H, b, D, b⁺, H⁺.

Once again, the morning in Estabrook Park was nicer than I expected, given the forecast and the rain overnight. It certainly was cool and breezy, but the clouds soon cleared out for a while, and the sun felt nice and warm if you could enjoy it in a spot out of the breeze.

When I emerged from the woods on my way from the river to the pond, I was just in time to watch this beauty, a Cooper’s hawk, swoop up the little rise and perch on the fence around the dog park. I was probably only 30 feet away, and I know it saw me, but it must have been too intent on catching breakfast to worry about me, because it turned back to check out the squirrels cavorting on the lawn before setting off after one. I was unable to see if it had any luck, unfortunately.

At the north end, the same birds were on the water again, but it was this tiny golden-crowned kinglet that put on the best show as it searched every nook and cranny for something to eat.

This quartet of deer was the first exciting sight I saw this morning, when I saw them back at the southern soccer fields, but I like the symmetry of putting them here in the middle of the story, as I hope you will see. I don’t know if they are the same ones we saw in the river by the islands a week ago, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were.

On my second visit to the pond, I found this Nashville warbler energetically foraging amongst the plants they let grow in the northeast corner there, probably only because the lawn is steeper there than is comfortable to mow, but we’ll take it. Anyway, as with the Cooper’s hawk earlier, it seemed far too intent on breakfast to worry about me, and I probably took 100 pictures over 10 minutes, as it flitted from perch to perch, in hopes of having a couple turn out to be presentable. If you look closely, especially if you click on it so you can magnify the image, you can see it has just caught a tasty little morsel.

Finally, just as I approached the soccer fields again from the north, I turned the corner in the nick of time to watch this red-tailed hawk swoop up onto a branch right over the paved path about 50 yards ahead of me. As you can see, it has just had a successful catch, and it soon retired to a more-secluded branch to fill its belly.

I didn’t see any new bugs today, butterflies or otherwise, and we might not again until next spring, so it will probably be just warm-blooded critters until then.