Herons in a flurry…

Sorry about missing yesterday. Between wrapping things up at Retzer, packing up, getting home, and catching up, my post fell through the cracks. The good news is that I somehow did complete the Master Naturalist training and now I have a slightly better understanding of how much I still don’t know. Best of all, Estabrook Park was right where I left it, and they even let me back in this morning.

On the river, the great blue herons are getting feisty, or frisky, I’m not sure which, and here’s one struttin’ his stuff.

And here he is trying to give another heron a closer look, but the other heron wanted no part of that.

Our little meadow of weeds at the north end still has not been mowed, and I’m beginning to think that it might finally survive the summer this year. Here’s a black swallowtail butterfly resting on and perhaps sipping nectar from a Queen Anne’s lace blossom. It is an invasive plant, but the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension explains that “the plant is used by some native animals for food. It is a host plant for eastern black swallowtail caterpillars and many butterflies and adult bees and beneficial insects utilize the flower nectar.” So, it appears to be at least better than mowed lawn.

Back out on the water, another heron got into trouble when it landed on a log already occupied by a mallard hen and her ducklings. This picture from across the river is terrible, but if you zoom in or squint real good you can make out the hen just to the right of center as she tells the heron to back off.

The scene was a lot more tranquil down river, where a monarch caterpillar was slowly turning milkweed into a butterfly, and little green balls of frass.

I could hear another pair of herons getting into it even farther downstream, but that was far enough away that this wood duck hen and her ducklings didn’t even put their second foot down.

I was a little bummed that I didn’t find yet another new shorebird paying us a visit, but our first hooded merganser after the breeding season, made up for that. We haven’t seen them since April. “Welcome back, Sweetheart!”

I see that we currently have a 71% chance of thunderstorms for 7am tomorrow morning and 52% chance of scattered storms at 8, so who knows. If it is not actually storming at the time, I’ll be at the beer garden parking lot for our weekly wildlife walk. Consult your favorite weather source in the morning and come on out, if you dare. My phone number is hidden in the text of that page, so you can text me if you want to be sure. Maybe I’ll see you there.