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

The Binocular Journal (1 Viewer)

Wow! That sounds like a fantastic day. Please take me with you next time. ;) What a nice life you've got going on. I've never gone to an actual birding site. After that report I guess I better put it on my bucket list.

Let's see in 1971 I was graduating high school so that must make you about....:hippy:
 
In 1971 I was just starting my first full-time job and I retired in 2007!

Actually this holiday is rather unusual for us as we mostly go to the west of Scotland or the islands off the west of Scotland and right now we are diametrically opposite to this being in the south east of England. Most of our nature observation is done out in the wilds rather than in reserves such as the ones we are visiting now.

But actually wherever you go in countryside or semi-countryside, if you look, there is always something of interest. Every corner of every field, forest, marsh, mountain, sea coast or river or lakeside, has its own little story to tell of how several species of any group you care to mention survive and reproduce alongside each other.

Lee
 
Hey BC, play the song of Pacific Wren. Just a hunch on that song you heard. I look for Varied Thrush whenever I'm out your way and they often favor similar habitat. If it is a Wren, play a song on your phone and trust me it will make its presence known.
 
I enjoyed watching a couple of wolf spiders fighting on a sunlit pot outside the backdoor with my 6x papilios. That way I am standing right by the kettle,’so I don’t need to move for a brew and I don’t need to put a coat on.
It’s amazing what the world looks like on the small scale, as more creepy stuff wakes up in spring I am going to enjoy these bins! Blackcrow welcome to the wide angle Porro club... be immersed!
Troubadour, i’d get a trail cam or night vision to see what stuff is wandering about after dark in that place. Coming from London I class Suffolk as east (rather than *south* east ;-). )

Cheers

Peter
 
Wow! That sounds like a fantastic day. Please take me with you next time. ;) What a nice life you've got going on. I've never gone to an actual birding site. After that report I guess I better put it on my bucket list.

Let's see in 1971 I was graduating high school so that must make you about....:hippy:

Yep, OLD, like me! That's my HS graduation date too.
 
In 1971 I was just starting my first full-time job and I retired in 2007!

Actually this holiday is rather unusual for us as we mostly go to the west of Scotland or the islands off the west of Scotland and right now we are diametrically opposite to this being in the south east of England. Most of our nature observation is done out in the wilds rather than in reserves such as the ones we are visiting now.

But actually wherever you go in countryside or semi-countryside, if you look, there is always something of interest. Every corner of every field, forest, marsh, mountain, sea coast or river or lakeside, has its own little story to tell of how several species of any group you care to mention survive and reproduce alongside each other.

Lee

I retired in 2010 at 57. You are right. Just a few blocks from my house is a pond attached to a creek and often has river otters, herons (green and blue), osprey, many kinds of ducks and geese and lots of little birds and the occasional bald eagle. My sister has a house right next to it. I finally talked her into a pair of binoculars. Now she loves it.
 
I enjoyed watching a couple of wolf spiders fighting on a sunlit pot outside the backdoor with my 6x papilios. That way I am standing right by the kettle,’so I don’t need to move for a brew and I don’t need to put a coat on.
It’s amazing what the world looks like on the small scale, as more creepy stuff wakes up in spring I am going to enjoy these bins! Blackcrow welcome to the wide angle Porro club... be immersed!
Troubadour, i’d get a trail cam or night vision to see what stuff is wandering about after dark in that place. Coming from London I class Suffolk as east (rather than *south* east ;-). )

Cheers

Peter

I have those same 6.5 Paps. This is the time of year I bring them out. I love looking into flowers and finding pollen covered insects. I haven't spent much time with spiders but I'm going to check some out now since you mentioned it.
 
Seems to me like you saw a lot today. Amazing what you can see close to home. I see more bird variety and numbers in my yard than I do in this old growth forest I hike in. I'm fine with Crows and Robins. I just like to watch any bird. I even really like Starlings. Juvenile Turkey Vultures have an ashen gray head but it's not the time of year for them. I do know Ravens and Crows do not share territory around here at least so they might have been chasing off a Raven that had wandered in. There seems to be a distinct demarcation line here and within just a few hundred feet of elevation the Crows disappear and Ravens take over. I find crows hard to look at in binoculars. They are so black that they just sort of look two dimensional if the sun is in the wrong place in relation to where I'm standing.

I'll bet those Zeiss are nice. I like 7x as much as 8x most of the time. Today I used 10x Meopro. I still can't decide if they were the best choice for me. One day I love them and the next I'm not sure. Does that ever happen to you?

It's great that you were able to get out and about for some time in Nature today. I hope that continues and gets better and more often as the warmer spring weather comes on.

Yes, for me it was a lot of birds in one outing, since I haven't seen much out my back windows for a while now. I was only out about 1-1/2 hours, but it seemed like more since there was a lot to see.

It's hard to pick one best binocular I find, and many can share the spotlight depending on the day and use. Sure, you can have different favorites on different days. You are now use to a very light focuser with the Meopro's, which may spoil you for others too. My Cabelas Meostar B1 10x32 has a great view and it's very sharp, but the focuser is tighter than another I had tried, but it's very smooth. I kept it because I liked this pair, and figured it might loosen a bit over time. But other B1's were OK, though I doubt as freewheeling as the Meopros, which tend to be that way I think. My 6.5x32 Meopro was just like yours probably in lacking focus tension. Very quick, for sure! But I tend to go with any binocular that makes me say wow, this is great, and I let the details fall into place secondly. The FL is like that too, and the focus is similar to the Meopro-very easy and smooth.

I think you'll say wow to the EII's, and they usually have a very nice focuser, like most all Nikons it seems. My 10x35 EII's are a little stiff in comparison, but very smooth too. I also kept them because the rest of the package made up for the slower focuser-another one I hope loosens a bit in time as most do. But that wide, easy 8x30 EII view is something to wow most people!

Thanks for the well wishes-I hope to keep going out if the snow ever stops here-we're now supposed to get 3-5 inches early tomorrow morning-they upped the snowfall amounts today!
 
Sometime we must swap horror stories.

OK there I was in one of my favourite overnight stops in an inn near Stratford upon Avon. Had a good meal and a couple beers and went to bed early after a long day on the road. Got woken up 4 hours later in the middle of the night by this huge groaning noise, and it wasn't from the couple in the room next door. ;)

I leaped out of bed and turned on the light and the noise was coming from my bathroom! Staggered in there, still half asleep and found that the jacuzzi had switched itself on but with no water going through it the pumps were running dry, hence the appalling noise. I switched the bloody thing on and then off and it worked. The noise stopped and I got back to bed. Took me ages to get back to sleep.

Was that the kind of horror story you had in mind :eek!: or were you thinking about bosses and company policies etc etc ? :-O

Lee
 
Hello,

Thursday, i had the pleasure of seeing my first great egret of the season. It was on a log across New York's Central Park Lake. At first, I thought that it might be a white trash bag, part of the city scene, but a look with my 8x32 showed it the white spot to be be a bird. Iin my thread, I keep track of the changing seasons in the City.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :hi:
 
OK there I was in one of my favourite overnight stops in an inn near Stratford upon Avon. Had a good meal and a couple beers and went to bed early after a long day on the road. Got woken up 4 hours later in the middle of the night by this huge groaning noise, and it wasn't from the couple in the room next door. ;)

I leaped out of bed and turned on the light and the noise was coming from my bathroom! Staggered in there, still half asleep and found that the jacuzzi had switched itself on but with no water going through it the pumps were running dry, hence the appalling noise. I switched the bloody thing on and then off and it worked. The noise stopped and I got back to bed. Took me ages to get back to sleep.

Was that the kind of horror story you had in mind :eek!: or were you thinking about bosses and company policies etc etc ? :-O

Lee

Bosses and companies :smoke:. Much more horrifying.
 
Today was kind of special for me. I had my new Kowa Genesis 8x33 and after an all night rain and snow the sun and wind blew the clouds off leaving a pristine blue sky. I took a trail that actually starts in town, like many of them do and heads up into wilderness. We have massive herds of deer and wild turkey in town so much that they are a nuisance. Walking up towards the trailhead I came upon a group of about 11 turkey and the males were all displaying. They get pretty tame but I thought they would disperse when a cat walked towards them but they didn't mind and the cat had to walk around them. I approached to within about 15 ft of the closest and the view in those binoculars was amazing. It looked almost surreal. I could see every glint of light and color off each feather. It was almost spooky. I think after about two hours of bird watching with them today I now get it. I see why people go for that alpha. I was pretty wowed the whole hike. These are stunning optics. I think the reason I never got that from those big Swarovskis 8x50s is they never left my deck and everything I looked at was long range. It was nice but not so much wow as the bird or flower close up. By the way our wildflowers are starting to seriously pop right now on some of the sunny hilltops. I saw some beautiful little orange/red lily shaped flowers with bright yellow spots inside them. Too early for them but there they were and not just a couple. I pretty much walked in a bliss like trance for about two hours looking at everything from birds to weeds to tree bark. Likely with a silly grin on my face. Happy boy is Black Crow today.

Later today I'll go to my friends and look at her new Track 10x42 and see what she thinks. BTW these are not the new model. They were the $100 off deal on the closeout older model. I'm guessing it's not going to matter much. At least not to us. She's still raving about the Swarovski's I sold her. It's like we traded alphas but she was a lot more generous about the price than I was. She said she's grateful for all the research I do for her finding all these binoculars but I think I should thank her because it's so fun for me and I get to look at binoculars I never would buy for myself.

Tomorrow I should have the Nikon Ell 8x30s in hand and they will have a real challenge to better the Kowas. This is going to be fun.
 
I decided to take advantage of the Bushnell rebate and pick up the Legend M 8x42. Fortunately there was plenty of light left after work and I walked over to a local park to try them out. I saw a few night heron, both adults and juveniles. I also saw a double-crested cormorant hanging out and drying its wings. At the other end of the park I spotted a great egret in the water. I've seen egrets and heron in this park before hunting gophers, it's incredible to watch them try to swallow the rodents after catching one. On my way home I ran into a couple other birders who convinced me to go look for a great horned owl. I'd heard owls in the park before, but never spotted one. I heard it again almost immediately and was finally able to spot at the very top of a tree. It flew just as it was getting too dark to see more than silhouettes.

Overall a great evening out. I'm very happy with the new binoculars. I haven't owned any alphas, but these are very clear and I don't think spending more money would have made the evening more enjoyable. The ergonomics and focusing wheel are very comfortable. A little less length and weight would be nice though.
 
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I've heard very great things about the Bushnell M series. Nothing to be unhappy about especially with those kind of sights available. That's some cool local park you got there. I've only seen one GHO in my life.
 
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