I’m sure you’ve seen the following digiscoping practice in the field. Using a spotting scope, a birder scans terrain and habitat when something of interest grabs his attention. Perhaps it’s a shy Sora that has sauntered into the open from thick marsh grasses, or maybe a beautiful Magnolia Warbler has perched on a [...]
Archive for September, 2009
Parallax
Some people report they’re unable to bring the “two circles of light” together when using binoculars that have a short close focus (3 to 5 feet). Actually, this happens to everyone but some people are more sensitive to it than others. The optical phenomenon they’re observing is called parallax and is perfectly normal [...]
Barred Owl eating a Mourning Dove
Early on 9/7/09 at Pheasant Branch Conservancy (WI), my birding group happened upon a Barred Owl that was finishing off a Mourning Dove. We were able to identify the food item when it consumed one of the wings (not on the video, unfortunately). Nevertheless, a very cool observation! The video was captured via my Nikon [...]
Binocular Steadiness
As binocular magnification increases, they become less easy to hold steady. The vast majority of optics users can hold an 8x binocular steady without much difficulty. With 10x, a significant portion of users will experience discernable image shake. At 12x or above, I generally recommend tripod mounting the binocular to obtain the [...]
