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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KorHaan" data-source="post: 1546539" data-attributes="member: 49910">I've been on a seawatch with my Canon 18x50's recently.Put them on my tripod at the observatory post on the southern end of the Hondsbossche Zeewering, an immense seadike. We were a party of five, my birding buddie and me, plus three regulars.The guy next to me had Swarovski 15x56's on a tripod, the guy on the far left had Zeiss 15x60's on top of his 65 mm Diascope on a tripod, the third guy had a 80mm scope in a green stay-on case ( brand unknown) and my birding buddie had his Televid 32x77 on a tripod. The guy with the Swaro15x56 was calling birds passing at 3/4 range to the horizon. I had trouble ID'ing birds at half range with my 18x's. But I suspect the Swaro guy had much more experience, I don't do a lot of seawatching. It took me an hour to "get my eye in", so I kept quiet for some time. The regulars were calling birds all the time and slowly I got better in ID'ing them too.Only Gannets were no problem close to the horizon. The view was very relaxing, though, much better than the one-eyed scope image.FOV was quite satisfying, np problems to pick up birds and tracking them.The 18x magnification, though, is not sufficient for serious seawatching. Not for me, that is. The site is well known among birders, but the birds tend to pass at great distance normally. That day there was a mild breeze blowing from the west, 4 Beaufort. Not the best circumstances for good seawatching.No Yelkouan Shearwaters we'd hoped to see, so after some 5 hours we gave up and went to check out the flooded bulb fields for waders and Gull-Billed Terns.Here the Canon 18x50's excelled once more; scanning a field from the car I had no trouble ID'ing waders like Ruff, Dunlin, Greenshank, Common and Green Sandpiper, and even Little Stint. My birding friend had to get out of the car to get his scope. The Gull-Billed Terns did not show, unfortunately, and we dipped out on the Buff-Breasted Sandpiper, that was reported the day before, as well.All in all it was a day spent well, we had fun and saw some good birds.Next time I'll try seawatching from one of the piers at IJmuiden, a two mile long concrete finger that sticks out into the North Sea. That'll be interesting.Regards, Ronald</blockquote>

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