Birding

Best Bird of the Weekend (Third of July 2011)

July 18, 2011 by Mike 5 Comments

Yow! If your weekend was as hot as mine, you’re undoubtedly dragging your weary carcass into this new week. I don’t know what your excuse is, but I spend the weekend under a surprisingly intense sun reveling with a merry mob of friends and family. Yes, details will follow and yes, there were birds.

I’ve sought out the birds of certain corners of Potter County, PA for a very long time, but still lucked into a slew of stunners I hadn’t previously seen there. My real best bird of the weekend is featured below, but the most exciting actual avian was an American Woodcock stock still on the side of a country road. Double yow! Corey also lucked out with baby skimmers and baby terns and baby oystercatchers. As I understand it, he’s still reeling from the cuteness.

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.

Chicken Inferno 2011… the bird being wired up to blow

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.

5 Comments

Duncan July 18, 2011 at 2:24 am
Hmmm, holding the Common Diving-petrel was pretty special. But I think identifying the three Salvin’s Prions amongst the hundreds rehabilitating of Broad-billed Prions was the highlight.
Colin July 18, 2011 at 3:42 am
Hit a nice mixed flock in the forest around Lake Duluti, here in Tanzania. Amazingly, I actually got to photograph grey-olive greenbul, but I have to say two species of robin-chat were rather smart! See some pics on my blogs or !
Meredith July 18, 2011 at 3:41 pm
After weeks of nonbirding (followed by this weekend of nonbirding), it was nice to hear a Carolina Wren as I jogged a bike path in Putnam County, NY. Man, I’ve missed that eerie-cheery sound!
Kathiesbirds July 19, 2011 at 9:31 pm
I birded in my own yard and like Meredith above I was surprised to have the Carolina Wren show up at my feeders again after months of being absent. In the town of Andover I saw a flock of 15 chimney swifts when I was out grocery shopping and I believe I saw a Rad-shouldered hawk flying over the same parking lot as the swifts! So, not too bad!
Laurent Fournier August 2, 2011 at 10:40 am
While running last saturday with the joggstroller, I got nice views of a flyover Least Bittern, which was my running/on foot BIGBY bird #124.
I still need to carolina wren for the bigby!