It’s about time…

It was a beautiful morning in Estabrook Park. The air was nearly still and just below freezing, the snow on the ground managed to stick around, and the sky was mostly clear for the first time in days. Best of all, I had a few minutes to enjoy it all before today’s festivities got underway.

At first, I was a bit surprised. I did see one beaver on the lower river, of which we’ve seen plenty lately, but I did not see a single mallard, when normally I would have counted a couple dozen before I reached the falls. I could think of one reason that would have caused all the mallards to have taken off, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

Happily, once I reached the falls, my dreams did come true, and here’s an adult bald eagle taking its newly-minted status as America’s national bird out for a test drive. Talk about perfect timing.

It must have been hungry, too, because it soared up and down the river a few times, even attracting a herring gull escort for a while, and perched at least twice. Here it is when something on the water had enough of its attention so that I could sneak up for a closer look. You can even spot the jewelry it was sporting.

Meanwhile, out on the water, an octet of common mergansers, “very large and often submerged ducks”, went about their business as if to say “don’t even waste your time trying.” On the other hand, I read that “occasionally even a bald eagle will try to steal a fish from a merganser,” so perhaps that was the draw.

I would have loved to stay and watch that play out, but I had a schedule to keep, so I hustled over to the pond to check on the sparrows. The star of that show today, however, was this little red squirrel, who I’ve glimpsed there on-and-off for days, but haven’t managed to capture on film in a while. Well, today was the day that it had enough of a hankering for bird seed that it was finally willing to oblige our gaze, if only for a moment.

That’s a wrap for today, and I hope yours is going as merrily as mine.