Many people consider May to be one of the year’s better months, but birders seem more attached. The birding is just that good, or at least can be. Did your month get off to an auspicious start?
I was quite pleased to pull my first New York state warblers for the year from the early bird menu. Best of the prosaic bunch was a Black-and-White Warbler looking extra sharp against the drab gray and brown of bare branches at Firehouse Woods. Corey enjoyed a wave of neotropical migrants over the weekend and had a hard time choosing his Best Bird of the Weekend. Was it the Seaside Sparrow that bizarrely popped up on a rock jetty? Or his first Rose-breasted Grosbeak of the year way up in a newly-leaved tree? No, it was neither of those. Instead, it was a perfect male Summer Tanager that showed brilliantly in Forest Park while Corey lacked his camera. So enjoy the Scarlet Tanager photo instead, another of those wonderful spring migrants Corey spotted this weekend.
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.
Barnacle Goose
It was a good weekend here in the south Puget Sound area, and at this time of year FOY birds are coming quickly, but think for me the best was an Olive Sided Flycatcher sitting silently atop a big snag at the Sway Creek County Park seen while taking my girlfriends two young grandsons on a “birding walk” where building rock circles, scrambling down a hillside to the creek and showing them Chipping Sparrows and a bright male American Goldfinch made for a great afternoon out of the house.
A gorgeous Pileated Woodpecker visited my suet feeder here on the Olympic Peninsula.