Bird-life at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge seems to be somewhat sparce this year…but there are still lots of Tricolored and Little Blue Herons. The area around the restrooms, half way around Black Point Wildlife Drive, is a good place to look for the Tricoloreds perched up…and when the light is right you can get some wonderful shots. This is early morning light, and it is around the corner on the way out of the Refuge, so the light was coming over my shoulder as I set up the digiscoping rig. I was photographing a Tricolored in the Mangrove in the small pond there by the turn, when this one flew in to the top of another Mangrove up on the dike. Perfect placement. Great light! I just swung the scope around, refocused, and took a whole series at different zoom setting for framing from full body to intimate portrait.

Canon SD320HS behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL using the Digidapter for ZEISS mount. Approximately 2000mm equivalent field of view. ISO 160 @ 1/160th @ an effective f5.8 based on the scope. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. (For those unfamiliar with the technique, digiscoping is taking a photo through the eyepiece of a spotting scope with a digital camera…high magnifications are possible, so you can fill the frame with a bird from much greater distances than you could using conventional photographic lenses.)