The weather was still pretty nice in Estabrook Park this morning with temps in the teens and skies only partly cloudy. There were a few common mergansers and no goldeneyes on the river, but the nice surprise was finding a bald eagle perched over the far riverbank at the north end. We haven’t gotten a good look at one since late December.

The big surprise at the pond was this male brown-headed cowbird hiding in the bushes on the island with the house sparrows and house finches. We are right at the northern edge of their year-round range, and we see plenty in the spring and summer, so I guess we’re bound to see one from time to time over the winter.

The cardinals were as thick as ever, and I’m a sucker for them when they perch on the sumac against a blue sky like this.

Finally, to round out the trio of woodpeckers I see almost every day all year long, after the downy and hairy ones earlier this week, here’s a male red-bellied woodpecker striking a nice pose on an old snow-covered tree trunk.

It was yet another beautiful morning in Estabrook Park, and the open river water near the south end attracted another first-of-the-season bird for us. This one is a female goldeneye, and it’s a shame the drake from Saturday didn’t stick around to meet her. She was quite skittish, and this is as close as she let me get. If you click on the picture to see the original image on flickr, you can zoom in to see that her eye is indeed golden.

I didn’t see a critter that I hadn’t already shown you this week until I was walking back south from the pond and this hairy woodpecker perched just overhead.

It appears he just wanted a bit of that frozen snow. I read that cold weather is dehydrating.

Speaking of frozen, all this cold has created some amazing hoar frost on any open ice. It’s on the river, the pond, and this is a little patch on the stream that runs between them. Those flakes are about the size of postage stamps, if you are familiar with that technology.

I hiked along the entire length of the river again this morning in hopes of spotting some exotic visitor from up north, especially while the weather is so nice, but I didn’t see a bird on the water except for a pair of common mergansers and a couple of mallards at the far south end and a dozen geese, and a dozen mallards at the far north end.

At about the halfway point, however, I did see a quartet of American goldfinches in their winter plumage, and here’s the one I could get my camera to focus on.

Farther north, the great horned owls were back, after a couple-day absence, and in their usual spots again. Here’s the one that was less hidden.

All through the park the black-capped chickadees are acting bolder than ever lately, some perching barely out of arm’s reach, and I don’t know if they really are braver or they are so cold they just don’t care, but they seem to be their usual selves in all other respects. In any case, I’m happy to enjoy it while it lasts.

I’ve been glimpsing cottontails from time to time during the winter since I started this little journey, but they are always extremely shy, and I believe this is the first time I’ve ever managed to capture an image of one in the snow. Woo hoo!

At the pond, I found this male house finch male purple finch mixed in with all the similar-looking house finches, which also have red faces, only less so, but they do not have red backs like this guy.

Finally, here’s a second nuthatch from yesterday, when it seemed to be nuthatch picture day.

The gorgeous weather in Estabrook Parked continued this morning with bright blue skies, a little less wind than yesterday, and crisp, cool air, at only -4° instead of the forecast -8°F. Woo hoo!

With the expectation that more of the river had frozen overnight, I headed straight to the river path to see if that had brought with it any new visitors from up north. Things got off to a great start with a pair of common mergansers right at the south end, and here’s the drake, but then I hardly saw a bird on the water until I was at the north end looking farther north toward the bridge with my binoculars. There I could see about a dozen Canada geese, a couple dozen mallards, and even our male belted kingfisher, but not even the goldeneye drake from yesterday. Oh well.

I had skipped the pond on my way north, so I turned east at about the halfway point on my way back south to take the path to the pond that runs along the south edge of the dog park. I had already heard a couple of nuthatches by then, but they were all up pretty high, as it seems they have been all winter, and then this little cutie flew in right at eye level to work the bark of this box elder. I captured a slew of images as it bounced around and worked its way up the trunk, and some are even presentable, but then it just stopped and stared at me and held this perfect nuthatch pose, as if to say, “All right, all right, you’ve been a good boy, so let me make this easy for you.”

When I finally made it to the pond, it was a mob scene. There were dozens of house finches, at least another dozen mourning doves, and even a blue jay, but this male downy woodpecker put on the best show.

This dark-eyed junco managed to get some blue sky in the background.

This robin found itself about the lowest perch possible.

And if this is the male house sparrow from Saturday, it sure did a good job drying itself out.

There was a nice blanket of snow on the ground, not a cloud in the bright blue sky, and a nice, crisp air temperature of -2°F, which 17 mph winds out of the northwest made feel like -20°F, in Estabrook Park this morning. It is finally starting to feel like winter in Wisconsin! I saw only one other pedestrian during my visit, but there were plenty of hardy critters coping with the conditions, and here are some of the ones I captured on film.

The flat river water is almost completely frozen over already, and there were about three dozen Canada geese out on a patch of it between the islands and all lined up with the wind.

In the few channels of open water that remain, along the far shore, a few common mergansers were diving for fish, …

and a lone common goldeneye drake was diving for snails.

Back on shore, a male downy woodpecker was busy pecking the heck out of that branch.

Back at the pond, the bushes that surround it were jam-packed with poofy little birds, and here are a few I haven’t shown you too recently: a black-capped chickadee, …

a white-throated sparrow, …

and a female northern cardinal.

The forecast is for -8° tomorrow morning, with a slight reduction in wind, but I’m keeping my hopes in check for now after a string of recent forecasts that over promised but under delivered. We’ll know the real score soon enough.

We finally got some real snow, despite the best efforts of the warm Lake Michigan water directly to our east. Between waiting for the snow to move out, playing with the visiting grandson with the Erector Set my mom and dad gave me for Christmas 100 years ago, and then shoveling the driveway so said grandson could attend a birthday party, I can’t believe I managed to fit in a visit to Estabrook Park.

Happily, the critters seemed distracted enough by the change in weather that I managed to capture a few images. Here’s a male northern cardinal by the pond.

And here’s a flock of house finches, with one mourning dove in the mix, a few steps north.

At the risk of overdoing it with mourning doves lately, here’s one showing off some pretty blue tail feathers that I have not noticed before.

Finally, as far as the pond is concerned, here’s a soaking wet male house sparrow, which I would normally skip, but who looks quite interesting when soaking wet, and who makes me wonder how he got soaking wet.

At the river, the two great horned owls were in their usual spots, but this one wasn’t too hidden.

Lastly, at the north end, there were nearly a dozen common mergansers, but they stayed near the far shore, so here’s a friendly robin willing to pose right overhead.

It’s just 6am, and our next round of snow has already started. This one is forecast to be a doozy and last all day, so I doubt I’d be able to get any pictures for you today. Luckily, I have a couple more from yesterday that I hope can fill the gap.

On the river, our goldeneye has departed, probably to join the flocks of his compatriots back on the lake, but this handsome couple of common mergansers have arrived to take his place.

By the pond, the house finches were not alone, and here’s a dark-eyed junco feasting on some seeds.

Back at the river, the lone red-breasted merganser drake is still with us, and here he is trying to enjoy a nap in the bit of sun that poked through late yesterday morning.

I know this isn’t everyone’s favorite bird, but this mourning dove posed so nicely by the pond that I just couldn’t resist taking its picture.

Finally, back at the river, the kingfisher was going about his business despite the poofy piles of snow on his branches.

Lastly, this little cutie surprised me with its call. It’s a song sparrow beside the river, and we’re just inside the northern extreme of their year-round range, but we don’t get to see or hear much of them these days. I didn’t recognize its call, and I had to get help from the Merlin app to identify what I was hearing. I see now that it’s classified as a “juvenile call” on the AllAboutBirds site.

It’s now closer to 7am, and it is really coming down out there. Stay safe if you have to venture out today!

We finally got a bit of real snow last night, and the skies were even that beautiful bright blue for a while this morning, but I’m pressed for time today, so here’s the one picture I took this morning that best captures all of that.

I thought it was a house finch, but I’ve since learned that it is actually a female purple finch.

We did get some snow, though the wind blowing off the warm Lake Michigan water kept the accumulation here to near the bottom of the forecast range. I’m sure some folks are thrilled, but the silver lining for me is that the strong east wind finally blew a common goldeneye our way. This drake is both the first one I’ve seen in Estabrook Park this winter and the first one I’ve managed to capture on film anywhere this season.

Just a bit behind and above the goldeneye, both owls were in today, and this one was hardly hidden at all for a change.

I must have stepped in something on the trail this morning, because my luck was holding, and the red-breasted merganser drake was still on the river as well.

Back up on the bluff, my luck kept coming because as I headed back toward the pond, one of the two red-tailed hawks I had seen when I first visited the pond earlier this morning was being chased over the main parking lot by a couple of crows. Even better, it had just caught a squirrel, and so it didn’t go far before taking a perch. I doubt the hawk was trying to send a message, so I suppose we can just chalk it up to dark irony that it happened to perch with its fresh catch on a squirrel drey. In any case, isn’t that some gorgeous plumage?

Finally, all the open water, at least on the river, is letting the muskrats keep foraging for fresh vegetables, and this one below the falls was so engrossed with what it had found that it let me get surprisingly close for this picture.

The forecast snow has not yet materialized, and all we are getting so far is rain and wind, so I’m gonna give Estabrook Park a break today. Instead, let me show you some more critters Anne and I saw in and around Big Bend National Park this time last year.

You have already seen this first bird, a black-throated sparrow, before, but this picture better shows off its bright white belly.

This is the only picture of a ladder-backed woodpecker (Dryobates scalaris) that I managed to capture, and I left it out on the first round because I didn’t like the way the electrical wire looked. I had hoped to have another chance for a better picture, but I never did.

This darling, backlit by a bright afternoon sun, looks a lot like the mourning doves we often see in Estabrook, but upon closer inspection, that white leading edge to its wing makes it a white-winged dove (Zenaida asiatica), just like the one Stevie Nicks sung about way back in 1981. Again, I thought I’d come up with a better picture, but I didn’t get the chance.

This shy bird, which I spotted foraging in a corral, is a curve-billed thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre), similar to the brown thrashers we get to see in Estabrook, but with a notable difference suggested by its name. Once again, I thought yada, yada, yada, but blah, blah, blah.

Finally, this little butterfly appears to be a dainty sulphur or dwarf yellow (Nathalis iole), and this picture is actually fine, but wasn’t quite as pretty as the birds I was seeing, and I was a bit pressed for time to write my posts while out there.