I just ordered a $20 monocular. That is sort of half a pair of binoculars. You put it in a pocket or hang it around your neck. I will let you know if I like it. If I like it, there are a variety of better ones for sale. I might want to upgrade.
I probably should not whine. My AMD is not horribly advanced. However, I am tired of not knowing what I am looking at. We were on the river again this morning and half the time I had no clue what I was looking at. Was that a duck or a stick jutting out of the water? Is that a dead fish or a floating leaf?
Now granted, I probably don’t need to know if it is a dead fish or not, but I would like to know. The Charles Bonnet syndrome was temporary. I am no longer seeing ‘weird shit’ or thinking “Wow! It’s a unicorn!” Instead, I think something like “OK, girl,exactly what ARE you looking at?” The problem with that, though, is that dark spot the Charles Bonnet might have interpreted as a bear could really be, well, a bear! It would probably be in my best interest to know that. You know that It really is a bear and not a misinterpretation due to faulty input. (Like every other computer: garbage in, garbage out.)
I am hoping a monocular might help with all that. I would like to see the birds, for example. We have herons, kingfishers and even bald eagles. I cannot get close enough to actually see them any more. A monocular might help.
Today on the river I was practicing my ‘bird listening’. I know a few of their calls from long exposure. The ‘clatter’ of the kingfisher and the ‘rusty gate’ of the green heron. (My descriptors. What are the ‘real’ ones?). I heard the cat-call of the cat bird and something nicely melodious. No clue what it could have been.
Listening is good but listening and seeing is better. My O&M guy is coming next week. He told me he would teach me some basic techniques for using a monocular. Not sure they are going to be techniques for bird watching or seeing if something is a dead fish (or seeing the vixen and kits who are supposed to have a den up the hill from the house!). However, I expect they can be adapted to serve.
Change. Adapt. Modify. Will let you know about the monocular.