We got a little bit of a reprieve from the heat and humidity overnight, and the sun came up on a cloudless sky, so it was a great morning in Estabrook.
I saw a blue heron on the pond, and maybe it’s the same one Bonnie and I saw yesterday afternoon, but it doesn’t look like it’s had its coffee yet.
We didn’t see the night heron yesterday, but it was back in its usual spot this morning, and its eyelid looks a little droopy too. Must have been a heck of a night.
Not everyone was sleepy this morning, however. Here’s Ol’ Snappy on the move just off the island.
And here’s a squirrel chowing down on a big nut on a branch over the path that circles the pond.
On the river, there was another blue heron, and this one was quite the fishing maven. Here goes fish number one, a nice big one.
And not five minutes later, here goes fish number two, a bit smaller, but I hear they pack just as much flavor.
Lastly, look who I found hanging out with the mallards and wood ducks on a pile of driftwood.
Yup, that’s a cormorant, and here it is from a better angle. I wonder if that’s the same one that visited the pond last week. It’s wearing that same self-satisfied expression on its face, so maybe, eh?
The heat and humidity persist, and even the mosquitoes seem to be getting tired of it. “No, no, seriously, we couldn’t drink another drop!” But maybe that was more due to my imagination or the slight breeze this morning.
Anyway, a blue heron was on the pond when I arrived, and Lisa said there were two when she first approached. Here’s the one that stuck around.
In the branches right above it was our new little friend, the young night-heron, who appears to be dozing off at the moment.
I counted seven wood ducks and three mallards today, and here is one of the pretty little female wood ducks drifting by the island.
I had a hope for another little parade of songbirds, as we saw yesterday, but that was not to be. Instead, there was quite a hubbub among the chickadees in the big tree right over the bench on the west lawn, and as I got closer, I could see several individuals hopping from branch to branch near the middle of the tree as they chirped, but it took me a moment to finally spot the cause of all their excitement.
This little half-pint was sitting as still as it could in a shallow hole in the trunk, about ten feet off the ground, and it appeared to be all by itself. I took a couple of shots, it seemed to never move, the chickadees cleared out, and then I headed to the river.
I thought I had caught a nice example of that situation for you in the images below, but it turns out that this is a potter wasp instead, specifically Eumenes fraternus, and while the female does build “a miniature pot out of mud in which it lays an egg and places a live caterpillar” for the developing larva to feed upon, “the adult wasp feeds primarily on nectar,” as this one was contentedly doing.
Oh well, maybe next time. It is a pretty striking creature in any case, eh?
The heat and humidity continue, and some poor running club had one of their long runs in the park this morning, so I was surprised to find a critter about at all, but find some I did.
The pond was pretty quiet again, with just five wood ducks, three mallards, and one green heron, and I’m sure you all know what the later looks like, but here’s a picture for good measure.
As I was walking back towards the bridge at the north end, I spotted a pair of catbirds, and they looked like an adult and a youngster hoping to be fed. As I tried to get their picture, the adult took off and left the young one looking like the proverbial deer in the headlights. You’re gonna have to be faster than that, kiddo, to stay out of the funny pages.
Meanwhile, just around the corning, here’s another catbird getting its sun bath in.
The birds weren’t the only ones “enjoying” the sun this morning, and here’s a bullfrog perhaps getting the best of both worlds.
I didn’t have time for the river this morning, but I did swing by the soccer fields on my way back home, and look who was hittin’ the thistle again.
Finally, the goldenrod is in full bloom throughout the park, and I almost caught a monarch on one, but its heart wasn’t in it, so I got this bee instead.
Ugh. Cloudy, hazy, 75°, 92% humidity, and I’m running low on bug spray. Plus, I’ve heard through the grapevine that some readers haven’t quite got the knack yet of telling all the herons apart. So, we’re going to take a break from new content today and just review a bit ’cause I’m in charge, and I can do what I want. Ha!
Here’s a mature great blue heron with the stringy feathers they grow for decoration. They are bluish in color with a bright yellow bill, and they can stretch that neck out to stand 45–54 inches tall. This particular one was standing in the river, but we’ve also seen them often on the pond.
When resting, they squinch their neck up so it looks like their head is right on their shoulders, but you can still see the neck. Here’s another adult resting up in a tree beside the river.
Here’s a green heron, which hardly looks green at all, but that’s what they’re called. The fine contributors to the Pedia of Wik describe them as having “a glossy, greenish-black cap, a greenish back and wings that are grey-black grading into green or blue, a chestnut neck with a white line down the front, grey underparts and short yellow legs.” They are only 16.1-18.1 inches long, so much smaller.
There feathers do a much better job of hiding their neck when they squinch it up, so it appears that they have no neck at all.
But they can stretch it out pretty far when they want to, and they can make the feathers on their head lay flat or stand straight up.
Those are the main two, which we see almost every day over the summer, and sometimes more than one individual, both on the pond and at the river. In contrast, here are the rarities of which I believe we’ve only even seen one individual each.
The juvenile yellow-crowned night-heron (with an all-black bill) that we’ve seen on the pond for the past couple of weeks. It is not much bigger than the green heron, has a relatively stubby bill and a reddish tint in its eyes. Folks are surprised to see it here because we are about 300 miles north of its usual range.
Here’s the juvenile black-crowned night-heron (with yellow in its bill) that we saw for a few days on the pond last August. It is also small like the green heron. I hear that a breeding colony has been seen from time to time on the lagoon in Veterans Park downtown.
Plus, it’s bill looks less stubby than that of the yellow-crowned.
Finally, just for completeness, here’s a pair of sand-hill cranes, which are tall, sandy-colored birds with long necks and long bills, but are not herons at all, and which we’ve only seen flying over Estabrook or when I visit Kohler-Andrae State Park.
And that’s all five herons plus one crane that we’ve seen so far. Now get a good night’s sleep and come to the exam tomorrow with a clear head, a number 2 pencil, and a positive attitude!
The day started off pretty nice in Estabrook, with plenty of humidity, but not much heat yet, and even a bit of sun. The pond was pretty quiet when I arrived, but there were still a couple of ducks on the water, and I soon found both the night-heron and a green heron in the northwest corner, which gave me a hope of getting some close-ups
We first saw the night-heron on August 12th, which makes this day 14, and it looks as healthy as when it arrived, so it must be finding enough to eat despite the fact that I have yet to spot it fishing. The blue and green herons, on the other hand, seem to be constantly fishing. Different styles, I guess.
Then, as I started to make my way around the north end of the pond to check on the east side, all heck broke loose. The herons took off, a wood duck quietly slipped off a log into the water, and a kingfisher started circling the island sounding its distinctive alarm. Luckily, the instigator of all this agitation wasn’t me for a change. Instead, it was a Cooper’s hawk swooping over the pond, and it stopped in one of the tall ash trees at the south end so I could make this record of the event.
I tried to get a bit closer, but by the time I could see into that tree again, it had already moved on.
By then, it looked as though a fog bank was rolling in off the lake, so I thanked my lucky stars that I got to see anything at all and headed home.
Here’s one more portrait of the night heron while it’s still here.
It seemed as though everyone was taking this morning off, or maybe the humidity is starting to get to them, because there was hardly anyone about, except for the robins, which were everywhere.
I did eventually find seven wood ducks, a couple of mallards, one green heron, and our one night heron on the pond, but we’ve seen a lot of them lately, and the cormorant appears to have moved on after just a short visit this year.
The situation was similar on the river with plenty of mallards, but no geese, herons, or anyone new.
Luckily, I did spot one interesting thing along the parkway on my way to the pond: a whole family of waxwings.
Here’s a youngster who does have the characteristic black mask across the eyes but not yet those creamy yellow belly feathers.
Here’s another one, on a neighboring branch and giving something a taste test.
And here’s a third, all in the same tree, who’s found a little stick with which to amuse itself.
Meanwhile, here’s an adult just starting to catch some of the morning sun with a creamy yellow belly but no yellow tips on its tail feathers.
And here’s another adult with yellow tips on its tail feathers.
There were as many as eight of them in the group, and they were all just hanging out, sometimes hopping to another branch close by, and seemingly all waiting for the day to get started.
It’ll be a short post today, if only to make up for all the verbiage I threw at you yesterday.
The cormorant was not on the pond this morning, during either of my visits. Oh well.
The yellow-crowned night-heron was there and looking a little sleepy in the shade.
A green heron was there and looking wide awake in just a bit of morning sun.
The surprising new guest at the pond, at least for me, is this beautiful orb weaver and the huge web it spun between a tree branch and the grass of the west lawn, right by the bench.
The web was easily over two feet across and the spider was right at eye level, so you can imagine how much fun it would be to walk into that in the night!
At the river I saw a couple of blue herons, a few mallards, and a whole squadron of mosquitoes.
At that point, even though I was doused with insect repellent, I had given all the blood I dared so I made a beeline for home, and here we are.
You’re gonna get two posts today because I didn’t publish yesterday’s until this morning, by accident, and I saw just too much stuff in the park today to hold onto it. So, here comes post number two.
Things got off to a slow start this morning, and I didn’t see anything until I got to the pond, were I only saw the usual mallards, wood ducks, and a couple of green herons, of which this one was the most photogenic.
One fun thing that did happen at the pond was that Greg, who I only recently “met” on instagram, came by looking for the night-heron, but I hadn’t seen it today, so I left Greg to search for it, and I headed to the river.
There, I got to see another green heron fly in, whom I suspect somehow didn’t see me standing on the bank, and so it went straight to work trying to rustle up some breakfast.
This is when I think it first spotted me standing there, and yes, it appears that one look at me and the feathers on the top of its head stood straight up. I get that sometimes.
And this is right before it took off.
Sorry about that, little buddy. I thought you knew I was there and that you were cool with it. Oh well.
Anyway, we both moved on, and I found one of its big blue cousins fishing in the middle of the river at the north end.
I also glimpsed a hummingbird, which I think was my first of the season in the park, but I failed to capture an image of it. Dang! I sure hope there’s a next time ’cause “pics or it didn’t happen,” right?
So, I headed back to the pond, just to see if maybe the night-heron had shown up, and looky, looky, who I found!
That’s right, our cormorant is back and looking mighty contented with itself! Well, maybe not the same cormorant, but what are the odds that another, single cormorant would arrive in August, just as one did last year? Plus, this one was not shy at all, as though it knew its way around the place.
It even hopped up on the west lawn!
No. Not a shy bird at all.
And, as if that wasn’t enough, the night-heron did appear and was preening itself up in its favorite tree across the pond.
LOL! I wrote this up yesterday morning and thought I posted it, but it seems that somehow I forgot. Sorry about that. Better late than never, I hope.
Wow, what a beautiful change in the weather, and it seems that the cool, crisp air brought everyone out to play. I could hear a chorus of crows excitedly discussion something just to the north as I picked up a few items in the parking lot, but it wasn’t until I headed that way that I learned what they were discussing with such fervor.
Yup, a pretty red-tailed hawk, whom we haven’t seen much of in a while, was checking out the breakfast situation, and the crows were urging it to do that elsewhere. The hawk didn’t seem to mind the crows, but it sure did mind me looking at it, so it headed north, one light pole at a time, much to the vocal annoyance of several squirrels along the way, before it finally headed east just before it reached the middle parking lot.
I’ve never seen them switch it up like that before. Have you?
Meanwhile, there were four mallards, and each one was taking in the morning sun on its own.
Even Ol’ Snappy was up from the abyss and soaking in about as much light as I’ve even seen it get. You can see a patch of its back to the left of its nose and one eye peaking out of the water. That gives a sense of just how big it is.
The main attractions, however, were the herons. There was one blue heron fishing.
One green heron who caught a relatively good-sized fish and which seemed to attracted the attention of a squirrel, for reasons that defy my powers of explanation.
It seemed perfectly content to sharing that tree with the green heron.
And even seemed unperturbed when the squirrel stopped in. I wonder what the heck has gotten into that squirrel today.
From there I eventually headed to the river, were the air was so thick with mosquitoes this morning, that they still bumped into me even after I doused myself with bug spray, so I decided that six birds and one curious squirrel were enough, and I came home early to finish my coffee.
I did bring my old camera with me and got just a couple of images. First is a slightly blurry image of a great blue heron who did not wish to be fishing so close to our cleanup operation.
And the second subject is of a pretty blossom that I don’t believe I’ve seen before. It looks like the wild geraniums from earlier in the summer, but bigger. Instead, it is mallow, probably Malva alcea, which goes by pink mallow, vervain mallow, greater musk-mallow, and several other names, but possibly Malva moschata, which goes by musk mallow.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 