Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Toughing it out, each in their own way..

The recent freeze in Estabrook Park deepened this morning with temps in the single-digits, and windchills well below 0°F. The skies were clearer than yesterday, on the other hand, and I still don’t see a single cloud this afternoon, so conditions were good for some nice pictures today. Happily, some critters were willing to oblige.

Here’s a white-throated sparrow by the pond who appeared to be as puffed up as possible and singing “the anthem of the boreal forest” to remind itself of warm summer days in Canada.

This dark-eyed junco was too busy foraging to have any time for songs.

While this red squirrel seemed to be too cold for foraging or singing and focused on soaking up sun instead. It acted the same way on the same branch during the previous cold snap.

On the river, the only odd duck I saw today was a lone common merganser drake, but these mallards put on a better show.

Finally, at the south end, just as I was about to cross the parkway and exit the park, I noticed this red-tailed hawk on the hunt over the weeds beside the soccer fields where I found butterflies and dragonflies all summer.

There sure as heck weren’t butterflies out today, so I suspect the red-tailed made a try for some warm-blooded breakfast, but it came up empty this time.

Thus, it took another perch, from which to wait patiently, and gave us a nice look at its version of a red tail. I read also that the pale yellow eye indicates a young bird, as opposed to the dark red eye of the bird with solid red tail feathers.

Making the best of what I got…

The cold continues to settle in, and the breeze is holding steady, so we had a wind-chill of a brisk 1°F this morning in Estabrook Park. Happily, the sun was out, at least for a while, so all that fresh ice floating down river looked nice and sparkly.

The critters continue to be fairly few and far between, unfortunately, so I didn’t take any pictures until I reached the pond. There, as I searched through the house sparrows and house finches in the bushes on the island, for someone more interesting, I could just make out the shape of a larger bird on the back side, which I thought looked about the size of a robin or a mourning dove. I also thought I could see the fringe of a light-colored belly, however, which would rule them out, so who could it be?

Thus, I hustled around to the east side for a better look, and I could hardly believe my luck once I did. There, posing nearly as nicely as its larger cousin just yesterday, was only the third sharp-shinned hawk I believe I’ve ever seen.

Here are the two birds side-by-side in my best attempt to scale the pictures the same, with the Coop from yesterday on the left, and the sharpy from today on the right. Of course, there is no way for me to know exactly how far away from each bird I was, so I could be exaggerating a bit. Nevertheless, in both species, the female is larger than the male, and in sharpies, “females are one-third larger than males.” Thus, a male sharpy could be nearly half the size of a female Coop: 24 cm vs 45 cm.

The heads on Coops are supposed to be relatively larger than the heads on sharpies, which also fits the pictures, but there are always vagaries with how they are holding their heads at any moment.

Finally, the one difference that is pretty clear in the pictures is the tail shape. In the Coop, you can see how the feathers get shorter towards the outer edges, so the tail will appear rounded when the feathers are fanned, while the sharpy feathers that are visible, despite that stupid stick in the way, are the outer ones, and they are the same length, if not longer than the central ones behind them. Thus, the tail will appear less rounded when the feathers are fanned.

I think that’s enough exposition for today.

Winter resumes…

Temps were in the low 20s this morning in Estabrook Park, and a good breeze out of the west made them feel like the low teens. Better yet, the few clouds soon drifted away, and we had nice clear, blue skies for the first time since last year. The river was rapidly refreezing, and the critters seemed to need a moment to adjust.

I didn’t see a pretty picture to take until I got to the pond and found this female downy woodpecker digging seeds out of these clumps of sumac.

My first raptor of the new year is this young Cooper’s hawk, who scared off a whole flock of mourning doves as it swooped in, but who now seemed to be taking a moment to enjoy a perch in the warm sun and out of the cool breeze. “Maybe breakfast can wait a bit.”

Finally, at the far south end, I was hoping to spot a blue jay or red-bellied woodpecker, both of whom had kept out of sight all morning, and I checked the river one more time just in case I had missed a bufflehead or goldeneye on my first pass. Look who I found sleeping with a few mallards instead. The duck on the left, with the pretty banding in her feathers, is a female redhead, I believe. We’ve seen drakes once or twice, but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a hen until now.

Anyway, as I hiked up the bluff from the river and crossed the soccer fields to Wilson Dr, I did hear a red-bellied woodpecker, but the blue jays evaded me for another day.

Happy New Year!

Now that we’ve started our next trip around the sun, it seems that winter has remembered what its job is. It was back below freezing this morning in Estabrook Park, and the ten-day forecast suggests we’re gonna stay there for a while. Woo hoo!

It could be just a coincidence, but a common merganser hen came in with the cold.

An even bigger surprise, for me at least, was spotting this muskrat up on a branch over the water. I did not know they could or would do that.

Another behavior that I don’t believe I’ve seen before was this red-bellied woodpecker appearing to take a nap on the side of this tree trunk and strategically located out of the breeze. It wasn’t pecking at anything and did glance my way for a moment, but then it just went right back to staring at the bark.

Finally, this robin also appeared to be just relaxing. Perhaps it had been up late celebrating with the woodpecker.

Closing the door on 2024…

The critters in Estabrook Park don’t know it’s New Years Eve, of course, because they have nowhere to hang calendars, but they were sleeping in this morning anyway, as if they have a big night ahead of them. I hope they party safely and you do, too.

See ya next year!

The third time was indeed the charm…

Blue skies have finally returned to Estabrook Park, at least for today, and they brought some colder weather with them, at least for this morning. There was frost on the grass at sunrise, but temps reached 50°F this afternoon. We also had a great turnout for the last wildlife walk of the year, with 13 of us in all, but the critters did not respond in kind. We only saw 18 species, and the only consolation is that other folks and other locations are also experiencing the recent slump. I didn’t get any pictures this morning, either on my way to the walk by myself or during the walk with all those extra eyes, but after a short break to recharge my batteries, I couldn’t resist going out in such beautiful weather for a third try. These are my rewards.

Here’s a red-bellied woodpecker busily chiseling a new nesting cavity for the coming season. You can’t quite see his red crown in this picture, but this activity would probably make him a male who is hoping to attract a female to finish the job.

Just upstream of the red-bellied, here’s a hairy woodpecker, also a male, who did not appear to be excavating, but was just looking for something to eat.

Finally, this little darling, a merlin, whom we haven’t seen in weeks, was waiting for me over the northern island. By the time I arrived, however, the sun was about due south, the bird was facing it, and the river runs east-southeast there, so I was shooting perpendicular to the sun, at best, and I couldn’t see much more than the back of the bird in shadow. It was such a pleasant afternoon, on the other hand, that I decided to hike around to the other shore for a better shot. By the time I had hiked over there, the little stinker had moved on, but as I searched the trees there in hopes of finding where our owls have gotten off to, I found the merlin again, and this time I was able to get a lot closer than I could have when it was on the island. Sometimes I get lucky.

I see that some cold weather is forecast to return, so perhaps we can hope that the critters will return to their winter schedule as well.

Same old, same old…

The warm spell continues in Estabrook Park, and even the ice on the pond has begun to melt. The mallards have taken note and are starting to fly up from the river to graze on the lush vegetation that it used to cover.

Otherwise, the park was very quiet today, and I didn’t see any of our recent visitors. Luckily, the chickadees are as thick as ever.

So are the cardinals.

The forecast calls for a chance of sunshine tomorrow morning, so maybe that will bring us something new to see during our wildlife walk.

A surprise guest contribution…

The recent big warm-up continued this morning in Estabrook Park, and almost all the river ice has now melted. The critters continue to make themselves scarce, but I somehow managed to have a little better luck with pictures than I did yesterday.

The American black duck has reappeared, or I’ve finally been able to spot it again, and here it is, to the right of a mallard hen and drake. That thin white stripe beside the blue patch on its wing makes me wonder if it might be an American black duck x mallard hybrid.

At the pond, I managed to capture this male downy woodpecker at the moment it paused its preening to check for predators. It appears that I was deemed safe, and it went right back to work after this shot.

Finally, when I checked on the screech-owl, I was surprised to find out just how far back into that hole the little rascal can get. Now I wonder how many times I failed to notice it even though it was actually in there.

Lastly, I met a new fellow nature photography enthusiast this morning, Dylan Menefee, and as we were comparing notes a bit, he mentioned that he saw something by the pond back in the fall that he hadn’t yet positively IDed. When he showed me the picture, I could barely believe my eyes. It is shaped just like the stoats I saw in South Holland, but on this side of the Atlantic, I believe that it’s an American stoat, aka American ermine or short tailed weasel. Either way, it’s a Mustela richardsonii.

Now I will have to redouble my efforts, and I look forward to seeing Dylan’s next amazing find.

Dreaming of goldeneyes…

Despite all the rain today, I did make it into Estabrook Park during a mid-morning lull. The critters, however, seemed to know it wouldn’t last, and not a single one had time to let me have a picture. I couldn’t even find an owl. Darn.

So, it’s back to the archives we go, and since we did just see a goldeneye at LakeShore State park earlier this month, but we haven’t seen one in Estabrook since last April, here’s a look all the way back to 2022 when they first arrived on December 24. As I wrote then:

The cold and wind are starting to back off a bit, and the sun was out, so it was a perfect morning in Estabrook Park. The river ice continues to form, however, so my wish came true, and the goldeneyes have begun to arrive. Here’s a hen on the rapids at the south end.

And here’s a drake just a bit upstream.

I see that it’s forecast to be dry but windy tomorrow morning, so who knows. Maybe I’ll get lucky.

Boxed in by thick fog…

Holy moly, was the fog thick this morning in Estabrook Park. I could barely see across the river at times. The breeze and road traffic were both light, on the other hand, so I could still hear the birds pretty well. Oddly, the critters I did manage to photograph today kept still and didn’t make a sound. Go figure.

I didn’t see a great horned owl on my way north, but once I got to the far north end, I could hear a few crows pestering somebody. I hustled back south, but didn’t make it before the crows moved on. Happily, when I checked for an owl the second time, look who I found.

Here it is again after I used some software to “dehaze” the picture.

The huge treat of the morning, however, came after I visited the pond and was on my way back to the river. I stopped to check the nook where I had seen the screech owl at the start of the month, and today was the day that it decided to return. Here it is through the fog, …

and here it is again after dehazing. “Welcome back, little cutie!”

Finally, at the far south end, I found another red squirrel, but this one wasn’t messing around with bird seed.