A look at the wildlife living in, on, and beside the Milwaukee River in Shorewood, WI
Oof! That wind was nasty this afternoon, and I wish I could have gone to Estabrook in the morning instead. Oh well. Most of the critters were trying to avoid the wind, too, and almost nobody wanted to sit still for pictures, but I did manage to get a couple anyway.
This cardinal by the pond gave me a wary look.
As did this gray squirrel.
Meanwhile, down on the river, a bunch of mallards were busy sorting out their pecking order and jockeying for position…
While this goldeneye hen stayed out of the fray.
And that’s it for today, I’m afraid. The wind is forecast to be howling through tomorrow morning, but let’s hope most everyone will be up and looking for breakfast anyway.
It was a perfectly nice mid-February morning in Estabrook Park with temps in the teens, but light winds, and even a bit of sunshine before the clouds rolled in and the snow flurries started.
I was happy to find a goldeneye hen still gracing us with her presence on the river near the south end.
As I continued north, the only other birds I saw on the water were about a half dozen mallards, and the open water around the falls was completely empty.
Above the falls, I finally found someone willing to lend us some holiday color.
There was nobody notable at the north end nor at the pond (except Brian, but he said “no photos”) so I continued south along the river. There I encountered this interesting spectacle: a crow making the oddest sound. I read
Anyway, a little further south, back beside the open water, I spotted our old friend, the solo hooded merganser hen.
I was happy to see that she was so put out by my attempts to get her picture, that she settled down onto the ice and tucked her toes up into her feathers. That must feel nice.
Then we both heard a commotion farther south on the river, and it really got her attention. She even stuck her toes back out, just in case.
It turns out to have been another young eagle, but one with a nearly white head whom I don’t believe we’ve seen before, making an unsuccessful try for one of the mallards dabbling on the river. Here it is when I finally located it perched above the water on the east side.
Lastly, thanks to all of you who listened in on my little presentation yesterday. Our host, Lorraine Jacobs, reported afterwards that “We had more viewers … than any other zoom Forum this church year.” Way to represent, people!
From my breakfast table, it looks like a much nicer morning than forecast, but I’m going to hold off on visiting the park until after my 11am presentation so that I can give both my full attention.
The good news is that my visit yesterday morning was so fruitful, I’ve still got some more pictures left to show you.
Here’s one more of our new favorite masked bandit. I tried to get a shot of it ambling away after it climbed down from the tree, but it was amazingly good at not giving me a clean line of sight. Go figure, right?
Here’s another look at the common redpoll that has the Wisconsin birding world abuzz, and in which it shows off its distinctive red cap from a different angle. I guess they are part of the same irruption that brought us the crossbills last Sunday. Plus, there are still evening grosbeaks and pine siskins to find. Yay!
Here’s another close-up of the Cooper’s hawk by the pond.
Here’s another look at the goldeneye hen up on the ice. It looks like she’s got some pretty good-sized flippers, eh?
And here she is again back with her drake.
Well, I’d better get back to work putting my finishing touches on my presentation for this morning. Maybe I’ll see you there. If not, they say you should be able to find it on youtube later, unless it goes so badly that they have to burn the tape.
Hot diggity dog! Have we got a great show for you this morning, boys and girls! At 10°F, it was pretty darn cold for the middle of February, but the sky was perfectly clear, and the winds out of the north never seemed as bad as forecast, especially down in the river valley, so it was pretty much a perfect morning in Estabrook.
It’s hard even to decide what the top story should be, but let’s start with someone warm and fuzzy.
That’s right, somehow one of the masked bandits found itself up a tree as the sun came up, and I was finally able to get some pictures of more than just footprints in the snow. The last time we saw a raccoon was last summer at the pond.
I found this cutie because I heard it cry a couple of times, and I wondered what the heck that sound was. When I finally spotted it up between two tree trunks, I thought it might be in some kind of distress, but it poked its head out one side and then the other, so it was certainly mobile enough. After I got what pictures I could, I backed off, and it scrambled back down the tree and ambled up the path, so the distress appears to have been temporary. Perhaps someone even scarier than me had come through before I arrived, and that’s what it was crying about and why it was up in a tree at all.
Phew! Now for some birds, and first up are the pair of buffleheads, who I was happy to find back on the open water far below the falls. Soon enough, they’ll be winging their way back to Canada to make more buffleheads, so we’d better enjoy them while they’re here.
I didn’t see anyone at the falls today, but as I continued north along the river, this handsome pair of cardinals were foraging right on the path.
The pair of red-tailed hawks at the north end must have been sleeping in this morning, and I didn’t see much else there besides this busy chickadee, but now you can see that the sun had come up and the sky was bright blue.
As I tried to follow the path around the north end of the pond to get a better shot of the flicker, and almost immediately after I realized it had taken off already, I could barely believe my luck when this stunner landed on a branch right over my head.
It’s a young Cooper’s hawk, who was probably just as surprised by our sudden proximity as I was. It let me get just a couple of shots, and then it took right back off again. Perhaps it was also just as interested in the redpolls as I was, however, because it didn’t take long before it flew right back and perched right over where I had seen the redpoll above.
But those redpolls are flighty, and it was probably long gone by then, so the hawk gave up for now and left with empty talons.
Finally, as I made my way back south along the river, I found a pair of common goldeneyes, and the hen gave us a special treat when she hopped up onto the ice for a moment. I don’t believe we’ve seen that before.
But it didn’t take her long before she was right back in the water and beside her drake.
Lastly, before I forget, I’ve been invited to present about “Signs of Life in Estabrook Park” at the First Unitarian Society-Milwaukee Sunday Forum on February 13, 2022 at 11 am (CST). That’s tomorrow morning!
If you can’t or don’t want to see it live, they record the presentations and post the recordings on their First Unitarian Society-Milwaukee YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/FirstUnitarianSocietyofMilwaukee It’ll be in the third row called “Forums”.
You’ll be happy to know that I did make it to the park yesterday around noon and again this morning, so I finally have some new pictures to show you.
Yesterday afternoon got off to an exciting start when I notice a gull squawking about something up ahead and found this scene when I was finally able to take a look. At first, I thought the gull was harassing a red-tailed hawk, but once I got a chance to zoom in on the picture I took, the mottled brown and white underside told me it was a juvenile bald eagle instead. Sweet! We haven’t seen one of those in a while.
Better still, it soon parked itself over the far shore and allowed me to get close enough for this picture. Get a load of those talons. I bet those’ll leave a mark, right?
As if that wasn’t enough raptor for the day, look who was also out and looking for some lunch at the far north end. One of our two red-tailed hawks was perched on a lamp post behind the chocolate factory.
Here’s another look from a different angle with the red brick of the chocolate factory in the background. Despite my best efforts, I could not position myself to get that darn window out of the background. Sorry.
The third exciting find of yesterday was a pair of goldeneye drakes on the open water just north of the hawk. It appears that they haven’t all flown north yet. In fact, I spotted three of them this morning, and here’s one with a little morning sun shining on him to bring out the iridescent green of his dark head feathers.
There were also plenty of mallards on the lower river this morning exploring all the spots recently exposed by the receding ice, and here’s a drake who was maybe just tired of dabbling and wondered if there wasn’t an easier way.
At the north end this morning, I arrived in time to find both of the red-tailed hawks soaring directly overhead, and I managed to capture this image of one of them. You can really see the difference between them and the juvy bald eagle from yesterday above.
The downy and hairy woodpeckers are as busy as ever these days, and here’s a male downy at eye level from yesterday at the north end with his diminutive beak and a hint of black on white checks along the side of his tail.
And by happy coincidence, here’s a male hairy at eye level from this morning with a beak almost as big as his head and a pure white edge along his tail.
By the pond this morning, I was treated to the rare treat (Doh!) of a dark-eye junco willing to endure my gaze for a moment.
Even as I was taking the junco portrait above, I could hear the distinctive call of a white-throated sparrow nearby, so I set out to see if I could spot him. Well, this was my lucky morning, because he was nearly right in front of my face and also uncharacteristically unphased by my presence.
Finally, here’s another shot of one of the goldeneye drakes hanging close to some mallards for comfort.
Lastly, there were a lot of tracks in the trace of wet snow we got overnight, and it looks like at least one beaver took a long walk on the river trail. I believe you can see the impressions from its long. rodent toes in this image.
If you are just joining us, the recent deal is that I have to go to school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and the sun doesn’t come up early enough yet for me to visit the park before school. Two days ago, I tried to get by with a late afternoon visit, but the results were meager. I will try again this afternoon, just for the practice, but in the meantime, here are some pictures from the not-too-distant past that I haven’t shown you yet.
On that same day, if you can believe it, a few crows and mallards alerted be to a rare appearance of the great horned owl above the southern island.
Finally, still on that same day and perhaps the most surprising of all, a great blue heron was back to fishing on the river at the top of the mild rapids where the open water resumes. In this image, you can see it taking a quick glance skyward. Yes, that’s ice in the background.
Well, that’s our “blast-from-the-past” for now, and if I see anything interesting or pretty this afternoon, I’ll be sure to show you the pictures tomorrow.
This morning arrived, just as advertised, and I set out to see how much difference 14 hours makes. The cloud cover was pretty thick, so when I arrived at the river it was still pretty dark, and it occurred to me, now that temps are above freezing, that I might get to see beaver up on the ice again.
Soon enough, I did spot something up on the ice, but it was way too small to be a beaver, and it was near where I’ve seen goldeneyes several times before, so I figured that’s what it was. I don’t see them up on the ice very often, however, so I took a closer look through my binoculars. Holy smokes! It was a little mink, like the one we saw on the pond last summer, staring right back at me. It hadn’t moved yet, so I slowly put my binoculars down, reached for my camera, and that’s when the little stinker slipped into the water and dove out of sight. Dang! But at least now I know where to look, so here’s hoping I get another chance.
Anyway, I didn’t see any beaver this morning, and the buffleheads, goldeneyes, and mergansers were also still absent, but the mallards were back in a big way. I counted several dozen birds on the ice just above the open water at the top of the rapids, and another couple dozen beside the open water just downstream from the Port Washington Road bridge.
Above the falls, I found this cardinal foraging amongst the sticks and leaves on the ground.
And just past the cardinal, a pair of red squirrels looked and sounded like they were arguing over a nut. This one had the nut.
And this one seemed to want the nut.
And this gray squirrel wondered what’s my fascination with red squirrels, anyway?
I only saw the mallards at the north end and swung by the pond on my way south but didn’t see anybody new or especially photogenic. On my way back south along the river, I spotted some house finches and goldfinches bathing in one of the seeps coming out of the bluff, and the best picture I got was of this goldfinch working on its tail as it dried off.
Speaking of goldfinches, now that several experts have weighed in, I’m afraid that I must finally concede that our mystery birds from Sunday are simply “non-breeding American goldfinches in funky lighting.” Oh well. They’re still pretty birds.
Finally, as I approached the south end, look who paid us a return visit at last.
Yup, our little huntress, the American kestrel, was back and hard at work. Best of luck to her.
Lastly, I counted 19 species of bird this morning, plus the mink and squirrels, compared to just 10 species yesterday afternoon, so 14 hours made quite a difference! Perhaps I just don’t know yet where to look in the afternoon. This might require more investigation.
Sorry this is arriving so late, but I had to go to school this morning, then stuff came up, and I didn’t get to Estabrook until late this afternoon.
I guess the big news is that there were a slew of mallards, I counted at least 45, back on the river, but none of our other regulars were around. No buffleheads, no goldeneyes, and no mergansers. Oh well. Maybe it’s getting to be that time of year already.
On the other hand, I counted more downy woodpeckers that I think I’ve ever seen in a single visit, and some were quite bold. Here are two males that kept swapping trees between them right in front of me.
And that’s it for today. This afternoon was a lot quieter than I’m used to mornings being.
I see the sun trying to poke through the clouds now, from the comfort of my kitchen table, but there was no sign of the sun earlier this morning. That, plus a stiff breeze, made 21°F feel like 7°F, and I failed to check on that second number when I dressed to go out this morning. Oof. No wonder everyone is starting to look like they are done with winter.
I hardly saw a sight worth photographing, but there were a bunch of goldfinches busily working some alder cones at the north end of the pond, and here’s one of them.
Luckily, I’ve a enough good pictures left over from recent visits that I still have something to show you today. Here’s a pretty mourning dove foraging yesterday beside the little stream that flows into the pond.
It was easily 20°F warmer this morning than yesterday, and plenty of critters were taking advantage of the relative warmth in Estabrook.
The river is still mostly empty of birds, but the ones still there were in surprisingly posy moods this morning. Here’s the bufflehead hen all by herself near the southern edge of the open water far below the falls and up for a breath from foraging on the bottom.
Here’s the drake foraging above the falls and looking fancier than we may have ever seen him.
Also above the falls was this single goldeneye hen busily sprucing herself up.
At the far north end, I heard one of the red-tailed hawks and could just make it out in the trees on the far shore. I risked the ice, perhaps for the last time, and hiked out to the northern island, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a trio of bluebirds, perhaps the ones from January and December.
The big surprise, however, came as I crossed the softball field between the beer garden and the pond. On my way, I checked the few pine trees along the north edge of the path, and look who I found foraging on the ground below them: about a half dozen white-winged crossbills (Loxia leucoptera)! This is the first time I’ve ever knowingly seen such birds. Ha!
Further south, the river is still completely frozen, so I was on the upper path, halfway up the side of the bluff, and that’s where I found this white-breasted nuthatch behaving as I’ve never seen them behave before. They are usually in constant motion, similar to chickadees, but this one stayed put, only about 10 feet above me, and struck several heroic poses for us.
There were even a pair of nuthatches nearby noisily chasing each other from tree to tree, but this one ignored them and stayed put. I wonder what its game is.
Finally, just as I neared the south end, this red squirrel didn’t quite know what to make of me and stretched out to get a better look.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 