The beginning of July for most people means, the Forth, naturally, but for birders like me, it can also mean I need to be on the alert for shorebirds, since we bird watchers actually begin to see some movement in this bird group during the mid-summer months. I will be carrying my birding binoculars after the Fourth and checking daily on some wet meadows and mudflats on my daily bike commute. Last year, I did reasonably well on shorebirds when you consider my limited access and range on a bicycle. On the weekends, I will also carry a spotting scope and tripod and spend more time bicycling to outlying areas in search of more shorebirds. As always, water conditions are critical to attracting shorebirds or, should I say, mud conditions. For scanning with a birding binocular, we want exposed mud flats and beaches. Too much water when birding for this group can be as bad as too little. Right now, I would love to see things dry out a bit.

I rarely, if ever, recommend a compact binocular for birding, though I use compact binoculars for nearly all my birding, these days. Why don't I practice what I preach? I really don't need the big binoculars, anymore and find compacts to be a perfect match for my bicycle lifestyle. Compact binoculars work for me because I have over forty years of experience using binoculars and also birding. What little performance I lose with a compact binocular I more than make up with know how. Okay, did I mention that I only use premium compact binoculars? That also helps to bridge that performance gap between compact binoculars and full-size binoculars.

On the other hand, I usually recommned full-size binoculars for biriding since I know that beginning birders need all the help they can get and I also know that experienced birders simply want to see birds in all their glory. To be sure, very few of them live on a bicycle like I do. Most normal people will find that a compact binocular makes a better second birding binocular.

A birding friend of mine is currently agonizing over a choice of birding binoculars and I feel his pain. On my advice, he just purchased and received his closeout Nikon Premier 8x32SE binocular and is in love with it. It blows away anything he has ever used. So what's the problem? He also located a mint, AAA+++ vintage Leitz 8x40 and it will arrive, next week. I have held a Leitz 8x40 binocular in the past and it just oozes quality and Euro ambience. In days past, it was my dream binocular. He can't afford to keep them both, so hence the conflict. We both love retro equipment, especially when it has a label such as Leitz on it, so such a decision would tear me apart, too. Of course, whichever fabulous birding binocular he chooses not to keep, just may end up in my hands.

I learned my first constellations from my mother and my big sister, when I was still in grade school in a small town in North Dakota. I got more serious about constellations and the actual stars within constellations later when I was in college, still living at our rural home, outside Lincoln, Nebraska. I didn't know it then, of course, that I would so desperately miss those dark skies, later in my life. Indeed, using a small 60mm refractor in rural Nebraska allowed me to see more than a much larger telescope or astronomy binocular, these days, in the Chicago suburbs, and I did not have the benefit of over forty years of experience, either. To think that how easily I could see the Milky Way stretch across the sky on any given night or see Coma Berenices, the Beehive or the Andromeda galaxy without an astronomy binocular makes me long for those old days. I still remember the night I actually saw Andromeda. I read that it should be visible to the naked eye on a good night, so I grabbed my crude star map, spotted Andromeda, overhead, then hopped a couple of stars and there it was. Not much to it, or so I thought. I also remember the first time I attended a planetarium show and almost found it laughable. I certainly don't laugh, now, though, when I realize, with great sadness, that it is the closest thing many people will ever get to those dark skies I took for granted in my youth. I still observe every chance I get with my binocular or telescope, despite my light-polluted skies, simply because I love astronomy too much to quit, but how true it is when they say you never know what you have till it's gone.

A friend and I braved the rain and mosquitoes and roamed the depths of a local Forest Preserve, birding binoculars in hand, in search of the elusive Black-billed Cuckoo. In addition to binoculars, we were also equipped with a call tape in the hopes that we would at least hear a response from a Black-billed. With all the recent rain, the foliage off the trail is almost impenetrable, so we felt our best chance, by far, was to hear a Black-billed. After three hours of hiking and searching, though, we came up empty - no sighting or calls - though we did hear quite a few of the Yellow-billed and we did have a good afternoon of birding with many other great species heard and sighted. For instance, it would be hard to say which was more beautiful, the Scarlet Tanager or the Indigo Bunting we saw at the edge of a clearing. Even with the cloud cover, the blue color of the Indigo was breathtaking in the binoculars. The winner in the call category was the Wood Thrush, which serenaded us, constantly, for over twenty minutes. If you've never heard a Wood thrush, check the All About Birds website and take a listen.

You do not need a Leica Ultravid HD, a Swarovski EL, a Zeiss Victory FL, a Steiner Peregine XP or a Nikon EDG or any other popular, premium birding binocular to identify birds and get started in birding. In fact, you can identify as many birds with a birding binocular at a fraction of the price of these superb birding binoculars. My old ornithology prof, for instance, used a well-worn, beat up Tasco binocular and he was a great birder. A birding friend of mine uses a vintage Bushnell binocular out of 80s and his life list is over 500 birds. On the other hand, using a high-grade birding binocular may actually make you a better birder, since owning a premium birding binocular will encourage you to do more birding and that translates into more birds seen. Then, too, there is nothing like seeing a beautiful bird in one of the world's best birding binoculars.

"Where have all the porro prisms gone? Long time passing…" My apologies to one of my heroes, Pete Seeger, but where, indeed, have all the porro prism binoculars gone? The answer is mostly China - the lower production costs of the porro prism binocular versus the roof prism binocular make the porro the king at the low end of the binocular world. At the premium end of the binocular world, it is quite another story. Premium grade porro prisms are in danger of going extinct and that saddens me. Some of the best binoculars I have ever tested, used and owned were high grade porro prisms, such as the Nikon Premier 10x42SE, the old Swarovski Habit SLs, the Zeiss Classic porros and so many more. How I wish I had not sold some of those, now! Yes, the roof prism binocular is slimmer, trimmer and sexier compared to the old clunky bodied porro prism binocular, but, to the surprise of many, porro still have the optical advantage. If you value sheer optical performance, it is still tough to beat or even equal a high grade porro prism binocular. My thanks to Steiner and Fujinon for not following the premium binocular pack with their fine premium porro prism binoculars. The Steiner 7x50 Commander and Fujinon 16x70 are some of the last of a dying breed.

Went birding with a friend on Sunday with the goal of adding a bird or two to his life list. Binoculars in hand, we took a walk through one of my favorite stretches of the local Forest Preserve. Our target bird was the Ovenbird, but that one eluded us, though I had seen this warbler species several times this year in the same area. Of course, with all the heavy foliage, we expected this one to be a challenge to see in our binocular. The previous week, I had spotted this warbler, but it flew before my friend could see it. Ouch. Our next target bird was the Black-billed Cuckoo. We came closer on this one with Yellow-billed, though we only heard the call. Since my friend is still developing his repertoire of known bird calls, I was able to provide a useful lesson on bird calls. Still, no Black-billed, though. We knew, up front, that late afternoon is not the best time for birding, but all in all, a nice and pleasant afternoon out in the woods with our birding binoculars. Will try, again, next Sunday.

One of the most difficult bird identification problems for me is not identify birds in the field, it is identifying birds others have seen in the field. In other words, I get, "Hey, there was this bird that had some blue on it … ". There was this bird that was at my feeder … " Some of the time I nail the ID right away, but as often as not, I just tell them I need more detail, then proceed to show them several likely possibilities in a bird guide. This demonstrates the need to know what to look for when identifying a bird, before you go out in the field and that only comes from experience and doing your homework with your favorite field guide, right at home. Remember, out in the field, a bird is not inclined to wait as you fumble through your field guide and do lengthy research. In fact, skill with a field guide is as important as skill with a birding binocular when it comes to bird identification. Birding field guides are not just for use in the field.

Summer, for me, means binocular astronomy and what could be more natural than turning my astronomy binocular to the "summer triangle" overhead? That's the trio of bright stars - Deneb, Vega and Altair - that we see overhead on a summer night. Within that triangle, there are objects for binoculars or telescopes more fascinating than anything to be found in even the so-called Bermuda Triangle. Take the star Deneb, for instance. In my Nikon 10x70 binocular, it is a brilliant white point of light, but, in reality it is a true powerhouse of a star. It is the 19th brightest star in the sky, but only because it is so distant. It has an estimated 60,000 times, at least, than the output of light of our sun and a diameter 200 times that of our sun and is a true candidate for a supernova in the relatively short lifetime for a star of a few million years. Vega and Altair are wimps by comparison, though still more luminous than our sun. They are roughly the same brightness as Deneb only because they are much, much closer. In fact, these other two points of the summer triangle are practically next door. Next time you are staring up in the sky on a summner night, keep in mind what those seemingly peaceful points of light we call stars really are