Yet another special guest shows up…

It was one more in a long string of gorgeous mornings in Estabrook Park, and I eagerly searched for the screech-owl from yesterday, but that appearance seems to have been a one-and-done. Oh well. I sure was thrilled to see it, even if for only one day.

Instead, our special guest for today is this dapper green-winged teal drake, dabbling amongst the mallards in the low water between the islands. He even gave us a good look at his namesake green wing. We did see one already this year, back in April, but I’ve only recorded 8 sightings in Estabrook, compared to 24 for screech-owls. So there.

Meanwhile, the deer in the river keep multiplying, and I don’t mean in the sense of our new fawn. I mean that there were two more bucks, besides the three amigos, and another doe, in addition to the fawn’s mom, for a total of seven adults in the water today. Interestingly, the bucks all seemed to get along just fine, and it was the does that ended up chasing each other around. My guess is that it was the fawn’s mom who took issue with another doe sniffing too close to her fawn. Anyway, I had the wrong lens for capturing any of that action, I’m sorry to say, so here’s a portrait of one of the new bucks who gave me a break and stood nice and still for a moment.

That was the excitement on the river for this morning, so I started to head back home, and on my way, this crow gave me a pose that I just couldn’t resist.

I didn’t see any new dragonflies or butterflies in the weeds beside the soccer fields today, but this eastern tailed-blue, which we just saw last week, gave us a rare peek at the in/top/dorsal side of those pretty wings it has.

There’s a musk thistle in blossom at the south end of the weed patch, and I was lining up a nice picture of a male goldfinch on it, when this female arrived and shooed him away, as if to say “you had your chance yesterday, and it’s my turn now!”

Despite the goldfinch’s efforts, I’m a little short on pictures this time, so here’s another look at the fawn, when Mom had it out on the river Thursday.

Finally, here’s one more pose from the fabulous photoshoot the common yellowthroat granted me also on Thursday.

It looks like we’re in for one more pretty nice day tomorrow, if a bit more humid, before the hot and muggy weather arrives, and I can’t wait to see who shows up next!