Christmas 2010 has passed, and we at 10,000 Birds dearly hope that everyone got all the birds they were looking for! If you did manage to see something exciting and avian this weekend, we’d all like to know. For example, I spotted the inevitable Bald Eagle soaring over I-86 en route to NYC.
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.
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.
Best birds of Christmas day were the huge flock of Little Corellas that flew into my yard to eat the gum nuts and drink at the birdbath.
http://bushbirds.blogspot.com/2010/12/toukley_25.html
I’m gonna treat the whole of last of last week as the weekend. Which makes my bird of the week … The New Zealand Storm-petrel. About half an inch ahead of the Kokako. A good week really.
Two Black Swans at the “Poo Ponds”-don’t see them for ages and then they show up! Pair in the sea in July 2009.
Seasons greetings to all at 10,000 Birds
Christmas eve whilst delivering cards I identified a juvenile Rose-coloured Starling in a friends garden. Not the most spectacular bird to look at but rather unexpected at this time of the year. Got all the local birders out of the house for an hour or so. 🙂
Photos on my website, just scroll to bottom of page.
http://www.mpgoodeyphotography.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=9154907&pagesize=60&page=2
I found a snipe in one of the local parks. It didn’t stick around, I think it had just dropped in to check if there was any clear water. But it’s a pretty good bird to have on a south London patch list. It brings my patch wader list to three, along with some lapwings that flew over once and a common sandpiper which, startlingly, the cat brought in (alive).
I suppose mine was the Golden-crowned Sparrow that popped up within a flock of White-crowned Sparrows, just like they are said to do occasionally. It’s nice when things work out like that.
A Belted Kingfisher in my neighborhood pond, only the second one I’ve ever had there.
Bonus because it salvaged my rather pathetic snowed-in Chapel Hill CBC.
Definitely the Hooded Mergansers I saw doing their courtship dance.
Hooded Merganser Ballet
Looked for the Bean Goose at the Salton Sea. I looked 3 days in a row. THREE DAYS. And did not see it. And every day, someone else saw it while I wasnt there. If there is a God, he is cruel and hearltess. Anyways, did see my first Curve-billed Thrasher in California and only my second LeConte’s Sparrow ever, so I’ll refrain from complaining too much. Pictures and more commentary are here: http://seagullsteve.blogspot.com/2010/12/someones-gonna-love-me-someday.html
Well someone has to have the least interesting list, so why shouldn’t it be me? Christmas eve the American Robins turned up. Christmas day I had only my second ever Baltimore Oriole visit my yard, and Boxing day a nice Goldfinch found my sunflower seed-heads. Also a Turkey Vulture landed in the yard to eat the Turkey leftovers! Today a b/w Warbler turned up on my patio. None of these birds are normal for my Florida yard – must be the weather?