The last weekend of August doesn’t actually equate to the last weekend of summer. Officially, that arrives around the third weekend of September, but we in the U.S. consider this coming Labor Day weekend to be the unofficial terminus to summer unseriousness. However you slice it, this current season is drawing to a close. The good news in that is that a season of migration is winging its way wherever you are. Perhaps it has already begun!
My best bird of the weekend was heard, not seen: I thrilled to the haunting whinny of an Eastern Screech-Owl somewhere in my neighborhood. Corey’s BBOTW was a Hooded Crow, the last bird he saw before flying out of Germany early Saturday morning.
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 know Monday technically isn’t the weekend anymore, but I just saw a very likely Long-legged Buzzard outside my office in Heidelberg/Germany, which is like seeing a Swainson’s Hawk over a backyard in Rochester NY.
Ours was a few Buff-breasted Sandpiper found by the Toledo Naturalists Association tour in Ottawa NWR.
Jochen, I wouldn’t have realized what a phenomenal sighting that is without the very helpful local context. Congrats! Is there a local group you share that sighting with?
Jonathan, I coincidentally saw my first Buff-bellied Sandpiper at Ottawa NWR.
@Mike: the species is very similar to Common Buzzard which is … er … common, so I haven’t really decided yet if I will report it or not. Germany has around 10,000 serious birders, and most are organized in local groups that run specific websites or have email lists. The one around my neck of the woods is “HD Birding”.
http://www.hd-birding.de/
I also report all my sightings, also of common birds, to “ornitho.de”, the German equivalent to eBird.
http://www.ornitho.de/
There’s also the German “club300” to which I am not subscribed yet but may one day:
http://www.club300.de/
And of course, as Long-legged Buzzard are a rarity, I’ll have to report it to the German rarities committee in order to get the observation entered into the scientific data base of birds in Germany.
In terms of rarities, mine may have been a not so common for Costa Rica Common Tern at Chomes on the Gulf of Nicoya. It isnt rare for the country but you dont see them that often. In terms of coolness, I elect the hundred plus Marbled Godwits seen at the same site along with the thousand plus other shorebirds with which they were keeping company.
Two lifer Baird’s Sandpipers pecking among the mudflats at Montrose beach on Saturday. I also got to see them fly, and hear their pretty little churring call!
A big flock of Black Turnstones just back from their summer in Alaska. I heard them before seeing them, as they gathered on rocks inside about a hundred pilings at the mouth of the marina here in Port Townsend, WA, and were surrounded by Heermann’s Gulls that had grabbed every single piling!