Central Park between storms

Today I headed up to the park in the morning (9:30) to get in some park time before the storms come this afternoon.  I went to the lake and saw several little lovelies by the upper lobe on the little mulched trail.  A yellow-rump and a black-throated blue.  Someone said something about a black-footed blue (?) but I couldn't figure out what bird they were talking about.  When the black-throated blue came over to pose and I started trying to take pictures, I realized that I forgot to put a memory card in the camera!   AAAAAuuuuuuuurrrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I can't believe I did it again!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And there were really birds everywhere.  So disappointing!

Anyway, also at the lake I saw some grey catbirds and an ovenbird.  Actually there were grey catbirds everywhere, I felt like I saw a zillion of them.  Still saw several white-throated sparrows.

Headed up to the gill, looking for the spot I saw so many little lovelies at a couple of days ago.  Around the gill I stopped and sat by a tree that had several yellow rumped warblers, and one or two northern parula.  Another black-throated blue came over for a little while.  That was on the non-water side of the path.

I crossed over to the water side and saw more yellow-rumps, and a common yellow throat warbler (my first sighting) and a blackpoll warbler.  I had seen the blackpoll before but not a good enough look to ID it.  This time I had a good look!  Another (or maybe the same) black-throated blue, another (or maybe the same) northern parula.

I wandered around to find a different spot and while wandering around saw a hairy woodpecker!  I'm excited because I just learned how to tell downies from hairies, the outer tailfeathers, and I totally saw the tail feathers and can say for sure - hairy!  I got brief looks at the face, but not enough for me to measure the beak even close to reliably or study the lores.  But the tail feathers were quite clear.  He was on a dead tree, little more than a stump really, and I got a really nice look at him.  I love woodpeckers!

Wandered a bit more and talked to someone for a few minutes, he gave me an application for the linnean society.  So, maybe I'll join.  I probably should.  We saw a black and white warbler.  He moved on and I stayed there for a little while longer.  I got a glimpse of someone coming through that I thought was the Blackburnian!  Oh, he was gorgeous for the little second or two I saw him!  It was really just an impression of bright fiery orange with black markings and then he was gone.  Way too fast!

Then it was time to head down to the pond.  I went back to the shore and as I crossed Bow Bridge I saw two cormorants standing in the sun on the rock.  I stopped to look for a second, and saw a third one out fishing.  When I was verifying that there were indeed three separate cormorants in the lake, a fourth flew over!  Hahahahaha, so there were definitely four there.

Down to the pond, where there was not much excitement.  I did not see the wood duck.  The geese were both on the island, one on the nest and one nearby.  The red-winged blackbird was there.  Then walking further south I saw the great egret!  Just hanging out in the water, doing a little snacking, looking beautiful.   cormorant was fishing near him, it was fun to see them together.  No night heron that I could find.

That's it for today.  Hopefully I can make it back soon, with a functional camera!