Despite being on a new page of the calendar, the cool, dark, and damp weather persists, and the goslings on the pond have gotta be wondering, “I pecked my way out of a nice cozy eggshell for this?”
We had a surprise retro visit on the river from this ever-dapper, red-breasted merganser drake. In the very next picture, he set those fine feathers right down in that mud at his feet, but I’ll spare you that visual trauma.
At the crest of the bluff, this male northern flicker appears to have been digging in the mud himself before taking a break to let everyone know he’s there.
South of the falls, this spotted sandpiper paused just for an instant to give me a look and then went right back to searching for morsels at the water’s edge.
At the far south end, this hermit thrush took a moment to survey the area from this low perch before getting back to foraging in the lawn. In the background, you can make out green leaves starting to appear on the brush and purple violets in the grass.
I was very excited to see an ovenbird for the very first time this morning, with its little black and orange cap, but that little stinker evaded my camera like the dickens. That’ll give me something to work on, but in the meanwhile, I got enough nice pictures of the rose-breasted grosbeak yesterday, that I can show you a new one today.
The forecast for tomorrow is for rain starting before dawn and continuing into the afternoon, so who knows what we’ll get, but maybe we’ll get a break.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 