While attending The Biggest Week in American Birding last week, we were on a digiscoping mission. Associate Editor Kirsten Sweet and I had never digiscoped before, so we couldn’t wait to try it for ourselves. (By the way, digiscoping is just a way to take digital pictures using a spotting scope.)
It was a really easy set-up. The great people at Eagle Optics lent us a scope and an adapter so we could take pictures with our iPhones. Then they gave us a quick, 30-second tutorial on how it works. (Yes, it really is that simple.) After that, we were on our own!
We don’t claim to be digiscoping experts, but it was pretty amazing to get some photos of birds that we’d never be able to get with an ordinary camera. The trickiest part was just finding the birds in the scope before we’d place the adapter on and snap a photo. Take a look at some of our images, but don’t judge us too harshly! We’re thinking with a little practice, we might eventually get a picture good enough to put in the magazine.
Tree swallows
Eastern Meadowlark
Great horned owl
Common yellowthroat
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When we ran the article on underappreciated vegetables by Heather Ray in the April/May Issue (the article was called “You Say Tomato, I Say Tomatillo”) one veggie in particular got a lot of attention. It was the cucamelon! Though it’s more properly known as Mexican sour gherkin, we think cucamelon is much more fun to say. 
