We’ve all had this happen: we spot a bird in flight, just get the binoculars on it and focused, and it disappears behind some trees before we can identify it. We drop the binoculars in disappointment, thinking it got away…and just then it appears again on the other side of the obstructing vegetation.
So, having been watching for that chance, we lift the binoculars again, and just as we get on the bird, it again passes out of view.
It would be nice to have x-ray binoculars, and maybe 100 years from now we will, but until then birds will be disappearing behind stuff and we’ll have to deal with it. How best to do that?
In most cases, I’m convinced the best course when you are following a bird in binoculars and it disappears behind any obstruction (tree, cattails, buildings…) is to swing your binoculars with the bird, and keep swinging at the pace and in the direction the bird was going when it disappears. You might be able to catch glimpses of it through your bins if it is moving through thin vegetation, but that’s not the main objective. The main objective is to have your binoculars pointed exactly where the bird is when it emerges, and moving in the right direction to stay with it.
If, while panning your bins in the direction the bird last was headed, you hit an opening and the bird isn’t in it, stop panning but keep looking through the binoculars, aiming at the opening. If after a second or two the bird doesn’t appear, then lower the binoculars and watch naked eye for your next clear chance. Don’t forget to glance back where you first picked up the bird, especially if it was a raptor, because it may have swung back in the direction it came from.