Wow! It sure is a very gray day in Estabrook Park, but the good news, at least for folks who have been less than thrilled with the recent winter weather, is that the temps are mild, the breeze is very light, and there has been hardly any precipitation at all. Even better, three folks turned up for this morning’s wildlife walk. Yay! It was nice to catch up.
Our first treat came at the pond when we spotted the only fox sparrow I’ve seen since the winter weather got a nice jump start back at the beginning of December.
Next, a small flock of American tree sparrows swooped down onto the lawn. They haven’t been quite as scarce, but are still always a pleasure to see.
And there were a few white-throated sparrows, as usual, to round out our native sparrow trifecta.
As we started to make our way toward the river, I heard the call a of Cooper’s hawk, and it was pretty high and deep into the woods, but we found it eventually, and here it is. The way the brown of its face seems to bleed onto the top of its white breast makes it look more like the one we saw on Friday, than the one we saw on Wednesday, which would suggest that we’ve got a couple of youngsters coming to the pond to hunt, woo hoo, but I could be mistaken.
When we did finally reach the river, Kathy quickly spotted this bald eagle on the ice for us. Its feathers look wet, and it kept reaching its beak down to the ice or water, but we couldn’t really tell what it was doing. In any case, I was surprised by how long it lingered there after it had spotted us.
Perhaps the reason for its ease was that it had a companion keeping watch from a tree overhead. The one on the ice did eventually fly up into the trees as well, but they didn’t perch together so it was difficult to judge relative size, and I don’t know which was the male and which was the female. Either way, it sure was cool to see the pair again, even if they didn’t serenade us this time.
Finally, folks had to get on with their day, so we parted ways, and I headed back home, but look who I saw along the way: this darling winter wren.
The current forecast calls for tomorrow morning to be a repeat of today’s, so here’s hoping I see as many birds again.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 