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

The Binocular Journal (1 Viewer)

Oh, and John, Ashland Oregon!!! Wow, what another beautiful place! I just looked it up too-meant to before, but didn't see it until just now. I can see why you love it there, and why you picked it too! It wouldn't be hard for me to live there either, except maybe for housing, but the views are amazing! You're another lucky guy!

It would be nice if we could add photographs to your Binocular Journal! I guess we can, if we first download it to our computer, and size it for the forum, from what Bruce told me. I know, a lot of bother. Sometimes it's good to imagine...but not after seeing these last two places on Google! ; )
 
I have a friend coming over next week to help me do just that. I don't have a camera anymore but I do have a handful of really nice shots I took back about 5 or 6 years ago stored on this old computer. Right now Ashland is in bloom. Flowering trees are a favorite here and they are all blooming at once with this warm weather we've had. I love spring and fall here. Lots of color. I like to just walk around town with binoculars looking at the threes in flower. I'm amazed that I'm the only one doing that. People are so strange lol yet they look at me a little strange for doing it. I guess to them it's something one only does up in the mountains or on a birding refuge. They don't like my camo pants either. LOLOL.
 
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During our recent holiday in Suffolk we saw the most extraordinary thing and we nearly died laughing. Walking on a country lane overlooking our favourite marsh and reed bed, enjoying the Marsh Harriers, we were walking past a field containing last years corn stumps, on which the harvester had left few cobs, some of which had fallen off during the winter.

A minute later, one of these old grey corn cobs got up and ran awkwardly across the road towards the wood there. This Corn Critter had short legs and a long bushy tail and a corn-cob body! By golly, when it got to the edge of the road the cob fell down and there was the Grey Squirrel that had been carrying it kind of sideways alongside its own body gripping a few corns with its teeth. This was early in the day folks and we hadn't touched a drop. It was so funny we were laughing about it a week later on the drive back home.

Lee
 
I wonder if those are the same gray squirrels that we have over here in Oregon? Do you have others like the black phase of the gray and also the smaller red and larger fox squirrel?
 
Yes our Grey Squirrels are an American import (over fecund and over here) Sciurus carolinensis, and we have one other native species called Red Squirrel. I think your Red Squirrel is Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, whereas ours is Sciurus vulgaris.

Below is a pic I took a couple of years ago of our Red Squirrel.

Lee
 

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bluespiderweb said:
Oh, and John, Ashland Oregon!!! Wow, what another beautiful place!
It would be nice if we could add photographs to your Binocular Journal! I guess we can, if we first download it to our computer, and size it for the forum, from what Bruce told me. I know, a lot of bother. Sometimes it's good to imagine...but not after seeing these last two places on Google! ; )
Click to expand...

if you have android phone or tablet there is a really easy resizer called simply PHOTO AND PICTURE RESIZER it has a blue square icon with arrow top RH corner. you just easily select your photo and crop or resize manually or to preset. works really well and you get within forum size rules quickly.
 
Really nice photo. Our Reds are the smallest of our squirrels but most aggressive and drive out the big ones from their territories. They do not come into towns and avoid contact with humans. Our big fox squirrels are in the eastern us. I grew up with them in Michigan. We did have some grays and the black variation of the species in the northern woods. There are no variations in Oregon of the grey so the likely are not the same species.

I had a horrible battle with one gray that moved into my roof insulation. I had to get heavy on him to finally get him out and plug the hole he got in from. I was glad I didn't have to kill him but I did use a slingshot on him more than once and pepper spray . He got really angry at me and after he was out he'd sit in a tree by my house and just scream at me for days. I felt bad but he kept me awake at night moving around and he really messed up my roof insulation. A bummer for both of us. I lived here for 13 years with no squirrels at all and then in the last two years they showed up and now they are all over the place around here. I've had to fix my bird feeders to kept them out. They really are all lovely animals to watch however. They have a right to be here too. Right now we are all at peace with each other.
 
jape said:
if you have android phone or tablet there is a really easy resizer called simply PHOTO AND PICTURE RESIZER it has a blue square icon with arrow top RH corner. you just easily select your photo and crop or resize manually or to preset. works really well and you get within forum size rules quickly.
Click to expand...

I don't unfortunately. I'm the only one left in America without a computer phone. lol I'm also the only one looking up and at the natural world around me. Everyone else seems to be staring at that little screen or talking into it. Even while driving. (all this is only a slight exaggeration.)
 
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No I'm not into any of that at this time in my life. I have a simple cell phone that cannot be tracked by evil agents of the govt. and my computer is a desk computer and that's it. The FBI,CIA,DEA,AFOSI,BOHICA etc. are trying to find me. I'm hiding but I have been easily tracking them in my binoculars.
 
Today I had a really wonderful short hike to my favorite hilltop. I saw some things and I remembered something important about seeing them. The hilltop is literally covered in small pinkish wildflowers right now. You can't walk without stepping on them. Wherever there is open grass on that hilltop they are there. In the tree areas other wildflowers were in bloom.

Today I had out the Genesis 8x33 because it is threatening to rain hard today. Even though I go on and on about the EII I think the Kowa is a truly beautiful view. My friend sent me a list by Optics4Birding of their 10 best binoculars for nature observation and it ranked number 2 which surprised and pleased me.

Anyway in my head I was looking at this beautiful little patch of flowers around some trees and I was trying to compare in my mind the optical quality of the Genesis with the EII and all of a sudden this thought struck me. "John you're not seeing because you are trying to look". I knew what that meant for me, I was looking at the flowers to make a comparison on optical sharpness but I wasn't seeing the flowers themselves. When I looked again I "saw" the flowers this time and each one was slightly different. Some were in the vigor of new bloom and some were drooping with spent energy. I enjoyed the wildflowers and the whole hike much more from that point on. The best view was when I got back into town and was only a couple of blocks from my house. There was a small tree along the sidewalk that was in full bloom with the most beautiful white flowers with a tiny pinkish hue in them. At the top of the tree about 20 ft from where I was was a scrub jay with it's beautiful blues and blacks against the white flowers and the gray rainclouded sky. I had him so close in the binoculars that I could see amazing detail and I noticed that he had 4 sunflower seeds lined up one after another in his beak. A full load. Totally a beautiful sight.
 
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jape said:
if you have android phone or tablet there is a really easy resizer called simply PHOTO AND PICTURE RESIZER it has a blue square icon with arrow top RH corner. you just easily select your photo and crop or resize manually or to preset. works really well and you get within forum size rules quickly.
Click to expand...

Thank you Jape, though I don't use my phone for anything but when I'm out and need to call home, or emergencies, since my calling plan charges by the minute. But they might have another app for the computer-I will look it up and see. At this point I don't even have a program for downloading pictures from my camera either. I got messed up a couple of years ago when my desktop computer started to fail, and I lost all my programs for editing, downloading, etc, for photos. It might take me a bit to get there, but I will eventually. Though, my pictures probably wouldn't interest many here, like some of the other posters who really do live in really beautiful, picturesque areas that just need to be seen!
 
black crow said:
Today I had a really wonderful short hike to my favorite hilltop. I saw some things and I remembered something important about seeing them. The hilltop is literally covered in small pinkish wildflowers right now. You can't walk without stepping on them. Wherever there is open grass on that hilltop they are there. In the tree areas other wildflowers were in bloom.

Today I had out the Genesis 8x33 because it is threatening to rain hard today. Even though I go on and on about the EII I think the Kowa is a truly beautiful view. My friend sent me a list by Optics4Birding of their 10 best binoculars for nature observation and it ranked number 2 which surprised and pleased me.

Anyway in my head I was looking at this beautiful little patch of flowers around some trees and I was trying to compare in my mind the optical quality of the Genesis with the EII and all of a sudden this thought struck me. "John you're not seeing because you are trying to look". I knew what that meant for me, I was looking at the flowers to make a comparison on optical sharpness but I wasn't seeing the flowers themselves. When I looked again I "saw" the flowers this time and each one was slightly different. Some were in the vigor of new bloom and some were drooping with spent energy. I enjoyed the wildflowers and the whole hike much more from that point on. The best view was when I got back into town and was only a couple of blocks from my house. There was a small tree along the sidewalk that was in full bloom with the most beautiful white flowers with a tiny pinkish hue in them. At the top of the tree about 20 ft from where I was was a scrub jay with it's beautiful blues and blacks against the white flowers and the gray rainclouded sky. I had him so close in the binoculars that I could see amazing detail and I noticed that he had 4 sunflower seeds lined up one after another in his beak. A full load. Totally a beautiful sight.
Click to expand...

Is that a Stellar's Jay, BC? I've only seen some of the Western birds in books, and the Stellars Jay was one I would love to see. Though the sight of one of our Eastern Bluejays here from my Nikon SE 10x42's for the first time was very memorable too! Blue is my favorite color, and they are beautiful, even if noisy, like most Jay's, it seems! Once in a while they will be quiet, and it is a treat to see them then.
 
We have Stellar Jays and they are beautiful. We have quite a few here at my house but this is the Western Scrub Jay which are everywhere here but the hundreds. Here's a nice pic for you.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XJy_nzHqg...s5Pr3oxyPI/s1600/Western+Scrub+Jay+web-36.jpg

I grew up in Michigan and I miss the Eastern Blue Jay. I was just mentioning that to a friend yesterday. They are a beautiful bird. I think all the Jays are very noisy. They are related to crows somehow if I remember right and are quite smart.
 
black crow said:
... Anyway in my head I was looking at this beautiful little patch of flowers around some trees and I was trying to compare in my mind the optical quality of the Genesis with the EII and all of a sudden this thought struck me. "John you're not seeing because you are trying to look". I knew what that meant for me, I was looking at the flowers to make a comparison on optical sharpness but I wasn't seeing the flowers themselves. When I looked again I "saw" the flowers this time and each one was slightly different. Some were in the vigor of new bloom and some were drooping with spent energy. I enjoyed the wildflowers and the whole hike much more from that point on.... .
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Great post and insight about 'seeing', rather than evaluating the optics. I like it when the bins just transport you to that view, and your mind goes to with it. I generally try to do my comparisons at the kitchen table, looking out at the feeder, the bird bath, and all the locals hanging around the yard on the foliage and fences. If I'm out hiking I want to see the bird... and whatever else catches my eye.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.
 
bluespiderweb said:
Bill, I just looked up your park because I liked your description of it-it just sounded like a nice place to be. It sure is, now that I've seen it on Google! Our Xfinity cable uses one shot of the area on our screensaver, and I thought I recognized the area from when I was interested in the Rivendell bicycles in Walnut Creek, right down the road from Moraga, I see! They used to ride that trail over the mountains all the time to try out their new bikes, and would show b&w pictures in the newsletter and tell of the ups and downs there!

But what a beautiful park!!! Love the high views to the mountains, and the other to the bay! Lots of place (singular) and space to bird, for sure! Though it must be hard to pick just a little piece of it to cover? Enjoy, and have a blast, you lucky guy! Seems to be no shortage of birds either!
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Hi Barry, There is a corridor of parks and watershed east of Oakland and Berkeley that has kept development from swallowing up all the natural habitat. There's great cycling routes that loop around reservoirs, and up on top of the Berkeley Hills. Birding is good, and so is the opportunity to paint around there. I am fortunate to live in this area. I call it 'mock rural', because there are big cities just beyond the hills to the west, and Walnut Creek keeps growing to the east.

Here's a photo from my walk on Sunday.

-Bill
 

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I was down in Oakland for a short visit one time and my friends took me on a hike to a park that felt like being in the Redwoods. It was incredible and very close to town if I remember correctly. You live in a wonderful area.

I lived in Gasquet CA. when I first came out from Michigan. Not many people know about or where Gasquet is located but it's a really nice spot on what I think is the most beautiful river in the US.
 
Thank you for the details on the Jay's, BC, and that nice picture! The Scrub Jay's a nice looking bird too! There's not enough blue birds for me out there, so I enjoy seeing them whenever I can. I've only seen the Eastern Bluebird once, a couple of years ago now, on a frigid Winter day. Though I never was much of a bird guy until more recently. They were probably there, but I just didn't see or hear them, like you would Jay!
 
black crow said:
... and all of a sudden this thought struck me. "John you're not seeing because you are trying to look". I knew what that meant for me, I was looking at the flowers to make a comparison on optical sharpness but I wasn't seeing the flowers themselves. When I looked again I "saw" the flowers this time and each one was slightly different. Some were in the vigor of new bloom and some were drooping with spent energy. I enjoyed the wildflowers and the whole hike much more from that point on.
Click to expand...

I enjoy these stories. Moreover, this is exactly why you like every binocular you try. It's not that you can't tell any difference between them, but that they all work, and what you're seeing matters much more to you. Once you stop seeking advice and comparison shopping you can get back to that.
 
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