CONW

     Last week, the baby and I headed to Green-Wood Cemetery to try our luck. I had no targets, just to catch a few migrating birds. But then I did what I try not to do, I checked the whatsapp alerts. A Connecticut Warbler in Green-Wood. Oh how tempting. So many reports of them lately, and still a bird I have yet to see...

    When I and another birder got to the place it was reported in earlier, the cacophony of mowers, blowers, weed-whackers; bad news bears. No way would it still be there. 

    We both went to the Dell Water, close enough near to that original site. Still growing wild, un-mowed for the entire season. The baby got into a fussy mood, something she never does, maybe her warbler senses were tingling. Maybe she was like, no dum-dum, the bird you're looking for is on the other side of the pond...

As she cried, I noticed the tree next to us was dripping with redstarts. 
This is what most American Redstart photos look like.

They also may look like this...

 And sometimes you get real lucky.
As I stood and coddled my crying daughter, I also saw a Wilson's warbler (needed that for the year), an indigo bunting, a brown thrasher, red-eyed vireos, and lots of common yellowthroats.

A quick change of the diaper, a bottle, and some strolling finally brought her some calm. And we saw a few more birds. A veery popped up and something felt good about this area, also caught a red-eyed vireo on the ground. Perhaps we were onto something,

And then something small popped up onto some low branches.
Grey above, yellow below, and quite dull... full eyering.
We just stared at each other.
I grabbed as many (out of focus) photos as I could.
But even this cruddy photo shows another field mark I learned about, those long undertail coverts (butt feathers) that extend almost to the tail tip.
So there, I got my lifebird (and some doughnuts after), a well behaved baby for it, and I was able to identify it and re-find it (because its likely the bird seen earlier).
I hope I'll see one again and try for a better photo!

For a small chunk of Saturday, the Kiddo and I are participating in the Brooklyn Birdathon. Consider supporting us, team Baby's First Birdathon!