Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Happy 5th Anniversary!

It was five years ago today, on March 26, that I breathlessly emailed family and friends that I had spotted a wood duck on the pond in Estabrook Park. Before that day, I don’t believe I had ever seen one, let alone known their name. Here’s a look at that original picture.

For those of you who don’t remember, the COVID-19 pandemic was just getting started, UWM had already extended spring break for a second week, and they may have already told us to stay home until further notice. Long walks in the park seemed like a good idea at the time.

Well, five years have come and gone, we’ve seen a lot of critters, and I hope you’ve enjoyed them as much as I have. Thanks a ton for following along, and now let’s see who was in the park today.

After a brief lull, when I suspect the ones who had been with us through the winter had flown north, now we have winter wrens again, whom I suspect are also on their way north, but from points south of here. Either way, I always love to see them.

Trees are starting to blossom in the park, I’d bet this is a maple, based on the color, and this grey squirrel was chowing down on them as though it has been waiting for fresh vegetables all winter long. I’ve seen them eating seeds that haven’t dropped yet, but I don’t believe I’ve seen them eating blossoms before, and I sure hope the trees have budgeted for that.

The golden-crowned kinglets are becoming more plentiful, and I followed this one for a while, taking plenty of shots of moving birds and empty branches, before it eventually appeared to say, “Let’s try an art shot. You know, with a dark background, a soft focus, and my head turned just so,” to which I replied, “Sure, Sweetie, whatever you want, just so long as I finally get a picture.”

The red squirrels are out and enjoying the spring weather, too, and this one appeared, for all the world, to be licking the sap off of a leaky box elder branch. The squirrel was at it for a while, and I have a few pictures, but this is the one in which you can even see its pink little tongue. I did not know they did that.

The big surprise at the river today was this merlin, perched high over the upstream island. I believe that the last time we saw one was back in December, so “Welcome back, Darling!”

The big surprise at the pond was finding the goose finally nesting on the island. She’s about two weeks behind last year’s schedule, but two days ahead of 2022, and four days behind 2021, That’s pretty consistent timing, given that she probably doesn’t even have a proper calendar. As I’ve written before, if everything goes okay, now we’ve got just 32 to 48 days to wait until gosling time! Yay!

Finally, the wood ducks on the pond this morning were more skittish than usual, but I couldn’t go without a wood duck picture today, of all days, so here’s a nice one from last Monday, when I already had plenty of other pictures to show you.

That’s it for today, and tune in tomorrow to find who’s the next new bird in town. Oh, and thanks to the folks who came out for my North Shore School for Seniors class yesterday. You had a lot of great questions, and I hope you had as good a time as I did.

Back in Estabrook again…

My siblings and I all arrived home safely from Colorado yesterday afternoon, but before we left, my sister who lives there and her husband really wanted to show us the bald eagles’ nest just down the road from their place, and here it is. I wrote yesterday that it was very windy out there, and I didn’t even bother to go out looking for wildlife before I posted, but the wind sure didn’t keep this eagle from sitting on its nest. We couldn’t tell if that is Mom or Dad, and we couldn’t see if there are eggs or chicks in there, but either way, they were being kept nice and warm.

When I awoke this morning, the weather in Estabrook Park was as nice as I could ask for in March. It was seasonably chilly, but the wind was very light, and the skies were mostly clear, so it was a perfect time to see who might have arrived while I was away.

We’ve seen this beauty a couple of times already this spring, but she let me sneak a great shot today.

The red-winged blackbirds have been here all month, but they still make a nice picture anyway when they’re busy singing.

All the fancy ducks on the river appear to have flown north, but we should get to enjoy the wood ducks on the pond all summer long.

The woodpeckers are busy drumming or excavating nesting cavities these days, but they still gotta eat, and that’s what this red-bellied woodpecker beside the river appeared to be doing.

Finally, the eastern bluebirds tend not to nest in Estabrook, at least in my short experience, so it is always a treat when they stop in, even if it is on their way to a spot that suits them better.

Lastly, my North Shore School for Seniors class is in a couple of hours, so if you’re planning to join us, I’ll see you there, and I’ll have some content that I haven’t been able to share yet in these posts.

Homeward bound…

I had a hope for one more good outing here in Colorado before I fly home this afternoon, but I can hear the wind howling outside as I sip my coffee and wait for the sun to come up, and I don’t know if or where there might be places where the wind is blocked, as is often the case along parts of the river in Estabrook Park, so I don’t have much hope of getting any new pictures today. Thus I might as well write this post now with the rest of the pictures I managed yesterday, and get back to business as usual tomorrow morning.

As we started are walk back from a great visit to downtown Golden yesterday afternoon, I was thrilled to spot my first Cooper’s hawk in Colorado. Even better, it seemed quite content on that perch, so I was able to sneak pretty close for a nice portrait, and it didn’t even bother to put its second foot down.

As I mentioned yesterday, my sister lives on the outskirts of town, and the last stretch of road to her place runs through a bit of a valley, and check out this pair I found perched on a power line that runs along one side. I have often thought that the size and shape of a perched American kestrel is quite reminiscent of a mourning dove, but I didn’t realize that they will also perch together as doves do. Well, at least these two did. They were at least a couple hundred yards away, so well beyond the realistic range of my gear, but I think you can get the idea.

The best treat of the whole trek was finding this Townsend’s solitaire (Myadestes townsendi) perched in almost the same spot I had seen it last year when I was out here without my camera. “Thanks, Sweety!” In fact, the memory of spotting it on the same walk home and not being able to take a picture was the whole inspiration for hauling all that weight along on this supposed “ski” trip. Even better, our trip this year is a couple of months later than last year, so I had a lot more light to work with this time. Last time, we were well into twilight, and I resorted to asking my brother to see if he could also make out the slight light stripe on its wing that I thought I was seeing.

Since I had two nice pictures of the mountain chickadee from yesterday morning, here’s a second look at that little cutie.

Finally, the valley continues past my sister’s place, and here are a few mule deer I could see farther up the valley when I got there.

As I also mentioned yesterday, I won’t be home in time for our weekly wildlife walk this morning, but John Kasper has graciously offered to lead today, so don’t hesitate to join him and see who’s knew in Estabrook since I was there last Thursday.

Also, my presentation at North Shore School for Seniors is Tuesday afternoon, so come on out if you’ve always wanted to see this show live.

Lastly, thanks to my sister and her husband for hosting us for this awesome trip, and also to my brother and other sister for putting up with my little hobby.

And then, we rested…

After two full days of amazing skiing, here in Colorado, we had yet to sustain permanent injury, so we declared victory and took it easy today. That meant that I had a lot more time for picture taking this morning, and here are the results.

Black-billed magpies (Pica hudsonia) seem to be everywhere out here, but they are pretty shy, similar to the blue jays and American crows in Estabrook Park, so not the easiest to capture on film. This one, however, seemed hesitant to flee, as if it wasn’t quite warmed up yet from the cold temps overnight, and so it allowed this picture. If you look to the right of the tree trunk, you can see the rest of its very long tail.

If I had to guess, I’d guess that nine out of ten of the large black birds I saw here were American crows, and the tenth bird was a common raven. We’ve seen them before, most recently in the Grand Canyon, and here’s one from this morning just as it made its distinctive croak.

On the smaller side, here’s a mountain chickadee, which we also saw before in the Grand Canyon.

After breakfast, we headed back down the mountain to my sister’s place on the outskirts of Golden, and there I found a shy Steller’s jay with a crest, unlike the uncrested one we saw in Guatemala last month.

Finally, we took a walk into town, and on the way, I found my very first eastern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), which I read “is the largest species of tree squirrel native to North America.“

Lastly, I fly home tomorrow, but not in time for our weekly wildlife walk. Instead, John Kasper has offered to lead the group again, so come on out to see who has arrived while I’ve been away.

The hawk and the crow…

It snowed here a bunch overnight and into the morning, so the skiing was amazing today, but the snow was followed by a fierce wind, so the birds were even more scarce this afternoon than yesterday, if you can believe it.

Nevertheless, I headed out to take a look, and my reward was catching this crow trying to urge a red-tailed hawk to move along, but in this picture, you can see the hawk appearing to ask the crow, “you sure you wanna do this, Buddy?”

They flew behind some buildings before I got to see the crow’s answer, so I don’t know how it turned out, but it was an amazing sight to see for the moment I could see it.

Everyone else was taking shelter from the wind, however, so that’s all I’ve got for today, but we head back down the mountain tomorrow, so I have a hope of seeing more. Wish me luck, and I’ll keep you posted.

A pine siskin in Colorado…

My siblings and I all made it to Colorado safely late yesterday, and we drove up into the mountains this morning for a day of skiing. Luckily, there was still plenty of light left after the lifts stopped running, so I had time to look around for local critters before supper. In the past, I have had some luck with this, even though I hadn’t brought my camera, but since I did schlep it along this time, you know what happened. I could hardly find a bird, of course.

So, here’s the one bird I did find that also let me take a picture, and it’s a pine siskin, which we have seen from time to time in Estabrook Park, but I only managed a picture once before, and it wasn’t very good. Thankfully, today’s siskin seemed content as it sang it’s soft little song, let me creep slowly closer and closer, and granted us this portrait.

You might be thinking, “that looks just like the female house finches we see by the pond in Estabrook when it’s cold out,” and you’d be right, I believe, except for one detail. Siskins have a sharp, pointy beak that looks nothing like the hefty seed husker that the house finches wield. I read that siskins prefer “smaller seeds without tough shells like thistle and oil sunflower, but they will scavenge fragments of larger seeds left by heavier-billed birds.” Happily, today’s subject was even kind enough to turn its head so we could have a better look at that bill.

I hope my luck tomorrow is as good.

Happy Spring!

Despite the crazy weather that rolled in yesterday afternoon, with pouring rain, hail, howling winds, and even some snow, spring arrived anyway, and it was a pretty nice morning in Estabrook Park.

My first treat of the day came early when I spotted my first golden-crowned kinglets of the year. This picture is actually from a second pair later in the morning when the light was much better, but the little rascals hop around so fast that I still struggled to get a presentable picture.

Even better, I found my first brown creepers of the year, three of them, and just like the kinglets, they move so quickly that all I could manage was this blurry picture today, but I promise to do better soon.

Out on the river and above the falls, we still have a goldeneye drake hanging around, but I didn’t see the hen with him today, and maybe that’s why he looks a little grumpy.

Meanwhile, a bit farther upstream, the hooded merganser drake was joined by this hen today. Good for them!

Another sure sign of spring was finding my first nesting bird of the year, this pigeon under the Port Washington Rd bridge. You may recall, that’s where we saw pigeon chicks last summer, and I read that they can have “1-6 broods” in a year, so perhaps this is just the first of many.

I saw the wood ducks, mallards, and geese at the pond, but I was happiest to see a couple of American tree sparrows. Once things settle down for the summer, I don’t see them in Estabrook much.

Finally, this little critter seemed unsure if it was safe to come out of its den today.

But it eventually did, and I suspect it found the day to be quite to its liking.

Lastly, I’m popping out to Colorado to see my siblings this afternoon, and I’ll bring my gear, but I can’t make any promises, so don’t be alarmed by a momentary disruption in service. I’ll be back in time for my North Shore School for Seniors class next week on Tuesday afternoon. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Some quick sights before the rain…

It was cool, cloudy, and breezy this morning in Estabrook Park, but at least the rain held off for a while. The critters may have been sensing that a storm was on its way because they seemed more skittish than yesterday.

I didn’t take a picture until I was beside the downstream island in the river, where I spotted our phoebe again. If you are beginning to tire of phoebe pictures, don’t worry. They eventually drift farther north for the summer, and I have a hope that new birds will be arriving soon.

The female belted kingfisher was back near her spot, but she kept to the farther branches, and there was no sun today to light her up.

The blue-winged teals and northern shovelers have all moved on already, and the hooded merganser kept his distance, so the interesting sight in the waters around the islands was this American herring gull who caught the first crayfish I’ve seen this season.

Back below the islands, I was happy to see that we still have a pair of common goldeneyes on the river, and here’s the drake trying to take a nap, …

and here’s the hen keeping tabs on things.

Finally, the wood ducks at the pond kept to the water today, and here’s a pair hugging the shore of the island.

Lastly, my presentation at North Shore School for Seniors is just next week, so if you want to see me do this show before a live audience, you can sign up here.

March settles back down…

After the crazy weather lately, it was nice to have some normal March conditions for a change. Temps were seasonably cool, and it was partly cloudy, but the winds were light, and it definitely was not precipitating.

The critters seemed to be enjoying the return to normalcy as much as I was, and here’s the eastern phoebe looking like it might have a belly full of bugs for the first time since it arrived. A reader I met later by the pond even commented on the appearance of gnats in the air.

The northern flickers are finally back for real. I’ve caught glimpses of them for at least a week, but today there were at least two separate individuals, I could hear them calling, and I finally managed to capture a picture of one. This handsome devil is even giving us a peek at the white patch on his lower back. Usually when I see that, the bird is already in flight, and it means that “yup, I missed getting a flicker picture, again.”

The huge surprise of the morning for me was spotting a pair of blue-winged teal drakes on the river near the upstream island. Just a week ago, they were considered “rare” in Milwaukee County, and now these two were kind enough to climb up on a log so I could take their portraits. The one in the foreground is even giving us a peek at its namesake teal speculum feathers.

Even better, they brought their northern shoveler pals with them. In total, there were four shoveler hens and four shoveler drakes. This is the kind of congregation I might hope to see at Lake Shore State Park, so I’m beyond thrilled to have gotten to see it in Estabrook.

Here’s just one pair of shovelers, and I believe this might be the best shoveler picture I’ve managed to take in the park so far.

When I spotted this hooded merganser drake in the mix, I thought to myself, “Sure, why not throw in a hoodie, too.”

As you might imagine, I blew a lot of film on that opportunity, but I eventually figured I must have at least a couple of presentable pictures, and so I headed toward the pond. On the way, I found a pair of killdeer on the softball field again, but there was no choreography this time. I suspect they are attracted to that spot because it is the closest thing to “beach sand” in the area.

The pond was full of mallards and wood ducks, but this pair put on the best show when they demonstrated why they’re called “wood” ducks.

Finally, as I approached the southern soccer fields on my way home, I found this little cutie looking a lot more comfortable with the weather than the one did on Sunday.

Spring makes a quick comeback…

Sure, at 22°F, it was a bit chilly this morning for the middle of March, but the sun was mostly out, and the breeze was very light, so it was quite a nice morning for our Weekly Wildlife Walk in Estabrook Park. There were eleven of us all together, and we identified 25 bird species.

On my way to the parking lot by the beer garden to meet everyone at 8am, I got to see our first deer in a while at the far south end.

North of the falls, I found a red-breasted merganser drake back again.

Once we had the group together, we went back to the river to see the merganser, who was kind enough to have stuck around, and the next fun sight was this red-bellied woodpecker peeking out of the nesting cavity it was excavating.

Here it is letting any potential bidders have a good look at the entire package deal.

We couldn’t find the hooded mergansers that I had also spotted earlier, but once our walk was over and I went back to the river to see if I could get a picture of the flicker that some folks had seen, the little stinkers showed up again, and here’s the drake.

By then, the morning had warmed up quite a bit, enough to turn the frozen river path back into mud, and that must have been what a pair of eastern bluebirds had been waiting for. Anyway, here’s the male.

Same for the phoebe, even though I had told folks to keep an eye out for it. Oh well.

I eventually gave up on the flicker and headed back to the pond for one more look, and on my way, I came across this trio of killdeer appearing to practice some complicated performance on the softball field.

Finally, when I turned around, I found this red squirrel in the tree above me who seemed to be as transfixed as I was by the killdeer choreography.

Lastly, I just read that “Looking at Images of Nature Does Something Powerful in The Brain,” so perhaps this can be your dose for today.