Nearly everywhere in the world, birds are on the wing, not just traveling to and from their daily haunts but returning to their ancestral circuit. Based on the the time of year, many people I know are also on the wing. So best of luck to any and all creatures striving towards a distant horizon right now.
Old Man Winter still has my part of the world firmly under his hoary thumb. Instead of enjoying early migrants, I can appreciate the spring songs of my local winter birds. Every year, I’m puzzled by the song of the Dark-eyed Junco, but thrilled when I identify the artist. Normally Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend would have been a no-brainer: his first migrant Eastern Phoebe of the year! But Corey also hit up the Forest Park bird feeders with his family Saturday afternoon and Desi, his five-year-old, was so taken with a Red-bellied Woodpecker (the one above) that Corey had to choose it as his favorite bird of the weekend too.
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.
I finally managed to find an American Woodcock in Central Park, and by ‘find’ I mean ‘someone else pointed me straight at it and I still had to squint just right’ but that’s how it goes with American Woodcock.
A half day walk along the Tuul Gol in Ulaanbaatar produced low numbers – not unexpected as it was -5 and the river was still frozen. Definite bird of the day was a single Pallas Rosefinch, but pairs of Azure Tit prospecting for nest sites was a close second!
Not strictly related, but last weekend I did a winter trip to the Gobi for Altai Snowcock – you can read about it here https://feltbootsandstilettos.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/altai-snowcock-days/
TONS of Northern Parulas!
Green-winged Teal at Lake Umstead State Park in North Carolina!