The sky looked nice and clear as dawn broke, but a thick blanket of clouds rolled in before the sun could even clear the horizon. Ah well. It is Memorial Day weekend, after all, and this is pretty much par for the course, in my experience.
In keeping with the mood, things were pretty quiet in Estabrook Park as well. I did see all eight ducklings on the pond, but the mallards were up in the tall grass, and I didn’t want to bother them, so here’s the tightest grouping of wood ducks I could manage.
At the river, I was happy to see the pair of great blue herons again and that they were making good use of the remains of that tree that fell last Wednesday.
The big surprise this morning came as I tried to look upriver for barn swallows hunting for flies from the Port Washington Bridge. A large bird was coming down river over our shore, and at first I thought it was just another of the many gulls in the air, but as it flew right over me, I could see that it was no gull. As luck would have it, it perched on the remaining big dead tree over the northern island where I could finally recognize it as an osprey. We haven’t seen one since April, and they are always a treat.
The current forecast for the big day is much better than today, but who knows what we’ll see.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 