~ By Vicky ~
We went on a long weekend trip to Camano Island, WA to accomplish a few things. Firstly, to visit S.'s mom and see her new island home. Secondly, to return Gilbert the cat, whom we were temporarily caring for while S.'s mom was in housing transition, and whom we were tuning up health-wise with a full work up at our vet; dental surgery for broken and infected teeth; treating his newly diagnosed hyperthyroidism; laser massage treatments at the
fabulous S.O.A.R (Salem Oregon Animal Rehab) to soothe his aching old bones; rejuvenating his scruffy and oily coat to a soft pettable pelt; and generally keeping him safe from the world of predators and B.B. guns
(our vet discovered numerous B.B. gun bullets lodged in him, and old, poorly healed bone fractures from fights with wild animals while he was living with S.'s mom, who let him be an outdoor cat in Grass Valley, CA. He is now a happy, healthy, and safely retired indoor cat).
Lastly, we wanted to put to the test our brand spanking new Swarovski spotting scope - Lunette!
Lunette is a French word that can be translated as telescope, field glass, spyglass, scope, and a few other random meanings. We've been wanting a spotting scope for a while but wanted to be sure to get The One. The One that would be worth The $$$ and worth The Hauling of extra gear atop our already hefty load. I have a write-up of all our birding gear that I still have to yet post, but in short, we bird with: two binoculars, a mirrorless camera, a telephoto lens, a short lens, and a tripod with gimbal head. These are not light items, and they are not cheap items. Minimalists we are not. I'm sure some people think of birdwatching as a peaceful, simple hobby. I'm here to say it can get complicated. But I guess it all depends on one's priorities. S. and I are visual people, so we like our optics. And I like capturing those optic visions with my camera.
Why the Swarovski spotting scope, you ask? Excellent question! Originally I had in mind the German made Leica 85mm APO spotting scope. Leica is known for their legendary cameras and lenses - if I could get but one film camera it would be a vintage Leica with the 50mm f/1.4 Summilux lens. Then, while researching comparably priced scopes, I came upon the Japanese made Kowa Prominar scope. Both of these scopes are high quality and utilize similar ergonomics. Both have two focus dials - a course and fine focus and a magnification ring near the eyepiece. So in total three rings. We got to use the Kowa on a birding trip at Malheur NWR where a very nice British man let us try it out. He pointed out that the Brits tend towards the Kowas and the Americans towards Swarovskis. The Kowa was indeed a very nice scope, but I was still hesitant to make a final decision. I needed to do more research and see more reviews.
I initially did not consider a Swarovski because it is the most expensive scope out there. But, the Swarovksi had two important features over the previously mentioned scope brands that made me reconsider. The first feature is the focus ring. It only has two large rings, one for focusing and the other for magnification. Now, I think it might be a preference thing, but I did not like the two smaller focus dials of the Kowa (which is also how the Leica is set up too). In order to focus this style of scope, you're stuck with only one hand position (on top of the scope) and turning the rings by rolling them under your fingers. Since the Swarovksi's dials encircle the body of the scope, you have various hand position options (top, bottom, left & right sides), and you can grab the ring or roll it. Also, the rings are big enough for use with gloved/mittened hands - important as most our birding is done in the fall/winter/spring. Plus the magnification ring is right next to the focus ring, so moving back and forth between the two feels nimble. The second important feature is the ability to switch out objective lenses and keep the eyepiece. All spotting scopes come in two pieces that must be bought to make a whole scope - the objective lens and the eyepiece, and the two pieces are not interchangeable with different sized objective lenses. This is not the case with Swarovski - if we wanted to we could get a smaller, lighter lens for say long hikes, and/or a much larger, heavier lens for purely stationary scoping, all while using the same eyepiece. Fabulous.
Ok, I'm almost done nerding out, but not quite. To wit: the second important part of a spotting scope system is the base that holds the scope--i.e, the tripod. There ain't no handholding these bad-boys! Our scope can magnify up to 70x power, which also means magnifying every single vibration, so a solid tripod is essential. When we first tested the scope, I used my camera tripod set up - a Peak Design carbon-fiber travel tripod with gimbal head. This setup is fine for a camera that has internal vibration stabilization, but for scopes that don't have this technology, it makes for bouncy images, which makes for nausea in motion-sickness prone individuals such as ourselves. I went ahead and got us a Sirui three-section carbon-fiber tripod with a Manfrotto fluid head. Fluid heads are usually used for videography, but set atop the solid Sirui tripod, it makes for smooth panning/tilting scoping with NO vibration. The downside of all this stability is weight. The scope weighs a little over 6 and 1/4 pounds, while the tripod and fluid head combo weighs about 8 1/2 pounds. That's about 15 pounds!
We have our carry system though: my wife, AKA my walking gear cache.
It's pretty amazing what this scope has done to our birding game. We used to have an impossible time with seabirds because they are always too far out on the ocean to see them and identify them with our binoculars. Lunette, to put it all into perspective, allows us to clearly see the details of a bird the size of a loaf of bread from a mile away. And according to reviews I've watched, large animals like elk can easily be spotted from two miles away. Of course this long-range glassing requires minimal heat distortion. Heat distortion! The bane of telephoto photography and now spotting scoping!
The below image was taken on a cloudy day. Actually, at the time we were there, Camano Island was imbued by regional wildfire smoke, so there's that going on too. Those black dots in the ocean swells are actual birds. Birds we would have missed if it weren't for Lunette! Booyah!
And this is how we spotted for the first time a Bonaparte Gull, casually being followed by a seal.
Now, the image above is through my camera and cropped. What is actually seen through the scope is by far clearer and larger. This is where digiscoping comes in. Digiscoping is the merging of a spotting scope and a camera to take ultra distance photos. We're talking 1,350mm - 3,150mm effective focal length on a camera (my current telephoto lens can get 300mm -700mm when in cropped sensor mode). Digiscoping, as you may have guessed, is the next thing for me. To make it work with my camera and scope requires some extra equipment (because, of course it does!). So stay tuned, because that's in the works for the BirdingUnfettered duo!
Lunette's début was a roaring success. Despite its size and heft, we've managed several miles-long walks comfortably with it in tow. The more we use it, the more our ability to spot birds has become--well--spot on. And with minimal focusing distance at just over 15 feet we can use it on wooded trails too. An unexpected advantage of glassing is the ability to be handsfree and watch a subject for a while to better appreciate the details of the bird, or to have more time watching fun behaviors - grooming, singing, or just general cute bird twitterings. It's pretty addicting getting all the close views without having to get close and spooking the birds.
(nota bene from S.: that being said, one returns to the source--V.'s wicked camera skills and artistic eye and swank framing--to get photographs the like of these. They render a taste of Camano Island that residents would recognize.)
S. showing off her glassing form.
The habitats of Camano Island were varied. From bay views to grasslands that edged tidal coves. Early morning low tide was a perfect fishing ground for herons.
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