Here in western New York, Spring Break is giving way to Winter Storm Warnings. But no matter how wacky the weather, birds are on the move. Make sure you’re in place to see them.
I overcame my aversion to cold to seek out Saw-whet Owls in nearby Owl Woods. Imagine my brief surge of excitement followed by a more lingering disappointment when I spotted the wooden totem pictured above. I should have known owls are never that easy! At least I encountered my first Eastern Phoebe of spring. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend came Friday evening when he stopped at the World’s Fair Marina in northern Queens with the hope of finding some lingering wintering ducks. He found a few but the quintet of Bonaparte’s Gulls he spotted were much more interesting, especially as they were in a variety of plumages.
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.
The birding was awful here in Philly this weekend (cold and rainy one day, super-gusty the next), but I was cheered to see (and hear) that Northern Rough-winged Swallows have returned to the banks of the Schuylkill!
I was about to comment that my BBotW was my third Black Woodpecker of the year I saw in the forests just above Heidelberg, but I recently noticed that I really should be kinder to Corey and therefore will go with the very, very close encounters with Black Redstarts I had over the weekend
Four White-winged Scoters which you don’t often see close to shore here on the Olympic Peninsula. And dozens of beautiful Horned Grebes in breeding plumage.
Didn’t bird this weekend but did see my first Eastern Rosella of the year on my way to the bus stop.