ABA Blog

Night Moves

It is nice to see a pair of Barn Owls back for another season using a box I put up a few years ago in a friend's barn not too far from home.  I featured these barn owls in an earlier post, with still Infrared (IR) photos taken with a Reconyx Hyperfire HC500 trail camera.  I still really like that camera but wanted to try IR video, so over the winter I got a pair of Bushnell TrophyCam HD trail cameras, which can get non-disruptive video and sound recordings in addition to still photos.  So far I'm pretty happy with the results, and I'm excited to keep the video trail cam experimentation going through this spring.  My quick impressions of the TrophyCam HD vs. the HC500 so far:

Pros:

• Price is pretty good, at about $200 a pop you can get two of these with some nice accessories like steel security enclosures for the price of a single Reconyx.
• The video capability is a pretty cool deal, most excellent to see critters doing their thing at night and the sound recording adds a neat dimension.

Cons:  

• The Infrared illumination can be a bit harsh, overexposing close subjects in the center of the frame.  You can select a low-power LED setting to help but I'm currently trying to block out a few of the LEDs with tape to see if this situation improves.  
• The shutter trigger time is definitely slower than the Reconyx (not a surprise based on Trailcam Pro's testing data indicating 0.197 second trigger time for the HC500 vs. 0.596 second for the TrophyCam HD.)  For active birds such as Barn Owls flying into the box, even the Reconyx misses some shots but the TrophyCam misses many more.

Anyway, here's a test video put together from the owly barn:

  

And here's a bonus video using the Bushnell TrophyCam HD, shot near the barn next to Boulder Creek.  This one's mainly a mammal feature (watch for 5 different furry species) but there's at least one heard-only bird species to keep in pace with the theme of this blog...

 

Crossley does Raptors

If you follow many bird blogs you may have noticed a lot of press recently for the upcoming Crossley ID
guide to Raptors (scheduled for release in April- your order from Buteo Books helps support the ABA!)  Crossley Books and Princeton University Press have coordinated a bird blog tour to introduce the book and I'm very pleased to be a part of it.

Unless you've been living in a cave for the last few years you are no doubt familiar with the revolutionary approach to field guides taken by Richard Crossley.  His idea of using digital photographic montages, representing the many aspects of birds we see in the field in a single plate filled with imagery of subjects near and far, perched and in flight, from above and from below, etc. was a refreshingly unique idea first seen in his ID Guide to Eastern Birds.  Here Richard has collaborated with raptor gurus Jerry Liguouri and Brian Sullivan to take the concept a bit further.  Yes, the trademark composited assemblages are still at the heart of the book but much more text has been added in the back in the form of detailed species accounts and fine-resolution distribution maps.  The book also includes several "quiz" plates, featuring multiple looks at raptors in different circumstances often encountered by enthusiasts and photographers in the field.  These include themes such as Prairie Raptors, Buteos of the Midwest Prairie, Soaring Widespread Common Raptors, Hovering Raptors, Raptor Topsides, Southeastern Raptors, Raptors of the South, Raptors Going Away, Raptors in Black & White (to emphasize structure and simulate bad lighting conditions), Sunrise on the East Coast (raptors washed in warm light), and Into the Sun (backlit raptors.)  These plates have numbered birds without ID labels, with discussion points and the answers given in the back.  In short, the book represents a master course on raptor ID and should be in the arsenal of any serious birder in the US, especially those with a fondness for birds of prey.  Copies at hawk watches are bound to be dog-eared and broken-spined through loving use by the end of the season, as it offers fantastic comparison photos of any given species of any age or color morph from about any angle and in many types of lighting (just like one encounters in the field!)  

So my role in this blog tour is to connect bird photography and the book.  What I'll say here is that the guide (along with Crossley's ID Guide to Eastern Birds and upcoming UK and Western editions) show that bird pics can be useful even if they are distant, taken in tough light, etc.  I know there is debate about teaching new birders traditional field skills and critical observation techniques vs. just snapping away at everything and figuring out what's on the card later.  I appreciate the tension between these extremes but I honestly think that the two approaches aren't mutually exclusive.  I know that I have personally learned a lot by anaylizing the myriad of bird photos I've taken just as the countless thousands of hours of keenly listening to birds and staring through my bins and scope have improved my ID skills.  When the opportunity presents itself my advice is take pics and look critically at birds, then compare notes when you get home of what you thought you saw vs. what you find in your pics. When it comes to raptors, there is often time to both hoist bins and snap a few pics of a circling bird.  Even if it is just a private guess to yourself, stick a name on the bird in the field and then at home see what the pics indicate and note anything you may have missed on the live bird.  

Anyway, as a wrap-up event for the blog tour, Richard Crossley and Brian Sullivan will host a live online Raptor ID Happy Hour from 6 to 7pm EDT.  Click on over to this Shindig link to RSVP!  There's also a generous sweepstakes with some sweet prizes on offer- link here to enter (& make sure to do so by Friday when the contest ends...)

An example of a species account in the new Crossley ID Guide to Raptors (in this case Zone-tailed Hawk.)

 

Plates like this show many ages and angles of a given species (care to take a stab at identifying this one?)

 

Other plates show collections of many species to practice ID skills on, like this example of backlit birds of prey.

Spot Check

I hope I'm mostly preaching to the choir when I say that counting birds whenever possible (vs. just ticking species) is important for many reasons.  The folks at team eBird have summarized the importance of doing so and some basics to try when counting flocks in their excellent post, "Bird Counting 101".  For those facing more advanced counting situations they followed up with "Bird Counting 201".  Here I'd like to show one of my favorite ways to count big flocks of birds using digital photographs.

Bird photography is very useful beyond aesthetic reasons. For example, when documenting a rare bird or for use in identifying challenging species a few photos can be invaluable.  I have also found that flock shots (however janky) are great for counting bird numbers from the leisure of my laptop.  I know I'm not the first birder who has thought of this (indeed, one main way to census flocks of waterfowl etc. is to study aerial photos), but I'd like to share a few tips I've found to be helpful.

First, a great use for a zoom lens is to pull back to fit the flock into the frame.  Sometimes a modest point & shoot camera or smart phone may be even better than a telephoto if you are close to a big flock.  If you still can't fit the flock in, try to estimate how much of the flock you are getting in the image to use as your basis for multiplying your estimation later.  When I'm looking at an image on my computer, I like to use the paintbrush feature in Photoshop Elements (about any image processing software will have similar features), with the pixel radius set to about the body size of each bird.  This lets me count individuals by dabbing them each with a spot of virtual paint, eliminating re-counts.  I also like to change the color in sets of birds according to the general size of the flock (like every 10, 25, or 100 birds.)  This gives me a nice visual of each block of birds and helps me pick up where I left off if I lose count.  Not only does this give a really accurate count of the flock but I think it helps me improve my visualization of blocks of birds in the field if I can't get a shot to count later.  Here are a few examples of this technique that I've used to get a good count of birds in a flock.

 

 

The winter of 2007/2008 produced an amazing irruption of Bohemian Waxwings in Colorado.  Here is what I estimated to be about 1/3 of a flock in my Longmont neighborhood on 29 December 2007.  How many birds do you think are in this frame?

 

I arrived at 698 individual birds, each dabbed with a spot of color (in separately colored blocks of 100.) Click on the image to see the color dabs in higher resolution.)  Since I thought I was able to fit about 1/3 of the birds in the frame, I estimated the flock to be ~2100 birds.

 

Here's an example from last fall.  On 5 October 2012 an amazing overflight of Sandhill Cranes swept the overcast skies of Boulder.  Skein after skein of vocalizing birds traversed the city in the afternoon hours, and amidst my errands I swung into a Safeway parking lot to take a wide-angle shot of one wave.

 

To count the birds I tweaked up the brightness and contrast and then dabbed the birds in colored groups of 100, arriving at 378 birds.  By comparing this group to the multiple other skeins I saw flying by that afternoon I estimated my observation total at 2400 Sandhill Cranes.  Adding photos like this along with field notes to eBird checklists is a great way to make your friendly neighborhood eBird reviewer happy!!  

 

 

Like much of the United States, Colorado is in the midst of an historic redpoll irruption this winter.  On 24 November, 2012, I caught up to a large flock that had been reported frequenting Baseline Reservoir in Boulder.  When the flock picked up and whirled around I grabbed a shot with every bird in the frame.  Care to estimate the count before scrolling down??

 

 

 

 

In this frame I came up with 60 birds, here dabbed in color blocks of 10.  On a personal note, at the time I saw it, this flock was about triple the size of all of my prior cumulative redpolls in the state (a number that has since skyrocketed from several more large flocks I've encountered this winter.)

 

You don't even need a telephoto rig to try this technique- here's another Bohemian Waxwing flock (from Niwot, Colorado 22 Feb 2013) digibinned with my iPhone through the beta bins that I keep in my car.  I propped the binocular on my window (partially rolled up to achieve a good height) and clicked a few shots for a private census.  

This time spotting by 20s I came up with 160 birds in the cottonwood tree.

 

OK, ready for your homework?  See what you come up with on this one...  ◔_◔

Are your windows ready?

Today's installment is a quick check to see if your windows are ready for special visitors.  In this case I'm not talking about the serious issue of bird strikes (but if you are having problems with this please review these excellent strike-prevention posts by Julie Zickefoose and David Sibley.)  Instead, I'm talking about how to be ready when neat birds show up outside your windows, either to visit feeders, water, or habitat near your abode.  

Some steps are probably obvious, but nonetheless here's what I do during the winter feeding season.

1) Remove window screens.  Viewing and especially photographing birds through screenless windows is ideal.  Shooting through the glass this way is good, and opening the window, even if only wide enough for the camera lens, is ideal.

2) Wash your windows.  It is amazing how grimy the outside of my windows get, and my sliding glass door gets really smudged from kid height down.  Clean glass = better viewing & photography.

3) If there is a bird that you really want to photograph, start by shooting through the glass.  If the bird sticks around you can always try to open the window later.  If you flush the bird away by opening a window you should then build a time machine, go back in time prior to your unfortunate window-opening decision, and photograph the bird through the glass first before attempting to open the window.

4) If you have the opportunity, turn off the indoor lights to cut glare from the inside of the glass.  You will also then be hidden in what amounts to an apartment/condo/home-sized photo blind.

5) If the bird's position and your indoor arrangements permit, shoot with your lens close to the glass (or even touching your shade hood to the window), as perpendicular to the glass surface as possible.

6) If it is really cold out and you open your window, warm indoor air escaping can cause image-blurring heat distortion.  If you are in a small room such as a bedroom, close the door to reduce airflow.  Otherwise, time your shots and/or shoot many pictures to try to get some sharp images amongst the blurry ones.

Here are some of my favorite shots taken from inside my house.

Male American Goldfinch, photographed out my sliding glass door.  Water brings in lots of great birds- here I opened the door and sat on the living room floor to photograph birds hitting my Bird Spa.  

 

Once I caught a glimpse of some strange movement out in my dripper bath and noted this American Kestrel having a splash.  This time I photographed the small falcon through the sliding door glass, not wanting to scare away the bird.

In April of 2005 hundreds of Bohemian Waxwings choked the trees in my back yard, waiting for a turn at my water features.  Here we see some shoulder-to-shoulder waxwing drinking along the rail on my back porch, shot through my kitchen window.

This past January, an immature Northern Shrike made an appearance (and apparently had a meal to judge by the blood on its breast feathers) in my back yard.  It flew up to the ornamental cherry tree that shades the back porch, sitting up high and only offering belly views from the first floor.  But much to my delight, the view out of the second-floor office window was eye-to-eye.  After snapping a few images through the glass I quietly eased the window open enough for my lens to get unobstructed views in the cherry tree.  When the shrike flew over to a nearby cottonwood I opened the window all the way and carefully leaned out a little to shoot again from the elevated position.

 

In December our yard was blessed with a two-day visit by a flock of redpolls.  Since this thistle feeder is off to the side of our back porch I leaned out the sliding door just enough for some record shots like this before getting a more serious photo blind setup in place out back.  

Let's zoom in, shall we?

I think that most readers of this blog are aware of the potential power of digiscoping, but I'd like to illustrate another example of the technique's utility from the Boulder Christmas Bird Count (which I compile) last 16 Dec.  In the weeks leading up to the count, a group of Tundra Swans had been seen in the count circle, frequenting a few area lakes.  This is a rare species on the count, only recorded 6 times on 70 prior counts.  A few of my trusty scouts tried to pin the birds down in the count-week days leading up to the event but dipped- the birds seemed to have moved on.  But on the morning of the count I got a text from Bill Kaempfer reporting them on Valmont Reservoir.  Nice!!  

By mid-afternoon I had finished my territory and had time to swing over to the mighty Valmont to have a gander for myself.  While this power plant-heated triple reservoir complex is a winter waterbird haven, the views from public overlooks range from far at best to recedingly distant most of the time.  The count territory team had permission to enter the complex for better viewing but I was going to settle for some long scope looks.  Still, the swans were great to see in the day's last sloping sunlight, cruising in the windy waters.  I put my Panasonic DMC-G5 rig (with a digiscoping-friendly Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R Lens) to my Nikon EDG 64mm scope and shot this video:

 

Notice anything different about one of the birds?  Indeed, one of them is sporting a neck collar.  Now, in full disclosure, I didn't make this discovery.  The neck collared-bird had been well documented in the weeks leading up to the count, and my buddy Christian Nunes had previously submitted the collar number to the USGS Patuxent Bird Banding Lab.  Still, it was my first encounter with the banded bird so I thought I'd try to read the collar at this new location and date.  Frustratingly, I was having trouble confirming the digits on the distant bird (eye fatigue from a long day's birding and wind shake didn't help either), so I snapped a series of digiscoped stills to see if I could pull out the code.

At this level, I think we can confirm the ID as Tundra Swans through traits such as the variable yellow lores and document the rarity well for our state's Christmas Bird Count reviewer.  But I still don't think I can read the neck collar.

By cranking both the scope and camera lens zoom up to nearly maximum levels, cropping the image, and applying some sharpening, the code reveals itself: U856, yellow horizontal numerals on blue (click to enlarge the pic if you can't read the collar.)

While I wasn't the first to crack the bird's code, it was gratifying to confirm that it was the same bird found weeks earlier and to contribute another data point in the bird's known history.  The USGS has gotten very streamlined in their responses to band reports, and I was emailed this certificate within a few days of submitting the collar code:

Pretty cool to know the bird was banded as an adult on the marshy flats east of Kotzebue Sound near the Bering Strait in NW Alaksa in the summer of 2010.  The banding site is about 2800 straight-line miles away from Valmont Reservoir!

PhoneSkope Mods

I'm pleased that several manufacturers are producing phone scoping adapters, giving folks a stable option for recording distant birds with their smart phone through their scope.  Meopta and Kowa have nice models that work well, and I'll have a detailed review of these coming up in the Feb. issue of Winging It.  Their main limitation for now seems to be that they are only made for iPhone 4/4s and only come in adapter diameters matching their scopes and bins (though they will work on other optics if the eyepiece diameter matches closely enough.)  

Another outfit, PhoneSkope, has a much more universal solution in their phone scoping adapter.  They have many stock smart phone options beyond the iPhone 4/4s (including iPhone 5, Samsung, and Motorola) and will also custom fabricate a phone adapter if it works within their production specification limits.  The adapter portion that connects to the scope is also customizable, locking onto to the phone bracket via a bayonet mount.  

The PhoneSkope adapter has interchangeable, customizable components- the phone bracket and the eyepiece adapter, which connect by bayonet mount.

The team at PhoneSkope went out of their way to mill me a custom adapter to use with my Nikon EDG scope so I could review the product, but the large diameter of the eyepiece was slightly beyond their machining capabilities.  But I've always believed that digiscoping (or in this case, phone scoping) is pretty experimental, so I dug around my garage to see what might work.  I found an unused shop vac connector that fit my eyepiece like a glove and decided to go for the mod:

First, I knocked off the needed end of a shop vac adapter with my band saw (a hacksaw would have worked just as well but hey, Power Tools!)  Still had all of my fingers when I was finished, which is good...

Next step was to clean up the cut on the belt sander.  (Hand sanding would work as well but hey, Power Tools!)

Size check looks good!

The scavenged tube fits like it was custom-made for the task.

And the adapter tube looks like it will fit well on the phone bracket!

Convinced it would work, I decided to to glue it up.  Unfortunately, this took away the great PhoneSkope feature of interchangeable eyepiece adapters but you gotta do what you gotta do.  (Epoxy would work well but hey, Super Glue!)

To the field!!  The PhoneSkope gives a nice centered image and stable mount.  On my zoom eyepiece it starts somewhat vignetted at full camera wide, but by zooming in the phone a bit a full-frame image is obtainable.

Another look at the rig, & what's that bump on the branch? 

Hey, it's a distant 2nd-year Bald Eagle brought into iPhone range with my spotting scope and PhoneSkope adapter!

 

Smart phones shoot video too.  My iPhone won't zoom when filming movies so the side vignetting is there, but it isn't too distracting and opens the possibility of capturing behaviors in a way that still photos can't. 

 

Who Else Likes My Brush Pile?

A couple of weeks ago, I extolled the virtues of my back yard brush pile.  I find myself surveilling the structure nearly every day breakfast, and last week was tickled to see a Red Fox effortlessly hop my 5-foot fence as I enjoyed toast and coffee.  It was clearly well-practiced at the ambush, probably hoping for a distracted squirrel, careless bird, or lingering mouse but on this morning the critters at the pile took shelter and the fox moved on after showing off its balancing prowess by strolling along the top of the fence by way of departure.  Curious to learn more about what besides birds may be visiting my brush pile, I deployed a motion-activated trail camera to keep 24-hour vigil when I wasn't watching for myself out the kitchen window.

In the short time I've been keeping track, I've found the fox to visit almost every day, at about any time though not yet mid-day. I'll bet it has come away successful at least once and so keeps trying, though I've yet to capture a capture on my trail cam.  

Hmmm, why is this squirrel in a hurry to be elsewhere??

Oh, that's why..

The fox knows when the gig is up, though, and breaks off the chase (though no doubt remembers the details to adjust its strategy the next time.)

Maybe a dawn raid?

No good.

Pre-dawn might be good for mice...

Besides the fox, I've seen a few other night visitors.  One, though unwelcome, triggered two interesting frames...

One night this fat cat swung by the pile.  I've never seen it during the day, but it underscores the benefit of the brush pile as nearby cover for feeding birds.  It also forces an errant cat to approach from the open ground in front of the brush pile, denying it the element of surprise.  Now what is the cat looking up at on this brisk night?

 

A second later, the cat is looking nearly straight up.  Right under the numerals 3/5 at top center (which means frame 3 of 5 in the sequence), note a gray blur that isn't there in the first frame- click to enlarge both cat pics and you'll see it.  I believe this is a wingtip of an owl flushed by the cat and if so, the worst photo I've ever acquired of a strigiform.  

Squirrels have the daytime clean-up concession, but at night sometimes a Raccoon will see what spilled seed is left to mop up. Cylindrical baffles like the one visible on the left pole keep both grounded, leaving the feeders to those that can fly in (though I'm sure the fox could jump up if desired.)

Brushing Up

Earlier this fall, I had an ash tree that needed some pruning back.  One cut led to another, and soon I had a daunting pile of limbs, branches, and twigs to deal with.  I lopped the bigger stuff into campfire wood (local use only, wouldn't want to inadvertently spread Emerald Ash Borers...) and chopped a bunch of the leftovers up into mulch using my chipper/shredder.  But in a perfect blend of putting off work while helping birds, I heaped the rest into a pile behind my feeder array.

My winter brush pile, providing cover near my feeder array and keeping the photo opps coming!

 A brush pile gives birds a place to stage as they come out to feed and offers a quick retreat from predators such as accipiters- the National Wildlife Federation includes this as an idea to create cover for improving backyard wildlife habitat. Some species of birds just don't like to be out in the open, and having the brush pile around increases the chance of seeing these skulkers.  I have a big permanent brush pile beyond the more manicured part of my yard for birds to roost or take cover in, but in the winter feeding season I plan to maintain the smaller pile by the feeders, with my photo blind set up nearby to take advantage of the birds that visit.  So far this fall I have already reaped the dividend of a couple of new yard birds and some fun photos- thanks, brush pile!!

 

I love raptors, and Sharp-shinned Hawks like this youngster always liven up my day when they patrol the feeders.  This guy was playing the waiting game with birds in the brush and in my spruces, completely intent on their scuttling deep in the cover and trying to figure out how to successfully get at them.  A brush pile gives small birds cover from predators, but a sharpie won't shy at following birds right into the brush pile or thick spruce boughs if it thinks it has a chance. 

 

    

Eurasian Collared-Doves scatter up instead of into cover.  This can be a bad move when an experienced Cooper's Hawk is sharing their airspace, as evidenced by this adult enjoying a plump exotic columbid dinner atop a neighboring building.  Don't worry- despite the intentions of my Super Cooper Troopers I've still got plenty of EuroDos around.

 

Junco diversity in the west is pretty sweet.  I've had all of the Dark-eyed Junco subspecies in my yard, and having a brush pile increases their numbers and length of their stay.  Here a Pink-sided Junco looks for stray seeds in frosty thyme, a few hops away from shelter under the tangle of branches.

 

My favorite junco, a spanking White-winged Junco, makes an appearance in the brush pile late last month.

 

As I scrambled to unobtrusively switch off my focus limiter, the White-winged Junco hopped towards me, unaware or uncaring as I snapped away from my photo blind just a few meters away.

 

Last weekend  on a lazy morning I scanned the brush pile from our kitchen window after an overnight basting of snow.  Much to my surprise and delight, a big white-bellied immature Harris's Sparrow was working in and out of the branches with the mix of more common birds.

 

As some of my birding buddies from across the pond might say, What a Stonker!!

Bird of the Year Art Contest Results!

The ABA Bird of the Year Multimedia Art Contest results are in! Congratulations to all the participants and huge thanks to the prize sponsors.

1st Place

 Brian Gatlin – Grand Canyon, AZ

Prize: Eagle Optics Ranger ED 8×42

1st Place - Youth

Courtney Moore, age 14, Vestal, NY

Prize: A Birder’s 10-book collection from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

2nd Place - Tie

Evening Grosbeak – Yuba Pass Campground, Hwy 49, CA, USA by Vivek Khanzode

Rachael Butek, Colfax, Wisconsin

Prize: Perky-Pet® Copper Sip & Seed Bird Feeder

2nd Place - Youth

Evening Grosbeaks at Sunrise, by Chloe Walker, age 12 – Murfreesboro, TN

Prize: Perky-Pet® Copper Sip & Seed Bird Feeder

3rd Place - Youth

Gabrielle Claus – Age 14 – Lancaster, PA

Prize: Julie Zickefoose Evening Grosbeak Artwork Print

Additional Winning Entries

Evening Grosbeak at Hartwick Pines by David R. Sager – Smithville, TX

Prize: Perky-Pet® Copper Sip & Seed Bird Feeder

"I’ve Just Seen A Grosbeak” – vocals & ukulele by Gary Bloomfield, Arcata, CA

Prize: Perky-Pet® Copper Sip & Seed Bird Feeder

 

Ashok Khosla, Palo Alto, CA

Prize: Julie Zickefoose Evening Grosbeak Artwork Print

Evening Grosbeak Pair – by Nancy Castillo, Saratoga Springs, NY

Prize: Julie Zickefoose Evening Grosbeak Artwork Print

Matthew Dodder – Mountain View, CA

Prize: The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America - Autographed by Don & Lillian Stokes.

Too see the other fantastic art entries, please visit the contest website.

Phoggy Photo Phixes

I thought I'd continue on my theme of rescuing less-than ideal bird images through simple digital post-processing (in the last episode I talked about dealing with high-noise images.)  Today I'll address a few ideas for dealing with foggy images.

The issue came home for me a couple of weeks ago when I was on the El Sauz Ranch in south Texas, on the Gulf Coast immediately north of Laguna Atascota NWR.  It was the last morning of my trip and I was all packed up but had about 1/2 hour to kill before our van departed, so I took one more stroll around the facilities where we were staying.  In an attempt to elicit some action I tooted my best Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl imitation to see what I could dredge up.  I saw a few little brush-loving birds peeking out from the mesquite, but my buddy Tom Dunkerton saw something better- an actual Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl teed up on an open branch!!  When he caught up to me with the news I rushed back to grab my camera out of my bag, which was waiting in the air-conditioned comfort of my room.

Cue dramatic theme:

 

So those of you who deal with hot, humid climes like the Gulf Coast probably know where this is going.  Yeah, as soon as I had the little FEPO in my sights and uncorked my lens cap, the objective lens fogged like a bathroom mirror after a long hot shower.  At least I had a lens cloth, so I wiped my lens about every 30 seconds and did the best I could.  Even when my lens was freshly swabbed, I only got foggy-looking pics of the little crippler like this:

Never ditch a pic you want until you try to rescue it, though!  Like my previous noisy image examples, I'll start with a more appealing crop and then run it through NoiseWare to clean it up:

 

 I've found that the best way to get foggy images looking better is to tweak the levels.  Different photo processing software options have different ways of doing this, but in Photoshop Elements the levels are accessed through Enhance -> Adjust Lighting -> Levels:

From there, bring the left pointer (this is the black side of the image histogram) over to the right to where the curve begins, or just a little left of that if it looks too severe:

In my limited experience (I live in a semi-arid climate), that will often do a nice job of virtually burning off the fog.  The image might be a bit unbalanced dark now, so bring the right (white side) pointer over towards the beginning of the curves on that side until it looks like what you saw in the field through unfogged eyes:

Phew- saved despite my rookie move of bringing a cool lens into 90-squared conditions (90°F, 90% RH.)  Now a quick re-size for the web, maybe a touch of sharpening, and done:

The idea works for photographs in actual fog, too.  A few Novembers ago I found myself atop Sandia Crest, New Mexico in a freezing fog, enjoying flocks of Rosy-Finches despite tempting hypothermia by standing out on the gift shop's back deck in very arctic conditions.  The cloud was so thick that even birds within 10 yards were ghostly in the fog- here's a very close Black Rosy-Finch snap in those conditions:

What to do?  Crop, Noiseware, & Adjust Levels like before.

At this point the image is already vastly better, but another neat trick is to employ the Lighten Shadows feature to bring out detail in the darkest parts of the pic, such as body plumage details in this example:

Now Re-size & Auto-sharpen, & Voilà!

Not exactly the next cover of Birding Magazine, but far better than what I had to begin with!