Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Lightning strikes twice, but in a good way…

Despite the weather along the route, which caused a couple of flight delays, I made it safely to Connecticut yesterday. Yay. My good luck continued overnight as the wet weather moved out, and the skies were clear, if cool, this morning, so I headed down to the Farmington Canal Trail, which I often visit when I’m here.

As I scanned the pond behind the Bozzuto’s corporate headquarters, located next to the train tracks that used to run where the trail lays now, for anything other than the dozens of Canada geese hugging the far shore, I noticed a ripple in the water closer to my shore. I couldn’t see what was causing it, and I dared to hope for diving ducks or mergansers, but I was totally unprepared to see this trio.

For those in the back row, here’s a closer look at three North American river otters (Lontra canadensis), who appeared to be having a blast. I’ve only ever seen them once before, in Estabrook Park, back in 2021, and I honestly can’t decide which is more amazing, that I once found them within a mile’s walk of my home in Wisconsin, or that I found them again within a mile’s walk of my parents’ home in Connecticut. Either one is pretty crazy, right?

The pictures ain’t great because the sun had just cleared the horizon behind them, so the lighting was terrible, they never paused for a moment, so I had to keep the shutter fast, and I was shooting through a fence and low bushes, so I’m thrilled that one picture even came out this good.

Anyway, the otters slowly worked their way toward the far shore of the pond, so my pictures weren’t getting any better, and I continued down the path. When I came to a little clearing beneath a huge oak tree, which had dropped loads of acorns, I found all kinds of little birds feasting on or amongst them. There was a song sparrow and a bunch of white-throated sparrows, but the bird that really caught my eye was this blue jay, who didn’t like the looks of me, but who really wanted one of those acorns. As it stared me down and decided what to do next, I was able to slow down my shutter to a speed more appropriate for the early morning light.

Finally, what would a visit to Connecticut be without a titmouse picture, and there were a couple who would grab an acorn lickity-split, and then retreat to a nearby branch to break it open and feast on the contents. This one was kind enough to pick a perch to which I had a pretty clear shot.

That’s all I managed this morning, but the nice weather is supposed to continue, so here’s hoping that the amazing subjects do, too.

On the road again…

I’m off to Connecticut this morning to see some of my family that lives there, and while I’m traveling, here are a few more pictures from Sunday. As I rode my bike north from Lakeshore State Park, I noticed a slew of birds in the water beside the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Here’s a greater scaup, …

a male bufflehead, …

a ruddy duck, …

a northern shoveler, …

and a young red-breasted merganser drake whose adult feathers are starting to come in.

Also, here’s another look at the tree sparrow, but this time picking grass seeds, …

and here’s one more look at that western meadowlark that has everyone in a tizzy.

Winter creeps back in…

The winter weather resumed this morning in Estabrook Park, with temps around freezing, cloudy skies, and a light breeze. On my walk north along the river, I found the beaver having breakfast up on the ice again in almost the same spot as yesterday.

This time, I had a slightly better view through the brush, and was able to capture a nice little video showing how it eats the bark of that twig as you might eat the corn off a cob.

A ways upstream, and just below the falls, I found another critter out and enjoying the relatively mild weather. This is probably the same muskrat that Peggy spotted yesterday on our wildlife walk, but I couldn’t find it myself then. Perhaps it felt more comfortable today with a smaller audience, so it held its ground.

Above the falls, the great horned owls, yes both of them, were in their usual spot today after completely stiffing us yesterday. As has often been the case, one was hiding deep in the sticks, and one was perched much more prominently. Here’s the latter.

I didn’t see anyone on the water around the islands, other than geese and mallards, but there was an unusual twitter in the treetops on my way back south, and it turned out to be coming from three or more bluebirds passing through.

I didn’t see anybody but finches and house sparrows at the pond, so I hiked back down to the river. That’s where I found this little cutie, my first song sparrow of December, who made me chase it through a couple of hops, but then it posed for a nice picture.

Finally, I scoured the trees along the river on my way home, but I didn’t see the osprey again today, so perhaps it took my advice and is already in southern Illinois and on its way to the Gulf. What I did find instead, is my first red-tailed hawk of December.

“Chased” sounds too strong for the lackadaisical pace they were both at, so perhaps “escorted” would be a better way to describe how a herring gull flew along behind the hawk until it was sufficiently far upstream from where the gull was trying to fish. Then the gull turned to resume fishing, and the hawk perched on one of the guy wires in the background of the flying osprey picture I showed you yesterday.

The warm weather brings out a couple of surprises…

The December Thaw is upon us, with blue skies and temps in the 40s, at least for today, and the critters in Estabrook Park were taking full advantage of it this morning. As I hiked north along the river to meet folks by the Bier Garten for our Weekly Wildlife Walk, I spotted this contented looking beaver up on the melting ice and enjoying its bark al fresco for a change.

The walk was fine, and there were eight of us today, even though I forgot to mention it in my post yesterday. The highlights, at least for me, were hearing a belted kingfisher and spotting a peregrine falcon between the islands at the north end. The falcon was already flying north with a gull by the time I saw it, and I thought the much-darker falcon might be a young gull, but Jeff, who was kind enough to share his screech owl picture with us a while ago, had already gotten a picture of it by then, so we all could correctly ID it.

In all, we spotted 19-20 bird species, depending on who was counting, and then everyone had to get on with their day, so I headed back south along the river. At one point, I thought I sensed a big shadow passing over me, but when I looked up and towards the sun, all I could see was a downy woodpecker on a tree nearby, and I figured it had just followed a track to that tree that blocked the sun for longer than I would have expected from such a little bird.

So, I continued on, and where the trail climbs up high on the side of the bluff, I kept to the less-used lower fork to see if anyone new had arrived on the river since I saw the beaver near there earlier. And that’s when I saw this beauty soaring over head: our first osprey in exactly four weeks. That is no doubt who had blocked the sun for a moment earlier, and those three light diagonal stripes in the picture are blurry guy wires from one of the radio towers far upstream.

Even better, it soon took a perch over the far riverbank to continue looking for fish, which sure made my job easier. “Thanks, Gorgeous! And safe travels!” With the bitter cold due to come back soon, I sure hope it doesn’t dawdle too long before it continues its own journey south.

Finally, before I forget, I will be away next Monday, December 16, so I won’t be able to join the wildlife walk, but I hope people who have been enjoying it will come out for it anyway. I will be back for Monday, December 23, and I hope to see you then, if you’re still in town.

Lakeshore State Park really delivers…

The Milwaukee Birders were visiting Lakeshore State Park again this morning, and there have been a lot of sightings there recently, so I opted to ride down the Oak Leaf Trail to join them. The weather was very nice, with unseasonably warm temperatures, a very light breeze, and just a few clouds in the sky. Here’s a freighter I watched head out onto the lake soon after sunrise.

The birds did not disappoint, I am happy to say, and I saw representatives from almost every species I hope to see on the Milwaukee River this winter in Estabrook Park. Here are a pair of bufflehead hens, …

a hooded merganser hen, …

a redhead, …

a goldeneye drake, …

a pair of gadwalls, and …

a red-breasted merganser drake.

Not all the action was on the water, however, and here’s an American tree sparrow.

After the whole group had walked the length of the park and back, it appeared that we were going to miss out on the surprise visitor that’s had the entire Milwaukee birding community atwitter for the past week: a western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), close cousin to the eastern meadowlark we saw at the Mequon Nature Preserve last summer. Their “year-round” range does reach this far east, but I’m told we seldom get to see them here.

But then, as we all contemplated our disappointment, someone noticed online that it had just been reported 10 minutes ago, so we all hustled right back up to the patch of prairie where it had been sighted. It took a few anxious minutes and a bit of coaxing, but the little celebrity finally showed his pretty face. Ta da!

Time Out

It looks nice enough out this morning, but today I get to participate in a treasured local holiday tradition instead, so I might not make it into Estabrook Park. To tide you over, here’s another look at a waxwing feasting on berries from yesterday.

A little color on another grey day…

It was cold again in Estabrook Park this morning. The sun shone for a little while, a couple of separate times, but it mostly hid behind a thick layer of clouds. I didn’t see any new birds on the water, and the raptors continue to stay in hiding, but the trees and bushes around the pond continue to attract pretty little birds.

The bluebirds were back again, and this time I counted six of them. Here’s one posing nice and still, …

and here are a couple busily picking berries out of the lawn.

House finches stick to the backyards when it’s warm, but the colder it gets, the more they flock up at the pond, and today there were several dozen. Here’s a male foraging for seeds in the little bit of snow that has accumulated on the ice.

Finally, the surprise visitor today is this cedar waxwing, whom we haven’t seen since the start of November. There were a couple dozen of them flitting from tree to tree around the pond and picking berries.

It looks like we’re due for a bit of a warm up this weekend, and I hope it’ll be interesting to see how that goes.

Thank heaven for little birds…

After the wind howled all night long, it had backed off to just 18 mph at sunrise this morning. Add that to an air temperature of a chilly 14°F, and the windchill dipped into negative territory for the first time this year in Estabrook Park. I don’t know if that was the cause, or it was just coincidence, but both the redhead and the common mergansers were nowhere to be found today. I didn’t see a single raptor, either. In fact, the only “large” birds I saw were a few Canada geese and dozens of mallards. Thus, the little birds ruled the day.

I haven’t gotten a picture of one of these since September, but here’s a white-throated sparrow keeping warm in the brush beside the pond. We’re just inside the northern edge of their winter range, so this really shouldn’t be a shocker, but they’ve been hiding pretty good in the meanwhile.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the skies were crystal clear, so it was a perfect time for getting a male northern cardinal picture.

The fox sparrow winter range extends slightly less far north than the white-throats, but we had two of them at the pond today, as well.

We are clearly north of the bluebird’s winter range, by at least a couple hundred miles, so it was a real treat to find this pair of stragglers competing with the robins for berries. Here’s the female, …

and here’s the male. “Safe travels, you two, and keep warm in the meantime!”

Finally, back at the river, this little rascal kept teasing me with fleeting glimpses. Every time I gave up and decided to go on home, it would flit in front of me again. After three or four times, it must have grown tired of the game, so then it chose a nice sunny perch and put on a little show instead. First it posed this way, …

and then it posed that way. It’s a swamp sparrow, which I last showed you back in November, and we’re right on the northern edge of its year-round range.

I see that the forecast calls for a slight increase in temperature and a slight decrease in wind speed at sunrise tomorrow, so maybe the bigger critters will come back out to play. Keep your fingers crossed.

The deep freeze continues to deliver…

It was a wonderfully curious or curiously wonderful morning in Estabrook Park, but I’m still not sure which. The forecast temperature was 29°F, but a strong breeze brought the windchill down into the teens, and it felt even colder than that. I should have worn another layer. Also, as you can see below, the sky was clear when the sun came over the bluff to light up the ice on the river, but that didn’t last long, and a thick grey cloud cover soon moved in.

My first surprise for the morning was this redhead drake dabbling with a few mallards in the open water above the falls. He may be the same bird we saw on Sunday or some new arrival, but I didn’t ask, and he didn’t say, so we’ll never know.

My next surprise was spotting our first common mergansers of the season fishing in the open water between the two islands. Sweet! My plan is working perfectly. Here’s the one drake, …

and here are the two hens accompanying him.

I didn’t see anyone new or begging for a picture at the pond, and I could not see the screech owl today, but as I continued south along the river, I was stunned to spot what will probably be our last warbler of the season. The little stinker probably knew it wasn’t supposed to be here, too, and so it did not want any photographic evidence of its tardiness. This one picture I did manage is terrible, but at least you can see the signature yellow patch on its side.

Finally, before these get too old, here’s a winter wren I saw yesterday just before I spotted the screech owl.

Lastly, here’s a red-breasted woodpecker checking out the spindle berries beside the river yesterday soon after I spotted the screech owl.

December just keeps getting better!

The recent deep freeze in Estabrook Park continues to back off gradually, and the temps this morning were in the high 20s, the breezes were light, and so the wind chill was up into the high teens. Plus, the thick cloud cover that hid the sunrise soon dispersed, and it turned into a nice sunny day.

Even before the sun came out, this muskrat was enjoying the relative warmth by having its breakfast up on the riverbank.

Things were quiet at the north end, and the only interesting picture was one of the great horned owls, whom the crows left alone today, so I headed to the pond, and the clouds were gone by the time I arrived. I could not have asked for a better background for this Cooper’s hawk who swooped in to perch high above the Oak Leaf Trail that runs just to the east of the pond. Perhaps it is the same bird we saw beside the Oak Leaf at the south end on Thanksgiving day.

Meanwhile, this little red squirrel just across the path from the pond, possibly the same one we saw last Friday, was gnawing through the tough outer shell of a black walnut. I’m sure it knows what sort of tasty treat lies inside.

As I searched for who else might make a nice picture beside the pond, I found this cozy little scene of a hole in a hollow log rimmed with ice crystals. The moisture could just be from the log itself, but I prefer to believe that it came from the lungs of a little critter enjoying some protection from the cold and wind.

The huge surprise for the day came as I hiked back to the river from the pond. On the way, I checked a hole in a tree that I had seen a couple of blue jays agitated over a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been trying to check it every day, but there has often not been enough light to see anything inside, or even if there was light, I couldn’t see if anyone was home. Well, today is the day when the sunlight and the occupancy aligned, and look who was there, our first screech owl since all the way back to April 2022! Woo Hoo!

Finally, I continued south along the river with hopes of spotting our redhead or some other new visitor, but I didn’t have any luck with that today. Instead, these mallards were kind enough to squeeze together in the bright sunlight for a nice group portrait. As usual, though, one or two goofballs are looking the other way right when the shutter goes off.

Lastly, just when I thought this morning couldn’t get any better, look what some charitable park goer left for me. I’m not even sure exactly what it is, but I do like the sound of “Island Punch”.