Don’t you just love sharing your best bird of the weekend with people that actually appreciate exciting sightings? Precious few are fortunate enough to work in an office where avian observations are swapped around the water cooler. For those of us who are not in that chosen .0001% (Occupy ABA, anyone?), here’s the place to swap stories about the ones that didn’t get away during the weekend…
Corey and I combed coastal Queens on Saturday for crackers like Ross’s Goose and Snowy Owl but came up with only ordinary winter seabirds. Three scoter species and two loon species are nice, but my favorite sighting was a Great Cormorant, a bird I don’t see nearly enough. Corey did strike gold on the Snowy Owl on Sunday at Jones Beach… why do I get the feeling he was holding out on me?
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.
Plenty of Common Swifts in Germany – in December!
Well, not really. I was watching an episode of “Bob the Builder” with my son. Bob has to help everywhere during a severe snow storm that brings down the roofs of houses, blockes streets with piles and piles of snow etc.
And in the background of the German synchronized version, in the midst of a winter wonderland and snowcapolypse, you can frequently hear the screams of Common Swifts, the one species that defines the heat of summer in Europe.
Well, a Red-tail’s call in a movie when all you see is an eagle may be cool, but common swifts to add bird sounds to a blizzard scene is possibly the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen on TV (well, DVD).
@Jochen, I’m surprised that Bob the Builder made a bird call error. Back when my kids used to watch that show, I found it one of the most birding-friendly programs on television. In fact, I think Bob and the crew even built a bird blind in one episode.
I am sure Bob the Builder noticed the birds and reported them to the records committee. After all, Bob only ever made one mistake: when he thought he had made a mistake.
It’s quite possibly just the German synchronized version, not the UK original.
No owls for me either but I had White-tailed Hawk and Limpkin when searching for rare migrant ducks in northwestern Costa Rica. Dipped on a few of the ducks because illegal hunters had scared many of the ducks away during the week but they will hopefully make another appearance (the waterfowl and not the individuals who are shooting at them).
Too sick with a cold/flu to leave my house, so my birdwatching was limited to my backyard where I’ve been amused by a squirrel and American Crow picking on each other.
For me it was a Snowy Owl seen just miles away from our house on a cold Alberta night. I wrote a blog post on it if you would like to read about it. http://prairiebirder.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/a-winter-owl/
This weekend was a Purple Finch circus in the backyard. The ringmaster was the fattest Tufted Titmouse I have ever seen. All the warm weather here in Maine lately has been really kind to the critters…and Snowy Owls are being seen all over the state…I blogged about my need to see a Snowy here:
http://burlybird.blogspot.com/
Happy Winter Birding!
A flock of Common Redpolls in northwestern Montana.
Recently reported sightings promised a good birding weekend: Snowy Owl at Jones Beach West End, Troupial in Rosyln Long Island, Roufous and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in Yonkers, in Connecticut, Painting Bunting in Stamford, Western Tanager in Westport.
Unfortunately, I did not get out to see any of these. So my best bird was earlier in the week when I heard my first ever Common Loon call. Fantastic! The memory will stick with me forever.
My best sightings this week were on an Apalachee Audubon Society- sponsored “social bird outing” in Tallahassee, Florida: 20 Rusty Blackbirds, 2 Limpkin and a Sora. We wrote about it on the North Florida Birds group list serve here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nflbirds/