Anyone lucky enough to be high and dry these days can surely appreciate how many birds are on the move. Keep your bins handy, because you never know what you’ll see out there.
I was thrilled this weekend to see a bird I haven’t encountered in nearly a decade; maybe American Pipit is common in your parts, but I had to scour the East Spit of Braddock Bay to luck into one. Corey had a host of birds to choose from for his Best Bird of the Weekend seeing as he did a big day on Saturday that netted 123 species. He considered choosing either of the two Yellow-breasted Chats or any of the eleven Common Nighthawks he spotted over the weekend but instead chose the American Avocet that he found at Jamaica Bay on Friday morning that not only stuck around for the big day on Saturday but flew down from the north end of the East Pond to land directly in front of Corey’s big day team. Now that is a bird that wanted to be 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 spotted a fine adult Long-legged Buzzard over Heidelberg/Germany, which is quite a (national) rarity with maybe 10 or so records throughout the year in the country. That was very cool.
I’m sure the very fine Terry from Beijing Birding would want me to say Aiberian Thrush, which I got epic views of… but I’m leaning towards the Relic Gulls I saw. Among many other outstanding birds, thanks Terry!
Siberian even….
Nothing as rare as the other best birds of the weekend but still nice to add three year birds, my favorite of which was Surfbird- quite a few of those plumb rock/shorebirds passing through Costa Rica right now.