The confluence of these two topics on Tweeters made me think of another
incident on my birding tour to New Zealand (21 days top to bottom, Wrybill
Tours). One of our trip leaders and another participant both had these giant
lenses, like 800mm lenses. Brent uses it to take pelagic shots of birds at
sea, and somehow manages to hold it steady without a tripod - quite a sight.
Brent was responsible for rediscovering the New Zealand Storm-Petrel (not
least because he had good enough pictures of it). If you are going to New
Zealand, I would absolutely recommend these guys. They are by far the most
knowledgeable guides on the islands. http://www.wrybill-tours.com/index.htm



Anyway. one night we were on a remote beach on Stewart Island, notable
because it is probably the easiest place to see kiwis in all of New Zealand.
This would be our fifth species of kiwi (there are only 5) and by far the
easiest to find. The beach was covered with seaweed, and there were little
bugs on the seaweed that the kiwis like, so they come out on the beach in
full sight and forage around. It was a bright moonlit night, perfect for
viewing. We stayed there for quite a while, and one of the guys with the
massive lenses rested his on a log so that he could use his binoculars. This
lens had some kind of shade on the end of it that stuck out a ways.



Given that these cameras cost on the order of $10,000, you can imagine his
state of anxiety when a kiwi (with a long, sharp bill) decided that that
lens was pretty interesting! It seemed to think that the end of the lens was
some kind of little cave, and was poking about in there with its bill. This
provided high entertainment for the rest of us, but there was absolutely
nothing he could do since you weren't allowed within any distance of the
kiwis, being protected birds. He just had to wait until it got bored and
wandered off in search of food :) You can bet he'll never set that thing
down again! At least not without its lens cover. The good new is I don't
think it suffered any damage, at least that we heard about.



Teresa Michelsen

Olympia, WA