Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Winter’s not quite done with us yet…

The stiff wind out of the west this morning in Estabrook Park made it feel colder than I expected, even after I checked the weather, but the mud on the river path was hard as a rock, and the sky was indeed a nice, bright blue, so it was a good morning for taking pictures.

The common grackles, whom I’ve been glimpsing all week, finally deigned to sit still for a second, and here’s one showing off its iridescent feathers in the bright morning sun. Unlike the rusty blackbirds of yesterday, who looked rusty even under thick clouds, grackles look jet black or dark blue on a cloudy day, and only flash these golden colors when the sun hits them just right.

Out on the water, the hooded mergansers are still here, and I found this dashing trio lined up beside the upstream island.

I was thrilled still to find a pair of common mergansers, as well, and this handsome couple were in the wake of the downstream island.

Here’s the drake again because it’s not often that I can catch them with their head looking so green, and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one holding his tail feathers up like that.

At the pond, I was happy to find one of the white-throated sparrows still kicking around. Soon enough they’ll all be off to their breeding grounds, which start just a bit north of here and extend all the way to the shores of Hudson Bay.

Back at the river, there were a couple of downy woodpeckers flitting about, and here’s the male holding still for a second.

Finally, here’s a male, red-bellied woodpecker letting me take advantage of that pretty blue sky.

Sewing silk purses…

It was a very soggy morning in Estabrook Park, but temps were in the 40s, the winds were light, and critters are on the move, so I eventually dragged myself out to take a look.

The ice on the pond is starting to melt, and here’s the first critter I found taking advantage of the newly opened water around the edges: a muskrat. I bet whatever green stuff it’s nibbling on sure tastes a lot better than whatever it had stored in its burrow for the past couple of months.

I’ve been seeing these guys on-and-off all winter, but today was the first day in a while that a mature bald eagle let me make a portrait.

Despite the bald eagle perched over the upstream island, there were plenty of waterfowl on the water below. Here’s a red-breasted merganser drake, perhaps the same one we saw below the falls on Monday.

Here’s a pair of hooded mergansers floating between the rain drops.

The common mergansers appear to have moved on already, but there were plenty of common goldeneyes still on the river, and here’s a drake.

By the time I got back to the pond, this quartet of mallards had already arrived to sample the freshly opened water.

Back at the river, there were a pair of blackbirds, but they didn’t sound like red-wings, and they didn’t have long tails as grackles do. Instead, they were rusty blackbirds on their way back north. We saw them last, on their way south, back in October. Here’s the one that posed the nicest, and you can just see a little rust on its upper back and breast.

Finally, in the tall grass where I’d been seeing a song sparrow all winter, there was a new bird today, our first swamp sparrow of the year.

Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny, if cold and windy, so here’s hoping that creates some pretty pictures for us.

A grey day in March…

I believe it may have been the warmest morning of the year so far in Estabrook Park, with temps starting in the high 30s, and soon warming into the 40s. The cloud cover was thick, however, and so was the mud on the path beside the river, so I struggled a bit to get many pictures.

Thankfully, the river ice continues to recede, so the ducks are spreading out to forage in areas newly opened to them, and here’s one of two common goldeneye drakes checking to see how the “mollusks and crustaceans” taste in the water just above the falls.

Similarly, the water around the islands above the falls is opening up, and here’s a common merganser drake checking on the fish situation there.

The big surprise of the morning, however, came when a healthy murder of crows, six individuals eventually, did their best to persuade a great horned owl to move on to another forest. The action all took place above the far riverbank behind the downstream island, so I was thrilled even to see the owl at all, but right in the middle of this picture, you can make out the right edge of its facial disc, a smidgeon of its big, yellow left eye, and its huge left foot.

Well, since I’m out of pictures for today, and you’re already all here, let me fill you in on your next opportunity to see me show pictures and tell the stories behind them live and in person. The North Shore School for Seniors has inexplicably invited me back for the spring term, and my class will be on Tuesday, March 25 at 2:15. Besides just me, there is a whole catalog of courses to choose from, including the esteemed Chuck Hagner discussing “Wisconsin’s Birds of Spring”, and Andy Holman describing his adventures “In Search of Rare and Unusual Animals.” You can register for these and many other classes online here.

The new arrivals pick up their pace…

It did warm up into the low 30s by sunrise, but it also clouded up, as forecast, so the river trail mud was nice and firm for our weekly wildlife walk this morning. There were eight of us, all together, and we managed to spot 25 bird species.

The first treat of the morning was finding a trio of hooded mergansers fishing off the far edge of the downstream island. Here’s the best picture I could get, of one of the two drakes, from the boardwalk by the falls. It’s the first visit from them that I know of since last November.

While I was busy trying to get that shot, others in the group spotted this red-breasted merganser drake, almost literally under my nose, in the water just below us. I can’t find record of one in Estabrook since last April!

We’ve seen plenty of these common mergansers all winter, but I’m not sure if I have ever seen all three merganser varieties in Estabrook Park on a single day before, so here’s a pair just upstream of the hoodies for completeness.

At the upstream island, our luck continued, and here’s a pair of bluebirds. I had just seen them in Guatemala last week, so they really made great time!

When we stopped by the pond, we found this blast from the recent past, a hermit thrush.

The red-wing blackbirds are still with us, and here’s one of two that we saw at the pond.

Finally, on my walk home, I found this European starling mixed in with a slew of robins, and it stayed for a picture after all the robins had fled.

Lastly, Donna of Milwaukee Birders was kind enough to send in this picture she took of an angler and me freeing a red-breasted merganser from fishing line in Port Washington yesterday. You can see the head of the bird near the rock in the upper right of the picture and the fishing line passing under my right arm toward the left.

Soon after I had seen the harlequin duck, someone in our group noticed the merganser towing a bobber on about ten feet of line behind it and wondered what could be done. Someone suggested calling out to one of the boats full of anglers on the water, but none of us were very hopeful that they could or would help. Then, the angler in the picture above, who must have overheard our conversation, made a fantastic cast, managed to hook the line with the bobber, and simply reeled in the bird, to our utter amazement. I figured that more than two hands were going to be required to free it, so I climbed down to the water to grab the bird and hold its wings so the angler could remove the line. Happily, it was merely wrapped around one of the legs, so he could get all of it off with just a tiny pair of line cutters. Once free, the bird took off across the water as if no permanent harm had been done, and I sure hope that is the case.

Remember, if you’re an angler, please don’t leave any line laying around. If you know any anglers, please urge them to clean up after themselves, and if you find line or tackle laying around, please pick it up and dispose of it properly. This particular story happened to have a happy ending, but I’m afraid that most don’t.

Ducks galore!

The weather this morning was as nice as forecast, and I took the low-wind opportunity to join the Milwaukee Birders as they look for ducks on the waterfront in the Port Washington Coal Dock Park.

They kicked off the event with a visit to the peregrine falcon nesting box atop the Port Washington power plant, and we were happy to find someone home. A second bird soon showed up, and then things really got crazy when a third falcon arrived. We don’t know if it was a grab for the nesting box, for a mate, or both, but the three of them really put on quite the airshow as they sorted it out.

The aerial performance eventually petered out, we began our search for ducks, and we didn’t have to go far. The narrow channel that runs between the Memorial Pavilion and the Avian Sanctuary was full of them. Most were mallards, but there was at least one redhead, …

a red-breasted merganser, …

or two, …

a common goldeneye hen, …

and even a tiny bufflehead hen.

There were plenty of more of the same in the rest of the water around the park, but some folks were itching for something a little more exotic, so we headed to the north side of the port so we could walk out to the Port Washington Breakwater Lighthouse. That’s where I found this little cutie.

At first, its size and coloration made me think that it was another bufflehead hen, but if you look at the previous picture, they only have one white mark on the side of their head, not the two that this one does. After hearing about them for years, I had a suspicion of who it might be, but I double checked with the merlin app on my phone before I let myself get too excited. Sure enough, this darling is my very first harlequin duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) and a hen.

The Great Lakes don’t even get a blip of color on their range map, but they are observed here from time to time, and today just happened to be one of those times. Woo Hoo!

Finally, some clouds are forecast to roll in overnight, but they should also bring a warm-up with them, so tomorrow should be a good morning for our weekly wildlife walk, and we’ll do our best to avoid as much mud on the river trails as possible. Come on out to see if the next spring migrant has arrived.

And so it begins

Despite my talk of spring weather yesterday, March rolled in this morning at a brisk 18°F. There was also a pretty good wind out of the north, but the sky was that clear blue that you know I like, so not a bad start to the month at all.

The picture taking was going pretty slowly, however, until I stopped by the pond on my way back south. That’s where I found our first spring returnees of the year: three red-winged blackbird males. They were all a little jumpy, but this one eventually relented and posed perfectly in the sun for us. “Thanks, Buddy, and welcome back!”

Back by the river, I found a pair of these American tree sparrows. We are in their winter range, so we do see them from time to time, but we don’t have as much of the tall grasses that they like, as Havenwoods State Forest and Lakeshore State Park do, so my guess is that these two are just passing through and are already on their way towards their breeding grounds in the far north of Canada and Alaska. “Safe travels, little cuties!”

Finally, there’s still plenty of ice on the river, despite the recent warm weather, so this goldeneye drake, and the five hens I saw with him, seem content to stick with us for a little while longer. “Take all the time you want, Handsome!”

That’s the show for today, but I see that the forecast for tomorrow is even better: a smidge colder, clear skies, and winds nearly calm, so keep your fingers crossed that it really comes to pass.

February gets blown away…

Well, I finally did return to Estabrook Park this morning, and winter sure is on a break, if it’s not gone for good. There’s still plenty of ice slowly melting in the river and a couple of small patches of snow in the woods where it must have drifted a bit deeper than elsewhere, but temps rose from the high thirties to the high forties during my visit, and it feels like spring might be just around the corner. Also, the wind was howling as if March was fixin’ to come in like a lion tomorrow.

Anyway, all our winter visitors have not yet fled north, and here’s a dark-eyed junco sporting a fancy collar of wind-blown feathers.

For most of the winter, the common merganser hens on the river far outnumbered the drakes, but not today. Perhaps these gents are already making their way back north.

There was even a goldeneye drake still hanging around.

The most interesting find, however, was this raccoon stuffed into the little hole in which the screech-owl hung out for a few days back in December. I would have never guessed that a raccoon could have even fit in there.

Finally, Anne was a little disappointed that I haven’t shown you any pictures of the peacocks we found strolling around the grounds of the Casa Buho B&B back in Antigua. They clearly weren’t native nor wild, but they sure were pretty, so here you go.

The first and the last image, especially, have some nice detail that you can zoom into if you click on the image and go to the flickr page where they are hosted. While there, feel free to check out the rest of my “scenery” pictures from the trip, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Guatemala wrap-up and recap.

It’s a pretty grey day here in Milwaukee, and I’m feelin’ a bit wiped-out from the trip, so I’m just gonna use a few more trip pictures to tide us over.

First, here’s one more look at a great-tailed grackle, this time from the B&B outside Antigua. We saw and heard them at every stop, and sometimes I could have sworn they were mimicking car alarms.

Here’s one more look at one of the Deppe’s squirrels competing with the birds for calories in the trees around the B&B.

Here’s a bird I haven’t shown you yet because I was always hoping for a better picture, but they always took off before the light got good enough for that. Anyway, it’s a black-headed saltator (Saltator atriceps) and first cousin of the cinnamon-bellied saltator, who was kind enough to linger at the B&B a little later into the morning. Anyway, I read that “the name is from the Latin saltator, saltatoris meaning ‘dancer’,” but I don’t recall seeing much dancing from either of these two species.

Here’s one more Guatemalan emerald spiny lizard, this time at the Iximché archeological site, and it seems, from my exhaustive sampling, that they prefer to inhabit tourist destinations.

Here’s one more look at the darling azure-crowned hummingbird who posed so nicely for me at the B&B.

Here’s one last butterfly, a lamplight actinote (Actinote ozomene), as far as I can tell, and also from Iximché.

Finally, here’s one last look at what might have been the rarest treat of the trip, the tiny ferruginous pygmy-owl from our first morning at the B&B. Anne and I were sure we heard it during the nights we were there, but we never managed to spot it again. By the way, the B&B just so happens to be named Casa Buho, or “owl house” in English, so how’s that for a fun coincidence?

I’m sure I’ll be back up to speed by tomorrow and back in Estabrook Park.

Guatemala Day 8, Día de viaje

After a long day of travel, I hope you will be glad to hear that Anne and I arrived home safely at just about quarter after 8 this (Wednesday) evening . We did take one more look before breakfast this morning, and saw some great sights, but I don’t believe we found anyone new. Thus, let me show you a few more shots from the great day we had yesterday (Tuesday).

After breakfast yesterday, we drove about an hour north of Antigua into the western highlands to visit Iximché, “the capital of the Late Postclassic Kaqchikel Maya kingdom from 1470 until its abandonment in 1524.” The ruins were amazing, and the wildlife was quite nice.

This first bird was a bit of a surprise, because the Merlin app kept suggesting “Steller’s jay”, but I knew that couldn’t be right because I had just seen them last year when Anne took me to see the Grand Canyon, and they have distinctive tufts of feathers on their heads, similar to those of cardinals. Well, it turns out, as it does some times, that if you scroll down, you can find that there is more to the story. In this case, there is a “Central American” variety of Steller’s jay that has poofy white eyebrows instead of a triangular tuft on its head, and here’s one of the ones we saw at Iximche.

I also got another chance at a nice golden-fronted woodpecker picture, in which you can really see some of that name-sake “golden front”.

There were warblers there, as well, and this black-throated green let us have a nice look.

There was also another slate-throated redstart, and this time I got the focus pretty close, but the timing and/or framing could still use some work. It is still a pretty bird, though.

If you’ve been wondering, as have i, where those winter bluebirds that we saw in Estabrook just last month might have gone off to, perhaps they went to Guatemala, because I saw at least six foraging together, and here’s one looking nice and comfortable. Who can blame them, right?

Finally, I got a change to redeem myself for that abysmal acorn woodpecker picture I showed you back on day two. In fact, I had several chances because I suspect we were close to one of their hives, and it seemed that I could spot them just about in any tree. Very fun.

Guatemala Day 7

It was another beautiful morning in Antigua, Guatemala, and our B&B doesn’t serve breakfast until 8am, so I had 1.5 glorious hours from sunrise till breakfast to look for critters on the grounds.

My first find this morning was this elusive blue-and-white mockingbird (Melanotis hypoleucus).

This little cutie is a young or female Wilson’s warbler, whom we might hope to spot in Estabrook in just a few weeks.

Back to the locals, this stunner let me have just one shot, and I couldn’t believe my luck when I looked at what I got. Anyway, it’s a rose-throated becard (Pachyramphus aglaiae), and it mostly sticks to Central America.

Here’s another Estabrook Park regular, a blue-headed vireo, who I first spotted there last spring in mid-April.

This next handsome devil is a cinnamon-bellied saltator (Saltator grandis), and it keeps strictly to Central America.

This bird threw me for a loop. I could tell it was a New World warbler, but not one I recognized. Well, that’s because it’s my first ever Townsend’s warbler (Setophaga townsendi). No one has reported spotting one in Estabrook yet, and the last time someone spotted one in all of Milwaukee County was back in 2006, so they might not make it there very often.

This face I recognized right away, and it helped that it posed just as boldly as the azure-crowned hummingbird did just last Friday.

Finally, yet one more bird, a female rose-breasted grosbeak, whom we can expect to see in Estabrook in just a couple of months.

And that was all before breakfast, but we fly home tomorrow, so I’ll tell you about the rest of the day then.