A Musical Sign that Spring is Near

do you have a recommendations for birding (and general nature) binoculars? We are taking a trip to trinidad & tobago and it is my wife's birthday and my 11 y/o daughter (who I intrdodcued to your blog) suggested I get her (them) new binoculars.

Specs?
Specific brand & models/

-Steve

do you have a recommendations for birding (and general nature) binoculars? We are taking a trip to trinidad & tobago and it is my wife's birthday and my 11 y/o daughter (who I intrdoduced to your blog) suggested I get her (which probably means them) new binoculars. Which I heartily concur (my daughter is deeply invested bird lover).

Specs?
Specific brands & models?

Thanks in advance.

-Steve

I have been hearing cardinals singing lately. This morning I counted five singing males in my local park.

dr.steveb - These are a little dated, but you can find optics reviews here and here.

Your question must be urgent. You asked it twice. Your question must be urgent . You asked it twice.
Ok, I' ll cut it out.
You could go with the recommendations from Consumer Reports. They usually pick a good quality model at a reasonable price. I can't find the latest report so I hope you have access to it. But before you select a model you need to figure out how much you want to spend and what type (porro vs roof prism) you want. In my book Club George I devoted a chapter to a basic step by step approach for selcting the model that best suites your needs. If you don't have my book (you mean you really don't have a copy?) I could forward a copy of the chapter to you but I guess we'd need the Grrl Scientist to facilitate that. If you already know the basics then price is a prime consideration to make your choice.

I am afraid that I have to disagree with the Consumer Reports approach. Their reviews invariably lean more heavily on price, and one of the things that they cannot evaluate is longevity. Binoculars that are cheap (even if optically decent) will not last, even through light-to-moderate use. There is no way to understand that via a standard review process, but there is pretty much a linear positive correlation of price with ruggedness in binocular evaluation. So unless you want to do this again in a few years (or months), I'd recommend not paying attention to Consumer Reports evaluations of binoculars.

Reviews of binoculars and other optics can be found at Better View Desired; these reviews are much more detailed than the Consumer Reports versions. Other comparison data can be found at Eagle Optics. AS Bob noted, your best bet is to first figure out what your price range is, and then look at their birding binoculars (they break them down into bins for hunters, birders, sports, and for kids, etc.) One good one that is reasonably priced is the Nikon 8x40 Action Extreme; I got an earlier model for my daughter, and she is a rugged user, and they have held up very well. She was a bird bander for the Winter MAPS program in Arkansas last winter; part of the assignment was to re-sight color-banded birds, in winter weather, in rugged country, for many hours. We also use an even earlier version for the student bins in our ornithology classes; they have held up well, and students can be rough on equipment. DISCLAIMER - I have no association with Eagle Optics other than as a satisfied customer.

There are other factors as well that you can consider. Close focus is nice if you are doing a lot of viewing of birds (or butterflies) that are not far off. Waterproofing and sealing is nice if you work in the tropics or tend to drop things into streams. Roof prisms are nice if you want a more compact bin. Etc. You should build at least a small list of how you will be using the optics (tropics, winter, ocean voyages, for birds, for butterflies, for baseball games, etc.); this will help you narrow down the possibilities too.

My mom is a bird aficionado. Not a "serious birder," but she keeps a well-worn copy of a popular book on birds of North America where she can grab it on the way out to the back patio.

Where she lives (near Pittsburgh, PA), the cardinals - her favorite bird - have always stuck around through the winter. She mentioned to me over the holidays that she hadn't seen any in a while.

The weather hasn't been particularly cold. Could something else be making them disappear, or is it common for them all to disappear every once in a while like that?

Cardinals do not migrate. If they are "gone" something is amiss. I have followed six different "families" for years. These birds are territorial. So much so that I name the families for a prominent landmark in each territory (e.g. The Castle Cardinals, The Shakespeare Garden Cardinals, etc). Of course individuals in each group change. The kids are dispersed by their parents - rather forcefully by the way. When adults perish others take over their territory.
This seemingly delicate beauties are truly resilient. I would guess your Mom's birds are not far away but instead exploiting food sources elsewhere in their territory which can span several acres. If she puts out a bird feeder it's a good bet the cardinals will show up for a free lunch.
In general this species has been reported to be increasing in number and range. I think the prime reason for their success has been the ever growing suburbs which inadvertently provide them with prime habitat: lots of low thick shrubbery, open spaces and patches of trees.

Yeah, they stay put, that's what I thought. She has a bird feeder outside her kitchen window, but about all she's seeing are finches and chickadees. And of course some pesky squirrels, and the occasional deer which aren't supposed to like the hot pepper in the birdseed but they've been known to run off with the feeder anyway.

I really need to ask her if she's seen any cardinals lately.