The last week of October...perfect for a Brooklyn picnic.
But refueling al fresco was rare yesterday afternoon, except among the birds. The swans near the Lullwater Bridge dabbled for goodies in the duckweed, which they believe should be named swanweed.
Much flitting about near the stream that borders the Nethermead. I may not have a DSLR, but now I do have a 50X zoom! "Fine if you want to carry around a telescope," huffed one online reviewer of the Canon PowerShot SX50. Yeah? You say that like it's a bad thing! This little shaver, I believe, is a song sparrow, although he was mostly gorging on pokeweed berries, not singing. (Note: If I get my bird ID wrong, please correct me in the comments!)
A white-throated sparrow, I think. He's got a white throat, and a yellowish patch above his beak.
Those were what birders call "good birds." But "bad" birds—commonplace, often invasive or introduced—have their charms, like Darwinian pluck. This looks like your basic McDonalds-parking-lot sparrow (the "European house sparrow"), but in the park wilds, she was lovely, feasting on dried flowerheads.
And I try to hate starlings, but they can be so handsome, and their whoop-it-up whistles on a lovely morning cheer me. This guy was so fluffed out he looked like a kiwibird.
I saw lots of warblers, but they are incessantly in motion. "Twerking" should refer to warbler locomotion among leaves, not vile dance-floor contortions. I did capture what I believe to be a ruby-crowned kinglet as the "Blurry Bird of the Day." Forget about ever seeing their ruby crowns.
Finally, on the lake's western shore, a dour cormorant kept watch. If you doubt that birds are the last living dinosaurs, check out those eyes...and feet.
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