Happy Labor Day!

The air felt even cooler, dryer, and calmer than yesterday with the same blue sky and warm sun, so just a perfect morning in Estabrook. The critters, however, must have heard about the holiday and most seemed to be taking the day off, but some still needed to catch their breakfast anyway, holiday or no. Here are their pictures.

There was a nice bank of fog rising off the pond before the sun came over the trees, so a shot of our young night-heron dozing in its usual spot across the water wasn’t worth the effort. Luckily, there were two green herons, and one was just off the near shore intently staring at the water.

The trees over the north end of the pond, which were humming with activity of all sorts yesterday, were quiet this morning, so I made my way to the river, which had its own layer of fog. Undaunted, I headed north and was rewarded by this sight at the boardwalk below the beer garden.

Yes indeedy, that’s my best hummingbird picture to date and my first of the season despite two previous glimpses recently. I am less thrilled to report, however, that this poor thing was attracted by all the lures and bobbers left hanging from a tree between the boardwalk and the water by careless fishermen. The bird left unscathed, thank goodness, and we can hope that it found the calories elsewhere to replace those spent on all that wasted effort. Until now, I thought those “ornaments” were merely a minor eyesore, but now I see that I must redouble my efforts to rid the park of them. Here are shots of the bird checking out a lure (first, on the left) and then a bobber (second, on the right)..

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Anyway, moving along, once the hummingbird gave up, I was treated to this cardinal busily working on a little clump of staghorn sumac seeds, right on the railing of the boardwalk, while keeping at least one eye trained on me.

Also at the boardwalk is yet another pretty new aster coming into bloom, and this one appears to be smooth blue aster (Symphyotrichum laeve).

At the north end, the shovelers have moved on, the merganser was still there but even less photogenic than yesterday, and one blue heron was fishing.

The trees beside the river were also less hopping than yesterday, but I did spot this one, shy, little Nashville warbler.

In the goldenrod below the trees, a monarch was more interested in soaking up some sun than nectar.

On my walk home, the chipmunks continue their frenzied nut gathering, and when this one spotted me, it froze just long enough for me to take this picture.

Finally, this little wood thrush did just about the same thing.

And that’s a wrap.