Plenty to see on a gray Monday…

Despite the weather, or perhaps because of it, it was quite a nice morning in Estabrook. I didn’t get there especially early, but I still got to make the first human footprints in a lot of the fresh sloppy snow lying on many parts of the river trail.

Things were pretty quiet on my way north, and I didn’t see much more than scenery and this hungry gray squirrel.

At the far north end, though, at least one male common goldeneye has finally arrived from Canada, and he was looking splendid. Last winter, they tended to stick together, so if there were more, I probably would have seen them. Here’s hoping they’re not far behind, right?

The bufflehead pair was just off the southern tip of the southern island again, and here’s the male tilting his head just right to show off some iridescence for us.

The woodpeckers were out, and just as I was about to take this hairy‘s picture, it opted to make it an action shot. I had my shutter nice and slow for the low light, but I think you can still get the gist of it.

At the falls, this herring gull just about dared me to take its picture, and who am I to say no.

At the south end, a couple of our favorite anglers were working the eastern shore, and here’s the kingfisher.

And here’s the blue heron.

As you can imagine, I wasn’t the only one making footprints in the snow, and here are a bunch that appear to be from squirrels.

And here’s a no-nonsense set from a good sized canid that I followed for nearly half the park without any sign of an accompanying human, so I’m guessing they’re from our wily coyote, making its morning rounds.

I also caught glimpses of prints the looked like rabbit, raccoon, and deer.

Finally, here’s just some interesting ice on the river after last night’s wet snow.