The gorgeous summer weather continued this morning with seasonably cool temps, clear skies, and still air. Even the wildfire smoke seemed thinner than usual, and I had a nice and peaceful stroll through Estabrook Park, but the show didn’t really start until I reached the old boat launch ramp at the north end.
As I slowly walked down the ramp so I could count the mallards upstream of the islands, I inadvertently spooked a double-crested cormorant, the first one I’ve been able to photograph in the park this year, that had been fishing near our shore. It immediately took off but only flew across the river, thankfully, where it landed and swam over to some exposed rocks near a great blue heron. You can just make out the cormorant at the left side of the image below, and the heron is on the right, of course.
I apologize for the image quality, but they were about at the limit of my equipment, and the sun was bright, low, and to the side. I’ve cropped the images as far as I dare, but you can zoom in for a better look on a higher-resolution version by clicking on them and viewing them in flickr. You can even scroll through the sequence on flickr so you don’t have to click on each image separately in this post.
Anyway, once the cormorant hopped up onto the rocks to dry off, the heron took notice and turned to face the newcomer.
At first, I thought the heron might be walking over to give the cormorant, who still seemed unconcerned, a hearty Estabrook welcome.
But it turns out that I was mistaken, and the two exchanged some harsh words, instead.
But the cormorant held its ground, and the heron seemed momentarily taken aback.
Next, I thought that maybe they each had said what needed to be said, and that now things could settle back down.
But I was mistaken again, and the heron continued its advance.
At which point, the cormorant finally said, “Fine! You can have your stinkin’ rock! I’ll go find another,” and swam off.
It didn’t have to go far, however, and it soon spread its wings to dry them in the morning sun. That’s when I noticed a female hooded merganser nearby, the bird just in front of the cormorant, and perhaps the one we’ve been seeing in the pond lately.
Happily, the merganser and the cormorant got along just fine, and maybe it was a case of professional curtesy among fellow divers that waders simply wouldn’t understand.
Once I had returned far enough downstream so that the sun was at my back, I could use my long lens to shrink the distance between the heron and the cormorant and make it seem as though they had achieved some sort of begrudging detente.
After all that drama, it was nice to find the spotted sandpiper again just relaxing on the newly exposed river bottom atop our side of the falls. The big white bags full of gravel are just out of frame to the right.
Back on top of the bluff, this northern house wren seemed a little bewildered, which makes me think it is a recently fledge youngster out on its own for the first time. “Welcome to the world, kiddo!”
Farther downstream, I found a least skipper putting on a show that I believe we’ve only seen one time before.
Finally, in the flowers at the southwest edge of the dog park, I found a red-spotted purple on cup plant blossoms again, perhaps the same one as yesterday, but this time we got to see the out/under/ventral side of its gorgeous wings.
Lastly, here’s the latest look at the falls reshaping project. They covered the bags of gravel with a sheet of plastic yesterday to prevent water from flowing between them, and that further reduced the flow over our side of the falls. Perhaps the reshaping will begin today, and things will look different tomorrow.
Remember that you can check out the progress in person when you join the Friends of Estabrook Park picnic in the beer garden next Tuesday, August 12, from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 