A nice wintery start to December…

It sure was a pleasure to start out December in Estabrook Park with it looking and feeling like winter, for a change. As forecast, the air was cold and nearly still this morning, and the wind hadn’t yet blown all the snow off the branches, which really helps soak up sound. Thus, there was very little background noise, and I was really able to hear the birds.

The first photogenic bird I heard, as I made my way north along the river, was this female belted kingfisher waiting for her breakfast to show its little fins.

The first big surprise of the morning came as I approached what’s left of the falls and spotted this wood duck drake dabbling in the remaining open water. He might be from up north and not used to seeing people because I wasn’t even within the width of the pond from him, but he bolted anyway. “Good luck, Buddy!”

Then it was time to meet the wildlife walkers at the beer garden parking lot, and we only had one today, but that’s okay. We checked the water around the islands, and we saw dozens of Canada geese and mallards, but we couldn’t find a sign of any killdeer. Next, we visited the pond and found a couple of fox sparrows, a few white-throated sparrows, both pictured below, and a slew of house sparrows and finches, but no redpolls today.

Eventually, my visitor had to get on with her day, so I headed back to the river to make my way home, and wouldn’t you know it, that’s when and where the killdeer showed up. Ha!

By then, as you might have noticed, the sun was starting to burn through the clouds a bit, so I cranked up my shutter speed and tried my luck with a flighty chickadee. At least it held its head still for 1/500th of a second.

Farther downstream, I found my next biggest surprise of the morning, this young bald eagle perched high over the river.

Finally, what’s a visit to a snowy Estabrook Park in December without a northern cardinal picture. Those look like spindle seeds it’s munching on, and it’s just too bad that the sun didn’t stick around for that shot. Oh well, maybe next time.

The forecast for tomorrow looks similar, but perhaps with a bit more sun, which I wouldn’t mind one bit.