September slips away and October is afoot. What fresh fascinations does this month have in store?
My best bird this weekend was a spry little Red-breasted Nuthatch consorting with its larger White-breasted kin. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was his only year bird that crossed his path, a nice Clay-colored Sparrow at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.
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.
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.
What?! Corey got yet another year bird? Has he been so lazy during spring migration?! 😉
No new year birds for me (I’ve done my job thoroughly during the first 6 months of the year list competition), but a Crested Tit was nice to watch as it bathed in a puddle on my neighbour’s garage in Heidelberg/Germany.
A simple Sharp-shinned hawk swooped over head. BUT a new yard bird! Woot!
My best bird was a juvenile Black-naped Oriole, seen on Chongming Island outside of Shanghai. The island boasts a very lovely (if very crowded) nature reserve that was established to protect the island as a migratory hotspot. I missed the fall migration crowds, but still caught a handful of life birds!
Best bird honors go to a Connecticut Warbler wrestling a large insect and a lifer for me, a Yellow Breasted Chat seen for a whopping five seconds. Both seen at Glenhurst Meadows in Warren NJ, a fabulous spot this time of year.
Best bird of the weekend was a flyover Glossy Ibis at the Cape Henlopen Hawkwatch yesterday! We also had good numbers of Peregrines and Merlins.
My best bird was a palm warbler. It narrowly escaped death from a marsh hawk. If only I had caught that in a picture!
I wasnt able to get in any real birding but I will settle on the dozens of Cliff Swallows that were migrating overhead on Saturday morning in Puntarenas, Costa Rica for my best species of the weekend.
White-winged Scoter at Southport Beach, CT. A lifer!
Short-tailed Babbler in the Sime forest in Singapore.
We saw a Great Egret at the Keg Pool, in Etherow Park, Compstall. Could not believe my eyes, just like a white heron out of nowhere.
First sighting of a Channel-billed Cuckoo since they returned from the north. It was being chased by a Torresian Crow, so wonder if it was distracting and laying eggs in its nest!
Go a fantastic view of a Fluttering Shearwater not two metres from me as I stood on the piers of Wellington Harbour. It was fishing around the pier, I could see it flying underwater after baitfish!
Clapper Rail in the back bay marshes in Cape May! Lifer and my first rail (other than Sora). Sat on the edge of the grasses for a full 30-seconds or so as we went by in a boat. Rails have always been something of ghost-birds for me.
A Northern Parula Warbler in the desert west of Clovis, New Mexico. (the Melrose Migrant Trap). A rare one for our state and a first for me.