Here’s a honey bee picture from earlier in August. I can’t believe how good it came out.

Here’s the best shot I managed to get of the spiny softshell turtles sunning on the far shore. I still can’t believe that they’ve probably been there all along, but I just never noticed them until this summer.

It will be fascinating to learn if this is working, but in the meantime, here’s that fawn by the pond who looked so sad that he couldn’t play with me longer.

I’ve discovered that WordPress will let me schedule posts to be published in the future, so let’s give that a try. I obviously can’t post pictures from the future, yet, so I’ll use some of my favorites from the past instead.

Thus, here’s a snowberry clearwing sipping from bee balm from earlier in August.

I let the last of the clouds blow away this morning before venturing into Estabrook Park, and when I arrived at the pond, this young great blue heron still looked a bit shellshocked from all the rain that poured down yesterday.

As I hiked along the river, I could hear a wood pewee making a call that sounded a bit desperate, as if to say, “where the heck is everyone?” Farther upstream, this little one looks too stunned to answer.

Out on the river, all the high ground, which has been exposed for most of the summer and jammed packed with preening and sleeping mallards and geese for the past couple of weeks, is now under water, and the mallards had to make do with a few exposed logs they could find.

Back on shore, this little house wren, who would normally stick to the shadows, was trying to dry out those back feathers.

I didn’t expect to see any surprise visitors, but in hindsight why not, right? They’ve gotta park somewhere, and why not Estabrook? Anyway, here are a pair of great egrets taking advantage of the bright morning sun.

On my way back home, most of the wood ducks in the pond were up on logs for their mid-morning nap, and here’s one who hadn’t nodded off yet.

Finally, the great blue heron still wouldn’t make eye-contact, but it had at least moved to take advantage of that nice warm sun.

Lastly, Anne and I are taking a little trip, and I’m bringing my camera along, but I’m leaving my laptop behind, so I won’t have a way to post for about 10 days. Here’s hoping I do have something for you when we get back.

Well, it was dark as pitch long after “sunrise” this morning with rain in the forecast, so I skipped visiting Estabrook and have some more pictures from Kohler-Andrae to show you instead.

Here’s one of the curious deer keeping tabs on me as I made my way along the cordwalk yesterday morning.

Here’s a young bluebird, which by itself might not be all that interesting, but …

nearby in the same tree sat this somewhat larger brown bird. Upon closer inspection, I believe this is a young brown-headed cowbird and probably step-nestling of the bluebird above. Just to be sure that cowbirds do parasitize bluebirds in Wisconsin, I looked it up, and sure enough, the female can sneak right into the nesting box and leave a speckled egg behind. Ah, nature.

Here’s a third fawn I saw yesterday morning, which brings the total deer count up to at least twelve distinct animals.

This was one of several sparrows foraging on the sand, and at first I thought it was a chipping sparrow, which I had heard, but upon closer inspection, I see dark streaks in its little cap. So then I thought it might be a clay-colored sparrow, but they have an unmarked chest even when young. Finally, I’m back to juvenile chipping sparrow, which I read “are streaked from head to toe.” Sheesh!

My old buddy, Brian, chimed in about the mystery warbler from yesterday and suggested pine. Here’s another look. In my defense, Nate Swick writes on 10,000 Birds that “pine warblers have the rather unusual distinction of appearing to look like nearly every single other species of migratory passerine in eastern North America.” At least it’s not just me.

Anyway, I think I’d be hard pressed to mistake a sora for any other bird, and here’s another look at the one out in the open for a moment yesterday.

I never did get to see a coyote again, so we’ll have to make do with another shot from Tuesday morning. I don’t believe I saw it look my way, and I wonder what it was keeping tabs on so intently.

Finally, since the tiger swallowtail was kind enough to pose, here’s another look at it on the Joe Pye weed from yesterday.

Lastly, this is the first glimpse I got of the sandhill cranes as I walked back to camp along the park road Thursday morning, and it seems like a nice way to close out the 2023 chapter on Kohler-Andrae State Park.

Oh, what a beautiful morning it was in Kohler-Andrae State Park. On my third try, I had the routine down pat, and I was done with breakfast and up on the cordwalk over the dunes in time to see this sight.

The deer were there to greet me, and here’s the first one.

I had heard turkeys on day 1-ish, but they eluded me until this morning, when I’d like to think that this sole hen came out to wish me a safe journey home.

A pair of sandhill cranes also gave me a glimpse from the cordwalk for the first time. On day two-ish, I didn’t spot them until I was walking back to camp along the park road.

I spotted some warblers again, and this time I had a little better, though still not great, luck with the camera. I believe the yellow throat and chest with light black stripes and a grey cap make this a female or immature Cape May warbler and my very first one, if true.

Meanwhile, in almost the next tree, this little devil remains a mystery. Its unstreaked yellow throat, chest, and belly, grey head, clear wingbars, and only slight white eye rings don’t quite fit Nashville, pine, orange-crowned, or female common yellowthroats. Argh! “How’d you get in without a name badge?”

Anyway, down on the cattail marsh, I finally found a sora skulking along the edge of the water.

And finally, along the old road, where I’ve seen monarchs, viceroys, and buckeyes, this stunning tiger swallowtail, a male based on the lack of blue spots on its hindwings, was finally willing to work with me to make the portrait such a beauty deserves.

Fin!

This morning in Estabrook Park turned out to be far nicer than forecast. It seems that the overnight rain washed all the grey out of the sky, and it was a perfect crystal blue.

On my way to the pond, I came across a monarch in the pollinator garden on a rough blazing star (Liatris aspera) blossom. It was a good sign.

At the pond, I counted 10 wood ducks, and here’s one still waiting for its flight feathers to arrive.

I didn’t see anyone else around, so I headed over to the river where I was thrilled to see one of our first fall warbler migrants, this northern waterthrush, on its way to Central or northern South America. The picture is barely good enough for identification, but it is only the first of many, I hope.

At the north end, things got crazy, and I sometimes struggled to pick what to photograph next. First off, there were four (4!) great egrets and five (5!) great blue herons flitting around between high perches on the island and the water below. Here’s an image with one of each, plus a bonus mallard. It looks as though the heron is slightly bigger than the egret.

There was also a bald eagle, …

a couple of belted kingfishers, …

a diminutive blue-winged teal, …

and an osprey! Holy Moly!

I eventually tore myself away, and on my way back south the sun had warmed things up nicely, so I stopped by the pollinator garden again to find this female pondhawk. You may recall the bright blue male we saw back in July.

There was also the first viceroy I’ve ever seen in Estabrook. Woo Hoo! Maybe they’ve been here all along, and I just didn’t recognize them, but I sure do now.

Finally, on the bull thistle amongst the burdock beside the soccer fields, a found this skipper that is quite pale on the outside, except for one dark spot, …

and quite dark on the inside. I believe that makes it an Ottoe skipper (Hesperia ottoe), a new butterfly for us and a “species of special concern” according to the Wisconsin DNR. Welcome to Estabrook Park, sweetie. We hope you like it here.

It’s a little better now, at midday, but it sure was dark this morning here in Shorewood, and I have so many pictures from Kohler-Andrae, which I haven’t shown you yet, that I skipped Estabrook this morning and just got some work done. So, here are those pictures.

On day 1-ish, I caught this eastern black swallowtail out on the cattail marsh, and I read that “the under sides of wings of males and females are virtually identical,” so I can’t tell you which one this is. Sorry.

Here’s another look at that beautiful merlin, from day 2-ish, as it ignores me and scans the horizon.

Here’s a fuller look at the young buck with little antlers (so far!).

Here’s a closer look at one of the sandhill cranes. This one was very curious about who might be hiding behind that tree and so came surprisingly close. That probably sounds like it could be ideal, but it kept switching eyes, first the left, and then the right, so I had to keep switching the focus point on my camera from side-to-side to get the eye in sharp focus. My job is so hard!

Here’s a fuller look at the buck with bigger antlers as it almost glows in that beautiful morning sunlight coming over the dunes.

There have been a lot of cedar waxwings about, and they’ve often been moving in flocks of a dozen or more, but here’s one who wasn’t yet going with the flow.

Here’s another look at the warbler, which I still think is a Nashville, but time will probably tell.

Some of the sparrows that pass through Estabrook, and so we only get to see briefly, are on their way to or from Kohler-Andrae, it turns out, and here’s one of several chipping sparrows I could hear.

After the big spring ruckus in Estabrook, especially around the pond, I hardly hear a red-winged blackbird there now that the nestlings have fledged, but they were still pretty active over the Kohler-Andrae cattail marsh, and here’s one on the lookout for intruders.

Finally, I can’t keep talking about the cattail marsh without showing you at least one marsh wren picture, and here it is. For the cool, acrobatic shots, see my reports from 2021.

Lastly, in addition to the monarchs, viceroys, buckeyes, and browns, I even saw a good-ol’ red admiral.

I learned a few lessons from day 1-ish, and this morning went smooth as glass. I put my camera in the car and parked in a nearby overflow lot last evening so when I got up at 4 this morning, all I had to do was walk quietly to the car, drive to Kwik Trip for a cup of coffee and an egg sandwich, then drive back to the beach to enjoy it while waiting for the lights to come on.

My first treat was this trio of deer making their daily migration across the dunes from the beach to the woods to bed down for the day.

Soon after that, I was floored to watch a small raptor swoop into a nearby tree. Even better, it let me crawl on my hands and knees close enough to get this portrait. At first I thought it was a peregrine falcon, but the face wasn’t quite right, and that’s because it’s a merlin instead. Ha!

I eventually continued on and came across this young buck just starting to grow some antlers. I definitely didn’t see it on day 1-ish, so that makes 12 distinct deer in total.

And then I finally got to see the infamous sandhill cranes that have been making such a racket every morning.

At the far north end of the park, I came across the buck from last time, whom I now see has a big head-start in the antler division.

On my way back south, I kept checking the pine trees in hopes of spotting some of the red crossbills everyone’s been talking about, and suddenly I thought I had my chance. Instead, it turns out to be an early warbler migrant, also heading south, and my best guess, from the grey head and yellow chest, is that it’s a young or female Nashville warbler, but I’m not sure yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Then I headed inland to check for more viceroys, and the first butterfly I met was this stunner, a common buckeye, instead. I’ve only ever seen them a couple of times before, so I didn’t recognize it right away, but Dr. Google remembered.

At the Black River, I could hear a little commotion, and the cause turned out to be this Cooper’s hawk perched just above the water. That’s two raptor portraits in one day. Woo Hoo!

Ol’ Coop didn’t stick around long, and when it left, look who I found perched just a bit farther out on the same dead branch. It looks like a young green heron, and perhaps the hawk was trying to convince it to “get in my belly!“

As if that wasn’t enough, there was a second heron lurking in the background, this young black-crowned night-heron. You can even see it in the blurry background along the left side of the image above. Yikes! It was crowded in there. No wonder there was a commotion.

Finally, it was time to call it a morning and head back to camp, and that’s when I saw the viceroy, well actually a pair of them. Ta Da! They sure appear to love that Joe Pye weed.

Lastly, along the park road that parallels the reed marsh, this darling pair of newly fledge eastern kingbirds were just enjoying the beautiful morning sun and crying for their breakfasts, and I was getting hungry for my second breakfast, too. Yum!