Well, my whining about the weather has somehow failed to improve the situation, and the radar forecast suggests that it will be raining all morning. Sure, I could go to Estabrook Park, because I won’t melt, but if I see a bird, and I can’t take a picture of it to show you, did the bird ever really exist? That’s a risk I don’t want to take.

Thus, I’ve scrounged the darkroom floor for negatives that I never printed, and first up is the other one of the two hooded mergansers on the beach at Lakeshore State Park on Sunday. That’s quite the stance, eh?

Because the look of their head feathers is so variable, depending on how they hold them and how wet they are, I can’t tell if this is the same bird or not, but either way, it caught a nice fish, which a gull promptly tried to steal but without success.

Besides the dozen or so cormorants fishing in the water along with the mergansers, here’s a flight of them heading south along the lakeshore.

Here’s a lone herring gull standing amongst a flock of ring-billed gulls at McKinley Beach. Herring gulls weigh about twice as much, so when they are near each other, it is pretty easy to see which is which, even if you can’t get a good look at their bills. You can also just make out the black head on the Caspian tern in the upper left corner.

From further back, here’s another look at the female/immature male black-chinned hummingbird from Sedona. From this angle you can easily see that its tail does not extend beyond its wings and so it can’t be a ruby-throated.

Here’s another look at the female/immature male Anna’s hummingbird, also from Sedona. If you compare the pictures, you’ll see that it is perched in a slightly different spot on that branch, and that is because it had just flown up to grab an insect from the air and then came back down to nearly but not exactly the same spot.

From even further back, here’s another look at the chestnut woodpecker from Amazon Antonio’s Lodge in Brazil.

Here’s another look at the yellow-throated woodpecker from our hike into the forest from the same lodge.

Finally, for a little splash of color to brighten the morning, here’s another look at the clouded sulphur on a purple aster along the Oak Leaf Trail from Saturday afternoon.

Man, if this dreary weather pattern ever moves on, and blue skies ever return, I will never complain about them again! The weather this morning was actually better than the forecast I checked before going to bed last evening, and even though it was raining during breakfast, the radar suggested that we might get a gap in the rain for a couple of hours. Thankfully, the radar and my reading of it turned out to be accurate! I headed out right at 7:00, and the skies didn’t reopen until 9:15.

There was the usual great blue heron and a handful of wood ducks on the pond, so I moved on to the river. At the north end, a couple of kingfishers were flitting around the northern island and making a racket, but here’s one of them taking a break from the ruckus and perhaps contemplating its lot in life.

I counted another four great blue herons on the river, a single green heron, and the two great egrets that have been hanging around for a while now. Here’s one of the egrets about to grab a fish as a pair of mallards look on from a safe distance.

There was also one Canada goose, dozens of mallards, and as I attempted to count the mallards, I was pleasantly surprised to find two of these male northern pintail ducks in their eclipse plumage. Although his plumage is very similar to a hen’s, I can just make out the blue stripe down the side of his bill that she doesn’t have.

I watched a Cooper’s hawk chase a ring-billed gull up the river, but I didn’t realize there were two around until I could hear them talking later from nearby trees. Here’s the one that I could get eyes on, and if they are the same pair we saw on Saturday, then this is probably the female based on the yellow on her beak.

I only had time (and light) for those four pictures this morning, so here’s another look at the solitary sandpiper on the river Friday.

Here’s a bumblebee on a purple aster blossom beside the Oak Leaf Trail from Saturday afternoon.

Here’s the fiery skipper again, but this time also on a purple aster blossom.

And finally, here’s another clouded sulphur, but this time at Lake Front State Park on Sunday. How’s that for a green eye?

The grey morning skies over Estabrook Park continue, but at least the temps were mild, so I stopped in to see who was around today now that the crowds of moved on.

There were eight wood ducks on the pond, and their late summer molt appears to be wrapping up, so here’s a hen and drake in all their finery.

At least one Cooper’s hawk is still on the hunt, and here it is over the northern island. I saw one again farther south, but I can’t tell for sure if it was the same bird or not.

The river water continues to be quite low, and a pair of spotted sandpipers were foraging on the exposed rocks below the Cooper’s hawk.

After not seeing a killdeer in the park for a couple of weeks, and even mentioning it yesterday, look who showed up this morning.

Back on shore an indigo bunting was competing with the goldfinch from Friday for worst molt, and it is crushing it. The poor thing appears to have no tail feathers at all at the moment. At least the grasses are providing plenty of seeds for it to eat in the meantime.

On my way back south, I spotted a black-throated blue warbler, but it had no time for me today. Instead, this chipping sparrow immature white-crowned sparrow, whose crown is still brown, posed so nicely as if it was daring me to take its picture.

That’s about it for this morning in Estabrook, so here’s another look at one of the darling sanderlings from yesterday.

And here’s another look at the American pipit who appears to be having its own molt issues.

Despite all the morning gloom recently, the sun has come out in the afternoon a few times, and here are a couple of butterfly pictures I took Saturday along the Oak Leaf Trail where the asters are blooming in a few nice big patches.

First is a fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus) on a white aster blossom.

And finally, here’s a common sulphur or clouded sulphur (Colias philodice) on a purple aster blossom.

I took a break from Estabrook Park today, and rode my bike down to Lakeshore State Park to join Donna’s Sunday morning birding group. There were plenty of Canada geese and mallards, but the first surprise was this gopher keeping an eye on me.

I counted five hooded mergansers in various plumages. I think this one is a female.

and this one may be an eclipse male.

This bird, on the other hand, is one of the many double-crested cormorants plying the waters.

Chuck noticed this female shoveler hanging out with the mallards.

And it may have also been Chuck who spotted this darling American pipit foraging on the rocks at the water’s edge. I first saw one on the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park, but this one has more of a yellowish tint and some situation going on with its head feathers.

Finally, as far as Lakeshore Park is concerned, there are still a few monarch butterflies to be found, and here’s one tanking up for its long flight to Mexico on some white aster.

On my way back home, I took Donna’s suggestion and stopped in at McKinley Beach, where I found several dozens of herring and ring-billed gulls resting on the sand. One of them, however, was not like the others, and that’s because it’s a tern instead of a gull, and a Caspian tern (Hydroprogne caspia) to be exact. I’ve seen them in Estabrook at least once, but I have not managed to get a picture until now.

I also noticed a trio of killdeer, who have made themselves scarce in Estabrook lately.

Lastly, the big surprise at McKinley Beach was this trio of little black-and-white sandpipers that I did not recognize. It was only when I got home that I was able to identify them as nonbreeding adult sanderlings (Calidris alba). I read that they are “extreme long-distance migrants [that] breed only on High Arctic tundra, but during the winter they live on most of the sandy beaches of the world.”

It was an odd morning for me in Estabrook Park. The weather was about the same as the past few days, with plenty of clouds and mild temps, but the park was packed with runners for some big group run, so I wasn’t seeing much. Then I opted to walk around the east side of the pond, to avoid the crowds, and I was rewarded by the sight of this yellow-bellied sapsucker, a male by the look of that little red patch under his chin, and he was even showing some yellow on his belly. I read that “juveniles have a brownish wash over their bodies“, so that probably explains the drab pair we saw on Monday.

Okay, so maybe my visit wouldn’t be so bad after all. Then I spotted not just one, but two Cooper’s hawks at the northeast corner of the pond. They made some unsuccessful tries for the squirrels on the ground, but perhaps they were too distracted by each other to give the squirrels the attention they needed.

Anyway, here’s the bigger one, so probably a female, with some fairly bright yellow on her beak and feet.

And here’s the smaller one, so probably a male, with much paler yellow, almost white, on his beak and paler eyes and feet.

Here he is again in a different pose on the same branch.

That’s our fifth raptor of the week, after the osprey, merlin, and eagle on Wednesday, and the red-tailed hawks yesterday. Awesome!

After all that excitement, I hiked over to the river. On my way, I was pleasantly surprised to find the crowd of runners were all off running somewhere else, but when I reached the falls, I was disappointed to find a full dozen anglers plying the waters, so I was unlikely to see anything there. At the north end, where there are usually dozens of mallards and geese foraging in the shallow water around the islands, with maybe a surprise or two sprinkled in for good measure, there was yet another angler wading around, so there were hardly any birds left to be found. Darn.

On shore, however, warblers were everywhere! Hurray! Here’s a not-great image of a female or immature blackpoll warbler, but it at least includes a hint at the pretty foliage starting to emerge.

There were also yellow-rumps, redstarts, magnolias, Nashvilles, waterthrushes, and even a Wilson’s, but I couldn’t get another good picture to save my life. Maybe they had all just arrived last night from up north, and so were far too hungry to sit still for even a second. Oh well. You can’t win’em all, right? At least we had the Cooper’s.

The skies look pretty clear, if hazy, now as I write this at my dining room table, but they were plenty grey earlier this morning when I ventured into Estabrook Park.

The first big surprise came early when I spotted this majestic red-tailed hawk right on the lawn across the parkway from the soccer fields. My guess is that it was probably after one of the many nice and plump grey squirrels that have been busily burying acorns recently.

From the lawn, it flew into the tree line it had been staring at, but it must not have found what it was hoping to catch, and soon flew back out to perch on this street light for just a moment before heading west towards the river.

The wood ducks and one great blue heron were at the pond again, but I didn’t see raccoons or anything else new so I continued on to the river. There I spotted a big bird over the southern island, and I thought it was the young eagle from Wednesday again but upon closer inspection, I see now that it is another red-tailed hawk with slightly browner coloration. I don’t believe I’ve seen two in one day since the pair courting over the far side of the river back in February 2022.

The next big surprise was this American coot out on the river between the islands at the north end. The last time we saw a coot in Estabrook was back in April.

We still have sandpipers, and I saw three today, two spotted and this one darling solitary.

On my way back south, I came across this male goldfinch who appears to be halfway through his molt. Ugh. Imagine having to go out of the house looking like that because you’ve gotta get your own breakfast, and you don’t even live in a house anyway.

Finally, at the south end, I thought I spotted one of the white-throated sparrows I’ve been hearing and glimpsing recently, but no, it turns out to be a white-crowned sparrow instead. See the peak at the back of its head?

Right around the corner, however, there really was one of those white-throated sparrows, with its bright white throat, yellow eyebrow patches, and nice round head.

Even better, here they are together! Just to be clear, the white-throated is on the left, and the white-crowned is on the right. I believe this is the first time I’ve managed to capture both in the same image and both reasonably close to being in focus. Miracles do happen.

The dark skies over Estabrook Park continue today, but at least they didn’t leak on me this morning.

The first bird I was able to get a picture of, by the soccer fields, is a Swainson’s thrush, very similar to the gray-cheeked thrush from yesterday, but with “a distinct buffy eyering,” and flying to a similarly far but slightly different winter range.

There were six wood ducks on the pond for a change, but the big surprise was this hungry critter methodically searching the island shoreline for something good to eat. By the looks of it, it is usually quite successful at this.

There was also a great blue heron at the pond, but it was on break.

At the river, I saw two huge fish leap up the falls, but when I aimed my camera that way, all I could get was this picture of fins.

At the north end, some of the wood ducks appear to have completed their molt and are now back in prime breeding plumage.

The best part for me, though, was flushing a Wilson’s snipe (Gallinago delicata), which I’ve done once or twice before, but this time it flew straight across the river and parked on the far shore where I could get my first picture of one in the park. Yay!

Finally, the squirrels remain as active as ever, and here’s a red squirrel counting the milliseconds until I look away and it can get back to preparing for winter.

It was another grey morning in Estabrook Park. At first, the sky overhead was clear, and there was just a tall cloud to the southeast blocking the sun, but then more clouds rolled in, and it even rained for a while. Good thing for big trees.

Luckily, there were plenty of birds going about their business, despite the gloom, and my first surprise was this osprey on a perch over the river by the guardrail. It was usually looking down at the river below, probably in hopes of spotting a fish it could catch, but once in a while it would look up to check its surroundings and flash us that yellow eye.

As usual lately, there wasn’t much action at the pond, so I headed to the river, and as I made my way north, I spotted a merlin high above the northern island. Sweet! Two uncommon raptors in one morning. Unfortunately, the merlin took off before I could get any closer.

Soon after the merlin split, a bunch of mallards and a great egret, which had been peacefully feeding on the river downstream of the island, also bolted, and the cause for all the excitement, this young bald eagle, landed in the same tree that the merlin had just been in. Woo Hoo! A three-raptor day!

The eagle didn’t stick around long either, life on the water quickly returned to normal, and it didn’t take the great egret long to come up with this tiny fish.

There were also a pair of kingfishers flitting around and making a racket, but the female eventually caught her own fish. I already mentioned it was dark, right? I slowed the shutter down as far as I dared, but still the ISO was through the roof, and that’s what I’m blaming for this grainy picture.

On my way back south along the river, I spooked this sharp-looking female rose-breasted grosbeak from foraging in the weeds beside the path, and she perched here for a moment before fleeing further to safety.

The black-capped chickadees are here year-round, of course, but they are seldom out where I can get a good look at them. Today was really shaping up to be my lucky day.

As I passed by the soccer fields at the south end, I thought I spotted a song sparrow perched in a sapling coming up through the patch of weeds. Upon closer inspection, however, it turns out to be a Lincoln’s sparrow instead. Cool. We’re in their fly-over territory, so we only get to glimpse them for a while in the fall and then again in the spring.

Finally, as I was leaving Estabrook, I spotted this gray-cheeked thrush (Catharus minimus), “one of the shyest and hardest-to-identify of the thrushes”, in a sapling between the Oak Leaf Trail and Wilson Drive. They are also just passing through, but they have a heck of a lot farther to go: all the way to the Amazon rainforest. Yikes! “Rest up, little cutie, safe travels, and we’ll see you again in the spring!”

The skies were dark and threatening over Estabrook Park this morning, but the temperature was mild, the wind was light, and the rain held off till nearly 10am, so I was able to sneak in and get a few pictures.

The parade of warblers on their way to warmer climes continues, and here’s a northern waterthrush that I found surprisingly far from the river. As you can see in the picture, it was quite dark out, and perhaps the little cutie was just having trouble finding the water.

There were three wood ducks on the pond and another dozen and a half on the river, along with a couple of egrets, but the better action was on shore, and here’s a yellow-rumped warbler going incognito and showing no yellow yet.

I glimpsed a couple of palm warblers and a black-and-white warbler, but they were too quick for me. Thank goodness this black-throated green warbler was operating at a speed closer to mine.

On my way back south, I was stunned to find a flock of ten (10!) northern flickers perched together. Their range map suggests that they’re here year-round, but I don’t believe I’ve seen one over the winter yet, and perhaps this group was debating whether to stay or go. In any case, the flying saucer in the background is part of a stabilizer on one of the guy-wires that supports a radio tower across the river. By the time I moved far enough to get that out of the picture, the group was already breaking up. Oh well.

Lastly, the squirrels and chipmunks are very active lately, and here’s a chipmunk striking a pose that I haven’t seen before. I guess when you freeze, you freeze.

I hit the road to drive back from Ohio yesterday morning before the sun came up, so I had no time for pictures or posts, unfortunately. Today, however, I’m back home, and it was a picture-perfect morning in Estabrook Park. I spotted the trio of deer, a doe with her two young bucks, at the south end, but they didn’t want to pose this morning, so I continued north towards the pond.

On the way, I found this northern flicker searching the lawn for breakfast amongst dozens of robins, and it must have found something good underground because it did not want to give it up as I snuck this picture.

The yellow-bellied sapsuckers have returned from up north, and here are a couple, but I didn’t see much yellow in their fall plumage.

I was happy to see that we still have warblers passing through, and here’s yet another female or immature male bay-breasted.

There was a trio of young spotted sandpipers working the shallow water just downstream of the northern island, and here’s one.

In previous years, I thought it was a big deal to spot a great egret in the park, and if I was lucky, it would hang around for a day or two. This year, they’ve been here for weeks, as many as four at once, and we still had two today. How awesome!

I still remember how excited I was when I finally managed to capture a picture of a great blue heron on the pond, back in 2020. Now they seem to be everywhere, and I’m lovin’ it.

Finally, the squirrels are busy as bees collecting nuts and hiding them through the park, and here’s a red squirrel taking a break to check me out.x