Have you used August as an excuse or incentive to travel? I highly recommend it, but then again I always advocate travel, no matter the month!
Would you believe my best bird of the weekend was a Screaming Piha? Believe it, and in the ABA area no less. I took my kids on a fun whirlwind tour of Washington D.C. but my best bird of the weekend was in Baltimore, specifically the Aquarium. The Baltimore Aquarium boasts, among its many phenomenal attractions, a tiny but terrific rainforest populated by some outstanding birds. Obviously, I’m not ticking Scarlet Ibis, Yellow-headed Amazon, or Blue-crowned Motmot off my list, but I was very happy to see them. Did you know that the Screaming Piha is the loudest bird in the world for its size? That sucker earns its name over and over again!
Corey is on the road as well and comes by his best bird of the weekend honestly. How do you like six (!) Tufted Puffins foraging off Protection Island on a boat trip from Port Townsend, WA? Puffins!!!
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.
Very far from spectacular but lovely nonetheless: a pair of Wood Pigeons with two fully fledged young on my-son-and-I’s favourite playground around Heidelberg, allowing us to approach very closely (less than two metres).
Apart from that – seven (!!) Tufted Puffins. Not.
It was a Black-crowned Night-Heron.
Normally I wouldn’t bother to mention the species, but it was at Harbour Front in downtown Toronto.
My best was a Zeledonia that was rummaging around bamboo tangled undergrowth on Barva Volcano, Costa Rica.
Another lifer for me drinking out of the tin of water on my backyard feeder in suburban Dallas: an Orchard Oriole family. I got some photos, but they are pathetic, so I won’t bother linking to them 🙂