The heat and humidity that had been promised for days have finally arrived, and it was 80°F and 80% humidity at 6:00 this morning. Jeepers! Given the breathless warnings on the evening news, I expected the weather, but I did not expect to spot this raccoon trotting across the parkway near the pollinator garden. “Sweetie, if I’d known you were going to be there, I would have had my camera set up better. Sorry!”
There was a nice lineup of wood ducks on this log in the pond, and I tried to catch them all looking our way at the same time, but it was like class picture day for kindergarteners.
The mallard hen and her sleepy ducklings on the river were a little better, but not by much.
By the islands in the river, I was surveying the geese, mallards, sandpipers, and killdeer in vain hopes of finding someone new, and I glanced up in time to see a few gulls lazily flying upstream, when I noticed one looked slightly different. By the time I took a look with my binoculars, realized that it was a black-crowned night heron, and tried to prepare my camera for birds in flight, however, the darn thing had gone around the bend and took my chances for a picture with it. My only consolation is that, when this young great blue heron gave me a low pass soon afterwards and and in the other direction, I was all set to go.
Anywho, a couple of squirrels were crying up on the bluff, and sometimes that means they see a hawk, so I hiked up to investigate, but all I could find was this female red-bellied woodpecker with a beakful of breakfast for its nestlings inside that tree trunk.
Farther downstream, as I approached the skate park, I could see a rabbit sprawled out on the pavement, which would have been a fun way to visualize the weather, but before I could line up a picture, this little cutie came scampering up the path and chased the rabbit away. “Okay, Buddy, you know the rules. If you wreck the shot, you become the shot.”
Finally, this is sure not the prettiest butterfly picture I’ve ever taken, especially on top of the cloth put down to kill the grass so the pollinator garden can expand, but it is our first hackberry emperor of the year, and that’s where it like to perch this morning.
Welp, it’s time to wrap this up, and I see the temperature has climbed to 95°F outside, which is supposed to feel like 107°F when you add in the humidity, so I hope you’re staying cool out there.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 