Those of us in the United States are celebrating Memorial Day Weekend, normally a time to gather with friends and family for barbecues, beach outings, and other fun group activities. This year, the more somber aspect of Memorial Day, remembering fallen soldiers, is perhaps more on our minds as we cope with the staggering losses from the pandemic. Though we may not be able to enjoy our normal Memorial Day gatherings one thing is constant whether there is a pandemic, a war, or any other calamity: there are birds.
Perhaps for those of us in the northeastern United States the number of birds this weekend has been a bit of a disappoint though. Weather patterns have been far from ideal for us to get our last big burst of migrating spring songbirds and the parks seemed relatively quiet this weekend, with few but local breeders there to be seen. Despite the shortage of migrants Mike made his annual run to Rush Oak Openings–New York’s only oak openings–for reliable Blue-winged Warbler and was not disappointed.
While Mike was busy looking for breeding wood-warblers I spent my time scouring Queens for something new for my year list. I failed but I did greatly enjoy trying to digiscope swifts and swallows feeding over Meadow Lake, with the emphasis on “trying” as the vast majority of the photos I got were out-of-focus, out-of-frame, or just lousy. But I did get a couple of passable shots of Barn Swallows, like the one at the top of this post, so I’ll make them my Best Bird of the 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.
I had a chance to get to Island County, WA while bringing my girlfriend to visit her sister, I got out to do some seawatching and birding at Iverson beach. I first spotted a jaeger sitting on the water and then got to watch it chasing several Caspian Terns. Parasitic Jaeger, undoubtedly my best weekend bird, is fairly regular in fall in the Puget Sound, less common in spring. With the lack of access to pelagic trips so far this year it was a great addition to my state year list, and just plain always fun to watch the tail chases.
My best bird of the weekend, and of the last seven or eight weekends and the days between, has been a woodlark. Here in the UK woodlarks are scarce birds, chiefly because their habitat (heathland with scattered trees) is also scarce. A woodlark is one of those small brown jobs that is easily overlooked, though its combination of short tail and broad wings makes it relatively easy to identify if you know what’s you are looking for. However, its most attractive feature is its delightful song, and my bird (if I can be as possessive as that) has been singing every morning without fail for some weeks. The song is soft, at times repetitive but always wonderful to hear, and is delivered from either a favoured song post (my bird likes a dead Scots pine), or from the air. The Latin name of Lullula arborea comes from the song and the fact it likes trees. We call it the lulu bird.