posted by Travel Cat on Nov 27
Improve you wildlife experience 100 fold with a basic pair of binoculars - it’s the best thing I ever did!
I have travelled all over the place watching wildlife as it comes by. No need to book a great whale watching adventure in the Arctic or a Safari in South Africa to see some great wildlife close up!
However, I always though that the naked eye was good enough for me. I saw some amazing animals and trees on my journeys and lived with the ‘it must have been a so-and-so’ for identification. I was happy.
The Massive Change:
My partner asked for a pair of binoculars for his birthday present, so I set about getting him some - nothing too fancy or expensive as we didn’t know what we wanted from them - we just wanted to see small things far away!
I went to a professional store to get their advice; looked at a few trees in the distance to get a feel for them, and then settled on a light pair of 8×25 waterproof binoculars - present sorted!
However, one our first few woodland walks with them, I found that I was the one using them all the time. It’s amazing what you can see through them - I can’t believe I was satisfied with the naked eye!
You can pick out facial markings of low flying raptors, see scars on dolphins close to the shore and the worm that the badger is eating in the woods………
The Identified Creatures:
It has made a huge difference to my outdoor experience, and I am now identifying a lot more birds and mammals - and even spotting a few of my earlier mistakes - like the hare.
I had assumed that anything small and brown on the edges of a wood was a muntjac - and was happy with that. But the binoculars opened my eyes: that brown things has been a hare, a chinese water deer and a mongrel dog chasing rabbits!
All those years of ignorant bliss - and now I can get things right!
Only this morning I was watching some song thrushes in my holly bush - only about 10 feet away - with striking bands over their eyes. It was so strange I got out the binoculars for a closer look - and low and behold they had red patches under their wings and more elongated chest patches: they were winter migratory redwings!
It’s quite frightening how the red wasn’t obvious to me until I got a closer look - now I can’t stop watching them in the holly - they are such striking birds.
So don’t you miss out - get yourself a pair of decent binoculars next time you go shopping!
November 28th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
There is a great place in the Outer Banks of North Carolina which is the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Without binoculars, most of the interesting things would be missed. Great post.
– Dan
Outer Banks Revealed