I love your birding equipment reviews! I also saw the spotting scope/cameras advertised in Wildird, but I've not yet taken the time to "scope out the scopes" to compare their photo quality with regular DSLRs. As expensive as lenses are, the scope/camera combo should save photographers thousands of dollars, if the quality is comparable.

Cathy. . .well, the best time to come to the northern California coast would be ***right now***, but plan for just about *any* weather. Currently, we're in the middle of a heatwave. That's due to change come Thursday. Some mild showers are expected for Friday and Saturday. . .for the **best** in terms of the warmest weather? Believe it or not, typically, *October* is warmest. :) EVERYONE: thank you for your kind comments and posts. I am happy to have brought smiles. . .this series is the shortened version of one I am compiling into a coffee table book. . .details to come soon if you're interested. :)

Too many photos. You only need 1 photo of the dining room and don't need to photograph every bedroom and only 1 or 2 of the front of the home. The living room photo, move that orange/brown leather chair before you take the next photo. It hides the room. You can slide it back after the photo. Also, you need contact info and asking price on the web site. Also, you need several bullet points that describe the house and/or area on the web site. Maybe talk about the square footage and lots size also. maybe taxes and age of house and major features (new furnace, roof, fireplace, x bedrooms, 2 car heated garage, etc)? Don't list small crap that everyone has, like garage opener and such. What made you BUY the place? Often that is a selling point as well that you can market. List on craigslist.com as well and post 4 photos and write about a paragraph or so. And repost on craigslist about every 10 days. Don't get lazy and not post the photos, thinking the web site link will do. Folks need to see the pix on craigslist or they won't go to your web site. Also ref to your web site from craigslist. Get a custom made For Sale sign for your front yard. Go to a sign shop. They make them for under $100. It is well spend. You pick the color, font, sign size. I usually go bigger than the standard R.E. sign. Pick a color that will stand out against the green grass or white snow. I like electric blue and yellow. You can even use an icon, such as a golf club if that was the type of home you were selling. Put major features (finished basement? acre lot? waterfront?)on the sign and # bedrooms, bathrooms and your phone number. Get flyers for the front yard. Keep them in the little box that you put next to/on the sign. Keep the flyers stocked. realize neighbors will take them, especially the first week. Don't worry, it is natural curiousity. Also reference the web site on the flyer, saying for more PHOTOS go to www.sitexyz. Make sure you have at least one front photo on the flyer. Have price and address in bold either at the top or right below the photo in large/bold. Have your contact info easy to see on flyer. I sold several FSBOs, so am giving you advice that truly will help you. Also, I suggest a discount broker to get into MLS. But then you have to pay an agent that brings the buyer (2.5-3%). If you do this, you need to be able to not pay this commission if you sell to someone that doesn't have an agent. In my case, this occurred and I simply paid the $400 or so to get the listing into MLS, and nothing more. Good luck. it is hard work. Then screening the callers is not easy either. Neighbors might lie to get in to see the place. they say their uncle(or mother, brother, etc) is looking to move and they are looking for him. BS 97% of the time. Return all calls pronto. Good luck.

Let's close this thread. It dates back to early 2015 and is way too long and it confuses people when they see two Birds and other mobile features... threads going at the same time. There's a later thread, Birds and other mobile features in the garden 2015 #11, that's current and will continue until it gets too long and the 2016 threads start. In general, I have no problem if people want to continue a discussion on an earlier thread with relevant comment, but newer posts are better put in context with newer threads (that sounds a little convoluted but I hope it makes sense). Claire