It was cloudier and cooler this morning in Estabrook Park, but the breeze was lighter than yesterday, and the clouds held their water, so it was a pretty nice day for checking on the critters.
We still have three stubborn wood ducks on the pond who have not yet flown south. There are two hens and this drake, whose breeding plumage hasn’t all come in quite yet, and maybe that’s what he’s waiting for.
The great blue herons are still visiting to fish, and there were three at once on the northern island at one point. Here’s one of them in a slightly more photogenic spot before it flew to the island to join the other two.
There was an odd duck with the mallards on the river again, and I figured it was the wigeon drake, whom we just saw yesterday, but I took one more picture anyway. Imagine my surprise when I cropped the image for this post and realized that it’s a gadwall instead. Ha! The last time we saw one of them was on Halloween, so this is my first gadwall of November.
A great horned owl was in their new, or very old, favorite spot and about as deep into the sticks as yesterday.
Finally, here’s a second bird we haven’t seen since October, a northern flicker perched high above the northern island, and who appears to have missed the bus and is now stuck flying south all on its own.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 