The crazy wind from last evening had died down by this morning, and the sun was out for a bit, but the cold was back, so the park was almost as empty of people as yesterday. The red-tailed hawk, however, did not put on a repeat performance. Instead, the cold seemed to slow down the little birds so that I had a better chance of keeping up.
The first such little bird is this young white-crowned sparrow by the pond. I suspect it is the one I’ve been seeing on and off, but this is my first sighting this month.
I wasn’t sure I had a good picture, so I tried to follow it when it moved, but I ended up taking a bunch of pictures of this female house sparrow instead. Ha!
A little higher in the trees, I found this trio of woodpeckers. First a male red-bellied, …
Finally, I counted four goldeneyes today, three hens and one drake, along with a few common mergansers and a bunch of mallards, and this goldeneye hen made the nicest picture.
The snow did come last night, but not a lot, and the interesting wrinkle, which I only discovered once I was in the park, is that there must have been some freezing rain for a bit, before it changed over to snow, because the trails were as slippery as I’ve ever experienced them. I even ended up on my butt at one point, but I managed to keep the shiny side up, so no harm was done, at least to my gear. The upside, however, is that I almost had the park to myself for a change, which is always nice.
The second treat of the morning was finding one of the muskrats up on the river ice at the north end.
The third treat was meeting two fellow nature appreciators by the pond, whom I knew from our Monday Wildlife Walks. I hope they can join us again next week.
It was shortly after that, as I made my way back to the river, that the main event started. I had seen one, and then two, red-tailed hawks earlier and high over the southern playground as I hiked to the pond, but they flew off to the east before I could get close enough for a picture. We haven’t had a good look at one since the start of January.
Well, one of them must have come back, because as I strolled down the paved path beside the dog park before heading into the woods, look who I noticed perched on the railing there barely ten feet away from me. I immediately froze, of course, eased my camera up, and couldn’t believe my luck that it let me sneak this portrait.
This is one of those times when WordPress fails us with its meager image resolution, and I hope you do yourself the favor of clicking on the image, or this link, so you can zoom in on Flickr to see all the detail. Upon closer inspection, I wonder if it isn’t the same young bird that we did see at the start of January.
Anyway, the hawk soon took off, as one would expect, but it barely flew a dozen feet before perching again on the railing just across the path. I suspect it wasn’t even fleeing me, but merely following its prey, and it even let me have another portrait.
Then it flew only another dozen feet into the woods and landed on this low pile of sticks.
There it appeared to be looking for some way to reach the rodent it was after. The hawk was there so long that I even remembered to try capturing some video.
After a couple of videos, I switched back to still, and it seemed like I had all day, even though it clearly saw me kneeling in the snow not thirty feet away.
Finally, it must have figured that the rodent was not coming out from under there, so it lightened its load, and then took off almost straight towards me. What an absolutely magical encounter.
Lastly, after I hiked back up the bluff and out of the woods at the south end, I found this red squirrel, whose cousin up north might just have been the rodent that the hawk had been looking for. Small world, eh?
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!”
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 