Wait for It

 By Keith Michael

In current parlance, “Wait for It” is shorthand for “What you’re looking at right now might not seem like much but, if you stop scrolling for a few seconds, there’s a whopping payoff!”

 Much of bird watching, and much of one’s day for that matter, is certainly a “Wait for It” scenario. There is the ongoing drone of much of it. There are the story-making highlights in answer to “What did you do today?” But there can also be a delightful undertone of that audience participation line from The Rocky Horror Picture Show: “Antici…’SAY IT!’…pation!” Waiting whets one’s appetite for the end-game thrill. In fact, “waiting” frequently IS the thrill that enhances the finale.

 Here’s a sampling of what I waited for in the past month.

 Wait for it. I waited (and waited) for a home vendor to show up. Hearing of yet another delay, I scrolled through Manhattan Rare Bird Alert. To my surprise, an unusually cooperative Blue Grosbeak had showed up in an East Village garden off of First Avenue.

 Wait for it. I’d heard about an uncommon southern Swainson’s Warbler that had been, inexplicably, hanging in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Went. Ah, there it is. No waiting needed. Since it’s still early, I’d also heard about a Red Fox den with kits! Went. Waited. Two hours in the woods. There’s one now. The next hour and a half was playtime for four tumbling kits, until Mom showed up, and they all went back into the den. 

 Wait for it. My destination for the April Full “Pink” Moon rise was the New Jersey side of the Hudson River for an alignment over 42nd Street. My May destination was Plumb Beach in Brooklyn for the beginning of the annual Horseshoe Crab mating season. They’ve been waiting a year for this.

 Wait for it. There is NOTHING like waiting for Great Horned Owls and their owlets. Perhaps waiting for that NEXT photo, after the hundreds already on my memory card, will be the “keeper” shot.

 Wait for it. The Bathing Rocks at the southeast corner of the pool at 103rd Street in Central Park is a charmed location for amiable waiting. Those firebrand, orange and black Baltimore Orioles singing high in that tree, just might come down for a refreshing bath. Nope. Not today.

 Wait for it. Any sunset is worth waiting for. But when you stick it out for 15 or 20 minutes afterwards, the sky explodes in reds, oranges, pinks, and purples. That’s when the magic happens. I highly recommend going to the roof deck of Pier 57.

 Wait for it. While waiting for birds to show up, butterflies are a lovely distraction. Recently, an American Lady butterfly posed for its portrait in Hudson River Park’s “Apple Garden.” Red Admiral butterflies, Cabbage Whites, and a lone, early Monarch butterfly joined the show.

 Wait for it. Heading home, walking down West 10th Street, an intermittent caroling overhead interrupted my already-late-for-a-lunch-date stride. Finally, a prize male Rose-breasted Grosbeak peeked out from high in the trees, though never showing all of himself for his seconds-of-fame shot. And I didn’t have time to wait for it.

 Wait for it. A spring thing for me is looking for Piping Plovers at Fort Tilden, part of the Gateway National Recreation Area in the Rockaways. These charismatic, diminutive shorebirds winter in the Bahamas, but return each summer to live dangerous lives on this popular beach. Few breeding pairs make it home and fewer chicks survive to return another summer. One of four people I passed that afternoon asked me, “Did you see the Humpback Whale breach?” (Did that sink in? I’m on an NYC beach, in a metropolitan area of 10 million people, and in an entire afternoon, I only saw four other people on a three-mile stretch of sand!). After a beach-long search with no Piping Plovers giving a peep, I waited to see if that Humpback might make another appearance. More than an hour later, a flock of gulls and cormorants suddenly headed west toward Raritan Bay off of Staten Island. Sure enough, there was the pectoral fin slapping of a Humpback Whale! Then, a blow. THEN, a concert of tail slapping. What a day!

 I just had to go back for the Piping Plovers. Which I did. And. Wait for it. There they were.

 Find a spot that you love. Just wait.