Best Bird of the Weekend (Third of July 2010)
By Mike • July 19, 2010 • 8 commentsDo you love your birds of summer? I sure hope so because they’ll be hanging around your neighborhood for a while yet. One sure way to heighten the pleasure of a special bird sighting is to brag about it later. Step right up and share your best bird of the weekend.
While I have many excellent actual avians to choose from, my best bird of the weekend was definitely the eponymous effigy of this year’s 12th Annual Chicken Inferno. A report of the festivities is forthcoming! Corey’s best bird was his amazing American White Pelican at Jamaica Bay.
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.
Chickens in large and small scales
Tags: best bird, weekend
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Ah, finally!
I checked the blog at 00:10 a.m. Monday morning German time and there was no “best bird of the weekend” post up.
What gives!?
Okay, here’s mine: Black Kite kiting over Leimen/Heidelberg.
Not for being very special in any other way than simply being a cool raptor, but for me not wanting another Common Swift as an answer to the “best bird of the weekend” and for the bird always giving me short thrills by resembling a dark-morph Booted Eagle at first sight.
Morepork as I walked to the pub. I hear them lots but this is only the third I’ve seen.
My best bird of the weekend was a pied-billed grebe in southern PA. Why is this bird here now? I have no idea. I saw it on Thursday and again on Sunday (with a camera). On Thursday it was surrounded by canoes of kids learning to paddle and seemed completely unconcerned as it dove happily in the pond. Weird.
Best bird of the weekend for me was definitely the Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush that I found in the Black Hills of South Dakota!
Many people got to see this bird over the weekend. You can read more about it here http://nuttybirder.blogspot.com/.
I had some disappointment @ Jamaica Bay … was on both sides of the bridge for about 45 minutes and try as I might, couldn’t see the Pelican (was later told it was scoping distance only). Props to everyone who’s managed to catch a glimpse so far.
But still, it ended up being a great morning. I tagged along with a few other birders (thanks to Paul and George, if you’re reading; I guess John and Ringo had the day off). We saw both Great and Snowy Egrets and every type of Heron except the Tricolor. I got some lifers too: Bonaparte’s Gull, Yellowthroat, Short-billed Dowitcher.
Without a doubt, though, what made the drive and tolls worthwhile for me was the Glossy Ibis (again, a lifer). First it was skulking around with some Black-crowned Night Herons and then flying to and fro overhead, putting on one heck of a show. What a gorgeous, gorgeous bird; I was mesmerized. And if not for the pull of the Pelican, I would never have seen it.
Bullocks Oriole, I haven’t been getting them lately, and finally I spotted them by Oriole feeders in the front yard. Spectacular!
Bald Eagle being chased by an Osprey, and then the Osprey getting hounded by a crow! A constant battle above our house…
http://slugyard.com/2010/07/osprey-chasing-and-being-chased/
I’m making Monday part of the weekend. I saw Atlantic Puffins, Razorbills, Arctic Tern, Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, Black Guillemot, Savannah Sparrow, Common Eider, Common Murre, Common Tern, Great Black-backed Gull, Greater Shearwater, Laughing Gull and Northern Gannet. All of the above were lifers.
Harbor Seals and Harbor Porpoises were new to me, too.
Anyone going whale watching today?