It was an odd morning in Estabrook. The temperature was mild enough, but the wind was still quite gusty. The sun was mostly out, but the sky wasn’t very blue. I heard and glimpsed a kingfisher again, but didn’t manage to capture an image yet.
I did finally manage to find wood ducks up in a tree, a sight which eluded me all last summer. They started out low, on a log over the oxbow beside the river.
And then they went quite high.
When I first got to the pond, it seemed that nobody was there, but it turns out that our heroes were indeed in their spot on the southern tip of the island, a second couple were actively working on a nest on the northern tip, and a third couple were still trying to decide if they were going to make a go of it halfway in between. Nobody was on the water, and all the other couples and that one oddball appear to have finally moved on,.
When I came back for a second visit the only change was that a few wood ducks had flown in to search for whatever anyone might have left on the lawn.
There was the usually chorus of chickadees, robins, cardinals, juncos, and woodpeckers throughout the park, but nobody was in a posing mood this morning. Instead, I found this tiny patch of moss growing in a natural planter and glowing in the early morning sun, and that’s gonna have to be your splash of color for today.
Our latest arrival in the park this morning is this little chipmunk beside the Oak Leaf Trail. I read that they hibernate for the winter and are now re-emerging. I’ve spotted them a few times over the past week or two throughout the park, but this was the first one to sit still a bit for me. Actually, there were two of them, and they both seemed torn between chasing each other and freezing so I wouldn’t see them.
The geese are all still doing their thing on the pond. The goose on the southern tip of the island is still incubating, and the one on the northern tip is perhaps still laying. The were at least two more couples, and their clocks have got to be ticking now. Time to lay eggs or find another spot.
Oddly, there wasn’t a duck on the pond this morning during either of my visits, but happily, there are still ducks on the river, and the goldeneye odd-couple seem to have joined forces with the buffleheads. Mallards are still plentiful.
Lastly, the cardinals are still staking out their territory as loudly as ever, and since the sky finally started to turn blue again this morning, here’s your splash of color.
I only managed to document one new arrival today, and it’s this little brown creeper (Certhia americana) whom I found methodically creeping up tree trunks beside the river.
I also spotted, but failed to capture, a group of three cranes, probably sand hill, flying high and drifting south fast in the high winds, and what looked to be a pair of blue-winged teals on the river. The white stripe on his face really gives it way, but I was just too slow on the draw again.
On the pond, our heroes are still sitting on and guarding their nest on the southern tip of the island, and nobody was on the northern tip. I read that it can take several days to lay a clutch of eggs, and the goose will not start incubating until they are all laid so that they will all hatch at about the same time. Perhaps that’s what’s going on here.
The wood ducks were nowhere I could see when I first arrived, but I counted five of them when I returned. They seem to like hanging out with Canada geese. I read that geese make good guard animals, and maybe the wood ducks take advantage of that.
Finally, as I was watching the wood ducks on the pond, it occurred to me that we haven’t seen Mrs. Gadwall in a while, I wonder if she finally continued on, and that’s right when I spotted her.
It was a fine morning for ducks, geese, or anyone else wearing a full-body dry-suit, cold with on-and-off precipitation. Nevertheless, I found a gap in the green blob on the radar, so where we go.
There are still 4 couples and a 9th wheel of geese on the pond, and a second couple appears to have settled in for the long haul on the far northeast tip of the island. Maybe that means we’ll get two sets of goslings by the end of April. Yay! Can you even imagine?
Mother goose on southern tip of island
Mother goose on northern tip of island
Meanwhile, the other couples keep vying for a site, and preparing for when they get one.
The wood ducks seem to be settled in as well. Today there were two drakes and a hen. She’s always more adventurous than those showboats, coming right up on the lawn, along with the geese and the mallards, to check on what I might have brought, perhaps because she expects to need the calories more. I always explain to all of them, though, that I don’t have anything for them because anything I could bring wouldn’t be good for them, and they’re mistaking me for the old guy who visits in the afternoon.
I didn’t see as much of the river as usual, due to all the recent rain and ensuing mud, but I did happen upon this endearing little scene. I guess if she’s gonna have a showboat, she wants him to look the part.
But look at us now! We’ve seen 87 species, not counting fish, bugs, and sundry other creepy-crawlies because I haven’t gotten around to counting them all yet. I’ve taken 19,225 pictures, published 244 posts, and there are 75 of us, including me. Besides all the fantastic critters, I’ve found 2 tasty cans of park beer, several cans of park beans, a baggie of park oregano, 2 park folding knives, 1 fine pair of National GeographicTM branded park binoculars, which I now use almost every day, countless park fishing tackle, a bunch of park money (including a 50,000 Indonesian Rupiah note now worth $3.47 US because I didn’t trade it in when I could), several dozen park nerf darts, and all kinds of other park junk that Anne wishes I would just throw away. But Honey, these are my treasures!
Thanks to all of you for coming along on this adventure, and now onward to today’s activity! It would have been cool to have a picture today of something amazing, like a coyote catching a mallard from the river or a bald eagle catching a fish from the pond, but that is not how nature works, it seems. She’s got her own schedule, and all we can do is observe.
Alright, alright, I’ll stop typing and show you some pictures. At the top of the list is our first wee kinglet of the season, golden crowned by the looks of it, searching for a snack on its way to breeding grounds that start just upstate and continue all the way to Hudson Bay.
Next stop is the pond, where the goose shake-out continues, but our heroes seem to be holding on to their prime spot on the island. This ain’t their first rodeo, after all, and given how far she can reach her head down into her nest, she might already have some eggs in there, for all we know. She was at this operation long enough for me to get 7 pictures before she sat back down. Oh man, I sure hope that means 7 eggs!
Meanwhile, on the river, I spotted the buffleheads again, who immediately made a beeline out of range, our goldeneye odd-couple, lots of geese and mallards, and 2 pair of wood ducks.
Here’s the best shot I have showing the 2 goldeneyes so you can see that there really are two of them, and one has a yellow tip on her beak while the other one doesn’t. The second picture is just nicer, and shows how crowded the best spots on the river can get, but the kid turned his head at the last second. Isn’t that always how it is, Dads?
Here’s a shot of a wood duck drake and hen standing on the shore of the northern island, which a goose decided to photobomb at the last second.
Finally, as I headed out this morning, Anne asked if I was going to try to recreate that first photo from a year ago. Well, no, if only because it was not such a great picture, but I did manage to capture an image of another wood duck on the pond anyway. Ha!
And he’s gonna have to be your splash of color, too, because I didn’t see any new blossoms today. The snowdrops, crocuses, Siberian squill, and alpine squill are all still in bloom, so get out there and see them while you can!
PS. If you’d like your own pre-chilled park beer, a crew has been working on the Estabrook Park Beer Garden this week, and they say they are “currently targeting an open date in the first weeks of April.” See you there!
The wood ducks are back on the pond. again Yay! I think I saw two couples in the early morning light, and at least one couple appears to be getting quite comfortable in what I hope will be their summer home. Here they are up on the lawn as I sit on the park bench just a dozen feet away.
Here they are back in the water making more wood ducks…
Finally, here they are back up on the lawn again. They were having a busy morning.
Meanwhile, the geese population was down to just 3 couples, and they were all trying to get comfortable on the little island with sites only about a dozen feet apart. We’ll see how that goes.
Northern-most
Middle-most
Southern-most
After all that excitement, I headed over to the river, and was rewarded for my effort. Here’s a muskrat having its breakfast. I first spotted it nibbling on something by the water, then watched it make two forays to grab more greens before returning each time to nibble on them at the water’s edge. Finally, I hope after it was full, it waded into the river and swam away.
A little bit further north, I found the buffleheads napping with a goldeneye as a mallard glided past.
There was even a male red-breasted merganser in the fray, which would bring our fowl count to six for the morning, but I didn’t manage to get a picture worth posting. Next time.
That’s right, there were 11 Canada geese on the pond this morning, 5 couples and 1 optimist who is sure his big break is just around the corner. Or maybe he’s just a failure to launch still living with his folks. Either way, that’s up from 9 geese yesterday.
Our heroes are still staking out the southern tip of the island, but how this is all going to shake out for the rest of them is anybody’s guess.
Meanwhile the wood ducks have all taken off again, Mrs. Gadwall is still around, and Blondie and Dagwood have popped up from the river, although given how many drakes there are and how much they all look alike, perhaps I do better to name them Samantha and Darrin.
Anyway, the scene on the river also appears to be holding steady with a slew of geese and mallards and still our diminutive bufflehead couple.
Our top story this morning is the exciting return of the wood ducks to the pond in Estabrook Park. There were three drakes and two hens in all.
The lighting was a little tricky this morning, but the drakes were looking resplendent nevertheless.
In other news, the Canada goose situation continues to be an evolving story. When I first arrived at the pond this morning, there were nine (9!) of them on the water, and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen so many. Our heroes, who’ve been there since March 6, and who I hear have nested there for years, were having a heck of a time keeping all the interlopers at bay, despite a lot of honking and other heroic efforts.
I left them to sort it out amongst themselves while I went to check out the river, and when I returned, they had managed to get the crowd down to just six. One couple was on the western lawn, one couple was on the back (NNE) side of the island, and our heroes where back in their spot on the southern tip of the island. That’s still 200% more geese than the status quo last spring, but they seemed to have agreed to a truce for the moment, and everyone was peaceably going about their business.
The one other exciting spot, which I was not able to document, sadly, was the merlin quickly gliding over the wildflower meadow at tree-top level. Happily, a fellow amateur naturalist, Jim Kogutkiewicz, spotted it just yesterday a bit south along the river and posted a stunning picture on instagram, which I hope you check out. We of course don’t know if all these merlins are one-and-the-same bird, or even the one we saw in Estabrook back in January, but how many could there be, this far out of their range, right?
Well, by “eagle” I mean the female Canada goose on the pond in Estabrook, and by “landed” I mean assumed her throne, and by “her throne” I mean her nest on the island in the pond.
Finally, and not a moment too soon! There were 3 other pairs of geese on the pond this morning. Here’s the male warding off the boldest of them. Their conflicts over territory include many pauses for grooming, it seems.
Here’s a more heated moment.
Here’s one of those other couples discussion their next move.
Meanwhile, the mallards try to stay out of the way.
Until, that is, Mrs. Gadwall blithely glides past, but she quickly dissuaded them of having any interest in her.
After all that excitement, I headed down to the river, but I don’t have much to report other than that the buffleheads are still there. I wonder if they’re going to stick around. It’s a long way to their breading grounds in northwest Canada, but they have been spotted in northeast Minnesota from time to time. Maybe these two aim to expand that in Wisconsin. They wouldn’t be the first visitors who found Wisconsin had just what they were looking for, right?
Since the pond had so much going on, I swung by one more time on may way home, and as I sat on the bench for a moment, several critters stopped by to say hi.
Male red-winged blackbird
Mallard pair
Finally, there’s a new splash of color in the park, emerging from low on the side of the bluff, and it appears to be a Siberian squill (Scilla sibirica).
It was a delightful morning in the park, and there was surprisingly little going on. Not many visitors and no new critters.
The two pair of geese, a pair of mallards, and Mrs. Gadwall were all on the pond.
The river is full of geese and mallards and one last goldeneye hen.
The red-bellied woodpeckers are still calling to each other like crazy along the river, and this female was willing to pose for a picture.
Finally, as I was heading home I accidentally startled Blondie and Dagwood, whom we haven’t seen in a few days, and they took off down river. I called after them that the lighting was no good that way, but they just kept going anyway. They don’t care about the lighting it seems.
Lastly, I found another park beer, but it was pretty old, and I’m guessing it’s past its prime.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 
