Back to the basics. No exotics today.

It was cloudy, foggy, and dim this morning, plus I had to wait for a delivery, so I got a late start in Estabrook. By the time I arrived, the mammals were mostly laying low, the birds were pretty much done with their morning routine, and kids were playing in the pond. Thank goodness for blossoms, butterflies, birds, and babies, eh?

Let’s start with our first sighting for the season of a silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus), sipping from one of the few red clover Parks hasn’t yet mowed in what I used to call the wild flower meadow at the north end.

A new blossom I spotted just a bit south of there is this handsome butterweed (Packera glabella), an Aster which the Pedia of Wik reports “is toxic when eaten by humans,” so you can touch it, but best it’s probably best to leave it out of your salad.

The river was still loaded with Canada geese and mallards, and here’s a mallard hen keeping watch while her ducklings are supposed to be taking their morning nap.

Here’s a cabbage white on a nice, bright yellow bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) blossom beside the river. There was another cabbage white in the vicinity, and things looked they were going to heat up for a second, but I had my shutter speed set too slow to capture the action, and the second one went its separate way again before I could adjust. Dang.

Here’s a pretty sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) that appears to have escaped from somebodies garden and is now growing out of the slope below the beer garden.

Here’s a sweet female goldfinch that was flitting around with her flashy boyfriend, but he was too shy to pose for the camera.

The monarchs are becoming easier to find, and soon they’ll be ubiquitous, we can hope. I haven’t shown you one since Sunday, so here you go.

Finally, the American white water-lily (Nymphaea odorata) blossoms on the river have just opened.

Let’s hope for better weather tomorrow and that I get to the park before the kids start swimming in the pond.