This is where I was going to go with this as well. You guys are on the ball!

Under most conditions, and assuming handheld, a pair of 8x binoculars will show you everything that a 10x will and, in many cases, might actually show you more detail because of the decreased amount of handshake in the image.

A higher quality binocular, like those suggested above, would serve you better than just increasing the magnification.

...and for what it is worth those 50 mm Monarchs were a bit too unmanageable for my tastes both in terms of overall size and balance. If you want better performance and a step up in terms of quality then maybe the 10x50 Pentax SPs would suit your needs better. They are more compact than the Monarchs and are optically quite good.