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

I’m still in Xenia, Ohio, and I had a nice visit to Sol Arnovitz Park this morning, but the show starts earlier today so I didn’t have enough time for the light to come up, and I have no new pictures for you today. Instead, let me just leave you with couple of pictures from Brazil of another amazing hoatzin.

These are both from near the Dolphin Lodge again, but late on the third day when the sun was low, and the light was golden.

I’m at the Greene County Expo Center, “located in beautiful Xenia, Ohio” for Cycle-Con, a trade show devoted to mostly recumbent bicycles and tricycles, to show off the UWM PantherTrike.

Anyway, I had some time this morning between sunrise and the start of the show, so I stopped by the picturesque Shawnee Park in town to see who might be up, and the biggest surprise was finding mallard ducklings at this late date. First there was just one.

Then I found three more.

And eventually Mom came by to see who was getting close to her ducklings. I sure hope her ducklings grow up in time to make it through the winter!

The next biggest surprise was finding a great blue heron on the side of a concrete-lined pond. I guess fish is fish, right?

And that’s it for the pictures today. I heard a Carolina wren, which was fun because we don’t see them often in Estabrook, but I wasn’t able to lay eyes on it.

It’s another beautiful morning, but I’ve gotta pack up the car and drive down to Ohio for a trade show, and I don’t have time to visit Estabrook Park today. Instead, here are a few pictures from yesterday that I couldn’t squeeze in.

The great blue herons must have had a good breeding season because they’ve been thick on the river lately, and yesterday was no exception. I counted at least 5, and here’s one beside the northern island with a fresh catch.

Green herons are still around and here’s one from the same vicinity but who appears to have not caught breakfast yet. I expect it won’t be long before the last one of these has moved on to their winter fishing grounds around the Gulf of Mexico.

Swainson’s thrushes, who are only here briefly as they make their own way south, haven’t all left yet either.

And the warblers, a stunning blackburnian in this case, are in pretty much the same boat.

Cedar waxwings, on the other hand, are already in their “year-round” range, so we have a hope of enjoying glimpses of their amazing plumage all winter. Yay!

I’ll bring my camera with me to Ohio, and I’ll post pictures of what I find, but if that turns out to be nothing, I’ll dig into the vault for something to tide you over.

It was a curious morning in Estabrook Park. The sky above was nice and clear, but there was a huge cumulonimbus cloud to the southeast that blocked the sun quite effectively. It was cool, at 53°F, but the air was still, so it felt quite comfortable.

In any case, the critters were quite active, perhaps because the cool snap reminded them of what is to come, and here’s a doe grazing with her two young bucks at the southwest corner of the soccer fields.

Here’s the budding rack on one buck.

And here’s the budding rack on his twin brother.

I spotted another warbler beside the guardrail, and it’s a black-and-white this time. If ever there was a perfect bird to photograph in light so low that all the color gets washed out, the black-and-white warbler would have to be a lead contender.

On the river at the far north end, the pied-billed grebe was still hanging out with the mallards, and here it is beside a snoozing mallard for size comparison in one of the moments when the sun snuck around the cloud.

There were a couple of kingfishers flitting around the northern island, and here’s one, a female by the glimpse of a red band across her breast, who parked surprisingly close to me and seemed to not yet know the drill. “You’re supposed to take one look at me, Sweetie, and then bolt like a scalded cat.”

On my way back south along the river, a red squirrel, whom I may have already photographed on my way north, had found itself a black walnut and was quite noisily letting everyone in earshot know about all it.

I’ve got a few more pictures from this morning, but I’ve got another short trip coming up, so let me hold onto those for when I’m away and show you the last of my Sedona pictures instead. After the wetlands preserve, Tim took us to the “Bubbling Ponds Preserve“, comprising the Page Springs Fish Hatchery and a stretch of the Oak Creek. There we spotted this stunning and aptly-named flame skimmer or firecracker skimmer (Libellula saturata), a “common dragonfly … native to western North America.”

There were plenty of phainopeplas, red-winged blackbirds, and goldfinches in the nearby trees and bushes, but the big surprise for me was this darling Wilson’s warbler, which I first saw in Estabrook, then again in Yellowstone, and now in Arizona. Ha!

Tim had advised us that this would be a good location to spot the common black hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus), but we searched the skies in vain, and it wasn’t until we were walking along the Oak Creek that I spotted a huge bird swoop up into branches over the water. We had to be patient, but this youngster eventually showed its face. Ta da!

Finally, as we headed back to the van for our trip back to our Airbnb, this painted lady butterfly posed so nicely, I just had to take its picture.

The rain is done for now, and it became a beautiful morning in Estabrook Park after the clouds drifted away and the sun came out.

It didn’t take me long to find this female rose-breasted grosbeak looking to bask a bit in that nice, warm morning sun. We hardly see them over the summer, so I expect she’s from north of here and already on her way south for the winter.

I found only one wood duck on the pond, so I headed to the river, where I found a dozen more, but the less-common bird was this one, darling pied-billed grebe. It was busy gulping down a fish when I arrived, but those pictures didn’t come out too great, so here’s one from when it was done with breakfast and looking more presentable. It too is probably already on its way south for the winter.

On my own way back south, I came across this interesting scene in which several blue jays, of which one is pictured with its back to us, were trying to convince an American kestrel to look for breakfast elsewhere. The red structure they are on is a radio tower across the river.

While that was all unfolding above the far riverbank, a northern cardinal in mid-molt was feasting on a grape right in front of me.

Down the bluff from where there is a guardrail between the parkway and the path, a female or immature male bay-breasted warbler was playing coy.

Finally, a female monarch butterfly was sipping nectar from a bull thistle blossom in the weeds along the west side of the soccer fields.

Those are just the highlights from Estabrook because I still have some pictures from Sedona to show you. After our guide, Tim, showed us all the birds he could find near our Airbnb, he took us to the Sedona Wetlands Preserve created by wastewater effluent and now a National Geographic Geoturism Destination.

There we saw several American coots, just like the ones that visit Estabrook from time to time.

A sora, which we also see in Estabrook but not quite as often.

This amazing-looking grasshopper, which is probably a green bird grasshopper or green valley grasshopper (Schistocerca shoshone)

And nearly a dozen black-necked stilts, which I have seen in the Horicon Marsh and in South Holland but not yet in Estabrook.

There was also a redhead duck, a killdeer, a spotted sandpiper, a pied-billed grebe, three eared grebes, and a great blue heron, among several others, but they all kept too far away for my camera. Instead, I’ll leave you with this picture of a painted lady butterfly.

It’s a rainy morning in Estabrook Park, but I spent the weekend in Sedona, AZ, with a group of high school buddies, and we sprung for a guided birding tour, which was excellent, so here are some pictures from that.

We started on foot right from our Airbnb and headed up the side of nearby Sugarloaf Mountain. There were a lot of birds around, and here’s a male phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens), a silky flycatcher.

Here’s a female phainopepla, and you may recall that we also saw these in Big Bend National Park back in January.

A completely new bird for me, however, is this darling little verdin (Auriparus flaviceps), described as “one of the smallest passerines in North America.”

I also saw my first canyon towhee (Melozone fusca). They are not the most colorful bird, but they do show a “warm rufous patch under the tail.“

Despite the name, this female or immature lazuli bunting (Passerina amoena) was leaving the flashy plumage to the breeding males, of which I failed to spot an example.

The Woodhouse’s scrub jays (Aphelocoma woodhouseii), on the other hand, had color to spare, and here’s one fishing a pine nut out of a cone. Our guide, Tim, explained that they hide these nuts in caches.

They are said to devote a lot of time and energy to preventing other birds from finding their caches and searching out and stealing food from the caches of other birds.

Further, I read that “recent research has suggested that Woodhouse’s scrub jays, along with several other corvids, are among the most intelligent of animals. The brain-to-body mass ratio of adult scrub jays rivals that of chimpanzees and cetaceans.” Fun, eh?

Anyway, the pine nuts also attracted the attention of this juniper titmouse (Baeolophus ridgwayi).

There were several hummingbirds around, and here’s a female/immature male black-chinned hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri). It looks a lot like a female ruby-throated, which we see in Estabrook, but I read that “ruby-throated hummingbirds have a longer tail that extends beyond the wings,” and in another picture of this same bird, I can clearly see the short tail.

Here also is my very first female/immature male Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna). I was surprised to learn, when Tim pointed out the behavior, that hummingbirds are insectivores and we often watched them fly off a perch, catch an insect in midair, and return to the perch, just as flycatchers do. I haven’t seen that behavior in Estabrook, yet, but I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for it now.

Finally, we often heard them, and their image or silhouette appears in signage all over town, but it took me a while to get a good look at a Gambel’s quail (Callipepla gambelii). This dashing figure happens to be a male.