Thread: A New York Story --On Sunday, I was walking in West Chelsea, and I saw what looked like a gaggle of paparazzi outside a brownstone. 1/8

I was surprised, since there haven't been a lot of celeb sightings during the pandemic. As I moved closer, I saw that a lot of photographers and lookie-loos were looking up, apparently pointing to the building's roof. 2/8

Oh no, I thought. It's a jumper. Or a cat in distress. Or a fire. This year has been so hellish, I immediately assumed more bad news... 3/8

More and more people arrived, with longer lenses, cell phones, even binoculars. 4/8

I got to the "crime scene" and looked up. No celeb. No fire. No cat. The lookie-loos weren't pointing at a window, or a roof, but rather, a tree, with a few golden leaves still clinging to it. 5/8

I asked one photographer if he knew what was going on. In a soft voice he explained that a Western Tanager, a bird seldom seen in New York, had been spotted on West 22nd Street. "Look closely at the yellow leaf above the thick branch." 6/8

The bird, he told me, hadn't been seen in New York in four years, and may have been carried in by recent west winds (we were, after all, in West Chelsea). I felt great relief that all these folks had gathered--not to witness another 2020 loss--but rather to see a rare bird. 7/8

How lucky I was that a street full of New Yorkers reminded me that if you keep looking up, you might see something rare and wonderful. 8/8