Those of you who read these words and don’t just look at the pretty pictures (and you know who you are) may recall me mentioning yesterday that there were no water fowl on the pond. Well, I found a whole bunch down on the river, instead!
Yesterday afternoon I spotted two families of mallards: one mom with a single teenage daughter, and another mom with five toddlers. They were all surprisingly willing to let me take pictures, and both moms took naps in the middle of the afternoon as I stood there taking more. What’s your guess, moms? Just plain exhaustion?
Also, down on the river, right by the waterfall, was our ol’ buddy, Blue, or maybe his cousin Bill. It’s hard to tell them apart.
Plus, there’s another butterfly in the wildflower meadow I mentioned a couple days ago. This one is an eastern comma (Polygonia comma) because “there is a silvery comma mark in the middle of the hindwing”, and man, was he shy. The instant he realized I was there; I never saw those beautiful flashy colors again. Good thing I’m finally learning to start recording even before I have a clean view, eh? And they say old dogs….
Anyway, back in the pond, there’s still plenty of action below the surface, the fish were particularly bold yesterday, and I finally got a decent image (left) of one that isn’t just a bright orange goldfish (Carassius auratus) (right), which “are rarely eaten”, I read, “although edible and closely related to some fairly widely eaten species.”
Any anglers out there? Might the fellow on the left be a bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) mentioned in the Milwaukee urban fishing rules? He does appear to have a prominent blue gill, but he looks a lot sleeker than the pictures of bluegill I see online. Perhaps that’s just an optical illusion.
Finally, it seems that the musk thistle is now open enough to begin serving pollinators.
That’s all I have for you today. Stay tuned for exciting new images right here tomorrow.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 
