Anne and I returned home from Africa safely late yesterday afternoon, and we did our best to get a good night’s sleep last night. The weather in Estabrook Park this morning wasn’t very cooperative, so the critters and I did the best we could.
There were several new arrivals, since I was there two weeks ago, and this first one is a golden-crowned kinglet, of which I saw at least eight.
Also newly arrived, but not quite as plentiful were the brown creepers.
Not so new, but just as fun to see was this muskrat foraging at the edge of the river.
Back to the new arrivals, I spotted just this one eastern phoebe. The big yellow blotch below it is the speed-bump warning sign across the soccer field. If I had more time, I would have taken a step or two to my right, but the phoebe was on a mission, and so this is the best I managed to get.
Finally, the fox and song sparrows are now everywhere, singing like crazy, and here’s one of the latter between verses.
While we’re here, this post isn’t very full, and I’ve got a good internet connection, let me show you a few more pictures from Malawi. These are also from the backyard in Lilongwe, from which I showed you the spotted flycatcher on Day 1.
This first one is also a brand-new bird for me, and it is a female or non-breeding village indigobird (Vidua chalybeata). I eventually saw breeding males later in the trip that I’ll show you another time.
I’m not sure if it was because we were in a different neighborhood of Lilongwe or a different season in the Malawi year, but I ended up seeing a total of five birds for the very first time, and this is the third one, a tawny-flanked prinia (Prinia subflava).
The fourth one was this immature wire-tailed swallow (Hirundo smithii). As with the indigobird above, I eventually did see mature adults later in the trip.
Lastly, I saw my very first canary in this back yard, and it was this yellow-fronted canary (Crithagra mozambica). I saw these throughout the trip, so I’ll be able to show you the yellow front of one soon enough.
That wraps up the new birds from the first location, and I expect I’ll be able to keep working through the rest of the sights from the trip along with the new arrivals in Estabrook.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 
Welcome back and happy birthday to Jo and Theo as well as Happy Easter to all of you!Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device
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Andrew,
Thank you, as always, for your beautiful and thought-provoking photos, especially the one today of the brown creeper. Here’s what I wrote about seeing one, in the May 2015 issue of Milwaukee Magazine:
For me, the weekly walks are less about citizen
science and more about a spiritual connection.
They offer ritual, community and the sense of
something greater than myself. At the end of one
walk, we stopped at the bird banding station, where
a bander held a brown creeper. From a distance,
they look like just another “LBJ” (“little brown job,” in birder-speak). Seen up close, their feathers have an amazingly intricate pattern of white, tan and black. My mother used to say, “How could anyone not believe in God after seeing a pansy?” For years, I’ve doubted the existence of God. Thanks to the brown creeper, I’m revisiting that.
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