Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

A few regulars, a few first of the years, and one more first ever…

It rained and then the sun shone; the wind blew and then the air was still. There was no graupel, so it wasn’t April crazy, but the weather was pretty crazy this morning in Estabrook Park nevertheless.

I made it to the pond before the first showers started, and our yellow-crowned night heron appeared to be busy fishing near the far shore.

Meanwhile, out on the river, we were back to two hooded mergansers, that I could find anyway, and here’s the photogenic one.

The first big surprise of the morning was the first deer encounter I’ve had in a while. It started with the deer coming up the trail behind me, and both of us being nearly scared out of our skin by the sudden encounter. The deer pranced around a bit, and I could never quite get my camera on it, but it oddly did not simply run away. Then after I thought it had finally moved on, and I was halfway across the meadow, there it was again, back for another look, I guess, and this time I managed to be quick enough. How fun!

Back out on the river, the mallard hen with five young ducklings brought them my way for a change.

While just downstream, the hen with eight older ones was standing watch just out of frame as they took their morning nap.

As I continued back downstream, this great blue heron perched high over the southern tip of the southern island and let me sneak a picture. They have been quite shy this year, compared to previous years, and I have no idea why.

That’s it for the birds and mammals, so now onto the bugs. Back at the meadow, I found our first cobra clubtail dragonfly of the season and only our second ever. Yay!

Much farther south, our very first American rubyspot damselfly of the season perched right on the asphalt of the paved path. Hurrah!

Finally, one of the thistles, invasive Canada thistle, I believe, is coming into bloom among the weeds beside the soccer fields, and it attracted our very first fritillary butterfly in Estabrook this morning, a variegated fritillary (Euptoieta claudia), which I’ve only ever seen before in Yellowstone National Park. Woo Hoo!

The forecast for tomorrow morning calls for clear skies and a light breeze, so I wonder who we’ll see next.

Birds come, and birds go…

The first pleasant surprise this morning in Estabrook Park was finding the yellow-crowned night heron back on the pond. I wasn’t the only one who looked in vain for it yesterday, and we all figured it had finally moved on, but there it was today as if it had never left.

The second pleasant surprise was finding a green heron, also at the pond. We saw them quite often in May, but they’ve been hiding real well lately.

The third surprise was that our hooded merganser count is now up to three.

The fourth surprise was getting eyes on a spotted sandpiper, who had gone into hiding with the green herons. For those who don’t see it right away, it is the little bird running along the edge of the water right in front of the relatively-ginormous Canada goose.

With all the ducklings I’ve been seeing lately, it wasn’t much of a surprise to find this mallard hen with her young brood.

I don’t have a picture for this, because I didn’t want to take a picture of an empty nest, but I should still tell you that the hummingbird nest was empty this morning. That is not necessarily bad news, however, because I read that they fledge at about three weeks old, and we don’t know exactly when they hatched because I was away, so it is certainly possible that they have simply fledged. The two chicks sure looked healthy just three days ago, so let’s hope for the best and wish them well.

Now, on to the bugs. The air was cool, and the sun never really burnt through the haze, so the supply was a bit limited, but your dragonfly of the day is this female common whitetail perched on the bare and fallen trunk of an ash tree that appears to have been done in by emerald ash borers.

Finally, your butterfly of the day is this dainty eastern tailed-blue, who is perched on a right-sized lesser stitchwort blossom, if my sources are correct.

More rain and less heat…

It was rainy and cool this morning in Estabrook Park: rainy enough to push back my start time by over an hour, but not cool enough to slow down the mosquitoes much. Oh well.

At the pond, it appears that our little celebrity guest has finally moved on. Darn. I didn’t catch a glimpse of it in two visits, and a guy waiting for it on the bench with his camera said he never saw it either. The good news, however, is that the black bullhead fry have hatched, and I saw several little schools wriggling around in the water. Here’s a video I recorded of them a few years ago.

Other good news is that yesterday’s surprise visitor, the osprey, was back again to sample our fish, although from the other side of the river this time.

As I searched in vain out on the water for either one of the hooded mergansers, this indigo bunting kept calling for attention, though probably not mine.

I stopped by the hummingbird nest again on my way back downstream, and I’m getting the sinking feeling that there is only one chick in the nest at this point.

A bit farther downstream, I found the wood duck hen warming up her brood.

Between the rain, the clouds, and the mosquitoes, I didn’t get a lot of pictures today, so here’s a curious Baltimore oriole from Saturday.

I didn’t see a single dragonfly today, perhaps because it was too cool for them, so here’s a black saddlebags from yesterday, when they were plentiful. At first I thought it was a new dragonfly for us, because it looks a little purple, and it doesn’t have the side markings of the ones I’ve shown you before: both in Estabrook, and at Kohler-Andrae. Well, I’ve now learned that this is because those were females, and this is our first male, so “Hello, Handsome!”

Finally, I did see a couple of moths today but no butterflies, so here’s a common buckeye from yesterday, when I was lucky enough to have extras.

I see tomorrow morning is forecast to be dry, a bit warmer, and maybe even a bit sunnier, so perhaps my luck will improve. Keep your fingers crossed!

A break in the heat, at last…

Well, the heat wave is starting to break, at least here in Estabrook Park, and it is still only 75°F outside as I write this. The bigger break for me, however, was that the howling wind we’ve had for the past three days has finally subsided, so I can hear myself think out there, for a change. The downside to that, however, is that the mosquitoes are plentiful, quite hungry, and perhaps a little crabby about having been pinned down over the weekend. I swear I saw a mosquito biting a mosquito that was biting my knuckle as I tried to take a picture.

Anyway, our little celebrity guest is still at the pond, but the crowd it has been attracting is also finally subsiding.

I couldn’t find the family of wood ducks on the river today, but look who I found instead, a brood of pretty fresh-looking mallard ducklings.

The young hooded merganser is still on the river and now there are even two of them, but this picture, of just one up out of the water for a moment, came out a lot better.

The first surprise guest of the morning was this osprey who paused for a moment to check out our fresh fish assortment.

I checked on the hummingbird chicks, of course, and I didn’t find Mom with them this time, but look who’s getting big enough to start peeking over the rim of its nest.

By happy coincidence, look who I found taking a break over the edge of the bluff quite a bit south of the nest. I have no idea how many hummingbirds might be in the area, nor what kind of range they might maintain during breeding season, so I really can’t tell you if he has any relation to the chicks in the nest upstream, but the human brain sure does yearn for a good story, doesn’t it.

After all the toad excitement last month, I haven’t been paying them much attention lately, but it was hard to ignore this tree toad wannabe.

The recent parade of dragonflies continues, and today’s entry is this striking twelve-spotted skimmer in the weeds beside the soccer fields.

Finally, the butterflies will not be outdone, and here’s a stunning little northern or pearl crescent, the jury’s still out on exactly which species it is, beside the river at the north end. If you really need to know, feel free to click on the two links in the first sentence just above and decide for yourself.

Lastly, a reader who is currently out of town wrote in to ask for a picture of the meadow at the north end that I went on about yesterday, so here it is. I struggle to capture on film what my eye can see in scenes like this, but the image has pretty good resolution so if you click on it, you can zoom in a bunch to see some of the individual blossoms. I noticed today that I forgot to mention that there are also daisies, fleabane, campion, and St John’s wort in the mix, so that’s eleven species currently in bloom, just in my rough counting.

Keep your fingers crossed that Parks has changed its policy or simply forgotten about it, since they removed the asphalt from the road down from the parkway a month or two ago, and that no one reminds them about it. Yes, I realize, of course, that some kind of maintenance is necessary to keep trees and bushes from invading an artificial clearing like this, but I’d like to think that it doesn’t include mowing it while it’s in full bloom. Okay, that’s enough of that rant.

Migration may be over, but the show sure goes on…

The heat wave is still with us, so I tried to get into Estabrook Park right around sunrise to avoid the worst of it. When I reached the pond, I was thrilled to find our celebrity guest, the immature yellow-crowned night heron, was also still with us and already drawing a crowd at that early hour.

The next big treat came by the river where I found Mom at her nest for the first time since we’ve seen her chicks. Hurray! The sun hadn’t yet come over the bluff, and I froze when I spotted her from afar, so these pictures are rough, to say the least, but they are able, I believe, to convey the important information.

Here she is stuffing the gullet of the chick on the left, her right, …

and here she is doing the same for the chick on the right, her left.

Then I hiked back up to the parking lot by the beer garden to welcome five intrepid wildlife walkers. It was great to get the band back together and we went straight to the hits, with a stop by the night heron and then the hummingbirds. From there, we checked the river, and I was glad to see the wood duck hen still has her six ducklings.

The surprise guest this morning was this darling hooded merganser, and her dark eye makes me think that she’s a female.

By the time I had captured the best merganser picture I thought I might, it was already nap time for the wood duck ducklings.

Finally, there was a new dragonfly today, this stunning Halloween pennant, and I spotted one both in the meadow by the boat launch at the north end and in the weeds beside the soccer fields at the south end.

Speaking of the meadow at the north end, I am thrilled to report that the parks department hasn’t mowed it yet this year, so it is awash in colors. There are pink clover and crown vetch, which I understand is invasive, sadly; bright yellow bird’s-foot trefoil and yellow sweet clover; white clover and white sweet clover; and a few blue/purple alfalfa blossoms, which I don’t believe I’ve noticed before. Perhaps they finally won’t mow it this year, but I’m not holding my breath, so if you can find the time, do yourself a favor and go see the spectacle before it is gone.

It’s gonna be a hot one…

My thermometer was reading 80°F at 7 a.m., and the heat index is expected to exceed 100°F later today, so I did my best to get a nice early start in Estabrook Park this morning.

Another upside to chasing the sunrise is that I got to visit our young guest, the immature yellow-crowned night heron, before the crowds arrived to get a look. A couple hours later, as I was making my way back south, Anne caught up to me on her morning walk, and she reported seeing “four or five guys with huge cameras at the north end of the pond.” I sure hope they don’t chase it off before the folks who come to the wildlife walk tomorrow get a chance.

Down on the river, I caught this female belted kingfisher just before she plunged into the water below and then sped off for a different perch, and I bet that exercise feels a whole lot better today than it did last December.

A bit upstream, here’s another mallard hen with her brood of eight, who look a bit older than the four I saw yesterday.

On my way back downstream, I checked on the hummingbird chicks, and you can really see their beaks this time.

The big surprise for the day, however, was finally spotting a brood of wood duck ducklings. Yay! They are tiny, and they were all the way across the river at a wide point, but you can still make out their six little yellow necks and faces.

Another dragonfly has emerged, and this one is a widow skimmer.

Finally, I’ve already seen a few of these tiny summer azure butterflies, and this picture is far from “portrait quality”, but I believe you can see the tip of its abdomen is curved down and pointed at the top of a bud, which suggests to me that it is a she, and she’s laying eggs, which I have not had the privilege of seeing before. For comparison, check out this picture from last Labor Day.

Lastly, as I suggested above, I’ll be back at the weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning, and I hope you’ll join me. To beat the heat, I’ll continue starting at 7 a.m., and I’ll swing by the beer garden parking lot again at 8 a.m. for the folks who can’t make it by 7. Also, if you arrive just a bit late, perhaps due to traffic or whatever, I’ve hidden my phone number in the text of the weekly wildlife walk page, and you can text me to see where we’re hiding.

It feels like summer has finally arrived.

Anne and I made it safely back to Shorewood from BRAW yesterday afternoon, and I was just too lazy to write a “Happy Summer Solstice” post then, but the good news is that I did venture back into Estabrook Park this morning, and look who I found waiting for me at the pond.

When I first spotted this beauty, I figured it was one of the green herons we’ve seen there on and off this spring, but it was less of a fraidy-cat then the green herons have been lately, so I took a closer look. If my identification proves to be correct, this is an immature yellow-crowned night heron, which we have seen at the pond before, but who is considered a rarity for here and now. Once again, wordpress is throttling the image resolution, so if you like to enjoy the details, this is an image worth clicking on.

There was also one wood duck hen at the pond, and here she is checking to see what I might have left for her to eat after she watched me scour the west lawn for discarded fishing tackle and food packaging.

I checked on our ruby-throated hummingbird, of course, and look who I found in the nest instead! Yup, those are the beaks of two hummingbird chicks, and you can even see some of the head feathers at the end of the one on the left, especially if you click on the image so you can zoom in. I never did see Mom, even after a second visit, but on a warm day like today, I suspect the chicks are fine on their own, and she was probably busy collecting nourishment for them and herself. She may also be keeping her distance, now that the need to incubate is over, when someone else is near.

The goslings are almost all starting to get their adult plumage, and I haven’t seen a single wood duck duckling yet, but there are still young mallard ducklings on the river, and here are four of them.

The warm weather has brought with it a veritable explosion of bug life, and I finally spotted my first mourning cloak of the year, but this silver-spotted skipper, also a first for the year, picked a prettier background, which made a much nicer picture.

Finally, the dragonflies are plentiful, and here’s a magnificent common green darner perched on the remains of last year’s weeds along the west side of the soccer fields. This one is also worth a click.

Lastly, as we were packing up our gear yesterday morning for the drive home from Perrot State Park in Trempealeau, this butterfly landed on my shoe and literally dared me to dig out my phone to take its picture. It’s a hackberry emperor, which we have seen before in Estabrook, but only once so far.

As I watched Anne drive up with the rental van we were about to load our bikes into, look who I spotted plodding across the parking lot. I first assumed it was a painted turtle, like the ones we often see in the Estabrook pond, but the yellow striping on its face was swirlier and a paler yellow, and that’s because it is a northern map turtle, which I’ve also only ever seen once before in Estabrook.

I gave it a lift across the parking lot, and here’s a closeup of that pretty face.

I see the weather is forecast to be even warmer tomorrow morning and just as windy, so I wonder who I will find next.

BRAW, Day 5

We made it this afternoon to Perrot State Park, just up the Mississippi from Trempealeau, WI. The total distance was about 260 miles, and the tunnels on the Elroy-Sparta trail were well worth the trip.

My excuse for not posting yesterday is that my battery was dead, and there was no juice at our trailside “campsite”.

My excuse for a short post today is that the connectivity here is sketchy at best.

The good news is that I’ll be back home tomorrow and back in Estabrook Park Saturday morning.

BRAW, Day 3

All is well, but I’m too exhausted to write more of a post than this. I’ll have more time and energy tomorrow.

BRAW, Day 2

After an exciting day of riding, we made it to Smoky Hollow Campground outside of Lodi, WI.

The excitement came in the form of rain, on and off all day, riding down State Street and around the State Capitol in Madison, braking a shift cable on our tandem, and finally hitting hills worthy of the Horribly Hilly or Dairyland Dare.

But, we’re here now, and the nephews are scheming a good route for tomorrow.

So, another absolute favorite critter picture of mine, partly because I had to work so hard to get it, is of this male variable sunbird in Malawi.

If you like to see the details, this is a good image to click on so you zoom in on the original.

We on to Wonewoc tomorrow, so wish us dry skies and no more mechanical issues.