Birding

Best Bird of the Weekend (Third of August 2017)

August 21, 2017 by Mike 3 Comments

North America is aflame with eclipse fever right now, which provides yet another opportunity to wonder what life would be like if the average citizen felt a fraction as much passion for birding as is devoted to countless sports, media, celebrities, fashion, or even the rare astronomical phenomenon. Perhaps we should be glad that so many miss out on the pleasures of birding.The alacrity with which tens of thousands (or more) eclipse glasses sold out across the nation suggests that whiling away the day at your favorite patch would be far less peaceful if birding became mainstream.

I’m enjoying all the grungy adolescent birds gracelessly trotting about. This weekend, I happened upon a patchy young Dark-eyed Junco exhibiting the fearlessness of youth. Corey was pleased with the result of the whale-watching trip he took in Queens despite the fact that no one on the boat saw a single marine mammal. What? Why? Simple! There were four Wilson’s Storm-Petrels sighted, only the second time Corey has seen this species in Queens. That’s easily good enough for 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.

best bird weekend

Written by Mike

Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.

3 Comments

Jochen August 21, 2017 at 3:22 am
A Red-footed Falcon on the Baltic island Hiddensee was great until I learned that others in Germany a few hundred kilometres to the West were looking at Germany’s first Brown Booby – inland! Well, you can’t always get what you want…
Tom Brown August 24, 2017 at 5:45 pm
I am late getting here, but I have to go with my first Cattle Egrets! A Lifer for me, and quite a rarity on the southern Baja.
Tom Brown August 24, 2017 at 6:07 pm
DANG, right after I hit the send button, I realized I totally forgot my off shore trip, where I got a two lifers, A least Storm-petrel as well as a Redbilled Tropicbird! I was pretty excited about the tropicbird, as that was the reason for a 40 mile round trip off shore looking for them. I though we were going to get shut out, but just after giving up, he turned for home, anfd there sat one on the water right in front of us!