Lingering in our mild fall weather.

The weather was pretty nice this morning in Estabrook Park, but with some clouds in the sky and a bit more breeze, so not quite as nice as yesterday, despite being a tad warmer.

Nevertheless, I was thrilled to spot our Osprey one more time. I had begun to suspect that it had finally flown south for the winter, but there it was, fishing from its usual spot in the tall trees leaning over the river below the guardrail.

I didn’t see any beaver or deer today, but at the north end, this little red squirrel had found something to eat that it was loath to abandon, even as I took its picture.

After initially ducking out of sight, it snuck back for a peek to see if I had left it alone yet. Soon after that, I did. “Eat up, little buddy.”

On my way back south, I couldn’t find any owls, or shovelers, and the wigeon hen was nowhere to be found, but I did spot the wigeon drake with some mallards near the far shore. I also ran into Lisa, Katie, and Helen, who pointed out a pair of great blue herons just across the water on the southern island. One was on the ground, which wasn’t very photogenic, but the other one was on a branch high in a tree, basking in the warm morning sun, and against a patch of deep blue sky, which did look pretty nice.

Finally, I was quite surprised to find this flower still in blossom at such a late date. It appears to be lemonyellow false goldenaster (Heterotheca camporum), and it is growing on the side of the bluff below the beer garden.