Welcome to September! Those of us with children (or who are children) are back into the steady flow of school. We’re also getting into fall migration, the fabulous time of year when we wish that we too were winging towards warmer climes… or is that just me? How are you going to spend this weekend and will you be birding? Share your plans in the comments below.
I will be discreetly checking out passing birds while at my son’s first Little League game. Go Bobcats! Corey will most likely somewhere along the shore of Long Island, though he’s open to better offers. Charlie is fortunate enough to be birding the UK with Duncan Wright, a Wellington-based ornithologist who has graced this site with outstanding posts about New Zealand birding and a gorgeous parrot.
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 massive waves of migrants, but don’t ignore the skies themselves!
Montezuma Muckrace!
Whoo hooo! Birding with Charlie (and no doubt we’ll be talking up more birds than we see!).
Also at the Montezuma Muckrace.
The Georgia Strait between the British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island–there and back, not even getting off the boat.
Good luck Montezuma muckers…
And, Duncan, make sure Charlie behaves himself, alright? And whatever you do, don’t give him coffee!!
it’s “Clean up the Bay” day Saturday….try & remove all the rubbish off the high tide mark in Roebuck Bay while the 1000’s of shorebirds feed on the mud.Tide goes from 0.08m to 9.99m….so get off the beach before the tide comes in….there will be no beach left!
Good shot.
I kind of wish I was doing the Muckrace too (I did it once in 98 or one of those years) but since I live too far away, I will be birding the fantastic foothill forests of Braulio Carrillo National Park, Costa Rica. Birding should be good (if it doesnt rain the whole time).
I’m stuck in Sat/Sun, but my best, very exciting Friday bird was my first ever Black-billed Cuckoo, lurking in the canopy in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NYC. I’m used to hearing the spring and summer cowp-cowp-cowp of Yellow-billed Cuckoos in the southeastern US, and occasionally being able to track them down from that echoing sound, but this BBC was just sitting completely still in a bit of sunshine in the canopy, only 5 minutes after I got to the park at 9 AM. It was a good reminder to keep pointing binoculars at odd, still lumps even if most of them turn out to be knobs of wood, and not to focus exclusively on detecting movement. I was able to ID it from a long look at the tail, dull greyish and crossed with narrow white rounded bands, very unlike the stark, black and white checkerboard YBCs drag around. And it was subtle in other ways, too: after it glided to the next tree, exposing its beautiful cedar-colored upper-parts, it was impossible to relocate, blending like a daytime owl into the tangle.
The Montclair Hawkwatch, in Montclair, NJ. It’s just about time for the big Broad-winged Hawk push!
Shoshone Wetlands Shoshone, Ca
China Ranch Tecopa,CA
Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge , Death Valley Junctiom