Pit fall hi power optics

High power optics can cause strain on your mind and eye(s). And might lead to a head ache. Hi power optics will limit your field of view more so than let us say 8x binos. And certainly will limit your field of view compared to naked eye.

While on a hawkwatching site it is best to use naked eye often. One playful maneuver is to go naked eye— then quickly raise binos when spotting a raptor. Try to identify the hawk within three seconds. Whether you can identify the hawk or not, continue the exercise of raising and lowering the binos. This exercise will also help you to raise the optics rapidly. This exercise will help you to understand or appreciate the size of raptors. If you constantly observe a raptor with just a scope or binos, you will not appreciate the size of the hawk. The more powerful the optics the less you will understand the size of the raptor! Also, optics can compromise your ability to judge distances. Well, what does that matter. Well, it does not matter at all! It is just an exercise! Albeit, an interesting exercise.

In very few cases, you might have to determine the distance to the bird in order size the bird. But, in nearly every other case— in the East and on Puget Sound, every species is unique. In Puget Sound and the East can be found the most unique hawks— the NG; the Harrier; and the Osprey. The NG is very easy to identify— when in the sky— and more of this later. As I have said, the size of a raptor does not matter. The size of a raptor is an inherent part of the bird. A bird makes its own size. Size does not make the bird. But possibly size does make the bird. Better yet, both situations are correct.
 Let me clarify—make— in this paragraph has two meanings. Size does not make the bird— means size does not nail or identify the species. What I am saying is there is no such thing as a large, Cooper’s hawk, or a monster Cooper’s hawk, or a really big Cooper’s hawk. Alright, maybe there are some large Cooper’s hawks. But what are the odds? One in one-thousand? I say a Cooper’s hawk is a Cooper’s hawk.  Now if a birder only has experiences observing only male Cooper’s hawks, which to me is inconceivable, then the female Cooper’s hawk will become— a large Cooper’s hawk.

I will cover size does not matter, later.

The thought— Bernie Sanders; the carpenter who lost his level.