Have you noticed that, at certain times of the year, many of us share similar weekend birding highlights? It stands to reason that we all tend to look in the same direction or dig around parallel places during raptor migration or winter waterfowl season. But I still love the serendipity of sharing best birds with the best birders out there.
This is not to say that Corey ranks with the best, though I don’t mind saying that his birding mojo is strong. Nonetheless, he and I share our Best Bird of the Weekend despite hundreds of miles between us. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was his first Piping Plover of the year, at Point Lookout in Long Island’s Nassau County. My Piping Plover experience was probably better, as I was surrounded by at least 5 in un-plover-like proximity. We took my father-in-law’s new boat out to a barrier island south of Chincoteague NWR… alas, I had so little faith in our first voyage that I left my camera home for safety. Ugh. At least we have Corey’s juvenile Piping Plover above!
<strong>How about you? </strong><em><strong>What was your best bird of the weekend?</strong> </em>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.
Blog post won’t be up until later this week, but I went with some friends to view the Greater Prairie Chicken lek in central Wisconsin yesterday morning. It was amazing!
Best bird is still the nesting American Kestrels in our neighbors palm tree. We’ve watched the male bring food to the female, watched here eat it, caught copulation on video, and also watched the male go after Great-tailed Grackles – very viciously. Don’t mess with him! For us it doesn’t get any better than this.
This weekend for the first time I saw Black-bellied Plovers in their breeding plumage– with black bellies! They are pretty common here on the Olympic Peninsula in the fall, winter, and spring, and I’ve always seen them with white bellies. The amazing transformation to huge black bellies is preparation to nest in the Arctic tundra in the summer.
Got to get see an Upland Sandpiper and Yellow-throated Vireo!
By classic birders’ criteria (rarity rating), I should say that the Tufted Duck at Heckscher Park, Long Island was my best bird, especially since I had missed it at its previous location a couple of months ago. But, I was so extremely happy to see the Great Horned Owls in a certain park near my Queens home, that they get the weekly best award. Here is one of them, in classic “you can’t see me, I’m an owl next to a tree” pose: http://flic.kr/p/e9xFuz