What a strange day

As I headed into the park today in my normal spot by 77th, walking down the road I saw some interesting teeny birds that normally contain just sparrows.  They were sleeker than sparrows and their bellies were buffy, whiter than a sparrow.  I took a look but didn't see much and couldn't get a picture, they were moving too fast.  I saw a geryish bird, the back was primarily grey, and there was a pretty strong eye stripe.  Not like the warbling vireo, it was strong.  I think they might have been Tenessee warblers?  There were at least two.

I went up the upper lobe mulch path and it was quiet, quiet, quiet.  I stood in front of that one spot ..... you know, with the tree...... for a while, and eventually saw a grosbeak!  I was too slow for a picture though.  While waiting for it to return, I saw this thrush, a maggie, and a downy that came through.  Didn't see the grosbeak again though!

Over to the maintenance meadow, where I saw a thrush of some sort.  As usual when I'm alone, I have no idea what kind.  Maybe next year.  :-)  Then a dog came charging through the meadow straight at me, sort of growling.  A minute or so later the owner showed up and managed to get the dog to go over to him.  The thrush was of course gone.  The guy was throwing squeaky toys for the dog to fetch.  There was a common yellow throat and cardinals everywhere, but I needed to leave.

Off to the oven!  On the way there I went by the gill, where I saw a little lovely that I think must have been a chestnut sided warbler.

He was moving fast.  The chest and belly looked buffy to me, the top of the head had yellow, and so did the back and wings.  From what I could tell.

Also on the way were a pretty maggie, a cute black and white, and a water thrush.  Then I met up with the nice woman with the eastern (?) European accent who feeds the cardinals.  I like her, even though it's not always easy to communicate.  She pointed out a black throated blue, I pointed out a maggie, she pointed out this ovenbird, and I pointed out a downy.  Satisfied, I left her, thinking I had done pretty well and held my own.

Then she called after me, pointing out a wren!  OK, she wins.  :-)

I finally made it to the oven where there were hummingbirds!  Today only about 3.  Hahahahaha I lvoe being so spoiled that I can say "only 3" hummingbirds!

There were also several grosbeak, not quite as shy as last time I was here.

I also saw this mystery finch, or at least it looks like a finch to me.


There was also this flycatcher zooming around and showing off.  Every time it flew off to capture a tasty morsel all the birders there would say "OOOoooooOOOOooooo" along its path.  It must have thought it was in a movie with its own sound track!

The common yellow throat (I think of it as the same one) was again in the reeds, and a maggie came by for a little bit.

It's so wonderful to be able to just come to this spot and see so much!