An armchair tick (1 Viewer)

[nick scarle]

Heres a shot I took a couple of weeks ago of some hippos in Ethiopia.
I'd been back home over a week before I got round to opening and post-processing it on my PC so I was mightily surprised to see an African Pied Wagtail on the extreme right of shot.
What an armchair tick that is!

Nick

 

[Marmot]

Well done, mind you there is always one who wants to get in on the picture.

 

[Woodchatshrike]

This could turn into a ethics of ticking thread....

 

[Gomphus]

hiya,

Now this brings back memories, nearly had that myself, took a slide of some Short toed larks in Israel, got home, looked at 'em and saw slap bang in the middle of the group, a Bimaculated Lark, was so busy taking the photo I didn't look at the birds (though how I missed it I still don't know, its blindingly obvious)!
Luckly we had seen a Bimac shortly afterwards, so didn't have the awful, can I tick it feeling!
Actually did it many, many years ago, with some geese once, spent ages looking for a Pinkfoot in some White-fronts, gave up, took the shots of the flock, got home, and yes there was the Pinkfoot.... not rare or a lifer or anything but slightly annoying at the time! :-O

Cheers

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Ok then, brilliant. So there's now no need to actually look through flocks of birds. All you have to do is bowl up, take enough shots to cover the whole massive flock of eg. gulls/geese/waders/larks, go home, look through the pics later, tick the new ones. Nubirding. And why not.

 

[Steve Lister]

Heres a shot I took a couple of weeks ago of some hippos in Ethiopia.
I'd been back home over a week before I got round to opening and post-processing it on my PC so I was mightily surprised to see an African Pied Wagtail on the extreme right of shot.
What an armchair tick that is!

Nick

Sorry Nick but I for one would not tick it. I would just kick myself for not noticing it at the time. Or for wasting time taking pictures of hippos when there were birds to see!

Steve

 

[Jamspangle]

Similar thing here - i was trying to photo the Little Terns bathing when this gull wandered into shot - i thought it'd be useful for size comparison. As the group flushed two birders came over and said 'so you got a photo of the little gull then?' 'er, yeah....' i said, checking my screen furtively. Bloody obvious now i look at it, he's tiny! What a way to get a lifer...

 

[Pete Mella]

Sorry Nick but I for one would not tick it. I would just kick myself for not noticing it at the time. Or for wasting time taking pictures of hippos when there were birds to see!

Steve

Hmmm, I like my birds but I reckon a hippo's more impressive a beast than a pied wagtail

 

[Gastronaut]

So if its OK to tick from photos maybe we should all yearlist from the BirdGuides gallery. Think of the environmental benefits of all those car journeys avoided. An armchair twitch. 8-P

 

[Gomphus]

Hi all,

I've got to say I would never tick a bird from a photograph, the challange for me is to spot the things and identify them in the field!

Another one for debate, many years ago a Temmincks Stint turned up locally, a first for the site, the locals rushed up to the reservoir to find the bird was on the rear unviewable side of an island.... no problem, theres a video camera feeding live feed to the hide, we found the bird in the camera and watched it live! Now then, what now we debated, is line of sight important, what are the ethics of ticking here! In the end the bird did walk out, but what if it hadn't!!! :-O

Cheers

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Hi all,

I've got to say I would never tick a bird from a photograph, the challange for me is to spot the things and identify them in the field!

Another one for debate, many years ago a Temmincks Stint turned up locally, a first for the site, the locals rushed up to the reservoir to find the bird was on the rear unviewable side of an island.... no problem, theres a video camera feeding live feed to the hide, we found the bird in the camera and watched it live! Now then, what now we debated, is line of sight important, what are the ethics of ticking here! In the end the bird did walk out, but what if it hadn't!!! :-O

Cheers

I guess that's pretty much like having a mirror on a long stick. Hang on a minute..don't bins have prisms ? Can someone set up a webcam on New Caledonia so I can tick Kagu with zero carbon damage please?

 

[Pete Mella]

And is there a difference between...

1. Seeing a bird, not fully realising what it is. Snapping the area, inadvertenly snapping it, and then realising when you get home it was something good.

2. Not seeing a bird at the time, and then noticing it in shot when you get home...

 

[birderbf]

And is there a difference between...

1. Seeing a bird, not fully realising what it is. Snapping the area, inadvertenly snapping it, and then realising when you get home it was something good.

2. Not seeing a bird at the time, and then noticing it in shot when you get home...

This is similar to my thoughts. I once took a shot of a mixed flock of shorebirds in Vancouver, and it was a year or so later that I noticed there was a Wilson's Phalarope off to the side. I counted it because I was quite confident I took the picture (my father was there, but I recall doing the shooting). In my case I likely mistook it as a yellowlegs, but in this partular case, the photo was concentrated on hippos, and the bird wandered in, making it likely that you didn't see it. BUT, although contradictory to what I just said, you may yet have glimpsed it through the corner of your eye since you were squinting through the viewfinder, I presume, and that is a limited space, of which you probably observed the entire area in the viewfinder even if somewhat unintentionally!

With those possibilities, I'd say you have to be the judge of whether your eye caught this potential lifer or not!

 

[Gastronaut]

I'm finding it hard to show restraint on the matter of ticking a bird you only noticed in a photograph, so instead I'll change the subject slightly...

Whilst I'm sure everyone would agree to ticking a bird you saw through your scope and most, if not all, would agree you couldn't tick something that you'd only seen displayed from a remote camera (as in the above Temminck's Stint example) where exactly do you draw the line? For instance if you fix a digital camera to your scope and only see the bird on the camera's digital display is it tickable? No light from the bird has actually entered your eye - if that's how you define seeing it. Could happen if you're trying to photograph birds on a seawatch for instance when that gadfly goes by. Will surely only be a matter of time before digital bins and scopes are available.

 

[ArtifexAmando]

Gastronaut:

Reading your last sentence I thought of this article:

http://www.club300.se/News/Default.aspx?nID=391

Unfortunately it is in Swedish, but I think one understands the numbers, anyway.

 

[Gastronaut]

Thanks, is that a gadget to let you look through the scope and take pictures at the same time?

 

[ArtifexAmando]

Yes, indeed!

The article says, though, that the manufacturer, Zeiss, will probably only make 1000 of them. Although at www.gofoto.se, they have put up a page for it, with the preliminary price of 15000 Swedish Crowns, so perhaps there will be more made.