I'm a veterinarian living and working in New York City with a recently acquired passion for wild birds and birding. In 2011 I completed my attempt at a Big Year. By the end of the year I had seen a record 352 species in the State of New York, the total far exceeding what I had expected or even hoped to see. My interest is primarily in the birds themselves, not in photographing them, but I did take photos of a portion of the more interesting birds that I saw. All of the photos were taken with a small point and shoot Canon S90 and later an S95 (I managed to destroy two cameras that year) held up either to a pair of Swarovski 10x42 binoculars or my Swarovski 65mm Spotting Scope with a 25-50 Wide eyepiece.