It was a super slow day in the park today. The new snow sure was pretty, but there were hardly any critters about, let alone new ones, and there were only a few mallards on the river. I got there later than usual, and maybe they had canceled the matinee.
I did see this little guy, though, looking like a kid trying to eat a sugar doughnut.
Speaking of eating, here’s a red-bellied woodpecker snacking on staghorn sumac seeds, a common enough maneuver, but one I haven’t seen from woodpeckers before.
Finally, with the dearth of mobile subjects, I had plenty of time to try these arty still life shots.
The sky was blue, the snow was white, the air was calm, the trail was firm, and yada, yada, yada. Just another …. oh, you know the drill.
Usually, the lower half of the river, south of the mudflats, is pretty empty, with just a few mallards and maybe a gull or two, but today I saw somebody new, our first female goldeneye, swimming and diving all by herself. I wonder if she has already checked out the dudes up river and simply found them all lacking.
When I did get to the falls, I was surprised to find just a dozen or so mallards, no diving birds, and no raptors. I wonder what’s up with that? Anyway, the remaining mallards seemed to be doing just fine, and these two characters, even took a break to ride on an ice floe.
Finally, I swung by the pond to check on our Cooper’s hawk from yesterday, after one concerned reader wonder if it was somehow stuck to that branch. I’m sure you’ll all be relieved to know that, as of this morning, it appears to have successfully moved on. Phew! Instead, I was serenaded by this red-hued little fellow, and this time I’m going with house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus). Don’t @ me!
What can I say? After a long run of gloom, we’re having a string of amazing days, and it looks like the red-bellied woodpeckers are fixin’ to make some hay. I saw pairs like this more than once throughout the park.
No, seriously. I literally have a zillion pictures of this hawk because I stopped to take one after nearly every step as I inched towards it for almost the entire length of the pond, expecting each one to be my last opportunity. At least that’s how it has gone in the past. This morning, however, maybe it was just enjoying the morning sun too much to be bothered, because I could not believe how close it let me get. After my fingers were finally frozen, I said “thanks” and turned around to head home. As far as I know, it is still perched there in the willow tree at the northeast corner of the pond.
I just never know what to expect.
PS: There was nothing new on the water so I didn’t take any pictures, but I did see two gulls, probably herring or maybe ring-billed, chasing a big hawk or maybe even a young eagle north along the river. I don’t believe I spotted a single mammal today.
It is hard even to describe how beautiful it was in the park this morning. There was still plenty of shiny white snow on the ground, it was 20°F warmer than yesterday, and there was a breeze, but not so much that there weren’t areas of calm along the river and in the woods. Most of all though, the sky was a stunning, tears-in-my-eyes, deep, deep blue, and here’s what you can do with that kind of sky.
When I got to the river, there was not a mallard in sight, just this cast of misfits:
Clockwise, from 7pm: a male and female bufflehead, two goldeneyes, two female red-breasted mergansers, and one male red-breasted merganser.
The buffleheads stuck close to the merganser
Quite the odd couple, eh?
It turns out, the mallards were taking a quick vaca, leaving just the diving birds behind, because there were a couple of new sheriffs in town, at least for the moment.
Pair of bald eagles
As soon as those two flew away empty-taloned, though, dozens of mallards materialized seemingly out of nowhere, as though orchestrated by air traffic control. I mean, what were they doing? Just circling at a thousand feet waiting for the raptors to move on? The timing and coordination was uncanny.
Then there was all the usually self-congratulatory chatter: “Carl! Glad to see you made it, ol’ buddy! Phew, that was a close one, eh? Can you believe there were two of them this time? I mean, come on, man. Give us a break.”
Oh yeah! I almost forgot! It appears that some little critter fished something big out of the river and dragged it across the ice and snow to a burrow in the river bank. Hope it was tasty, eh? There were no human tracks anywhere on that ice, the drag mark made a one-way, if not perfectly straight, trip between the open water and the shore, and the paw prints sure aren’t from a dog.
Maybe that’s as close as were going to get to the ermine, sorry Carolyn, but I have a hope not. How fun is that?
The sun was out, the air was still, the snow was fresh, the surface of the trail was like concrete, and I got the lay the first footprints on much of it. What a stupendous morning in Estabrook!
Most critters were sleeping in, it seems, but I did see a lot of fresh rabbit tracks. I even spotted a rabbit at one point, but the second I broke eye contact to fuss with my camera with gloves on, she was gone. Maybe one of these days I’ll learn that lesson.
Most of the birds on the river were gone this morning, too, leaving just a couple of geese, a couple of goldeneyes, a couple of mergansers, and a few mallards, but nowhere near the carnival atmosphere of yesterday. In today’s sun, however, we can finally see that the male common merganser’s head is actually dark green, as advertised.
Further north, I happened upon a grey squirrel, and it appears that I somehow managed to do a better job of keeping eye contact.
Finally, by the pond, this little guy looks to be doing his level best to avoid eye contact with me. “Don’t look! Don’t move! Maybe he hasn’t seen you and will just go away!”
What a fabulous morning! The sun came out, parts of the sky were blue, the trail along the river was hard as a rock, and I just about had the place to myself. Sweet! Once again, a chickadee dared me to take its picture, and out of a dozen shots, this is the best I could manage. Cheeky little rascals!
There was a lot of activity on the water, and just about everyone was there today: geese, gulls, mallards, mergansers, goldeneyes, and the tiny pair of buffleheads. The only one missing was that black duck we saw a couple of weeks ago. Sorry Lou. Anyway, here’s my attempt to capture the moment. Trust me, it was even better in person!
The sunlight made some pictures come out better than I think I’ve managed before.
male bufflehead showing some iridescence in the sun
female common merganser
male common merganser
tiny female bufflehead amongst mallards
tiny male bufflehead behind female mallard
Meanwhile, back on shore, I noticed this fascinating little phenomenon. I wonder whose breath that is freezing around the entrance to their little den, eh? If you can figure out whether it is rime ice or hoarfrost, please let me know.
Finally, by the pond, the sun really brings out the color of this finch, don’t you think? And I’m gonna go with purple finch (Haemorhous purpureus) this time because of the relative lack of bold streaks on its belly.
Lastly, as for our mystery raptor, I’m going to go with juvenile red-tailed hawk, after further research. All the other raptors (red-shouldered hawks, goshawks, falcons, harriers) seem to have noticeably longer tails, and I can find plenty of pictures online of birds that look like ours that are described by the poster as “juvenile red-tailed hawk”. Some examples are here:
It was a nice January morning, with freezing temps and a dusting of snow, but hungry birds gotta eat, so here’s a goldfinch filling up on great burdock seeds beside the southern soccer fields.
Down on the river, just about all the usual suspects were about, including all three of the white water fowl we’ve been seeing: common merganser, goldeneye, and bufflehead.
The stylish red-breasted mergansers were there, too.
As was at least one female common merganser.
And one female bufflehead.
Finally, lest you despair that spring will never come…
PS: Sorry, Lou, still no black ducks, and sorry, Carolyn, still no ermines.
PPS: No guesses yet on identity of yesterday’s raptor, eh? Well, we’ve got all winter. Maybe it’ll be back so I can get a better shot.
Anne didn’t get the jigsaw puzzle finished last night, so I didn’t get to the park till after lunch today. The pair of buffleheads were there again, but even more shy than yesterday, so I didn’t even both with a new picture. There were three goldeneyes today, which makes for a fun scene.
There were at least three female common mergansers, and they even hopped up onto the ice. I’ve never seen a merganser walk before, so that was fun for me.
Finally, a raptor soared by and stopped in a tree over the far side of the river. At first I thought it was the merlin we’ve seen before, but once I got the pictures home, I could see that’s not right. Neither that Cooper’s hawk nor the sharp-shinned hawk has such a finely bared tail, and it is surely the the solid red of the red-tailed hawk we just saw. Here are my two best pictures. Can anyone identify this raptor? Maybe some red-tailed hawk variant, such as the “juvenile dark morph“
Well, some snow did finally arrived, but it was mostly melted already by the time it got here, and I blame De Joy for that. Luckily, the birds don’t seem to care one way or the other, and this little cutie, an American goldfinch by the river in its winter coat of “drab, unstreaked brown, with blackish wings and two pale wingbars”, was singing the same hopeful little song I’ve heard since the spring.
Further north, above the falls, there was yet another new arrival chillin’ with the mallards, this time a pair of buffleheads (Bucephala albeola), and yes that’s their real name, click the link to see for yourself.
They were diving just like the goldeneye, of which there were two today that didn’t get along with each other. The buffleheads were shy like the goldeneye, too, so I was not able to get very close. Maybe I’ll have better luck next time.
As I got north of the second island, a couple of crows got excited, so my heart swelled with hope, and it didn’t take me long to spot the source of their excitement, in a tree clear across the river. Happily, just as I figured I had gotten the best picture I could, it must have decided the fishing was no good there, took to its wings, circled twice that wide spot of the river where the damn used to be, and headed back north from whence it had come. Ta da!
Finally, at the risk of igniting a firestorm, I stopped by the pond on my way home and found this little guy sitting by itself on a branch over the water, and this time, based on the clearly-visible reddish patches on its cheeks, head, and rump, I’m going to go with purple finch (Haemorhous purpureus). I look forward to your well-reasoned contradictions in the comments.
Well, the snow I ordered did not arrive, I blame De Joy for that, and it has really warmed up, so the river trail surface has the consistency of butter than hasn’t felt the inside of a fridge in a week. Luckily for us, some parts are still serviceable, a helpful tip from eagle-eyed and long-time-reader Lou Miller enabled me to focus my searching this morning, and here’s what we’ve got to show for it: a very shy and aptly-named male common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula).
He’s a diving duck, at the north edge of his winter range, and, besides always drifting to the far side of the river so my image is not too clear, he was really good at always drifting opposite of the way I would step, either up or down stream. I even got him to sit still for a moment by faking left and then quickly right.
At one point, all the mallards took off, leaving him behind, and I couldn’t see the eagle that I suspect flushed them, but I bumped into a fellow observer later by the falls who had a camera, lens, and tripod that looked like they cost more than my bike, yikes!, who explained that the river being frozen over further north, in Lincoln Park, has pushed the eagles south to hunt over open water. Lucky us! Right?
Lastly, Mr. De Sisti was kind enough to reply yesterday and included both the black-and-white and the color originals of his amazing picture of a coyote, so feast your eyes on this!
A coyote is seen standing on the iced over Milwaukee River near West Brown Deer Road in Brown Deer, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021 . – Photo by Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via USA TODAY NETWORK ORG XMIT: DBY1
What a magnificent creature, and thanks to the artist and gentleman for sharing, eh?
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 