You win some, you lose some. I rarely chase birds, but these two seemed too close to ignore, so I biked down to Redhook in the early morning cold yesterday, and hunted up and down the shore behind the Fairway, and over along Erie Basin, but saw no sign of the Red Phalarope that had thoughtfully appeared for the Brooklyn CBC the day before. I did however see about a dozen Bufflehead, two American Widgeon, five Gadwall, four Greater Scaup, and assorted Mallards and Black Ducks and various permutations of the two. Later yesterday afternoon, I popped up to the Museum of Natural History and promptly encountered the Rufous Hummingbird by the North Entrance (@ Rose Planetarium). It must be grateful for the late-blooming Mahonia plants that are in the small ornamental gardens there. It was quite cold yesterday, and the hummer was puffed up to almost spherical proportions and perching while feeding, presumably to save energy. What was not helping it save energy were two well-meaning but possibly misguided wildlife rehabilitators, who were chasing it around and attempting to capture it with a small fish-tank dip net and a net of the sort one would use to land a bass. They also had a small cardboard box into which they were hoping to pop the hummer once captured. I was skeptical of their credentials given their distinctly non-professional equipment, but they had official-looking business cards and rehab IDs. They said they were going to feed the hummingbird and then put it on a plane to send it down south, where it would stand a better chance of surviving the winter. I have to agree, with their metabolic requirements, it could be hard for a hummingbird to survive a northern winter. I have my doubts as to whether they were able to catch this agile little bird with their fish-nets (they were still trying when I wandered off to look at the origami christmas tree in the museum), but if so, I may have been one of the last people to see the bird before it's packed off southward. And if it's nowhere to be seen today, now you know why. Interesting birding, Gabriel WillowNYC Audubon --
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