The new arrivals pick up the pace…

The change in the weather that I’ve been waiting for finally arrived overnight, after a line of thunderstorms rolled through, and it was cool, dry, still, and mostly sunny in Estabrook Park this morning. Sweet.

I spotted our first treat of the day amongst the mallards on the water between the islands in the river. This little cutie looks a lot like the mallards, but it’s only about half their size, has a little more gray than brown in its plumage, and has a black beak with a little light patch in the feathers behind it, all of which mark it as our first blue-winged teal, a female or youngster, of the fall migration. Woo hoo!

There were also a pair of young spotted sandpipers, and here’s the one that chose not to perch on that darned tire that I still have to get out of there.

This next amazing creature is our very first sweetheart underwing moth (Catocala amatrix). The only reason I was able to find it on this hackberry tree bark is that it flew past me, and I was able to see where it landed. Since it was so big, gray, and landed on a hackberry tree, I first figured it was a hackberry emperor butterfly , which we just saw on Monday, and are always great to see, but you know how I love to find species that are new to us.

Back to the birds, I found this little darling hungrily hunting for bugs in an oak tree high above the bluff by the soccer fields, and if my sources are correct, it is either a young or female blackburnian warbler or a pine warbler. Either way, that makes it our first warbler of the fall migration. Yee Haw!

This next picture was sent in by the grandson, who Anne took for a hike from Hubbard Park along the river into Estabrook this morning, and yup, that is the fabled young yellow-crowned night heron that has had so many birders all atwitter recently. If this is a sign that the kid might be turning into a chip off this old block, I pity his parents.

Finally, I stopped by what’s left of the weeds beside the soccer fields, and the work crew was taking the morning off, perhaps because of the rain we got last evening. We still haven’t found the person who made the decision to convert half of it back to turf grass, but I think we’re getting closer, and I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, here’s a black swallowtail from the other side of the paved path, where the weeds are still growing wild.

Tomorrow morning should be even nicer than today, with cooler temps and fewer clouds, so I can’t wait to see who shows up next.