One essential way to heighten the pleasure of a special bird sighting is to brag about it later. Step right up and share your best bird of the weekend.
Though I wish my best bird of the weekend was a Saw-whet Owl in Owl Woods, Seth and I dipped again. Still, I’m willing to settle for a Bald Eagle over downtown Rochester and Buffleheads in Braddock Bay. Charlie’s best was a Barn Swallow which suddenly appeared over his garden, a species he didn’t expect for at least another fortnight. Corey’s best was an American Oystercatcher. Why? Because he, his parents, Daisy, and Desi went to Jones Beach and all they saw was one seriously distant oystercatcher, the first one either of his parents had ever seen. Luckily, just before they left, two flew much closer, offering much better looks…
What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed in the comments section. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.
Ha, done it: back on the pole position.
This weekend’s best bird is a tie if we count Friday afternoon (after work) as part of the weekend:
On Friday afternoon, a Redwing in full song.
On Saturday, while playing with my son, I looked out of the window and saw two Black Kites circling over our apartment.
For me – very lost vagrant female snowy owl which has been kicking around here for ages in a particularly inaccessible spot but which I finally managed to go for. Lifer, local tick and frankly just an awesome bird! Hopefully I’ll have a proper internet connection back this week so I can throw up some piccies on E,W&W.
Young red-tailed hawk hanging about, perching on the backyard snag, and terrorizing the smaller birds.
The year’s first White-eyed Vireo and a pair of Rusty Blackbirds made for a nice weekend in NC.
Sitting on the back deck with the dogs, three golden-crowned kinglets flitted through the forest. And that’s after spending most of the day wandering around the local spots, not finding anything new.
A grey goshawk (Accipiter novaehollandiae) landed in a tree about 6 m from my window, but took off as soon as I moved toward the camera. Still, it was nice for the few seconds it lasted.
I know I’m cheating here, but the best bird I saw this weekend was last night on television – the new Life series from Discovery had some amazing footage of Western Grebes in Oregon performing courtship rituals.
Made it! Not one, but two Azure-rumped Tanagers (Tangara cabanisi)! Great views, completely static for almost two full minutes…
Greater Roadrunner hunting in a grassy field among wildflowers in Panoche Valley, San Benito County, California. The two Lewis’ Woodpeckers further west in the valley were mighty fine too.
2 Eastern Meadowlarks at Palmyra Cove. Talking to a regular there, who hasn’t ever seen one there. Check out the blog post @ Phillybirdnerd.net
AMOY! Used to do some research projects with them, awesome birds !
Best of the weekend here…a possible sandhill crane. We were driving and saw it in a field, stopped the car, ran along the highway for a minute with the binos and camera and it was gone. We’re 98 percent sure it was a sandhill, which is a great bird for the county (they’re common in lots of places in CA, but not Humboldt), so we were bummed it had vanished. Otherwise, not anything too fancy here, but i did get some good pictures of Glaucous winged x Herring Gull eating a starfish. http://nutcase007.blogspot.com/2010/03/starfish-eatin-time-yeehaw.html
It was raining hard, but believe it was an anhinga. Have seen one twice before in this spot. A fabulous bird especially when stretching it’s wings out to dry.
Otherwise, it was cattle egrets and mockingbirds.
Mountain bluebirds…birding the Wildcat Bluff Nature Center in Amarillo on an overcast, cold and dreary morning – nothing moving for the longest time and then the blue just popped against the grey day 🙂
Spring’s first Phoebe!
I do not know if you guys have ever seen a Red tail hawk dive bomb a morning dove at your feeders. I saw it last week. I could not believe it! There were feathers everywhere. The Red tail just sat there for about 30 minutes eating it. It was interesting to say the least.
I am new here. Thanks
Orange-crowned Warbler! I’ve been looking for one forever, so it made me happy.
@Andrew: It wasn’t at a feeder, but I’ve seen a RTH take a mourning dove at close range before. It was like a feather explosion. Quite impressive.
For me the best bird of the week was a ring-billed gull.
Not very interesting, but a beautiful bird just the same.