Image Envy
I've been poking around on a stunning site mostly filled with more than 5,000 bird photographs taken by three men, Bob Gress, Jud Patterson, and David Seibel. Gress and Seibel have collaborated with others in writing a recent book on Birds of Kansas, and the old Audubon photo field guide pales in comparison to this work. See for yourself at the Birds in Focus website. It's not important, I'm sure, but I note that all of these men look like the kind of people I might like to know. One of them has a PhD from KU in ornithology.
On the site, be sure to do a search for any bird that you're fairly familiar with, and you'll quickly see that these pictures give detail more clearly than would be possible even if you could sneak up as close as possible to get an in-the-flesh perspective.
Last summer, on July 2, when I took my niece and nephews to Quivira to see the previously-unheard-of-in- Kansas Red-necked stint, several people with telescopes and telescopic camera lenses were there at the same time. Those of us with modest equipment got a chance to see the bird when they offered access to their equipment. We're still laughing about the fact that I almost walked off with someone else's expensive binoculars around my neck. The owner pursued and caught up with me just before I got into the vehicle to go home. It was a typical absent-minded stunt on my part.
The Red-necked stint image on the Birds in Focus (BIF) site was captured on July 2, the same day we saw it. I began to wonder if these men were among the birders and photographers we saw at Quivira. Joseph says no. He knew the names of the ones who were there because of encountering them on the Kansas birding forums he and they hang out on.
You can see a picture of the Red-necked stint here. Be sure to click on the small pictures to see a larger version with accompanying data. Also, if the account of our birding trip to Quivira on July 2 interests you, you can read about that here. (Check immediately below this post after you click on the link.)
I'm sure that I don't have enough years and money left to accomplish nature photography like that on the BIF site, but maybe I can manage to buy a better binoculars to compensate for my compromised eyesight, and maybe I can get that Birds of Kansas book. On the Brewer's Blackbird page, Hiromi's and my name appear as the only people in Kansas who ever reported seeing that bird. The listing for that marvelous book on Amazon is here. I've looked at Lowell's family's book and salivated over it, but so far, it's just on my Amazon wish list.
On the site, be sure to do a search for any bird that you're fairly familiar with, and you'll quickly see that these pictures give detail more clearly than would be possible even if you could sneak up as close as possible to get an in-the-flesh perspective.
Last summer, on July 2, when I took my niece and nephews to Quivira to see the previously-unheard-of-in- Kansas Red-necked stint, several people with telescopes and telescopic camera lenses were there at the same time. Those of us with modest equipment got a chance to see the bird when they offered access to their equipment. We're still laughing about the fact that I almost walked off with someone else's expensive binoculars around my neck. The owner pursued and caught up with me just before I got into the vehicle to go home. It was a typical absent-minded stunt on my part.
The Red-necked stint image on the Birds in Focus (BIF) site was captured on July 2, the same day we saw it. I began to wonder if these men were among the birders and photographers we saw at Quivira. Joseph says no. He knew the names of the ones who were there because of encountering them on the Kansas birding forums he and they hang out on.
You can see a picture of the Red-necked stint here. Be sure to click on the small pictures to see a larger version with accompanying data. Also, if the account of our birding trip to Quivira on July 2 interests you, you can read about that here. (Check immediately below this post after you click on the link.)
I'm sure that I don't have enough years and money left to accomplish nature photography like that on the BIF site, but maybe I can manage to buy a better binoculars to compensate for my compromised eyesight, and maybe I can get that Birds of Kansas book. On the Brewer's Blackbird page, Hiromi's and my name appear as the only people in Kansas who ever reported seeing that bird. The listing for that marvelous book on Amazon is here. I've looked at Lowell's family's book and salivated over it, but so far, it's just on my Amazon wish list.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
4:49 PM
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