Sorry for the radio silence last week. Anne and I went out east for a family event, and I brought all my gear, which has worked just fine in the past, but not so much this time. Oh well. Live and learn.

Anyway, it was a bit of a dark and damp morning to return to Estabrook Park, but I needed the exercise, so this is who I saw. There are now about a dozen wood ducks, mostly ducklings just about all grown up, on the pond, and here are seven of them drying out after breakfast.

The kingfishers continue to put on a show, and I counted three at once on the river today, but the one I saw catch a fish was this female over the pond.

The rain must have held off last week because the river water is finally low enough to reveal good swaths of river bottom, and here’s a spotted sandpiper taking advantage of the situation.

The big surprise at the river, however, was spotting this young, late-season mallard duckling with its mom.

Finally, I didn’t see any deer today, and this chipmunk with a mouth full of dead leaves on the side of a tree will have to do,

This week, Anne’s extended family is camping at Kohler-Andrae State Park, where I’ve also had some luck before, and the forecast for tomorrow morning is good, so I’m heading up tonight for an early start. Wish me luck!

It hasn’t rained today, yet, and the sun does peek through from time to time, but it was a pretty cloudy morning in Estabrook Park. We have had a bunch of beautiful days, however, so I was a little surprised to read in the local paper this morning that, “if you’re under the impression that it rains just about every other day lately, you’re right. We just crossed the midpoint of July, and Milwaukee has recorded some precipitation virtually half the days since the beginning of March, according to National Weather Service data.” Huh.

Anyway, the blue jays have been making a lot of noise in the park lately, and I suspect it is mostly from fledglings and their parents. As I have mentioned before, they are surprisingly camera shy, given their reputation as backyard feeder bullies, so this beauty, with a “deer-in-the-headlights” look, is probably a fledgling who didn’t know yet what to make of me.

At the north end, an osprey was back, and I got to watch it fly across the river with a big fish in its talons to perch on the far side and dig into breakfast.

Back on our shore this chipmunk was up in a tree, which I always find fun to see.

In the remains of the meadow at the north end, after the Parks Department mowed the rest, I found my very first eastern forktail damselfly (Ischnura verticalis), and it appears to be a male. Ain’t he handsome?

On my second visit to the pond, there were two green herons flitting around, as we’ve seen a few times before, but one of them today appears to be a youngster. Notice all the light spots on its wing. You love to see that.

This next, fascinating but potentially off-putting scene is of a small sand wasp with prey that is has subdued and will soon bring to a small hole in the ground, which is usually in sandy soil and hence the name, to feed its larva.

Finally, the snowberry clearwings were back to feeding from bee balm blossoms at the pollinator garden. Yay!

After a couple of nice dry days, some humidity has returned, but it was an otherwise nice enough morning in Estabrook Park.

The pond was quiet, especially compared to yesterday, and these two wood duck hens seemed to be taking advantage of the tranquility to share a little personal time.

At the river, the most interesting sight was this gorgeous deer on the shore of the northern island. With all the rain we’ve had and how high the river has been, I had begun to wonder if we’d see any river deer at all this summer, and I sure hope this is a sign of things to come.

Speaking of how wet it’s been, I came across this new candidate for the Wisconsin State Bird.

Farther south, I did finally find a great blue heron.

On my second trip to the pond, along the path to the south of the dog park, this red squirrel would not stop staring at me.

At the pollinator garden, there was an interesting pollinator that I don’t believe I’ve noticed before. It was about the size of a honeybee, but stout like a bumble bee, and jet black except for two little white dots on its butt. I had to look it up to find that it’s a two-spotted longhorn bee (Melissodes bimaculatus). How about that?

Here you can better see the two tiny namesake spots on its little bee butt.

Also on the bee balm was our first silver-spotted skipper of the summer.

At the weeds beside the soccer fields, I spotted this striking grasshopper, which I believe to be a two-striped grasshopper (Melanoplus bivittatus), and which I also don’t believe I’ve seen before.

Finally, your butterfly of the day is this one of several buckeyes out, both beside the soccer fields and at the little flower garden at the far south end. If you’ve been hoping to see one in the wild for yourself, today might be your day.

It has clouded by lunchtime already, but earlier this morning the weather was beautiful yet again in Estabrook Park, and I was happy to see a great blue heron on the pond when I arrived, …

and the view got even better when a green heron flew in to perch just above it.

The little green interloper didn’t slow down the big blue heron, however, who snagged itself this enormous catfish in short order. Now, you may have seen larger catfish in your life, and you may be thinking “that’s not so big,” but imagine that you had to swallow it whole, and your neck was a foot long and an inch wide.

Anyway, on my hike over to the river, I got to see a Baltimore oriole, who have gone quiet lately and otherwise made themselves scarce.

At the river, I checked on the barn swallows nesting under the Port Washington Road bridge. You may have been wondering, as have I, is that really a bird on the nest? Even after all this time? But this morning I got to witness a changing of the guard. One barn swallow flew in and perched nearby, the other hopped out of the nest and took off, and the first perched on the edge for a while before hopping in. So, ha! There really are real birds tending to that nest. Maybe they are working on a second batch.

Back below the falls, a non-breeding or immature spotted sandpiper, hence its spotlessness, bobbed its tail while marching up and down this log.

The belted kingfishers were busy again this morning, and here’s a female perched high over the far riverbank.

I arrived at the pollinator garden just in time to catch this tiny, banded tussock moth caterpillar (Halysidota tessellaris) rappel down from a tree above on a strand of silk, where I would have no hope of getting its picture. Thus, I hijacked the strand of silk and set the little crawler on a leaf for this portrait.

Finally, your butterfly of the day is yet another snowberry clearwing moth, who was on break so I couldn’t get you a picture of it hovering like a hummingbird as it sips nectar from a pretty flower. Maybe next time!

Boy, I really blue it with yesterday’s title, eh? If you subscribe, the evidence of my blunder may still be in your inbox, but don’t bother clicking on the link above to find it. I’ve already erased the evidence in my copy. Believe you me, my copy editor has gotten a stern talking to.

Anyway, the weather was just as nice this morning as yesterday, but the critters did not put on a repeat performance. I did get to see this dear deer, though, who let me sneak just one nice picture, …

and then it went right back to nibbling the foliage.

At the pond, I saw two more wood ducks snag a tadpole, and I managed to get a picture of one of them.

Finally, your butterfly of the day is one of the two monarchs feeding at the pollinator garden.

Man, it was a magnificent morning in Estabrook Park. Temps were back in the 60s, and even better, so was the dew point. Plus, the sky was clear, and the breeze was light. What more could one ask for?

Welp, how about this beauty! It was perched in a tree right over the riverbank just a bit upstream of the northern island. I had already checked the water around the islands and only saw a few mallards, so I was on my way to the bridge to check on the swallows, and I just caught its big, dark shape out of the corner of my eye. At first I didn’t see the white head, so I thought maybe it was a vulture. I immediately backed up a step to put a branch full of leaves between us to give me time to cover my face with my camera. Then I eased into the clear, and by then it had turned my way to reveal that it was an osprey, which we haven’t seen in a while. I tried to keep as still as I could, and it let me take about a dozen pictures before it must have said to itself, “I don’t know what that is, but why risk it? There are plenty of other perches from which I can fish along this river.”

The swallows at the bridge looked no different than yesterday, and on my way back south, I spotted a great blue heron on the far shore just above the falls. They can be temperamental, even at that distance, so I was creeping towards the water’s edge while trying to keep covered by foliage, when I notice birds were starting to make a ruckus. A couple of jays and grackles were squawking, and even the heron across the river made a couple of croaks, so I looked up to see if I could spot a raptor above.

Sure enough, this bald eagle, which we also haven’t seen in a while, was pulling the fur out of some hapless rodent, either a rabbit or squirrel. Again, there was some convenient foliage that enabled me to hide while I got my camera on, aimed, and covering my face before I slowly crept into view. This time, I got off about a half-dozen pictures, before the eagle decided that breakfast was no longer struggling and would probably taste just as good at the nest upriver.

Anyway, I did eventually manage to get some shots of the heron without spooking it. Yay.

South of the falls and across from the “Blue Hole“, I inadvertently flushed a green heron from our side of the river, but it only flew to just the other side, and then checked the branches above for hazards.

What might have attracted the heron’s attention was this pair of belted kingfishers. No, they are not particularly close, but I seldom see them any closer, and I manage to get a picture of them in the same frame even less often.

Happily, the river is pretty narrow there, so I was also able to get a nice closeup. of the pretty female in the sun on the right.

Finally, the butterfly of the day is a red admiral, which was kind enough, or warm enough, to let us have a good look at the ventral (under/outside) of its wings.

Oh, I almost forgot! I also found my first free Hamm’s beer this morning. Woo hoo! What a fine way to celebrate a five-predator day.

It didn’t actually rain this morning, yet, but the clouds were grey, and everything was still dripping wet from overnight showers again, so I got soaked anyway.

There was a bit of excitement on the pond when a wood duck hen caught a nice, big tadpole, probably an American bullfrog, and all the other wood ducks wanted to help her with it. She managed to keep them all at bay, however, and choked it down all by herself. They may look cute, but they are wild animals, after all, and it appears they will eat anything they can catch.

Things were quiet at the river, so I had time to check on the barn swallow still on her nest under the Port Washington Road bridge at the far northwest corner of the park.

Just beyond the bridges, I spotted seventeen (17!) mallards, probably all siblings and a mom, steaming across the river. Mallard ducklings have been oddly scarce this summer compared to previous years, so it’s good to know they are around, even if we don’t get to see as much of them.

Finally, back on the pond, here’s another wood duck hen with her six healthy-looking ducklings.

Since I’ve got a bit of room left, here’s another rubyspot damselfly from yesterday morning when it was still quite dark.

And lastly, here’s a buckeye butterfly giving the swallowtail a good run for its money yesterday morning and putting on quite a show from atop a thistle blossom beside the soccer fields.

It must have rained overnight, because there were puddles on the path, and there were some clouds darkening the sky at sunrise, but they cleared out pretty quickly, and it became a perfectly nice morning in Estabrook Park.

A peregrine falcon was back in the radio tower over the far riverbank and calling for someone’s attention.

On the water directly below, a family of wood ducks were out for their morning swim.

At the pond, the female belted kingfisher was back and must have already taken a dip.

Back at the river and above the falls, another batch of wood duck ducklings looked brand new.

On my second visit to the pond, the family with four ducklings were all on break.

Meanwhile, the one duckling left from one of the first batches was getting a good preening from Mom.

It appears that the nuthatches have fledged, and this youngster stayed at the top of the tree and chattered at Mom and Dad …

as they furiously foraged lower on the tree.

At the weeds beside the soccer field, the butterfly of the day was this fresh-looking black swallowtail.

I also found there my first female common green darner, with a reddish brown abdomen instead of the “intense blue” on the males I’ve seen. Boy, they are huge, she was about three inches long with a four-inch wingspan.

Finally, a snowberry clearwing gave the bee balm a rest and sampled the thistle nectar.

It was a dark and stormy morning in Estabrook Park, but I didn’t realize just how dark and stormy it was going to get until I was already at the pond and checked the weather radar on my phone. Perhaps the birds did know, however, and that is why they were so busy this morning. They all wanted breakfast before the rain came.

There was a great blue heron fishing at the pond, but it was just off the southern tip of the island, and the brush that overhangs the water there is full of discarded fishing line. I don’t even want to take that picture, let alone see it.

Happily, there was also a female belted kingfisher at the far shore, I watched her catch a nice fish, possibly one of the bluegills I saw yesterday, and she took it to a tree free from such distractions.

At the river, the huge surprise was this young great horned owl over the southern island. There was another one calling from nearby, but I only managed to see the one.

Finally, just a bit farther north, a peregrine falcon shot away from the near riverbank like a scalded cat, and I barely even had time to identify it before I lost track of it. My crazy good luck held, however, and it soon perched in the one remaining tall dead tree over the northern island.

By then, the sky had become quite dark, but I was able to prop my camera against a tree and slow the shutter down to 1/30 of a second, which let the ISO slow down to just 125 and minimized noise in the image. I had tried to do that with the owl, but in the time it took me to take three steps towards a conveniently-located tree trunk, the owl had already had enough of me, so all we have is that crazy grainy image above. Oh well.

After that, I hustled home and mostly beat the rain.

This morning was just as gorgeous as yesterday morning, but with less traffic noise. Yay!

I beat the sun to the pond, and when I arrived, I was greeted by a green heron in the top of one of the fruit trees over the west shore.

On my way to the river, this American rubyspot damselfly sporting a few dew drops really caught my eye.

Right beside the rubyspot was this broad-handed leafcutter bee (Megachile latimanus), as far as I know, on a common vetch blossom, also covered in dew, and probably too cold to move.

Near the same spot where we saw the female belted kingfisher with an incomplete rusty-red band yesterday, there was another female with a more-complete red band today, plus a male with no red band at all, and a third one that I wasn’t able to identify further. The trio was flitting around together a bit, so I doubt the third wheel was a territory encroacher, but perhaps the group comprised a recent fledgling or two with a parent or two, as the case may be, and hurray for fledglings!

Just a bit farther south along the river, at a popular fishing spot, I startled some wood ducks who had probably snuck up on shore to forage. Here’s one wood duck hen with three ducklings.

And here’s another wood duck hen with nine (9!) ducklings looking quite grown up. Yee haw! That’s what I love to see.

Finally, at the pond, here’s a wood duck hen with three of her four ducklings who are starting to show their blue speculum feathers.

Meanwhile, below the surface, the pond appeared to be full of bluegills, and here’s one of dozens.

Now, for the moment some of you may have been waiting for. I know I sure was. Here’s a snowberry clearwing hovering and sipping nectar from a bee balm blossom in the pollinator garden. What a sight, right?

Here’s a side view so you can see at least four of its six legs just dangling in the breeze.

The thistles beside the soccer fields are still in bloom, and here’s one feeding a stripe-winged drone fly (Eristalis horticola)

Lastly, here’s a clouded sulpher butterfly sipping nectar from the same.

PS. Here’s a close-up, in case you’re not the zooming type. I wouldn’t want you to miss all the details.