When Ron asked each one of us what we were looking to get out of the class, I answered “To get a smiling animal”. It’s easy to make this happen at Zoo Atlanta:

Afterwards, I told him that my real goal was to make Dallas happy, but I’m pretty sure that I achieved both goals. Here is a random giraffe:

I used my Nikkor 80-200mm F/2.8 lens all day long, though sometimes with my Tamron 1.4X teleconverter. Even with such a short telephoto, I was able to do some birding:

It shames me that I’ve been living in Atlanta for 3 years without visiting Zoo Atlanta before. After 8 hours and 1300 photos, I still barely scratched the surface at the zoo. I could easily have stayed for an additional two days worth. The park is much bigger than you would think from an aerial shot.

If you are a sucker for animal photos, be sure to check out the rest of my Zoo Atlanta album

While cleaning the deck on Saturday morning, I spotted a Grey Treefrog that I found in one of Dallas’ flower pots:

In another flower pot, I spotted a cute little slug:

Later in the day, a hawk camped out over the deck I was cleaning. About 30 minutes after I got this photo, he finally caught a squirrel and flew off with it:

On Saturday evening, Dallas and I headed out to the hospital to see an entirely different animal. This is Katie, and her proud parents, Dave and Anna:

The amazing part about Katie is how squishy her forehead feels. The closest thing to it’s consistency is that of a marshmallow that’s been sitting in a microwave for a few seconds. On Sunday, we didn’t get any work done, but we did get to go out to Piedmont Park to play with some coworkers. This fierce specimen is Sydney, Ken’s dog:

Naturally, there were even more photos posted for you to enjoy:

• Baby Dollar (14 photos)
• Picnic at Piedmont (36 photos)
• Weekend Wildlife (15 photos)

Here are my favorite photos from each of the field trips we did. From top-bottom left-right, they were taken at Lullwater Park (Emory in Atlanta), Monastery of the Holy Spirit (Conyers), Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area – Johnson Ferry North (Roswell), and the Newman Wetlands Center (Hampton).

Baby Barred Owl	Tennessee Warbler
Scarlet Tanager	Ruby-throated Hummingbird

What I learned:

• Bird calls, particularly Wood Thrushes and Towhees
• Just how common rare birds are if you know how to look for them!
• The importance of a scope
• How to identify different species of swallows and hawks
• How to tell between an American
• Bird feeders: what’s good food, and how to clean them
• There is a lot of great local places to go birdwatching

What I saw:

I managed to land quite a few lifers on the field trips (first time seeing a bird):

• Scarlet Tanager
• Summer Tanager
• Blue Grosbeak
• Common Yellowthroat
• Great Crested Flycatcher
• Ivory-billed Woodpecker
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Northern Waterthrush
• Orchard Oriole
• Palm Warbler

I’m sure there were others, but that list alone makes me heartily recommend this class. I’m eager to see what else I get to spot this summer!

Then the crows knocking a baby owl out of a tree:

And a hawk dining on a fresh crow in our front yard:

Groups of crows are called ‘murders’. More photos here and here.