What a weekend, right? All my favorite birders were out at festivals, doing Big Days, or just racking up scores of awesome birds in the field. We can’t wait to hear everyone’s stories!
I hit Firehouse Woods, one of Rochester’s finest spots to scope Neotropical migrants fueling for the last leg of their long journeys to the boreal. Even though I only had an hour before work, I racked up just about all the warblers I wanted; any weekend I see a Blackburnian Warbler, I know which species is my favorite. Corey had a host of birds to choose from this weekend what with it being the middle of May, the peak of spring migration in New York. Of the 26 species of warblers and 110+ species of bird he saw this weekend none caught his fancy quite like an extraordinarily Chestnut-sided Warbler which foraged within scant feet for several minutes at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Corey was pleased, pleased, pleased to meet that wood-warbler, his Best Bird of the Weekend.
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.
I birded the Sandy Hook Century Run on Saturday, part of the World Series of Birding and also an informal get-together of many of us who used to volunteer at the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory. Of the 100plus species I saw, the three Black-billed Cuckoos were my favorite, particularly the one that popped up right in front of us as we were searching for the Least Bittern. The Piping Plover sitting on her nest in a lone fenced-off enclosure on Beach C comes in second.
I had a three-lifer day at the Carpenter’s Woods bird walk … but by far the best was the brilliant male Scarlet Tanager I was the first to see, right out in the open. Even more amazing, the next day’s walk at Houston Meadow (also in Philadelphia) turned up a flock of at least more than half a dozen, males and females. New candidate for Best Bird of the Year!