A little more shyness melts away…

The critters in Estabrook Park have put on quite a show this week, and as I hiked north along the river, I was beginning to think that they might be resting on their laurels today. I’m glad to report, however, that my thinking was a bit premature, because look who opted to sit for pictures today: our female belted kingfisher. Outstanding! I’ve been hearing kingfishers for a week or so, and even glimpsed one once or twice, but this morning she finally was more interested in fishing than worrying ’bout li’l ol’ me.

As I was trying to get the best picture I could of the kingfisher, I also spotted this sleepy goldeneye hen upstream.

Those were the sights around the islands in the river today, so I headed for the pond, where I found a slew of wood ducks, but none wanted any pictures. Instead, it was this fox sparrow, whom I’ve been hearing sing since Monday, who finally showed its pretty face.

As I was working on my fox sparrow picture, look who swooped in to scare all the little birds into hiding: one of our young Cooper’s hawks.

There wasn’t much to see at the pond after that, so I headed back toward the river, and on my way, another patch of little birds were really chattering away. Happily, it didn’t take me long to find the reason for their agitation: our little gray-morph eastern screech-owl was back. I find the extent to which it managed to recreate its pose from a week ago uncanny.

That’s it for today’s pictures, so here’s one more look at the ring-necked duck from yesterday. I didn’t see a trace of it today, so perhaps it has continued north.

Lastly, and as promised, here’s another look at the otters from yesterday, and this time, the one under the log was craning its neck for a better look.

I see that the Milwaukee Birders are planning to visit the MATC trail across the river from Estabrook on Sunday morning, so if you’ve always wanted to know what the park looks like from that angle, now’s your big chance. Otherwise, you can view it from our side on Monday morning.