I only got into fairly serious birding this spring. I have been using a pair of Sirius 10x25's which optically seem quite reasonable to me and invested in 3 pairs of 8(GBP) cheapies from 7sayshop.co.uk which I keep in the car and jacket pockets ( its better having a cheap pair with you than none at all! ), but at age 54 with eyes that go with the age a new pair of bins will soon be required.
As a first scope I bought an Opticron MM2 with a 25x eyepiece and a Velbon 444 tripod, both are at the lightest ( probably about 2.5lb the pair) and cheapest end of the market. I wanted to get into digiscoping at sometime so I have treated myself to a new scope this week, Opticron ES80 HD with a 32x HDF eyepiece, its so much better that the MM2. However, its so much heavier and the Velbon 444 is not up to scratch, so need a better tripod!. I have an old digital camera ( 640x480 ) no zoom and now see why a Zoom camera is required!. Photo's without zoom are O.K. upto about 20-30 foot, after that things get a little difficult, so, also a new camera required!. Maybe next Christmas.
And I thought fishing was expensive!.
Maybe I should just sit and vegitate, in the warm and dry watching the birdies on the feeders, with a good book on my lap and a Sherry at my elbow ( or maybe the other way round )!.
Hope the weathers better where you are. Wet, Wet, Wet, flooded and even more wet here!.
Anyway, I hope the fat man in the red suit brought you what you desired.