Back to it!

Summer has been a Hot Slog filled with Thunderstorms.  Today I got to go back to the park, and witness the beginning of fall migration.  It was great!  Well, it was horribly crowded and it was painful to get to the ramble.  But besides that, it was great!  The weather was cool (explaining the crowds) but cloudy, and there were birds around.  Not many, but I had some nice sightings.

First, at the pond we were greeted by this black-crowned night heron.

Black-crowned Night Heron

And there was a northern waterthrush on the mudflat, zooming around like crazy.

Northern Waterthrush

To the ramble!  I fought the crowds on the way up there, and started out at the point.  Ah, nature!  Even in the ramble there were more people than usual, but nothing like the boathouse and fountain.  Anyway, at the point I had a brief look at a blue-winged warbler, who disappeared before I could get a picture.  But this chestnut-sided comforted me!  I mean, not for long, he was outta there quite quickly. And my auto-focus was taking forever, so the picture is really sad.  Sigh.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

 Mystery bird!  Struck me as a flycatcher, size of a kingbird.  The lighting was horrible, these pictures are lightened quite a bit.

Mystery Bird

 Might be an olive-sided flycatcher?

Mystery Bird

The blue-winged warbler came back!  It's showing off its "blue" wing.  

Blue-winged Warbler

 A more conventional view.  How gorgeous!

Blue-winged Warbler

 A black-and-white came over too close for the way my camera was set.  Again trouble with the auto-focus taking forever.  Sigh.  I don't remember it being such a problem until a few months ago.  I mean, it might not focus on the bird, but I don't remember it taking so looooooooonnnggg to focus.

Black-and-white Warbler

Heading along the creek now.  A redstart!  I can't really blame this one on the camera, redstarts are ridiculously fast and hard to get a decent shot of.

American Redstart

 An to the upper lobe, where this turtle demonstrates why washing up in the pond is a Bad Idea.

A Turtle's Cautionary Tale

 A beautiful Baltimore oriole came over and perched just long enough for me to raise my camera, but before the $%&* autofocus worked it went to the other side of this cluster of leaves.  :-(

Leaves hiding Baltimore Oriole

 One more warbler before I go - a Canada!  Yes it is.  Yes it is, I was there!  Damn you autofocus!

Canada Warbler

After I got home, I looked my camera over, trying to find all of the settings for the autofocus.  Eventually I realized that I had at some point (accidentally?) flipped the autofocus to Macro ont he side of the camera.  < < Facepalm > > Next time I hope to have better luck with the autofocus....  :-)