HawkWatch Day 2 -- Sat, Aug 27

Great fun. 165 raptors were recorded of 8 species: red-tails, turkey vultures, Cooper's hawks, sharp-shinned hawk, American kestrels, an osprey, a red-shouldered hawk and a prairie falcon. I didn't see the prearie falcon. It had been caught by the banders and released and was briefly glimpsed by the watchers as it was released. The banders confirmed that it had been a prairie falcon though.

I looked through some of the others' binoculars and after a day on the Hill have decided to go with 10x of some sort. I'll probably get the Celestron Noble 10x42 binoculars, but I'm hoping to give them a look at Scope City. Since I'll never buy anything from and probably will not ever return to Discount Camera due to their terrible attitudes and lack of customer service, the only other place is Scope City, at least in San Francsico. If I like the binos and can't talk them down to the same price as Eagle Optics I'll get them from Eagle Optics. That 30-day return policy is pretty nice and everyone seems to love the company.

I hope the image quality of the 10x42 Celestrons match that of the 8x42's, since they are so highly regarded. According to Celestron's website the 10x42's are "new", so the judgement is not out on them yet. Anything will be better than my $50 Bushnells, but I don't want anything. I want the absolute best thing available for under $300.

Once I have a good set of binoculars I need never waste time talking about them and can focus instead on the birds--which will look awesome through my new binoculars!