A nice sunny day (though I noticed the sun wasn’t packing much punch, only 6 weeks from solstice) and my dad needed the car, so I biked to Moller Park for ultimate. I had decided to take a slight detour to check on the Marbled Godwit that has been hanging out near True Value when I was distracted by a warbler before I got there. It was hanging low moving between the ground and small bushes growing at the edge of the drop-off of the narrow outbound alley alongside True Value. I always want to check late fall warblers, so I stopped and took a quick look through my binoculars. I saw enough to be convinced that it was not one of our usual suspects. I tried to manage getting my bike out of the way, my camera out and lens changed to the long telephoto all as quickly as I could while not losing track of the bird.
By the time I had my camera ready to go, it had flown up the alley to a decent-sized shrub along the main road. I could see it moving around in there, but it did not cooperate for a photo (or I wasn’t fast enough) before flying across the busy road. Fortunately it didn’t fly far, and I managed to suppress the urge to dart out in front of traffic. I was able to get a few photos of it as it foraged on the ground in front of the old Moore Clinic.
I’m reasonably confident this is a Tennessee Warbler (overall yellow/green, white undertail coverts, no wing bars or anything), but would be happy to get corrected.
I did get back to see the Marbled Godwit (which I had already heard was still there) – it’s made it for a new late date for the state, I think. I also saw the continuing Northern Mockingbird when I went by the neighborhood where it’s been hanging out.
