Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Our recent dry-out continues…

It was a nice and sunny morning for our weekly wildlife walk, about as chilly as expected, but the breeze was a little stronger than yesterday’s forecast suggested. Oh well. Seven hardy souls came out to join me, nevertheless.

On my way to the parking lot to meet up, I was happy to see a pair of pied-billed grebes back on the river. I haven’t seen a grebe since last Tuesday. I do have a blurry picture of the two together, but I think this solo performance came out a lot better.

Once our group was assembled, we first headed to the pond, and one of the highlights there was this blue-gray gnatcatcher, who was a first of the year for several of us, and may be the same individual I saw yesterday, but he sure put on a nicer show today.

Despite the good start, I didn’t get any pictures beyond that, for some reason, so here are a few more from yesterday. The tom turkey didn’t leave you much of a look at the hen, so here she is getting her feathers back in order.

We did see a few brown creepers this morning, but I like this picture from yesterday more.

We also saw the brown thrasher again by the pond, but it gave me a much better look yesterday.

We didn’t see a single phoebe this morning, but I did see one at the south end on my walk back home. Perhaps they just needed it to warm up a bit. Anyway, here’s a good look one let me have yesterday.

Lastly, here’s another pose from that handsome yellow-rumped warbler yesterday.

It appears that we might be done with cold and wet weather for a few days at least, so let’s hope the parade of warblers resumes. In addition to the three we’ve seen already, yellow-rumped, palm, and pine, four others have been spotted so far this month elsewhere in Milwaukee County. If you see one, please be sure to point them towards Estabrook!

Hurray for another day without April showers…

I read that we are now officially enjoying the wettest April on record in Milwaukee, but the weather this morning in Estabrook Park was just about as forecast, so cool, but otherwise quite nice. It was even cool enough and clear enough overnight to put some frost on the grass by sunrise, but the mostly clear skies let the sun warm things up pretty quickly.

My first big treat was spotting this beaver up and gnawing on its breakfast in a flooded low spot beside the river.

I didn’t see anyone new at the pond today, so I headed back to the river, and on my way, I found a trio of male rusty blackbirds shining a bit in the sun. This one was making their amazing call, but I think the female we saw a couple of weeks ago is long gone. “Sorry, fellas.”

The biggest surprise of the morning, literally and figuratively, was this guy, the first tom turkey I’ve ever seen in the park. “Welcome, at long last, you magnificent creature!”

Even better, he had come with a date, and here he is standing on her back, which I suppose is their custom. Of course, I should have zoomed out a bit farther for this shot, but I had only brought my fixed lens with me, and this was as far as I could back up. Oops. Perhaps I’d better start bringing both, eh?

This next treat is a lot smaller, but no less welcome, our first blue-gray gnatcatcher of the year. It’s a lousy picture, for sure, but it’s good enough for a positive ID, and it’s the best it would let me have, for now.

Finally, the palm and pine warblers seemed to have moved on already, but we still have plenty of yellow-rumped warblers, and here’s a handsome one.

Lastly, I wasn’t really short on pictures today, but after those fuzzy swallow pictures yesterday, let me give you another look at the tree swallows at Lakeshore State Park, when there was enough light to work with.

The forecast for our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning looks cool again but otherwise perfect, with clear skies and almost no breeze. The unpaved path along the river is a soggy mess, so we’ll probably avoid that, but there will be plenty to see in the tall trees over the paved path along the top of the bluff. So, come on out and help me find who has just arrived.

April reminds us that it’s still April…

It was cool, cloudy, and windy in Estabrook Park this morning, so yeah, spring in southeast Wisconsin. At least it wasn’t raining again, because we’ve had just about enough of that for a while.

Anyway, look who chose today for its big first outing at the pond for the year.

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the size spectrum, we still have at least one winter wren hanging around, but they won’t be here for much longer, so get your looks in while they last.

When I arrived at the river, there were ten double-crested cormorants in the water or up on the island drying out. Here’s one, on the left, showing off its namesake “double crest”, which I read is “only visible on adults during breeding season.”

The bigger surprise at the river, for me at least, was our first batch of swallows busily hunting lake flies over the water. Sure, it would’ve been nice if they were all posing calmly on branches beside the river, as they did in April 2022, but I’ll take what I can get and like it! Here’s a barn swallow, with its forked tail.

Here’s a tree swallow, which I just showed you yesterday on a nesting box at Lakeshore State Park.

And here’s a northern rough-winged swallow, looking a lot like an immature female tree swallow, but with a “dingy-brown breast” instead of the “clean white breast” on a tree swallow. All we’re missing is the cliff swallows, which I hope return to nest again under the eave of the Holliday Inn.

Finally, back at the pond, the look on the face of this female belted kingfisher seems to be saying “that’s enough already with all those fuzzy pictures!”

Lastly, if you skipped my presentation on the wildlife in Estabrook at North Shore School for Seniors a couple of weeks ago because you’ve already seen it three times, have I got great news for you! The big boss there asked me, “Andy, isn’t there anything else you can talk about?”, and I replied, “Hmmm. I do have a few pictures of wildlife from my travels with Anne. Would anyone want to hear me talk about capturing those?” Well, we’re gonna find out soon because that’s what she’s got me presenting at 1pm this Tuesday. Come on out, if you’ve got the time.

The forecast for tomorrow is a little cooler, a little less windy, a little sunnier, and no rain, so woo hoo! I can’t wait to see who I’ll see next.

Some nice sights, despite the fog…

It was a cool and foggy morning in Estabrook Park, but there wasn’t any rain for a change, so it was a fine time to see who has arrived lately.

The first newcomer I spotted was this very shy green heron at the river. I actually glimpsed it already yesterday, but it wouldn’t let me sneak a picture until today. “Welcome to Estabrook, Sweetie!”

The next fresh arrival was this female red-winged blackbird at the pond. She was making a racket, too, and I couldn’t tell if she was shouting, “Oh dear, I just love it!” or “I flew all that way for this?!?!?” Either way, I’m sure she’ll make the best of it.

This next scene is not for the squeamish, but it is a big part of how nature works, so here you go. This is a mature Cooper’s hawk with its fresh catch, which I suspect was an eastern towhee, based on the look of the tail feathers in some of the other shots.

With the morning so dim and gray, I don’t have much more than that, but by happy coincidence, I have a few pictures from yesterday afternoon when I rode down to check out the lakefront.

My first stop was Juneau Lagoon, and it was full of blue-winged teals, but they were keeping pretty far from shore. Instead, the better sight, in my opinion, was this mature black-crowned night heron, our first of the year.

At Lakeshore State Park, the tree swallows were back and very energetically sorting out who was going to use which nesting box. Here’s a pair checking to see if the basement stayed dry after all that rain.

Finally, there was still a single redhead sticking around and diving with the scaups. What a handsome bird, eh?

Lastly, back to Estabrook, I don’t know exactly what their threshold is, but we must have crossed it last night, because there were spider webs, dripping with water they had scooped out of the fog, all through the park this morning. There is not enough information in this picture for my panel of experts to determine the exact species of spider that made these, but they are pretty sure it is an orb weaver.

The forecast for tomorrow suggests that we’ll have a little less fog and a little more wind. I heard my first house wren of the year this morning, so maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to get my eyes on one. Keep those fingers crossed!

Just when I thought April couldn’t get any wetter…

Sheesh! It really poured last night. I hope you stayed dry. The river wasn’t as high as it got during the great flood last August, but the pond was higher than I’ve ever seen it, and high enough to completely cover the island, which inundated the goose nest. She was off it when I arrived this morning, and I could see at least three eggs floating in the water. Ugh! I’ll spare you the depressing picture, and the good news is that she has lost her first clutch before, likely to predators last time, and then went on to lay a whole new batch, which did finally hatch into goslings. So, not all hope is lost.

A happy sight at the pond was our first brown thrasher of the year, singing up a storm in exactly the same spot I saw it yesterday.

This little red squirrel found one of last year’s black walnuts and was so intent on chewing it open that it seemed to completely ignore me.

Another new arrival yesterday morning was our first pine warbler of the year and only the second one I’ve captured on film in Estabrook. This picture is a little better than the first, but not by much.

Late yesterday morning, it got so warm that even this mourning cloak butterfly was out.

Finally, my one good picture from this morning is this white-breasted nuthatch performing their signature pose.

Lastly, there are several wildflowers up in the park, including marsh marigolds and Virginia bluebells, but my favorite of the current batch is this white trout lily.

I see that the chance of rain in the current forecast stays below 25% until tomorrow evening, woo hoo, so maybe we’ll have a chance to dry out a bit. Keep your fingers crossed!

A wet April gets even wetter…

It has dried out now, but it was plenty rainy and breezy early this morning, so I didn’t get into Estabrook Park for a while. Instead I used that extra time to write this up and use a few more pictures from yesterday.

At first glance, this looks like just another picture of a red-breasted merganser drake on the river, and it is not even as nice as the one I got on the pond later that morning, but if you look closer (click on the image to view it in flicker), you can see that the “fish” in its beak has a hind leg, which makes it our first tadpole of the year. Woo hoo, but before we get too excited, I’ve just learned that bullfrog tadpoles can winter over under the ice, so this is most likely not from eggs laid already this year. In any case, I’m still glad to see it, as I also expect was the merganser.

While we’re at the river, here’s a look at the horned grebe before it went for a nap with the pied-billed grebe.

And here’s the pied-billed grebe, also before naptime.

Once the towhee started belting out his tune, I tried to move for a better sideview, but the branch it was perched on didn’t make that easy. Oh well. He’s still a pretty bird.

Along with all the ruby-crowned kinglets and white-throated sparrows I saw yesterday, there was also a smaller influx of swamp sparrows, and here’s one of the little cuties foraging at a flooded low spot beside the river.

Finally, I happened to be out on my bike with my camera yesterday afternoon, so I stopped by the owl on her nest that I showed you last week, and it appears that a lot has happened since then!

The forecast for tomorrow morning looks just as wet, but who knows, maybe there will be a nice big gap in the rain like the one I had in Dallas Sunday morning.

All kinds of treats to see today…

Sorry for the delay. It was a stupendous morning to return to Estabrook Park, despite the storms overnight, but it’s been a busy afternoon. The breeze was light, the air was warm, the sky was mostly clear, and there were plenty of lake flies in the air, so conditions were ideal for finding new arrivals.

I see that the wildlife walkers already noticed an uptick in the number of ruby-crowned kinglets yesterday, but I suspect that even more flew in since then, because I counted at least four dozen today. They were everywhere, and with that many subjects to choose from, I’d be embarrassed if I didn’t have at least one presentable picture to show you.

Other new arrivals, which may have snuck in after yesterday’s walk, were eastern towhees, and I counted at least four. This handsome devil is the one that selected the nicest background.

Although they are still considered “rare” for Milwaukee this early in the season, we had our third palm warbler sighting.

This next bird, a green-winged teal drake, is not technically “rare”, but they sure are infrequent in Estabrook and another first for the year.

In case all the grebes look the same to you, a pied-billed grebe has joined the horned grebe around the islands in the river, and here they are trying to take their naps together. The pied-billed is on the left and in front, and the horned is on the right and in back.

Finally, we’ve seen turtles for a while already this spring, but today I saw my first snapping turtle for the year. It is wild to contemplate that they were in their present form and already 24 million years old when the Chicxulub asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago.

Well, the National Weather Service has just issued a tornado warning for our area, so I’d better wrap this up. Hopefully, things will be fine, and I’ll have another post for you by tomorrow.

Dallas wraps up with quite the flourish…

I woke up nice and early for my free day today, and I was greeted by the sound of rain on my windowpane. Ugh! Even worse, I checked the radar online, and Dallas appeared to be under a huge green blob that wouldn’t drift away until the afternoon. Argh! That was not what I had ordered at all.

When it became light enough outside to suggest that the sun had risen, however, it was no longer raining, and since I had no better idea, I grabbed my gear, hopped in my rental, and drove to a spot reputed to be one of the best birding locations in Dallas, “White Rock Lake & Old Fish Hatchery“.

It felt like I was at a zoo! I counted twelve (12!) black-crowned night herons. They were just standing around on a huge spillway at the south end of the lake, and here’s one of them.

There were so many, in fact, that one pissed off a great blue heron, who dramatically expressed its displeasure.

I saw eight great egrets fly over, but I was more excited to see my first snowy egret ever in the US.

I was there for nearly three hours, and it never did rain, but I finally tore myself away so that I would have time to visit another nearby hot spot: Harry Moss Park. There, it did rain a bit, but I had my umbrella, and I finally saw my first ducklings of the year, these cute little mallards taking a nap under Mom’s watchful eye.

There was even a tufted titmouse, which I’ve shown you already from Connecticut, and which has been reported in Estabrook, but I have yet to see. I’m making a point now to photograph them every time I hear them so that when I do get the chance in Estabrook, I’ll be ready.

Finally, I saw this beauty earlier in the morning, back at the White Rock spillway, but I saved the picture for last because it is so amazing. I was just walking up the path beside the spillway, and I noticed a slight movement behind the chain-link fence they put up to keep us from falling in. Once I saw what it was, I froze and held my breath as I brought my camera to bear.

Kitty hardly moved, however, and we just stared at each other through the fence for a minute, although as I write this, I can see that it isn’t even looking at me in this picture. I was so preoccupied with making sure that I captured a nice image through the fence and brush, that I didn’t take the time to see what it might have been looking at. Maybe it was also preoccupied by something, because it even let me take a step-or-two forward so that I could frame its whole face in a single gap in the fence.

When it did start to move, it did so nice and slowly, and for a tenth of a second, I thought it might come over to rub against my leg, it seemed so calm. Alas, that was not to be, and instead, it merely ducked under a gap in the fence, made sure the coast was otherwise clear, trotted across the path not even ten feet away from me, and disappeared into the brush on the other side.

In case you haven’t recognized it yet, because its non-house-cat features are not obvious in this picture, this is only the second bobcat I’ve ever seen. Now how’s that for a Texas-sized sendoff?

If everything goes according to plan, I’ll catch my flight home early Monday morning and arrive back in Milwaukee before this post goes live, early in the afternoon. I should be back in Estabrook Park Tuesday morning to resume our regularly scheduled programming.

Day 3 in the Lone Star State…

Well, yesterday was quite a day at the ASME Human Powered Vehicle competition here in Dallas, TX. Things got off to a great start in the 2.5-hour endurance race, and the UWM team was doing well, but then a component in the tilting mechanism broke. Happily, we managed to “fix” it with copious use of cable ties, and we were back in the race. Then it started to pour, but the students all kept going. Finally, the chain derailed, somehow wrapped around the wheel, tore the derailleur off the frame, put a huge gash in the tire, and that really cooked our goose. Oh well. The students learned a ton, seemed to have fun, and are excitedly talking about what to do differently next year. Mission accomplished, right?

Anyway, speaking of geese, I could hear some of you grousing that the gosling I showed you yesterday looked a bit grown up, and you’d love to see some freshly hatched ones, so here you go.

I see that chipping sparrows are starting to show up in the Milwaukee area, but I haven’t seen one in Estabrook yet this year, so here’s one of the little cuties from Dallas.

We do get to see cedar waxwings in Estabrook all year, though much less often in the winter, but how could I resist taking a picture of these two beauties?

I know I’ve already shown you a mockingbird on this trip, but this one was posing so nicely that I thought one more couldn’t hurt, right?

The fun treat of yesterday morning, before the race got underway, was spotting a couple of eastern meadowlarks. We’ve seen them in various locales in the Milwaukee area, but not yet in Estabrook. The pale underside on this one marks it as a youngster, and it seemed very curious about, but not alarmed by, the old guy peeking over the top of the hill.

Finally, here’s a striking little butterfly I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before, which my sources tell me is a common checkered-skipper (Burnsius communis).

Lastly, I took the liberty of scheduling myself a free day before I fly back home, but the weather forecast is a little iffy, so here’s hoping that I can find something interesting or pretty to show you to make it worth our whiles.

Day 2 in D-town…

The human-powered vehicle competition got underway on the Dallas College, Richland Campus yesterday morning, but before the students all arrived with their contraptions, I had a couple hours to myself to see what wildlife might also be making their home there.

They have a nice water feature running through the middle of the campus, so we shouldn’t be surprised to find Canada geese there, and given how far ahead of ours their spring it, of course they have goslings.

There are also plenty of trees, so squirrels should also not be a surprise, but if you look closely, this one has a yellow tinge to its underside, and that, along with their slightly larger size, which is hard to see in this picture, makes them eastern fox squirrels. Fun! I’ve only been able to show you one once before, from Colorado, and I only saw the one there, but here, they are everywhere.

I heard killdeer calling, but I also saw a bunch of starlings, which mimic killdeer like crazy in Estabrook, so I was skeptical. When I crossed a parking lot, however, sure enough, there were three killdeer, and they were quite bold, so here’s a nice portrait of one.

Also in that parking lot, I could hear a yellow-rumped warbler, and there weren’t many trees there in which it could hide, so here’s another nice look.

As I continued to try to get across that lot, suddenly a small flock of shorebirds swooped in, and they turned out to be least sandpipers, which I’ve only seen a couple of times in Estabrook. Sadly, they soon realized that “this isn’t sand!”, and they quickly continued on their way.

Then the show really got started. I had noticed a couple of scissor-tailed flycatchers flitting about, but they often flew up to perch at the top of some very tall light poles. Happily, for us at least, they eventually noticed each other, and it appears that there is some dispute between them, perhaps about territory or mates, because they really got into it.

The good news, for us at least, is that their kerfuffle led to sights like this. Holy smokes, right! I’ve seen some fancy birds before, and I’ve seen some fancy displays, but this might be the best combination of the two I’ve seen so far.

Then the students started to arrive, I helped our team reassemble their vehicle, and they performed well in the safety inspection and drag race. Today is the endurance race, but before that gets underway, I’ll get a second chance to stroll around the campus, so wish me luck!