Yee-haw! The New York Football Giants have won the Super Bowl for the second time in 4 years. Not too shabby! Not only does my football team end up on top, but now I get my Sundays back!
This weekend, however, I didn’t see any special birds, unless you count the bird M.I.A. flipped during the Super Bowl halftime show or maybe that handsome Varied Thrush in the opening credits of Twin Peaks. Corey, on the other hand, birded like a boss; his Best Bird of the Weekend™ was either of the two Snowy Owls at Breezy Point in Queens. On Saturday, he only found one out there but with his folks visiting he made another trip out with the whole family and spotted both owls, one of them a gorgeous adult male. The only thing that marred the gorgeous experience with the owls was a coterie of photographers who had decided that their images were more important than anything else and were out in the dunes trying to get better pictures. Regardless, seeing Snowy Owls with the family and getting a new bird for the Queens list was great!
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.
Does Friday afternoon count as weekend? Yes? Then it’s a 2nd cy Sparrowhawk. I was returning from buying groceries with my son when suddelny a Collared Dove zoomed past us from behind, closely followed by a sparrowhawk. Wow, close encounter.
The two made a sudden turn to the right into our neighbour’s yard and were out of sight. However, upon getting to our house I noticed that the dove had just cleared a mesh wire fence, and that the sparrowhawk had not been that lucky: it was stuck in the fence with its head through the mesh. So, I got my son safely to the other side of the road and then attempted to free the bird, which wasn’t easy as I had no protective gloves to wear. I was quickly joined by a passerby and we finally managed to get the bird out of the fence, with all of our hands heavily punctured and scratched by the grateful sparrowhawk’s tallons. It flew away fast and furious, and we reckoned it survived the incident with no injuries – unlike us. 🙂
A pair of Riflemen. Such dinky little things, it is easy to forget how important they are evolutionarily.
My father and visited the Mitchell Lake Audubon Center south of San Antonio, Texas. It was a great outing. And the highlight was a lone Vermilion Flycatcher. http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanpaulkelley/6808734825/in/set-72157629148428211
He was a beauty!
Happy to see that your team won Mike! Down here in Costa Rica, best bird during an avian filled weekend at Carara National Park was a tie between a pair of Painted Buntings and Royal Flycatcher.
Ugh, another weekend where I didn’t manage to get out and bird. I’m starving! At least the birds came to me, though — principally, an American Kestrel that flew over a busy Chicago intersection while we were en route to a Super Bowl party. (I looked at it long enough that the people behind me started honking!)
The best thing in flight this weekend, though, was undoubtedly the pigskin that landed safely in the hands of Mario Manningham who managed to plant both feet just shy of the out-of-bounds line. Woo-hoo Giants!!
The Northern Pygmy-Owl I heard calling near my cabin in the mountains on Saturday morning.
For me it was a flock of ten Brant feeding on eel grass in the Puget Sound, a few feet from the beach on Indian Island. I’d never noticed before the beautiful markings on their white necklace. They look almost like lace.
Best bird of my weekend was a Red-naped Sapsucker working over a pine tree in my yard. Not something I usually see around here. They are typically further north in the high country.
Hard to say whether it was the American Dipper within the city limits here in Calgary, the Northern Hawk Owl, or the various Accipiters and Buteos in huge abundance on power poles and fence posts on the country roads…
Dipped on the Hoary Redpoll that we were looking for, but got some great looks at Common Redpolls and a pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches. Pretty cool!
The first Black Swan for the year-alone at the Poo Ponds. Do they really travel alone-well, I guess they do!?
For me it was a flock of Northern Pintails …. such an elegant waterbird.
I saw the Snowy Owls at Breezy Point too (two), though I missed Corey and family (that would have been a good sighting) and the errant photographers. However, my favorite bird of the weekend was the American Kestrel I tried to photograph at Floyd Bennett Field later in the day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/queensgirl/6834218833/
And, yes, the weekend was made perfect by the Giants victory.
I saw both Iceland and Glaucous Gulls on Sunday. It is hard to say which one was “best”. Finding either one amongst the thousands of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls is always a joy.