Wow - what a wealth of information on scopes I have received! I am so grateful to all of you for your knowledgeable and useful input. We will definitely be going to Seattle Audubon (I do know there's a special day for it in the catalog...) for some further research whom many suggested. Yes, it is just a few streets over from us! How convenient!!

I'll fill all of you in on which scope Santa decides to deliver from the North Pole (wait a minute - I think we are there!! Brrrrr.....)

I do have a nice Manfrotto tripod, which per Gary Bletsch, can make a big difference, even with a lesser quality scope. So I'll "scope" it out and hopefully my New Year's Day birding will bring greater clarity - literally and figuratively.

Don't need the scopes for the Anna's in the yard -I've even got one sitting on the WBU "trapeze" for feeding. A regular Circque de Soleil out there!! Keep changing the feeders out once they freeze up. Wish they'd come in to warm up. (National Wildlife Federation has some interesting info on roosting birds)

Thanks again to all the Tweeters suggestions/comments. Very helpful!!

Caryn / Wedgwood