How was your weekend? Any good birds? Tell us about your best bird.
I thought that the Black Vulture over Bear Mountain in Rockland County or the Fish Crows flying overhead in Dumont, NJ would be my best birds. However, that changed once, in a stroke of serendipty, I drove past one of the two notorious Monk Parakeet colonies in New Jersey, this one in Edgewater. Corey’s best bird was a Peregrine Falcon chasing better birds off the East Pond at Jamaica Bay. With all the birds Charlie sees in his travels, he hasn’t singled any one out this weekend as his very best.
What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us about the rarest, loveliest, or most interesting bird you observed in the comments section. Plus, if you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, I invite you to include the link in your comment.
I went to one of the very few breeding sites of Purple Heron in Germany and thought I was a bit late and that the herons would have left the area already. However, I was lucky and flushed (okay, one is NEVER lucky when a bird gets flushed, but that’s how it happened) a single Purple Heron that gave very short yet identifyable views and thus Purple Heron was added to my German list.
Much more interesting however, and I almost hate to admit it as a birder, was a dragonfly I was shown in the same area: two Vagrant Emperors, Anax ephippiger, a migratory dragonfly that likely flew here from tropical Africa! That was neat.
I’ll blog about it.
Seeing the courtship display of the ‘vulnerable’ Musk Duck was my weekend highlight. To see the spectacular display, and have the hope of them breeding locally was a thrill. Also on the dam were Great Crested Grebes displaying, and the increasingly rare Blue-billed Ducks – but I’ll have to return in the hope of seeing their courtship ritual. http://bushbirds.blogspot.com/2009/08/walka-waterworks.html
Got great looks at peeps and terns at the Jamaica Bay (NY) Shorebird Festival yesterday, along with great identifiation lessons (thanks Lloyd, Tom, Dick Doug and Kevin!). but my fav birds were the ones I don’t get to see very often – little blue herons (lots) and a tri-color heron.
Kind of hard because on Friday I got a great new life bird, Cordilleran Flycatcher, which was cool, but I think more significant was capturing a series of Red Crossbill photos on Saturday that show just about every possible plumage variation. Juvenile, immature, sub-adult, adult, female and male. There are 9 images in all and I blogged about them in Keeping Up With Crossbills.
Hi Mike!
How odd to have read this post just as I came back from seeing Monk Parakeets in New Jersey myself! I just moved to Maplewood, NJ from Brooklyn, and I am a brand new birder. Needless to say, I was pretty stunned to discover that there is a Monk Parakeet colony in Maplewood Memorial Park. I have been documenting these birds since August 3rd, and have seen them every day save one. I have seen as many as 9 and as few as 4 at a time. As far as I can find, no one has documented these birds yet, and there are no Monk Parakeet sightings nearby to where I live. Exciting stuff! I am attaching a link to the very new blog I am starting called The Wordy Birder, which documents my move from city to suburb, and from literature nut to birder. Thank you for your blog–this is fantastic.
All the best,
Nicole
Barnacle Swallow, which is Hirundo rustica when it is found 81.6 nautical miles out to sea on a pelagic. If not for this fellow and the good variety of cetaceans (Risso’s, Bottlenose and Common Dolphin) and fishes (Basking Shark and Ocean Sunfish), this trip wouldn’t have had anything I hadn’t seen on a recent sea watch Robert Moses SP on Long Island (Cory’s, Greater Shearwater, Wilson’s Storm Petrels). A couple Audubon’s Shearwaters and a phalarope sp. made brief appearances, but I couldn’t get on them.
This is a great site that you have here. I have a blog myself that inspires people. I would like to exchange links with you. When you get a chance, let me know if this is possible, either by email or a comment on my site. Thanks. Jason
Jochen–only place I’ve seen Purple Heron in Germany is Wagha”usel, across the river from Speyer. Where’s your site?
Paul–Cory’s from land, pretty fancy!
Our best of the weekend was Western Sandpiper, the first juveniles of that species this autumn; photos at http://birdaz.com/blog
rick
Rick, that’s exactly my site and apart from one or two very small “populations” (mostly single breeding pairs) in Rheinland-Pfalz, this is pretty much the only site (now around 4 to 5 pairs) in Germany.
Cheers Rick, such a very small world!!
This weekend I ignored the gray flycatcher that has returned for the third year at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas, Ca, and did my birding from the comfort of my daughter’s patio in Chino Hills, Ca. No “best” birds, but how’s this for a collection, all in or near the feeders: acorn woodpeckers, California thrasher, hooded oriole, western tanager, black-headed grosbeak, spotted towhee, house wren, Allen’s hummingbird, plus an assortment of common yard birds.
@Rick:
This has been a good summer for shearwaters on the southern shore of Long Island, particularly during a stretch in late June early July when southwesterly winds were consistent for a week. Cory’s by GISS from a quarter mile isn’t the same as Cory’s from 50 feet, however.
@Rick:
Er, southeasterly.
Not rare birds, but a rare event: two ruby-throated hummingbirds sharing a feeder. This has taken years.
http://pastlessonsfuturetheories.blogspot.com/2009/08/finally-two-hummingbirds-one-feeder.html
I was birdwatching in Ethiopia a weekend or so ago (while visiting my grandbaby) and had so many new birds to identify I couldn’t keep up. I have a crummy camera, but I did get some cool photos: http://thainamu.blogspot.com/2009/08/birding-in-ethiopia.html