Finally, enough local content for a whole post…

As promised, it was a gorgeous morning in Estabrook Park, with seasonably mild temps, a very light breeze, and plenty of blue sky and sunshine. Happily, for me at least, it was well below freezing overnight so the unpaved path along the river was all frozen back up after thawing a bit yesterday afternoon.

The first exciting sight of the morning was this common merganser hen with a nice big fish in the open water just above the falls. There were a couple of other hens and a drake in that same water, and each offered to help her with that fish, some multiple times, but she did her best to handle it on her own.

I don’t know if it was the relative warmth or just lucky timing, but the red-breasted merganser drake at the far north end was finally off the ice and looking for fish. I didn’t see him have any luck, though.

Maybe it was just TGIF vibes, but another thrilling sight was this pair of mature-looking bald eagles high over the far riverbank. If I had to guess, the one on the right looks a little smaller and so is probably the male. The larger one, on the left, is probably the female, and she appears to have some dark streaks still in her white feathers, but I don’t know if that’s an indication of young age or just a slight variation on the theme.

The biggest surprise of the day, at least according to the ebird website, which considers it “rare” here for this time of year, is this hermit thrush foraging in the freshly exposed leaf litter with the robins. If I were a bettin’ man, I’d bet this is the same bird I saw nearby in January.

The biggest surprise for me, on the other hand, was finally seeing a great horned owl again. My last sighting was all the way back at the beginning of December! Welcome back, you magnificent creature!

Back at the south end, I finally found someone willing to pose for the camera in full, warm sun with that nice blue sky behind it, and in case that red cap it is wearing trips you up, that’s a male red-bellied woodpecker. Thanks, Sweetie!

Finally, back on the river and almost in the shadow of the Capitol Ave bridge, the one common goldeneye I saw today was this handsome drake, and you can even see some of the green sheen his head feathers have.

The gradual warming trend is supposed to continue into tomorrow, so I can’t wait to see who else it brings out.