Outside my Normal Range

     With only one weekend day to enjoy, I decided to try my luck in Queens in 2 parks I never visited before, Alley Pond Park (I have only visited the Nature Center side) and Kissena Park. The earlier being more fruitful than the latter (party my fault, late start-- sleep was nice).
     With a September day feeling muggy and hot, it felt more like Early August. When I got to Alley Pond Park, the fog still lingered, it had cleared when I left Brooklyn. But in a way that worked out, as it seems to have kept much of the insects dormant and gave a nice burst of birds once it cleared. At least it felt that way. All my photos are from Alley Pond- Kissena seemed promising, but by noon, it was just too hot with little going on aside from robins and catbirds.

A charismatic common yellowthroat. These birds were true to their name today, quite common!

A really welcome surprise, a worm eating warbler in close range eat berries-- or insects eating the berries next to one of the ponds in the park.
Having never traveled to this park, or portion of the park before. I walked what looked like trails. Some got a little brushy. This one lead to the South side of a pond (that shows up on a map, but is either just mud with a lot of phragmites, or a very small pond, concealed by a lot of phragmites. Anyway, I found a lot of places where people might skulk about- trash and littered bottles, so I was a bit weary-- but then it got pretty birdy. More important was to pay closer attention to where I stood, poison ivy reached across the narrow trail and I definitely stepped in some a few times today.

This was a favorite bird that I saw today. I ran into another person in the park, assuming he was also looking for birds. When he asked me if I have seen anything good today, I mentioned that I enjoyed running into a worm-eating warbler. He basically was so dissatisfied with my answer.
"Oh, but they're not very colorful."
People.

I enjoyed watching a small group of red-eyed vireos feed happily on these fleshy seeded fruits. They dangled and stuffed their beaks with what they could. Aren't they just absolutely seductive looking? I really liked how this bird just stared me down, like as if to taunt me, knowing how badly I'd love to capture it in a frame or twenty...

It must be awesome to be fearless doing this. Knowing that if you fall, you have wings to lift you back up again.
I'm jealous, I am so scared of heights, and dangling

I counted 6 ruby-throated hummingbirds today. I saw counts as high as 12 yesterday. 

This little bird is perched on a thick wire for the adventure course within the park. The line almost as thick as the bird itself.

This bird is a female or immature bird. Adult males possess that iridescent ruby throat patch that gives them their name.

My most favorite thing about this little bird--- LOOK AT THOSE LITTLE FEETS WITH LITTLE HUMMINGBIRD TALONS!

Why so many hummingbirds? Jewelweed is in bloom EVERYWHERE. And these little birds need to fuel up for their journey all the way down to Mexico and Central America.

A fun view from the back, of that green that oddly lets them blend in quite well and hovering wings at work.

Anyone up for a quick game of baseball? I hope no one fouls one back within this back stop. I do not think these bald faced hornets would be too happy-- would definitely charge the mound.