Birding

Best Bird of the Weekend (Last of August 2014)

September 1, 2014 by Mike 4 Comments

Since we in the U.S. are enjoying a long weekend, you got extra time to establish a Best Bird of the Weekend. Did Monday morning birding make a difference?

While I saw plenty of cool birds this weekend, including at least 10 Common Nighthawks, I was most engaged by a veritable swarm of Cedar Waxwings skimming along the surface of a pond for flies like swallows. Corey got into some great shorebirds and hungry muck at Jamaica Bay, where a group of Hudsonian Godwits proved well worth the cost of a boot full of mud.

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.

August 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.

4 Comments

Linda Simons September 1, 2014 at 2:06 pm
Saturday morning we tried a new place in Dallas county (TX) and found a few shorebirds and a couple ducks. But my best bird was probably a Loggerhead Shrike, sitting in a tree just a few feet from a Broad-winged Hawk. http://lindasfamilynews.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/birding-report/
This morning at the local state park was very disappointing–no shorebirds, no ducks, not even a House Finch or a Red-winged Blackbird! Not sure why things were so quite.
Clare and Grant-Broome Western Australia September 1, 2014 at 6:15 pm
Rose-crowned-Fruit Doves! A pleasant change from all the Pied Imperial Pigeons all week! Bringing me to 302 bird species for the year (in Australia) and still 4 months to go! 🙂
Duncan September 1, 2014 at 6:35 pm
Very spring like at the moment, with lots of New Zealand Pigeon pairs to be seen. But I think the best was a Black Swan, the first I’ve seen in Karori.
Meredith Matthews September 2, 2014 at 8:59 am
While hiking @ the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in NW Philly, my husband and I got buzzed by a Great Horned Owl! We would never have noticed it except for the godawful shrieking it was doing on a branch in the distance. Got it in the bins and it was staring dead at us, moving its head side to side, then it took flight (like South Park, “it’s heading right for us!”) and look out below! So sorry to have bothered it, but what a phenomenal experience with a truly majestic bird. This is one for the grandkids.