Bare Naked Birding Hoffman Park

I birded without binoculars for about 20 minutes in Hoffman Park after dropping my kids off at school. Nice close looks at several Common Yellowthroats, a Wood Thrush, and Northern Parula. But best birds were locally uncommon Blue Grosbeak seen closely but briefly, and a male Orchard Oriole seen in a distant oak tree. While I would have preferred to have my binoculars with me, I was surprised how much I was able to see without them--and only had a few birds slip away without my being able to identify them. Bare naked birding makes you pay more attention to the birds close by, which was good, and helped me to slow down and not try to cover too much ground (I only walked a quarter mile at the most). What with the Baltimore Oriole seen from my hotel this morning, and several other birds seen driving around, I'm well over my minimum 20 species Bird RDA.