The beautiful weather has finally run its course, and it was cloudy this morning after raining overnight. By the time there was enough light for me to venture into Estabrook, however, the rain was long gone, and the air was mostly still and warm, so plenty good enough for a walk in the park.

I was still on the southern soccer fields when I spotted this little cutie, who looks like an immature male rose-breasted grosbeak, in one of the trees along the west edge.

At the pond, it was still pretty dark, but not too dark to see that one of the male wood ducks had his new suit on for the ladies.

There wasn’t much else to see at the pond, so I headed to the river, where salmon were jumping up the falls again, so I cranked up my shutter speed, and as crazy good luck would have it, that is just when a falcon flew south over the river with breakfast in tow.

Meanwhile, there was a guy fishing just below the falls, and he quickly hooked this giant salmon, which my experts are saying is a chinook.

Above the falls, there was a spotted sandpiper foraging on the far riverbank and a couple of mallards on the water, but today the kingfisher perched on the near shore, just a bit downstream from me.

Between the islands, I was pleased to see this darling pair of immature/female hooded mergansers pausing on their journey south.

As I was taking pictures of the mergansers, I could hear a Cooper’s hawk squawking in the trees behind me, so I thought I might as well backtrack a bit to see if I could spot it. Well, it turns out that there were two of them, and they were both giving this great horned owl a hard time, although the second hawk seemed to be less enthusiastic about the endeavor.

I never got a good shot at the hawks, but after I figured I had a least one presentable owl picture, I headed back to the river and continued north. As I surveyed the water around the northern island, I spotted a dark shape high in the one remaining dead tree over it, and I figured it was the falcon again or maybe one of the hawks. Ha! It turned out to be this merlin, which makes our fourth raptor of the day!

With the hawks preoccupied by the owl, and the falcon and merlin hunting “mostly birds”, this little red squirrel was probably safe enough to enjoy a nice big walnut for breakfast.

Back out on the water, a pair of killdeer showed up, but stayed pretty far away today, so I was checking the far shore in hopes of spotting a snipe or something similarly exotic, when I noticed this little sweetheart napping amongst the plants exposed by the low river water. That’s our first pied-billed grebe of the fall, and the last time I saw one in Estabrook was back in April. Today’s bird lacks the black bill stripe of breeding adults, but the brown feathers that look more like fur than feathers tipped me off.

Back at the pond, a great blue heron had arrived but was not giving fishing lessons today. The crowd on the west lawn appeared to be more enamored with the new wood duck plumage.

Finally, I spotted a monarch again at the pollinator garden, perhaps aided by the warm, still air, so your butterfly of the day is back.

After a long day in trains, planes, and automobiles yesterday, I made it back to Estabrook Park this morning, and as far as I can tell, the beautiful weather I enjoyed in Connecticut did follow me here.

Salmon are running in the river, and here’s one trying to make it up the falls, but I can’t tell if this is a coho or a chinook.

I was happy to see that we still have a young spotted sandpiper around, and here it is on the exposed river vegetation just downstream of the southern island.

While I was trying to capture an image of the sandpiper, this belted kingfisher perched low over the far riverbank.

And then a beaver swam by. It was a busy spot!

Farther upstream, around the northern island, a lot more river bottom is exposed, and here finally are a trio of killdeer taking advantage of that. I haven’t seen one since May, and that was up on the baseball field.

Even better, here’s a fourth one closer to our shore and in that golden morning sunlight.

I heard a couple of redstarts and thought I glimpsed some other warbler by the pond, but I couldn’t manage a single warbler picture today. Instead, the new arrivals from up north are white-throated sparrows, and this looks like a fresh one.

The air was nice and still and the sun was nice and warm, but I only saw a few little skippers and a couple of sulphur butterflies this morning. Instead, this red-belted bumblebee on a big bull thistle blossom will have to take the place of the butterfly of the day.

The weather is starting to turn here, perhaps in anticipation of my departure. There was plenty of fog this morning, which delayed my start, and it’s still partly cloudy this afternoon. I did see a few birds, nevertheless, and here’s a young tufted titmouse who hasn’t grown much of a tuft yet. It appeared to be foraging with a parent and spent at least as much time begging as foraging.

At the pond where we’ve seen the black duck and the solitary sandpiper this trip, there was my first Northern waterthrush in Connecticut this season.

The big surprise, however, was finally capturing on film a bird that I have only glimpsed and dreamt about ’til now: this magnificent pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus).

That’s it for the bird pictures, so I visited the vacant lot next door again to see what butterflies were around today. Here’s another eastern tailed blue looking a lot bluer than the one did yesterday.

I did not expect to see a damselfly there, nor one this late in the season, but here’s my very first spotted spreadwing (Lestes congener).

Finally, here’s another wild indigo duskywing looking a lot more colorful than the one did yesterday, and that’s gonna be your butterfly of the day.

The folks in Connecticut will probably be sad when I head home, because I’m sure as heck gonna do my best to bring this amazing weather with me. It has just been stupendous out here.

Anyway, the birds played hard to get this morning, but I did manage to sneak another picture of a yellow warbler in mostly the same spot as yesterday.

The black duck was back, and it appears to be getting accustomed to its fairly public location, because it didn’t make me work too hard for this one.

As I checked for who else might be on that water, look who poked its nose up to say “hi.”

I hadn’t seen a single butterfly this morning, so after lunch I walked around the yard, which was also a bust, and then checked the vacant lot next door. Bingo!

Here’s an Indian skipper (Hesperia sassacus), as far as I can tell, and we might get them in Estabrook Park, but I haven’t seen one there yet.

Here’s an eastern tailed blue, which we have seen in Estabrook, but this time we get to see the inside/topside of those pretty blue wings.

Here’s another new one for me, and it looks like a dark skipper, but I never saw it hold its wings as we see skippers do and the Indian skipper above did, like NASA’s old M2-F2. Instead, I believe it is our first wild indigo duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae), and it holds its wings folded, wide open, or somewhere in between, as most other butterflies do.

After being all excited to see my first pearl crescent in Estabrook last week, I found it pretty funny to see at least two here today. Gotta look in the right spot.

This isn’t a butterfly, of course, but you can bet your bottom dollar that if I ever manage to capture a picture of a praying mantis in Estabrook Park, I’ll show it to you.

Finally, this last butterfly, a gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus), is both new to me and gorgeous, so here is your butterfly of the day. The closest we’ve come in Estabrook so far is a banded hairstreak, back in 2020.

The beautiful weather continues in Connecticut, and I was glad to have the time to get out this morning before the day got underway.

The first pleasant surprise was being reminded of the woosh-woosh-woosh sound that mute swans make as they fly over. Even better was spotting it after it landed.

I don’t believe I’ve managed to capture this scene on film before, so here it is: a chipmunk with a mouth full of nesting material. I guess it’s getting to be that time of year, eh?

I had been a bit surprised by the lack of warblers, and it turns out that I was simply looking in the wrong spots. On my way to the Farmington Canal Trail, I passed a gravel parking lot surrounded by weeds, and those weeds were full of little birds. There were sparrows, finches, wrens, a warbling vireo, and this very shy but unmistakable yellow warbler.

And here’s a warbler that I recognized more by its behavior than its plumage. As soon as it posed like this, I thought to myself, “Why, hello there, Doctor Palm Warbler!”

Anyway, since sometimes a look at the backside can help with identification, it soon was kind enough to oblige.

Finally, your “butterfly” of the day is gonna have to be this huge sweetheart underwing moth (Catocala amatrix) that joined us last evening.

I didn’t have much time this morning before the family events kicked off, but my sister was looking to get some steps in early, so out the door we went.

We were greeted right off the bat by this little cutie in the dim light, and it is a young Carolina wren, as far as I can tell.

A bit later, after the sun had come over the horizon, my sister spotted this gorgeous creature, a red-tailed hawk.

Finally, I found this Huron sachem yesterday afternoon to be your butterfly of the day.

I’m still in Connecticut, the weather is still beautiful, and I’m still struggling to get some good pictures for you.

At the start of my walk this morning, I spotted two green herons on the pond again, and this one appears to be a youngster, by the spots on its wing feathers, which I take as more evidence of a successful breading season.

Near the end of my walk, I was happy to see that the solitary sandpiper from yesterday was also still there.

The big surprise, however, in addition to the double crested cormorant, which I failed to capture on film, was this American black duck, which we’ve seen a couple of times in Estabrook Park, but not very often.

Once I got back home, the morning was still so nice that I continued looking in the office park next door, where I found this house sparrow uncharacteristically alone and busily gulping down grass seeds.

This trio of northern mockingbirds, briefly had a fourth, but there must have been some tension in the group, because as soon as the fourth landed, they all took off.

Finally, here’s a song sparrow also gobbling up seeds.

I made it safely to Connecticut, and the weather is beautiful here, too, but the critters were pretty shy this morning.

I did spot three green herons at the same time spread out over the water were I spotted them nesting in the spring, so that’s a potential very good sign.

Near the end of my walk, I was thrilled to spot my first sandpiper in CT, this darling young solitary sandpiper.

Finally, atop the flagpole out in front of the old Ball and Socket Mfg. Co. building, these starlings had found an interesting perch.

And that’s it for today, I’m afraid. Wish me better luck for tomorrow.

I’m off to Connecticut to see my folks for a week, and I may still be on the plane as you are reading this. Happily, yesterday’s outing in Estabrook Park went into extra innings, and I have a few more pictures to show you.

As I was trying to capture images of the asters and pearl crescent at the south end yesterday, a crowd of people was forming in the parking lot, and they turned out to be on a field trip with Professor Michael Pauers for his Ichthyology 511 class at the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences. They were headed down to the river to try electrofishing to see what they could find, and they allowed me to tag along.

Besides providing a way to catch little fish that you might never catch with a hook and line, electrofishing is supposed to leave most of the fish stunned but otherwise unharmed. Anyway, while the professor was out on the river with a couple of students making their first collection, I spotted this character buried up to its eyeballs in the river mud.

The anglers came back in short order, and the first haul included this common shiner (Luxilus cornutus), …

this hornyhead chub (Nocomis biguttatus), …

and this emerald shiner (Notropis atherinoides), all of which the professor IDed from just memory.

The next haul included this round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), an invasive species from the Black and/or Caspian Seas, …

this beautiful rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris), …

and this stonecat (Noturus flavus).

Finally, the third haul included this wee white sucker (Catostomus commersonii), …

and this gorgeous pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus).

Lastly, as we were waiting on shore for more fish to come in, this gorgeous creature was flitting about above us, and I kept hoping that it would land someplace so I could take its picture. Well, sometimes miracles do happen, and this mourning cloak is your butterfly of the day. If you are wondering, we saw the in/top side of the wings last June.

Wish me luck finding something to show you on Thursday.

It was another beautiful morning in paradise, similar to yesterday, but with a lot less wind.

The first big surprise was finding a great horned owl back at the north end. We haven’t seen the likes of them since they had a run-in with a Cooper’s hawk back in August. “Welcome back, Gorgeous!”

While the owl was overhead, this migrating northern waterthrush was across the water foraging on the shore of the southern island.

At the north end, I caught a glimpse of this stunning golden-winged warbler. Can you imagine how it would have looked if my lens had focused on the bird instead of on the leaves in the foreground. Sadly, the bird did not give me a second chance.

Thankfully, this little cutie, a young and/or female magnolia warbler, I believe, came out a little clearer.

Another face we haven’t seen since August is that of this osprey, who perched statuesquely over the northern island.

If you ever wondered what an indigo bunting looks like as its blue feathers come in, here you go. This might be the youngster we saw just after labor day.

The great blue heron was back on the pond, but there were already enough photographers there, so I tried the river again, and this eastern phoebe was my reward. The most recent phoebe picture I can find is from April. “Watch out for that fishing line, Cutie!”

I could not find the spotted sandpiper on the lily pads today, so when I heard one down on the river from atop the bluff, I hustled down to find one on a rock in the middle of the river.

In the trees along the west edge of the soccer fields, I finally managed a photo, suitable for identification only, of a ruby-crowned kinglet, whom we also haven’t seen since the spring.

In the weeds beside the soccer fields, I was able to find a dragonfly that is not a green darner. Instead, this is a wandering glider, which we only saw for the first time this summer.

Finally, asters are starting to blossom throughout the park, and these stunning New England asters are growing right beside the southern parking lot and attracting quite a crowd of hungry pollinators.

Lastly, as I was trying to line up the asters, this faded beauty landed on a leaf right behind them. As far as I can tell, this is our very first pearl crescent (Phyciodes tharos), and close cousin of the northern crescent that we have seen a few times. There’s plenty of variation between the sexes and the individuals of a species, but the only images I can find online of crescents that have those dots along the hind edge of the hind wings fully boxed in, as this one does, is of pearl crescents, and here’s hoping that the experts agree with me.