Giant Things of Oaks, PA

I just remembered I still have a blog, such as it is. 

And one of my most favorite-ist blog post categories ever is Giant Things. Go ahead. Search the Bill of the Birds archives and let the wonders fill your eyes. And your nightmares.

This beauty of a Giant Thing is in Oaks, Pennsylvania, standing outside an indoor amusement park and immediately adjacent to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, where we just held the third-annual American Birding Expo. My guess is Ol' Jughead used to be holding a wrench or some other sort of tool, advertising a car repair center. Now he's standing, empty handed, on the edge of a parking lot, next to his buddy, Life-size Giraffe.

Lifesize Giraffe and extraneous minutiae.

Ben and I spied the Giant Things and had to hold an impromptu photo session. We like to get selfies for use with our "Out There Wth the Birds" podcast. Check out episode 21 in which we walk the aisles of the 2017 Expo, talking to ourselves and others.

No, Ben is not head butting Jughead in the photo above.

Later in the weekend, the Expo staff from Bird Watcher's Digest, along with two of our super volunteers, Ann Hannon and Jessica Melfi, struck a pose with Juggers.

You can find these Giant Things for yourself, when you come to NEXT YEAR'S EXPO, September 21 to 23, 2018, at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center.

If you come, we can take a selfie!

Podcast Episode #40: Optics Buying Advice Part 2

My interview with Ben Lizdas of Eagle Optics was just too meaty to include in a single podcast episode, so we broke it into two parts. And this new episode, which is number 40 in the "This Birding Life" podcast archives, contains the second half of our conversation about getting good advice when buying birding optics. Ben and the folks at Eagle Optics are super experienced in guiding customers through the buying experience.

Ben Lizdas of Eagle Optics.

In this episode we discuss some considerations for specific types of use: hawk watching, shorebird watching, warbler watching, backyard feeder watching as well as parameters for choosing the right binocs for traveling, hiking, and the proper binocs for use by young bird watchers.

 Special thanks to Zeiss Sports Optics for sponsoring "This Birding Life."

EVENT ALERT!
If you'd like to meet Ben Lizdas and sample the very best in birding optics for yourself, make plans to attend the Birding Optics & Gear Expo, March 23-24, 2013 at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus, Ohio. Eagle Optics will be there along with reps from the major optics manufacturers. It will be a great opportunity to try before you buy. Registration is FREE and all registered attendees will be entered to win one of our fabbo door prizes.

New TBL Podcast Episode: Optics Advice

There's a new episode of my podcast This Birding Life available over at Podcast Central. This episode is part one of an interview with Ben Lizdas, sales manager at Eagle Optics. Ben has been in the optics game for a lot of years and he and the good folks at Eagle Optics have helped thousands of bird watchers and nature enthusiasts find their perfect optics match.

Buying a binocular can be a bit like trying to swim underwater through seaweed in the dark. There are thousands of different makes and models of binoculars, so how do you choose the right one? In our interview Ben and I discuss the important considerations for the binocular-buying consumer: power, weight, size, price, close focus, warranty, and others. He shares a lot of expertise and insight—valuable stuff if you're looking to purchase binoculars in the near future.

Ben Lizdas of Eagle Optics

This Birding Life is hosted by Bird Watcher's Digest and sponsored by Carl Zeiss Sports Optics. You can listen to the MP3 version of the episode, or listen and watch the images that come along with the enhanced (M4a) version of the podcast. This and the 38 previous episodes of TBL are available at Podcast Central or via the Podcast section on iTunes.