Many birders are men and many men are fathers. Consequently, I feel justified in issuing a blanket belated Father’s Day greeting. Whatever your paternal status, you may have ogled a few avians this weekend. Did you see any good ones? Step right up and share your best bird of the weekend.
My best bird of the weekend, believe it or not, was a gorgeous Red-tailed Hawk. A trip to the tropics always increases my appreciation of the most bountiful buteo in the United States; while the Neoptropics certainly has a wider array of raptors, we get much better looks at ours in the States. Corey’s best was a Father’s Day fly-by Cattle Egret at Jamaica Bay, though, of course, he is hoping to find better on Monday when he heads east to Cupsogue in Suffolk County. Stay tuned…
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.
It’s kind of the worst bird of the weekend, as the titular coots of my blog have screwed up their only successful nest over the last three years…
http://countingcoots.blogspot.com/2010/06/and-then-there-were-two.html
I’m traveling again, saw my first rose-breasted grosbeak. I’m hoping he comes back to my mom’s feeder today so I can include him in my Birdstack Birds of the Solstice list.
Not much in the way of unusual this weekend. But on Friday, before my company departed forever the lush Reader’s Digest campus in Chappaqua, NY for high-rise digs in White Plains, I got a few fairly decent shots of a mama killdeer hopping around a white oak tree that predates the Revolutionary War. I’m sad that I won’t be there when her chicks hatch in a few weeks, though. 🙁
American Three-toed Woodpecker in Manning Park, I suppose, though I have to say I really am fond of Pine Grosbeaks, too!
Ooh, I jealous of those Pine Grosbeaks above. My best was a Summer Tanager here in Cincinnati. Actually the first one I’ve seen in the US.
Pine Grosbeak is still the only Arizona breeder I’ve seen in BC and n o t in AZ. Sure looking forward to Summer Tan when I get back home to Tucson next week!
I got a Great Crested Flycatcher on the Old Homesteade on Saturday; an official first for the property, although really not at all surprising given the habitat and location.
Honorable mention to the House Wren nesting on the west side of the house, who should replace that stupid bunny as the Energizer mascot.
Out in Orient, my non-birding family called me out to the porch, “Quietly. Come and make a bird identification.” I bring out my glasses but find they’re not needed. On the porch there is a fledgling, about a third of a hot dog size. A smudge of yellow makes me wonder goldfinch? Than a momma yellow warbler swoops in and gives the fledge what-for. The fledge gives us the once over and hop-flies off the porch into the grass and then into the woods.
Did do the loop in well hidden Arshamomaque Preserve (really, how hard is it to make a sign visible?) wondeing if I’d see the breeding red headed woodpeckers that had been mentioned in field notes from a couple of years ago…. red bellied, flcker, downy, hairy – but no red-headed….