The beautiful weather has finally run its course, and it was cloudy this morning after raining overnight. By the time there was enough light for me to venture into Estabrook, however, the rain was long gone, and the air was mostly still and warm, so plenty good enough for a walk in the park.
I was still on the southern soccer fields when I spotted this little cutie, who looks like an immature male rose-breasted grossbeak, in one of the trees along the west edge.
At the pond, it was still pretty dark, but not too dark to see that one of the male wood ducks had his new suit on for the ladies.
There wasn’t much else to see at the pond, so I headed to the river, where salmon were jumping up the falls again, so I cranked up my shutter speed, and as crazy good luck would have it, that is just when a falcon flew south over the river with breakfast in tow.
Meanwhile, there was a guy fishing just below the falls, and he quickly hooked this giant salmon, which my experts are saying is a chinook.
Above the falls, there was a spotted sandpiper foraging on the far riverbank and a couple of mallards on the water, but today the kingfisher perched on the near shore, just a bit downstream from me.
Between the islands, I was pleased to see this darling pair of immature/female hooded mergansers pausing on their journey south.
As I was taking pictures of the mergansers, I could hear a Cooper’s hawk squawking in the trees behind me, so I thought I might as well backtrack a bit to see if I could spot it. Well, it turns out that there were two of them, and they were both giving this great horned owl a hard time, although the second hawk seemed to be less enthusiastic about the endeavor.
I never got a good shot at the hawks, but after I figured I had a least one presentable owl picture, I headed back to the river and continued north. As I surveyed the water around the northern island, I spotted a dark shape high in the one remaining dead tree over it, and I figured it was the falcon again or maybe one of the hawks. Ha! It turned out to be this merlin, which makes our fourth raptor of the day!
With the hawks preoccupied by the owl, and the falcon and merlin hunting “mostly birds”, this little red squirrel was probably safe enough to enjoy a nice big walnut for breakfast.
Back out on the water, a pair of killdeer showed up, but stayed pretty far away today, so I was checking the far shore in hopes of spotting a snipe or something similarly exotic, when I noticed this little sweetheart napping amongst the plants exposed by the low river water. That’s our first pied-billed grebe of the fall, and the last time I saw one in Estabrook was back in April. Today’s bird lacks the black bill stripe of breeding adults, but the brown feathers that look more like fur than feathers tipped me off.
Back at the pond, a great blue heron had arrived but was not giving fishing lessons today. The crowd on the west lawn appeared to be more enamored with the new wood duck plumage.
Finally, I spotted a monarch again at the pollinator garden, perhaps aided by the warm, still air, so your butterfly of the day is back.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 