The odd climate patterns lately have conspired with my already suspect grasp of phenology to completely baffle my sense of season. As I’m sure you’ve heard me mention once or twice, winter comes early–very early–to western New York. Yet we’ve barely seen a flake of frost so far. Even more peculiar, I think our foliage just hit peak last week. This seems at least a couple of weeks off what I expect. Has weather and seasonal activity been screwy where you live?

Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend™ was a rather suspect Eurasian Wigeon in Queens. Check out his alleged record shot and tell me it’s not some aberrant Mallard… My weekend was a lot less birdy; following the aforementioned foliage peak, we all experienced why autumn is also called fall. Many hours of raking were accompanied by the tinkling mockery (or maybe mocking tinks) of Black-capped Chickadees.

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.