Farther up the trail, I came across a group of migrants that included American Redstart, Northern Parula, Red-eyed Vireo, and Yellow-throated Vireo.
At the top of the hill, I came across a Scarlet Tanager in a transitional plumage.
On the way back down to the creek, I suddenly found myself surrounded by birds. There were at least 30 warblers flitting around the tops of the trees and several more birds were at mid-level. I was overwhelmed, not knowing which bird to look at! Because of the overcast skies, most of the birds at the tree tops were only appearing as silhouettes, so I concentrated on the lower level birds. I was able to definitely identify a Red-eyed Vireo and warblers that included a Canada, a Chestnut-sided, a Bay-breasted, a Blackburnian, a Black-throated Green, 2 Black-and-whites, 2 American Redstarts, and another Northern Parula.
Down along the creek, I ran into another small group of migrants, which contained 4 Tennessee Warblers and another Northern Parula.
I eventually got back to the pavilion area across the road from the visitor center and sat down on a rock to take a break. I looked across the road at the tops of all the snags behind and beside the visitor center and noticed a slender-looking bird atop one of those snags. When I brought up my binoculars, the bird looked like it had real potential to be an Olive-sided Flycatcher. Most birds that I've seen show just a slim line of white between the dark streaking on the sides, but the dark streaks on this bird were pretty much restricted to its sides, and there were no noticeable white tufts visible near the base of the tail. I took some long-distance photos before walking towards it.
It flew off to grab what appeared to be a Spotted Lanternfly and then returned to the same snag.
I eventually got a better view of its back, which had bold white edgings to its tertials. This also didn't seem quite right for Olive-sided.
Despite these questionable points, there was nothing else that fit this bird. It had the dark, peaked head, mostly-dark bill, a fairly clean white throat, and a short tail. It WAS an Olive-sided Flycatcher. I got the word out to other birders and eventually worked my way a little closer for these much better photos.
So, after walking almost three miles around the park, I found this bird right by the parking lot. A birding friend used to always joke that you needed to accumulate what he called "suffer points" before you got rewarded with a notable bird. In this case, he was right.
On the way back home, I saw one Lesser Yellowlegs at the Hollo Road pond, and the Great Egret continued at the eastern Northwood Avenue retention pond.
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