Map of LA County, from http://www.chooselacounty.com
I set myself the ambitious goal of seeing 200 birds in Los Angeles this year. A couple of days ago I saw a pair of blue-winged teal, which was, in fact, my 200th species of the year. And it's not even May yet... I feel fortunate to live in America's birdiest county.
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Since 2006, LA county won the "America's Birdiest County" competition every single year till 2011. Presumably because the results were so consistent, the competition has now been discontinued. However, to keep the tradition alive, birders all over Los Angeles have been compiling a list of all birds seen this weekend (friday to sunday). This evening, my wife and my son saw the blue-winged teal near the same spot again, helping to add this bird to the count (I had just stepped away for a minute to get a scope from the car).
It's been exciting to watch the list of observed birds grow on the mailing list. As of now, about 243 birds have been counted (and there's all of tomorrow to go). Will LA beat its previous record of 277 birds set last year?
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Update: the final count this year was 262. So the 2011 record stands.
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