Home : Optics : Using : Bird Watcher's Digest: Optics: Useful Scoping Tricks

Getting the Most from Your Scope

Setting Up

Put your scope and tripod together before you head out. Not only will it save you time when you need it, but on cold days it can be hard to get the scope on the tripod. Gloves tend to get in the way and increase the chance that the scope will slip and fall while you are trying to get it attached. And anyone who has tried to attach a scope to a tripod while sitting in the car knows that a double back flip on the uneven bars is a snap by comparison.

Make sure the legs of the tripod are fully spread. It seems obvious and simple, but not every user does it. When the legs are not fully spread the tripod becomes considerably unsteady. It is nowhere near as stable, and you run the risk of the thing toppling over, taking your scope to a crash landing. If producers of creature and horror films wanted to capture a truly terrifying expression, they would shoot the face of a scope owner watching the tripod tip slowly over, but the film would have to be rated at least PG 13.

Face the odd leg directly away from you. Tripods have, by definition, three legs. Always face one of them directly away from you so that it is not between your feet. When you are scanning quickly, or stepping away so that someone else can get a look, or turning away to give the sparrow behind you a quick peek through your binoculars, you won't kick the leg. Most tripod accidents happen because one of the legs is too close to one of the user's feet.

Pull the sunshade out. Most scopes are fitted with a sliding sunshade which extends over the objective lens, preventing flare and glare. Even experienced observers often forget to pull it out, and then they wonder why the person standing next to them using a less expensive scope is talking about colors and detail that don't seem to be there. Much of the time it won't matter, but when the sun is at the wrong angle, pulling the sunshade out can make all the difference. It never hurts to get into the habit.

Get the height right. It is a wonder that there isn't a special branch of orthopedic medicine devoted solely to people who spend a lot of time hunched down to look through their telescopes. The little bar in the middle is there so you can raise and lower the scope. There are a lot of users who save three seconds by not adjusting the height and then spend a day or two with a sore neck or back. Getting the right height will take a little practice, but the comfort is well worth the investment.

Take a pillow. If you are going to be making multiple stops you need something to lay the scope on, and an old pillow works well. You don't want to be disassembling and reassembling your scope and tripod every half-hour, so during the day you will want to keep them together. You can lay the scope on the backseat, but often there are other people, books and food, or a day's accumulation of garbage there. The alternative is putting it in the trunk, but it can bang on hard objects and get out of alignment or become damaged. The solution is to have an old pillow in the trunk or the backseat to lay the scope body on without detaching it from the tripod. Even if you have a quick mount and remove the tripod every time you get in the car, it is not a bad idea to have a soft spot for the scope.

Wear a hat with a brim. The sunshade can reduce glare at the other end of the scope, but on bright days the problem of glare at the user end is just as great. You want to shade your face on those days. If you spend a lot of time at places where people are using scopes you will see a surprising number trying to look through the eyepiece while shading their face with one hand. It doesn't work very well and it can be awkward, especially when you are scanning.

Take the lens cover off. Okay, anyone would figure this one out pretty quickly, but there isn't a scope user alive who hasn't had the experience of looking through the lens and seeing a black nothing.

Finding Birds

Start at the lowest power. Experienced users can find birds when the zoom is ratcheted up to 40x or 50x , but it is far easier and quicker if you use a lower power. The higher the power the smaller the field of view and the more delicate the focus (more on this later). Most zoom scopes go from 20x to 45x or 60x. On zooms, always start at 20x. It only takes a quick twist of the eyepiece to get to higher power once you have found the bird. The three seconds it takes is a lot less than the minutes or hours or days it will take you to find the bird at 60x.

Aim down the barrel the way you would aim down a rifle barrel. You don't need a finder or a gunsight on your scope (although some people use them). Just peer along the top of the barrel like it was a gun. When it seems to be aimed directly at the bird, look through the eyepiece. With a little practice you will find that most of the time the bird is right there.

Use landmarks. It is easier to find a notable landmark than a bird. When you are trying to get a closer look at the bird someone else has spotted or one you have been watching through your binoculars, note what else is around. The duck may be just to the right of the buoy, or directly in front of the clump of grass, or just to the left of the big dead tree on the far shoreline. Landmarks can get you where the bird is quickly. In their enthusiasm many observers respond to the announcement that there is a rare bird by putting their eye to the scope and then asking where. Reverse the process.

Move the scope slowly. When you are scanning, whether it is the open ocean or a pond of ducks, speed will make you miss birds. If you are looking for a single bird on the water and swing the scope too quickly left or right, you will pass over it before the brain recognizes the image. Give yourself time to process the information.

If the bird is not in focus, it isn't there. Even if the scope is pointed directly at the bird, if you are significantly out of focus, the bird won't be there. This is usually not a problem when you are looking for a bird in a tree or sitting in a flock of other birds, but it can be a major stumbling block when you are looking for a single bird on the water or a flying bird. If you do not have a reference point, start by focusing on the maximum distance possible. Most of the birds you will be looking for will be a long way off, so maximum distance will work most of the time. You might be slightly out of focus when you get on the bird, but at least you will be able to find it.

The biggest problem is with high-flying birds such as hawks or migrating waterfowl. One trick is to aim the scope at the most distant piece of horizon and focus on that.

Foreshortening

Most people are familiar with foreshortening, even if they have never use a scope. Foreshortening happens because the high magnification reduces the apparent distances between objects. This is important because size is a key field mark in many species. It can be especially critical when sorting through a flock of ducks on a lake, a group of sandpipers on a mudflat, or a clump of gulls on a beach.

Even experienced scope users are sometimes unaware of how misleading relative size can be at high power. They look at a group of gulls on the beach and conclude the one standing on the back edge of the flock must be X or Y, because it is obviously larger than the other birds. It isn't always larger. Foreshortening makes the bird behind look larger in relation to the birds in front of it. The trick for new scope users is to beware of using relative size as a field mark, especially when one bird is behind the other.

Interchangeable Lenses

Some scope users prefer interchangeable lenses to zooms. The problem is that you have to be ready to change lenses at a moment's notice, and that means having them handy. Don't just stick them in your pocket, because they will get lint and grit on them. A good alternative is to use a small lens bag, available at almost any camera store. They are soft and just large enough to carry two spare eyepieces. Many come with a small drawstring, and you can tie them to the bottom of the centerpiece of your tripod, making them always instantly accessible. To avoid the risk of having them knock against each other and to help keep them clean, keep each one in a small plastic bag in the case. It is another layer to go through, but it is worth the effort.

Your Eyes

No one has perfectly matching eyes. One will be stronger than the other, and almost everyone who uses a scope will favor one eye over the other. Try each eye a few times to determine which is more comfortable for you. Perhaps it is the way different parts of the brain process information, but even most left-handed people end up using their right eye the majority of the time.

Rest and alternate. Stare for too long through a scope and you will get a headache. You will also get a tired eye. One way to reduce the strain of long use is to take occasional breaks. Have a sip of coffee. Admire the scenery. Make friends with the sparrow feeding on the ground nearby. A break will add to the pleasure when you go back to the scope.

Alternating eyes occasionally is another way to relieve strain, and it has the added advantage of reducing the tendency to develop lazy eye. Bird watchers who spend hours at a time using a scope and use only one eye sometimes develop lazy eye in the eye they don't use. It isn't common and it applies only to those who are spending a lot of time with the scope, but if you do, make a concerted effort to alternate eyes now and then. Note that when you change eyes you are going to have to change the focus slightly.

Have Fun

The whole idea behind a telescope is to make bird watching more interesting and fun. It allows you to get good looks at birds that were merely specks and suppositions before. Virtually no one who purchases a scope regrets it, and most people are thrilled by what it adds to their experiences in the field. The tips here are small things but they can speed up the process of adjusting to a new and closer world.