A late morning menagerie…

Like a broken record that just keeps repeating your favorite riff, the weather was beautiful again this morning, but my bike won’t ride itself, yet, so I opted to ride while it was cool, and walk once it warmed up. Thus, I didn’t hit Estabrook until just before 8, and this is who was out and about at that late hour.

I thought there might be some butterflies on the thistles beside the soccer fields already, but I didn’t see any, and instead, found this tiny bunny, small enough to almost hide in the mowed lawn.

I didn’t see any night-herons, juvenile or mature, at the pond, so I headed to the river, where I spotted this green heron hunting from a nice shady spot.

Between the islands, a couple of kingfishers were doing their thing, and here’s one that parked close to me for a moment.

I could see the softshell turtles on the far riverbank again, and I wanted better pictures, so I continued north to the bridge. Along the way, I spotted a young/female hooded merganser, …

and a great blue heron.

Coming back south on the other side, I came across a gaggle of young red-winged black birds, and here’s the one that posed the best.

This time, I tried a little bushwacking in hopes of getting closer to the turtles, and as I was making my way through the tall grass, I noticed everyone’s favorite thing to find while walking through tall grass, a large spider. I can’t say for sure from this image, and I didn’t want to try for a better one, but it is likely a black and yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia)

Finally, I could see the turtles through blades of grass, and used the adjustable screen to aim my camera as I held it over my head to get these shots. Here’s the smaller one, …

and here’s the larger one. Now you can start to see the pretty yellow, green, and black pattern they sport.

This time, I opted to return the way I came, and on my way back north to the bridge, I encountered this pair of swallowtail butterflies dining on the thistle blossoms, maybe spear thistle aka bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare). Here’s a male black swallowtail, …

and here’s a female eastern tiger swallowtail.

I didn’t see anything else new or interesting until I got back to the soccer fields, where this monarch was dining on burdock blossoms.

Finally, as I was crossing the motorway just before exiting the park, this moth began to flutter its wings on the pavement. You would think that those distinctive antennae would enable me to identify it, but I’ve had no luck so far. If you have any clues, please do let me know.