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I headed out earlier, with gym stuff in my backpack in case I was so inclined, and a set of possible plans, ranging from "just look at the ducks" to "gym and Chinatown," and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cattitude planning to accompany me a little way in the park. We ran into three people with binoculars, and asked them what they saw. It turned out to be a Greater Yellow-legs (Tringa melanoleuca), a kind of sandpiper we'd never seen before. Enter Plan 6: go back inside for our field glasses, Cattitude's digital camera, and the Peterson's guide.
The Yellow-legs was still around (and stayed quite a while): I watched it through the binoculars as it ran back and forth, fishing in the shallow water as the tide came in. Cattitude took pictures, and eventually asked for the binoculars.
We also saw the local bald eagles, for the first time this summer: I like it that the bald eagle was not the highlight of our bird-watching, though a pleasure to see circling overhead. We sat a while, talking a bit and looking at the river, the boats going by, a red-winged blackbird on the path, the blue-and-clouded sky. A pleasant way to spend some time together, and I was startled to see, when we came back in, that it was only 3 o'clock. I got out the other bird book, the Audubon guide we got first, to add the Greater Yellow-legs to our joint life-list in the back, and was again startled, by seeing that this was the first new bird in over a year. (But that's partly because I haven't put down osprey yet, despite being sure by now of the identity of the birds on that nesting platform. I still want a closer, longer look than from a moving train.)
cattitude planning to accompany me a little way in the park. We ran into three people with binoculars, and asked them what they saw. It turned out to be a Greater Yellow-legs (Tringa melanoleuca), a kind of sandpiper we'd never seen before. Enter Plan 6: go back inside for our field glasses, Cattitude's digital camera, and the Peterson's guide.The Yellow-legs was still around (and stayed quite a while): I watched it through the binoculars as it ran back and forth, fishing in the shallow water as the tide came in. Cattitude took pictures, and eventually asked for the binoculars.
We also saw the local bald eagles, for the first time this summer: I like it that the bald eagle was not the highlight of our bird-watching, though a pleasure to see circling overhead. We sat a while, talking a bit and looking at the river, the boats going by, a red-winged blackbird on the path, the blue-and-clouded sky. A pleasant way to spend some time together, and I was startled to see, when we came back in, that it was only 3 o'clock. I got out the other bird book, the Audubon guide we got first, to add the Greater Yellow-legs to our joint life-list in the back, and was again startled, by seeing that this was the first new bird in over a year. (But that's partly because I haven't put down osprey yet, despite being sure by now of the identity of the birds on that nesting platform. I still want a closer, longer look than from a moving train.)