5 Tips for Successful Bird WatchingWritten by Chuck Fitzgerald
5 Tips for Successful Bird Watching Chuck Fitzgerald ©2004. All Rights Reserved.Can you name number one spectator sport in North America? It’s not baseball, figure skating or racing. It’s bird watching. That’s right, more people are watching birds than football and hockey combined. With so many people hoping to see a bird they’ve never seen before, it’s not surprising to see a clamoring for latest tips and tools to get job done. Here are my top five tips for getting most out of your birding experience. #1. Get to Where Birds Are! This sounds obvious, but many birders spend majority of their bird watching time and energy on poor locations. Some folk have advantage of looking out of their windows into back yard to observe nature’s best. The rest of us need to get moving. I would highly recommend visiting a National Wildlife Refuge. There are over 500 of them across United States. To find one near you, visit http://refuges.fws.gov/ #2. Know What Species to Expect. There are approximately 900 species of birds in United States and recognizing each of them is nearly impossible. So when you visit an area, do a little research first. You may find that perhaps only a few species actually inhabit that particular area. With a little preparation, you will be able to more readily identify bird species from each other. Keep a list of successfully viewed species – we’ll call this tip number two and a half. #3. Get a Great Pair of Binoculars. Spending time and money to get to right place can be totally wasted when your binoculars are inadequate. If you have an inexpensive pair of binoculars you are not getting most out of your viewing. Today’s technologies come at a price and they provide crucial benefits in wildlife viewing. For instance, image stabilization will keep your view from shaking-very important when watching from a long distance. Other cool features include anti-fogging, low-light viewing and wide-view characteristics. Additionally, binoculars with built-in digital cameras enable you to identify birds once you get home. These benefits will definitely enhance your bird watching. A great pair of binoculars will turn a mediocre experience into a great one. You can count on it!
| | Night Vision Devices -- The Ultimate in BackCountry ToysWritten by Chuck Fitzgerald
Many nights in backcountry are far from dark. A bright moon and a sky full of stars can throw off enough light to allow for reading a book, but add cloud cover, mountains or trees and it gets dark awfully fast. When you need to see in dark, you have two choices - you either turn on a light, or use one of many available night vision devices (NVD). The NVD could be ultimate backcountry toy.Like choosing many other types of technology, choosing correct NVD is all about how you are going to use it. When most people think of night vision capabilities, they think about spy movies, military or law enforcement - applications where it is vital for good guys to see without being seen by bad guys. A drop in pricing over past few years has made a NVD affordable for campers, hunters, hikers and a wide variety of other outdoor enthusiasts. However, high-end devices used for specialized purposes remain quite expensive. There are two broad categories of NVD. Image Enhancement devices collect small amounts of light and amplify them to point where human eye can observe object. Thermal Imaging devices capture high end of infrared light spectrum which is emitted as heat by objects. Image Enhancement devices will provide a much crisper image with detail while Thermal Imaging devices show regions of heat. Currently, five Generations of NVD exist. Generations 0 and 1 are less expensive and typically produce a poor image quality. Generations 2, 3 and 4 have increasingly better image quality and an equally increasing price to match.
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