A delicious birding Sunday

Sunday unexpectedly turned into one of those rare days of Spring migration where you see amazing things. I hadn't been expecting much--very light winds had kept migration numbers down for several days--and the morning started with an uneventful stroll along the south side of Turtle Pond to Belvedere Castle. But when I descended into the Ramble, I found a hundred or more birders between the Humming Tombstone and the west side of Tupelo Meadow, all staring high into the trees.

In the next half-hour or so, I saw (and heard singing) a White-Eyed Vireo

White-Eyed Vireo

and also a singing Yellow-Throated Vireo--and both of those species can be hard to get in New York City--

Yellow-Throated Vireo

and several Warblers, including Black-Throated Blue, Black-and-White, and Nashville.

Nashville Warbler

Nashville Warblers aren't rare, exactly, but aren't all that easy to find.

I took a little break on a bench south of Tupelo Meadow, and watched a Titmouse and a Brown-Headed Cowbird poking around a mud puddle. On a snag above the puddle, a male Downy Woodpecker was digging out a nest-hole, sawdust flying everywhere. Then the female of the pair came around and I got to see them mating, which (like everything else about Downys) was adorable.

Out on the Point I saw my first-of-season Blackpoll Warbler--a bit early for them--and another White-Eyed Vireo, this one extremely confiding, spending several minutes at about eye level only a few feet from the path.

A couple of good birds had left the Tupelo frenzy before I got there--Blue-Winged Warbler and Blackburnian Warbler. Someone told me that a Blue-Winged was near the Rustic Shelter, and I eventually found it there.

Blue-Winged Warbler

My first Common Yellowthroat of the season was there as well--a little late for a first sighting of that warbler.

A couple of rumors of the Blackburnian didn't pan out, and in mid-afternoon I was sitting on a bench at Evodia, watching the feeders and chatting with other birders. Adrian Burke's phone buzzed with an alert. "Blackburnian now in pine south side of Turtle Pond", he read out. "OK, see you all later." He left, followed closely by several of us.

Blackburnian Wabler

The flame-throat was indeed there, and Adrian did a great job getting everyone on the bird. The cherry on top of the birding Sunday was when he spotted a Red-Breasted Nuthatch going through the trees. That's shockingly late, like six weeks late, for a Red-Breasted to be hanging around this far south, but the bird's head pattern (black line through the eye, and while stripe over it) was unmistakable.

The nuthatch disappeared to the east very quickly; I think I was the only other birder who got a look at it. Normally I'd have followed it to try to get a better look and a photo, but I was so transfixed by the Blackburnian that I didn't.

Miss, miss, miss, miss, HIT

White-Eyed Vireo

Friday I went looking for the Nashville Warbler seen at the Oven and the Point, and didn't find it. Then I looked for the Northern Waterthrush reported at the Upper lobe, and didn't see that. Next I went uptown to the Pool, where I didn't see the Spotted Sandpiper reported there in the morning; and finally walked up and down the Loch and Ravine area, where I didn't see the Wilson's Snipe that had been seen there only an hour or so before. Oh, well. It was a nice day for a loooong walk through Central Park.

Saturday, I went to the Point, which remains pretty birdy--a Prairie Warbler continues there and has been singing, and lots of Yellow-Rumped and Palm Warblers, along with a House Wren (or two). There was briefly a nice view of a Great Egret in a tree along the Riviera across the way.

Nadir Souirgi, a very fine birder who mostly stays in the North End, showed up on the Point and said he'd seen a White-Eyed Vireo at Willow Rock. That's a nice bird for the park, and off I went. I found a small crowd of birders and photographers following a small bird high up in the trees just south of Willow Rock. I got my binoculars up and saw it was indeed teh Vireo, then tried to get a photo.

Small, active bird back in tree branches; not easy. I got a few shots off before it moved farther south, but I didn't think I had anything good. Where it had moved to, it was still back in branches and the glare was fierce, making it hard to see what was in the camera's viewfinder.

The Vireo had an encounter with another small bird, and one of them flew off. It turned out that a Blue-Headed Vireo had chased it off. I never re-found the White-Eyed, and I didn't hear that anyone else had either.

So I was happy to have seen the bird--my 107th species of the year in Manhattan--but reviewing the photos was disappointing. It was hard to judge on the little screen on the camera in the glare, but it looked like I had one photo where the Vireo was recognizable, but that's about all.

So I was delighted to see the photo above when I looked at the day's shooting on my monitor at home. Lessons:

• Keep chasing bird reports, the ones you get make up for the ones you miss.
• When you're photographing, keep on shooting. Shoot a lot, worry about the results later. 
• If you're in the right place and the right time, luck can work for you.
• Needless to say, never delete anything until you take a good look at it on a proper monitor.