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.

I got stiffed in Estabrook Park this morning, and I even tried the lakefront in hopes of showing you one of the loons that folks have been seeing there, but they were much too far from shore for my equipment. Instead, let me show you a couple of pictures from this day last year when Anne and I were in Big Bend National Park.

One of my favorite sights was this roadrunner that Anne found for me, and here are a couple of pictures of it, which I haven’t shown you yet, with a grasshopper in its beak and demonstrating the versatility of its head feathers.

Finally, here’s another look at the javelina I encountered while Anne was off at the store picking us up some lunch.

I see that the snow is supposed to start late tonight and continue all day tomorrow, so maybe I’ll have something pretty to show you in the morning. Wish me luck!

Donna’s Sunday morning birding group was visiting the South Shore Yacht Club again this morning, so I stopped by to see who might be out on the lake. We could see a few coots out by the breakwater, and someone saw a goldeneye or two, but the big surprise for me were the dozens and dozens of red-breasted mergansers swimming, fishing, and flying about. They were all inside the breakwater but not too close to shore except for this drake.

On my way back home, I stopped by Bradford Beach, and I could see dozens more goldeneyes, but they were much too far from shore for a picture. Thankfully, there was a trio of buffleheads right near shore, two drakes and a hen, and the drakes were too busy sorting out who was who to worry about me, so I was able to sneak this picture of one of them.

I still didn’t have much to show for my morning, and it wasn’t very late yet, so I stopped in at good ol’ Estabrook Park to see if anyone was still around. The owls were crazy hidden this morning, but as I tried to find a good vantage point, I caught a glimpse of a red-tailed hawk making an unsuccessful try for our belted kingfisher. After coming up empty, the hawk moved on before I could get close enough for a picture, but the kingfisher went right back to filling his belly, and here he is looking for his next fish.

Finally, as I was hiking back south, I found that we had a red-breasted merganser of our own floating with the mallards just off the southern tip of the southern island, and here he is.

If only he could have convinced a goldeneye to come with him. Maybe next time.

Sure it’s snowing lightly this morning in Estabrook Park and even sticking to the grass and branches a bit, but the big news is that a Mr. Danny Fritz reported “2 GHO in the radio tower structure (WITI TV Tower) up pretty high singing a duet” last evening and even posted a recording for us.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology reports that “the male and female of a breeding pair may perform a duet of alternating calls, with the female’s voice recognizably higher in pitch than the male’s.” Can I get a “whoo-wh’HOO-whoo-whoo!”

I can’t say for sure that they are the same pair we’ve been seeing semi-regularly on the island in the river since mid-December, but we can hope, right? Speaking of which, they were on the same branch today for the first time that I have seen and closer together than I have ever seen them before. Perhaps song is one way into an owl’s heart.

As usual, one was very hidden, and here’s the one that was mostly out in the open and keeping an eye on things.

Well, it’s now official. According to an article in today’s paper, “Great Lakes ice cover was at record low on Jan. 1.” Hence the lack of birds on the river, such as goldeneyes and buffleheads, that I believe only come south in search of open water when they have to. Ice was forming on the river this morning, however, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a quintet of common mergansers back again. Too bad there wasn’t some nice morning sun to light them up as there was last time.

A young Cooper’s hawk, as indicated by the white splotches on its back, perched high above the northern island, perhaps gazing at the mergansers below.

And that’s all the critters for today, I’m afraid. Thankfully, the cold weather and slowly lowering river water did make for some fun ice art.

Finally, since I have so much empty space today, here’s one more look at that dashing northern mocking bird from Connecticut posing in the warm morning sun a few days ago.

It was nice to be back in Estabrook Park this morning, even if the skies were cloudier than forecast, and here are a few of the critters who came out to welcome me back.

Our surprise gray catbird continues to hang out by the pond, well north of its usual winter range, and poked its cute little face out from the bushes on the island to say hi.

The pond is almost completely frozen over, so the muskrats there are keeping to their burrow, but the river is mostly clear, so this one just off the shore of the southern island was out and doing a little preening.

With the ground still bare and the temperatures still mild, the squirrels were as active as ever, and this red one was engaged in a heated enough argument with another one below that it let me snap this picture.

Finally, back by the pond, this darling female northern cardinal was kind enough to pose between a bunch of red sumac seeds and the sky starting to show some blue. “Thanks, Sweetie!”

Anne and I are back home safe and sound and thank you for all your well wishes. The weather forecast looks wonderful for tomorrow, so I can’t wait to get back into Estabrook Park to see what all the critters have been up to. Meanwhile, here are a few more pictures from yesterday in Connecticut that I didn’t have time to show you then, but I sure do now.

First off, here’s a red-tailed hawk perched high in a pine tree almost directly across West Main Street from the eastern bluebird I showed you yesterday.

The next big surprise, however, after the bluebird, was a quartet of black vultures kettling low over the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail. We don’t get to see them in Estabrook, but I see them pretty regularly in Connecticut, and here’s my best solo image,

and here’s my best group shot. I learned this trip that a better way to distinguish them in flight from the turkey vulture that we do see over Estabrook, is from their shorter, broader wings, and shorter tail, rather than trying to see if the skin on their face is red or black, since either of which will shine similarly in the sun.

A heck of a lot smaller, but no less a treat, was this golden-crowned kinglet, which are common in Estabrook, but not at this time of year. The last time I saw one here was back on December 4, and I didn’t even get a picture.

I am always thrilled to see a red-shouldered hawk over the old canal, and this time there were two talking to each other. They have been spotted in Estabrook, but I haven’t seen one here yet. They are not as common as red-tails, and the last reported sighting was spring of 2022.

Finally, I found a mockingbird willing to sit for a portrait in the warm morning sun, for a change. I haven’t seen one of these in Estabrook either, but given a sighting in 2021, it appears to be possible.

My schedule is a little discombobulated here out east, but the rain finally stopped, and I did get to see this darling male eastern bluebird this morning. Let’s hope he’s a good omen for the year to come.