There were a few clouds this morning, especially to the east, so it took a while for the sky to light up, but when it did, wow, what a gorgeous morning it became in Estabrook Park. The clouds eventually drifted away, and the air was cool, crisp, and nearly still. Plus, there was hardly any traffic noise, so it was perfect for listening to the birds.

I stopped by the river on my way to the pond, for a change, and it was pretty quiet, but this female belted kingfisher did perch over the far riverbank for a moment.

The pond was also pretty quiet and hosting nobody new, so I went back to the river and soon found this merlin high above the southern island.

After the merlin moved on to the northern island, a pair of spotted sandpipers swooped in, and this one perched on a rock in the river just north of the southern island.

The big surprise at the river, however, was spotting a quintet of blue-winged teals, in non-breeding plumage, and our first for the season.

Here they are again, in the lower left, along with two, much larger mallards, a ginormous Canada goose, a similarly sized wood duck, and a huge herring gull. There are also three to four more mallards in the far background. See if you can spot them all.

Closer to our shore, here’s an American rubyspot damselfly that looks so fresh, it may have just emerged from the water this morning.

Back up on the bluff, here’s one of the eastern wood-pewees still kicking around. I even heard one still singing.

I did stop by the pond again, and there was more light, but otherwise the situation hadn’t changed much, so I headed back to the river. On the nice path through the forest just south of the dog park, I found this orchard orbweaver whose web caught a ray of sunlight just right.

Meanwhile, there was a steady chorus of squirrels and blue jays crying in the trees above, and look who I found attracting all that attention, our first Cooper’s hawk of the month.

Goldenrod appears to be the main source of nectar right now, and here’s a Mexican grass-carrying wasp (Isodontia mexicana), if my sources are correct, still south of the northern extent of their range.

Finally, this tiny summer azure, one of at least four on the pollinator garden, is our butterfly of the day. I haven’t seen one in a while, so I’d bet that they all are freshly emerged from their chrysalides.

Lastly, I went out around sunset last evening in hopes of photographing one of the several nighthawks Anne and I had seen hunting over the southern soccer fields just the night before, but I didn’t see a single one, and they may have all flown south already. Instead, I did see this darling red-eyed vireo busily hunting for bugs in a tree on the western edge of the fields.

The beautiful weather in Estabrook Park continued this morning, if a little warmer and a little breezier than yesterday. Plus, my adjustment to this time zone continues to take its sweet time, so I was up nice and early again, and my visit got off to another nice and early start.

The pond continues to host belted kingfishers, mallards, this one great blue heron, and …

a slew of sleepy wood ducks.

The river still hosts dozens of mallards, a few Canada geese, a couple of wood ducks, and a couple of great blue herons, but nobody uncommon today. Instead, the uncommon birds were back onshore, and here’s an incognito blackpoll warbler.

I did catch a glimpse of one male American redstart, but he was super shy. The females, on the other hand, were far more plentiful and lot bolder.

I thought this next bird was another yellow warbler, at first, but closer inspection from the comfort of my dining room table suggests that it is a Wilson’s warbler instead with just a sliver of its distinct black cap visible above its eye.

Finally, on my way home, I spotted another autumn meadowhawk.

That’s all I’ve got for today, but there were still a lot of Swainson’s thrushes around, and here’s another picture from yesterday.

By the time I reached the weeds beside the southern soccer fields this morning, the breeze was up enough to keep the butterflies down, but there were so many taking advantage of the still air yesterday that I have this American lady to show you.

Back to the Baltics, the only “crow” I saw for most of the trip was the black-and-grey hooded crow, as we first saw in Ljubljana. Thus, I was excited to see a pair of large, all-black birds when we got to Vilnius, and I figured they were carrion crows, as we saw in South Holland, or ravens, as we’ve seen in the American west. Instead, that pale face is not merely a molt gone awry, and it makes them the very first rooks (Corvus frugilegus) I have ever identified. I am sure that you will be as stunned to learn as I just was that the word “rookery” was first coined to describe their collective tree-top nests and then later used to describe similar nesting colonies by other species.

In that same Vilnius park, there are three small ponds with mallards, Eurasian coots, and moorhens, and I found this beauty, the first water rail (Rallus aquaticus) I’ve ever managed to photograph, skulking among the reeds along the edge of one of them in the dim morning light.

Lastly, that American lady above sure is pretty, but I was so happy yesterday to spend some quality time with that eastern tailed-blue, that I’m gonna make it the butterfly of the day for a second day in a row.

Anne and I arrived home, safe and sound, just around midnight last night, and I had gotten some sleep on the flight, so I was awake again by 4 am. Luckily, it was a perfect morning in Estabrook Park, and I only had to wait until 6 am to have enough light to see who might be home.

Better yet, there were also plenty of critters up getting a jump on the holiday weekend, and here’s a wide-awake osprey perched high above the northern island.

I was a little nervous when we left that I might have seen my last warbler of the year, but I needn’t have worried because it didn’t take me long to spot this pretty little magnolia warbler, my first for the fall migration.

There were also quite a few Swainson’s thrushes, which we haven’t seen since the spring, tanking up along the river to fuel their journeys south to Central and South America.

Meanwhile, this red squirrel was busily shucking a walnut, perhaps to store up for the Wisconsin winter ahead.

Back by the pond, I was thrilled to learn that monarch butterflies are still here.

Out on the water, this green heron struck quite a pose as it stretched one wing at a time.

The weeds beside the southern soccer fields are still full of blossoms and bugs, and here’s a handsome Peck’s skipper on a thistle.

We still have dragonflies, too, and here’s a dashing blue dasher.

Finally, I found this tiny and pristine, eastern tailed-blue butterfly (Cupido comyntas) enjoying some goldenrod in the pollinator garden, and that’s gonna be our butterfly of the day.

Lastly, I do have a few pictures from our trip, despite our focus on savoring the mostly-urban sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of the Baltics.

I came across this Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus), my very first, while strolling along the top of an earthen portion of the ancient city wall of Tallinn, Estonia. There were a bunch feeding on the seeds of weeds, and I first thought they were house sparrows, but that dark patch on their cheek gives them away.

A couple of days later, we were in Riga, Latvia, and I found my first hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes), a juvenile, in a park just outside town.

Finally, I found my very first black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros), an eastern morph female, in a city park in Vilnius, Lithuania. The males look a lot more like the American redstart males we get to see in Estabrook Park.

See ya next month!

The weather continues to get better in Estabrook Park, and I enjoyed plenty of sun and blue skies this morning, despite the occasional cloud. My visit got off to another great start when I spotted this osprey high over the river and just about at eye level with the paved path where it runs right beside the top of the bluff.

A big surprise for the day was finding an American kestrel flying over the baseball field and perching over the beer garden. It sure made the blue jays go crazy. I even saw one give chase for a bit. The last time I got a picture of a kestrel was last September, and it was with a blue jay on one of the radio towers across the river.

I only found one owl this morning, and it was having a close encounter with an eastern gray squirrel. It was not clear who was more afraid of whom.

There was a new flycatcher visiting this morning, and it was this alder flycatcher, on its way to South America for the winter. “Safe travels, sweetie!”

Under the bridge at the far north end, the pigeon chicks appear to be almost all grown up.

The eastern wood-pewees must have had a bumper crop this year, because I’ve been seeing them everywhere lately, and here’s one with a fly.

This chipmunk looks like it is giving its tail the “smell test” to see if it can go another day without washing it.

The trees are starting to fill up with warblers, also making their ways south, and here’s one that I believe is a female Cape May.

Closer to the ground, this gorgeous orchard orbweaver (Leucauge venusta) was working on its own breakfast.

In the thistles beside the southern soccer fields, I found a striking new bee for us, this broad-handed leafcutter bee (Megachile latimanus).

Finally, there were not many butterflies out and about to choose from, so our butterfly of the day will be this clouded sulpher.

Lastly, Anne and I are heading off on another adventure this afternoon, and I am bringing my camera, but it might take a day or two before I have anything to show you.

The weather this morning in Estabrook Park was quite a mixed bag. The clouds were thick and dark most of the time, and they even misted on me for a while, but there were also glimpses of blue sky, and the sun even shone through for a bit.

There were a couple of belted kingfishers at the pond, as has been pretty common these days, and this morning one of them caught a crayfish, which it thrashed thoroughly against that branch before swallowing hole.

As I approached the north end along the river, a cacophony of crow caws grew steadily, which helped me find these two beauties. The owls eventually moved on, and let the crows have a break.

A couple of the crows also tried to intimidate this osprey, who was simply trying to enjoy its breakfast over the far riverbank, but they pretty quickly gave up on that.

Back on our side of the river, I found a great crested flycatcher, for the first time in a while.

Below the flycatcher, this red-bellied woodpecker was keeping one eye on the skies, …

while this northern flicker kept one eye on me, …

and they eventually noticed each other.

The bushes and low trees around us were full of little birds, but the only one of them that I was able to capture on film was this female redstart.

Back at the pond, the wood ducks were taking their midmorning nap, as usual.

I still had a little time on the clock, so I stopped by the river one more time, near where the stream from the pond empties, and I was thrilled to spot a beaver again, but it ducked under the water before I could get off a shot. As I looked downstream for when it resurfaced, look who I saw lurking at the water’s edge. That’s a young green heron, and I haven’t seen much of them for a couple of weeks.

The beaver did eventually resurface, and it just kept swimming downstream.

Finally, I didn’t see a single butterfly today, not even a skipper, so this petrophila moth, of the two-banded variety (Petrophila bifascialis) will have to serve as our “butterfly” of the day.

The skies looked threatening from time to time this morning in Estabrook Park, but they never leaked, and the sun even shone through a couple of times. My visit got off to an exciting start when I spotted this beauty, a merlin, perched high and just east of the southern parking lot.

I had to give it a close look to confirm it wasn’t a mourning dove, and as I did, I found goldfinches, chickadees, and even a female ruby-throated hummingbird all trying to urge it on its way. You can just make out the tiny, light-colored hummingbird in the bottom right of this picture.

Here’s a slightly better look at just the hummingbird. When I first glimpsed her, I missed getting the picture and thought to myself, “oh well,” but she kept on coming back. Now, that’s what I’d call “feisty”, and I’d be hard pressed to believe it if I hadn’t seen it with mine own eyes!

Anyway, the pond was quiet, so I continued on to the river where this young, female belted kingfisher perched on a branch over the water and just on the other side of a screen of leaves from me. There was one little gap just big enough to let me peek through, yet small enough so I didn’t scare her off. Sweet! They don’t often let me get a portrait like this, so if you appreciate the pretty details, as I know I do, go ahead and click on the image, which should take you to my flickr page, so you can see and zoom in on the original.

Continuing north, I did not see any owls today, but I did see the osprey perched high above the far riverbank. No need to zoom in on that image.

Back on our side of the river, I heard a pretty song above, and soon found it coming from this striking singer, a female rose-breasted grossbeak.

After spotting her, it didn’t take me too long to find this guy, apparently even more transfixed by her siren song than I was.

Back at the pond, the wood ducks were doing their thing, …

a young great blue heron was trying hard to catch some breakfast, …

and this valiant northern flicker dad was doing his best to fill the bottomless pit that is his noisy son’s gullet.

As I neared the south end again, I found my third raptor of the day, this young-looking Cooper’s hawk, in a try overlooking the Oak Leaf Trail, which runs along the east side of the park.

On the thistles beside the soccer fields, this bicolored striped sweat bee really stood out, and I believe it is sharing that thistle blossom with a much-less-colorful eastern thistle longhorn bee.

Finally, there were not many butterflies out yet this morning, so this fiery skipper, sipping nectar from goldenrod blossoms, will have to be our butterfly of the day.

Donna and Katie, of the Milwaukee Birders, were leading a little field trip up to Horicon Marsh this morning, and since it was so rainy here, I figured it was at least a good day for a car ride. Plus, the company was great.

Our first stop was on route 49 that cuts across the north end of the marsh and so provides one of most easily accessible views of open water. There we saw a ton of American coots, mallards, geese, a couple of trumpeter swans, a few cormorants, at least one pied-billed grebe, and one gadwall. The best picture I got, however, is of these two cuties, who we all figured were young coots. It turns out, from the comfort of my dining room table, that these are more probably young common gallinules, which we first saw in the same place last summer.

We stopped next at the Marsh Haven Nature Center, where we saw a few cedar waxwings and these young purple martins.

I was also thrilled to spot this sweetie below the martins, another thirteen-lined ground squirrel.

From there, we ventured back into the marsh to visit the Horicon “TernPike” auto tour and hiking trails where we glimpsed our only shore birds of the trip but failed to get pictures or IDs. I had more luck with this young yellow-headed blackbird, which I know I’ve seen before, but have failed to photograph until now. Maybe next time, I’ll even get a clean shot.

There is a nice boardwalk over the water for a ways, and it appears that barn swallows nest under it, because they were thick as flies. Happily, they were also quite bold, and this might be the best barn swallow picture I’ve ever managed.

Better yet, there were a couple of these little darlings mixed in, and at first I thought they were northern rough-winged swallows, as we’ve seen in Estabrook. I even convinced the rest of the group that they were. Once again, hindsight is 20/20, and now I can see that that brown band across its chest marks it as our first bank swallow (Riparia riparia). I sure would love to spot one of these in Estabrook someday.

In the water below the swallows, this painted turtle probably did not care in the least what type of swallows they are.

There were also northern leopard frogs (Lithobates pipiens) in the water, but this one up on the boardwalk made it easier for me to capture all its details. Man, that’s another critter I’d love to see in Estabrook.

Finally, just as we came to the end of “Egret trail”, there was a great egret perched in a tree, right on cue. I expect we’ll be seeing them again in Estabrook soon enough.

Lastly, the butterfly of the day is another eastern tiger swallowtail on joe-pye weed blossoms in Ziegler Park in West Bend, where we stopped on our way to Horicon.

Thanks to my hosts for letting my tag along, and to Lisa for doing all the driving!

The rain that was forecast last evening to commence at sunrise this morning was delayed, and it was coming from the west, so the skies to the east were clear, and it appeared that I would have a few minutes to see who I could see in Estabrook Park.

My first treat was finding this red-tailed hawk on the lawn across the parkway from the soccer fields. It was quite intent on catching whatever little critter it had seen, so it let me take as many pictures as I wanted, which is not the norm, and I especially enjoyed watching it stride across the lawn as it searched the underbrush. Too bad there wasn’t enough light for action shots.

It eventually gave up on that one and retired back to this perch atop a light pole to wait for another squirrel or chipmunk to venture out, so I let it be and continued north.

I stopped by the pond where there was a very agitated trio of kingfishers flitting about and shouting at each other, but nothing looked photogenic, so I pressed on.

At the north end, I couldn’t see anything more than a couple of herons, and dozens of mallards and geese out on the water. When I took a few steps inland, however, my second treat of the morning was this amazing sight in the few flowers that haven’t been mowed yet.

It’s a northern crescent, which we’ve seen before, but not in a couple of years, and it even showed off the gorgeous top sides of its wings.

Then the rain started, but it looked like the leading band would blow by pretty quickly, and then I’d have another gap, so I hustled up to the bridge at the far north end to wait it out. There, I was happy to see the pigeon chicks off their “nest” for the first time. Good for them.

On my way back south, I didn’t see anybody new, so I kept going. When I paused beside the southern island to see if the waterthrush we saw yesterday was still there, and it was, I heard a call from back upstream that sounded to me like that of a Cooper’s hawk. Thus, I hustled back north, and this is the first bird I found in the canopy above: one of our great horned owls.

They don’t sound like that, however, so I kept searching, and found a second owl. Awesome!

A few more steps, and I could finally see who was making all that noise, and it was indeed this Cooper’s hawk.

Before I could get a picture of the hawk and owl together, which would have been pretty cool, the hawk repositioned itself, but it didn’t go far from the owls, …

and the the second owl followed it very closely. But the rain was returning by then, so I wouldn’t be taking any more pictures skyward, and I left them to sort it out amongst themselves.

Back at the pond, these wood ducks had arranged themselves so nicely, and I could shoot downhill to keep my lens dry, so I figured it was worth taking the rain cover off my camera for a few seconds.

Finally, the kingfishers were still at it, and these two posed together for just a moment, so here they are. The one in the lower left, with a full, rusty, belly-band, appears to be a mature female, and the one in the upper right, with only a patch of rust, appears to be a juvenile, perhaps a recent fledgling hanging out with mom.

Lastly, the only butterfly I saw today was that tiny northern crescent, so here’s one last, low-light look at the butterfly of the day.

It was so foggy this morning, I waited an hour before I ventured into Estabrook Park. Even then, it was still foggy enough over the soccer fields to create this magnificent sight.

The fog also bejeweled all the spider webs.

It took another hour for the otherwise clear skies to allow the sun to “burn off” the rest of the fog. By then, however, I had missed the owl(s) and the osprey, if they were even out this morning, but I did catch this male belted kingfisher at the river.

This great blue heron was using the newly-arrived sun to make its feather mites uncomfortable.

The nice surprise of the morning was finally finding a northern waterthrush, yet another migrating warbler, despite the name, that was more hungry than it was shy.

I did also see a young chestnut-sided warbler making its maiden journey south, but the pictures are not fit for publication. Instead let’s take another look at this butterfly, which I incorrectly identified as a field skipper last Sunday. I have since learned that the field skipper range does not extend east of the Rockies, and so this must be a huron sachem (Atalopedes huron) instead.

Finally, since it posed so nicely on a thistle blossom, let’s let this tiny Peck’s skipper be the butterfly of the day.

Anne and I had a young houseguest overnight, and he expressed interest in coming with me to Estabrook to see the owls this morning. I warned him that we could go a little later than usual, but we would still need to have a pretty early start, and he seemed to be onboard with that when we went to bed last night. This morning, however, when it was time to get him up, Anne advised me that everyone would be happier if I let him sleep. Thus, I hustled into the park behind schedule and a bit discombobulated.

To make up for lost time, I was mostly making a beeline for the north end, but as I passed through the middle parking lot, I could hear somebody calling softly from that nice oak tree in the southwest corner. I thought it might be a gnatcatcher, but as I hunted through the leaves to make sure, look who I found instead. That’s a female ruby-throated hummingbird. Ha! I would have never seen her if I had taken my usual route at my usual time.

I also soon found who was making the soft call, and it was this hungry young, red-bellied woodpecker. “Why, hello there, sweetie.”

Since it was right on my way, I swung around the east side of the pond for the obligatory wood duck picture.

Then I headed down to the river, and the water has finally gotten low enough for me to sit on a favorite log and enjoy the view of the river between the islands. As soon as I plopped myself down, look who I saw not 50 yards upstream.

I’m not sure if that’s Shorty or his big sister, but whoever it was seemed pretty cool with me sitting there. I even had to wait a while to get a picture of it looking our way, and I was there so long, in fact, that look who else I saw on those rocks: a young spotted sandpiper. There were also a few mallards and wood ducks in the vicinity who all looked equally unperturbed. Interesting.

Then I looked around for a second, and when I looked back its way, the owl had vanished without a trace. Thus, with the owl gone, I continued north, and look who I also found lurking between where it had been and the riverbank: a young great blue heron who looks like it just ate something.

Back on shore, there were a few cedar waxwings in the tall trees around the little meadow there, and here’s an adult.

And this appears to be a youngster, which looks about halfway between the ones we saw at Kohler-Andrae and an adult.

I spent some time checking all the trees in the area for any new warblers, but I had no luck. Instead, look who flew in and perched right over the northern island: an osprey again. Given my initial expectations, this morning was turning out to be completely off the charts!

Around then I heard from Anne that our houseguest was finally up and hoping that I could provide some engineering assistance with a railroad project, so I started heading back south. As I passed by the trees atop the bluff, where I spotted the yellow warbler yesterday, I gave a quick scan, and look who was there today. My best guess, subject to confirmation by the experts at ebird.org, is that this somewhat drab little cutie with a beak full of bug is a young Tennessee warbler.

As I was chasing the possible Tennessee warbler, look who also showed up. That’s our first black-and-white warbler of the fall migration.

Then, I really had to get moving, so south I went, but I couldn’t help but check the flowers right on my route, as I went by. On the thistles beside the soccer fields is where I found our butterfly of the day, only the second tiger swallowtail we’ve seen so far this summer. What a beauty, eh?

Man, if this morning was any indication, I’ve gotta start shaking up my routine more often, right?