One certain way to heighten the pleasure of a special bird sighting is to brag about it later. Step right up and share your best bird of the weekend.
My best birds this weekend were a matched pair of Northern Cardinals, the male singing in the sun. Corey’s best bird of the weekend is, by his admission, a tie between American Robins and Red-winged Blackbirds, both harbingers of spring. We’ve no word yet on what seasonal specialties Charlie enjoyed this weekend.
What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed in the comments section. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.
I’ve had quite an interesting weekend around Leimen/Heidelberg, on my usual stroller stomping ground. We had a sudden re-emergence of winter Friday night with approximately 10 cm (4 inches) of snow, extremely unusual for March. A lot of migrant songbirds in the surrounding mountains of the Odenwald got caught in this mess and decided to quickly dash down into the warmer valley of the Rhine.
On early Saturday, during cloudy conditions and occasional flurries of snow, I watched a constant stream of small songbird groups making their way west, mostly thrushes (5 Turdus species, sadly no Ring Ouzle though) but also a few skylarks and – rarest of all – a Wood Lark.
During the afternoon, conditions were better, with blue skies and sun, but the entire landscape except for the roads and paths were covered in snow. Along my stroller route, I encountered more than 50 song thrushes searching for snacks right beside the road. This is great as I’d normally be happy to see more than 2!
On Sunday, the entire show was over, with just 8 song thrushes during the morning walk and only 1 in the afternoon.
So, I guess Song Thrush, despite being a vry common bird, deserves to take the cake as best bird of the weekend.
However, I’ve also had a fabulous observation of a Common Buzzard and found the nest of a Long-tailed Tit. The latter is good to know in case a certain birder from New York shows up with vendetta on his mind…
Bohemian Waxwing. By the main road in Finchley, north London. Cracking.
http://countingcoots.blogspot.com/2010/03/bohemian-rhapsody.html
Best bird = Red-tailed hawk on backyard snag.
Also, it was nice to see a lot of different birds in pairs – canada geese, robins, modos, house finches.
What, Wren, you saw a bird party of Canada Geese and Robins?
😉
i didn’t have one good bird of the weekend. I had about 50,000 of them–snow geese. I was at middle Creek Wildlife Management area in Kleinfeltersville Pa. In addition to the aforementioned snow geese, the place was hopping with tundra swans and Canada geese, too. Some ducks but not large numbers of them yet.
I got not one, not two, but three new birds for Chatham County, putting me within ten of being the top eBirder in the county. Eastern Meadowlark, Hermit Thrush, and Winter Wren.
Nesting bald eagles. Got my first look this year since the road had been closed into that area. Also heard 2 barred owls calling. We have lots red-winged blackbirds at the feeders and the signs of spring are all around us.
My best bird was probably Red-winged Blackbird, since it was the first time I heard one singing this spring.
Fun watching Surf Scoters doing their scoot-dance on English Bay.
First kildeers of spring.
Best Bird of the Weekend – Lesser Prairie Chicken in Harper County, Oklahoma – while marking fences for the ODWC and the Audubon Important Birds Area.
It’s not glamorous, but it makes me happy:
I do presentations every year at the Adams County Bird Symposium way out in Amish country, and the hotel where I stay is right next to a wonderfully wet field. The highlight of the trip is hearing the hormonally-charged woodcocks right outside my window.
PEENT!
Best one was definately Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker, more about it here: http://highlatitudebirdwatcher.blogspot.com/2010/03/in-search-of-woodpeckers-parts-2-3.html
@Susan Gets Native: I can’t wait for my first woodcock of spring.
My best birds this past weekend was several grey jays and my first boreal chickadees for my life’s list in Maine.
A Bibbed Mallard at Stanley Park was my best bird of the weekend as it’s the first time I’ve seen a Mallard of this type.
New Zealand Eagle-ray in Wellington harbour.
Oh, you said bird. I guess it was a New Zealand Pigeon that provided very good views in the Wellington Botanical Gardens for an American visitor who likes birds.
Best bird was a Glaucous Gull on 1 March at Lake Merced in San Francisco. It was my last morning’s birding there before my return to the UK and a fine immature flew in to inspect the other feeding gulls (Western, California and Glaucous-winged). A new California bird for me!
31 Trumpeter Swans around the small town of Washago Ontario. One was tagged E00.