The first weekend of April, with all of the hilarity and spring fever it inspires, has passed, which brings all of us north of the Equator closer to spring. April is a most mercurial month; hopefully, you found a an opportunity to get out this weekend and seized it!
Corey’s best bird of the weekend was a male Long-tailed Duck in breeding plumage off the coast of Queens. Mine was a waterfowl as well, but a goose instead of a duck. I took Ivy to feed the birds up at Irondequoit Bay and observed this small goose.
My guess is that, not diminutive enough to be a Cackling Goose, it is a Lesser Canada Goose. Do you agree?
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 feel very stupid. The local listservs are yelling and screaming in excitement over all sorts of great first-of-season birds, and all I got was my first Barn Swallow and a singing Blackcap south of Heidelberg, Germany. Those are species others have seen aaaages ago this year.
Still: Blackcap’s it!
Picked up 4 new county year birds, Bonaparte’s Gull, Eastern Meadowlark, Eastern Towhee and Mute Swan. Looking forward to a real influx of birds these next couple weeks.
We had our first red-winged black birds migrating through Northeast Ohio. But my excitement was about a Downy Woodpecker!
I seem to be developing a habit of seeing my “best” bird of the weekend on my commute to work on Monday mornings. This Monday morning, a juvenile bald eagle flew over the turnpike bridge on the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, not far in front of my care.
During a morning of birding with stops to survey a route in Central Costa Rica that access Pacific slope moist forest, cloud forest, and cut over foothill forest, my best species were heard only Brown-billed Scythebill and Resplendent Quetzal. Hummingbirds stole the show for best seen birds and included Magenta-throated Woodstar, Green Thorntail, and Coppery-headed Emerald.
Best bird is this morning – a clearly yellow goldfinch at my backyard feeder, despite the snowflakes fluttering by!
Ours best bird of the weekend was a Yellow-throated Warbler. Welcome back!
Can I choose “all of them”? We spent the week in London on vacation. I did not come prepared to bird because I did not expect much opportunity or diversity in downtown London. I regretted this when we took a bus ride out to Oxford and saw lots of birds including strange birds of prey (later identified as Red Kites). But the real treat was a walk through St. James Park. I have never seen such a diversity of waterfowl in such a small space! I took pictures so I could identify them at home. So far I have identified 4 types of geese, 6 types of ducks, along with mergansers, swans, coots, and a heron. I still have 1 mystery goose and 1 mystery duck, though at this point I am suspecting hybrids.
But if I had to choose 1 favorite, I’d have to go for the magpie. I know it’s a common bird in England, but it seemed pretty flashy to me!
One was a new yard bird — Fox Sparrow. I spent a few minutes trying to turn it into some kinda thrush before the ID kicked in.
THe second was a life bird — Northern Shrike. It gave me a really good display showing all the ways it wasn’t a stocky Mockingbird before cooperatively perching for several minutes so I could get a good look at the beak.
I would say a merlin seen in superior township, Michigan. But a rather early singing savannah sparrow was a close second
picture of the merlin here :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16970154@N07/5589321380/
Best bird of the week was Northern Bobwhite, tough to find in WV. As to Mike’s bird, not the best angle, but the bill seems to rule out Cackling. I don’t see anything compelling to ID other than Canada Goose. From this photo, nothing seems off for the nominate subspecies.
Life bird for me—a Pileated Woodpecker speeding overhead at Rockefeller State Park. (Thanks, Johnny and Orlando!) Though the return of the Eastern Bluebirds was mighty cool too.
Probably last bird in NY for awhile, sadly. Any Chicago-area birders out there ready to welcome a migrant into the fold?
Meredith, Chicago is a wonderful place to bird. I happened to be spending a lot of time there when I started birding, and got many lifers at Montrose Point (home of the Magic Hedge) and Jackson Park.
Oh, best bird of weekend. Horned Grebes in breeding plummage at Sandy Hook took my breath away. What a difference a month makes~!
Definitely a breeding plumage male King Eider. Look for a blog posting all about him later today.
http://punkrockbigyear.blogspot.com
I didn’t go on any major birding outings this past weekend but I did enjoy up close looks at the Common Ground-dove near the beach.
While playing tourist in San Francisco, I found a Chestnut-backed Chickadee zipping about the trees on a neighborhood street near Alta Plaza park. This is not a bird I see in the Palm Springs CA area where I live. A nice surprise!
The spring must have arrived in the North as there are a lot more comments this week than there has been before. Here in the south, small flocks of Barn Swallows were flying in a northerly direction over the house on Saterday, twittering as they went.
My best bird for the weekend was a slightly out of range Collared Pratincole on the floodplain at the village of Kgomo Kgomo in the North West province