Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Everything hasn’t blown away, yet.

I’m back from the dentist, and man-o-man, has it gotten windy while I was away. I didn’t expect to see much this morning, but at least it wasn’t raining, and I needed the exercise anyway, so I took a walk in Estabrook Park to see who I could see.

My first pleasant surprise came as I approached the falls and found this great blue heron on the water, perhaps digesting breakfast and/or waiting for the wind to subside so it can go someplace more secluded.

Upstream and on the exposed river bottom between the two islands, I was even more surprised to find a pair of killdeer still hanging around.

The biggest surprise of all, however, was spotting our very first gadwall drake of the season. That ought to give the hens something to quack about.

One nice side effect of strong winds is that if I do spot a little bird, it’s often closer to the ground than usual, and here’s a white-breasted nuthatch by the pond, right at eye level, and showing off a nice big nut that it is probably about to “hatch” with the help of a crevice in that bark.

Finally, all this wind has blown in some very warm air, and it was 70°F at sunrise, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised to find an aptly named autumn meadowhawk dragonfly (Sympetrum vicinum).

Some new behaviors, continued…

My outing was so great yesterday, and I’ve got a dentist appointment first thing this morning, so I’m using the rest of yesterday’s story to fill in today. As you may recall, we got up to the point when I spotted an osprey down the bluff and just north of the soccer fields. Well, I couldn’t believe my luck when I spotted it again at the north end as it flew upriver with a nice big fish in tow. Even better, it landed atop the tall dead tree on the northern island, so I set out to get a closer look.

Before I could get there, however, I ran into this guy, who was in the middle of the trail, in almost the same spot I saw one a couple of weeks ago, but this one was fixated on that little tree. It paused for a moment to look me up and down, and I told it to take its time, so it went right back to rubbing its head against the trunk for a bit, …

and then giving it a good sniff. I’ve heard of this, of course, and see a few trees throughout the park with their bark rubbed off, but I have never seen it live before.

It reminded me of the way I’ve seen cats mark a corner in the living room, and it went on so long that I even had time to capture a video.

Anyway, the buck eventually decided that the trunk smelled just the way it should, and it backed away a bit to let me pass. Better yet, the osprey was still there and working on that fish.

I got the best picture I could, and then continued on to check the north end. When I got back, the fish appeared to be all gone, and the osprey was cleaning its beak and talons.

Then it turned, sat upright, puffed up its feathers, and settled in to soak up some morning sun and digest a belly full of fish.

Finally, the flickers have thinned out quite a bit lately, but they’re not all gone yet.

With any luck, I’ll be back in Estabrook on Tuesday.

Some new behaviors…

This morning was one more in a long run of spectacular mornings we’ve been having this fall in Estabrook Park, with mostly clear skies, nearly still air, and seasonably cool temps. Plus, highway traffic in the distance was Sunday-morning light, and the parkway was closed again for the last Shorewood Farmer’s Market of the year, so conditions were perfect for communing with the critters.

My first opportunity came already at the north end of the soccer fields as I hiked across the lawn to enjoy a stroll right down the middle of the parkway, and I spotted this young Cooper’s hawk in one of the crabapple trees on the other side of the pavement.

It has been my experience that they only come this close to the ground when hunting, and this one soon proved my hunch right when it went for one of the many squirrels that were foraging for and hiding nuts in the lawn below. It came up empty, however, and paused for a moment on the grass to see where that wily squirrel had gone.

It soon tried again, and this time it had something, but hold on a sec. What on earth has it caught?

Ha! That is either a short stick or a chunk of bark, and the hawk looked for all the world like it was just playing as it repeatedly leapt into the air with it.

It even covered its “prey” with its wings and tail, which I read is called “mantling“, and hides it from potential competitors. So, maybe this was practice, instead of just play. Either way, I’ve never seen anything like it, and I was transfixed.

The hawk eventually gave up on the stick and tried for another squirrel on the west side of the parkway, which gave me an opportunity to take a nicer picture. What a magnificent creature, eh?

Anyway, it abandoned that attempt, too, and hopped up onto a waste basket to look for the next quarry, or contemplate the error of its ways.

Then it went back to the crab apple tree where the whole show had started, and I decided to let it be and continue my journey north.

Just as I came to where the paved path runs right beside the parkway, barely a hundred yards from where I watched the hawk, look who I spotted searching for its own breakfast down the bluff and over the river: our second raptor of the morning, a young osprey, by the looks of the white edging it still has on its feathers. What a fabulous way to start the day!

To be continued …

A couple of breaks go my way…

We kept the clear skies and calm air from yesterday, but the temperature dipped enough for radiant cooling to frost the grass again in Estabrook Park. It was a perfect morning for the Hot Cider Hustle 5k and half marathon. Luckily, the big event had little impact on life along the Milwaukee River.

The first big breakthrough of the day came early, when this winter wren, the one that I suspect has been toying with me lately, finally relented and let me take about 50 pictures from about 15 feet away, and one of them came out pretty nice. What an amazing creature, eh?

The second breakthrough came soon after and a bit upstream, when this beaver, who I’ve barely managed to capture swimming down the middle of the river for months, swam right to shore in front of me, looked me straight in the eye, and proceeded to gnaw on its breakfast. Time to check the bottom of my boots.

At the north end, the pair of wigeons is still hanging out with the mallards, and here’s the drake.

And I was able to find a full trio of gadwalls for the first time in a while, here’s just one.

The bigger surprise, however, was this killdeer, quite possibly the last one we’ll see until spring, stopped in and called to see if any others were around, but got no reply that I could hear.

Finally, the great blue heron was in the exact same spot as yesterday, but trying harder to get some shuteye in the warm morning sun. When I tried to move to get that stick out of the picture, I inadvertently woke the heron, but I like the sleeping picture better, so I just slowly backed away to let it go right back to sleep.

A new crowd settles in…

The clouds and breeze stayed away, at least for this morning, and the temperature rose a bit overnight, so we had no frost today in Estabrook Park.

I bet this little cutie that I found at the north end of the soccer fields didn’t mind that a bit.

Beside the river at the north end, I found a smaller cutie, a young, white-crowned sparrow, appearing to be drying off after a dip. Brrr!

One noticeable change in the fauna today was another big infusion of dark-eyed juncos. They were foraging in big groups throughout the park. Luckily, this one paused in a nice sunny spot, also beside the river at the north end, for a moment.

I didn’t see a warbler again today, the grackles have been gone for a while, and the flickers are nearly gone, so I was happy to find a phoebe still rustling up some bugs for breakfast.

The great blue herons continue to come by, and here’s one up in a tree again.

Things got exciting for a moment at the north end when I could see a bald eagle over the far riverbank and a red-tailed and Cooper’s hawk over the northern island all at the same time. I couldn’t really get a picture worth showing of any of them, but when I hiked out on the dry river bottom to get a little closer to the eagle, this belted kingfisher let me get a nicer picture than I’ve managed in a while.

To round out the raptor quartet of the day, an osprey came upriver with a fish in tow and perched to take a couple more bites, which let me get a better picture than the other three birds had.

Finally, as I was checking for sparrows again, in the usual spot, I wasn’t seeing anything new, but I did spot this sweetie trying to get a little shuteye in the tall grass. I snapped a quick picture and backed away to leave her as undisturbed as I could.

The crowd gets tough…

The temperature dropped, the clouds cleared out, and the breeze died down, so the frost was back again this morning in Estabrook Park.

My visit got off to a nice enough start when I spotted this American tree sparrow foraging in the lawn beside the pond. We don’t get to see them nearly as much as the white-throated, swamp, song, and even Lincoln’s, so I was happy to get one picture to turn out.

At the river, the wigeons were still with us, but far from shore, so I took a picture of this American herring gull instead. There has been an interesting situation with them recently, because the ebird app I use to keep track of the birds I see has changed this gull’s name from “herring gull (Larus argentatus)” to “American herring gull (Larus smithsonianus)”, and it took several days for that change to ripple through all the systems, which caused a bit of consternation, at least on my part. You can read about the reason behind the change here.

Anyway, I didn’t see a single warbler today, which makes the first time since they first arrived back in August. I did see a pair of Cooper’s hawks, but they were over the old Schlitz candy factory across the river. As I was wishing in vain that the hawks would come my way, a big flock of geese flew in, and I managed to sneak this picture of four of them.

That’s the whole show for today, I’m afraid. Let’s hope for better luck tomorrow.

The crowd starts to thin…

It sure felt like autumn this morning in Estabrook Park: cool, breezy, and cloudy. Definitely sweater weather.

My first treat of the day was this gray catbird lurking in the bushes above the river. They’ve been scarce lately, and I wasn’t sure if I’d get to see one again until spring.

Farther north and back along the river, I checked up and downstream for great blue herons, but didn’t see any, and then thought to myself, “better check in the trees,” but immediately chuckled because “no heron’s gonna be standing on a branch high in a tree in this wind.’ Happily, I looked up anyway, and look who I found, even standing on one leg, as if to show me just how wrong my assumption was. “Thanks for the reality check!”

At the far north end, I was pleasantly surprised to find a few orange-crowned warblers that haven’t flown south yet.

Out on the water, the pair of wigeons appear to be learning from the mallards and just kept on foraging as I took my best pictures of them yet. Here’s the hen, with the drake behind her.

And here’s the drake really showing off its hint of a green eye stripe.

Finally, as I made my way back south, this female cardinal called from the bushes on the side of the bluff below the beer garden, as if to say, “soon enough, it’ll be just you, me, and some chickadees.” Oof. Anyway, if you click on the image so you can zoom in to full resolution, you can see that she has pretty dark brown eyes.

Old friends show their faces again…

It wasn’t as warm nor as sunny this morning in Estabrook Park as it’s been lately, but it was still a perfectly nice time for a visit.

My first thrill of the morning was spotting this muskrat up near our riverbank and munching on its breakfast. They sure made themselves scarce over the summer, but here’s hoping we get to see more of them now.

Another critter that hasn’t let me get close lately is the kingfisher, but this one chased away the flicker I was aiming for, so I took its picture instead.

The gadwalls we had earlier in the month had orange on their bills, so were females, but the gadwall today has an all-black bill and more-distinctive plumage, which mark it as a male.

Speaking of males, I believe the wigeon hen we’ve been seeing lately has been joined by a young or eclipse drake today. Females only have a “dark smudge around the eye“, as the bird on the right has, and males have “a wide green stripe behind the eye and a white cap“, hints of which the bird on the left appears to have.

On my way back south, the raccoon we saw last week showed its cute little masked face today. Yay!

On my way to the pond, I spotted this gorgeous red-tailed hawk eyeing the rodents on the disc golf course. There was also a second hawk, and I suspect they were already acquainted because when the second flew by, this one merely watched it go.

Finally. as I was checking for butterflies at the southern soccer fields, I found yet one more last dragonfly of the season, and this one also appears to be cherry-faced meadowhawk, but I have since learned that “veins in leading edge of wing are orange, stigmas orange, [and] legs not completely black,” all mean that it is our very first saffron-winged meadowhawk (Sympetrum costiferum). Woo Hoo!

A pause on fall…

I know it can’t last, nor should it, but in the meantime, this warm, dry spell sure is easy to take. We had clear skies, nearly still air, and about 60 °F at sunrise in Estabrook Park this morning.

I spotted this darling little eastern phoebe beside the river just as the sun started reaching down over the bluff, and it seemed more interested in the sun’s progress than in worrying about me taking pictures.

At the pond, I noticed a light shape in the bushes, and I excitedly snapped this picture. When I realized that it was a goldfinch in its drab winter coat, I actually thought to myself, “oh, it’s you,” which reminded me of that old song. If you’ve been searching for a good earworm today, you’re welcome.

There are still plenty of wood ducks on the pond, but I liked the lighting for this little cutie, the first one I’ve seen on the river in a while.

Farther north, I was pleasantly surprised to find a yellow-bellied sap sucker still kicking around. They were hot and heavy for a moment, closer to the first of the month, but it appears that some are still trickling through. Yay!

Meanwhile, the orange-crowned warblers remain a pretty regular find.

Out on the water, another bird I rarely get to see any more is this dapper-looking killdeer.

The wigeon is still with us, …

and this morning it looked like it had a new friend. I’m not quite sure who it is yet, but it looks a tad shorter than the wigeon, which is already smaller than mallards, so maybe it is a blue-winged teal. Hopefully, the experts will weigh in soon.

Finally, on my way south, there were plenty of sparrows foraging in the grass beside the river, and here’s a sharp-looking Lincoln’s sparrow. It turns out that some folks did see and photograph a grasshopper sparrow yesterday at Lakeshore State Park, and I got all excited once or twice when I spotted a lightly-colored bird today, but none were light enough, yet.

Lastly, with weather like this, the skippers and sulphurs were busy getting their last sips in, and here’s yet one more of the latter.

Lake Front State Park, 2024

Our incredible streak of wonderful weather this fall continued today, and I joined the Milwaukee Birders at Milwaukee’s fabulous Lakeshore State Park this morning to give the critters in Estabrook a break. I even managed to arrive in time to watch the sun rise.

The water was full of mallards and geese, but there were also a few double-crested cormorants, who have stopped in at Estabrook, from time to time, but not yet this year, although we have had some fly-overs.

I was thrilled to spot shovelers, who also visit Estabrook, but even less often.

There were dozens of coots, both in the lagoon, and out in the outer harbor. They also come by Estabrook once in a while, and we had one visit us just last spring.

Back on land, a red-winged blackbird flew in and immediately started calling. Perhaps it is wondering where all the others have gone, but we’re right on the cusp between their breeding and year-round ranges, so probably not too far.