What’s better than a two-day weekend? A three-day weekend, of course, unless you can swing four or more! Here in the United States, we’re in the midst of the Memorial Day weekend. This means that if you see any amazing birds today, you can count them as your best birds of the weekend.
The best birds of my undistinguished weekend must be American Goldfinches in their full canary finery. Goldfinches aren’t much to look at in winter, but they certainly pop come summer. Corey’s BBOTW was his first ever in Queens Purple Martin at Fort Tilden, number 290 on the Queens list!
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.
Close encounters with birds this week:
My room is in an attic, and I have a skylight. I like to sit on my bed and sort of hang half out of the skylight when I am taking a break from working/procrastinating on the internet.
Pigeons, crows, starlings and magpies like to hang out on the chimney on my roof and keep me company with lots and lots of 5am noise 🙂
Anyway, I was looking out of my skylight the other morning, not really paying attention to the woodpigeons on the chimney…and then, a female sparrowhawk grabs one pf the pigeons and they both sort of tumble down the roof and flutter into my front garden.Feathers everywhere though, a bunch of them even floated in through the skylight. Pigeon puts up a bit of a struggle but there’s no chance.
Oh, and yesterday a pigeon shat on my shoe while I was walking. :O Bloody birds…
I’m tempted to pick the Chestnut-sided Warbler as my BBOTW because it’s so damn lovely. But I think I’ll have to go with the Mourning Warbler, because it’s a lifer I found all by myself! (Both birds @ Montrose Point in Chicago)
Oh and @Corey, congrats on the new addition to your Queens list!
On Saturday night, the Audubon Naturalist Society sponsored a trip to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to look for Black Rails. We spotted many birds in the marshes and pines during the afternoon, including Black-necked Stilt, Willet, three warbler species, Brown-headed Nuthatch, and Seaside and Sharp-tailed Sparrows. In the evening, we watched a gorgeous sunset over the Chesapeake Bay. We then drove through a tiny cluster of houses on our way back to the marshes when we heard a Chuck-will’s-widow singing loudly in the woods not far from the road. After we piled out of our cars, the Chuck-will’s-widow flew overhead several times, then back into the woods snapping its wings. It looped back around and came to rest on a horizontal branch about 30-40 feet from us. We enjoyed unobstructed views of the Chuck-will’s-widow as it rested on the branch (at eye level) and sang.
Taking part in the May Species Count gave me a huge number of great birds this weekend, so it’s hard to pick just one! I think it’s probably my lifer Brown Thrasher sighting that was the very best one. Absolutely loved the repetition of its calls, and the sun even came out long enough for me to get some decent photos too!
Best bird for me was probably Black Guan during a morning survey at Poas Volcano, Costa Rica. Also heard one Resplendent Quetzal that unfortunately remained unseen.
Least Bittern at Wakodahatchee Wetlands, FL
I’m trying to decide if I can count the dead White-eyed Vireo as a lifer. I found it on the path while out on a short birdwalk last evening.
http://lindasfamilynews.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/can-you-call-it-a-lifer-if-it-is-dead/
Today I had more bad luck with my birding endeavors. We got up early and drove 30 miles to the Dallas Southwest Waste water treatment plant and then they wouldn’t let us in because our names weren’t on some chief birder’s list. Sad, sad. So instead we found a few small local parks and didn’t see anything very exciting except hundreds of cattle egrets and two ducks I couldn’t ID.
Hearing a Virginia Rail at Anderson Lake near Port Townsend, WA, where I live on the Olympic Peninsula. Fortunately I was with someone who can bird by ear, as I cannot…
I met up with some gracious folks from the Saw Mill River Audubon at the visitors center in Sterling Forest (New York) Saturday morning and there was a Mississippi Kite hanging around the visitors’ parking lot! Later in the afternoon, a couple of dedicated birders from New Jersey were trying to cess out if it was indeed preparing a nest just 50 feet away from the parking lot.
Traveling around the park we came across Golden-winged and Blue-winged Warblers, but no hyrids. Hummingbirds were abundant along the power-lines as well.
Looking over a swamp we came upon a Green Heron off her nest, allowing us to perfectly see the green eggs she was nurturing.
Pretty amazing stories everyone has shared this week. Crowbones’ were funny. Frank, Francis, Ubermogle, Meredith and thainamu all sound like they had some pretty special experiences. Pat O’donnell . . .
I spent the weekend visiting my sister and didn’t really do any birding as such. I did see a nice Acadian Flycatcher at Quiet Waters park in Annapolis, Maryland though.
I refound a Purple Gallinule in a marsh in Charlotte, North Carolina that has been there since April 30. Lifer #600.
I was owl watching this past weekend. I am privileged to have a family of the Florida species of the Burrowing Owl living on my front lawn. This year the parents had 6 chicks. The fun thing about Burrowing Owls, besides the fact that they are quite tolerant of human beings, is that they are out during the day. The owls here don’t migrate, so we are able to watch them year round. Sometimes in the summer they seek cooler places to hide from the Florida sun, but for the most part they are around all year long.
Check out my website, http://capecoralburrowingowls.com and check out the live video and you too can watch the owls during the day. (Eastern Standard time from about 6 am -8:0pm, this time of year. There is also a link to my blog where you can read some fun stuff about the owls.
It is soooo cool to watch these birds from my front porch and anywhere I wander!