Better late than never

It was a nearly perfect late-autumn morning in Estabrook Park, with nearly clear skies, nearly still air, and nearly freezing temps.

I was thrilled to find our procrastinating osprey was still fishing over the lower river and quite possibly thinking, “with fish like this, I may never need to fly south.” Who could blame it, right?

A bit upstream and closer to the water, a tree sparrow paused from foraging in the grass. We’re inside the north edge of their winter range, so with any luck, we’ll get to see them till spring, when they fly back to northern Canada.

This swamp sparrow was also on break, but it might soon head a bit farther south for the winter, so we should enjoy them while we can.

The huge surprise of the morning came just a bit farther upstream when I spotted this young, black-crowned night heron perched low over the far riverbank, our first for the year. In previous years, we’ve seen young ones at the pond, and adults by the river, but I was beginning to wonder if they were going to skip us altogether this year. “Woo hoo, and thanks for stopping by, Sweetie!”

The night heron only stayed for a moment, but while I had my camera out, I thought I’d try for this kingfisher perched nearby. It’s a much smaller bird, and it was perched even lower, close enough to the water for the rising steam to get in the way, but I haven’t had a good shot at them in a while, so this is what we’re stuck with for now.

The great blue heron was enjoying the sun in its usual spot again this morning.

At the north end and between the islands, there was still no sign of the gadwalls, but the wigeon pair was there and seemingly more comfortable in their temporary home amongst the mallards. Their wintering grounds only reach north into the southern tip of Illinois, so they’ll be on their way soon enough. In the meantime, here’s the hen, …

and here’s the drake.

Finally, by the time I turned around to head back south, the osprey had flown north joined me by the islands and was perched right over where I had photographed the wigeons. Ha!