So, went up to Townsville to visit family.  Of course the camera came along and boy, did I get some awesome photos!  (You'll see some of them soon and it makes me wonder, what could I get up to if I had a real wild life lens - any sponsors out there?)

Anyway, I got quite a few of the birds on my all-time want to see / photograph list including the Blue Winged Kookaburra, White Bellied Sea Eagle, Sun Birds and Rainbow Bee Eaters (boy are those suckers quick!).

With the photography kicking along nicely and a major urge to get art and crafty, I'm hoping to have some actual photos available for sale and there will be some attempts at art.  But we'll see how that goes.

An updated bird list will be posted soon but in the meantime, happy hunting!

So, usually I id my birds by looking at the photos once I've taken them with my sports lens.  I'm not a huge fan of binoculars as I've usually got the camera anyway and it's too awkward to handle both... but that brings me to a spotting scope.

With a spotting scope, one can set up in a bird hide or on the banks of lake Borrie (for example) and take their time to id the birds sitting out there on the water. 

As much as I'd love to be able to do this with a camera, the $2,000 odd dollars it would cost to upgrade my lens is a little out of my budget (any camera stores out there who would like to sponsor a bird blogger, give me a call!), so this brings me back to the scope.

Have had a look online, and the best ones at the most reasonable prices seem to come from the US - but they won't ship here.  What's the go with that?  Anyway, have found the Meade spotting scope on ebay (Australian Ebay).  I just thought I'd pose the question - what do you use to find and id your birds?  Any recommendations?