It was a tad breezy this morning, but the skies were crystal clear so it was light enough for me to go out before sunrise, which is always a treat. Better yet, soon after I arrived, the parks department closed the parkway to through traffic for the Shorewood Farmers Market today, so I got to enjoy the park with even less car noise than usual. How sweet it was.
Anyway, at the pond, there were three wood duck hens again, along with the single duckling, and here are the hens enjoying each other’s company on a peaceful Sunday morning.
The green heron was kind enough, perhaps due to the enhanced tranquility, to grant us a nice, eye-level view.
When I got to the river, I found the beaver at the southern tip of the northern island, where we’ve seen it before, and here it is appearing to be munching quietly on its breakfast.
But then, as I took another shot, just to see if I could hold the camera a little stiller or the autofocus would latch onto the beaver’s fur a little better, I could not believe what I saw. Check out the little face that has suddenly appeared just to the right of the first beaver. There are two of them!
Well then, I had to take a lot more pictures, and check out who joined the first two from the left. Now there are three! The second one, who has moved in front of the first one, even appears to be holding its little tail up for us.
And finally, for the cherry on top, a fourth one pokes its little face up over the rump of the second one. It’s a whole dang family, and there really were mouths to feed yesterday. Outstanding! (Please note that in all the excitement, I may have misjudged which one is which, in what order they appeared, and to whom belongs that little tail.)
I took a moment to let the joy of seeing all that sink in, and then headed up to the far north end to check on the swallows under the bridge. I’m happy to report that they all appear to be still doing fine, but the fun sight was this cedar waxwing who perched pretty close after competing with the swallows for bugs flying over the water. The backlighting was brutal, so it’s not much of a portrait, but they seldom let me get this close, so I’ll take what I can get.
On my way back south along the river, a noisy murder of crows alerted me that something was afoot, and it didn’t take long for this Cooper’s hawk to start keening to reveal what it was: a Cooper’s hawk being mobbed by a murder of crows.
Just above the falls and across the river, I found the great blue heron resting in the sun.
At the pollinator garden, I didn’t see any butterflies, but I did see our very first spot-winged glider (Pantala hymenaea).
At the thistles beside the soccer fields, I did see a few red admirals, of which we’ve seen plenty lately, and I was more excited to get another close look at an eastern pondhawk.
In the birch tree above the thistles, the indigo bunting, who is a regular there, was singing his song.
Finally, here’s a red admiral, after all, sipping nectar from a thistle blossom and giving us a rare glimpse of the intricately-patterned ventral (under/out) side of its wings.
See you in July!
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 