Quick show of hands… how many of you in the U.S. kept a special eye out for Bald Eagles?
My favorite sighting this weekend was not of the regal representative of my nation’s pride but rather a single brilliant Indigo Bunting at Lake Skaneatles. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was a bird that has frustrated him for quite some time now. There has been a Black-billed Cuckoo repeatedly reported from Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge since May and it had studiously avoided Corey until Sunday morning, when he heard it calling in the South Garden. Though it wasn’t a life bird or a year bird it was the first Black-billed Cuckoo he had encountered in Queens since 2008 and only the second he has ever had in his home borough.
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.
Blue-gray gnatcatcher at my local patch.
Summer birding in New Orleans is hot work, so I took to the water to find a bird I haven’t seen this year. I got in my kayak and headed out in the salt marsh and got my seaside sparrow after 10 minutes!
Saltmarsh Sparrow (lifer) at Cupsogue
I drove a couple of hours down to Goose Pond in Indiana. I saw/heard many great birds I don’t usually see in my all corn field area – Marsh Wrens, Black-necked Stilts, Least Terns, Least Bittern, and an early Greater Yellowlegs. But my favorite was a Northern Bobwhite that actually perched for photos.
http://bushwhackingbirder.com/general/goose-pond-saturday-greater-yellowlegs/
Since I didn’t chance across anything unusual this weekend, and since the previous BBotW got swallowed when the blog was down, I’ll share my best bird of last weekend:
On a bird walk at Houston Meadows in NW Philadelphia. A singing Indigo Bunting. Followed shortly thereafter by a singing Eastern Towhee and his mate. How can I pick? They were both excellent! (And even bested the Cooper’s Hawk which perched right over our heads!)
Got up on July 4 and went birding at our local state park where we saw three Greater Roadrunners (near Dallas, TX). They aren’t rare here or anything, but for the dozens of times I’ve been birding at this location, this was the first time to see this bird there. There were also lots of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers chattering away.
I forgot to include the link to my blog with a few (crummy) photos:
http://lindasfamilynews.wordpress.com/2014/07/04/july-4-2014/
Red-Cockaded Woodpecker at Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve in Southern Pines, NC!
Least Tern babies at the Belmar fishing pier colony. Jeez, they blend into the sand better than Piping Plover babies. I can barely seem them in my photos.
Oh, that’s Belmar, New Jersey. I used a July 4th weekend party as a cover for my Least Tern stalking.
Hard to choose between my life American Avocet or Black-necked Stilit at Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve in Las Vegas, NV.