Man, if I thought yesterday was foggy, I hadn’t seen nothin’ yet. Here’s a picture of a least sandpiper, who was kind enough to visit again, that I think best captures the mood in Estabrook Park this morning.
Fortunately, the fog eventually dispersed a bit, so I was able to get a picture of our first Savannah sparrow in the park of the year, who we just saw down beside Lake Michigan on Sunday.
I’ve been glimpsing an osprey flying south over the river now and then lately, but it opted to perch high over the upstream island instead today, perhaps due to fog, so I guess that might be a silver lining.
The first big treat of the day was hearing the familiar song of an eastern wood-pewee, and it didn’t take me long to find this handsome little singer perched low over the downstream island.
The very light breeze off the lake, which caused all the fog, makes perfect conditions for warblers, and the trees were crawling with them in places. Here’s another magnolia warbler beside the river.
Here’s a common yellowthroat behind the dog park. I find them a bit tricky to get on film, but today I was already busy trying to get a wren picture when this guy caught a worm to eat right between me and the wren. Sometimes I get lucky.
As I was walking home on the paved path, look who I found almost at eye level where the path is squeezed between the bluff and the parkway. Reliable sources tell me that she’s a female blackpoll warbler, and she might be the first one I’ve ever seen.
Finally, your blossom of the day is this stunner, which other sources tell me is a blackish columbine or Bulgarian columbine (Aquilegia nigricans), and whose name suggests it ain’t from around here. Instead, it is native to “to several non-contiguous, mainly mountainous areas in the eastern Alps, the Carpathian Mountains, and the southern and eastern Balkans. It is found in Slovenia, Austria, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Romania, and Greece, and in small areas of southeastern Poland, eastern Slovakia, northwestern Croatia, eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, western Hungary, Serbia, and western Ukraine. Reports of specimens in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeastern Italy are thought to have been erroneous.” Wow, that’s a lot of information.
Anyway, not too impressive? Well, how about now? If still not yet, click on the image to see the original resolution on flickr. There you can also display it “full screen”.
Lastly, the forecast for tomorrow morning is a bit warmer, a bit breezier, and sunny! That’ll be a nice change of pace.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 