Though many Americans spent a significant chunk of their Sundays watching the National Football League’s conference championship games we here at 10,000 Birds assume that you probably spent at least some portion of your weekend out looking for birds other than the Seattle Seahawks, who will be representing the National Football Conference in the Super Bowl on 2 February.

Of course both Mike and I were out and about spotting some birds this weekend. I could have chosen any of the four Snowy Owls I saw this weekend as myBest Bird of the Weekend but I decided that I preferred a Purple Sandpiper at Breezy Point, Queens, (pictured above) mostly because it was feeding on a jetty while waves crashed over it. What a great little bird! Mike enjoyed a bevy of rural Pennsylvania feeder birds this weekend. The best of the bunch was a hulking Hairy Woodpecker that dwarfed the diminutive Downies around it.

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 Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.