B-sides…

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be enjoying a graduation ceremony down at the Panther Arena most of the morning with a family celebration afterwards, so even if I do sneak into Estabrook beforehand, I won’t have time to write you a post. Thus, these are pictures from the past week that didn’t fit.

This first bird is a Philadelphia vireo, who is supposedly “rare” for here now, and who I thought was a Tennessee warbler when I was taking the picture yesterday beside the river. You can see the similarities here, and my guess is that it is only “rare” because of the timing, as we are in their migratory range, but after I reported seeing one, they’ve probably downgraded it to “infrequent”. After all, “if Dressel managed to see one, how rare can it be, right?”

This is the wood duck hen on the pond who was accompanied by the drake I showed you yesterday.

Since the indigo buntings arrived a couple of weeks ago, males have been calling regularly from their usual places, and here’s one beside the river at the north end yesterday. There’s that gray sky I was talking about, but he was kind enough to let me line him up with a trunk behind him.

A pair of spotted sandpipers have also become regulars, and here’s one from Friday with some nice backlighting to make its legs and beak glow.

The white-throated sparrows, who were thick on the ground for a week or so, seemed to have mostly flown north, and now it is the white-crowned sparrows, who only recently flew in, who seem to be everywhere. Here’s one of the latter beside the southern soccer fields on Thursday.

Here’s a green heron on the island in the pond, also from Thursday, when the fog was thick.

Finally, here’s a great horned owl, paying us a visit from the downstream island where I usually see them, and also in Thursday’s fog.

Lastly, your blossom of the day is this tiny one, which appears to be small-flowered buttercup (Ranunculus abortivus).

I’m gonna run into the park as soon as I am done here, if it ever gets light out, and then bring my camera to the family event this afternoon in Waterford, and if I get any pictures worth showing, I’ll see if I can squeeze them into Monday’s post.

Oh, and don’t forget, you can join our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning at either 7 a.m., if you’re an early riser, or 8 a.m., if you need your beauty rest.