You Just Can't Keep a Girl Down!

     I don't like being defeated, and since Thursday, my body has had to surrender to my achilles tendon in my left leg. I stretch before and after my runs, I ran 5 miles on Wednesday, no problem. Thursday rolled around and every step ached and stairs were almost painful, I figured it would pass. I made sure not to run and bike, give my aching ankle a rest, especially since I had a 5 mile race coming up on Sunday. The run will definitely not happen, I am admitting defeat and making sure I don't further hurt myself.

     But, you can't keep a Jen down. I refuse to be upset about something and dwell on things, instead I come up with solutions, look ahead at what can come out of things, and keep positive. So when I refuse to be kept within the confines of my house, I say poo-poo to that! Green-Wood Cemetery is explorable by car, and so with my trusty, rusty, and scratched up car, we birded and spent minimal time on my bummed ankle.
     During my adventure today I met Steve, who runs BrooklynParrots.com and runs free Brooklyn Parrot tours, focused on our world famous Quaker Parrot colonies. He and another were in the middle of doing some filming of the parrots, and I too, wished there were more parrots around. We both agreed that predatory birds were pretty prominent today. I enjoyed meeting him and would consider going on a tour to focus on some parrot shots, because if you know me well, you know I adore parrots.
     Despite the grey and cold, I was still satisfied with the things I ran into and things that I felt practically fell out of the sky onto me. Enjoy:

A very unfazed Great Blue Heron. This immature bird may be the same one I ran into the last time I was here, just going about its business without a second (or first) glance in my direction.

Heron reflections.

So many hermit thrush, everywhere. If you see movement, it always seemed to be a hermit thrush as they move through in hordes on their migration South.

On the Crescent Water, I saw this really pretty tree, and I saw phoebe hawking off the branches of it, chasing after insects. So I decided to wait and see if anything would land on this tree for a nice fall photo op. Then, with zero sound, a Cooper's Hawk swooped in and landed, as if it was trying to nab a bird, sitting within the branches. It's adaptive means of flying between branches really shined as this bird landed and didn't seem to disturb a single leaf! We caught sight of each other, some blue jays began to call and before I knew it, he was off into some other trees across the way. A very cool moment that I throughly enjoyed being present for.

Eastern phoebe catching the last of the insects.

There were lots of Canada Geese on all the water features (with exception of the Dell Water). This one goose was not like the others...

Even the way it stands and walks, its posture alone suggests something has gone awry.

Often Canada Geese hybridize with domestic geese varieties, and that is the case for this bird. It seems more plump than the average Canada Goose, its breast is more broad, it stands more upright and it seems heavier in the rear, instead of the more sleek look the Canada Goose possesses. Often we don't think of Canada Geese as sleek, but when you look at one in comparison to the cumbersome-looking domestic breeds, sleek is a fitting descriptive term for them.

The flock didn't seem to care that this guy was among them. This one bird came up and followed my hybrid friend up to shore. I also love the orange-yellow legs of the hybrid, normally their legs and feet are black. A fun bird to see, something a little out of the ordinary.

Kinglets crack me up. They are just little feather-balls of floor, but man, this Golden Crowned really gives off some serious attitude. And honestly, for the little things that they are, they flit around like they own the place. They are such fun and flashy little birds to watch and observe.

Some individuals had some very impressive gold crowns, this one had a bit of orange hidden in the middle/under the gold.

This fella had some orange on the sides and behind the gold crest. Super flashy, I bet he is popular with the ladies.

Surprise! Another hermit thrush! They are always pretty to look at, despite being overly plentiful.

Stopped to see some quaker parrots before leaving, went to the field adjacent to the main gate as they sometimes are grazing among the bushes there. Instead I saw (surprise!) a hermit thrush, and then something swooped after it. I thought it was another Cooper's Hawk, but with pointed wings and a call that was not hawk OR kestrel (often seen on this field) it was a merlin!