The weather today in Estabrook Park was a near repeat of yesterday’s, which was very nice, and I had two folks join me for our weekly wildlife walk, which was also very nice. We headed first for the river, in hopes of seeing the great egret again, but before we could reach the water around the islands, we ran into this sharp-dressed little bird, the first white-crowned sparrow that I’ve been able to show you of the season. If you’re wondering where its white crown is, this is a youngster whose white crown hasn’t come in yet.
As good luck would have it, the white-crowned sparrow was palling around with a few white-throated sparrows, so I can show you both, for comparison purposes. The patterns on their heads are similar, especially if you only catch a glimpse, and the white throat isn’t necessarily obvious, so it is helpful for me to notice the streaky breast on the white-throated, compared to the plane breast on the white-crowned.
The great egret was nowhere to be found by the time we did reach the water, darn, though we did see a couple of double-crested cormorants flying around. So, we headed for the pond, and spotted a few warblers on the way. When we did reach the pond, we saw a few wood ducks, one hooded merganser, and one pied-billed grebe. I like better the grebe picture I took yesterday, so here it is.
Then my guests had to get on with their day, and I started my way home. At the far south end, near where I saw the house wren yesterday, I managed to capture this quick look at another black-throated green warbler.
And that’s my haul for today, I’m afraid, but I still have a couple more presentable images from yesterday, so here’s one of the last red-eyed vireos hanging around. I haven’t heard one making their regular call in weeks, and they blend in with the foliage quite well, so it was pure luck that I saw this one.
And here’s the best I could get of a blue-headed vireo foraging amongst the American goldfinches in a big cottonwood tree at the back of the dog park. I claimed on ebird to have seen one last May, but the last picture of one I can find is from last October!
Finally, I couldn’t find any butterflies, let alone dragonflies, on the weeds we still have left, but I did see this clouded sulfur sipping from the New England asters in the bioswale along Wilson Drive.
It looks like this nice weather should continue into tomorrow morning, so maybe I’ll have some better luck then. Cross your fingers!
