May brings birds in a big way. Have you seen any good ones? One sure 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 bird of the weekend was what had to be the handsomest White-throated Sparrow I’ve ever seen. This bright buck, yellow lores ablaze and throat practically glowing, hung around my feeder all day Sunday. Charlie enjoyed Common Swifts at home. Corey finds it impossible to call his best bird; let’s just say came up with a twenty-way tie on this awesome spring weekend. However, the Orange-crowned Warbler below, a rarity on the east coast in spring, was the first among equals.
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.
Friday visited the amazing Western Treatment Plant in Werribee, Victoria, Australia… we did positively see but could not positively identify 2 Orange Belly Parrots. So… second best bird would be… maybe the Black-tailed Godwit.
Definitely Nightingales.
It seems the Nightingales are aiming for world domination this year and have decided to set up headquarters in the south-west of Germany.
Never seen them in such numbers.
Definitly a Clay-colored sparrow, seen at the Ann Arbor Arboretum on Saturday. That was a lifer for me.
But it is hard to forget all the new migrants that (finally) arrived in michigan. Nashvilles, Yellow, Baltimore Orioles and Rosebreasted Grosbeacks were very abondant in the county
Ahhh, spring! Had a great weekend teaching a Backcountry Photography class and managed to get a little bit of birding in while teaching. By far my favorite bird was a Hooded Warbler singing on territory. Also had Louisiana Waterthrush nest building which was very cool to see. I can’t wait to get out and actually do some real birding and photographing this week!
@R. Bruce – I’m jealous of the OBPs. I spent 4 days at Maleleuca a few years back and they are simply incredible birds!
Drew
So many year firsts this weekend it’s hard to pick just one. Either the Bobolinks on Saturday or the Rose-breasted Grosbeak on Sunday.
Really hard to narrow it down, between swallows and herons and my first black-and-white warbler. (My initial thought was, “What a cool bird! Very punk.”)
If I had to pick the best, it’d be the blue-winged teal hanging out with a few Canada geese on a small pond in the burbs. No one else had noticed it until I saw it and said, “Hey, that seems kind of small for a mallard …”
Wish I’d been able to join in the mass Central Park birdwalk yesterday, though.
I have to go with a male Bay-breasted Warbler, which gave good looks, and as a result tops the female Cerulean Warbler (and 14 other warblers) that I saw in Central Park on Sunday. Red-headed Woodpecker and Rusty Blackbird were nice too.
An invidious question indeed on the first weekend of May! Probably White-throated Swifts over the Okanagan, just a very cool bird against those bright blue skies.
female indigo bunting (my neighbors saw the male). I also saw a small flock of urban parrots which surprised me a little since I don’t live anywhere near the tropics.
Am jealous about the baybreasted (it would be a lifer from me) and am avoiding a good pout by reveling in the blue wing that gave us amazing looks in Prospect Park on a hot Saturday afternoon. Sunday at Sterling yielded a glow -in-the-dark papa Prairie — nice to see after having successfully id’d mama P a couple of times.
Certainly the most surprising was the escaped cockatiel on a roof in Prince’s Bay, Staten Island.
We went on a Hong Kong Birdwatching Society Boat Trip on Sunday, May 2nd, to HK’s southern waters.
Best birds included Short-tailed Shearwater and Arctic Skua (“Parasitic Jaeger” in the U.S., I think).
AND Ancient Murrelet was a Hong Kong “Tick” for me… blog post here:
http://johnjemi.blogspot.com/
I went to Cherry Creek State Park, Colorado and saw Osprey, Northern Harrier, Cooper’s Hawk, American Goldfinch, Yellow-rumped Warbler, White-faced Ibis. At Belmar Park, 3 blocks from my apt, the highlight of the weekend was a Sora.
A Baltimore Oriole! Near Baltimore!
Big lifer for me, since I thought I aught to see one since I live here, but they are not common to the area.
A Yellow-throated Warbler alit on a tree right in front of the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory Sunday at noon. Most birders had left hours ago, saying the place was “dead”.
Best Bird(s) were at a new black grouse lek that I found in the hills of Scotland. Great bird, great behaviour!
Definitely the Black-billed Cuckoo in a thicket not far from my house. I’ve only seen her(?) once before, and that was last year around this same time. I imagine she’s looking for a nest to parasitize, but i’d love to know more about these fascinating birds.