Golden (Frozen?) Swamp Warbler

Hey folks,

I birded my typical 'loop' today, biking through Lakeshore, Vet's Park, McKinley, and Lake Park. While numbers are certainly dwindling, there were still 10 duck species present, though many species represented by very few individuals (1 Redhead, 4 BW Teal, 3 C Goldeneye, 5 Bufflehead, 4 Ruddies). I was caught off guard by a Forster's Tern (83) that swooped in front of me at McKinley before landing on one of the dock posts, allowing me to sharpen up some pretty rusty Tern ID skills (let's just say that a peculiar shadow that made the Tern's bill appear quite black had me on edge for a little bit). The northern edge of McKinley Marina to Lake Park gave me my first (thousand?) Bonaparte's Gulls (84) for the year.

From this point, I headed into Lake Park. The feeders at Wolcott Statue had a pretty decent sparrow collection, including a female Eastern Towhee (85). Lots of Winter Wrens and loads of Hermit Thrushes throughout the park. Finally tracked down my first Palm Warbler (86) as well.

I was doubling back through the Locust Ravine around 6 PM, ready to head home, when a flash of yellow caught my eye. I was very surprised when my binoculars revealed a Prothonotary Warbler (87) bathing in the creek. Definitely a bird I'm used to seeing during the summers growing up in southern Ohio, and not a bird I thought I'd ever see amongst Juncos with temps in the low-40s (and a new Lake Park bird for me as well!!!). The bird was south of the feeders of the northern end, in a puddle beneath an 8-foot snag just off of the trail in Locust Ravine. After about one minute I lost the bird, and worked the length of the ravine for another hour, but failed to relocate it. Sorry about the Twitter post, totally forgot to sign my initials! I'm planning on birding Lake Park tomorrow morning, I'll post if I luck into it again!

Can't wait for things to truly begin picking up shortly here!!! May 9th was a big fallout last year... that's just over two weeks from today!!!