Most difficult birding situation - optically (1 Viewer)

[chill6x6]

My biggest optical problem while birding is during overcast, cloudy winter days. It seems most days are that way during this time of year. It is right now in fact! Lighting is terrible and so is bird ID. There is usually some distance from me where I can ID a bird and a little more distance no ID is possible because the color/markings are gone. I first tried to help that with a Meopta B.1 7X50..that's not really enough magnification though. Maybe a 8 or 9 X50 or so might help. I kicked around the idea of an FL 8X56 but decided it would just be too large/heavy for general birding. An HT 8X54 might just be the ticket.....though I think a 8.5 or 9 X50 would be about perfect....splitting hairs I know!

 

[Loud Green Man]

Night owls

LGM

 

[dries1]

Too heavy, not enough mag.
Try a 10X50 EL
A.W.

 

[black crow]

Hey all,

Apologies if this question has been asked already, but I'd like to ask what is the most difficult situation you regularly come up against in your day to day birding (or on a fairly regular basis) - glare from direct sun or reflected sunlight? Locating and picking out small/tiny targets in amongst foliage? Identification of subtle details at distance? Do you choose your binoculars with these challenges in mind, and have the difficulties you regularly face influenced you towards purchasing binoculars with particular optical qualities or specifications?

The answer in my case is both, but I'd love to hear other experiences and opinions.

Cheers,
Patudo

For me it was always close ups in thick brush. Fortunately I found a pair of Eagle optics 6x30s with a really wide FOV and a close focus of 3 ft. They closed them out long ago but they are optically pristine and do well when you're in the thick. Now that EO is gone they are doubly a collectors item and Vortex still covers the forever warranty.

 

[David in NC]

Foliage.

 

[dwatsonbirder]

The most annoying problem that I face is seeing birds in forest canopy when there are many small breaks in the canopy (bright spots of light in the view) coupled with rain or extremely hot and high humidity conditions. In these cases it always seems that my eyeglasses and bins are fogging and that everything is lurking in the dark with a veil of back-lit fog between it and me.

--AP

Alexis hit the nail on the head, this for me is the single most challenging situation to find oneself in, particularly if it is a target bird you are finally seeing after months of planning, a long haul flight, a knackering walk, and then locating something on call in steamy dense forest!

Apologies for the slight diversion, but does anyone have a suggestion to reduce fogging of glasses and/or binocular oculars when looking at an acute angle in rainforest?
I suspect the issue relates to the size of the surface area of the glasses and the combination of sweat and high humidity - would a smaller "reading glasses" type pair be more appropriate (even with the limitations of a reduced fov being in focus? Is there an anti-fogging spray which can be applied to prescription glasses?

 

[justabirdwatcher]

Bright overcast winter skies are toughest for me.

 

[etudiant]

Apologies for the slight diversion, but does anyone have a suggestion to reduce fogging of glasses and/or binocular oculars when looking at an acute angle in rainforest?
I suspect the issue relates to the size of the surface area of the glasses and the combination of sweat and high humidity - would a smaller "reading glasses" type pair be more appropriate (even with the limitations of a reduced fov being in focus? Is there an anti-fogging spray which can be applied to prescription glasses?

The anti fogging compound Rain-X would be helpful.

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&k...s&tag=geminipcstand-20&ref=pd_sl_2j5adq16u2_e

The stuff is a high weight alcohol which dissolves the moisture from breathing or condensation into the coating. Does not last forever, so needs to be refreshed periodically. Works on windshields in Canada and on shower doors in NYC. Should be harmless for any of the optics coatings afaik.

 

[pbjosh]

Alexis hit the nail on the head, this for me is the single most challenging situation to find oneself in, particularly if it is a target bird you are finally seeing after months of planning, a long haul flight, a knackering walk, and then locating something on call in steamy dense forest!

Apologies for the slight diversion, but does anyone have a suggestion to reduce fogging of glasses and/or binocular oculars when looking at an acute angle in rainforest?
I suspect the issue relates to the size of the surface area of the glasses and the combination of sweat and high humidity - would a smaller "reading glasses" type pair be more appropriate (even with the limitations of a reduced fov being in focus? Is there an anti-fogging spray which can be applied to prescription glasses?

I used to use stuff like RainX with moderate success but it's another thing to carry and has to be re-applied and at times I felt like eventually optics ended up dirtier as a result. Honestly, the best results for me when fighting glasses and bins fogging have been a combination of learning to breathe out in a directed breath away, and taking off my hat when possible. You can avoid it most of the time except for the most strenuous hill climbs where you're really warm and then suddenly have a canopy flock. That'll always be a battle

 

[dwatsonbirder]

Wonderful, thank you both - not sure if I can get RainX this side of the pond, but I will look for an alternative and give it a go. I've certainly found that a hat compounds the issue, though can be useful for reducing glare. Unfortunately I'm really rather unfit for my age, so heavy breathing, sweating and cursing is sadly par for the course when birding in the tropics. More exercise and rainx before December I think! All the best and again apologies for the slight tangent.

 

[Patudo]

Thank you very much, everyone - really interesting reading about how your binoculars are actually used. I very much agree with those who have noted that identifying, and even finding, forest environments, is difficult - I know when I have found myself in forest or even just wooded areas, both here and on a recent visit to Singapore, I have found it quite challenging. I did get a great (but fleeting) view of a crimson sunbird there, but that was more by luck than by judgement. I'm very fortunate that my birding doesn't involve trying to ID species - I'm interested in just one species and that species can easily be recognized, even at long distances. The main challenge is keeping track of a bird, often fast-moving, flying across a cluttered backdrop and staying with (and to a lesser extent picking up) birds that can be very distant. When using my brother's 8.5x42 Swarovski I once picked up a peregrine leaving the Palace of Westminster just over 5km away. Resolution, aka sharpness, is probably the most important factor in finding/holding these tiny targets and my experience is that at distances of say 1km or greater, unfortunately, quality truly wins out - I say unfortunately because I truly wish that non-alphas could perform as well. I like a very wide field of view to follow their acrobatics or find them after they have disappeared into patches of cloud, but it would appear that tracking a bird over a difficult background is best achieved with higher magnification optics and magnification is diametrically opposed to field of view. I tend to go for field of view but must admit I would like to try a quality 12x some day.

 

[gunut]

I find it difficult to keep my lenses focused on the gulls, shore birds, cormorants, ect ...when at the shore on warm sunny summer days with all the young college girls walking and laying around half naked...

 

[WJC]

I find it difficult to keep my lenses focused on the gulls, shore birds, cormorants, ect ...when at the shore on warm sunny summer days with all the young college girls walking and laying around half naked...

Once again you have crossed from the technical to physiological. The prior can be dealt with at a moderate cost; the latter can't be dealt with REGARDLESS of the cost! So, how long have you had an OCD disorder? And, does your spousal unit know? :eek!::cat:

Bill

 

[Maljunulo]

I'm convinced that a large part of the difficulty in back lighted situations is in the human eyeball rather than the optics.

Of course better optics are better in these conditions, but ultimately I think it comes down to the eyeball being the limiting factor unless you have really crummy optics.

 

[gunut]

first signs of the disorder seemed to surface in my early teen years....as far as the spousal unit is concerned....I used to tell her I was WED not Dead, and looking couldn't do any harm....now that I'm in my mid 60s she takes a ..."yea right" attitude....

 

[Patudo]

Backlighting, funnily enough, is fine by me unless the bird gets too close to the sun, where flare can become an issue (the Noctivid with its apparently superlative baffling would be fantastic right up to the point you looked into the sun without realizing it!). There's nothing I like better than having a bright white sky to track that falcon silhouette against, it's amazing how much more easily you can lose them against a grey or even a blue sky.

 

[Maljunulo]

Backlighting, funnily enough, is fine by me unless the bird gets too close to the sun, where flare can become an issue (the Noctivid with its apparently superlative baffling would be fantastic right up to the point you looked into the sun without realizing it!). There's nothing I like better than having a bright white sky to track that falcon silhouette against, it's amazing how much more easily you can lose them against a grey or even a blue sky.

That's fine if all you are looking for is a silhouette, but if you want to see diagnostic markings on the near side it can be problematical.

 

[Patudo]

Absolutely, and I'm mighty glad my birding doesn't require me to pick out such details. If I visited your area I would love to know if what I was seeing was an anatum or a tundrius, but all things considered I'd be happy just to see one!

Regarding the fog problem discussed by dwatson and pbjosh - I also noticed this when the humidity was particularly high in Singapore, as well as, of course, here in the UK in cold and damp weather. Short eye relief binoculars are incredibly frustrating to use under the latter set of conditions. For what it's worth, I've found "directed breathing" to work better than anything else - I also suspect glasses that hold the lenses further from your face might help somewhat, but I much prefer wearing (and using binoculars with) a close-fitting frameless pair. I've had my glasses fog over briefly on occasion, but not too often.

I can see why the 7x42 Dialyt was/is highly regarded for woodland birding - excellent field of view, large exit pupil comes easily to the eye and the 7x magnification isn't an issue at shorter distance. I'd imagine if you were looking up into tropical rainforest canopy at small targets a higher magnification could come in handy, though.

 

[Loud Green Man]

Too heavy, not enough mag.
Try a 10X50 EL
A.W.

I was answering the Op' s question, not suggesting a set of bins!

"I'd like to ask what is the most difficult situation you regularly come up against in your day-to-day birding?"

Hence night(time) owls!

LGM

 

[dries1]

Like it was yesterday, gray and overcast with light rain. The night owls would have been perfect. I used to have a pair of 8X56 Night Owls, should have had them yesterday. They now belong to a gentleman in a control tower at an airport.

A.W.