We three 10,000 Birds bloggers were spread out all over the world this past weekend just as the rest of the world’s attention focused on one spot, South Africa, to watch the World Cup. And while Mike and I might have been mildly mocking Charlie and England’s goalkeeper we were also birding and seeing some sweet species. Hopefully you did too; please share your best bird of the weekend with us here at 10,000 Birds!
Mike, in Panama for the first time, had a host of species from which to choose his best bird and decided on Black-capped Pygmy Tyrant as the best. Charlie, suffering from England being tied by the United States in World Cup play, was too depressed to look for birds (or maybe he was too busy chasing his toddler, I can never keep track). Me? Well I took a quick trip not too far north of New York City and came up with a pretty good bird for New York State, a singing Dickcissel!
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.
I spent the whole weekend organizing the Galapagos birds we saw on Isabela. This island was the most beautiful of all the islands we visited and a great place for photographing amazing and unique birds. Here is the link
http://birding-ecuador-responsibly.blogspot.com/2010/06/bridwatching-galapagos-isabela.html
As I mentioned, this was my first time birding Central Park in NYC. The pickings weren’t great—I’m convinced there are as many robins, grackles, starlings, and sparrows in the park as there are people in Manhattan—but I had a couple of terrific experiences.
I started out at the reservoir and am positive I saw a pair of gadwalls … guys, does that seem plausible? And I definitely got good looks at not one but two black-crowned night herons—one lurking in the marsh behind the Delacorte stage, and another at the very southern tip of the lake. (This one impressed the tourists next to me, who’d only ever seen yellow-crowns in Houston, and yanked out a fish far too big for it to chew … after trying valiantly to find someway of eating it, the heron left it on the shore and went back to finding bugs.)
As a relative newbie left to my own devices in the park on a warm day with a parade just getting going (read: crowded), I felt pretty lucky that I did so well. Thanks to everyone for their advice!
Western Wood-Pewee singing in our Vancouver neighborhood; surely a late migrant rather than a breeder in habitat like this.
This weekend was birding fail. My best bird was the mockingbird who wouldn’t shut up outside the apartment I was staying in.
@Meredith: Gadwall are not at all unexpected. Nice birds!
@Corey: Thanks. My first time ID’ing them so I hope I’m right
@Carrie: Love the term “birding fail.” At least you got one though!
A trip to Knoxville, TN gave me an opportunity to catch two lifers: brown headed nuthatch and Swainson’s warlber. Lovely looks at both, and all thanks to David via BirdingPal.
Hoping a trip out to Orient next weekend might net me a couple of misc. shorebirds/terns to add to my 200 species in the State of New York Non-competitive competition list. (I’m at about 185ish) don’t know much about birding the area.
A Panama endemic: Azuero Parakeet
http://janbirdingblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/azuero-parakeets-in-flores.html
A Florida Scrub-Jay at Blue Spring State Park. I went for the swimming/snorkeling but saw one on my walk back to the campsite. It was a nice surprise.
That would be the YELLOW RAIL that Julie Zickefoose, Bill Thompson, and I SAW in North Dakota.
@Wren: You must be mistaken. No one sees Yellow Rails. 🙂
I second Corey’s synopsis of Yellow Rails. I guess that my best bird of the weekend was a tie between Boat-billed Heron and Least Grebe. Both birds were seen at Zamora Estates- one of the most important wetlands and green speces in the central valley of Costa Rica.