We had our first sub-fifty-degree start since last spring in Estabrook Park this morning, but the skies were pretty clear, and the breeze was very light, so it didn’t take the sun long to warm things back up. Yay!
It was a treat having all that sunlight, after the week we’ve had, and it sure lit up nicely this great blue heron fishing on the river between the islands.
The great egret was also fishing nearby, and it was reflecting so much light that I had to close the aperture on my camera enough to make the background look very dark. “Ooooh, moody.”
With all the action on the water, I don’t know exactly why I checked the trees over the downstream island, but I’m sure glad I did, because here’s the first red-tailed hawk I’ve been able to show you all month. “Where’ve you been, Beautiful?”
And wouldn’t you know it. I turn by head for 15 seconds, and the heron and egret get into a spat. Sheesh! Happily, it didn’t amount to much, and I’m lucky I even caught the end of it.
I didn’t see any other odd ducks on the water, so I started to make my way south, and as I cut through the woods south of the dog park to visit the pond again, I finally captured our first image of a brown creeper for this season. I’ve glimpsed them a couple of times already this week, but they’ve been too quick for me, until this morning.
As I was sitting on the bench at the pond, counting the wood ducks and the one grebe, some white-breasted nuthatches really started to make a racket across the parkway behind me. So, I went over there to check them out, and it turns out that there were three of them, which is probably what was causing the agitation, and this is the one that let me have a good look while it was preoccupied with its compatriots.
Finally, at the far south end, I caught the flash of a tiny brown bird close to the ground, and I hoped that it was one of the winter wrens I’ve been hearing. Well, it did come out to say “hi”, but now that I have the picture home, I can see that it is a late northern house wren instead. “Thanks for the picture, but what’re you still doin’ here, Sweet pea?” I haven’t seen a house wren in weeks, but I see their breeding range extends to the north shore of Lake Superior, so maybe it started up there and has only reached us now.
I did also see a couple of vireos and warblers, and the forecast for tomorrow looks about as nice as today’s, so come on out for our weekly wildlife walk, if you can, and get a look at these beauties for yourself before they’ve all flown south. I’ll be at the beer garden parking lot at 8am.
