After a long day in trains, planes, and automobiles yesterday, I made it back to Estabrook Park this morning, and as far as I can tell, the beautiful weather I enjoyed in Connecticut did follow me here.
Salmon are running in the river, and here’s one trying to make it up the falls, but I can’t tell if this is a coho or a chinook.
I was happy to see that we still have a young spotted sandpiper around, and here it is on the exposed river vegetation just downstream of the southern island.
While I was trying to capture an image of the sandpiper, this belted kingfisher perched low over the far riverbank.
And then a beaver swam by. It was a busy spot!
Farther upstream, around the northern island, a lot more river bottom is exposed, and here finally are a trio of killdeer taking advantage of that. I haven’t seen one since May, and that was up on the baseball field.
Even better, here’s a fourth one closer to our shore and in that golden morning sunlight.
I heard a couple of redstarts and thought I glimpsed some other warbler by the pond, but I couldn’t manage a single warbler picture today. Instead, the new arrivals from up north are white-throated sparrows, and this looks like a fresh one.
The air was nice and still and the sun was nice and warm, but I only saw a few little skippers and a couple of sulphur butterflies this morning. Instead, this red-belted bumblebee on a big bull thistle blossom will have to take the place of the butterfly of the day.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 