It’s another beautiful morning, but I’ve gotta pack up the car and drive down to Ohio for a trade show, and I don’t have time to visit Estabrook Park today. Instead, here are a few pictures from yesterday that I couldn’t squeeze in.

The great blue herons must have had a good breeding season because they’ve been thick on the river lately, and yesterday was no exception. I counted at least 5, and here’s one beside the northern island with a fresh catch.

Green herons are still around and here’s one from the same vicinity but who appears to have not caught breakfast yet. I expect it won’t be long before the last one of these has moved on to their winter fishing grounds around the Gulf of Mexico.

Swainson’s thrushes, who are only here briefly as they make their own way south, haven’t all left yet either.

And the warblers, a stunning blackburnian in this case, are in pretty much the same boat.

Cedar waxwings, on the other hand, are already in their “year-round” range, so we have a hope of enjoying glimpses of their amazing plumage all winter. Yay!

I’ll bring my camera with me to Ohio, and I’ll post pictures of what I find, but if that turns out to be nothing, I’ll dig into the vault for something to tide you over.

It was a curious morning in Estabrook Park. The sky above was nice and clear, but there was a huge cumulonimbus cloud to the southeast that blocked the sun quite effectively. It was cool, at 53°F, but the air was still, so it felt quite comfortable.

In any case, the critters were quite active, perhaps because the cool snap reminded them of what is to come, and here’s a doe grazing with her two young bucks at the southwest corner of the soccer fields.

Here’s the budding rack on one buck.

And here’s the budding rack on his twin brother.

I spotted another warbler beside the guardrail, and it’s a black-and-white this time. If ever there was a perfect bird to photograph in light so low that all the color gets washed out, the black-and-white warbler would have to be a lead contender.

On the river at the far north end, the pied-billed grebe was still hanging out with the mallards, and here it is beside a snoozing mallard for size comparison in one of the moments when the sun snuck around the cloud.

There were a couple of kingfishers flitting around the northern island, and here’s one, a female by the glimpse of a red band across her breast, who parked surprisingly close to me and seemed to not yet know the drill. “You’re supposed to take one look at me, Sweetie, and then bolt like a scalded cat.”

On my way back south along the river, a red squirrel, whom I may have already photographed on my way north, had found itself a black walnut and was quite noisily letting everyone in earshot know about all it.

I’ve got a few more pictures from this morning, but I’ve got another short trip coming up, so let me hold onto those for when I’m away and show you the last of my Sedona pictures instead. After the wetlands preserve, Tim took us to the “Bubbling Ponds Preserve“, comprising the Page Springs Fish Hatchery and a stretch of the Oak Creek. There we spotted this stunning and aptly-named flame skimmer or firecracker skimmer (Libellula saturata), a “common dragonfly … native to western North America.”

There were plenty of phainopeplas, red-winged blackbirds, and goldfinches in the nearby trees and bushes, but the big surprise for me was this darling Wilson’s warbler, which I first saw in Estabrook, then again in Yellowstone, and now in Arizona. Ha!

Tim had advised us that this would be a good location to spot the common black hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus), but we searched the skies in vain, and it wasn’t until we were walking along the Oak Creek that I spotted a huge bird swoop up into branches over the water. We had to be patient, but this youngster eventually showed its face. Ta da!

Finally, as we headed back to the van for our trip back to our Airbnb, this painted lady butterfly posed so nicely, I just had to take its picture.

The rain is done for now, and it became a beautiful morning in Estabrook Park after the clouds drifted away and the sun came out.

It didn’t take me long to find this female rose-breasted grosbeak looking to bask a bit in that nice, warm morning sun. We hardly see them over the summer, so I expect she’s from north of here and already on her way south for the winter.

I found only one wood duck on the pond, so I headed to the river, where I found a dozen more, but the less-common bird was this one, darling pied-billed grebe. It was busy gulping down a fish when I arrived, but those pictures didn’t come out too great, so here’s one from when it was done with breakfast and looking more presentable. It too is probably already on its way south for the winter.

On my own way back south, I came across this interesting scene in which several blue jays, of which one is pictured with its back to us, were trying to convince an American kestrel to look for breakfast elsewhere. The red structure they are on is a radio tower across the river.

While that was all unfolding above the far riverbank, a northern cardinal in mid-molt was feasting on a grape right in front of me.

Down the bluff from where there is a guardrail between the parkway and the path, a female or immature male bay-breasted warbler was playing coy.

Finally, a female monarch butterfly was sipping nectar from a bull thistle blossom in the weeds along the west side of the soccer fields.

Those are just the highlights from Estabrook because I still have some pictures from Sedona to show you. After our guide, Tim, showed us all the birds he could find near our Airbnb, he took us to the Sedona Wetlands Preserve created by wastewater effluent and now a National Geographic Geoturism Destination.

There we saw several American coots, just like the ones that visit Estabrook from time to time.

A sora, which we also see in Estabrook but not quite as often.

This amazing-looking grasshopper, which is probably a green bird grasshopper or green valley grasshopper (Schistocerca shoshone)

And nearly a dozen black-necked stilts, which I have seen in the Horicon Marsh and in South Holland but not yet in Estabrook.

There was also a redhead duck, a killdeer, a spotted sandpiper, a pied-billed grebe, three eared grebes, and a great blue heron, among several others, but they all kept too far away for my camera. Instead, I’ll leave you with this picture of a painted lady butterfly.

It’s a rainy morning in Estabrook Park, but I spent the weekend in Sedona, AZ, with a group of high school buddies, and we sprung for a guided birding tour, which was excellent, so here are some pictures from that.

We started on foot right from our Airbnb and headed up the side of nearby Sugarloaf Mountain. There were a lot of birds around, and here’s a male phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens), a silky flycatcher.

Here’s a female phainopepla, and you may recall that we also saw these in Big Bend National Park back in January.

A completely new bird for me, however, is this darling little verdin (Auriparus flaviceps), described as “one of the smallest passerines in North America.”

I also saw my first canyon towhee (Melozone fusca). They are not the most colorful bird, but they do show a “warm rufous patch under the tail.“

Despite the name, this female or immature lazuli bunting (Passerina amoena) was leaving the flashy plumage to the breeding males, of which I failed to spot an example.

The Woodhouse’s scrub jays (Aphelocoma woodhouseii), on the other hand, had color to spare, and here’s one fishing a pine nut out of a cone. Our guide, Tim, explained that they hide these nuts in caches.

They are said to devote a lot of time and energy to preventing other birds from finding their caches and searching out and stealing food from the caches of other birds.

Further, I read that “recent research has suggested that Woodhouse’s scrub jays, along with several other corvids, are among the most intelligent of animals. The brain-to-body mass ratio of adult scrub jays rivals that of chimpanzees and cetaceans.” Fun, eh?

Anyway, the pine nuts also attracted the attention of this juniper titmouse (Baeolophus ridgwayi).

There were several hummingbirds around, and here’s a female/immature male black-chinned hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri). It looks a lot like a female ruby-throated, which we see in Estabrook, but I read that “ruby-throated hummingbirds have a longer tail that extends beyond the wings,” and in another picture of this same bird, I can clearly see the short tail.

Here also is my very first female/immature male Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna). I was surprised to learn, when Tim pointed out the behavior, that hummingbirds are insectivores and we often watched them fly off a perch, catch an insect in midair, and return to the perch, just as flycatchers do. I haven’t seen that behavior in Estabrook, yet, but I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for it now.

Finally, we often heard them, and their image or silhouette appears in signage all over town, but it took me a while to get a good look at a Gambel’s quail (Callipepla gambelii). This dashing figure happens to be a male.

While we’re in May 2022, I will never forget the encounter I had with this coyote on the day before I left for South Holland. It still gives me goosebumps.

With any luck, tomorrow morning I’ll have for you some pictures from my trip, my recent visit to Estabrook Park, or both.

Here’s my best picture of the amazing prairie warbler that visited Estabrook Park for a few days back in May, 2022. He made me work hard for this picture and then seemed to get bored with the game and just started singing.

Here’s a violet-green swallow from Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in Idaho, also in 2021. I had never heard of such a creature, and I could barely believe my eyes when I got a good look at it.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m on the road again today, and to tide you over here’s a barred owl I saw in Glacier National Park back in 2021 on a hike up to Avalanche Lake, another great trip planned by Anne. It is my one and only barred owl and the only time, so far, that I saw an owl flying, watched where it landed, and could capture a picture of it where it perched. Truly a magical moment.

Oof, the sky was, and as I write this still is, dark today, but critters gotta eat, so I managed to take some pictures anyway, even if they’re a bit dark and moody.

There was quite a crowd of wood ducks on the pond, I counted eleven, and this drake appears to be sporting the new fall line already.

I was happy to see that not all the sandpipers have already left for warmer waters, and here’s a nonbreeding/immature spotted sandpiper, who’s spots have not yet arrived, foraging on the rocks at the top of the falls.

At the north end, there was even a killdeer foraging on the vegetation that grows in the river and is now exposed by low water. I also saw two fly over, heading southwest, and they exchanged a few calls with the one below, but they decided not to join forces and continued on their way.

Finally, one of my favorite fall flowers is starting to open, New England aster, hairy Michaelmas-daisy, or Michaelmas daisy (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae formerly Aster novae-angliae) where. “‘Michaelmas daisy’ derives from the [tendency it has] to flower around September 29, the Feast of St. Michael,” and here’s a first look. With any luck, we’ll get plenty of pictures in the coming weeks of butterflies tanking up on these beauties for fall migration or winter hibernation, as the case may be.

Lastly, I’ve got another trip to go on, a short one this time, and due to all the positive feedback, I’ll cue up a few short posts to tide you over.

I was happy to see that we still have wood ducks on the pond, and I counted six of them today. Here is a drake, on the left, and a hen, on the right, acting like an old couple on the outs.

On the river, I was also happy to see that the green herons have not yet flown south, either.

The great blue herons do stick around for the winter, and this one looks like it’s soaking up sun while it can.

We even still have a great egret, taking a break from fishing to scratch an itch.

Back on shore, the warblers are still coming through, and here’s a non-breeding female or immature bay-breasted.

And here’s a female American redstart flashing her bright yellow tail patches.

As another enthusiast and I were watching the black chestnut trees for warblers, we were both quite sure we saw a pair of ketrels chasing each other as they soared overhead. Then, when I returned my attention to the river, I was excited to see that one had landed on a tree on the island. Upon closer inspection, however, it is clearly a juvenile peregrine falcon, and not one of the kestrels we were sure we saw. Plus, it’s sporting some nice jewelry.

Then, to complicate things further, there was a second raptor in the tree, and it looked much smaller. Maybe it was one of the kestrels, or maybe it was just a male falcon, which are “considerably” smaller than the females.

Well, hold onto your hats, because the second raptor is neither a falcon or a kestrel, but a merlin, instead. Ach du lieber! I surely have not seen a falcon and a merlin in the same tree before.

After all that excitement, I returned my attention to shore, and look who stopped by to fill up on some of the goldenrod that is in blossom everywhere now, a monarch butterfly.

Now that was a fine welcome back to Estabrook Park, eh?