You won’t believe who’s back. Ol’ Mrs. Snappy was right were I first found her yesterday morning, and that’s the curb at the edge of the parkway right under her chin. It appears that I misjudged how much she would prefer to lay her eggs in exactly that spot. It did not appear, however, that she was having any better luck digging a hole in the turf than yesterday, but let’s just say I’ve learned my lesson, and I left her to her own devices today. “Best of luck, Ma’am!”

So, I took a seat on the bench, began surveying the birds, and soon saw the wood duck hen and four ducklings, but also spotted the mallard duckling swimming all on its own. Happily, as I searched high and low for Mom and contemplated trying to get a picture, she flew in from somewhere, and the pair were soon reunited. Perhaps she had taken to the air to flee those pesky drakes again. Sheesh!

Anyway, I headed toward the river, and as I entered the clearing at the north end, I was greeted by this happy and more peaceful scene of goslings and their mom grazing under the watchful eye of their dad.

I tried to edge around them to the water without scaring them off, and when I got there, I was thrilled to spot a beaver in the water at the southern tip of the northern island. You can just make out its dark shape in front of the sticks at the water’s edge.

Better yet, as I waited to see what it was up to, it climbed up on the bank behind those sticks and started pushing them around. I wonder what’s up with that. If you’re having trouble spotting it, compare the two pictures and look for the shiny wet fur on its haunches below.

At the far north end, I was counting the cliff swallows and checking on the nesting barn swallows under the Port Washington Road Bridge, when I spotted a cliff swallow swoop up to the bridge under the near span. Holy smokes! They’re also nesting right there, but with a different construction technique. Either that’s a brand new nest, or I’ve failed to notice it all month. “Pay attention, Dressel!” Heck, I thought they had already nested under the eave of the Holiday Inn, but maybe there were just roosting there. I could even see a second nest under the bridge, but it was still a work in progress. Cool!

Back at the pond, the snapping turtle was gone, and I could not tell if she managed to bury her eggs or was forced to give up again. Meanwhile the mallards were up on shore and back in their usual napping spot.

Lastly, as I followed the paved path west of the southern soccer fields, a largish bird with a long tail, like a grackle but brown, flew right in front of me and perched low in the trees on my right. Once I got a good look at it, I could not believe my luck. It’s a black-billed cuckoo, which we only get to see about once a year. Better yet, it perched right in the sun with a nice blue and green background for me. I immediately sat down and crab-walked down the path a bit for a better angle, and thank goodness no runners or cyclists came through for a minute.

Well, that’s gonna be it from Estabrook Park for a while because Anne and I are off to sunny Morocco tomorrow. I’ll bring my camera with, but my good lens is still not yet back from the shop, so I can’t promise much. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

She’s baaaaack. Yup, the snapping turtle in the pond was up on shore and trying to lay her eggs again, just three days later than last year.

Here she is, perhaps thinking, “oh, it’s you again.”

Anyway, this year she had already marched past the bench when I found her, and she was trying to dig a hole through the turf right beside the road. That’s the concrete curb under her chin. She didn’t look like she was making much progress, but she wasn’t actually in the road, and it didn’t appear that she intended to cross it, so I left her alone and hiked around the pond to see who else might be there.

The mallard hen and her duckling and the wood duck hen with her four ducklings were all there, but I found this sight more interesting: a robin chick out of the nest perhaps a day or two before it was ready and looking fewer than thrilled with the development. The parents were nearby and expressing their agitation with me, so I grabbed a quick picture and kept moving.

When I got back to the turtle, she still hadn’t made any progress digging through the turf, so I borrowed a recycling bin from the beer garden, scooped her up, set her free on the east side of the pond where the sod is thinner, and wished her luck. There was no sign of her later on my second visit, so here’s hoping she found a better place than the dirt right in front of the park bench.

The next surprise of the morning was hearing this scarlet tanager and spotting it in a tree right at the crest of the bluff over the river. Dang, I wish I had my good lens back.

Finally, on my walk home, I found another subject that let me get nice and close, our first damselfly of the season, an American rubyspot.

The skies have been cloudy and dark all morning, but the air is calm and not too cool, so it was not the worst weather for a visit to Estabrook Park.

At the pond, I saw three wood duck hens, but only one had ducklings, and here they are setting off to graze some more even before Mom is done with her break.

The mallard hen and her duckling were also grazing on my first visit.

A belted kingfisher was there, but it foiled all my attempts to get close enough for a picture with my current equipment, so I headed to the river. There was plenty to see at the river, but nothing I could capture in this low light, so I returned to the pond and took a seat on the bench to soak in all the action. The green heron was croaking again, and then there were two flying around, which was great to see.

The most interesting sight for me, however, was watching how the mallard hen dealt with some pesky drakes. When nipping at them wasn’t doing the job, she flew up onto the lawn right in front of me, called for her duckling, and eventually flew back to nudge it along. They then paddled over to the lawn together, hopped right up, and the duckling quickly settled down for a nap. The drakes kept their distance out on the water.

In a minute, Mom joined in the napping, and for all the world, it appears that she is using people as a drake deterrent. Fascinating, and no, I don’t have any idea what her age might be, but I think the title works better with “old” in it.

Finally, the one other bird that let me get close enough for a picture this morning was this grey catbird who had a song to sing.

and some days you’re the bug. Despite the nice, though a bit breezy, weather this morning, my luck went from red-hot yesterday to pretty darn cold this morning.

I did get to see the mallard duckling again, because it really wanted to forage through the detritus along the far edge of the paved path around the pond. After it scrambled back to the water when a dog and walker came through, it went right back to where it left off. I wonder what it is finding there. Must be yummy!

And the best Mom could do is keep and eye out and try to block traffic, which probably only worked on me.

The real saving grace, however, was coming across our first eastern tiger swallowtail of the season. I’ve been spotting them for a week or two, and there were actually two this morning chasing each other for a bit, but this one soon opted to just park in the sun for me. It even let me reach in and move a couple of branches that were casting shadows across it. If only more of my subjects would be so obliging.

Yesterday’s forecast did hold, and it was a beautiful morning in Estabrook Park. At the pond, I was able to find all three hens with their ducklings: the two mallards, …

the five wood ducks, …

and the seven wood ducks, which I believe were eight the last time we saw them. Boy, it’s been a tough spring for wood duck ducklings.

Also at the pond, a green heron was back and making a croak that sounded more like a frog than a bird. I know they have an unusual call, at all, but I don’t believe I’ve ever heard this sound before.

The pair of bluebirds were also back on their favorite perch, and here’s the male, looking as resplendent as ever.

At the river, dozens of cliff swallows, which appear to have nested under the eave on the south side of the Holiday Inn on Port Washington Road and have now fledged, were flying in and out from under the bridge, perhaps because the breeze was keeping the flies low, and I took at stab at getting a picture of one. Well, here is our very first image of a cliff swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota), such as it is. That’s our fourth species of swallow in Estabrook, after the rough-winged, barn, and tree. Who knew, right?

On my walk back to the river after my second visit to the pond, I was stunned to watch this little beauty flutter across the trail right in front of me and perch not three feet away. I could not believe my luck, and this turns out to be our very first white-striped black moth (Trichodezia albovittata). Outstanding!

When I finally reached the river, this little cutie swam by, and at first, I thought it was a muskrat, based on its small size, but once I saw those ears, I knew it was a beaver.

On my way home I stopped by the pollinator garden, but nobody was home. Instead, a colleague pointed out our very first mourning cloak butterfly of the season, on the railing along the paved path just south of the garden. These have often been the first butterfly I see of the season, but not this year. Better late than never, right?

The skies are starting to clear now, but it was a very soggy morning in Estabrook Park. The forecast suggested a gap in the precipitation right after sunrise, however, so I hustled out the door, and my reward for getting out so early is spotting this Virginia opossum hurrying home after a night of foraging. This picture is surely nothing to write home about, but it is only the second image I’ve ever managed to capture of these amazing nocturnal marsupials in the park while still alive.

At the river, which is running quite high after all this rain, I was pleasantly surprised to spot this wood duck hen with her six ducklings. They might have been hatched here, or they could be the second set of ducklings from the pond, which I haven’t seen in a few days.

At the pond, I did see the wood duck with four ducklings, but they kept their distance today. The mallards, on the other hand, were far more obliging.

Finally, back at the river and at the north end, the last big surprise of the morning is this peregrine falcon on the remaining big dead tree over the northern island.

That’s it for today, I’m afraid, and I’m kinda surprised I even managed four semi-presentable images with all the dark skies and rain showers. Let’s all hope that the clear skies forecast for tomorrow morning come to pass.

After all the rain last night, it was still pretty cloudy this morning in Estabrook Park, but the air was nice and warm, and a lot of birds were up and about, although it took me a while to get any pictures. In the meantime, there were plenty of other, more-obliging critters taking advantage of the summer-like morning.

As I approached the north end, this chipmunk was sniffing a little tree up one side, …

and down the other, but I never did get to see what it was searching for. Maybe it is fresh out of the nest and just collecting experiences.

In the meadow, which once was a gravel parking lot by where the dam used to be, I found my second snake in the park ever, and it appears to be another DeKay’s brown snake, although this one is much darker than the first. By crazy coincidence, I also found my first snake skin in the grass right beside the brown snake, but the skin was from a much bigger serpent, perhaps a common garter.

At the other end of the meadow, there was another eastern question mark butterfly, and it turned out to be the only butterfly willing to hold still for the camera today, even if not in the most convenient location.

Out on the water, I finally spotted our first photo-worthy birds of the morning, this pair of great blue herons in the remaining big dead tree over the northern island.

The much bigger surprise, however, was hearing a brown thrasher overhead as I tried to take the heron picture. They are skittish birds, and I was only able to manage one other picture of a brown thrasher this spring, but man-oh-man, they are lovely singers.

On my way back to the pond, I came across this giant bullfrog parked in the outfield of the baseball diamond. By happy coincidence, my backup lens can focus on objects that are much closer than my main lens can, and this frog let me get that close, about two feet away, so if you click on the image and then zoom in, you can just make out my reflection in the frog’s pupil. I am the dark shape below and to the left of the bright spot, which is the reflection of the morning sun over my shoulder. Anyway, they were mowing the field, and the frog wasn’t moving, so I gave it a lift to the pond. It filled up my whole palm, and sat their placidly until we got close to the water, at which point it took off and did not want to be recaught

At the pond, the mallards were in their usual spot on the west lawn.

Meanwhile, the wood ducks were up on a log in the northeast bay and holding steady at four ducklings. You can just see the eye of the fourth one peeking out from behind the head of the one closest to Mom.

Finally, on the path back down to the river from the pond, I found this deer again, and she seemed pretty relaxed about the encounter, …

but she did eventually mosey into the brush to let me go past. “Thanks, Sweetie!”

So I got to see representatives from Mammalia, Aves, Reptilia, Amphibia, and Insecta, all just this morning. Woo Hoo!

I rode in the UPAF Ride for the Arts yesterday morning, including two trips over the Hoan Bridge and back, and then the rest of the day got away from me, so I never got to take pictures in Estabrook Park. Sorry about that. Happily, the nice weather continued into this morning, and I did manage a visit this time.

The mallard hen and her one duckling are still on the pond and were foraging along the path when I first arrived. I didn’t want to force them to retreat to the water, so I left them alone and was glad to find them taking a little break from grazing by the time I returned for a second visit.

I also saw a mallard hen on the river with four ducklings, and we might have seen them before, but I couldn’t get close enough for a picture this morning.

The wood duck hen who started with seven ducklings, and then had five for a while, appears to be down to just four, sadly, and I saw no sign of the second hen or her seven ducklings. Here’s one of the remaining four.

On the path from the pond down to the river, I found this red squirrel mom taking a break from nursing to grab some breakfast of her own.

While looking for monarch caterpillars on milkweed plants, I found these crane flies, perhaps ferruginous tiger crane flies (Nephrotoma ferruginea), instead

Finally, on my way out of the park, a colleague pointed out this red-belted bumble bee (Bombus rufocinctus), a first for me, sampling the Virginia waterleaf.

The high pressure system that gave us such great weather in Estabrook Park over the past few days has finally drifted off, and we’ve got thick clouds and imminent rain this morning.

On my way to the pond to check on the ducklings, I stopped by the river and found this family of Canada geese whose seven goslings are starting to show adult plumage already.

I did see the ducklings at the pond but skipped the pictures today and continued back to the river. As I sat for a moment to see who I could find, look who just happened to swim by. The last beaver we saw was a lot farther south and back at the start of May. I’m glad to know they’re still around.

The beautiful weather continued this morning in Estabrook Park, but it was even a bit cooler than yesterday and with some thin cirrus clouds up high to whiten the sky. When I arrived at the pond, I found the wood duck hen with her five, week-old ducklings.

As I was trying to get a decent wood duck picture and count the ducklings to make sure there were five, the mallard hen swam right over with her own duckling and hopped up on shore, as if I had something for them. “Sorry Sweeties, we shouldn’t feed wild ducks.” Even with my backup lens, though, I had to zoom out to fit them in the image!

On my way to the river, I spotted a bluebird again up on the wire, and we haven’t seen one in a while, so I detoured that way to see if I could capture an image. But first, this chickadee was almost begging me to take its picture.

Then, this deer came out of the wood at the crest of the bluff, and I couldn’t pass that up.

But then I finally reached the female bluebird. Thank goodness she waited for me. I didn’t see any sign of the male.

On my way back south after checking on the swallows under the bridge, I found the deer again.

On my second visit to the pond, I was able to confirm at last that there are indeed to wood duck hens with ducklings, and here’s the one with seven fresh ones. Not all seven are in the picture because at least two of them were busy chasing down whatever they could find on the surface of the water.

Finally, I stopped by the pollinator garden on my way home, and I captured our first of many monarch butterfly images for the season. It was sampling the nectar from what appears to be some species of wallflower (Erysimum).