The weather really was fine in Estabrook this morning, and I’d be hard pressed to pick which of the last three mornings had weather measurably better than the other two. Plus, there are still plenty of birds around, both locals and migrators, so I have no complaint to make there. Thus, and I know you’ll be stunned to read this, the fault must lie with me.
Anyway, I did manage to get a couple of pictures, and here’s the first one. Perhaps this white-crowned sparrow heard me explaining yesterday about the white crown that hasn’t come in yet, because it let me have a real good look, and this one isn’t quite yet crisp black and white, but you can definitely see more white in it.
There are still a lot of Swainson’s thrushes around, and here’s one who let me sneak a picture through the leaves.
I did also see a few warblers, but that’s all that’s presentable from today, for reasons I can’t quite get a handle on. Luckily, I still have a couple images left over from Sunday, so here’s a male belted kingfisher who just caught a small fish on the river.
Finally, here’s a lone mallard hen taking a nap on a rock in the river. I read that she uses both “anatomical locking”, to stand on one leg with little or no muscle effort, and “half-brain sleep”, aka “unihemispheric slow-wave sleep” to sleep with one eye open, literally.
Now, I’ve just gotta get back to taking pictures of critters that don’t mind me taking their picture. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.
