Monthly Archives: July 2020

First, the good news. A monarch butterfly seemed to really enjoy that eastern purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) on which we saw a green inchworm just yesterday. A few birds seem much more willing to pose for a picture recently. From top/left to bottom/right, we’ve got an American goldfinch, who we last saw on some CanadaContinue reading “It seems some kids might not be alright…”

Our top story today is that Anne took me out to the south parking lot of Estabrook Park to see the Neowise comet last evening, and we found it pretty easily with the help of some binoculars, right below the big dipper as advertised. That’s the first time I’ve seen the tail of a cometContinue reading “Still no wiser…”

It’s another hot and humid day in the park. The sky keeps threatening, but the rain has left the Farmers market alone for now. The ducks are taking the day off, and the painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) seem to be in no mood. The tiger lilies, aka tawny lily (Hemerocallis fulva) are open along theContinue reading “A good Sunday for laying low…”

First things first, since I know you’re worried, all the ducklings looked hale and hearty this morning: the single wood duck on the pond, two broods of five mallards each on the oxbow pond, and one brood of two older mallards on the river south of the falls. The wood duck hen even snagged anotherContinue reading “The kids are alright.”

I am thrilled to report that the wood duck hen and her duckling continue to look like they are thriving on the pond. I saw them both yesterday afternoon and again this morning, and both times, mom repeated her trick of snagging something nutritious right out of the water. The entré in the image belowContinue reading “Waterfowl abound!”

It’s a banner day on the pond, boys and girls, so let’s get right to the main event! That’s right! Mrs. Wood Duck has a duckling, and it appeared quite energetic this morning. I read that “they usually nest in cavities in trees close to water, although they will take advantage of nesting boxes,” and IContinue reading “Double the excitement!”

I finally got that nice shot of an indigo bunting (Passerina cyanea) I’ve been after for months. He was by the canoe/kayak launch and pretty high up, so still not super crisp, but you can see the little glint of his eye, which suggests that he’s at least in focus. Even the background isn’t tooContinue reading “Some birds put on a show…”

There were Canada geese on the pond this morning, which we haven’t seen in weeks, but I’ll spare you one more goose picture, and let’s start with some of the other familiar faces. From the animal kingdom, the mallard family with the one yellow duckling continues to hang out in the oxbow pond beside theContinue reading “Three kingdoms”

With the Farmers Market, Beer Garden, and beautiful weather added to the usual Sunday crowd, I tried the find the quietest spots I could, which tend to be along the river, and this is the oddball cast of characters I found there. First up is a young blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata), old enough to fly,Continue reading “A river grab bag”

I found our Mrs. Wood Duck down on the river yesterday afternoon, instead of up on the pond where we just saw her last, and it appeared that she had some youngins with her, but they quickly got and stayed out of sight. I didn’t see them this morning, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled.Continue reading “Down to the river they went…”