An old friend returns…

Given the forecast for today and the activities I wanted to squeeze in, I opted to go for a bike ride first, when it was still nice and cool, and then visit Estabrook after it had warmed up a bit. Man, oh man, did that ever pay off.

I first stopped by the flowers beside the soccer fields at the south end, and a monarch was already on a musk thistle blossom. Until now, these have been the last picture I take on my way home, and this turned out to be a foreshadowing of the whole morning.

Next stop was the relatively-new pollinator garden that the Friends of Estabrook have been working on for about three years. The flowers have really started to come in strong, but I don’t believe I’ve yet to spot a picture-worthy pollinator visiting them, until today. At long last, I had a chance to work with this amazing creature, a snowberry clearwing moth (Hemaris diffinis), as it sipped from the wild bergamot, aka bee balm (Monarda fistulosa), blossoms.

I don’t believe I’ve seen one since 2020, and here it is again. Woo Hoo! Oh, and one more fun little detail is that I had pretty good light, so I cranked the shutter speed up to 1/2000 second, and the wings are still a blur.

There was also another monarch there, and this one was visiting a cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) blossom.

I eventually tore myself away and continued on toward the pond. There I found the quartet of wood duck ducklings with their mom up on the west lawn. Here’s three of them, with Mom keeping an eye on me, while the fourth one is just out of frame to the right.

At the north end, there was the usual collection of geese, mallards, a couple more wood ducks, blue herons, green herons, killdeer, and both spotted and solitary sandpipers, but nobody wanted their picture taken today. Perhaps they were miffed that I had arrived so late.

Anyway, on my way back south, I came across one more butterfly, this diminutive summer azure (Celastrina neglecta) sipping from a white clover (Trifolium repens) blossom.

Finally, on my way back home, I couldn’t help myself and checked on the musk thistle again, but this time, a goldfinch was busily tearing into the blossoms that have already gone to seed.