So glad you solved your mystery! On another note: for many seasons I've had a bird feeder station with tons of house finches/goldfinches/house sparrows/etc. just a few feet away from my veggie beds planted with peas, without any noticeable losses. It sounds as though the birds in your area are hungry for protein, as nesting season's underway. Now they've learned to eat a handy alternative when insect populations are low: your poor peas! It sounds counter-intuitive, but offering them a feeder filled with oily black sunflower seeds might keep losses to a minimum. In my experience, they'd much rather have enticing, easy-to-get fatty seeds than the so-so peas. Other people's mileage may vary, of course. Since pea-prospecting is a learned behavior, bird netting is currently your best bet until the next few generations "forget" this food source. Best wishes for your garden, L

Bob, Great Shot, glad to see some of your finches are already molting to their summer breeding plumage, that means spring is coming,,,Hurrah!! Fortunately we got a nice sunny 35degF day today so I was able to get a shot from my bedroom window showing my whole feeder setup. The first shot is looking east from my bedroom window. In this shot you can see my seed hopper and suet feeders on the Maple tree, which is 60ft from my camera position. This location is working very well because many of the birds roost in the Maple tree during the day. Although you can barely see it in the photo about 20ft to the right of the Hopper there is a 65ft high pine tree that affords great cover for the smaller birds. Ten feet to the left of the Maple tree there is a small Butternut tree that is a favorite roosting place for the Morning Doves. I generally see upwards of 35 doves in that tree each morning. Another 15 ft to the left is a second 60ft Pine tree and behind the feeder sight you can see an 18 acres open meadow. You can see the woods are the far side of the meadow. That woods extends for about a square mile and it is mostly old stand hardwoods. Across the road to the left of this photo is another 300 acre hardwood stand, some new growth near the road, but old stand hardwoods from about 100 feet off the road. In the foreground to the left you can see my old garment hanger with the Niger & mixed seed tubes. On the left end on top you can see the plastic bucket lid that I use for a platform feeder. From my vantage point I generally use a 300mm lens to shoot birds on the hopper, suet feeder or on the ground below the hopper, while I use a 200mm to shoot close ups of the birds on the garment rack feeders. As you can see, all the birds at my feeders seem to play nice and I see very little competition.

Depends on how much you can spend. I have limited experience with different brands and price ranges. The ones I do have experience with fall in the $250-$300 range. I use Leupold Cascade 8x42. I have heard great things about Nikon Monarch 5 8x42. If I gave advice, it would be to stick with 8x or 7x magnification for birding. I would also look at online birding-related binocular reviews. That might help you find the best pair for your price range.

Luc, no problem. That is what we post here for, to give our ideas and opinions. It is just my opinion from my experiences. Your point needs to be posted also so that both sides can be read and a decision made from all of the given info. ie. Bird watching, a zoom comes in very handy since it can be very difficult to find a small bird in a large area. Your field of view is greater in low power. Once you spot your target, then you can zoom in for a closer look, but as I said before, if it is in low light, such as early morning or late evening, then on full zoom, the image in the binoculars will be darkened. For binoculars up to 28 power, I have never needed a tripod, although it would help stabilize the image, but it is definitely not necessary. Again, as you know, a zoom with a large objective, will give you the best lighting when used on full zoom, but this adds to the weight of the binoculars, which you said would not be a problem. Personally, I would not buy another pair of binoculars that were not zoom. A fixed lens binocular is good for sporting events, etc, where the point of focus is always at a similar distance, and if you know what that distance will be before you go, then you can bring the correct power binoculars, but if your targets are close one moment and then far the next moment, then a zoom gives you the ability adjust to the changing distance. A 10-22x50 zoom binocular can be used just as a regular fixed lens binocular with a 12x50 lens. Simply set it on 12 power. It will have a 50mm objective just as the regular 12x50 binocular, plus the ability to zoom in for a closer look and better details. I hope this helps explain my point, and yes, it is only my opinion. Good Luck Kt