Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Plenty of burnt orange to go around…

It was a beautiful February morning in Estabrook Park, with temps in the mid-teens, a very light breeze out of the west, and a crystal blue sky overhead. Even better, four hardy souls came out to join me on our Weekly Wildlife Walk. Despite all the fancy sparrows by the pond, the winter wren, and the catbird all taking the morning off, we did manage to observe 21 bird species before folks had to get on with their days.

I did not, however, manage to take any pictures, so after we said our goodbyes in the parking lot, I headed for the north end to see who I might yet find, and this gorgeous, mature Cooper’s hawk is who was waiting for me there. “Thanks, Darlin’!” It’s belly feathers seem a little less pristine than usual, and I wonder if that might be due to a recent breakfast.

Then I stopped by the pond, one last time, in hopes that the sparrows had woken up by then, but those stinkers were still keeping out of sight. Instead, our cold red squirrel was out for its usual warm-up in the sun.

The big surprise at the pond today was spotting this hermit thrush. We had already seen the one that I often see at the river earlier in the morning, and I can’t tell if it had since flown up to the pond, or if this is a second thrush. Either way, it sure was nice to see one bathed in the warm morning sunlight for a change.

Finally, I did see three goldeneyes this morning, but none made as nice a picture as I managed to capture yesterday, so here’s a quartet of common mergansers on the river at the south end, instead.

Lots of ducks at Lakeshore State Park…

As advertised, I joined the Milwaukee Birders this morning at Lakeshore State Park, and we had nice, if chilly, weather for our outing. The “Quiet Water Basin” was mostly frozen over, and the little bit of open water, near the bridge, was chockfull of ducks. The most common appeared to be greater scaups, with easily several dozen, and here’s a clump of just over one dozen.

They’re diving ducks, and here’s one who has brought up something to eat, with two others in hot pursuit offering to “help” with it. As far as I know, I’ve only seen them once in Estabrook, back in March 2021.

There were a few red-breasted mergansers, whom we haven’t seen in Estabrook since last April, and here’s a drake, …

and here’s a hen.

We found just one bufflehead, this drake, out by the breakwater, and they also visited Estabrook last April.

I hear that others saw more, but I only saw this one pair of redheads. By crazy coincidence, one of the times I’ve seen them in Estabrook was the same day I saw the greater scaups.

Finally, there were plenty of goldeneyes, and here’s a drake, in the lower right, already performing his fancy display for the ladies.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be back in Estabrook, and I hope you’ll join me for our weekly wildlife walk. It’s supposed to be chilly, but the winds should be light, and the sun should be bright, so great conditions for seeing critters.

Little birds abound…

The forecast snow has not yet arrived, but the clouds have been super thick all morning, the winds were light, and the temps were just below freezing. So, it was a good morning for finding birds, but a little dark for my camera.

The first bird I found was our hermit thrush, in its usual spot near the bottom of stairway nine.

The winter wren was furiously foraging near the bottom of stairway eight and had no time for pictures today, but I managed to sneak one anyway.

I didn’t see good pictures at the north end, so I headed for the pond, where this female cardinal was kind enough to stay put as I tried to find a shot through all the sticks.

Her male counterpart was a little jumpier, but we came up with something anyway.

A fun surprise was finding all the fancy sparrows at the pond today. Here’s one of a few white-throated, …

one of the foxes, …

and the young white-crowned we just saw yesterday. The song sparrow by the river, however, gave me the slip today, as did the catbird.

Finally, I couldn’t find a single goldeneye today, but there are still a few common mergansers on the river, and here’s one of the hens.

I see that the Milwaukee Birders are planning to visit Lakeshore State Park tomorrow morning, and I think I’ll join them for a little change of pace. Wish me luck!

Plenty of woodpeckers and sparrows…

The crazy wind from last evening had died down by this morning, and the sun was out for a bit, but the cold was back, so the park was almost as empty of people as yesterday. The red-tailed hawk, however, did not put on a repeat performance. Instead, the cold seemed to slow down the little birds so that I had a better chance of keeping up.

The first such little bird is this young white-crowned sparrow by the pond. I suspect it is the one I’ve been seeing on and off, but this is my first sighting this month.

I wasn’t sure I had a good picture, so I tried to follow it when it moved, but I ended up taking a bunch of pictures of this female house sparrow instead. Ha!

A little higher in the trees, I found this trio of woodpeckers. First a male red-bellied, …

then a female hairy, …

and finally, a male downy.

Back at the river, I was happy to see our solo song sparrow still kicking around.

Finally, I counted four goldeneyes today, three hens and one drake, along with a few common mergansers and a bunch of mallards, and this goldeneye hen made the nicest picture.

A close encounter of the hawk kind…

The snow did come last night, but not a lot, and the interesting wrinkle, which I only discovered once I was in the park, is that there must have been some freezing rain for a bit, before it changed over to snow, because the trails were as slippery as I’ve ever experienced them. I even ended up on my butt at one point, but I managed to keep the shiny side up, so no harm was done, at least to my gear. The upside, however, is that I almost had the park to myself for a change, which is always nice.

The second treat of the morning was finding one of the muskrats up on the river ice at the north end.

The third treat was meeting two fellow nature appreciators by the pond, whom I knew from our Monday Wildlife Walks. I hope they can join us again next week.

It was shortly after that, as I made my way back to the river, that the main event started. I had seen one, and then two, red-tailed hawks earlier and high over the southern playground as I hiked to the pond, but they flew off to the east before I could get close enough for a picture. We haven’t had a good look at one since the start of January.

Well, one of them must have come back, because as I strolled down the paved path beside the dog park before heading into the woods, look who I noticed perched on the railing there barely ten feet away from me. I immediately froze, of course, eased my camera up, and couldn’t believe my luck that it let me sneak this portrait.

This is one of those times when WordPress fails us with its meager image resolution, and I hope you do yourself the favor of clicking on the image, or this link, so you can zoom in on Flickr to see all the detail. Upon closer inspection, I wonder if it isn’t the same young bird that we did see at the start of January.

Anyway, the hawk soon took off, as one would expect, but it barely flew a dozen feet before perching again on the railing just across the path. I suspect it wasn’t even fleeing me, but merely following its prey, and it even let me have another portrait.

Then it flew only another dozen feet into the woods and landed on this low pile of sticks.

There it appeared to be looking for some way to reach the rodent it was after. The hawk was there so long that I even remembered to try capturing some video.

After a couple of videos, I switched back to still, and it seemed like I had all day, even though it clearly saw me kneeling in the snow not thirty feet away.

This next video is fun because you can see it moving its head around to get a better look at something overhead. I see plenty of videos online of owls doing this, but I don’t believe that I’ve had the opportunity before to see a hawk do this.

Finally, it must have figured that the rodent was not coming out from under there, so it lightened its load, and then took off almost straight towards me. What an absolutely magical encounter.

Lastly, after I hiked back up the bluff and out of the woods at the south end, I found this red squirrel, whose cousin up north might just have been the rodent that the hawk had been looking for. Small world, eh?

Seemingly stuck on repeat…

I got a glimpse of the catbird again this morning, but it slipped out of sight before I could get a picture. Instead, the hermit thrush, who was nearby, gave us a nice look at its cinnamon tail.

I didn’t see anything else to photograph until I was back at the south end. First, this pair of mallards lined up so nicely, …

and then this octet of common mergansers nearly did the same.

Finally, I found this disk of frozen foam stuck going in circles on the river, and some days, I can relate.

I see that it is supposed to snow again tonight, so maybe we’ll have something new to see tomorrow.

February eases off the brakes…

The weather this morning in Estabrook Park was a lot nicer than forecast. Sure, temps were back in the teens, but the wind was light, at least down along the river, and there was hardly a cloud in the sky, so the warm sun really took the edge off the cold. The critters still seem to be in some kind of late winter slump, but at least they were a little more willing to come out and play than they have been the last couple of days.

At the river, the winter wren and catbird were still in hiding, but the hermit thrush was busy foraging in one of the seeps along the side of the bluff.

I could hardly find a bird at the north end, and it was probably too cold for the muskrats, so I headed for the pond. The fancy sparrows were taking the morning off again, but our favorite little red squirrel was trying to capture some of the sun’s warmth in its usual spot.

Back at the river, our lone song sparrow came out to join the hermit thrush.

Finally, I did see a few common mergansers and mallards on the river today, but this solo common goldeneye hen made the nicer picture. She even found a sunbeam coming through the trees to light up her eye and the tip of her bill for us.

I’m off to Saint John’s on the Lake for a little show and tell this afternoon, so if you live there, or you know someone who does, perhaps I’ll see you there. If not, you can catch me at the spring semester of North Shore School for Seniors in Whitefish Bay next month.

Monday, February 3

Despite the soggy weather this morning in Estabrook, we had a nice turnout for the wildlife walk, with eight participants including me, and we managed to see 22 bird species.

I did not manage to capture a single picture, on the other hand, except for the one above. Thus, the only image I have for you today is one last look at the long-eared owls from last Wednesday. There are plenty of sticks obscuring the view, and the owl is backlit, but you can at least see what its “ears” look like from the side.

Some signs of spring already…

It was cloudy as heck this morning in Estabrook Park, so there ain’t no way our groundhog saw its shadow, and folklore has it that we should expect spring to arrive early this year.

Perhaps in preparation for that possibility, look who I saw excavating a nesting cavity already this morning.

This little cutie, a female downy woodpecker, that’s who. I watched her haul out about a dozen beak-fulls of wood chips. Then, perhaps, she got tired of me watching and flitted off. The cavity is right over the trail along the river, so who knows if she and her mate will eventually find it suitable.

That’s all I managed to get a picture of this morning, but I expect you’ll be thrilled to know that I still have a long-eared owl picture from our field trip last Wednesday. This one sure wasn’t going for the tall and slender look, though.

It’s supposed to be cloudy again tomorrow morning, but the air should be mild and still, so good conditions for finding wildlife. Come on out for our Wildlife Walk if you’re able. I didn’t see the catbird today, but someone saw it yesterday, and maybe we’ll get lucky tomorrow.

February eases in the door…

The sky was a lot less cloudy than forecast this morning in Estabrook Park, and the winds were nice and light, so it was a perfectly nice mid-winter day.

This pair was pretty far out on the river, at the north end, but I don’t often get the chance to catch a herring gull and a common merganser in the same frame, so here we are.

The pond was quiet today, and I didn’t see any of the fancy sparrows, but the lone song sparrow back at the river did come out for a nice picture.

Eventually, the winter wren did, too.

As I was looking for the catbird or the hermit thrush, I stepped around a bend in the path and was surprised to find nearly two dozen mourning doves roosting on low branches over the side of the bluff. Often, when I get that close, they will all bolt, but not today, and this one offered the best combination of a nice pose and a clear shot.

While still searching for our recluses, I was pleasantly surprised again to watch a couple of blue jay swoop in. They usually make themselves quite scarce here in the winter, but today was my lucky day.

Finally, here’s yet another long-eared owl from my field trip with Jeff on Wednesday, and this one really shows how tall and slender they can look.