Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Guatemala to the rescue yet again…

Well, it’s rainy and dark this morning, just as forecast. Plus, I’m under a bit of a time-crunch today, so let’s see if there aren’t any trip pictures left that I haven’t already shown you.

We saw these pretty little birds, ruddy ground doves (Columbina talpacoti), in several locations, and I was sure I had shown you a picture before, but it appears I was mistaken. So, here’s a pair seeking cover in some blossoming bougainvillea on a side street in Flores, Guatemala.

I have managed to show you a picture of this big-beaked beauty, a ringed kingfisher, once before from Brazil, but the lighting was a little harsh in that photo. Instead, here’s one catching some gorgeous golden-hour sunshine in Flores.

We did get to see a black-headed saltator before, in Antigua, but it was quite shy, and it only let me capture its backside. This one at Tikal wasn’t much bolder, but at least now we can see its front side.

Also in Antigua, we got to see a Deppe’s squirrel, and then a Yucatán squirrel in Belize. So, to fill in the set a bit more, here’s a husky-looking Yucatán squirrel at Tikal in Guatemala.

On this trip we saw anoles, iguanas, and geckos, but this is my very first Teapen rosebelly lizard (Sceloporus teapensis), and my sources tell me that “Teapen” refers to Teapa, Mexico, where the species was first identified.

Finally, I may have run out of butterflies to show you, so here’s a large grass hopper, instead, which was about the size of the first two digits of my middle finger, and which we saw repeatedly crawling around the outdoor pathway to our hotel room at Tikal. My sources tell me that it’s a Romalea obscura, which is a species of “horse lubber”, and I read further that they get that name from their “head shape, which resembles a small horse’s head, and the term ‘lubber’ from its large, slow, and ‘lubberly’ (clumsy) movements.” I’m not sure I see the horse head, but I can confirm that this individual was not quick on its feet.

Lastly, I’m headed back to CT this afternoon to help my mom and dad move out of the home they’ve lived in for nearly 60 years and the home I grew up in. Two of my siblings will also be there, but I’m sure we can still use all the luck we can get, so please keep your fingers crossed for us. I’ll post when I can, but service may be spotty for the next few days.

A threesome!

The weather in Estabrook Park this morning was as nice as forecast, so I had enough daylight for a quick scan of the place before meeting the wildlife walkers at 8. Things were as quiet as usual, lately, until I got passed what is left of the falls. I happened to glance over at the workspace they had cleared to facilitate the reshaping, and that they are now replanting with native trees and bushes, and I noticed a large dog sniffing around. Well, it turns out that that is no dog! Instead, it is the first coyote I’ve seen in the park since January. I immediately crouched down behind the bit of a stone wall on our riverbank and started taking pictures.

Even better, she was soon joined by two larger and darker coyotes, which were probably males. One gave a couple of tugs to the anti-erosion netting they are putting down, but it wouldn’t budge. I’m sure they saw me, but they went about their business seemingly unperturbed, and they eventually continued their hunt downstream along the Westabrook trail. I’ve had the good fortune of seeing two before, but this is my first encounter with three at once, and what an absolute treat it was.

Then it was time to go meet the walkers, and we had two nature lovers again today. We visited the pond first, but it must have been still too early, and things were very quiet, so we headed to the river. The coyotes were long gone, of course, but Lisa scrounged up a pair of late-season killdeer for us. Here’s my best shot, almost straight towards the sun, of the two of them.

One was kind enough to move to my left for a nicer shot.

By the time we got back to the pond, the bushes on the island were full of house finches with a few house sparrows and goldfinches mixed in, but the main attraction, especially for Jannik, who was visiting all the way from Munich, was this female belted kingfisher. I’m sure she was as annoyed as ever to have any audience at all, but she sure put on one heck of a show for Jannik anyway.

Finally, 10 am rolled around, we had seen 23 bird species, and we all said our goodbyes, or auf wiedersehens, as the case may be. I turned to head towards home, but after a few steps, I paused for one more look around, and there was a bird perched at the very top of the tall tree at the northwest corner of the pond. It was too big to be a finch or sparrow, and the wrong color to be a robin or dove, and that’s because it was an American kestrel, our one and only raptor of the day. Hurray! Species number 24.

The forecast for tomorrow looks quite wet, so the viewing might not be too great, but if I see anything, I’ll let you know.

Another buck, some little birds, and an assist from Guatemala.

It was a very pretty morning in Estabrook Park with clear blue skies, although the wind had picked up and it sure did cool off quite a bit since yesterday.

Oddly, the only sight I saw worthy of a picture is this buck on the river between the islands, and I believe it is a third individual with a set of antlers unlike those on either of the bucks we saw on Friday.

Since I have all this room left today, here’s another look at the song sparrow by the river on Friday.

And another look at the American tree sparrow by the river on Wednesday.

I did not see a redpoll today, and there were a slew of other folks hoping to see one too, but I did see one again yesterday. The pictures did not come out as nice as the ones on Thursday, so here’s another look at that one.

I see that I never got to show you the snowy egret we saw in Flores, Guatemala, so here it is. I don’t believe we’ve seen one since the first one I saw in Brazil.

While we’re looking back to Guatemala, here’s another look at the amazing gartered violaceous trogon in Tikal so you can see the pretty pattern on its tail.

Finally, here’s a look at the out-/bottom/ventral side of a banded peacock butterfly of which we first saw the in-/top/dorsal side last February at the old sugar mill museum, Museo Regional del Trapiche, in San Jerónimo, Guatemala.

Lastly, the weather forecast for our weekly wildlife walk at 8 tomorrow morning looks perfect, with more clear skies, nearly still air, and seasonably cool temps, so I hope to see you there.

Bailed out by Belize again…

It sure it beautiful out now, and it was nearly as warm this morning in Estabrook Park, but the clouds were thick, and it even sprinkled for a bit. Worse, none of the critters wanted their pictures taken today. Thus, I am forced to resort to more recent trip pictures. Sorry about that.

We’ve seen this little cutie, a black phoebe, a couple of times before, but this time it was at Big Rock Falls in western Belize.

I only saw my first semipalmated plover this summer at McKinley Beach in Milwaukee, and here’s one on Caye Caulker.

We’ve seen palm warblers nearly every spring in Estabrook, and here’s one more but also on Caye Caulker this time.

I saw my first tropical kingbird just last February in Guatemala, but here’s a much nicer picture of one, and you guessed it, on Caye Caulker.

We had a pied-billed grebe on the pond in Estabrook for weeks this fall, and one of these could be that same bird, as far as I know, but at Crooked Tree Lodge instead.

The one time a limpkin was in Estabrook was the same weekend that I was in Sedona, and I had to run up to Kletzsch Park to find one in Wisconsin. At the Crooked Tree Lodge in Belize, this one came nearly to my front door.

Finally, the limpkin was not the only snail hunter at Crooked Tree Lodge, and here’s a snail kite gliding over the shoreline, whom I haven’t seen since Brazil.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who came out for the Estabrook Park cleanup this morning. My buddy, Mike, who spotted the nesting hummingbird for us, brought his waders, so we spent the two hours getting a few more tires and a lot more trash out of the river between the two islands. Yay!

Might be something in the water…

The weather this morning in Estabrook was as gorgeous as forecast, with seasonally cool temps, nearly still air, and crystal-clear skies. The mild conditions may have been responsible for the seeming sleepiness of the critters.

The sleeping raccoon was not much of a surprise. They are mostly nocturnal, and it was probably the same animal as we saw nearly one week ago.

This youngish white-tailed buck with asymmetrical antlers and standing across the water from the downstream island, whom we’ve also probably seen before, was oddly sluggish. It clearly saw me, and it let me take a bunch of pictures, but it barely moved. I eventually headed inland to get around him and leave him in peace.

As I was taking deer pictures, this female belted kingfisher swooped in and perched not too far from me. I half expected her to bolt as I turned to try to sneak a picture, but she didn’t budge either.

On my way back downstream after counting the mallards at the northwest end, I came across a deer in nearly the same spot, which I supposed was the same buck again. Upon closer inspection, however, this one has symmetrical antlers and looks a bit older than the first one. Despite the difference, it was just as sluggish as the first, and it barely moved as I circled around it to get the sun at my back. “Thanks buddy, of course, but are you guys okay?”

Back at the pond, I met a regular participant in our weekly wildlife walks, and she had come in hopes of spotting one of the redpolls I had reported yesterday. She had already visited the pond earlier, as had I, but neither one of us had found them yet. On our second pass, I got all excited when I spotted a back-lit junco because the beak was lighter in color, so possibly yellow, but then it flew off, and we could clearly see the white feathers on the edges of its tail. Dang.

Happily, we hit pay dirt just a couple dozen yards farther down the path. There were about six small birds busily digging seeds out of the birch catkins. My pictures didn’t come out quite as nice as yesterday’s, but at least this one is good enough to positively ID a coveted redpoll. Jenny was thrilled.

I headed back toward the river, and as I looked around for who might be there, this song sparrow began chirping from a log right in front of me. It actually took me a while to spot it because I never figured it would be sitting right there and out in the open like that. Well, it must have drunk from the same fountain as the raccoon, the kingfisher, and the bucks, because it just sat there and chirped while I kneeled down and got a nice song sparrow portrait.

Finally, I was thrilled to find an autumn meadowhawk dragonfly still around at this late date. It hugged the ground, so this isn’t the greatest picture, but I was happy to notice frost on the shady side of that fallen leaf on which it is perched, and this is probably the first time I got a living dragonfly and frost in the same shot.

Lastly, the forecast for tomorrow’s cleanup in Estabrook looks stupendous. By the kickoff at 10am, temps are supposed to reach 60°F already, and even a 13 mph breeze out of the west won’t be able to make it feel cooler than 57°. Harold has even sent out a follow-up email that confirms the availability of free beer for participants afterwards. The sun is supposed to be breaking through the clouds, and the temps will have soared to 62° by the time the beer starts flowing at noon.

If you’ve always wanted to help out at Estabrook, but haven’t been into cutting buckthorn, planting trees, or pulling garlic mustard, this is your big chance. There probably isn’t an easier volunteer job than strolling along the river path on a nice day in November for a couple of hours and collecting the litter left by the August flood, much of which is still clinging to branches in arm’s reach so you won’t even have to bend down to pick it up. Plus, it has been so dry lately, you probably won’t even have to get your feet wet. What more could you ask for?

If it fits in your schedule, I’d love to see you there. A litter-free background always makes my pictures look better.

PS: if you’re surprised to be seeing each image twice, don’t be alarmed. It is merely my current best attempt to make sure all readers see at least one image correctly. If both look correct to you, just think of it as a two-for-one sale.

An infrequency, and oddity, and a rarity…

It was a very nice morning in Estabrook Park. Temps were seasonably cool, the winds were light, and the sky was nearly clear. But before we get to the critters, and before I forget, let me make a couple of quick announcements.

First, in case you’ve just joined us or skipped over the recent image handling bruhaha, you may indeed be seeing double, but there is no need to adjust your set. It won’t help anyway. To provide the best viewing experience I can for the most readers, I am inserting all the images in two different ways. For some of you, both will look fine, and you’re welcome. For another group, one will look correct, the other will be stretched, and I’m sorry about that. And for a third group, one will look correct, and the other will be merely a link to Flickr. C’est la vie. If and when I find a single method that works for everyone, I will immediately switch to that.

Second, I just learned yesterday that the beer garden will provide free beer to those who join the Friends of Estabrook as they cleanup the park Saturday morning, but I don’t believe that the beer will be available until after the cleanup, so prepare yourselves. The posted details are “Park Cleanup 10AM – Noon meet at the Beer Garden.”

Now, on to the “infrequency”. This darling pine siskin, who are not actually rare here, but whom we don’t get to see very often, was perching at eye-level beside the pond and let me get my best picture yet of a siskin in Estabrook.

Even though they are not that infrequent anymore, thankfully, it is still always a thrill for me to see a bald eagle. I was alerted to the presence of this magnificent adult when all the mallards on the river were suddenly in the air, like a disturbance in the force, so I hustled up to the northwest end to find the cause perched high over the far shore.

I’ve been noticing eastern black walnuts wedged into the forks of small trees for years, and I could never quite be sure it didn’t just happen by accident. This one, however, was clearly not there by accident. There were no black walnut trees in the immediate vicinity, and even if there were, the nut could not have gotten into this particular fork by gravity alone. Instead, I read that the nut was probably wedged in there for safe keeping by an American red squirrel.

Next, the oddity, this rusty blond duck swimming on the river with a few, slightly smaller, mallards. I’m sure it’s a hybrid, but I have not yet figured out who its parents might have been.

Finally, the rarity, our first redpoll of the season. It was one of a trio that were eating seeds from the birch trees along the back side of the pond. “Welcome back, Sweetie! I hope you like our birch seeds.”

The current forecast for tomorrow looks even better than today, so I can’t wait to see who pays us a visit next.

A bit of a rebound…

The temps have warmed back up to only seasonably cool, and the sky was crystal clear again, but the wind was still blowing, so the weather in Estabrook Park this morning was a mixed bag. After yesterday’s no-hitter, I didn’t have high hopes, but the critters put on a pretty nice mid-November show.

The first mammal to show its face this month turns out to be this little American red squirrel beside the pond.

I’ve seen a Great blue heron only a couple of times since Anne and I got back, and it has been much shier than usual, but today I finally managed to capture it on film.

I spotted my first American tree sparrows of the season, and we haven’t seen them since last March. “Welcome back, Sweeties!”

I didn’t see any odd ducks today, but there has been a Mallard hen and drake on the pond recently, and here’s the hen.

And here’s the drake.

Since there’s still a little bit of room left in this post, here’s my first olive-throated parakeet (Eupsittula nana) picture, from the Crooked Tree Lodge. We sure heard them and glimpsed them dashing from treetop to treetop near Tikal, but they wouldn’t enter the photo booth until we were back in Belize.

Finally, here’s a tiny lantana leaftier moth (Orphanostigma haemorrhoidalis), also from Crooked Tree Lodge, and I read that “leaftier” means “a moth larva that lives in a folded leaf held together by silk strands.” So, there you go.

The forecast for tomorrow has similar temps and sun, but the wind is supposed to die down a bit, which sounds wonderful. Maybe I’ll be as lucky with the critters.

A no-hitter!

I don’t know if it was the weather, which was no worse than yesterday, or me, but the critters in Estabrook pitched a no-hitter today. Oh sure, I glimpsed some deer, a great blue heron, etc., just as a runner might get to base with a walk or an error, but I didn’t get a single picture. Darn.

The good news, however, is that I still have a few pictures left from our recent trip. Phew! So, here are a few from Belize that I haven’t had room to show you yet.

As we were leaving the Caracol archeological site, and soon after Anne spotted her first gray fox, our driver pulled over quickly and said, “there’s a Laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans).” Well, I looked right away, and I thought he was kidding because all I saw was a power pole with one of those high-voltage insulators on top, but that was no insulator! It was a white bird with a jet-black mask: a laughing falcon. When we asked how it got that name, our guide played us a sample of its call, and all was perfectly clear. Do yourself a favor and follow the link, click on the “listen” button in the lower right corner, and be amazed.

Before we left Caracol, I spotted my first ever summer tanager (Piranga rubra). I see that we do get to see them from time to time in Milwaukee, but I have not yet been so lucky.

There was also a clay-colored thrush, which I did see before in Guatemala, but it didn’t let me get a picture as nice as this.

As you may recall, after our short diversion to Tikal in Guatemala, Anne and I returned to Belize to hit the beach on Caye Caulker. Well, neither of us is really into hitting the beach, which is just as well because Caye Caulker doesn’t really have beaches. Instead, it has tropical mockingbirds (Mimus gilvus), which I did not even know existed before this.

The natural coastline of the caye is mostly a band of mangroves with a few gaps, and we found this darling juvie black-bellied plover (Pluvialis squatarola) foraging in one of those gaps.

On my last excursion inland, I thought I saw another hooded oriole, and was glad to have another chance at a better picture. But, that would be too easy, and my sources inform me that this is an immature orange oriole (Icterus auratus), instead. Ha!

Lastly, back at Cahal Pech, were we first visited, one of these amazing butterflies, a Julia Heliconian (Dryas iulia), finally relented and posed for a picture.

I’m off this afternoon to give my talk on my trip to Ukraine back in June at Northshore School for Seniors, and I understand that there are still seats available, in case you want to drop in. If not, perhaps I’ll see you on Saturday, when Friends of Estabrook Park is hosting a “clean-up” event, and believe you me, despite our best efforts, there is still plenty of cleaning up from the flood back in August still to do

Now that’s a cold snap!

Brrrr! It was a tad brisk this morning in Estabrook Park. Happily, the forecast lake effect snow stayed south of us, the wind didn’t feel nearly as strong as I feared, and the sky was crystal clear.

It was cold enough, for the first time this season, to freeze small puddles solid and form ice on the pond and some parts of the river. Here’s a reflection off the river of the sun coming over the bluff, and you can see open water in the bottom half but a skin of large ice crystals in the upper half.

The hardy birds were up and at ’em nevertheless, and here’s a hermit thrush beside the river with what appears to be a tiny bit of ice on the tip of its bill.

We even had a few straggler fall migrants, and here’s a yellow-rumped warbler foraging on the exposed river bottom.

I stopped by the beer garden parking lot at 8am, as promised, and two warmly dressed nature enthusiasts were there to join me on our weekly wildlife walk. We headed to the pond first and counted a couple dozen house finches in the bushes on the island, in hopes of finding a stray redpoll, but we had no luck with that. Meanwhile, the red-bellied woodpeckers, which had been oddly quiet since my return, finally showed themselves, and here’s one taking advantage of that clear, blue sky.

As we circled around the back side of the pond, at least one, and possibly two, Cooper’s hawks flew in, and this is the one that stopped to see what was on the menu.

The next surprisingly late fall migrant, a killdeer, was also foraging on the expose river bottom at the north end.

Finally, we might get lucky and have one or two more days warm enough for the insects to come out before winter settles in for good, but today was not one of those days. Thus, it is high time we transition to season-appropriate imagery, such as this female cardinal by the pond, doing her very best puffbird impersonation.

Winter gives us a taste of things to come…

It was cloudy, cold, and windy this morning at Lakeshore State Park, but at least the snow had stopped by sunrise. I don’t know which shock did it, or if it was the combination, but most of the birds were in hiding, and we only counted 7 species.

Happily, one of those species was the bald eagle, and here’s one of a pair that soared high over the water. (And, as you will soon see, we’re still not out of the woods with this whole image handling thing, so I feel compelled to use both methods until I do get it sorted. I know some of you will see two normal images, some of you will see one normal and one stretched, and some of you will see just one image plus a link you can click on to view it in Flickr, but at least all of you should see at least one good image, and I don’t yet have a better solution. Sorry about that. If you see something other than one of these three scenarios, please let me know.)

Another of those few species we did see this morning was a swan, but they were flying too high for my gear to enable detecting if they were tundra or trumpeter swans. Either way, they’re the first swans I’ve seen of the fall migration.

It wasn’t until I made my way north along the lake that I spotted a couple of small bufflehead flocks diving for their breakfasts, more firsts of the season, and the ones at the Shorewood Nature Preserve let me get closer. I sure hope a few of these little cuties visit us on the Milwaukee River in Estabrook this winter.

As usual, it seems, lately, I have plenty of room to include a few more pictures from our recent trip, and there are still a lot of them left, so let’s get to it. Here’s one of a pair of striking northern jacanas (Jacana spinosa), cousins to the wattled jacanas we saw in Brazil, that we saw back in Flores, Guatemala before we visited Tikal.

Once we got to Tikal, this gorgeous bat falcon (Falco rufigularis) perched right over the parking area just outside our hotel.

Finally, we heard howler monkeys overnight, but we didn’t get to see them, Yucatán Black Howler Monkeys (Alouatta pigra), until we visited the Tikal archeological site the next morning.

Lastly, another butterfly on the side of the Great Pyramid was this dainty Theona checkerspot (Chlosyne theona).

The forecast for tomorrow morning is COLD, to say the least, but at least the sun should be out, so that might help. Sunrise is back before 7am, these days, but at this time of year, it sure takes its sweet time climbing into the sky. Thus, I will look for wildlife walkers in the beer garden parking lot, but I’m gonna hold off until 8am. You are welcome to start earlier if you want, and I’ll see you at 8.