What a weekend. My daughter’s birthday week (yes, we celebrate full weeks and more in my household) began with a bang and a rainbow cake, followed by some heinous plumbing problems. My house still smells like sulfuric acid, which came from the plumbing problem, not the cake! Fortunately, I didn’t have to go far to see my best birds of the weekend. While waiting for the fumes in my kitchen to vent, I could enjoy lots of Bay-breasted Warblers from my yard. By their unexpected numbers and activity, I wouldn’t be surprised if they we’re planning on breeding here. Wouldn’t that be something?
Corey’s best bird of the weekend was a Grasshopper Sparrow in Queens, his first ever in his (adopted) home borough. He did not get a picture due to heavy fog, but had much better luck in the Ammodramus savannarum department last spring in the Shawangunks:
Corey also wanted it to be known that his folks visited today and they both enjoyed close-range looks at a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. What do you make of that, Jochen?
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.
First Magpie Goose for the year! It is still very wet beyond the bitumen!
I had two outstanding bird encounters this weekend. I’ll be talking about one in my post this week, but the other was a New Zealand Falcon perched on a wire near my home. I actually walked right under it and only saw it when I checked both directions crossing the road! It sat there for a few minutes, ate something held in its claws, then wiped its beak and flew off.
What do I make of that, Mike?
Well, we are getting into summer and berry season, so I guess the berry jam they brought along from the woods had not been sufficiently heated to avoid fermentation.
Happens to all of us – all the time.
Or could it be that the local BLACK-crowned Night-herons have adopted to a fruit bat lifestyle and feed on nectar at night, sullying their crowns with pollen? And easy identification pitfall, especially for the inexperienced newbies. Corey’s been birding since when you say?
Whatever, best birds of my weekend were another BLACK STORK migrating north and seen Friday afternoon on my walk home (so it counts as weekend) and a falcon hunting insects high, high above my backyard that was very likely a male Red-footed Falcon, but it was gone before I got my binoculars.
Magpie Goose, New Zealand Falcon, and Black Stork? The Best Birds of the Weekend keep getting better. What are the odds that anyone has ever seen all three in one weekend?
As mentioned I visited the Town of Hempstead Marine Nature Study area
with Corey and picked up 8 life birds for me. (Haven’t done much birding in salt marshes.) The best, a toss-up between 5 Yellow-Crowned Night-Herons and Glossy Ibis. Probably the Night-Heron because of the long close up views the first one provided.
I mostly spent the weekend making shopping bags out of old bird seed bags, but I did manage to see a common nighthawk fly over my neighborhood.
http://thainamu.blogspot.com/2011/05/another-bag.html
http://thainamu.blogspot.com/2011/05/shopping-bag.html
@Jochen: You see? “Long, close up views” are just what we expect when it comes to Yellow-crowned Night-Herons around here.
@Corey: “a long, deep look into the bottle” is what we say in Germany …
Jochen —Maybe that explains it…
I saw a multitude of awesome birds along and nearby Chicago’s famed Magic Hedge, but the best was definitely the Magnolia Warbler, because I got such great looks at them … and because I ID’ed them myself. 🙂
More here (apologies for not knowing the HTML coding):
http://blog5b.com/2011/05/22/here-we-are-now-going-on-the-south-side/
My first Bay-breasted Warbler in my local patch (and first of the year).
Anhinga for me, at the end of our self propelled big day (124 species, 80 miles on bike!). Quite a bird for michigan
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16970154@N07/5750128027/in/photostream
I had to stay up all night and include the time change to qualify as a weekend bird. Did anyone else see the Grey-necked Wood-rail?
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/05/costanera-sur-assessment-on-arrival.html
Best bird was a ruffed grouse that attacked my shoe as I paused while biking on the Harlem Valley Rail Trail in Dutchess County, NY
Oh, Jochen…
http://fingerontheshutter.com/2011/05/24/yellow-crowned-night-heron/
Oh, Corey…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_generated_imagery
Jochen–I am offended. I took that picture.
@Corey’s Mom: if I remember correctly, Corey mentioned that George Lucas has a weekend cottage in West Saugerties. Nice place, ey? A little favour amongst neighbours, right?
😉
Okay, but apart from the fact that it is clearly computer-generated: that’s a mighty fine picture! Congrats!