Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Several mid-July surprises…

As forecast, the cool and dry air we’ve enjoyed in Estabrook for the past couple of days has moved on, and it was warmer and rainier in the park today. The air has remained nearly still, however, and with non-holiday, early Saturday traffic, it was wonderfully quiet this morning.

My first treat of the day was finding this darling female hooded merganser on the pond. There was also a young great blue heron and a couple of wood ducks, and once the merganser saw me, she drifted right over to the wood ducks for comfort, moral support, or protection, but she wouldn’t say which.

The lighting wasn’t great, so I left the heron and ducks alone and headed down to the river to see if there were any scenes I could capture. Happily, these three youngish mallard ducklings had selected a perch pretty close to our riverbank, and they did not want to give it up, so I was able to sneak this picture without rousing them. Mom was just off to the right, and she drifted over to get between us once she saw me.

On quiet days like today, I’ve been hearing one or two common yellowthroats across the river at the north end and just about ever since they arrived, but today one was calling loud and clear from what’s left of the wildflower meadow on our side of the river. They are usually quite hard to spot, but he kept on singing as I carefully approached, so I gave a look, and was thrilled to find him almost right away. He even gave me enough time to sneak this picture, and then he bolted for deeper cover.

The biggest treat of the day, however, came soon after, when I spotted a dark bird perched high in a dead tree, as I often see cowbirds do. I hadn’t seen a cowbird yet today, and it wasn’t making its characteristic call, so I first tried the binoculars, but the back light was so bright that I couldn’t make out the brown head. So, I tried my camera, which can sometimes tease out a detail like that if I way overexpose the image.

Well, the bird turned out to be a grackle, but just as I was realizing that, a hawk flew right under it and perched a few trees back. I figured it was a Cooper’s hawk, based on size and behavior, but I hadn’t gotten a picture of one in a while, and my camera was already on and ready to go, so I gave it a try, and this is what I got.

It does look a bit like a Cooper’s hawk, but the tail is too short, and they don’t have that brown bib extending from the face onto the breast, as this one does. Thus, I wasn’t sure who it was, so I consulted with my sources, and they both agreed that this is our very first broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus). For reasons that the range map does not make clear, ebird considers them rare for here right now, but there are not a lot of rarities being posted these days, so I shouldn’t have to wait too long for the fine folks at ebird to weigh in to accept or reject my identification. Keep your fingers crossed!

And that’s it for the birds today, so here’s another look at the doe and her fawn from Monday. I’m sorry to say that they’ve kept out of sight since then.

I did get several moth pictures today, but these particular moths are not especially photogenic, and I failed to get any dragonflies or butterflies, so here’s a sulphur, either clouded or orange, from yesterday, when the butterflies were plentiful.

Finally, here’s another monarch-on-thistle picture, also from yesterday, because I simply cannot resist those colors.

Lastly, a friend of mine is trying to preserve a little bit of accidental wetland in Whitefish Bay, where she has documented over 80 species of plants and animals. You can read a very nice article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about it here, and you can participate in a super-easy letter-writing campaign here. Remember that the more friendly habitat there is around us, the more wildlife there can be, and the more we’re likely to see of it in Estabrook Park.

Enjoying the cool-down, while it lasts…

It started out even cooler this morning in Estabrook Park than yesterday, so cool that I even wore a jacket for the first hour, but the cloud cover was much thinner, so the light was nicer, and the day warmed up pretty quickly.

I didn’t see any herons on the pond, however, and I couldn’t find any interesting visitors on the river, either. Instead, the most remarkable sight I saw today was this brood of young mallards with their mom. Most of their cousins are already big enough to look like adults, but these little cuties are still wearing their birthday suits.

I didn’t get another bird picture until I was back at the south end, where I spotted this cedar waxwing in the birch tree over the weeds beside the soccer fields. I would have liked to have been able to wait for the cloud to pass behind it, but waxwings tend not to sit still long.

This song sparrow, however, was in the same tree and too busy singing to go anywhere, so I had plenty of time to wait for some nice blue sky to show up.

I’m never sure if it is the mix of weeds themselves, their location between the river and a wide expanse of mown lawn, or just the time of day, but I usually find the best selection of photogenic bugs there, and today was no exception. I know I’ve shown you a Halloween pennant dragonfly a couple of times already this summer, but how’s a guy supposed to resist these colors?

Similarly, I’ve already shown you a banded hairstreak butterfly earlier this month, but this one doesn’t have a chunk of wing missing, so I’m claiming a do-over.

Lastly, if I can get away with doubling and tripling up on those two, certainly you won’t complain if I also show you one more red admiral butterfly. Plus, that first one looked a little worn, but this one still looks fresh out of its packaging.

Lastly, if this recent cool, dry weather is getting you down, you won’t have to suffer much longer because I see 80s and thunderstorms in back in the forecast for tomorrow. Enjoy!

Now that’s a change in the weather…

Jeepers! The weather must have heard me mention fall migration season yesterday and gotten all excited because it sure was cool and dark in Estabrook Park this morning, and even at lunchtime we’re still in the lower 60s.

Luckily, birds still gotta eat, so here’s a green heron who just snatched a crayfish out of the pond.

And here are a couple of young-looking mallard ducklings getting their breakfast out of the river as Mom keeps watch.

The cool air really slowed the bugs down, but this one dragonfly, a spot-winged glider, still flew its patrol over the pollinator garden, and I had to practice my patience before it let me get this shot.

I only saw one butterfly today, and it evaded me, so here’s a female monarch from yesterday and on swamp milkweed by the river.

And here she is laying an egg.

After the warm spell we’ve had, I sure don’t mind this cool air, but I do hope the sun comes back out eventually.

Family photo day…

The beautiful weather we’ve been enjoying in Estabrook Park is starting to look a little rough around the edges today with towering clouds embedded in a hazy sky. Thus, it was a little darker than usual at the pond when I arrived, which made a nice background for the youngish great blue heron we’ve been seeing there lately.

Then a green heron showed up, and I really wanted to get a nice picture of both of them together, and this was the best I could manage, but it does give you some sense of the difference in size between them.

When I gave up on the “family” portrait idea, I had better luck.

Meanwhile, there was another “family” reunion going on at the river when a pair of solitary sandpipers showed up. We haven’t seen them since the last “family” portrait back in May. Since their breeding range is well over the border into Canada, and they winter south of the Florida panhandle, I believe their arrival must officially mark the start of fall migration season! Woo hoo!

This visit was a little more contentious than the last, however, and one of the spotted sandpipers, who’ve been here all summer, seemed to have a bone to pick with their larger cousins, whom it kept chasing off. Perhaps it just didn’t want to share the breakfast buffet with these out-of-towners, or something else was up, but either way, there were no group shots.

I’ve shown you a blue dasher dragonfly already this month, but this one did a much nicer job of showing off the dashing black and yellow stripes it has under its wings.

Finally, I’ve also shown you a hackberry emperor butterfly this month, but that was from the other side of the state, and the only other one I’ve ever shown you also had its wings spread wide, so I was very excited to get a picture at last of one with its wings closed. Plus, who knew they had such amazing eyes? I sure didn’t.

It’s not August yet, but these sure feel like some lazy days of summer.

The recent great weather in Estabrook Park continued this morning, the cicadas were already singing at 7 a.m., and this green heron making one of its infrequent visits to the pond was icing on the cake.

There was also this trio of wood duck hens there, and they’ve started that mutual preening behavior that we’ve seen from them before.

On the river, the belted kingfishers are still feeding their noisy young.

As I was trying to capture the kingfisher feeding, these two large snapping turtles floated by and appeared to be “wrestling,” but I never got to see who “won.”

No sooner had the turtles drifted beyond range when this deer waded from the upstream island to the mainland, but there was no sign of the doe with her fawn today.

Back on shore, this dapper-looking American goldfinch male used some chicory as a perch from which to pick grass seeds, which you can see him deftly clutching in his right claw.

Just below, this less-flashy female did about the same.

I’ve seen both swamp milkweed and large milkweed bugs before, but never quite like this. It looks like they’re having quite a time.

I only captured my first amberwing image just last August, but it sure made me wait for it that day, and even then it didn’t let me get very close. Today, however, I didn’t have to wait long at all, and this one let me have a nice closeup. What a difference a year makes, eh?

Finally, despite the warm temps, calm winds, and plentiful blossoms, I didn’t see a lot of butterflies today, so it’s back to the monarchs again. The light was great, and the subject sat still, so the image has some pretty good details. If you click on it so you can zoom in, you can see how the scales on the wing appear to be arranged in a circular pattern around the “shoulder” joint.

Don’t forget that the Friends of Estabrook Member Picnic is this afternoon, Tuesday, July 15 from 5 to 7:30 at the Estabrook Park beer garden, and the invite explicitly states “feel free to bring new friends,” so come on out and join us if you’re able.

More wildlife than walkers today…

It was another beautiful morning in Estabrook Park, and it seemed that the Canadian wildfire smoke, which had dimmed yesterday a bit, has mostly moved on.

My first treat of the morning came on the river, just north of the falls, when I saw that a big section of a cottonwood tree had fallen into the water, and then I noticed a little movement among the branches. It turns out that I was not the first to discover this literal windfall, and here’s a beaver busily taking advantage of it.

Just a bit upstream of the beaver, I was pleasantly surprised to find ten wood duck ducklings that look nearly full grown. In fact, I can’t even decide if there’s a mom in the group or not. It’s great to see that we should have plenty of new wood ducks to come visit us next spring.

Speaking of “moms”, look who brought her fawn out to greet the day on the upstream island.

Then it was time for me to hustle up to the parking lot to greet the 7 a.m. wildlife walkers, which turned out to be only John Kasper today, who has led walks for me while I’ve been away. Similarly, the 8 a.m. crew turned out to be only Jeff Bentoff, who sent us that awesome screech owl picture a few summers ago. Together, we thought maybe folks were staying home to avoid the smoke, and we did see plenty of birds, but the only picture I took was of another softshell turtle on the far riverbank.

Then John mentioned that he had just seen bobolinks on the south side of town, and Jeff said he’d love to see bobolinks in Milwaukee, a sentiment that I immediately seconded, so we wrapped things up in Estabrook, and Jeff drove us down to the southside. At first, all we were seeing were savannah sparrows perched and swallows on the wing.

But the Milwaukee bobolinks eventually began to appear, and here’s a female.

And finally, here are a couple of males, in various stages of getting their breeding plumage in or molting it out. Thanks for the tip, John, and for the lift, Jeff!

Lastly, the tall grasses and wildflowers also brought us our first black swallowtail of the season. Yay!

Oh, and don’t forget! The Friends of Estabrook Member Picnic is tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday, July 15 from 5 to 7:30 at the beer garden, and the invite explicitly states “feel free to bring new friends,” so come on out and join us if you’re able.

And the award for most-lost visitor goes to…

Oof! What a day. My plan was to skip Estabrook again and go straight to the lake front to join the Milwaukee Birders one more time at Lakeshore State Park. My recent outings with them have been so fruitful that I had high hopes. There were some flies in my ointment, however, because I had not planned on the aftermath of Harley-Davidson®’s “Homecoming™” on the shores of Juneau Lagoon, nor the aftermath of yesterday’s dragon boat racing at Lakeshore State Park. There just wasn’t a lot of wildlife to see this morning, although Lisa did manage to conjure up the Caspian tern she was hoping to see.

So, I went looking for our latest celebrity guest, a kelp gull (Larus dominicanus), who is far, far away from home, and is making the best of it on the roof of general cargo terminal 2 in the Port of Milwaukee. This morning was my second attempt, and I came up empty again. With nothing to write about, I was moping around the house early this afternoon when I saw that someone had just spotted it, and it turns out that the third time was the charm for me! Here he is, our southern wanderer, with his local sweetheart by his side, from 400 feet away and through a chain-link fence. “Welcome to Milwaukee, Buddy! Try the fish!”

Now that we’re all here, I might as well show you the one picture I took in Estabrook yesterday morning of three wood duck hens practicing their logrolling on the pond. Two had been perched there nicely, but when the third hopped up to join them, the floating log did not want to stay put, and after a few attempts, one of the ducks just gave up and swam away in disgust.

Finally, here’s a very fresh-looking monarch butterfly from Havenwoods yesterday, and those little wide spots on the veins of his hind wings marks him as a he.

I see the weather report looks gorgeous for our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning, with clear skies, nearly still air, and temps in the mid-sixties, so come on out, if you can, and I’ll see you in the parking lot by the beer garden at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m., depending on your schedule. Oh, and I heard from an attendee last week that my phone number hidden on that page is discoverable, so if you’re a few minutes late, just shoot me a text, and I’ll tell you where to find us.

Back to Havenwoods once more…

It was a nice enough morning in Estabrook Park, and the critters were mostly out and about, but I didn’t see many scenes that were particularly photo-worthy, so I pulled the plug on my visit after a couple of hours and hustled up to Havenwoods State Forest to join the Milwaukee Birders by 8:30 a.m. for their “Second Saturdays” bird walk. I’ve only been there in the winter, so let’s see who the summer has brought with it.

The first treat was seeing three (3!) American kestrels, which I understand are part of a family with two fledglings. I’m not sure if this is a parent or fledgling, but it sure is a pretty bird, isn’t it?

House wrens are not nearly as exotic as kestrels, but they are quite the singers, and this guy was no exception.

We see orchard orioles once in a while in Estabrook, but they must not find there the habitat they are looking for, because they never stick around. Instead, Havenwoods must fit the bill because we saw a pair of them today, and here’s the male.

The same must be true for marsh wrens, because look who I found in the cattails at the edge of one of the ponds they have.

Given the big, open fields, I would have been surprised if there were not meadowlarks, but they did keep out of sight until the last field we checked.

The wildflowers in those big, open fields also attract butterflies, and I counted at least five species, and this is our first red-spotted purple of the year. I hope to see one in Estabrook soon.

I realize I also just showed you a wood nymph last Sunday, but this one posed to nicely with such good lighting, that I couldn’t help myself.

Similarly, I just showed you a wood satyr on Thursday, but how often do you get to see a nymph and a satyr on the same day, so you can really compare and contrast them? Plus, we got a completely different pose today.

Well, that turned out to be totally worth the bike ride up there, and I may have to do it again sometime.

Some bits of color on a gray day…

It was a soggy morning in Estabrook Park, and the rain was coming down pretty good at sunrise, but it didn’t last, I’m happy to say, and I was able to get out the door by about quarter after six.

My first treat of the day was finding our osprey perched on our side of the river and just about at eye level. If you click on the image so that you can zoom in, you can even see that it still has drops of rainwater on its back.

Given the weather, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that my next treat was this family of wood ducks on the river above the falls.

Meanwhile, just a hundred yards upstream, this family of mallards appeared to be settling in for a nap.

There was a second family of mallards on that sandbar, however, and the mom with the younger ducklings strode over and chased the first mom off. She’s now out of frame, but you can see her five ducklings now at attention and wide awake.

Then the first mom decided it was time to go, and I swear I could hear her ducklings clamoring “why do we have to go? We liked it there,” as they trailed behind her, and the look on her face sure sounds to me like “because I said so, that’s why.”

Back on shore, and high above the meadow at the north end, the biggish surprise of the day is our first rose-breasted grosbeak since early May. They’re not considered “rare” for this time of year, just “infrequent”.

The grosbeak was quiet today, but this young kingfisher made up for it with incessant calls of “Feed me! Feed me!”

Finally, in the weeds beside the soccer fields, I was thrilled to find this colorful Halloween pennant dragonfly on such a gray day.

Lastly, I did get a monarch picture today, but it’s kinda drab, and I think this summer azure picture from Monday, when I did have a nice monarch picture, came out better.

Oh, and don’t forget! The Friends of Estabrook Member Picnic is coming up on Tuesday, July 15 from 5 to 7:30 at the beer garden, and the invite explicitly states “feel free to bring new friends,” so come on out and join us if you’re able.

A little bit of everything…

It was another beautiful morning in Estabrook Park, and I thought there was enough light for me to get a nice and early start. So early, in fact, that I surprised this raccoon, who was still out foraging by the underpass when I walked by.

Things were quiet, however, and the only bird picture I took today is of this darling spotted sandpiper. It’s young, so it doesn’t have spots yet. Instead, you can still see its fluffy baby feathers poking out all over.

Since I wasn’t seeing much today, I decided to hike back home, grab my bike, and ride down to the Urban Ecology Center for their 8 a.m. bird walk. We saw a decent number of birds, but I still failed to capture any on film. Instead, I found another spiny softshell turtle on the far riverbank, and I couldn’t resist.

Then there were two more! Wow, they’re thick down there.

On our way back up from the river, we went by two (2!) raccoon dens, and this is the one with better lighting.

Not to be outdone, this chipmunk held its pose perfectly for me.

I saw a few dragonflies on the wing today, but I never got a good look at one perched, so here’s a ruby meadowhawk from yesterday.

I did have a butterfly perch this morning, and it was this pretty little wood satyr.

Finally, if you like black raspberries, now is the time! They are ripe and delicious.

Lastly, I found these two beauties by the river on Monday, and Lisa was kind enough to keep them in her car for me during our wildlife walk. You’ll be glad to know that I’ve tested them already, and they both turned out to be safe to drink. Ha!