Our final edition of the four-part series over this long weekend with Cal Cuthbert focuses on birdwatching -- or birding, as Cuthbert calls it -- in general, and how to go about it. There's one major element required.

"Obviously, binoculars are a pretty big part of bird watching or birding," says Cuthbert. "Any binoculars are better than no binoculars. Even in backyards with birds coming to your feeder, the better visibility and clarity you have, the better for your own personal enjoyment, identification, and so on. If you have a pair of 7 x 35 power binoculars, 8 x 40, or any kind of binoculars, that is obviously very good."

He says it's a lot like deciding to play golf and yet you don't have any golf clubs.

"You need binoculars. It's not an option," notes Cuthbert. "The more you bird watch, or bird, and get out on the landscape as your interest in birding grows, that could even evolve into something like a spotting scope, and so forth, for viewing other species of wildlife like shorebirds and waterfowls. They're more for species that you see at a distance, versus up closer like some of our songbirds and backyard feeders, and so forth."

And there's a lot of varieties out there. 

"You can spend $200 to over $2,000, and substantially more, on binoculars. It's whatever you want," adds Cuthbert.