Lake Worth Beach

The morning view at LW beach is nice especially when I see Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones. There's a long summer ahead with no shorebirds in sight. I'm enjoying it while I can. The Bird a Day endeavor is going to get hairy in just a few short weeks. My new goal is to make it to July 1st.

Swaro CLs: Beach Birding

Decided to take a picnic at the beach in Lake Worth yesterday and found some dark skies.  But the low light didn't stop my birding.  Within minutes I had 1 Black Tern and 7 Gull-billed Tern in sight.  After the terns I spied a few Rock Pigeons hanging around the pier and 1 lone Brown Pelican.

I brought my tester Swaro CLs for the birding and found over 20 Ruddy Turnstones in breeding plumage down the beach.  Mixed in the flock were 2 Sanderling.  It's been a few months since I've seen this beach birds near the shore.

I've been continuing to modify and make the test product pair of Swarovski CLs like my own.  A few things that had to change were a switch from the neck strap provided to a more traditional birding rig.  I don't actually wear it the proper way, if there is a proper way.  I usually sling it across my body like a heavy bag and off I go.  I like the stretchy material of the "birding bra." 

The other adjustment that I HAD to make was doing something about those top eye-cups.  I don't mind the two flap down caps but that top cap was driving me nuts.  I felt like it was always impeding my view or irritating me by rubbing against my skin.  So I have rigged a very inexpensive solution.  I may be the only birder using a $900 pair of binoculars that have the top eye-cups attached with a rubber-band but guess what?  It gives me a lot more flexibility and I love that the cups dangle out of my way.  I thought about doing some tie straps type of thing but I like how the cups dangle low with the rubber-band.  I guess I'll give this a try for a few more all day birding trips but so far (the past couple of weeks) I've been happy with the solution!

Mynas in the grocery parking lot