Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

A couple of interesting new faces…

Despite the noisy thunderstorms late yesterday afternoon, it was a very nice morning in Estabrook Park today with mostly clear skies and very still air. Add to that the parkway closure for the farmers market and the light Sunday traffic at all, and conditions were perfect for hearing any unusual peeps.

As I strolled up the center of the parkway for the narrow stretch north of the soccer fields, I heard my first unusual peep, and it came from this little cutie with black speckles on its head and a white bib, my very first Harris’s sparrow in the park. Woo Hoo! What a way to start the morning.

Long-time readers may recall that I have seen such a sparrow before, when Donna invited me up to Bayshore to see a Harris’s sparrow that had taken up residency in a backyard there last November. That picture was a lot better, but I sure am glad to finally find one in Estabrook.

The next unusual peep came at the river where this stunner, another rusty blackbird, was foraging at the water line. Better yet, this bird was far more comfortable with me taking pictures than the sparrow was, so I took at least 50 as it hopped around and faced one way and then the other. The icing on the cake was that golden morning sun, and the cherry on top was the mixing reflections off the water of the blue sky above and the red radio tower over the far riverbank.

At the north end, it’s wooing season for the great blue herons, and here’s one strutting his stuff.

Meanwhile, several of our recent visitors are still with us, and here’s a gadwall showing white speculum feathers with a black border feather.

In this mashup, the only duck I’m sure of is the wigeon on the right. The one on the left is probably a second wigeon, but the pale blue speculum feather on the one in the middle is giving me pause. I can’t tell if that color is an artifact of the lighting or its “true” color. We’ll have to see what the experts say.

Upstream of the ducks, another great blue heron was taking a nap in the middle of the river.

Back on shore, this little darling hiding in the weeds is one of the last warblers hanging around, an orange-crowned.

As I was heading south, I contemplated the complete lack of raptors today, compared to the glut we’ve been having recently, and I thought maybe they’re all waiting to dry off before coming out to hunt.

I took one last glance north before my view was blocked, and I spotted the one raptor who probably doesn’t care if its feathers are wet. In fact, the osprey thrashed its wings a bit in the water and appeared to be taking a bath.

Finally, while I was standing out in the middle of the river on the bottom exposed by the low water we’ve been having, I noticed something tiny and on the move. Happily, it didn’t move far, and I was able to get my eyes and then my camera on it.

If you think it looks funny, wait till I tell you its name. This is our very first big-eyed toad bug (Gelastocoris oculatus), I kid you not, and once again, fact is stranger than fiction. It was tiny, “about half the size of a thumb nail,” and if it hadn’t moved, I never would have seen it.

Nothing crazy, but a nice little epiphany

The forecast cold front did roll through last evening, and it was cool and blustery in Estabrook Park this morning, with winds out of the ESE and clouds slowly thickening.

Thus, the wood ducks huddled against the eastern shore of the pond instead of their usual place in the northwest corner where they can soak up the sun. Sadly, the leaves have only turned a little yellow here instead of the reds some have at the other end.

The owl was in the same spot as yesterday, even though I took this picture from a different angle. In fact, if you check back through the last four days, you can see that little curly branch under its feet is in every picture. Ha! Even better, if you look at the coloration of the face and breast feathers, you can see that the bird from Thursday has a lot more white than the bird from today and Wednesday. At last, I have a way to tell them apart when I see only one. Yay! Here’s hoping I have a lot of opportunities to use that in the coming weeks and months, eh?

Out on the river, we have a new visitor today, and it appears to be another female or immature male green-winged teal.

Meanwhile, I’m happy to report that our lone wigeon is still around and enjoying our fine Milwaukee River plants.

And here are the two soloists together for a moment. Once again, you can see how tiny the teal is compared to the wigeon, which is itself smaller than a mallard.

Speaking of small birds, the kestrel, “North America’s littlest falcon,” stopped by for another visit. I watched it make a try for a flicker, but I didn’t see it catch anything today.

That’s all I got this morning, but I still have some recent pictures that I haven’t yet used, and here’s another look at the young red-headed woodpecker from yesterday.

Finally, I didn’t see any dragonflies today, and the few sulphurs I did see were fighting mightily against the wind, so let’s go with the fiery skipper sunning itself on the paved path around the pond yesterday morning. Soon enough, I won’t even be able to find one of these for you.

Lots of familiar faces…

It was pretty nice in Estabrook Park at sunrise, but you can tell a change in the weather is coming. The sky now has a thin, white overcast, the breeze is picking up, and I hear rain is on the way.

Until then, however, the critters were plentiful, and my first greeter this morning was this darling young red-headed woodpecker. I’ve seen more of them this year than ever before, and I am holding out hope that a pair will take up residence for the coming year.

On my first visit to the river, I spotted another rusty blackbird perched over the water’s edge.

The pond was quiet, so I headed back to the river where I found this heron preening above the falls.

Upstream of the islands, a young bald eagle flew by just as I was arriving, so all the ducks made themselves scarce. Happily, they eventually trickled back in, and I was thrilled that the wigeon came back with the mallards.

So did the three gadwalls, of which this is one.

As I started to make my way south, I could hear the squirrels crying in the big silver maple at the north end of the wildflower meadow, and I looked for the cause. I had already seen a merlin and a Cooper’s hawk, but I couldn’t find who was upsetting the squirrels until I stepped out onto the exposed river bottom. Then I could see the osprey in its new favorite spot, in the dead tree next to the silver maple.

Farther downstream, I found one of the owls again. I had also seen it on my way north, but it must have shifted a bit because I could see more of its gorgeous plumage on my second pass. It never showed its face, and perhaps it was sound asleep, which may be a good sign.

You may recall that we saw a bunch of does with a fawn one day, then one of three bucks another day, and wondered if they ever met up. Welp, wonder no more. Today I watched them chase each other around on the southern island, and here go a couple of does.

And here comes one of the bucks in hot pursuit.

Finally, there are still skippers, whites, and sulphur butterflies around, but I managed at last to capture an image of what will probably be our final dragonfly of the year, so here you go. This is a green darner, and they really seem to prefer perching on the ugliest plant they can find. Oh well.

October keeps on delivering…

The stunningly beautiful weather in Estabrook Park just keeps coming, and today was just as clear and just as calm as yesterday, but a smidge warmer. Before we get into today’s sights, however, I still have some from yesterday to show you.

The yellow-bellied sapsuckers have not all passed through yet, and this gorgeous creature was sipping sap from a tree right over the riverbank at the north end.

Almost directly above the sapsucker, an osprey came to check on our fish situation and to make sure we are not overstocked.

Just a bit upstream of those two, this fox sparrow tried to outdo the pose of the one from about a week ago.

Not to let the fox sparrows get ahead, this Lincoln’s sparrow did improve upon the pose of the one from last week. That one was far too backlit, and I had to massage the image quite a bit to salvage it. This one is almost perfect right out of the can.

Alright, that’s it for yesterday, now on to today. There was only one owl this morning, and it was in the same tree as yesterday, but appeared to be sound asleep today.

At the northern island, there was a merlin perched in a tree above it again, but the surprise today was when it soon came down to check out the river water.

As I was taking pictures of the first merlin, a second suddenly appeared back atop the island, and I needed a couple of doubletakes to make sure I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing.

Perhaps feeling the comfort of a lookout above, the first merlin, who clearly knew I was sitting not even 50 yards away, decided it was time for a bath.

Here it is all wetted down and ready to go perch in the sun and preen.

As if that wasn’t enough raptor for any morning, this Cooper’s hawk swooped in and perched right over the paved path just south of where it runs right next to the parkway. I see now, from the comfort of my dining room that it is sporting some jewelry, and we haven’t seen much of that in a while.

At the far south end, this cute little yellow-rumped warbler took a short pause from chasing down bugs to do its best palm warbler imitation, but nobody beats the palms at this game.

Finally, I did see one skipper, but I figured I’d have to feature yet another sulphur or white for butterfly of the day. Then this amazing creature, which looks like a cross between sulphurs and whites, appeared on the sow thistle beside the southern soccer fields. What could it be, I wondered. Perhaps a hybrid? I read that “hybridization runs rampant in these … butterflies,” so it could well be. We may never know.

Just a couple of happy returns

I had a great morning again in Estabrook Park. The weather was beautiful, and the critters were plentiful, but I just don’t have time right now to tell you all about it. Instead, let me share a couple of highlights.

The owls are back, or perhaps they’ve been here all along, and I just couldn’t find them, but either way, it’s great to see them again. They were pretty close together in the same tree, but only this one showed its gorgeous face.

And the bucks are getting their antlers back. Tom, the vermillion flycatcher spotter, had a different angle, and he said there were actually three of them this morning, but I didn’t dare move or I’d get pictures of none of them.

That’s all I have time for now, but I’ll sure have plenty to show you tomorrow.

A couple of little surprises

The weather in Estabrook Park just keeps getting nicer. Sure, it was appropriately chilly for October this morning, but the sky remains clear, and the breeze keeps getting lighter.

My first surprise today was finding this little blast from the past. I haven’t seen a house wren in weeks, so my bet is that this one is from a house up north. Their year-round range only extends as far north as the Gulf states, and this one still has a ways to go.

For comparison, here’s a winter wren, whom we might get to see all winter.

The biggest surprise of the day was catching sight of this elusive little cutie, an immature, orange-crowned warbler. Sure, there are still plenty of yellow-rumps and a few palms around, but I did not expect to be still finding new warblers this late in the season.

At the north end, I was standing way out in the river, on a big patch of exposed riverbed, when this osprey glided over, and I was afraid that it would take one look at me and just keep gliding. Today must be my lucky day, however, because it circled around and took a perch right over our riverbank where I could sneak this picture.

Finally, as I was sneaking around trying to get an osprey picture, yet another raptor glided in, this pretty little merlin, and it took a perch over the northern island, right across from the osprey.

And that’s the whole show for today, folks. I am sure there was plenty more to see, but I just ran out of time. Let’s hope the surprises I missed stick around for another day so I can find them tomorrow.

Plenty of fine sights to see…

The wind has finally subsided, and the sky is still clear, so it was a nearly perfect, if chilly, morning for a visit to Estabrook Park. I saw a hungry Cooper’s hawk try for little birds three separate times today, and this picture is at the pond after it came up empty on its second attempt. The third time was the most “fun” to watch, however, because dozens of juncos and sparrows leapt off the ground for their lives as it swooped over.

With the still air, the water on the pond was flat as a mirror.

The big surprise today at the river was this quartet of deer sneaking between the islands.

We have another new bird for the fall migration, and this time it’s this rusty blackbird.

This is my first blue-headed vireo of the season, but they’ve been spotted in Estabrook already this month.

Meanwhile, the wigeon is still with us and has teamed up with the gadwalls. In the image below, the wigeon is on the right, and one of the two gadwalls I saw today is on the left.

As I was trying to get a decent picture of the ducks out on the water, this ruby-crowned kinglet put on such a nice show while foraging through the willow shoots growing out of the riverbank that I just couldn’t resist taking its picture.

This next picture is pretty terrible, I admit. The bird looked like a black silhouette against a backdrop of leaves lit up by the sun, so I really had to over expose it with my camera and then try to clean it up on my laptop, but, if my identification is correct, this might be my best wood thrush picture yet. Sheesh, they are elusive little skulkers.

There were a few phoebes hunting bugs over the river, and I checked every one carefully in hopes that one might be a vermillion flycatcher, but I had no luck with that. Instead, I did get this pretty picture.

Back at the pond, the great blue heron had arrived, and the water was still pretty smooth, so here you go.

On my way back to the river for one more check, I spotted my only sapsucker of the morning, and this might be the last we see of them until they come through again in the spring.

Lastly, I was surprised to find the weeds by the soccer fields nearly empty, given the warm sun, but perhaps the butterflies were still too chilled from the cold overnight. Happily, the situation by the Church House must have been a smidge warmer, so here’s one more sulphur to act as our butterfly of the day.

The wind backs off a bit…

The skies were nice and clear again, and the wind was not blowing quite as hard as yesterday, but it was still a pretty breezy morning, so I wasn’t sure who I might be able to see. The critters put on a good show, nevertheless, and my first little greeter this morning was this darling Tennessee warbler foraging in the gone-by goldenrod beside the soccer fields.

At the river, this dapper-looking song sparrow seemed momentarily transfixed by the beautiful morning.

When I first arrived at the north end, all I could find were mallards and Canada geese, but then an osprey dropped in to do a little fishing.

And then I spotted a pair of gadwalls, perhaps the same birds we saw last week, dabbling north of the northern island.

The biggest surprise, however, was finding this American wigeon near the gadwalls. I haven’t seen one here since 2021.

At the pond, the red-eared slider was up enjoying the sun one more time, …

a young, white-crowned sparrow was foraging on the path, …

a gray catbird was lurking in the bushes, …

and the great blue heron was preening before a nice backdrop of autumn colors.

Finally, when I was back at the soccer fields and checking for butterflies, a young bald eagle, perhaps the same one we saw last week at the north end, soared over.

Lastly, with the wind out of the west, the weeds there are pretty sheltered, and there were skippers and sulphurs sipping from some of the few flowers left in bloom. Since the previous butterfly of the day was a skipper, let’s go with a sulphur this time.

Look who the wind blew in!

One of the big stories from yesterday is that Tom, the mink whisperer, spotted a vermillion flycatcher catching flies off the southern tip of the northern island and about 1000 miles northeast of its natural range. As soon as I found out, I hustled back out to see if I could also see it, along with at least 10 other birders, but none of us had any luck. You can see the amazing pictures Tom go on his imgur page, and my best guess for why it is here is that is somehow got blown here by hurricane Helene.

Anyway, while I was at the river again, I watched this kestrel swoop down and grab some hapless little songbird for lunch. The picture looks a bit goofy because the bird was almost completely backlit and its silhouette is about all you could see in the original image. I used software to lighten up the shadows, but it is not perfect.

Here’s a more-natural glimpse of the bird from a different angle.

This morning, it was super windy, so there was little chance of spotty a flycatcher of any kind, but the wind didn’t keep us from seeing these immature or female blue-winged teals. As with the green-winged teals from a few days ago, you can see that they are much smaller than looming mallard hen right behind them, just not as much smaller.

As I was trying to get a nice teal picture, look who swooped in to perch above the southern island for a moment: a Cooper’s hawk.

Meanwhile, this much-smaller merlin was perched above the northern island.

They both soon took to the air, and the merlin eventually drove the hawk away. It seems to always depend on the size of the fight in the bird, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I eventually made it to the pond, and I was just in time to catch the female rose-breasted grosbeak call out for others.

Lastly, I did see one sulphur butterfly struggling in the wind today, but I left it alone and took a picture of this wooly-bear caterpillar instead.

Sorry for all the typos, but I’m behind schedule and gotta run.

Little Bird Day!

Oof, what a morning! I’ve got a few new long stories to tell you at some point, but I don’t have time now, so let me just get to the pictures.

I didn’t see anything to photograph until my third trip to the river, after visiting the pond twice. There were a bunch of little birds there, and here’s a handsome song sparrow. Yay!

Here’s the first swamp sparrow for this season in Estabrook Park. Yee Haw!

And here’s the first fox sparrow reported for this season in all of Milwaukee County. Woo Hoo!

Just a bit downstream from all the sparrows, this was a couple of feet long and half-a-foot wide and is either a huge scaly tongue of a dragon or the tail of a beaver. I hope for the latter.

Then, just as I was about to leave the park, I checked the old fruit trees again, and this little cutie, a yellow-rumped warbler, paused just long enough for a nice portrait. We even managed to include some pretty fall foliage. “Thanks, Sweetie!”

Finally, in the same tree as the yellow-rumped, this palm warbler must have decided to show us what a real portrait looks like. They truly are the best little posers.