Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

A whole lot of feathers a-flappin’…

The wildfire smoke was back in Estabrook Park, but it wasn’t as thick as it was a few days ago, and the temps were nice and cool, so I guess we could call it a fair-to-midlin’ morning. I can’t say for sure what might have caused it, and it could be just a big coincidence, but the birds were a bit riled up today.

There were a pair of osprey over the river by the islands, and one of them seemed as though it could be a hungry fledgling, based on how it cried and cried. Every once in a while, it also flapped its wings, as if the crying wasn’t doing the job on its own. I did not see that cause a fish to be delivered either, but that could just be part of the weaning process.

The solitary sandpiper is still with us, and today was bath day. I’ve had the privilege of watching quite a few birds bathe, and it usually involves some thrashing in the water, but this bird took it to a new level that also included darting around.

The big show, however, came a little farther upstream. I couldn’t really tell who was the aggressor in the situation, but I got to watch a pair of kestrels get into it with a quartet of crows over the old candy factory building on Port Washington Road. Here’s the nicest shot I could get of a kestrel from over 100 yards away.

And here’s the best image of the altercation in action.

The show went on for a while, but once it eventually petered out, I hiked over to the meadow to look for interesting or pretty insects, and while I was there, I could hear a distinct call from up on the bluff. Better yet, it wasn’t a “once-and-done” call, so I headed out to see if I could find the source. Well, it took a while and a bit of luck, but the shy little lurker eventually did show its face, and it turns out to be only our second yellow-billed cuckoo ever. “Woo hoo, welcome back, and thanks for letting me know you’re in town!”

Finally, we also have another first-of-the-year sighting in the butterfly department. This is a banded hairstreak, but it looks a little worse for the wear compared to the last one we saw just about a year ago.

I won’t be able to join you for our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning because I’m heading out to Retzer for a week of master naturalist training. My current plan is to take pictures in the morning, before class starts, attend class all day, and then write up a post after class. We’ll soon see how that goes. Wish me luck!

A pause after the smoke…

The wildfire smoke has pretty much cleared out, at least for now, and it was a nice morning for a walk in Estabrook Park. The critters that live there, however, seemed to be not really in the mood for pictures, but I tried my best, and I did get a couple.

I watched this great blue heron catch a couple of fish in short order, so perhaps that’s why it was more willing than the others to put up with me spectating from the riverbank.

Our pectoral sandpiper has moved on already, which isn’t too surprising given how far it still has to go, but the solitary sandpiper, which only has to get to the Gulf of Mexico, was still with us.

I didn’t see any notable mammals today, but this red squirrel gave me a very nice pose yesterday.

I was surprised to discover that I haven’t shown you a common whitetail dragonfly yet this year, given that I see them about as much as any of the others, and they are very good at posing for the camera, so here you go.

This great black digger wasp, on the other hand, is a little trickier to catch sitting still, and that might explain why I haven’t shown you one since 2020.

Finally, I counted at least four different common buckeyes this morning, each with different signs of wear on their wings, and this one looked the freshest.

I see that the temperatures are forecast to be back in the 60s tomorrow morning, after starting today at 81°F, so that will be a very pleasant change of pace, and I can’t wait to see how the denizens of Estabrook react to that, if at all.

Some pretty sights despite the smoke…

The wildfire smoke didn’t clear out overnight as much as I had hoped, but the air quality index was back down into the 300s by sunrise this morning, and it was light enough to venture out about 15 minutes earlier than yesterday, so that’s some progress anyway.

My reward for those extra 15 minutes was arriving at the underpass just in time to catch this worried-looking little masked bandit hoping to emerge from the storm drain. I took a couple of quick shots and then got out of its way.

There are still rough-winged swallow fledglings crying to be fed in the trees on and around the upstream island, and this youngster really let me have a nice portrait while it waited for its food to arrive.

The song sparrows have been singing all summer but have mostly been keeping out of sight lately, so it was a treat to catch one out in the open for a change. Perhaps this is also a fledgling who was more interested in when the next morsel will be delivered than it was worried about me.

The big surprise of the day, however, was seeing a pectoral sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) in Estabrook Park for only the second time ever, and managing to get a picture of the well-camouflaged little sweet pea this time. It’s traveling from the far northern reaches of Canada all the way to South America, so here’s a hearty “Welcome to Estabrook, Darling! Stay a minute, if you can.”

When I arrived, it was just foraging a little, preening a little, and generally hanging out on the exposed river bottom between the islands along with the solitary sandpiper, a couple of spotted sandpipers, and a trio of killdeer. That patch of mud and rocks is really turning into quite the shorebird rest stop. Outstanding!

The butterflies were staying out of sight today, but the widow skimmer dragonflies were patrolling the weed patch beside the soccer fields as usual, and here’s a female posing nicely.

Finally, if you squint real good, you can just make out the white crescent on the hind wing of this backlight butterfly photo from Wednesday, which makes it our first eastern comma of the year. I did try to sneak around to the other side for a nicer picture, but the trail was narrow there, so I didn’t have any luck with that. Next time!

We’re forecast to have a good breeze out of the west tomorrow morning, so maybe we’ll get a break from the smoke. Time’ll tell.

Nearly smoked out…

The Canadian wildfire smoke sure did arrive overnight, and it was so thick by sunrise that I wondered if it would ever get light out, but the streetlights did eventually shut off, and the air quality index was still below 300, so I ventured into Estabrook to see who might be out and about.

I found the doe and her fawn on the downstream island, for the first time, and the fawn was curious about me, but Mom was in no mood for fun and games today, and they soon disappeared into the brush.

At the upstream island, where we’ve been seeing the fawn until today, I spotted a belted kingfisher just as it caught a fish, and I’d put it at just about 100 yards away, so you can get some sense for how thick the smoke was, if you haven’t already experienced it for yourself today.

The sun started to burn through the smoke by around 7 am, and it sure looked angry.

I can’t assert that the insects were less effected, but I did find this bicolored striped sweat bee seeming to go about its business as usual on a purple cone flower in the pollinator garden.

I did see a few monarchs today, but this one sipping nectar from the swamp milkweed beside the river yesterday made the better picture.

Finally, I had to get home in time to head down to the MMSD lab in Milwaukee for a tour organized by the River Keepers, and on my way, I came across this amazing sight beside the Oak Leaf Trail. At first, I couldn’t quite tell what it was, and as I got closer, I thought it was a small dog. It was only when I stopped almost right beside it that I realized it was a young coyote, out on its own and looking a little lost. Once I stopped, I took the best picture I could with my phone, and it got up and ambled over to the weeds further from the path to watch traffic go by from a safer distance. Sure, I know that coyotes are apex predators in Milwaukee County, I have yet to be attacked by a wild animal, other than wasps and bees, and I’d like to keep it that way, but what an absolute little cutie this young coyote was.

I read that our air quality index peaked at over 600 this afternoon, which sounds like a lot and I’m told is bad, so I stayed inside for the rest of the day, but it’s forecast to be back under 200 tomorrow, and I hope to get back into Estabrook to see how the wildlife is holding up. I’ll keep you posted.

A mothy morning…

Despite the heat, we had a pretty nice turnout for the Friends of Estabrook picnic yesterday, and the surprise guest was a turkey that hung out by the beer garden for quite a while. I can’t tell for sure if this is the same bird, but I found it on the paved path at the south end of the pond this morning, and how many turkeys could there be in the park? It sure would be nice if they gave the suburbs a break and visited the park for a while, wouldn’t it?

I found this next stunning creature beside the path along the river above the falls, and it turns out to be the very first primrose moth (Schinia florida) I’ve ever seen. You might think, as I did, that it got that name for its colorful appearance, but instead, it’s named for its host plant, evening-primroses, where it lays its eggs. Cool.

Our visiting solitary sandpiper was still with us this morning, and here it is rustling up its breakfast.

As I moved between the various river access points, I somehow noticed this colorful but tiny moth, only about 7 mm or 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch long, on a leaf beside the trail, and it turns out to be my first red-banded leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea). What a morning this was shaping up to be. One might think that after spending as much time as I have in Estabrook, I might have seen just about everything there was to see, but days like today suggest that perhaps I’ve only just scratched the surface.

Thankfully, some sights have become familiar, and a mallard hen keeping her eye on me as her ducklings keep chowing down is one of them at this time of year.

Back to the unusual sights, this common buckeye at the pollinator garden let me get what I believe to be my first picture of the outside/underside/ventral side of its wings. I think that they’re pretty, too, but in an understated way.

Finally, now that the great blue herons have become regulars in the park, it’s almost as easy to get a picture of one as it is to get a picture of a mallard.

Lastly, I see out my dining room window that smoke from wildfires in Canada is back with us again, so who knows what I’ll see tomorrow morning, but I’ll be sure to let you know.

Back in the broiler we go…

The promised heat dome has arrived, but it wasn’t too bad yet when I reached the pond at about 6 this morning. Unfortunately, that’s also when this raccoon decided it was time to amble off to bed, and this is the best look it let me have.

Happily, this great blue heron is not nocturnal and was still looking for its breakfast, so I had plenty of time if I managed not to scare it off. They’ve been quite skittish on the pond so far this year, but perhaps this one felt safe in the cover of those reeds.

When I got to the river, I was thrilled to see a turkey on the far riverbank again, and thank goodness it was less successful at hiding in the grass than the heron was.

The treat of the morning came on the river bottom, which is become more exposed every day, around the islands. As has become the norm lately, I was checking for spotted or least sandpipers, and I thought this little cutie was one of the former, ‘cause it was way too big to be one of the latter, but it didn’t look quite right. It was a little taller and its beak was a little longer.

Well, I hope you’ll be as thrilled to learn as I was, that this is because it’s our first solitary sandpiper of the fall migration. We last saw one at the end of May, just 52 days ago, but that’s about 7.5 weeks, and I read that their breeding season is only “about 6 to 8 weeks, running from late May through mid-July,” so this one is right on schedule. “Safe travels, Sweetie, and give my best to the Gulf of Mexico when you fly over.”

Back on shore, the warm morning had the butterflies out nice and early, and here’s a clouded sulphur appearing to sip dew from the leaf on which it is perched.

Farther downstream, a nice patch of swamp milkweed is coming into bloom, and here’s a western honeybee sipping up that sweet nectar.

Finally, in scene I look forward to seeing for much of the summer, here’s a monarch sampling the thistle nectar in the weeds beside the soccer fields.

In case you’re wondering, I did receive an email reminder late this morning that the Friends of Estabrook Picnic is still on for 5-7:30 this afternoon in the Estabrook Park Beer Garden, so wear something cool and come on out to join us for an ice-cold refreshment. It’ll probably be too warm for cheese and crackers, so I’m gonna try bringing cookies to share this time.

It’s sure starting to feel like peak summer…

The heat dome is back, with temps well into the 90s this afternoon, and it was already warm enough during our weekly wildlife walk this morning, for this great blue heron on the river to be demonstrating its gular fluttering to keep cool.

The recent high water from heavy rains up north, which was just high enough to cover much of the exposed river bottom, has started to recede, and I was happy that shorebirds are returning so I could show the gang one of the least sandpipers that I’ve been seeing lately.

Most of the goslings have switched to the classic black, white, and brown pattern of Canada geese by now and look like young adults, but the one surviving gosling of the late brood on the pond is still sporting the fuzzy yellow feathers of a youngster.

The Carolina grasshoppers, aka “road-dusters”, which “ride out the Wisconsin winter exclusively as eggs buried in the soil,” have finally reached adult form, just in time for this heat wave, and fled before my feet every time I strode along the gravel path through the meadow at the north end. Seeing them fly, hearing the dog-day cicadas starting to sing, and feeling the heat of the sun sure make it feel like peak summer.

When I first saw this damselfly, I got all excited because it looked jet black but not shiny black like the ebony jewel wings I’ve seen, so I thought it might be a new species for us. When I took a picture, however, and overexposed it enough to bring out the color, I could see that it was just another one of our old pals, the American rubyspots. Oh well. It’s a pretty picture anyway.

This beauty, on the other hand, which we saw by the beer garden as soon as the 7 am group headed our, is out first summer azure of the year. I read that they survive the winter as pupae, in their chrysalises, and enter a state of suspended animation, called “diapause“, by “drastically lowering their metabolism and producing specialized sugars and proteins that act as natural antifreeze.” I’m sure glad to see that it worked!

Finally, here’s another red admiral in the weeds beside the soccer field, but this time showing us a little of the beautiful dorsal side of its wings and perched on a thistle blossom instead of just a green leaf.

I haven’t heard word that the Friends of Estabrook picnic at the beer garden has been canceled for tomorrow evening, so I still plan on being there. Join me if you can.

Back after a day of playing hooky…

I never did manage to write something for you yesterday, as I had promised, and I apologize for that. I had gone to the dragon boat races in the Lakeshore State Park inlet, as part of the Friends of Lakeshore State Park team, “Fishful Thinking”, and it ended up taking up most of the day, which I had not anticipated. The fun news is that we got faster in every heat and ended up winning our division, in case that’s any consolation.

Anyway, I did make it back into Estabrook Park today, and it was a spectacular morning, but it seemed as though the wildlife was miffed about me skipping yesterday. I only managed a couple of bird pictures, and that was from across the river. Here’s a great blue heron that was just too busy preening to give us a look.

And here’s an osprey that was too busy looking for fish to look our way.

I didn’t see the kingfishers at all today, but here’s one more picture from Friday, when they were in a better mood.

Here’s an eastern amberwing dragonfly on the pond from Thursday.

Here’s another question mark butterfly, also from Thursday.

One butterfly who did strike a nice pose this morning, because it hadn’t heard about my transgression or it simply didn’t care, was this pretty hackberry emperor.

Finally, here’s a gorgeous American lady butterfly from Friday.

I see that it is forecast to be warmer tomorrow morning but otherwise just as nice as today, and I don’t have any conflicts on my calendar, so I’ll be there for the weekly wildlife walk, at 7 and again at 8 am, and here’s hoping that the critters will have forgiven me by then and come out for some pictures.

If, on the other hand, you are not so forgiving and would like to tell me about it in person, you can find me at the Friends of Estabrook picnic in the beer garden from 5-7:30 pm on Tuesday. I’ll even buy you a beer.

A nice day for number 350…

It was a gorgeous morning in Estabrook Park, with temps in the 60s for the first time since I don’t know when, mostly clear skies, and nearly still air.

I watched this beauty fly by as I crossed the ball field on the way from the pond to the river. They’re not very comfortable at the pond yet, but they’ve become pretty common on the river, and I could count five today on the far riverbank as I stood on the boardwalk.

As we’ve already discussed, the belted kingfishers have been pretty scarce this summer, but we had two visitors today, and the mix of blue and red feathers on the breast along with the “sort of new at this” behavior suggest to me that they were youngsters. “Welcome to Estabrook! Make yourself comfortable and stay a while.”

Speaking of “new at this”, here’s another batch of mallard ducklings that look fresh out of the incubator.

Meanwhile, the fawn on the island was getting breakfast on its own and starting to look a little grown up, except for the spots, which usually don’t fade until “late summer or early fall.”

It’s a little too soon for cedar waxwing fledglings, so this one can’t use that excuse for why it let me get an uncharacteristically nice portrait. Maybe the bug hunting was just so good out over the river that it was in an especially good mood. “Thanks, you handsome devil!”

I took this next picture earlier in the morning, by the pond, but the tradition has become to save the bugs for last, so here it is. Long-time readers may see the similarity to one of my favorites, the snowberry clearwing, but this one is sure not sipping nectar from a bee balm blossom. Instead, this is my very first Nessus Sphinx moth (Amphion floridensis), and it is exhibiting behavior that I read is called “‘carrion feeding,’ where it absorbs moisture, essential salts, and amino acids from decaying matter,” which is the carcass of a young raccoon in this instance. I normally don’t include pictures of the carcasses I encounter, as you may have realized, but all you can see is the fur of this one, and this is the very first Nessus Sphinx moth I’ve ever seen, so who knows when, if ever, I might see the next one. Plus, this will be the 350th animal I’ve gotten to log in the not-very-scientific index I keep on the website, so there’s no way I could leave it out.

Okay, now for a simpler pretty picture to act as a visual sorbet. I’ve glimpsed a few red admiral butterflies already this year, and even taken a couple of bad pictures, but this is the first one that gave us a nice pose since last October.

Tomorrow morning I’ve got a very early appointment with a boat, so I won’t be able to visit Estabrook, but I’ll post something to keep you going until Sunday.

Several nice surprises…

It was a dark morning in Estabrook Park, but the predicted storms never materialized, though it did sprinkle a bit, and the air stayed pretty still, so it was a nice enough time to look for wildlife.

My first surprise was finding this young-looking great blue heron with a crayfish just below the falls, and it may have been as surprised as I was. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that combination before.

Yesterday’s plethora of shorebirds around the islands upriver has subsided, and I only saw this one least sandpiper today, in addition to a couple of spotted sandpipers and killdeer. It sure was fun for a while, though!

The mallard ducklings continue to grow up, and this trio looks like middle schoolers.

These wood ducks, on the other hand, look like high schoolers.

The big surprise of today, however, was brought to my attention by a noisy mob of crows, and it’s the first great horned owl I’ve seen in the park since back in February. “Welcome back, Gorgeous!” Once I finally spotted the bird, I had to back up so I could fit it all in the frame, and if you’re a detail lover, as you know I am, this image will be worth your click.

Since I’ve got a little room left today, here’s one more look at the doe and fawn from Sunday. The kid looks like it still wants to play, but mom looks like she might be done.

Finally, here’s a crescent butterfly from the still-unmowed weed patch at the north end yesterday, when the sun was out.

Lastly, as I was cleaning up after some anglers, I found that they left me a little thank you gift. Sweet! That’s the first white Russian anyone’s ever left me, and it’s chillin’ in my fridge as I write this.

As of now, we’re forecast to be done with this leaky weather by tomorrow morning, so viewing should be good, and I wonder who I’ll see next. Tune in to find out.