I got a nice late start this morning, the weather was beautiful, as usual, and all the usual suspects were out and about.
A wood duck hen and a blue heron were on the pond. The heron even caught a fish, which it handily swallowed in one clean gulp.
A monarch, which seem to be ubiquitous these days, stopped by to sample the goldenrod.
On the river, another heron kept tabs on me while I captured images of this cabbage white (Pieris rapae) sampling a new flower on the mudflats, which I had been ignoring till now, but apparently can ignore no more.
That little orange blossom, not much bigger than a pencil eraser, appears to belong to the Devil’s Beggarticks (Bidens frondosa), also known as devil’s-pitchfork, devil’s bootjack, sticktights, bur marigold, pitchfork weed, tickseed sunflower, leafy beggarticks, and common beggar-ticks.
I suspect all the “devily” and “pitchforky” names are due to the shape of the seed.
Finally, as I walked back south along the parkway late in the morning, a couple of deer were still on the move, heading towards the Oak Leaf Trail, and here’s an image I managed to capture of one of them.
UWM classes start today, so wish us luck, eh?
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 
Beautiful images, as always. I hope you can find time to continue this blog, even if less often due to campus work.
Wishing you and Anne the very best luck in the new semester.
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