Despite being back in Milwaukee yesterday, I had one more stop to make before going back to Estabrook Park this morning. The Milwaukee Birders were visiting the Shorewood Nature Preserve yesterday morning, and I couldn’t really let them bird my back yard without saying “hi”, now could I? Plus, it gave me a chance to see my very first Forsters’s tern (Sterna forsteri) and take this fuzzy picture of it. I also got my first Caspian tern picture, but it wasn’t as nice.
Meanwhile, back on shore, our first Swainson’s thrush of the season was foraging on a gorgeous bed of moss.
When I finally did get back into Estabrook this morning, the clouds were thick, the breeze wasn’t too strong, and it didn’t rain. The first photogenic sight I saw was our first robin’s egg of the season. Hurray!
At the river, a great horned owl was in its old usual spot on the downstream island. The screech was in, too, but its picture came out about as nice as the Caspian terns’.
And our first solitary sandpiper of the year was foraging on the exposed river bottom beside the upstream island. “Welcome back, Sweetie!”
Below the falls, a killdeer was back on our side of the river for the first time since the start of April.
At the pond, all seven goslings looked hale and hearty, and here they are down for their morning nap.
Finally, your blossoms of the day are these Virginia strawberries. “Yum!”
Lastly, we had a dozen folks for our wildlife walk, and we identified 41 bird species.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 