Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Failing the sniff test…

In an effort to beat the heat forecast for today, I got out nice and early and was already at the north end by 6:30 a.m. I don’t know if it was my early arrival or we were just due, but I finally found our first black swallowtail in Estabrook. It was waiting for the sun in the wildflowers that survived the mowing of the meadow, and sure, it looks a little “like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone,” but the parts that are left are darn pretty anyway.

As I was kneeling in the grass trying to get the best picture I could, look who came sneaking up the path to check me out.

I’ve seen this with youngsters before, and it is always a wonderfully mesmerizing experience, but this is the first time I’ve had an adult try to get close enough to catch a whiff. It appears that she eventually caught something, which I hope was mostly the insect repellant I’ve been bathing in for most of this wet, hot, and buggy summer, because then she turned and pranced off. “Sorry, Sweetie!”

Anyway, by the time I was able to turn my attention back to the swallowtail, it must have decided that there was enough sunlight to try catching some.

Another little critter I found snoozing in the weeds was this red-belted bumblebee, who looks a bit like the golden northern bumblebee we saw just yesterday, but with red belts on its tail instead of yellow.

That’s it for critters today, I’m afraid. Perhaps everyone was laying low in anticipation of the line of thunderstorms that rolled through around 9 a.m. Thus, I finally have room to share a picture of the work that MMSD has begun to reshape the falls so that native fish species can get back to their historical spawning grounds upstream. There is a great picture at the top of the stairs by the beer garden that shows the details of what they intend to do, which I was sure I could find online, but I’ve had no luck, so I’ll snap a picture of it for you tomorrow.

Since I still have a little room left, and I didn’t get a single bird picture today, here’s a spotted sandpiper on a little spit of sand in the river on Monday.

Finally, here’s another look at the monarch from yesterday, but this time on some swamp milkweed blossoms. I had great light at the time, and the monarch was very cooperative and/or hungry, so the image has good resolution, and you can see a lot more detail if you click on it to see the original on flickr and zoom in.

Feeling the humidity, and waiting for the heat to arrive…

The beautiful weather we’ve enjoyed for the past couple of days is beginning to fray, and by the time the temps hit 75°F this morning, the humidity was still 75%. Soggy!

The first picture I thought worth taking didn’t come until I reached the north end, when I spotted this doe wading from our riverbank to the upstream island, …

with her fawn in hot pursuit. I would have liked to get a nice portrait of the two of them together, of course, but they didn’t dawdle and soon disappeared inside the thick brush that grows on the island.

Just a bit upstream, I found another mom with her young charges also in hot pursuit.

As I approached the meadow on my way back south, I spotted what I presumed was another doe gobbling up blossoms, but upon closer inspection, I suspect that she may be the same doe who had just parked her fawn on the island, and she is now out carefully collecting the nutrition she needs to keep them both healthy.

Once the doe ambled off, look who I found napping on a Queen Anne’s lace blossom. That’s a golden northern bumblebee, whom we first saw right about this time just last summer.

Finally, the stars have aligned at last, and here’s a monarch butterfly sipping nectar from a purple cone flower in the pollinator garden.

Just a perfect summer day…

The beautiful weather has returned to Estabrook Park, with cool, dry, and not too breezy air, so we had a gorgeous morning for a wildlife walk. As usual, I stopped by the river on my way to meeting folks at the beer garden, and the air was cool and still enough for a thin blanket of fog to form over the warm river water, which made a nice background for this young great blue heron fishing among the arrowhead leaves at the water’s edge.

There are a few plumb trees that grow around the top of the stairway down the bluff from the beer garden, and this red squirrel was enjoying the dropped fruit and/or pits so much that it didn’t even seem to mind me taking its picture for a change.

Five folks arrived for the 7 a.m. start, and we headed to the pond to check on the hooded merganser, who appears to be finding our crayfish tasty enough to stick around.

Back at the river, this deer appeared to be comparing and contrasting the plants that grow in the water with the willow growing on shore. I have no opinion about how each tastes, nor their nutritional value, but I believe that the willow leaves do make a better picture.

On my way to collect the 8 amers, I was surprised to find a white breasted nuthatch that I could get my camera on. They’ve been keeping mostly out of sight for a while, and they’ve even grown pretty quiet lately, but they are obviously still here.

Finally, I didn’t get any butterfly or dragonfly pictures today, but a few of us took advantage of the wonderful weather and continued our walk in Lincoln Park, just a bit up river, and the beebalm is in full bloom there, so I immediately checked for snowberry clearwings, and here’s our first of the year. Yay! As luck would have it, on my walk home through Estabrook, I found one on catnip by the southern parking lot, but the bee balm was in much better light.

All kinds of babies at Oak Creek…

It was quite cloudy and a bit breezy this morning in Estabrook Park, and I got off to a pretty good start when I spotted this youngish-looking great blue heron wading a little deeper in the pond than they usually go. But then I remembered that the Milwaukee Birders were going to the Oak Creek Parkway today, about which I’ve heard plenty, but to which I’ve never been, so I declared “Victory” in Estabrook and hitched a ride to South Milwaukee.

We started at the mill pond, where Mill Road crosses the parkway, and things got off to a great start when a bystander was kind enough to point out this fawn lurking at the water’s edge. Noice!

We also saw some herons, sandpipers, kingfishers, and swallows, but the big surprise for me came when we started following the creek down to the lake and came across two mallard hens who both had broods of ducklings that looked brand-spanking new. It’s getting to be pretty late in the summer for that, I would think, but I suppose they would know better, and not having to migrate might give them a little more leeway than other species might enjoy.

I also spotted a wild turkey hen along the creek, which we’ve seen before in Estabrook, …

but this one had a couple of poults with her, which I can only dream of seeing in Estabrook, at least for now.

When we finally reached the outlet into Lake Michigan, we couldn’t help but notice the killdeer flitting around and calling for the murder of cervids at the top of their lungs. What took a little more searching, however, was a pair of youngsters, who already have most of their adult plumage in, but whose tail feathers still look a little fuzzy. We see the adults in Estabrook regularly, of course, and probably some of them are enjoying their first summer, but I have yet to see an obvious youngster there yet.

There were dozens of ring-billed gulls, and a few herring gulls, but the treat for me was the trio of Bonaparte’s gulls. Someone has reported seeing them in Estabrook Park, but not since 1994, and we’ve seen them at the lakeshore, but not in Estabrook yet, so yet another sight to dream about.

The South Milwaukee Yacht Club has a little marina right next to the creek outlet, and the swallows were loving the low perches right next to the water, and here’s a gorgeous barn swallow on break from hunting and without a white sky background for a change. Sweet!

At first glance, this next cutie looks just like the northern rough-winged swallows we see in Estabrook every summer, but that brown band across the top of its chest marks it as a bank swallow, instead. I have managed to photograph them in Estabrook during spring migration, but it was nowhere close to a portrait like this, so I didn’t even bother to show you. Maybe someday, eh?

Finally, the brush beside the creek was loaded with ebony jewelwing damselflies, and here’s one whose white spots on her wingtips marks her as a she.

P.S. Thanks to Milwaukee Birders for hosting the walk and for providing the lift!

P.P.S. I am sure that you will be as relieved to hear as I was that the broad-winged hawk we thought we saw yesterday has turn out to be a real broad-winged hawk. That’s our thirteenth bird of prey in Estabrook. Woo Hoo!

P.P.P.S. The weekly wildlife walk is ON for tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. and again at 8 a.m. Be there or be square! (_{Please note that the author, the editorial staff, and the entire graphic arts team, realize that birding can only be enjoyed if participation in it is completely voluntary and do not wish to imply any pressure whatsoever for you to attend. We will certainly miss you but will not actually consider you to be square if you are not there.})

Several mid-July surprises…

As forecast, the cool and dry air we’ve enjoyed in Estabrook for the past couple of days has moved on, and it was warmer and rainier in the park today. The air has remained nearly still, however, and with non-holiday, early Saturday traffic, it was wonderfully quiet this morning.

My first treat of the day was finding this darling female hooded merganser on the pond. There was also a young great blue heron and a couple of wood ducks, and once the merganser saw me, she drifted right over to the wood ducks for comfort, moral support, or protection, but she wouldn’t say which.

The lighting wasn’t great, so I left the heron and ducks alone and headed down to the river to see if there were any scenes I could capture. Happily, these three youngish mallard ducklings had selected a perch pretty close to our riverbank, and they did not want to give it up, so I was able to sneak this picture without rousing them. Mom was just off to the right, and she drifted over to get between us once she saw me.

On quiet days like today, I’ve been hearing one or two common yellowthroats across the river at the north end and just about ever since they arrived, but today one was calling loud and clear from what’s left of the wildflower meadow on our side of the river. They are usually quite hard to spot, but he kept on singing as I carefully approached, so I gave a look, and was thrilled to find him almost right away. He even gave me enough time to sneak this picture, and then he bolted for deeper cover.

The biggest treat of the day, however, came soon after, when I spotted a dark bird perched high in a dead tree, as I often see cowbirds do. I hadn’t seen a cowbird yet today, and it wasn’t making its characteristic call, so I first tried the binoculars, but the back light was so bright that I couldn’t make out the brown head. So, I tried my camera, which can sometimes tease out a detail like that if I way overexpose the image.

Well, the bird turned out to be a grackle, but just as I was realizing that, a hawk flew right under it and perched a few trees back. I figured it was a Cooper’s hawk, based on size and behavior, but I hadn’t gotten a picture of one in a while, and my camera was already on and ready to go, so I gave it a try, and this is what I got.

It does look a bit like a Cooper’s hawk, but the tail is too short, and they don’t have that brown bib extending from the face onto the breast, as this one does. Thus, I wasn’t sure who it was, so I consulted with my sources, and they both agreed that this is our very first broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus). For reasons that the range map does not make clear, ebird considers them rare for here right now, but there are not a lot of rarities being posted these days, so I shouldn’t have to wait too long for the fine folks at ebird to weigh in to accept or reject my identification. Keep your fingers crossed!

And that’s it for the birds today, so here’s another look at the doe and her fawn from Monday. I’m sorry to say that they’ve kept out of sight since then.

I did get several moth pictures today, but these particular moths are not especially photogenic, and I failed to get any dragonflies or butterflies, so here’s a sulphur, either clouded or orange, from yesterday, when the butterflies were plentiful.

Finally, here’s another monarch-on-thistle picture, also from yesterday, because I simply cannot resist those colors.

Lastly, a friend of mine is trying to preserve a little bit of accidental wetland in Whitefish Bay, where she has documented over 80 species of plants and animals. You can read a very nice article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about it here, and you can participate in a super-easy letter-writing campaign here. Remember that the more friendly habitat there is around us, the more wildlife there can be, and the more we’re likely to see of it in Estabrook Park.

Enjoying the cool-down, while it lasts…

It started out even cooler this morning in Estabrook Park than yesterday, so cool that I even wore a jacket for the first hour, but the cloud cover was much thinner, so the light was nicer, and the day warmed up pretty quickly.

I didn’t see any herons on the pond, however, and I couldn’t find any interesting visitors on the river, either. Instead, the most remarkable sight I saw today was this brood of young mallards with their mom. Most of their cousins are already big enough to look like adults, but these little cuties are still wearing their birthday suits.

I didn’t get another bird picture until I was back at the south end, where I spotted this cedar waxwing in the birch tree over the weeds beside the soccer fields. I would have liked to have been able to wait for the cloud to pass behind it, but waxwings tend not to sit still long.

This song sparrow, however, was in the same tree and too busy singing to go anywhere, so I had plenty of time to wait for some nice blue sky to show up.

I’m never sure if it is the mix of weeds themselves, their location between the river and a wide expanse of mown lawn, or just the time of day, but I usually find the best selection of photogenic bugs there, and today was no exception. I know I’ve shown you a Halloween pennant dragonfly a couple of times already this summer, but how’s a guy supposed to resist these colors?

Similarly, I’ve already shown you a banded hairstreak butterfly earlier this month, but this one doesn’t have a chunk of wing missing, so I’m claiming a do-over.

Lastly, if I can get away with doubling and tripling up on those two, certainly you won’t complain if I also show you one more red admiral butterfly. Plus, that first one looked a little worn, but this one still looks fresh out of its packaging.

Lastly, if this recent cool, dry weather is getting you down, you won’t have to suffer much longer because I see 80s and thunderstorms in back in the forecast for tomorrow. Enjoy!

Now that’s a change in the weather…

Jeepers! The weather must have heard me mention fall migration season yesterday and gotten all excited because it sure was cool and dark in Estabrook Park this morning, and even at lunchtime we’re still in the lower 60s.

Luckily, birds still gotta eat, so here’s a green heron who just snatched a crayfish out of the pond.

And here are a couple of young-looking mallard ducklings getting their breakfast out of the river as Mom keeps watch.

The cool air really slowed the bugs down, but this one dragonfly, a spot-winged glider, still flew its patrol over the pollinator garden, and I had to practice my patience before it let me get this shot.

I only saw one butterfly today, and it evaded me, so here’s a female monarch from yesterday and on swamp milkweed by the river.

And here she is laying an egg.

After the warm spell we’ve had, I sure don’t mind this cool air, but I do hope the sun comes back out eventually.

Family photo day…

The beautiful weather we’ve been enjoying in Estabrook Park is starting to look a little rough around the edges today with towering clouds embedded in a hazy sky. Thus, it was a little darker than usual at the pond when I arrived, which made a nice background for the youngish great blue heron we’ve been seeing there lately.

Then a green heron showed up, and I really wanted to get a nice picture of both of them together, and this was the best I could manage, but it does give you some sense of the difference in size between them.

When I gave up on the “family” portrait idea, I had better luck.

Meanwhile, there was another “family” reunion going on at the river when a pair of solitary sandpipers showed up. We haven’t seen them since the last “family” portrait back in May. Since their breeding range is well over the border into Canada, and they winter south of the Florida panhandle, I believe their arrival must officially mark the start of fall migration season! Woo hoo!

This visit was a little more contentious than the last, however, and one of the spotted sandpipers, who’ve been here all summer, seemed to have a bone to pick with their larger cousins, whom it kept chasing off. Perhaps it just didn’t want to share the breakfast buffet with these out-of-towners, or something else was up, but either way, there were no group shots.

I’ve shown you a blue dasher dragonfly already this month, but this one did a much nicer job of showing off the dashing black and yellow stripes it has under its wings.

Finally, I’ve also shown you a hackberry emperor butterfly this month, but that was from the other side of the state, and the only other one I’ve ever shown you also had its wings spread wide, so I was very excited to get a picture at last of one with its wings closed. Plus, who knew they had such amazing eyes? I sure didn’t.

It’s not August yet, but these sure feel like some lazy days of summer.

The recent great weather in Estabrook Park continued this morning, the cicadas were already singing at 7 a.m., and this green heron making one of its infrequent visits to the pond was icing on the cake.

There was also this trio of wood duck hens there, and they’ve started that mutual preening behavior that we’ve seen from them before.

On the river, the belted kingfishers are still feeding their noisy young.

As I was trying to capture the kingfisher feeding, these two large snapping turtles floated by and appeared to be “wrestling,” but I never got to see who “won.”

No sooner had the turtles drifted beyond range when this deer waded from the upstream island to the mainland, but there was no sign of the doe with her fawn today.

Back on shore, this dapper-looking American goldfinch male used some chicory as a perch from which to pick grass seeds, which you can see him deftly clutching in his right claw.

Just below, this less-flashy female did about the same.

I’ve seen both swamp milkweed and large milkweed bugs before, but never quite like this. It looks like they’re having quite a time.

I only captured my first amberwing image just last August, but it sure made me wait for it that day, and even then it didn’t let me get very close. Today, however, I didn’t have to wait long at all, and this one let me have a nice closeup. What a difference a year makes, eh?

Finally, despite the warm temps, calm winds, and plentiful blossoms, I didn’t see a lot of butterflies today, so it’s back to the monarchs again. The light was great, and the subject sat still, so the image has some pretty good details. If you click on it so you can zoom in, you can see how the scales on the wing appear to be arranged in a circular pattern around the “shoulder” joint.

Don’t forget that the Friends of Estabrook Member Picnic is this afternoon, Tuesday, July 15 from 5 to 7:30 at the Estabrook Park beer garden, and the invite explicitly states “feel free to bring new friends,” so come on out and join us if you’re able.

More wildlife than walkers today…

It was another beautiful morning in Estabrook Park, and it seemed that the Canadian wildfire smoke, which had dimmed yesterday a bit, has mostly moved on.

My first treat of the morning came on the river, just north of the falls, when I saw that a big section of a cottonwood tree had fallen into the water, and then I noticed a little movement among the branches. It turns out that I was not the first to discover this literal windfall, and here’s a beaver busily taking advantage of it.

Just a bit upstream of the beaver, I was pleasantly surprised to find ten wood duck ducklings that look nearly full grown. In fact, I can’t even decide if there’s a mom in the group or not. It’s great to see that we should have plenty of new wood ducks to come visit us next spring.

Speaking of “moms”, look who brought her fawn out to greet the day on the upstream island.

Then it was time for me to hustle up to the parking lot to greet the 7 a.m. wildlife walkers, which turned out to be only John Kasper today, who has led walks for me while I’ve been away. Similarly, the 8 a.m. crew turned out to be only Jeff Bentoff, who sent us that awesome screech owl picture a few summers ago. Together, we thought maybe folks were staying home to avoid the smoke, and we did see plenty of birds, but the only picture I took was of another softshell turtle on the far riverbank.

Then John mentioned that he had just seen bobolinks on the south side of town, and Jeff said he’d love to see bobolinks in Milwaukee, a sentiment that I immediately seconded, so we wrapped things up in Estabrook, and Jeff drove us down to the southside. At first, all we were seeing were savannah sparrows perched and swallows on the wing.

But the Milwaukee bobolinks eventually began to appear, and here’s a female.

And finally, here are a couple of males, in various stages of getting their breeding plumage in or molting it out. Thanks for the tip, John, and for the lift, Jeff!

Lastly, the tall grasses and wildflowers also brought us our first black swallowtail of the season. Yay!

Oh, and don’t forget! The Friends of Estabrook Member Picnic is tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday, July 15 from 5 to 7:30 at the beer garden, and the invite explicitly states “feel free to bring new friends,” so come on out and join us if you’re able.