Steve Quinn's triumph: rare bird and new book.

Photo 1.
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Photo 2.


Photo 3.


Photo 4.


Photo 1, above, shows members of Steve Quinn's Tuesday morning Central Park bird class at the Maintenance Meadow yesterday morning [4/11/06]. Everybody's looking at some Palm Warblers except, of course, me. I'm taking the photo. The man with the white cap at the front center is Quinn, who is senior projects manager at the American Museum of Natural History. I've signed up for this walk every spring for many years, mainly because Quinn is a wonderful birder and leader. His skills at birding by ear are legendary, and as you may know, that is my favorite part of birdwatching. He is also an accomplished nature and bird artist.

Photo 2 shows the south-western part of the Lake, seen through the beautiful new leaves of a big willow. This is where Steve Quinn [and consequently his entire bird class] spotted a bird that is extremely rare for Central Park: a Tricolored Heron. Though the species is not uncommon at Jamaica Bay and other nearby seaside locations, there have only been two or three sightings of this bird in the park during the last century. [The bird was clearly seen, but not photographed.]

Photo 3 shows the cover of Steve Quinn's just-published book about the great wildlife habitat dioramas at the Natural History museum. I copied the picture from the Amazon.com website, where the book may be ordered. It is also at Barnes & Noble and many other bookstores.

I just threw in Photo 4. There you see the Early Birders this morning [4/12/06] looking at a Louisiana Waterthrush. They are standing at the Point, one of the best warbler-viewing locations of the Ramble.