The end of September doesn’t necessarily mean the end of what you might enjoy about September birding but it definitely signals the beginning of what you love about October. Hopefully, you’re looking forward to the month ahead!
I was shocked to still find a number of shorebird species up at Braddock Bay, perhaps because of how much productive mud the dropping lake levels have exposed. This allowed me to pick up some late Pectoral Sandpipers, a bonus this deep into fall. Corey had a few really good birds this weekend. On Friday morning he unsuccessfully chased a LeConte’s Sparrow and a Connecticut Warbler in Queens but had his second ever encounter with Virginia Rail in Queens as well as a Yellow-breasted Chat. On Sunday morning, he followed up on a Golden-winged Warbler report from the day before and successfully connected, making Connecticut Warbler the only regularly occurring wood-warbler in New York that Corey hasn’t seen in Queens this year. But, of those three birds the only one that cooperated for good photos was the chat, so that will be Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend.
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.
Blue Malkoha
Brown Booby! Without question, in my limited ablility to get around in week 2 after hip surgery, I got to the nearby hotspot Dune’s Peninsula at Point Defiance and our young birding phenom Will Brooks pointed out a very distant Brown Booby lifted off the water with a flock of gulls and made a couple of plunge dives. Just a second Pierce County sighting for me, and definately made my weekend.
Northern Wheatear, far enough to be sort of a puzzle
Tricolored Heron