Winter stages a comeback!

Wow! What a difference 24 hours can make. We went from high 30s with blue skies yesterday morning in Estabrook Park to low 20s with grey skies and snow on the ground this morning. It sure seemed to wake up the critters, too.

I had just gotten on the, now nicely frozen, river trail at the far south end, when this red-tailed hawk swooped in looking for squirrels. It must have been quite hungry because it nearly ignored me. I’m pretty sure it was the one with the almost all-white belly we’ve been seeing recently.

At about half-way to the north end, near where the stream from the pond empties into the river, this red squirrel was busy with its own breakfast.

As I approached the north end, I was thrilled to find this handsome pair of common goldeneyes diving in the shallow water between the islands. We haven’t seen the likes of them since the last cold snap, about two weeks ago.

There was also a female common merganser floating with the Canada geese near the northern island.

A little ice was forming on the pond, but that wasn’t enough to daunt this intrepid muskrat, and I don’t believe I’ve been able to show you one from the pond since back in December.

There was also a sextet of male red-winged blackbirds, and they were perched together and calling in a tree over the north end. They were making quite a racket, and I don’t believe I’ve seen them behave this way before.

Back on the water, a half dozen mallards were paddling around with the pair of geese, and this one hen took a moment to spread preen oil all over her feathers.

Finally, back at the south end, there is a big old tree on the lawn of the Benjamin Church House that is still full of fruit, and it was attracting a few starlings, including this non-breeding adult or youngster, …

And a slew of hungry robins.