Well, I finally did return to Estabrook Park this morning, and winter sure is on a break, if it’s not gone for good. There’s still plenty of ice slowly melting in the river and a couple of small patches of snow in the woods where it must have drifted a bit deeper than elsewhere, but temps rose from the high thirties to the high forties during my visit, and it feels like spring might be just around the corner. Also, the wind was howling as if March was fixin’ to come in like a lion tomorrow.
Anyway, all our winter visitors have not yet fled north, and here’s a dark-eyed junco sporting a fancy collar of wind-blown feathers.
For most of the winter, the common merganser hens on the river far outnumbered the drakes, but not today. Perhaps these gents are already making their way back north.
There was even a goldeneye drake still hanging around.
The most interesting find, however, was this raccoon stuffed into the little hole in which the screech-owl hung out for a few days back in December. I would have never guessed that a raccoon could have even fit in there.
Finally, Anne was a little disappointed that I haven’t shown you any pictures of the peacocks we found strolling around the grounds of the Casa Buho B&B back in Antigua. They clearly weren’t native nor wild, but they sure were pretty, so here you go.
The first and the last image, especially, have some nice detail that you can zoom into if you click on the image and go to the flickr page where they are hosted. While there, feel free to check out the rest of my “scenery” pictures from the trip, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 