Birding

Best Bird of the Weekend (Fourth of July 2011)

July 25, 2011 by Mike 10 Comments

Have I mentioned recently that summer is my favorite season? For me, nothing beats a hot, sunny summer, though you wouldn’t know it based on where I live. But this year has been different: days and days of high temps and bright sun. Those of you not living across a Great Lake from Canada may be suffering, but I’ve been absolutely loving this month! Now how about those birds…

Corey has really beaten the summertime birding blues by focusing on the best of what the season of resident breeders has to offer: baby birds! Try to contain your envy at this photo of his best bird of the weekend, a juvenile Least Bittern…

I have a few cracking species to choose from for the weekend as well, with the winner being a resplendent male Rose-breasted Grosbeak. However, my most memorable nature encounter had to be when I stumbled onto the unsavory scene of what appeared to be a Millipede orgy. Awkward!

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.

10 Comments

Duncan July 25, 2011 at 3:45 am
I got my first Wellington Common Redpoll from my house. So, yard list and city list I guess.
Jochen July 25, 2011 at 9:32 am
@Duncan: Where within the Hoary / Common Redpoll complex is the Wellington Common Redpoll? I’ve never heard of that taxon before. 🙂
My best bird: the invasive, alien and downright evil (evilness actually as yet unproven) Rose-ringed Parakeet. They are rather common around my house here in Heidelberg/Germany, but the big flocks of 30+ birds that have been zooming and screaming / streaming past my living room window the last few days, sometimes less than a handful of metres away, are rather impressive – and loud.
Apart from that: baby flamingoes at the Heidelberg Zoo.
Yeah, invasives and captives. You can tell the birding has been lousy lately.
Corey July 25, 2011 at 10:21 am
@Duncan: Was it this kind of Wellington Common Red Poll?
@Jochen: Don’t worry. All I had in addition to the bittern was a visit to a tern colony where I also saw Piping Plovers. Oh, and when I was upstate on Saturday there were hummingbirds coming to the feeders.
Jochen July 25, 2011 at 10:24 am
@Corey: thanks, man. Feeling much better now.
Gareth Hazell July 25, 2011 at 10:34 am
Greater Honeyguides in the garden!
Jochen July 25, 2011 at 10:41 am
@Corey & Gareth: are you guys trying to do me in!? 🙂
Gareth Hazell July 25, 2011 at 3:51 pm
@ Jochen: sorry, just had to tell someone that I finally got a fairly decent one right in the garden 😉
Meredith July 25, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Juvenile and adult Green Herons at the edge of the Chicago River … the parent even squawked. That cheered me up. (And I needed cheering up, badly.)
Pat ODonnell July 25, 2011 at 5:35 pm
My best was a long awaited lifer Ochre-breasted Antpitta at Tapanti National Park in Costa Rica. Read my post about it at
http://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/2011/07/25/long-awaited-life-bird-at-tapanti-national-park/
biobabbler July 26, 2011 at 11:14 am
Didn’t officially bird this weekend, but went whale watching and the guide pointed out various wildlife while we were out there, including sooty shearwaters. Also liked the pigeon guillemot, which I got better looks at.