All my usual bird harbingers of Spring are now here (House Wren, Yellow Warbler, Bullock’s Oriole, BH Grosbeak, Lazuli Bunting, Swainson’s Hawk, RW Blackbird, Black-chinned Hummingbird) except for Western Tanager. Tanager can be fickle along the Snake River Bottoms. Sometimes, passing through in large numbers, other times…one or two & have to be at right place at right time. If I miss at home, will head into mountains to a spot that never fails me to locate one.
This evening, first Swainson’s Hawk of season came overhead. Others, over past week: Black-headed Grosbeak, female Red-winged Blackbird (males arrived over a month ago), numerous Chipping & White-crowned Sparrows pushing through, Red-naped Sapsucker, Tree Swallows & Violet-green Swallows. Best bird was a Black-backed Woodpecker pounding on a dead fir tree, near Island Park Reservoir, this weekend.
Dean, that is incredibly gracious thanks for the offer. I think I’ll be OK. It’s only minimally opaque, like 95% perfect image. I’ll just get it repaired after I return from Malhuer. Take care, and have a great spring birding time. Cheers, Rich
I hope this never happens to any of you, beware. See photo, and be very careful if you clean your optics lenses of dust using a can of compressed air, designed for PC keyboards. The issue occurs when the can is held flat or upturned, resulting in extremely cold moist air to be released. My Vortex scope now has a damaged inner layer to the lens. Surprisingly the image viewing is not severely degraded and usable with only a tiny degree of opaqueness at all magnifications. Huge freak out when this occurred as you can imagine, but Vortex customer support is sending me a postage paid label to return the scope for no cost repairs. This is exceptional news and worthy of the price for Vortex HD series scope. Leaving for Malhuer tomorrow no less and this happens, LOL!😂 Cheers ya’ll, and happy lifer pursuits! Rich Rusnak
