My former dance partner reports a special warbler

Rebekah Creshkoff [right, with orange booties]
Photo by Ardith Bondi 12/13/04

Rebekah Creshkoff ( Yup, she was the other Cardinal at the Fifth Avenue nest-removal Protest five and 1/2 years ago] sent this note about an hour ago. Her sighting took place this morning [4/24/10] at a little after 8:00 a.m.:

Heard and saw a singing Orange-crowned Warbler along the ridge above Lasker Ridge [in the North Woods part of Central Park] today. It was low in shrubs at one point, so I got to look down on it. When he sang, he raised his "crest" (OK, the feathers on the back of his head) a little bit — and I could actually see their rusty orange color! The color was duller than I expected. And it was nothing like the narrow band on the top of a kinglet's head. Also present were Jim Demes, (who first saw it yesterday), Brenda Inskeep and Tom Perlman .

Rebekah and MW unmasked
photo by Cal Vornberger

PS Here's the Orange-crowned Warbler: