Now that late winter has eased into early spring, it seems owls are in the air. I’m hearing all kinds of owl howls, from Saw-whets at (where else?) Owl Woods and Short-eared Owls from New York to the Galapagos Islands. One birder known to many of us even had her life Barn Owl turn up in her backyard! If owls have traditionally eluded you, get back in the game… your luck may be turning.
I should have chased owls this weekend, but chose to work on my landscaping instead. Fortunately, plenty of early arrivals attended my efforts; my faves were the Common Grackles, who somehow manage to combine the adjectives Stygian and iridescent in their plumage. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was an American Oystercatcher, one of several he saw along the shore of Queens’s Rockaway Peninsula. It’s not a rare bird but it is a fun bird to watch.
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.
700 American Pelicans in a massive migrating flock. Earlier I saw a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
Two rare Slaty Finches were the best find in a long day that yielded 150 species in the middle and high elevation rain forests around Poas Volcano.
My best bird was a Barrow’s Goldeneye, a first for me, at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn NYC.
Fantastic looks at a pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers at Chinsegut Wildlife Environmental Area in Hernando County, Florida.
The best bird of the weekend ends with a tie for me, Painted Bunting at my work feeder and a flyover Peregrine Falcon.
Black-necked Stilts. I was down in the San Francisco Bay Area where I used to live, and it is one of the birds I miss most now that I live on the Olympic Peninsula. Such cool birds, so graceful in flight and along the edge of the water.