Chickadees are so much fun – and they’re not a shy bird. They’re usually the first to check out a new feeder, are often the first on the scene to jeer at an intruder, and we get to enjoy them year round. The species that we have here most abundantly in Loudoun is the Carolina […]

Water is a huge attraction for birds and other wildlife any time of the year but it is especially so during the winter. Having a shallow dish (max depth of 2 1/2 inches) with fresh water provides birds with the fluids they need to metabolize the nutritious seeds and other foods they’re gobbling up throughout […]

Most of us have probably had that awful experience of a bird crashing into one of our windows. You hear that “bam” and look down and see the bird sprawled out on the ground. Sometimes after a few minutes they make a recovery and are able to fly off but many times, they die on […]

This is one of those settings that mystified me for years but I read through a pretty straightforward write-up on diopter adjustment and have been on the straight and narrow ever since. Good binoculars will have two adjustments, your focus wheel, which lets you focus in on the bird or other creature that you’re observing, […]

So, I probably wouldn’t pull this one out at a happy hour or summer BBQ but this is one of those tid-bits that can help further understand how binos work and how to make them work best  for you. Ok, so the techy part….Interpupillary Distance is the distance between the pupils of the eyes.  Don’t worry, we’re not […]

When going out butterfly watching, the key is to have binoculars that can give you good close focus. Often when we go out on our butterfly walks, the individuals that we’re looking at are just a few feet away and while we may be able to identify them without using binoculars, when you do use […]

The binocular makers have been working with this for ages so if you wear glasses but also want to use binoculars, not to worry. Many binoculars have either a rubber piece that folds up at the eye piece or the barrel of the eye piece rotates up, giving your eye distance from the glass of […]

There’s nothing worse that having that amazing bird fly “right there” into view and you realize that you just can’t see it that clearly because of the dust, raindrops and oils that have built up on your eye pieces or lenses. Keeping your binoculars clean is pretty straightforward but there are a few tips to doing […]

You know the numbers….the 8×42, 10×32, that are printed on the binoculars….so what do they mean? Well, here we are to demystify the numbers.  The first number (e.g. the 8 in 8×42) refers to magnification. So if it says 8×42 then it means that the object (or bird or butterfly) will seem 8 times closer […]

So you’re looking at different types of binoculars and run up against yet another factor to consider….lens coating. Lens coating is the super thin layer of fluid that is applied to the glass by the maker of the binoculars. This special coating reduces the amount of light inside the binoculars that bounces around so that […]