What did you see? (1 Viewer)

OK I'm going off on a little tangent from stats and binocular choices again. I think it's a good idea to have some fun remembering what we actually go through all these shenanigans for.

So if you're up for this please share two really cool things you've seen in your binoculars. Don't have to be your top picks but just two things that pop into your head that were really cool to see. Make it long or short. Pics are cool if you have them to illustrate the scene or just wing it with words. Here's two of mine.

Many years ago now, alone in a canyon in Eastern Oregon's High Desert I watched two Eagles do a mating dance and spin in a clear clear desert blue sky. They spun and spun from a great height and pulled out just before hitting the ground. I had read about it but had never seen it before and it was AMAZING!
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/68/14/3a/68143a540df67510aa2058b6af0966aa.jpg

The second cool thing was when I first looked through a pair of 6.5x Pentax Papilios close up binoculars into a bright bright red Opium Poppy with a bee inside covered in pollen. I COULD HARDLY BELIEVE MY EYES! It was like dropping into an amazing Sci-Fi world of amazing weird beauty almost beyond imagination. The center of the poppy was the darkest of blacks surrounded with the reddest of reds and that beautiful Honey Bee covered in sexual ecstasy. (pollen) The two pics below do not come anywhere close to what I saw from 18" in those amazing Papilio binoculars. It's almost spring and that's when my Paps come out. They are really amazing binoculars and I recommend the 6.5x over the 8.5x because of the better fov on the 6.5x.

https://www.myinterestingfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/opium-pic.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/15/16/de/1516de302fc5a83ae5e9c7d31a0c8adb.jpg

I hope you all take a turn at this. I'd love to see what you saw.

Nice thread BC.

My first is from a visit to a remote coast on a Scottish island to a site where we have watched otters many times. It was in November and we sat down in the shelter of a rocky crag on the shore to stay out of the sharp wind and to be not so obvious to any otters. Two hours later we had seen nothing and were getting chilled and stiff. We began to have our picnic lunch more for the flask of tea to warm us up than for the food and frankly we had in mind to eat and then walk away. It was obviously just one of those days when luck was running against us.

The tide was coming in and the little sheltered bay in front of us was filling up with sea water and the necklaces of seaweeds hanging down around every rock and boulder were starting to float on the incoming tide. And then, on a rock about 15 metres away there came into view two sleepy otter cubs, yawning and stretching and who had clearly been asleep on the other side of the rock lying on the seaweed for the whole two hours. We guess their mother had fed them and gone fishing while they fell asleep with full tummies.

They did the whole cub-thing pouncing on each other, rolling around, chasing in circles clockwise, chasing in circles anti-clockwise and this went on, to our delight, for about 45 minutes. Eventually the tide covered their rock and they stopped returning to it and began to explore the main shore while we crept away so their mother could return to feed them again. Magical.

Meanwhile, in the Languedoc of southern France, last May we visited a limestone canyon site that we have been to many many times to get glimpses of Alpine Swift. There is a view point on the edge of the gorge and if you are lucky the Alpine Swifts cruise overhead looking like stealth fighters, dwarfing the Common Swifts. Very occasionally at the same site we have caught a distant view of Red-rumped Swallow, a great treat, and on about half of our visits there have been small groups of Crag Martins too. Blue Rock Thrush sing in the gorge but are devilish difficult to spot.

We parked our trusty Skoda and got out to gaze around the familiar view and looked up, up and around for swifts. Nothing. And then, like a military parade, at the same level as ourselves, a never-seen-before display began. Alpine Swifts, Common Swifts, Crag Martin and Red-rumped Swallow all cruised by. Not a quarter of a mile away, not up against the sky, right in front of us, close. And some of the time we were looking down on them. It was as if all of our wishes for the site had come true in the same half hour and was just the most joyous sight.

Wow.

Lee

Man that's awesome. I've always wanted to view a sea otter. We have river otters right in town here in our creek and pond but I'm fascinated by the life of otters in the sea. The reason I want to hear from you all in this thread is that there is so much I will never see myself. We've all had some amazing moments even if we are not all world travelers and I'd like a peek in on that.

Here in Hampshire Uk most days I get out to a chair and watch for an hour or so. Through winter it was redwings and fieldfares in November but since then mainly woodpigeons and tiny birds in the tops of some large beech trees fify metres away: most often goldfinch, chaffinch, blue tit, with the occasional siskin, in groups which may be mixed, and the odd treecreeper or great spotted or green woodpecker.

This year the most dramatic views have been in the close or middle distance, especially of a single gorgeous mistle thrush, also familiar blackbirds, robins, collared doves, magpies, jays, kestrels, red kites, a lot of buzzards, occasional peregrine falcons and the brief glimpses of beautiful wrens and hedge sparrows, one of which one is so tame it comes right to my feet. A couple of years ago, before repairs to the ground floor eaves, there was a cranny where a ball of wrens could roost together for warmth. At night if the light came on, they would sometimes tumble out in a small fluttering cloud, so there must be a lot around.

You guys are right about the magic of detail and there is a family, or individual, carrion crows which sit on various roofs, struttting to display their glossy plumage, legs and feet, and gleaming eyes, only truly to be revealed by binoculars.

Birds which visit the area through the seasons include nightjars on the common, which is in walking distance. One problem is that it can alarm the dog walkers to find someone on a deck chair, along with a generous supply of refreshment, in the middle of the path! The nightjars are not hard to find but so far only in the gloom of dusk, when binoculars were useless. Cuckoos call in Spring and for the first time last year I saw one in the far distance, but only with the naked eye, and there are supposed to be dartford warblers, which I have never seen; it may be that they are only rumoured to exist in order to ensure preservation of the common, and of course the wardens :t:

There are often foxes and deer to be seen but, along with the local owls and woodcock, that last lot are the most elusive and difficult to come across, and especially to appreciate with binoculars, but they serve as a set of Grails to sustain the Quest....

black crow said:

Man that's awesome. I've always wanted to view a sea otter. We have river otters right in town here in our creek and pond but I'm fascinated by the life of otters in the sea. The reason I want to hear from you all in this thread is that there is so much I will never see myself. We've all had some amazing moments even if we are not all world travelers and I'd like a peek in on that.

Click to expand...

BC
Our otters are not sea otters such as live off your west coast, they are European Otters Lutra lutra and look a bit like your River Otters. In most of Europe and the UK they live in freshwater and are mostly nocturnal but in some parts of Scotland they forage in the sea in daylight.

Lee

Good subject!

First....I'd like to say the ONLY way anyone is going to SEE anything is to GO. OFTEN!

One time I was at one of my regular places, Swan Creek. It's about twelve miles or so from the house and is a VAST area to bird. I love it when you have one of THOSE DAYS and this was one. Of course Spring migration is one of the best times for an opportunity to see something really exciting. Seeing sometime new, different usually catches me off guard. This was no exception. Walking along my loop I was all ready seeing some GREAT birds; blackpoll warbler, blue grosbeak, bobolinks.... I looked to one of the old oak trees around Lucas cemetery and there was a bird flying to the oak. It looked like it was struggling even. Maybe even DRAGGING something. I quickly put my binocular to my eyes and instantly was like WOW, a scissortailed flycatcher! No camera of course!

Yesterday....had an off day and went birding. Saw nothing new. But I did have an ah-ha moment looking at a brown thrasher. What a handsome bird! Thought the same about a red-headed woodpecker....even thought the same about the yellow-rumped warblers that have now FLOODED my birding area. You start to reflect and they are all pretty special!

I used to live in northwest Indiana directly beneath the flyway of the Greater Sandhill Cranes. They often were heading north in February, so I kept my ears open and the minute I heard them I'd run outside with the binoculars. They typically fly very high and the chortling calls are one of my favorite things. Out there we often had a few extra-warm days in Feb. (into the 60's) with very strong winds out of the south. I started calling them "Crane Days" because the birds used those big tailwinds and made great time heading north.

One year was unusually cold and snowy and the Cranes were delayed until March. And then one Saturday (I remember because I had the day off) we had a warm, sunny Crane Day like no other. I sat up on a hill with a good view to the south and squadrons of Cranes, one after another, were heading north. Thousands of them. And I sat there watching them arrive. Wow, that's one of my birding highlights!

In the fall, the Cranes had a huge migration staging area to the north (Jasper-Pulaski) and we would take a scope up to see them from a viewing platform. One year 16,000 Sandhills were there at once, and a couple Whooping Cranes. For all I know they might get even more these days, although people have since started hunting them again. There's nothing quite like watching Cranes come in for a landing. Just amazing. Cranes rank as one of my favorite birds and here in Pennsylvania I don't get to see them very often because they're mostly to the west. Not coincidentally, we don't get any "Crane Days" here in the east, either, and spring seems to take twice as long to arrive.

Can you tell I miss those birds this time of year?

Troubador said:

BC
Our otters are not sea otters such as live off your west coast, they are European Otters Lutra lutra and look a bit like your River Otters. In most of Europe and the UK they live in freshwater and are mostly nocturnal but in some parts of Scotland they forage in the sea in daylight.

Lee

Click to expand...

Didn't know that. I've I had to come back as an animal a river otter would be my pic. I've always loved to play and fish.

chill6x6 said:

Good subject!

First....I'd like to say the ONLY way anyone is going to SEE anything is to GO. OFTEN!

One time I was at one of my regular places, Swan Creek. It's about twelve miles or so from the house and is a VAST area to bird. I love it when you have one of THOSE DAYS and this was one. Of course Spring migration is one of the best times for an opportunity to see something really exciting. Seeing sometime new, different usually catches me off guard. This was no exception. Walking along my loop I was all ready seeing some GREAT birds; blackpoll warbler, blue grosbeak, bobolinks.... I looked to one of the old oak trees around Lucas cemetery and there was a bird flying to the oak. It looked like it was struggling even. Maybe even DRAGGING something. I quickly put my binocular to my eyes and instantly was like WOW, a scissortailed flycatcher! No camera of course!

Yesterday....had an off day and went birding. Saw nothing new. But I did have an ah-ha moment looking at a brown thrasher. What a handsome bird! Thought the same about a red-headed woodpecker....even thought the same about the yellow-rumped warblers that have now FLOODED my birding area. You start to reflect and they are all pretty special!

Click to expand...

That's really true. Even the "lowly" Starling has a coat of amazing colors when examined closely in the right light. I was blown away the first time I saw a Starling up close in binos like that. I thought, this is one beautiful bird.

Kammerdiner said:

I used to live in northwest Indiana directly beneath the flyway of the Greater Sandhill Cranes. They often were heading north in February, so I kept my ears open and the minute I heard them I'd run outside with the binoculars. They typically fly very high and the chortling calls are one of my favorite things. Out there we often had a few extra-warm days in Feb. (into the 60's) with very strong winds out of the south. I started calling them "Crane Days" because the birds used those big tailwinds and made great time heading north.

One year was unusually cold and snowy and the Cranes were delayed until March. And then one Saturday (I remember because I had the day off) we had a warm, sunny Crane Day like no other. I sat up on a hill with a good view to the south and squadrons of Cranes, one after another, were heading north. Thousands of them. And I sat there watching them arrive. Wow, that's one of my birding highlights!

In the fall, the Cranes had a huge migration staging area to the north (Jasper-Pulaski) and we would take a scope up to see them from a viewing platform. One year 16,000 Sandhills were there at once, and a couple Whooping Cranes. For all I know they might get even more these days, although people have since started hunting them again. There's nothing quite like watching Cranes come in for a landing. Just amazing. Cranes rank as one of my favorite birds and here in Pennsylvania I don't get to see them very often because they're mostly to the west. Not coincidentally, we don't get any "Crane Days" here in the east, either, and spring seems to take twice as long to arrive.

Can you tell I miss those birds this time of year?

Click to expand...

We get a few Cranes through this part of Oregon. They sure fly high at times.

binos are new to me in recent weeks, as is birding where you identify and learn. i did have a $10 plastic set for rare use when i was a hunter and that ability to watch without disturbing awoke then an empathy which led to stopping hunting and to my interest in birds today.
when i was given these little binos recently I was immediately back in that world again where brown or grey blurs became living, interacting creatures. i was able to see that the reason some of those 'blurs' spent time in the tops was to drink dew from twig tips and buds, while others foraged for insects. the drab, backlit shapes became little beauties, common enough but rare for me, goldfinches, chaffinches, a blackcap and tits of all kinds.
as i learn to tell them now from behaviour and flight as much as shape, the binos still daily offer access to their secret, natural world - a shadow in the hedge is a robin watching for a rival, the hovering birds, darting to and fro.are goldcrests picking gnats from cypress before they fly away.
they allow identification in more than the immediate sense of the world
and sometimes true beauty as the rising sun hits a dewdrop which breaks into rainbows at the moment i focus on it and which gives colour and wonder to the rest of my day as the longtailed tit hangs nearby lit pink and orange and dips into it for his break thirst. how must it taste to him, a sunlit sparkle of fresh distilled, perhaps sap sugared, water of life?

Some nice stories here BC, great idea for a thread.

Lee

jape said:

binos are new to me in recent weeks, as is birding where you identify and learn. i did have a $10 plastic set for rare use when i was a hunter and that ability to watch without disturbing awoke then an empathy which led to stopping hunting and to my interest in birds today.
when i was given these little binos recently I was immediately back in that world again where brown or grey blurs became living, interacting creatures. i was able to see that the reason some of those 'blurs' spent time in the tops was to drink dew from twig tips and buds, while others foraged for insects. the drab, backlit shapes became little beauties, common enough but rare for me, goldfinches, chaffinches, a blackcap and tits of all kinds.
as i learn to tell them now from behaviour and flight as much as shape, the binos still daily offer access to their secret, natural world - a shadow in the hedge is a robin watching for a rival, the hovering birds, darting to and fro.are goldcrests picking gnats from cypress before they fly away.
they allow identification in more than the immediate sense of the world
and sometimes true beauty as the rising sun hits a dewdrop which breaks into rainbows at the moment i focus on it and which gives colour and wonder to the rest of my day as the longtailed tit hangs nearby lit pink and orange and dips into it for his break thirst. how must it taste to him, a sunlit sparkle of fresh distilled, perhaps sap sugared, water of life?

Click to expand...

Now that's the spirit!

The neatest thing I ever saw with a binocular (and I really did not even need the binocular) took place a few years ago on an iconic local ranch called Yamsi. Some may be familiar with books written by the Ranch owner Hawk Hyde, those books include Sandy the Sandhill Crane. I mention that book because this involves a pair of Sandhill Cranes, their chick and a Coyote. For more years than I care to count I have spent several weeks in the late summer there helping with hay harvest. Hawk's sons and I are friends. One day as I was calling it a day, I was heading back in with the service truck. I started hearing the most god awful racket. I thought something must have worked loose in the compressor in the truck so I stopped and got out. Well the racket took on the tones of a Sandhill Crane with a bullhorn with the volume switch on high. I grabbed the binocular I had, I don't remember what it was, and caught movement along the edge of the timber about 200 yards from the river. The movement was a Sandhill Crane screaming bloody murder. It was literally beating the stuffing out of a Coyote, the Coyote was yelping and wanted the heck out of where it was. The Crane had other ideas. About that time there was another Sandhill battle cry evident and within a few seconds the Coyote was dealing with two highly pissed off adult Cranes. They made a turn into the timber and pretty soon one of the Cranes reappeared and retraced its flight along the edge of the timber. It stopped beside the almost big enough to fly chick. I had seen the Cranes multiple times. However this was the last day in this part of the ranch, and I have no idea what eventually happened to the coyote or to the chick.

Wow that's amazing! Thanks for sharing that exciting story. I used to see lots of coyotes on the mountain side from my deck but a hunting club leased a bunch of land up there and they started wiping out the coyotes and I haven't seen one in three years now. I'm sure there are some there but they don't come into the open. I use to watch families of them sleeping in the sun out there on sunny afternoons. What a loss.

I saw a (presumed) male Red-tailed Hawk grab a quickie the other day. He came out of nowhere fast, landed on her back and disappeared within seconds after. I have a feeling he was not her mate, and there is a pair living in that area. There was no courtship ritual and no preliminaries at all.

Watching a Belted Kingfisher beat a fish into submission before swallowing it was interesting also.

I've never seen a Kingfisher do that. I once saw a snake catch a trout and then fight it to the bank and slowly start to devour it.

This is a wonderful thread. I'll share a few 'bino' based observations.

For the last 13 years, I've put together a late summer pack trip into the Sierra Nevada with a group of painters. We generally hike in, with mules hauling in our tents, bags, and clothes. We also hire a cook, so basically we are out painting all day, then return to camp, and dine on really good food. We are usually up around 10,000', and are away from most light pollution. I've hauled up 80mm refractors, even once a rented 10" ultra-compact 'string telescope', a newtonian reflector that could not stay in collimation. The most reliable and portable astro companion on those trips has been a pair of Canon IS 15 x 50 binoculars. There is nothing like laying on a slab of granite at 10,000' and observing the gems of the summer sky through some good optics. I bring a laser pointer, and can easily guide others to the objects that are so abundant under those conditions. It is a pleasure to take a journey through the visible universe and share it with others. Binoculars can make it happen no matter where you are. With my companions, we've observed a lunar eclipse, watched the Andromeda Galaxy rise above the pines, and wandered through the clusters and nebulae that inhabit the Milky Way. What a wonderful enabling device.

When my wife and I first starting birding a few years back, we were out at a local reservoir when I noticed she was intently focussed on something in a tree that I couldn't see from my position. I asked her what she saw, and her response was that it was 'the most beautiful bird', followed by 'There's 2 of them, and I think they are the most beautiful birds I've ever seen.'
That put me in a panic, as I was afraid if they flew off, I would never know what that they were, and what she thought was so beguiling. Accordingly, I crept over and, following her directions, was able to spot two Northern Flickers, apparently in a mating ritual. They were both perched on a pine branch about 20 feet off the ground, facing each other motionless, periodically cooing and slightly undulating in a fashion. A striking and lovely bird under any circumstance, but exacerbated by my wife's comments, and their intimate behavior, which we unashamedly observed like peeping toms.

It seems often that simply being there, at the right place and moment is really the essence of many great encounters in nature, and if one happens to have binoculars at hand to improve the view, it is merely an added bonus..

Cheers,

Bill

Yes, very nice thread black crow, and so many great stories here. I don't have any real exciting ones to report, but I have a couple of memorable ones for me. When I was a teen, I used to walk the fields and woods nearby, that were at the end of our street and across the next road. They were farmed, with corn and soybeans being the most common crops. So I would go walking often just to be out and away from home, and I enjoyed the solitude. One day near sunset, after I exited a small woods, I came upon quite to my surprise, a group of rabbits playing out in a little field of clover. I immediately got down in a crouch, and watched them through my binoculars. They were having fun chasing each other and jumping around, and in that long shadowed light, it seemed almost unreal! I didn't know wild rabbits did this, until I saw them play that day, as they fed in the clover before dark. Now that I'm not a kid anymore, I know that lots of animals play, but we just are lucky if and when we do see them at it. Yes, black crow, an otter would be a good choice, since they love to play, and fish!

Then, 50 years later, just last year, I was slow walking those same fields that I knew so well as a teen (yes, they're still cultivated!-though it's rare around here now), and saw my first Red Fox. I just stood very still and watched from a tree lined hedgerow, and he (or she) didn't seem to notice me as he went along the brush line, heading for the woods. I was watching through my bins and didn't think of getting my camera out, until after it happened. But it made me happy just to know that some wild creatures are still living there in my boyhood haunts. And I was grateful to have been able to see it that day in those fields, so many years hence. You might laugh, but it's also special to me since I have lived in the middle of a town for so long, that anytime I get to the woods and fields I feel very lucky to be there again.

Bill that's awesome. You've got a great life goin on.