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I was astounded the first day I went birdwatching.Oh no. Seagulls directly overhead. That means trouble . When my brother tossed a frisbee at the gulls, I dodged.
Lucky me, I had my father’s binoculars with me. Thank goodness I did not know how valuable they were or I would have been a nervous wreck. We lived in the city in New Jersey and once a year we went to the “shore” for Dad’s vacation.
The primary birds we saw at the beach were seagulls, terns and sandpipers. Dad let me use his binoculars even though they were his special prized possession, Leupold binoculars. He liked to watch the boats at sea. My brother took in the female scenery from a distance. (He was young too!The birds at the beach were so cool because they were different from the ones I saw in the city.
My backyard birds were normal city birds, like starlings, robins, house sparrows, pigeons, some crows and once in a while a cardinal. Because all of these birds were accustomed to people we did not use binoculars at home. Oh yes, we had bluejays too. Grandma often scolded them for chasing the smaller birds away.
When we were driving every Sunday afternoon in the country, Dad pointed out some hawks and buzzards in the sky but I did not yet know how to tell them apart. Dad pointed out the difference. Buzzards eat dead animals, even humans if they die in the desert. Hawks eat rabbits and catch them to kill them for a meal. Ah, but i still did not know how to identify them. It was Grandma who told me I needed to save my allowance to buy a book to identify birds like bird guides.
The only time we took Dad’s Leupold binoculars with us was when we went to a lake or a beach. On one trip we saw swallows flitting over the water near the cliffs. I was on the other side of the car the day Mom saw a meadowlark. Funny. Many years later I saw my first meadowlark. By then I understood the value and importance of both birding guides and those incredible Leupold binoculars.
