Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

A day of consolation prizes…

It was indeed another beautiful summer day in Estabrook Park, but I must have used up my luck yesterday because I didn’t have a whole lot today.

I did see these bucks crossing the river, and there was even a third one, but they were going the other way, so I mostly got their backsides.

I couldn’t find the young yellow-crowned night heron, although someone else did after I moved on, and there were no other new birds on the river today, but this solitary sandpiper did let me have a pretty nice picture.

The mallard hen with a brand-new batch of ducklings seemed more at ease this morning and let me get a real nice look.

I stopped by the pond a second time, in hopes that perhaps the heron had moved up there, but that was not the case. Instead, one of the belted kingfishers was there and we watched it catch a tasty-looking little fish.

Since I wasn’t having much luck in Estabrook, I decided to give Sheridan Park, where a least bittern was photographed recently, a try, but my mediocre luck followed me. I and a bunch of other hopefuls did manage to see a bittern take a short flight from one hiding spot in the reeds to another, but that was it. My consolation prize was this green heron, which we haven’t seen much of in Estabrook for a while.

The butter on my bread turned out to be the chicks that the green heron had safely hidden away on a pine branch over the water. Nice.

I saw my first red-spotted purple of the year yesterday on the cup plant blossoms at the back of the pollinator garden, but it was very shy and kept itself obscured by leaves. I saw one again today, and it wasn’t obscured, but if you look closely at what it is sipping from, you might wish it was. Perhaps it’s on a “fermented food” kick.

It looks like the showers forecast for tomorrow aren’t due to arrive until the afternoon, so here’s hoping that my luck improves.

Another rarity pays us a visit…

Oh, my goodness, the weather was absolutely fabulous this morning in Estabrook Park. The skies were crystal clear, and the air was cool and nearly still. If you live in the vicinity, I hope you’ve had a chance to get outside.

The fun started for me at the pond again, where the hooded merganser let me have a much nicer look than yesterday, although it did make me walk around to the east side of the pond to get it. How I suffer for my craft.

As I approached the river, I found this doe literally chewing up the scenery.

The star of the day, however, has got to be this juvenile yellow-crowned night heron who had just caught a crayfish out of the river. Now before you ask, “didn’t we just see a night heron on the pond?” let me point out that we did indeed see a black-crowned night heron on the pond just yesterday, but this is a yellow-crowned night heron, which we have seen before, but which the experts at eBird consider to be “rare” for this time and place. How sweet is that?

As I made my way back south, I stopped at the pollinator garden, and I did see another snowberry clearwing moth, but the picture didn’t come out as good as yesterday’s. Instead, the more interesting sight was this chipmunk parked higher in a tree than I’ve ever seen them. Plus, it wasn’t moving, so perhaps it was hiding out, or maybe it had just climbed so high that now it was afraid to move. Either way, I sure hope it can get itself out of whichever predicament it has gotten itself into.

I did see a belted kingfisher today, and even got a picture, but this one from Monday looks a lot nicer.

This picture came out as you might imagine some of the ones did that I mentioned above and that I opted not to show you. This is only the second time I’ve seen this creature (Dyspteris abortivaria), however, and this is the best I’ve been able to manage to date, so we’re just gonna hafta go with it. Not only is it one of the few green moths we get to see in Wisconsin, it is the only species in its genus, and its common name is “bad-wing moth” because “its forewing is much larger than its hindwing, making it often difficult to pull into position for spreading.” Weird detail to name it after, eh?

Finally, the monarchs are still enjoying the swamp milkweed beside the river, and if they can, so should we. Right?

The forecast for tomorrow looks like a repeat of today, so I can’t wait to see who I’ll find next.

Youngsters on the move…

A big front rolled through Wisconsin yesterday, and it created a disaster for our neighbors to the north, but we’re thankful that no fatalities or missing persons have been reported there. Around here, we were a lot luckier, and all we got was about an inch and a half of sorely needed rain and a big drop in temperature.

Thus, it was a gorgeous morning in Estabrook Park, and the big surprise came early when I spotted this darling black-crowned night heron youngster resting over the southern corner of the pond. This one looks a little older than the one that visited last summer, as it appears to be already showing some dark feathers on its wing and cap.

Speaking of youngsters, at least one mallard hen is still making them, and here she is on the river between the islands with ten of the freshly-hatched and ravenous little rascals.

Meanwhile, this buck sure looks as though he’d like to try making some, but the doe seemed less interested.

First, she won’t be ready till mid-October, and second, he’s got a rival to contend with, although the rivalry looked pretty friendly at this point.

I did see the hooded merganser again, and this time it was on the pond and had just caught a crayfish, but it was moving pretty quickly, the light was low, and blah, blah, blah. The point is, here’s another great blue heron with a fish, and the thin wisps of feathers on its head suggest it’s also a youngster.

At the pollinator garden, I was thrilled, at long last, to catch a snowberry clearwing moth feeding from a bee balm blossom in good sunlight.

Finally, our first fiery skipper butterfly of the season has just emerged from its chrysalis, and here it is sipping nectar from a burdock blossom beside the southern soccer fields. “Welcome back you brilliant little splash of color!”

The forecast currently suggests that it will be even cooler tomorrow morning, but with a lighter wind and even clearer skies. Be still my heart!

All kinds of pleasant surprises…

The rain forecast for this morning never came, at least until this afternoon, and neither did any wildlife walkers, so I had quite a nice morning in Estabrook Park all to my lonesome.

My first treat came on the river between the islands, where I was checking for shorebirds, when I spotted this giant snapping turtle lumbering over a high spot in the river bottom.

All the regular shorebirds were in attendance, the spotted sandpipers, killdeer, and even a solitary sandpiper, but the rarer occurrence and prettier picture was this belted kingfisher upstream, over the riverbank, and against a pretty green background.

As I was searching for the kingfisher I could hear, look who else I saw out on the water: our first spiny softshell turtle of the summer. Woo Hoo!

As I made my way back downstream, I arrived just in time to spot this great blue heron with a nice big catfish in its beak. I couldn’t tell if the heron hadn’t had a fish that big in a while, if it never had a fish that big before, or if something else gave it pause, but it sure did futz with that fish a lot. It set it back down and recaught it a couple of times and rinsed it off, first in this water, and then in that water, about a dozen times. Since it was taking so long, I figured I’d have time to move to a better vantage point, but during the whole 20 seconds that we were out of sight of each other, the bird swallowed the fish. Dang it.

Since those were the best sights of today, and I’ve got a little bit of room left, here are a few pictures from Saturday morning at the Retzer Nature Center. Despite all the big open fields, and the occasional bobolink sighting, none of us had seen a meadowlark. That is until Saturday morning when this little cutie flew in and plopped down on a freshly mowed part to preen.

When I first heard this guy, I couldn’t believe my luck, because if I could get eyes on it, that would make both the yellow-billed and the black-billed cuckoos in the same week. Holy Mackerel!

Finally, I’d heard the familiar call of sandhill cranes in the distance a couple of times already over the week, but it was a special treat to get a low flyover from this pair to wrap up my last outing there. “Thanks, Guys!”

Lastly, it looks like we’re in for a pretty nice morning again tomorrow, with a little breeze out of the north, so maybe someone new will stop in on their way south. Tune in to find out.

Herons in a flurry…

Sorry about missing yesterday. Between wrapping things up at Retzer, packing up, getting home, and catching up, my post fell through the cracks. The good news is that I somehow did complete the Master Naturalist training and now I have a slightly better understanding of how much I still don’t know. Best of all, Estabrook Park was right where I left it, and they even let me back in this morning.

On the river, the great blue herons are getting feisty, or frisky, I’m not sure which, and here’s one struttin’ his stuff.

And here he is trying to give another heron a closer look, but the other heron wanted no part of that.

Our little meadow of weeds at the north end still has not been mowed, and I’m beginning to think that it might finally survive the summer this year. Here’s a black swallowtail butterfly resting on and perhaps sipping nectar from a Queen Anne’s lace blossom. It is an invasive plant, but the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension explains that “the plant is used by some native animals for food. It is a host plant for eastern black swallowtail caterpillars and many butterflies and adult bees and beneficial insects utilize the flower nectar.” So, it appears to be at least better than mowed lawn.

Back out on the water, another heron got into trouble when it landed on a log already occupied by a mallard hen and her ducklings. This picture from across the river is terrible, but if you zoom in or squint real good you can make out the hen just to the right of center as she tells the heron to back off.

The scene was a lot more tranquil down river, where a monarch caterpillar was slowly turning milkweed into a butterfly, and little green balls of frass.

I could hear another pair of herons getting into it even farther downstream, but that was far enough away that this wood duck hen and her ducklings didn’t even put their second foot down.

I was a little bummed that I didn’t find yet another new shorebird paying us a visit, but our first hooded merganser after the breeding season, made up for that. We haven’t seen them since April. “Welcome back, Sweetheart!”

I see that we currently have a 71% chance of thunderstorms for 7am tomorrow morning and 52% chance of scattered storms at 8, so who knows. If it is not actually storming at the time, I’ll be at the beer garden parking lot for our weekly wildlife walk. Consult your favorite weather source in the morning and come on out, if you dare. My phone number is hidden in the text of that page, so you can text me if you want to be sure. Maybe I’ll see you there.

Wrapping up a week in Waukesha…

It was another great day at the Retzer Nature Center and one more great day of class in their Master Naturalist Program. We got an excellent guided tour of the Waukesha Clean Water Plant in the morning and visited Carroll University’s Howard T. Greene Scientific Study and Conservation Area to investigate life in the Genesee Creek after lunch.

The pretties sight I saw today was this darling Appalachian brown butterfly (Lethe appalachia) beside the Genesee Creek, and yet another first for me.

Tomorrow morning, we get to wrap up class, and tomorrow afternoon, I finally get to go home. Yay!

More faces familiar and new…

We had another cool start to the day at the Retzer Nature Center, out here in Waukesha County, but the winds were light, the sky was clear, and the smoke was still gone, so it was a very nice morning.

This hairy woodpecker is a familiar face, of course, but he posed so nicely in the sun in front of a clean and dark background that I figured one more look can’t hurt. Right?

When I first saw this butterfly, I figured it was a black swallowtail, which we’ve already seen this summer, but once I gave the picture a closer look, I can see that it is instead our first tiger swallowtail of the summer and a dark morph, to boot. Note how it has a much planer pattern of dots at the trailing edge of its top wing than the black swallowtail.

As with the hairy woodpecker above, this black-capped chickadee gave me a pose I just couldn’t refuse.

As with the swallowtail above, I figured this shy butterfly was one we’d seen before, perhaps a wood-nymph or wood satyr, but I was mistaken once again. This one turns out to be our very first northern pearly-eye (Lethe anthedon). What a beauty, eh?

Finally, I’ve shown you plenty of eastern cottontails already, but I’ve never seen one quite so comfortable as this lazy bones.

We’re having a little group birding tomorrow morning before class, so hopefully more sets of eyes will turn up something as cool as the yellow-billed cuckoo from yesterday. Wish us luck!

Retzer delivers again…

It was a big day at Retzer today. The first surprise came early this morning when temps were in the low 50s as I hopped on my bike soon after sunrise, and I was thankful that it was a bit warmer when I headed home just before sunset this evening.

In the time I had before class started, I was thrilled to spot the first raptor I’ve seen at Retzer, this gorgeous kestrel on the hunt over their fabulous prairie. Yes, we did just see a pair in Estabrook, but this one is closer and against a prettier sky.

In the afternoon, we took a short field trip to go look for dragonflies, and I did spot a couple, but the big surprise was when one of my classmates noticed this yellow-billed cuckoo along the way. I know we just saw one in Estabrook, but this is only my third sighting, so bear with me.

Finally, we also went out looking for bumble bees, and I saw plenty of those, too, but the big treat for me was spotting this familiar looking creature. If you look closely, however, you might notice that instead of the alternating stripes of yellow and black that we just saw on a snowberry clearwing, this moth is darker with bands of olive green, tan, and burgundy, and that’s because this one is our very first hummingbird clearwing (Hemaris thysbe). Yippee! At long last, something we haven’t just seen at Estabrook!

Okay, now it’s crazy late, and I can’t wait to see what I find next at Retzer, so I want to get up early again tomorrow, and I’d better put this in the mail and get to bed ASAP.

UWM Waukesha Field Station!

The smoke was gone again, and it was a great day in Waukesha County. As was the case yesterday, I got to spend a couple hours at the Retzer Nature Center before class started, and this little cutie, a female common yellowthroat, came out to say “hi” as I paid a visit to Brown’s Fen.

Once class started, we headed out to visit the UWM Waukesha Field Station to investigate the fabulous Marlin Johnson Prairie, and that’s where I saw my first ever blue dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis). Sweet!

Finally, after we returned to Retzer and were heading back into the building to wrap up our day, I was able to capture my first flying snowberry clearwing image of the year. The flower it was sipping from was swaying in the breeze pretty good, however, so this isn’t my best clearwing picture, but now that they are out and about, a have a hope of coming up with a better one for you soon.

We’re supposed to enjoy dinner together after class tomorrow, so I don’t know when, if ever, I’ll get a chance to show you any new pictures, but if one shows up, I’ll be sure to take it.

Back at Retzer again…

As I mentioned yesterday, I was at the Retzer Nature Center all day for the first installment of their master naturalist training, but class didn’t start until 9am, so I had plenty of time before then to look around.

One sight I did glimpse on my previous visit, and failed to capture on film, was a thirteen-lined ground squirrel, but I was luckier today, so here you go. This one appeared to be lining its nest with a mouthful of fresh straw.

There were plenty of birds, but the one I haven’t been able to show you in a while was this clay-colored sparrow.

If you’re wondering how it might be possible to tell this particular sparrow from all the others, wait till you hear its song.

Finally, it’s late, it’s been a long day, and I’ve gotta wrap this up earlier than usual, so here’s a butterfly that we’ve seen before, but not yet in Estabrook and not yet this year: a common wood-nymph.

I didn’t get kicked out yet, so I’ll be back in class again tomorrow, and if today was any indication, I expect that it will be fun and informative. Since I’ll be there anyway, I’ll also try to get you some more pictures.