Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Several more firsts-of-the-year…

Wow! What beautiful weather we had in Estabrook Park this morning. The sky was clear, the breeze was light, and it was cool enough for me to put on a windbreaker for a change. The critters seemed to enjoy the break from the heat, as well, because they were more plentiful than I’ve seen them in a while.

My first surprise was this beaver, who I watched swim across the river and then just park under a tree growing on the far riverbank to enjoy its breakfast.

In addition to a young great blue heron and two female wood ducks, we had a green heron at the pond.

Then it was time for me to meet the wildlife walkers, and we had five in the 7 a.m. batch. Our first stop was the pond, and the green heron had gone into hiding already, but look who was now there instead, our first brood of ducklings for the year on the pond. Woo hoo!

After a loop around the pond and a short stretch of river, it was time for me to collect the 8 a.m. arrivals, of which there were three, and by the time we caught up to the first group at the river, look who was also there, our first fawn of the year. Yee haw!

Here’s the little rascal exploring on its own for a second while Mom works on her breakfast just out of frame.

Then it was time to wrap things up, but not before the osprey gave us a little airshow, which I completely failed to capture. In all, the group identified 34 bird species, and after farewells, I started making my way back downstream, which is where I came across the third big surprise of the day. I’ve seen softshell turtles on the far riverbank at the north end a couple of times already, including this morning, but this is the first one this year on our riverbank, where I can make a nice portrait. Hurrah!

As I was doing my best to sneak a turtle picture without disturbing it, there were a couple of critters just a bit farther downstream making a racket. One turned out to be a squirrel, the other was a robin, and when I looked to see what all the shouting was about, I found the fourth big surprise of the morning, our first great horned owl since the middle of May. Hip, hip, hurray!

Finally, back at the south end, I found this white-faced meadowhawk dragonfly in the weeds that grow to the east of the southern parking lot.

Lastly, I’ve been seeing this thistle blossom, a bull thistle I believe, in the weeds beside the soccer fields for a few days now, and I was thrilled to find a butterfly on it, at last, and that it is a monarch just sweetens the deal.

Some success on a soggy day…

It was quite a soggy morning in Estabrook Park, but there was a gap in the rain, so out the door I went, and my first treat came as I approached the middle parking lot on my way to the pond. There was a Cooper’s hawk, which I don’t believe I’ve managed to photograph since early April, in a tree on one side of the lot and a pair of crows in a tree on the other side. I suspect that neither species was hunting “prey”, but they did chase each other around a bit, and that’s always exciting to watch. Here’s the hawk staring down the crows after one chase ended and right before another began.

At about that point, the clouds started leaking again, so I opened my umbrella, hiked over to the pond, and stood around for a while to see who I could see. There was a great blue heron, and a pair of wood ducks, but they kept pretty far away, so I continued on to the Kwik Stop on Wilson to grab a cup of coffee and wait for Donna, of Milwaukee Birders, to give me a lift to their outing today.

As I approached the Kwik Stop, I could hear a familiar sound, and it only took me a second to locate the source: these two young raccoons who got themselves stuck in a recycling dumpster. They looked as pitiful as they sounded, and that little outstretched paw is about the cutest thing ever, but they are still wild animals, and I like my fingers just as they are, so I had no intention to reach down in there with my bare hands to help them out.

Instead, I found this handy-dandy log laying in the woods right behind the dumpster, and once I stuck it down in there for them, they knew just what to do.

One was quite bold and hustled right up out of there. The second hung back for a bit, so I did my best to give it some encouraging words, and then it, too, ambled up that log, and went off to go find Mom, or at least catch up to its big sister.

Anyway, Donna arrived right on schedule, and off to Oak Creek we went. It turns out, however, that the former “Rawson Gardens” is on airport property, though unfenced and unmarked, and the FAA, via local law enforcement, is actively discouraging folks from visiting. Thus, the group put its heads together, and we opted to visit nearby Pleasant View Park in Franklin, instead.

Things got off to a great start when we quickly spotted this eastern meadowlark, who clearly was not expecting company.

He soon pulled himself together, thankfully, and here he is giving us a proper pose.

Besides the meadowlark, the meadows were full of savannah sparrows, and here’s one making sure I’m ready …

before breaking into song.

We never did see any bobolinks, which had been the point of the Oak Creek destination, but I did get my third ever picture of a spot-winged glider.

Finally, the meadows were also full of dark and elusive butterflies, and I must have chased a dozen before I finally found one who finally found what it was looking for. It turns out to be a common wood-nymph, which I hope to see in Estabrook one day, but have only photographed in Kohler-Andrae State Park, before today.

The weather forecast for tomorrow morning looks very nice, at least for now, so if you’ve always wanted to join one of our weekly wildlife walks, tomorrow morning might be the perfect time to give us a try. Based on recent attendance, I’ll look for you in the parking lot by the beer garden at 7am, and I’ll swing by again at 8 for the folks who can’t make it that early.

If you get hung up in traffic or otherwise can’t make either of those times, I’ve hidden my phone number in the text of the wildlife walk page, which I hope slows down the spammers who search web pages for just such phone numbers, but which I hope enables you to send me a message to learn our location and come find us.

Plenty of ducklings to go around…

It was warm, but not raining, so not a bad morning for a visit to Estabrook Park. Here’s the one picture I did manage to capture yesterday. That’s a great blue heron standing stoically on a log floating in the pond and looking about as thrilled with the weather as I was.

The photogenic heron today was this green heron on the far riverbank who thought it saw something, but soon decided it was nothing.

I found the osprey again, a bit farther upstream and over the same riverbank. I haven’t seen it atop a lamp post over the UWM parking lot in a couple of days, but I did see a bunch of crows picking over a fish carcass yesterday that the osprey had probably left there. Perhaps it is now opting for someplace a little more secluded and peaceful.

While counting the mallards out on the water, our new best friend, the river deer came by to say “hi”. I even saw it yesterday, too, crossing the meadow to munch on fallen mulberries at the north end, but I didn’t manage much of a picture in the rain and dark. Speaking of the meadow, however, I am sad to report that the parks department has finally mowed it, and I’m mostly just trying not to think about it right now.

On a happier note, here’s a wood duck hen steaming downstream with six ducklings in tow.

Plus, four more ducklings in hot pursuit. They look a bit grown up, and that’s even more great news.

Meanwhile, just on the other side of the upstream island, here’s another hen with three partially-grown ducklings of her own.

Not to be left out, here’s a mallard hen with her brood, too. Oddly enough, the mallard and wood duck hen had a brief spat, while I was momentarily looking elsewhere, but by the time I could turn my head back their way, they were already back to business as usual.

On shore, there’s a new bug in town, as far as I know, and I believe it is a green immigrant leaf weevil (Polydrusus formosus), which is only our second weevil ever. Anne has asked me to point out that I did not see it wobble nor fall over.

On my way back south, I found this pair of stream bluet damselflies doing their best to make more in what must be the most ambitiously acrobatic way ever.

Right by the bluets, this twelve-spotted skimmer dragonfly paused to catch some rays.

Finally, this summer azure butterfly did the same but nearly under my feet.

Tomorrow, I plan to join the Milwaukee Birders at the Rawson Gardens in Oak Creek, where bobolinks have been spotted. I’d love to see a bobolink, and perhaps so would you, so keep your fingers crossed!

A rain delay retrospective…

We’re having a soggy start to the day, here in Estabrook Park, and we’re going out to Anne’s mom’s place later this morning, so I’m not sure I will even get out for a walk before then, let alone have any pictures to show you, so here’s a plan B. These are some of my favorite pictures of the year, so far.

We got off to a great start when I spotted that coyote checking on the mallards who were resting on the river ice back in January, and I’ve already shown you a couple of pictures from that encounter, but here’s one more.

And, while we’re in January, this is one of the nicest winter wren pictures I’ve ever had the good fortune to capture.

In February, I had a mesmerizing experience with this young red-tailed hawk, who really, really wanted whatever rodent was hiding from it in that pile of sticks.

A highlight in March has got to be the screech-owl who came for a visit and stayed for weeks.

In April, of course, I started to see the great horned owlets, although I had to keep them under wraps until the end of May. Sorry about that.

Another April treat, for me at least, was finally getting a decent picture of sandhill cranes flying over. Perhaps they’ll stop in to pay us a proper visit, one of these days.

Spring migration was in full swing in May, so we’ve got dozens of warbler pictures to choose from, but a standout for me was when I got a second chance to take a prothonotary warbler portrait, and here’s one more image from that amazing photo session.

May was also when Mike found us that hummingbird nest during our weekly wildlife walk, and this is still my favorite image from that whole amazing series.

Finally, what would June be without our celebrity guest, the young yellow-crowned night heron. By my count, it attracted at least 80 birders to Estabrook who probably would not have visited otherwise. Nice.

Lastly, June is also when the bugs start to fill in for the migrating birds that have since moved on, so here’s another look at our first ever variegated fritillary in Estabrook Park.

That’s not a bad first half of the year, eh? Thanks for coming along with me, and I can’t wait to see what the second half will bring us.

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?