Nobody enjoys the end of a birding adventure. No matter how exhausted, sunburned, frostbitten, or penniless your exertions have left you, the hope of one more blissful bird sighting still beckons. How do you cope with the momentary feelings of deflation that set in once the trip is over?

The Ugandan adventure Corey and I embarked on in November has finally come to an end. While he’s sweeping Mabamba Swamp one more time for Shoebills, I’m awaiting my airport transfer and hoping for the rain to end in time for a final burst of African bird excitement.  We both fit in as many hours as possible birding the Entebbe Botanical Gardens during the African Birding Expo this weekend. While we saw all sorts of amazing birds, top honors will go not to the rarest or even best looking. Instead, we’ll honor the Black and white Casqued Hornbill, an incredibly large. vocal, and common species that ennobles any setting in which it spreads its massive wings.

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.