Even more color on an even grayer day

The clouds were so thick at sunrise this morning, that I could feel a slight mist leaking out of them, and I even put the rain cover over my camera as I entered Estabrook Park. I did not have great expectations for this outing, but I am happy to report that I had set my expectations a bit low.

The first new arrival of the day was this female brown-headed cowbird high above the pond. We’ve been seeing the two-tone males for a while, but this is the first female I’ve seen this year, so time to keep an eye on your nests, everyone!

The big excitement came on the river at the north end after I had already decided there was nothing to see and had started back south. When I reached the downstream island, there is a good view upstream, so I turned around for one last look, and I saw a small bird on the water in addition to all the geese. I quickly brought up my binoculars, and I could see the pied-billed grebe, who’s been around all month, but there was also another bird beside it that I thought might be a young or female red-breasted merganser, but I couldn’t be sure. So, I grabbed my camera, which can really zoom in on an image once I take it, and look who I found: our first common merganser, a female, since early in March. What a pleasant blast from the past.

While I was trying to get that picture, there was an uncommon call overhead, and when I was finally able to turn my attention to it, look who was making all that noise: our first American kestrel of the year and what a beauty, too!

With the merganser and kestrel now on film, I turned to try going downstream again, but I barely got by the downstream island before I noticed yet another small bird on the water, and what a looker this one is! Say hello to our first horned grebe of the year and only the second one I’ve ever seen in Estabrook Park. The first one was just over a year ago, and it appears to have been a “molting adult,” because it sure wasn’t this fancy. Wow, what a bird!

When I got to the falls, I took the stairs up to the beer garden, and the softball outfield appeared to be full of robins, as it has often been recently, but when I got out my binoculars to count them and check for killdeer, I was stunned to find that most of them were northern flickers instead, and I was able to count seventeen of them. Yikes!

Then, when I turned to continue south along the top of the bluff, I found one more flicker gobbling down sumac seeds. This handsome devil was even kind enough to give us a sneak peek at his namesake yellow feather shafts.

Here he is going after another seed.

And here he is with a seed dangling from the tip of his beak.

Finally, I did see a yellow-rumped warbler again today, but before I could get a nice picture, it turned away and said, “so long, Sucker!”

Lastly, I see that the Milwaukee Birders are visiting Lakeshore State Park again on Sunday, and since I haven’t been there yet this month, I believe I will join them. Maybe I’ll see you there, too.