Here’s a short post, I hope. I had other things in mind but after visiting Riverside yesterday morning it seemed only fair to do a little recap of my visit. We are in the midst of a hot spell that isn’t going to break until Thursday morning. The winds were blowing from the southeast yesterday (today they are stronger from the southwest). I was surprised to find a few warblers hanging out in Riverside Lawn.

But first, I started out by crossing the Joliet Avenue bridge, where I found a Double-crested Cormorant that had just caught and eaten a fish.

Walking along the paved path in Riverside, I encountered a Gray Catbird. Later, coincidentally, I heard what was likely a young Gray Catbird trying out a whole bunch of sounds (they are mimics) and confounding Merlin which totally ignored it, likely because the jumble was too unique for the algorithm to figure out.

When I wasn’t seeing or hearing too many other birds at one point, I decided to take a picture of some asters that have cropped up everywhere.

I did stop to look around the low, grassy area on the other side of the paved walk. Among a lot of American Goldfinches (not represented here), I found this rather disheveled Song Sparrow.

Eventually I started seeing Yellow-rumped Warblers here and there.

A White-breasted Nuthatch was hugging a tree. I think by this time I had crossed the footbridge and I was walking around Riverside Lawn, starting first to see birds on the road that extends from the footbridge.

I caught a brief look at an American Redstart.

I managed to capture one Blackpoll Warbler.

I’ve been seeing Nashville Warblers for a couple weeks.

At some point I saw a young male House Finch.

Best of all was encountering a Black-throated Green Warbler low in a tree right in front of me. I heard its chip note first and then slowly raised my lens. I was nearly too close to capture it with some leaves in the way. This looks like a first-year bird.

There was a distant Tennessee Warbler somewhere up high.

I did see a nice Gray-cheeked Thrush yesterday morning as well. It seems like most of the thrushes have moved on. We had a lot more last week.

Below is one Yellow-rumped Warbler that tried to fly out of the frame.

Food for thought – someone has been ripening tomatoes on this stone bench by the Hofmann Tower.

It’s hard to believe it’s October already, especially with these temperatures. It’s going to be a busy month for me, but I will be back soon with more migration madness. Well, maybe it’s more like migration murmurs.