As promised, I got up and out at sunrise this morning to see who else might be up to greet the day, and here’s the first common kingfisher I’ve seen in a while. It was perched on a rock just offshore from our hotel, and that red background is the water of the Petalioi Gulf reflecting light from the low sun.
Then I turned my sights inland, and here’s one of a pair of Eurasian collared doves on a wire over the street right in front of the hotel.
There was a nice quiet street leading up the hill to the main road along the coast, and here’s a Eurasian jay pausing just long enough to get a better grip on that nut it had found before it bolted out of sight.
We’ve arrived in Marathon, Greece, safe and sound, but after dark, and our daytime was split between riding in airplanes and sitting in the airport at Istanbul where we connected, so I didn’t get any pictures today. I did see a couple of house sparrows in the terminal and a pair of wagtails out on the tarmac, but I wasn’t ready to take their pictures, so I got nothin’.
Instead, let me leave you with my favorite airport bird of all time, at least so far, which is this superb starling (Lamprotornis superbus), and yes, that’s its real name. We saw a couple of them on the tarmac at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport outside of Nairobi, Kenya, back in March of 2024 on our way home from the Comoros islands, and I could hardly believe my eyes.
I still can’t believe I was able to get a picture through the dirty terminal window to come out even this good, so it is my best reminder to “always be birding.”
Tomorrow I will get to go out to the waterfront at sunrise to see who’s around, so wish me luck!
As I mentioned yesterday, Anne and I are off to see another corner of the world that is new to us, and I get to bring my camera, so I hope to have some good pictures to show you soon. Today, however, will be full of bus rides and airport lounges, so here are some sights I might get to enjoy once we land.
It was a fabulous day for a visit to Lakeshore State Park in downtown Milwaukee. The sky was clear, the breeze was very light, and the temps soared from the high 60s at sunrise into the low 70s by mid morning. My only quibble would be with the relative dearth of birds.
Sure, there were dozens of cormorants flying overhead and fishing in the water offshore, herring and ring-billed gulls, a bunch of Canada geese, a few mallards, and even one great blue heron, but I can see most of that in Estabrook, and I didn’t see any pictures I needed to take. The swallows and martins appear to have all flown south already, and the fancy ducks from up north have not yet arrived.
The one bright spot, at least for me, was the small host of savannah sparrows who really seemed as though they liked posing for my camera. The rest of the Milwaukee Birders kept hoping to see one, but I had multiple sessions like the one that produced this image.
The other big surprise was finding a moth that acted like a butterfly. Not only was it active in broad daylight, but it also was sipping nectar from the goldenrod just as I often see butterflies do. In fact, I was initially all excited because I thought it was some new butterfly that I had never seen before, and I only realized it was a moth when I had a picture that I could zoom in on. If my sources are correct, this is our first soybean looper moth (Chrysodeixis includens).
I had barely walked another 20 yards, and I found a second moth acting like a butterfly. This time, the culprit appears to be a green cloverworm moth (Hypena scabra), another first for us. Wild.
Anyway, since the savannah sparrows were so accommodating, here’s one more look.
Finally, Anne’s taking me on the road again, and we don’t leave until lunch-time tomorrow, but I’ve got a few loose ends I’ve got to take care of before we go, so I’m afraid I’d better skip my visit to Estabrook tomorrow morning. I know folks are still planning on meeting by the beer garden at 7am, so feel free to join them, and I’ll post some pictures from the archives to tide you over.
The rain was pouring down, accompanied by a few flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder, at dawn this morning, so I wasn’t going anywhere. Luckily, it had all passed through by about 8 am, so I hustled to Estabrook Park only about 90 minutes behind schedule.
There was some big running event being held in the park this morning, and folks were busy setting up when I arrived. That much activity can sometimes put a damper on wildlife sighting, so I didn’t get my hopes up. This red-tailed hawk and the few crows it had attracted, on the other hand, were far more interested in each other than they were with the bustle below.
Better yet, the hawk endured the harassment long enough for me to get closer for a nicer picture, which I believe shows a much darker head than on the one we saw across the river on Thursday.
More surprising still, at least for me, is that a couple of the crows, which are usually quite shy, came down to forage at the beer garden after they had vanquished the hawk. Perhaps they were feeling full of themselves, but let’s just enjoy the treat without getting all judgey.
At the river, my good luck continued when the sun poked through the lingering clouds just in time to light up this young female belted kingfisher on the downstream island.
At the meadow, this eastern forktail damselfly seemed to be saying, “You thought we were done for the season? Well check out this action!” Then it began to perform what certainly appeared to be abdomen exercises. First it bent its tail up.
Then it made an “s” shape.
Finally, it brought the tip forward to rub down with its hind legs. If you recall pictures of damselflies mating, you knew this had to be possible, but I sure have never seen it, nor had I thought it would appear so effortless.
Back up on the bluff, another sight that I knew was possible but that I don’t recall seeing in Estabrook was an eastern chipmunk stuffing its cheeks with food to consume later.
The big surprise of the day, however, was seeing this young red-headed woodpecker, the likes of whom we haven’t seen in quite a while. It was calling to see if anyone else was around, and I never did hear it get an answer, but I still hold out hope that one of these years a nesting pair will find Estabrook Park to be just what they’ve been looking for.
Finally, at the pond, one more critter, this muskrat, decided to show its face after a long absence. It seems the crowd of runners did not have the effect that I had feared. Yay!
The weather forecast for tomorrow morning looks gorgeous, so I’m gonna try Lakeshore State Park with the Milwaukee Birders to see if they have anything down there that we’re not seeing up here. I’ll keep you posted.
Welp, the fog must have heard me whining about it yesterday, and said to its buddy, “hold my beer.” It was so thick this morning that I couldn’t see across the soccer fields or the river. Thank goodness there are still wood ducks on the pond.
I was surprised to find, today of all days, that a fresh batch of damselflies appears to have just emerged from the river. I didn’t know that there were any left to emerge at this late date, but here’s one of them, an American rubyspot.
This next critter is a northern walkingstick (Diapheromera femorata) that a keen-eyed reader found on their screen door. Man, what I wouldn’t give to find one of these for myself in Estabrook Park.
It was a very foggy morning in Estabrook Park, but temps were all the way up into the low 60s at dawn, the breeze was light, and I believe all the drops came from fog water accumulating on tree leaves instead of from the clouds, so it wasn’t the worst morning for checking on the wildlife, although taking pictures was rough.
Here’s a belted kingfisher off the tip of the downstream island looking over its shoulder as if to say, “You’re seriously going to try to take my picture in this pea soup?” To which I can only reply, “Why, yes. Yes, I am.”
Farther upstream, this little cutie shot by me and parked only a few yards away, and I figured it was a song sparrow, which we’ve seen here all summer, but I knew I was gonna need pictures today, so here we are. The fun thing is that all my sources insist that it is actually a savannah sparrow, which, if true, would make it the first one we’ve seen this fall.
Just as soon as I hiked back up the boat launch, look who I found strolling down the path. She was surprisingly close, so I knelt right down, and she came closer, as though she was heading for the ramp I had just come up. But then she thought better of it, and strolled over to the brush on our right, her left.
Even better, she had brought her fawn with her, as usual lately, and the fawn wasn’t quite sure what to do either, so this is the closest look we’ve gotten, by far, before it followed Mom into the weeds.
After that fun encounter, I didn’t see a picture worth taking until I was passing behind the dog park, and this catbird, perhaps also a youngster, seemed about as unsure what to do as the deer were.
Finally, as I was passing by the UWM commuter lot across the river, I spotted the palest looking red-tailed hawk I may have ever seen. Here’s hoping it will let us get a closeup someday.
Lastly, I didn’t see a single dragonfly or butterfly today, and even the bumble bees seemed grounded by the fog, but these yellowjackets by the southern parking lot seemed as busy as ever. Someone must have an open soda can somewhere, right?
The temps were mild, and the air was still, but the clouds were thicker than yesterday, and they even leaked a little bit, so the weather was a mixed bag this morning in Estabrook Park. The mosquitoes, however, were decidedly not mixed. Instead, they were just plain fierce, as though they were angry about being grounded for a couple of cool mornings.
Anyway, my first treat came at the river above the falls, when I spotted the doe and her fawn on the downstream island. Even better, the fawn managed to pause for a picture in one of the few spots not draped with trash left behind by the recent flood waters. It was hard to tell for sure, because the brush is so thick in places, but I suspect that entire island had been under water for a while, and some spots now really need some work.
As luck would have it, the first green heron we’ve seen in a while perched right above the fawn. The cherry on top came as the warm morning sun poked through the clouds for a minute just as I was trying to take its picture.
When I got to the meadow a bit farther upstream, I was disappointed to find it partially mowed again, but thrilled to find a handsome young buck nibbling on some weeds that escaped the mowing.
The warblers were even scarcer than usual today, and I only saw a couple of magnolias and a few redstarts. Worse, nobody was in the mood for pictures this morning, so I climbed the bluff and started making my way back south.
I had seen three great blue herons at once as they dispersed from a tall tree just above the falls, but I don’t think I could have made a nice picture out of that, even if I had tried, so I was happy for the chance to get a still picture of just one, who was on the hunt in the still water below the pair of radio towers.
At the weeds beside the soccer fields, I found this white-faced meadowhawk, perhaps the same one we had just seen on Monday, tangled in a spider web. Now, I try to avoid interfering with predator-prey interactions, because nobody wins in the long run if predators go hungry, but there was no sign of the spider who had built that web, so I assumed it had moved on, and the dragonfly eagerly latched onto my finger when I offered it. Better yet, I wasn’t too late, and once free from the web, it soon flew off to do whatever it is that meadowhawks do, which had better include catching and eating mosquitoes!
Finally, there were a handful of monarchs out and about today, and here’s one at the pollinator garden getting covered in pollen by the Mexican sunflower from which it is sipping nectar.
Lastly, the crew was reconfiguring their partial cofferdam above the falls this morning, and if you click on the image so that you can zoom in, you can see a worker attaching chains hanging from the excavator bucket so that they can reposition it.
Tune in tomorrow to find out if there could possibly be more deer, if there might be a second wave of warblers, if the dragonflies have put a dent in the mosquito population, and if the work crew is finally done with our side of the falls.
The weather in Estabrook Park this morning was like a poor photocopy of yesterday’s. Sure, it was a bit warmer, which the mosquitos took full advantage of, but there was a bit more breeze, and there’s a lot of something in the atmosphere, which makes the sky look milky white. Oh well, at least it wasn’t raining.
Happily, my first treat came early when a tiny missile shot over my shoulder as I passed by the southern soccer fields. My first guess was “hummingbird!”, but then I didn’t have to guess because it parked barely 30 feet in front of me. It preened for a bit, let me take a couple of pictures, stuck out its tongue, and then took off like a shot. My camera sure could have used more light, as is often the case, but that’s still a mighty fine way to start the morning. Right?
The warblers are still pretty scarce, but at the north end by the river I did manage to get my clearest shot of a magnolia warbler this fall, even with that darn branch in the way.
The big surprise at the north end came after I climbed back up the bluff, thought I had just gotten the best black-and-white warbler picture I was going to get today, and used my binoculars to check the robins perched high in a dead tree, just in case. But wait just a second! That’s no robin! That handsome bird is a male American kestrel, whom we might have just seen on Saturday, but from a lot farther away. Even better, a second one soon swooped in, perhaps a brother, upon which this first one immediately took off. Why the robins weren’t flipping out and a kingfisher didn’t fly up to see what all the fuss was about, is anybody’s guess.
Soon after the second kestrel took off to follow the first, the black-and-white warbler reappeared and let me get an even nicer picture than before and perhaps the nicest one I’ve gotten of these little acrobats in quite a while.
I had barely turned around to continue my way south when I spotted another furry darling. This picture certainly isn’t the sharpest chipmunk picture I’ve ever captured, but I don’t believe I’ve seen one in the park before so bold as to stop and scratch an itch before bolting out of sight.
I did see one dragonfly today, in the burdock beside the soccer fields, and this one turns out to be a gorgeous black saddlebags.
I also saw just one butterfly, this monarch on the unopened goldenrod in the pollinator garden.
Finally, the work on reshaping the falls continues, and you can see they’ve moved the piles of broken limestone that were in the picture on Saturday. Now they are combined into one big pile on the far shore, which you can just see an excavator working on at the left edge of this picture.
I’ve been asked how they get the equipment to the work site, and so here’s a picture of a second excavator wading through the water at the edge of the falls to get inside the partial cofferdam and resume chipping away at the limestone. That is a huge hydraulic jack hammer it has mounted on the end of its arm. The WordPress rendering of the images above are not too bad, but the one below is of particularly low resolution, so if you want a clearer view, go ahead and click on it so you can see and zoom in on the full-resolution image on flickr.
Lastly, at the instructor orientation yesterday for the North Shore School for Seniors, I was a little surprised that more than one person asked me if it was okay to share this blog with others. I really appreciate that they were keeping the cat in the bag, so to speak, in case that is what I wanted, instead of the proverbial harder-to-undo alternative, but let me be perfectly clear and tell you what I told them. Please feel absolutely free to share this as far and wide as you wish. You may share the URL and tell folks to visit the site or subscribe, or you may forward the email versions of my posts that you receive if you subscribe. I get paid the same either way, so don’t be shy. The more the merrier!
We had a picture-perfect morning for a wild life walk in Estabrook Park today, with clear skies, a very light breeze, and temps cool enough to keep the mosquitoes quiet for a while. Eight brave souls came out to face the elements, and we set out hoping to see scads of warblers. Many of those birds, however, seemed to have prior engagements, likely south of here, so we did see a few, but certainly not scads.
I didn’t even take a picture until I had collected the 8 o’clock arrivals, and we were on our way to meet the rest of the group at the north end. Along the way someone with sharp eyes spotted a hawk on the hunt around the base of a tree, and it soon emerged to perch beside the path right in front of us. That’s when we could identify it as a Cooper’s hawk, and if you don’t believe me, please allow me to point out the crazy long tail it’s sporting.
By the time we did all regroup, the sun had warmed things up enough for the warblers who were still with us to start their foraging, and here’s a young or female magnolia warbler hiding in plain sight amongst some oddly variegated maple leaves, perhaps of a “Norway Maple cultivar ‘Drummondii’, also known as the Harlequin Maple,” but don’t quote me on that.
In the next tree over, with a more-traditional color pallet, a bay-breasted warbler is a little easier to see.
As we made our way toward the pond, another sharp set of eyes spotted this red-tailed hawk near the beer garden parking lot. That makes it a three-raptor morning, which hasn’t occurred much lately.
I had an 11 am meeting to get to, so I couldn’t dawdle too much, and soon began making my way south. As I rounded the bend in the path to head toward the weeds along the west side of the southern soccer fields, I finally spotted our first palm warbler of the fall migration. It was looking more stripey and less yellow than usual, and it was bobbing its tail as it foraged along the ground as I had just watched the northern waterthrush do yesterday, so I am a bit surprised to read that they are indeed both members of the New World Warbler family, Parulidae, but they are not in the same genus. Hmmm. Perhaps it’s a mild case of convergent evolution.
Anyway, I was trying to keep on schedule, so I tore myself away and checked for pretty insects in the weeds, and this white-faced meadowhawk was my best find.
Finally, the monarchs were thick today, and I saw at least six at the pollinator garden and at least two more beside the soccer fields. I hear that they are fueling up for their long flight to Mexico, and here’s one sipping nectar from one of the many goldenrods at the pollinator garden.
Lastly, my 11 o’clock meeting was the instructor orientation for this fall’s semester of North Shore School for Seniors, and I’m scheduled to show my pictures and tell my stories about the wildlife in Estabrook Park on Tuesday, October 7 at 1 pm. If you always wanted an opportunity to beg me in person to stop showing spider pictures, this is your big chance, and you can register for my “class” on their website at https://nss4s.org/home/classes/
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 