We had a nice line of thunderstorms roll through last evening, and precipitation lingered into this morning, so I got off to a latish start. At first, is seemed that everyone was still laying low. Even Ol’ Blue had to take a step back from his usual spot by the falls.

So I headed up to the meadow by the river to see if maybe I could get another chance with the sandpiper, but the river was so high, even the rocks he perched on yesterday were submerged, and he was nowhere to be seen.

I had barely turned around to head home, perhaps feeling a little dejected, when this amazing creature came out of the woods to say “hi”, and I stood as still as I could.

You can tell by the look on her face how threatening she found me this morning. At that instant, I was standing about 10 feet away. A few minutes and a couple dozen shots later, look who else decided it must be safe to come on out!

Here you can plainly see that he’s about as afraid of me as she is.

He probably worked on his tail for a full minute. Man, now I’m gonna hafta wear this t-shirt, unwashed, for the rest of the summer! Anne will be thrilled. I eventually walked away as slowly and evenly as I could, and they were still munching on their breakfast as I exited the south end of the meadow.

Soon after, while the iron was still hot I guess, I came across this handsome critter, who appears to be an orange ruby meadowhawk dragonfly (Sympetrum rubicundulum). The Bug Lady explains that some can be tricky to identify just from a photograph, so I don’t feel so bad.

Lastly, I stopped by a patch of Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense), which is now blooming like crazy, to take even more pictures of monarch butterflies, when I spotted these two, who appear to be great black wasps (Sphex pensylvanicus). The Missouri Department of Conservation explains these are “a friend to gardeners: a single female great black wasp can capture 16 hoppers a day, helping control grasshoppers, which chew on crops and garden plants. This wasp also pollinates plants in the milkweed, carrot, and bean families.”

Yeah, there’s some new flowers out, too, but it looks like I’ll have to save those for a rainy day. Fino ad allora abbi cura di te.

It appears we’ve got our first new bird in a while, a young spotted sandpiper (Actitis macularius). It’s across the river and not very big, so the picture isn’t the best, but it’s the little grey and white shape right in the middle of all the grey and white rocks. I first spotted it at the edge of the water on the little canoe/kayak launch at the north end of the wildflower meadow, but I couldn’t get a shot before it flew to the other side. Better luck next time, eh?

It also appears that we have yet even one more bright yellow flower in the park, and this one looks to be a yellow coneflower (Ratibida pinnata). I spotted this one and a few compatriots on the steep slope from the beer garden down to the river, where we have already seen lance-leaved tickseeds, black-eyed susans, and ox-eye sunflowers. How many more can there be, right?

Meanwhile, the blue heron and at least one of the mallard families were going about their usual morning business along the river where we’ve seen them before. Since the salmon won’t be running for months, I wonder if the heron is finding something else going up or coming down the falls, or he just likes that spot for the morning sun.

• 

• 

I also spotted a male ebony jewelwing damselfly (Calopteryx maculata) in the woods along the river, and I hope he finds the female we spotted a couple of days ago so that they can get busy looking for “the soft stems of aquatic plants.“

Lastly, I’ve been trying to get a picture of a black saddlebags dragonfly (Tramea lacerata) for you for weeks, but they just never seem to sit still. As the Bug Lady says, “they fly and glide A LOT,” and she “takes a lot of ‘Hail Mary’ shots.” Anyway, as I was scrolling through the dozens of pictures I took of the schooling baby catfish, in the hopes that one might be presentable, you’ll never believe what I found. Not one, not even just two, but a male-female pair of saddlebags dragonflies riding two-up somewhere along the “complex, precisely choreographed process” of making more.

Miracles never cease, eh?

Oh, before I sign off, I should probably forward on the “Brew Hero” promotion from Milwaukee County Parks. Maybe you too can “win Brew Hero prizes from [their] program sponsors!”

Right off the bat, let me present the reader photos of the week sent in by local naturalist John Giesa, which show the absolutely astounding caterpillar of the white-marked tussock moth (Orgyia leucostigma). The moth looks pretty cool, too, but we haven’t captured an image of one of those yet. In the meantime, tell me this doesn’t look like the fine work of some skilled but exasperated graphic artist whose boss said, “looks good, but what if you added some white bristles sticking out of the top, too?”

• 

• 

Speaking of fine graphic arts, check out the amazing detail in the wing and leg of this Carolina grasshopper (Dissosteira carolina), also known as a Carolina locust, black-winged grasshopper, or road-duster, which I spotted in the middle of the center parking lot.

Meanwhile, back in the pond, there are even more catfish this morning, probably channel catfish, and these are both much larger and much smaller than the ones we saw Monday. The adults were easily 8-10 inches long, and the young were less than 1/2 an inch. As before, I’ve posted on youtube a short video showing them swimming around that you can watch by clicking on this link.

There’s also yet another new yellow flower opening in the park, especially in the wildflower meadow at the north end, and this time it appears to be field sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis). There are several sow-thistle species in the Sonchus genus, and all appear to have similar dandelion-like yellow flowers, but this one grows in Wisconsin and has leaves closest to what I saw in the park. Of course, the pollinators are all over them, and I’m not yet sure about the first one (top/left), but the second one (bottom/right) is our ol’ buddy, the bicolored striped-sweat bee (Agapostemon virescens), that we saw just yesterday on a chicory blossom.

• 

• 

For our final picture today, here’s a combination I don’t think I’ve shown you before: a monarch butterfly taking a sip from a Canada thistle blossom. Sweet, eh?

Lastly, thanks for all the comments yesterday about reaching 100 episodes. This whole project is a labor of love, of course, but your feedback helps get me out there even when I don’t quite feel like it at first. Hasta mañana.

To commemorate the 100th day in a row, that’s every single day since March 30th, that we’ve managed to find something pretty and/or interesting to look at in Estabrook Park, I am thrilled to show you that I finally managed to find an American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) willing to sit still for a second. Our hero this morning was hunting for breakfast by the river when I interrupted it, and within 30 seconds, it went right back to work. Thanks, little guy.

Also out this morning, perhaps to help us mark the occasion, are a couple of our old friends: one of the several deer that reside in the park was checking out the Benjamin Church House, and Ol’ Blue or his cousin Bill appeared to be waiting for the salmon to start running. He’s got a while to wait, though, because I read in the Smithsonian, of all places, that “in Milwaukee, the best months to see the salmon runs are September and October for Chinook salmon, and October and November for Coho salmon.” So, we’ve got that to look forward to, eh?

• 

• 

Perhaps not wanting to be left out of the festivities, our pal, the striking leopard slug (Limax maximus), glided by before the sun got too hot. Man, if you thought the mating habits of earthworms or damselflies were unusual, wait till you read about those of the hermaphrodite leopard slug, which “are considered unusual among slugs!” Oh, and don’t forget that they’re supposed to grow up to 8 inches long. Yowza!

Finally, our favorite sweat bee, the bicolored striped-sweat bee (Agapostemon virescens), the official bee of Toronto, was hard at work gleaning the pollen from this sublimely-hued common chicory (Cichorium intybus) blossom.

Well, I gotta keep it short and sweet, this morning, so do zavtra!

Sorry I’m late today, but I hope you find this worth the wait. The cicadas were already singing by 8am this morning, so you know its gonna be a hot one, and I was just walking past the pond when I caught a disturbance in the water out of the corner of my eye. Holy Moly, it’s a leviathan!

• 

• 

• 

Okay, so technically, it’s probably a common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), not the actual leviathan described in Job 41:1–34, but it is huge, easily over 2 feet long from tip to tail. We’ve seen him before, back at the end of May, but this morning is our best sighting so far.

And, as if that wasn’t amazing enough, wait till you get a load of these brand-new kids in the pond. That’s right, we’ve got a whole school of tiny catfish, probably channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), “North America‘s most numerous catfish species and the official fish of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Tennessee!” Just look at those cute little whiskers.

• 

• 

I uploaded a video to youtube, which is a little bit mesmerizing and which you can watch at your leisure by clicking on this link. I think it would make a great slow TV channel, right?

Alright, who’s ready for some colors? I know I am. From left/top to right/bottom, we’ve got creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) blossoming in several locations across the park; common evening-primrose (Oenothera biennis), which I spotted along the Oak Leaf Trail and which only opens its huge (more than 2 inches across) blossoms in the evening; and maybe a pink/purple variety of yarrow, which we’ve already seen in its natural white.

• 

• 

• 

Lastly, some more little creepy-crawlies, some of whom are also colorful. From left/top to right/bottom, we’ve got the tiniest monarch caterpillar I’ve ever seen, maybe about 1/4 of an inch long and a “second instar larva“, just getting started on a milkweed leaf; a tiny land snail; and a red milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus), not to be confused with the Large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) we saw just a few days ago at Kohler-Andrae State Park, also on milkweed, and its “red and black coloring are [also] aposematic, advertising the beetles’ inedibility.”

• 

• 

• 

Okay, I’d better stop here and get this out before you quit waiting for it, but before you go, just one last thing. Someone recently asked if it was okay to share a link to these reports, which was super polite, of course, and the answer is a resounding yes! If you think someone might get a kick out of the comings and goings I stumble across in Estabrook Park, by all means, send them a link. If you’re a subscriber, and get these as email messages, just forward one on. I get paid the same either way.

when you hear the cicadas singing before 9am. Yup, it sure is hot out there, and the cicadas have begun to emerge from the ground, climb up into the trees, and announce their availability on the original dating app: known by many as mating call. I don’t have a picture for you yet, but I’ll be keeping my eyes open. There are supposed to be 9 cicada species in Wisconsin, and I don’t know which one we’re hearing now, but I read that “the one most frequently encountered is Tibicen canicularis, sometimes called the Dogday Harvestfly.“

Cicadas are not the only critters emerging these days. Here’s another, a frog just out of the water still sporting a little bit of its tadpole tail. This one is sitting on a lily pad on the river, and I’m afraid I can’t tell you exactly what type it is because it appears that the distinguishing features, such as ridges down the back or around the ear haven’t formed yet.

Below are the remains of yet another emergence, and this time it appears to be the empty exoskeleton from the final molt of a mayfly.

Here’s a female ebony jewelwing damselfly (Calopteryx maculata), who we first saw back at the start of June, and this time she looks like she’s up to something, but I’m not sure what. She’s supposed to lay her eggs “in the soft stems of aquatic plants“, not on this leaf. Maybe this is just a “dry” run, eh?

Keeping with our theme, below is a newly emerged mushroom, and this time I’m gonna go with Fairy Ring Mushroom (Marasmius oreades), despite the fact that there were no other mushrooms visible in the lawn at the time. MushroomExpert.com explains “the ring created by Marasmius oreades is often indistinct, and can’t always serve as a way to identify the mushroom.”

One more. The ox-eye sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides) has just opened for business, and I found a few on the steep slope from the river up to the beer garden, which is also now open for business.

Finally, check out the fun these krazy kids look to be having going over the Estabrook falls. Good for them, right?

That’s it for today. Stay cool out there and tune in tomorrow for more exciting revelations.

I haven’t been to Estabrook yet this morning, but don’t worry, I’ll get there soon enough. In the meantime, I’d like to show you some pictures from my first excursion out of Milwaukee County since March. As I mentioned yesterday, Anne and I drove up to Kohler-Andrae State Park to visit with her family from a safe distance.

So let’s get right to the main attraction: sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis). I spotted several, both in the marsh on the west side and on the sand hills (aka dunes) on the east side. In the marsh, it seems, the red-winged blackbirds take quite an exception to their presence, although this one appeared to pay them no mind.

• 

• 

• 

The best part for me, however, is that as I was busy taking these exciting action shots, I almost missed the main attraction! It sometimes pays to be slow at my craft.

• 

• 

• 

That’s right. There was a little chick (which some folks adamantly call colts) standing just knee-high to its mom and running to keep up with her as she majestically sauntered along.

Meanwhile, up on the dunes, this pair seemed to be having a much more relaxing time.

• 

• 

The marsh was also full of noisy marsh wrens (Cistothorus palustris), of which I failed to get a presentable picture. Instead, let me distract you with some pretty flowers, which were much more accommodating. First up is this aptly-named yellow water-lily (Nuphar lutea), a striking alternative to the white ones we have on the Milwaukee River.

Also, a big hit with the pollinators was this marsh cinquefoil or purple cinquefoil (Comarum palustre). That must be some good nectar and/or pollen because even the picture in the Pedia of Wik includes a honeybee.

Finally, these members of the bluebell family, maybe tall lungwort, tall bluebells, or northern bluebells (Mertensia paniculata), which are available in blue or white and are supposed to be native to the Great Lakes Region, were a huge hit with the bumble bees.

• 

• 

• 

Lastly, I laughed out loud when I looked up this large bug crawling on some milkweed only to discover that it is officially called the large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus). It’s nice to see some truth in advertising, eh? Speaking of which, its coloration is thought to be no coincidence, but instead is an example of Müllerian mimicry. (Anne tells me that I should tell you to go ahead and click on that blue, underlined text for a full and fascinating explanation. It’s quick, easy, and 100% safe, I guarantee.)

• 

• 

Oh, and I included yet one more monarch picture because 1. to illustrate said mimicry, 2. there were a lot about, 3. who doesn’t like a monarch picture, and 4. I just couldn’t help myself. She appears to be a female, btw, because we can’t see those little extra black spots on her hind wings.

Okay, okay. Time to put this edition to bed and head on over to Estabrook to find something to show you tomorrow.

Shoot! I forgot to wish you Happy 4th of July! Darn it.

I spotted somebody new this morning, if you can believe it! The image isn’t very good, and this is the best of a bunch, because the water and low light really messed with my camera’s autofocus, but that’s a pretty big fish, and it has found itself cut off from the river in a mini “oxbow” pond north of the falls. It was “breathing” pretty heavy, and I hope some rain comes soon, for its sake, but in the meantime, let’s play who can name that fish! The body and coloration make me think some kind of trout, but the mouth doesn’t look right.

Near that same “pond” this morning were also one of the several mallard families I’ve spotted in the last few days, and mom was on her toes this morning, so I kept my distance.

Meanwhile, back up on top of the bluff, here’s a gorgeous monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), basking in the afternoon sun, who we’ve seen in the park since the start of June, but not like this before. He’s a male, judging by the single extra little black spot on each hindwing, and I observed him actively and repeatedly chasing either pretenders to this milkweed throne or potential mates. I couldn’t really tell which, and it was tricky enough just to get this picture, because it seemed that every time he sat still for a second, one or more other monarchs would fly up, and then they would all swirl up into the air and bolt off in the same direction, with only one returning alone each time.

Here are some black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta), sunflower family natives to Eastern and Central North America, and in various stages of opening up at the north end of the wildflower meadow. I almost didn’t see them mixed in with the lance-leaved tickseed (Coreopsis lanceolata) we first saw a couple of weeks ago.

And here’s some wild garlic, onion grass, crow garlic or stag’s garlic (Allium vineale), a “perennial, bulb-forming species of wild onion, native to Europe, northwestern Africa, and the Middle East” growing along the east side of the parkway just south of the tunnel. I’ve been watching it develop since May, wondering what on earth it was going to open up into and when.

The little husk that the entire blossom was once crammed into is the whitish thing sticking up in the background. You can see the long (18″), slender (1/8″) stalk which supports the whole thing heading off to the right. The dark balls at the center are “not technically seeds.” Instead, “the bulbils that compose the flower heads are like tiny bulbs and can be sprouted.” WildFoodUK.com reports that the taste is “somewhere in between onion, garlic, and chives.” Sounds delicious, eh Carolyn?

Check out this crazy-looking little t-shaped Plume moth grape plume moth (Geina periscelidactylus) almost hiding in plain sight on a bright pink Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) blossom. Even its legs are camouflaged.

Speaking of thistle, the first blossom on the musk thistle, which finally opened just about a week ago has already gone to seed, looking like a shaving brush, enough for the birds to be pecking at it already. And, yes, that would be an exciting image, but all we’ve got is this still-life for now.

Finally, here’s another monarch because 1. they are everywhere now, 2. they seem to like posing in the bright morning sun, and 3. who doesn’t want to see a monarch? This one appeared to be only interested in extracting some breakfast from that red clover.

That’s it for this morning, folks. Anne and I are off to Kohler-Andrae State Park to see her fam this afternoon, so wish me luck, and maybe we’ll have some fun pictures from my field trip for tomorrow’s report.

My morning got off to an amazing start when Anne got me up at 3:50am to see the ISS pass over. The new meteorologist on TMJ4 news mentioned it last evening, and this counts because we went to the south parking lot of Estabrook Park for some pretty good viewing conditions to the west. There are a zillion websites that will tell you when and where to look for it, and I used heavens-above.com, which worked well for me. Also, while you’re up, Venus is shining brightly in the east just before dawn, and it is supposed to just keep getting brighter for the rest of the summer.

Meanwhile, back on earth, I was treated to this little one-act play, right after breakfast. The pictures are meh, but the dramatic tension when mom looks back after bolting off without her fawn, and the Hollywood ending? Be still my heart! I should be talking to Disney about the movie rights, eh?

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

After yesterday’s report, ever-inquisitive and long-time reader, Carolyn, asked how the mulberries taste, and I can now assert that the “red” ones are quite delicious. So are the raspberries, by the way. Don’t just take my word for it. Would this scraggly-looking teenager steer you wrong? If you’re a little squeamish about eating them off the ground, you can always just pick them from the tree, instead.

I also spotted a few more of our old friends near the river yesterday afternoon. There was a mallard with 4 ducklings, but the pictures are too poor even for this rag. Instead, these three are somewhat presentable. From left/top to right/bottom, we’ve got a green heron putting out his unique call, what looks to be an immature American goldfinch munching on seeds, and an indigo bunting not hiding from me for once.

• 

• 

• 

Lastly, thanks to my new best buddy, Graham, for pointing out the spectacle below. What we have here is a handsome daddy longlegs, a.k.a. Harvestman, possibly Leiobunum aldrichi (which the Bug Lady asserts are not true spiders, I am stunned to learn) posing on some gorgeous butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), which is a native species of milkweed, I am relieved to read.

• 

• 

There’s even more, but I’ll have to save that for tomorrow. Ta ta till then.

Yesterday afternoon, I notice a robin picking at something on the sidewalk just south of the pond, so I took out my binoculars to watch as he broke off a couple of chunks and immediately swallowed them. The thing looked like a little pinecone, and I thought to myself “Don’t eat that! That’s no good for you!” and then, to my horror, he swallowed the rest of it whole.

Well, it turns out that was no pinecone, of course. Instead, it was a mulberry, and I should have gotten my camera out to get some really cool pictures instead of standing there like a knucklehead second-guessing one of the most obviously successful species in the park!

• 

• 

• 

From left/top to right/bottom, we’ve got red mulberries (Morus rubra), white mulberries (Morus alba), and, at the north end of the pond, raspberries “the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus Rubus“, which are really starting to look delicious, eh?

Speaking of the pond, two of our old friends, whom we haven’t seen in a while, were there this morning. From left/top to right/bottom, is a female wood duck and the muskrat, who I had just seen scamper across the parkway. Again, too late with the camera.

• 

• 

There’s also a new dragonfly at the pond, this handsome blue dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis), who was quite willing to pose, first on one twig and then another, until I could get just the right shot. Now that’s my kind of critter!

Meanwhile, another fruit is still just getting started: the American black elderberry, Canada elderberry, or just common elderberry when we’re playing nice (Sambucus canadensis).

• 

Finally, I’ll leave you with a bunny who appears to have had quite a hankerin’ for a certain tasty leaf.

That’s a lot of scrolling, eh?