The beginning of the calendar year feels somewhat arbitrary, especially since different cultures celebrate the new year at different times. The true unfolding of another journey around the sun, at least in temperate zones, doesn’t really launch until the cold earth gives up its first green shoots and early blooms. Every week of spring draws us deeper into what, at last, feels fresh and new. Do you disagree?
While camping with my son at the Genessee Country Village and Museum, we encountered lots of FOY birds, the most auspicious of which were certainly Eastern Phoebes, pumping their tails with vernal vigor. In the same vein, Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was one of the early spring migrants, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, his first of the year in New York State. He spotted it, and a second, at the waterhole in Forest Park, Queens.
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.
Not as cool in the spring-migrant department as yours, but I got to glimpse not one but two Great Blue Herons aloft over various highways in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Always a majestic sight!
A beautiful Green-winged Teal here on the Olympic Peninsula.
It’s getting better all the time. Stretching the weekend a bit, we found a Louisiana Waterthrush on Friday – very early and very rare in Ontario. Today – our first Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.
Read more about them and lots of others by clicking on my name above
I saw a beautiful Scissor-tailed Flycatcher at Fort Smallwood near Baltimore, Maryland. – not at all what I was expecting to see while spending the weekend visiting my sister.
The target California Condor was distant but definite at Pinnacles NP. Easily separated from the Turkey Vultures by a great big number 11 on his wing tag.