Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

The morning got off to a great start…

It felt like a real November morning in Estabrook Park, for a change, though the clouds and the breeze kept radiant cooling from frosting the grass.

The highlight of the morning came early when I noticed a car stopped on the parkway near the Benjamin Church House. As I scanned the soccer field across the parkway for what might cause a motorist to stop, I spotted this character. At first, I thought it might belong to the guy who runs his three dogs loose on the soccer fields every morning, (Watch were you step, kiddos!) but upon closer inspection, this was clearly not one of his dogs. Plus, I could see him leading them away at the far north end. Instead, this looks like it might be the same coyote I saw on Sunday morning.

Man, I sure hope Wiley knows what it’s doing, and someone doesn’t lodge a complaint that causes the authorities to come looking for it. I love seeing such magnificent creatures, and the thought that I should be scaring them away when I see them, for their own protection, breaks my heart.

Then there was a young bald eagle gliding over the softball field.

The great blue heron was perched on the remains of the Estabrook Falls again.

And this poor buck looks like he has seen better days.

The End.

A couple of new faces for this cloudy month…

Anne and I saw on the TV weather report just last evening that November is the cloudiest month in southeast Wisconsin, and an article on weather.com backs that up. Of the cloudy mornings so far this month, however, today’s might have been the nicest, and the sun peeked through the clouds enough that I had to take my jacket off for a while.

I did see one deer this morning, but it was small and shy, so I have to resort to this picture from Tuesday of a much larger and older buck. As he sauntered past the playground by the middle parking lot, he paused to scratch his itchy head on a small branch. “If you think that feels good, just wait till you scratch your back on a door frame!”

The first exciting sight of this morning came a bit later, at the pond, where I found at least four cedar waxwings in a small fruit tree. At least one was a mature adult, …

but there were also two or three fledglings still waiting for their adult plumage to arrive.

The male belted kingfisher was back at the river, and here he is perched just a couple of feet below his spot yesterday, but this time he’s got a tasty looking fish in his beak. Perhaps that’s why he chose the heftier branch.

Finally, I was thrilled to see that we still have some kinglets around, after not seeing any for a few days, but this one, a golden-crowned, had no time for pictures, and I was only able to sneak one while it was looking the other way.

The forecast for tomorrow looks like more of the same, so I might as well think of it as good, low-light practice. Right?

A nice enough morning…

I’m at a little bit of a loss for words today, I’m not sure why, so let me show you the pictures I took this morning without me blathering on about them.

Here’s our pied-billed grebe still hanging around on the pond with the wood ducks. What a treat it has been to have that little darling here all these weeks.

Here’s a great blue heron standing on the remains of the Estabrook falls just down the bluff from the beer garden.

Here’s a male belted kingfisher on the south side of the upstream island.

Finally, here’s our visiting gadwall drake foraging in the river with the mallards just off the other side of that same island.

Till tomorrow…

Some calming sights to get us through this day…

Once again, I was pleasantly surprised by the weather in Estabrook Park this morning. It was indeed plenty cloudy, but the winds took a while to pick up, the rain held off, and it was quite warm for November.

My next pleasant surprise was finding that sneaky gadwall on the river at the north end. We searched high and low for it yesterday, but five pairs of eyes failed to find it, and today it was broadcasting, “What? I was here all along!”

I did also see one great blue heron on the river, but this picture, such as it is, is from Sunday.

The arty shot of the day came on my way back downstream when I spotted my first white-throated sparrow of the morning.

Her beaks kind of a mess from the grapes she’s eating, so I wouldn’t exactly call this an arty shot, but she was intent enough on what she was doing to let me sneak a nice picture of a female northern cardinal.

Finally, here’s another sight from yesterday as I made my way home down the Oak Leaf Trail: a male red-bellied woodpecker.

The current forecast for tomorrow morning is quite wet, so who knows what I’ll see and when, but if I do get any pictures, you know where to look for them.

Some scenes of late autumn…

Sure, it was cool and cloudy this morning in Estabrook Park, but the wind we were forecast to have didn’t arrive until midmorning, and the sun kept to its new schedule, so it was a pretty nice time for a wildlife walk.

As I made my way from the river to the Beer Garden parking lot to see who might join me, look who I found hiding in the foliage. It is almost as if this Cooper’s hawk heard me wishing I could catch a bird posing against those autumn colors and took the job just a little bit too seriously. “So close, Buddy. So close.”

Four hearty souls came out to look for birds in November, and we visited the pond first, which had geese, mallards, wood ducks, and the pied-billed grebe all on the water at once. This wood duck drake picture is actually from my return visit later in the morning, after the wildlife walkers had gone on with their day, but I still needed some pictures for you.

As I was doing my best with the drake, I noticed some motion nearly right overhead, and when I looked up to see who it was, I found this house finch methodically nibbling on a box elder seed. The one setting I let my camera pick is ISO, and it went surprisingly low and dark for my first shot. I immediately dialed in a couple stops of exposure compensation to brighten the image, but now that I’m home, I like the look of this first, moody one the best, especially the way the seed it its beak has the only surface to reflect much light.

When I turned back to the drake, look who popped up under the same log the drake was perched on. In fact, I believe that’s a bit of his webbed foot in the upper right corner. I am really going to miss this little grebe when it finally heads south.

Finally, I was pretty beat by the time I headed home. I’d been up since 3:30 because I had a conference call with France (just one individual who works there, not the entire country) at 4:15, and I forgot to buy more coffee yesterday, so I had to make do with black tea this morning, which simply isn’t the same. Thus, after the pond, I just cut to the Oak Leaf Trail to make a beeline back to our place, and look who I found waiting to greet me along the way: our first November buck.

I see now that the rain I was led to expect tomorrow is now delayed until tomorrow evening, so I should be able to squeeze in one more dry visit, and I wonder who I’ll see next. Tune in tomorrow to find out.

More Sorcery!

I couldn’t believe my eyes this morning when the sun came up a whole hour earlier than yesterday, which gave me an extra hour to enjoy Estabrook before going to join the Milwaukee Birders at Lake Park. What sort of fantastic sorcery is this?!?

As if that wasn’t enough, look who greeted me when I first got into the park. I haven’t seen a coyote there since back in June. Could I have conjured it with yesterday’s post?

At the river, the American black duck was back, and so was the gadwall. So maybe there were two different ducks all along, and nobody had to shapeshift.

Back on shore, I found my first November warbler, this tiny orange-crowned. I’ve seen yellow-rumps as late as December, but I’ve only seen orange-crowns into October, until now.

Then it was time to ride down to Lake Park, and the big treat there were a couple of rafts of scoters out on Lake Michigan. These are a few surf scoters, which I’ve even seen in the Lakeshore State Park lagoon, and who were floating not far offshore, but there was another batch farther out that contained a bunch of surfs, a bunch of black scoters, which have yet to allow me a presentable image, and even a pair of horned grebes.

Finally, back up on the bluff, I was able to get the prettiest picture of the day, this darling female eastern bluebird.

I see that it is supposed to be cloudy, cool, and breezy tomorrow morning for our weekly wildlife walk, so not necessarily ideal conditions, but at least rain appears to be unlikely, and if you’d like to get four different duck species or a late-season warbler to kick off your month, this might be your big chance. I’ll look for you at the beer garden parking lot at 8am.

Now for some tricks…

With the Friends of Estabrook Buckthorn Weedout starting at 9am, just 95 minutes after sunrise, I didn’t have a lot of time to look for wildlife in the park this morning. I did, however, have time to check in on our newly arrived American black duck, and I was shocked to discovered that it had transformed overnight into a gadwall. Spooky!

Speaking of spooky sights, here’s another look at the screech-owl we saw in June.

Oddly enough, there was no sign of the screech-owl the very next day, but I did find this beguiling crow, who appeared to be giving me a knowing look.

If owls and crows don’t scare you, how about some giant bats, specifically Seychelles fruit bats on Comoros.

Giant bats don’t do it either? Well, how about something bigger, like this friendly-looking coyote, back in May of 2023, on the day before I left for South Holland.

Nah, I’m with you. None of these critters look particularly scary. Cute and adorable, sure, but not very scary. Instead, if it’s a good scare you’re after, I’m afraid you’ll just have to answer the doorbell when it rings this afternoon and evening.

A morning of many treats…

Sure, it was cool and a little cloudy this morning, but the air was very still, so still that I could almost hear a leaf drop, and that made for a very nice time in Estabrook Park. In fact, if I had to choose among these three, sunlight, warmth, or still air, I would definitely go with still air for making the park feel magical, despite all my whining about the lack of light for good pictures.

The first treat came early when I stopped by the river on my way to the pond. As I searched for visiting waterfowl, look who I found swimming across instead. I don’t think we’ve seen a beaver since April, so it’s great to learn that they’re still kicking around.

After visiting the pond, and noting the wood ducks and grebe are still with us, I returned to the river and soon found my second treat of the morning: our first American black duck since December! “Welcome back, Handsome!”

As I stood on the shore and did my best to will the black duck closer, look who I attracted instead: our first field sparrow since earlier this month! I know that might not sound like much of a treat, but we don’t get to see them often, so twice in one month is quite nice.

Speaking of birds we’ve already seen this month, I thought that all the yellow-bellied sapsuckers would have already amscrayed while I was visiting our neighbors down south, but I was clearly mistaken, and that’s one of my favorite mistakes to make.

Finally, this red squirrel must have found the best walnut it’s ever tasted, because I haven’t caught one so willing to endure the glare of my camera in a while.

I see that the sun isn’t due to rise until 7:24 tomorrow, and the forecast is for cloudy skies, so it might not be light enough for pictures until 8. I have a date, however, with the Friends of Estabrook starting at 9, so I might not have a lot to show you. The good news, on the other hand, is that I might still have one or two pictures from Mexico that I haven’t shown you yet, so we can always use those in a pinch.

Upcoming events (still a new feature!)

Saturday, Oct 31: Milwaukee Birders and the Garden Club of Greater Milwaukee are working with Milwaukee Riverkeepers for a fall clean-up of Lincoln Creek at Havenwoods State Forest from 9:00-11:00am
Saturday, Oct 31: Friends of Estabrook are hosting another Buckthorn Weedout from 9AM – Noon. Wear sturdy shoes, long pants, long sleeves, and work gloves. Free beverages will be available at the Estabrook Beer Garden following the weedout.
Sunday, Nov 1: Milwaukee Birders will be visiting Lake Park. Meet at the bird feeder near the playground at 8:30am.

The Brew Crew Triumphs at Last!

First, congratulations to the Milwaukee Brewers on winning their first World Series title last night. I see that Milwaukee Public Schools have canceled tomorrow’s classes so all the kiddies can watch the victory parade. Sweet.

Back in Estabrook Park, it was a nice enough morning, especially for late October, but not quite as sunny or still as yesterday. The wood ducks and pied-billed grebe are still on the pond, for now, but I left them alone today and found this great blue heron in the river, instead. We are in the herons’ year-round range, but we won’t see much of them once the pond and river start to freeze.

One bird that will stay with us all winter, no matter how cold it gets, is the hairy woodpecker, and here’s a female that was flitting around with a male beside the river.

We are right at the edge of the white-throated sparrows’ winter range, and we often see a handful through the winter, but most will continue farther south.

On the other hand, we are pretty solidly in the dark-eyed junco’s winter range, so we’ll continue to see them regularly until they fly back north in the spring.

The range map for the golden-crowned kinglet resembles that of the white-throated sparrow, at least in this neck of the woods, but they become pretty scarce once the snow flies.

And that’s a wrap for today. Given how late I had to stay up last night, I’m a little surprise that I even have this many pictures to show you, but sometimes I get lucky.

Upcoming events (a new feature!)

Saturday, Oct 31: Milwaukee Birders and the Garden Club of Greater Milwaukee are working with Milwaukee Riverkeepers for a fall clean-up of Lincoln Creek at Havenwoods State Forest from 9:00-11:00am
Saturday, Oct 31: Friends of Estabrook are hosting another Buckthorn Weedout from 9AM – Noon. Wear sturdy shoes, long pants, long sleeves, and work gloves. Free beverages will be available at the Estabrook Beer Garden following the weedout.
Sunday, Nov 1: Milwaukee Birders will be visiting Lake Park. Meet at the bird feeder near the playground at 8:30am.

“Hey, it’s good to be back home again”

It was great to be back in Estabrook Park this morning, and the gorgeous, late-October weather was icing on the cake.

Even better, both the wood ducks and the pied-billed grebe, none of which will be staying for the winter, were all still on the pond. Here are four of the nine wood ducks, …

and here’s the pied-billed grebe, looking as cute as ever.

We are in the year-round range for song sparrows, but they’ve quit singing for the year, and sightings will fall off over the winter, so it’s best to get our looks in now, while we can.

Meanwhile, sightings of bald eagles in Estabrook reach their peak over the winter, so I expect that we’ll get to see these even more often as the cold sets in, especially when all the water upstream freezes over.

Finally, I did see one sulphur butterfly as I crossed the southern soccer fields, but when I focused my camera on where I thought I saw it land, this is who I found instead. From a distance, I thought it was a western honeybee, but upon closer inspection, it appears to be our very first common drone fly (Eristalis tenax), “the most widely distributed syrphid species in the world.” How fun!

Finally, if you were thinking to yourself a couple of weeks ago, when I mentioned that Friends of Estabrook and Milwaukee RiverKeepers were both hosting events on Saturday, “Gee, I wish I had known sooner. I would have joined the fun.” Well, here’s your second chance, with slightly more advanced warning.

Friends of Estabrook is hosting another weed-out on Saturday, October 31, from 9 am to Noon, and “Milwaukee Birders and the Garden Club of Greater Milwaukee are working with Milwaukee Riverkeepers for a fall clean-up of Lincoln Creek at Havenwoods” State Forest on Saturday, Oct 31, from 9:00-11:00am. Friends of Estabrook plan to work you an extra hour, but they also promise to make up for it with “FREE BEVERAGES at the BIERGARTEN following the WEED-OUT.”

Now, I can’t say for certain that this is a “Workers in the Vineyard” type of situation, where you can show up at the Estabrook weed-out after helping with the clean-up of Lincoln Creek and still get free beer, but is sure seems worth a try, doesn’t it?