And that’ll have to do it for this morning. Anne and I are off to meet some relatives for what we hope will be a safe and enjoyable brunch al fresco. It’s supposed to be a hot one today, so if you go to the Farmers Market, stay cool out there.
It was yet another beautiful morning for a walk in the park. Our new friend, the juvenile double-crested cormorant was on the same log in the pond as yesterday, and this morning struck the classic cormorant pose intended to dry out his or her feathers after a fishing expedition, which suggests that maybe he or she might be hanging out for a while. Yay!
I had actually spotted it a week or so ago and even took a nice picture of it in the afternoon sun, but I mistakenly figured it was just invasive purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), and so I didn’t bother reporting it. Ha!
Well, the sky has clouded up now, and I hope we get some rain. The stream from the pond to the river has run dry again, so I think we could use it. Adiós amigos.
The parade of beautiful days in Estabrook Park just keeps chugging along, and even more surprising is the parade of new arrivals.
First up is what appears, for all the world, to be a double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), right there on our pond, and this one seems to be yet another juvenile, based on its neck and chest looking paler than “all black”. You may recall seeing an image of them in a v-formation flying over the park back on May 14, and I never expected to have the pleasure of seeing one this close.
The Pedia of Wik explains that the dense zigzag of silk in the center of her web is known as a stabilimentum, and “the purpose of the stabilimentum is disputed. It is possible that it acts as camouflage for the spider lurking in the web’s center, but it may also attract insect prey, or even warn birds of the presence of the otherwise difficult-to-see web. Only those spiders that are active during the day construct stabilimenta in their webs.”
Less scary, but just as striking, is this red-spotted purple butterfly (Limenitis arthemisastyanax), which is of the same species as the white admiral (Limenitis arthemisarthemis), oddly enough, but has “evolved to mimic the poisonous pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor).” I’ve tried to show you pictures of this critter three times before, on June 20, June 19, and June 12, but could never get one to pose like this. We even saw a chrysalis by the pond back on June 4.
Finally, you’re not going to believe the common name of the new flower I found blossoming on the river by the boat launch. The common sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) “is a North American species of flowering plants in the sunflower family.” I was wading through the weeds from this picture when I nearly ran into Mrs. Orb Weaver above and almost got to put that bumblebee analogy to the test.
That’s our show for today folks, and I can’t wait to see what I see tomorrow.
It was yet another beautiful morning in Estabrook Park, and there was a light fog hugging the soccer fields. All four deer were out again, but there were also a lot of walkers and joggers trying to get by, so they didn’t get a chance to pose for a family portrait this time.
It was still too cool for the butterflies to be out and about when I was in the park this morning, but they were making the best of the abundant Queen Anne’s lace yesterday.
One novelty along the river trail, which I’ve been observing for weeks but didn’t manage to sort out until this morning when it is almost all passed by, is this fascinating “dog sick slime mould” or “dog sick fungus” (Mucilago crustacea). It is bright white, like spilled Dairy Queen “vanilla” soft serve, and not to be confused with the similarly-named dog vomit slime mold (Fuligo septica), which has a “peculiar yellowish, bile-colored appearance,” and often grows on overwatered mulch. Although both are slime molds, “organisms that can live freely as single cells, but can aggregate together to form multicellular reproductive structures,” the two are only in the same class Myxogastria, which contains 888 species!
Speaking of Queen Anne’s lace, check out the beautiful spiral pattern in this one. It looks like a spiral galaxy, and I only see it so clearly every once in a while.
And speaking of spiral galaxies, Anne and I went out last evening to look at Jupiter and Saturn again, which were magnificent and are heading towards a great conjunction in December. There was no sign of comet NEOWISE anymore, and I failed again to capture an image of the raccoon, but we did get to see the Andromeda Galaxy. It’s actually a barred spiral galaxy, just like the Milky Way, but it barely looked like more than a white smudge to us, without some way to capture light of a period of time. Its photons, I am amazed to read, have been traveling for “approximately 2.5 million” before striking my retinas.
So long, for now, and enjoy the nice weather while it lasts, because I hear it’s gonna get hot and humid again for the weekend.
Next, we’ve got this curiosity, what looks for all the world to be yet another, bright-blue, male indigo bunting, but with a little bit of a yellow belly, and I have no idea what that’s about.
Finally, while Anne and I were in the park last evening to check out the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, which are resplendent right now, I managed to capture this image on my phone of our first new mammal in a while, a raccoon (Procyon lotor) grabbing an early evening snack.
Something about the way the flash on my phone flickered before taking the picture made it always face the other way at the crucial moment. I’ve got a half dozen just like this, even though I could see it looking my way in between. Oh well.
And there you have it. Just when we might have thought the parade must be coming to an end, it just keeps on going.
Man, I thought it was cool yesterday morning, but this morning I had to go back inside and get a windbreaker. It sure is a welcome break from the recent heat, but I’m also glad it’s not going to last. I’m not ready for summer to be over yet.
So, I was just walking up the middle of the parkway, now that I can, and as I came across the first set of picnic tables, between the parkway and the soccer fields, I noticed that some tables had been moved since I had carefully arranged them for the Farmers Market.
I decided to put them back as they were, because I can’t help myself, and just look at what that gave me the opportunity to see. Not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR deer out on the lawn at once! A doe, two fawns still in spots, and a fourth wheel that might have been just visiting.
As I did my best the capture the moment for you, what with the distance, low light, and all, the fourth one decided it was time to visit the east side. The other three sampled the grass for a while longer and then headed south on the path between the soccer fields and the bluff.
I know that if you live in the country or even in the suburbs you might find deer to be sort of pests, like rodents on hooves if you’re trying to grow tulips or vegetables, but I don’t think seeing them in the park like this, close to their natural setting, will ever get old for me.
Anyway, I was tempted to call that a success and head home for breakfast, but I needed the steps, so I pressed on, further north into the park, and look who I came across next. If I had to guess, this little cutie is a baby bluebird of happiness, and things are really starting to go my way.
There was no action in the wildflower meadow, but on the trail along the river, just south of the falls, I finally came across that live cicada I had promised you weeks ago. It was cold and lethargic, but quite alive, and near the top of a young buckthorn, which is really a dead end street and not very photogenic. So I momentarily repositioned it onto this pretty goldenrod for a photo-op before I carefully set it on the trunk of a more-suitable nearby tree, worthy of the climb after a life lived underground.
Further south along the river, at the mudflats, I came across the young wood ducks again, that we saw just yesterday, and this time I captured them rifling through the water lilies and arrowheads.
Finally, just as I was about to take the path back up the bluff, I spotted this gorgeous new native wildflower growing along the river. As far as I can tell, this is obedient plant, obedience, or false dragonhead (Physostegia virginiana), yet another member of the mint family, Lamiaceae. The Pedia of Wik explains that “Physostegia are known commonly as obedient plants because a flower pushed to one side will often stay in that position,” and “the name “false dragonhead” refers to the dragonheads of the related Dracocephalum, a genus to which the plant” was once thought to belong.
Not a bad haul for such a cool morning in August, eh? Even better, the clouds have finally cleared, and Anne and I might get another chance to look at Saturn and Jupiter this evening. Who knows, with the streak of luck I’m having today, we might even catch one last glimpse of comet Neowise. Wish us luck!
Thanks to everyone who chimed in on the calendar, and if you haven’t yet, there’s still time, but it won’t last forever.
Wow! That was a cool, dim, and damp morning for early August, eh? The park was very quiet, especially now that it seems only buntings and wrens are singing to mark their territory.
The closest to a newcomer I found this morning is this immature wood duck on the river. In the left/top image, you can see the characteristic ring around its eye, but much less pronounced than on a breeding female, and in the right/bottom image, you can make out the patch of blue edged in white on its wings.
The little stream from the pond down to the river, in which we saw baby bullheads and creek chub, has been dry as a bone for the past couple of days, and the rain last night filled that right back up again. This morning, I saw both critters in the river near where the stream enters, but the pictures are no better than the ones you’ve already seen.
These blossoms keep opening along the boardwalk south of the falls, but there is just one of each, and I’m having a heck of a time identifying them. My best guess today is something in the mint family (Lamiaceae), either in the hyssop genus (Agastache), or the mint genus (mentha). Species might be blue giant hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) or maybe horse mint (Mentha longifolia). If anyone has a better guess, please don’t keep us in suspense.
One new blossom that I’m pretty sure I have identified correctly is white snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) growing in various places along the river path. Do not eat it!
White snakeroot contains the toxin tremetol; when the plants are consumed by cattle, the meat and milk become contaminated with the toxin. When milk or meat containing the toxin is consumed, the poison is passed on to humans. If consumed in large enough quantities, it can cause tremetol poisoning in humans. The poisoning is also called milk sickness, as humans often ingested the toxin by drinking the milk of cows that had eaten snakeroot.
During the early 19th century, when large numbers of European Americans from the East, who were unfamiliar with snakeroot, began settling in the plant’s habitat of the Midwest and Upper South, many thousands were killed by milk sickness. Notably, milk sickness was possibly the cause of death in 1818 of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of Abraham Lincoln.
It was some decades before European Americans traced the cause to snakeroot, although today Dr. Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby is credited with identifying the plant in the 1830s. Legend has it that she was taught about the plant’s properties by a Shawnee woman. The Shawnee woman’s name is lost to history, but she and her people would have had deep knowledge of the herbs and plants in the area.
In addition to cattle, the plants are also poisonous to horses, goats, and sheep. Signs of poisoning in these animals include depression and lethargy, placement of hind feet close together (horses, goats, cattle) or held far apart (sheep), nasal discharge, excessive salivation, arched body posture, and rapid or difficult breathing.
Thus, if your goats are depressed and lethargic lately, you’d better check their pasture for white snakeroot, and don’t drink their milk. Sorry about the teaser headline, but that’s as close as I’ve come to finding a snake in Estabrook Park so far. I’m still hoping and keeping my eyes peeled, however, and if you find one, please let me know. Take a picture, if possible, and send it in.
Finally, now that it’s August, it’s time to try to sort out what if anything we might do about the calendar. You may recall that I was thinking about printing some up as a fundraiser for Friends of Estabrook Park, and I had a hope of gauging your interest by having you indicated which pictures you’d like to see in it and how many you might buy. Well, since that announcement, it appears that we only need to print up 8 of them, which isn’t much.
The possibility exists, however, that you meant to add a comment, but just forgot, or that you have joined us after that announcement. In either case, now’s your chance to chime in. I’m scheduled to report to the Friends of Estabrook Park board on August 19, so I’ve got until then to decide how many we might print, if any.
Man, we’ve got a special treat today with not one, not two, but three, count them, three reader photos of the week!
The first one is the most amazing picture, perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime shot, of an albino sparrow taken by long-time supporter Carolyn in her yard right here in Shorewood, WI. She calls him Al because she was listening to that Paul Simon song when she took this picture.
I read that we have to check for red eyes, which I can’t quite see in this image, before we can declare true albinism. If the eyes are dark, then Al has leucism, instead, and can “produce melanin but can’t deposit it into [his] feathers.” Nevertheless, truly an exciting find. Thank you Carolyn!
Finally, we’ve got this little, as yet nameless, cutie that Carolyn also sent in from her front porch.
All righty, then. Let’s see what I’ve been able to scrounge up in the confines of Estabrook Park.
First up is the littlest baby bunny I’ve managed to spot so far this season in the grass just east of the beer garden.
I also spotted this little guy right beside the steps from the falls up to the beer garden emphatically chirping that if they’re out of the dunkle, he’s might just skip the beer altogether today.
That’s the roundup for this sleepy first Sunday morning in August. It is supposed to stay cool and partly cloudy today, so there should be perfect conditions for a visit to the Farmers Market and a stroll through the park. Maybe I’ll see you there.
The move went so well yesterday that we finished early, I was able to get back into Estabrook by midafternoon, and I am sure glad I did because we’ve got new birds, caterpillars, and flowers to look at this morning, if you can believe it.
Let’s start with the birds. The sky was bright white, which is the worst for trying to take a picture of a bird up in a tree, but I’m learning more tricks with my camera, and this one came out well enough to identify somebody new. Say hello to a pair of purple finches (Haemorhous purpureus), as far as I can tell, over the riverbank. They definitely have finch beaks, he definitely has a red head, which might look “raspberry red” if the lighting were better, and she is “coarsely streaked below” with the right wing markings. Who would have guessed at this late date that we’d still be coming across birds we haven’t seen before, eh?
I actually thought I might be capturing an image of a female indigo bunting, because I had just taken this nice image of a male stretching out between songs over the wildflower meadow just 10 yards inland.
And the reason I was standing on the riverbank at all is that I had glimpsed at least a dozen cedar waxwings hunting insects over the river again. As soon as I showed up, of course, they mostly paused on branches across the river, but I managed to stand still long enough to capture these less-cautious but no-less-dashing characters.
The meadow was not only abuzz with birds, and here are a pair of swallowtail butterflies getting to know each other. Remember when I said they don’t sit still if there’s more than one? Well, here’s your irrefutable evidence!
My already-cushy “job” would be so much easier if they would just sit still as monarchs do.
A little less flashy, but similarly as important, are these guys, ’cause you can’t have butterflies without caterpillars, right? On the left/top is somebody new to us, and I read these guys can be tricky to identify, but as far as I can tell, it’s a very pale yellow woolly bear or yellow bear, the caterpillar of the Virginia tiger moth (Spilosoma virginica). On the right/bottom, of course, is our old buddy, the easily-identified monarch caterpillar looking for just the right spot on a swamp milkweed to start munching.
Speaking of swamp milkweed, check out who I found sipping from blossoms on the mudflats south of the falls. Yes indeedy, that’s the snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis), which we’ve seen a few times before, but this time in enough light that my camera could crank up the shutter speed a bit for some not-too-shabby stop-action.
This next image is just gratuitous, because we’ve seen these before, too, but it was posing so nice and I just watched Aliens with Anne last evening, so here you go: yet one more great black wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus). They look so peaceful sipping nectar, but I’ll let you read further about how they provision for their young on the Pedia of Wik. Did you think Dan O’Bannon come up with something nature hadn’t already devised?
I gotta quit there, mostly because I’m out of pictures, but I’ll be off to the park soon looking for more. In the meantime, I read that we are forecast to have some cooler weather in the coming days, so enjoy your break from the heat.
What a nice cool morning, for a change, eh? It sure keeps the bugs down for a bit. Happily, I was out yesterday afternoon when the bugs were livin’ large, and it turns out that right here in Estabrook Park we’ve got many more kinds of skipper butterflies, besides the two we’ve already seen, then I even knew existed.
One fun detail that I didn’t notice until yesterday afternoon is how these little guys often hold their wings.
As always, the Pedia of Wik explains “adults typically visit flowers and hold their wings together while feeding,” as we saw yesterday. It continues, however, that the subfamily Hesperiinae, which includes these three, “are unique in that they hold their wings partially open while resting, with the forewings and hindwings held at different angles. This is known as the “jet-plane position.”
Also stopping by was this nice and new looking monarch.
This flighty black swallowtail swung by, but didn’t really stop. The purple cornflowers were right there, but he wanted to sip from this red bergamot without taking a break from fluttering.
Well, there you have it. We’re gonna have a short report today because I get to go help someone move this morning, and I hope these colorful little guys can tide you over until next time.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 
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