Thatās awesome. He said it completely deadpan, also.
No hesitation, he didnāt even have to think about it, he knew what he wanted
meanwhile the reporter getting blindsided lol
Couldnāt decide whether to put this in the what did you buy thread or here. I went with here since this way I get a chance to tell you about a hobby in earnest. (hookers and blow was a joke) 
Iām fortunate enough to live on a property that backs up to a stream. Not a big stream but wide enough, 25/30 feet across and deep enough that I can canoe on it. The property is next to a relatively preserved heavily wooded area that about 15 acres and across the street there are dairy farms. So I get the best of many worlds when it comes to attracting different bird species. Currently my life list on this property is (as of today) at 62 different species of birds. about a third of which are migratory so I only get to see a certain times of the year.
Spending more time here now than ever, on Thursday I got to see a pair of wood ducks, a huge pileted woodpecker and what Iām pretty damn certain was a harrier hawk. That was the catalyst to get back into the hobby again, so I went hunting on ebay and got a pretty decent starter pack. Might wind up getting a secondary eyepiece but for now this will be good place to begin.
And the stuff I bought.
@db_Cooper I love birds! Thatās what I want my plan b for a career to be focused on!
Did you take the pictures?
NO! the pictures are just for reference so people could see what they look like. The wood ducks specifically, may be the most beautiful bird in north america IMO.
Ah okay. Still, that scope looks awesome! Glad to meet another bird enthusiast!
Wood Ducks are very beautiful. I am a fan of brighter colors myself though, such as Buntings. Loons and Hummingbirds are also very handsome.
thatās awesome, Cooper! when I worked at an optics store, I sold a lot of the Kowa High Lander for just your use-case. Kowa was always in awe of how many of those we sold since itās such a niche, premium product. if I ever buy a place with a viewā¦Iād have to work one of them into my mortgage cause no way I can afford one out of pocket, LoL!
Like speakers thereās the entry level stuff for consumers then thereās the āaudiophileā equivalent. Japan and Germany are known for the optics. Nikon (at least the Japanese stuff) was always great. Swarovski, Kowa, Zeiss. All good brands. Good, Better, Best and Insane pricing.
yesā¦though I donāt think audio is as extreme with the 10x the price for the last 10% of performance when comparing good Chinese glass against German / Japanese glass. optically, quality Chinese ED glass is amazing. however, the QC and finishing leaves much to be desired when youāre comparing a $300 bino to a $3000 bino.
best binoās Iāve used, to date, were the Nikon EDG2. it made colors pop, what you were looking at brighter / clearer than they should have been. it made everything more real than real. alas, they are discontinued nowā¦but one day I will own them! the EDG and EDG2 replaced the Premier SE (PSE being porro prism vs. roof prism) as being NIkonās bestā¦and I own all the Premier SE for less than what the base EDG went for, LoL.
What did the guy that spent $5000 for a spotting scope say to the guy that spent $5000 for speakers?
Youāre crazy spending that much!
I never understood the appeal of birdwatching until I got a bird:
Now I get it. Birds are crazy, and alien, and smart as hell, and awesome. This is Powder, my Umbrella Cockatoo. Iāve had him for ~22 years.
how many headphones has he managed to destroy in that 22 years? 
speedcubing. Not as much in recent years but quarantine has given me some free time
You sir are a wizardā¦ I understand how it works. But those things end up under my power tools or a heat gun. I get so frustrated with it. I can build a computer network with Windows & Linux from scratch. I have rebuilt car engines. I can handle firearms with comfort. That dam cube is the devil.
Everyone has the things they are good at and bad at, but it truly isnāt difficult to solve with a guide. I compare it to learning basic algebra; it is fairly simple for most people to learn, but very difficult to figure out without any guidance. (Math skills are not necessary, just an analogy).
Good points. For me and my mindset and how I function/think, I will just stick with Algebra. lol!
Fair enough. It definitely isnāt something that interests everyone, but I do think if you have an interest than that alone is more than enough to learn how to solve it using a guide. If no guide was available, I would have gotten fed up and never gotten into the hobby.