Do you love your birds of summer? Enjoy them while they last; depending on where you live, they may already be on their way out. Increase the pleasure of your special bird sightings by bragging about them here. Step right up and share your best bird of the weekend.
My 4 year-old daughter motivated me to refill the bird feeder this weekend, for which countless House Sparrows thank her. In the midst of the Black-throated Brown mob, one could pick out Northern Cardinals and Black-capped Chickadees. Clearly, I’ve been on a yard bird kick whilst Corey is out on a shorebird safari. His best bird of the weekend would have to be this handsome and cooperative Long-billed Dowitcher at Jamaica Bay’s East Pond:
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.
In Malaysia on Friday I guess it would have to be the Golden-fronted Leafbird at Bukit Nanas in Kuala Lumpur. I’ve wanted to see this family for a decade! That said the one that got away was a kicker; on the express train from KL to the airport I’m watching the scenery when I see a massive hornbill flying at some distance. By the time I could grab my binoculars the train had moved on (Express). Given how massive the tail was it was probably a Helmeted, but I can’t be certain.
At my parents in Cheshire I added the Lesser Whitethroat to both the yard list and my life list. Very nice.
Best bird? Well, between the two more or less remarkable species I saw on my Leimen walk with my son (Hobby and Red-backed Shrike), it’s a tough choice. I guess the Hobby wins.
Easy one this week. A beautiful Mountain Bluebird having a bath about 20 feet away from me. It then flew to a nearby tree to preen and dry off. Gorgeous!
Summer doldrums in full effect and I had limited time/acreage for birding this weekend. So my best bird ended up being a Hairy Woodpecker. This may not sound like much, but it was the first time I (still a fledgling birder) was able to distinguish it from a Downy all by myself. The cool part was watching it drum into a branch in search of some Sunday brunch … just looking at it made *my* head hurt!
Meredith, I still feel proud when I find a Hairy and know what it is. Ain’t always so easy.
My Best Bird of the Week(end) was a Black-bellied Whistling Duck at Wreck Pond, NJ, seen Wednesday at dusk. A 2-day bird, so I’m happy I caught it. But, my favorite birding experience of the weekend was watching the Common Terns of Belmar, NJ gathering for their late afternoon fish and gossip. The area has been cordoned off for the Least Terns, who have apparently finished breeding and ceded it to the Commoners, who were very busy squawking, strutting, and celebrating every Tern who showed up with fish in mouth. I see on Whatbird.com this is a Committee of Terns!
I guess I should be more excited about my first osprey sighting, but honestly I was more excited by my first black-and-white warbler of the year since I had missed one this spring.
Easily a lone buff-breated sandpiper seen at the Fargo (ND) lagoons
@Donna: Thanks for the vote of confidence. Slowly but surely I’m getting better! And if that takes studying a common bird instead of just glimpsing a rarer bird, I’m willing to put in the effort. Your terns sounded like a blast, too!
@m: There is a soft spot in my heart for Black-and-White Warblers. The first time I saw one, I blurted out, “That bird is so *punk*!” And I still think so.
Finally got out birding to some quality middle elevation rainforests near San Ramon, Costa Rica. Best birds were Purplish-backed Quail-Dove gliding across the road in front of our group, calling Yellow-eared Toucanet, White Hawk (always love that one), and Blue and Gold Tanager. To hear more about our great day of birding in this overlooked yet awesome area, check out my post at:
http://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/2010/08/16/more-great-birding-near-san-ramon-costa-rica/
Little Blue Heron and Black Tern. Both very good birds for Eastern New York!
All the returning shorebirds that have managed to get enough food on their northward migration & hopefully bred & safely returned to rest up here again until their next migration.
I was in Oman last week and had the chance to visit the southern Dhofar region with its great bird diversity. I was treated to good looks at Ruppell’s Weaver, Bruce’s Green Pigeon and Grey-headed Kingfisher. I don’t have a blog to write about the experience, but I got video along with photos from the trip and you can expect a new video about it up at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Owler2010
Nice pic of the Dowitcher Corey, it looks great in summer plumage!
-Owler