For me, one of the big plusses of birding is its practicality. No matter what your situation or your location, there is always some birding available and, as much as I tend to move about, this is comforting. Out in the wide open spaces of the west, we used to do most of our birding with vehicles, traveling from marsh to marsh and covering a lot of distance in a day. We typically used spotting scopes, as much, if not more than binoculars. Here in the east, I do all my birding from a bicycle and most of it is in forest cover, so a binocular is my primary birding tool. The two different approaches to birding could not be more different, but I am glad I am not paying for gasoline, these days. Bicycle birding is definitely healthier, too.