Happy Day-After-Father’s-Day! I hope you enjoyed that day as much as I did.
We got out a lot this weekend, yet my best bird of the weekend was right in my backyard: the kids and I encountered a juvenile Blue Jay in the care of what we assume to be its parents. Cute! However, my best sightings of the weekend had to be the abundant Ebony Jewelwings, exquisite black-winged, iridescent blue-green damselflies, around Powder Mills Park in Pittsford, NY. Corey’s best birds were three self-found Wilson’s Phalaropes at Jamaica Bay.
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.
My best bird of the weekend was a Blackburnian Warbler. I had hiked up to the top of Hogback Mtn in Marlboro, VT, early in the day and he perched right there, his bright orange chest lit up by the morning sun, on the very top of a weather-beaten mossy conifer. Shortly after he dropped down to a lower level spruce and started foraging. I took photos and wrote about it in my blog: http://onejackdawbirding.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post.html
@Hilke: You are much too modest about your photos. I thought they looked great!
So my BBotW was rather average — a Spotted Sandpiper. But my most exciting bird of the weekend was the male Red-winged Blackbird who doggedly dive-bombed me multiple times as I unwittingly strayed too close for comfort to its nest. It was a little scary, but given the choice, I’d take that treatment any day over being harassed by a protective Canada Goose daddy!
hi im luke
i am new to this website
also what on earth is a blackburnian warbler
sorry not used to warblers.
bye
Thanks, Meredith! Of course I’d love a lens with an aperture of 2, but they cost a fortune, far beyond my means, and are too heavy to hand-hold. Luke, did you look at my blog? It should give you a clue.
Okay, my best bird of the weekend was on Thursday evening. I know it doesn’t count, but I had a business trip to several of the company’s sites throughout Germany that lasted until Saturday night, and so I think I can count the entire trip as my “weekend”.
I just so happened to drive by a small village called Hollenstedt on my way to Hannover, took a right turn off the autobahn, drove on for a kilometre, got out of my car, put my scope up and immediately saw it:
a White-tailed Plover!
YES!!! It had been found a few days earlier and I had kept my fingers crossed that it would stay until my trip north, and it did. That’s a very good bird to see in Germany considering its closest regular breeding area is in Iraq (a few pairs turn up in Romania on occasion, but nothing inbetween). And it was a lifer. And it was an almost carbon-free twitch as well.
My birding buddy and I watched a male Belted Kingfisher hunting at West Rutland Marsh (Vermont). He hovered and dove a bunch of times but we didn’t see him come up with anything. Oh, we also heard Sora, Willow Flycatcher, and Marsh Wrens.
@ Jochen- Wow, White-tailed Plover! Nice twitch!
No plovers or rarities for me, but it was still nice to watch Boat-billed Herons, Northern Jacanas, and Gray-necked Wood-Rails at the Zamora Estate Hotel in the Central Valley of Costa Rica.
http://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/2011/06/20/the-zamora-estate-hotel-an-oasis-for-birds-in-the-central-valley-of-costa-rica/
I took a trip to the Black Skimmer and Least Tern rookery on Marco Island in southwest Florida. Really hot. Really long walk to the birds. The lesson? If you think you have enough water…you don’t. The best bird? A very cute little skimmer only a few days old. Here he is. http://birdsunwrapped.blogspot.com/