Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

A fine “welcome back” to the Nutmeg State…

Anne and I arrived safely in Connecticut last evening, but I didn’t have a chance to go out looking for wildlife until after lunch today. I didn’t expect to see much that late in the day, so I was quite pleasantly surprised when the critters put on a nice mid-day show.

Here’s a trio of shy ring-necked duck drakes that kept just beyond the effective range of my gear. We don’t get to see them very often, so here you go.

This wood duck drake, on the other hand, understood the assignment.

A serious contender for my treat-of-the-day is this Carolina wren. I hear them often out here, but they usually keep their distance. I’ve been hearing one in Estabrook, and would give an eye tooth for a decent photo, but I’ve had no luck so far. This bird, however, popped to the top of a bush right in front of me, and as I tried to bring my camera to bear, it merely moved upwards a bit and then broke out into song. Oh, happy days!

Maybe there’s been something in the water out here, or it’s some kind of holiday that I don’t know about, but the blue jays, who are similarly shy in Estabrook, were really putting on a show today. It is almost as if this one is pausing to ask, “have you noticed the fall colors yet?”

We saw about a dozen cedar waxwings by the pond in Estabrook on Monday, but not one would let me sneak a picture. Meanwhile, this darling let me get off the bike I borrowed from my dad, back up across the bike path, and snap yet another picture I’d love to get back home.

I did manage a nice flicker picture recently, but I still appreciate the opportunity to capture this handsome devil on film.

Finally, I’m afraid that all our sapsuckers have continued south already, but not so here. I saw two today, and this female made the nicer image.

Lastly, even the spotted turtles got in on the act.

I have a hope of getting out early tomorrow, so it will be interesting for me to find out if I see more or less than this afternoon. I’ll keep you posted.

Fish is on the menu…

Welp, it’s Thursday, boys and girls, and you know what that means. Yup, it’s time again for Anne to take me on another fabulous adventure, so I won’t make it to Estabrook Park this morning. Instead, let me show you a few pictures from the last couple of days that didn’t make the first cut.

Here’s another look at the pied-billed grebe working on its breakfast Monday morning.

Since fish is on the menu, here’s another look at the osprey as it takes another bite on Tuesday.

Finally, here’s that youngish female belted kingfisher, also on Tuesday, still working on landing her breakfast fish. “Good luck, Sweetie!”

We’re going to Connecticut first, for a wedding this weekend, so don’t expect anything exotic right away, but I do have a hope of finding you something pretty to look at soon.

Autumn really starts to settle in…

It was cold, windy, cloudy, and even sprinkley this morning in Estabrook Park, so a classic autumn day in southeast Wisconsin.

There were still a few sights to see, despite the weather, but I didn’t see a picture I could take until I was beside the river at the north end. That’s when the doe …

and her not-so-young-anymore fawn came out to graze. His “antlers” haven’t changed much, if any, since we saw them last, so perhaps this is as big as they are going to get this year. “You’ll get bigger ones next year, Tiger!”

I did see the osprey again, plus a red-tailed and Cooper’s hawk, but the pictures weren’t great with white-sky backgrounds, so here’s a darling hermit thrush who was kind enough to pose on a nice, mossy log.

Swamp sparrows are now a common sight, if far less common than the ubiquitous white-throated sparrows and dark-eyed juncos, and here’s one eyeing me up before resuming its foraging.

Since I’ve got some room left, here’s a female red-bellied woodpecker, from yesterday when the sun was out and the sky was blue, repeatedly harvesting hackberries beside the southern playground, probably to add them to her stash somewhere nearby.

Here’s a yellow-rumped warbler, also from yesterday, who was probably having better luck hunting for bugs than it did today.

Finally, I didn’t see a butterfly or dragonfly today, but here’s another red admiral from yesterday.

Lastly, if you were wondering if they were going to leave the new Mount Estabrook on the far shore, perhaps as a sledding hill, well here’s your answer. They were loading up a couple of large, street-legal dump trucks to haul it away, so no new sledding hill for you.

The internet is back, and so is the sun…

It was a little warmer and a little breezier this morning than yesterday in Estabrook, so there was no frost on the grass this time. The sky was just as clear, though, so it made for some pretty pictures, and the issue that kept websites from working yesterday appears to have been resolved, so I will even be able to show you some. Yay!

The pied-billed grebe was still at the pond today, I am thrilled to report, but I like the picture it let me have yesterday better. Man, that bird likes to eat fish.

There was also an eastern phoebe at the pond yesterday, but it was after smaller, more-airborne prey.

At the islands in the river, the exciting guest today was this Cooper’s hawk who swooped in, perched for a minute, found no suitable prey, and then moved on to continue its hunt elsewhere.

Meanwhile, back on shore behind me, this northern flicker appeared to be just warming up in the sun. Either that, or it was keeping very quiet, very still, and a very close watch on that Cooper’s hawk, so that it doesn’t end up as prey.

The biggest avian treat for me today, however, was over the river and downstream of the old bridge abutments. I was looking for a great blue heron that Ken told me about, but I found this beauty instead. The trees on the riverbank provided great cover for me, so I was able to sneak up nice and close without disturbing the osprey, and if you click on this image so you can view the full-resolution version in flickr, you may find it as fascinating as I do.

Finally, it didn’t warm up through the morning today as much as it did yesterday, so I didn’t see a single dragonfly today. Yesterday, on the other hand, I saw a few, including this beauty, a black saddlebags on the weeds beside the southern soccer fields. It was still soaking up the sun at the time, so it let me get as close as my lens would allow, and the full-resolution image contains a ton of detail.

Lastly, red admirals were not even the only butterflies taking advantage of the warm sun yesterday morning, and here’s a stunning, late-season common buckeye butterfly. It must have managed to warm up quickly, so it was a lot more flighty than the dragonfly, I’m sad to say, and you won’t get much more out of this image. I’m just relieved I got one at all that I can show you.

I see it is forecast to be cloudy, cool, and windy tomorrow morning, so don’t hold your breath for any pictures of critters soaking up the sun in front of a crystal blue sky.

First Frost!

Sorry this is so late, but there was an issue with certain websites on the internet today, which you may have heard about, that prevented me from uploading any pictures earlier today.

Anyway, it was a very nice, if chilly morning, in Estabrook Park for our weekly wildlife walk. The temperature was 40°F at sunrise, the skies were clear, and the air was still, so radiant cooling was able to freeze the dew onto the grass for the first time this fall. Once the sun came up, however, those same conditions allowed things to warm up quickly, and one of the amazing sights that enabled was this red admiral butterfly on the lawn north of the beer garden.

It’s late now, and I’ll show you the rest of the pictures tomorrow. Good night!

It’s finally starting to feel like fall…

Since it was raining pretty good when the sun came up this morning, and the big green blob on the radar was forecast to take its sweet time drifting out of the area, I took the morning off to run some errands. At around 10:30, I noticed that it was starting to look dry-ish outside, so I grabbed my gear and finally headed for Estabrook. The question then was who might be out and about at that late hour.

I was relieved to find that quite a few critters were busily going about their morning, and I spotted this sparrow in the weeds beside the southern soccer fields. I hoped it might be a Lincoln’s or someone even more exotic, but it’s just a good-ol’ song sparrow, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

There were no photographers at the pond when I arrived, for a change, but the pied-billed grebe was still there. I’m sure gonna miss it when it finally continues its journey south.

Same for the wood ducks.

The river was up about a foot from yesterday, and most of the exposed river bottom, from which I had collected tires on Friday, was back under water. Perhaps the lowering of the falls will lower the water around the islands less than I feared. Anyway, there was hardly a bird on the water today, so here’s another look at the killdeer from yesterday.

Back up on the bluff, I finally caught one of the several yellow-rumped warblers I’d been seeing all morning. It appears that I was a bit premature in supposing that all the warblers had already flown south, although the ones I saw today could be fresh arrivals from up north.

On my way back south and back at the river, this youngish-looking female belted kingfisher uncharacteristically let me sneak this picture before dramatically bolting to the far shore.

Up on the bluff once more, I stopped by the pollinator garden, but there was barely a blossom left to pollinate, let alone any pollinators around. Instead, the interesting sight today was a small group of dark-eyed juncos foraging for seeds in the grass.

Yesterday was a different story, on the other hand, and here’s probably our last look for the season at a monarch butterfly on a Mexican sunflower blossom.

The current forecast calls for beautiful, if cool, weather for our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning. Sunrise isn’t scheduled to occur until 7:12 am, however, so I won’t be arriving at the beer garden parking lot until just before 8 am, when the sun should be already warming up the day. If you want to start earlier, feel free, and I’ll see you at 8.

October continues to surprise..

I could hear it raining this morning as I waited for the sun to rise, but the clouds dried up by the time it was light enough for me to venture out. Plus, the winds were light, and the air was probably warmer than seasonal, so it was a great morning for all the planned events.

My first treat of the day came early, before I had even reached the pond, when I noticed a bird swoop in to land on one of the guy wires for the towers across the river. I’ve only ever seen a few species perch there, so I held my breath as I brought my binoculars to bear, and sure enough, it’s our first kestrel in a while and the first one of October in Estabrook. Woo hoo!

The catbirds have gone silent over the past week or so, and I thought maybe they had all flown south already. Perhaps most of them have, but I heard and then spotted this straggler by the dog park.

The usual suspects were at the pond, so I continued to the river where this killdeer put on a nice show.

The big surprise at the river, however, was this coot relaxing below a clump of leaves, which I believe belong to a yellow iris. We just saw one at Lakeshore State Park, but it has been a while since one graced the waters of Estabrook. “Welcome back, sweetie!”

Back on shore, I don’t believe I saw a single warbler today, but the trees were hopping with kinglets, both golden- and ruby-crowned, and this is one of the latter.

On my second swing by the pond, most of the photographers had called it a day, or at least moved on to another venue, and the pied-billed grebe and I could just relax. Here it is making another big yawn.

Finally, yesterday’s mourning cloak may have been just a foreshadowing, because I spotted two monarchs today. There was one on the Mexican sunflowers, of course, but this one really surprised me on the grass by the river.

Finally, I did stop by the southern parking lot at 9am, and everyone was either helping to plant trees or picking up trash along the river, but that was just as well. I’m glad folks were giving those two projects the support they deserve. Plus, yesterday afternoon was so nice, and my new waders had just arrived in the mail, so I couldn’t wait and went out to tackle the tires on my own.

Here’s the pile of 19 (two have had the beads cut off, so I stuffed them down into the stacks) that I pulled out of the river around the upstream island. I got six more at the downstream island as well, and stacked those atop the bluff near there. Best of all, there’s still more to do, if that’s what you have your heart set on. I spotted three more tires this morning, if you can believe it, and I could barely budge the broken canoe, so that’s still out there. If you want to join me on my next outing, just give me a shout and we’ll set up a time, ideally before the river rises again.

Another first of the season, and perhaps a last…

It was cloudy and windy this morning in Estabrook, but at least temps were mild for the season, and it wasn’t raining. These conditions made it a little tricky to find photogenic subjects, but the park still delivered anyway.

I found this little cutie, our first eastern bluebird of the month, just as I was wrapping up my loop around the pond. There were a few robins around, going a little crazy over the berries in the bushes beside the pond, but this one seemed smaller. Once I got my binoculars on it, I could see that it was no robin, and I grabbed my camera as quickly as I could. Even though I was shooting through some branches, it noticed me anyway, and it only let me have four images before it disappeared. Thank heavens one of them turned out to be presentable.

Similarly, at the north end, the path was covered with juncos and white-throats, most of whom fled as I approached, but this sweetie acted slightly differently, so I took a picture just in case. It turns out to be a field sparrow, which we have seen already this month, but not from this angle or in this light. “Your compatriot was at the south end, Honey.”

Back at the pond, the wood ducks and the pied billed grebe are still there, along with the photographers the wood ducks are attracting lately, but I really like the look of satisfaction the grebe seemed to be wearing this morning. I wonder if it already has a belly full of fish.

Finally, as I was walking back south on the path along the river, this sight stopped me in my tracks. Just when I thought all the big and fancy butterflies were done for the season, and all we were going to see for the next few weeks were sulphurs and whites, here’s one last mourning cloak who hasn’t yet found a crevice in which to hibernate. As I was taking pictures, I could see it was shivering, but I didn’t dare try to help warm it up, as I did with the snake last week. Happily, the shivering must have worked because as I was lifting the leaf on which it was perched to get it out of the middle of the path, it took off and completed the mission on its own. “Good luck, and see you next spring, I hope!”

Lastly, the crew has finished fishing all the sandbags out of the river, so now we can see what the finished product looks like. It sure is different, and I hope the fish like it. As for the new “Mount Estabrook” on the far shore, it remains to be seen if they are going to leave that with us or take it with them when they go.

A fine showing for the middle of autumn

The rain was taking a break this morning, the temps were mild for October, the breeze was light, the sun was duking it out with the clouds, and it wasn’t clear who was going to win, at least for a while, so it was a very nice time to go looking for wildlife in Estabrook.

I got into the park nice and early, so there wasn’t really enough light for pictures until I reached the downstream island, where this female belted kingfisher granted me a semi-rare audience.

Nearly right above the kingfisher, this young-looking great blue heron was trying to catch some zzzzs, but it couldn’t have been sleeping too hard because its head immediately popped up, same as mine, when we both heard the osprey call.

The osprey glided around a bit, but I never saw it land, so then next fun sight was this tiny winter wren foraging in the weeds right at the water’s edge.

There were no odd ducks on the water today, I’m afraid, so I didn’t see a picture to take until I was back by the beer garden, and this chickadee was picking its breakfast out of this big old blossom that has gone to seed. It took a break while I selected a seat at one of the beer tables that would produce a nice background, and then it came back out for this portrait. The sun was winning at that point, so I could set the shutter nice and fast, and thus this picture has resolution to spare, in case you ever wanted to know exactly how the feathers are arranged on a chickadee’s face. Just give it a click to find out.

Back at the pond, the sun was still holding its own and was now high enough in the sky to shine down onto the water, and maybe that helped the little pied-billed grebe catch another fish. This one wasn’t nearly so big as last time, so it went down lickety-split.

By then, a couple of guys were sitting on the lawn getting their best wood duck pictures, but this drake must have noticed me in the background taking grebe pictures and wanted to share the wealth. “Thanks, Buddy!”

I walked along the paved path back south, and as I passed the guardrail, I was thrilled to find one more late-season dragonfly, which just so happens to be an aptly-named autumn meadowhawk, warming up in the morning sun.

Finally, there were still a couple of clouded sulphers making their rounds, and here’s one tanking up on some hairy white oldfield aster beside the southern soccer fields.

Lastly, the Village of Shorewood is hosting an Adopt-A-River Clean Up on Saturday, October 18 from 9:00 to 11:00 am. The target area is “Estabrook to Hubbard Park”, and the meet-up location is the south parking lot in Estabrook Park. Registration is required, and you can click on the link above to scan a QR code or “call/text Kae at (414) 588-0617.”

I’ll be there, but my focus is going to be on the north end, between the two islands, where the flood left a bunch of used tires on the now-exposed river bottom. I don’t require registration, but you will probably want/need hip boots or waders.

If you’re not interested in either of those projects, Friends of Estabrook Park are also holding a tree planting at the same time on the same day. Even better, the meet-up is also at 9am in the south parking lot, and I’m sure Harold will have a waiver for you to sign.

Perhaps I’ll see you there.

A fine morning, despite the radar picture…

It was another rainy morning in Estabrook Park, but not as rainy as the big green blob on the radar suggested, so I gave it a try after about an hour delay. By then the precipitation had stopped, the air was nearly still, and I just about had the park to myself, people-wise, that is.

Things were quiet at the pond when I arrived. The gaggle of photographers that have been camping on the west lawn lately had not yet arrived, the wood ducks were down for their naps, and so was the little pied-billed grebe.

At the river, on the other hand, the cry of an osprey grabbed my attention, and I found the source high above the downstream island, where it was just getting started on its breakfast.

Just a bit upstream, and high over the next island, another bird was calling for attention. This time it was another migrating rusty blackbird.

A pair of kingfishers were flitting about, and while I was down near the water trying to get a decent killdeer picture, some leaves hid me enough for this female to perch nearby.

Back on shore, the hermit thrushes have just about replaced all the Swainson’s thrushes, who have continued their journey south, and here’s our first good look at the former and its cinnamony tail.

As I made my way back downstream, I spotted a bird perched right at the top of a bare tree, but all I could see was its back, and my first thought was “kestrel!” Before I could move to the side enough for a better look, however, it took off, but I’m thrilled to report that it didn’t go far, and I was able to get in front of it this time. So, here’s a look at our first merlin of the season.

On my second swing by the pond, the wood ducks were still parked, but at least these two were awake.

Back at the south end, I finally managed to get a first picture of the season of one of the swamp sparrows I’ve been seeing around the park for a week or two.

Lastly, as I crossed the parkway to make my exit, I spotted this pair on the lawn opposite the building attached to the TV tower. I can’t quite tell if the smaller one has the start of antlers on the top of its head, so I’m not sure if this is the same pair we’ve been seeing lately or a second pair. The building in the background is “Ciel of Shorewood”, formerly “HarborChase”, on the south side of Capitol Drive.