More September Surprises!

The dark skies over Estabrook Park continue today, but at least they didn’t leak on me this morning.

The first bird I was able to get a picture of, by the soccer fields, is a Swainson’s thrush, very similar to the gray-cheeked thrush from yesterday, but with “a distinct buffy eyering,” and flying to a similarly far but slightly different winter range.

There were six wood ducks on the pond for a change, but the big surprise was this hungry critter methodically searching the island shoreline for something good to eat. By the looks of it, it is usually quite successful at this.

There was also a great blue heron at the pond, but it was on break.

At the river, I saw two huge fish leap up the falls, but when I aimed my camera that way, all I could get was this picture of fins.

At the north end, some of the wood ducks appear to have completed their molt and are now back in prime breeding plumage.

The best part for me, though, was flushing a Wilson’s snipe (Gallinago delicata), which I’ve done once or twice before, but this time it flew straight across the river and parked on the far shore where I could get my first picture of one in the park. Yay!

Finally, the squirrels remain as active as ever, and here’s a red squirrel counting the milliseconds until I look away and it can get back to preparing for winter.