Since it’s just more of the same today, I’ll skip the weather report and get right to the fun. The treats started early this morning when I spotted the wood duck with nine ducklings, on the riverbank just down the bluff from the middle playground. Here she is with three of them as they do a little after-breakfast preening before they take their after-breakfast nap.
That was quickly followed up by this mallard hen at the falls, posing with four of her six ducklings, who were still busy chowing down.
At the north end, by the islands, the fawn appears to have made it all the way to the mainland today, but I suspect it was on its way back to an island for its own morning nap.
By the time I arrived on foot to where the fawn had been, the water was full of hungry herons. I counted three greens, and here’s one tossing back a morsel.
And here’s the one great blue heron, who was doing the same.
On my way back downstream, I found the other wood duck hen, the one with just five ducklings, and they were all out on the water picking something, perhaps recently hatched flies, off the surface.
Finally, the surprise of the day came at the far south end, as I crossed the southern parking lot. I heard some gulls crying, and when I turned to check them out, look what they were crying about. It appears that they don’t like red-tailed hawks any more than the crows and jays do. If you look closely, you can see that the gull is an American herring gull, and the hawk is momentarily flying inverted, aka “talons up”, to keep the gull at bay. Back on the first, when red-winged blackbirds were mixing it up with a broad-winged hawk over the island in the pond, that hawk also flew talons up for a moment, although the picture I chose doesn’t show it quite as well as this one does. Perhaps all the hawks go to the same flight school.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 