Here are the top three sights I saw in Estabrook Park this morning. At number three, the great horned owl, who has been a semi-regular fixture for the last five weeks or so, was in again, and in almost exactly the same spot as yesterday.
At number two, a great blue heron was back and on the pond to boot. I haven’t seen one since December 5th, and I was beginning to wonder if they’d given up on Estabrook, at least for the winter.
And the number one sight I saw this morning was a female common merganser, whom we haven’t seen since April 11, on the river north of the northern island. Woo hoo! I hope she’s a sign that the winter birds will start to trickle in.
The expected change in the weather arrived overnight, and it was dark and rainy when the sun was supposed to rise this morning. Luckily, I only had to wait a couple of hours for the rain to let up, and then into the park I went.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs at the falls, I spotted this bald eagle picking at something on the far riverbank a few hundred yards upstream, and I immediately turned around and climbed back up onto the bluff to give it some room. It had spotted me, too, however, and it knew its cover was blown, so by the time I got upstream enough to take a peek again, it had already retreated to the safety of this perch over the southern island. Oh well. It must have felt pretty secure up there because it let me take this portrait, and it was still there on my return trip back south after visiting the north end.
At the north end, the belted kingfisher was about as shy, but after a couple of tries, I managed to sneak this picture anyway.
Finally, the great horned owl was “in” again, and not too deep, so it rounds out our threesome for today.
Our little streak of nice weather continued this morning in Estabrook Park, and so the sky was clear, and the temps were mild, but the stiff breeze out of the southwest suggests change is on its way.
The raptor de jour is this red-tailed hawk perched high over the northern island, right where the merlin was two days ago.
The great horned owl was “in” this morning, but not too deep.
Now that we have some sunlight, it really makes the color of the mallard drakes pop when they hold their head just right.
The gray catbird by the pond was also “in”, but hiding way deep and keeping quiet today.
Finally, with the warm-up, the big flock of house finches by the pond has dispersed, for now, but there were still a couple around, and here’s one.
Ahhhh. That’s more like it. A sunny day at last, after seeing on the news last evening that we haven’t had one yet in December. With a decent twilight, I was able to get out nice and early, and the sun was just poking through the trees by the time I reached the pond. The scene was pretty quiet, as usual these days, with just a few mallards and the half-dozen geese who have been there often recently.
I continued on to the river and found this pair of muskrats just off the southern tip of the southern island. Of course, I was focusing on the near one, which is in the dark, and didn’t notice the far one stand up on its haunches in the golden morning sunlight. Darn tunnel vision.
At the north end, there were more mallards and geese and our one male belted kingfisher.
As I was trying to get a nice kingfisher picture, I almost didn’t see who was nonchalantly lounging on the shore of the northern island almost directly behind him. Ha!
On my way back south, the sun had risen a bit and was now nicely lighting up the great horned owl, who might have perched a lot less deeply in the sticks in hopes of soaking up some of that sun.
The big surprise for today was this wood duck hen all by herself on the river below the falls. “We have a guess as to why the drake was on the pond for so long, but what are you doing here, Honey?”
The skies were dark over Estabrook Park again this morning, and perhaps that tricked this muskrat on the pond to be out and about well after its usual bedtime.
I tried walking upriver atop the bluff this time, to save me from backtracking for better eagle pictures, but the eagles saw right through my ploy and simply didn’t show up today.
Instead, when I reached the river, I was just in time to catch the belted kingfisher with his breakfast and perched on a log between the two islands.
Meanwhile, high above the northern island, this merlin, the likes of whom we haven’t seen in nearly a month, was taking advantage of the eagle dearth.
I had seen the owl on my way north, but it was buried so deep, I didn’t even try for a picture. On my way back south, however, I found a spot from which my autofocus might have a chance. In this image, I can make out belly feathers and part of a dark ring around one eye. You?
On my second visit to the pond, the muskrat had finally gone to bed, but now a mink was up, and here it is with a fresh catch. It’s a little hard to make out what that catch is exactly, but I’d bet a small fish or bull frog tadpole. Scrumpdillyicious, either way, I’m sure.
The snow never arrived, and so Estabrook Park looked pretty much the same this morning as it did yesterday. The surprise for the day came early, on my first visit to the pond, when I watched not just one, but two muskrats steam towards their burrow in the eastern shore. Here’s the second one who you can just see is also hauling a mouth full of groceries.
Finally, I saw three hermit thrushes this morning, which is so many that ebird wanted an explanation. Just my lucky day, I guess, and here’s the one I could capture on film as it invited the others to come and say hi.
It was cool and dark this morning in Estabrook Park, but the winds were light, and the clouds were holding their water, so not a bad time for a visit. Things were quiet, however, and I didn’t see anything remarkable at the pond or the river until a pair of crows alerted me to a bald eagle silently gliding south over the far riverbank.
I headed south after it, in hopes that it would perch somewhere, but I couldn’t find it in any of the usual spots, and I had pretty much given up on that idea when I started to hear grey squirrels giving their warning cry. It still took me a moment, but I eventually found it up nice and high where I might have missed it, so “Thanks, guys!” It was so high, in fact, that I thought I’d see if I could get a better shot from up on the bluff, and sure enough, here it is almost at eye level.
Then it noticed a feather that needed some attention, our photo shoot was over, and I continued on my way.
Almost as surprising as finding the eagle was spotting this hermit thrush out on the lawn right beside the paved path north of the beer garden.
And if finding one hermit thrush is unlikely, imagine finding two in quick succession! Sweet! They weren’t together either, though they may be acquainted. The second one was almost 500 yards down stream.
Just beyond the second hermit thrush, I found our red squirrel for the day, and it appears that I caught it with a mouth full of breakfast. “Sorry!”
The rain was pretty steady, there was a big green blob on the radar, and showers were forecast to continue until 11am, so I did not expect to be in Estabrook Park this morning. When Anne got home from her walk around 8:30, however, she reported that the rain had already stopped, and the sky was lightening, so out the door I went.
The first treat of the morning was this red-tailed hawk, possibly a juvenile by the looks of that tail, in the birch tree on the west edge of the southern soccer fields. It was on a mission and continued east, to where the squirrels are thick, before I could get any closer.
Update: the fine folks at ebird say “no”, it’s a Cooper’s hawk instead. Oh well. Live and learn, I hope.
The pond ice is starting to melt, and there was even a sextet of Canada geese grazing up on the lawn, but no picture really presented itself, so I continued on to the river. There, the great horned owl was in this morning, surprisingly visible, and sound asleep. I never even caught a glimpse of those big beautiful yellow eyes.
At the north end, the male belted kingfisher was on his station, but looking less than pleased with the rain.
Finally, I only saw one great blue heron, and it was across from the abandoned bridge abutment and beside the little falls formed by the blue hole draining into the river. Maybe with all the rain, the big falls were just too fast to fish today.
It was a dark morning in Estabrook Park, but the temps were mildish, and the forecast precipitation wasn’t supposed to start till at least 8 or 9 am, so I slipped in to see if there was anyone around. I didn’t spot any herons or eagles today, and the owl was so deep into the sticks that I didn’t even try, but there was one Cooper’s hawk swooping through the trees at the north end, and it perched high over the island for a moment.
There were a lot of squirrels out and about this morning, and here’s a little red one chowing down on the huge nut it found.
Finally, at the pond I was very happy to see this mallard hen again. She’s been there for weeks, along with the now-departed hoodie and woodie, but something has gone wrong with her tail, and it appears that she’s not able to fly away from the pond. When the ice formed a few days ago, and the wood duck disappeared, I feared that we had lost her too, but here she is back again and as bold as ever. Since mallard hens lay, incubate, and hatch their eggs in nests on the ground, right under the noses of coyotes, foxes, raccoon, mink, and all other manner of creature who would love nothing more than duck eggs for breakfast, they must be really good at hiding out, and perhaps that’s what she’ s been up to while the pond was frozen over. In any case, “Welcome back, Sweetie!”
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 