There's no way to tell what's going to be seen. Sometimes I have a plan,... start at Riverside Drive to check on the hawks, then get to Central Park. In this two hour stretch I saw that the hawks were fine, stopped to greet my favorite mockingbird, got to Central Park and saw the bathers and nest-building mud-faced robin, a very sweet field sparrow (don't see them often), the yellow rump warbler, the towhee and the B/W warbler, a very nice assortment for two hours. I heard an oriole and another warbler, but couldn't find them in the tree tops. The serious birders would not be impressed, but I don't find any bird to be ordinary. I'm glad we share the same space.
A long time ago before I could really identify birds I saw a little bird and made a notation that I had seen a "masked bird". A month later I heard someone refer to it as a "bandito", so I made another notation. I'm not the fastest learner. The little masked bandito is a common yellow throat warbler, male. Every spring I really await the first appearance of this wonderful bird. Today was it, and for the first time I could take pictures with the more powerful lens. I'll blog extra images, ....for now here's my friend.
The "buzz" this morning was the prothonotary warbler obligingly bugging in one location for a long time. After a while I headed back to the "watering hole" where one yellow-rumped warbler called for me to take his picture. "I'm here"! Love it when that happens.
In town- the brown thrasher, the blue-wing warbler and the yellow rump warbler.
I was in the park for about four hours seeing very nice birds.... and sweating, ... it was very hot and thick. Finally I decided to head on home. I didn't want heat exhaustion. I always check our little garden fountain. There sat Mrs. Cardinal cooling off, bathing, enjoying the water. Smart bird. I thought about joining her, but it's a very small fountain. Then I went into the lobby and looked out into the back garden. Thank goodness the camera was in my hand. HOODED WARBLER. I should have stayed home and observed garden activity. The garden window is coated, so there is always a glare. The birds can't see into the lobby. They see a reflection of the garden. Both the hooded and a bug-hunting wren were up on the outer window ledge, too poorly lit for pictures, but eye-visible, close enough to touch had the glass not separated us.
There's the bird! Ready,.. aim,.. click......... oops, off by a split second. Nobody said it was easy.
Who's oats? The horse's oats. Want to bet? Pigeons' oats. Want to bet? Everyone's oats. Community bucket.
Yes, I adore kinglets and when the ruby crowned kinglet flashes I adore it.
