
If you’re like me, you love to share. Sharing food, laughter, and knowledge is amazing but my favourite thing to share is natural spaces and birding moments. There’s something special about helping someone see their first kingfisher, or watching a magnificent Starling murmuration together. The excited grins and wide eyes, full of pure inspiration, are hard to replicate. I’m always on the lookout for ways to share more wildlife moments and that’s why phone-scoping has really changed the way I’ve helped inspire others.
If you are interested in the natural world around you, you probably enjoy seeing nature close-up and in more detail. As someone passionate about birdwatching and sharing, I’m the type of person who will happily pass you my binoculars or lend you an eye to my scope so you can see a great wildlife spectacle. My work as Community Engagement Officer for the Birda app, a birdwatching app for anyone interested in nature - means I’m always excited to discover new birding technology which can inspire and make birding more accessible and fun!
I’ve been fortunate to own my first spotting scope, the Opticron MM3 60 GA Scope. I was so excited to try it out and I’ve taken it everywhere with me; from the Green bridge of Wales in Pembrokeshire to see Guillemots and Choughs, to the Malvern Hills to find Peregrines and all the way up to Mull for the White-tailed Eagles. The birds I’ve seen with my Opticron scope have made me feel incredibly lucky and I feel that much closer to nature.
If I’ve found something interesting, I’ll always offer people my scope to see. Sometimes they’d immediately grab for the tripod or the scope to steady themselves but this moves it away from the bird.
Revolutionising Birdwatching with Phone-scoping 
Phone-scoping has really transformed my birding and the way I share birdwatching moments. It might seem simple, attaching your phone to your birding telescope with the help of a handy Opticron device, the Universal Smartphone Mount USM-2, but the impact for me has been enormous. It has not only allowed me to spark more inspiring conversations and help others to see farther, but I’ve photographed and recorded some fascinating bird behaviour.
The phone-scope adapter is brilliant and so adaptable to any device, both phone and scope. Clutch-clamps sit comfortably around any phone so the back camera is lined up perfectly with the eyepiece of any scope. There’s been a few times I’ve used the phone-scope adapter on my binoculars too!
I even managed to find a small nest of blue tits and videoed a bird fledging for the first time! With some nice pictures of a young blue tit exploring the world outside the nest for the first time, I was able to log my sighting on Birda instantly and further share the love of nature.
Making Birdwatching more Accessible
When in a hide at my local nature reserve or exploring WWT Slimbridge with friends, I often see parents and children being fascinated by the views from the taller hides. It can be tough to inspire children to connect more with nature, especially when they can’t see birds clearly. It can take a long time to get trained onto following birds with your binoculars and some children can lose interest quickly.
I remember being small (well, smaller than I am now at 5ft 4), and struggling to see through tall hides, running, jumping and scrambling onto high benches felt like an Olympic sport. Craning my neck to peer through windows, desperate to see waders and take part in the excitement of a busy bird-hide.
Now that I'm a little taller, I take every opportunity to use my phone scope and show adults and children exactly what we’re getting excited about - sometimes a Peregrine perched with a meal or a group of waders with magnificent beaks. Seeing faces light up and sparks of inspiration fly makes me so pleased. It’s really one of the best accessibility tools and it’s transformed my birdwatching experience tenfold.
For those who can’t get their eyes into scopes or need to work out more focusing settings to get a clear image, phone-scoping really works for so many things; from helping seasoned birdwatchers get the right direction to where we’re looking, to helping children get inspired by birds that are far away.

Combining Phone-Scoping and a Birdwatching App, Birda
Like most birdwatchers, I note what I see so I have a record of my birds and the progress I’ve made on a birdwatching app. It’s super easy to switch from my camera app to my Birda app to log the birds I’ve seen in a live birdwatching session. And by taking pictures with my phone, I can immediately put them into the Birda app. For those smaller waders I struggle with, I can either ask the community for help or get an instant answer with Birda’s AI ID tool.
Phone-scoping has brought me closer to nature and allowed me to share outstanding nature moments with others. From seasoned birders to curious beginners, the Opticron Digiscope Adapter has opened a whole world of inspiration in 2024. Combining phone-scoping and the Birda app has meant I can log, share and connect with even more wildlife enthusiasts, making it fun, accessible and rewarding.
I’m so excited to see what birds 2025 holds - and I hope you’ll join me on the Birda app and share your own birding adventures too!