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This will be a short report. The day is beautiful, and the park looks refreshed after all the rain we got yesterday afternoon, but the critters seemed to be going about their business with a renewed sense of urgency, so pictures were hard to come by. Luckily, this catbird picked a nicely exposed and sunnyContinue reading “The sun returns after a good soaking…”

Well, it took me three tries, twice yesterday and once again this morning, to get some pictures worth showing, and here they finally are: The wood duck hen on the pond, who started with ten ducklings just two weeks ago, is down to only four, and here they are all in a row. I alsoContinue reading “Happy 5th of July!”

Ah, that’s more like it! The smoke and humidity have moved on, and we had blue skies this morning like I haven’t seen in weeks. I was able to take advantage of it right away at the south end when a ruckus amongst the crows distracted this one enough from evading me for a moment.Continue reading “I can see clearly now, the haze is gone…”

The clouds were thick again this morning, so I waited until 8am, at which time I figured I had as much light as I was going to get, so into the park I went. The first treat for me was this perfect arrangement of wood ducks on a rock in the river. Just upriver fromContinue reading “At last…”

It was a dark and dreary morning, and the best chance I had for a decent picture were big birds out in the open, so here they are. At the pond, the wood duck hen with two ducklings was feeling confident enough in their evasive abilities to bring them up onto the west lawn, probablyContinue reading “A slow start to the holiday weekend…”

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve got a meeting this morning, so I won’t be able to visit Estabrook, but my mid-day visit yesterday was so fruitful, I have some pictures for you today anyway. I had initially thought that being later in the day might afford me some butterfly pictures, and I did see aContinue reading “More mid-day surprises!”

It was not as dark and smokey as yesterday morning, but still pretty dark, and I had a meeting at 9am anyway, so I opted to wait until after the meeting to visit Estabrook Park. I didn’t expect to see much, but I thought maybe I’d find some butterflies. Instead, I was reminded that youContinue reading “Just when you least expect it…”

The Canadian wildfire smoke is still here, so I’m staying in this morning, and here are some pictures that I couldn’t squeeze into previous reports. Here’s the painted lady butterfly from Saturday again, but this time giving us a little glimpse of the dorsal side (top side, seen when wings are open) of its leftContinue reading “Waiting for the smoke to clear…”

Well, the Canadian wildfire smoke is back and thicker than ever, so it was not a great day for taking pictures outdoors. It was a little fun, however, to take a picture directly at the sun a full hour after sunrise, although it did take a couple of tries to convince my autofocus that IContinue reading “Low visibility…”

The heavy, wet clouds made it a great morning for sleeping in, but I went to bed nice and early last evening, so there wasn’t much hope for that, and so back to Estabrook Park I went. Just before I spotted this great blue heron on the river, a mink came hopping up the riverbankContinue reading “A couple of unexpected sights…”