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What did you see in your binoculars today? (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter NDhunter
- Start date
yarrellii
Well-known member
@Maljunulo Hmm, never thought about it those terms. The first thing that comes to mind is because they spend many hours dozing on a tree, so they better be inconspicuous, and looking like tree bark is a good starting point. I guess this is natural selection at its best... there probably were owls with green and blue bright coloured plumages at some point... not anymore 
Thotmosis
Well-known member
Helicopters, early in the morning… the Dutch Airforce and special forces (some with dogs) were practicing for possible future terrorist attacks.
Those birds (Chinooks and Apache’s) made a lot of noise.
Used my Swarovski Habicht 8x30 GA (military IF version) to watch them.
nieuwsopbeeld.nl
Those birds (Chinooks and Apache’s) made a lot of noise.
Used my Swarovski Habicht 8x30 GA (military IF version) to watch them.
Defensie oefent met helikopters in en rondom Rotterdam - Nieuws op Beeld - 112 Nieuws vanuit Rotterdam E.O
Rotterdam – Defensie heeft vanmorgen geoefend met helikopters in en rondom Rotterdam. Vanmorgen vroeg om 06:15 vlogen er al twee Apache helikopters in hartje Rotterdam. Twee Chinooks en twee Cougars zetten vervolgens speciale eenheden af op de Maassilo en nabij de SS Rotterdam. Hierbij speelden...
nieuwsopbeeld.nl
Down at the river this morning watching Little White Egrets on the bank through the NL Pure 14x52's. Amazing bino's, amazing little birds then a flash of brilliant colours as a Kingfisher landed on an old pole about 200m away.
Photo's taken with a FujiFilm X-H2 and a 70-300mm lens.
Photo's taken with a FujiFilm X-H2 and a 70-300mm lens.
tenex
reality-based
I want to share a wonderful video of a Dipper (water ouzel) so I'm just going to squeeze it into this thread. We see them here mainly in creeks in the mountains, occasionally also on the nearby plains. We have to look carefully, they blend in well with grey rocks and water. Sightings this year were in Oak Creek in Ouray and Fall River in Estes Park, carrying some two of three regular bins (BN 10x32, FL 10x32, SLC 10x42). Scroll down to "Video Award" here, with other lovely photos along the way.
www.birdpoty.com
View the Bird Photographer of the Year 2024 Winners — Bird Photographer of the Year
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yarrellii
Well-known member
How fitting
yarrellii
Well-known member
The last couple of days have been very windy, not sure if it has to do with the storm Kirk that is shaking other areas of the country. This morning, when reaching the highest point on my daily bike ride (around 275 m/900 ft of altitude) you could see the Spanish mainland, the Iberian Peninsula, real close. It's about 80 km/50 miles away (approximately double the distance from Dover to Calais), and most days you just can't see it. On very clear days like today you are able not only to see the dark silhouette of the coast, but also make out details of the terrain, like cliffs and the like. I carried my small-but-chunky and cheap-but-trusty Nikon 8x25 Travelite, which together with my smartphone can give you a sense of "compressed depth of field" of the distance. On days like today you really feel the mainland is closer than it actually is.
On the foreground the Conejera island, around 6 km/3,7 miles away from the coast of Ibiza, further away, small islets that house an amazing variety of endemic lizards (there is colour variation between islets, is fascinating).
On the foreground the Conejera island, around 6 km/3,7 miles away from the coast of Ibiza, further away, small islets that house an amazing variety of endemic lizards (there is colour variation between islets, is fascinating).
Thotmosis
Well-known member
A military helicopter looks quit different through a military binocular like the Habicht GA 8x30. Even better through a 7x42 with recticle 😉How fitting
Ahh, this opens up a whole new way of looking at the binocular market
So we should use military binoculars to watch military vehicles, marine binoculars to watch ships, and pocket binoculars to observe … pockets
Thotmosis
Well-known member
Yes and obvious it’s better to look at crows with a black binocular and preferable use a green binocular to observe parakeets.Ahh, this opens up a whole new way of looking at the binocular market
So we should use military binoculars to watch military vehicles, marine binoculars to watch ships, and pocket binoculars to observe … pockets
yarrellii
Well-known member
Brand new hobby, after planespotting and trainspotting... now comes pocketspotting!!! Better performed with a Swaro CL Pocket... and pocket binoculars to observe … pockets
Royal Ascot it was not, yesterday, but whilst many of the ladies chose to wear a smart jackdaw on their heads, the men chose camouflage, wearing full combat headgear, as modelled by 'Dirty Harry' below...
Viewed through my 7x30 SLC and photographed with mobile phone.
Viewed through my 7x30 SLC and photographed with mobile phone.
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tenex
reality-based
Correct! 😂
I've had an interesting (and very unexpected) couple of days raptor watching...
Yesterday I was trailing one of the local buzzards through woodland adjacent to farmland and a raptor flew fast and low across the path I was walking on, which looked not at all like a buzzard, but was not dissimilar in size. A little later I caught sight of the bird perched in the far distance and it looked for all the world like a goshawk. I'm not aware of any known goshawk sightings on my patch, but I'm really struggling to think of what else it could have been, given it's size, colour of plumage and behaviour. That left me buzzing, and I can't wait to cover that area of woodland again. I was using 10x42 Banner Cloud, which turned out to be a superb choice of binocular for those conditions.
Then today, I was just arriving at Waitrose to do a bit of shopping, and noticed a fast powerful bird on the wing in front of the tall block of flats just 75 metres or so from the supermarket. It was unmistakably a peregrine, the first I've seen there for more than 10 years, because peregrine used to be resident on the building prior to it's refurbishment and being transformed from an office building into a block of flats. I watched the bird for at least 20 minutes, occasionally on the wing, but mainly perched on a ledge near the top of the building, where it has made an awful mess of the white paintwork. What a thrill...!!!!!...I shall go shopping at Waitrose at least 6 times a day from now on, and try to ascertain if it's just one bird, or a pair residing there.
Yesterday I was trailing one of the local buzzards through woodland adjacent to farmland and a raptor flew fast and low across the path I was walking on, which looked not at all like a buzzard, but was not dissimilar in size. A little later I caught sight of the bird perched in the far distance and it looked for all the world like a goshawk. I'm not aware of any known goshawk sightings on my patch, but I'm really struggling to think of what else it could have been, given it's size, colour of plumage and behaviour. That left me buzzing, and I can't wait to cover that area of woodland again. I was using 10x42 Banner Cloud, which turned out to be a superb choice of binocular for those conditions.
Then today, I was just arriving at Waitrose to do a bit of shopping, and noticed a fast powerful bird on the wing in front of the tall block of flats just 75 metres or so from the supermarket. It was unmistakably a peregrine, the first I've seen there for more than 10 years, because peregrine used to be resident on the building prior to it's refurbishment and being transformed from an office building into a block of flats. I watched the bird for at least 20 minutes, occasionally on the wing, but mainly perched on a ledge near the top of the building, where it has made an awful mess of the white paintwork. What a thrill...!!!!!...I shall go shopping at Waitrose at least 6 times a day from now on, and try to ascertain if it's just one bird, or a pair residing there.
jafritten
Well-known member
I watched a northern goshawk ambush a song thrush today! I brought up my 8x32s Ultravid an watched it sit on the thrush for a couple of minutes. The thrush stirred a few times before the goshawk lifted off with its prey. Unfortunately, I was not carrying a camera...Yesterday, I used my Ultravid to watch rutting fallow deer. I never knew one could hear them as early as mid October here in Germany. I know this is birdforum but you might like the stag all the same.
As jafritten wrote, this a bird forum, but yesterday, I did not see a bird but a comet (Tsuchinshan-Atlas) with my binoculars (SRBC 8x42), and despite the fact that there is a Peruvian hummingbird called „Bronze-tailed Comet“ (polyonymus caroli), showing a picture of a comet here is a bit far fetched, but I hope you let me do it anyway (photo taken Oct 17, 8.19 pm, with iPhone 15, 10 sec exposure)
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