A blah middle with wonderful edges

I decided to hit the park again, because, well, I can.  :-)  Sadly as is often the case on the weekend, there was a long, long wait for the subway,  I would have been better off walking.  Or a cab would have been a good decision.  Oh well, I got there eventually!

At the upper lobe, I decided to cross the bridge and then go up the wood chip path.  Sadly there was a birding group (good-sized group too) already there.  I figured we could just pass each other a little awkwardly, and then go our separate ways, and everything would be fine.

Which is in fact what happened, but then they found a hummingbird!  So I of course totally coat-tailed their hummingbird sighting.  And even got a picture!  :-)  Once the hummingbird left, so did we all, going separate ways.

There was also a redstart at the upper lobe.  This is not a shock, redstarts are everywhere!  If you see a little bird, and you think it's a warbler, it's probably a redstart.

After that I hugged the lake shore, but it was all quiet.

At the stone benchlet there was one little lovely of indeterminate type.  I think it was a vireo of some sort.

At the wood bridge, I saw that the woodpecker nest has been spray painted orange!  Is this tree being cut down?  I guess we'll find out soon enough.

I ran into the same birding group here (actually ran into them several times).  There was a black and white and some other little lovely, but I don't know what it was.

At the oven, there was not much going on.  I sat in the shade over on the right on the rock underneath the pine tree for a while.  I was just, you know, hanging out, seeing if something cool blew through.  And when I glanced over, sitting on the fence was this gorgeous creature!  I got the impression of a black mask and a bright yellow chest.  The birding group was there (where else?) so I tried to call them over while I was getting the camera pointed at the bird, but the bird did not like that at ~all~ and vanished.  It did reappear about 15 minutes later in the pine tree, but evaded the camera again.  I did see that in the binocs it wasn't actually a mask although I still got a strong impression of one.  I don't know what it was, maybe a common yellowthroat? or a maggie?  After looking through the book I think it must have been an immature common yellow throat.  Well, that's the closest I see, anyway.

At one point there was a little lovely (I think the same one) posing, but camera was in sleep mode!!!!   Aaauauuuuuuggggghhhhh!!!!!!!!  It was maddening!  Just like the old one, if it's in sleep mode, you have to turn it off and back on to wake it up.  Why can't I just press a button?  I need to extend sleep mode on this one like I did the other one.  Maddening!!!!

Okay, it's time to go.  It's been slow and now the camera is actively against. me.  Clearly time to head for home!

So while I was exiting, before going through the arch to get to the bridge, a black throated blue caught my eye.  There were at least three of them zipping around!

While I was delighting in this bonanza a downy came by, I guess wanting to be in on the action.

Then this vireo joined in.  Looks like a warbling vireo.  Yes, that's right, I'm learning the vireos!  Well, starting too, anyway.

Here's either the same warbling vireo or a different one, I'm not really sure.  He was just up there eating those berries, squishing them in utter delight!  I wonder what size would be the human equivalent - like a watermelon, right?  At least a honeydew.  Can you imagine just chomping into a berry the size of a honeydew, the juice squirting everywhere?

Then this ovenbird materialized nearby!  It was ridiculous, it was really almost like being in a zoo, they were all buzzing around in this one little area.  It was a crazy frenzy of activity for about 10-15 min, then, quiet.  what a way to leave!

A parting shot of a black throated blue, the mighty hunter!