It was great to end the month with a lifer: a ruff that stopped over at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge! I saw the post on Wisconsin Rare Bird Alert and immediately hopped in the car with my optics. The clouds parted and the rain stopped long enough to make it out to the boardwalk, though it was still blustery. Luckily, several people with scopes were looking at the bird, so I got a quick view before getting on it myself. Then, I was able to take some photos (like this one) with my iPhone.
They may not be winning any beauty contests, but it’s nice in this digital age to have a convenient camera at the ready, at least to capture some memories! Now that I have a new phone (though my old one still works fine), I just keep the old one in the scope adapter permanently. So, it’s an easy digi-scoping rig to have at the ready for times like these. I can still upload photos over wireless internet, and strangely, sometimes that old phone still seems to work…