Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Oh, what a beautiful morning…

I could not believe my string of luck this morning when dawn broke on still air and clear skies yet again. Plus, it looks like the Canadian wildfire smoke has finally cleared out, at least for now, so I hustled into the park just around sunrise.

My first treat greeted me as I strolled down the path behind the middle playground toward the river. This American red squirrel seemed to think I had come to steal whatever morsel it had found, appeared to be quite upset about it, and loudly expressed its displeasure before it scampered farther up that fallen tree trunk to put some distance between us. “Sorry, sweetie! All I wanted was this picture.”

My next treat came as I approached the north end along the river, where I found these two, young, spotted sandpipers acting real friendly on a little strip of exposed river bottom between the two islands. “Get a room, you two love birds!”

As I was waiting for the sandpipers to make a nice pose together, I heard a little disturbance in the water just downstream from me, and when I turned to check on it, I could hardly believe my eyes. There was a river otter in the water not twenty feet away from me, it quickly turned to head downstream, and my heart sank into my shoes as I thought I had blown my one chance for a picture. Thank heavens, the otter had other plans and resurfaced perhaps just another twenty feet away.

Then it proceeded to catch and devour crayfish after crayfish in the most spectacular fashion. It would dive for not even a minute, and then it would swim to the shore of the island to gobble down its catch with what sure looked like glee. In the image below, you can see a crayfish claw hanging out of its mouth.

Here it is going back for another.

And here it is in a slightly different spot making sure it doesn’t lose a single crumb or drop.

Although once or twice a paw was required.

It even glanced my way every now and then, and I did my best to keep my prying eyes behind my camera and otherwise pretend as though I wasn’t even there. Nevertheless, it eventually ate its fill, or the supply was exhausted, because it returned at last to deeper water, and I didn’t see it again, no matter how long I waited. I took the first picture at 7:20 and the 78th picture at 7:30, so it had granted me ten full minutes of viewing. Wow! Be still my heart!

I almost went straight home right after that, but I am a professional after all, though not in any profession applicable to this situation, so I pressed on to keep up appearances, and as I was checking the mallards for any odd ducks who might be hiding among them, look who I spotted on the far riverbank. We’ve seen great blue herons flash us before, but never quite like this.

After that, I did start heading back south, and by then the sun had warmed up the wildflower meadow nicely, so it was abuzz with bugs. There were bees, wasps, dragonflies, damselflies, moths, and butterflies. I took plenty of pictures, but my single favorite has got to be this uncommonly gorgeous common buckeye letting us sneak a glimpse of the under/outer/ventral side of its left wings. This is one of those times when WordPress really lets us down, and you’ll be doing yourself a big favor if you click on the image so you can view a full-resolution copy on flickr and zoom in to see all the amazing details.

Between the otter and the butterflies, I had used up my full three hours before I even left the meadow, but it was such a beautiful morning, what’s a guy to do? Well, this guy stopped by the wide and slow spot in the river below the falls to see who else might be out, and my reward was finding this eastern amberwing dragonfly uncharacteristically perched on shore. I usually have to wait seemingly for ever for one to land, and it usually lands somewhere out on the water were I can’t get very close. But not today! I really should go buy a lottery ticket.

Finally, what’s a hike home without a stop at the weeds beside the southern soccer fields? Today’s treat was a look at yet another under/outer/ventral side of a pair of wings, this time belonging to a northern crescent butterfly. What a morning!

Lastly, the crew did move some rock in the riverbed above the falls yesterday, but I couldn’t detect any change in the actual falls themselves, and there appeared to be no work happening today. Maybe some expert has to come and inspect the progress before they can continue, and perhaps we’ll find out tomorrow.

A kerfuffle on the river…

The gorgeous summer weather continued this morning with seasonably cool temps, clear skies, and still air. Even the wildfire smoke seemed thinner than usual, and I had a nice and peaceful stroll through Estabrook Park, but the show didn’t really start until I reached the old boat launch ramp at the north end.

As I slowly walked down the ramp so I could count the mallards upstream of the islands, I inadvertently spooked a double-crested cormorant, the first one I’ve been able to photograph in the park this year, that had been fishing near our shore. It immediately took off but only flew across the river, thankfully, where it landed and swam over to some exposed rocks near a great blue heron. You can just make out the cormorant at the left side of the image below, and the heron is on the right, of course.

I apologize for the image quality, but they were about at the limit of my equipment, and the sun was bright, low, and to the side. I’ve cropped the images as far as I dare, but you can zoom in for a better look on a higher-resolution version by clicking on them and viewing them in flickr. You can even scroll through the sequence on flickr so you don’t have to click on each image separately in this post.

Anyway, once the cormorant hopped up onto the rocks to dry off, the heron took notice and turned to face the newcomer.

At first, I thought the heron might be walking over to give the cormorant, who still seemed unconcerned, a hearty Estabrook welcome.

But it turns out that I was mistaken, and the two exchanged some harsh words, instead.

But the cormorant held its ground, and the heron seemed momentarily taken aback.

Next, I thought that maybe they each had said what needed to be said, and that now things could settle back down.

But I was mistaken again, and the heron continued its advance.

At which point, the cormorant finally said, “Fine! You can have your stinkin’ rock! I’ll go find another,” and swam off.

It didn’t have to go far, however, and it soon spread its wings to dry them in the morning sun. That’s when I noticed a female hooded merganser nearby, the bird just in front of the cormorant, and perhaps the one we’ve been seeing in the pond lately.

Happily, the merganser and the cormorant got along just fine, and maybe it was a case of professional curtesy among fellow divers that waders simply wouldn’t understand.

Once I had returned far enough downstream so that the sun was at my back, I could use my long lens to shrink the distance between the heron and the cormorant and make it seem as though they had achieved some sort of begrudging detente.

After all that drama, it was nice to find the spotted sandpiper again just relaxing on the newly exposed river bottom atop our side of the falls. The big white bags full of gravel are just out of frame to the right.

Back on top of the bluff, this northern house wren seemed a little bewildered, which makes me think it is a recently fledge youngster out on its own for the first time. “Welcome to the world, kiddo!”

Farther downstream, I found a least skipper putting on a show that I believe we’ve only seen one time before.

Finally, in the flowers at the southwest edge of the dog park, I found a red-spotted purple on cup plant blossoms again, perhaps the same one as yesterday, but this time we got to see the out/under/ventral side of its gorgeous wings.

Lastly, here’s the latest look at the falls reshaping project. They covered the bags of gravel with a sheet of plastic yesterday to prevent water from flowing between them, and that further reduced the flow over our side of the falls. Perhaps the reshaping will begin today, and things will look different tomorrow.

Remember that you can check out the progress in person when you join the Friends of Estabrook Park picnic in the beer garden next Tuesday, August 12, from 5 to 7:30 p.m.

I can see clearer now…

It felt as though the smoke was thinner this morning in Estabrook Park, and the wind out of the south that has built up since then is supposed to push it back north, from whence it came, so maybe we’ll have a nice and clear day tomorrow. In the meantime, this is who I saw through the smoke today.

An osprey was back on one of the lights over the UWM commuter parking lot. I’d like to think it’s the same one who’s visited us on and off all summer, and it’s back one more time before heading south for the winter, but it’s hard to tell.

The work crew made a lot of progress on the temporary dam around their work site at the falls, which has exposed some fresh river bottom, and this young spotted sandpiper was making the best of a new opportunity.

At the north end, I didn’t see any deer, so the best show was this belted kingfisher thrashing the crayfish it had just caught before gulping it down.

On my way back south, I found this slightly roughed up widow skimmer dragonfly taking a moment in the meadow to soak up what sun it could.

And there are still a couple of pearl crescents around.

The prettiest sight today, however, has got to be this fresh-looking red-spotted purple, also basking in what sun it could find, on a cup plant blossom in the pollinator garden.

Finally, here’s a look at the temporary dam above our half of the falls.

And here’s a bit of a closeup that better shows the freshly exposed river bottom on the left side.

I wonder if tomorrow we’ll be able to detect any reshaping of the falls they might accomplish today. If you want to see for yourself, you are welcome to visit at any time, of course, but if you are waiting for an additional excuse to make the trip, please note that the Friends of Estabrook Park are having another picnic in the beer garden next week on Tuesday, August 12 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. The usual host, Harold Schmidt, will be traveling that day, and he has asked me to host in his place, so who knows what might happen, but you’ll get to see it live if you’re there.

Making do with the visibility we’ve got.

Yeah, the smoke is still here, but the clouds were pretty thin, the temps were mild, and the air was nearly still, so it was an otherwise very nice morning in Estabrook Park.

The pond was pretty busy when I arrived, with two belted kingfishers, the hooded merganser, at least one wood duck, and the green heron, but only the latter let me sneak a nice picture, so here we are.

At the river, I wasn’t too surprised to spot a couple of deer on the far riverbank, but then I noticed that one was a buck, and his rack is looking pretty good so far. It looks like it will be at least an eight pointer.

It was only after I zoomed in on one of the pictures I had taken to see if any were presentable, that I noticed that the second deer, which I initially thought was a doe, also has a set of antlers. So, it was two dudes just chillin’ beside the river, which is a scene I don’t believe I’ve seen before. Usually two bucks will make for a tense moment, but perhaps it is too early in the season for that, or maybe these two are brothers. We may never know.

As I was doing my best to get some decent deer pictures, look who perched just off the tip of the upstream island.

A bit farther upstream, at the boat ramp, I spotted something tiny as it scurried across the gravel, and upon closer inspection, she turns out to be a shore spider (Pardosa milvina), and we can tell she’s a she because she’s carrying her egg sack under her spinneret. In fact, I read that “female shore spiders heavily invest in their offspring, keeping them in egg sacs and carrying them for a few weeks after they are born.“

This image is about at the limit of the “macro” capabilities of my lens, but there is a little more to see if you click on it so you can view the full-resolution in flickr. Particularly, you can see two of the four shiny little eyes she has in her “top row.” When she had had just about enough of me, she scurried straight across the water, without skipping a step, and parked on a clump of aquatic vegetation a couple of yards offshore.

Finally, I didn’t see much for butterflies today, so here’s a nice picture of a red admiral on a purple cone flower by the Benjamin Church house from yesterday, when the butterflies were still plentiful.

Lastly, the crew working to reshape the falls has finally started damming our side of the river temporarily, and I suppose that is so they can see what they will be doing.

Here’s another look from the boardwalk at the base of the stairs down from the beer garden. You can see those same four sacks of gravel a bit upstream on the right. The Cat excavator in the middle appeared to be leveling out the river bottom for the next batch of sacks, which were being loaded onto a Bell B30E articulated dump truck at the same time on the far shore.

Tune in tomorrow to see how far they have gotten and if any other fall migrants have turned up.

The smoke hasn’t cleared yet…

The Canadian wildfire smoke is still with us, and it was cloudy this morning, as well, so the sunlight took its sweet time filtering down into Estabrook Park. Add to that the fact that the Milwaukee Birders were here just yesterday, and I should not have been surprised that not many folks turned out for our wildlife walk today. Oh well.

Our first sight at the pond was this great blue heron that flew in to perch high over the island, and it really blended in with the bare branches, so see if you can spot it.

On my way to the parking lot to meet everyone, I did see a green heron, too, but it had made itself scarce by the time I returned with the group. Darn.

One bird that was there for both of my visits was this female hooded merganser. “Thanks, Sweetie!”

The big treat of the day came as we started to make our way back south from the boat launch at the north end. That’s when Jenny noticed someone small and yellow in a tree right beside the trail. It was flitting around pretty energetically, and it took us a while to get a good look, but we were finally able to determine that it is our first Nashville warbler of the fall migration. Yay!

As we were frantically tracking the warbler, look who John found just on the other side of the path, the first female ruby-throated hummingbird we’ve seen since the nest emptied out back in June.

In the meadow, just a bit downstream, I was thrilled to find at least one pearl crescent still there.

Another big treat, at least for me, was spotting this amazing-looking moth beside the trail that runs along the edge of the bluff behind the dog park. It is our very first Virginia creeper clearwing (Albuna fraxini), and you may notice that, besides small clear patches on its wings, it also has a bushy tail similar to that of the snowberry clearwing we’ve been seeing lately, and which is in the same family, Sesiidae.

Finally, the cup plants in the pollinator garden are starting to blossom, and here’s a monarch taking a taste, so how could I resist, right?

Another smokey day…

The Canadian wildfire smoke is back and thick enough for even me to be able to smell it when I first stepped outside this morning. It was great to be back in Estabrook Park, nevertheless, and the first treat to greet me was the doe and her fawn crossing the river at the north end from the island to our shore. Once they got there, they stopped to sample the leaves of a willow tree that appears to have dropped a branch in the last day or two.

Back at the pond, a female belted kingfisher didn’t let me get too close, but close enough for this picture.

Meanwhile a young-looking great blue heron was intently focused on something along the far shore.

It was this female wood duck who stole the show today, however, when she posed on a log just right to catch the little bit of sunlight that was getting through.

Back at the north end, this time with the dozen or so Milwaukee Birders who came out today, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of butterflies on the wildflowers in the meadow. Here’s an American Lady, whom we haven’t seen since June, discreetly using some leaves to hide her roughed-up patches.

This pearl crescent, on the other hand, looked brand-spanking new, and so had nothing to hide. I was quite surprised to find not just one, but at least three of them, which is a first for me.

Not to be outdone, this tiny fiery skipper, seemed to be saying “ooh, ooh, look at me, too!”

Finally, this snowberry clearwing moth, who does look a little roughed up, but not too badly, perched there for a minute and made it easy for me to get a nice picture for a change.

I read that “the smoke is expected to linger” into tomorrow, so take care of your health, but if it doesn’t bother you much, and you feel the need to get outdoors anyway, consider joining our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning. We’ll start at 7 a.m. and again at 8 a.m., as usual.

Kohler-Andrae 2025, Day 5

It appears that some of the Canadian wildfire smoke is back, or there is enough of it in the sky east of here, but either way, it turned the sunrise over Lake Michigan into a dim fireball this morning.

Happily, the birds didn’t notice or didn’t care, because there were plenty to see this morning, despite the weekend crowd of park goers, even at 6 a.m., and here’s one of several northern house wrens singing in the morning over the dunes behind the beach.

It took me a second to recognize this little cutie, a young or female American redstart, because I haven’t seen one since this past spring when they migrated through Estabrook.

This one was even trickier, a pine warbler, because I only got my first (bad) picture of one in Estabrook also just this past spring.

This beauty, however, I had no trouble identifying, because there’s nothing else like a red-breasted nuthatch around here.

On my way back to our campsite from the cordwalk through the Kohler Dunes State Natural Area, I stopped by the marsh along the Black River again, and perhaps because it was a chilly morning, with temps in the mid 50s, the painted turtles were up trying to catch some sun like I’ve never seen them before.

There were about a dozen American white pelicans on the river, as seems to be the norm these days, and I couldn’t believe my luck when they suddenly synchronized their fishing operations, and I was able to catch them all lined up like this.

The biggest treat for me at the Black River was getting this nice portrait of a muskrat swimming through the duckweed.

Finally, it would hardly seem like a visit to the Black River marsh if I didn’t come away with a marsh wren picture, so here we are.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be back in Estabrook Park, and so will the Milwaukee Birders, so if Monday mornings haven’t worked out for you, come on out and join them at 8:00 a.m. in the Beer Garden parking lot, and we’ll see if anyone new has shown up while I’ve been away.

Kohler-Andrae 2025, Day 4

We did have a big bike ride yesterday, and so I never managed to capture any wildlife pictures, as predicted. Happily, we had a beautiful morning in Kohler-Andrae State Park today, and the wildlife was plentiful, so here is some of what I saw.

There were at least three deer in the Kohler Dunes State Natural Area, and this is the buck.

I had only heard a towhee or two in the park before today, but they were thick this morning, and I saw at least four. Here’s the one who posed the nicest. In Estabrook they always appear to be hiding, so it is nice to see them putting on a show for a change.

There are still a couple of purple martins hanging out at the martin house, and here’s a young-looking one.

The most plentiful bird by far has got to be the cedar waxwing, and I counted at least four dozen in a couple of flocks, but sometimes they would come down to eye level to forage.

We’ve seen thirteen-lined ground squirrels here before, and one even gave us a nice close up, but this one let us have a good look at some of those thirteen lines.

The butterflies were also plentiful today, and I saw dozens of monarchs, a buckeye, a red admiral, a silver-spotted skipper, but I believe this is my very first broad-winged skipper (Poanes viator), as far as I can tell.

Finally, we eventually did see a viceroy in Estabrook, and only once as far as I can remember, but the first one I ever saw was up here just the week before.

Kohler-Andrae 2025, Day 2

A thick cloud deck rolled in sometime overnight, here at Kohler-Andrae State Park, so it was a pretty dark morning, and I gave the cordwalk through the Kohler Dunes State Natural Area a try.

I hadn’t even stepped off the pavement yet when I spotted three wild turkeys, who did their best to ignore me and focus on finding their breakfast.

Once I did reach the cordwalk, things were quiet for a while, and I never did see any deer or coyotes today, but I eventually came across a trio of sandhill cranes crossing the path, and this was the slow one.

The most colorful sight this morning, despite the dark skies, was this goldfinch amidst some knapweed blossoms.

This female bluebird did her best to brighten things up, as well, but the gray sky really worked against her.

This field sparrow, on the other hand, was far more in line with the prevailing color scheme.

This Cooper’s hawk at least let me position some evergreens behind it to take the edge off that bright-white sky.

With rain threatening, I headed back towards our campsite, but I couldn’t help myself from taking one more look on the Black River, and my reward was getting to see the sora again but from a lot closer this time.

Finally, I tried to clean up this picture from early yesterday morning as much as I could, and it is still terrible, but I believe you can make out a family of raccoons climbing the dead tree in the middle anyway. They never got much higher than that when one of them must have asked “what the heck are we hoping to find up here,” and they slowly climbed back down.

The weather is supposed to improve by tomorrow, and we’re supposed to go for a bike ride in the morning, so I’m not sure if and when I’ll get to go looking for wildlife, but if and when I do, I’ll try to show you what I found.

Kohler-Andrae 2025, Day 1

I gotta be quick today because I didn’t bring enough quarters for the Sheboygan public library parking lot. I did have a nice outing this morning at Kohler-Andrae State Park, and here are a few of the interesting sights I saw.

First up is a swamp sparrow, which we get to see during migration, but not much otherwise.

Once again, pelicans flew in to grab snacks from the Black River, which runs along the west edge of the park.

Another bird which we only get to see during migration is this blue-winged teal, the small one in the lower left amongst the wood ducks, which I didn’t realize were so much bigger.

There were plenty of green herons and a couple of great blue herons, but the treat for me was this sora skulking along the edge of the water. I’ve only ever gotten a picture of an adult in Estabrook once before.

Finally, our ruby-throated hummingbirds seemed to have disappeared after the chicks in the nest fledged, at least we hope that is what happened, so spotting this one was another treat.

Sorry about the shape of the pictures today and the lack of links, but I barely had enough time to sort through what I had, crop the best, and throw this post together. My editorial staff did not come along, so all the typographical errors are mine alone.