We are in the thick of the Christmas season now, which means that birders of every denomination can celebrate a festive Christmas Bird Count. The cherry on top of a spectacular CBC experience is the opportunity to share (or gloat about) your coolest sightings. For example, Corey’s best birds of the weekend were Eastern Meadowlarks on the Queens Christmas Bird Count, not only because his was the sole group in the count to find them but also because bright yellow birds in winter are just plain great to see! My healing shoulder rendered me unfit for CBC duty, but my consolation prize was a terrific Cooper’s Hawk enjoying lunch in my backyard.
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.
49 Wrybills! I mean, my lifer Sharp-tailed Sandpiper was nice. The New Zealand Dottrels were amazing but they were on Friday. And Wrybills! They have bills and they are wry!
Definitely our two Roseate Spoonbills on the Vicksburg, Mississippi, CBC! First for the count and only the second CBC record ever for a count centered in Mississippi. Peregrine Falcon and dowitcher sp. were also new count birds.
My best bird was a King Eider in Algonac, MI. An Iceland Gull was a nice find as well. I blogged about it at .
Title of best bird of the weekend for me has to go to Brown-throated Parakeet- a new bird for the very birdy Bosque del Rio Tigre lodge on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. While participating in their CBC, three other close contenders were Marbled Wood-Quail, Tiny Hawk, and White-tipped Sicklebill. I posted about the experience at my blog:
http://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/2010/12/19/the-2010-osa-christmas-count-at-the-bosque-del-rio-tigre/
A stirring in the tree above my head turned out to be a merlin! It ate a meal while sitting in my walnut tree: Merlin on Slugyard
Well, it was technically not during the weekend, but I was pretty excited to see a Western Osprey dive down in to the lake and come up with a fish in its claws. I didn’t have my binoculars with me, but I did have my tiny camera, and I got a couple crummy but decipherable photos.
Chukar–it was the first “lifebird” I think I got this year, and now it’s likely to have been my last 2010 “yearbird” in BC.