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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

What did you see in your binoculars today? (1 Viewer)

Somehow we'd never seen Green-tailed Towhees, but they were all around our foothills hike this morning. Heard at least six, saw several, had a good long visit with one singing on a bush. Also saw a Western Tanager, among other more common birds of course. And an amazing male Cecropia ("robin") moth that allowed us to observe it at ~2m -- I got lucky identifying it from online images. (10x32 UV, BN)

...And this evening, the first bats of the season. (no bins)
 
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We are on the Scottish Isle of Islay and yesterday were astonished to see 3 Sandwich Terns fishing in our bay and catching what looked like sandeels. We used to see them regularly on the England east coast but have never before seen them in west Scotland. Last time we saw this species was about 20 years ago from the ferry as we arrived in Dublin. Yesterday the big terns were accompanied by a single Little Tern giving great comparison views of our smallest and largest breeding terns.

Lee
 
Please, Lee, try to leave enough Laphroiag and Lagavulin behind that there will be enough to supply us here in the Former North American Colonies.

We will be in your debt.
 
Hi Lee,

I've just read on Wikipedia of Caspian Terns nesting in Alaska, 1000 miles further north than any previous sighting. This was ascribed to global warming. Maybe a similar situation with the Sandwich Terns?

John
 
Tringa45 said:
Hi Lee,

I've just read on Wikipedia of Caspian Terns nesting in Alaska, 1000 miles further north than any previous sighting. This was ascribed to global warming. Maybe a similar situation with the Sandwich Terns?

John
Click to expand...
A reasonable suggestion John considering the information suggesting fish species are moving north too, but Sandwich Terns have for decades been breeding much further north than Islay on the Orkney Isles and they are still there now despite a significant reduction in UK populations as a whole. Whatever the explanation, to have three of these big terns fishing so close to us for about half an hour, and accompanied by a Little Tern too, was just wonderful.

Lee
 
Highlights were a hunting Osprey catching what looked like a 4" to 5" Yellow Perch. I watched the whole thing, hover, dive, splash and go out of sight, and emerge from the water with the fish. Spectacular.

Then I got to see a Great Blue Heron catch an enormous Bullfrog. It wasn't sure how to handle the frog at first but after some squeezing and shaking it walked ashore and behind a tree, so I didn't get to watch it swallow the frog. It skipped up onto a log and out to the end and into the water (pond) to grab the frog. It was pretty nimble, as it probably had to move 6' to 10' from where it was standing to make the grab.

Then I saw a Red-tailed hawk up on the top of a 50' or so wooden utility pole, and stopped to watch it. It was joined by its mate who took the adjacent pole and both were still there when I left. I thought (by size) that the first one was a female, but when the real female showed up it was obvious that I was wrong.
 
last evening during a short walk around my house i had a great and long vision of a fox that it hunted and eated a mices or voles. Then loking into the nearby lawn i saw another 3 4 foxis. It whas great for me. Opticron verano 8x32 hd
 
Haha. Yesterday I saw a Dark-Eyed Junco holding a caterpillar in its mouth. The insect was perfectly situated to make it appear the Junco had a whitish mustache. It took me a few moments of emphatic viewing to determine what was going on. I was thinking I found a weird junco with some very unusual facial markings or something. Started with my UV7x42s and worked my way up to my SLC15x56s.
 
Last three days, I have all three of my big eyes on tripods: NL 12x42, SLC HD 15x56 and ATM 80 scope focus on the bird nest on the light pole in the back of my house. There have two baby birds on the nest and they are about to fully covered by feathers. I want to catch the moment they leave the nest for the first flight! Hope they would be ok because the pole is really high above the ground and the way the nest constructed, they basically have to way to practice flying! As soon as they leave the nest, they will descend down toward the ground. Keep fingers crossed!
 
jcnguyen09 said:
Last three days, I have all three of my big eyes on tripods: NL 12x42, SLC HD 15x56 and ATM 80 scope focus on the bird nest on the light pole in the back of my house. There have two baby birds on the nest and they are about to fully covered by feathers. I want to catch the moment they leave the nest for the first flight! Hope they would be ok because the pole is really high above the ground and the way the nest constructed, they basically have to way to practice flying! As soon as they leave the nest, they will descend down toward the ground. Keep fingers crossed!
Click to expand...
What kind of birds are they?
 
quincy88 said:
What kind of birds are they?
Click to expand...
I really don't know the name. It's black with small white spots all over. The parents as a couple take turn to carry food back to the two baby birds. I figured out that these birds just like us, they have meal times as well. They feeding was really intense and non stop once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. Interesting!
 
after dinner in these evenings i go out with my el 10 x 42 and in the meadows near my house i always see foxes roe deer and a lot of muflons
 
We have a great many regular, daily visitors to our feeders and water. Two individuals really stand out these days.

One is a male house finch, reddish, with a large growth on the side of his head. I feel badly for him - can't imagine he will be around for long.

The other is a juvenile Cardinal.. mostly yellow and orange with a black beak. Adults here all have orange beaks. I wonder if the black beak is normal in their young and then it becomes orange in maturity?
 
Troubador said:
We are on the Scottish Isle of Islay and yesterday were astonished to see 3 Sandwich Terns fishing in our bay and catching what looked like sandeels. We used to see them regularly on the England east coast but have never before seen them in west Scotland. Last time we saw this species was about 20 years ago from the ferry as we arrived in Dublin. Yesterday the big terns were accompanied by a single Little Tern giving great comparison views of our smallest and largest breeding terns.

Lee
Click to expand...
What fun it would be to visit Lagavulin, Ardbeg, and Laphroaig. Three of my favorite scotches!
 
Say'sPhoebe said:
Unfortunately, I have been watching a couple forest fires through the binoculars today. Impressive but scary at the same time.
Click to expand...
If you can actually see them it's because the smoke is blowing my way... not much visible here. Yes, impressive and scary.
 
Hi,

going back from Scotland (and Scotch) to the Austrian Alps - I only brought my Papilio and the Opticron MMS 160 as I have enough stuff in my backpack...

Yesterday we go to see some marmots (adults and young ones) on a mountain meadow - very cute.

Joachim
 
We were doing a lovely walk by a river with some impressive cliffs and had been told there was a griffon vulture juvenile around. Hard as my friends tried with their 8x they could not see it, so I took the Canon IS 12x and after a while I located it, hidden really snug among the rocks. It was a really special sight.

Some hours later, on our way back, the bird was fully awake and for some reason seemed really interested in some nearby branches (the green leaves on the righthand side). Had it been a mammal, I would have said it was grazing! Put my smartphone on the binoculars eyepiece and took this snapshot. I'm terrible with distances, but I guess it must have been between 300 and 500 m away. I use the smartphone+binocular/telescope combo very often in order to have a record of what I see and I must say the IS is great for this purpose, given that shaking is the biggest problem when holding your smartphone against the eyepiece (I have an adapter for this, but many times it's a matter of seconds and it's impossible to attach it in time).

Vulture_juvenile.jpeg
 
I put a suet feeder out yesterday, joining with our thistle seed and mixed seed feeders, and today we had numerous visits, for the first time, from Black Headed Grosbeaks. What gorgeous birds! Bright intense yellow and black.

This was a first sighting of them for us on our property. Of course I was glued to the feeders and water for most of the day testing out a pair of NL Pure 10x32s. Distance to our various feeders is about 50' - wonderful viewing with 8x and 10x bins.
 

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