Late April offers so much for nature lovers. If you didn’t see something interesting or new this weekend, you must not have gotten out of your house!
I enjoyed encountering a lot of first-of-year spring arrivals, but the species that most piqued my interest was White-winged Scoter, with a late flock of 17 hanging around Braddock Bay. The birds had already adopted their drab eclipse plumage, unlike the winter warrior featured in the photo above. What can I say? I didn’t think I’d need a photo. And on that note, do we really believe Corey saw the famous Florida Cuban Vireo if he doesn’t have visual evidence? As they say, pics or it didn’t happen…
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.
I saw my first-of-year Common Swifts over Heidelberg battling through a storm with sleet and snow as we are currently experiencing unseasonally cold weather in Germany.
After only a blurry brief encounter years back owing to (someone else’s) audio playback, a female Pileated Woodpecker.
On a walk along a Wissahickon Valley trail in Philadelphia (a walk for exercise, not birding — I didn’t bring bins).
Nonchalantly pecking at a log 20 feet away from me.
After two to three nice long minutes of silent “Oh my god!”, alighting on a different log a few feet away and calling, before flying off to join its calling brethren, showing those nice big white wing patches.
*mic drop*
(Seriously, I pretty sure that’s my BBOTY right there.)
My best birds of the weekend were 2 flyby Little Bittern (lifer!) at a nearby lake just outside of Vicenza, Italy.
I saw big flocks of Kereru (New Zealand Pigeon) in my neighbourhood this weekend, which was nice. Up to 14 birds, which is a lot.
A pair of beautiful Lazuli Buntings (FOS) in our backyard in Eastern California.
Getting a new lifer, the Mangrove Warbler has to count as my BBOTW!! The fact that I also got some super photos of the bird just made it that much better!
Best for me was hearing Upland Sandpipers call just after dusk in the Pacific lowlands of Costa Rica. A nice end to a Big Day with nearly 260 species.