As forecast, the cool and dry air we’ve enjoyed in Estabrook for the past couple of days has moved on, and it was warmer and rainier in the park today. The air has remained nearly still, however, and with non-holiday, early Saturday traffic, it was wonderfully quiet this morning.
My first treat of the day was finding this darling female hooded merganser on the pond. There was also a young great blue heron and a couple of wood ducks, and once the merganser saw me, she drifted right over to the wood ducks for comfort, moral support, or protection, but she wouldn’t say which.
The lighting wasn’t great, so I left the heron and ducks alone and headed down to the river to see if there were any scenes I could capture. Happily, these three youngish mallard ducklings had selected a perch pretty close to our riverbank, and they did not want to give it up, so I was able to sneak this picture without rousing them. Mom was just off to the right, and she drifted over to get between us once she saw me.
On quiet days like today, I’ve been hearing one or two common yellowthroats across the river at the north end and just about ever since they arrived, but today one was calling loud and clear from what’s left of the wildflower meadow on our side of the river. They are usually quite hard to spot, but he kept on singing as I carefully approached, so I gave a look, and was thrilled to find him almost right away. He even gave me enough time to sneak this picture, and then he bolted for deeper cover.
The biggest treat of the day, however, came soon after, when I spotted a dark bird perched high in a dead tree, as I often see cowbirds do. I hadn’t seen a cowbird yet today, and it wasn’t making its characteristic call, so I first tried the binoculars, but the back light was so bright that I couldn’t make out the brown head. So, I tried my camera, which can sometimes tease out a detail like that if I way overexpose the image.
Well, the bird turned out to be a grackle, but just as I was realizing that, a hawk flew right under it and perched a few trees back. I figured it was a Cooper’s hawk, based on size and behavior, but I hadn’t gotten a picture of one in a while, and my camera was already on and ready to go, so I gave it a try, and this is what I got.
It does look a bit like a Cooper’s hawk, but the tail is too short, and they don’t have that brown bib extending from the face onto the breast, as this one does. Thus, I wasn’t sure who it was, so I consulted with my sources, and they both agreed that this is our very first broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus). For reasons that the range map does not make clear, ebird considers them rare for here right now, but there are not a lot of rarities being posted these days, so I shouldn’t have to wait too long for the fine folks at ebird to weigh in to accept or reject my identification. Keep your fingers crossed!
And that’s it for the birds today, so here’s another look at the doe and her fawn from Monday. I’m sorry to say that they’ve kept out of sight since then.
I did get several moth pictures today, but these particular moths are not especially photogenic, and I failed to get any dragonflies or butterflies, so here’s a sulphur, either clouded or orange, from yesterday, when the butterflies were plentiful.
Finally, here’s another monarch-on-thistle picture, also from yesterday, because I simply cannot resist those colors.
Lastly, a friend of mine is trying to preserve a little bit of accidental wetland in Whitefish Bay, where she has documented over 80 species of plants and animals. You can read a very nice article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about it here, and you can participate in a super-easy letter-writing campaign here. Remember that the more friendly habitat there is around us, the more wildlife there can be, and the more we’re likely to see of it in Estabrook Park.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 