9000 to go

My world bird list has just surpassed 1000. Just in case you are confused, this is of course very exciting, and not really sad and boring. I can't remember which bird it was, but I'm kind of hoping that it was the Collared Trogon, and not the frankly very dull Plain-brown Woodcreeper. Not that it matters, I'm not really much of a world lister anyhow - which is a good thing as it would be the job of several lifetimes. Didn't do much today, a bit of swimming and some light drinking, followed by an extended Hummingbird photography session. Apparently the technique is to shoot on very limited flash power, which is the equivalent of an extremely fast shutter speed (when you reduce flash power what you are actually doing is reducing the illumination time), but to be honest I'm struggling. My rudimentary technique is to instead crank up both flash and shutter speed, wait for some direct sunlight and hope for the best on the focussing front. Consequently my hit rate is very very low indeed, but when I get lucky the results can be quite pleasing.



Copper-rumped Hummingbird

Rufous-breated Hermit