Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

They called a committee meeting…

It was a dark and stormy morning in Estabrook, but there was a gap between the showers, so I snuck into the park to see who I could see.

Things got off to a nice start when I caught a glimpse of this darling young Cooper’s hawk gliding into this tree for a landing. As I’ve done before, and which you can’t prove doesn’t work, I kept my camera in front of my face to hide my eyes, and it let me capture the best image I could hope for, given the lighting.

My next treat came on the river around the two islands. As I searched in vain again for any odd ducks, I could see a large dark bird perched high over the riverbank a bit farther upstream. So, I did my best to sneak up on it, and it turned out to be another turkey vulture. Two sightings in as many days! That’s quite a change in fortune given the recent dearth of appearances.

Better yet, it wasn’t alone, and here are two of its friends.

And here are three more (the one on the far left is the same bird as on the right above). Holy Smokes! Six of them! A regular committee meeting! I’ve seen quite a few black vultures together in Connecticut and elsewhere, but this is the first time I’ve seen so many turkey vultures together in all of Wisconsin, let alone Estabrook.

Lastly, and I know that came up fast, but so did the next down pour, it turns out that today was bath day for the Canada geese, and here they are a-rub-a-dub-dubbin’ in the river just above what’s left of the falls.

I don’t even have any more leftover butterflies for you, so we’ll just have to hope that the forecast for a drier tomorrow holds true. Keep you fingers crossed!

Some fun sights before the skies opened up…

I know it’s late, but I spent a lot of time on campus today, so now is when I can get to this. This morning started out pretty nice. Sure, it was warm and humid, but the air was very still, and the clouds weren’t too thick, so I was able to reach the pond in time to catch this green heron just chillaxing on a log in the middle.

At the river, I found this darling little hooded merganser fishing amongst the mallards right above what’s left of the falls. It appears as though something has gone wrong with its bottom bill, and I can’t tell if that’s from an injury or if it came out of its shell like that, but I did watch it catch and eat a crayfish, so it seems unphased by the situation. “Good luck, Kiddo!”

Farther upstream, as I was counting the mallards again, in hopes of spotting more odd ducks, suddenly everyone bolted for cover, and the cause of all that excitement soon drifted over. It was a very dark, young bald eagle, and it continued down river on the far side of the island, so I just watched it go. Before I could get back to the mallards, however, there was suddenly another enormous dark bird in the sky. They circled each other a couple of times, often disappearing behind trees, and at least one appeared to be a vulture, but before I gave up hoping for a photo opportunity the eagle took a perch right in front of me. The dark plumage and beak suggest that it hatched just this summer. “Welcome to Estabrook, Handsome!”

I couldn’t see where the vulture(s) had gone, so after I got the best eagle shot I thought I could, I turned around in time to get this belted kingfisher hiding coyly behind a leaf.

As soon as I had my kingfisher picture, look who landed right between the two previous birds. Ha! I haven’t been able to show you a turkey vulture in Estabrook since April of 2025! “Glad to see you again, Your Grace.”

Then the clouds got dark, the wind picked up, I hustled home, and I just barely made it before the skies opened up. Phew!

Finally, I had no time for butterfly pictures today, but to add a little color, here’s a monarch on a purple cone flower at the pollinator garden yesterday.

Lastly, the experts did agree with my identification of that Connecticut warbler in Estabrook Park yesterday, so that’s our thirtieth warbler. Hip, hip, hurray!

A bit of Connecticut may have followed me home…

I hadn’t even reached the pond when the warbler show began in Estabrook Park this morning. There was a bit of black plastic on the grass just south of the middle parking lot, and as I reached down to collect it, I noticed a little movement in the hedge about 20 feet away.

When I saw the distinct and complete white eye ring, I figured it was a Nashville warbler, but they have yellow throats. Immature yellow warblers can have a slight eye ring, but they also have yellow throats. Mourning warblers have dark heads and throats, by they don’t have eye rings.

Thus, the process of eliminations suggests that we may be looking at the first Connecticut warbler (Oporornis agilis) that I’ve ever managed to capture on film. Naturally, I’ve asked the experts for confirmation, and I’ll let you know what they say, but if they do confirm my identification, that’ll be one heck of a welcome home, eh?

As soon as I turned around from the warbler, I watched this pretty little Swainson’s thrush fly into a fruit tree that the robins were raiding. It’s ears must have been ringing from my post yesterday.

Warblers and thrushes are not the only little birds on the move these days, and here’s an eastern warbling vireo in a tree beside the river. I usually hear one or two along the river all summer, but they went quiet a few weeks ago, so it is great to see one again.

Back to the warblers, here’s a Wilson’s, with its trademark black cap, in the next tree over.

Out on the water, it paid to count the mallards again today, ’cause that’s how I found these three darling little blue-winged teals. Here’s hoping that one of these days they’ll bring some of their cousins, the shovelers, with them.

Back up on the bluff, as I scanned the treetops for more warblers, I found our third yellow-billed cuckoo of the summer, instead. Holy Maceral!

Finally, there was a moth busily feeding on the hyssop blossoms in the pollinator garden, as though it were a clearwing moth or even a butterfly, but it clearly wasn’t either of them, and I believe that it is our very first soybean looper moth (Chrysodeixis includens), instead.

The forecast for tomorrow morning suggest we’re in for a repeat of today, so I can’t wait to see who’ll show up next.

Birds of September…

I did arrive safely in Milwaukee this afternoon, after two perfectly uneventful Delta flights, which is just how I like them, but I won’t get into Estabrook until tomorrow morning, so let’s refresh our memories of who we might see coming through the park this month.

I look forward to seeing thrushes again, and here’s a darling Swainson’s thrush on its way to Central and South America.

We already heard a red-breasted nuthatch during last Monday’s wildlife walk, but I sure would like to get another picture of one.

I have already heard one rose-breasted grosbeak, as well, and here’s a female from last September, but you can probably guess that I’m hoping for more pictures of them, too.

And don’t forget the warblers! We’ve already seen a couple, and it sure won’t be like the spring migration, but we should still see plenty more, such as this young Tennessee warbler.

If we get lucky, we might even see some mature males in their adult plumage, such as this American redstart.

Keep your fingers crossed for tomorrow morning!

One more surprise from the seaside…

We all stopped by my brother’s place yesterday afternoon, and as we sat around on his back patio chitchatting, this little cutie, a young or female ruby-throated hummingbird, sat with us for a moment or two.

That’s the only picture of wildlife I managed to get yesterday, so this morning my sister and I tried the Sandy Point Bird Sanctuary one more time. The first amazing sight was at least a dozen osprey all fishing from high out over the water. Unfortunately, they were much too far for me to capture on film, so here’s one more look at a clapper rail, instead.

The star of the morning, however, was this nondescript little sparrow. I had read that they could be seen here, and we kept seeing little sparrows flitting around in the tall grass, but they had managed to evade my camera so far. Thus, I was thrilled even to get this meager picture of one because it is the very first seaside sparrow (Ammospiza maritima) that I have ever seen.

We did see plenty of the other usual suspects this morning; oystercatchers, yellowlegs, plovers, etc; but no one was allowing pictures any better than what I’ve already shown you, and it was eventually time to go join my folks for breakfast. But as we were making our way back to the parking lot, it would seem that one of the seaside sparrows recognized how momentous this occasion was, and didn’t want me to leave with such a paltry image, so here it perched. “Thanks, Darling!”

Lastly, the butterflies out here are hiding someplace, but I haven’t been able to find where that is, so here’s one more look at a crescent from Estabrook Park.

Tomorrow, I make my way back to Milwaukee, but I don’t know if I’ll make it into Estabrook before dark, so I’ll try to post something to carry you through.

Back to Long Island Sound…

Deb didn’t have to work yesterday, so we drove back down to the Sandy Point Bird Sanctuary early in the morning. The gates weren’t even open yet when we arrived, so we had to park down the road a bit, and our reward for being so early was finding this osprey enjoying its breakfast on a light post right over that parking lot. Sweet.

There were several oystercatchers out on the mudflats again, and this time I noticed that they don’t all have bright orange eyes. It turns out that juvies have dark brown eyes, instead. “Well, hello there, Sweetie!”

The biggest sight of the morning, however, was this short-billed dowitcher. I’ve been able to show you one before, but that was from Caye Caulker, so this is my first one in the US. Woo hoo!

Then it was time to get back to Cheshire and family activities, but as crazy good luck would have it, my other sister, Sue, cooked up a scheme for all of us to pile into the car and drive out to Mystic to visit Enders Island and see the dahlias. Once we got there, to an island in Long Island sound, I’m sure you will be stunned to learn that there were birds to be seen. I inadvertently spooked this one from the weeds behind the seawall, a spotted sandpiper, but it was so young or hungry that it only hopped up onto the wall so I could get a better picture. “Thanks, Kiddo, but please, don’t stop foraging for me.”

Finally, there were several terns fishing out over the water, and I got all excited when I thought some were roseate turns, but I was mistaken, and they were just good ol’ common terns, instead. Oh well, but still a pretty bird.

We took the scenic route home, so by the time we got there, everyone was exhausted, and I let this post slide until this morning. Sorry about that.

The B-team…

As I mentioned yesterday, my other sister did fly in last night, but her flight was delayed and didn’t arrive until 2am, so nobody was in the mood this morning to go looking for wildlife. Thus I get to show you some more birds we saw yesterday morning in the fabulous Sandy Point Bird Sanctuary at the mouth of New Haven harbor.

This first bird really kept its distance, the little stinker, and we’ve seen them before, but this is the first black-bellied plover that I’ve seen actually wearing its namesake black belly.

We got to see a semipalmated plover for the first time in Estabrook Park just this summer, but this one just caught a nice big worm, and it’s the first one I’ve seen in Connecticut.

We’ve also seen greater yellowlegs, one snowy Halloween, and this one refused to look my way, but it’s still a pretty bird.

We’ve also seen plenty of osprey in Estabrook, of course, and I couldn’t get this one to turn around either, so it fits right in with the rest of this crew.

Finally, I still haven’t gotten a butterfly picture out here this trip, so we’ll just have to make do with one more monarch from Estabrook.

So we headed for the coast…

Since we weren’t having much luck in and around Cheshire this trip, I surprised Deb at 5 am this morning with the suggestion that we try someplace new: the Sandy Point Bird Sanctuary at the mouth of New Haven harbor. Amazingly, she was game, so off we went.

It was a bit of a drive, so the sun was well up when we arrived, but we had barely left the parking lot when Deb discovered our first surprise of the day, a yellow-crowned night heron. We’ve seen a juvenile in Estabrook again this summer, and I finally saw an adult in Belize last fall, but I believe this is the first adult I’ve seen in the US. Nice!

Right next to the heron was a snowy egret, which we last saw this spring in Dallas. Now, that’s a good start.

The tide was nice and low, so we had timed our impromptu visit just right, and the surprises got bigger as we looked farther out onto the exposed mud. Here’s my very first American oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus). Long-time readers may recall that I used to see Eurasian oystercatchers in South Holland, and I knew that we had our own version over here, but it took me a while to finally spot one. Woo hoo! The whole beak is bright orange, and the black on the tip of this one is mud from digging for breakfast.

The biggest surprise of all was this character that flew in and immediately began skulking in and out of the tall grass growing along the edge of the water. I had to look it up to discover that it is our very first Clapper rail (Rallus crepitans), which “are named for their calls: a series of loud, repeated “kek” calls.” Hot Diggity Dog! You may recall that I was only able to show you a rail for the first time just last summer, a Virginia rail at Horicon Marsh.

Finally, they weren’t all exotic, and here’s a familiar face, a pretty little green heron.

Lastly, my other sister is flying in tonight, so I’m not sure what our options will be for tomorrow morning, but I’ve kept a couple of pictures in my back pocket from this morning, and I’ll have something for you in any case.

The good start peters out…

I don’t have much to show you again today, but that’s not for lack of trying. My sister, Deb, and I set out early and hit Hannover Pond, where we saw all the ducks last winter, and Broad Brook Reservoir, where we saw the heronry and the aerie a few springs ago, but nobody wanted their picture taken this morning. After she had to go to work, poor kid, I visited the nature preserve next to my folks’ new place, and there I finally caught somebody on film, our first black-and-white warbler of the fall migration. Woo hoo!

But that’s it, I’m afraid, so to double the content of this post, here’s one more painted lady butterfly from the weeds beside the soccer fields in Estabrook Park on Saturday.

Oh well. That’s just how the cookie bounces sometimes, and we’ll try again tomorrow.

Off to a good start, out here in CT…

I did make it safely to my folks’ place in Connecticut this morning, and thanks for your safe travel wishes. I couldn’t very well walk in the door and say, “Hi, I’ll be back in a couple of hours!” So, I don’t have a lot of pictures for you yet, but this one beauty parked itself where I couldn’t miss it: right on the gutter outside my folks’ door. It’s a red-tailed hawk, and the pale yellow eyes suggest that it’s youngster.

I haven’t seen any butterflies out here yet, but here’s another silver-spotted skipper from the weeds at the south end yesterday.

That’s all I’ve got for now, but I’ve had good luck out here before, so let’s see what I can find tomorrow.