A round of applause for the Bigma - Cool birding camera trial

So as soon as I got my grubby little hands on the Nikon/Bigma combo (see "Firing my gun in the air and going AAH")I went out birding naturally. Did the new toys work out OK? Well after an hours playing with it I'm pretty happy with them. It lets me close the distance like digiscoping does but at the same time allows fluidity and freedom. Little birds and fast movers are achievable for me now. Here's an example - this secretive clapper wandered out and I just swivelled the camera on the tripod and started blazing away.

I love these little guys and the way they occasionally scoot from one clump of mangrove to another. Whilst I was shooting frames I was really just enjoying the birding at this point. Usually when I see them I see the tail end of one as it runs very quickly away but this one was a little more tentative and kept hanging around a certain area. I soon found out why: super cute baby clappers!

Now bare in mind that its rare enough I see adults and this is the first time I've ever seen babies - what a treat, especially since they are so ridiculously cute. They are if anything more shy than the adults and were hanging deep in the scrub. That and my inexperience with the camera mean the above is the only decent shot I got of a baby and its heavily cropped but I didn't really care about the camera trial any more - I was enjoying an awesome birding moment for me. I found it pretty interesting they have babies right now in January (I keep writing babies because there were 2 (or rather at least 2)), I wonder if they keep clutching year round or whether they are on a yearly cycle centred around the slightly cooler, wetter winter? At least this explains what the tiny black butt I saw running away from me on the CBC was!