Anne and I arrived safely in Malawi and are now finishing up a wonderful dinner with her colleagues in Lilongwe. I even got to see some birds this afternoon, but I’ve gotta make a quick post because of limited bandwidth.

I was thrilled to get another look at the amazing variable sunbird. There were a pair flitting back and forth between a powerline and a tree in the yard. Here’s the male:

And here’s the female:

Finally, I believe this is a new bird for me, a spotted flycatcher. It winters down here, in southern Africa, and will probably soon fly to Europe for breeding season.

Tomorrow, we all drive to the Nkotakhata Wildlife Reserve to see what we can see. I’ll keep you posted.

Anne and I will be spending all day in airports and airplanes, but when we finally arrive in Malawi, I look forward to seeing another black-throated wattle-eye.

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First, it has been raining steadily since it was light enough this morning to take pictures, and second, my laptop died last evening, and this loaner I’m typing on right now doesn’t have a slot for reading the chip from my camera, so I wouldn’t be able to show you any pictures from today anyway.

Thus, I need to go to the archives, and since Anne and I are leaving for Malawi again tomorrow morning, let me refresh your memory of some sights I hope to see again in the coming days. Near the top of my list must be the incredible African hoopoe.

They came up just recently in a conversation I was having with a prominent local birder as we were going to a birding trivia event, because that’s what I do now. She asked “what are they related to,” and I didn’t know so I asked Dr Google, of course. It turns out the surprising answer is “not closely to much!”

They are in the genus Upupa, which contains only two other, similar-looking species: the Eurasian hoopoe and the Madagascar hoopoe.

That genus is in the family Upupidae, which contains only that genus!

We have to go all the way up to order Bucerotiformes to include any other birds, specifically, the hornbills, ground hornbills, and wood hoopoes.

Finally, I’m sure you will all be as relieved as I am to find that they are indeed in the class Aves, which contains all the other birds. Phew!

Anyway, wish me luck!

I couldn’t ask for a nicer morning in Estabrook Park, and I made it out the front door at 7:00 am CDT to celebrate. That’s my earliest start of the year, if you ignore the recent time change.

As I hiked down to the river, I found our winter wren hasn’t flown north yet.

At the pond, I finally got my first wood duck hen picture of the season. I’ve already seen one once or twice before this spring, but she’s always been awfully shy and successfully eluded my camera. She wasn’t much different today, but I finally got lucky. There was a drake with her, too, but we’ve already seen plenty of pictures of him and in much better light.

At the north end, this chipmunk was surprisingly bold and seemed quite unperturbed by me.

At the Port Washington Road bridge over the river at the far, far north end, I found a red-tailed hawk perched on a lamppost and surveying the scene on the river below.

As I hiked back up to the pond for one more look, I found this red squirrel who seemed torn between curiosity and shyness.

Finally, the first crocus to bloom in the park, that I know of, is by the pond and already attracting insects.

Our latest warm snap continues, and it was 20° warmer in Estabrook Park this morning than yesterday morning. I could hear my first killdeer of the season today, and I’m positive that it wasn’t just a starling mimicking one, for a change, but I wasn’t able to spot it yet.

A sight that I did manage to see was this red-breasted merganser drake on the pond again.

There was also a fox sparrow singing beside the pond again, and this time he looked our way.

Finally, the beer garden in Estabrook Park had a sign posted this morning that said they “will be open Tue 12th & Wed 13th at noon,” in case that is the sign of spring you’ve been waiting for.

The huge news in Estabrook Park this morning is that the female goose on the pond has finally chosen her nesting site on the island and has started the long process of laying and incubating her eggs. Woo Hoo! When I saw one lone goose on the water, I was hoping that this would be the reason why, and it took me a while to find her, but here she is. Phew!

This is two to three weeks earlier than in recent years. In 2021, it happened on March 22, in 2022, it happened on March 28, and I was in South Holland for March of 2023, so I don’t have an exact date. This is a new spot for her, too. In previous years, she was at the southern tip of the island, and in 2021 another goose nested at the northern tip, but this year she’s about 2/3 of the way north along the western edge. In any case, if everything goes okay, we’ve got 32 to 48 days to go until gosling time! Yay!

In other news, this red squirrel was much more interested in me than the one I showed you yesterday.

Finally, here’s a second look at the raccoon from later yesterday morning and looking a lot more relaxed after the sun had warmed things up a bit.

After a crazy February, it feels like we’re getting a March closer to normal, at least for this weekend, and it was below freezing in Estabrook Park this morning. The skies were clear, however, and the sun was warm, so none of the critters seemed put out by losing an hour’s sleep last night.

On my walk to the pond, I spotted this face that we haven’t seen in a while.

At the pond, the geese were busy making more geese, and …

the mallards were following suit.

A wood duck drake was back, but he was on his own again, so nobody was making more wood ducks today, as far as I could see.

Meanwhile, just on shore, a red-winged blackbird male was filling up while also waiting for the females of his species to arrive.

I believe the blue jays are already all here, and this male was making his best courtship call.

Finally, on my walk home, this red squirrel seemed to be lost in thought. Maybe someone was missing that hour of sleep after all.

It was a pretty morning in Estabrook Park, even if the temps were seasonably cool, but the interesting pictures were few and far between, for some reason. In fact, the only one I took was of this dark-eyed junco by the pond.

Luckily, I have some shots left over from previous days, and here’s another chipmunk from yesterday keeping a wary eye on me from the safety of a pile of sticks.

Here’s another look at the Cooper’s hawk from yesterday with the chipmunk that it had just caught.

Finally, the red-breasted merganser was still on the pond today, but I have one more picture from when it was posing so nicely for us on Thursday, and here it is.

Here’s hoping for some better luck tomorrow.

Despite the forecast for a wet morning, the rain still has not yet arrived, and I had a great walk in Estabrook Park.

The big treat for me today was spotting this Cooper’s hawk with the chipmunk it had just caught. Nature in action!

At the pond, this downy woodpecker posed perfectly on what’s left of the sumac seeds from last year. Too bad it didn’t have yesterday’s bright sun and blue sky.

The red-breasted merganser was still there, but I left him alone in the low light, and let me show you another picture from yesterday, when the skies were a lot brighter, instead.

It was probably just me noticing it more, but the rest of the chipmunks appeared to be on higher alert than usual.

Finally, the first of many violets has begun to blossom by the pond.

It was cloudy when dawn broke this morning, and it is cloudy again now as noon approaches, but in between there were a couple of hours of glorious sunshine in Estabrook Park.

Cooper’s hawks were very active today, and I saw a pair hunting together at the pond, possibly a third bird hunting on its own by the river, and then a pair again at the south end, probably the same pair from earlier. The one by the river let me have the best picture, so here it is.

The red-breasted merganser drake on the pond seems to be getting used to the attention he draws, and he let me get some more great shots, but I like the look on his face in this one. Between his spiky mohawk, the shadow across half his bright red eye, and the serrated edges of his bill, he looks pretty fierce, and I bet that is exactly how his prey sees him.

At the river, the most interesting sight was this chipmunk appearing to be captivated by the geese jostling for position on the water below. I don’t see them off the ground often, and this may be the first time I’ve ever seen one out on a little branch like that.

Farther south, this downy woodpecker seemed somehow to not notice I was standing not even eight feet away.

Finally, I was all excited when I saw this next scene because I thought it was some shrub beginning to blossom. Now that I’ve had a chance to research it, however, I have learned that the plant is American witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginian), and those aren’t blossoms. Instead they’re “persistent calyces” left over from when it blossomed late last fall. Oh well. Live and learn, right?