Can the best bird of your weekend be one you didn’t see? Obviously, not seeing a desired bird can place the offender in the Worst Bird of the Weekend category. We’ve all been there, right? But search your soul… could you possibly take pleasure in a special bird like the tasty vagrant that popped up in the most unlikely place or maybe one far from home that a friend just added to the life list?
I ask because, while I don’t know Corey’s BBOTW, I do know he has been drooling uncontrollably since hearing about the Kirtland’s Warbler that turned up on Lake Ontario. Only the second known to grace New York State, this bird has all the state birders abuzz, particularly the ones too distant to chase it. To add insult to Corey’s injury, I abstained from seeking this bird out, even though it was found about an hour from my house. What can I say… I’ve already seen a Kirtland’s! Instead, the best bird of my weekend was a Northern Mockingbird. I love these effusive mimids but don’t see them all that often, so a sighting of a strutting mockingbird, wings aflare, made me smile.
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.
My best bird was my long-overdue lifer Willow Flycatcher.
Pileated Woodpecker drumming loudly to make sure everyone knew whose territory is whose. Read more on my blog by clicking on my name above.
My first (and definitely not the last) visit to the weekly bird walk at John Heinz NWR just outside of Philadelphia rewarded me with a calling Baltimore Oriole.
But you know what tops that? A female Yellow Warbler on the nest. With her head and tail sticking out. At eye level. FTW!
@Mike: Northern Mockingbird is an awesome bird and always makes me smile too!
I was pleased with my first North Island Black-fronted Tern, but the stars were 6 Shore Plovers. That’s two percent of the entire world population!
Well, I haven’t seen them yet but there are three breeding pairs of Dickcissels really close to where I live. They’re rare in NC and sometimes migrate through, but to have not one, not two, but three breeding pairs? It’s great!
That would be the female Canada Warbler I found (and photographed) at Rattlesnake Springs (part of Carlsbad Caverns National Park). 11th NM record but unfortunately not found by fellow birders.
An Olive-sided Flycatcher. They migrate through the Midwest in a very narrow window so I am always glad to see one. I watched it for over an hour getting some decent photos, taking notes, and making sketches.
http://bushwhackingbirder.com/
Over the weekend we birded the amazing private reserve of El Copal, in Costa Rica. It is at 1000m in primary forest on the Caribbean slope of the Talamancas, just below Tapanti National Park. Fantastic birds there – Ochre-breasted Antpitta, Sharpbill, Rufous-browed Tyrannulet, Black-and-white Becard and a wonderful mix of the expected Caribbean slope species that you get in quality forest like that. The lodge at El Copal is wonderful, friendly, and cheap, one of our favorite locations so far in Costa Rica!