It snowed here a bunch overnight and into the morning, so the skiing was amazing today, but the snow was followed by a fierce wind, so the birds were even more scarce this afternoon than yesterday, if you can believe it.
Nevertheless, I headed out to take a look, and my reward was catching this crow trying to urge a red-tailed hawk to move along, but in this picture, you can see the hawk appearing to ask the crow, “you sure you wanna do this, Buddy?”
They flew behind some buildings before I got to see the crow’s answer, so I don’t know how it turned out, but it was an amazing sight to see for the moment I could see it.
Everyone else was taking shelter from the wind, however, so that’s all I’ve got for today, but we head back down the mountain tomorrow, so I have a hope of seeing more. Wish me luck, and I’ll keep you posted.
My siblings and I all made it to Colorado safely late yesterday, and we drove up into the mountains this morning for a day of skiing. Luckily, there was still plenty of light left after the lifts stopped running, so I had time to look around for local critters before supper. In the past, I have had some luck with this, even though I hadn’t brought my camera, but since I did schlep it along this time, you know what happened. I could hardly find a bird, of course.
So, here’s the one bird I did find that also let me take a picture, and it’s a pine siskin, which we have seen from time to time in Estabrook Park, but I only managed a picture once before, and it wasn’t very good. Thankfully, today’s siskin seemed content as it sang it’s soft little song, let me creep slowly closer and closer, and granted us this portrait.
Despite the crazy weather that rolled in yesterday afternoon, with pouring rain, hail, howling winds, and even some snow, spring arrived anyway, and it was a pretty nice morning in Estabrook Park.
My first treat of the day came early when I spotted my first golden-crowned kinglets of the year. This picture is actually from a second pair later in the morning when the light was much better, but the little rascals hop around so fast that I still struggled to get a presentable picture.
Even better, I found my first brown creepers of the year, three of them, and just like the kinglets, they move so quickly that all I could manage was this blurry picture today, but I promise to do better soon.
Out on the river and above the falls, we still have a goldeneye drake hanging around, but I didn’t see the hen with him today, and maybe that’s why he looks a little grumpy.
Meanwhile, a bit farther upstream, the hooded merganser drake was joined by this hen today. Good for them!
Another sure sign of spring was finding my first nesting bird of the year, this pigeon under the Port Washington Rd bridge. You may recall, that’s where we saw pigeon chicks last summer, and I read that they can have “1-6 broods” in a year, so perhaps this is just the first of many.
I saw the wood ducks, mallards, and geese at the pond, but I was happiest to see a couple of American tree sparrows. Once things settle down for the summer, I don’t see them in Estabrook much.
Finally, this little critter seemed unsure if it was safe to come out of its den today.
But it eventually did, and I suspect it found the day to be quite to its liking.
It was cool, cloudy, and breezy this morning in Estabrook Park, but at least the rain held off for a while. The critters may have been sensing that a storm was on its way because they seemed more skittish than yesterday.
I didn’t take a picture until I was beside the downstream island in the river, where I spotted our phoebe again. If you are beginning to tire of phoebe pictures, don’t worry. They eventually drift farther north for the summer, and I have a hope that new birds will be arriving soon.
The blue-winged teals and northern shovelers have all moved on already, and the hooded merganser kept his distance, so the interesting sight in the waters around the islands was this American herring gull who caught the first crayfish I’ve seen this season.
Back below the islands, I was happy to see that we still have a pair of common goldeneyes on the river, and here’s the drake trying to take a nap, …
After the crazy weather lately, it was nice to have some normal March conditions for a change. Temps were seasonably cool, and it was partly cloudy, but the winds were light, and it definitely was not precipitating.
The critters seemed to be enjoying the return to normalcy as much as I was, and here’s the eastern phoebe looking like it might have a belly full of bugs for the first time since it arrived. A reader I met later by the pond even commented on the appearance of gnats in the air.
The northern flickers are finally back for real. I’ve caught glimpses of them for at least a week, but today there were at least two separate individuals, I could hear them calling, and I finally managed to capture a picture of one. This handsome devil is even giving us a peek at the white patch on his lower back. Usually when I see that, the bird is already in flight, and it means that “yup, I missed getting a flicker picture, again.”
The huge surprise of the morning for me was spotting a pair of blue-winged teal drakes on the river near the upstream island. Just a week ago, they were considered “rare” in Milwaukee County, and now these two were kind enough to climb up on a log so I could take their portraits. The one in the foreground is even giving us a peek at its namesake teal speculum feathers.
Here’s just one pair of shovelers, and I believe this might be the best shoveler picture I’ve managed to take in the park so far.
When I spotted this hooded merganser drake in the mix, I thought to myself, “Sure, why not throw in a hoodie, too.”
As you might imagine, I blew a lot of film on that opportunity, but I eventually figured I must have at least a couple of presentable pictures, and so I headed toward the pond. On the way, I found a pair of killdeer on the softball field again, but there was no choreography this time. I suspect they are attracted to that spot because it is the closest thing to “beach sand” in the area.
The pond was full of mallards and wood ducks, but this pair put on the best show when they demonstrated why they’re called “wood” ducks.
Finally, as I approached the southern soccer fields on my way home, I found this little cutie looking a lot more comfortable with the weather than the one did on Sunday.
Sure, at 22°F, it was a bit chilly this morning for the middle of March, but the sun was mostly out, and the breeze was very light, so it was quite a nice morning for our Weekly Wildlife Walk in Estabrook Park. There were eleven of us all together, and we identified 25 bird species.
On my way to the parking lot by the beer garden to meet everyone at 8am, I got to see our first deer in a while at the far south end.
Once we had the group together, we went back to the river to see the merganser, who was kind enough to have stuck around, and the next fun sight was this red-bellied woodpecker peeking out of the nesting cavity it was excavating.
Here it is letting any potential bidders have a good look at the entire package deal.
We couldn’t find the hooded mergansers that I had also spotted earlier, but once our walk was over and I went back to the river to see if I could get a picture of the flicker that some folks had seen, the little stinkers showed up again, and here’s the drake.
By then, the morning had warmed up quite a bit, enough to turn the frozen river path back into mud, and that must have been what a pair of eastern bluebirds had been waiting for. Anyway, here’s the male.
Same for the phoebe, even though I had told folks to keep an eye out for it. Oh well.
I eventually gave up on the flicker and headed back to the pond for one more look, and on my way, I came across this trio of killdeer appearing to practice some complicated performance on the softball field.
Finally, when I turned around, I found this red squirrel in the tree above me who seemed to be as transfixed as I was by the killdeer choreography.
Yikes! What a difference 24 hours can make with March weather. Temps reached into the 60s yesterday afternoon, and by 10 am this morning, this was the scene at the pond in Estabrook Park. The snow started around sunrise and came down pretty good for a while. Where it melted the least, as on the couple of wood-deck bridges along the paved path through the park, I’d bet we had a good 3 inches of accumulation.
The Canada geese, who’ve been here all winter, seemed unfazed.
But the phoebe, whom we first saw just yesterday, was probably contemplating its recent travel choices. The good news is that temps will be back into the 40s tomorrow, after a chilly overnight.
I didn’t spot anybody new today, but it is always a treat to spot a great horned owl.
I saw wood ducks on the river and the pond, and here’s one of the latter.
Finally, here’s another critter, my first eastern chipmunk of the year, who might also be second guessing its choice of weeks to come out of hibernation.
Lastly, while it was still nice and warm yesterday afternoon, I found these greater snowdrops already in blossom over at the Shorewood Nature Preserve. Let’s hope their name rightly implies that they are made for this weather.
It is difficult for me to predict how the trails in Estabrook might be tomorrow morning, and we’ll minimize our time on them if they are too bad, but if you come out to join our weekly wildlife walk, which I hope you do, please wear shoes up for the job.
It sure is windy out now, but it was pretty nice in Estabrook this morning when the sun finally got high enough in the sky to punch through the clouds.
My first treat of the morning came at the north end when I spotted our first eastern phoebe of the year. I read that they will occasionally eat “small fruits or seeds,” but “flying insects make up the majority” of their diet, so I hope the bugs are not too far behind.
The black-capped chickadees have been with us all winter, of course, but this morning I found a pair busily excavating a nesting cavity beside the river. Note the beak full of wood chips in the fourth image.
Even better, or at least bigger, the painted turtle was not the only one waking up today. Here’s a medium-sized snapping turtle appearing to stretch its neck for the first time in a while.
By then, the wind was starting to blow in, so I didn’t see much after that. Instead, let me show you another look at the screech-owl from yesterday. A little birdy told me that some folks had difficulty sorting out what parts of its face were visible in yesterday’s picture, so I hope this one is a little clearer.
Lastly, I see the forecast for tomorrow morning is calling for snow, if you can believe it, and who knows what we’ll really get. If the Milwaukee Birders don’t cancel their outing, I’ll be on the other side of the river with them.
The critters in Estabrook Park have put on quite a show this week, and as I hiked north along the river, I was beginning to think that they might be resting on their laurels today. I’m glad to report, however, that my thinking was a bit premature, because look who opted to sit for pictures today: our female belted kingfisher. Outstanding! I’ve been hearing kingfishers for a week or so, and even glimpsed one once or twice, but this morning she finally was more interested in fishing than worrying ’bout li’l ol’ me.
As I was trying to get the best picture I could of the kingfisher, I also spotted this sleepy goldeneye hen upstream.
Those were the sights around the islands in the river today, so I headed for the pond, where I found a slew of wood ducks, but none wanted any pictures. Instead, it was this fox sparrow, whom I’ve been hearing sing since Monday, who finally showed its pretty face.
As I was working on my fox sparrow picture, look who swooped in to scare all the little birds into hiding: one of our young Cooper’s hawks.
There wasn’t much to see at the pond after that, so I headed back toward the river, and on my way, another patch of little birds were really chattering away. Happily, it didn’t take me long to find the reason for their agitation: our little gray-morph eastern screech-owl was back. I find the extent to which it managed to recreate its pose from a week ago uncanny.
That’s it for today’s pictures, so here’s one more look at the ring-necked duck from yesterday. I didn’t see a trace of it today, so perhaps it has continued north.
Lastly, and as promised, here’s another look at the otters from yesterday, and this time, the one under the log was craning its neck for a better look.
The weather this morning was just as nice as forecast, so I entered Estabrook Park with high hopes just a few minutes before sunrise, and the critters did not disappoint.
The first treat of the day, and probably the biggest by any measure of the (insert time period here), was encountering this family of American river otters barely twenty feet away. To make it even more fun, they appeared to be as interested in me as I was in them, and they took turns bobbing up for a closer look, so I have more pictures to milk for the rest of the week. You may recall that I saw them a couple of times at a good distance back east this winter, but I’ve only ever seen them in Estabrook once before, and that was almost four years ago.
Once they had all satisfied their curiosity and dove under for the last time, I stuck around a bit in case one might resurface again, and look who soon came swimming by, the beaver that we often saw there early last summer. I wonder what they think of each other.
The red-breasted merganser and green-winged teal seem to have finally moved on, and the most interesting sight at the north end is the one remaining goldeneye, but I left it alone today. On my hike to the pond, on the other hand, I first heard and then saw our first brown-headed cowbird of the year. Yippee!
Barely a hundred yards past the cowbird and on the softball field, I finally got my first picture for this year of the killdeer I’ve been hearing for a week or two. Yippee-ki-yay!
Once I finally reached the pond, it took me a while to find this wood duck hen trying to take a nap deep in the bushes on the northern tip of the island.
I’ve already shown you the mallards and the geese on the pond this week, so I headed back to the river, and as I passed the dog park, this starling in the birch tree right out front caught my ear and then my eye. That’s quite a rainbow of iridescence it has, eh?
Finally, when I reached the river again, I found our visiting ring-necked hen quite a ways down stream of her spot yesterday but more relaxed, a lot closer to shore, and in some gorgeous morning light.
Man, with the way this week’s been going, I can’t wait to see who I’ll find next. Right?
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 