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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iveljay" data-source="post: 3529096" data-attributes="member: 37260">At about the age of 11 I was given a pair of 8x30s for a holiday on the Outer Hebrides in the late 1950s. We got there driving in a pre-war car that had to be craned onto the deck of the ferry. I suspect that it was a sort of shared present. It was one of the better presents as we saw whales, many sea birds which in those days were subdivided into cormorants and gulls, and thousands of evil minded sheep. Alas the hoped for golden eagle was so far away even the binoculars were of no use.Thus began a lifetime of owning one or more pairs of binoculars used for staring at all the wonders of the world including birds.Birds vaguely came first as I was given a bird book, before then, when spending one of many extended stays on a farm. Probably to stop me asking what everything was, though I didn't actually go birdwatching - they were just there.</blockquote>