Birding

Best Bird of the Weekend (First of May 2015)

May 4, 2015 by Mike 5 Comments

I don’t know how the first weekend of May feels to those of you on the southern side of the equator, but round these parts, it felt like SPRING! Now all we need are a bevy of brightly colored songbirds…

I made it up to the Braddock Bay hawkwatch platform at a time when the winds were not right for raptor migration. No worries though, since I spied a resident Northern Harrier working the reeds for prey. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was a bright red male Summer Tanager, annual though far from guaranteed to be seen each spring in Queens. It was a wonderful highlight on a rather slow weekend of birding for May.

How about you? 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.

best bird weekend

Written by Mike

Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.

5 Comments

Jochen May 4, 2015 at 4:13 am
A saw a stunning probable hybrid British x Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail near Hannover. The yellow wagtail complex never ceases to fascinate.
Martina May 4, 2015 at 11:24 am
Swainson’s Warbler has to take the prize! It was a lifer and has now given me the false hope that all birds will be so easy to see. It flew just twenty feet above us in full view, singing!
Duncan May 4, 2015 at 4:56 pm
New Zealand Falcon soaring at sunset in Wellington.
Meredith Mann May 4, 2015 at 10:05 pm
Lifer Northern Parula, on a walk with the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club in Wissahickon Creek Park, Philadelphia! (Thanks, guys!)
Did we do a BBotW for last week? If so, I missed it — and I really wanted to show off. Check this out: http://blog5b.com/2015/04/26/and-another-piece-falls-into-place/
Peter Thoem May 4, 2015 at 10:20 pm
A little slow, but Sunday saw our first real wave of neo-tropical migrants. Best for the weekend was probably a bunch of Yellow warblers. I’ll get tired of them soon enough, so I celebrate them now while they’re fresh and welcome.
For more on them and today’s birds (which includes a Cerulean warbler) click on my name above to see my blog.