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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KorHaan" data-source="post: 1607204" data-attributes="member: 49910">Just returned from a week's holiday on the beautiful island of Texel, a birder's heaven during migration time. Pity the weather was foul for most of the days, with prolonged drizzle and strong winds.I brought my 18x50's as my only bins; they did very well as expected. During a seawatch one morning I used them when standing behind a small container, that was just tall enough to comfortably lean my elbows on. I saw Great Skua, Gannets and scoters pass by on the southeastern wind that reached gale force eventually. The sweetest moment came when a juvenile Sabine's Gull swept through my view at close distance; the remarkable colour pattern immediately made me recognise it, and I could call it confidently before the others in our small party. A Fulmar passed by only minutes later, at even closer distance, great views through the 18x's: long stretched wings, pale inner primary patches sharply showing. What a joy to watch, even when the fine sand kept sweeping continuously over me... That's the trouble with sandy beaches in a gale.I was becoming slightly worried my weatherproof binoculars would not be going to survive this harsh treatment, let alone the cleaning of the salt-swept objectives.The fine sand particles tended to stick to the lenses, and I used my personal cleaning technique: blow off most of the sand, then lick off the remaining particles and salt spray, then wipe with a hanky. This on several occasions during the morning. It went well, no scratches whatsoever. In fact, when I got home last night I cleaned the bins with a damp cloth and they look as good as new. They survived hours of rain and drizzle, salt spray and sand and are really tough.This holiday brought me two lifers for my Holland list as well; American Golden Plover, in a meadow in a group of Common Golden Plovers, showed all the detail I could wish for at a distance of 80 meters. And second, and more importantly, I could finally tick off my worst bogey bird, a Barred Warbler. A skulky juvenile bird my friend and I had to watch from within the car as it showed briefly twice in a hedge row. At 10 meters distance, the bird came into full view, I could make out the pale pink base of the lower bill easily, as well as the pale fringes on the coverts. It was a moment of great relief. I have tried this bird three or four times before in my life and never got good views on any occasion, so I was thrilled I could finally nail its ID without a shadow of a doubt! Sunday morning, the 4th of October, thank you, Canon engineers, for the fine piece of equipment I got from you. My holiday was a great success, long days and lots of birds, and confident ID's on most of them. Great bins, I really love them.Regards, Ronald</blockquote>

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