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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

More fall visitors in Lower Manhattan

What creature resembles a toasted marshmallow with two eyes and a beak?

A Winter Wren:

Winter wren

This little guy was in Tompkins Square Park for a few days, hiding out in some shrubs on the east side of the park.  To the delight of gleeful admirers, it popped out of the shadows just as the sun went down.

Winter wren

Aside from hummingbirds, this might be the smallest bird I've ever seen.

Winter wren

The wren had an equally tiny friend in the underbrush...

Untitled

Below are a few more favorite bird sightings from this fall migration season.  I was obsessed with the Black-throated Blue Warblers.  It seemed they were always in the deep shade, making photographing them difficult.  One day, I lucked out when a handful of them visited a vegetable garden in Battery Park.

Male:

Black-throated blue warbler

Black-throated blue warbler

Female:

Female black-throated blue warbler

This young Northern Mockingbird was happy to pose.

Mockingbird

Mockingbird

In the same area, I found this little Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Ruby-crowned kinglet

It was busy feeding on insects in the tree.  Below, the kinglet is in action, hanging upside-down from a leaf stem while snatching bugs off the leaves.

Ruby-crowned kinglet hunting for bugs

A year ago (October 20, 2015), I found a kinglet engaged in the same activity in nearly the same location:

Ruby-crowned kinglet

On the topic of eating bugs, I caught this Palm Warbler feasting on flesh flies in Tompkins Square.  Mmmm!

Palm warbler with a fly 

Meanwhile, a Hermit Thrush hunted insects in the grass. 

Hermit thrush

Seeing these guys always makes me happy - they have an enthusiastic air about them.

Hermit thrush

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