New weather pattern gets a new name.

It was another very nice sprinter morning in Estabrook Park, but a little cooler than yesterday, and the mostly clear skies overnight allowed for some additional radiant cooling that even froze up the river path mud in many spots.

The songbirds are really starting to sing throughout the park, but the first critter to properly greet me this morning was this muskrat on the river.

I didn’t see anybody other than mallards, geese, and a couple of gulls on the river at the north end, but when I climbed the bluff to head toward the pond, this red-tailed hawk swooped in to say “Hi!” Actually, it was probably far more interested in any of the several squirrels in the trees around it, who were all making their warning sound.

When I finally did reach the pond, I was happy to find a red-breasted merganser drake busy fishing, but also looking magnificent in the sun while catching his breath.

I stopped back by the river again on my way home to see if I could get another picture of the winter wren. I did manage to see a glimpse of it, but I failed to get a picture this time. Instead, here’s a song sparrow, of which we haven’t seen much lately.

While there, I was surprised to find the muskrat still active on the river, and here it is with a nice fresh shoot it just pulled out of the river bottom.

Finally, I also searched for the sapsucker, but I saw no sign of him today. Instead, here’s another picture from yesterday.