Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

A few regulars and a pleasant surprise

The weather forecaster on the news last evening claimed that the new snow on the ground would help temperatures drop overnight, and the +3°F we had this morning doesn’t prove him wrong. The air was almost still, however, so both Anne and I didn’t think it felt too bad out there. The sun’s effort to burn a hole through the building cloud cover for a while, was valiant but in vain, so the pictures are a bit grey today.

Happily, yesterday was so pretty, I have plenty of pictures left over from then, so let’s start with this black-capped chickadee by the river.

This morning, I did see the catbird again, but this is exactly the kind of grey picture I was warning you about.

For a break from the grey, here’s a dark-eyed junco, from yesterday and also by the river, just before it gulps down that bright red spindle seed.

The big surprise this morning, which just happened to coincide with a high-water mark of morning sunlight, was finding a great horned owl on the southern island again for the first time since New Years Eve. I can’t tell if this is one of the pair that we hope have gone off to nest, and this is just the equivalent of sleeping on the couch, or if this is a third owl, but whatever the case, I sure was happy to see it.

Here’s a female downy woodpecker beside the pond and against that beautiful blue sky we had yesterday.

This morning, I could only find one hermit thrush, the one by the river, and it appears to be warming its toes in the water seeping out of the ground near the bottom of stairway nine. Clever bird, or desperate.

Finally, to end on a sunnier note, here’s a male house finch from yesterday with its beak covered in the snow it was just gobbling down from that fresh pile beside it.

Lastly, I see the forecast for tomorrow afternoon is 31° and “snow showers,” so Havenwoods State Forest should be a regular winter wonderland for the Winter Break Milwaukee. As I’ve mentioned before, Bird City Milwaukee will be leading a couple of 1-hour bird walks at 1 and 2 pm, and I’ll be there from 12 to 4pm, so come on out if you are able, dress for the weather, and I hope I’ll see you there.

Rarities!

First, the snow really did come, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that we received a full eight inches in Estabrook Park. I know some locals are about as thrilled with it as the mourning dove looked yesterday, but I am very happy. Even better, temps were in the low teens, winds were light, and there was not a cloud in the sky, so I would have had to work at it to take a bad picture today. Even the mourning doves looked happier this morning, but I suppose that could simply be because they’ve found each other.

As for the rarities implied by the title, the grey catbird, whom I haven’t seen since the first of the month, and I haven’t been able to show you since January, finally put in an appearance. “Welcome back, Sweetie!”

Once again, I couldn’t find anything to photograph at the north end, even on a day like today, but the pond made up for it. Here’s a female northern cardinal sampling the sumac.

Here’s our young white-crowned sparrow, who ebird now considers to be a rarity, too. Woo hoo!

Not to be outdone, a dark-eyed junco also posed on the sumac and even managed to squeeze in some snow.

Finally, I am now sure that we have two hermit thrushes, one by the river, and a second one at the pond. I saw both this morning, and ebird now considers them to be rare as well. Here’s the one at the pond posing like a pro. I wonder if they know about each other.

Lastly, I saw several birds enjoying the fresh snow, and here’s a robin just about to take a big bite.

Some real snow at last, maybe…

It sure is snowing in Estabrook now, but it really didn’t get going until about 9am. Thus, I had nearly two hours this morning to take some pictures, and here’s what I got.

I was checking for the song sparrow or winter wren by the river, and there were a couple of birds, perhaps downy woodpeckers, incessantly making distress calls, so I tried to find what they were distressed about. As I approached the edge of the water, I inadvertently spooked this Cooper’s hawk, who flew up into the big maple tree that grows there.

Besides sporting two ankle bracelets, which the others we’ve been seeing lately do not appear to have, it kept wiping its beak on that branch, which got me to wonder what it was wiping off its beak, so I looked over the edge, and there I found a fresh common merganser hen carcass lying on the ice.

It was pretty grewsome, so I’ll spare you the picture, but I immediately wondered if it might have succumbed to the new avian flu that’s going around, since I highly doubt the diminutive Cooper’s did in the heftier merganser all by itself.

I called DNR, but they said they are not yet concerned about single birds, so I used a long stick to bring the carcass up to the dumpster in the maintenance yard, to at least keep other birds off of it, and went on my way while hoping for the best.

I didn’t see anything to photograph at the north end or the pond, and I only took my camera back out when I found the song sparrow right about where I had been looking for it earlier. You can see that the snow had really started to accumulate by then.

I didn’t see the winter wren at all today, but I do have one more nice picture from yesterday, so here you go. Don’t its claws look like they are from a much larger bird that the wren is merely perched on them?

Finally, I opted to go home along the paved path atop the bluff, instead of trying my luck on the hilly river trail in these conditions. At the top of stairway nine, I gave one more look into the bushes for the catbird, and found this mourning dove collecting snow and looking less than thrilled with that development.

This snow storm is forecast to be done by tomorrow morning, and the storm predicted for Friday should be mostly over by Saturday morning, so Havenwoods State Forest should be a regular winter wonderland for the Saturday afternoon Winter Break Milwaukee. As I mentioned yesterday, Bird City Milwaukee will be leading a couple of 1-hour bird walks at 1 and 2 pm “through the quieter blue trail that leads to the small pond. [They have] binoculars and monoculars they can loan you for free if you bring a piece of collateral to surrender, like an ID.” I’ll be there from 12 to 4pm, so come on out if you are able, and I’ll see you there.

Another turn in the February rotation…

It was a bit cooler than yesterday in Estabrook Park this morning, but the breeze felt lighter, and the sun came out after a bit, so it was another very nice time to be looking for critters.

There are still a few common mergansers on the river, but this goldeneye drake but on the better show today.

A hermit thrush was at the pond again, but I still don’t know if this is a second bird or if the one we used to see by the river has moved up to the pond.

There was also this Cooper’s hawk at the pond, and it does look like the one we just saw at the river yesterday. Perhaps this is the start of a trend, and I’ll find the catbird there next.

Finally, the winter wren who has been hanging out by the river lately has not yet moved to the pond, and at long last opted to show its cute little self again today.

Lastly, as part of Winter Break Milwaukee, Bird City Milwaukee will be leading a couple of 1-hour bird walks at 1 and 2 pm on Saturday, Feb 15, in Havenwoods State Forest “through the quieter blue trail that leads to the small pond. [They have] binoculars and monoculars they can loan you for free if you bring a piece of collateral to surrender, like an ID.” I’ll be there from 12 to 4pm, so come on out if you are able, and I’ll see you there.

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.