I saw a ton of great birds over the holiday weekend. Species are really starting to pour in. The highlight for me was 2 Greater Yellowlegs (my fourth Luzerne Co. shorebird of 2009) at Plymouth Flats on Easter morning. No, it’s not a spectacular sighting, but if you know me you know that shorebirds are my favorite of the aves. Everyone else can keep their fancy-pants warblers all colorful and in the canopy, I’ll take brown funny-looking birds by the waterfront anyday.

But I did get lots of great birds for my first-of-year or first-of-year in Luzerne County over the past couple days. Species included Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Barred Owl, Barn Swallow, Ring-necked Pheasant, Pine Warbler, and maybe more, I just can’t think of them.

Digiscoping is also starting to get a little better now that there are more birds to shoot. So here are some photo highlights:

This Barred Owl was a treat to find when I was busy looking for a Louisiana Waterthrush (which I never found).

Bonaparte’s Gulls came into Harvey’s Lake. It’s nice to see the just-about-full breeding plumages with the black caps. Also a couple winter plumages. The breeding plumages seemed to only stick around for a day, while the winter plumages are still there. I guess they were ramped and ready for some breeding.

Horned Grebes also joined in on the fun and started to get ready for breeding this weekend at Harvey’s Lake.

I got all 3 of my Luzerne County shorebirds (previous to today’s yellowlegs) on a day about a month ago. Now Killdeers are every where. Soon I’m sure I’ll see it’s local Sandpiper counterpart, the Spotted Sandpiper. Every day in summer I’m assured to see Killdeer as my Plover and Spotties as my Sandpipers.

And my favorite photo of the weekend is this Northern Rough-winged Swallow. I found it resting on a cliff. It flew but I sat and waited until it came back to the same perch. It was well worth the wait!