Observation Techniques?

[Tartar Horde]

For day use I carry a 16x52 Monocular, as it is more compact than a pair of comparable Binoculars and can be easily carried without taking up much room, I don't like being weighed down by too much gear. As for counter measures like Mort says, those people who are openly walking during daylight hours are not your main concern, it's the ones who have hunting and military training and know how to use it. Ask yourself where would you observe your location from if you wanted to "recce" without being seen? I would check those areas regularly looking for "sign", "has the soil under that Hollow Hawthorn bush been disturbed"? memorise how the ground and foliage looks in all those areas so you can tell quickly if it someone has been there. In particular examine those areas where it would be the hardest for people to approach, like along ditches, manure heaps and those places that for "normal" people would be too much trouble. If they have been trained well enough a 100 yd waist deep wade in a ditch, coming up near that smelly manure heap is not a hinderence, it would be the most logical, as it would be the one least expected. As Sun Tzu said "All warfare is based on deception". I would also in a SHTF scenario put a few rounds etc into those bushes and areas that look "iffy".