The pristine weather is back, so the sky was blue, the temps were mild, and the breeze was light this morning in Estabrook Park. The cherry on top, at least for me, was seeing this critter for only the second time in the park, and for the first time with my camera. In case you don’t recognize it from all the hoopla around February 2, that’s a groundhog, aka woodchuck (Marmota monax), and it appeared to be on the hunt for leafy greens this morning, until it spotted me.
I was surprised to read that “the name woodchuck is unrelated to wood or chucking.” Instead “it stems from an Algonquian (possibly Narragansett) name for the animal, wuchak.” Ha! Also, “groundhogs can climb trees to escape predators.” Fortunately, that was not necessary this morning.
The wood ducks continue to appear healthy on the pond, and I believe this is the remaining brother and sister pair from the first batch of ducklings.
A great blue heron was keeping watch from a perch high over the island.
On the river, a spotted sandpiper was taking a break from foraging for breakfast on this pile of water plants collected on driftwood just above the falls.
The mallard ducklings are also looking healthy and nearly all grownup. Can you even spot the mom? (I think she’s third in line, based on the glimpse of her blue speculum feathers.)
And it is difficult to distinguish the Canada goose goslings from the adults anymore.
On my way back south along the river, I came across a family of blue jays foraging in the bushes together, and I suspect this is a youngster, despite its adult plumage, based solely on the fact that it let me get this picture. Newbie!
At the south end, I checked the wildflowers beside the soccer field for butterflies, but I came up empty this time. Instead, here’s a house wren on one of the trees that also grow there, who was too busy preening to bolt out of sight.
Finally, after my visit to the park, I hustled up to the Shorewood fitness center to beat the lunchtime crowd, and as I approached the entrance, I spotted our first swallowtail of the season as she was visiting the flowers in the bioswales installed there to catch rain runoff from the parking lot. I only had my phone with me at the time, but I managed to get a couple pictures sufficient to identify her as a female (eastern) black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes).
She kept fluttering her forewings as she sipped, perhaps as a defensive mechanism, which didn’t help me one bit, but her hindwings, which have the prettier pattern, were still, at least in this image.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 