Birding

Best Bird of the Weekend (First of October 2011)

October 3, 2011 by Mike 10 Comments

Sometimes a person should keep his fool mouth shut. Before the weekend began, I opined about how October felt like a real fall month as compared to the capricious climate swings of September. Then the freezing rain began! So much for my weekend…

Unless you like House Sparrows more than I do, you won’t be impressed by my best bird of the weekend. Corey, on the other hand, pulled a Philadelphia Vireo that Will Raup spotted at the Coxsackie Creek Grasslands Preserve while Corey was busy looking at a Song Sparrow. After a brief moment of Corey thinking Will had gone off the deep end Corey saw the bird too. It was a lifer for Corey’s dad, Wes, not surprisingly, but was also a lifer for Will.

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.

best bird weekend

Written by Mike

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.

10 Comments

Hilke Breder October 3, 2011 at 7:31 am
On Saturday after a morning of fog and rain the sky finally cleared up. I went for a walk along the West River in Brattleboro, VT, to see what I could find. Not much was going on on the river, just a lone Great Egret that had been there for a couple of weeks. However on the stubble corn field next to the trail many small birds, flashing yellow, were flitting about: a fallout of migrating Palm Warblers. Here is my report:
http://onejackdawbirding.blogspot.com/2011/10/palm-warblers-arrivals-and-departures.html
Sean Paul Kelley October 3, 2011 at 9:11 am
Was a pretty terrible weekend for birding in Austin. Cold front (relatively speaking) blew out all the migratorys from the first cold front. Saw a few warblers of various kinds, but not much else. Gues smy best bird was the first of season Gray Catbird.
Stuart Immonen October 3, 2011 at 9:39 am
A Philadelphia Vireo would be good news around here any day, but the weekend on the north shores of the Great Lakes nevertheless gave up some worthy reports.
My own “best bird” was a single Rusty Blackbird, perched low in some weedy scrub at the top of a dry hill in a populous city park. Most of my time, however, was spent at the Rosetta McClain Gardens Hawkwatch in Toronto’s east end.
Robert Mortensen October 3, 2011 at 10:01 am
The Harlequin Duck is still hanging out at the Antelope Island Causeway north of Salt Lake. That was pretty cool. Seeing a Peregrine Falcon out on the causeway was really neat too as I’ve only seen them in downtown Boise and Salt Lake…so extra special seeing one out in the wild (or rather, away from human structures).
Linda October 3, 2011 at 10:06 am
My best bird(s) of the weekend were the Cape May warblers that were all over Cape May NJ. Nice to see the bird that is named for the place actually in the place! I have pretty good photos on my blog now – http://www.phillybirdnerd.net if you want to have a look. I also had the opportunity to study the difference between Cape May and Blackpoll up close as both birds were foraging in the same tree at almost eye level for a few hours on Saturday.
Eileen October 3, 2011 at 11:44 am
My best bird of the weekend was seeing Merlins at the Chincoteague NWR in Va. A lifer for me.
crowbones October 3, 2011 at 2:34 pm
My best 2 birds of the weekend were none too exotic, but I was honestly happy to see any birds.
There is an exceptionally beautiful feral pigeon living in the street my new house is on – I’m going to try to get a picture, it is a real beauty.
Second, the common raven I saw in the Lake District yesterday. Seeing it circling in the mist so close by when I stopped for lunch on my way up the fell, in the amazingbeautifulrefreshing rain (I’m so out of shape, I thought I was going to explode!) was one of those moments that makes all the wet feet and sore legs worthwhile.Totally made up for the lack of any views under all the fog too! So atmoshperic.
Colin October 3, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Best I managed was a new bird for the garden, in the form of a chestnut weaver – started to move with the early rain we’ve had, I guess. They’ll look better in a few weeks time though…
http://safari-ecology.blogspot.com
Meredith October 3, 2011 at 7:16 pm
A little late to the party …
My best bird of the weekend, in most people’s books, would be the Nashville Warbler hanging out in a patch of parkland outside of the Lincoln Park Zoo. We got a decent look before it jetted.
But to me, the best bird was the Ovenbird scratching around some pine trees on the Northwestern University campus. Both are lifers, but I’ve been pining (pun half-intended) for an Ovenbird for years, simply because they are so cute!
Rundowns of both (and pics of a Wood Duck and other non-bird objects) at http://www.blog5b.com.
liz October 9, 2011 at 4:11 pm
I usually never have anything to post in response to this question. Today we were returning to home from Rochester, and stopped by Montezuma NWR. Hadn’t done my research on what was here – we just stopped by. As we paused at the side of the road, a fellow birder asked if we had any new info on the red phalarope. Huh? We got to the spot where he told us it was supposed to be, and voila! there was the bird – and a crowd watching it. One of the easiest rare birds I’ve chased. And, it was a lifer!