Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 20:27:50 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Roger & Leslie Torres Subject: New book, new binoculars, new bird MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit It was a happy birding day for me today. I got a new bird book, new binoculars and I had a new bird in my backyard. The bird book first - it's "Birds of the Mid-Atlantic Region" by John H. Rappole. I looked at a couple other ones, but this one really impressed me because it is so "user-friendly". It has color-coded distribution maps for each of the birds in the book. It also has a color tab index to bird groups. Now about the binoculars. They're not top of the line by any stretch of the imagination - I just don't have the money to spend right now - but they're perfect for my current needs. I've been using a nice pair that belong to my parents that were great for distances, but lousy for backyard birding. So, I bought a pair of compact Dakota variable zoom binoculars. In my opinion, they're perfect for an amateur like me. :) Now about the new bird! I saw a Fox Sparrow in my backyard today. I just started a life list a few months ago, and I get very excited when I see a new bird to add. I was even happier to get both photos and video of it jump-kicking in the brush. Pretty bird, neat behavior. Leslie Keedysville, MD P.S. From what I've seen from all of you on this list, this seems to be a pretty intellectual bunch. I hope no one minds cutesy comments like mine! ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================