A few sights through the soup…

It was a very foggy morning in Estabrook Park, but temps were all the way up into the low 60s at dawn, the breeze was light, and I believe all the drops came from fog water accumulating on tree leaves instead of from the clouds, so it wasn’t the worst morning for checking on the wildlife, although taking pictures was rough.

Here’s a belted kingfisher off the tip of the downstream island looking over its shoulder as if to say, “You’re seriously going to try to take my picture in this pea soup?” To which I can only reply, “Why, yes. Yes, I am.”

Farther upstream, this little cutie shot by me and parked only a few yards away, and I figured it was a song sparrow, which we’ve seen here all summer, but I knew I was gonna need pictures today, so here we are. The fun thing is that all my sources insist that it is actually a savannah sparrow, which, if true, would make it the first one we’ve seen this fall.

Just as soon as I hiked back up the boat launch, look who I found strolling down the path. She was surprisingly close, so I knelt right down, and she came closer, as though she was heading for the ramp I had just come up. But then she thought better of it, and strolled over to the brush on our right, her left.

Even better, she had brought her fawn with her, as usual lately, and the fawn wasn’t quite sure what to do either, so this is the closest look we’ve gotten, by far, before it followed Mom into the weeds.

After that fun encounter, I didn’t see a picture worth taking until I was passing behind the dog park, and this catbird, perhaps also a youngster, seemed about as unsure what to do as the deer were.

Finally, as I was passing by the UWM commuter lot across the river, I spotted the palest looking red-tailed hawk I may have ever seen. Here’s hoping it will let us get a closeup someday.

Lastly, I didn’t see a single dragonfly or butterfly today, and even the bumble bees seemed grounded by the fog, but these yellowjackets by the southern parking lot seemed as busy as ever. Someone must have an open soda can somewhere, right?

PPS. This may look like one of the yellowjackets, but I believe it is a four-lined hornet fly (Spilomyia sayi), which has evolved to mimic wasps but is harmless to humans.