After all the rain last night, it was still pretty cloudy this morning in Estabrook Park, but the air was nice and warm, and a lot of birds were up and about, although it took me a while to get any pictures. In the meantime, there were plenty of other, more-obliging critters taking advantage of the summer-like morning.

As I approached the north end, this chipmunk was sniffing a little tree up one side, …

and down the other, but I never did get to see what it was searching for. Maybe it is fresh out of the nest and just collecting experiences.

In the meadow, which once was a gravel parking lot by where the dam used to be, I found my second snake in the park ever, and it appears to be another DeKay’s brown snake, although this one is much darker than the first. By crazy coincidence, I also found my first snake skin in the grass right beside the brown snake, but the skin was from a much bigger serpent, perhaps a common garter.

At the other end of the meadow, there was another eastern question mark butterfly, and it turned out to be the only butterfly willing to hold still for the camera today, even if not in the most convenient location.

Out on the water, I finally spotted our first photo-worthy birds of the morning, this pair of great blue herons in the remaining big dead tree over the northern island.

The much bigger surprise, however, was hearing a brown thrasher overhead as I tried to take the heron picture. They are skittish birds, and I was only able to manage one other picture of a brown thrasher this spring, but man-oh-man, they are lovely singers.

On my way back to the pond, I came across this giant bullfrog parked in the outfield of the baseball diamond. By happy coincidence, my backup lens can focus on objects that are much closer than my main lens can, and this frog let me get that close, about two feet away, so if you click on the image and then zoom in, you can just make out my reflection in the frog’s pupil. I am the dark shape below and to the left of the bright spot, which is the reflection of the morning sun over my shoulder. Anyway, they were mowing the field, and the frog wasn’t moving, so I gave it a lift to the pond. It filled up my whole palm, and sat their placidly until we got close to the water, at which point it took off and did not want to be recaught

At the pond, the mallards were in their usual spot on the west lawn.

Meanwhile, the wood ducks were up on a log in the northeast bay and holding steady at four ducklings. You can just see the eye of the fourth one peeking out from behind the head of the one closest to Mom.

Finally, on the path back down to the river from the pond, I found this deer again, and she seemed pretty relaxed about the encounter, …

but she did eventually mosey into the brush to let me go past. “Thanks, Sweetie!”

So I got to see representatives from Mammalia, Aves, Reptilia, Amphibia, and Insecta, all just this morning. Woo Hoo!

I rode in the UPAF Ride for the Arts yesterday morning, including two trips over the Hoan Bridge and back, and then the rest of the day got away from me, so I never got to take pictures in Estabrook Park. Sorry about that. Happily, the nice weather continued into this morning, and I did manage a visit this time.

The mallard hen and her one duckling are still on the pond and were foraging along the path when I first arrived. I didn’t want to force them to retreat to the water, so I left them alone and was glad to find them taking a little break from grazing by the time I returned for a second visit.

I also saw a mallard hen on the river with four ducklings, and we might have seen them before, but I couldn’t get close enough for a picture this morning.

The wood duck hen who started with seven ducklings, and then had five for a while, appears to be down to just four, sadly, and I saw no sign of the second hen or her seven ducklings. Here’s one of the remaining four.

On the path from the pond down to the river, I found this red squirrel mom taking a break from nursing to grab some breakfast of her own.

While looking for monarch caterpillars on milkweed plants, I found these crane flies, perhaps ferruginous tiger crane flies (Nephrotoma ferruginea), instead

Finally, on my way out of the park, a colleague pointed out this red-belted bumble bee (Bombus rufocinctus), a first for me, sampling the Virginia waterleaf.

The high pressure system that gave us such great weather in Estabrook Park over the past few days has finally drifted off, and we’ve got thick clouds and imminent rain this morning.

On my way to the pond to check on the ducklings, I stopped by the river and found this family of Canada geese whose seven goslings are starting to show adult plumage already.

I did see the ducklings at the pond but skipped the pictures today and continued back to the river. As I sat for a moment to see who I could find, look who just happened to swim by. The last beaver we saw was a lot farther south and back at the start of May. I’m glad to know they’re still around.

The beautiful weather continued this morning in Estabrook Park, but it was even a bit cooler than yesterday and with some thin cirrus clouds up high to whiten the sky. When I arrived at the pond, I found the wood duck hen with her five, week-old ducklings.

As I was trying to get a decent wood duck picture and count the ducklings to make sure there were five, the mallard hen swam right over with her own duckling and hopped up on shore, as if I had something for them. “Sorry Sweeties, we shouldn’t feed wild ducks.” Even with my backup lens, though, I had to zoom out to fit them in the image!

On my way to the river, I spotted a bluebird again up on the wire, and we haven’t seen one in a while, so I detoured that way to see if I could capture an image. But first, this chickadee was almost begging me to take its picture.

Then, this deer came out of the wood at the crest of the bluff, and I couldn’t pass that up.

But then I finally reached the female bluebird. Thank goodness she waited for me. I didn’t see any sign of the male.

On my way back south after checking on the swallows under the bridge, I found the deer again.

On my second visit to the pond, I was able to confirm at last that there are indeed to wood duck hens with ducklings, and here’s the one with seven fresh ones. Not all seven are in the picture because at least two of them were busy chasing down whatever they could find on the surface of the water.

Finally, I stopped by the pollinator garden on my way home, and I captured our first of many monarch butterfly images for the season. It was sampling the nectar from what appears to be some species of wallflower (Erysimum).

The weather was gorgeous this morning in Estabrook Park, and the crystal-clear skies allowed me to start at 5:20 am and beat the rush. They also, along with the nearly still air, allowed radiant cooling to form frost on the clumps of dead grass left on the soccer fields from the last mowing.

The big surprise at the pond is that either I am losing my mind, which is a real possibility these days, or there is a fresh batch of seven wood duck ducklings. I didn’t actually see the group of five this morning, but these seven look smaller than the five we saw just yesterday. You can also see a little steam rising off the warm pond water into the cool morning air.

As the wood ducks hustled away, the mallard hen and her duckling calmly watched from the shore.

The next pleasant surprise was meeting a Canada goose up on shore at the north end, and better yet, as I gave it a nice wide berth on my way past, the rest of its family crested the lip of the riverbank to sample some of that grass.

Lastly, this indigo bunting chose to crow to the heavens from a branch so low that even my backup lens could almost reach it.

After the latest line of storms yesterday, the river was even higher this morning, but thankfully not as high as it was back at the beginning of April. Plus, the sun is out today, and it is shaping up to be a very nice day.

On my second visit to the pond, I was pleasantly surprised to find six Canada geese up on the west lawn. They have started to make themselves scarce now that nesting season is over, and I don’t get to see much of them these days. Anyway, I approached nice and slow, and they let me take a seat on the bench. Then, as I waited in hopes that the wood ducks would come over for a nice picture, this goose gave me a look that was hard to resist.

The wood duck hen and her ducklings did eventually swim over, perhaps feeling assured by the geese, and here they all are.

Back at the river, I found the great blue herons, who were absent from the north end, apparently trying a new location.

Finally, I realized this is yet another red admiral, and with a few pieces missing, plus dames rockets are invasive, but I didn’t see any monarchs or swallowtails today, so here’s the best butterfly picture I could manage.

The nice weather was back in Estabrook Park, at least for this morning, and now that the holiday weekend is over. On my way to the park, I hadn’t even jaywalked across Wilson Dr yet when I spotted this wild turkey dutifully using the crosswalk to go looking for breakfast in the suburbs.

There was a surprise visitor at the pond when I walked up, and you can just make out its big bushy tail in the middle of this image below. I of course hustled around to the other side for a better look, but all I got was one glimpse before it quickly ambled into the thick brush along the shore.

Once I realized I was not going to get a nice raccoon portrait today, I turned around and found the mallard hen and her duckling foraging at the water’s edge right behind me.

At the river, the common merganser drake, who has made himself scarce for the past couple of days, was back in his usual spot in the water around the northern island and looking as healthy as ever.

The brush along the riverbank has grown up and leafed out enough that I can’t really check for swallows at the bridge without hiking up there, so I hit the trail and was pleasantly surprised to find one of the many red-eyed vireos, which usually are singing from the treetops, down at eye level for a change.

When I got to the Port Washington Road bridge, I was thrilled to finally see the pair of barn swallows at their nest. The lighting is quite poor, and I still don’t have my good lens, but it sure looks like the one perched on the nest is feeding a youngster. Yay!

There were no raptors over the island today, so I headed back to the pond, where I found the wood duck hen and her five remaining ducklings in a more photogenic location than earlier.

As I sat on the bench on the west lawn, the mallard duckling hopped up on shore and strutted right across the lawn right between me and four sleeping drakes. Mom was not pleased and hustled after it until it was back in the water.

I haven’t seen much of the nuthatches in a while, but this one paused from foraging for a second to give me a look I couldn’t resist.

Finally, I saw another monarch relentlessly searching for something, either a blossom with nectar to sip or a milkweed on which to lay eggs, and it never stopped until it was out of sight. Instead, this eastern question mark paused to bask in the sun and let me take this picture.

It was cool, cloudy, and breezy this morning in Estabrook Park, so perfect weather for a Memorial Day cookout or campout, as I remember it. At least it wasn’t raining, yet.

We didn’t have an eagle visit us this year to celebrate the occasion, as we did last year, but I was still happy to see a peregrine falcon trying out the new raptor tree over the northern island in the river.

I was sad to see that the wood duck hen on the pond is down to five ducklings, as of this morning, from the seven I saw just yesterday, but I’m sure the missing two are being put to good use by the snapping turtle, the mink, a heron, or some other predator.

Meanwhile, the mallard hen and her duckling continue to do well, and they were both taking advantage of a good morning for sleeping in when I spotted them. You can just see the duckling tucked up on Mom’s right side.

The sky looked nice and clear as dawn broke, but a thick blanket of clouds rolled in before the sun could even clear the horizon. Ah well. It is Memorial Day weekend, after all, and this is pretty much par for the course, in my experience.

In keeping with the mood, things were pretty quiet in Estabrook Park as well. I did see all eight ducklings on the pond, but the mallards were up in the tall grass, and I didn’t want to bother them, so here’s the tightest grouping of wood ducks I could manage.

At the river, I was happy to see the pair of great blue herons again and that they were making good use of the remains of that tree that fell last Wednesday.

The big surprise this morning came as I tried to look upriver for barn swallows hunting for flies from the Port Washington Bridge. A large bird was coming down river over our shore, and at first I thought it was just another of the many gulls in the air, but as it flew right over me, I could see that it was no gull. As luck would have it, it perched on the remaining big dead tree over the northern island where I could finally recognize it as an osprey. We haven’t seen one since April, and they are always a treat.

The current forecast for the big day is much better than today, but who knows what we’ll see.

The river was up nearly a foot, and things were plenty wet, but those are about all the indications of the heavy storms that rolled through yesterday afternoon. The sun was shining this morning, and the breeze was light, so it was a very nice start to the holiday weekend in Estabrook Park.

Better yet, the mallard hen and her duckling were back in their usual spot on the pond, yay, and the little one is now quite noticeably bigger than it was just two weeks ago.

Best of all, the wood duck hen with her seven ducklings was also back. Hurray! I wonder why and where they were all hiding yesterday.

Even a kingfisher was back, and I couldn’t tell which one this is, but here it is racing off with a fresh catch after some red-winged blackbirds took exception.

The bluebirds were back, too, but they were trying to dry off, so didn’t want any pictures today. I didn’t see anything to show you at the north end, either, so I went back to the pond and found the wood ducks all in a row.

Finally, as I cut across the baseball field, I found a pair of killdeer on the flooded infield, which might be the closest thing to an exposed sandbar that they could find today, now that everything on the river is submerged again.