Birding on board?

Another vote for the Canon IS 10 x 30. We use ours a lot, whilst under way. They don't remove large motion, merely steady up the image when they're held reasonably still. That allows a tremendously good amount of detail to become visible. Perhaps those people who can't get on with the Canon IS are misjudging what they do?

We've spent the past week travelling from Milford Haven up to the north side of the Lleyn, and back. Without the Canon bins we'd have missed a lot of detail in the things we saw, such as an Arctic Skua mobbing a Herring Gull. For birds, the plumage is much better defined than with non-IS binoculars.
 
A quick update. I bought an Opticron IS 50 spotting scope with 15-45 zoom for £100 and have found it very good for birdwatching with a tripod in calm conditions up a river. It is relatively light and compact compared with some. Coastal anchorages will usually be too jiggly. Still no sign of Lakey's bow babes however.
 
Sorry this is a bit late; I have an Aldi spotter scope that cost about 20 squid with 20-40 zoom & a decent object lens size - but I don't remember its size. it is fine for general use, but has some distortion around the edges of the lens.

Used on the boat, the mag is rather high for use at anchor unless aground & when in creeks the birds are often so close as to not need any optics anyway. My advice is to stay below & watch thro the windows, the whole boat then acts as an excellent hide & you have refreshments & reference books easily to hand.

Creeping past cliffs & in overfalls you get excellent views of diving birds like gannets & terns.
 
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