As I sit at my dining room table to write this now, we’re getting a nice rain, which we sorely need, but right after sunrise it was a nice morning to look for wildlife in Estabrook Park.
The main treat of the day came early as I made my way upstream beside the river. That’s were I heard the ping of our first northern waterthrush of the fall migration. There were even two of them, calling back and forth to each other, but only one little cutie paused in the open for a second so we could get a good look at it.
At least one wood-pewee is still with us, and I know I showed you a pair just yesterday, but just look at this darling pose? How could I say no?
I spent quite a while looking for other warblers, but I came up empty today. Instead, look who I found over the far riverbank as I checked the south end for hooded mergansers. I read that the paler yellow in its beak, compared to its own feet and the beak of the one we saw a little over a week ago, could be a sign of age or vitamin deficiency, but it sure looks healthy otherwise, doesn’t it?
Anyway, that’s it for the birds already, so here’s a damselfly, probably a female American rubyspot, with a metallic green patch on its side, which I don’t recall noticing before.
Finally, I didn’t see any butterflies today, so here’s one more painted lady from the remaining weed patch at the south end.
I did finally hear the official word from the Parks Department about the former weed patch on the other side of the paved path, and that word is “lawn”, I’m sorry to say. I’ve followed up to see if that really is the final word, but one potential bright spot is that I did also receive an invitation to submit a Community Project Request for a pollinator garden at that location, so we might just have to see how that goes. Meanwhile, thanks for all your suggestions. I’m glad that we at least got to the bottom of it, even if it isn’t the bottom we were hoping for.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 