It was a beautiful, if chilly, sunny morning in Estabrook Park, and the early light let me get to work nice and early today. What a great way to start the week.

On my way upstream to meet the weekly wildlife walkers, I heard first, and then soon spotted, the one mammal I saw all morning: this little red squirrel busily gnawing a black walnut shell open.

When 8 am rolled around, I was happy to have two crazy people join me. One was crazy enough for about 20 minutes at the pond, and the other was good for at least an hour and a walk along the river all the way from the Port Washington Bridge downstream to the pair of radio towers. As we passed back through the parking lot on the way to the river, we found four crows appearing to be warming up in the sun, and here’s one stretching its wings before turning around to warm up the other side.

Below the falls, the river is now completely frozen over, and someone has even left cross-country sky tracks in the snow up the middle of it. When we got to where the river ice opens back up again, just a bit downstream from the towers, there was quite a congregation of birds on the water, which comprised at least a dozen common mergansers, including this handsome drake, …

a goldeneye hen, …

and the bufflehead drake we first saw just yesterday. It’s nice to catch a glimpse of the colors that the sun brings out of the dark feathers on his head.

Even better, I accidentally managed to get them all in one picture, which gives you some sense of the bird density, although I was aiming at the bufflehead, so he’s the only one in focus.

Finally, I didn’t see the beaver again, but here’s one more picture from our extensive photo shoot yesterday. If you were wondering, as I did, how they manage to digest the cellulose in the bark they eat, I read that “fermentation by intestinal microorganisms allows beavers to digest thirty percent of the cellulose they ingest.” Good to know!

Lastly, our fearless leader at the Friends of Estabrook Park, Harold Schmidt, is currently stuck in Boston due to the huge weekend storm, but he’s expecting to be back home by Tuesday, so we’ve decided to forge ahead with our annual meeting on Wednesday, and they’ve even sent out a final email reminder to members.

To sweeten the deal, besides refreshments, snacks, and door prices, we’re even gonna try to get into the building early to give the furnace a chance to warm the place up for you. So come on out, if you can, member or not, to see pictures of the new wildlife spotted in 2025, Kenneth Gass talking about the Milwaukee Formation, and Peter Bratt explaining the repair and proposed usage of the old Maintenance Building.