Mid-January offers some pretty bland birding in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, or at least little you can’t see during the month before or after. Is that why millions of people seemed to crowd their nearest urban center on Saturday? Guess January birding really is boring…
During such an eventful weekend, I observed nothing more interesting than a House Finch—check out more images from Corey’s gallery–which assumes some air of respectability for being my first of the year. Corey did not get out birding much this weekend after our trip to Puerto Rico last week. But he did manage to carve out a couple of hours on Sunday morning to hit a couple of local parks in Queens where he found his Best Bird of the Weekend, a flyover American Pipit at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
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.
Great Grey Shrike by the Great North Road (i.e. the A1 Edinburgh to London Road) in Eastern Scotland.
A White Stork was a bit of a surprise here in Heidelberg. A few always stay in the region over winter, but in the middle of this winter’s unusual cold spell it still made for a strange sight.
Not during the weekend, but after a really rough and sad week, I was heartened on Friday to see a Great Blue Heron fly over the Jersey Turnpike on my way home from staying with family in NY. They’re so majestic in flight and always make me smile.
Walking on the beach in Hollywood, FL, I looked up and saw a young Magnificent Frigatebird in a vicious fight with a Royal Tern for the tern’s catch. The pirate bird eventually won, but the tern fought with everything it had, even at one point sending the frigatebird into the water. After the pirate flew away with its prize, the Royal Tern did not seem to be in good shape. It flew in a very wobbly way close to the water, and I thought it was going to die in front of me. But, after a few minutes, it recovered and was flying with its usual tern grace.
After the events of Friday and Saturday, I thought this was a strangely appropriate sighting.
After our town’s Women’s March on Saturday, it was fun to go birding on Sunday and see 450 shorebirds foraging on a lawn by the sea. Almost all were Dunlin, with a few Sanderlings and Black-bellied Plovers. I wondered what they were eating after the rain– little insects? Worms?
Went birding in my new patch. Or what will be my new patch when I move into my new place. Saw a pair of California Quail, which aren’t native but are kinda cool.
Jochen – I was surprised to see a pair on the train there from Frankfurt last winter!
Duncan – they are frequently overwintering in low numbers, so you were lucky but it is not unexpected.
i live in Norfolk Va. on Chesapeake Bay fifty feet above the water. Your comment on the House Finch prompted me. Each spring when my plants are new the Hose Finch couple try to find a nesting place in my flower boxes and I discourage them, the summer winds would blow them away. Well. the first Finch arrived yesterday beside the firsdt Mourning dove. On the water a pair of Buffleheads and a pair of Mergansers. Can spring be far behind?