Thursday, January 3, 2008 - My First Scope & Christened with a Rarity!
Up till now I've been using some 30 year old Boots 8x30 which are fairly dismal. I've been meaning to upgrade to something better and had been advsied that Opticron were a good make to go for so I was going to get myself a new pair for Xmas. However, recently whilst out birding I've come to realise that actually having a scope of some sorts might be more pressing. There'd been a couple of incidents recently where I'd been unable to make an ID because of the distance: I was looking for the Bewick's swan in Chimney Meadows in Oxon. I found the swans on the flooded field but they were so far away that I couldn't see their bills to find the one Bewick amongst them all. Also a while ago on Port Meadow there'd briefly been 5 Whoopers and I'd gone out to look for them. Because the Meadow was rather flooded I decided to save time by travelling on the other bank and looking across as it's much easier by bike. I could cover a lot of ground this way and eventually found 5 swans near the Wolvercote end. However at that distance again I couldn't positively ID them. Thus I thought that an entry level scope of some kind would be most beneficial.
After reading up on this site I decided on the IS60+HDF zoom eyepiece so yesterday I set off to Sherwoods in Warwickshire. I compared the IS60 with the Mighty Midget and must admit that there wasn't a great deal of difference between them but opted for the IS in the end. Compared to my old bins it was a real revelation to see things this clearly. Whilst there I also tried out the various Opticron bins: Verano, Imagic and DBA. I couldn't believe how light they were compared to the brick that I was carrying around and the quality was amazing. I've decided that I'll get the Verano 10's in a little while. My wife is a bit reluctant for me to splurge lots of money on equipment at the moment as she wisely wants to see if this hobby is going to last before I invest too much in it.
Whilst I was up in Warwickshire I thought that it would be rude not to visit Draycote Water (http://www.draycotebirding.co.uk/) to see if I could pick up either the Smew or the Lesser Scaup that were reportedly there. It was very cold and windy at the reservoir but sensibly all the wildfowl were down in Toft bay where it was much more sheltered. After having been told that the Lesser Scaup was there only 20 yards from the bank I spent a fruitless time looking for it. I met another couple of birders who were asking after it and seeming somewhat frustrated with it. I was just starting back when a couple of young chaps bounded up. We started talking and I told them that it was supposed to be here somewhere. They set up and within a couple of minutes had picked it out of the crowd of Tufted duck - young eyes are so much better. It had its head tucked down sleeping so it was quite hard to spot but you could clearly see the peaked crown, the small size and the courser "scaup" back. There was no sign of the Smew but it was not a bad way to christen my new scope - a new Lifer and my first "rarity" (using the BirdGuides classification into Common, Local, Scarce, Rare and Mega).
There were of course a number of ticks to add to my year list. These are all listed below.
030 blackcap (in my garden)
031 Kestrel
032 Common Buzzard
033 Coot
034 Tufted Duck
035 Little Grebe
036 Goldeneye
037 Meadow Pipit
038 Pochard
039 Teal
040 Goosander
041 Great Crested Grebe
042 Canada Goose
043 Lesser Scaup (LIFER)
044 Cormorant
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About Me
I used to be a birder in my youth but rather lost interest in my teens as other things became more interesting. However recently I've rediscovered this interest and would like to share my sightings and thoughts in this blog.
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