I just got back from a long weekend in Boston.
Hurricane Irene made it a day longer than planned
but fortunately I found a last seat on a flight
last night or I would have had to wait until
Thursday to reschedule my original Sunday night
flight with Jet Blue who actually canceled the
flight on Friday and then had no openings until
Thursday.

The damage in Boston, like many other places, was
far less than it might have been whereas the flood
devastation inland was far worse. Truly horrific
scenes from Vermont and upstate New York. I would
have loved to have been out on the coast to see
what Irene might have blown in, but that was
neither wise nor a possibility. However,
yesterday I had the chance to bird around Jamaica
Pond in the brilliant sunshine that followed the
storm. Lots of downed trees and branches and not
a whole lot of birds found, but those that were
were interesting and included a first ever Broad
Winged Hawk. I have not done extensive birding in
the East but should have added that species long
ago. Just never happened, so it was pretty
exciting to see a smallish hawk soar right
overhead making the "Peewee" call as it
disappeared and reappeared in the clearing. It
landed briefly in a tree and was almost
immediately mobbed by 5 or 6 Blue Jays before
taking off into the distance. So you just never
know what will pop up.

While this bird was certainly close enough that no
scope was needed, I want to thank the MANY people
who responded to my request for info on scopes.
Some were to personal email and others were posted
on Tweeters so the general information was
available to all. Some of the highlights:
Critical to get a good tripod as well; the 65 mm
models have a great following (except by those who
strongly prefer the larger ones); Swarovski
seemed to be the scope of choice by at least 3 to
1 on any others (acknowledging that budgets were
being busted); the HD models were preferred but
recognized as primarily a luxury for the low light
conditions that we unfortunately face too often in
the NW; Nikon and Leica received universally high
marks; not too much feed back on Kowa; almost
everyone urged personally trying out the various
models but with the good caveat that questioned
whether trying one place only to go buy on line
elsewhere to save some $$$ was "appropriate"; most
preferred the angled eyepieces - at least where
the scope was being shared, but some people
acknowledged that it at least took getting used to
to line up the target compared to the straight
scopes. I am going to make a decision shortly,
leaning towards the Leica but going back and forth
with the Swarovski.

And MANY THANKS to all for their good thoughts and
shared experiences.