As if such fine weather on the longest day of the year wasn’t good news enough, I am happy to report that I have even better news, great news, outstanding news, and stupendous news, all from Estabrook Park!
First, the better news, at least for photography, is that the haze was almost gone this morning, and the skies were a nice blue for a change, which might have inspired the kingbird who sat for a portrait yesterday, to try again today. I know I would, and wouldn’t you?
Then it started to get a little greedy and wanted me to get both sides, but we’ll allow it!
The great news is that the batch of seven wood duck ducklings on the river is still looking hale and hearty. All that white stuff floating on the water around them is just a splendid blend of cottonwood seeds and foam from the falls upstream.
The outstanding news is that the two wood duck ducklings that went missing on the pond have reappeared! I don’t know where those little stinkers were hiding, but hip, hip, hurray for their return!
Finally, the stupendous news is that there is now a second and brand-spanking-new batch of ten (10!) wood duck ducklings on the pond. I can only count nine in this image, which was the best looking one, but there are clearly ten in a couple of the less-pretty images. That’s a total nineteen wood duck ducklings in the park. Noice!
In other duckling news, the two mallard hens that we saw squabbling on the river a week ago appear to have reached a detente, and I spotted them both napping with their ducklings on the same sandbar between the two islands. Here are the older ones, …
and here are the younger ones. Yay!
In non-duckling, but related, news, a fresh-looking batch of red squirrels was wrastling up and down a tree trunk, and this one paused for a moment to see what I was up to.
I continued my quest for butterflies this morning, and while this is not strictly a butterfly, I did manage to spot a monarch caterpillar on a milkweed leaf. That’s at least a step in the right direction.
And lastly, one butterfly I did spot is this shy little wood satyr (Megisto cymela) hiding under some leaves. We’ve seen them before but in better light.
There are even more pictures from this morning, but I’d better stop here and save them for a rainy day.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 