The beautiful weather has returned to Estabrook Park, though the air was not quite as still as it was on Saturday morning. The first happy surprise today was spotting a red-tailed hawk at the pond. Even better, it “allowed” me to follow it to the huge oak tree just north of the beer garden, where I was finally able to capture an image. It did a good job of hiding behind sticks, but I was able to trick my autofocus into ignoring them for just this instance.
At the river, we still have a couple of great blue herons, and here’s one on the far shore about a couple hundred yards upstream from the falls.
I had no luck when I checked for our owl, but I did flush this mourning dove by accident, and here it perched before a pretty mix of foliage and sky.
There was nobody new at the north end, but on my way back south, the second happy surprise of the day, this late-season osprey, flew upriver to look for fish. As I hustled after it for a better shot, it spotted what it was after, dropped down to the water, snagged a fish, and then flew back downriver with it in tow. At least I got to see it at all.
Before I resumed my journey south, I took one last look around, and look who else finally showed up, our resident male kingfisher.
Finally, I stopped by the pond again, and the woodie that I had seen earlier had gone into hiding, but the hoodie drifted out to the middle of the pond for some more fishing. I didn’t stick around to see what it caught this morning, and I just took this tranquil portrait instead.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 