The guy who runs his German shepherd loose over the southern soccer fields at dawn was back today, after a couple day absence, so there was no sign of the twin fawns and their mom. Instead, here’s a video I took with my phone yesterday after I thought I had gotten the best picture of the twins that I was gonna get with my camera.
A nice treat at the pond, besides another row of wood ducks, was this belted kingfisher with a fresh fish for breakfast.
An even bigger treat was spotting a young yellow-crowned night heron on the river again. We had about 30 birders post checklists from Estabrook Park, who probably would not have otherwise paid us a visit, after I spotted one back in July, so it will be interesting to see if this one draws as much of a crowd.
As before, it caught a crayfish, but this one is a lot bigger and easier to see than the last one. “Good job, Kiddo!”
A big disappointment yesterday came as I headed for the weeds beside the soccer fields, where we’ve been seeing dragonflies, butterflies, and bumblebees all summer, only to find the parks department in the middle of mowing it to the ground. At least they only mowed the weeds on one side of the paved path and left the other side alone, for now, and here’s hoping that all the bugs managed to migrate over. I did see this male widow skimmer dragonfly there this morning. They’ve been become scarce lately, but they’re not all gone yet.
Among the butterflies was this sulphur butterfly on a sow thistle.
And finally, there were at least two monarchs sipping nectar from what is probably swamp thistle.
The Milwaukee Birders are going back to Lakeshore State Park tomorrow, and I plan to join them. Perhaps I’ll see you there.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 