Digiscoping With Clay & Sharon, Episode 4 Light and Photography

This is a fun episode, there are two cameos: our pet rabbit Dougal and Greg Miller (aka Jack Black's character in The Big Year). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3L_gwdgtQ

Please visit the pages of our generous sponsors if you see something you like in the series:

Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years)

Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie bird call identifier app that's coming)

Alamo Inn Bed & Breakfast (the best place to stay for birding in the Rio Grande Valley, TX)

South Texas Nature (information for birding south Texas, including the Rio Grande Valley)

If you are enjoying the series, please consider sharing an episode on your social media outlets.  And remember, kids, birds shown in the first seven episodes have all been digiscoped by both Clay and me and are a clue to the series theme! If you correctly guess the series theme, you are entered into a drawing for a Swarovski spotting scope.

Please read over the contest rules before entering. All entries that deviate from the contest rules will be disqualified. The winner will be announced in the eighth episode airing on June 26, 2014.

To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel.

Contest Rules (To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel. )

1. All entries for the Swarovski STS spotting scope need to be emailed to digiscoping@birdchick.com and must include the answer, your first and last name, mailing address and phone number (in case I need to contact you regarding shipping).

2. You can guess the theme more than once, but only ONE correct entry per person will count in the drawing. (You should probably watch a few episodes before you guess).

3. All entries guessing the series theme must be received no later than 11:59pm Central Time on June 23, 2014.

4. The winner of the Swarovski spotting scope will be chosen at random and the decision of the judges is final.

Austria and CL Pocket Binoculars

I often marvel at how life gets me to the places it does. I try not to question it, but simply enjoy the ride. And for anyone whoever thinks that birding is boring...note the above photo and bite me.

This was one of my offices in June: The city of Innsbruck in Tyrol, Austria and I got see the mothership aka the Swarovski Optik headquarters. It's an incredibly beautiful city with fascinating architecture and cuisine that was a lovely combination of German and Italian food.

Not only did I get a tour of the factory, I also got to whip on a lab coat and put together a pair of new binoculars they debuted this week. I have to admit, in my work in the birding industry, I've had the opportunity to see lots of behind the scenes things, but actually using tools, greasing threads, turning screws really helped understand the inner workings of optics, how the mechanics function together to adjust for individual eyes and all the precision involved to keep a pair running smoothly for the long term.

DO NOT WORRY--the pair I put together will not go out for individual sale--so if you order from Swarovski, your pair will be put together by a well trained professional. But I got to put together their new CL Pocket Binoculars--so tiny or Shaz sized as Non Birding Bill might say. The amount of individual care and time that is taken with every binocular and scope from that factory is incredibly hands on. Oh sure, there were a few JARVIS type contraptions for proper timing with cleaning lenses, but they are primarily human made pieces.

Part of seeing this new bad boy was of course taking it out in the field--from the bustling streets of Tyrol and seeing historic sites like the Golden Roof, a 15th century as the residence of the Tirolean sovereigns...where I could use the pocket bins to take closer look at the art like...

A snake eating a baby which is part of the coat of arms for Maria Biana Sforza who was married to Emperor Maximilian. But we also took trams up the Nordkette Mountains:

Which gave us incredible panorama views.  There wasn't a huge variety of birds, but the ones we saw were quality like alpine accentor and snow finch.

I was especially chuffed to see an alpine chough and get to digiscope it.  Let me tell you, this Minnesota girl who is used to elevations of 1200 feet was not quite used to that elevation: 7,657 feet.  Fortunately, my elevation sickness manifests itself as me feeling like a just downed 2 martinis but I tried to be a bit more aware of my footing.  Tiny binoculars that fit in my pocket are a good thing...as was the choice to bring along my smaller spotting scope (the 65mm is much lighter than my 85mm and was glad to not have the extra weight).

But we also spent a day in the Pinnis Valley at the base of the Habict mountain--a place so remote, only one taxi service is authorized to drive you on the roads (which incidentally was called the Pinnis Shuttle Funk Taxi and keep in mind that Pinnis is pronounced like the male anatomy). We used the Karalm Alpine Lodge as our base for food and our water came directly from the Habict mountain springs.

And the cheese...I ate so much cheese...Just about everything on the table was made on site--including the night's dinner which was a red deer that had been wandering around injured on the lands that the hunting guide had recently shot.  This feast of cheese, meats and veggies was laid out and we were given lunch boxes to fill up for a picnic lunch in the mountains. There was of course coffee and the milk served with it was directly from the cow.  The milk was so fresh, it had a distinct mammalian smell and taste--mmmmmm.

The morning was spent climbing the mountains (some of us more slowly than others). There was still quite a bit of snow to trek through and in the case of some of us, we used some plastic bags to slide down the sides of the Alps.  I'm warned that there's a YouTube video taken by a Spaniard of me  sliding down Gangnam Style.  If shows up, I'll be sure to share.

The week before we arrived, there had been a significant snow event and all of that was in the process of melting.  Small mountain streams from the melting snow grew as the sun shone brighter, echoing off the valley walls.  Periodically, tiny avalanches crashed above us.  What was lacked in bird variety was more than made up for by the mammals:

Chamois (the above and not to be confused with ChamWOW) roamed the cliffs as did marmots and ibex. There weren't many trees but one of them was the stone pine and I was very excited because that is what used to make Zirbenz one of my favorite odd liquors.  It's not something you want all the time, but especially around the holidays, it's a fun after dinner sip.  Your first sip: "Oh cool, this tastes like a pine tree." Your last sip, "Yep.  That was a pine tree." But sipping it now, I can also get a flavor of that mountain air and remember the echoing songs of alpine accentors and dunnocks.

After a morning of hiking, we collapsed in a mountain meadow to eat lunch and take a nap. What a strange sensation to wake up surrounded by the Alps. One of our companions for the day was Carina Swarovski--the head of Swarovski Optik. If you listened to the last podcast, I'm a bit ambivalent about the blog post at the ABA about women not being in the upper echelons of birding. I felt like the upper echelon was considered bird listing.  Who cares? Well, listers care but here we have a woman who head of one of the top optics companies in the world...I'd call her in the upper echelon.

I have to admit, I'm not personally someone who has sought out pocket binoculars.  They are usually so futzy because each barrel adjusts individually to the eye and the companies that make them, make them as cheaply as possible to appeal to the person who just wants something inexpensive and not really something that works. What a difference it was to have something so tiny with REALLY great clarity like the CL Pocket Binocular.  They come in ten power magnification or eight, I prefer eights and even though the objective lenses are small (25mm), you would think that they wouldn't let in much light, but they did almost as well as my larger 32mm binoculars do in cloudy light.

These are handy for someone who is a very casual birder, wants them for stadium use or sight seeing in a big city. If you don't consider yourself a birder, but you want a pair of binoculars that are small, will fit in a pants pocket (or small purse) but actually will give you a clear, bright image--these are for you.

What To Expect When You're Married To A Birder

Having been married to a non birder for a long time, we've had to negotiate certain things. You will find yourself having strange arguments and in hindsight, funny misunderstandings. Here's a video example that Non Birding Bill and I made that anyone considering marring a birder who is a non birder may want to check out.  This will give you an idea of to expect throughout that relationship (also you get to actually see NBB in this video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ-NDqxVmZI

And yes...Swarovski scopes (and binoculars) are THAT waterproof.  After they are particularly dirty, I do shower with them.

My Scope's Travels

In case you missed the drawing, Saundra Martz is the winner of my spotting scope. Above is her bad bird photo of a Cooper's hawk...can you find it? Saundra doesn't get the scope right away, it's currently being cleaned up at Swarovski.

They sent me photos to show that my scope arrived safely (though I suspect they already started cleaning it for this photo...there is noticeable lack of heron poop on the scope body).

Here we have Dean from marketing (he's the guy who was nice enough to say yes to my crazy idea of giving away my old scope) and Kyle from the repair department.  So, Saundra, your scope is in good hands and getting all spiffed up for delivery to you!

Incidentally, Swarovski does encourage people to send in their optics every 3 to 5 years for a good once over.  They do things like make replacements of parts that might need them, double check the alignment or if they've made a change to the optic since your purchase, make that change in for your piece--this is a free service. All you have to do is pay for the shipping to Swarovski.  It's best to call ahead of time and have your optics assigned a number so as soon as it arrives to the clean up department they can know what needs to be done. Also, it's best to avoid doing this right before spring or fall migration--those are they busiest times.

Spotting Scope Contest WINNER!

This contest got a little nuts!  It is hands down my favorite contest of all the ones I've ever done, because people made me laugh so freakin' hard! You guys--you are not good photographers.  Out of over 500 submissions, I alas, can only have one winner.  We narrowed down the 512 entries to 151 finalists and you can see the finalist set over on Flickr...along with the hilarious descriptions. From there, we used a random number generator to select five finalists from the 151 and then we assigned our aloof pet rabbit Dougal to select the winner by scattering treats all over cards with the random five names.  Whichever one he ate off of was the winner.  But first! Let's see some of my personal faves from the finalists

...like the above feeder in the Rio Grande Valley by Christine Williams, that is a crap photo!

I noticed that we had some subcategories like...people who were too close to the bird  (they seriously needed a scope):

Dawn Bailey, you were lucky this bird didn't give you pouch lice...

I'm not sure what the turkey had in mind for AJ Zirch.

Deborah Weston, I hope you survived the goose attack.

Chelsea McGlynn claimed this penguin gave her nasty bite.  Hopefully her camera survived.

Another category that cracked me up was the "near miss." We've all been there.

Sharon Hull almost got that bald eagle (incidentally, that was the most submitted bird species).

Almost got that red-tailed hawk Kathy Java!

There were some photobombs, I loved this:

Robin Oxley was trying to get the jay but the lady wasn't thrilled, the jay was stealing her food.

There were some digiscoping fails like poor Melissa Hero's condor picture.

Then there people like Carrie Laben who got shots of their optics as opposed to the actual bird.

Poor Shelley Rutkin had more vignetting in her photo than actual bird.

I loved the people like Saundra Martz who got shot of their screen in focus...as opposed to the Cooper's hawk who is hiding Where's Waldo style in the photo.

This one by Mandy Klehr cracked me up because she labeled it over-exposed gull mouth...which would be a great name for a Courtney Love cover band.

Then there were the photos where I just kind of asked for it (like the guy giving me the bird...well played, sir, I sprayed coffee out of my nose on that one. But other photos from people who have picked up on certain things about me and used photos that they thought would get our attention.

At first, I didn't quite get this photo...then I saw the feet, then recognized my own feet...a birder on a trip with me out in North Dakota submitted of photo of me peeing behind a truck on the prairie...yep, that's a bad bird photo.  You're a dead man, Robinson.  Just sayin'.

Kirk Mona submitted this photo of dead eagle he found...very creative, my man.

And bless Wendy Root's heart.  I do see the eagle, Wendy.  Thank you for pointing it out.  I'm gonna go watch some brown birds now.

Though in focus, Claudia Lee's photo is certainly not the best turkey photo I've ever seen.  Very creative, Claudia!

And there are the ones that just are so cute:

Like people who have to point out exactly where the bird is and yet, I'm still dubious there is an actual bird. Nice try, Deanna Wright.

I love this one because it's a crap photo of a bobwhite and Jen Vieth, bless your little heart, you sent the image in a word document. Some of you may not get the beauty of that, but those who do are shaking their head and saying, "Alright."

This was from Adam Beeler and was supposed to be a bad photo of long-tailed manakins and instead, there was a problem with the encoding of the photo in his email.  I don't know if he sent it to me this way on purpose but either way--THAT is a very lousy photo of a bird.

Be sure to see the full set of the bad photo finalists.

And now, here is the video announcing our grand prize winner! Thanks again to everyone who entered. All of you made me laugh in the best way for days during this contest:

And now for the video of our winner.  Watch Dougal select who wins my spotting scope:

http://youtu.be/A3zadmZv_SQ

Link to the winning photo.

Win My Spotting Scope!!

This is the story of a girl and her spotting scope...

Oh, the adventures I have had with my Swarovski ATM spotting scope. It has literally traveled the world with me. We ascended Volcán Atitlánin Guatemala to see horned guans. We survived rigorous airport security in Kazakhstan to view breeding sociable lapwings on the Kazak Steppes. We got our lifer Syrian woodpecker outside a mine field on the Syria/Israel border. We even delighted in digiscoping tufted titmice at Neil Gaiman’s bird feeders. We’ve showered together when covered in sand and dust. In short: we have had a blast.

But, some partnerships must end and some things are so awesome, they should be shared. Swarovski hires me from time to time to teach workshops, test equipment and help out at booths. That means I need to have the latest equipment to take to events. When equipment changes, I have the option of purchasing the older equipment or I can send it back to Swarovski. With the debut of the new Swarovski ATX scope, it was time to change out my equipment.

This time I asked, “Hey, could I have a contest so one of my blog readers could get my scope and all the great birding mojo that has built up with it over the years?”

And Swarovski said, “Yes!”

So, anyone who reads my blog has a chance to win a FANTASTIC spotting scope. You will receive my ATM scope with 20 – 60 zoom eyepiece and my carbon fiber tripod (and I’ll even throw in my DCA digiscoping adapter). This is a scope and tripod that has been loved hard and used on a daily basis. I will send it in to Swarovski headquarters to get cleaned up before you get it (maybe Gail can finally get that heron poop stain off) and whoever wins it will also get the Swarovski Optik limited lifetime warranty with the scope. I love this thing, it has been such a wonderful birding companion and helped me id so many birds and I hope whoever wins it, gets the birds of a lifetime that I have gotten with it.

I really wanted to come up with a contest that would level the playing field. The logical thing would be a photo contest, but if you can get really great photos, you don’t need my scope. I want any birder of any age to have a shot at winning this magnificent, light-weight beast. I thought about a guest blogging contest but I know not everyone is comfortable writing, so Non Birding Bill and I kicked around ideas to figure out what would be something universal that anyone could do…and we landed on a contest that would truly level the playing field:

 Birdchick’s WORST bird photo contest!

That’s right, kids, send me your worst bird photo: blurry, over exposed, under exposed, funny, weird, get creative. That’s right, I want to see the worst bird photo you can possibly take. There are any number of ways to do it, so you can go bonkers with this.

We will post our favorite images and then those that are selected as our favorites will be entered into a drawing and we will pick the winning name from that bank of entries!

Rules:

1. Photo must be one that you have taken. You can’t just harvest a bad photo off of Wikipedia or Google Image Search. I have strong Google Fu and will find it if you do.
2. Photo must be accompanied by a brief description or what you think the bird was that you were trying to photograph.
3. Photos must be emailed to sharon at birdchick dot com.
4. Photo submissions must include your first and last name in the email and your shipping address (so if you win, I know where to send my scope off to).
5. Photos must be submitted no later than February 8, 2013. The winner will be drawn and announced on February 11, 2013.

   

Don't be afraid to get creative! Good luck!!

Wait, That's A Bird Name & Not A Disease?

One of my favorite parts of travel is when I find myself in a completely different habitat from where I live. It's amazing to think how much there is to see and how different area terrain can be in the United States. I can travel from one end of the country to another, wake up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit at my home and then a mere few hours later be sweltering in 104 degrees Fahrenheit at Agua Caliente Park in Arizona. We mercifully didn't bird the whole afternoon in the heat but went up Mount Lemmon to look for birds where the higher elevation was much kinder temperature-wise.

Along with being in completely different habitat, it's fun to find things like a gila woodpecker excavating a saguaro cactus as opposed to a red-bellied woodpecker working on an old as tree like I would at home. Other birds we found on our way up included a blue-throated hummingbird female feeding young, Scott's oriole and canyon towhee.

Though it is fun to run into familiar faces even if I am 1600 miles away, like the above Cooper's hawk. I'm used to seeing these birds dodge dumpsters and hipsters in my flat urban neighborhood. This bird took full advantage of the canyon walls when it finally took off and used a little bit of a different flying technique, but it had more open space than the hawks in my neighborhood.

I was hoping for a few life birds on this trip, I didn't expect tons, I'm running out of places in the US where I can really rack up the life birds. I was surprised to knock out 10 new birds on this trip (it is quite possible that my disinterest in listing contributed to that as my listing records are haphazard at best and I"m sure I have forgotten what birds I've seen). One bird I know for sure that I was missing was the phainopepla (pronounced fay-no-PEP-la). This has been a target bird for a long time, they look some crazy black cardinal with a tiny beak and red eyes. I love saying the name over and over. My buddy Clay got me one at Molino Canyon Vista on Mount Lemmon. And though I was grateful...it wasn't an adult male--I know for some that is birding elitism, but the first time one sees a crazy bird like a phainopepla, you want to see the best plumage possible.

Now that's what I'm talking about, that's a phaino-freaking-pepla! You may be wondering what the deal is with the crazy name, does it sound like it says, "phainopepla" when it sings? No. It's Greek for "shining robe." Yeah, I don't get it either, but where would North American birding be without weirdo bird names that make little sense? Non Birding Bill seems to think it sounds like some sort of venereal disease when I announce, "I got phainopepla in Arizona!"

These birds belong in the silky-flycatcher family and if wikipedia is to be believed...kind of related to waxwings? Which I suppose one can kind of see a waxwing like beak on this bird. Silky-flycatchers aren't quite like the tyrant or empidonax flycatchers that can be their own source of identification grief. There are only four species in this family and they all look noticeably different different.

I posted a picture of this bird on Twitter and someone noted the maniacal red eye.  This is not the craziest looking bird you can see.

How evil looking is this guy? Up in the higher elevations we got yellow-eyed juncoes bebopping around in the parking lots. A bit more of a maniacal looking bird than what I'm used to. As we went along the road, Clay would see a bird fly across, make us stop and before we knew it we'd be surrounded by painted redstarts, black-throated gray warblers and Hammond's flycatchers.

Even if we weren't getting great birds, the view on top of Mount Lemmon would have more than made up for it. While we were perched here, we could hear distant peregrine falcons echoing off the walls and a band-tailed pigeon. The pigeon is in the above photo, a mere speck on one of the dead conifers.

This was taken through the new Swarovski ATX on full 60 power zoom by holding my iPhone up to it. It's not bad for a documentation photo! As we were watching this bird, it suddenly took off and we looked up to see a zone-tailed hawk in a full on dive from high above. Zone-tails are awesome, they are shaped and fly like turkey vultures...giving protential prey a false sense of security. I wasn't able to digiscope a shot of the hawk, but it was fabulous to see.

 

 Mount Lemmon is not a bad way to spend an afternoon if you find yourself in Tucson.

Bird Blogger Meet Up In Arizona

One of the perks of being a birding blogger is that from time to time, companies will invite you out and brainstorm ideas with you. These are not only beneficial to the company, but most certainly are to the bloggers as far as having a chance to meet in person and generate ideas.

Here we are, ladies and gentlemen: the bird blogging giants! We have Robert Mortensen from Birding is Fun, Mike Bergin from 10,000 Birds, Rue Mapp from Outdoor Afro, me, Tom Wood from Southeast Arizona Bird Observatory and there off to the right chimping away is Laura Kammermeier. Swarovski invited a gang of us out to Arizona this past weekend and it was a blast. I know some of your might be reading this and thinking, "Really, a Minnesota girl went to Arizona in August? She's nuts!"

That may be, but there are some spectacular birds to be had in Arizona and despite the reported high of 105 degrees Fahrenheit in Tucson, AZ we managed to find some cooler times and areas for birding. Though brief, we had time to hit some great birding spots. One was Huachuca Canyon at Fort Huachuca.

On top of connecting with online friends, a big portion of of the fun was getting to see a few birds I missed when I when to my very first American Birding Association convention in Tucson way back in 2005 (man, that was quite a few hair colors ago). One of the birds I missed back then was an elegant trogon and though I've seen quite a few trogons in Central America, what fun to get a trogon in the US! These birds were incredibly cooperative, I got to hear them calling as well catch glimpses of adults feeding young trogons hidden in the leaves.Other birds we loaded up on here included red-faced warbler, painted redstart, gray hawk, and sulphur-bellied flycatcher.

Though most of the birds we found I had seen before either in Arizona or other areas, I always love the opportunity to see birds that I don't get to enjoy often like this acorn woodpecker. There aren't many places left in the US that I can really rack up new life birds and I only expected to get maybe three, I ended up getting 10 new birds which was a bonus.

One of the bloggers to come along was Nate Swick, a name you may recognize from the American Birding Association blog and The Drinking Bird. On top of being a great birder...he likes to pick stuff up from herps to bugs. This was after he had picked up a stink beetle...his finger was rather ripe (and I was the lucky girl driving the car Nate and his stink finger were riding in).

And since my mother is currently without a computer, I blog this next part without too much hassle. Let me tell you about what Nate was smart enough to not pick up:

It's a black-tailed rattlesnake--my lifer rattlesnake. And on the off chance my mother is reading this on one of my sister's computers, do not freak out.  I was not laying on the ground with my iPhone up to it's face, I digiscoped this with my phone and the new Swarovski ATX scope.

See, here's the objective lens of the scope and the arrow is pointing to the rattlesnake. Digiscoping not only helps you get shots of distant birds, but also allows you to safely enjoy your first look at your lifer rattlesnake.

The snake was roughly 3 feet long, which I thought was rather impressive for my first time seeing one. I certainly wasn't expecting such a yellow snake. It went about its business and we all gave it plenty of space. Nate even noticed some dog walkers and warned them away.

It was an action packed weekend, but it's totally worth the sore calves and the mild lethargy I feel at my desk today.

Scope Eyepieces For Digiscoping

I haven't thought about scope eyepieces all that much. Swarovski Optik has three different eyepieces you can choose for your scope a 20-60 zoom, a 25-50 zoom and a 30 fixed. For newer people to the blog, those numbers give you an idea of the scope's magnification or of how close the image is brought to you.  A 20-60 eyepiece can bring the bird 20 to 60 times closer (as opposed to your 8x42 binocular which will only bring the image 8 times closer). I've always been a fan of the zooms, because they can make a real difference in ID when that bird is far away (I got a great look at my lifer saker falcon thanks to my scope's ability to go to 60 power when I was in Israel.  I don't digiscope when I zoom in to 60 unless I really, really need to document something because the photo will be crap.  You lose clarity and brightness when you zoom in and the photos aren't worth it unless you are documenting your state's first record of a hooded crane.  When digiscoping, I always keep it on the lowest magnification.

I almost always use my 20-60 eyepiece.  I like having the option of such a wide range of magnification.  The 20 power magnification gives me a fairly wide field of view but it also helps me a bit with the problem of having the bird too close.  My buddy Clay Taylor kept nudging me to play with the 25-50 zoom eyepiece and the other day, I decided to head out to the feeders at Minnesota Valley NWR.  Their feeding station is always active and I figured I could get some good comparison shots.  When I got there, the feeders were bare.  And I saw the reason why before I could complete the sentence, "That's odd."

A sharp-shinned hawk was perched outside and was so darned cooperative, I got all the footage I needed to compare both eyepieces in less than 15 minutes.

So, here we go and I have to say, I was surprised at my results.  All the video and photos were taken using my iPhone 4s.  Here's a video tutorial followed by photo samples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z5yprCMYrA

I was very happy about the lack of vignetting with the 25-50  zoom when taking video!  Here are some photo comparisons of the sharp-shinned hawk without zooming in with the phone.  This is what it looks like as soon as  you train the iPhone to your scope's eyepiece without zooming in with the phone using the 20-60 zoom eyepiece:

There it is at 20 power and you get a full vignette (the black circle framing the image).  That could be edited out in iPhoto or Photoshop or whatever photo app you use to crop images.

Now, here is the same sharpie on the same perch with the 25-50 zoom eyepiece:

There it is at 25 power and with that eyepiece there's less vignetting.  Again vignetting can be cropped out later, but you get a bigger and better image if you zoom in on the iPhone when you take the photo.  And you do that the same way you enlarge images on your phone with your index finger and thumb.

Now, here are images of the same sharpie with the two different eyepieces and zooming in with the phone:

A pretty good image of a sharp-shinned hawk (especially with it being an overcast day).

Not a lot of difference when you zoom in with the iPhone.  If you want to take video, I highly recommend the 25-50 zoom, it will save you a lot of headaches post production of cropping out the vignetting.  But if you only want to do photos, both eyepieces work really well.

And this was all done by hand holding the iPhone up to the scope--no adapter.

When I think back to what bird photography used to be I marvel at the quality of photos I can get with a phone.

The Grand Prize at the Big Year midnight screening this Friday

Okay, gang, this just got real. Because we have in our hot little hands the grand prize for Friday's midnight screening of The Big Year. A pair of 10x30 Swarovski CL Companion binoculars. Retail value? One Grand. And we're giving it away to one lucky winner. So what do you need to do to win?

Just come to the midnight screening of The Big Year at the Showplace ICON theater in St. Louis Park, MN on Friday (that's the Friday, midnight screening, so stay up late on Thursday). You can buy your ticket online here using Fandango. Since we're in the VIP, you'll be able to enjoy food and cocktails while you watch Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Jack Black compete to see the most birds in one year. Sharon will be there around 10:30pm on Thursday to socalize in the bar and give away some other prizes.