Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

No pranks today…

My first big treat of the day was finally capturing this darling pied-billed grebe on film, after only catching glimpses of it for the last couple of days. It has been fishing around the upstream island, and once it has spotted me, it has usually disappeared after just its second dive. Happily, it relented today for some reason. The sun wasn’t yet high enough in the sky to light it up much, but it sure did help that the water had a beautiful blue sky and a sun-lit red brick building to reflect.

While I was busy trying to get a picture of the grebe, I inadvertently flushed this lone wood duck drake, which isn’t that odd, but then it parked itself to preen on the same branch were we often see a kingfisher. They are usually not such exhibitionists, and he was kind enough to be up in the sun, which is nice, but not quite high enough for a blue-sky background.

My second big treat for the day was spotting this great horned owl granting us an audience, which is rare for this time of year. Plus, we finally got both bright morning sun and a blue-sky background in the same picture. Who minds a few pesky branches?

I didn’t see anything to photograph at the pond, but on my way back to the river, I did spot this shy hermit thrush, whom we haven’t seen in a while. Soon enough they’ll all be gone north for the summer.

Back at the south end, I spotted a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers who seemed to be getting acquainted. Before I could get a picture of the two of them together, however, they flitted to a nearby tree, where she proceeded to check on the nesting cavity he had started. She also hit the trifecta of good sun, blue sky, and an unobstructed view. “Thanks, Sweetie! I hope you find what you are looking for.”

Finally, I hadn’t seen nor heard a killdeer yet, so the timing was perfect when I heard their familiar call right after wrapping up with the woodpeckers. I thought that would be all I was going to get, until I used my binoculars to count the robins on the soccer fields. Well, there were nearly 40 robins, plus these two little sneaky Petes. “Hello, Darlings!”

Finally, look what I found in the tall grass as I was fishing out a bit of litter. Ha! How’s that for a big treat? Don’t let folks tell you that there’s just too much litter, so there’s no point in picking any up. Every little bit helps, and some little bits help a lot more than others!

Closer to a lamb than a lion, I’d say…

We had a great morning for the last weekly wildlife walk of March in Estabrook Park. Sure, it was cool, cloudy, and breezy, but I didn’t feel a drop for a change, we were often able to hide from the wind, and the sun slowly emerged. Ten folks came out to join me, and we identified 32 bird species.

After seeing the screech-owl so many days in a row, and even glimpsing it this morning on my way to the parking lot to meet the crew, I thought for sure that I’d finally be able to show it to everyone. The little rascal had other plans, however, and had already amscrayed by the time we arrived.

The first exciting bird we did see was this young red-tailed hawk on the hunt beside the river, and it did one heck of a job waking up the grackles and red-winged blackbirds that hang out there. Here it is keeping tabs on one of them.

We also glimpsed a pied-billed grebe and a red-breasted merganser around the islands in the river above the falls, but I failed to capture either on film. Instead, my only other presentable picture from our walk today was this brown-headed cowbird, species number 31, as we returned to the parking lot for everyone to go their separate ways. As you can see, parts of the sky had become a pretty blue by then.

Since I still had some time on my meter, and the day was starting to warm up a bit, I headed back to the river after everyone left to see if I could get a picture of that grebe.

The grebe had other plans, however, which gave me time to spend with this little cutie, the boldest golden-crowned kinglet I may have ever met.

In fact, there were quite a few kinglets foraging for bugs on the sticks and branches along the river, but not all of them were golden-crowned, so here’s our first ruby-crowned kinglet picture of the season. It was super nice of them to strike nearly the same pose so you can get a good look at the features that distinguish them besides the color of their crowns. For me, the markings around the eyes are also a dead giveaway.

The phoebes, who have been here a couple of weeks already, were also plentiful, and here’s the one who put on the nicest show for us.

Not to be outdone in the insectivore bonanza, there were even several brown creepers, and this one was making sure that no crevice went unchecked.

Finally, I couldn’t believe my luck, as I was approaching the volleyball court at the south end, and I heard my first yellow-bellied sapsucker call of the season, which I’ve been waiting weeks to hear. Even better, I was actually able to lay eyes on it, despite it doing its best to hide, and so was my camera’s autofocus, despite the last cloud in the sky doing its best to provide a challenging background.

Lastly, if you thought March was amazing, as sure I did, then hold onto your hats because here comes April!

A rainy day in March…

Well, just as they predicted, it was quite rainy in Estabrook Park this morning. On the radar, however, it looked as though there would be some gaps in the rain, so I grabbed an umbrella and ventured out.

On my way from the river to the pond, I saw the screech-owl in its nook again, but I didn’t even try aiming my camera that much skyward, so here’s how it looked yesterday.

At the pond, I saw the female belted kingfisher, but this picture of the male over the river yesterday came out a lot better.

There was a skittish pair of wood ducks on the pond, but I didn’t pursue them because I knew I had this nice picture of a bold hen from yesterday.

Back at the river, I saw a quartet of red-breasted mergansers, but I flubbed the pictures, so here’s a pair of hooded mergansers from yesterday.

Finally, the one picture I did take today and that I didn’t manage to blur beyond recognition, is of this bunch of daffodils starting to open on the side of the bluff upstream of the islands.

Lastly, the forecast for tomorrow morning is cloudy, breezy, and cold, but at least the precipitation should be done for our weekly wildlife walk. Plus, the breeze is out of the NNW, so maybe we’ll get lucky and find some birds filling their tanks as they wait out the unfavorable winds before continuing their journey north. We start at 8 am in the northern parking lot, by the beer garden, and I hope to see you there.

A couple more new arrivals…

It seemed pretty nice out at sunrise this morning in Estabrook Park, even with the thick cloud cover. Temps were in the low 50s, winds were light, and it wasn’t raining. What I failed to realize is that the winds were blowing off of Lake Michigan, and the temps were on their way to the high 30s, so I was quite underdressed for the cold that soon arrived. The critters, on the other hand, wear their entire wardrobe on their backs, so I didn’t hear them complain about the weather at all.

The first exciting news is that a male belted kingfisher has also arrived, woo hoo, and here he is fishing over the river where it gets wide and slow below the falls.

At the pond, the goose is still nesting on the island, I counted at least eight wood ducks, and I also saw a quartet of female or immature hooded mergansers. Unfortunately, the mergansers did not stick around for pictures. Instead, when I reached the islands in the river, I found them again, and here’s one of the immature males, who looks sorta like a female, but with a yellow eye and some other subtle differences.

I also spotted the newly arrived male kingfisher perched together with the female we’ve seen for a while, and they were on the far side of the upstream island, so well beyond the range of my gear, but you can see his white belly and just a hint of her chestnut belly band. I seldom see them perch together like this, so perhaps they’re still in the honeymoon phase.

There was also a group of blue-winged teals, and here are two drakes and one hen. They were quite busy chattering amongst themselves and bobbing their heads, so they swam much closer to me than I would have expected.

Finally, the second big surprise of the morning was spotting the first American coot I’ve seen in the park this year. It was even kind enough to climb up out of the water, while I was upstream checking on the pigeons, so that we can catch a glimpse of its amazing not-quite-webbed feet.

Lastly, I do have a few more pictures from this morning, but the forecast for tomorrow calls for rain all day, so I’m keeping them in my back pocket in case the forecast turns out to be accurate.

Thunderbolts and lightning…

Besides the lightshow this morning, which wasn’t actually too frightening, thankfully, there was plenty of rain, too, so I didn’t get into the park until a couple of hours after sunrise. Happily, most folks were held off by the weather as much as I was, so there were still some critters going through their morning routine by the time I arrived.

One of them was the female belted kingfisher, whom we’ve already seen a couple of times at the river, and I’ve glimpsed at the pond, but I believe this is the first time I’ve gotten a picture of her at the pond this year.

Of all days that I would have guessed that the screech-owl was in its nook, today would be a leading contender. I know I sure would like that kind of protection from pouring down rain, and apparently, it does, too. Or, it’s just a big coincidence, and it would have been there even if it were 60°F and sunny. Either way, I find its picture hard to resist.

The rest of the critters must have made other plans in my absence, so that’s it for pictures today, except for these snow drops, in Estabrook this time, who can’t get away because they’re plants.

Back to work…

The air was still and warmer than it has been recently, but the clouds were thick and leaky, so looking for critters in Estabrook Park this morning was a mixed bag.

One happy consequence of the conditions, or just pure luck of the draw, and I don’t know which yet, was finding our little grey-morph eastern screech-owl tucked away in its once-in-a-while nook.

The treat on the river today was spotting a pair of blue-winged teals again, just off the downstream tip of the upstream island, and this time it comprised a drake and a hen.

When I looked upriver, I couldn’t see a single pigeon on the bridges, so I decided to hike up there, at least to make sure the one was still on her nest. Well, she was, but when I looked around to see who else I could see from there, I could not believe my eyes. Just a bit farther upstream, so technically not in Estabrook, but I sure as heck could see them from the park, was a big flock of wild turkeys. I hustled under the bridges and upstream until I was just across from them to get a good picture, and here are four toms in various stages of strutting their stuff. There were two more toms and ten hens, so sixteen birds in total. Long-time readers may recall that we do get to see an isolated hen from time to time in Estabrook Park, but this is as close as I’ve come to seeing a tom there. “It’s just a couple hundred yards, guys. Come on down!”

Anyway, that’s it for birds today, so here’s another look at that golden-crowned kinglet from yesterday.

Finally, I’ve started to see plenty of green shoots, but these Siberian squill on the side of the bluff are the first blossoms I’ve seen in the park.

The forecast calls for more showers and even warmer temps tomorrow morning, so who knows what we’ll get, but I saw plenty of bugs in the air already this morning, and with any luck, the even warmer air tomorrow will finally attract some more insectivores.

Happy 5th Anniversary!

It was five years ago today, on March 26, that I breathlessly emailed family and friends that I had spotted a wood duck on the pond in Estabrook Park. Before that day, I don’t believe I had ever seen one, let alone known their name. Here’s a look at that original picture.

For those of you who don’t remember, the COVID-19 pandemic was just getting started, UWM had already extended spring break for a second week, and they may have already told us to stay home until further notice. Long walks in the park seemed like a good idea at the time.

Well, five years have come and gone, we’ve seen a lot of critters, and I hope you’ve enjoyed them as much as I have. Thanks a ton for following along, and now let’s see who was in the park today.

After a brief lull, when I suspect the ones who had been with us through the winter had flown north, now we have winter wrens again, whom I suspect are also on their way north, but from points south of here. Either way, I always love to see them.

Trees are starting to blossom in the park, I’d bet this is a maple, based on the color, and this grey squirrel was chowing down on them as though it has been waiting for fresh vegetables all winter long. I’ve seen them eating seeds that haven’t dropped yet, but I don’t believe I’ve seen them eating blossoms before, and I sure hope the trees have budgeted for that.

The golden-crowned kinglets are becoming more plentiful, and I followed this one for a while, taking plenty of shots of moving birds and empty branches, before it eventually appeared to say, “Let’s try an art shot. You know, with a dark background, a soft focus, and my head turned just so,” to which I replied, “Sure, Sweetie, whatever you want, just so long as I finally get a picture.”

The red squirrels are out and enjoying the spring weather, too, and this one appeared, for all the world, to be licking the sap off of a leaky box elder branch. The squirrel was at it for a while, and I have a few pictures, but this is the one in which you can even see its pink little tongue. I did not know they did that.

The big surprise at the river today was this merlin, perched high over the upstream island. I believe that the last time we saw one was back in December, so “Welcome back, Darling!”

The big surprise at the pond was finding the goose finally nesting on the island. She’s about two weeks behind last year’s schedule, but two days ahead of 2022, and four days behind 2021, That’s pretty consistent timing, given that she probably doesn’t even have a proper calendar. As I’ve written before, if everything goes okay, now we’ve got just 32 to 48 days to wait until gosling time! Yay!

Finally, the wood ducks on the pond this morning were more skittish than usual, but I couldn’t go without a wood duck picture today, of all days, so here’s a nice one from last Monday, when I already had plenty of other pictures to show you.

That’s it for today, and tune in tomorrow to find who’s the next new bird in town. Oh, and thanks to the folks who came out for my North Shore School for Seniors class yesterday. You had a lot of great questions, and I hope you had as good a time as I did.

Back in Estabrook again…

My siblings and I all arrived home safely from Colorado yesterday afternoon, but before we left, my sister who lives there and her husband really wanted to show us the bald eagles’ nest just down the road from their place, and here it is. I wrote yesterday that it was very windy out there, and I didn’t even bother to go out looking for wildlife before I posted, but the wind sure didn’t keep this eagle from sitting on its nest. We couldn’t tell if that is Mom or Dad, and we couldn’t see if there are eggs or chicks in there, but either way, they were being kept nice and warm.

When I awoke this morning, the weather in Estabrook Park was as nice as I could ask for in March. It was seasonably chilly, but the wind was very light, and the skies were mostly clear, so it was a perfect time to see who might have arrived while I was away.

We’ve seen this beauty a couple of times already this spring, but she let me sneak a great shot today.

The red-winged blackbirds have been here all month, but they still make a nice picture anyway when they’re busy singing.

All the fancy ducks on the river appear to have flown north, but we should get to enjoy the wood ducks on the pond all summer long.

The woodpeckers are busy drumming or excavating nesting cavities these days, but they still gotta eat, and that’s what this red-bellied woodpecker beside the river appeared to be doing.

Finally, the eastern bluebirds tend not to nest in Estabrook, at least in my short experience, so it is always a treat when they stop in, even if it is on their way to a spot that suits them better.

Lastly, my North Shore School for Seniors class is in a couple of hours, so if you’re planning to join us, I’ll see you there, and I’ll have some content that I haven’t been able to share yet in these posts.

Homeward bound…

I had a hope for one more good outing here in Colorado before I fly home this afternoon, but I can hear the wind howling outside as I sip my coffee and wait for the sun to come up, and I don’t know if or where there might be places where the wind is blocked, as is often the case along parts of the river in Estabrook Park, so I don’t have much hope of getting any new pictures today. Thus I might as well write this post now with the rest of the pictures I managed yesterday, and get back to business as usual tomorrow morning.

As we started are walk back from a great visit to downtown Golden yesterday afternoon, I was thrilled to spot my first Cooper’s hawk in Colorado. Even better, it seemed quite content on that perch, so I was able to sneak pretty close for a nice portrait, and it didn’t even bother to put its second foot down.

As I mentioned yesterday, my sister lives on the outskirts of town, and the last stretch of road to her place runs through a bit of a valley, and check out this pair I found perched on a power line that runs along one side. I have often thought that the size and shape of a perched American kestrel is quite reminiscent of a mourning dove, but I didn’t realize that they will also perch together as doves do. Well, at least these two did. They were at least a couple hundred yards away, so well beyond the realistic range of my gear, but I think you can get the idea.

The best treat of the whole trek was finding this Townsend’s solitaire (Myadestes townsendi) perched in almost the same spot I had seen it last year when I was out here without my camera. “Thanks, Sweety!” In fact, the memory of spotting it on the same walk home and not being able to take a picture was the whole inspiration for hauling all that weight along on this supposed “ski” trip. Even better, our trip this year is a couple of months later than last year, so I had a lot more light to work with this time. Last time, we were well into twilight, and I resorted to asking my brother to see if he could also make out the slight light stripe on its wing that I thought I was seeing.

Since I had two nice pictures of the mountain chickadee from yesterday morning, here’s a second look at that little cutie.

Finally, the valley continues past my sister’s place, and here are a few mule deer I could see farther up the valley when I got there.

As I also mentioned yesterday, I won’t be home in time for our weekly wildlife walk this morning, but John Kasper has graciously offered to lead today, so don’t hesitate to join him and see who’s knew in Estabrook since I was there last Thursday.

Also, my presentation at North Shore School for Seniors is Tuesday afternoon, so come on out if you’ve always wanted to see this show live.

Lastly, thanks to my sister and her husband for hosting us for this awesome trip, and also to my brother and other sister for putting up with my little hobby.

And then, we rested…

After two full days of amazing skiing, here in Colorado, we had yet to sustain permanent injury, so we declared victory and took it easy today. That meant that I had a lot more time for picture taking this morning, and here are the results.

Black-billed magpies (Pica hudsonia) seem to be everywhere out here, but they are pretty shy, similar to the blue jays and American crows in Estabrook Park, so not the easiest to capture on film. This one, however, seemed hesitant to flee, as if it wasn’t quite warmed up yet from the cold temps overnight, and so it allowed this picture. If you look to the right of the tree trunk, you can see the rest of its very long tail.

If I had to guess, I’d guess that nine out of ten of the large black birds I saw here were American crows, and the tenth bird was a common raven. We’ve seen them before, most recently in the Grand Canyon, and here’s one from this morning just as it made its distinctive croak.

On the smaller side, here’s a mountain chickadee, which we also saw before in the Grand Canyon.

After breakfast, we headed back down the mountain to my sister’s place on the outskirts of Golden, and there I found a shy Steller’s jay with a crest, unlike the uncrested one we saw in Guatemala last month.

Finally, we took a walk into town, and on the way, I found my very first eastern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), which I read “is the largest species of tree squirrel native to North America.“

Lastly, I fly home tomorrow, but not in time for our weekly wildlife walk. Instead, John Kasper has offered to lead the group again, so come on out to see who has arrived while I’ve been away.