Cold and still fun

This looked like Christmas. This Hermy is going to eat a berry. It's worth waiting.
Bingo! Got it!

Not a berry, but worth a smile.

The snorkel waxwing.

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What the???

This was a case of WHAT'S THAT. A puzzle bird.
Weird.

Oh, an in between goldfinch, not yellow yet, winter color?, immature? Definitely an unexpected goldfinch.

I love shovellers.

Sly wink.

Pretty in autumn.

Hermy in the brush

A ruby crowned hermit? No. Just an optical illusion.

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Open paths

It's now possible to walk from the Maintenance Meadow to the Evodia Field and down to the Oven. The core of the Rambles has not yet been cleared, but at least it is possible to stroll in parts of bird land. Lots of eating going on.

The cooper's hawk was chasing a starling repeatedly, so it was a huge surprise when it came back with a redwing blackbird, not even dead.

Now it's dead.

The one-second titmouse had one seed.

It felt good to be in the Rambles, back to a bit of normalcy. It was quiet, not crowded, deep carpet of leaves. Today they'll be soggy. The Azalea Pond area is still fenced off.

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The OhMyGod bird

There was plenty worth seeing yesterday both ordinary and special, but it was the final subject that really blew my mind. At the Oven. My eyes saw another "tree". Before I could sort out what I was seeing it took flight. I'm pretty sure this was a great blue heron. It and Central Park South made the vision spooky. It felt as if I was photographing a prehistoric creature. Total surprise. Awesome. I'm never good at flight pictures. I'm standing there spewing, "OhMyGod! OhMyGod!" trying to capture this wonder. There was another birder nearby standing mouth open in wonder. When the bird had vanished around the corner we just looked at each other with big grins on our faces.

Also saw hawks and waxwings, still being edited.

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Berries

Pretty soon all the berries will be gone. Mockers love them too.

It's the waxwings who give me a laugh. The flock flies in, then tries to select the best berry of the lot. Think consumers examining every banana in the super market. Same logic.

Orange tail!!

Fairway has blackberries, $5 for three boxes. They're sweet.

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Acorns

There's an article in today's Times about the shortage of acorns. Better not tell the bluejays about this. Maybe there's a "shortage" because the jays got there first.

Of course jays will go for almost anything. I think this was a sliver of dried papaya. The jay was having a real problem with this delicacy.

Finally the papaya got abandoned.

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