It took a while for the rain to turn to snow this morning, so I didn’t get into Estabrook until 10am. Happily, must critters were still up at that late hour, and I got to see quite a few. Conditions continue to be suboptimal for photography, however, so let’s see what images I managed to scrounge up.

Right off the bat, near the very south end, I was thrilled to spot again our great blue heron, who’s been absent for a while since it first reappeared for the season back in March. I don’t know what it’s been up to in the meantime, nest building in some near-by rookery, we can hope, but welcome back anyway!

Farther north, I found our two new celebrities, the pair of visiting black-crowned night-herons, perched right where I left them yesterday.

I’m sure I’ll get tired of them eventually, but today was not that day.

As I approached the north end, I couldn’t believe my luck to finally get a clear shot of one of the elusive hermit thrushes that I knew had to be around somewhere.

At the north end, the quintet of red-breasted mergansers were still busy fishing along with one pair of buffleheads. Meanwhile, one pair of wood ducks was on the pond along with the nesting goose and her guardian gander.

On my way south, I spotted this little eastern phoebe surveying its soggy domain.

While a northern flicker, a female by the looks of her unmustachioed face, did the same from a high perch.

Finally, the black-crowned night herons were still in their spot on my second pass, and here’s the second of the two from across the river.

Tune in tomorrow to see if I finally spot one of the warblers that folks are beginning to report.

I couldn’t make it to Estabrook this morning, while the skies were grey but dry, and had to go around lunch time when the clouds started leaking. Most of the critters were busy today, and had no time for pictures, but there were a couple notable exceptions.

Our two new favorite black-crowned night-herons were still gracing us with their magnificent presence, and I found them just a bit south of where they perched yesterday.

After I did my best to get pictures of both of them, one hopped down to the water’s edge to look for lunch.

The other bird I was able to capture today was this youngish looking bald eagle, maybe four years old with some like specks in its dark plumage and some dark specks on its white tail, soaring in lazy circles over the village of Shorewood, just east of the park. I don’t recall seeing this individual before.

And that’s the show for today, folks. The great horned owl was in its recent favorite spot again, but hidden even better than usual.

I see we’re due for snow showers tomorrow morning, so maybe that’ll make for some pretty pictures. We’ll see soon enough, right?

It was still raining when we woke up, but soon enough the big green radar blob drifted out over the lake and left us with a pretty nice morning in Estabrook Park. As usual these days, there were plenty of birds making rackets, but hardly anybody had time for my camera.

This sparrow by the river was one exception.

At the time, I thought it was a fox sparrow, of which we’ve been seeing a lot lately, but when I got home and took a closer look at the pictures, I was thrilled to realize it is actually a swamp sparrow! I guess that would explain it standing in water up to its little round belly, eh? That’s the first one of those I’ve seen this season.

Another bright spot in my hike north was spotting this male eastern towhee by the pond, and this is the best picture he let me have today, but that’s another first for the season. Yay!

At the north end, I was happy to see a pair of red-breasted mergansers and a pair of buffleheads still around. I even spotted the quintet of mergansers who put on a show for us yesterday, for a total of 7, but I couldn’t get a picture worth showing today, and I was beginning to think that I really should have saved some pictures from yesterday.

Then, on my way back south, I was using the binoculars to try to get an accurate count of Canada geese on the southern island when I was stunned to spot this American coot just hanging out. What a pleasant surprise. We haven’t seen one since the first half of March.

There was one exciting moment when some big bird flew north over the river. At first I thought it was a young gull because of its grey color, but then I caught a glimpse of its profile, and it had a neck like a heron, but not the long legs I’m used to seeing on great blue herons. Then it even soared a bit, as I see raptors do, so I had no idea what it really could be.

Anyway, I continued south and took the stairs up the bluff by the falls to check for starlings or cowbirds on the lawn among the robins, and I can report that a crew was busy at work preparing the Beer Garden for their spring opening. As I walked along the edge of the bluff from the beer garden, I just happened to glance down to the river, and I could not believe my eyes. Our mystery bird was perched in a tree on the other side, and it turns out to be a black-crowned night-heron! Holy Moly!

It perfectly fits the description: a big grey bird, like a young gull, with a heron’s neck but not long legs like a great blue heron. Best of all, it was pretty comfortable with me hiding behind a tree on the far shore to take pictures, the sun came out a bit, and I even spotted a second one. Wow!

Long-time readers may recall that we had a juvenile black-crowned night-heron on the pond for a few days in August of 2020, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen an adult in Estabrook Park, or anywhere for that matter.

Why do I ever doubt that Estabrook Park will deliver the goods?

I didn’t get to Estabrook until nearly noon today, and I was happy to find that there were still plenty of critters up and about, but I didn’t get a picture until this handsome devil, a red-breasted merganser drake, came floating by at the southern island.

When I approached the northern island, however, things really started to warm up. Besides the geese, mallards, and wood ducks, there was still one pair of buffleheads from the big crowd yesterday, and four more red-breasted mergansers. With three drakes and just two hens, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when the drakes started putting on a show. Sadly, the hen seems to be nowhere near as impressed as I was.

Back on shore, I spotted another northern flicker, and his black mustache means he’s a he.

As I was trying to line up a shot, he started singing, so I switched to video so you can see and hear who makes the woods of Estabrook sound like a jungle this time of year.

Meanwhile, back at eye level, I was thrilled to discover that today must have been portrait day because all the little birds started posing, and first up is this little dark-eyed junco.

By the pond, a female cardinal, who has been starting to make herself scarce, was next.

Then this fox sparrow.

Followed by a much-smaller American tree sparrow.

And lastly, this slightly-ruffled looking white-throated sparrow must have gotten word late and came as fast as it could.

As if that string of little posers wasn’t crazy enough, the mammals also got in on the act, starting with this shy eastern cottontail.

This gray squirrel peeking out from its hidey-hole.

And even a chipmunk. It was just incredible.

The forecast for tomorrow morning is for showers and then partly cloudy skies, so we’ll see soon enough if I was supposed to have saved some of these pictures for then. Wish me luck!

The classic spring weather continues, but at least it wasn’t precipitating this morning, so good enough for a visit to Estabrook.

The winter wrens are as thick as ever, and this one had bigger fish to fry than staying out of my sight.

I don’t see the mallards in large groups on the river anymore. Instead, I see pairs, like this handsome couple, off by themselves.

There were plenty of wood ducks on the pond, and the sun even made a valiant effort to break through the clouds for a moment.

I bumped into Charlotte, “Wildlife Biologist and Professional Bird Nerd”, at the pond, and as we walked over to the river, we spotted both a peregrine falcon and a kestrel flying overhead. The falcon had a bulging neck and looked like a heron from the side, but Charlotte explained that it merely had a nice full crop from just scarfing down some breakfast, which I was fascinated to learn.

Over the path along the river, we spotted more tree-top wood ducks, and here’s the drake.

At the north end, I was stunned to find at least 14 buffleheads! There was just one hen, and all the rest were drakes. Here’s the best picture I could get of them together, and it shows just eight of them. Imagine nearly twice that many.

On our way back south, Charlotte spotted a woodpecker overhead, and when it flew to the next tree, she recognized that it was a yellow-bellied sapsucker. This picture is terrible, but you can see a bit of its name-sake yellow “belly”.

Just above the falls, here’s another herring gull with a fish.

Finally, as I was searching for a hairy woodpecker, to round out my woodpecker collection for this morning, I found my first spider of the season on one of the tipped-up picnic tables at the far south end.

Speaking of bugs, when I got home, I found that Anne had thoughtfully left a section of today’s New York Times open for me on top of my laptop. The article, “In Wisconsin: Stowing Mowers, Pleasing Bees“, is about how the “the No Mow May movement help[s] transform the traditional American lawn — a manicured carpet of grass — into something more ecologically beneficial.” In Appleton, WI “they found that No Mow May lawns had five times the number of bees and three times the bee species than did mown” lawns. If you have any say about when the grass gets cut where you live, perhaps you could give it a try and “do more by doing less.”

It wasn’t snowing this morning, and the winds were pretty light. Some sun would have been nice, but two out of three ain’t bad, or so the song goes, right?

Anyway, I was glad to finally capture an image of one of the rabbits I’ve been seeing lately.

There were plenty of brown creepers still foraging up tree trunks, and in my never-ending quest to bring you the perfect brown creeper picture, here’s one from this morning.

Winter wrens are also still around, but none wanted to be in today’s post, so here’s one more of the little poser from last week.

Wood ducks are becoming pretty common, I saw five on the pond along with three photographers, but I’m still trying for a better high perch, so here’s today’s.

As I surveyed the open waters around the northern island, to see who might still be visiting, I was thrilled to find a pair of buffleheads cruising with a pair of red-breasted mergansers.

Here’s a closer look at the merganser drake.

Finally, I stopped behind the Shorewood Police Station, along the Oak Leaf Trail at the far south end, to check on the European starlings, and I finally discovered why they’ve been hanging out there lately.

I don’t know what these holes in the siding were originally for, perhaps climate control pipes running to the roof, but they make perfect starling nesting cavities now.

It was a dark and dreary morning, and then it began to snow like crazy. Luckily, it wasn’t too cold, I got out and back before the snow came, and the birds in Estabrook were as busy as usual.

This little eastern phoebe, one of two I saw, was busily flitting from perch to perch over the water in search of breakfast.

At the southern island, I looked for the great horned owl in its recent favorite hiding spot, and didn’t see it, but then it suddenly flew up from closer to the ground to perch almost in the open, as if to say “I’m here, I’m here!”

A bit farther upstream, beside the northern island, I spotted a pied-billed grebe again, and even got a better picture than last time.

The grebe submerged again, as they do, and while I searched in vain for where it might resurface, I spotted this herring gull trying to real in a fish farther out across the river.

The little brown creepers are plentiful now, and I counted three this morning, but they are still as hard to capture as ever. This one came out okay.

The winter wrens are also still plentiful and singing, but I failed to capture an image today. Instead, here are a couple nice portraits from Wednesday that I haven’t shown you yet.

Up on the soccer fields at the south end, I found brown-headed cowbirds among the robins again, but a male and female this time. Here’s a picture of the male trying his best to impress, but it doesn’t appear to be working yet.

Finally, there are plenty of geese, mallards, and even three wood ducks around, but nothing photogenic today. To tide you over, here are another pair of mallards from Thursday.

The forecast sun never materialized, so it was a pretty gray morning, but not too cold, and the critters are stuck here anyway. It’s not like the birds are gonna say, “To heck with these gray skies, I’m flying back to the Gulf of Mexico.”

Here’s one such bird on the quiet water below the falls and above the mild rapids. He’s a hooded merganser, and by the looks of his dark bill and yellowish eye, an immature male whose breeding plumage has not yet come in.

I stopped by the pond to see if anyone was around before things got busy, and there were a pair of wood ducks, a pair of mallards, and the pair of geese, but the light wasn’t great for pictures on the water, so here’s a white-throated sparrow instead.

Back at the river, I spotted another three wood ducks at the north end, but this eastern phoebe posing with maple tree blossoms made a nicer picture.

There was also still a pair of buffleheads, and they happened to be napping in the warm reflection of the red brick chocolate factory across the river.

On my way back south, three crows alerted me to this red-tailed hawk over the disc golf course.

Back at the pond, the trio from the river had flown up to join the pair already there, so now there were five wood ducks, and this quartet arranged themselves nicely for me.

The fifth wheel was a male, so it should come as no surprise that there had to be some jockeying for position, and here’s two of the males going at it as a hen looks on.

I was surprised not to see a flicker today, but I have a nice left-over picture of a male on some sumac by the pond from yesterday to fill in.

Lastly, the red squirrel from yesterday grabbed the biggest nut I’ve ever seen a red squirrel grab and posed like this for a while, as if to make sure I captured a good image.

If the bait and switch of clouds for sun is the worst April Fools prank I suffer today, I’ll take that as a win.

I’m sure it went out like a lion for some of you, especially if you had to commute through the snow this morning. I, however, enjoyed riding my bike to campus through the snow, mostly on the bike path, and then Estabrook Park this afternoon was simply amazing, so March went out more like a big wet pussy cat for me.

Let me start you off with an extremely rare landscape shot of snow on the trees beside the river, to set the mood.

And here’s a pair of sleepy mallards at the edge of the water.

But then things started to wake up. I was thrilled to see a quartet of buffleheads back again and even more surprised to see at least a quartet of hooded mergansers, of which here is one pair.

While I was surveying the water fowl on the river, look who came soaring south in lazy circles overhead: our first turkey vulture of the season. The colors are pretty washed out from the low light and bright white sky, but you can still make out its red face. Good thing my buddy, Mike, had tipped me off to recognize a vulture by the dihedral of its wings, compared to hawks and eagles.

Meanwhile, at my feet, the golden-crowned kinglets were thick as fleas, nearly as jumpy, and hardly much bigger.

On my way back south, I climbed the bluff early to head for the pond, and boy, that was a lucky choice. I was greeted by dozens of birds on the grass: robins, red-winged blackbirds, grackles, and a couple dozen starlings, of which here is an even dozen.

Anne commented that the starling in the picture I showed you yesterday “is a cool looking bird”, so I wanted to show her how that’s only the third of it. Have you seen their murmurations? If not, do yourself a favor and watch this video of that astounding behavior. Equally as amazing is their vocalization ability. Here’s one fun video, and here’s another.

Anyway, as I was trying to get a count of the robins, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I spotted one killdeer, then two, and eventually six, just hiding in plain sight among them.

Then, as I was trying to line up a nice killdeer shot, I spotted another northern flicker fly by out of the corner of my eye: a female again.

And then, as I was trying to capture the flicker, a kestrel flew over. It’s a male again, and I almost had to sit down!

That’s seven amazing and colorful species while almost standing in one place. Incredible!

After all that excitement, I had to go home to take a nap, but on my way, this little cutie, a red squirrel, called out to me so I could take its picture too.

When it rains, it pours, eh? I can hardly wait to see what April brings!

As I was studying all the green blotches on the current and future radar to see if there might be a dry patch this morning, Anne looked out the window and said, “It looks pretty dry right now,” so out the door I went, and I never felt a drop. Ha!

The wood ducks were down from their high perches and foraging on the lawn beside the pond when I arrived.

The big surprise, however, was the arrival of northern flickers. You may recall I spotted a solo outlier a few weeks ago, but this time there was a pair of them, they were also foraging on the lawn, and here’s one of them. I see no trace of the tell-tale black mustache, so she’s a female.

Down by the river, the recent ice is almost completely gone already, and the winter wrens were busy singing their amazing little song to each other.

As were the song sparrows.

At the north end, all the winter visitors appear to be gone, and I saw no buffleheads, goldeneyes, nor mergansers today.

Back at the far south end, I spotted yet another female flicker who was doing a better job of showing off her “yellow shafts”,

This sharp-looking European starling,

And a goldfinch who almost has his full summer plumage already.

The current forecast for tomorrow morning calls for snow, so who the heck knows what we’re gonna get. Tune in tomorrow to find out, or just look out your window.