It was a pretty nice morning in Estabrook Park, if you don’t mind the wind, and I’m happy to report that seven such folks came out to join our weekly wildlife walk.
We stopped by the pond first, but all the fancy sparrows must have been hunkered down, because we didn’t see much more than house sparrows and dark-eyed juncos. Next, we headed to the river to look for the hermit thrush and the gray catbird, but they too were in hiding. Instead, we found the winter wren, though it kept close to the ground today, and this white-breasted nut hatch struck its classic pose to keep tabs on its surroundings as it worked to deshell a small seed of some kind.
The biggest surprise of the morning came as we made our way to the north end. Just above the falls, we spotted a couple of crows over the far riverbank, then there were three, and eventually, we counted eight. They were chattering away, and I thought they might just be having another spring mixer, as I’ve seen recently, but then we saw something bigger move from perch to perch below them. We had to search a while, and move a bit upstream, but look who we eventually found: one of our wayward great horned owls, and this looks like the smaller of the two. I don’t believe we’ve seen one since New Years Eve.
Meanwhile, there were a couple of muskrats out on the river ice, and one goldeneye hen who quickly moved upstream to avoid any pictures.
Eventually the party had to end so folks could get on with their day, so I headed south towards home, and I opted to follow the river to avoid some of the wind. Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I reached the water, the hermit thrush chose to show itself, although not a lot.
Not even a hundred yards downstream, the song sparrow did the same. Sheesh! “Where were you an hour ago?”
The catbird, however, remains at large.
Finally, I find the common mergansers to be a lot shyer than the mallards, so it can be a trick to catch one up on the ice like this, but the crowd of mallards behind her seemed to give this hen some assurance.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 