The final weekend of October carries a particularly macabre yet playful resonance in most years. The horrors of this particular year seem to have stolen most of the joy of Halloween, if the meager stream of trick or treaters we saw this weekend were any evidence. But birds don’t seem to care about what ails us humans. They have been moving just as they tend to do this time of year, which can–as you may know–spectacular.

My daughter and I visited Owl Woods in search of winter finches but were surprised to find owls instead; obviously, the name of this legendary birding site suggests otherwise, but encountering both a Saw-whet and Barred Owl on the same autumn day was both unexpected and thrilling. Corey had an excellent weekend’s birding, adding three species to his year list for Queens, Eared Grebe, Tundra Swan, and Red-shouldered Hawk. Of the three, Eared Grebe is far-and-away the best, as it has been since 2007 since Corey last saw one in Queens. That was before he lived there and as such, Eared Grebe is easily his Best Bird of the Weekend.

How about you? 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.

Written by Mike
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.