If you’re someone who lives in the moment and cares little for what lies ahead, you might be forgiven for enjoying your weekend for what it was. But those of us who schedule forward know the crush of holiday commitments lurking just over the chronological horizon. Live in the moment while you can, grasshoppers… winter holidays are coming.
My coolest birding encounter this weekend involved watching a Sharp-shinned Hawk lurking under a highway overpass. That’s probably not such a bad place to hunt. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was a consolation prize for missing New York State’s second Common Ground-Dove at Jones Beach State Park. Sure, it would have been nice to see the rarity but he instead saw a common bird made rare by the season. A Yellow Warbler in November in New York is nearly as unlikely a sighting as a Common Ground-Dove!
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.
White-bellied Fantail at Java’s Gunung Gede – nearmythical at this site in recent years!
Common Ground-Dove in New York- now you are talking crazy! My best was a toss up between Sunbittern and Bicolored Hawk at Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica.
A common bird but unexpected in November, a beautiful Tennessee warbler was one of the best sights on my Linnaean Society trip to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. I can’t recall ever having watched a Tennessee against the backdrop of a gannet-filled sky.
I did see the second (or third?) Common Ground-Dove at Jones Beach, but my favorite bird was a stunning Peregrine Falcon I found not far away on the fisherman’s trail. The bird allowed me to photograph him with barely a nod in my direction, he was that confident in his control of his domain. Here he is a gape, possibly trying to cough up a pellet: https://flic.kr/p/pXXGgo
My best this weekend was a female Western Tanager that showed up in my friends back yard in Maitland FL. I was finishing my coffee and checking out the warblers in the yard, before heading out to bird a local park, when this unexpected treat popped out from amongst the palm warblers and titmice. Needless to say, I ended up staying there for the rest of the afternoon.
Here where I live, near Morelia, Mexico, Green Violetears are common in higher forests but almost impossible to see close up, because they spend most of the time singing from high in the highest trees. But this morning one posed for some 40 photos on a branch slightly below me, and only a few feet away. Beautiful!
Red Knot