No time to talk… the sun’s come out and spring fever has overtaken at least this portion of the Northern Hemisphere! What will you be doing this weekend and will you be birding? Share your plans in the comments below!
I’ll be preparing for a very exciting birding trip as well as celebrating my birthday (don’t worry about which one it is) so this weekend will be low key. Corey will also be hiding his birding light under a bushel as the saying goes. We hope you’ll be more active this weekend than either of us.
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!
Sometimes a little bit of sky is all it takes to frame an amazing sight
Mt. Ngauruhoe in New Zealand by Duncan Wright
My goodness, what a mountain scene.
What kind of birds will you expect up there?
All raptors?
and will you be able to get to the top of that rock?
Without crampons and other fierce things?
I’m visiting New York City and happen to have a free Saturday this time. If I get myself out to Queens in the morning from Manhattan are any of the NYC area birders planning on going out and wouldn’t mind a tag-along? Other than Jamaica Bay it’s pretty tough to get to many of the good birding areas without a car.
I will be at Cape May this weekend hoping for early migrants. Can’t wait!
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mike!
@ Joco – Not too many birds, mostly pipits, the odd gulls and nesting dotterels. And the peak can be climbed without gear.
Wow…..just breath taking
Saturday will be spent around Heidelberg/Germany, along my usual playgrounds with my son.
On Sunday I depart on a business trip for a week to western Kazakhstan. I have 6 or 7 hours at the airport in Baku, Azerbaidjan. Too little time to leave the airport for some birding, but maybe something will pop up outside the airport buildings while I wait with my nose pressed against the windows. Mind you, I was once in the same situation at south Korea’s Incheon airport, gazing out of the windows for 5 hours and not seeing a single bird – non whatsoever. But hey, you never know.
The birding during the week in the arid Kazakh steppes should be rather exciting though. Fingers crossed, I might even get a lifer or two.
No time for formal birding, sadly, since it’s the last weekend I’ll be in the same place I was born and raised, before departing for the land of Cubs and Bears and Bulls. 🙁 I am hoping in my frantic to-and-fro to at least catch a glimpse of the local Red-tailed Hawks perched on a church steeple or flying along the train tracks; they’ve always made me smile.
Mike, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! 🙂
Thanks for the early birthday cheer, all.
@Meredith, I can’t believe you’re leaving NY before I could go birding with you. Who’s going to keep us informed about the action in Westchester?!
@Mike: I know, right? Well, my new place in Chicago faces out onto a park, so you’ll have to come visit me! And anytime you’re in/near NYC shoot me a note, hopefully it will dovetail (birder joke, ha ha) with a weekend I’m home.
As far as Westchester birding, check out the adventures of teen birder extraordinaire Benjamin Van Doren @ warblings.wordpress.com. Also, you’ll note that National Audubon Society President David Yarnold lives within a half-hour jog of me. 🙂
Oops, movers are here, gotta go!
@Meredith, I hope it’s not the park where the Monk Parakeets nest, in Hyde Park. They get very loud. There’s a story that the late beloved Mayor Washington lived by that park (really a square), and loved the Parakeets and wouldn’t let city workers remove the nests. This is where I first heard and saw these birds. I was a newbie birder and totally amazed at the size of their nests and at how incredibly loud they were.
@Donna S.: Thanks for the tip about the Monk Parakeets! Would you believe I have hit many of the NY-area hotspots for them—Greenwich, Stamford, Jamaica Bay, even a ballfield in New Rochelle—and each time I struck out though others have had luck! (My ex even got to see the flock @ Greenwood Cemetery in Bklyn)
So I may well hike down to Hyde Park just to see them. Nope, the park I will face onto is a few acres near Lincoln Square. Probably not much birding to write home about. But I’m thrilled to be walkable to the Magic Hedge! 🙂
@Meredith, it’s not too late for you to see a NY Monk Parakeet. Cruise over to the playground at Pelham Bay Park and you can’t miss them!
Wonderful shot !! We drove the length of New Zealand when we visited. I remember seeing the volcanic mts in the distance as we drove along. Mickie 🙂