Best Bird of the Weekend (First of March 2012)
By Mike • March 5, 2012 • 17 commentsSome weekends are sublime and others mundane. Obviously, we cannot survive one transcendent weekend after another, but this stretch of late winter seems to require more than the usual routine. I found little inspiration in the usual birds, so I turned to the great Herman Melville for some grand avian allegory:
And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.
The best bird of my weekend was just a drab American Goldfinch working on a feeder that most finches seem to avoid. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was actually a small flock of Piping Plover that flew over the jetty at Jones Beach, his first of the year and a bird that is more than welcome anytime!
What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.
Tags: best bird, weekend
• Camping tents - Check out our pop up tents, family tents, Vango tents, and more! •
Signs of spring with singing warblers and lots of migrant activity in Tanzania. The highlight was flocks (yes, flocks!) of Barred Warbler, usually a rather scarce migrant. Best resident was Eastern Honeybird – total surprise in the savanna habitat. Pics of the warblerd and migrants at Migrant Warblers in Tanzania
My rarest bird this weekend either had to be the Short Tailed Albatross or the Bristle Thighed Curlew. The loveliest was the Common Canary and the most fascinating and my favourite by far was the Fairy Tern. Btw if you can’t tell, I’m living on Midway Atoll. Lol.
I’ve never seen an American Goldfinch though, so what might not have been that exciting to you would have been super cool for me!
This weekend I didn’t blog about any birds that I saw, but I did blog about the danger that Canada’s Greater Sage-Grouse are facing. If you would like to read more about the Sage-Grouse you can read the post at my blog: http://prairiebirder.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/canadas-sage-grouse-need-help/
Best bird? Ha, difficult to say, the weekend’s been so exciting!
Big, big raptor migration over Heidelberg/Germany, with a total of almost 100 Common Buzzards, 30+ Red Kites, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 White Storks and tons over tons over tons of songbirds. That’s very good for an inland site and not a major raptor “funnel”. Furthermore, there were 5 species of woodpecker very active around the playground I visited with my son, so it was happiness all around.
Okay, best bird? Well, this year, it has to be one of the new species for the year list, as I am still very far behind my arch enenmy Corey F., so it could be either Mistle Thrush, Skylark, Lesser Redpoll, Common Crane, or Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
I’ll chose the one who pushed me in the three-digits realm, my species #100 of the year: Lesser Spotted Woodpecker!
My best bird had to be Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters because I managed to walk right up to them in my leaf suit (first time I’ve really tried it)and take some pictures! Cape Penduline Tit must be up there as well!
Best bird for me was a Timberline Wren seen in the paramo habitats of Irazu National Park in Costa Rica. We also saw a pair of Resplendent Quetzals but I see the wren less often than those fancy, long-trained trogons so the skulking gnome of the treeline wins the weekend prize.
I spotted a common redpoll at my feeder – not a rare bird, but unusual in Pennsylvania.
My best was a Red-Breasted Sapsucker not because it is necessarily uncommon near the So Cal coast, but because of its vivid red and yellow coloration. Makes me think it was a ruber instead of a daggetti.
The three Red-shouldered Hawks moving north over the heads of the Linnaeans at Sandy Hook, NJ, yesterday–things are happening!
My best bird was a Lesser Yellowlegs on a flooded cornfield in Northern Indiana. It was a motley flock with Killdeer and Sandhill cranes. Pretty early migrant and I just love when I get a rare bird alert for my own sighting.
Cheers
cz
I saw a single Cackling Goose in a big flock of Snow Geese yesterday. Picture here: http://my.opera.com/kknight/albums/showpic.dml?album=59642&picture=146050952
For me it was the Pigeon Guillemot, a black and white seabird with bright red feet. I’ve been in Vietnam for three weeks, so seeing the Pigeon Guillemot from the Seattle ferry told me I was home. I am super envious of Pat O’Donnell who saw the Resplendent Quetzals, as those are at the top of my list of birds I’d love to see!
My best bird was a northern gannet in New York Harbor. I saw it on the NYC Audubon Winter Eco-Cruise. It was the first time I have seen one, and gannets were a species I have been hoping to see for a long time.
A Greater White-fronted Goose swimming with his (or her) Canadian buddies in the Van Cortlandt Park Lake in The Bronx, New York. Preening. Preening. But the best moment was a big stand-up-in-the-water flappy stretch that I caught with my phone camera through my binoculars.
Australian Magpie, which was a new yardbird for me.
My best bird was a flock of 50 or so Red-throated Pipits foraging in a field on the nearby Torii Station U.S. Army installation located in Yomitan Village, Okinawa, Japan.
Bald Eagle and a Green Winged Teal! two lifers for me.