for Tufted Puffins. What a bird! We had three to four pairs that were right on top of us since the tide was still pretty low. We even had four that flew off the rock and right over our heads. I will be looking to Tom Dunkerton for some shots of these birds since, naturally, I did not have my camera with me. The sacrifices we make!!!!!


All in all, the group really had a wonderful time and I was proud to have this trip run as well as it did. Thanks for joining in on our adventures and I will be sure to post back up soon. Good Birding!