You know it's fall when...

...you see the Winter Wren

...you go to the park and all the fall birds have arrived--White-throated Sparrows, Juncos, and Titmice. The ubiquitous and year-round House Sparrows have started flying around in puffed and close-knit flocks, and if you look closely, you see a migrant or two, like this Black-throated Blue Warbler, stopping on its way south:

The little Winter Wren (at top) is only 4 inches long. When it stretches out its neck at the foot of a tree (they're bush dwellers), its whole body moves. It's not really big enough to move just its head. Luckily, its tail sticks up for balance. I saw one Tuesday--a real treat, because I've only seen one once before!

Some birds are just around in unusual numbers, like the Phoebe and the Blue Jay. The Robins haven't left yet, but the Grackles have arrived, and so has the Sapsucker. Even the Pigeons are flying around in circles instead of barely getting out of the way of the buses. It's a gregarious, bustling moment.

But I'm holding out for the Golden-crowned Kinglets, my favorites of all the songbirds. They usually pass through in flocks at about this time:

All photos from Wikipedia Commons

UPDATE, October 11: We saw our Kinglets today! They were all over the North Woods of Central Park, both the Golden-crowned and the Ruby-crowned. They were extremely cooperative, hanging upside down off branches at close range and at eye-level. They almost seemed to be following us!

We also saw another Winter Wren. We were actually there because someone had reported a Sedge Wren, a bird which hasn't been seen in NYC in forty years. We knew where it had been seen this morning, but alas, it was a no-show. Still, a lovely day with lots of birds!

***

Whenever we've had a moment this week, C.Z. and I have been looking at everything we can find under the microscope. I doubt this is systematic enough to "count" as lab science, but it's really fun! This week we've seen hair, mold, an onion tip, leaf cells, bacteria, diatoms, other unidentified micro-organisms, and a Euglena. I suppose high school science teachers wouldn't be impressed, but I thought it was hilarious when C.Z. put down her violin right in the middle of Nutcracker practice, put her eye up to the microscope and started talking to the light-shy Euglena, whom we had to constantly chase down, "Oh, you're so cute! I see you found something to eat. That's great!" And who knew that protists could dance to "The Waltz of the Flowers"?