A foreshadowing of the fall…

It was as cool, dark, and windy as predicted this morning in Estabrook Park, but birds are on the move, so there were plenty to see. We started with only one other wildlife walker willing to brave the weather, but we picked up a second on our way to the pond, and boy were things hopping there.

I counted ten wood ducks, including the first drakes in their breeding plumage for the first time in a while, and here’s a sampling.

There were also a pair of hooded mergansers busily catching and gulping down crayfish, which was a treat for our guests.

There was also a Cooper’s hawk, a belted kingfisher, and a great blue heron, but the star of that show was this tiny pied-billed grebe, and this is the first one I’ve seen in Estabrook since April! “Welcome back, Cutie pie!”

My guests couldn’t stay long this morning and left right after our visit to the pond. I still had some time on the meter, however, so I headed for the river and quickly came across this stranger. That’s a young red-headed woodpecker, who hasn’t yet gotten its red head, and we haven’t seen one in Estabrook since May.

In addition to a dozen Canada geese, a few mallards, and a couple of double-crested cormorants, a great egret was back on the water around the islands in the river. Could this morning get any better?

“Cue the bald eagle!” my friend Lisa would say, and there it was, a youngster starting to get its white head plumage and gliding downriver at treetop height. Thank goodness for all the practice I’ve just had trying to catch pictures of flying frigatebirds, boobies, shearwaters, and tropicbirds, eh?

Finally, as I strolled home along the paved path, I glanced across the river where the path runs right along the edge of the bluff and spotted a bird high in a dead tree over the far riverbank. I figured it was one of the many flickers that were around this morning, but I decided to give it a closer look anyway. Well, knock me down with a feather, it’s our first merlin of the fall migration and the first merlin anyone has reported seeing in Estabrook for the entire year. “Welcome back, you beautiful creature! Feel free to stay a while.”

There were even more sights to see, but I’ve got some catching up to do, and I’d better keep some in my back pocket in case there’s a slowdown. I see the weather forecast calls for more of the same tomorrow, so here’s hoping my luck with the wildlife holds as well.