Saying Goodbye to Summer...

     If there is one season I have the hardest time letting go of, it is summer. I like warmth, I like long days, I like green trees and grass, I like wearing shorts, I like my flip flops, I like my sad excuse for a tan. I really despise winter, it is cold and depressing, I really was meant to be a reptile.
     Things are changing not just in the seasons but in my life. For the first time in 7 years I am not working in an establishment that focuses on animals. I have (very sadly) left my job at the Central Park Zoo to focus on my career as a science teacher. So starting Monday morning I will meet my first class of four that I will be teaching. My life is about to get incredibly stressful as a public school teacher in Brooklyn, NY - but it will be a good challenge, and I like challenges!
     So the last 2-3 weeks have been me doing the best that I can to prepare for that very first day. I have had a lot to do, especially after being in the school, seeing the layout of my day, and seeing the students I will have. I decided that this girl needed a meditative moment, and for me, those moments always take me to Prospect Park...

This is what it is always like taking photos of warblers...

Fall warblers: they are here! American Redstart!

A great blue heron on the Lullwater.

A green heron fishes with some pals, some red-eared sliders. 

An immature male wood duck did not like that I sat and watched the green heron. Possibly the same duck I saw last week.

This green heron did not catch anything while I was there, but was always amazingly still. 

I think this is a blackburnian warbler... Fall warblers are notoriously confusing.

This is what a breeding male looks like in spring.

So blurry, but I kind of love it.

The robins were snacking on this sumac tree.

An easy one, a black and white warbler walks up and down tree trunks. This is what they look like in spring.

A common yellowthroat. This is what he looked like in spring.