The weather continues to be grey and cool but not very cold, and the wind that accompanied the snow has mostly subsided. Best of all, it appears that the critters in Estabrook Park have managed to catch up for lost time, and quite a few let me take their picture this morning.
The two great blue herons we’ve been seeing for much of the fall were back on the river again today, and here’s the one in the prettier setting, off the southern tip of the northern island.
I did see a great horned owl again, but it was as buried as yesterday, so I let it be today. A Cooper’s hawk also flew in, but it only parked briefly high above the far riverbank and against a light grey sky, so I let that one go, too.
Instead, this male northern cardinal perched perfectly on a clump of sumac seeds beside the pond right when the sun was burning a little hole through the clouds, and that always makes a nice picture.
Meanwhile, right across the path that goes around the pond, this little red squirrel was chowing down on box elder seeds.
Simultaneously, just across the little unpaved path that heads up to the parkway, this pair of house finches were also filling up on box elder seeds. Here’s the male, …
and here’s the female.
I stopped by the river again on my way back home, and this tiny winter wren was sure agitated about something, because it mostly ignored me and kept chirping as it hopped around some low branches beside the river trail and scanned the trees above.
As I was trying to keep up with the winter wren, look who was also there: our first hermit thrush since the start of November. “Well, hello there!”
Finally, as I crossed the long concrete bridge at the far south end, I got to spend a couple of quality seconds with this handsome guy. It is too early in the year for him to have shed an antler, and he doesn’t look very old, so perhaps this is just his sophomore slump.
Not a bad Saturday morning, eh? Not bad at all.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 