It was an absolutely gorgeous morning in Estabrook Park, and if you live anywhere nearby, I hope you were able to get out into it. As I approached the river at the north end, I inadvertently flushed a raptor that was close to the ground, and I assumed it was a Cooper’s hawk. In my way back south from the far north end to check on the pigeons by the Port Washington Road bridge, I glanced up at just the right moment to notice this beauty feasting on some small songbird high overhead. This, of course, is a merlin, not a Cooper’s hawk, so I figured I must have been mistaken earlier. Just 50 yards farther back down the trail, however, I came upon a real Cooper’s hawk, whose pictured did not come out as nice, but who did let me get a positive ID this time, so now I’ll never know which bird it was that I saw in that first instance.
Much farther downstream, by the wide, slow part of the river, I found this beauty, a Nashville warbler and the first one I’ve been able to show you this month, feasting on the bugs in the low weeds beside the trail.
Just another 50 feet up the trail toward the pond, I was able to capture this image of the first orange-crowned warbler I’ve been able to show you this fall.
When I got to the pond, the pied bill grebe continued to resist my effort to capture it floating in the reflection of some fall foliage, but I did finally catch a mature yellow-bellied sapsucker with a red cap and black-and-white plumage, and the red throat marks him as a he.
Finally, for how nice the day was, I thought for sure I’d capture a butterfly or dragonfly image, but that was not to be, so here’s a clouded sulphur on New England aster at Havenwoods State Forest yesterday.
Lastly, I see the breeze is forecast to pick up a bit by morning and bring a few clouds and warmer temps with it, so it still should be a very nice October morning for our weekly wildlife walk. Come on out if you can and help me find the warblers that are still with us and the rusty blackbirds that are due to arrive any day now. I’ll look for you in the beer garden parking lot at 8am.
