I’m sorry this is coming out so late, but I was tied up in the morning, didn’t get into Estabrook until noon, then had a meeting on campus, and here we are. The good news is that I was pleasantly surprised by how much wildlife there was to see in the park that late in the day.
The wood ducks on the pond were mostly down for their siestas, but they do so in such a photogenic way that I can’t really fault them. Can you?
The little pied-billed grebe, however, was still quite hungry and caught a fish that I thought must be just too big for it to choke down, but it gulped and gulped and swallowed that fish whole.
The bigger surprise, for me at least, was finding our first hooded merganser of the fall. The clouds were pretty thick all afternoon, so there wasn’t much light, but it was still finding shadows anyway. Thus, I wasn’t getting much for pictures until it hopped up onto a log with a wood duck hen and created this scene. The hen objected first, but the merganser wasn’t having it and pushed back quite spectacularly.
Things were much more peaceful at the other end of the pond, but I could still barely believe my eyes when I spotted this giant bull frog just chillin’ up on a log in mid-October.
On shore, even the rabbits were out. It was almost as if the morning rain had kept everyone on hold until I was able to get there to see them.
Finally, I didn’t see any odd ducks on the river today, but I did finally get our first image, such as it is, of a tiny winter wren for the season.
The forecast for tomorrow morning is cool, cloudy, and breezy, but at least it shouldn’t rain, so I can’t wait to see who I find next.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 