Time for a closeup at last…

Sorry for the late post, but my computer has been in the shop since I dropped it off at 6:30 this morning, and I was only able to pick it up around 2:30 this afternoon. Anyway, the skies were pretty clear this morning, at least off to the south and east, so I was able to get into Estabrook Park nice and early. As I was walking north on the path where the park gets narrow and you can see the river below, I could hear some mallards down on the river, and as I gave them a look to see how many there were, five, I saw an odd dark shape on a branch out over the river that I couldn’t quite make out. Luckily, stairway 9 was just a little bit ahead, so I hustled up there, down the stairs, and back south along the river path. I could not believe my luck when I found the dark shape was still out on the branch, and it had this darling little face. That’s the closest I’ve gotten to a mink portrait so far, and what a way to start the morning, eh?

The pond is still frozen over, so I didn’t see any activity there, and I continued on to the north end, where the situation was a lot better than yesterday. The belted kingfisher was back, and a mature bald eagle stopped by but didn’t stick around for pictures.

The great horned owl was back and as deep into those sticks as I’ve ever seen it.

Back south again, the hermit thrush was in its usual spot, but seemed to be much less thrilled with our arrangement than it did yesterday.

Finally, on my way back home along the Oak Leaf Trail, this chickadee was kind enough to demonstrate sumac seed extraction against that pretty blue sky.