Back to the sea this morning resulted in no new birds for DK but despite the low visibility I noted an increase in seaducks in the area.
11 White-winged Scoters were the highlight and a high count of 8 Red-breasted Mergansers (which really isn't many considering the thousands that are usually seen in Ontario at this time of year) and a high count of 22 Brant (probably the same flock as earlier this week when I counted 21).
My view through the scope. These birds were painfully close to shore and would have allowed some great photos - if only I had my lens...
Anyway, the real news is that I brought my lens (the broken one) to the repair shop today to see what they would say.
They asked me to fill in a form and they'd have a closer look at the lens another day.
I asked them if they would charge me for that.
Almost $100 was the reply.
I gave him an awkward look (from my experience with fixing things - mostly bikes - the repairman will give you an estimate right away and won't charge you to have a look at it!!!)
Then he decided to have a look right away and told me that it'll cost over $1800 to fix.
I bought the lens in perfect condition 2.5 years ago for $1100 so there was no way I was going to pay $500 let alone $1800!
I knew it would probably be expensive to replace, but not that much. I was also surprised because the cost of a new lens costs about $1650 nowadays! So why would they even want to charge me that much... why wouldn't they simply suggest buying a new lens...
Anyway, thankfully I wasn't heartbroken because I can save money and take just as good or even better photos!
How you might ask?
Well I've spent several hours this past week researching digiscoping. I already have a great Scope so all I need is a decent point and shoot camera (Canon S90 is really standing out for me right now) and adapters. At the same time I can sell my original Camera and in the process make about $400 minus some small accessories needed for digiscoping.
Check out this blog with some great photos all taken via digiscoping - it got me excited:
Soooo it's only a matter of time before the title of this blog changes to "Birding and Digiscoping with Alvan"! That might take 2 weeks or 2 months.
More like 6 months though probably...
