In addition to the wind, it was quite cloudy at sunrise, and it even sprinkled on me for a bit. But then the breeze blew the clouds away, the sun came out, and the day warmed up quickly.
The first big surprise of the morning came in this little package beside the northern island. It looks a lot like the mallard hen behind it but is easily only half the size. That, along with the dark bill and creamy feathers below the tail suggest that it is a female or immature male green-winged teal. I believe I’ve only seen them in Estabrook once before, so what a way to start the new month, eh?
Back on shore and a bit farther upstream, I managed to capture this ruby-crowned kinglet just before it leapt after the bug it has its sights on.
On my way back south, the squirrels were all crying, so I looked up and saw a large dark shape right over the riverbank and nearly in line with the sun. I thought it might be the osprey again, so I did my best to sneak forward to get away from the sun and covered my face with my camera as I came out from behind some leaves, but this is all it would let me take before launching back into the air. It turned out not to be the osprey, and if you can’t quite make it out, check the next picture.
Sure enough, it’s our first bald eagle in a while, and here it is now comfortably perched over the far riverbank. Wow, October is really getting off to a great start!
With all the wind this morning, I didn’t imagine that I’d find many butterflies at the pollinator garden or the weeds beside the soccer fields, so I was anticipating that I’d be explaining right now that we’re probably done with “the butterfly of the day”, at least until they return next year, and then I spotted this beauty in the lawn between the pond and the parkway.
In case you don’t recognize the out/bottom side of those wings, here are the in/top sides, which mark it as an American lady.
Back at the far south end, just as I was about to exit the park, I noticed a commotion in the old fruit trees between the radio tower fence and the parkway, and this was one the little birds contributing to the hubbub. The image is quite over exposed, and that big white patch is an artifact of that, but when I clean that image up with my recollection, I make it to be of a young Tennessee warbler. We saw a slightly more colorful one just last month.
Another little bird in those trees was this young-looking, white-crowned sparrow.
Finally, to round out the trio, this young yellow-rumped warbler joined the fray.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 