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.

It even took a bow.

How’s that for a big finish, eh?

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.

From there, I only had a short walk to the pond, where it appears that the wood ducks have returned from their river cruise. I counted seven, and here are three of them showing us a new trick.

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.

Best of all, our one young yellow-crowned night heron was back again.

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.

It’s a short report today. Instead of touring Estabrook, I joined the Adopt-a-River Cleanup with Shorewood Conservation Committee and Milwaukee River Keepers, and it covered the east side from Capitol to Hubbard park. We had a crew of at least 8 and 4 of us were from Friends of Estabrook Park.

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.

That is all.

Yesterday morning was so foggy that I decided to wait until this morning, and guess what. Today was just as foggy as yesterday, so I waited for the sun to burn off the fog and finally headed to the park.

When I got to the pond, there were a couple of green herons chasing each other around and a few ducks, but no great pictures, so I headed to the river, and look who I found there.

It looks as though our family of wood ducks, the five nearly-grown-up ducklings and their mom, all flew down to the check out the river. Good for them, and no wonder the pond seemed a bit empty this morning!

I also saw a bunch of mallards, at least one goose, and a blue heron fishing on the river, but too far out for good pictures, so I headed back to the pond, and look who I spotted along the way. Another fledgling, still in its spots, out looking for breakfast in the grass with the rest of the robins.

At the pond, there were a couple of mallards relaxing in the shade up on the west lawn so I stayed back a bit as I surveyed the scene, and look who walked across the path and right over to me, probably to see if I had anything good to eat.

Meanwhile, the two green herons were still there, and I headed south to see if I could get close again to the one fishing there. I did get one picture, but as I inched closer, it soon objected quite noisily, and that session was over.

So I headed north along the east side to see if the one in the northeast bay would be more tolerant, and look who I saw along the way. It looks like another cardinal with feather issues, but I can’t tell if they are still coming out or already growing back in.

Anyway, the green heron in the northeast bay was very accommodating, perhaps the same bird as on Sunday, and we got right to work with the sun at my back.

Lastly, just as promised, here’s the first aster of the season, most likely bigleaf aster (Eurybia macrophylla), growing beside the parkway.

It was still a pretty nice morning, although temps and humidity are creeping back up, but summer is really starting to wind down. The cacophony of bird chatter is pretty much gone, and all that is left is the quiet chirp of crickets and an occasional crow, jay, or oriole call.

I spotted one green heron on the pond, along with nine wood ducks and six mallards but no night heron today.

I spotted one blue heron on the river and a slew of mallards but no geese or beaver today.

There was one monarch on the thistle at the soccer fields, and it looked about as roughed up by the recent storms as the tiger swallowtail did, but that didn’t seem to damp his appetite.

Finally, I spotted an early harbinger of the coming change of seasons, a wooly bear caterpillar, aka an isabella tiger moth larva, whom we haven’t seen since that odd sighting last January. You may be as surprised to learn as I was that there are at least five “Woollybear festivals” across the eastern US.

Before you know it, I’ll be taking pictures of aster blossoms to show you. Yay!

We got one more beautiful morning out of the recent streak, which was a nice treat. Better still, our young night heron was back on the pond so we can have one more look at the little cutie. Here it is on the west side of the island.

And here it is just off the west lawn, just shy of the morning sun, which would have been the cherry on top. Next time.

Only three other folks have weighed in on whether it is a young yellow-crowned or a young black-crowned, and among the four of us, three agree on yellow-crowned, and so I’m gonna count it as the fifth heron species we’ve seen on the pond. Crazy, right?

Meanwhile, the wood duck population is back down to the original five now-almost-grown ducklings, their mom, and her special friend. Perhaps the others just found it too crowded and headed back down to the river. Anyway, for reasons that remain a mystery, the remaining seven all came over to say hi as I was trying to take the picture of the heron above. We might not have seen them all together like this since they all used to hop up on the big log in the northeast bay to preen after breakfast.

They all seem like quite the contented little family now. Mom and her special friend were even back to their mutual preening.

Sweet, eh?

Finally, the mallards are down to a nice even foursome who did manage to line themselves up nicely the morning sun.

Then they most have noticed the wood duck convention and all steamed over to see what was going on.

And those are all the pictures fit to print today. I did stop by the river but didn’t see a thing. Same goes for the soccer fields. One monarch was sunning itself in the grass, but I let it be and came home before it got hot out.

It appears that word has gotten out that a green heron finally relented and posed for an extensive and up-close photo shoot yesterday, and so not even 24 hours later a great blue heron must have said “hold my beer”.

I was just walking along beside the river, as is often the case, and had just reached the north edge of the big, old, abandoned bridge abutment, when there was a youngish great blue heron, maybe not even eight feet away from me, fishing from the little bit of rock jutting north right at the water level.

Now, I’ve startled herons before, by accident of course, when I don’t see them first, both on the pond and on the river, and they have always immediately taken off, but not this one. As has happened before a few times with other critters, such as red squirrels or nut hatches, I suspect they are just so stunned to have let me get that close somehow that they don’t even know how to react, and they often pretend I’m not even there and continue to go about their business.

We both immediately froze, and after just enjoying the moment for a bit, I softly explained that I was going to put down my trash bag and take out my camera. The bird wasn’t exactly thrilled, but it still didn’t take off and instead slowly tried to wade north along the riverbank, although the water was probably a little deeper than it preferred.

When I had gotten all the pictures that I thought I could, I also continued north and took the right at the fork to avoid getting too close. At my next opportunity to check on it again, now from upstream looking south, it was still there, and I even got some more pictures by leaning on a cottonwood tree that was conveniently growing out over the water.

Once again, I took all the pictures I could, but from that vantage point, I could also see a big yellow plastic bag, which originally held rock salt, and now was wedged between a pair of sticks by the recent flooding. So, I took that with me when I left and managed to fill it up with yet more plastic by the time I reached the stairs up to the beer garden.

After dropping off the bag in the bin at the top of the stairs, I washed my hands, and enjoyed watching a blue jay fly with a big red crabapple in its beak from a tree at the crest of the bluff to a maple tree over the beer garden. Sadly for us, the jay made quick work of the crabapple, and it was all gone already by the time I was able to squeeze off this shot.

From there, I swung back by the pond where I saw plenty of ducks but no herons nor turtles. Oh well. I suppose it’s good practice to enjoy the pictures we got and not worry about the ones we didn’t, eh?

Holy Moly! What a gorgeous morning. I can hardly believe we got two of these days in a row. I hope you get to enjoy it while it lasts.

When I got to the pond, Ol’ Snappy was making ripples in the surface and the ducks were jumpy. I’m not sure, however, if Ol’ Snappy was making them jumpy, or if it was just the sheer number of ducks. I counted 14 wood ducks and 5 mallards so 19 in all, which might be a record.

Anyway, here’s a young wood duck avoiding a nip from a mallard.

And here’s a wood duck trying to give another wood duck a nip.

It wasn’t all antagonistic, however, and here’s a pair of wood ducks nuzzling.

And here’s a wood duck just enjoying the beautiful weather, perhaps, and showing off its pretty new adult flight feathers. They haven’t been chowing down on frogs and crayfish all summer for nothing.

There were no herons today, and I failed to get a picture of Ol’ Snappy, so I headed to the river where I found another mallard relaxing in the morning sun.

The big surprise from the river, however, was a pair of deer. I spooked the mom, by accident, and managed to catch a glimpse of the fawn, and then I left them alone.

At the north end, where I used to see indigo buntings regularly last summer, but from where they’ve been missing for most of this summer, one finally stopped in to say hi.

It was surprisingly unfazed by me, and just went about its chirping and preening as I inched closer and closer.

Eventually, it even started to air out its feathers in the morning sun.

I didn’t want to use up all my film on just one bird, so I took a couple of sunbathing pictures and headed back south.

I wasn’t planning to visit the pond again, but by the time I got to the boardwalk below the beer garden, I had accumulated a bag full of plastic, left behind by the recent high water, so I headed up the stairs to deposit it in the bin there. At that point, staying up on the bluff was the path of least resistance, so off to the pond I went.

There, Ol’ Snappy made it worth my while and gave me a second chance.

Then I scanned the rest of the pond, and spotted another turtle, but as I tried to get a picture of it, look who was lurking in the background. Ha! It’s the young night heron again.

Since I posted the pictures from the previous sighting on Instagram, I’ve heard that one person disagrees and two agree with my call that it is a young yellow-crowned night-heron a bit north of its usual range and not a black-crowned night-heron like the one we saw on the pond last summer. We’ll see if that trend holds when I post these new pictures.

Finally, as I continued south, I spotted a green heron fishing in the southeast corner of the pond. I took a couple of shots from the west side, but the sun was still in the east so the light was bad, and I know there’s a little path down to the water in that corner, so I walked around to see if this heron would let me get that close.

Well, today was my lucky day, because yet again, a normally shy bird was way less shy than usual. Check out what good light makes possible.

It even pretended not to notice when I snuck back up the path from the water to finally go home. By that time, however, the Farmers Market was in full swing, and I didn’t need to be walking through that in the full Ranger Rick costume I had on because it was just 59° out when I left the house this morning, so I made a beeline down the Oak Leaf instead to see if any of my pictures came out. Happily, it seems some have.

What an absolutely fabulous morning it was in Estabrook! Cool temps, calm winds, dry air, and blue skies. What more could you ask for?

On my walk to the pond, I even spotted a flower-of-an-hour (Hibiscus trionum) that was open for a change.

At the pond, there were no herons for a change, just ducks today, so I left them along and headed for the river, which continues to subside, and there I did spot what appears to be an adult blue heron in full plumage up in a willow tree on the northern island. I had heard it squawk a couple of times on my way north, and before I spotted it, I saw a couple of guys in yellow shirts and hard hats in a boat on the river, which must have displeased it. Hopefully they will find that the river has managed to survive the spate of storms we have.

Back on the mainland, I spotted this non-descript little bird, that looks like a young northern cardinal, which I read “are similar to females, but have a grey or black to black bill.“

Whoever it is, it soon caught breakfast.

On my way back south along the river, I managed to catch a pair of belted kingfishers, perhaps a parent trying to teach a young one how to avoid having its picture taken.

South of the pond, at the new pollinator garden Friends of Estabrook are trying to plant, I finally found a pollinator enjoying the Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia) they have planted.

At the south end, by the soccer fields, a cedar waxwing posed for this rare portrait.

While a goldfinch was gorging itself on thistle seeds, as usual.

There was another monarch and some Peck’s skippers, but we saw them just yesterday. Instead, here’s a dragonfly, which I believe to be a female twelve-spotted skimmer (Libellula pulchella) with faded stripes along the side of its abdomen.

Finally, the rain has brought out some mushrooms, but I can’t find a match for this one anywhere. Can you? It is about five inches across and maybe a half inch thick at this point and growing on the trunk of a downed cottonwood. The bright orange and crisp white make for a nice contrast.