That depends on several things. A handgun would not likely be able to kill a bear unless you are a great shot, rifles or shotguns would work better, but again, your skill level matters. I my part of the world there are no bears and your chances of running into most dangerous wild life is extremely low, but you probably will run into the most dangerous animal in the world. That is why I rather carry a firearm.
NOTE: The Cuyahoga Valley National Park made the decision to make walking on the railroad tracks illegal. I can’t edit my original answer. But, I wanted to let people know about that. I won’t go into details as to why they made that decision.
Now that I have a camera, my photographing part of my field kit has changed: Now it is my camera with macro lens, flash, diffuser, and an attachable magnifying lens.
Is 20m3 bigger than 80L?! Whoops, I might have talked out of turn then, I was assuming that 1m3 equals about 2L, so my bag is only about 40 or 45L, still enough to fit plenty clothes and food
Mine might be a little different since I’m a minor and I can’t necessarily drive anywhere I want to. So when I’m not able to go to places further away I either have to walk or bike, so I have to carry everything with me. When I’m by myself I usually only bring my camera and scope, as well as binoculars and my phone (for merlin and ebird).
Guide book: I usually don’t bring one since I feel like I know Alberta’s birds well enough but when I do bring one (usually for sandpipers and such) it’s the Birds of North America Golden Guidebook
Binoculars: I usually keep them in my backpack since for the most part the camera is good enough for looking. I use Outbound Zoom Porro Prism 9-27x50.
Tripod: AmazonBasics 60-Inch Lightweight Tripod
Scope: Firefield 20-60x60 Spotting Scope
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T6 with 55-250mm lens
I think it’d be fun to get a ruler for my photographs, for Life to Scale project, because I’m terrible at estimating measurements, and because a ruler is clearer and more precise than coins/fingers. While looking into it, I discovered huge rabbit concerning photographic distortion and color and different photomacrographic scale options.
I found a zillion options and am hoping someone can help me pick. They are all under $10 except for the photography color cards.
So do the scales which help correct for color make a significant difference beyond the white-balance fixing of neutral grey? Perhaps the neutral gray is all that’s needed when correcting in software, but for quick visual identification it’s easier to recognize a color swatch? Then again, for photography there are $100+ color cards/checkers, so it seems every camera might need color correction beyond just white balance.
Also in the Life to Scale project, I do not see many two-axis scales like the ABFO No. 2. Perhaps scale is not as big of a deal in the naturalist field as in forensics? Single straight edge would certainly be easier to carry, potentially even fitting in my phone case or wallet.
ABFO No. 2 (many sellers including Amazon, Tritech, Arrowhead, Forensics Source, etc). Two axes handle scaling when I don’t hold camera perfectly flat with the subject, multiple circles compensate for lens distortion in multiple axes, 18% grey fixes white balance (color correction?).
ForensiGraph scales. Recommended earlier in this thread, but maybe out of business? Their website has many broken links, they do not have the three standard circles, and according to their color lookup chart they use (178,178,178) grey which is not the standard 18% grey, which strikes me as less than ideal. Also they reference an app you’re supposed to use for calibration, which no longer seems to be available.
I have a nice field bag. In it, I keep:
three notebooks and some pencils
my phone
a little hand-held microscope
containers to photograph bugs in, or to put owl pellets and bones in if I find them (I collect animal bones)
(sometimes) my handlens, a ruler and my dissection kit
and sometimes some snacks, but since I sometimes have loose bones and hatched-out-of wasp galls, I have to be careful to keep that seperate.
And I think that’s all. Also my outdoor cat, who invites herself, who likes to go on hikes with me around our property.
