Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Still new things to see…

The cool and cloudy weather continued this morning in Estabrook Park, but we traded the rain in for a breeze, and now the sun is out. Nice.

Our first guest of the morning is this exquisite male indigo bunting beside the river at the north end, who appears to be wondering what kind of weird little dance I was doing as I tried moving forward, back, left, and right to get him the cleanest background I could find. The leaves blowing around behind him in that breeze did not help one bit!

Things were easier out on the water where this killdeer paused for a moment to enjoy the sun as it poked through the clouds.

That’s it for the birds today, I’m afraid, but the good news is that the weed patch beside the southern soccer fields was buzzing with dragonflies. I counted individuals of eight species, and one of them happened to be our very first Calico Pennant (Celithemis elisa).

And another was our very first Variegated Meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum), which brings our lifetime haul in Estabrook to 25 species! Holy moly, right?

There were also a few butterflies flitting about, and here’s our first painted lady of the season and close cousin of the American lady we saw back in May.

Finally, Bob reports that the glossy ibises he arranged for me to see in Maine are “very upset that they [haven’t made it into] a post yet, despite their multiple low-level flybys.” Sheesh! Everyone’s a critic. FWIW, Bob has seen them in Maine before, but I’ve only ever seen them in Morocco, until now.

Lastly “the bobolink is also sad that [I’m] dissin’ him, too.” Anne’s always reminding me that east coasters come with a reputation, and maybe now I’m starting to see what she means. Anyway, you may recall that I only saw bobolinks for the first time just last summer, first in the Horicon Marsh, and then on the south side of Milwaukee, near the airport. It’s great to see that they’ve found some suitable habitat in Maine as well.

Tomorrow morning’s forecast calls for “sunny” skies, and that would be nice for a change, so keep your fingers crossed.

Back in E.P. again, plus a few more sights from Vacationland…

Sorry about skipping yesterday’s post, but Bob kept me out taking pictures until it was time to go to the airport, 😉, I didn’t get home from Maine until around 11 pm, and I went straight to bed at that point. The good news is that I made it home safely, the not-so-great news is that it was a rainy morning in Estabrook Park, and the not-so-bad news is that I was able to sneak in and get some pictures before the rains came.

Here’s a very fresh-looking batch of mallard ducklings on the river beside the downstream island, and boy did they act like they were hungry. You’d think they’d spent their whole lives living in a shell until just this morning.

A bit farther upstream and between the two islands, a great blue heron put in a relatively rare appearance, at least for this year so far.

And those are the pretty sights I managed to capture under the thick clouds and before the precipitation started today. Luckily, I’ve still got a few pictures from my trip out east that I haven’t been able to show you yet, and this first one is the first shorebird chick I’ve ever seen, a young piping plover snuggled up under one of its parents on Half Mile Beach in Reid State Park.

There were four of the little rascals, in fact, and here’s one getting the hang of that iconic shorebird behavior of chasing after a wave as it recedes and then fleeing the next one to keep its tootsie toes dry. They look barely larger than two cotton balls stacked atop a couple of toothpicks, but man, they were quick on their feet already!

One odd sight was spotting these four adults getting into quite a kerfuffle. This was just yesterday morning, a Tuesday, so you wouldn’t think that they’d been drinking already, and perhaps it was just about local politics.

The fight did eventually break up, all the parties moved on, and so did Bob and I, but our next fun sight came only a couple dozen yards up the beach. This here is my very first Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla). Long-time readers may be thinking, “didn’t we just see a semipalmated something-or-other in Estabrook just a week and a half ago, that he was all in a dither about?” Well, they’re right, but that “something-or-other” was a “plover”, not a “sandpiper”. See? A completely different small shorebird.

Anyway, I haven’t been able to show you much in the way of mammals from this trip, so here’s a Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina), if my sources are correct, just off the beach and probably wondering if we don’t have any fish to share. A herring or a flounder, even a hake would do.

I see that tomorrow morning is also forecast to be cool and cloudy, but at least the chance of rain is slight, so maybe I’ll get lucky and have more to show you.

Maine picks up the pace…

After the great showing from Vermont yesterday, Bob was a little miffed that Maine was coming up short on the species count, so before we went back to his place, we stopped at the Scarborough Marsh again to see if there might be anyone new. Sure enough, we had barely gotten out of the parking lot when we spotted a pair of greater yellowlegs foraging on the mud exposed by the low tide. We’ve seen them in Estabrook Park once before, but I didn’t see any in Vermont, so Bob considered that a step in the right direction.

The willets were still there and more active than before. One even paid us a visit up on the causeway, and here it is perched on a little tree, which I didn’t even know willets could do. Did you?

It was raining when we got up this morning, so we had a nice breakfast and then headed out to Frye Island in Sebago Lake, and the rain was done by the time we arrived. I thought for sure we’d see plenty of waders and waterfowl, but that was oddly not the case. Instead, the treat of the island was this yellow-bellied sapsucker with a beak full of bugs. Yum!

The highlight of the visit, however, came as we took the car ferry back to the mainland. Just as it pulled into the dock, I looked out the window, and I could barely believe my eyes. As you well know, I’ve seen goslings, ducklings, and even a couple of great crested grebelings, but I have never seen common merganserlings until now. “Beat that, Vermont!”

Once again, it’s quite late, so I’m gonna wrap this up and hit the sack. Tomorrow I finally head back home.

Vermont pulls out all the stops…

After the great day at Shelburne Farm yesterday, I thought I’d give the waterfront another try this morning, so I hiked down to the lake and this time, I headed north. Things got off to quite a slow start, and I was all the way up to North Beach Park, about 2.5 miles from our Airbnb, before this little eastern phoebe called for my attention. We see them in Estabrook, but not since April.

That seemed like a nice start, so I wandered around the park a bit until I heard a chirp that I thought might be a raptor. Since I haven’t gotten pictures of many this trip, I immediately started searching for it, and as I rounded the bath house, I heard it again, but closer to the ground. Well, I must have made more noise than I thought, because right about then someone poked their head up to see who I was.

You may be forgiven for not recognizing that face because I haven’t been able to show you a picture of it very often. Happily, its owner hopped up a little higher to get a better look at me.

That’s right, campers, we’ve got ourselves another pileated woodpecker, and this time it is not hiding behind the leaves of a tree. His red cheek and forehead make him a he, and I was torn about what to do next. I really, really wanted a nice pileated picture, but I also very much didn’t want to chase off the bird. Since I was already quite close, and it hadn’t fled yet, I opted to maintain that same distance and see if it would let me ease around to the side of that stump. My luck held, my plan worked, and here’s our beauty and the mine it was excavating.

In fact, I had so many pictures, and the bird just kept digging, that it finally occurred to me to take some video, so here you go. Mmm, mmm, carpenter ants and their larvae!

Finally, I’ve gotta wrap this up ’cause it’s late, so here’s the lemon gumdrop on top, a northern yellow warbler with a beak full of the bugs it has collected for its fledgling nearby.

Tomorrow, Bob and I are gonna see if we can’t find as many species here in Maine as we had the good fortune to find in Vermont. Wish us luck!

Vermont humbles again…

Given my luck at the lakefront yesterday, I opted to try someplace inland today, and the Centennial Woods Natural Area on the UVM campus looked perfect, on paper. So, I let Bob sleep in and roped Steve, another old high school buddy and now also a member of the Estabrook Cinematic Universe, into driving me out there early this morning. He went for a trail run while I tried to find you some pictures.

The woods were wonderful and the wildlife was plentiful there, but it seemed to be intent on reminding me that this isn’t supposed to be easy. For example, here’s a gorgeous viceroy butterfly, which we’ve even seen in Estabrook before, that kept itself half hidden behind some fern leaves. Sheesh!

The hardest pill to swallow, however, was this pileated woodpecker, which I’ve only ever gotten to see a couple of times so far, who called to get my attention, hopped up the side of this tree about as fast as I could move my camera, and then was gone. Dang it!

Then it was time to go back to the Airbnb, have some breakfast, collect the whole crew, and go check out the amazing nearby Shelburne Farms. There, my luck changed. Before we even left the parking lot, there was an occupied osprey nest almost right over the far end of it.

And this savannah sparrow posed like a statue on the split rail fence around it.

We hiked over to the enormous and ornate barn they have, and this turkey vulture made a nice, slow, and low pass right over it.

We continued hiking to the lake shore to check out the historic Shelburne Farms Inn, and there was a female common merganser, which we haven’t seen in Estabrook since early April, drying out on the rocks at the water’s edge.

Finally, in the nice stand of sugar maples they have, this eastern chipmunk asked the savannah sparrow to “hold my beer.”

Our weekend reunion wraps up tomorrow, and then Bob and I will drive back across New Hampshire to his place in Maine. It will be interesting to see, at least for me, where I find something to show you: Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, or even Namibia. Time will tell!

Vermont is slow out of the gate…

Bob and I did make it to Vermont yesterday afternoon, the rest of the crew also arrived, and I did get out to the Lake Champlain waterfront nice and early this morning, but somebody must have tipped off the birds that I was going to go looking for them, because they kept themselves well-hidden so far.

I did have one fun close-call when I realized that a gull I was watching was actually an osprey carrying a fish, and then a bald eagle approached to see if the osprey needed any help with that. By the time I could bring my camera to bear, however, the stinkers flew right in front of the sun, and I lost them. At least I wasn’t trying to track them with my binoculars. Phew!

Thus, I’m forced to go back, at least for today, to the deep well that was coastal Maine. This first statuesque bird, a great egret, was hunting in the Scarborough Marsh, and we have seen them in Estabrook Park once in a while, but none have stopped in lately, and here’s hoping we get one this year.

Here’s one of the willets taking a break from flying around.

The tricolored heron kept its distance, so this is the best shot it would let me have.

I mentioned that the least terns were nesting, and here’s one of them on its carefully crafted depression in the sand.

The piping plover kept to the shoreline, probably because that’s where the food was, so here it is amongst the seaweed and clamshells.

The eider drake did give us a nice look at its face.

Finally, Bob and I did get out for a minute before he drove us to VT, and here’s an eider hen with her fuzzy little duckling.

Well, just about everyone is up by now, and we’ve gotta get on with our day, so wish me luck with the local fauna, and I’ll see what I can come up with for tomorrow.

Yes, we went to Scarborough Ferry…

Soon after I arrived at Portland International Jetport yesterday afternoon, just outside of Portland, Maine, my old high school buddy, Bob, picked me up and took me immediately to the Scarborough Marsh, were we saw mallards, willets, great egrets, double-crested cormorants, a belted kingfisher, and even a tricolored heron.

The marsh is huge, however, so plenty of the birds were content to keep their distance from the causeway were on, and those great distances, combined with the warmth of the afternoon sun made for some mediocre pictures, but this snowy egret, which we last saw in Dallas, showed me some pity and got to fishing close enough for a presentable image.

The willets, which we last saw on Caye Caulker in Belize, flew around a bit, and these two must have been distracted and also drifted close enough for a moment.

The action really started, though, when Bob took me to Ferry Beach, where the Scarborough River empties into Saco Bay. As soon as we stepped out onto the beach, we could see ducks out on the water, and I thought they looked like mallard hens, at first glance, but Bob casually mentioned that they were Common Eider (Somateria mollissima). When I took a closer look, all I could think was “common eider? They’re my very first eiders, and I don’t see anything common about them, especially that drake! Holy smokes!”

As we were watching them, and I was trying to get a picture, one came up from the bottom with a tasty treat, and a herring gull immediately flew over to see what it was.

As you can see, it turned out to be a crab, probably an Atlantic rock crab (Cancer irroratus). Mmm-mmm-mmm. Tasty indeed.

There were also small terns darting over the water, and as we walked around the bend of Chandler Point, we were able to get a closer look and discover that they were Least Terns (Sternula antillarum), another first for me. Several were nesting right on the beach, but I thought that this one showing off its short little legs made a more interesting sight.

Finally, the main attraction, and the reason Bob had dragged me to this beach in the first place, was this tiny Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus), even smaller than the semipalmated plover we just saw in Estabrook. I read that they are “an endangered shorebird protected by both State and Federal laws,” and “Scarborough works closely with partners from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Maine Audubon to protect the plovers on our beaches.” Cool.

Then it was time to get to Bob’s house, have some dinner, finish yesterday’s post, and hit the sack. Today, we drove over to Burlington, VT, on Lake Champlain to meet some more old friends and see if there’s any wildlife there. I’ll keep you posted.

Etosha National Park Revisited…

You guessed it, boys and girls, I don’t have any pictures from Estabrook Park today, and the reason is that I’m traveling again, but this time it’s just a little hop out east to meet up with some old high school buddies. So, while I’m sitting in airports and on airplanes today, it seems like the perfect opportunity to sift through a few more pictures of the amazing wildlife we got to see in Namibia’s Etosha National Park.

I had these pictures all picked out this morning, before I left, and my plan was to add some entertaining words along the way, but you know what they say about plans. Now it’s late, my host is fixing us some supper, and I’m gonna have to let these pretty birds speak for themselves. Sorry about that. They’re all from Etosha, and they’re all on the ground, except for the crow, because there are some but not a lot of trees there.

Kalahari Scrub-Robin (Cercotrichas paena)

Pied Crow (Corvus albus)

Double-banded Courser (Smutsornis africanus)

Crimson-breasted Gonolek (Laniarius atrococcineus)

Spike-heeled Lark (Chersomanes albofasciata)

Crowned Lapwing (Vanellus coronatus)

Capped Wheatear (Oenanthe pileata)

Tomorrow I’ll have some pictures to show you from here, and I hope you find them worth the wait.

A little less wet, and a little less birdy…

It was another dark and wet morning in Estabrook Park, but not as wet as yesterday. I didn’t see as much wildlife, however, and I didn’t get my first picture until I was on my way downstream and already below the falls, where I found this green heron fishing on the far riverbank. As I was lining up the best shot I thought I could manage, given the lack of light coming through the clouds, the little angler caught this delicious looking fish.

The next fun sight is this Pink-legged Tiger Moth (Spilosoma latipennis). We’ve seen Virginia tiger moths before, and I thought the little bit of reddish color might be a piece of some flower that got stuck there, but nope. That’s its namesake pink leg.

Many of you will recognize this hungry little muncher, a monarch caterpillar. I’ve seen the butterflies a few times, and they obviously have time to perch on milkweed plants, but none has posed for me yet this year.

And that’s it for Estabrook pictures today, which is just the break I needed to work on my stockpile of pictures from Namibia.

These are ostriches, of course, specifically common ostriches (Struthio camelus) and “the largest living species of bird.” We spotted this small herd soon after we entered Etosha National Park for the first time.

This next picture may not look like much, until you realize that the huge clump of straw hanging down from the top is just part of an enormous communal nest for sociable weavers (Philetairus socius), and that’s one of them flying straight up into it. The wikipedia article about them gushes that “these nests are perhaps the most spectacular structure built by any bird,” and it even cites a source, so you know that’s gotta be true!

Here’s a closer look at one of the striking and industrious little weavers. The article explains further that “these nests are amongst the largest built by any bird, and they are large enough to house over 100 pairs.” Wild, eh? Who would have thought that the largest bird and the largest bird nests could be found in the same park, but the latter is not built by the former?

Finally, the most common ungulate we saw on the whole trip has got to be the springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis). Not only did we see them in Pilanesberg and Etosha, but there were little herds out in the middle of nowhere all over Namibia, which was great to see. They are supposed to pronk, as I’ve seen pronghorns in North America do, but we didn’t get to see them do it on this trip. Next time!

Lastly, despite the wet morning, the forecast looks pretty good for this afternoon (less than 20% chance of rain), which is good news for the Friends of Estabrook Park picnic (5:00-7:30 in the beer garden), so if you’ve always wanted to question me in person on my editorial decisions, this could be your big chance.

Rained on, but not washed out…

The weather in Estabrook Park this morning was wetter than I expected, and we had no visitors for our weekly wildlife walk, but that’s probably because everyone else had the good sense to check the current radar before they headed out.

Luckily, it wasn’t all rain all the time, and I was able to take the rain cover off my camera by about 8:30, which was just in time to catch this mallard hen with three of her nine ducklings in the river beside the upstream island.

The big surprise at the river today was capturing this female belted kingfisher on film for the first time since April. I suspect that we don’t have a pair nesting in the island, for the first time since I’ve been keeping track, probably because of the crazy wet April we had. They nest in a burrow they dig into the side of a bank, and perhaps the soil was too soggy, or the water was too high, and they opted to dig elsewhere. Anyway, it’s great to see one, even if it’s just for a visit. Right, Lois?

As the morning warmed up, the bugs started to stir, and here’s one of several northern crescent butterflies that were flitting from perch to perch in the meadow beside the river at the north end, which remains blissfully unmowed, for now.

Back at the south end, this interesting looking character caught my eye as it flew in to cling to that grass stem. It’s a red soldier beetle (Cantharis rufa), and I’ve seen them before, but none have ever posed quite so photogenically as this one did.

Finally, I don’t know if this is the same doe or not that we saw mixing it up with a pair of coyotes, but she sure was enjoying a more peaceful scene today.

Lastly, the Friends of Estabrook Park will be holding their first picnic of the summer at the beer garden tomorrow afternoon from 5:00 to 7:30, and I plan to be there, so come on out to meet the crew. “Bring some food or buy some there, some members might even bring some sweets to share. As always, members enjoy free beer at the picnic, [and] feel free to bring new friends! We are usually seated in the southeast corner” of the beer garden.