Where is that confounded sun?

The sun we were promised this morning still hasn’t arrived, but perhaps I should be thankful for the thick blanket of clouds that kept this morning from being even colder than it was. Still, a little more light would have been nice.

Anyway, the great blue heron we saw yesterday must have slept in today because there was no sign of it in Estabrook Park, and the great horned owl was as deep into the sticks as it can get, so I didn’t even bother trying to get a picture.

Instead, here’s a raptor we haven’t seen in a minute, an immature bald eagle perched high above the far riverbank. It appears to have more white on its head and maybe on its breast than the ones we saw at the start and end of November, so maybe it is yet another eagle come to pay us a visit.

There was also no sign of the female common merganser at the north end, so I headed back south, and not long before I planned to turn left toward the pond, I heard a nearby splash in the river, which usually means I missed my chance to see who had been quietly munching on something right under my nose. This time, however, the culprit, this darling muskrat, came right back to the surface and stared at me for a bit. It must have really liked what it had been munching on.

Finally, here’s one of the hermit thrushes that appear to be fixin’ to stick it out through the winter with us.