Subject: Buying Binoculars
Date: Jan 3 11:09:42 1999
From: Tom Foote - footet at elwha.evergreen.edu




On Sun, 3 Jan 1999 sanjer at televar.com wrote:

[snip..]

> In the short time I have been birding, I have come to the conclusion
> that binoculars and scopes are an aid to ID not a cure-all.
>
> I agree that you should buy the best ones you can afford, but---I think
> that learning the habits, flight patterns, posture, food source,etc. of
> the birds will enable you to ID many of them without any other visual
> help.
>
Jerry et al--

wouldn't really disagree with your admonition...learning
bird behavior is really useful as it teached you to look
in the right place.. but, I think our old thread about
methods of birding might surface here.. i.e., if all
you want to do is ID the bird, then knowledge of particular
behaviors is just fine.. you can tell accipiters apart
by wing beat. If all you want is a check on your list
(here goes the Twitching thread again) than do it that
way.. tick it off.. BUT BUT BUT if you want to get
up "close and personal" and see all the detail in the
feathers, in as true color as possible then you need
really good glass.. like the time I got a Violet Green
Swallow in my bins at about 30 feet at high noon in
brilliant sun light...obviously, not a question of ID

What an eye shattering experience!!!

so, I say buy the best.. even if you THINK you can't
afford them...

Tom, who really doesn't work for Zeiss