My lunch date

On nice days, I like to enjoy my lunch at a spot in Central Park right where 6th Ave hits the park, and there's a narrow strip of the pond that is opposite the nature preserve. I hadn't been there for a while, but this week I saw a green heron, only about 4 yards away, perched out on a branch over the water. I hadn't seen anything interesting that day, and I was just giving up and walking back, when I passed him. It was so nice to have that wonderful feeling of getting totally surprised by a new bird you didn't expect to see.

He was there when I came back the next day. I sat on a bench eating my lunch and watching him catch his. He kept trying to creep out onto branches hanging over the water that were a little too thin for him, and was falling and slipping all over. It was pretty adorable.

Here's a link to a really good site of a high school art class's paintings of birds:

Birds at
the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park