My first firecrest!
I saw my first firecrest ( Regulus ignicapilla)quite by chance this morning. Not first of the year , my very first. After a childhood spent with my head buried in bird field guides and a couple of decades since I’m thrilled. Of course they’re tiny , and fast , and the encounter lasted only a few moments but it was fantastic nevertheless, I only had my phone so an observation, let alone a research grade one , was pretty out of the question but I still wanted to celebrate it here as I’m pretty over the moon about it . I wonder if anyone else has ever randomly seem something they’ve been looking out for for years at an unexpected moment?
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It took about sixty years to see my first male scarlet tanager. Fortunately for me, there was a pair that nested on my property, so I enjoyed them for a season. Sightings are rare, but much less a 60 year gap!
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Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm! Because of you I looked it up, since I had never seen this bird before. It looks like quite the rockstar.
Nice style, bird.
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It took me several years of listening to a hermit thrush on our property before I finally got a picture… of it’s backside. It was another year before I could actually get a good picture. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142706705
It’s beautiful song almost tortured me, now I can finally enjoy it. I hope you get to see it again!
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well, it’s possible to confuse firecrests for goldcrests, so check if it isn’t.
It is , I am however almost certain that this was a firecrest ( the white around the eyes ) . Nevertheless if it was a goldcrest that’s be my first too ! The crests have been hiding from me it seems .
That’s a very good photo . Birds are difficult unless you have lenses that cost more than rent I feel . It’s not a bird I’m at all familiar with but I’m going to have to look into the birds of Tennessee now 
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Ok, I am not a bird identifier, I just know know that the two are similar; I instead like to id most planthoppers.
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