I was in the city Monday. There is a 19 acre public gardens there. I was looking under some yew bushes for seeds when I heard leaves rustle. My first impression was grouse from years of hearing that sound but it could have been anything. I saw somebody looking at a pigeon later on with binoculars and casually asked if she saw any unusual birds. She said the gardens were heavily birded by a few people who post sightings on ebird.org. I was about to ask what the rarest thing was when she said someone she knew posted a ruffed grouse sighting on Sunday with a picture to prove it. A ruffed grouse in a heavy urban center a mile plus from any grouse habitat. Pretty unusual, I thought! I checked ebird.org and there it was.
The other 100 species on the gardens list seemed more usual. The grouse was the outlier to me. Also, notably there were no pheasants like I expected.