A slow and sleepy Monday in Estabrook

Today started just as yesterday did, cool and dark, but it just stayed that way, and the birds were laying low. I didn’t see a single warbler, and the geese and goslings, mallards and wood ducks, blackbirds and grackles all seemed to be doing fine at the pond without them.

By the river, the robin moms were keeping the robin chicks warm in their nests, and I did see a hairy woodpecker coming out of the nesting cavity I spotted yesterday, but still have no presentable pictures.

Instead, I did manage to capture this green heron over the river…

And this killdeer beside the river. I never knew they had a little red ring around their eye.

Without so many birds to distract me, I finally noticed some new flowers up in the park.

The starry false lily of the valley or little false Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum stellatum) have opened beside the river trail.

The downy yellow violet (Viola pubescens) is also up, and I think the last violet to bloom in the park. The purple, blue, white, and several mixes in between are all still up, so now’s you chance to see them at the same time.

I spotted these American black currant (Ribes americanum) in bloom beside the river.

Finally, I caught a pair of brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) foraging close enough together, for a change, to be in the same image. They turn out to be quite social birds, gathering little groups of males and females, given that they lay their eggs in the nests of other species to be incubated and raised.

That is all.