The air was cool and still enough this morning for a little “evaporation fog” to form over the relatively warm soccer fields. It might be a sign of things to come.

Anyway, I was happy to find a bit more critter activity in the park today. I’ve been skipping my first visit to the pond lately in hopes of getting to the north end in time to see the owls, and on my way along the river today, I thought this great blue heron showing off its fancy neck feathers was worth the few seconds it took me to snap this picture.

As luck would have it, I did reach the north end in time to see at least one of the owls. I believe this is the big sister, and she was high over our riverbank. I did my best to keep my distance and snuck this picture through a gap in the leaves. She was mostly looking out over the water, but did flash me those big, beautiful yellow eyes a couple of times. I kept my own eyes hidden behind my camera, which seemed to do the trick, and she calmly just returned her gaze to the river.

As if that wasn’t enough, when I checked the river myself, from a bit farther upstream, look who glided in to do a little fishing: our osprey! Yay!

But wait! There’s more! If you order before midnight tonight, a murder of crows will chase a red-tailed hawk out of the trees above, and it will hustle across the river to perch in a tree right next to the osprey. Holy smokes, that’s a lot of raptors!

I eventually did make it to the far north end, and the pigeon chicks look bigger, but otherwise unchanged. For me, the more-interesting sight was this orb weaver, maybe a spotted orbweaver (Neoscona crucifera), working on the huge web it has in the branches above the trail.

At the pond, the wood duck ducklings are starting to fly over the water and look really grown up. Here’s one checking its reflection.

The pollinator garden was busy this morning, and here’s a monarch on a blazing star blossom.

I’ve been seeing these huge black wasps for weeks now, a gold-marked thread-waisted wasp (Eremnophila aureonotata) in this case, buzzing over the flowers and hunting for prey to feed its young, but one finally parked for a minute this morning.

There were several damselflies out today, and this American rubyspot was the prettiest of the bunch.

Here’s another striking big, black wasp but with quite the red abdomen and distinctive white marks on its antennae, which iNaturalist thinks is a Protichneumon grandis, but that species does not have a wikipedea page nor even a common name.

Finally, there was a red-spotted admiral really showing off its bright blue wings, and that’ll be the butterfly of the day, even if there is a little piece missing.

Beautiful weather has returned to Estabrook Park, and I hoped I’d have a great morning of picture taking, but perhaps we’re entering a period of doldrums before the fall migration.

One exception was this little eastern wood pewee hunting from the same chain at the north end as Monday, but today it let me get a lot closer.

Another exception was this youngish great blue heron at the pond who seemed transfixed by something ahead of it and let me sneak this picture through the reeds.

At the other end of the pond, this young catbird was too busy crying for its breakfast to worry about me.

There were still plenty of wood ducks on the pond, but there was only one mallard, and the hooded merganser appears to have moved on. Perhaps this snapping turtle surfaced to see where everyone had gone.

That’s it for the birds and reptiles, I’m afraid, and I didn’t see any mammals, so thank goodness for the bugs. We’re having a bumper crop of fiery skippers this summer, and here’s one on a blazing star blossom at the pollinator garden.

This Peck’s skipper on a purple cone flower appears to have the same markings but with the colors inverted.

There are still plenty of dragonflies around, and this one appears to be a ruby or cherry-faced meadowhawk, which I read can be quite tricky to distinguish.

Finally, I’m glad to start seeing monarchs more frequently, and this one on a thistle blossom will be our butterfly of the day.

First, a correction. Karen Wesener wrote in response to yesterday’s post that “butterflies emerge from a chrysalis, not a cocoon. Cocoons are for moths.” In other news, my entire fact checking team chose a terrible week to go on vacation and left me here by myself to make up stuff willy-nilly.

Anyway, it was a pretty soggy morning in Estabrook Park but not a complete washout. There was a green heron on the pond doing its best Gru imitation.

There were over a dozen wood ducks, many of whom we’ve watched grow up since they first hatched, and here’s a quartet keeping four eyes on me.

Here’s a fledged robin on the lawn east of the pond and still getting fed by a parent.

While a male house finch watched impassively from above.

Back on the pond, the hooded merganser is still with us, and here it is with a nice big fish while a wood duck hurries over to offer help.

The hoodie declined any assistance and deftly choked down that fish all on its own.

As I started to make my way back south, I spotted this northern cardinal parked right in the middle of the road. I couldn’t tell if it had been injured or was just a fledgling that can’t fly too well yet, but I did manage to urge it back up onto the lawn.

The flowers were all empty today, but I was able to sneak out yesterday afternoon, when the sun was still shining, and here’s the littlest bee I’ve ever seen, on the cone of a purple cone flower. It was easily half the size of a honeybee, and the interwebs suggest that it is our first ever ligated furrow bee (Halictus ligatus).

Finally, the butterfly of the day, also from yesterday, but desperate times call for desperate measure, is this dashing silver-spotted skipper on a burdock blossom.

After all the surprises of yesterday’s air and water show, it seems the critters were taking a break today. Plus, it was quite cloudy this morning, so a good time to sleep in.

I did get to see a belted kingfisher over the river, and this one is a male, for a change.

At the north end, this little eastern wood-pewee took a perch uncommonly low to the ground. Perhaps it’s a recent fledgling and doesn’t know the rules yet.

I was happy to see the hooded merganser is still on the pond.

At the pollinator garden this tiny and quite-colorful feather-edged petrophila moth (Petrophila fulicalis) caught my eye.

This female monarch was also there and had perhaps recently emerged from a cocoon chrysalis because they are usually much more flighty.

The pollinator garden was quite fruitful this morning, and also hosted our first red-spotted admiral aka red-spotted purple (Limenitis arthemis) of the season. I read that “they have evolved to mimic the poisonous pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor),” which I would also love to see, but haven’t yet. In fact, no one has reported seeing such a swallowtail in Estabrook Park, so far.

Back at the south end, the weeds beside the soccer fields were hosting our first eastern thistle longhorn bee (Melissodes desponsus), similar to the two-spotted longhorn bee we first saw in July, but without the two spots on its little bee butt and with yellow pile on its back instead.

Finally, it would appear that some angler(s) left me a tip for picking up their leftover fishing tackle. “Thanks!”

Lastly, let’s anoint the FOY red-spotted admiral as our butterfly of the day.

We’re back from camping at Kohler-Andrae, and it was a perfect morning to get back into Estabrook Park.

My first pleasant surprise of the day was finding this young or female hooded merganser floating amongst the wood ducks and mallards on the pond. We haven’t seen one since early July when one hung out on the river for a few days, and they are always a treat.

The next pleasant surprise was spotting the young great horned owl again over the southern island in the river. Long-time reader, Carrie, had just come by on her way south and reported seeing an owl in the river upstream, so I had my eyes peeled. If you read the comments that readers post, you’ll know that it was Carrie and her son who finally got that dang chair out of the river. “Thanks, Carrie!”

This next surprise goes a bit beyond just “pleasant”. There was a second young-looking great horned owl on the far riverbank, and it appears to be a bit shorter than the first one. In this pose, it almost looks like a caricature.

As I tried to reposition myself on our riverbank, this gorgeous female belted kingfisher perched perfectly in the morning sun on the remains of the big dead tree off the southern tip of the southern island. Who could ignore that picture, right?

And then, the first owl flew over to join the second one, who had hopped up onto a higher branch. Once again, if you click on the image to zoom in, you can see that the second owl, on the right, really is a lot shorter than the first. I read that “the female great horned owl is larger than her mate,” so that would suggest that “Shorty” is the male, and the larger bird might be his sister. Meanwhile, you can see the kingfisher streaking across the bottom of the image as it tried in vain to persuade the owls to hang out elsewhere.

Before I could get any closer, however, surprise number four appeared in the form of this tiny red butterfly, which happens to be the very first least skipper (Ancyloxypha numitor) I have ever managed to capture on film and ID, and the tenth species of skipper butterfly posted on inaturalist from Estabrook Park, for those keeping score. (Note that they are not listed in the order in which they were identified, but there has been only one observed so far, and that was by me today.)

Okay, back to the owls. Happily, Shorty moved again so I can show them in a single image, and they don’t look like sparrows. For what it’s worth, I tried and failed to find a place on our shore from which that branch was not in front of the face of the owl on the left. Oh well. Good thing we got a great look at it earlier.

The last surprise of the morning, surprise number five, was finding this red-tailed hawk, with the help of a few alarmed robins, in the tower across the river and in which we’ve seen falcons a few times. When I checked, I was stunned to learn that I haven’t gotten close enough to a red-tailed hawk to show you a picture since back in April.

When I swung by the pond again, the merganser was up on a log taking a break with a pair of sleepy wood ducks.

As I was trying to get a presentable merganser picture, this young common grackle hopped up onto a branch just above me and was in no hurry to take off.

Finally, despite all the excitement about the least flicker, I’m gonna name this monarch, on the flowers at the pollinator garden, the “butterfly of the day.”

I expect this to be my last morning at Kohler-Andrae, and I opted to give the Black River Marsh another try. Oddly enough, I managed few photographs even though I saw more bird species than last time. So it goes.

I was happy to see the pelicans again, and this time they flew right over my head, so I had a chance to get a closeup of one in flight. Check out that “96.1-114.2 in.” wingspan. That’s 8-9.5 feet for the folks in the back.

I hardly saw a wren out on the marsh, although I heard plenty, but thankfully, the blue dasher dragonflies were willing to fill in. In fact, I got such a nice portrait that I can see their compound eyes have two distinct resolutions.

Here’s a closeup that shows it better. The ommatidia are much coarser above those tiny black antennae than below. If you click on the image, which takes you to the original on flickr, then you can zoom in and really see the dividing line between coarse above and fine below. I have not noticed that before.

Anyway, I was thrilled to find this ruby-throated hummingbird again. I saw it in the same tree on Tuesday, but my pictures were just not up to even my loose standards. This one is still not my best, but plenty good enough for this operation.

That’s it for today’s pictures, but luckily, there are still some good ones from earlier in the week. Here’s a young green heron on Tuesday and perched nicely in the sun on a wire above the old park road.

Here’s one more look at a marsh wren, also from Tuesday when they were plentiful, doing its signature spread-eagle perch.

Here’s a stunning goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia) lurking on the underside of what looks like a joe-pye weed blossom.

Here’s another look at the very obliging thirteen-lined ground squirrel from Friday, doing its best prairie dog impersonation.

Finally, here are three sandhill crane silhouettes as dawn broke over the dunes Friday morning.

As the title suggests, I’m back at Kohler-Andrae State Park, and this morning I gave the Black River Marsh a rest and gave the Kohler Park Dunes State Natural Area a try. It did not disappoint!

I hadn’t even gotten out of the parking lot when I came across a rafter of wild turkeys with three hens, one of which is pictured below, and …

fourteen (14!) poults. I’ve seen plenty of turkeys before, and even a few poults, but this was my first chance to get some poults on film, and man-o-man, it was still just too dark for my camera.

If that excitement wasn’t enough, there was a young Cooper’s hawk crying just across the parking lot, and here it is acting like a deer-in-the-headlights, while one of its parents was half concealed by twigs just a bit farther up that branch. I’m sure you can imagine what the parent was saying.

When I finally got out of the parking lot, I didn’t have to go more than 100 yards up the cordwalk to find this adorable pair of deer. You can just see the young buck’s antlers starting to come in.

The most common bird I heard and saw was the field sparrow, and here’s one example. There were so many, in fact, that ebird complained that I was reporting far more than are commonly seen there. What can I say? The dunes are essentially a huge field, and part of them were even cultivated at one time, so I would expect a lot of field sparrows. Wouldn’t you?

There were nearly as many house wrens, and at one point the cordwalk passes very close to a low-growing evergreen that was full of them. They were probably a family of recently fledglings, and this youngster acted just like the young Cooper’s hawk.

I was thrilled to spot this shy butterfly, who only gave me this one chance for a picture. It turns out to be a common wood-nymph (Cercyonis pegala), which I would love to spot in Estabrook, and quite possibly have, but I haven’t gotten a picture of one there yet.

Given the location, it should come as no surprise that the big bird of the day was the sandhill crane. I counted ten individuals, and I was thrilled to identify at least one nearly-grown colt. That’s the one on the far right of this trio. There was another trio, but there wasn’t enough light to tell if one was a slightly more-yellow colt.

As I started to make my way back to the parking lot, I stopped to take a picture of some birds, and I spotted this bold little critter in the grass just across the path. It let me take pictures to my heart’s content. I could see that it wasn’t an eastern chipmunk nor a red or grey squirrel, and it is only now, after consulting the interwebs, that I can identify it as my very first thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus). I didn’t even know we had such a critter in Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, the birds I had originally stopped for are this adorable pair of recently fledged cedar waxwings. They are clearly out of the nest, but I’m guessing they are not really into the whole flying thing yet.

As the sun started to warm things up, the bugs started to come out, and I thought this was another white-faced meadowhawk, but now I can see the shading of the wing that makes it a band-winged meadowhawk (Sympetrum semicinctum) instead. Cool, eh?

Speaking of dragonflies, I’ve been after a picture of this beauty since I first IDed them flying over the pond in Estabrook four years ago. I’ve been having to make do with a blurry image of a pair that flew through one of my black bullhead fry pictures, and I was beginning to think that they never landed, until today. At long last, give a warm welcome to the astonishingly elusive black saddlebags dragonfly (Tramea lacerata).

Finally, as I was approaching the parking lot, it had warmed up enough to bring the turkey vultures out, and as this one circled over the dunes, …

the adult Cooper’s hawk from beside the parking lot took exception and urged it to circle someplace else.

Lastly, the butterfly of the day is this monarch sampling the nectar from one of the thousands of spotted knapweed blossoms.

There were still some gaps in the cloud cover when the sun came over the horizon in Estabrook Park this morning, but temps were in the mid-70s already, and the humidity percentage was in the mid-80s, so everything was already pretty wet. I met this mourning dove on my way around the southern soccer fields, and you can see all the grass clippings clinging to its feet and belly feathers, which may be contributing to the look on its face.

I skipped my first visit to the pond, for a little change of pace, and continued north along the river. Just below the falls, on the same square slab of limestone where we saw sandpipers dance a few summers ago, I spotted my first sandpiper of the morning, which happens to be a spotted sandpiper with plenty of spots.

By the time I reached the islands at the north end, the clouds had started to leak, and I found another sandpiper, which also happens to be spotted, but without any spots, so young, or at least not breeding.

I searched in vain for a solitary sandpiper, but perhaps they have already moved on. I checked on the pigeon chicks under the bridge, but I couldn’t see any difference from yesterday, and the light was terrible anyway. I didn’t see an osprey today, but I was thrilled to discover a young great horned owl back again, being mobbed by a few crows, and calling again to a sibling nearby, who I couldn’t find but could hear calling back.

When I finally did get to the pond, I was pleasantly surprised to find a belted kingfisher still fishing there.

Finally, right below the kingfisher, a half dozen wood ducks, and one mallard hen were all taking their midmorning break.

That’s it for Estabrook, but I’ve still got some pictures from Kohler Andrae, and here’s the flock of American white pelicans that the straggler was trying to keep up with on Tuesday.

The sora was surprisingly bold, and gave us a second look, this time with a painted turtle in the foreground.

There were a lot of marsh wrens in the reeds, and here’s one mid-song.

Finally, on my hike back to the campground I found this striking white-faced meadowhawk just relaxing on a blade of grass and preparing to start its day.

A visit to Kohler-Andrae State Park is always a treat, but I’ve got some things to take care of at home today, so I’m back in Shorewood, and I figured I might as well check on the critters in Estabrook Park while I’m here. The pond was hoppin’ this morning with over a dozen mallards, nearly as many wood ducks, a couple of green herons, and even a great blue heron.

Here’s one of the wood ducks scarfing down a tadpole once again.

I try to avoid anthropomorphizing too much, but I struggle not to see self-satisfaction in that look. Right?

Meanwhile this less-than-thrilled looking green heron might be wishing it had a fresh tadpole in its belly right now.

As I walked toward the river, I spotted an osprey gliding downstream high above it, which I had no hope of capturing on film, and I thought to myself, “Well, darn. At least I got to see it.” Thus, you can probably imagine my excitement upon finding this sight waiting for me in the remaining dead tree high above the northern island. I don’t know if this is the same bird that somehow snuck back upstream without me seeing it, or if there were two of them, but I was glad for the second chance either way.

At the Port Washington Road bridge, the barn swallows appear to be done with their nest already, and now it is the pigeons’ turn to raise their young. You can’t really see it in this picture, but I could count two chicks when they shakily readjusted their positions.

The river water keeps receding and exposing more river bottom, which provides more foraging space for shorebirds that venture inland a bit. There were a pair of these cuties on the rocks this morning, and at first glance, I thought they were the spotted sandpipers we’ve been seeing all month, but upon closer inspection, I am happy to report that solitary sandpipers are back. They are probably leading the way back from summering in Canada to wintering along the southern Gulf of Mexico and the Amazon river basin. “Welcome back, Sweethearts! Enjoy the buffet while you’re here, and safe travels when you go!”

On my way back to the pond for a second look, I just happened to notice this tiny beauty lurking on the underside of a fleabane blossom. Multiple image search engines on the interwebs suggest that it is a “Redimita” morph of the common candy-striped spider (noplognatha ovata).

When I finally reached the pond again, a youngish-looking great blue heron was fishing in the water right of the west lawn, but I stayed behind the tree trunk there, and it let me sneak this shot.

Finally, the butterfly of the day is this clouded sulphur. There was also a few skippers and a buckeye, but this sulphur put on the best show today.

See ya next month!

I’m at Kohler-Andrae State Park today, and I got to see some amazing sights this morning, but I’m at the Sheboygan public library right now to use their wifi, and I’m supposed to bring back lunch for Anne, so I gotta hurry. There might be some typos.

Before I even left the campground, and while it was still pretty dark out, I spotted this darling sampling the shrubbery behind someone’s tent.

As soon as I got to the Black River Marsh, about a dozen American white pelicans dropped in, and this one deployed its drag chute to descend quickly enough to keep up with the rest.

The marsh was full of marsh wrens, which makes sense when you think about it.

I was thrilled to see a sora, which we do get to see in Estabrook once in a blue moon, but not yet this year.

Another huge treat, which we have gotten to enjoy in Estabrook this year already, was this black-billed cuckoo. I had just met a subscriber, who birds there regularly, and she had just told me that the cuckoos had been scarce this year, but I guess today was just my lucky day.

Finally, the viceroys were out, which I love to see, and I saw two or three.

Lastly, for handy comparison, so were the monarchs.

There was a bit more, but I’ll have to save that for a rainy day, because now duty calls.