Those of us north of the Equator should be enjoying our summer weekends no matter how boring the birding might be. Better, though, is finding a way to raise the quality of your bird sightings and enjoyment of them. How is that working out for you?
I spent the weekend with some friends in the Southern Tier, where I’ve always complained about the boring birdlife. Somehow, we managed to flip the script on that by spotting all kinds of birds that the whole group could enjoy. They all oohed and aahed over Indigo Buntings (rightfully so), but the highlight for me was a Barred Owl hollering just out of sight. Though Corey arrived in Southern California late Friday night, he didn’t get much birding in this weekend other than dipping on a Nazca Booby at Dana Point after delaying his departure to go look for it to accompany his family to the beach. Oh well, he still saw some nice west coast birds like his Best Bird of the Weekend–pictured in the viewfinder of his camera–Elegant Tern.
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.
A pair of juvenile Brown-headed Cowbirds. They were scavenging along the beach here on the Olympic Peninsula, and I had no idea what they were– so long, so yellowish-beige.
Chimney Swifts tittering over my son’s first minor-league baseball game yesterday. (Go, Lehigh Iron Pigs!)
Got to see a Pileated Woodpecker at my parents’ farm in Missouri. Such a cool bird.