Changing of the guard.

The beautiful weather yesterday seems to have caused a regular “changing of the guard” in Estabrook Park. Today, all the common mergansers, hooded mergansers, and buffleheads were gone, and they were replaced by golden-crowned kinglets, which were thick along the river.

I did see one red-breasted merganser drake, perhaps the one we saw on the pond a few days ago, and one goldeneye drake, but they both kept to the far shore of the river. The kingfisher and killdeer were also around, but had no time for pictures this morning. The one subject who did sit still and close enough, if well hidden, was the great horned owl again. Here you can see one closed eye and one “horn”.

Finally, the muskrat must have heard from the beaver yesterday that I was offering free portraits, and so it came out for my best muskrat portrait yet. What a little cutie-pie, eh?

I see the forecast calls for the next three mornings to be wet, but so was today’s, and if they turn out to be as nice, we should be in good shape.