A little birding drama this evening...

There were not as many birds to look at in Central Park (NYC) this week as one might usually expect to find during the 2nd week of May--the height of spring migration. (There were strong eastern winds and fog last Friday night into Saturday and that tropical storm down in the Carolinas seems to have the birds bunched up there still.) Yesterday and today began to pick up again, though.  After the dayjob today, I walked up to the park and had seven warblers within a half-hour (Magnolia, Amer. Redstart, Black & White, Yellowrump, Common Yellowthroat, Chestnut-sided and Blackpoll) and heard another two (Black-throated Blue and Ovenbird), as well as seeing a Great White Egret and a Green Heron.  I continued to the section of the Ramble called "The Point," as I'd been told there was a Canada there, but didn't find it.  

I did find my first-of-season Swainson's Thrush... (The farther bird--the closer one is a European House Sparrow.)

I found a Robin preening after taking a bath... (giving me the stink-eye, as I was interrupting!)

And a giant, threatening cloudbank was moving in and making the light awful, so I started to head out, stopping at the Oven to look for the singing Baltimore Oriole I was hearing.

I got distracted by a Northern Cardinal, who was too interested in eating seeds to worry about me standing a few feet from him...

Although then I heard a ruckus coming from The Point--I heard a Red-tailed Hawk screeching and Bluejays and Grackles, and then saw the latter chasing the former!

The Red-tailed sat in a tree screeching at the top of his lungs, while the Bluejays and Grackles were also screeching and hopping about and harassing the hawk.  He finally decided he had enough and took off toward The Point and flew over it, with the smaller birds still in pursuit!

(I'm pretty sure from how white this bird is, that this is "Pale Male"...)

So I thought that was an exciting end to the day, and it would be time to leave, but then I heard a scolding "chick, chick."  I looked up and saw red bird fly out from the tree where the hawk had been so briefly and thought, "Oh, another Cardinal..." but part of my brain thought the sound was different than the little scolding noise than that of a Cardinal.  (It seemed a bit slower and lower.)  I looked again and realized that it was a very upset Scarlet Tanager, who had probably witnessed the hawk and the harassing thereof first hand and up close!!  He only landed for a moment before flying off (in the other direction of the hawk!!), so my only photo of him is him taking off again.

(He's right above the bushiest part of the tree--here's a close-up.)

Then I decided that the sun was getting low and it was going to take a lot to top that, so I went home.