daleh@tekcae.UUCP (Dale Henrichs) (03/04/85)
I just got a spotting scope (Bushnell 9-30 X 40mm zoom), so I had to
go out and give it a work out.
I started out saturday morning birding around my house (we've got a
few wooded acres in "a country setting") and then my wife and I headed
out to Sauvie island (I reported on another trip to Sauvie Island a few
weeks ago).
In the top of a Douglas fir, I scoped out a chestnut-backed chickadee
in a flock of black-capped chickadees. I haven't seen many
chestnut-backed chickadees, so this bird was a real treat.
On Sauvie Island, we saw a flock of 50 sandhill cranes in a field. The
cranes look like miniature, gray ostriches. We saw a northern shrike
in the same area where I'd seen a shrike the last time I visited
Sauvie Island (the same one?). For those of you in the Portland area,
stop at the wildlife preserve on Reeder road and walk along the dike
around Sturgeon lake. The shrike hangs out in the bushes in or near
the drainage ditch by the fields.
The road on the west side of the island was built on a dike, so road
level is at about the same height as the telephone lines. As a result
we were able to get good views of a number of kestrels and mourning
doves sitting on the telephone lines.
I've included a list of species:
Around the house:
rufous-sided towhee steller's jay killdeer
black-capped chickadee bewick's wren oregon junco
robin red tailed hawk house finch
house sparrow chestnut-backed chickadee
Sauvie Island:
american kestrel canadian geese crow
mallard american widgeon golden-crowned kinglet
ruby-crowned kinglet common bushtit mourning dove
scrub jay red-winged blackbird brewer's blackbird
great blue heron red-shafted flicker starling
sandhill crane northern shrike
Seen but not identified (for sure):
swallow (probably violet-green; these and tree swallows have just arrived
in the area)
swan (saw the swans, but didn't stop to get a good look).
BTW, I am fairly impressed with the telesope. Overall it's about 15"
long, 2" in diameter and weighs about a pound. The outer HALF of the
scope twists for focus and there is a 2"x1" opening near the eyepiece
for controlling the zoom, this means that the scope can be operated
while wearing gloves. The depth of field of the scope is relatively
narrow (1 foot or so, at full magnification), but I found that this
was adequate, since most times, I zoomed into my quarry (refocusing as
I went).
Dale Henrichs