A morning full of surprises…

Wow, what a difference a day makes! Sure, it’s still cold out there, but the wind has backed off a lot, we’ve got a nice, new layer of fluffy white snow, and the sun was out in all its glory. It was a perfect morning for taking pictures in Estabrook Park, and some of the critters were even willing to oblige.

Here’s an American goldfinch in the bushes beside the river and still waiting for the sun to warm it up.

Here’s the mature Cooper’s hawk at the pond again. I already had a nice picture of it at the crest of the bluff over the river, and from farther away at the pond, which I might use on a dreary day when I come up short, but I really wanted to check on the sparrows in the woods at the northeast corner, right near where it was perched, so I looked away as I approached slowly. Once I got into position, I glanced over my shoulder, and the hawk seemed completely cool with me there, so I snuck a couple of close-ups and turned my attention to the sparrows. It turns out that a couple of white-throated and the one fox sparrow were there, and when I turned to leave, the hawk hadn’t budged. Yay.

The mergansers and goldeneyes were on the river again, and I did get some nice images, but I was more interested in finding the hermit thrush looking hale and hearty after the deep freeze.

Here it is again, though not quite as clearly, and gulping down a spindle berry.

Even more exciting, simply because ebird still considers it “rare”, instead of merely “infrequent”, was finding the gray catbird also looking no worse for the wear.

On my way back south, I notice a mature bald eagle perched high in a tree over the far shore, so I immediately dropped to my knees and began to ready my camera. Unlike the Cooper’s hawk, however, the eagle was having none of it and took off before I could bring my camera to bare. Ugh! That would have been a gorgeous picture. Next time I will have to try prostrating myself.

Anyway, at the far south end, I found another interesting ice formation in the river.

And then a couple of crows over the far riverbank began cawing excitedly. They even drew a third crow to come and help them harass whoever they had found. I immediately began searching with my binoculars for who might have aroused their ire, maybe a red-tailed hawk or an owl, but I could not spot it. So, I started looking lower, then I noticed movement, and finally I could see the outline of a face. It was a red fox! I did my best to capture an image, and it is still terrible, but it is the first red fox we’ve seen in a long time. If you click on the image so you can zoom in, you can just make out one eye, its right one, I believe, in the center of the image.

After assuming that I had the best image I was going to get from there, I hemmed and hawed a bit and then finally decided to hike down to the Capitol Dr bridge, cross the river, and hike up the other side in hopes of a closer look. Well, the bluff is pretty steep on that side, and I couldn’t find a path down to the Westabrook-MATC trail, so I must have made a heck of a racket sliding and stumbling down the bluff. Needless to say, the fox was not waiting for me where I thought I left it. So, after searching for a bit, I sadly trudged back up the hill and started heading south to the bridge. On my way, I gave one last forlorn glance over my shoulder, and I could not believe who I saw scampering north on the other side of the roadway there. It was that wily little fox, and of course the little stinker ducked into the woods before I could even grab my camera. Oh well. It least I was too far away to hear it laughing, and I guess my consolation prize is this nice image of one of the crows who sounded the alarm. “Thank you for your vigilance!”

Finally, thanks to the folks who stopped by the Friends of Estabrook Park Annual Meeting last evening, and I’m sorry that I didn’t get the opportunity to give the presentation you might have been hoping for, but I do hope you found Ms. Wentzel’s presentation about the upcoming changes planned for Estabrook Park falls as fascinating and enjoyable as I did.