Sometimes You Dip, Duck, and Win.

     On a whim, I drove out to the 5th Borough, Staten Island, hoping to see the Varied Thrush that has been there for at least a month. Of course I didn't see that or the yellow-breasted chat. But I saw other things and ended up spending more time than I thought I would at Clove Lake Park. I also saw some friends and made new ones, so it wasn't a complete washout of a trip.
     Many others looked for this bird and also came up empty handed, unless you were there prior to my arrival around 11:30, the bird was missed. But, I saw other things and things that I usually don't get such great looks at, plus some decent rarities.

Walked into the park, immediately ran into little black-capped acrobats (chickadees).

They also showed off their woodpecker-like prowess.

And shared their singing skills.

Great blue heron was unimpressed.
I learned the herons nest here, that's pretty cool!

I mostly enjoyed the lovely looks I got at hooded mergansers. The females are just as beautiful as the males with those feathery mohawks.

A funny mallard hen exhibiting some piebald leucism.

A male hooded merganser who challenged me to a stare-off. I realized he actually just wanted to get past the bridge I was standing on.

A lovely hen hooded merganser.

Just a small part of his little harem.

The stare-down get very serious. Then he dove with just one female, swam under the bridge, flew a short distance , and made it to his end goal on the other side. Left his little harem behind though.
Later, I saw a granddad and his grand kids trying to feed the ducks. except the ducks were merganser ducks. The kids kept running and the ducks kept flying. Grandpa said it was because they are "wild ducks," which is true, but so are the mallards that I think he was looking for. Really mergansers don't like crackers... or kids. Especially ones in giant unicorn hats running. Anyway, world at large, mergansers are fish and invertebrate eaters. Also, consider snacking on crackers and bread yourself, and not giving it to ducks.

Not a duck!
One of these -- well, two, of these birds are not like the others!
The herring gull is the easy answer.

That mini goose is the other!
A cackling goose! Nubby bill, compact car size, had to stretch its little neck to see over all the others.

Best bird of the day!
American Bittern!
These are the best kinds of birds, unexpected, normally never get such great looks, and super cooperative to get decent photo in really overcast conditions.
I also made a new friend too- I didn't find this bird, she, a young female birder did (great spotting!).

heh.
derp.

My very first memory of an American Bittern was a summer in high school up at Harvey's Lake in Vermont. The lake is famous because Jacques Cousteau dove there. It's close to our family's heart as my dad spent many a summer's there as a kid, a family member lived on the lake, and for many summers, our family would rent a cabin there. With no TV, we listened to mets games on the radio at night over a campfire, by day we fished, caught frogs, toads, snakes, acted like teenage girls taunting the boys across the lake, and canoed and explored the waterways.
On one canoeing adventure, we caught a few painted turtles, followed some ducks, and in rounding a corner at eye level with ourselves inside the canoe, from the reeds, it's bill pointed to the sky, neck extended, and frozen was this weird brown and white heron-thing. Even though it had its chin to us, its eyes were in total contact with ours, it froze like it was ice. My sisters and I also froze and gave a huge "WTF?!" We canoed away, unsure of being so close to this bird, I am pretty sure the bird took off, memory of how that concluded is blurry because I was so excited to see something I've never seen before.
I had at the time a National Geographic bird field guide (I still use it today as a place to write down and mark off birds where I first saw them) and I upon getting back, I looked up this weird bird we just encountered. And within it, the American Bittern is marked off as being first seen in Vermont for me!
Aside from this look, that was the best ever look I had at an American Bittern, and it will always be a happy memory of summers with my family.

Bittern are really good at being in paces where if you were just walking by, you'd 100% miss this decently-sized bird. Like I said, the finder had good eyes for finding this bird! Where she originally saw it was through thicket and brush against a small mud bank.

Thank you, Bittern, for making my trip well worth it! Winning.