A little luck in Estabrook…

Wow! What a morning! The weather was just as forecast; cold, breezy, cloudy, and snowy; so not great, but the birding was amazing, and eight hearty souls came out to join today’s weekly wildlife walk. All together, we identified 40 bird species, which is a high-water mark for the series.

Before we all met up, however, I had a little time for a sneak preview, and the biggest surprise for me was spotting my first bufflehead in Estabrook Park since last April! It was lounging in the water on our side of the upstream island, and I couldn’t wait to show everybody. Of course, once our group was assembled, and I hustled us down to the river, the bird had already moved on. Thank goodness for pictures!

After we saw all that we thought we might see at the north end, we started south along the river, and as we passed the downstream island, I pointed out where we have often seen great horned owls there. Well, someone in the group stopped to make a closer inspection, and look who we found just a couple of trees over. “Hello, stranger!” Thank goodness folks ignored what I said about them not being there these days.

We continue downstream to the wide and slow spot in the river, below the two radio towers, to see the coot and a winter wren or two, and then we headed to the pond. There we found a female belted kingfisher, …

a couple of hermit thrushes gleaning seeds from the picked-over sumac, and plenty of sparrows.

After the pond, we called it a morning, folks headed off to get on with their day, and I eventually headed back home. Just as I was crossing the soccer fields at the south end, look who swooped in to check on the flock of starlings foraging in the lawn below. We had spotted a Cooper’s hawk earlier, but I failed to get a picture, so it sure was nice to have a second chance. “Thanks, Sweetie!

Finally, as I was crossing the parking lot at the south end, I watched a little brown bird hop up into one of the trees that grow along the east side. I couldn’t quite make out what it was, but I figured it was yet another song sparrow, of which we’d seen plenty all morning. It was posing so nicely, however, that I took its picture anyway, just on a whim. Well, when I got home and had a closer look, the first thing I thought was, “Why, that’s no song sparrow. Just look at that white eye ring!“

So, I consulted with my experts, and the consensus is that it’s a vesper sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus), instead, whom we have seen at Anne’s folk’s place out in Waterford, but whom I’ve never seen in Milwaukee County, let alone Estabrook Park. “Hello, Darling!” In fact, it is the first vesper sparrow anyone has reported seeing in Estabrook, if my identification proves correct. How’s that for some crazy luck?

Lastly, I did mention that it was a snowy morning, and it was really coming down when we were trying to get a look at the great horned owl. Here’s my attempt at capturing the scene.