Friday afternoon as I was waiting for AB (my girlfriend) to get home, I wandered across the street from her apartment into the fringes of the Toftrees state gamelands. I took my binocs because I knew I'd heard a Wood Thrush from that direction on several mornings, and I was just hearing the crescendo of an amazingly loud Ovenbird.
I looked up, trying to locate the Ovenbird in my binocs, scanning the treetops for movement, when I spotted it: a dark red bird with jet-black wings. 'OHMYGOD it's a scarlet tanager!' I just kept whispering that sentence over and over as I watched this beautiful male SCTA preen and sun himself. Of course I didn't have my camera! That would've been too perfect! But I did get to watch him for about ten seconds when he decided he'd had enough of that branch and flew away.
Wow. So worth waiting for! I never saw the Ovenbird--I was too excited to even remember the Ovenbird (I've had great looks at them before).
Coming in at 201 on the lifelist: Scarlet Tanager!
I'm going back there tonight, and you can bet I'll have my camera.
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On a depressing note, read this. Of all the disappointments we've suffered since Obama took office, this one really hits hard.
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