Do you love your birds of summer? Enjoy them while they last; depending on where you live, they’ll be departing before you know it. Increase the pleasure of your special bird sightings by bragging about them here. Step right up and share your best bird of the weekend.
Despite being out and about this weekend, I hardly saw any birds. Odd, huh? An iridescent Common Grackle that my kids and I observed picking around the yard was as good as it got. Charlie didn’t fare much better at home in Wiltshire. Corey, on the other hand, has tons of hot birds to choose from; his best bird of the weekend were three Marbled Godwits at Jamaica Bay, not only his first Marbled Godwits ever in Queens, but, also, inexplicably, his first ever Marbled Godwits in New York State. Go figure.
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.
My best bird, or shall we say most significant bird-related observation, was a lack of Common Swifts.
Yupp, they’re gone. Winter is just around the corner.
I’ve finally FINALLY seen Humpback Whale [this was my “bogey cetacean”]. It was on Friday morning (August 6th) from 0730 to 0750hrs. Some five individuals were ‘scoped [Swarovski 80 HD x 45 WA] – breaching, flipper slapping, fluke flailing, ‘fooling’ and frolicking at ca 800 metres range – at 0730 off Fish Eagle Point; a superb lodge on the Tanzanian coast 25 km, as the Swift Tern (Greater Crested Tern) flies, north of Pangani.
77 species of bird there too – including the localised and ‘tough-to-get’ Eastern Green Tinkerbird and two Retz’s Red-billed Helmet-Shrikes and all seen by myself on foot (no car was used whilst there).
Did my first proper coastal vismig (visible migration watch) here on the Indian Ocean coast of Tanzania. It was off a fossilised coral promontory, called Mkadini, 25 km north of Tanga and just south of the Kenya border [aka the Fish Eagle Point mentioned above – a “beach lodge” with a website I’ve not yet seen – but you broadbanders can check it out].
Not much moving apart from small groups of Common Sandpipers, phaeopus Whimbrels, a few Crab Plovers, several parties of Saunder’s/Little Terns, many Lesser Crested Terns, two thalassina Greater Crested Terns and one Sooty Gull – all definitely heading south though.
The Boreal Winter looms!
Glad to hear I was not the only one with slim pickings this weekend. An organized walk at Cranberry Lake north of NYC brought a mere handful of common birds, the most interesting of which amounted to just an Eastern Pewee and a Hairy Woodpecker.
So my best bird experience was actually while running in my local park this a.m.: a Barn Swallow and a Tree Swallow playing tag while skimming the grass. Made for a great start to the day.
Best bird of the weekend…a tie between the Black Terns and Gull-billed Terns at the sod fields. Of course I had over 100 Wood Stork in one field/canal area so that was kinda cool as well.
@Eva: 100 Wood Storks “kinda cool”?!?
Holy Waffles!!
🙂
Jochen, I used to hate that day in August when suddenly the sky was free of Common Swifts: the silence was deafening.
I’ll be in Germany for a couple of weeks in October; see you then?
Excellent birds so far. I envy almost all of you, although I’m well-acquainted, Meredith, with the slim pickings at Cranberry Lake. The walk is nice though!
You’re right, Mike! It was a lovely hike including the quarry. Was surprised there was only one solitary mallard in the pond. I’ll aim to get a bit further afield next week.
@Jochen – a 100 Wood Stork is easier to find that you would think living in Florida. I have some photos over at my blog if you’re interested.
@Meredith – I would take your “just a Eastern Pewee” for a few South Florida specialities if you’d like to trade. I’ve only seen a few Eastern Wood-Pewees during migration.
@Eva: That’s a deal! Your tropical birds are fascinating to a terminal northerner. I should qualify that we didn’t actually *see* the Pewee high up in the canopy, but his call was loud, vociferous, and unmistakable.
Other than another osprey chasing another bald eagle, didn’t see too much. But, I did find something unusual on the sidewalk one morning. I included a link here- could this be an owl pellet? It’s a bit slimy, so I’m not so sure.
Warning- one of the photos is gruesome.
http://slugyard.com/2010/08/something-happened-here/