A Tale of Two Tanagers....

The Scarlet Tanager is one of my favorite birds--such a spectacular color!!  So  I was thrilled to find 3 in one tree the other day, when southwest winds finally brought migrating birds to Central Park this month!  (I was also glad, as I was dragging my friend David around the park with me -- I was worried I'd be boring him, but fortunately there were birds to see.)  However, the light was =awful=...you can hardly tell that this bird is red:

There were so many birds to look at, however, that we continued walking.  At one point David said, "What are all those birders looking at?"  I couldn't tell, but knew several of them and we walked over--they had a Summer Tanager high in a tree.  If you're not a birder or if you're not familiar with spring migration in Central Park, a Scarlet Tanager is a beautiful red bird with black wings, and several usually come through the park each spring.  A Summer Tanager is all red (ok, these are the males of each species that I'm discussing--the females are yellow!), and there are fewer of them, so I consider it a big-deal bird.  I looked back in my notebook and the last one I saw was in May 2011.  (There were likely some seen by others last year, but I probably wasn't in the park on that day or couple of days...)  There was no point trying to take a picture with my little point and shoot camera though, with it so far away.

THEN, he flew way down to eye level!

Ooh!  Aren't you pretty--Now turn around and let people see your red wings...

Thank you. It would be nice to see you even closer, maybe, too...

Good golly...are you going to take a bath in front of all these people!?

Oh, what a show--now dry off each side for everyone!

Oh, my goodness, for having to wait 2 years to see one, this was a pretty spectacular show.

I'll confess, though, that I was still disappointed that I didn't get a good shot of the Scarlet....then one appeared this afternoon and seemed to be a total show-off!!
Hello!

Yes, I'll let you see my wings, too...

I'll even sit in the sunshine for you!!

So I'm absolutely thrilled.  Someday I'll have a bigger camera with more zoom and will have more experience, but for today, I'm very happy to be able to share these :)