Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Our first “winter bird” arrives…

The air was as cool as usual this morning in Estabrook Park, and it was stiller than it’s been all week, but the thick clouds were back, and they were a little leaky this time.

I was happy to see our young pied-billed grebe was still on the pond, but the light was a lot better yesterday when I took this picture, so I left it alone today.

The same is true for our two hooded mergansers. They either had a very rough night, or they’re getting used to the place, because their eyes were closed in half the pictures I took.

I did see our first yellow-bellied sapsucker of the fall migration yesterday, but I flubbed the pictures so bad that I opted not to use them. Luckily, this youngster, who might even be the same bird, showed its face today, and the pictures are still not great, but this one’ll do.

I’m not sure if it was the lack of wind, or it’s just been enough days since this wet patch started, but the mosquitos were fierce this morning. I hadn’t used bug repellent all week, but after trying to tough it out for an hour today, I decided to run all the way back home and put some on. The good news is that that detour caused me to reach the tall pines south of the pond at just the right moment to catch our first black-throated green warbler of the season. Woo hoo! “Safe travels, Sweet pea, and see you next spring!”

That delay also allowed the freshly arrived dark-eyed juncos to wake up, and here’s what I think of as our first “winter bird” to arrive from up north. “Welcome back, Darling, and I hope you like what we’ve done with the place.”

Finally, this male red-bellied woodpecker is a year-round resident, of course, but he caught my eye today because, by the looks of the marks on that lamp post, he has learned that it makes the perfect spot to wedge an acorn for him to crack open. One of these days I’ll be fast enough to catch one with an acorn in its beak, but today was not that day, so you’re just gonna have to take my word for it.

Lastly, I’ve got another presentation coming up next week at North Shore School for Seniors, it’s on Tuesday, September 29 from 1 – 1:50 pm, and this time I’ll be showing pictures and telling stories from some of my recent trips, including: San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos, Liechtenstein, Namibia, Nicaragua , Jordan, Belize, South Africa, and Guatemala. You can see their schedule of classes and register for mine, or any others, here.

If you’re a purist and only want to see and hear about wildlife in Estabrook Park, and there’s no shame in that, then you’ll have to wait until Tuesday, October 6 from 1:00 – 1:50 pm for my presentation on that topic.

Where were they all yesterday?

It was cool again in Estabrook Park this morning, but the sky was clear, and the breeze was lighter than it’s been all week, so I was excited to get out into it. Things got off to a slow start, however. I wasn’t getting any pictures, and then the clouds drifted over again, but I needed the walk anyway, so I kept going, and on my second visit to the pond, I caught my first break. Here’s our first eastern phoebe of the fall migration. “Welcome back, Sweetie, and we hope you had a great summer!”

I didn’t see much else on my way back to the south end, but at least I had one picture, and the clouds drifted away again. Then, in the woods right beside the remaining weed patch, I caught what might be our last eastern wood-pewee of the year. They’ve pretty much stopped singing, and I might see another, but who knows. “Save travels, Darling!”

It was fun to see, on the same day, two of the three flycatchers without “flycatcher” in their name, so instead of continuing on home, I followed the trail back down to the river with a little spring in my step, and I soon came to a thicket that was abuzz with tiny birds. The first one I managed to capture on film was this cutie, our inaugural white-throated sparrow of the season.

Meanwhile, higher overhead, one of the northern flickers, who have been quite antsy all week, sat still just long enough for me to capture this nice image. I don’t think it will be too long before they’re all gone for the winter.

Back in the thicket below, say “hello” to our first ruby-crowned kinglet of this fall. “Eat up, Deary! We’ve got plenty of bugs for you!”

Then, as if on cue, this red squirrel posed as if to ask, “what am I? Chopped liver?” To which I wanted to reply, “Well, no. You’re much too small for that, but where were you yesterday, when I sure could have used this shot?” Instead, I just took this picture.

Finally, when the Village of Shorewood redid Wilson Drive a few years back, they put in some nice bioswales and planted them full of native plants. I believe my favorites are the New England asters, which are in full bloom right now, and here’s a gorgeous painted lady butterfly filling its belly full of their nectar.

I see the winds are forecast to be even lighter tomorrow, but the clouds are due to be back, so we’ll just have to wait and see who’s around.

A last look back at the Galapagos and Guayaquil…

The sky was clear in Estabrook Park this morning, at least for an hour or so and for the first time since I got back in town, but the air remains cool and breezy. After the hero’s welcome I received on Monday, however, the critters gave me the cold shoulder today. I did see plenty of birds, but not a single one wanted to be in the show, and if it weren’t for this late-season buckeye, in the thistles that are quickly outgrowing the grass planted in the former weed patch by the southern soccer fields, I wouldn’t have a single picture for you.

On the plus side, this does give me a chance to show you a few more sights from my recent trip down south. As you may recall, Deb and I had a couple of hours in Guayaquil, Ecuador after our flight back to the mainland and before it got dark out. Nearly as soon as we stepped out of the hotel, after dropping off our luggage and well before we reached the linear park, I spotted this elegant looking little dove, and it turns out to be our very first Ecuadorian ground dove (Columbina buckleyi)

Right next to the ground dove sat this pair, who are our very first eared doves (Zenaida auriculata). Crazy, right? But it does illustrate the double-edged nature of the wildlife in the Galapagos. Sure, there are amazing sights to be seen there, many of which can be seen nowhere else in the world, but after 8 days on San Cristobal, including a boat tour all the way around the island, Deb and I only managed 31 species of birds, of which 15-16 (depending on the accuracy of my common cactus-finch identification) were new to us. On the other hand, in just two hours on the ground in downtown Guayaquil, we saw 17 species, of which 9 were new to us.

Anywho, speaking of birds on San Cristobal that I’ve never seen before, here’s the best picture I could get of a wandering tattler (Tringa incana). We first saw one on the rocks near the beach with the oystercatchers, we saw our last one on the rocks near the canoodling swallow-tailed gulls, and we saw this one on the rock where we also saw the red-billed tropic bird. Thus, I can vouch for the “wandering” part of their name, but I never heard a peep out of one.

Finally, there were sea lions everywhere, as I mentioned already, and quite a few of them were young pups. Once in a while one of the pups needed a lift, and here’s one getting just such a lift, by the scruff of its neck, from its mom.

Well, that should be the last of my trip pictures, so the critters around here had better come through for me tomorrow, or I’ll be in big trouble.

Still getting used to the change of season…

Our early cool snap continued this morning in Estabrook Park, as did the thick cloud cover, but what did I expect for the start of astronomical fall? A warm summer day?

Anyway, a couple more critters showed their faces today, and here’s a Cooper’s hawk with brown longitudinal streaks on its belly, which mark it as a juvenile. I’ve seen a pair flying together over the river and performing some mild acrobatics, and the leading theory to explain this behavior at this point in the season is an adult helping a juvenile with hunting practice. “Time to get with the program, Kiddo!”

As I was trying to get a picture of the hawk, before it took off, I could hear a familiar calling nearby, and it didn’t take me long to find the source.

I didn’t capture much else on film today, so it’s a good thing I have some images left over from yesterday. As I mentioned, things were really hopping at the pond, and here’s a male belted kingfisher who was flitting from spot to spot looking for something to catch.

And here’s a great blue heron, also at the pond, who looks as though it has already caught it’s fill and is now letting its belly do the rest of the job.

Meanwhile, here’s one of the two double-crested cormorants at the river.

And the great egret, who decided to try the fish at the other end of the island. I wish the image was a little sharper, but I’m not the one who took off when the still and low-light scene clearly called a low shutter speed.

Finally, I didn’t see a single butterfly or dragonfly today, but I did see this one monarch yesterday, and if I had to guess what it was thinking, I’d guess it was wondering why it wasn’t already halfway to Mexico by now.

I don’t see a change in the weather forecast for anytime soon, but I did hear a couple of returning sparrows this morning, and maybe they’ll feel at home enough by tomorrow to show their faces. Keep your fingers crossed!

A foreshadowing of the fall…

It was as cool, dark, and windy as predicted this morning in Estabrook Park, but birds are on the move, so there were plenty to see. We started with only one other wildlife walker willing to brave the weather, but we picked up a second on our way to the pond, and boy were things hopping there.

I counted ten wood ducks, including the first drakes in their breeding plumage for the first time in a while, and here’s a sampling.

There were also a pair of hooded mergansers busily catching and gulping down crayfish, which was a treat for our guests.

There was also a Cooper’s hawk, a belted kingfisher, and a great blue heron, but the star of that show was this tiny pied-billed grebe, and this is the first one I’ve seen in Estabrook since April! “Welcome back, Cutie pie!”

My guests couldn’t stay long this morning and left right after our visit to the pond. I still had some time on the meter, however, so I headed for the river and quickly came across this stranger. That’s a young red-headed woodpecker, who hasn’t yet gotten its red head, and we haven’t seen one in Estabrook since May.

In addition to a dozen Canada geese, a few mallards, and a couple of double-crested cormorants, a great egret was back on the water around the islands in the river. Could this morning get any better?

“Cue the bald eagle!” my friend Lisa would say, and there it was, a youngster starting to get its white head plumage and gliding downriver at treetop height. Thank goodness for all the practice I’ve just had trying to catch pictures of flying frigatebirds, boobies, shearwaters, and tropicbirds, eh?

Finally, as I strolled home along the paved path, I glanced across the river where the path runs right along the edge of the bluff and spotted a bird high in a dead tree over the far riverbank. I figured it was one of the many flickers that were around this morning, but I decided to give it a closer look anyway. Well, knock me down with a feather, it’s our first merlin of the fall migration and the first merlin anyone has reported seeing in Estabrook for the entire year. “Welcome back, you beautiful creature! Feel free to stay a while.”

There were even more sights to see, but I’ve got some catching up to do, and I’d better keep some in my back pocket in case there’s a slowdown. I see the weather forecast calls for more of the same tomorrow, so here’s hoping my luck with the wildlife holds as well.

A little more Guayaquil…

I made it home safely this afternoon about 4:30pm, and the first thing I noticed is that you must have forgotten to pay the bill for heat. Yikes! Fall is here? Anyway, my sister Deb, had a much later flight today so she got to go back to the linear park in Guayaquil and see new birds without me. My only consolation is that she’s still in the air somewhere on her way to Hartford and will be for a few more hours.

Happily, we saw plenty of fascinating critters yesterday afternoon, and one of the surprises was spotting this large green iguana up in a tree and munching on the blossoms. You may remember the monsters I saw in Belize, but I did not have them on my bingo card for yesterday

Deb was the first to spot this character, and when she was finally able to articulate exactly where I should cast my gaze, I thought it might be the same rufous-backed wren we saw in Managua. I was mistaken however, so mark your calendars, and it turns out to be our very first fasciated wren (Campylorhynchus fasciatus) instead.

I heard this next critter long before I saw it, and I knew it had to be a gnatcatcher. Well, once in a great while I am indeed correct, and this little darling turns out to be our first white-browed gnatcatcher (Polioptila bilineata).

By then it was starting to get dark, and I wasted a ton of time and film trying to capture swallows that were darting around overhead. Happily, a local noticed us and asked, “do you want to see some turtles?” Of course, our answer was “yes,” and he nearly ran us a couple of hundred yards back up the trail to find these two, South American sliders (Trachemys callirostris), definitely up to something on the far bank of a muddy rivulet.

Finally, and if you look closely at this image, you can see how close to dark it actually was, we also heard this guy long before we saw him, but once we were able to get eyes on him, we could see that he was our very first scrub blackbird (Dives warczewiczi).

The forecast for our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning is not exactly balmy, at 58°F with 14mph winds and cloudy, but the chance of precipitation is under 10%, so come on out, if you can, and help me see if there are still any fall migrants to be seen. I’ll look for you at the beer garden parking lot at 8am.

Guayaquil!

Deb and I flew off of San Cristobal late this morning and arrived safely back on the mainland in Guayaquil, Ecuador late this afternoon. We did have a couple of hours to look around on the island one more time before we left, and we saw plenty of new best friends, but we didn’t see anybody new. Ah, well.

Once we landed in Guayaquil, we made a beeline for the hotel, which is located just a short walk from Parque Lineal Kennedy Norte, a linear park beside a small river, and we were in by 4:20. That gave us almost two hours glorious hours to look around before sunset. Woo hoo!

We saw 17 bird species plus a couple of turtles during our walk, but an easy highlight for me has got to be this magnificent creature, a young great black hawk (Buteogallus urubitinga), which we came across as soon as we walked through the gate. Their range extends from Argentina to Mexico, but in all my travels of South and Central America I have somehow managed to miss seeing one until today. “Thank you, Your Majesty!”

And that’s the show for today, I’m afraid. It’s already 8:15pm, and my flight back to Chicago departs at 4:15 tomorrow morning, so I have got to get into the shower and then into the sack! The rest of the pictures will just have to wait until I get home.

One last look around…

Today, finally, is an R&R day with no scheduled activities, so I got to have a nap this afternoon and write this post while it’s still light outside. Woo hoo! Deb and I took the morning to visit a beach on the south side of the island and a few miles from town: Playa Loberia. There we saw a few shorebirds and a few frigatebirds, but the more interesting sights came another thousand yards down the coast, where the ground rises up to form a cliff over the water: Acantilado La Loberia.

In addition to a few blue-footed boobies resting on ledges, there were a dozen or more swallow-tailed gulls, which we first saw just yesterday. We did get to see some fly this time, so now we know what their swallowtails look like, but the salt spray from the waves crashing below and the stiff onshore breeze really put a damper on my ability to capture that on film. Sorry. Instead, here’s a pair canoodling right at the top so I could get out of the spray and breeze to capture a nice image for you. Aren’t they just adorable?

I still have a few pictures from yesterday that I was too tired to include in yesterday’s post, so here are a pair of Nazca boobies fending off a hungry magnificent frigatebird. I just read today that frigatebirds “are referred to as kleptoparasites as they occasionally rob other seabirds for food, and are known to snatch seabird chicks from the nest.” Yikes!

Here’s a Galapagos shearwater (Puffinus subalaris), also from yesterday and which I read get their name from using “a ‘shearing’ flight technique (flying very close to the water and seemingly or actually cutting or ‘shearing’ the waves with the tips of their wings) to move across wave fronts with the minimum of active flight.” Deb and I had glimpsed them racing over the water between the boats once or twice during our morning survey of the harbor, but I didn’t have a presentable image until this one.

On the hike to the last snorkeling site yesterday, Deb spotted this handsome Hudsonian whimbrel skulking around the water’s edge. I last showed you one on Caye Caulker, and I read that they “[breed] on the Arctic tundra and [winter] on coastlines as far south as Tierra del Fuego,” so they sure do get around.

Finally, in addition to the enormous marine iguanas I’ve alread shown you, we saw several San Cristóbal lava lizards (Microlophus bivittatus) on our hike today, and here’s a male. They’re endemic to San Cristóbal and currently under threat by invasive cats on the island, so I appreciate the free spay and neuter clinic that WorldVets put on this week.

Deb and I start our treks home tomorrow with a flight back to the mainland, where I have a hope of one more chance to see some wildlife in Guayaquil before the final leg back to the States. For the score keepers at home, it appears as though we will have seen 30 species of birds on San Cristóbal, of which 15 are brand new to me, and 8 are endemic to these islands, including 5 that even have “lava”, “Galapágos”, or “San Cristóbal” in their names. Not too bad for a “work trip,” in my humble opinion.

A heck of a lot more than a three-hour tour…

Today most of the group, including Deb and me, took a boat tour of various snorkeling and nesting sites around the island. At the first stop, not far from Puerto Baquerizo Moreno harbor, where we started, everyone hopped into the water to check out the fish, but there were plenty of birds swirling around in the air, so I stayed on the boat with the crew to see who I could see.

There were frigatebirds, boobies, and noddies, but the star of the show has got to be this red-billed tropic bird (Phaethon aethereus). It never landed, but kept swooping past the boat as it fished at the base of the cliff, and it is a miracle that I got this one picture to look presentable.

At the next stop, everyone stayed in the boat, and I finally got a nice portrait of a brown noddy (Anous stolidus). Deb and I have seen them fishing in the harbor, and I thought for sure that I had shown you one already, but I guess I never thought the pictures were good enough, until now.

I believe there was another snorkeling opportunity, but I don’t have an underwater camera, so I stayed on the surface again. It was either then or another stop soon after that we got to see some of these swallow-tailed gulls (Creagrus furcatus). We didn’t see any fly, so we couldn’t see their swallow tails, but that red eye ring sure is striking enough on its own. Isn’t it?

Finally, I’ve gotta wrap this up soon because it was another very long day, and I’m struggling to keep my eyes open. So far, we’ve seen blue-footed boobies and Nazca boobies, but today we also got to see a few of the fabled red-footed boobies (Sula sula). Some even had chicks! Woo hoo!

All morning, we cruised down the leeward side of the island, and the seas were nice and calm. After lunch, however, we turned the corner to head home on the windward side, and the seas were quite a bit rougher. Oof! That was a long ride home, but there was one snorkeling stop along the way, and that’s where Deb finally got to swim with the sea turtles she’s been hoping to see since our visit to Isla de la Plata. Yay!

A quip too witty for my sleepy brain…

It was a big last day at the vet clinic today, and I am both thrilled to have had the opportunity to participate and thrilled that that part of the trip is finished. Tomorrow we’re going on a boat ride around the island to see what there is to see.

Before we get out of town, however, here are a few more sights to be seen in the harbor just a few steps from our hostel. First, we have one of the many magnificent frigatebird that come to visit the harbor.

Next, we have one of three Elliot’s storm-petrels (Oceanites gracilis) we’ve seen fishing on the harbor for the last three days. They are one of the smallest seabirds, and their legs do a meager job of supporting them on land.

Finally, we have brown pelicans, whom we’ve seen before, but never quite this close.