The weather this morning in Estabrook Park was quite a mixed bag. The clouds were thick and dark most of the time, and they even misted on me for a while, but there were also glimpses of blue sky, and the sun even shone through for a bit.
There were a couple of belted kingfishers at the pond, as has been pretty common these days, and this morning one of them caught a crayfish, which it thrashed thoroughly against that branch before swallowing hole.
As I approached the north end along the river, a cacophony of crow caws grew steadily, which helped me find these two beauties. The owls eventually moved on, and let the crows have a break.
A couple of the crows also tried to intimidate this osprey, who was simply trying to enjoy its breakfast over the far riverbank, but they pretty quickly gave up on that.
Back on our side of the river, I found a great crested flycatcher, for the first time in a while.
Below the flycatcher, this red-bellied woodpecker was keeping one eye on the skies, …
while this northern flicker kept one eye on me, …
and they eventually noticed each other.
The bushes and low trees around us were full of little birds, but the only one of them that I was able to capture on film was this female redstart.
Back at the pond, the wood ducks were taking their midmorning nap, as usual.
I still had a little time on the clock, so I stopped by the river one more time, near where the stream from the pond empties, and I was thrilled to spot a beaver again, but it ducked under the water before I could get off a shot. As I looked downstream for when it resurfaced, look who I saw lurking at the water’s edge. That’s a young green heron, and I haven’t seen much of them for a couple of weeks.
The beaver did eventually resurface, and it just kept swimming downstream.
Finally, I didn’t see a single butterfly today, not even a skipper, so this petrophila moth, of the two-banded variety (Petrophila bifascialis) will have to serve as our “butterfly” of the day.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 