It seemed pretty nice out at sunrise this morning in Estabrook Park, even with the thick cloud cover. Temps were in the low 50s, winds were light, and it wasn’t raining. What I failed to realize is that the winds were blowing off of Lake Michigan, and the temps were on their way to the high 30s, so I was quite underdressed for the cold that soon arrived. The critters, on the other hand, wear their entire wardrobe on their backs, so I didn’t hear them complain about the weather at all.
The first exciting news is that a male belted kingfisher has also arrived, woo hoo, and here he is fishing over the river where it gets wide and slow below the falls.
At the pond, the goose is still nesting on the island, I counted at least eight wood ducks, and I also saw a quartet of female or immature hooded mergansers. Unfortunately, the mergansers did not stick around for pictures. Instead, when I reached the islands in the river, I found them again, and here’s one of the immature males, who looks sorta like a female, but with a yellow eye and some other subtle differences.
I also spotted the newly arrived male kingfisher perched together with the female we’ve seen for a while, and they were on the far side of the upstream island, so well beyond the range of my gear, but you can see his white belly and just a hint of her chestnut belly band. I seldom see them perch together like this, so perhaps they’re still in the honeymoon phase.
There was also a group of blue-winged teals, and here are two drakes and one hen. They were quite busy chattering amongst themselves and bobbing their heads, so they swam much closer to me than I would have expected.
Finally, the second big surprise of the morning was spotting the first American coot I’ve seen in the park this year. It was even kind enough to climb up out of the water, while I was upstream checking on the pigeons, so that we can catch a glimpse of its amazing not-quite-webbed feet.
Lastly, I do have a few more pictures from this morning, but the forecast for tomorrow calls for rain all day, so I’m keeping them in my back pocket in case the forecast turns out to be accurate.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 