The weather was gorgeous this morning in Estabrook Park, and the crystal-clear skies allowed me to start at 5:20 am and beat the rush. They also, along with the nearly still air, allowed radiant cooling to form frost on the clumps of dead grass left on the soccer fields from the last mowing.
The big surprise at the pond is that either I am losing my mind, which is a real possibility these days, or there is a fresh batch of seven wood duck ducklings. I didn’t actually see the group of five this morning, but these seven look smaller than the five we saw just yesterday. You can also see a little steam rising off the warm pond water into the cool morning air.
As the wood ducks hustled away, the mallard hen and her duckling calmly watched from the shore.
The next pleasant surprise was meeting a Canada goose up on shore at the north end, and better yet, as I gave it a nice wide berth on my way past, the rest of its family crested the lip of the riverbank to sample some of that grass.
Lastly, this indigo bunting chose to crow to the heavens from a branch so low that even my backup lens could almost reach it.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 
Wonderful and most welcome images. Thank you for trekking to the river early to allow the rest of us to enjoy wildlife from the comfort of our easy chairs, or beds, or tubs or maybe porches.
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