A dark and dreary Tuesday…

The fog in Estabrook Park this morning was as thick as pea soup. It was foggy before dawn, and it has lifted a bit, but it is still foggy as I write this. On top of that, I finally broke down and sent my good lens in for service yesterday. It has been acting up lately, and I got tired of missing shots while it struggled to get up to speed. So, now I’m stuck using a shorter, backup lens, and you shouldn’t get your hopes up! At least it didn’t rain this morning.

I waited for enough sunlight to seep through the fog, so by the time I reached the pond, the mallard hen and her duckling were already done with breakfast and were doing a little preening before starting their naps.

Leave it to the bluebirds to choose today to finally pose together, right? Oh well. They’re still pretty birds.

When I reached the river, I could barely see across, but if you look closely, you can see two great blue herons perched on a branch over the far shore. Yeah, it was that foggy.

Here they are again after Adobe Lightroom tried its best to “dehaze” the image.

Later, on my way back south after visiting the north end, the fog had lifted a bit by the time I found one of them on our side of the river.

Finally, at the far south end, I found a chipmunk on a tree trunk at about eye level, which I seldom get to see. They are in the ground squirrel tribe of rodents, after all.

That’s it for today, I’m afraid, but since I’ve got a little room left, I can finally show you the amazing pictures that Tom, the mink whisperer, was kind enough to send me. He was watching a female, red-bellied woodpecker forage on the trunk of a dead tree when she reached under a flap of loose bark and pulled out a bat. Can you even believe it!?!?!

She dragged the poor little thing all the way out, and I don’t believe it ended well for the bat. Man, those woodpeckers are fiercer predators than I realized.