A late start, but a strong finish nevertheless…

The air was cool and still early this morning, but the skies were a bit cloudy, so I went for a bike ride first, and I didn’t get into Estabrook till about 10am. Happily, most of the critters were still out and about, and here’s a great blue heron mid-preen on a perch over the pond.

Here’s a young wood duck mid-nap and closer to the water.

On the river at the north end, I was thrilled to catch a mink again, and this time it was scampering toward shore with a huge crayfish in its jaws.

None of the many birds out on the water seemed to pay the mink any mind, and here’s another greater lesser yellowlegs just going about its business.

The patch of flowers, installed after the removal of Estabrook dam, is in full bloom now, and I finally caught a monarch visiting a purple cone flower.

Just a bit south of there, on the edge of the meadow, there appeared to be a family of indigo buntings foraging near the ground, and the bright blue one kept mostly out of sight, but here’s a young one who preferred to sit on the branch, flutter its wings, and call to be fed.

On my walk back south along the river, a chipmunk challenged me to a staring contest, and it won, of course, because I can’t take a picture without blinking.

Finally, I checked the musk thistle, which still has a few blossoms that have not yet gone to seed, beside the soccer fields at the south end, and there were no butterflies today, but here are two bumblebees sharing one blossom.