Brad and Joanne at Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada in May, 2004.

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I started with an Olympus 730UZ camera. This camera has a ten power optical zoom and a three power digital zoom giving an equivalent of a thirty power zoom. The camera also has a resolution of three million pixals. I then moved to an Olympus 750UZ which is similar to the 730UZ but has a resolution of four million pixals and a digital zoom of four power. The optical zoom is still ten power. This gave a total zoom power of forty. Finally, I added an Olympus TCON 1.7 add on telephoto lens which increased the optical zoom to 17 power. With a digital zoom of four, this resulted in a total zoom power of 68. The camera requires good lighting conditions to get a shutter speed fast enough to stop a birds movement. Also, the field of vision is very small with the camera zoomed and it is sometimes difficult to locate the subject bird in the viewfinder. In the field, I use a monopod to steady the camera.

In November, 2005, while at Brazos Bend State Park, I took a miss-step, fell and damaged my Olympus 750UZ. This was a week before the Rio Grande Birding Festival in Harlingen, Texas and our post festival trip to the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve and surrounding areas. I quickly purchased a new Olympus SP-500UZ. This camera has the same 10 power optical zoom as the other Olympus cameras I've used, but has a resolution of 6 million pixals and a 5 power digital zoom. I also purchased a Raynox 2.2X Super Telephoto Conversion Lens. This increased the optical zoom to 22 power.

After our Costa Rica trip in July, 2006, I purchased a Nikon Digital SRL camera. I found that there was not enough light in the rain and cloud forests of Costa Rica to take the pictures I wanted. I purchased a Nikon D-80 DSRL body and a Nikkor 80-400 mm zoom lens with vibration reduction. This camera, while not magnifying as much as the Olympus-Raynox combination, does give better pictures.

In some of the Picture Information descriptions, there is a reference, in parenthesis, to birding sites on "The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail." UTC refers to Upper Texas Coast, CTC refers to Central Texas Coast and LTC refers to Lower Texas Coast. Maps showing the trails are available from the Texas Cooperative Extension Bookstore (http://tcebookstore.org/).

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