Sleep-in Saturday

Sure, it was cold and grey this morning, but the air was so still I thought I might get a lot of pictures anyway. The critters had different plans, however, and I saw very few of them today.

One fun picture I did finally manage to capture is this one of the two merganser hens up on the ice at the same time. Now you can really see the difference between a hooded merganser, on the left, and a much-larger common merganser, on the right.

Also, the bufflehead pair were back on the open water again. Always a treat to see.

Finally, a goldeneye hen almost repeated the photo shoot the drake offered up yesterday.

But just while she caught her breath. Then she went right back to foraging on the bottom.

I did not see a coyote today, I am sorry to report, but the audience they so generously granted me yesterday yielded so many pictures that I still have some to show you today.

What magnificent creatures, eh? I am so glad to finally see them in Estabrook.

I read that coyotes can act as keystone predators and so “play an important role in regulating the herbivorous mammals and hence may provide similar ecological benefits in urban/suburban forest fragments through trophic cascades.”

Based on reports that I’ve heard, I’m sure they’ve been here all along, but I somehow managed to miss them until recently. I have no idea what has changed all of a sudden, but I’ll take it!