New Binoculars

It’s gonna be springtime soon. I sprung for a new pair of binoculars. I wanted ones that will focus near-distance, and I found them in “Papilio II” by Pentax. Those binocs will focus as close as my arm’s length. They will be ideal for butterflies on the lantanas, and today I’m spying on the bird feeder.

Cold outside but sunny and I’m watching goldfinches, house finches, chickadees, tufted titmice, and a lady cardinal. They don’t exactly take turns; they sit on the bare branches nearby and look for an opening. The chickadees and titmice make a quick grab for seeds. The goldfinches prefer to settle in and feed. Last week I watched a pair of pileated woodpeckers work on dead branches of an oak. Wish I’d had the Papilio glasses then! A house wren just landed on the sill, maybe asking, “What are you guys finding here?”

I miss the birds of my childhood back in south Texas. It’s been – how long? – since I’ve heard a meadowlark. Or seen a couple of grasshoppers hung on a barb-wire fence by a nine-killer. White-wing doves, ground doves and Inca doves. Those remarkable scissor-tails whose arrival told you it’s time to go barefooted. You lucky so-and-so's down there below the Nueces -- take a bird walk!

I still have the French 8x30 binocs I bought when I took ornithology at Texas Tech. I could have used these Papilos back then.

Dac Crossley
February 8, 2016. Good morning, Peyton Manning!

“Never wear anything that panics the cat.” – P. J. O’Rourke.

Comments

[Breana]

I don't get chickadees, and I miss them. I have plenty of chipping sparrows in their little red hats, and bossy cardinals and even blustery bluebirds. But not a single chickadee dee dee.

[Jan Okey]

Enjoy your new binoculars Dac. They sound wonderful.

[Janice Pulliam]

Last week we went to White Water Draw near Wilcox, AZ and saw plenty of Sandhill Cranes.

[Lesley A. Diehl]

I've been watching the birds that come to the canal we live on in Florida during the winter months. This year we have a family of limpkins, several wood storks, two cormorants, an anhinga (he's always here)and some assorted herons, white and blue. Bird life is wonderful here.