Well, the sun finally came out, and the wind was nice and calm, so 7°F seemed like a small price to pay for such a glorious morning. Some of the critters might probably prefer the opposite trade-off, but let’s hope that anyone not built to handle this weather has long since flown south.

Anyway, you’ll never believe who was perched high above the river to greet me soon after I got started at the south end, as if on cue.

Yup, one of the several bald eagles I’ve been seeing patrolling the river since the fall finally allowed me an audience. The sun was up, but still very low in the eastern sky, and you can see just a dabbling of that golden light filtering through the trees onto its white tail feathers. It eventually decided it wasn’t going to catch a fish there or that I had seen enough, and it glided right over me on its way farther south.

I didn’t get very far before I heard our belted kingfisher and found her hard at work already on the far shore.

At the top of the mild rapids, which keep the water mostly clear of ice, our gadwall drake was still foraging with the mallards, and his bill was still coated in a thick, protective layer of ice. By that point the river has turned west so the early morning sun can reach down to the surface and bathe everything in its beautiful glow.

Above the rapids, the river becomes wide and slow and so is completely frozen over, and there are no more ducks to see. Instead, two gray squirrels noisily burst out of their den in this tree, but a third one found the morning air just a tad too brisk, perhaps, and hung back in the entrance.

I didn’t see another bird until the north end, where I found our trio of bluebirds again…

A gaggle of geese resting on the ice…

A flock of mallards flying in…

And a pair of common mergansers busy fishing among the ice floes again.

On my way back south, I saw that the gadwall finally got his deicer working.

And back at the south end, a female downy woodpecker paused from her foraging just for a moment to confirm that I posed no threat.

And that’s not even all of it, but we’d better pace ourselves.

The snow did finally arrive, even though the sun stayed hidden until I got back home, so there was a nice change of scenery after all, and I’ll take it!

Our new gadwall drake was still on the lower river, and he appeared to be having icing issues that the mallards were not facing, but he seemed unfazed by the situation, thankfully.

Who knows. Maybe it’s a feature, not a flaw, and the ice acts as a protective layer, like on the sherbet in Mom’s freezer.

The river below the falls was so jammed up with ice and snow that it was backing up the water enough to make the falls almost disappear. I could not make an attractive picture of it this morning, despite my best efforts, so you’ll just have to use your imagination for now.

The water above the falls was similarly jammed up, but with Canada geese instead, which are far more photogenic, and here are a few napping on the ice.

Above the falls, I did not see our kestrel again, but at least three of the common mergansers from last year were back and fishing among the ice floes, and here are two of them catching their breath for a moment.

On my way back south, I thought I spotted a junco, which would have made a nice picture with the snow, but it didn’t take off right away, the way juncos usually do, and that’s because it was one of the trio of bluebirds from last year, instead. It was great to see all three again, eventually, but I could never get more than two in a single image.

This one, with subdued colors, looks like a female.

And the one on the right below, with the vibrant colors, looks like a male.

Finally, on my way home, this red-bellied woodpecker struck a pose, while sampling the snow, that I just couldn’t ignore.

Lastly, the forecast is for nice and cool temps for a while, so I have a hope that the snow will stick around for a bit.

Happy New Year! I hope yours is off to as nice a start as mine is. This morning looked like many recent mornings with low, dark skies, but as Forrest Gump always used to say, “Estabrook Park is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

This morning, I was thrilled to spot a new raptor in the park, “North America’s littlest falcon”, an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), and the little bit of brown on the top of her head leads me to believe she is female.

She looked just like a mourning dove when I first spotted her at the north end, but when she didn’t take off right away as mourning doves tend to do, I took a closer look. What a treat!

Until I had spotted her, I was just trying to get something to show you at all. Thus, I already had another kingfisher picture from the south end…

A chickadee picture from farther north…

And a coy gray squirrel from just short of the north end.

On my way back south, I spotted the male bufflehead again hanging out with the mallards above the falls.

Finally, as I approached the south end again, I spotted a few mallards working their way upstream just offshore, and the one at the end of the line looked different. Sure enough, that’s because he’s a gadwall drake. Ha!

Long-time readers may remember that we had a gadwall hen hang around for weeks last spring, first on the pond, and then on the river, but I think this is our first sighting of a drake. How sweet is that?

The forecast looks pretty promising right now for some snow overnight, and the sun might even come up on partly-cloudy skies tomorrow, so we might finally get a break from all the gray. Keep your fingers crossed!

I don’t have a lot of time this morning, and it looks gray as heck out there again anyway, so let’s do a little year in review instead. Here are some of my favorite pictures from 2021.

Nothing brightens up a gray day in January like a male northern cardinal on sumac, eh?

But a thrush on sumac with snow and a blue sky in February ain’t too shabby either.

Here’s a raft of common mergansers, and one with a fresh catch, from March.

And a hairy woodpecker from April.

A robin feeding its chicks from May. What a thrill it was to get to see that whole process unfold.

One of a pair of North American river otters I spotted hunting goslings in June. (It still gives me goosebumps that I got to witness that scene and that this picture came out as good as it did. Phew!)

A great horned owl, also in June, who looked like it was hunting ducklings but eventually just took a bath.

A great blue heron picking a new fishing spot in July.

A mallard hen with her ducklings on the pond also in July.

A green heron fishing on the pond in August.

An indigo bunting also from August.

A great egret fishing in the river in September.

The osprey who visited us for a couple of weeks in October.

One of the bucks strutting his stuff in November.

Our female belted kingfisher who’s been fishing the lower river all December.

Of course, I am leaving out dozens of critters that could have just as easily made this list: warblers, vireos, hawks, eagles, goslings, wood ducks, the cuckoo, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, muskrats, the mink, raccoons, beaver, butterflies, dragonflies, snapping turtles, etc., etc.

In any case, it has been an absolute treat for me to see all these beautiful creatures right here in the little park across the street and share them with you. Thanks for coming along for the ride, and see you all next year.

PS. Some dates above are approximate because of reasons.

The exciting news is that we have new arrivals in the park again, this time a foursome of female common mergansers, the likes of which we haven’t seen since March. Here are the two that swam closest together.

Meanwhile, the mallards continue going about their business and achieved some nice duck density in this image.

Our two “love birds”, the pair of red-tailed hawks, appear to be together enough to perch in the same tree, which is still an unusual sight for me.

Finally, another blue bird has stopped in or one of the trio from a couple of weeks ago hasn’t moved on yet. Either way, a pretty sight to see, eh?

Lastly, this recent cold snap has created some interesting kinetic sculptures on the river.

Here’s a perfect little disk slowly spinning in place right below the falls.

Brrr. It was colder than it looked this morning, and I should have checked the “real feel” temperature before heading out. My hands are still pretty stiff from the cold as I try to type this.

Anyway, it seemed as though the big animals saw my post yesterday and took offense or took pity on me. Either way, they were about all I saw today.

Right off the bat, as I crossed the parkway on my way to the river, I spotted this deer, among the biggest mammals in the park, just resting on the grass by the edge of the woods. I read that our bucks shed their antlers “around January,” so she’s likely a doe.

On the river, I saw our pair of buffleheads again, foraging this time, and a few mallards, but the best pose of the morning came from this herring gull just below the falls.

On my way back south, I was pleasantly surprised to find our blue heron, certainly the biggest wading bird, if not the biggest bird overall, intently fishing just below the abandoned bridge abutments.

And that’s about it for the critters. It was a pretty quiet morning. To round things out instead, since we still don’t have a snow cover, here are some pretty maple leaves frozen in the ice.

I see the forecast is for snow on Saturday, and I for one am looking forward to that change of scenery. Keep your fingers crossed!

Despite a few nice little breaks, the gray skies are hanging around like a Gloomy Gus this month. Even the buffleheads, the smallest diving ducks in North America, and whom I usually find hard at work, were sleeping in this morning.

This gray squirrel isn’t even the smallest squirrel in the park, let alone North America, and it’s just wondering why I’m including it in this list. The answer, little buddy, is that the diminutive chipmunk, who has been hard to find since the fall, and who momentarily perched on the log right between us, took off the instant I reached for my camera.

Finally, here’s a winter wren, one of North America’s smallest birds, foraging amongst the ice covered rocks and roots at the water’s edge.

Oh, sure. There were a bunch of geese, some mallards, a few gulls, and even a couple of crows on the upper river, but none of them wanted their picture taken today.

I didn’t see the goldeneye from yesterday, so maybe it is off in search of other goldeneyes. Here’s hoping he finds some and brings them all back here, eh?

Despite the weather, or perhaps because of it, it was quite a nice morning in Estabrook. I didn’t get there especially early, but I still got to make the first human footprints in a lot of the fresh sloppy snow lying on many parts of the river trail.

Things were pretty quiet on my way north, and I didn’t see much more than scenery and this hungry gray squirrel.

At the far north end, though, at least one male common goldeneye has finally arrived from Canada, and he was looking splendid. Last winter, they tended to stick together, so if there were more, I probably would have seen them. Here’s hoping they’re not far behind, right?

The bufflehead pair was just off the southern tip of the southern island again, and here’s the male tilting his head just right to show off some iridescence for us.

The woodpeckers were out, and just as I was about to take this hairy‘s picture, it opted to make it an action shot. I had my shutter nice and slow for the low light, but I think you can still get the gist of it.

At the falls, this herring gull just about dared me to take its picture, and who am I to say no.

At the south end, a couple of our favorite anglers were working the eastern shore, and here’s the kingfisher.

And here’s the blue heron.

As you can imagine, I wasn’t the only one making footprints in the snow, and here are a bunch that appear to be from squirrels.

And here’s a no-nonsense set from a good sized canid that I followed for nearly half the park without any sign of an accompanying human, so I’m guessing they’re from our wily coyote, making its morning rounds.

I also caught glimpses of prints the looked like rabbit, raccoon, and deer.

Finally, here’s just some interesting ice on the river after last night’s wet snow.

As dawn broke this morning, the sky looked like it was going to be clear, so I hustled out the door soon after I noticed, and it didn’t take long for that to pay off. I had just crossed Wilson Drive, stepped into the park, and hadn’t even crossed the Oak Leaf Trail yet when a good Samaritan called for my attention from across the street. When I turned around, he pointed out this gorgeous red fox (Vulpes vulpes) on the front steps of Kingo Lutheran Church. By the time I aimed my camera in its direction, it was already trotting down the sidewalk, and so this is the best picture I could get with what little light I had.

Meanwhile, back in the park proper, things were pretty quiet, though the kingfisher was making her usual calls as she fished along the lower river.

And there was a flock of geese on the water above the falls making a racket again, but I couldn’t spot any buffleheads among them today.

Finally, things were so quiet, otherwise, that I even swung by the pond, to see if anyone was home. It was completely frozen over, but the bushes around it were full of little birds, and here’s a sparrow trying to keep warm before the sun shines in. The little bit of yellow above its eye makes me think that it’s a “tan-striped” form of the white-throated sparrow.

Look who I spotted hustling home this morning with the beaver equivalent of a vegan holiday feast. Fresh willow bark, and just in time, baby, just in time!

Meanwhile, our favorite blue heron was back to fishing again and even farther south than yesterday.

Finally, one of the little red squirrels was wondering what the heck I’m still doing in the park this morning. Don’t worry, little guy, I’m on my way home for brunch right now.

Lastly, my entire staff and I, here at Estabrook Park Productions, wish you and yours the best this holiday season. May Saint Mic’s promise come true, and even if you can’t get what you want, you do get what you need.