Foreigner

Long tailed tit juveniles look a little weird when they're ready to leave the nest. Cute, but also a little gross!

I have a number of people around me who are curious about birding and would like to give it a try. I want to encourage more people to get into the hobby by taking them on outings. However, the vast majority don't have their own binoculars and aren't going to purchase any before trying it out. I have my own single set of binos but no spares to lend. Renting isn't an option where I live so I'm looking to buy at least a couple of sets for this purpose.

I'm sadly not made of money so they'd have to be well under 75eur each. I'm not looking for amazing performance, but at least a brand that's trustworthy enough and has a good enough reach for absolute beginners to use in like city parks.

I've bought a couple of dirt cheap 10x42s (I'm talking under 20eur) online but find they're a bit too dark and the chromatic aberration makes them unusable. Ideally I'd find something that's a step up from that. I think 8x42s are a good sweet spot.

The second hand market is very limited here, I'm seeing second hand options like used Nikon P3s somehow being sold at higher than market price, or binoculars that are extremely heavy and look almost 100 years old but still expensive.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I was on a trip recently in Extremadura in Spain and it was an amazing place for owls, especially little owls. They're pretty abundant and chill so I was able to get some nice shots which I wanted to share here with fellow superbowlers:

We also saw a couple of Eurasian Eagle Owls, which were on my list to see this year:

Sadly did not catch the Scops owl but we did hear one at night!

If you're a birder in Europe, you absolutely need to go to Extremadura if you have the chance (and not just for owls). I swear the skies felt incredibly empty when I got back home.

My son is starting to get into Warhammer and so far he's learned the mechanics of Age of Sigmar, but he still isn't sure what road to go down. Normally he'd go for whatever my brother in law is into (he introduced him to MTG, obviously the gateway drug) but he's not deep into Warhammer yet (BiL was gifted a Necromunda squad) so my son will have to figure it out for himself.

Assuming most people here picked 40k over Age of Sigmar, I'm curious to know what motivated your choice? He's painted a few random figurines he was gifted, but is now giving serious thought into going further. We'd welcome any tips on where to start!

A resident Tawny Owl sitting cosy in their nest. The photo was taken last week in Paris, this particular nest has been used by tawny owls for at least 10 years (likely the same owl?)

@anon6798@lemmy.world is singlehandedly keeping this place alive so I thought I'd also participate and share a photo I took last month. This is a burrowing owl I photographed on the grounds of a hotel in Brasilia. A couple of these guys made their burrow in a little ~~hole~~ hill at the bottom of the garden and were seemingly unbothered by hotel guests that were walking past. I have a couple of other shots but this is my favourite. Thanks for all your superb owl posts anon6789!