May Finally Arrives!

At long last, May has arrived, and it was a picture-perfect morning in Estabrook Park. Better yet, the birds seemed to be as happy about it as I was.

As I was walking north along the river towards the pond, I spotted this darling female northern flicker peeking out of her nesting cavity, and …

I didn’t have to wait long before she …

came the rest of the way out. “Thanks, sweetie!”

At the pond, this gosling was already taking a break from breakfast and didn’t need mom’s wing to keep warm today. Yay!

Soon a flock of about a dozen cedar waxwings arrived looking for berries in the bushes, and this one couldn’t have done a better job of adding extra black stripes to its face if it had tried.

On my way toward the river, I watched this male downy woodpecker forage for a bit, as I tried to get a good picture, and then it just parked itself on the bottom side of this branch and stayed there. Only when I got home did I notice that his eyes were closed, and now I wonder if that’s how they nap?

Farther along, at the north edge of the parking lot, I saw our first chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina) of the season. So many sparrows, eh?

When I finally reached the river, I soon spotted a little bird foraging right at the water’s edge, and I hoped it would be a waterthrush. Once I got my camera focused, I saw that it was another savannah sparrow, only my second ever.

As I was trying to get a good picture of the savannah sparrow, this spotted sandpiper just flew in and started posing right in front of me. This is only the second time I’ve seen one this year.

Amazingly enough, when the sandpiper finally realized I was standing right there and took off again, I did find the waterthrush that I thought I had seen in the first place. What an amazing confluence of birds. I barely had to take a step to get pictures of all three of them.

At the north end, I was happy to see the cold and lonely tree swallow from yesterday joined by three others and busily hunting for bugs. Hurrah!

Then, on my way back south, I finally got my first great blue heron picture of the season. I’ve seen them a few times already, but they’ve always been on the wing, and I’ve been too slow to capture them.

Lastly, on my second swing by the pond, I just happened to notice these two mallards doing their best to make more. “Thanks you two. I look forward to seeing the fruits of your labor in 3 to 4 weeks.”