Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

A skeleton crew…

The air was a bit more humid than yesterday, but it was an otherwise very nice morning in Estabrook Park. I saw far fewer critters than yesterday, however, and perhaps the missing ones have already hit the road for the holiday. They haven’t all gone, thankfully, so here are some of the ones I could find.

We’re still getting new ducklings, and here’s a fresh-looking batch of mallards braving the choppy water just below the falls on what might be their maiden voyage.

These wood duck ducklings, on the other hand look to be at least a couple weeks old already.

The belted kingfishers are still flitting around the islands in the river, and I suspect this is a youngster, just based on how uncharacteristically willing it was to let me sneak a picture.

I can’t tell if this is the same deer we saw supplementing its diet with aquatic plants, but it was on the downstream island and decided to visit the mainland today. It waded for a while, had to swim a short stretch, and when it scrambled back on shore, I thought that was the last I was going to see of it.

But as I was standing in the middle of the meadow looking for butterflies or dragonflies, look who calmly strode right by me. Boy, that meadow is magical right now.

And that’s about it for the birds and mammals today, and I didn’t see many reptiles or amphibians, so here’s one more look at the osprey yesterday when I found it again fishing around the islands.

By the pond today, I did find this dashing blue dasher dragonfly, which is our first of the year.

Finally, in the weeds beside the soccer fields, I found our first clouded sulphur butterfly of the year.

If you are also traveling for the holiday, I hope you have a safe trip!

Blue, green, and black, but no yellow…

You’ll be relieved to know that I went to bed nice and early last evening so that I could get up on time this morning, and thank goodness I did because I’d hate to have missed out on this show. It is a little hard to see, because it was still so dark that the street lights were still on, but the osprey was in its recent usual spot on a light over the UWM parking lot, and there were also two crows on that same light: one on each side of the osprey. There were five crows altogether, scattered around, and it was almost as if they were more curious than agitated because they made nowhere near the ruckus they make when they are mobbing great horned owls or hawks. Fascinating.

Meanwhile, on our side of the river, this blue jay just sat in silence and watched along with me.

At the pond, I didn’t see our yellow-crowned night heron, but the young great blue heron was there and all poofed up for a moment.

There was also a green heron, which was a pleasant surprise because they’ve made themselves scarce recently.

When I reached the islands in the river, I was just in time, yet again, to catch this deer come out to sample the aquatic plant life. At first, I thought it was taking a drink of that sweet, sweet river water, …

but upon closer inspection, you can see a strand of plant matter dangling out of its mouth. It wasn’t just an accident, either, because I watched it enjoy multiple helpings. I sure had not seen that before.

The big surprise of the day came soon after when I glimpsed a large bird flying over the water between the islands. At first, I thought it was the osprey, who had left its perch on the light to fish in the river, and I had seen twice again already. Then I thought it was a great blue heron, which regularly glide up and downstream over the river. Instead, it turned out to be this beauty, the first black-crowned night heron I’ve seen in Estabrook this year.

Now I really wanted to get back to the pond to find that dang yellow-crowned night heron, who I saw there just yesterday, so I could have a four-heron day, but first I hiked up to the bridge to check on the pigeons and swallows. I did get to see both, but the prettier sight was this cedar waxwing, who was one of a group that were alternately catching bugs out of the air over the river and then raiding the trees on shore for berries.

Well, I never did get to see the yellow-crowned heron today, so it’s merely just another a three-heron day, but I soldiered on, and here’s what I believe to be a “brown form female” powdered dancer damselfly in the patch of weeds beside the southern soccer fields.

Finally, your butterfly of the day is this fiery skipper resting on a bunch of fleabane buds in the meadow at the north end, which I am thrilled to report is still unmowed.

PS: I’d like to send a special thanks to my eagle-eyed sister for pointing out that mallard hens usually shepherd “ducklings”, not “goslings”, as I mistakenly wrote yesterday. Ugh, what a blockhead! Perhaps all that goose on duckling action we saw on Monday had made me loopy.

A fine start to July…

The month could not have gotten off to a nicer start, here in Estabrook Park. The air was dry-ish, mostly still, and even a bit cool this morning, while the sky was clear and blue. Conditions were so nice for sleeping, that I’m using that as my excuse for sleeping in a bit. I didn’t get into the park until 6 am! Scandalous, I know.

For my sloth, the osprey looked away by the time I got there, or it was busy fending off a red-winged blackbird, who was urging it to find another perch. Either way, it appears to have brought at least one stick up there with it. I wonder if it is experimenting with nest building, as we’ve seen a young great blue heron do once before.

I wasn’t done paying for my tardiness, however, and by the time I was able to line up for a nicer shot, the red-winged blackbird had given up, or was taking a break, and the osprey decided it was time to go catch another fish. Sheesh!

There are still plenty of mallard hens shepherding young ~~goslings~~ (ugh) ducklings around, and here’s one with her brood on the river just below the falls.

Around the islands at the north end, I finally saw proof that at least one belted kingfisher has fledged, and ~~heer~~ here she is being fed a fish by Mom, I believe. Yay!

She was still hungry, however, …

and in short order, the parent caught another fish, beat it into submission against a branch, and served it up, cool and fresh. There appeared to be some attempt to make the youngster hop from branch to branch a bit for its food, but that didn’t last long. This time.

The next big treat at the north end was catching this glimpse of our first spiny softshell turtle of the season. I was beginning to wonder when they would emerge. It was across the river, so the image isn’t great, but we’re facing its rump, and you can just make out its head poking up at about 10 or 11 o’clock from the mottled dark green shell.

Back at the pond, our yellow-crowned night heron is still in residence, and here’s one more look. I see on the instagram that it has had some luck with the crayfish. Great catch!

I had three butterflies to choose from today, and I’m gonna go with one I haven’t shown you yet this year, a least skipper. It is tiny, with a total wingspan, not shown here, of only about an inch.

Finally, when I first saw this dragonfly, in the weeds beside the soccer fields, I could hardly believe my eyes. It looked like a curious combination of a black saddlebags and an autumn meadowhawk. Well, I am sure that you will be as stunned to learn as I was, that there is such a thing as a red saddlebags (Tramea onusta), and this is our very first one. Ta Da!

Deer and ducklings…

We had some rain overnight, and it sure was humid at sunrise, but the sky was mostly clear, and the air was almost still, so it was a fine morning to look for wildlife in Estabrook Park.

Some of the wildlife didn’t even wait for me to get there, and I was greeted as soon as I stepped outside our door by these two deer that were crossing Wilson Dr. Then they had second thoughts, so here they are back in the police station parking lot. You can see that the one on the left is sporting one antler, which I believe we’ve seen a couple of times before.

Once I finally managed to step into the park, I headed right down to the river in search of the common merganser drake we saw yesterday, but I had no luck today. Instead, I found this wood duck hen with a fresh-looking brood of ducklings.

I stopped by the pond and found both the yellow-crowned night heron and a young great blue heron, but I was more excited to see a mature-looking blue heron fishing at the falls again.

Then I popped back up the bluff to collect the 7 a.m. batch of wildlife walkers, and after a swing by the pond, we returned to the river, where we found these mallard ducklings dabbling right under some resting Canada geese. In fact, it appeared that Mom was taking a nap while her rugrats were being protected by “Nature’s watchdogs.”

All was fine until this little one, whom you can see fleeing with its wings spread wide just to the right of the goose’s leg, got too close and had to get a gentle reminder to keep a respectful distance. Then everything was fine again.

A bit up stream and just off the next island, this belted kingfisher, of which we saw three today, gave me a look that sure seems to say “you again,” doesn’t it?

We hiked all the way up to the Port Washington Road bridge to count the cliff swallows, and on our way back downstream, we saw this young-looking northern flicker who was kind enough to show us his namesake “yellow shafts.”

Back at the boat ramp, I finally found a monarch butterfly willing to sit for a picture.

She didn’t show us the dorsal (upper/inside) surface of her hind wing, so we could see that she doesn’t have the black mark that males do, but I believe pressing the tip of her abdomen against the bottom of a milkweed leaf to lay an egg gives it away anyway. You can also see that her proboscis is curled up in front of her face, so she’s not sipping nectar.

After laying that egg, she took a break and did indeed sip some nectar. You can see that her proboscis is now extended and inserted into a blossom, specifically for that purpose.

Finally, your dragonfly of the day is this male common whitetail, to go with the female I showed you on Thursday.

Lastly, we had six wildlife walkers today, including me, and together we saw 41 bird species and another white-tailed deer munching on the foliage on the upstream island.

Oh, and so I don’t forget, Friends of Estabrook Park is having a “Membership Picnic” at the Biergarten on Tuesday, July 15 from 5 – 7:30 p.m. If you’ve always wanted to ask me “why are your pictures so blurry?” or “what’s with all the bugs?”, come on out. If you’re not already a member, you’ll have to buy your own beer, but perhaps you’ll be inspired to join.

More unexpected faces…

It was a picture-perfect morning in Estabrook Park, with blue skies, a light breeze, and pleasant temps, at least for the early morning. Sure, the heat’s on its way back, after a couple days of relief, but another sign that peak summer is almost upon us, and one that I love to hear, is the call of the cicadas.

My first treat came early, as I walked between the bluff and the guardrail on my way to the pond. I spotted our osprey taking a break, hopefully after a successful fishing trip, atop a solar-powered street light in the UWM commuter parking lot across the river.

I still had not reached the pond, and was just passing the dog park, when I spotted our yellow-crowned night heron, perched high in a tree and also on a break, hopefully for similar reasons.

The pond was pretty quiet, so I continued right on to the islands in the river, and there I found a pair of belted kingfishers. I was hoping to catch both in the same image together, but did manage to get images of each one, and this shot of the female came out the best.

The water around the islands hosted Canada geese, mallards with their ducklings, a few wood ducks, and a couple hooded mergansers, all of whom we’ve seen plenty lately, so I started making my way back downstream. Just after I passed the downstream island, look who I saw going the other way just off the far riverbank: our first beaver of June. Better late than never, right?

I hadn’t seen any pretty new bugs in the meadow at the north end, nor in the pollinator garden, so I had my hopes on the weeds beside the soccer fields. Well, they were quiet, too, and the most interesting sight, in my opinion, was this song sparrow doing his thing in the birch tree growing in the middle of the weed patch.

With still no dragonflies or butterflies to show you, I set out for the one more spot that has proven fruitful in the past: the little clearing beside the river at the far, far south end. As I went by the last good place to check the river, I gave a look out over the water, just in case, and I could barely believe my eyes. Here’s a male common merganser, which is also considered “rare” for here now, and which we haven’t seen since early March! Wow!

When I finally reached that clearing, look who swooped in first: an eastern phoebe, whom we haven’t seen since April and the first phoebe anyone has reported in Estabrook for all of June. I wonder what is going on with these birds?

Once I had the phoebe picture, I could finally start checking the brush and tall grass, and look who I found in short order: our first little wood satyr of the season. Man, I’ve gotta visit this clearing more often!

Finally, I never did get a good dragonfly picture this morning, so here’s a female saddlebags, with those two marks on her tail, that I saw yesterday, to go with the male we saw on Wednesday.

Some birds bold up for a change…

It was a bit cloudy this morning, but otherwise quite nice in Estabrook Park, and now that the clouds have moved on, the day looks so pretty that I feel like I should try to do something outside this afternoon.

I stopped by the pond nice and early, but like a cat that can’t decide if it wants to be inside or outside, our recently on-again-off-again yellow-crowned night heron was missing once more. In its place, however, was this youngish-looking great blue heron, who was either a lot bolder or a lot more oblivious than its skittish elders. I got pictures during my first visit, but this one from later in the morning when the light was a lot better looks a lot nicer.

At the crest of the bluff, behind the beer garden, a trio of blue jays appeared to be composed of a fledgling and its two parents. The fledgling kept behind a stick, so that’s just its tail jutting into the picture from the right, but the parents weren’t shy about letting me see them for a change, and they looked quite grumpy as they repeatedly ferried morsels to their offspring.

On the river at the north end, we’ve got a new batch of mallard ducklings, perhaps even on their maiden voyage this morning, in addition to the two broods I showed you yesterday.

Back on shore, the normally-shyer indigo buntings are also acting bolder recently, and here’s a male stuffing its beak with grass seeds, either for internal use only, or perhaps to be regurgitated for youngsters who “are ready to fledge.”

Here he is pausing to eye me up.

As with the spotted sandpiper on Thursday, the killdeer have been making themselves scarce lately, so it was a treat to catch this one foraging on the exposed river bottom between the two islands, even if it did keep its distance.

On my second visit to the pond, look who I found lurking below the surface of the water. “Somebody’s sprouting hind le-e-egs.”

I spotted this ghostly creature earlier in the morning, but I’ve been saving the bugs for last lately, because that’s usually when I see them, after the sun has warmed them up, so here we are. This is an aptly-name plain plume moth (Hellinsia homodactylus), and I might not have even included it today if it wasn’t for the other two, more-colorful species of plume moths I’ve already shown you: a grape and an artichoke. I’d hate for you to miss out on collecting the whole set.

Your dragonfly of the day is this gorgeous eastern pondhawk.

Finally, your butterfly of the day is this dashing red admiral, the first one I’ve managed to photograph in Estabrook this year. I did show you one from Dubrovnik back in January, but that’s not quite the same. Instead, you may recall that last year, when we had a nice warm spring, the first picture I was able to show you was of one sipping maple tree sap all the way back on April 10. Wow! What a difference a year makes, eh?

A few regulars, a few first of the years, and one more first ever…

It rained and then the sun shone; the wind blew and then the air was still. There was no graupel, so it wasn’t April crazy, but the weather was pretty crazy this morning in Estabrook Park nevertheless.

I made it to the pond before the first showers started, and our yellow-crowned night heron appeared to be busy fishing near the far shore.

Meanwhile, out on the river, we were back to two hooded mergansers, that I could find anyway, and here’s the photogenic one.

The first big surprise of the morning was the first deer encounter I’ve had in a while. It started with the deer coming up the trail behind me, and both of us being nearly scared out of our skin by the sudden encounter. The deer pranced around a bit, and I could never quite get my camera on it, but it oddly did not simply run away. Then after I thought it had finally moved on, and I was halfway across the meadow, there it was again, back for another look, I guess, and this time I managed to be quick enough. How fun!

Back out on the river, the mallard hen with five young ducklings brought them my way for a change.

While just downstream, the hen with eight older ones was standing watch just out of frame as they took their morning nap.

As I continued back downstream, this great blue heron perched high over the southern tip of the southern island and let me sneak a picture. They have been quite shy this year, compared to previous years, and I have no idea why.

That’s it for the birds and mammals, so now onto the bugs. Back at the meadow, I found our first cobra clubtail dragonfly of the season and only our second ever. Yay!

Much farther south, our very first American rubyspot damselfly of the season perched right on the asphalt of the paved path. Hurrah!

Finally, one of the thistles, invasive Canada thistle, I believe, is coming into bloom among the weeds beside the soccer fields, and it attracted our very first fritillary butterfly in Estabrook this morning, a variegated fritillary (Euptoieta claudia), which I’ve only ever seen before in Yellowstone National Park. Woo Hoo!

The forecast for tomorrow morning calls for clear skies and a light breeze, so I wonder who we’ll see next.

Birds come, and birds go…

The first pleasant surprise this morning in Estabrook Park was finding the yellow-crowned night heron back on the pond. I wasn’t the only one who looked in vain for it yesterday, and we all figured it had finally moved on, but there it was today as if it had never left.

The second pleasant surprise was finding a green heron, also at the pond. We saw them quite often in May, but they’ve been hiding real well lately.

The third surprise was that our hooded merganser count is now up to three.

The fourth surprise was getting eyes on a spotted sandpiper, who had gone into hiding with the green herons. For those who don’t see it right away, it is the little bird running along the edge of the water right in front of the relatively-ginormous Canada goose.

With all the ducklings I’ve been seeing lately, it wasn’t much of a surprise to find this mallard hen with her young brood.

I don’t have a picture for this, because I didn’t want to take a picture of an empty nest, but I should still tell you that the hummingbird nest was empty this morning. That is not necessarily bad news, however, because I read that they fledge at about three weeks old, and we don’t know exactly when they hatched because I was away, so it is certainly possible that they have simply fledged. The two chicks sure looked healthy just three days ago, so let’s hope for the best and wish them well.

Now, on to the bugs. The air was cool, and the sun never really burnt through the haze, so the supply was a bit limited, but your dragonfly of the day is this female common whitetail perched on the bare and fallen trunk of an ash tree that appears to have been done in by emerald ash borers.

Finally, your butterfly of the day is this dainty eastern tailed-blue, who is perched on a right-sized lesser stitchwort blossom, if my sources are correct.

More rain and less heat…

It was rainy and cool this morning in Estabrook Park: rainy enough to push back my start time by over an hour, but not cool enough to slow down the mosquitoes much. Oh well.

At the pond, it appears that our little celebrity guest has finally moved on. Darn. I didn’t catch a glimpse of it in two visits, and a guy waiting for it on the bench with his camera said he never saw it either. The good news, however, is that the black bullhead fry have hatched, and I saw several little schools wriggling around in the water. Here’s a video I recorded of them a few years ago.

Other good news is that yesterday’s surprise visitor, the osprey, was back again to sample our fish, although from the other side of the river this time.

As I searched in vain out on the water for either one of the hooded mergansers, this indigo bunting kept calling for attention, though probably not mine.

I stopped by the hummingbird nest again on my way back downstream, and I’m getting the sinking feeling that there is only one chick in the nest at this point.

A bit farther downstream, I found the wood duck hen warming up her brood.

Between the rain, the clouds, and the mosquitoes, I didn’t get a lot of pictures today, so here’s a curious Baltimore oriole from Saturday.

I didn’t see a single dragonfly today, perhaps because it was too cool for them, so here’s a black saddlebags from yesterday, when they were plentiful. At first I thought it was a new dragonfly for us, because it looks a little purple, and it doesn’t have the side markings of the ones I’ve shown you before: both in Estabrook, and at Kohler-Andrae. Well, I’ve now learned that this is because those were females, and this is our first male, so “Hello, Handsome!”

Finally, I did see a couple of moths today but no butterflies, so here’s a common buckeye from yesterday, when I was lucky enough to have extras.

I see tomorrow morning is forecast to be dry, a bit warmer, and maybe even a bit sunnier, so perhaps my luck will improve. Keep your fingers crossed!

A break in the heat, at last…

Well, the heat wave is starting to break, at least here in Estabrook Park, and it is still only 75°F outside as I write this. The bigger break for me, however, was that the howling wind we’ve had for the past three days has finally subsided, so I can hear myself think out there, for a change. The downside to that, however, is that the mosquitoes are plentiful, quite hungry, and perhaps a little crabby about having been pinned down over the weekend. I swear I saw a mosquito biting a mosquito that was biting my knuckle as I tried to take a picture.

Anyway, our little celebrity guest is still at the pond, but the crowd it has been attracting is also finally subsiding.

I couldn’t find the family of wood ducks on the river today, but look who I found instead, a brood of pretty fresh-looking mallard ducklings.

The young hooded merganser is still on the river and now there are even two of them, but this picture, of just one up out of the water for a moment, came out a lot better.

The first surprise guest of the morning was this osprey who paused for a moment to check out our fresh fish assortment.

I checked on the hummingbird chicks, of course, and I didn’t find Mom with them this time, but look who’s getting big enough to start peeking over the rim of its nest.

By happy coincidence, look who I found taking a break over the edge of the bluff quite a bit south of the nest. I have no idea how many hummingbirds might be in the area, nor what kind of range they might maintain during breeding season, so I really can’t tell you if he has any relation to the chicks in the nest upstream, but the human brain sure does yearn for a good story, doesn’t it.

After all the toad excitement last month, I haven’t been paying them much attention lately, but it was hard to ignore this tree toad wannabe.

The recent parade of dragonflies continues, and today’s entry is this striking twelve-spotted skimmer in the weeds beside the soccer fields.

Finally, the butterflies will not be outdone, and here’s a stunning little northern or pearl crescent, the jury’s still out on exactly which species it is, beside the river at the north end. If you really need to know, feel free to click on the two links in the first sentence just above and decide for yourself.

Lastly, a reader who is currently out of town wrote in to ask for a picture of the meadow at the north end that I went on about yesterday, so here it is. I struggle to capture on film what my eye can see in scenes like this, but the image has pretty good resolution so if you click on it, you can zoom in a bunch to see some of the individual blossoms. I noticed today that I forgot to mention that there are also daisies, fleabane, campion, and St John’s wort in the mix, so that’s eleven species currently in bloom, just in my rough counting.

Keep your fingers crossed that Parks has changed its policy or simply forgotten about it, since they removed the asphalt from the road down from the parkway a month or two ago, and that no one reminds them about it. Yes, I realize, of course, that some kind of maintenance is necessary to keep trees and bushes from invading an artificial clearing like this, but I’d like to think that it doesn’t include mowing it while it’s in full bloom. Okay, that’s enough of that rant.