Sometimes, the birding gods cooperate quite nicely. I had too much to do and not enough time to do it, and then a Varied Thrush is discovered in Prospect Park. My only opportunity was Saturday March 9th after work, and I made plans to meet Capt’n Bob there.
He got a change of heart and decided to go there earlier, figuring “what the heck do I have to wait around for that guy?” There were a lot of birders in the park, so Bob certainly didn’t need my help...
I arrived some time after he did, he having already seen the bird. I arrived armed with a map of its previous location, but its having moved elsewhere made it less useful. So Bob met me by the ‘bridge’ and we joined crowd, where the bird was pointed easily out to me. It worked well for me that he had gone earlier!
A really nice looking bird, though sans camera, and in the shadows and behind brush made a photo not possible. What was nice was meeting Tom Stephenson, who was most kind and helpful with contacts for the upcoming NY Birders Conference, is scheduled to speak at the Queens County Bird Club’s April meeting, has a very nice blog on birding and photography, and will be coming out with a fantastic book on warblers soon. Can’t wait!
While viewing the Varied Thrush, Bob struck up a conversation with some of the folks there. One thing led to another and somehow I was mentioned. When I arrived at the crowd looking at the bird, Bob mentioned there is someone here that wants to meet you. It was fellow birder Tim Dunn who had emailed me several times about the Thick-billed Murre in Brooklyn back in January. While Jean Bob and I were looking at that bird from Bob’s boat, I was also answering emails. A face was put to the emails, and I was glad to hear that Tim had gotten the bird with our help.
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