A couple more flitty little warblers stayed still nearly long enough for me to capture images.
They are a male common yellowthroat hunting for breakfast in the grass and a male magnolia warbler prefering to hunt in the bushes.
Meanwhile, Ol’ Blue was back at the pond again along with his little green sidekick, who looks like Gru, and the third of three gosling appears to be on another playdate with the octet.
First, I’d like to wish Happy Mother’s Day to my mom and all the moms out there trying to make the best of things in these very difficult times.
Second, a couple of readers have written to ask me about the mushrooms. I am sure that they are not morels, but I don’t know what they might be instead, so please do not eat them!😊 Also, don’t drink bleach. If you must know, they are in the woods at the western base of a tree just east of the northern end of the southern parking lot. Besides, if I found morels, do you really think I’d tell where they are? 😋
Third, and I’m sure some of you are wondering how is this not first, the kids are all still alright, and our little adventurer seems to have returned from his or her play date. At first, I couldn’t tell because everyone was hunkered down trying to get out of the 20% chance of rain we were all enjoying, but then some other geese got too close, one of the dads got all excited, and everyone decided that they might as well eat some more grass now that they’re all awake anyway. Lastly, there were not one, not two, but three new visitors to the pond this morning, and I even got pictures of two of them. Ath, say hello to a green heron, who was busy making the weirdest call I’ve ever heard a bird make. If you don’t already know what I mean, it’s worth a listen.
Bth was most probably an immature green heron, looking all brown and mottled, who did not want to sit still for me. Cth is most likely a great white heron, technically a white variant of the great blue heron, even though they are suppose to be “very rare outside central and southern Florida”. Nevertheless, after reading “How to Identify White Herons“, an excerpt from “Better Birding”, and examining this image closely, I am convinced it is not any of the other possible white wading birds.
I’ll spare you pictures of frost and get right to the interesting change afoot at the pond. When I arrived this morning, nine goslings were napping in one group with one set of parents, and two goslings were in a distinctly separate group with a second set of parents, instead of the usual eight and three. I was immediately worried, as some of you must be too, that maybe someone had had a rough night and didn’t want to, or worse, couldn’t get up in the morning. I am as relieved to report, however, as you all must be to read, that a little later all eleven goslings were up and about and all seemed to be eating just fine. It appears that one just wanted more than two siblings and so jumped ship. I even suspect that I observed one of the nine getting picked on a little by its new siblings, but it was minor and lasted only a few seconds before everyone got back to munching on the grass. I’ll bring you updates as soon as they arrive. Meanwhile, say hello to Mrs. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Note the lack of a prominent, v-shaped, monobrow, compared to a blurry picture I took of the guy she was with.
I think there’s an “Angry Birds” character based on him. Finally, mushrooms are up. I know everyone has been wondering when that day would come, because people keep asking me on the Oakleaf Trail if I’m looking for mushrooms, and at last, that day has finally arrived. Shrooms and other images are stylistically arranged for your viewing pleasure by my dedicated staff at https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewdressel/albums/72157713703616688
I’m sure you will all be relieved to hear that the kids are still alright. 11 goslings with 4 adults were making the best of a cold morning by the pond. Luckily, the sun was out a bit. I heard much less singing today, although the gray catbird on the Oakleaf Trail did give a nice little concert and then even posed for me to take this picture.
The real surprise guest this morning, however, is this little guy, a “blue-gray gnatcatcher“. Seriously, I can’t make these names up.
He was busy flitting from branch to branch, hunting gnats I can only suppose, while singing his soft little song. This image was the best I could do in a dozen tries. I read he winters in Mexico and along the gulf coast and is now at about the north edge of his breeding range. This morning he might be wondering if he might have arrived about a week too soon. Well, welcome to May along the shores of Lake Michigan, Buddy. To check on the glacial toadshade progress, please go to https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewdressel/albums/72157713703616688
It was a perfect morning for pictures with a bright sun in the east and a crisp blue sky in the west. I set out to find a grosbeak, as one does, and these are the directions I had:
Listen for its song, like a robin’s, but better.
Follow the song to a tree
Look up in the tree
See the grosbeak
How could I go wrong? So I head out, and right off the bat, just behind the police station, I hear a beautiful song, look up, and spot a bright orange and black baltimore oriole. Boy, the early light really makes his colors pop, but meh, I got his picture yesterday at the pond. Next up, only a little further into the park, I hear another beautiful song, look up, and spot a bright orange, black, and white male eastern towhee singing to a female just a few feet away. Sweet, I haven’t seen either of them before.
Meanwhile, just to my right is a pair of little yellow birds flitting through the branches. I was tempted to chalk them up as kinglets because that’s what I discovered before after spending a half hour trying to catch one stationary long enough for me to aim, zoom, and focus, but what the heck, with the blue sky, it would still make a nice picture anyway. Well, it turns out they weren’t as flighty as kinglets because they were palm warblers! Noice! Another new one for me. A dozen steps further along the path, and I glimpse a couple of birds just sitting in the bush at eye level. Usually, as I slowly take out my camera, they would take off, but they must have really been enjoying the warmth of that morning sun, because they didn’t budge. Best of all, one turns out to be a white-crowned sparrow, and the other is the elusive white-throated sparrow I’ve been trying to capture for weeks. Just sitting there like two old guys on a bench. Ha! As I wrap up that photoshoot, I hear yet another beautiful song, and this guy turns out to be a song sparrow. I’ve even seen him before, but the lighting is much better this time.
Until now, I had only thought of sparrows as those little guys that make a racket in the bushes. I was totally ignorant of their variety. Welp, I haven’t even made it to the pond, it’s time for breakfast, and no grosbeaks yet. Maybe tomorrow. On my way back home, down the oakleaf trail, I hear one more beautiful song, and it’s really close. Here we go! I scan and scan and scan the tree right in front of me, but I can’t find a dang thing. Just as I turn to move on, out of the bush below the tree hops a gray catbird. You little stinker! Fooled again, and no wonder the sound was so clear. Man, I think I’m gonna need more detail than “song, like a robin’s, but better”.
A Baltimore oriole has been at the pond two mornings in a row singing quite a song and making me work for a picture,
a Jack-in-the-pulpit is up in woods with at least a dozen more on their way,
the white trillium are finally opening in several locations, and the toadshade is right on the verge of showing us what it’s got. Yesterday morning, the goslings gave me a scare when I could only find 2 sets of 3, but it seems the octet just got cold, and 5 still manage to fit under mom’s wings at nap time. In the afternoon, the octet paid a visit to the island and then had a little snack on the eastern lawn. Everybody seemed hale, hearty, and hungry this morning. I’ve tried to arrange these pictures and others in a pleasing fashion at https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewdressel/albums/72157713703616688
The air temperature was supposed to be 39°F, but with grey skies and the wind whipping out of the northeast, it felt like 32°F. The trout lilies, that close down in the night, didn’t even bother to open this morning. I stopped by the trillium, to check on their progress, and there was none. Then I stopped by the pond to see how the Goslings were doing, and they were hungrily enjoying their Kentucky bluegrass breakfast. As I snapped a couple of pictures just to document their wellbeing and maybe their rapid growth, I noticed a couple of cars slowing down on the road. No real surprise there, plenty of folks are noticing the goslings for the first time, and they sure are a sight to see. That wasn’t the reason, however. Instead, they were stopping because ANOTHER FAMILY OF CANADA GEESE WITH THREE GOSLINGS OF THEIR OWN WAS CROSSING THE ROAD! I kid you not. Once they got on the grass, not five feet from family number 1, there was what seemed to me to be a tense moment, but the gander who has been chasing off other canada geese for weeks kept his cool. There was some serious head bobbing and holding heads low but horizontal, by all 4 adults, but no honking or hissing. A couple of the goslings even checked out the new arrivals, but I was too dumbstruck to take a picture, and then everyone just went back to breakfast. Soon, family number 2 was starting to settle down for what must be a well-deserved nap, some wood ducks hopped up on shore, as if to keep them company, and family number 1 went for a swim. If this were in a movie, I’d be rolling my eyes. Instead, I’m just trying to keep them dry, what with the cold wind and all. Here’s a picture of the two families together. Family number 1 is in the foreground heading left, and family number 2 is close to the water getting accustomed to their new surroundings. I’m standing on the curb, and the road is right behind me.
Now I obviously don’t know the story behind this new family, but there’s only one other place that I’ve seen geese nesting all spring, and that’s down on islands in the river. Thus, the simplest explanation, amazing as it sounds, is that these three goslings walked with their parents up the bluff, through the woods, across the road, and to the pond. Oh, those poor little feet! We’ve even seen a candidate family, with three goslings, crossing the river a week ago. https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewdressel/albums/72157713703616688
It is a very gray and cool morning, with a breeze off the lake, so I’m in no hurry to get out there. Luckily for all of us, I finally caught a glimpse yesterday afternoon of my first warbler in the current migratory wave, about which I keep hearing. Give a hearty welcome to the Nashville warbler, on his way from Mexico to breeding grounds that start just north of here. Note the little “chestnut crown patch” just visible on the top of his head. It looks more like magenta to me, but I’m no ornithologist!
I read “The Nashville Warbler does not regularly breed [nor winter] near Nashville, Tennessee, but was first observed there in 1811 by Alexander Wilson, who named the species.” I was walking home after checking on the geese, who are all fine btw, when I spotted this little guy in the grass beside the road that cuts through the park. I was just walking along and nearly stepped on him when he only flitted a few feet away. I thought to myself “Oh no! Maybe he got clipped by a car and can’t fly right. Poor little guy. Why is this a through-road anyway? Darn cars! When will it end?” As I pulled myself together and tried to decide what, if anything, I should or could do, he continued to alternate between flitting just a little further way, just hopping through the grass, and appearing not to be in any kind of distress at all. I finally realized he was completely fine, simply unintimidated by me, and merely intent on finding dinner. Ha! So I just took out my camera and tried at least 25 times to capture an unblurry image. I think I got 2. Then I was all excited to get home and look this guy up. The Merlin App, by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which has usually been excellent, struggled mightily. There are plenty of small grey and yellow birds, but none looked quite like our little guy here. It turns out I needed to fib a little and say I saw him “in trees or bushes” instead of “on the ground”, where he obviously was. Then the Nashville Warbler comes up at the top of the list. Meanwhile, the trillium is almost open, I finally found one grape hyacinth, and a seemingly endless variety of narcissus (described by various common names including daffodil, narcissus, and jonquil) is on display throughout the park. Image of these and my one other good Nashville warbler image are online at https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewdressel/albums/72157713703616688
It pays to get up early, it seems. Who could have known? As I approached the pond from the south, I spotted the geese and goslings on the lawn just to the west of the south end, so I headed in that direction, merely to say hi. Then, as absolutely amazing blind luck would have it, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, this guy, through the brush, right on the southern shore.
I froze, slowly got out my camera, and used the gimmicky little feature that lets me rotate the image display semi-independently of where the lens is pointing. Without even looking in his direction, I was able to capture this nice little closeup through the sticks. Then I slowly backed away, while still avoiding eye contact, and headed up the east shore until I found I path through the brush down to the water that let me take this unobstructed shot.
I stayed there for a while, watched him scratch his ear, step up out of the water, step back down into the water, and just as I looked away, I heard the splash of him grabbing a fish. Luck giveth, and boredom taketh away, I guess. So the geese and goslings were still doing fine, the turtles were already climbing out of the water into the sun, and I hear there are warblers everywhere. I’ve uploaded these images and a few others to https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewdressel/albums/72157713703616688
WIth all the avian excitement yesterday, I didn’t even get to show you all that the recent April showers have brought. First up is the yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum), a distinct species from the slightly-smaller and much-earlier-opening white trout lily (Erythronium albidum), which continues to bloom in big patches and has begun attracting bumblebees and other pollinators.
Meanwhile, hepatica blossoms are wide open in both white and purple, some variety of white trillium is just about ready to open, and the toadshade seems to be waiting for June. I’ve uploaded these images and others to https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewdressel/albums/72157713703616688 Finally, the goslings appeared to be just fine this morning, and I hear the owlets have moved even up Newton towards Downer, but have not confirmed this myself.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 