Birdathon!

I've just completed my birdathon! For those of you not familiar with the concept here, the idea is that you go out and try to spot as many bird species as possible in a fixed period of time. Every year, my coworkers at Audubon do birdathons as a fundraiser, and at last, consumed by jealousy, I decided to conduct my own. I went out to a local park, bird book and binoculars in hand, timing my visit carefully to coincide with the spring migrations, and set about spotting some birds. Though my count was low (just 36 species), I think I still did very well for a beginner.  Most of these are common European species, but rare in the U.S. Among my finds:

The common white stork:

The French pelican:

Here, the rare Norman bald ibis:

They're kind of hard to make out behind the raccoons, but you can see some mediterranean flamingoes here in the background:

And here, the Swiss kookaburra.

(The Belgian wallabies were very cute as well). The natural biodiversity at this park was really astounding.

Audubon members, feel free to write me if you'd like any birding tips.