Watch as I test out Habrok HX60L multi-spectrum thermal binoculars and show you how I use them to spot owls and foxes in the dark.
Superpower
Although these binoculars work well during the day, when it comes to spotting wildlife at night, the Habrok HX60L 4K are like having a superpower that helps you to see in the dark. Watch as I test them out at a feeding branch in my garden, where nighttime visitors include owls, foxes - sometimes even otters.
Spotting wildlife approaching
They have a detection range of more than 3,000 metres, which means from my garden I can see brown hares on a valley some 1,000m away! But what I like most is that I can use them to see wildlife approaching in time to get ready to film their wild, secret lives. They connect to an app so that I can have a view of the whole garden on my iPad without actually looking down the binoculars and get my Sony camera into position when something interesting happens.
Waiting for wildlife
Watch me put food out and retreat to my hide to see what comes. Soon a tawny owl chick arrives - you can tell by the downy feathers on its tail that it is still young - and then I spot the thermal imprint of a barn owl flying in on my iPad. It lands next to the tawny owl and, since these two species don't normally get along, I get ready to photograph their interaction with my Sony. Normally a tawny owl would quickly see off a barn owl, but this is a young tawny and so the barn owl risks getting closer. I have a really good view of the ring and later look up the ID numbers on the barn owl's leg ring. It turns out that this is Fern, a 2022 chick of Gylfie my resident barn owl and her former partner Finn. It makes my wildlife watching all the richer to know these birds as individuals. It's not long before the tawny chick, one of the rescues raised by Bomber & Luna this year, realises Fern is trying to pinch its food and pecks at it!
Incredible interactions
Then I spot a fox approaching. The tawny chick also spots it and flies away. Without the thermal binoculars I would not have known to keep watching and would have missed this next, incredible sighting. The fox is a young one and in absolute pristine condition. I photograph it as it pulls at the food on the branch - and as it does so a barn owl swoops down to mob the fox. The binoculars have different modes. There is black hot, fusion, red hot, white hot and optical view, which gives you a closer view. I like to use black hot, but it's personal preference really. It's been an incredible evening and I'm up until two in the morning totally absorbed by the wildlife. These Habrok HX60L multi-spectrum binoculars really are an absolute game changer.
