Hi Judith, Saw you in the distance near the Optics Marquee today. I took down a pair of Swarovski Binocs and also my Leica Scope and had excellent service from both stands.

Swarovski looked at the bins, immediately diagnosed that one barrel was focussing slightly ahead of the other (which I hadn't noticed!) and offered to send them back to Austria for a full service and clean. They say I'll get a completely new rubber armour fitted free and they will come back looking like new.

Leica also took my scope in for repair and clean. He had a bag of new eye-piece end caps and replaced the one I'd lost on the spot.

I'm told to expect them both returned by courier in a couple of weeks. Very impressive.

Cheers, John

Had an excellent day at the bird fair today (Friday 15th) - tip - anyone going who has Zeiss bins - you can have them cleaned and serviced free of charge in the Optics marquee. Even in 6 hours we couldn't get round all the marquees properly. Lectures excellent, too - air conditioning in one of the marquees but not in the other, unfortunately. Ground OK today but if it rains tomorrow I'd advise stout footwear. We found the A50 from J16 on the M6 much the quickest way, then the A6006 to Melton Mowbray.