As promised, I did ride over to join the Milwaukee Birders at Havenwoods State Forest this morning, and on the way, I spotted this gorgeous red-tailed hawk perched atop one of the high voltage power poles that share the right-of-way with part of the Oak Leaf Trail.
They had a good crowd this morning, and one of the first sights that got everyone excited was this raptor at the very top of a Norway spruce. At the time, we all thought it was a kestrel, partly because kestrels nest in Havenwoods, and we’ve seen so many there. Once I got home, however, and could look at my picture on a bigger screen, I could see that it was a merlin, instead. Fun!
There were plenty of little birds, too, and here’s a nice palm warbler. They’ve somehow evaded me in Estabrook so far this fall.
Finally, they have a lot of bluebirds, one of whom we saw just last February, and this could even be that same bird.
Lastly, there were plenty of sulphur butterflies, and some were even visiting New England asters, but I just showed you a sulphur yesterday, so today’s bug is this late-season dragonfly, an autumn meadowhawk.
