Anne and I arrived at the fabulous Cahal Pech Village Resort in San Ignacio on the west edge of Belize around mid-afternoon today, with a special thanks to my niece, Liz, who picked us up at 4:10am to bring us to the airport.
I was thrilled to find plenty of critters out and about at that late hour, and one of the prettier ones was this white-winged dove.
One of the noisier ones was this great-tailed grackle, seen here giving me his best scowl.
There were a couple of great kiskadees, who toyed with me for a while, but eventually this one relented and posed for a portrait.
It wasn’t all birds, either, and here’s a brown anole, …
a Yucatán squirrel eating its vegetables, …
and this stunning white sailor butterfly, who seemingly took forever to find exactly the right spot to perch, and I thank my lucky stars it was in sight.
My nephew and his betrothed were successfully married yesterday afternoon, yay, so I didn’t really get out to look for wildlife until this afternoon. I have had some luck with mid-day walks lately, but let us say that today I had just enough luck. The only picture I managed to capture was of this darling bluebird, and the lack of blue on its head suggests that it is either a female or immature male. Either way, please allow me to dedicate this bluebird of happiness to Alissa and Danny. May it follow them wherever life leads.
My sister didn’t have to work today, and she was willing to join me this morning, so we headed first to the Broad Brook Reservoir, were we’ve seen great sights before. The sky was clear, the air was still, and the temps were in the 30s, so the steam fog coming off the surface was thick. Not so thick, happily, that we couldn’t see the large flock of ruddy ducks out on the water. Even better, some eventually drifted close enough, and the fog thinned a bit for me to take this photograph, which is just clear enough for a positive ID. “Thanks, Buddy!”
In addition to the ruddy ducks, there were mute swans, Canada geese, mallards, ring-necked ducks, great blue herons, and even a bald eagle, but I figure we’ve seen enough of them that you don’t need more foggy pictures. Instead, here’s a great egret, which we haven’t seen in a while, who was kind enough to fly in so that it’s not obscured by fog, just a few sticks in the foreground.
Just as we were about to leave, a double-crested cormorant hopped up onto a stump to dry off and even lined up with the faint reflected glow of some sunlit fall foliage on the far shore.
Then we headed over to Hannover Pond, where we’ve also seen some great sights, and this time the bald eagle parked nice and close, even if there were some branches in the way.
There were also some wood ducks, a bunch of ring-billed gulls, a pied-billed grebe, and the first American coots my sister has ever seen. Sweet!
We eventually had to wrap up our outing, but when I got back to my folks’ place, the day was just getting nicer, so I stayed out for one more look around. I don’t often get to see turkey vultures perched, so I was thrilled when this majestic creature let me sneak a picture through the foliage.
Finally, I could hear bluebirds, and at first, I found only one, but then I found four more in the top of a nearby maple tree, and these two seemed to be fascinated by an old nest, perhaps the one from which they recently fledged.
In this scene, however, where the bird facing to the left and glancing our way is straddling the head of a second bird facing to the right, your guess about what they might be up to is as good as mine. The lighting wasn’t great, and I cleaned up the image as much as I dared, so if you can’t quite make out what I’m describing, give it a click so you can see the full-resolution version on flicker and zoom in. Maybe they are two brothers getting in one last wrestle, for old times’ sake, before they abandon the nest for good and fly south.
My nephew is getting married late this afternoon, so I can’t make any promises about tomorrow morning, but if I do see something pretty or interesting, I’ll send it your way.
Anne and I arrived safely in Connecticut last evening, but I didn’t have a chance to go out looking for wildlife until after lunch today. I didn’t expect to see much that late in the day, so I was quite pleasantly surprised when the critters put on a nice mid-day show.
Here’s a trio of shy ring-necked duck drakes that kept just beyond the effective range of my gear. We don’t get to see them very often, so here you go.
This wood duck drake, on the other hand, understood the assignment.
A serious contender for my treat-of-the-day is this Carolina wren. I hear them often out here, but they usually keep their distance. I’ve been hearing one in Estabrook, and would give an eye tooth for a decent photo, but I’ve had no luck so far. This bird, however, popped to the top of a bush right in front of me, and as I tried to bring my camera to bear, it merely moved upwards a bit and then broke out into song. Oh, happy days!
Maybe there’s been something in the water out here, or it’s some kind of holiday that I don’t know about, but the blue jays, who are similarly shy in Estabrook, were really putting on a show today. It is almost as if this one is pausing to ask, “have you noticed the fall colors yet?”
We saw about a dozen cedar waxwings by the pond in Estabrook on Monday, but not one would let me sneak a picture. Meanwhile, this darling let me get off the bike I borrowed from my dad, back up across the bike path, and snap yet another picture I’d love to get back home.
I did manage a nice flicker picture recently, but I still appreciate the opportunity to capture this handsome devil on film.
Finally, I’m afraid that all our sapsuckers have continued south already, but not so here. I saw two today, and this female made the nicer image.
Lastly, even the spotted turtles got in on the act.
I have a hope of getting out early tomorrow, so it will be interesting for me to find out if I see more or less than this afternoon. I’ll keep you posted.
Welp, it’s Thursday, boys and girls, and you know what that means. Yup, it’s time again for Anne to take me on another fabulous adventure, so I won’t make it to Estabrook Park this morning. Instead, let me show you a few pictures from the last couple of days that didn’t make the first cut.
Here’s another look at the pied-billed grebe working on its breakfast Monday morning.
Since fish is on the menu, here’s another look at the osprey as it takes another bite on Tuesday.
Finally, here’s that youngish female belted kingfisher, also on Tuesday, still working on landing her breakfast fish. “Good luck, Sweetie!”
We’re going to Connecticut first, for a wedding this weekend, so don’t expect anything exotic right away, but I do have a hope of finding you something pretty to look at soon.
It was cold, windy, cloudy, and even sprinkley this morning in Estabrook Park, so a classic autumn day in southeast Wisconsin.
There were still a few sights to see, despite the weather, but I didn’t see a picture I could take until I was beside the river at the north end. That’s when the doe …
and her not-so-young-anymore fawn came out to graze. His “antlers” haven’t changed much, if any, since we saw them last, so perhaps this is as big as they are going to get this year. “You’ll get bigger ones next year, Tiger!”
I did see the osprey again, plus a red-tailed and Cooper’s hawk, but the pictures weren’t great with white-sky backgrounds, so here’s a darling hermit thrush who was kind enough to pose on a nice, mossy log.
Swamp sparrows are now a common sight, if far less common than the ubiquitous white-throated sparrows and dark-eyed juncos, and here’s one eyeing me up before resuming its foraging.
Since I’ve got some room left, here’s a female red-bellied woodpecker, from yesterday when the sun was out and the sky was blue, repeatedly harvesting hackberries beside the southern playground, probably to add them to her stash somewhere nearby.
Here’s a yellow-rumped warbler, also from yesterday, who was probably having better luck hunting for bugs than it did today.
Finally, I didn’t see a butterfly or dragonfly today, but here’s another red admiral from yesterday.
Lastly, if you were wondering if they were going to leave the new Mount Estabrook on the far shore, perhaps as a sledding hill, well here’s your answer. They were loading up a couple of large, street-legal dump trucks to haul it away, so no new sledding hill for you.
It was a little warmer and a little breezier this morning than yesterday in Estabrook, so there was no frost on the grass this time. The sky was just as clear, though, so it made for some pretty pictures, and the issue that kept websites from working yesterday appears to have been resolved, so I will even be able to show you some. Yay!
The pied-billed grebe was still at the pond today, I am thrilled to report, but I like the picture it let me have yesterday better. Man, that bird likes to eat fish.
There was also an eastern phoebe at the pond yesterday, but it was after smaller, more-airborne prey.
At the islands in the river, the exciting guest today was this Cooper’s hawk who swooped in, perched for a minute, found no suitable prey, and then moved on to continue its hunt elsewhere.
Meanwhile, back on shore behind me, this northern flicker appeared to be just warming up in the sun. Either that, or it was keeping very quiet, very still, and a very close watch on that Cooper’s hawk, so that it doesn’t end up as prey.
The biggest avian treat for me today, however, was over the river and downstream of the old bridge abutments. I was looking for a great blue heron that Ken told me about, but I found this beauty instead. The trees on the riverbank provided great cover for me, so I was able to sneak up nice and close without disturbing the osprey, and if you click on this image so you can view the full-resolution version in flickr, you may find it as fascinating as I do.
Finally, it didn’t warm up through the morning today as much as it did yesterday, so I didn’t see a single dragonfly today. Yesterday, on the other hand, I saw a few, including this beauty, a black saddlebags on the weeds beside the southern soccer fields. It was still soaking up the sun at the time, so it let me get as close as my lens would allow, and the full-resolution image contains a ton of detail.
I see it is forecast to be cloudy, cool, and windy tomorrow morning, so don’t hold your breath for any pictures of critters soaking up the sun in front of a crystal blue sky.
Sorry this is so late, but there was an issue with certain websites on the internet today, which you may have heard about, that prevented me from uploading any pictures earlier today.
Anyway, it was a very nice, if chilly morning, in Estabrook Park for our weekly wildlife walk. The temperature was 40°F at sunrise, the skies were clear, and the air was still, so radiant cooling was able to freeze the dew onto the grass for the first time this fall. Once the sun came up, however, those same conditions allowed things to warm up quickly, and one of the amazing sights that enabled was this red admiral butterfly on the lawn north of the beer garden.
It’s late now, and I’ll show you the rest of the pictures tomorrow. Good night!
Since it was raining pretty good when the sun came up this morning, and the big green blob on the radar was forecast to take its sweet time drifting out of the area, I took the morning off to run some errands. At around 10:30, I noticed that it was starting to look dry-ish outside, so I grabbed my gear and finally headed for Estabrook. The question then was who might be out and about at that late hour.
I was relieved to find that quite a few critters were busily going about their morning, and I spotted this sparrow in the weeds beside the southern soccer fields. I hoped it might be a Lincoln’s or someone even more exotic, but it’s just a good-ol’ song sparrow, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
There were no photographers at the pond when I arrived, for a change, but the pied-billed grebe was still there. I’m sure gonna miss it when it finally continues its journey south.
Back up on the bluff, I finally caught one of the several yellow-rumped warblers I’d been seeing all morning. It appears that I was a bit premature in supposing that all the warblers had already flown south, although the ones I saw today could be fresh arrivals from up north.
On my way back south and back at the river, this youngish-looking female belted kingfisher uncharacteristically let me sneak this picture before dramatically bolting to the far shore.
Up on the bluff once more, I stopped by the pollinator garden, but there was barely a blossom left to pollinate, let alone any pollinators around. Instead, the interesting sight today was a small group of dark-eyed juncos foraging for seeds in the grass.
Yesterday was a different story, on the other hand, and here’s probably our last look for the season at a monarch butterfly on a Mexican sunflower blossom.
The current forecast calls for beautiful, if cool, weather for our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning. Sunrise isn’t scheduled to occur until 7:12 am, however, so I won’t be arriving at the beer garden parking lot until just before 8 am, when the sun should be already warming up the day. If you want to start earlier, feel free, and I’ll see you at 8.
I could hear it raining this morning as I waited for the sun to rise, but the clouds dried up by the time it was light enough for me to venture out. Plus, the winds were light, and the air was probably warmer than seasonal, so it was a great morning for all the planned events.
My first treat of the day came early, before I had even reached the pond, when I noticed a bird swoop in to land on one of the guy wires for the towers across the river. I’ve only ever seen a few species perch there, so I held my breath as I brought my binoculars to bear, and sure enough, it’s our first kestrel in a while and the first one of October in Estabrook. Woo hoo!
The catbirds have gone silent over the past week or so, and I thought maybe they had all flown south already. Perhaps most of them have, but I heard and then spotted this straggler by the dog park.
The usual suspects were at the pond, so I continued to the river where this killdeer put on a nice show.
The big surprise at the river, however, was this coot relaxing below a clump of leaves, which I believe belong to a yellow iris. We just saw one at Lakeshore State Park, but it has been a while since one graced the waters of Estabrook. “Welcome back, sweetie!”
Back on shore, I don’t believe I saw a single warbler today, but the trees were hopping with kinglets, both golden- and ruby-crowned, and this is one of the latter.
On my second swing by the pond, most of the photographers had called it a day, or at least moved on to another venue, and the pied-billed grebe and I could just relax. Here it is making another big yawn.
Finally, yesterday’s mourning cloak may have been just a foreshadowing, because I spotted two monarchs today. There was one on the Mexican sunflowers, of course, but this one really surprised me on the grass by the river.
Finally, I did stop by the southern parking lot at 9am, and everyone was either helping to plant trees or picking up trash along the river, but that was just as well. I’m glad folks were giving those two projects the support they deserve. Plus, yesterday afternoon was so nice, and my new waders had just arrived in the mail, so I couldn’t wait and went out to tackle the tires on my own.
Here’s the pile of 19 (two have had the beads cut off, so I stuffed them down into the stacks) that I pulled out of the river around the upstream island. I got six more at the downstream island as well, and stacked those atop the bluff near there. Best of all, there’s still more to do, if that’s what you have your heart set on. I spotted three more tires this morning, if you can believe it, and I could barely budge the broken canoe, so that’s still out there. If you want to join me on my next outing, just give me a shout and we’ll set up a time, ideally before the river rises again.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 