As we all had hoped, it was a gorgeous morning for our weekly wildlife walk in Estabrook Park, and we had five early birds for the 7 am service. The pond was quiet again, but a great blue heron was fishing at the falls as we went down the stairs by the beer garden. It appears to have been more perturbed to see the six of us than it was by just li’l ol’ me on Saturday, so it quickly retired to this log over the far riverbank and appeared for all the world to scowl at us. “Sorry, Sunshine!”
We didn’t see the fawn, its mom, nor any of the bucks, but here’s another picture from Saturday, when the fawn and its mom waded across the river to the other island as I was trying to get a decent eagle picture.
We had nine sleepy heads arrive for the 8 am showing, including some first-timers, and one of them reminded me of the expression “the second mouse gets the cheese.” Once the two groups met up at the river, I had to skip out early because of some darn meeting on campus, but I am told that their reward was seeing a belted kingfisher on the upstream island after I left. I didn’t get a picture of that, obviously, but here’s one I did get on Saturday.
Speaking of the eagles, we did get to see one before I bugged out this morning, but I got a nicer picture when I was back up on the bluff Saturday and approaching the beer garden. I could hear a few agitated crows back north, and it finally dawned on me that they were probably mobbing a raptor, so I hustled back that way, and here’s the raptor that had them all in a dither. I don’t bother telling you to click on an image very much anymore, so that you can see the full resolution in flickr, but you might enjoy seeing the crinkles in the iris of this magnificent creature.
I did not see a green heron today, and I did not hear if either group did, but once again, Saturday comes to my rescue.
I did catch a nice pair of flicker bros on the ground at Retzer yesterday, but you guessed it, I like this picture of a darling female from Saturday better.
Finally, I did see a couple of buckeye butterflies today, but I just showed you a nice one on Saturday, so here’s a dot-tailed whiteface dragonfly instead from Thursday, when I was all excited about the calico pennant and the variegated meadowhawk. We have gotten to see a dot-tail before but only once at Estabrook, till now, and once again at Horicon.
Somebody must have stepped in something, and perhaps it was me, but in any case, we’re due for even more of this pretty, if cool, weather tomorrow morning, and I don’t have a meeting till 2 pm, so here’s hoping for another morning like the one I had on Saturday, right?
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 