We had another cool start to the day at the Retzer Nature Center, out here in Waukesha County, but the winds were light, the sky was clear, and the smoke was still gone, so it was a very nice morning.
This hairy woodpecker is a familiar face, of course, but he posed so nicely in the sun in front of a clean and dark background that I figured one more look can’t hurt. Right?
When I first saw this butterfly, I figured it was a black swallowtail, which we’ve already seen this summer, but once I gave the picture a closer look, I can see that it is instead our first tiger swallowtail of the summer and a dark morph, to boot. Note how it has a much planer pattern of dots at the trailing edge of its top wing than the black swallowtail.
As with the hairy woodpecker above, this black-capped chickadee gave me a pose I just couldn’t refuse.
As with the swallowtail above, I figured this shy butterfly was one we’d seen before, perhaps a wood-nymph or wood satyr, but I was mistaken once again. This one turns out to be our very first northern pearly-eye (Lethe anthedon). What a beauty, eh?
Finally, I’ve shown you plenty of eastern cottontails already, but I’ve never seen one quite so comfortable as this lazy bones.
We’re having a little group birding tomorrow morning before class, so hopefully more sets of eyes will turn up something as cool as the yellow-billed cuckoo from yesterday. Wish us luck!
It was a big day at Retzer today. The first surprise came early this morning when temps were in the low 50s as I hopped on my bike soon after sunrise, and I was thankful that it was a bit warmer when I headed home just before sunset this evening.
In the time I had before class started, I was thrilled to spot the first raptor I’ve seen at Retzer, this gorgeous kestrel on the hunt over their fabulous prairie. Yes, we did just see a pair in Estabrook, but this one is closer and against a prettier sky.
In the afternoon, we took a short field trip to go look for dragonflies, and I did spot a couple, but the big surprise was when one of my classmates noticed this yellow-billed cuckoo along the way. I know we just saw one in Estabrook, but this is only my third sighting, so bear with me.
Finally, we also went out looking for bumble bees, and I saw plenty of those, too, but the big treat for me was spotting this familiar looking creature. If you look closely, however, you might notice that instead of the alternating stripes of yellow and black that we just saw on a snowberry clearwing, this moth is darker with bands of olive green, tan, and burgundy, and that’s because this one is our very first hummingbird clearwing (Hemaris thysbe). Yippee! At long last, something we haven’t just seen at Estabrook!
Okay, now it’s crazy late, and I can’t wait to see what I find next at Retzer, so I want to get up early again tomorrow, and I’d better put this in the mail and get to bed ASAP.
The smoke was gone again, and it was a great day in Waukesha County. As was the case yesterday, I got to spend a couple hours at the Retzer Nature Center before class started, and this little cutie, a female common yellowthroat, came out to say “hi” as I paid a visit to Brown’s Fen.
Finally, after we returned to Retzer and were heading back into the building to wrap up our day, I was able to capture my first flying snowberry clearwing image of the year. The flower it was sipping from was swaying in the breeze pretty good, however, so this isn’t my best clearwing picture, but now that they are out and about, a have a hope of coming up with a better one for you soon.
We’re supposed to enjoy dinner together after class tomorrow, so I don’t know when, if ever, I’ll get a chance to show you any new pictures, but if one shows up, I’ll be sure to take it.
One sight I did glimpse on my previous visit, and failed to capture on film, was a thirteen-lined ground squirrel, but I was luckier today, so here you go. This one appeared to be lining its nest with a mouthful of fresh straw.
If you’re wondering how it might be possible to tell this particular sparrow from all the others, wait till you hear its song.
Finally, it’s late, it’s been a long day, and I’ve gotta wrap this up earlier than usual, so here’s a butterfly that we’ve seen before, but not yet in Estabrook and not yet this year: a common wood-nymph.
I didn’t get kicked out yet, so I’ll be back in class again tomorrow, and if today was any indication, I expect that it will be fun and informative. Since I’ll be there anyway, I’ll also try to get you some more pictures.
The wildfire smoke was back in Estabrook Park, but it wasn’t as thick as it was a few days ago, and the temps were nice and cool, so I guess we could call it a fair-to-midlin’ morning. I can’t say for sure what might have caused it, and it could be just a big coincidence, but the birds were a bit riled up today.
There were a pair of osprey over the river by the islands, and one of them seemed as though it could be a hungry fledgling, based on how it cried and cried. Every once in a while, it also flapped its wings, as if the crying wasn’t doing the job on its own. I did not see that cause a fish to be delivered either, but that could just be part of the weaning process.
The solitary sandpiper is still with us, and today was bath day. I’ve had the privilege of watching quite a few birds bathe, and it usually involves some thrashing in the water, but this bird took it to a new level that also included darting around.
The big show, however, came a little farther upstream. I couldn’t really tell who was the aggressor in the situation, but I got to watch a pair of kestrels get into it with a quartet of crows over the old candy factory building on Port Washington Road. Here’s the nicest shot I could get of a kestrel from over 100 yards away.
And here’s the best image of the altercation in action.
The show went on for a while, but once it eventually petered out, I hiked over to the meadow to look for interesting or pretty insects, and while I was there, I could hear a distinct call from up on the bluff. Better yet, it wasn’t a “once-and-done” call, so I headed out to see if I could find the source. Well, it took a while and a bit of luck, but the shy little lurker eventually did show its face, and it turns out to be only our second yellow-billed cuckoo ever. “Woo hoo, welcome back, and thanks for letting me know you’re in town!”
Finally, we also have another first-of-the-year sighting in the butterfly department. This is a banded hairstreak, but it looks a little worse for the wear compared to the last one we saw just about a year ago.
I won’t be able to join you for our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning because I’m heading out to Retzer for a week of master naturalist training. My current plan is to take pictures in the morning, before class starts, attend class all day, and then write up a post after class. We’ll soon see how that goes. Wish me luck!
The wildfire smoke has pretty much cleared out, at least for now, and it was a nice morning for a walk in Estabrook Park. The critters that live there, however, seemed to be not really in the mood for pictures, but I tried my best, and I did get a couple.
I watched this great blue heron catch a couple of fish in short order, so perhaps that’s why it was more willing than the others to put up with me spectating from the riverbank.
I didn’t see any notable mammals today, but this red squirrel gave me a very nice pose yesterday.
I was surprised to discover that I haven’t shown you a common whitetail dragonfly yet this year, given that I see them about as much as any of the others, and they are very good at posing for the camera, so here you go.
This great black digger wasp, on the other hand, is a little trickier to catch sitting still, and that might explain why I haven’t shown you one since 2020.
Finally, I counted at least four different common buckeyes this morning, each with different signs of wear on their wings, and this one looked the freshest.
I see that the temperatures are forecast to be back in the 60s tomorrow morning, after starting today at 81°F, so that will be a very pleasant change of pace, and I can’t wait to see how the denizens of Estabrook react to that, if at all.
The wildfire smoke didn’t clear out overnight as much as I had hoped, but the air quality index was back down into the 300s by sunrise this morning, and it was light enough to venture out about 15 minutes earlier than yesterday, so that’s some progress anyway.
My reward for those extra 15 minutes was arriving at the underpass just in time to catch this worried-looking little masked bandit hoping to emerge from the storm drain. I took a couple of quick shots and then got out of its way.
The song sparrows have been singing all summer but have mostly been keeping out of sight lately, so it was a treat to catch one out in the open for a change. Perhaps this is also a fledgling who was more interested in when the next morsel will be delivered than it was worried about me.
When I arrived, it was just foraging a little, preening a little, and generally hanging out on the exposed river bottom between the islands along with the solitary sandpiper, a couple of spotted sandpipers, and a trio of killdeer. That patch of mud and rocks is really turning into quite the shorebird rest stop. Outstanding!
The butterflies were staying out of sight today, but the widow skimmer dragonflies were patrolling the weed patch beside the soccer fields as usual, and here’s a female posing nicely.
Finally, if you squint real good, you can just make out the white crescent on the hind wing of this backlight butterfly photo from Wednesday, which makes it our first eastern comma of the year. I did try to sneak around to the other side for a nicer picture, but the trail was narrow there, so I didn’t have any luck with that. Next time!
We’re forecast to have a good breeze out of the west tomorrow morning, so maybe we’ll get a break from the smoke. Time’ll tell.
The Canadian wildfire smoke sure did arrive overnight, and it was so thick by sunrise that I wondered if it would ever get light out, but the streetlights did eventually shut off, and the air quality index was still below 300, so I ventured into Estabrook to see who might be out and about.
I found the doe and her fawn on the downstream island, for the first time, and the fawn was curious about me, but Mom was in no mood for fun and games today, and they soon disappeared into the brush.
At the upstream island, where we’ve been seeing the fawn until today, I spotted a belted kingfisher just as it caught a fish, and I’d put it at just about 100 yards away, so you can get some sense for how thick the smoke was, if you haven’t already experienced it for yourself today.
The sun started to burn through the smoke by around 7 am, and it sure looked angry.
I can’t assert that the insects were less effected, but I did find this bicolored striped sweat bee seeming to go about its business as usual on a purple cone flower in the pollinator garden.
I did see a few monarchs today, but this one sipping nectar from the swamp milkweed beside the river yesterday made the better picture.
Finally, I had to get home in time to head down to the MMSD lab in Milwaukee for a tour organized by the River Keepers, and on my way, I came across this amazing sight beside the Oak Leaf Trail. At first, I couldn’t quite tell what it was, and as I got closer, I thought it was a small dog. It was only when I stopped almost right beside it that I realized it was a young coyote, out on its own and looking a little lost. Once I stopped, I took the best picture I could with my phone, and it got up and ambled over to the weeds further from the path to watch traffic go by from a safer distance. Sure, I know that coyotes are apex predators in Milwaukee County, I have yet to be attacked by a wild animal, other than wasps and bees, and I’d like to keep it that way, but what an absolute little cutie this young coyote was.
I read that our air quality index peaked at over 600 this afternoon, which sounds like a lot and I’m told is bad, so I stayed inside for the rest of the day, but it’s forecast to be back under 200 tomorrow, and I hope to get back into Estabrook to see how the wildlife is holding up. I’ll keep you posted.
Despite the heat, we had a pretty nice turnout for the Friends of Estabrook picnic yesterday, and the surprise guest was a turkey that hung out by the beer garden for quite a while. I can’t tell for sure if this is the same bird, but I found it on the paved path at the south end of the pond this morning, and how many turkeys could there be in the park? It sure would be nice if they gave the suburbs a break and visited the park for a while, wouldn’t it?
I found this next stunning creature beside the path along the river above the falls, and it turns out to be the very first primrose moth (Schinia florida) I’ve ever seen. You might think, as I did, that it got that name for its colorful appearance, but instead, it’s named for its host plant, evening-primroses, where it lays its eggs. Cool.
As I moved between the various river access points, I somehow noticed this colorful but tiny moth, only about 7 mm or 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch long, on a leaf beside the trail, and it turns out to be my first red-banded leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea). What a morning this was shaping up to be. One might think that after spending as much time as I have in Estabrook, I might have seen just about everything there was to see, but days like today suggest that perhaps I’ve only just scratched the surface.
Thankfully, some sights have become familiar, and a mallard hen keeping her eye on me as her ducklings keep chowing down is one of them at this time of year.
Back to the unusual sights, this common buckeye at the pollinator garden let me get what I believe to be my first picture of the outside/underside/ventral side of its wings. I think that they’re pretty, too, but in an understated way.
Finally, now that the great blue herons have become regulars in the park, it’s almost as easy to get a picture of one as it is to get a picture of a mallard.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 