New Swarovski Binoculars and Red Tail Hawk

Today I received my new pair of Swarovski EL 8.5x42 WB binoculars, which also included a snapshot adapter for taking digital pictures with the binoculars. Not five minutes after opening the box, I looked out in my backyard, and saw a red-tailed hawk sitting in a tree! What a perfect opportunity to try out my new toy. I grabbed the binoculars, adapter, and my Canon PowerShot A590IS camera. Here's the first pic I got -

Not bad! The hawk shortly flew down to the ground and kicked some leaves around.

Something scared him into a tree then, and I got these great pics -

Here's what it looked like without the magnification from the binoculars and adapter -

Makes a big difference. The hawk then flew over my head (!) to another tree and hopped around trying to get a better view of a squirrel. Eventually a bunch of blue jays landed in the tree and started harassing it, even running into it, until it had enough and flew away. I was so glad I had the chance to try out my new Swarovski binoculars and look forward to getting more practice with the snapshot adapter. This red-tailed hawk made species #22 for my yard list.

You can see all the pictures I took, good and bad, here: http://www.picasaweb.google.com/frontrangebirding/RedTailHawk#