Monthly Archives: May 2023

It was 60°F at 5:30 this morning when I arrived at Estabrook Park. Woo hoo! Summer really is here, at least for now, and it appears that all this warm weather has made the carp in the river feel quite frisky. They were really stirring up the water today. While I was trying to getContinue reading “A frenzy in the river…”

It seems that summer has arrived, at least psychologically and meterologically, if not yet astronomically, and I was happy to see that Estabrook Park looked hardly worse for the wear generated by the throngs of revelers enjoying a Memorial Day weekend with probably the nicest weather on record. Anyway, the lonely wood duck drake onContinue reading “Really starting to feel like summer…”

The wood ducks, who had been thick on the pond a month ago, have really cut back on that, and I only found this one sleepy fellow there this morning as the sun started to shine through the trees from the east. There were only a couple of blue herons on the river, but noneContinue reading “Happy Memorial Day!”

One of the great blue herons, and only one this time, as far as I saw, was back again this morning, and it caught another fish in exactly the same spot as yesterday. You might even think I’m pulling your leg, and that this is just another image from yesterday’s scene, but if you compareContinue reading “Thanks for the extra eyes!”

The first batch of robins are coming out of the oven, and here’s a fledgling looking as puffed up as it knows how and waiting for the sun to warm it up after a night out on its own. Luckily for it, this Memorial Day weekend is shaping up to be a beauty. Great blueContinue reading “Serveral more “firsts of the year””

Here are some pictures from my visit to Estabrook Park this morning. Green heron in tree over the pond. Mallard hen with ducklings on the river. Female belted kingfisher fishing over the river. Osprey fishing above the far riverbank. Great blue heron on a sandbar in the river. Killdeer foraging over exposed river bottom. MaleContinue reading “Some pictures from Estabrook Park”

It appears that all the wildfire smoke from Alberta has drifted east of here because the skies over Estabrook Park were a beautiful blue this morning. The air was pretty nice, too, at least until the winds shifted to bring us a cold Lake Michigan breeze. Anyway, I got a bit closer to making anContinue reading “Still plenty of warblers around…”

It was another gorgeous morning here in The Nutmeg State, so I couldn’t help but take one last look around. As has been the norm out here, I heard this bird long before I saw it. The pictures are nothing to write home about, to be sure, because it had found itself a nice highContinue reading “More distinctive songs”

I’m still out east, and I returned to the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail this morning, where I had hiked last Friday. My sister came with me again, and the weather was just about perfect, so I was glad to have a second set of eyes along. Plus, she’s the one who rescued a Carolina wrenContinue reading “More faces, big, small, and bald.”

This’ll be a short report. My sister and I walked the Quinnipiac River Gorge Trail to Hannover Pond and back this morning, and there was plenty to see (8 deer and 45 bird species!), but the skies were very dark, so I don’t have a lot of pictures for you today. I was quite surprisedContinue reading “Some water birds…”