Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Fogged out…

Welp, the fog must have heard me whining about it yesterday, and said to its buddy, “hold my beer.” It was so thick this morning that I couldn’t see across the soccer fields or the river. Thank goodness there are still wood ducks on the pond.

Since I don’t have any more bird pictures to show you, here’s a look at that second kestrel I mentioned on Tuesday.

I was surprised to find, today of all days, that a fresh batch of damselflies appears to have just emerged from the river. I didn’t know that there were any left to emerge at this late date, but here’s one of them, an American rubyspot.

This next critter is a northern walkingstick (Diapheromera femorata) that a keen-eyed reader found on their screen door. Man, what I wouldn’t give to find one of these for myself in Estabrook Park.

Speaking of fantastical-looking bugs, here’s a yellow-collared scape moth (Cisseps fulvicollis), also from Tuesday.

Finally, here’s one more monarch butterfly, which I was surprised to find feeding on white snakeroot. Long-time readers may recall that the plant contains the toxin tremetol, which is poisonous to grazing animals and humans. “The poisoning is also called milk sickness, as humans often ingested the toxin by drinking the milk of cows that had eaten snakeroot.” Anyway, it appears that either the nectar does not contain tremetol or that tremetol is not poisonous to insects. Either way, it is touted as “a valuable late-season food source for pollinators like bees, butterflies, and moths.”

With any luck, we won’t have to worry about fog tomorrow morning because the forecast now calls for showers and thunderstorms. Woo hoo!

A few sights through the soup…

It was a very foggy morning in Estabrook Park, but temps were all the way up into the low 60s at dawn, the breeze was light, and I believe all the drops came from fog water accumulating on tree leaves instead of from the clouds, so it wasn’t the worst morning for checking on the wildlife, although taking pictures was rough.

Here’s a belted kingfisher off the tip of the downstream island looking over its shoulder as if to say, “You’re seriously going to try to take my picture in this pea soup?” To which I can only reply, “Why, yes. Yes, I am.”

Farther upstream, this little cutie shot by me and parked only a few yards away, and I figured it was a song sparrow, which we’ve seen here all summer, but I knew I was gonna need pictures today, so here we are. The fun thing is that all my sources insist that it is actually a savannah sparrow, which, if true, would make it the first one we’ve seen this fall.

Just as soon as I hiked back up the boat launch, look who I found strolling down the path. She was surprisingly close, so I knelt right down, and she came closer, as though she was heading for the ramp I had just come up. But then she thought better of it, and strolled over to the brush on our right, her left.

Even better, she had brought her fawn with her, as usual lately, and the fawn wasn’t quite sure what to do either, so this is the closest look we’ve gotten, by far, before it followed Mom into the weeds.

After that fun encounter, I didn’t see a picture worth taking until I was passing behind the dog park, and this catbird, perhaps also a youngster, seemed about as unsure what to do as the deer were.

Finally, as I was passing by the UWM commuter lot across the river, I spotted the palest looking red-tailed hawk I may have ever seen. Here’s hoping it will let us get a closeup someday.

Lastly, I didn’t see a single dragonfly or butterfly today, and even the bumble bees seemed grounded by the fog, but these yellowjackets by the southern parking lot seemed as busy as ever. Someone must have an open soda can somewhere, right?

PPS. This may look like one of the yellowjackets, but I believe it is a four-lined hornet fly (Spilomyia sayi), which has evolved to mimic wasps but is harmless to humans.

Day of the Deer…

The temps were mild, and the air was still, but the clouds were thicker than yesterday, and they even leaked a little bit, so the weather was a mixed bag this morning in Estabrook Park. The mosquitoes, however, were decidedly not mixed. Instead, they were just plain fierce, as though they were angry about being grounded for a couple of cool mornings.

Anyway, my first treat came at the river above the falls, when I spotted the doe and her fawn on the downstream island. Even better, the fawn managed to pause for a picture in one of the few spots not draped with trash left behind by the recent flood waters. It was hard to tell for sure, because the brush is so thick in places, but I suspect that entire island had been under water for a while, and some spots now really need some work.

As luck would have it, the first green heron we’ve seen in a while perched right above the fawn. The cherry on top came as the warm morning sun poked through the clouds for a minute just as I was trying to take its picture.

When I got to the meadow a bit farther upstream, I was disappointed to find it partially mowed again, but thrilled to find a handsome young buck nibbling on some weeds that escaped the mowing.

The warblers were even scarcer than usual today, and I only saw a couple of magnolias and a few redstarts. Worse, nobody was in the mood for pictures this morning, so I climbed the bluff and started making my way back south.

That’s when I had my third deer spotting of the morning, which might be a record. I’ve certainly seen more individuals in a single morning, but I can’t say for sure that I’ve seen them spread out over three different locations before. Maybe that’s why the warblers were keeping out of sight.

I had seen three great blue herons at once as they dispersed from a tall tree just above the falls, but I don’t think I could have made a nice picture out of that, even if I had tried, so I was happy for the chance to get a still picture of just one, who was on the hunt in the still water below the pair of radio towers.

At the pollinator garden, I found this wandering glider dragonfly, who appeared to be just resting. I read that “it is considered to be the most widespread dragonfly on the planet, [and] individual [wandering gliders] fly more than 6,000 km (3,730 miles)—one of the farthest known migrations of all insect species.” If that’s what was in my near future, I’d be resting, too.

At the weeds beside the soccer fields, I found this white-faced meadowhawk, perhaps the same one we had just seen on Monday, tangled in a spider web. Now, I try to avoid interfering with predator-prey interactions, because nobody wins in the long run if predators go hungry, but there was no sign of the spider who had built that web, so I assumed it had moved on, and the dragonfly eagerly latched onto my finger when I offered it. Better yet, I wasn’t too late, and once free from the web, it soon flew off to do whatever it is that meadowhawks do, which had better include catching and eating mosquitoes!

Finally, there were a handful of monarchs out and about today, and here’s one at the pollinator garden getting covered in pollen by the Mexican sunflower from which it is sipping nectar.

Lastly, the crew was reconfiguring their partial cofferdam above the falls this morning, and if you click on the image so that you can zoom in, you can see a worker attaching chains hanging from the excavator bucket so that they can reposition it.

Tune in tomorrow to find out if there could possibly be more deer, if there might be a second wave of warblers, if the dragonflies have put a dent in the mosquito population, and if the work crew is finally done with our side of the falls.

A late summer or early fall sampler…

The weather in Estabrook Park this morning was like a poor photocopy of yesterday’s. Sure, it was a bit warmer, which the mosquitos took full advantage of, but there was a bit more breeze, and there’s a lot of something in the atmosphere, which makes the sky look milky white. Oh well, at least it wasn’t raining.

Happily, my first treat came early when a tiny missile shot over my shoulder as I passed by the southern soccer fields. My first guess was “hummingbird!”, but then I didn’t have to guess because it parked barely 30 feet in front of me. It preened for a bit, let me take a couple of pictures, stuck out its tongue, and then took off like a shot. My camera sure could have used more light, as is often the case, but that’s still a mighty fine way to start the morning. Right?

The warblers are still pretty scarce, but at the north end by the river I did manage to get my clearest shot of a magnolia warbler this fall, even with that darn branch in the way.

The big surprise at the north end came after I climbed back up the bluff, thought I had just gotten the best black-and-white warbler picture I was going to get today, and used my binoculars to check the robins perched high in a dead tree, just in case. But wait just a second! That’s no robin! That handsome bird is a male American kestrel, whom we might have just seen on Saturday, but from a lot farther away. Even better, a second one soon swooped in, perhaps a brother, upon which this first one immediately took off. Why the robins weren’t flipping out and a kingfisher didn’t fly up to see what all the fuss was about, is anybody’s guess.

Soon after the second kestrel took off to follow the first, the black-and-white warbler reappeared and let me get an even nicer picture than before and perhaps the nicest one I’ve gotten of these little acrobats in quite a while.

By then it was time to start heading back south, and I’m sure glad I did because I might have missed this cutie if I had dawdled any longer. It was foraging with its mom again, and its fur is still full of burrs, but there wasn’t a parking lot between us, so I was able to get a much nicer picture this time.

I had barely turned around to continue my way south when I spotted another furry darling. This picture certainly isn’t the sharpest chipmunk picture I’ve ever captured, but I don’t believe I’ve seen one in the park before so bold as to stop and scratch an itch before bolting out of sight.

I did see one dragonfly today, in the burdock beside the soccer fields, and this one turns out to be a gorgeous black saddlebags.

I also saw just one butterfly, this monarch on the unopened goldenrod in the pollinator garden.

Finally, the work on reshaping the falls continues, and you can see they’ve moved the piles of broken limestone that were in the picture on Saturday. Now they are combined into one big pile on the far shore, which you can just see an excavator working on at the left edge of this picture.

I’ve been asked how they get the equipment to the work site, and so here’s a picture of a second excavator wading through the water at the edge of the falls to get inside the partial cofferdam and resume chipping away at the limestone. That is a huge hydraulic jack hammer it has mounted on the end of its arm. The WordPress rendering of the images above are not too bad, but the one below is of particularly low resolution, so if you want a clearer view, go ahead and click on it so you can see and zoom in on the full-resolution image on flickr.

Lastly, at the instructor orientation yesterday for the North Shore School for Seniors, I was a little surprised that more than one person asked me if it was okay to share this blog with others. I really appreciate that they were keeping the cat in the bag, so to speak, in case that is what I wanted, instead of the proverbial harder-to-undo alternative, but let me be perfectly clear and tell you what I told them. Please feel absolutely free to share this as far and wide as you wish. You may share the URL and tell folks to visit the site or subscribe, or you may forward the email versions of my posts that you receive if you subscribe. I get paid the same either way, so don’t be shy. The more the merrier!

Nearly more raptors than warblers…

We had a picture-perfect morning for a wild life walk in Estabrook Park today, with clear skies, a very light breeze, and temps cool enough to keep the mosquitoes quiet for a while. Eight brave souls came out to face the elements, and we set out hoping to see scads of warblers. Many of those birds, however, seemed to have prior engagements, likely south of here, so we did see a few, but certainly not scads.

I didn’t even take a picture until I had collected the 8 o’clock arrivals, and we were on our way to meet the rest of the group at the north end. Along the way someone with sharp eyes spotted a hawk on the hunt around the base of a tree, and it soon emerged to perch beside the path right in front of us. That’s when we could identify it as a Cooper’s hawk, and if you don’t believe me, please allow me to point out the crazy long tail it’s sporting.

By the time we did all regroup, the sun had warmed things up enough for the warblers who were still with us to start their foraging, and here’s a young or female magnolia warbler hiding in plain sight amongst some oddly variegated maple leaves, perhaps of a “Norway Maple cultivar ‘Drummondii’, also known as the Harlequin Maple,” but don’t quote me on that.

In the next tree over, with a more-traditional color pallet, a bay-breasted warbler is a little easier to see.

We all visited the river, in hopes of seeing warblers where I’d been seeing them all weekend, but the best sight there was an osprey over the far shore.

As we made our way toward the pond, another sharp set of eyes spotted this red-tailed hawk near the beer garden parking lot. That makes it a three-raptor morning, which hasn’t occurred much lately.

I had an 11 am meeting to get to, so I couldn’t dawdle too much, and soon began making my way south. As I rounded the bend in the path to head toward the weeds along the west side of the southern soccer fields, I finally spotted our first palm warbler of the fall migration. It was looking more stripey and less yellow than usual, and it was bobbing its tail as it foraged along the ground as I had just watched the northern waterthrush do yesterday, so I am a bit surprised to read that they are indeed both members of the New World Warbler family, Parulidae, but they are not in the same genus. Hmmm. Perhaps it’s a mild case of convergent evolution.

Anyway, I was trying to keep on schedule, so I tore myself away and checked for pretty insects in the weeds, and this white-faced meadowhawk was my best find.

Finally, the monarchs were thick today, and I saw at least six at the pollinator garden and at least two more beside the soccer fields. I hear that they are fueling up for their long flight to Mexico, and here’s one sipping nectar from one of the many goldenrods at the pollinator garden.

Lastly, my 11 o’clock meeting was the instructor orientation for this fall’s semester of North Shore School for Seniors, and I’m scheduled to show my pictures and tell my stories about the wildlife in Estabrook Park on Tuesday, October 7 at 1 pm. If you always wanted an opportunity to beg me in person to stop showing spider pictures, this is your big chance, and you can register for my “class” on their website at https://nss4s.org/home/classes/

The show picks up steam!

The weather was indeed as nice as forecast, and it was a fabulous morning in Estabrook Park.

If you’ve been wondering, as I sure have, whatever happened to the doe and fawn that we saw on and around the upstream island before the flood, well, wonder no more because it appears that they survived just fine. Here they are right beside the beer garden parking lot sampling some grape leaves.

The open parking lot was between us, so I couldn’t very well sneak up on them, but here’s a slightly closer look at the fawn. If you zoom in, and I hope you do, you can see that it has amassed quite a collection of burs in its fur, poor kid.

Anyway, the trees were full of warblers, as I had hoped, once the sun had a chance to warm things up a bit, and here’s our first black-throated green of the season.

We’ve seen northern waterthrushes already, and way back before I went to Connecticut, but none have allowed me to take a close up like this so far this fall.

This Tennessee warbler, another first of the season for us, really knew how to work with me. First it rustled around a bit lower in the tree, to capture my attention. Then it slowly worked its way to the top, which gave me time to get my focus and exposure settings in order. Finally, it emerged into the warm morning light at the top of the tree with a perfect blue background. Lastly, it hopped around up there a bit to give me a few different shots of a few different poses. I couldn’t ask for a better subject. “Thanks, Sweetie!”

Meanwhile, this little stinker, an adult male American redstart, kept to shadows nearly as dark as its feathers and only gave me two shots. How this one somehow came out in focus, I’ll never know.

There are still plenty of eastern wood-pewees around, but this dashing great crested flycatcher, of whom we haven’t seen nor heard much in a while, flew in to give the pewees, and you, a break.

Another notorious lurker is the Wilson’s warbler, and this rascal, yet another first of the season, was no exception.

Finally, this cutie, who posed only slightly better than the Wilson’s, has me puzzled. I didn’t get much of a better look at it than this, and “a yellow warbler with a black patch low on its breast” doesn’t garner a lot of matches. The yellow isn’t stripey, as it is on Canada and magnolia warblers, so I’m gonna try “mourning warbler” because they do have a big black bib on their chest, and pictures of young or molting males suggest that its possible for one to wind up looking like this, at least for a while. Plus, my other picture shows that it has an eye ring and no wing bars, which also fit. We’ll see what the experts say soon enough.

Lastly, I did see one dragonfly and one butterfly, but neither one had time for a picture today, so here’s a bare blossom, the first New England aster I’ve seen this year.

The forecast for tomorrow calls for more of the same, but even less breeze, if you can believe it, which should provide ideal conditions for our weekly wildlife walk in the morning. I have received word that “there’s a bunch of [folks who] are all thinking about getting [to the beer garden] around seven,” so that appears to be when we will be starting. If that’s too early for you, I’ll swing back by the parking lot at 8, and you can join us then. See you there!

A ruckus over the far shore…

The weather in Estabrook Park this morning, if anything, was even nicer than forecast. The air seemed nearly still for a while, so I was even able to hear a warbling vireo calling from across the river.

The first interesting scene came at the river and across from the two radio towers. There is a tall dead tree a ways downstream and over the far shore that birds like to perch in, and we had quite the menagerie today. In the upper right is our first American kestrel of the month, and it seemed to be the draw. Even a belted kingfisher paused from cruising by to stop in (lower left) and see what the commotion was about. The two birds closest to the kestrel are northern flickers, and the bird at the bottom is a robin, I believe. There was also a jay or two, and it was mostly the jays and robins who were mixing it up with the kestrel, who eventually decided to find a quieter perch.

Above the falls I found a more peaceful scene with a young spotted sandpiper quietly bobbing its tail while foraging for its breakfast.

The sandpiper paused after a while and began glancing skyward. I suspect it was this red-tailed hawk, perched high over the same island, that had captured the sandpiper’s attention. That also happened to be just when the sun poked through the clouds for a bit, which really lit up the hawk beautifully.

The gap in the clouds didn’t last long, however, so these next couple of birds are stuck with a white-sky background. This first one is a ~~pine warbler~~, I believe, but they are considered rare for here right now, so my identification is subject to confirmation. It may turn out to be another ~~immature blackpoll warbler~~, but it was behaving differently, so we shall see.

The experts eventually weighed in, and they decided that it is a Cape May warbler, instead.

This next bird looks quite similar, but its plumage has more orange in it, and its beak is a lot heftier, and that’s because it’s a female Baltimore oriole and another first of the month.

The young pewee was begging to be fed in nearly the same spot as Thursday, but this time I was able to line it up with a nice green background.

By the time I returned to the weeds beside the southern soccer fields, another patch of blue sky was gliding overhead, which makes a perfect background for our first rose-breasted grosbeak of the season, a female.

I did see another monarch, but the clear sky and sunlight brought a breeze with it, so this picture from yesterday of a monarch on a Mexican sunflower blossom at the pollinator garden is a lot nicer picture than anything I managed to capture today.

Finally, the crew working to reshape the falls was back at work by 7:15 this morning, and it appears that they managed to move a bunch of stone around yesterday.

The forecast for tomorrow calls for similar winds and temps but no clouds, so I’m gettin’ my hopes up.

A couple more firsts of the season…

As forecast yesterday, it was windy and partly cloudy in Estabrook Park this morning, but temps were only in the low 50s, so not too bad for finding critters, if you knew, or happened to stumble upon, where to look.

As I mentioned on Wednesday, the flood water has mostly flowed down stream by now, but the river is still not quite as low as it was before the flood, so there is hardly any exposed river bottom yet to attract interesting shorebirds. Instead, we have to make do with geese, mallards, a heron or two, and the occasional cormorant, as was the case today near the upstream island.

Back on shore, the wind was straight out of the west, so it was blowing through the trees pretty good there, and I was a little surprised to find this young magnolia warbler, perhaps the same one we saw yesterday, foraging in them anyway.

The sweet spot today, however, was up on the bluff and on the leeward side of the tall trees that grow there. They were really hopping with little birds when I arrived, and one of those little birds was this darling red-breasted nuthatch.

On the same branch as the nuthatch and nearly at the same time, there was also our first black-and-white warbler of the fall migration.

The next quiet spot I found was on the leeward side of the island of trees just to the northwest of the parking lot by the beer garden. There was another throng of little birds, most of whom evaded me, but I did manage to sneak a picture of this young chestnut sided warbler, another first of the season.

I did see one dragonfly today, but I never saw it sit still. Instead, I was quite pleasantly surprised to find butterflies at the pollinator garden, and here’s a slightly tattered hackberry emperor trying to sun itself while blending in with the wood chip mulch on the ground.

The wind wasn’t howling there, but it wasn’t still either, so I was even more surprised to find this monarch clinging to one of the Mexican sunflower blossoms. They were both swaying quite a bit, but once in a while the wind paused to catch its breath, the swaying would stop, and the monarch held its wings up nice and high for this portrait.

Finally, the crew was busy working on the falls this morning, and it appears that they might be trying to pump out the remaining standing water behind their temporary dam. If you squint, or click on the image so you can zoom in, you can see a third, orange piece of equipment between the two excavators, which I believe is a large pump on wheels, and some hose laying on the exposed rock and in the bucket of the excavator on the left.

I see that the wind is forecast to die down by tomorrow morning, and the clouds should thin out some more, so it ought to be a great morning for spotting any new visitors that might have arrived overnight.

The warblers return!

The dreams I had yesterday about what today would be like came true, and despite the cold, with temps in the mid-40s, it was a spectacular morning in Estabrook Park. Even better, the migrating warblers are here and ravenously foraging for insects through the trees.

I didn’t really start to see them until I reached the river at the north end, the sun was high enough to start warming things up quickly, and the temps were back into the 50s. Then things got busy, and here’s an immature blackpoll warbler bathed in the golden morning light.

Here’s a female or immature male magnolia warbler.

As if that wasn’t enough, then an osprey soared over, and I thought it continued downstream after I lost sight of it, but that was until I heard the huge splash in the river. It came up empty, this time, but it perched over the far shore.

Even better, it eventually came to our shore, and I was lining up the perfect shot through a gap in the leaves when it either saw a fish, saw me, or something else spooked it. Dang.

It’s possible I expressed my disappointment out loud because this Swainson’s thrush poked its head up to see what was the matter.

On my way to the pond for my second visit, I thought I heard a blue-gray gnatcatcher, but closer inspection revealed a young eastern wood-pewee crying to be fed, instead. Perhaps breakfast had been delayed by the cool morning, but by then the insects were plentiful, and a parent, on the right, gave me three tries to get this picture. Sadly, this was as good as I could get before the youngster moved on.

At the pond, there was a group of red-eyed vireos, which I suspect were migrants from farther north. The species has been here all summer, but they tend to stick to the treetops, and I haven’t gotten a picture like this since last spring.

At the weeds beside the soccer fields, the show continued with this young bay-breasted warbler.

Finally, I saw American redstarts yesterday, but one wouldn’t let me sneak a picture until today.

Lastly, I didn’t see a single butterfly all morning, but there were several dragonflies warming up in the sun, and here’s a wandering glider, which I haven’t seen since July.

I see that the forecast calls for clouds and wind tomorrow morning, so who knows who we’ll find, and you’ll just have to tune in to find out.

Back along the Milwaukee River again…

After the run of beautiful weather I had out east, it took me a minute to adjust to the rainy and breezy morning that greeted me here in Estabrook Park today. I also hadn’t needed insect repellent in two weeks, and I had a hope that some of you would have been feeding the mosquitoes here while I was away, but based on their ravenous appetites this morning, it seems you let them go hungry until my return. Alas.

Anyway, I was also greeted by a few critters of the avian kind, and here they are. This first one is a female belted kingfisher, of course, and the mix of red and blue in her upper band suggests that she’s a youngster. Her youth may also explain her slightly unusual willingness to perch for this portrait in the tree on the island closest to the park bench.

Sure, the sky was pretty dark, so the ISO setting on my camera had to be pretty high to capture this image, which makes it a bit noisy, but I think it came out nicer than WordPress is rendering it, and you might like the original on flickr better.

Anyway, this next picture really is as bad as it looks, but we seldom get to see red-breasted nuthatches as they migrate through, and this is my first one of the fall migration, so here we are.

Another migrant, and first of the fall, who let me capture an image as it passes through was this darling Swainson’s thrush, looking to see what’s on the breakfast buffet.

Finally, the only other bird I managed to photograph between the rain drops this morning, was this mature Cooper’s hawk perched over the island in the pond. I saw it high in a tree on the far side when I walked up for my second visit, and as I tried to line up a shot, a second hawk, perhaps a sibling or a parent, swooped in and caused it to move closer and lower. Thanks!

Lastly, the river is mostly receded to its pre-flood level, and the crew is back to working on reshaping the falls. I’m not sure what that new row of bags in the foreground is for, but I could see that some stone from the river bottom has already been moved around.

I see that temps are forecast to be in the high 40s tomorrow morning, but the sky is supposed to be clear, and the breeze not too strong, so maybe we’ll get to see some of the warblers that should also be passing through.