I had plenty of pictures left over from yesterday, and dear friends kept me up past my bedtime last evening with good food and great company, so I contemplated not visiting Estabrook Park this morning. When I saw the beautiful blue sky, however, I just couldn’t pass it up, so out the door I went, and thank goodness I did!
I hadn’t even gotten to the patch of wildflowers at the west edge of the soccer fields when I was greeted by this monarch butterfly sipping from American basswood tree blossoms.
When I finally did reach the patch of flowers, I found an American goldfinch feasting on Canada thistle blossoms that have gone to seed. Get a load of that gorgeous morning sun lighting up the scene.
Just a bit north of there, an American lady butterfly was soaking up some of that same sunlight.
Meanwhile, across the parkway, against the edge of the woods, and in the shade, a white-tailed buck was growing his antlers and trying to figure out what I was up to.
We had a surprise guest at the pond, this Cooper’s hawk checking out the breakfast menu.
The wood duck hen with her four remaining ducklings seemed less concerned that I would have expected, but maybe Coopers’ are too small for her to worry about.
On the river at the north end, the egret had finally moved on, but I watched a green heron catch itself a little fish and toss it back, right into its gullet, that is.
Higher above the river, a little squadron of rough-winged swallows was eating up the flying bugs, and here’s one on break for a moment.
Right below the swallow, a red admiral butterfly was preparing to open its wings to get itself some of that morning sun.
On my way back south, I hugged the river again, instead of taking the main path, which skirts around the east side of the bottom there, because I was surprised to see no killdeer on the river for the first time in weeks, and I thought I’d give them one more chance. Look who I saw instead! The return of “River Deer!” starring a buck with one antler and a doe.
I also saw the yellowlegs from yesterday, so I backtracked a bit to see if I could get a better picture, without any luck. On my second trip back south, I did take the main path, and I was stunned to spot a flower that I had never noticed before: a Michigan lily (Lilium michiganense). The blossom is similar to the common ditch lily, orange daylily, or tiger daylily (Hemerocallis fulva), an import from Asia, but is smaller and native, and the leaves are completely different. How could I have missed that all these years?
Finally, the monarch butterflies are everywhere now, and here’s another one feeding on a musk thistle blossom back beside the soccer fields at the south end.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 