I got a glimpse of the catbird again this morning, but it slipped out of sight before I could get a picture. Instead, the hermit thrush, who was nearby, gave us a nice look at its cinnamon tail.
I didn’t see anything else to photograph until I was back at the south end. First, this pair of mallards lined up so nicely, …
and then this octet of common mergansers nearly did the same.
Finally, I found this disk of frozen foam stuck going in circles on the river, and some days, I can relate.
I see that it is supposed to snow again tonight, so maybe we’ll have something new to see tomorrow.
The weather this morning in Estabrook Park was a lot nicer than forecast. Sure, temps were back in the teens, but the wind was light, at least down along the river, and there was hardly a cloud in the sky, so the warm sun really took the edge off the cold. The critters still seem to be in some kind of late winter slump, but at least they were a little more willing to come out and play than they have been the last couple of days.
At the river, the winter wren and catbird were still in hiding, but the hermit thrush was busy foraging in one of the seeps along the side of the bluff.
I could hardly find a bird at the north end, and it was probably too cold for the muskrats, so I headed for the pond. The fancy sparrows were taking the morning off again, but our favorite little red squirrel was trying to capture some of the sun’s warmth in its usual spot.
Finally, I did see a few common mergansers and mallards on the river today, but this solo common goldeneye hen made the nicer picture. She even found a sunbeam coming through the trees to light up her eye and the tip of her bill for us.
Despite the soggy weather this morning in Estabrook, we had a nice turnout for the wildlife walk, with eight participants including me, and we managed to see 22 bird species.
I did not manage to capture a single picture, on the other hand, except for the one above. Thus, the only image I have for you today is one last look at the long-eared owls from last Wednesday. There are plenty of sticks obscuring the view, and the owl is backlit, but you can at least see what its “ears” look like from the side.
It was cloudy as heck this morning in Estabrook Park, so there ain’t no way our groundhog saw its shadow, and folklore has it that we should expect spring to arrive early this year.
Perhaps in preparation for that possibility, look who I saw excavating a nesting cavity already this morning.
This little cutie, a female downy woodpecker, that’s who. I watched her haul out about a dozen beak-fulls of wood chips. Then, perhaps, she got tired of me watching and flitted off. The cavity is right over the trail along the river, so who knows if she and her mate will eventually find it suitable.
That’s all I managed to get a picture of this morning, but I expect you’ll be thrilled to know that I still have a long-eared owl picture from our field trip last Wednesday. This one sure wasn’t going for the tall and slender look, though.
It’s supposed to be cloudy again tomorrow morning, but the air should be mild and still, so good conditions for finding wildlife. Come on out for our Wildlife Walk if you’re able. I didn’t see the catbird today, but someone saw it yesterday, and maybe we’ll get lucky tomorrow.
The sky was a lot less cloudy than forecast this morning in Estabrook Park, and the winds were nice and light, so it was a perfectly nice mid-winter day.
This pair was pretty far out on the river, at the north end, but I don’t often get the chance to catch a herring gull and a common merganser in the same frame, so here we are.
The pond was quiet today, and I didn’t see any of the fancy sparrows, but the lone song sparrow back at the river did come out for a nice picture.
Eventually, the winter wren did, too.
As I was looking for the catbird or the hermit thrush, I stepped around a bend in the path and was surprised to find nearly two dozen mourning doves roosting on low branches over the side of the bluff. Often, when I get that close, they will all bolt, but not today, and this one offered the best combination of a nice pose and a clear shot.
While still searching for our recluses, I was pleasantly surprised again to watch a couple of blue jay swoop in. They usually make themselves quite scarce here in the winter, but today was my lucky day.
Finally, here’s yet another long-eared owl from my field trip with Jeff on Wednesday, and this one really shows how tall and slender they can look.
The clouds over Estabrook Park this morning were thick and a little leaky, but the winds were pretty light, and the temps were mild for January, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the critters.
The gray catbird, who is still considered rare here for this time of year, kicked things off with an appearance by the river, though quite shrouded in twigs.
Just a hundred yards upstream, the winter wren also popped up to say “hi”.
Out on the water, there are still a bunch of mallards, a few common mergansers, and one pair of goldeneyes, but the big surprise of the day was this pair of Canada geese checking out the recently opened water around the northern island.
Boy, they had barely landed before they got right to work on making more geese. No time to waste!
The pictures this morning aren’t much to look at after that, but I was lucky enough with the coyote in Estabrook yesterday morning to have a couple good ones to show you, and here’s a second. What a magnificent creature, eh?
Oh, what a morning we had in Estabrook Park today. The temps at sunrise were in the high twenties, the winds were light, and the sky was crystal clear, so it was an ideal January day. All I needed was for the critters to come out, and I am happy to report that they did a pretty good job at that.
I was looking for the hermit thrush or catbird by the seep at the bottom of stairway nine, where we’ve been seeing them lately, when somehow out of the corner of my eye I saw this amazing creature calmly strolling along the edge of the ice out on the river, perhaps checking to make sure that all the mallards are healthy. Woo hoo!
At first, I tried to get some pictures through the sticks as it moved, but then it paused right in the open, so I could really get a nice portrait. If you click on the image or this link, so you can see the original on flickr and zoom in, you can even see its whiskers and a glint in its eye. I haven’t gotten a coyote picture since December 2023, and I sure hope this means my drought is over, at least for a little while.
Anyway, the catbird stayed out of sight, but the hermit thrush let us have this nice view.
By the pond, a few black-capped chickadees were flitting about, and this one paused for a moment so we could get a nice look. I was just about to ask if it could turn its head a bit to the left, so that the sun would light it up for us, but it was already gone.
There was also a pair of nuthatches excitedly darting from branch to branch, perhaps getting to know each other, and this one picked a fleck of lichen off the bark and held it up for all to see, but I’m not sure that’s gonna impress anyone.
Back at the river, the song sparrow is still kicking around as it waits for the rest of the song sparrows to arrive.
Finally, back at the south end, there was a common merganser drake mixed in with the hens, and they are here much less often than the hens, so they are always a treat for me to see.
The wind was back in Estabrook Park this morning, but at least the sun was out, and the temps were pretty mild. In fact, it was the first above-freezing sunrise here since I don’t know when. The gray catbird and hermit thrush are also back, but they eluded my camera this morning. Instead, the first picture I managed to get didn’t come until the far north end, where I found this sole goldeneye hen.
Finally, the common mergansers are still with us, and here’s a hen again, parked right in front of a couple of mallard drakes who do have their traditional dark breasts.
That, dear readers, is my very first long-eared owl (Asio otus), who is not common around here. In pictures I’d seen, I thought they looked similar to our great horned owls, but they are a lot smaller in person. What a treat, nevertheless. “Thanks, Jeff!”
The wind is back to howling again this afternoon, but there was a little while this morning when it was on break. Plus, temps were in the upper twenties, and the sky was mostly clear, so it was a another pretty nice January morning in Estabrook Park.
I was finally able to catch one of the eagles that has been scaring off the mallards lately as it glides up and down the river. Here it is perched over the northern island, but it was super shy, and this is as close as it would let me get.
I was too far south to see how the muskrats reacted as the eagle soared over, but by the time I got to the far north end, there were two of them up on the ice again.
This trio of crows did seem unimpressed, however, and they were perched on the island with the eagle. They regularly give great horned owls a hard time, after all, and once the eagle took off, they hopped down to the ice to check out a little patch of open water.
At the pond, our little red squirrel looked quite a bit warmer today, and it was busy turning that walnut shell into sawdust.
I couldn’t get any fancy sparrow pictures again today, but this dark-eyed junco put on a nice show from the top of a sumac seed cluster.
Here it is showing how to shuck a seed.
As I hiked to the river to look in vain for the hermit thrush, this female hairy woodpecker let us have a good look at her claws.
Finally, the relatively warm weather made it bath day for the robins, and here’s one splish-splashing away as two others wait their turn.
It was a pretty nice morning in Estabrook Park, if you don’t mind the wind, and I’m happy to report that seven such folks came out to join our weekly wildlife walk.
We stopped by the pond first, but all the fancy sparrows must have been hunkered down, because we didn’t see much more than house sparrows and dark-eyed juncos. Next, we headed to the river to look for the hermit thrush and the gray catbird, but they too were in hiding. Instead, we found the winter wren, though it kept close to the ground today, and this white-breasted nut hatch struck its classic pose to keep tabs on its surroundings as it worked to deshell a small seed of some kind.
The biggest surprise of the morning came as we made our way to the north end. Just above the falls, we spotted a couple of crows over the far riverbank, then there were three, and eventually, we counted eight. They were chattering away, and I thought they might just be having another spring mixer, as I’ve seen recently, but then we saw something bigger move from perch to perch below them. We had to search a while, and move a bit upstream, but look who we eventually found: one of our wayward great horned owls, and this looks like the smaller of the two. I don’t believe we’ve seen one since New Years Eve.
Meanwhile, there were a couple of muskrats out on the river ice, and one goldeneye hen who quickly moved upstream to avoid any pictures.
Eventually the party had to end so folks could get on with their day, so I headed south towards home, and I opted to follow the river to avoid some of the wind. Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I reached the water, the hermit thrush chose to show itself, although not a lot.
Not even a hundred yards downstream, the song sparrow did the same. Sheesh! “Where were you an hour ago?”
Finally, I find the common mergansers to be a lot shyer than the mallards, so it can be a trick to catch one up on the ice like this, but the crowd of mallards behind her seemed to give this hen some assurance.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 