Some may consider talking about the weather banal, but I can’t help complaining during a winter like this. While March earns a reputation for coming in like a lion, the season rarely seems as wild and cold as Winter Storm Titan threatens to be over the next few days in the American Northeast, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic. Seriously, if this continues into migration, the birds are all going to fly back south.
An American Robin was hooting and hollering (probably complaining about the cold) from one of our bushes, which really captured my son’s imagination. He wanted to tell me all about it, which earns the robin Best Bird of the Weekend honors. Corey had quite a few species from which to choose for his Best Bird of the Weekend but he couldn’t resist deciding on the Snowy Owl he watched and digiscoped at Tiana Beach in Suffolk County on Saturday. It was his 22nd sighting of Snowy Owls this winter, which is kind of ridiculous, but the winter is nearly over and they will be returning north soon, so he decided to savor this sighting.
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.
BBOTW was a nightjar (exact species is still under review) in Fort Canning Park, Singapore.
A male Long-tailed Duck at the local pond. I assume the freezing of the Great Lakes pushed them south and there were numerous sightings across Indiana over the weekend. Runner-up were a couple of Cackling Geese.
http://bushwhackingbirder.com/general/hard-one-easy-one/
The best I could come up with was an American Wigeon. Read more on it and other waterfowl by clicking on my name above.
The key to interesting birding around Lake Ontario is to find open water. That often means near sewage plants and other less-than-choice corners, but then birding is often about sacrificing dignity, isn’t it?
Best sight of the weekend was all five geese together (Ross’s, Snow, Canada, Cackling, and Greater White-fronted), which I managed to capture in a single picture!
http://littlebirder.blogspot.com/2014/03/strike-two.html
My best bird was “our” Anna’s Hummingbird back at the feeder, because we’d been away in southern Australia for three weeks. In Australia the best birds were dozens of glamorous pink and gray Galahs screeching and landing in a couple of trees.
Despite being exceedingly common, getting to watch him hunt in my backyard made Red-tailed Hawk my best bird of the weekend. Photos on my blog at:
https://birdnerdafrica.wordpress.com/