Tero
Retired
My daughter and I went to Costa Rica for a week. We still go on trips with our grown kids till they are married.
So I signed up for a bus tour that went to all kinds of locations. The tourists, nearly all American, just wanted to see howler monkeys and sloths!
I took three pair with me. I was with my Nikon Monarch 5s at all sites, all river cruises (1-2 hrs on a simple covered boat). There was no need for a spotting scope. I only had 5:30-6:30 for serious birding each morning.
The 8x32 Pentax worked fine for my daughter as she uses glasses at times and they work well enough. The sports store 8x25s were just back up, but she used them at times when the 8x32 were too heavy for the whole day. They were useless in dawn or dusk. I had some trouble making out detail with the 8x42s even when the birds were already active. In the Arenal area the clouds created a fog in the morning. I was wiping the lenses every 5 seconds.
Came home with some 45 lifers and 75 species total. On a guided birding only tour you can get 30 birds in an hour and 60 in a day. But I IDd all but one pretty easily. One I took for a wren. It was a deep brown. I think it was a Chestnut-backed antbird. With my limited birding time, I had help with my daughter taking photos with a 30x pocket camera.
The one river cruise gave three new kingfishers. One I only saw. The other two the guide called out. My only birding competition was a lady with zoom binoculars who had trouble even with clay colored thrush/robin, the national bird! The other 40 on the tour were mostly clueless. They mostly had the Walmart 8x25s or a pair from Sears 40 years old. They oohed and aahed all the big birds and colorful mccaws etc. I was the only one to find a regular parrot.
So I signed up for a bus tour that went to all kinds of locations. The tourists, nearly all American, just wanted to see howler monkeys and sloths!
I took three pair with me. I was with my Nikon Monarch 5s at all sites, all river cruises (1-2 hrs on a simple covered boat). There was no need for a spotting scope. I only had 5:30-6:30 for serious birding each morning.
The 8x32 Pentax worked fine for my daughter as she uses glasses at times and they work well enough. The sports store 8x25s were just back up, but she used them at times when the 8x32 were too heavy for the whole day. They were useless in dawn or dusk. I had some trouble making out detail with the 8x42s even when the birds were already active. In the Arenal area the clouds created a fog in the morning. I was wiping the lenses every 5 seconds.
Came home with some 45 lifers and 75 species total. On a guided birding only tour you can get 30 birds in an hour and 60 in a day. But I IDd all but one pretty easily. One I took for a wren. It was a deep brown. I think it was a Chestnut-backed antbird. With my limited birding time, I had help with my daughter taking photos with a 30x pocket camera.
The one river cruise gave three new kingfishers. One I only saw. The other two the guide called out. My only birding competition was a lady with zoom binoculars who had trouble even with clay colored thrush/robin, the national bird! The other 40 on the tour were mostly clueless. They mostly had the Walmart 8x25s or a pair from Sears 40 years old. They oohed and aahed all the big birds and colorful mccaws etc. I was the only one to find a regular parrot.
