The end of September doesn’t necessarily mean the end of what you might enjoy about September birding but it definitely signals the beginning of what you love about October. Hopefully, you’re looking forward to the month ahead!

I was shocked to still find a number of shorebird species up at Braddock Bay, perhaps because of how much productive mud the dropping lake levels have exposed. This allowed me to pick up some late Pectoral Sandpipers, a bonus this deep into fall. Corey had a few really good birds this weekend. On Friday morning he unsuccessfully chased a LeConte’s Sparrow and a Connecticut Warbler in Queens but had his second ever encounter with Virginia Rail in Queens as well as a Yellow-breasted Chat. On Sunday morning, he followed up on a Golden-winged Warbler report from the day before and successfully connected, making Connecticut Warbler the only regularly occurring wood-warbler in New York that Corey hasn’t seen in Queens this year. But, of those three birds the only one that cooperated for good photos was the chat, so that will be Corey’s 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.