My May 2026 Birdathon Results

Caspian Tern looking for food in the San Diego River This May I set some big goals for my birthday month. Coming off of a fun experience at the 2026 San Diego Bird Festival, I decided to share my hobby with my friends and family. Most people know that I’m into birds to an almost comical level. But many people have never gone birding themselves. There are many ways to go birding, and not all of them need to be intense. But for myself, I was planning a lot of birding. And the main event was a “birdathon”. On May 9th, I left the house at 6 AM to begin 16 hours of birding. While birding is usually a relaxed activity, on this Saturday I had one primary goal: identify as many species as I could. The San Diego Bird Alliance was organizing their annual Birdathon fundraiser, and I had a 24-hour window to do as much as I could. A couple of weeks before, I had done a practice run and added 3 birds to my life list, so I was optimistic. Snowy Egret at Santee Lakes Guajome Park I started at Guajome…