In addition to a 35°F drop in temperature from the high of 70°F yesterday afternoon, the other big surprise in Estabrook Park this morning was our first eastern phoebe of the year at the pond. I watched it fly off that perch and return a couple of times, as if it was catching bugs, and I sure hope it was, but I’m a little skeptical that there were any out in this weather. If it can hold out till Tuesday, when temps return to the 50s, there should be plenty in the air then, so “Good luck, little cutie!”
A pair of wood ducks was back on the pond again this morning, but let me show you a nicer picture from Friday, when the sun was peeking through the clouds for a moment to light up the drake just right.
Now that I’ve broken the seal for today on using old pictures, here’s another look at the pair of blue-winged teals on Friday. That’s a significantly larger common merganser hen behind the diminutive teal hen on the left.
I never showed you the coot that I saw that same day, so here it is.
And, here’s another look at the non-breeding horned grebe from when it was letting me have better looks yesterday.
Finally, the weather was so nice yesterday afternoon that I rode down to the lakefront to see who might be around, and I found this gorgeous horned grebe in full breeding plumage right behind the art museum. What a stunner, eh?
Lastly, the current howling wind is forecast to back off to just 8 mph by sunrise, and the sun is supposed to be out, so the expected 27°F might not even feel as bad as this morning did, so dig your winter coat back out and come join our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning. I see that a pair of peregrine falcons, a winter wren, a white-crowned sparrow, and a swamp sparrow have all been reported after my visit this morning, so we’ll have a lot to look for.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 