The view from up there.

Some years ago I bought a spotter scope. It's a small telescope
essentially for bird watching, as far as I can tell, and is best mounted
on a tripod or something. At this stage of the game, I have no idea why I
bought it, unless I had a desire to go bird watching. This is plausible
because I do like bird watching even though I am not a fanatic.

Crusher...

The spotting scope, typically 20X with its own short tripod, is sold here
largely to rifle marksmen for use at long range targets.

Michael Fanner...

Try thissun Bob. Tis the next generation to mine, I guess. Only the
eyepiece appears to have been changed to protect.....well.... something

So I've got this 'scope'. I do recall that not knowing whether I'd get a
lot of use out of the thing, I bought a cheap one and that brings
limitations, the main one being, in this case, that for a full field of
view through the eyepiece, the eye needs to be about one and a half inches
away from the lens.

I quickly developed a method of holding the thing whereby my hand formed a

Crusher...

Yep, that's a typical low priced spotting scope used here by marksmen. The
best ones cost upwards of $300. Totally useless near ground level on a hot
day because of the mirage (heat waves).

cup round the eyepiece which I could plant my face against and achieve the
correct distance. And at that, it's not a bad bit of kit, given the price.
But having said that, it never got a lot of use, I mean I've got a 400
magnification astronomical telescope if I want to look in the windows of

dae...

Mick,

I live in the East. The closest we have I would guess is the Crow which is

Michael Fanner...

You don't sound Chinese. ;-)

dae...

No, I don't sound Chinese, but I do play a mean game of Chinese Checkers:-)
Actually, after consulting a map, I have decided that I live in the Midwest
of this Counrty. Well, the Northern part of the Midwest. Actually, there
is a big Lake just North of me about 11 miles and it is called, er, er, Lake
Michigan.
Uh, Mick, would you call me, then trace the call and tell me where the heck
I'm at?

a fairly large bird, all black with a dark yellow beak.

Michael Fanner...

Same family. Ditch the yellow beak and paint some white streaks on the
wings and you have a magpie. And probably no eyes.

the houses across the other side of Southampton Water. So my little

david...

So, uh, is the fair Wendy aware of this little hobby of window-
peeking???? :) tsk, tsk...

......

spotter scope lay idle and unloved. Until this evening.

This afternoon we heard a birdsong that was as beautiful as it was
unfamiliar. We listened for a while then headed for the room in the roof
to see what we could see, And there on the scaffolding which surrounds the
derelict cottage out back was a bird, singing it's little heart out. But
what sort of bird was it? It was too far away to tell. Now where's that
spotter scope?

Luckily it was not far away and I determined that the bird in question was
a jay. Gorgeously coloured member of the crow family and a very close
cousin to the magpie, the Jay is a delight to see whereas the magpie is
sinister and quite unwelcome.

Of course, what's interesting is that that site indicates that it wasn't
the jay that we were listening to, but that's by the by. I had my scope
and I spotted the jay. Job done.

The experience was so pleasant, leaning out of the top floor window,
spotting anything that moved, that I stayed up there for a good hour.
Birds (mainly pigeons and magpies) came and went. The house martins were
to fast for me to follow with the scope but I enjoyed their aerial dance
all the same. And I was fascinated to see what the small dots were on the
front of the vapour trails that wove across the sky.

And this is the interesting bit.

One such vapour trail turned out to have British Airways 737 at it's head
and I followed the plane's flight until I was shocked to see, shooting
through my field of view, some sort of fighter jet going at a phenomenal
rate in the opposite direction.

I have to say that I have no idea how close they were, those two planes.
Could have been, and probably was, miles, but it looked close enough to
give a shock. Wonder what the passengers on the 737 thought.

david...

my guess, good friend, is nothing... most airline passengers are reading,
sleeping, eating, drinking... there are but a few of us romantics who
love to sit at the window and stare at the clouds and the sky and the
land... :-) and if miles away, may not have seen it...

but i envy your skill with the spotter scope. i recently sold a high-
quality 10-15-30-40 power hand-held telescope on ebay...(it looked like
the ones you used to see in pirate movies... ... sold within 10
minutes... and the gentleman who bought it was exceedingly happy... he
had wanted this particular model for over 40 years and now had one. but i
could never see anything with it... oh, a fleeting glimpse here and
there, but difficult.

Joy...

How about the pilots, if they were on the ball?

It's interesting that your jays look entirely different from those on this
side of the pond.

Michael Fanner...

Not massively different in shape although the tail feathers are not at
all the same. The totally different colour is the giveaway.

Joy...

Our jays usually have a crest on their heads, though.

AS I said in my post to Bette. Homesick travellers gave it a familiar name.

Joy...

I'm sure you're right about the names.