It was a gorgeous morning in Estabrook Park, and on my way upstream along the river to the beer garden parking lot, I finally saw my first great blue heron of the year that was not merely flying over. “Welcome back, Beautiful!”
I’m not sure which was the bigger draw, the weather or the promise of warblers, but we had a great turnout for our wildlife walk. Once we had the team assembled, we went first to check the water around the islands in the river, and it was teaming with waterfowl today. Here are five of the six blue-winged teals, and that’s the wing of a Canada goose over their heads in the background.
Here’s a lone hooded merganser, and that yellow eye marks him as a male in non-breeding plumage.
We even found the horned grebe, who I thought had already moved on, but I was clearly mistaken.
Back up on the bluff, a pair of yellow-bellied sap suckers, my firsts for the year, put on quite a show for us.
I’m sorry to say, however, that we could not find a single warbler. As a small consolation, let me give you a another look at the palm warbler from yesterday.
Finally, it turns out that wildlife walkers are not the only ones brought out by the warm weather today, and here’s the first butterfly I’ve seen in the park this year, a mourning cloak.
I hear that we’re in for some rain, but it looks like I might be able to sneak into Estabrook for a bit before it arrives, so wish me luck!
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 