Gee, but it’s great to be back home…

Yesterday was a long day of trains, planes, buses, and automobiles, but I made it home in one piece, and slept well. The weather’s been busy here today, but between the downpour this morning and the gusty winds this afternoon, there was a calm in Estabrook Park long enough for the critters to put on quite a welcome-back show.

Let’s start with one of the main attractions on the pond, the wood ducks. I counted 2 pairs, and this drake was the one kind enough to pose for a picture.

And the surprise guest on the pond was this sole, red-breasted merganser drake.

Meanwhile, besides the Canada geese and mallards, this pied-billed grebe greeted me down on the river, which was high enough to flood some parts of the river path. I eventually counted three grebes on the river, which is a first for me.

Another surprise guest on the river was this American coot, one of a quartet, and which we have also seen before, but never in such quantity.

Between the river and the pond, and slightly smaller than the aquatic birds, were a handful of yellow-bellied sapsuckers, who won’t be around for long before they continue on to points north, in my experience.

Slightly smaller still, but equally as temporary, were a dozen or so rusty blackbirds foraging on the lawn amidst the red-winged blackbirds, European starlings, American robins, and brown-headed cowbirds.

Even smaller is the first warbler to arrive, one of a few yellow-rumped warblers.

At about the same size, and also recently returned, were about as many eastern phoebes.

Finally, the smallest bird I saw this morning was probably the golden-crowned kinglet, and this is the one that managed to remained stationary for the full second it takes me to aim, focus, and capture an image.