A blog I follow and admire is Birdchick, written by the funny, knowledgeable, and passionate Sharon Stiteler. She lives in Minneapolis near the Chain of Lakes, and I read her blog because I like local insight on what to look for when I'm out and about. She does a really good job of posting bird calls, photos, and giving you the heads up on when migratory birds are coming and going.

She is also a beekeeper. For Neil Gaiman.

Okay Low, you're a bird nerd. What does that have to do with WTF (women/trans/femme) biking?

I'm glad you asked.

Birdchick recently posted about one of my favorite topics- cargo by bike! Specifically, how she carries her spotting scope on her bicycle. Even if you don't have a spotting scope I thought it might be nice to see how someone carries something expensive and fragile around by bicycle.

I have a basket that’s attached to the back of my bike. I put the backpack in the basket and I slide one of the tripod legs through the straps on the pack. I secure the tripod for the spotting scope to the back of my bike with bungee chords. My reason to sliding the tripod legs through the backpack straps is to make it difficult for someone to just grab my backpack from my basket if I were stopped at a traffic signal.

When I get to my birding destination, I simply lock up my bike, undo the bungee chords, take my scope out of the pack and attach it to my tripod and go birding.

Please visit Birdchick's post on this topic for more info on carrying a spotting scope by bicycle.