Our first of the year was the neighbourhood Cooper's hawk, buzzing through our yard.  We also have lots of mourning doves, which might be a target for the Cooper's hawk.

Went down to Bluffer's Park today despite the breeze.  FOY waterfowl:  Bufflehead (M & F),   Common Goldeneye (M & F),   Mallards (M & F),  Red-breasted merganser (M & F),  and some geese.  I tried to get closer to water level between the boulders but that plan didn't work out well because I had my camera in one hand and a bulky backpack.  My movements were not elegant, especially in the wind.  I chose the isthmus to the boat launch bay so that passing ducks would be a little closer.  Not much passed while I was uncomfortably ensconced.  One female goldeneye sort of gave me the glance but that was all.  Only small bird was an Am. tree sparrow.  No snow bunting, no pipit and no flamingos.  Sad, really.

I'm looking for advice about binoculars for birding.  I have four bins laying around and none of them are any good.  Three of them are the standard army style designs that are of poor quality and one is a Pentax mini binocular.  The largest bin (Tasco) I bought in the early 70's and is too heavy and not particularly eyeglasses-friendly but seems to be quite sharp and very bright (10 - 16 zoom x 50mm).  This device is not something I would enjoy dragging along with me in the field.  The other two bins of this style are slightly smaller at 8 x 40 but they have terrible optics.  I don't even know where they came from because they must date back to the late 50's.  My father had a Zeiss 8 x 35 that I really liked, even when I was a kid, but I dropped it and cracked the lens.  It was never repaired.  I too may never have been repaired but I could run faster than my dad ever could.  If only I had left those bins alone, but it's a curse being born Shortsighted.

I understand that there are birding bins from under $100. for a Tasco, all the way up to $4,500. for a Leica.  That's quite a range.  Canon even makes bins with IS installed but for some reason they don't seem to have a fan base.  I guess that in order to be a true fan you must be unstable.  I also understand that some bins are waterproof down to a meter in depth but I don't plan to follow diving ducks down to the zebra mussel banks, aka the gym, where all the mussels are.

I'm sure that members of this forum board have birding bins.  Some of you may dislike your bins and are thinking of getting new ones, while some of you love your bins and sleep with them.  How does one choose among all those bins?  At what price range does the "gain" become a matter of prestige instead of function?  What bins represent bang-for-the-buck?  How heavy is too heavy?  I'm short, senior, stupxx.  I can't carry anything cumbersome, heavy, beyond the sheer weight of my nonchalance.  Even if I could afford a Leica, would I dare take it into the field where another birding might wrench it from my neck and steal it.  You know how some birders can be ... vicious.  The weight of responsibility inherent in toting an ultra-expensive bin that constantly demands great sightings.  I'm not sure I can handle it all.  I must genuflect to the more experienced among you.

Any suggestions, beyond wanting me to get to the point a lot sooner.

Thanks! If it was not raining, I would have taken my Sony instead of the GoPro.


As to the music, I have to choose what are available without copyright issues.

 Well done.  Would see it too if I had your energy, but alas, I do not.  As I’m watching your fireworks display video two thoughts come to mind.  Most fundamental, is the absence of feurerwerksmusik for a spectacle that deserves some Handel.  My second thought is that I have not seen a fireworks display in years and despite it being sensational, I can’t see it without thinking about technical issues.  I’m thinking about that truck-load of potassium perchlorate must have been used to make all those stars in each aerial shell and how expensive that chemical is.  I’m thinking about the chemistry implicit in the palette of colour in the sky:  strontium nitrate, barium nitrate, copper oxide, oxalates, antimony sulfide, pulverized aluminum and titanium, etc.  I’m thinking how perfectly those shells disperse into a chrysanthemum when all I could ever manage to construct is an asymmetrical sideways blow-out of a box shell because the round shell was just too difficult to engineer.  I’m thinking about the shear volume of exquisite black powder that propels everything, mixed without a flaw, because it was done under controlled factory conditions.  It’s like staring up at a clear starry might sky in an area of minimal extraneous light pollution and not being quite as awed as in childhood because now I see only constellations, and am preoccupied with the task of triangulating Messier objects, like nebulae and galaxies  instead of just breathing it all in.

Sometimes one can't see the forest for knowing all the tree species.  I can't enjoy the fireworks without treading through the chemistry. I'm going to watch it again though ... maybe with a glass of Primitivo.