It was a strange morning in Estabrook Park. The air was warmer than it’s been in a while, and the skies were nice and clear at sunrise, but then a thick fog rolled in from off the lake, and I could barely make out the far riverbank. Then, as randomly as it came, the fog rolled away again, and the sun came back out. Weird.
Anyway, before the fog came, I found a newer-looking family of geese and goslings in nearly the same place as we saw the teenagers yesterday.
I just barely beat the fog to the north end, and I was surprised to find a pair of brown-headed cowbirds willing to let me get close enough for pictures. Here’s the female, and …
here’s the male, with his namesake brown head. He got all poofy a couple of times, but she was not interested, so they both just kept foraging.
On the water, there were more geese than I’ve seen in a while, including about a couple dozen goslings, and the air was full of swifts and swallows, but the fog was so thick I didn’t even bother trying to take pictures. I headed back south instead and soon came across this white-crowned sparrow filling up on dandelion seeds.
By the time I reached the beer garden, the fog was just about gone, so I dropped back down to the river and soon found the red-headed woodpecker again. I had heard him earlier, but I could not get eyes on him.
Back at the pond, I found the mallard hen and her gosling down for their mid-morning nap.
This warmup is bringing out the bullfrogs, and I was startled by a huge one parked on the riverbank, but this one on a log in the pond made a better picture.
On my first visit to the pond, I couldn’t find any wood ducks, but on my second try, I found this drake also down for a nap, but with at least one eye open.
On the path through the woods back to the river, I believe I spotted our first Alder flycatcher (Empidonax alnorum). It doesn’t appear to have the olive-green back of an Acadian flycatcher, the peaked head feathers of a wood pewee, the dark head of a phoebe, the eye-ring of a least flycatcher, but I didn’t hear it sing, so I suppose it could be a willow flycatcher. As usual, we’ll see what the experts say.
This next bird gave me no identification trouble, but crows seem to prefer not to have their picture taken. This one was excited about something, however, and was too busy calling other crows to worry about me.
Finally, on my way back home, this chipmunk froze on the path, and I might have skipped taking its picture on the asphalt like that, but I was amazed at how straight it was holding its tail, and who knows when, if ever, I’ll get to see that again.
Lastly, the mayapples are in bloom, under their tent umbrella leaves. I read that you can eat the “apples” once they ripen to a nice yellow, but all the rest of the plan is poisonous, even the fruit while it is still green, in case you are hungry now.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 