My Big Month - Day 22

Well you may have noticed that I did not make it out birding at all yesterday the 21st, thus ending my streak of birding every single day this month. By 6:00pm after work I was "falling-asleep-tired" and I just had to take a day off and rest. Working 9 hours a day and then trying to get in 2 hours of birding plus another hour of sifting through photos and blogging has proven to be just too much lately. But after taking a hiatus for just one day I found myself back at Palmer Lake Park this evening after work. It has been raining off and on and turned much colder again. The temperature when I arrived was only 50 degrees, and with a fairly strong wind I actually considered wearing my stocking cap -though I'd finally put it away for good weeks earlier. I decided to tough it out and was SO glad that I did because of what I ended up seeing this evening. I'd parked on the south side tonight for some weird reason and as I made my way up the 2nd wood chip trail on the west side, I spotted something so bright red there was no way I could have missed it. I could hardly believe it but there on the ground only feet away from me was a male Scarlet Tanager!!! I've only seen a male once ever before in my life and he was very far away and hidden in the treetops. This one however was right beneath me so I instantly started snapping away with my camera. As I did he just continued to forage around through the muddy ground, turning over leaves and wood chips in search of food –and to my surprise, completely ignoring my presence! It dawned on me quickly that I might be able to stalk him for a while and see if I could get in closer and set myself up for a better photo. Luckily the area he was in was muddy and quiet to for me to walk right in and sure enough I found myself getting even closer than when I first spotted him. He was just so insanely bright red that it almost looked like he was glowing. And in the surrounding environment of dark mud and tiny green plants he was quite a sight! That neon-red plumage would make any Cardinal look drab in comparison. I attempted a few different times to place myself in a good spot to catch him in the open before he reached the spot, based on simply guessing which way he would be heading. He actually moved about quite slowly and a couple of times I got tired of waiting for him to come out from behind a log or branch. He tolerated all of my movement the whole time and never flew off once. I just couldn't believe how close he was letting me get. I shot an unbelievable amount of photos –209 to be exact– of just this one bird tonight. It was one of the most exciting bird sightings I've ever had, and after I watching him for nearly 35 minutes I didn't even care if I saw another single bird the rest of my walk -ha ha!

Total species seen today: Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Phoebe, Least Flycatcher, Ring-necked Pheasant, Mallard, Wood Duck, Canada Goose, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Waterthrush, Northern Cardinal, Great Blue Heron, Sora, Common Nighthawk, Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Song Sparrow, American Robin, Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Conditions: 50 degrees, windy and rainy.