Wow, was it windy in Estabrook Park this morning! It took the actual 30°F air temperature down to a “RealFeel®” temp of 18°F. Brisk! The skies were clear, however, and that’s a nice change of pace for this month.

The big surprise guest today is this slightly shell-shocked-looking male red-breasted merganser on the river just above the falls. We haven’t seen one in the park since last April, so “welcome back, Buddy!”

I really wanted to take advantage of that pretty blue sky, and this American robin in the oak tree by the pond was kind enough to oblige.

Final;y, on my walk home along the Oak Leaf Trail, I spotted a red squirrel, who I thought would also make a nice picture, but it dashed off, and as I searched for it, I spotted this grey squirrel high above watching my feeble efforts.

The wind is forecast to die down by tomorrow morning, and we’ll be getting a similarly brisk feel by radiant cooling instead of convection, which will seem just as cold, but will at least make it easier to hear the birds. Yay!

After all the excitement of yesterday, things were pretty slow and quiet in Estabrook Park today.

There were only two great horned owls, the pair in a tree together, and here’s the less shy one.

The male belted kingfisher was plying his trade over the river at the north end again, and here he is deciding whether I’ve gotten too close or not.

Back at the pond, there were a few mallards on the water, but I always get a kick out of seeing a muskrat hauling groceries.

Finally, here’s I sight I don’t believe I’ve seen before, a hairy woodpecker and northern cardinal on the same sumac branch. Fun.

It sure was a crazy morning in Estabrook Park today. The skies were grey, but the forecast rain never came, at least until noon as I write this, and the wildlife put on an amazing show.

The first nice treat was finding a mature bald eagle over the northern island in the river.

The first crazy sight was not one, not two, but three (3!!!) great horned owls! As I was hiking north, I could make out the same two on the island that we saw yesterday, and I figured I’d wait to get pictures on my way back south when there might be a little more light. When I was taking pictures of the eagle, however, I heard crows mobbing somebody downstream, and I thought there might be another eagle around, so I hustled back south to see. Instead, you can just make out the shape of this owl behind a narrow, vertical branch right in the middle of the picture and two of the five crows to its upper right.

I eventually returned to the north end to get a picture of the belted kingfisher I had heard.

Then I finally did my best with pictures of the two owls hiding on the southern island.

After all that excitement, I finally headed back south and took a left to swing back by the pond. On the path through the woods south of the dog park, this Cooper’s hawk swooped through and perched here for a moment.

The big surprise at the pond was finding cedar waxwings picking berries on the island.

The crazy part was finding at least two dozen of them high in a tree over the eastern shore.

I haven’t seen the hermit thrush along the river in a couple of days, but here’s one that was foraging in the lawn beside the pond today.

In between the waxwings and the thrush, here’s a female northern cardinal feasting on sumac seeds.

Finally, as if finding 3 owls wasn’t already crazy enough, look who came out of the woods to gallop past me and towards the pond! I haven’t seen a coyote in Estabrook Park since that magic morning just before I left for South Holland.

Lastly, for the Audubon bird count, which yesterday I feared might be a washout today, I counted 283 birds of 25 species, and I haven’t seen that many species since November.

Our recent run of nice weather continued this morning, so I was able to get into Estabrook Park nice and early again.

I was a little surprised that this eastern cottontail rabbit, beside the path along the western edge of the southern soccer fields and the likes of whom I see often in the spring and summer but much less so in the fall and winter, let me get this picture.

I saw a muskrat and a mallard drake on the pond, in the little patches of open water, but neither was in the mood for a picture today. Instead, the male belted kingfisher at the northern end was quite accommodating for a change.

There were no eagles, hawks, merlins, or falcons at the north end today, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a pair of common merganser hens on the water.

The great horned owl was in today and hardly hidden at all.

The big surprise of the day, however, was finding a second great horned owl in the same tree and so well hidden I almost didn’t see it. I have heard from a couple of reliable sources that a pair have been seen and heard in Shorewood recently, and here’s hoping that we’ll get to see more of these two in Estabrook Park in the coming weeks and months. Woo hoo!

Finally, back at the pond, the raccoon whose backside we’ve seen before finally decided to show its face. “Hey there, Cutie!”

I’ve signed up for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count tomorrow, and showers are not supposed to start until 10am, keep your fingers crossed!

The weather was beautiful in Estabrook Park this morning, and I didn’t have any errands to run, so I got there nice and early. So early, in fact, that my camera outright refused to focus on the quartet of deer I found at the sand volleyball court across from the southern parking lot. I sat down right away, and two of the smaller ones were curious, but I couldn’t get a picture until they were through with me and heading off to bed down in the woods. Oh well. The lights behind the trees are across the river and on Capitol Drive.

My string of good luck continued immediately when this Cooper’s hawk glided over the soccer fields and perched in one of the big oak trees on the west edge.

After all that excitement, I didn’t see anything worth writing home about until I got to the great horned owl, who happened to be in today and had attracted the attention of a couple of crows. That sure seemed to wake it up.

The owl didn’t move, but the crows eventually got bored, or simply declared victory and moved on, and one even took a bath in the river. Wow! I bet that sure was brisk!

The big surprise for the morning was hearing a northern flicker calling at the north end, remembering who made that call, and then actually laying eyes on the bird after climbing up on the bluff. Perhaps his call translates as “Hey! Where did everybody go?!?” The last time I saw a flicker was back in October, and the last time I showed you one was when they were flocking up back in September. “Safe travels, little buddy!”

Finally, since the mink yesterday morning was so accommodating, here’s another look, which Anne didn’t think was as good as the one I already showed you, but it’s still not too bad either.

I hear we’re due for a warmup, so the pond ice is likely to melt, and maybe we’ll get to see birds on the water again, if only the mallard hen who has no tail feathers and appears to be stuck there.

Sorry for the late post, but my computer has been in the shop since I dropped it off at 6:30 this morning, and I was only able to pick it up around 2:30 this afternoon. Anyway, the skies were pretty clear this morning, at least off to the south and east, so I was able to get into Estabrook Park nice and early. As I was walking north on the path where the park gets narrow and you can see the river below, I could hear some mallards down on the river, and as I gave them a look to see how many there were, five, I saw an odd dark shape on a branch out over the river that I couldn’t quite make out. Luckily, stairway 9 was just a little bit ahead, so I hustled up there, down the stairs, and back south along the river path. I could not believe my luck when I found the dark shape was still out on the branch, and it had this darling little face. That’s the closest I’ve gotten to a mink portrait so far, and what a way to start the morning, eh?

The pond is still frozen over, so I didn’t see any activity there, and I continued on to the north end, where the situation was a lot better than yesterday. The belted kingfisher was back, and a mature bald eagle stopped by but didn’t stick around for pictures.

The great horned owl was back and as deep into those sticks as I’ve ever seen it.

Back south again, the hermit thrush was in its usual spot, but seemed to be much less thrilled with our arrangement than it did yesterday.

Finally, on my way back home along the Oak Leaf Trail, this chickadee was kind enough to demonstrate sumac seed extraction against that pretty blue sky.

What a curious morning it was. The weather was nice enough, with seasonably cool temps, a bit of a breeze, and crystal-clear skies, but the critters were few and far between for some reason. On my first swing by the pond, there wasn’t a single bird on the water, and it wasn’t even frozen over, although there was some ice. Weird.

At the river, I finally found something interesting, this cute little muskrat just staring at me. The one yesterday was far below the falls, and this one was above the falls, so it is unlikely to be the same animal, but it was acting in the same odd way. Usually, they tuck under the water once they spot me, and I seldom see them again, especially if I am this close. But now suddenly, they are mean-mugging me instead, and I wonder if I should start watching my back?

At the north end, it was almost a ghost town. There were no herons, eagles, hawks, geese, or kingfishers, and even the owl was out. All I saw was a few mallards and a herring gull, and on my way back south I didn’t see anything interesting again until I got to the point downriver where I take a left to visit the pond again. There I found a tree sparrow, who evaded my camera, and in the same bush probably the same hermit thrush as yesterday, but who seems to know the drill now. It makes a nice pose, I take a quick picture, I go on my way, and it can go right back to its own business. Nobody has to fly away in a panic, and everyone is happy.

Back at the pond, our mallard hen with no tail feathers, who had been missing earlier, had reappeared. Phew! She could well be the largest bird I saw today.

Finally, as I walked around the pond to see if anyone else had shown up, I did spot this little downy woodpecker right at eye level and giving a little branch a thorough going over.

The sun we were promised this morning still hasn’t arrived, but perhaps I should be thankful for the thick blanket of clouds that kept this morning from being even colder than it was. Still, a little more light would have been nice.

Anyway, the great blue heron we saw yesterday must have slept in today because there was no sign of it in Estabrook Park, and the great horned owl was as deep into the sticks as it can get, so I didn’t even bother trying to get a picture.

Instead, here’s a raptor we haven’t seen in a minute, an immature bald eagle perched high above the far riverbank. It appears to have more white on its head and maybe on its breast than the ones we saw at the start and end of November, so maybe it is yet another eagle come to pay us a visit.

There was also no sign of the female common merganser at the north end, so I headed back south, and not long before I planned to turn left toward the pond, I heard a nearby splash in the river, which usually means I missed my chance to see who had been quietly munching on something right under my nose. This time, however, the culprit, this darling muskrat, came right back to the surface and stared at me for a bit. It must have really liked what it had been munching on.

Finally, here’s one of the hermit thrushes that appear to be fixin’ to stick it out through the winter with us.

Here are the top three sights I saw in Estabrook Park this morning. At number three, the great horned owl, who has been a semi-regular fixture for the last five weeks or so, was in again, and in almost exactly the same spot as yesterday.

At number two, a great blue heron was back and on the pond to boot. I haven’t seen one since December 5th, and I was beginning to wonder if they’d given up on Estabrook, at least for the winter.

And the number one sight I saw this morning was a female common merganser, whom we haven’t seen since April 11, on the river north of the northern island. Woo hoo! I hope she’s a sign that the winter birds will start to trickle in.

The expected change in the weather arrived overnight, and it was dark and rainy when the sun was supposed to rise this morning. Luckily, I only had to wait a couple of hours for the rain to let up, and then into the park I went.

When I got to the bottom of the stairs at the falls, I spotted this bald eagle picking at something on the far riverbank a few hundred yards upstream, and I immediately turned around and climbed back up onto the bluff to give it some room. It had spotted me, too, however, and it knew its cover was blown, so by the time I got upstream enough to take a peek again, it had already retreated to the safety of this perch over the southern island. Oh well. It must have felt pretty secure up there because it let me take this portrait, and it was still there on my return trip back south after visiting the north end.

At the north end, the belted kingfisher was about as shy, but after a couple of tries, I managed to sneak this picture anyway.

Finally, the great horned owl was “in” again, and not too deep, so it rounds out our threesome for today.