Kohler-Andrae 2024, Day 2

As the title suggests, I’m back at Kohler-Andrae State Park, and this morning I gave the Black River Marsh a rest and gave the Kohler Park Dunes State Natural Area a try. It did not disappoint!

I hadn’t even gotten out of the parking lot when I came across a rafter of wild turkeys with three hens, one of which is pictured below, and …

fourteen (14!) poults. I’ve seen plenty of turkeys before, and even a few poults, but this was my first chance to get some poults on film, and man-o-man, it was still just too dark for my camera.

If that excitement wasn’t enough, there was a young Cooper’s hawk crying just across the parking lot, and here it is acting like a deer-in-the-headlights, while one of its parents was half concealed by twigs just a bit farther up that branch. I’m sure you can imagine what the parent was saying.

When I finally got out of the parking lot, I didn’t have to go more than 100 yards up the cordwalk to find this adorable pair of deer. You can just see the young buck’s antlers starting to come in.

The most common bird I heard and saw was the field sparrow, and here’s one example. There were so many, in fact, that ebird complained that I was reporting far more than are commonly seen there. What can I say? The dunes are essentially a huge field, and part of them were even cultivated at one time, so I would expect a lot of field sparrows. Wouldn’t you?

There were nearly as many house wrens, and at one point the cordwalk passes very close to a low-growing evergreen that was full of them. They were probably a family of recently fledglings, and this youngster acted just like the young Cooper’s hawk.

I was thrilled to spot this shy butterfly, who only gave me this one chance for a picture. It turns out to be a common wood-nymph (Cercyonis pegala), which I would love to spot in Estabrook, and quite possibly have, but I haven’t gotten a picture of one there yet.

Given the location, it should come as no surprise that the big bird of the day was the sandhill crane. I counted ten individuals, and I was thrilled to identify at least one nearly-grown colt. That’s the one on the far right of this trio. There was another trio, but there wasn’t enough light to tell if one was a slightly more-yellow colt.

As I started to make my way back to the parking lot, I stopped to take a picture of some birds, and I spotted this bold little critter in the grass just across the path. It let me take pictures to my heart’s content. I could see that it wasn’t an eastern chipmunk nor a red or grey squirrel, and it is only now, after consulting the interwebs, that I can identify it as my very first thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus). I didn’t even know we had such a critter in Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, the birds I had originally stopped for are this adorable pair of recently fledged cedar waxwings. They are clearly out of the nest, but I’m guessing they are not really into the whole flying thing yet.

As the sun started to warm things up, the bugs started to come out, and I thought this was another white-faced meadowhawk, but now I can see the shading of the wing that makes it a band-winged meadowhawk (Sympetrum semicinctum) instead. Cool, eh?

Speaking of dragonflies, I’ve been after a picture of this beauty since I first IDed them flying over the pond in Estabrook four years ago. I’ve been having to make do with a blurry image of a pair that flew through one of my black bullhead fry pictures, and I was beginning to think that they never landed, until today. At long last, give a warm welcome to the astonishingly elusive black saddlebags dragonfly (Tramea lacerata).

Finally, as I was approaching the parking lot, it had warmed up enough to bring the turkey vultures out, and as this one circled over the dunes, …

the adult Cooper’s hawk from beside the parking lot took exception and urged it to circle someplace else.

Lastly, the butterfly of the day is this monarch sampling the nectar from one of the thousands of spotted knapweed blossoms.