What a splendid weekend! With superb American playoff football all weekend long, I hardly noticed the bitter arrival of authentic winter weather or the apparent absence of non-corvid avifauna in my immediate vicinity. But who cares, right? As a Giant fan, I enjoyed my fill of meaningless entertainment this weekend.
Oh, you’d rather talk about birds? As usual, Corey took down a killer bird this weekend, one that any reader would love to add to a life or year list; his Best Bird of the Weekend™ was an American Bittern that he inadvertently flushed at Orient State Park on the east end of Long Island’s north fork. How does he do it?
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.
As a San Franciscan, I was happy as well. Bird of the weekend was Snow Bunting for sure.
Southern Emu-wren by a mile. What a good bird!
My three new birds for the year, putting me firmly in the mid-50ies (whimper, Corey, whimper for mercy):
Fieldfare, Goldcrest and Common Raven, all around Heidelberg / Germany.
Red-backed Fairy-wren…we are onto the wrens here in Australia!
Well done Jochen, looking forward to seeing your list online with mine shortly! 🙂
Cassin’s. Sparrow, rarely detected in winter here in se Arizona.
We caught two Pangani Longclaws, which was rather nice. Some thoughts on and pics of the ringing session on the Safari Ecology Blog
My best bird was a Hermit Thrush who is wintering in a small nature preserve on the Colorado River in Austin Texas: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanpaulkelley/6702197833/in/photostream He’s not very “hermity” however, as he’s not shy and loves to hang out with me while I walk in the woods looking for other birds.
The three stunning harlequin ducks, one male two females, at point lookout
Poor ovenbird at the SE Central Park entrance in horribly cold weather
For me it was a flock of white-winged crossbills that beat the living snot out of a hemlock tree right above me. Blogged with crappy pics and video: http://sharptern.blogspot.com/2012/01/crossbills-vs-hemlock.html
Made my first trip to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Basking Ridge, NJ. Most fascinated with the Black Vultures. Going back there soon!
Saw a female Northern Harrier . Idaho
Adult bald eagle over the frigid St. Lawrence River. I couldn’t see the many goldeneyes & mergansers well, because of all of the steam coming of the river on the sunny -5F (-21 C) afternoon.
My best bird would have to be the Arctic Loon that showed up at the mouth of San Simeon Creek in San Luis Obispo on Friday. I bombed down there with two friends EARLY Sunday morning and I was back home in Sacramento by 7 pm that night. The sighting was made even sweeter by hearing that the bird left the small lagoon where we saw it within 20-30 feet and flew out to the ocean. There were some reports on Monday but at much greater distances.
Sadly missed out on my hopes of the Cinnamon Teal I’d been pining for, but was blessed with some wonderful views of Great Horned Owls in Fish Creek Park and a lone Lesser Scaup on the Bow River in Calgary, AB, Canada.