• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Recent content by biowizard

  1. biowizard

    Why are Caribbean birds so tame?

    Curious counter-example: one group of pretty much fearless birds in the UK, despite being widely hunted and shot: DUCKS! In the sights of many a shotgun throughout large parts of the year, nonetheless Mallard and other species show no fear of mankind when offered bread beside a pond, even within...
  2. biowizard

    Do higher scope magnifications make any sense?

    Very fair points. But let's look at it from another angle: Suppose I just want to find out whether, in principle, a 2023-manufactured scope gives (say) more light, wide field of view, better digiscoping options, etc., compared to my 1986-manufactured scope, that I could do with any example of...
  3. biowizard

    Do higher scope magnifications make any sense?

    Thanks for the advice, Hermann. I have been actively thinking about the best targets to use for testing any new scope against my TSN-3. Simply gawping across a car-park on a sunny day will get nowhere close to being a decent test. I'm actually wondering about hiring an ATX for a weekend, if I...
  4. biowizard

    Why are Caribbean birds so tame?

    The Collared Doves are a relatively new import to St Lucia. I remember when I saw my first one, and it was a very weird moment. I was having lunch with a dear (and sadly now, departed) friend, Maria Grech. She was English by birth, but had lived most of her life in St Lucia. She worked...
  5. biowizard

    Kowa Prominar TSN-3 : Value/ Info?

    To be fair, it looks pretty darn good though my Swaro 10x50 EL bins, which of course are much newer than my nearly 40-year-old scope. But I've also seen this view through others' assorted telescopes, telephoto lenses and so on, and the Kowa TSN-3 blasts them all out of the water - 21 miles of...
  6. biowizard

    Why are Caribbean birds so tame?

    That's a fair point. And in St Lucia (indeed in the Lesser Antilles), the two species of Patagioenas (white-crowned and scaly-naped pigeons) were indeed hunted extensively in the past for food, becoming relatively scarce. They are now recolonising the island (we had a pair nesting in a tree...
  7. biowizard

    Why are Caribbean birds so tame?

    PS, inspired by your nickname on this forum, the latest birds to give us an amazing show were two pairs of Brown Pelicans, that were feeding on a shoal of young reef fish in about 12" of water, just off the beach. They too were completely oblivious of my wife and me, flying close splashing down...
  8. biowizard

    Why are Caribbean birds so tame?

    At first sight that seems an entirely reasonable explanation; however the evidence is almost the opposite. Let me mention just two things: 1) Even in parts of the UK with minimal pressure on wildlife (such as the rural southwest), formerly "tame" species such as the House Sparrow, are now very...
  9. biowizard

    Resolving power X magnification?

    Given that these days, nearly everyone has access to a laser printer, a simple way to overcome the "test chart is known object", would be to print random words, or even arbitrary combinations of (say) 5 letters at a time, in a series of decreasing font sizes (akin to an optician's eye chart)...
  10. biowizard

    Do higher scope magnifications make any sense?

    Fascinating discussion, and apposite for me, as I am considering whether to move on from my beloved 1986-vintage Kowa TSN-3 Prominar, with its 77mm pure fluorite objective and 30x WIDE eyepiece. I'm planning to visit one of my dealers over the next few days, to do some side-by-side tests...
  11. biowizard

    Why are Caribbean birds so tame?

    One thing that always amazes me, is just how fearless of humans, many Caribbean birds are. In St Lucia, you only have to open a door or a window, and within moments one or more Lesser Antillean Bullfinches will fly in, knowing where to find the kitchen, and totally ignore your presence. These...
  12. biowizard

    Compact but stable travel scope tripod?

    As recently posted elsewhere on this forum, I travel with a Manfrotto BeFree Aluminium tripod. Carbon Fibre would be lighter, but already having two other full-size Manfrotto tripods at home (one a heavy Alu model that I bought with and for my scope (a Kowa TSN-3 Prominar), the other a lovely...
  13. biowizard

    Swarovski ATC: which lightweight tripod?

    I've just come back from a holiday in St Lucia, West Indies, where I took my (oops, sorry, Kowa TSN-3) out for the first time in several years. Normally I take my Swaro EL 10x50 bins instead. My scope has a fixed-power 30x WIDE eyepiece. When at home, I use a heavy Manfrotto beast of a tripod...
  14. biowizard

    ME 1.7x Converter - Image Quality

    Does anyone hereabouts have the Swaro ME 1.7x converter for their ATX/STX scope, especially on the 95mm or even 115mm models? I'd be interested in any comments about it? While I assume that like any teleconverter, there is a loss of brightness equal to the square of the magnification ratio, here...
  15. biowizard

    Kowa TSN-99a vs. Leica APO 82 Televid

    I've just come home from a three-week vacation in St Lucia, West Indies. Staying on a tropical island, in several different hotels, two of which had amazing sea views (including across the 21-mile "channel" to neighbouring Martinique), and the same two plus another of which also had plenty of...
See more
Back
Top