A pretty fine way to start the week…

Weather-wise, this morning in Estabrook Park was almost a perfect repeat of yesterday. The sky wasn’t quite as clear, but the cool breeze out of the northeast was a bit lighter, so I’ll take it!

I had only reached the narrow part of the park, where the paved walking path goes right along the edge of the bluff over the river and is separated from the parkway by a guardrail, when our first big visitor dropped in. What a great way to start the day, eh?

From the walking path, I took the first stairway down to the river, and I found the geese and goslings right where I left them yesterday, at the edge of the river, and appearing to be just waking up. “Good morning, you sleepy heads!”

As I was trying to capture the tranquil nature of that scene, look who steamed by. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a beaver on the river, and I’m glad to see them still venturing so far south.

On my way to the pond, I could hear the brown thrasher singing again, which I heard yesterday morning, but this time I was able to find it in a tree over the dog park.

At the pond, I found six wood ducks: a drake and hen swimming together, and these four bachelors beside the island looking as glum as groomsmen who can’t find a dance partner.

There wasn’t much else to see at the pond, so I headed back to the river and continued north. As I neared the spot where I saw the owl yesterday, I heard a distinctive raptor call, forgot all about the owl, and hightailed it to the north end in hopes of spotting the caller, who turned out to be this peregrine falcon over the northern island. Yay!

After getting the best picture I could, at that distance, I continued north to see who might be on or over the water north of the island. There were no surprise mergansers today, but the big swarm of swifts was back. Anyway, on my way back south, I saw that a second falcon had flown in, and the two were busily chatting each other up. How fun!

The two falcons didn’t stay perched long, so I turned my attention inland and finally got a pretty good image of one of the yellow warblers I’ve been hearing for days.

As I continued south, I did manage to check on the owl, who was in again today, woo hoo, and much more exposed than yesterday. Plus, based on the direction of its wide-eyed stare, I’ll bet that it was the noisy falcons who were keeping it awake this morning.