Walking and pedaling with a binocular
This however of year, the temptation and habit of looking into the tree tops for warblers becomes such a convention for me that it can lead to problems when riding a bicycle. It takes extraordinarily effort to keep my eyes on the road and not in the trees when pedaling. For this reason, I have been forcing myself to parade the bike when I want to do some birding. It pays off, not only in terms of security, but also in terms of birds.
Last night, for case in point, I walked the bike through a favorite subdivision of trail, pulled the Zeiss Victory 8x20 out of my biking jersey and on the double added a Tennessee Warbler to my '08 come from list. A little farther down the spoor, I heard a Sora from a nearby swamp. Highlight of the evening commute, however, was a Depressed-headed Vireo (when I was young, we called it a Withdrawn). Even in a compact binocular, the birds creamy specs were striking and the yellow sponge off along the side was lovely. Yes, a quality compact binocular can be a serious birding device. So can a bicycle if you have enough sense to get off a walk it, now and then.
