Thursday, November 12, 2009

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#

2 comments:

Mike J said...

Yes a good pair of binoculars make all the difference when it comes to birding. Glad you like your new pair, and happy birding.

Binoculars

Unknown said...

Good pics. Keep on the good work please. I think that adding a camera to the binoculars is a real good thing. This helps the birdwatchers in capturing the glimpses of their favorite birds.