I have it on good authority that many of you have already ridden the roller coaster of this season’s migration madness and are now recovering from strained eyes, sore necks, and bloated lists. Some of us, however, are still reaching towards the very peak of the wave, eager to follow all its twists and turns until the end. In other words, wish me luck and light work this week!
This weekend delivered my first taste of full passerine immersion since last spring, but warblers weren’t the only stars. I collected not one, not two, but a shocking three county birds this weekend and feel grateful for the best looks I’ve had at Marbled Godwit, Piping Plover, and Cerulean Warbler in ages. Corey got out for a not-very-big Big Day in Queens with some pals on Saturday. Of the 113 species they spotted it was hard to pick a single Best Bird of the Weekend, but the Common Nighthawk perched in the north garden at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge rose to the top of the heap. How can a goatsucker not be Best Bird of the Weekend?
How about you? 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.
Cinnamon Bittern
Hard to pick … the House Wrens using our backyard birdhouse for the first time since we bought this place, the Red-eyed Vireos calling in the scrub woods behind the high school track … but I think the winner has to be (when I was sleeping on the couch because my husband was snoring) the migrating Wood Thrush that stopped for a few hours in the early morning in the spit of trees across the street from us, singing for awhile and then going on its merry way. What a beautiful wake-up call!