The third time was indeed the charm…

Blue skies have finally returned to Estabrook Park, at least for today, and they brought some colder weather with them, at least for this morning. There was frost on the grass at sunrise, but temps reached 50°F this afternoon. We also had a great turnout for the last wildlife walk of the year, with 13 of us in all, but the critters did not respond in kind. We only saw 18 species, and the only consolation is that other folks and other locations are also experiencing the recent slump. I didn’t get any pictures this morning, either on my way to the walk by myself or during the walk with all those extra eyes, but after a short break to recharge my batteries, I couldn’t resist going out in such beautiful weather for a third try. These are my rewards.

Here’s a red-bellied woodpecker busily chiseling a new nesting cavity for the coming season. You can’t quite see his red crown in this picture, but this activity would probably make him a male who is hoping to attract a female to finish the job.

Just upstream of the red-bellied, here’s a hairy woodpecker, also a male, who did not appear to be excavating, but was just looking for something to eat.

Finally, this little darling, a merlin, whom we haven’t seen in weeks, was waiting for me over the northern island. By the time I arrived, however, the sun was about due south, the bird was facing it, and the river runs east-southeast there, so I was shooting perpendicular to the sun, at best, and I couldn’t see much more than the back of the bird in shadow. It was such a pleasant afternoon, on the other hand, that I decided to hike around to the other shore for a better shot. By the time I had hiked over there, the little stinker had moved on, but as I searched the trees there in hopes of finding where our owls have gotten off to, I found the merlin again, and this time I was able to get a lot closer than I could have when it was on the island. Sometimes I get lucky.

I see that some cold weather is forecast to return, so perhaps we can hope that the critters will return to their winter schedule as well.