Still new things to see…

The cool and cloudy weather continued this morning in Estabrook Park, but we traded the rain in for a breeze, and now the sun is out. Nice.

Our first guest of the morning is this exquisite male indigo bunting beside the river at the north end, who appears to be wondering what kind of weird little dance I was doing as I tried moving forward, back, left, and right to get him the cleanest background I could find. The leaves blowing around behind him in that breeze did not help one bit!

Things were easier out on the water where this killdeer paused for a moment to enjoy the sun as it poked through the clouds.

That’s it for the birds today, I’m afraid, but the good news is that the weed patch beside the southern soccer fields was buzzing with dragonflies. I counted individuals of eight species, and one of them happened to be our very first Calico Pennant (Celithemis elisa).

And another was our very first Variegated Meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum), which brings our lifetime haul in Estabrook to 25 species! Holy moly, right?

There were also a few butterflies flitting about, and here’s our first painted lady of the season and close cousin of the American lady we saw back in May.

Finally, Bob reports that the glossy ibises he arranged for me to see in Maine are “very upset that they [haven’t made it into] a post yet, despite their multiple low-level flybys.” Sheesh! Everyone’s a critic. FWIW, Bob has seen them in Maine before, but I’ve only ever seen them in Morocco, until now.

Lastly “the bobolink is also sad that [I’m] dissin’ him, too.” Anne’s always reminding me that east coasters come with a reputation, and maybe now I’m starting to see what she means. Anyway, you may recall that I only saw bobolinks for the first time just last summer, first in the Horicon Marsh, and then on the south side of Milwaukee, near the airport. It’s great to see that they’ve found some suitable habitat in Maine as well.

Tomorrow morning’s forecast calls for “sunny” skies, and that would be nice for a change, so keep your fingers crossed.