Now that the rush to populate your 2011 year list has subsided (or never truly inflamed you to begin with) birding becomes a little easier and possibly even more enjoyable. I was able to resist the siren song of a year list this annum, which places the emphasis of my birding excursions squarely on the bird in front of me as opposed to the tick on the page it represents. That purity of intent no doubt steered a spectacular dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk into my path twice this weekend… what a looker!
Corey, on the other hand, has been gripped with a terrifying greed for year birds so profound than ever. He’ll stop at nothing to add a new species to his 2011 list, so allegations that he staged a sighting of Tufted Duck in Cold Spring Harbor, NY possibly by “arranging” an escape from a local aviary or commissioning a state-of-the-art animatronic decoy, may have merit. You be the judge.
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.
My best birds were:
1 – a splendid observation of hawfinch (no offence, Corey)
2 – amazingly close looks at a flock of Long-tailed Tits (pure coincidence, Corey, sorry)
3 – a black woodpecker (Charlie, you’ll get over it)
🙂
While playing Bokkenball at Otari Wilson Bush I spied a New Zealand Falcon flying overhead. Only the fourth I’ve seen in Wellington in four years.
I didn’t do much birding this last weekend as the garden needed attention after being away for 12 days. But from a very slim list I think my best bird would have been the European Bee-eaters hawking insects over the garden.
Jochen, we all know that Black Woodpeckers do not exist. I don’t know why you persist in your absurd charade. Are you still angry I exposed the treecreper fraud?
Bokkenball, Duncan? Really?
And, Gareth, I am soooooo jealous.
Finally, Mike, how many Tufted Ducks have you seen? 🙂
I had a small flock of common goldeneyes on the Susquehanna River. I don’t get to see them all that often, and I always enjoy those sightings when I do.
The question, Corey, is how many Tufted Ducks you’ve seen! 🙂
Bokkenball? Wow!
If I lived on Long Island, New York, it would certainly have been the LeConte’s Sparrow seen by many (ahem – Corey) at Calverton Fields.
But, no. I live in upstate New York where we have to be content with leftovers from fall migration to make our weekends.
Such is the case with me. On Saturday, while searching the grit, gravel and grass along snow-plowed roadsides for Horned Larks and Snow Buntings for a, hard-to-find now that dairy farms have all but disappeared, Lapland Longspur(the manure spreads were always a good place to explore for Horned Larks and Snow Buntings and the occasional Lapland Longspur), I came upon an AMERICAN PIPIT wag-tailing along with the aforementioned grassland birds – minus longspurs. I managed one through-the-windshield photo to assuage the skeptics [soon to be posted in my blog http://www.blog.timesunion.com/birding%5D. Whew!
@Carolyn: love those goldeneyes…that is a bird I am missing so far in 2011.
@Mike: The key number here is 1 (more than you). 😉
@Ricchard: I was chasing an even better New York State bird…ahem, cough, cough, wink, wink, nod.
Cackling Goose.
@Corey: Oh, I so already had that one – even in your home county ! Plus that sparrow you so missed ! No more nodding for you – do it, do it, do it !
My Lapland Longspurs chased off Rich’s Pipit.
Also Iceland and Lesser Black-backed Gull and Eastern Screech Owl.
@ Corey – Like Baseball but with a tennis ball and a bokken bat.
i don’t know
I was lucky enough to find the Varied Thrush I drove almost 3 hours to see. It was my 53rd bird of 2011’s Punk Rock Big Year. A great bird for ontario, canada. Blog post below.
http://punkrockbigyear.blogspot.com/2011/01/varied-thrush-ixoreus-naevius-yes.html
i was pleased to see over 100 species in Lake Nakuru Kenya but the most intersting was the Little-ringed Plover, i had missed it for a long time.
its always very nice to browse in this great blog.
thank you all.
Dominic- Kinangop
I hit the trifecta at Red Rock Park, Colorado, Monday morning with all three species of Rosy-Finch–Gray-crowned (10% of which were Hepburn’s), Brown-capped, and Black. I had little hope of seeing any Rosies when I made plans to attend a work conference in Denver, but with a Sunday snow storm and the help of Colorado birder Mike H., who got there at 7am to spread seed, I had them literally at my feet. Plus, Curve-billed Thrasher, and three Zonotricia sparrows–Golden-crowned, Harris’s, and White-throated (a rarity out west). Pretty good for a business trip!