Friday, November 20, 2020

Wild Wild West(ern Tanager)

The birding in Green-Wood Cemetery has been pretty great. My camera, surviving its fall and repaired and back, I finally got a new harness I like all just in time for some more good birds. When I went last Saturday, a report of a Western Tanager came in as I did. What luck, but of course I didn't see it. Thankfully two days later the bird was found and sighted reliably. And so, you know how it goes...
A few weeks back, the place was dripping with purple finch, siskins... and today, just this one female purple finch, down by the Dell Water.
I think the female purple finches are just darling. With no luck on the tanager, I headed home. The two days later, the bird was re-found.
On Tuesday, I start my work day late. So with a little baby and a little luck, I hoped I'd be able to see the Western Tanager. I was getting ready to head home and get on my laptop for work and then it was spotted.
I walked past a yew (the type of tree/shrub it has been hanging out in) that was full of berries and had plenty of cardinals feasting and thought, "this would be a good spot for it..." Of course, that's where it was, I literally could have walked past it the first time.
While Kestrel (baby) was a team player, I think she enjoyed watching the birds run back and forth around this massive bush. We stayed put and had some lovely views, despite the icky light conditions. This little yellow fellow felt a touch tropical on such a chilly morning.
It's always a good day when you can get a rare bird, and a county bird, AND get to work on time!

No comments:

Post a Comment