Faith and Begorrah, I’ve made it through another St. Patty’s Day without ingesting corned beef, cabbage, or green beer! My liver lingers on in the same (sorry) state in which it entered the weekend. Can you say the same?
My weekend was devoted to a seemingly endless celebration of my son’s 8th birthday, which meant that my best bird was bound to be a backyard species. I had a large, half-rotten tree taken down last summer, but chose not to have the stump ground down. Watching a pristine Hairy Woodpecker working away at the tender core confirmed my decision. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was his first Osprey in New York State this year, seen perched on a nesting platform at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in early morning fog on Saturday.
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.
In the south of Sweden the spring migration is in full swing and this weekend I saw my first Curlew and Oystercatcher for the year!
Would most definitely have to be the Brown Jay in Salineno, Texas. http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanpaulkelley/6985119231/in/set-72157629220793030
We had a fabulous time in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanpaulkelley/sets/72157629220793030/with/6985118865/ but he was the showstopper, for me at least!
I had my first outing with “real” birders (Europeans who work in Africa) on Saturday and I’m still recovering! I saw 55 species (they saw a few more than that), 3 of them lifers, and the best bird I didn’t see was a Wilson’s Snipe. I guess the best bird I did see was a Krider’s Red-tailed Hawk, or maybe a Ladder-backed woodpecker a bit east of its normal range. I’ve put my lists into eBird and blogged about my big day here: http://lindasfamilynews.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/lindas-big-day-55/
I think this was the best weekend for new birds for me since the New Years Bird Count… 9 new species for my 2012 list over the weekend, and three lifers. I guess since I’m still in that lucky early phase of birding that relatively common birds are still life birds for me, but I’ll take ’em!
The best though, I’d have to say, is probably this juvie Northern Goshawk that paused briefly for some photos at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary here in Calgary.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ubermoogle/6995624239/in/photostream
Our best bird was a lifer, and an owl lifer at that! It was the wonderful Barred Owl! We got spectacular views and had an amazing experience watching this gorgeous owl. Check out the story and pics on our blog: http://hipsterbirders.blogspot.com/2012/03/who-cooks-for-you.html
My best bird of the weekend was a American Woodcock at the Jamaica Bay NWR. I have seen them before, but this was different.
This bird was very tame. I found it by almost stepping on it on the trail leading to the east pond! I came upon the bird, and it hopped a little when I got too close. It then walked about five feet away and just stood there for a few minutes.
I thought maybe its wing was hurt because it didn’t fly away, but after staying in the open for a few minutes it flew away.
Mine was finally getting an up close, unobstructed, unequivocal look at a Cackling Goose. And the icing was that I got to video it swimming beside a Canada Goose. I’ve seen cackling at a distance in flocks of Canadas, but you always wonder if you’re just seeing a midget Canada. In this case I got to look at the shape of the bird vs. Canada, the stubby bill, and the total size comparison. Very instructive sighting!
Video here: http://bit.ly/wW74z2
Mine was a Red-breasted Merganser. Yesterday I saw three walking along the beach, and today there was just one. It was very windy, and the Merganser was rocking in the waves, alternating between peering into the water and looking straight ahead. The wind and the water changed his hairdo every few minutes, and he looked like a punk rocker, sometimes with three tips to his mohawk and sometimes just one big point.
4 Resplendent Quetzals on Poas Volcano were good but crazily enough, my best bird of the weekend award went to the bunches of Peg-billed Finches that were frolicking in seeding bamboo.
My best bird was a pair of Chinese Bamboo Partridges at Maioka Park in Yokohama.