More pretty sights at Kohler-Andrae…

It was another beautiful day at Kohler Andrae State Park, and Anne chose this morning for our new family tradition of riding our bikes down the Ozaukee County Interurban Trail to get breakfast in Port Washington. The breeze was super light for our ride down, and then it picked up out of the south to help push us back to our camp site. Sweet!

Anyway, that means I wasn’t out taking picture this morning, but I did spot this gorgeous merlin yesterday afternoon that was flitting around with a second one. There was also a blue jay in the mix, but it was probably just trying to convince the two merlins to go play somewhere else.

This eastern wood-pewee by the pond let me have a nicer look than the ones in Estabrook have let me have in a while.

This picture is not nearly as nice as the previous two, but this is another hooded warbler, and ebird considers it rare for this location and date. This makes the third one I’ve captured on film, and each time they get closer to Estabrook, so I have a hope that one of these days I’ll be able to capture one there.

I haven’t been seeing a lot of dragonflies here, so when this one parked for a moment, I couldn’t resist. It is harder to see on this one, because I didn’t realize the importance of getting the wings into focus, but it’s only my second band-winged meadowhawk.

Finally, this amazing creature was perching on the paved path around the pond, perhaps in hope that it was a stream bed or some other location that might provide some nutrients. As good luck would have it, for us at least, this is another Compton tortoiseshell, and this time we get a look at the out/under/dorsal side of those wings. “Thanks!”

Lastly, it’s supposed to start raining this afternoon and continue into mid-morning, so here’s hoping that I’ll be able to get out after that. Wish us luck!