Feel the damp scent of spring (or the spicy tang of autumn for those of you on the austral side of the Earth) in the air? Don’t get ahead of yourself! Yes, the first feelers of migration will soon infiltrate your budding trees and bushes, but winter may still have plans for us. Living in Western New York teaches a body that every season must run its course. Migration will come, but for many, that moment is still weeks or months away!
That said, late winter offers little around here in the way of birding. I’m bored, which means I won’t be actively seeking birds this weekend. Corey won’t be birding very much either; any that he does will be local in Queens. How about you? What will you be doing this weekend and will you be birding? Share your plans in the comments below.
Whatever your plans this weekend, make time to enjoy SkyWatch Friday. Also be sure to come back Monday to share your best bird of the weekend!
Keep your eyes to the skies for big flocks of blackbirds (bonus points if you can spot the Peregrine Falcon in the mix!)
Photo by Felonious Jive
Sandy Hook, NJ–both days, if this lousy weather improves at all.
I’ll be out photographing birds on Antelope Island SP in Utah if the sun decides to shine!
The Peregrine is in the upper left, near the outside of the flock at about 10 o’clock.
Very good shot.
Regards and best wishes
Cool shot of the large flock of blackbirds. LOL, did you count them?
Ahhh yes, I see the Peregrine;))) I did a post on murmuration of Starlings a few weeks ago, after they made the world news with NBC news from our small town showing, and I am thinking there was either a hawk, or falcon in that mix as well…
wonder if the falcon was looking for a meal…great shot!
Felonious Jive is a birder-loser. That’s clearly not a Peregrine. Its slender silhouette and proportions clearly show it is the New World’s first record of an Eleonora’s Falcon. Too bad, Felonious, ey? too bad! 🙂 😉
Me? Birding this weekend? Nope. Just playgrounds south of Heidelberg…
I am heading to Florida from Virginia going to spend a few days in Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, looking for Crested Caracara, Burrowing Owl, White-tailed Kite and Grasshopper Sparrow! 😀
Yes, how did Felonious-Jive misidentify that Eleanoras? Is he losing his touch? Could he possibly be a (gasp) fraud as being the worlds best birder? I hope I find a falcon or two this weekend while birding in Costa Rica in the cool, high elevations of Irazu National Park and the hot lowlands around Carara.
The weather is horrid too over here in Singapore. Managed to see some Little Spiderhunters and hear a Straw-headed Bulbul at Dairy Farm Nature Park despite that.
I will be birding in and around my town of Yomitan-son in Okinawa, Japan.
The one with the bigger wings is probably the falcon? Love to see big flocks of migrating birds every fall and spring in Holland. That’s what I miss in California!
Who dares mock the almighty Felonious Jive??? I think a couple people have just been put on birding probation.
Felonious and I are birding Humboldt County in northern California. We already saw a Lark Bunting today and are basking in vagrant glory.
I understand Felonious Jive is a distant cousin of Frabjous Day.
Speaking of which, if the day if frabjouser than the current weather outside, a bus down to Jamaica Bay for Snow Geese and then hunting down a pond where a mega-flock of red heads were spotted mid-week. Car-fee birding is tough. Working AND car-free? Tougher. 🙂
This is an incredible shot! And I’m pretty sure I see the falcon. Cool!