Thinking of taking up bird watching "twitching"

[cracksinthepitch]

yes for tripods unless you have a new dSlr and lenses with image stabilysers. my old 35mm slr requires a tripod when i have the longer lenses on.
Raptors are great and have been photographing them for 20 years now and only one has escaped me to this date(Aust endemic species) which is the Red Goshawk from Far north Queensland, but one day i'l get it.

 

[Jacquie]

Birds of the same species can vary in colour and the photographic references can be confusing if you have a bird from a different locality to you. The best field guide I have found is the Pizzey and Knight "The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia".

 

[AMY22]

Bird watching is a great thing to do, I have done it for years. As someone has said earlier the best time is early morning and in the evening, also I find when it’s been raining a little a lot of animals come out. Bring a pen and paper with you to write down what you see and also the details of the things you can’t identify. And definitely take a camera, even if you only get a crap picture it can do a great deal of good.
I was walking in the reserve near my house recently and came across a quail, the second time I’ve seen a quail there but the first time I saw it I could write anything or take a picture. The second time I took about 10 photos, then I went home to identifying incase it was just an aviary escape. Well it was a native, I then looked up the list of birds recorded in the area. Not only is there absolutely no record of that species being seen in the reserve but there is no record of ANY quails being seen in the reserve. Although they are native in this part of Australia.
Woooo!!!

 

[Jacquie]

The only quail I have seen in the wild was a stubble quail just before my husband ran it over in the car!