BinocularsBlog – Advice on Digital, Waterproof, & Compact Binoculars for Bird Watching, Sports, Astronomy, Night Vision, & more!

There are some birds that can drive you nuts when trying to see them in the birding binoculars or any binoculars, for that matter, during the summer months. The Great Crested Flycatcher is one of those for me. We have one just outside our door in the surrounding woods, but even though I have one of my compact binoculars constantly at hands reach in my trusty Nikon Premier LX 10x25 and even though I dart immediately out on the deck when I hear that “wheep” call from the woods, I haven’t seen the darn bird in months. What’s even more frustrating, I hear this bird every day.

There is a reason for this, of course. The Great Crested Flycatcher tends to feed and perch high in the trees when it makes its call and when you are surrounded, as I am, with a thick and very tall northern coniferous and bog forest, that makes the bird all but invisible this time of year. Yes, I might get lucky and spot this flycatcher later this fall when some of the leaf cover thins, but this bird is an insect eater and not about to stick around for long when the nights turn frosty.

Did I mention, though, that with or without seeing this bird in the binoculars, it is a treat to have one right outside my door? I love these little birdwatching challenges, so take my griping with a big smile.

Zoom binoculars often get a bad knock for poor optical performance and notoriously bad mechanical reliability and, yes, I have been especially critical of zoom binoculars for these reasons. Catch me in a bad mood and I can (and I have) written long discourses on the evils and shortcomings of the zoom binocular design. In every case, you really are better off with fixed power binoculars if you value optical performance and mechanical reliability. Anyone who knows binoculars, at all, will tell you the same.

Still, zoom binoculars are good sellers for binocular manufacturers, so they will continue to be with us for a long time. After all, not all binocular users have enough experience with binoculars to be concerned with the details of optical performance. Likewise, not all binocular users will use binoculars enough to make durability a concern. If I am asked for advice when it comes time to buy binoculars, though, I will never recommend zoom binoculars based, if nothing else, on the very high return rate for this type of binocular. On the other hand, if someone already owns zoom binoculars and likes them, I will not criticize or belittle them for their choice in binoculars. Who am I to say what someone likes or does not like? Moreover, there is never any excuse for the rudeness I sometimes see directed towards folks who are happy owners and users of zoom binoculars. Each to their own when it comes to binoculars.

Open bridge design binoculars are hardly a new development on the binocular scene, but what is new is that this binocular design with an opening between the binocular barrels has now made its way down to the lowest binocular price points and even into the compact binoculars realm, a la the Carson Raven 8x26.

Should you buy binoculars with an open bridge design or just stay with a conventional binocular bridge design?

The main draw for open bridge binoculars is mainly handling qualities – most folks find the open bridge design to be more comfy in the hands, but the only way for you to know, personally, if this design is right for you if you is to put an open bridge binocular in your hands and give it a test ride, so to speak. Handling, after all, is very subjective binocular feature. Nevertheless, in applications where speed of use with your binoculars is important, say for birdwatching or hunting, it is well worth exploring this design.

Are there negatives to the open bridge binocular design? Yes. One is greater cost – it costs more to produce this design than a conventional binocular body, so you will pay a bit more for an open bridge binocular, compared to its equivalent in a conventional binocular. The second thing I have noticed about a good many of these less expensive open bridge design binoculars is that they don’t focus as smoothly and effortlessly than their conventional binocular counterparts. Again, this is a generality, so it will come down to the individual model of binocular.

Personally, I love the open bridge design, assuming I get a model with excellent focusing, since I tend to be very fussy about that feature.

Is there such a thing a carrying too much binocular? Absolutely. There is always a point where the extra size and weight of large binoculars cost you more than the optical benefit gained from having those larger binocular objective lenses. Size and weight are important factors when it comes time to buy binoculars, so think twice before buying more binocular than you need. Just how big is too big, though, when it comes to binoculars? That, of course, is very much a matter of how you use your binoculars.

For birdwatching out of a vehicle or hunting from a stand or a blind or just about any binocular use where the binoculars will not be hung from your neck, size and weight are relatively minor concerns, so go ahead and buy as large as you want in, say birding binoculars or hunting binoculars. In astronomy binoculars, size and weight (as well as magnification) become issues when you can no longer comfortably handhold the binoculars. That's when you need to be thinking astronomy binocular tripods.

Size and weight are primarily issues for those who will be carrying binoculars around the neck all day and, believe me, an ounce or two can make all the difference, here. You may not have noticed that larger binocular weight while in a vehicle or blind, but you darn sure will when it's been hanging from your neck for a couple of hours. Size and weight are a very big deal for a "carry" binocular and and hence the growing popularity of 32 mm binoculars in birding and hunting circles as alternatives to typical 42 mm binoculars. A good "32" is an excellent compromise between size and weight on one hand and performance on the other.

Dropping down even more into compact binoculars can work at times, too, but you do take a noticeable hit in performance and, especially ease of use with compacts. Those tiny exit pupils produced by compacts make it hard to keep compact binoculars properly centered on the eye and, unless you are an experienced compact binocular user, you will have to deal with eye strain and eye fatigue over long viewing sessions. Compact binoculars are really at their best for “quick peek” kinds of work.

At the risk of sounding apocalyptic, the day is coming when it is going to become cost prohibitive to travel due to the cost of fuel and that means most of us we will be faced with restricting travel to necessities, only. In other words, getting in your car and driving across the country for the family vacation or even opting for an airplane flight to do it are going to be but memories of the good old days for most of us. Now, I’m not about to predict when, but many experts in the energy business, itself, are saying even an oldster like me may live to see it. My children and my grandchildren certainly will.

All this, of course, is going to require a shift in how we spend our leisure time. Activities that require a lot of travel will decline; activities that you can do close to home will grow ever more important in our lives.

Fortunately for me, my current location allows me to do the things I most enjoy right out my back door. Even when I lived in urban and suburban areas, though, I still managed to do a lot of birdwatching, astronomy with astronomy binoculars and telescopes, bicycling, photography with both film cameras and digital cameras and, yes, even some cross country skiing thanks to local parks. The difference between living in a rural area, as I do now, and living in the city, as I did then, has been mostly a matter of more and better opportunities, now, but the fact that I was able to do almost everything I enjoy while living in urban areas gives me peace of mind, should the day come when I am forced to move back into the city.

Of all the interests listed, above, I think bird watching is the most suited for someone who is restricted in their travels. I used my birding binoculars and my birding spotting scope, frequently, even when living in densely packed urban areas, by taking advantage of parks, bike trails, suburban lakes, vacant lots, cemeteries and more. The key to seeing a lot of birds in the the binoculars, as always, is seeking different habitats and urban areas can offer a surprising amount of variety if you know where to look.

Would I ever move back to the city? Not unless truly dire circumstances force me to do so. I would be quite happy to stay put, right here in the north woods, for the rest of my life and leave the traveling to other folks.

One of the things that keeps me going when it comes to birdwatching is that, no matter how well I know the birds in any one specific area, there is always something new to see in the birding binoculars or birding spotting scope. Birds don’t notify me when there is a bird is in the neighborhood that I haven’t seen in the binoculars and I’m glad they don’t. That would take much of the fun out of it. This potential to always see something new is one of the great thrills in bird watching.

I was down at our dock in the fading light of evening, getting ready to setup & use a telescope for a night of astronomy, when I spotted a small wren dart through the lakeside alders behind me. Since I needed to return to the to retrieve all the telescope accessories I would need for a night’s observing, anyway, I crept closer for a better look. Sure enough, it was a wren and a Winter Wren at that. Now, I knew that the books say that this little bird does nest in northern Wisconsin and in the very type of habitat we have on our property, but knowing something is supposed to be there and actually seeing it, up close and personal are two different things.

I even heard the little wren’s call as I continued on my way back up to the house to get the rest of my astronomy gear. What a great way to begin a night of astronomy.

From how I write about premium quality and very expensive binoculars, you might assume that I am wealthy and that was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Truth is, most of my life has been spent just trying to stay in the middle class with occasional forays into the lower class as incomes go. I do feel the pain of so many in this economy and would not want to give the impression that the only good binoculars are expensive binoculars. Cheap binoculars can be good binoculars, too and may be the best choice for some binocular users.

I do have reservations about products made in China, let me assure you, but making binoculars in China, as the majority of binocular manufacturers now do, has at least given us affordable binoculars and, more importantly, affordable binoculars that are remarkably good values. As it stands now, spending less than $50 on binoculars is still questionable, but there are some surprisingly good binoculars out there for $100 and plenty of binoculars under $200 that will probably last the average user a good part of a lifetime. Yes, that’s still a lot of money for some folks, but $200 for a product that will last for a good many years with reasonable care is a good value, regardless of your economic status. Let’s look at some of these.

The Nikon Action binoculars series and the waterproof version of this series in the Nikon Action Extreme binoculars series have been best sellers on the low end of the binocular market for many years and with good reason – you get a heck of a lot of binocular for not a lot of money. If I had to pick one of these that would qualify as a universal, do everything model, it would be the Nikon 8x40 Action Extreme. You could make a good case for including it under birding binoculars, hunting binoculars, marine binoculars, sports binoculars and, yes, even astronomy binoculars, though for astronomy, I like the Nikon Action Extreme 10x50 a bit better and personally know several people who use them for that very purpose.

Nikon, however, is far from the only presence in this lower end of the binocular market. Other superb choices in do everything binoculars in this general price range include the Bushnell Excursion EX 8x42 (under $200) and the Vortex Diamondback 8x42 (just over $200). These get you the advantages of roof prism binoculars, too.

Lastly, these represent only a tiny fraction of what is available under $200 when it comes to good affordable binoculars. Fact is, this is such a competitive price point in the binocular market that lemons don’t survive here long. You can do equally well with just about any brand that offers binoculars in this price range.

Cheap binoculars can be a good choice for many binocular users. Cheap does not have to be junk.

Hardcore birders and bird watchers have sometimes been accused of being snobs and, okay, yes, I have encountered birding snobs over the course of my forty years of birdwatching. They are out there, but then, so are birders at the opposite end of the spectrum - birders like me who love to help beginners and get them started in bird watching and welcome them with a big hug. In my opinion, we have the snobs greatly outnumbered. :)

One of the way birding snobs like to intimidate is by passing judgment on other birders based on what birding binoculars they are carrying. This, of course, is ridiculous and, what’s more, it’s an unreliable way of judging other birders.

When I see another birder with an expensive pair of binoculars, I see a birder who either must love birding so much they spent a fortune or their binoculars or perhaps someone like me who just loves good binoculars for binoculars’ sake. What I don’t see is a skilled or an unskilled birder, because I’ve seen plenty of beginners in the field with some very expensive binoculars.

On the other hand, when I see a birder with relatively inexpensive binoculars I make no judgment at all, simply because I have seem some truly awesome birders with some truly awful binoculars. For whatever reason, they don’t seem to want high grade Swarovski binoculars, Zeiss binoculars, Leica binoculars and so on and, for sure, they could make a good argument that they didn’t need them, either. One such birder was my old ornithology professor in college. As you might expect, he was a whiz at identifying birds, but all he ever carried was a beat up old pair of Tasco binoculars that must have set him back all of twenty-five dollars in those days. He used to make a point of telling his students not to spend their hard earned bucks on expensive binoculars, too.

Of course, that was advice I never took. I have no regrets, though.

Long range observation binoculars are a special breed of binoculars, no doubt about it. If nothing else, their sheer size makes a statement that these are serious observing instruments. Indeed, it takes a good size living room to accommodate something the size of the popular Oberwerk 100mm Binocular Telescope, tripod and all.

Observation binoculars are a popular viewing option for folks that have a home with a view and they do provide some advantages. For one, viewing with two eyes is always more comfortable than viewing with one eye, as you must with the other option, namely a spotting scope. Viewing with two eyes also provides some optical advantages in terms of acuity, i.e. image sharpness.

The downside of these giant, tripod mounted binoculars, as mentioned above, is size, both in terms of bulk and weight. These are instruments better left in at least a semi-permanent location and some owners opt to mount them permanently on a pillar. The other limitation of these jumbo binoculars is they have no zoom capability, though the majority of them do offer other sets of eyepieces so you can change the magnification. Keep in mind, however, that the typically supplied magnifications of 20x to about 60x or so are the most practical magnifications for day use, anyway.

These giant binoculars can also be used to good advantage as astronomy binoculars, especially models such as the Oberwerk 45 degree 100mm Binoculars Telescope with its more suited for astronomy 45 degree viewing and its ability to use telescope eyepieces for more options as to magnification.

The early bird gets the worm, as we all know. Now, if you are into doing some birdwatching this time of year, this old proverb is very appropriate, so get out of bed you sleepyhead, grab the birding binoculars and be at your favorite birding spot as the sun comes up in the morning.

Birds, overall, are diurnal (daytime) creatures, much like humans, and to avoid the heat of hot muggy July days, they will be most active early in the morning, which, of course, is typically the coolest part of the day. Yes, I know how tempting it is just to sleep-in and stay indoors, this time of year, but that first light on summer mornings is really a marvelous time to be outdoors with the binoculars or the spotting scope or, heck, bring them both, especially if you live on a lake or have a nearby marsh or wetland.

I’ll be down on our dock on the lake, this week, with my spotting scope and tripod, also hoping to do some digiscoping. Our local Wood Ducks seem to have had a good year and I would love to get some pics of Mom and some little ones. There has also been a Loon on our lake that I would love to add to my bird photograph collection. If I don’t get any pics, though, I will be quite content to just sit on one of our dock lawn chairs and enjoy the early morning show.

When people think of northern Wisconsin as a serious proving ground for the durability of binoculars, everyone naturally thinks in terms of the winter months when it takes a tough, well-designed binocular to survive the bitter cold temps. This week, however, we have had astonishingly hot and, especially, humid weather with dew points actually reaching 80 degrees and relative humidity readings of almost 100% without rain. That can challenge the best waterproof binoculars, especially waterproof binoculars you happen to be using out in the kayak at the time.

My trusty Nikon Premier LX 10x25 binoculars survived just fine, all the same. By the time I returned to the dock after several fishing outings on the lake, they were dripping wet and covered with all sorts of lake crud kicked up out of the lake, compliments of some nice bass that splashed all over us both as I attempted to land them. I just wiped off these Nikon binoculars, though, and they were good to go, again. Now that’s what I call a kayak binocular and fishing binocular, too.

Yes, I like compact binoculars when canoeing and kayaking. Most of the time, you hardly know compact binoculars are there as you paddle or cast, but when you need a binocular to do some birdwatching, for instance, they are there and ready to go. Just make sure you choose a waterproof model, especially when out in a kayak on a day when there is almost as much water in the air as in the lake.

Binoculars are something of an anomaly in this high tech digital everything world in that binoculars have so few moving parts, even when compared to other optical devices. Digital cameras, despite the trend to replace all the moving parts found in the all mechanical film SLR cameras of yesteryear with electronics, still have motors, access ports for cables and batteries and memory cards. Telescopes need mounts and tripods and controls. Microscopes, at least once you get past beginner microscopes, have enormously complicated lighting systems and so on.

From a modern marketing standpoint, this inherent simplicity of binoculars is a conundrum. Simplicity translates into a long product life and that is a good feature to advertise and promote, of course, but products with a long life don’t lend themselves to upgrading (planned obsolescence) and that means a manufacturer must be prepared to do without a lot of repeat business from an individual binocular customer. The simplicity of binoculars also makes it darn hard to accessorize binoculars as a product line – as a customer, once you buy binoculars, you’re pretty much done, even when buying specialty binoculars such as marine binoculars or image stabilized binoculars. That explains why the binocular accessories market is only a tiny fraction of, say, the telescope accessories market.

As far as I am concerned, may it ever be so. How many products can you buy these days that will last for years and give years of enjoyment with no further expense? Binoculars are the best value of nearly any product you can buy.

Funny how innovations in the binocular world always appear in top end binoculars, but after making a big stir, those innovations slowly but surely work their way down into ever lower price points. Next thing you know, yesterday’s innovation is now practically standard equipment on binoculars; you see it in every manufacturer’s binocular line and in every price point. A great example is the open bridge design on binoculars which was originally introduced in the old version of the Swarovski EL, but can now be found on budget priced binoculars such as the Carson Raven. That’s what I call market saturation.

So what will the next big innovation be in the binocular world? Well, your crystal ball is as good as mine, but one innovation that is just now appearing is worth watching. I’m talking about flat field eyepiece optics and, once again, you need to start with the new Swarovski EL Swarovision binocular. Now, if you’ve never looked through this binocular, it would be hard to appreciate the effect this new optical technology has on the view, but it is impressive and different enough from conventional binocular eyepiece design to be distinctive. One look through a binocular and you know right away whether a binocular has this feature.

Will this flat field binocular technology work its way down into ever lower price points, as did the open bridge design? I suspect it will, though I suspect it may not make it all the way down into the lowest price points, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I am quite pleased with the astronomy binoculars, birding binoculars and compact binoculars I already own, but, okay, I could make room for another binocular, especially another one of those fine Swarovski binoculars.

One of the great joys of using binoculars for astronomy is mobility. As long as you keep the magnification on astronomy binoculars down to a max of 10x or 12x, you can do most of your observing without the need of astronomy binocular tripods. Just walk around the yard as needed to best see what you want to see in the binoculars without the hassle of moving a tripod. That’s one reason why I use my Nikon 10x70 Astroluxe more than any other astronomy binocular, by far. I won’t use a tripod if I can at all get by without it.

Even so, there are some jobs for astronomy binoculars where it well worth putting even a low magnification astronomy binocular on a tripod. One of these is the moon. Yes, there is an amazing wealth of things to see on the moon even with binoculars, but the extra steadiness you get with a tripod will make the most of what your binoculars can see and the difference is significant, especially if you want to identify craters and detail smaller than maria. It’s even made a difference with my Nikon Prostar 7x50.

Same for observing double stars. Sure, widely spaced double stars are doable without the need to resort to astronomy binocular tripods, but that story changes in a hurry when we start to look at doubles that are close to the limit of resolution for our binoculars. If you want to get serious about doubles in a binocular, and you should, better get that binocular on a tripod or some kind of mount.

My list of summer birds that I can hear on a regular basis, but almost never see in the binoculars is fairly long, but that is my own doing, at least to some extent. Ordinarily, I am the type to grab the birding binoculars and go see birds that I am hearing, even though I know the identity of the vocalists. For me, it’s just more a birdwatching kick to see the birds in the binoculars, even my small compact binoculars, than to just hear them. My current situation, though, makes a trek through the woods and bog something of an expedition because I would be fighting hordes of mosquitoes as well as ticks, not to mention that parts of our acreage with a bog are just plain impassable this time of year.

Bogs are strange and mysterious places, indeed. You can take one step and get your foot wet, but the next step can sink you up to your knees and beyond (I've gone up to my waist, even) in water and sphagnum. A hiking paradise, a bog is not and it is pretty tough to use binoculars when you are just fighting to maintain your footing. So, for now, at least, I’ll just settle for hearing Great Crested Flycatchers, Wood Thrushes, Barred Owls and more from the comfort of my kitchen deck.

Summer may not be the hottest time of year in birdwatching circles, at least if your goal is to spot a large variety of bird species in your birding binoculars, but it is still an interesting time of year for bird watching, all the same. Think of it this way: birds in your yard now seen in the binoculars are birds that are actually nesting in your neighborhood; they are residents and, therefore, your neighbors, too. So, who are your avian neighbors?

I now live in the north woods of Wisconsin and I literally mean right in the woods, so my bird neighbors are exclusively birds that are resident to the north woods and also north woods lakes, since I can see the lake from my kitchen window. I say exclusively because we have no suburban birds found in just about every urban and suburban backyard – House Sparrows, Starlings, House Finches and so on. Fine with me. I’ll take the Goldfinches, Purple Finches, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Pileated Woodpeckers and so many other birds I see everyday. Then, too, there are the birds which I don’t often see, but do hear every day, such as Wood Thrushes. I have to use the spotting scope to keep to see my neighbors on the lake, but right from my kitchen I have seen Bald Eagles, Great Blue Herons and Wood Ducks on an almost daily basis.

Yup, I have some great neighbors.

Everything appeared to be a go to setup & use a telescope the other night – the sky was clear, I could see the Milky Way overhead and the mosquitoes seemed to have taken the night off. I couldn’t wait to look through the telescope eyepiece and start observing.

Never happened, unfortunately. I had just laid the waterproof case that contains my telescope accessories on the dock where I setup the telescope and was returning for the telescope, itself, when I looked up in the sky and spotted a rapidly approaching bank of fog and clouds. By my estimate I had about twenty or thirty minutes before the clouds put me out of action and most of that time would be used up just getting the telescope in position and making it ready to go. Not good. If I wanted to do some astronomy before the clouds rolled in I would have to think of something else.

Astronomy binoculars to the rescue and it wouldn’t be the first time binoculars saved the night, either. Nothing like astronomy binoculars when time is short and you still want to do some astronomy! I had my Nikon Astroluxe 10x70 out of the case and in my hands in mere seconds. Sure, I had to alter my observing plan a bit to accommodate the binoculars, but it was well worth it. Instead of a night with no astronomy, I had a night of good viewing, short as it was, but a night of some astronomy is always better than a night of no astronomy. Nothing beats astronomy binoculars get you into that “I did some astronomy last night” column.

I could recite all the advantages to armoring on binoculars – protection against scratching, better grip, more comfortable to hold in extreme weather, less likely to make noise when hanging around your neck and you bump something with your binoculars - but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the old-fashioned pebbly textured binocular coating used on nearly all binoculars in the old days. This is sometimes called “leatherette” or simply leather coating.

Leatherette has a wonderful smell and aroma all its own and when I smell it, it sparks memories of some of my favorite old birding binoculars and astronomy binoculars from days past. In fact, I still have that binocular coating on my current favorite astronomy binocular, my Nikon Astroluxe 10x70. When I remove this binocular from its leather case, I immediately recall many of the old astronomy binoculars it replaced. Some of those I wish I still had for sentimental reasons, but none of them quite compare to my Nikon, so I am happy. Besides, the leatherette still does what it is supposed to do, namely supplying a non-slip texture for me to hold and I also like the traditional good looks it gives to a binocular. Guess that’s why I also chose the Leica Ultravid 10x25BL with its leatherette coating rather than the Leica 10x25 Ultravid BR for one of my compact binoculars, despite having to pay more to step back in time, you might say. Call me old-fashioned and sentimental, but I still like leatherette on a binocular.

One of the things I like best about binoculars is their refreshing simplicity. Most folks can pick up even the most sophisticated birding binoculars or astronomy binoculars with no instruction of any kind and use the binocular, effectively.

This simplicity of design was hardly noteworthy forty years ago. In those days, consumers expected and, in fact, demanded that all products be easy to operate and understand. Ease of use as a feature was a big deal and it could make or break a product when it came to sales.

Back to 2011. Against the backdrop of today’s digital landscape, binoculars stick out as a rare exception for an easy to use and understand product. Compare binoculars to, say, digital cameras and use the size of the instruction manual in both products as an indicator for ease of use. You’ll quickly notice that the typical instruction manual for binoculars really rates as more of a foldout pamphlet than a manual and most of the content is devoted to care of the binoculars or warranty, rather than how to use binoculars. Digital cameras, on the other hand, have now typically gone to instructional CDs, rather than printed instruction manuals, as a way to more cost effectively handle all the information needed to explore all the features.

Yes, there was a time when even camera manufacturers tried to keep things simple. I have the manuals for all my old film SLR cameras and the longest one is for my Nikon F3HP is about forty pages long – not much, really, for a camera that was considered by many to be the top professional camera of its day. That’s about the same size as ONE of the manuals supplied by my now aging Panasonic FZ-50 digital camera and that manual just covers how to hook the FZ-50 to a computer.

So, next time you use your binoculars, be grateful for their simplicity in this day and age of information overload and complexity.

I’ve been so busy with my telescopes, lately, I was feeling a bit guilty for having neglected my astronomy binoculars, so, after I had the big telescope stored safely away the other night, I returned to the house and grabbed the binoculars. It was a great way to end an observing session, if I do say so myself.

The secret to happiness with astronomy binoculars is knowing what they can do and what they can’t do. Some beginners make mistakenly see astronomy binoculars as a replacement for a telescope and are then disappointed because views of certain objects are certainly better in a telescope eyepiece than binoculars. They have yet to discover that there are some objects best seen in telescopes and, especially, some objects best seen in binoculars. Once they learn this, they'll be glad they own both. I own and use both and appreciate each for what they can do.

My favorite summer objects for astronomy binoculars have always been large open clusters, such as the Coma Berenices (Mel 111) and one of my all time favorites, M7 in Scorpius. The Coma cluster is often overlooked as a good object for astronomy binoculars, but ti does a great job of filling the field of view in my Nikon Astroluxe 10x70. As for M7 and nearby M6, well, let's just say that these binocular objects have NEVER failed to bring a smile to my face, even at the end of the night when I am tired and ready to call it quits.

I am sometimes asked how I can identify so many birds by their calls and songs. One of my friends even teased me once that I shouldn’t be wasting money on birding binoculars because I often managed to identify birds long before anyone saw them in their binoculars. Too late for that, of course, but, yes, a lot of my summer birdwatching is done without binoculars.

Not to worry, I am never going to neglect my binoculars. Whether birding binoculars or compact binoculars or astronomy binoculars, binoculars are my most used outdoor tool and that is saying a lot, given all my outdoor activities. Learning to identify birds through their songs and calls is just another tool that I use and, believe me, it is a skill that has saved me a lot of work at times. Yesterday was a good example.

I was sitting on the dock after having helped my daughter and her husband launch their kayaks for a few hours on our lake, when I heard a Blue-headed Vireo in the bog off to my left. I did have my Nikon Premier LX 10x25 binoculars with me, but, try as I might, I could not spot the bird back in the bog, but, then, I didn’t expect to see the bird, either. Northern bogs are thick, gnarly tangles of black spruce and tamaracks and no place for the faint of heart to be treading or, in my case, a gal just too darn lazy to get up off her lawn chair on her dock. Now that’s the real reason I know my bird songs and calls.