Chirps and Cheeps

Today I birded Chestnut Ridge Park with my son and sister-in-law to take advantage of Deb's visit from out-of-town and the picture-perfect day. We didn't find many birds, other than a few Dark-eyed Juncos, a couple of Blue Jays, the ubiquitous Black-capped Chickadee, and, to my delight, several Yellow-rumped Warblers. We heard a Pileated Woodpecker, but never did lay eyes on it.  The hike, itself, was a lot of fun, though, and we made it down to the Eternal Flame and back without mishap!

Later, I decided to do a little backyard birding and found much more variety in shorter bit of time than what we found at the Ridge.  I was so pleased to find a couple more Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker, 2 Gray Catbirds, 3 Northern Cardinals, several Blue Jays and Juncos, 2 White-crowned Sparrows, a White-throated Sparrow, 5 American Gold Finches, 4 American Robins, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird at the feeder, and then the biggest treat of all - a gorgeous male Scarlet Tanager! Wow!  What eye candy!  I managed to get a few halfway decent photos of him as well as the Yellow-rumped Warbler.