It appears that winter is not quite done with us yet, and actual air temperatures were in the low 20s this morning. The sky was cloudy, but not too dark, and the air was nice and still, so it was a pretty nice day to visit Estabrook Park.
The first big surprise was spotting this American coot foraging on the river amongst the mallards and geese. We don’t get to see them a lot, most recently on the lake back in November and before that on the river in September, so they are always a treat.
On the river at the north end, there was a single common merganser hen, a pair of common goldeneye hens, a few more mallards, and a big group of noisy geese still sorting out who gets what nesting site on the island. I didn’t see any pictures I could take, so I headed toward the pond, and I was greeted by this Cooper’s hawk in a tree over the north end as I got close.
Finally, as I was listening for white-throated sparrows in the woods around the pond, this young bald eagle glided over, and I figured that was all I was going to see of it, but then it perched in a tall tree nearby for a few moments, so here you go.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 