Page two…

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be waiting for my flight to Arizona when the sun comes up this morning, so I won’t be able to make it to Estabrook today, and I haven’t even checked the weather. Luckily, the wildlife yesterday was so abundant, that I still have plenty of pictures left over.

Since so many of you wrote in asking about the goslings, here they are, up on the west lawn by the pond and napping under Mom’s protective wing. If you look closely, you can see that she’s keeping one eye on me, and Dad is standing at the ready just out of frame.

As I was checking on the cardinal chicks at the river, I was thrilled to hear the familiar call of sandpipers, and even more excited when I saw then dash by and land at the water’s edge just a ways upstream. So, I did my best slow and steady hustle up there to sneak a peek, and this is what I managed to capture, our first spotted sandpiper of the year. “Welcome back, Darling!”

Then I turned to head back downstream, and look who I spotted perched as high as possible over the upstream island, an American kestrel. In fact, there were two of them, and the second was nearly as high in the other tall tree left standing. As I was taking their pictures, one flew toward the other one, and I held my breath in hopes that they would perch together, but they both just took off to continue their hunt. Oh well. “Good luck, Cuties!”

There was a pair of blue-winged teals on the water, but they stayed pretty far off shore, and there was a pair of tree swallows hunting over the water, but I didn’t have time to try for pictures of swallows in flight, so I headed back to the pond. There, I found our recently arrived green heron still hanging around. Yay!

The warm temps also brought a couple of painted turtles back out of the water in search of some sun, and here’s the most photogenic one.

While I was working on a turtle picture, there was a call I haven’t heard in a while coming from the woods behind me, and the singer was shy, so it took me a while to find him, but here he is. He’s a young white-crowned sparrow whose white crown is still coming in. Perhaps he’s the youngster who’s been with us for much of the winter, and his prom suit is finally arriving.

Finally, as the sun came out for a bit, and the morning warmed up, it was time for a family swim.

With any luck, my next post will come from the Grand Canyon State, so wish me some. Adios, amigos.