Berry delicious

All was quiet in Strawberry Field yesterday morning, just me and the birds, lots of mud, lots of bugs, lots of berries. Into my line of view came the female scarlet tanager, not way up in a tree, down low, human hip height. This kind of experience thrills me. I tried telepathy..... I love you, I won't hurt you, just let me watch, you're beautiful. I know the tanager knew I was watching. I had the joy of watching her dining. I don't know what makes THE berry the berry-of-choice. Each one plucked is deliberately chosen. The berry is then mushed around in the bill, the pulp and juice enjoyed, skin eaten last. The cardinals eat berries this way too unlike the robins and catbirds who pluck-and-gulp, one second berries. I watched for a long time really enjoying the tanager. Super sweet. I know this is a large blog. I did edit, but can't bear to cut one more image. There was no one else around to share this magic.

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The Upper Lobe and around

It took a few seconds for my brain to kick in..... a tanager, female, dining on berries. I had only seen one exactly a year ago. Slightly to the east there was a leafy patch with the black-throated blue warblers hopping around, no other birds, just these sweet bug catchers. And once again the raccoon was holed up. I coudn't figure out what end I was staring at.

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Strawberry Field morning

The trees and bushes were hopping yesterday morning. I saw what I had seen before- brown thrashers, towhees, common yellow throats and a blackpoll. Now I can add the black-throated green warbler, a yellow rump, a sweet golden kinglet, a happy phoebe (lots of bugs), and a ground eating flicker. There will be more to blog later. The successful birding technique seems to be to pick a spot and stay there for a while. Eventually something shows up. I think the hummers have moved on.

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Time to say Kaddish

There's one less yellowbelly sapsucker. Obviously this beautiful bird flew into a window pane, broke its neck and died. It was on the sidewalk in front of our building this morning. It's been laid to rest. Time to mourn.

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A nice variety

I had hoped to see lots of warblers in the park mainly because we had a common yellow throat, a parula, and yellowbelly sapsucker right in our backyard and visible bugs, oodles of bugs hatching out of the wet grass, but it seemed kind of quiet in the Rambles. However, while strolling I did meet a hawk, the brown thrasher, a bug-snatching phoebe, a flock of cedar waxwings gobbling berries, a nano-second wren and a palm warbler, not a bad variety.

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