Our main quarry of the day was the Sandhill Crane. Unfortunately, we did not see any within a reasonable picture-taking distance. We were guessing that the ones above were at least 1/2 mi. away; this was confirmed by my checking the official Carlos Avery map. They were in the same place as described in my May 26 and June 1 posts.
Jim was pleased to see his first Sandhills, even if at a distance. Anticipating this situation, I had brought along my old Bushnell Spacemaster spotting scope (from about the '70's). Since I had already obtained a T-ring adapter for my Canons, I connected the XTi to the Spacemaster. Rather than using the Spacemaster's lens as a substitute telephoto, the Spacemaster connector I have projects an image with the eyepiece in place directly on to the sensor in the camera.
Keeping in mind that I was using 30+ year old optics, the shots are viewable -- but not much more (note the purple fringing in the pictures). But it was a fun experiment which I probably won't repeat until I get a better spotting scope. The Spacemaster is fine for visual use but it doesn't compare with the top dogs today from Swarovski, Zeiss, Leica, Kowa and Nikon. At this point I just don't want to spend the money unless I decide to get into digiscoping.