The heat and humidity we’re in for did start to arrive by sunrise this morning, but the critters aren’t taking selfies yet, so I headed out to give them a hand.
My first treat of the day was this mallard hen with a fresh-looking batch of ducklings on the river. This might be her first rodeo because she seemed unsure about what to do after spotting me. Instead of ignoring me or simply easing away, as most mallards do, she paddled in a lazy circle in the middle of the river, and her brood dutifully followed. The bright side, at least for me, is that I had a lot of angles to choose from, but I didn’t want to cause undue stress, so after I realized what was going on, I got out of there so they could resume their regularly scheduled program.
The next treat came on the water around the islands where these youngish-looking great blue herons got into a little altercation. I didn’t see any contact, so perhaps they are nestmates, and this was just a little sibling rivalry.
Then it was time to go collect the wildlife walkers at the beer garden parking lot, and we had a skeleton crew today, perhaps due to the weather, with one at 7am and two more at 8, but it made for a well-focused outing.
As we made our way from the river to the pond, someone noticed a small ruckus above, and it turned out to be a tiny blue-gray gnatcatcher trying to chase away a pair of brown-headed cowbirds. If you thought, as I sure did, that gnatcatchers make nests far too small for cowbirds to parasitize, check out the images Dave Bowman posted of a gnatcatcher feeding a cowbird chick more than twice its size. Wow! No wonder the gnatcatcher was so feisty!
The next big treat of the morning came soon after, when I spotted my very first ruby-throated hummingbird of the year in Estabrook. I was beginning to wonder if I would see any at all, but there he sat, right out in the open for at least 20 seconds.
After visits to the river, the pond, and the river again, one participant ended up logging 34 birds, which is a nice haul for this late in the year. Then we all parted ways, and that’s when this rose-breasted grosbeak knew it was safe to show his face. The little stinker.
Back at the pond, it’s time for common green darners, the “Lords of June“, to start making more, and here’s a pair doing just that. At this point, her eggs are fertilized, and she is in the rear and laying them, while he maintains his grip and is believed to be “prevent[ing] other males from mating with her [in an operation called] “contact guarding”.” Sheesh! Royals can be weird, right?
Finally, here’s one of Wisconsin’s smallest butterflies, a least skipper, sipping nectar from a fleabane blossom, and doing nothing weird at all.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 