Welp, I finally did it. After passing on the roseate spoonbill in Green Bay and the pink flamingos in Port Washington, I succumbed to exotic bird fever this morning and rode my bicycle up to Kletzsch Park to look for a limpkin (Aramus guarauna) that was reported there just yesterday. Their usual natural range just barely extends north of Florida.

I found it foraging for snails on the far shore of the Milwaukee River, just as advertized, and I was surprised by how big it is, averaging 2.38 lb, which is not as heavy as an average 4.9-lb great blue heron, but a little heavier than an average 2.2-lb great egret. As I already said, it was at the far shore, and the sun was coming up through the trees behind it, so these are the best pictures I could manage.

Kletzsch Park was nice, even bigger than Estabrook, but I struggled to find much more to show you there. The next best picture I have is of this chipmunk enjoying the view from atop a shutter overlooking a little pollinator garden in front of the headquarters building.

Luckily, it was a beautiful morning, and Estabrook Park was right on my way home, so I stopped by just in time to find the two Cooper’s hawks flitting around at the north end, and here’s one perched for us nicely in the sun.

This tiny phoebe was not quite as cooperative, but it is nevertheless great to see them migrating back through and picking some gnats out of the air to fuel their journey.

I stopped by the pond next, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a painted turtle up on a log sunning itself. I guess the nights are getting cool enough that the turtle just needed to soak up a few more calories.

The wood ducks, on the other hand, are homeothermic and so were sleeping off their breakfasts in the shade.

While this downy woodpecker was still busy foraging for food.

Finally, at the far south end, this warbler, an immature or female blackpoll warbler, I believe, looks like it just scored a whole meal!

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning in Estabrook Park, at long last, with blue skies, a warm sun, mild temps, and calm winds. Despite my exuberance, however, it was pretty quiet in the park.

I counted 15 wood ducks, 5 on the pond and 10 on the river, but the most photogenic ducks in the park were this pair of mallards glowing in the golden sunlight.

There were no ospreys, falcons, or merlins today, but I did see the pair of Cooper’s hawks beside the river at the north end again, and I managed to get a picture of this one.

In addition to all the herons, the two egrets continue to fish on the river, and here’s one about to enjoy a little morsel of success.

At the south end, I found one more yellow-bellied sapsucker on his way south.

Finally, here’s one more of the many white-throated sparrows still foraging throughout the park.

That’s it for today, I’m afraid, but the nice weather is supposed to stick around a while, so maybe I’ll have more luck tomorrow.

The weather is finally improving, but it was still pretty cloudy in Estabrook Park this morning. At least the clouds weren’t leaking today.

I counted five wood ducks on the pond, but no herons, and the prettiest sight was this female northern cardinal sipping from a puddle on the path.

At the river, my way north was momentarily blocked by a great blue heron standing right on the path at the falls. It appeared to be mesmerized by an angler hauling in a huge salmon. Perhaps the heron was thinking “there’s no way he’s going be to able to swallow that thing!” Anyway, I kept inching closer, and the heron eventually snuck under the railing and then hopped down to the water, so I could get by.

On my way north, I came across a chickadee who had caught itself some kind of bug.

And a downy woodpecker probably looking to do the same.

At the north end, there were the usual dozens of mallards, a couple dozen geese, and a few wood ducks, but the big surprise was spotting these two raptors in the big dead tree over the northern island.

At first glance, I figured they were the two Cooper’s hawks we’ve seen there lately, but upon closer inspection, I was surprised to find that the larger, lower one is a peregrine falcon taking a nap, …

and the smaller, higher one is a merlin. I would have never guessed that I would ever see those two in the same tree at the same time.

On my way back south, things got even crazier when I came across the osprey on the same branch again by the guardrail. Wow! I read that “most Ospreys that breed in North America migrate to Central and South America for the winter,” so we’d better enjoy this spectacle while it lasts. One of these mornings I’m gonna go by there, and it will be gone, with “no goodbye, no ‘see ya later’, no nothin’,” and it won’t be the best part of my day. Same goes for the falcons and the merlins.

Finally, while I was trying to get a glimpse of a Lincoln’s sparrow in the weeds beside the soccer fields, both Cooper’s hawks flew overhead. Ha! They didn’t give me a chance for a pciture this time, but at least they stick around for the winter.

Despite the improved forecast, the weather this morning in Estabrook Park was not much better than it has been over the last few days. The skies were plenty dark and still leaking enough that I had to drape my hat over my camera at times to keep it dry, but at least it wasn’t pouring down rain like yesterday.

Anyway, the first surprise was spotting this red-eyed vireo in the middle of the parkway. When I tried to encourage it to move to someplace safer, it could only manage to fly a couple of feet at a time, and it couldn’t get over the curb, so I picked it up, took this picture, and placed it in the nearby bushes. “Best of luck, little cutie!”

The indigo bunting with no tail feathers was still foraging among the flower stalks at the north end, …

and today I spotted another one, who does have a full tail.

The most exotic sight on the river today was one last egret hanging around, but that was until a couple of Canada geese got into it in a way I had never seen before. Each one had a bill full of feathers on the other’s neck, and neither one wanted to let go. You can just make out through the water drops that the one on the right has a grip on the neck feathers of the one on the left. The fracas lasted for nearly a minute, enough time for even me to get a picture, and attracted the attention of all the other geese on the river. I’ve seen them be very territorial when nesting, but soon after the goslings hatch, they are all comrades in arm again, and I have no idea what these two might have to fight about now. Odd.

Finally, there’s a brand new fungus among us, at least for me, and it is this amazing white clump, which appears to be one of the species in the Hericium genus, maybe coral tooth (Hericium coralloides). It is described as “edible and good when young,” but absolutely, positively, under no circumstances should you trust my identification. In other words, DO NOT EAT THIS based on my say so alone.

And that’s all I have time for today. Let’s hope the weather continues to improve and I have more for you tomorrow.

Well, my whining about the weather has somehow failed to improve the situation, and the radar forecast suggests that it will be raining all morning. Sure, I could go to Estabrook Park, because I won’t melt, but if I see a bird, and I can’t take a picture of it to show you, did the bird ever really exist? That’s a risk I don’t want to take.

Thus, I’ve scrounged the darkroom floor for negatives that I never printed, and first up is the other one of the two hooded mergansers on the beach at Lakeshore State Park on Sunday. That’s quite the stance, eh?

Because the look of their head feathers is so variable, depending on how they hold them and how wet they are, I can’t tell if this is the same bird or not, but either way, it caught a nice fish, which a gull promptly tried to steal but without success.

Besides the dozen or so cormorants fishing in the water along with the mergansers, here’s a flight of them heading south along the lakeshore.

Here’s a lone herring gull standing amongst a flock of ring-billed gulls at McKinley Beach. Herring gulls weigh about twice as much, so when they are near each other, it is pretty easy to see which is which, even if you can’t get a good look at their bills. You can also just make out the black head on the Caspian tern in the upper left corner.

From further back, here’s another look at the female/immature male black-chinned hummingbird from Sedona. From this angle you can easily see that its tail does not extend beyond its wings and so it can’t be a ruby-throated.

Here’s another look at the female/immature male Anna’s hummingbird, also from Sedona. If you compare the pictures, you’ll see that it is perched in a slightly different spot on that branch, and that is because it had just flown up to grab an insect from the air and then came back down to nearly but not exactly the same spot.

From even further back, here’s another look at the chestnut woodpecker from Amazon Antonio’s Lodge in Brazil.

Here’s another look at the yellow-throated woodpecker from our hike into the forest from the same lodge.

Finally, for a little splash of color to brighten the morning, here’s another look at the clouded sulphur on a purple aster along the Oak Leaf Trail from Saturday afternoon.

Man, if this dreary weather pattern ever moves on, and blue skies ever return, I will never complain about them again! The weather this morning was actually better than the forecast I checked before going to bed last evening, and even though it was raining during breakfast, the radar suggested that we might get a gap in the rain for a couple of hours. Thankfully, the radar and my reading of it turned out to be accurate! I headed out right at 7:00, and the skies didn’t reopen until 9:15.

There was the usual great blue heron and a handful of wood ducks on the pond, so I moved on to the river. At the north end, a couple of kingfishers were flitting around the northern island and making a racket, but here’s one of them taking a break from the ruckus and perhaps contemplating its lot in life.

I counted another four great blue herons on the river, a single green heron, and the two great egrets that have been hanging around for a while now. Here’s one of the egrets about to grab a fish as a pair of mallards look on from a safe distance.

There was also one Canada goose, dozens of mallards, and as I attempted to count the mallards, I was pleasantly surprised to find two of these male northern pintail ducks in their eclipse plumage. Although his plumage is very similar to a hen’s, I can just make out the blue stripe down the side of his bill that she doesn’t have.

I watched a Cooper’s hawk chase a ring-billed gull up the river, but I didn’t realize there were two around until I could hear them talking later from nearby trees. Here’s the one that I could get eyes on, and if they are the same pair we saw on Saturday, then this is probably the female based on the yellow on her beak.

I only had time (and light) for those four pictures this morning, so here’s another look at the solitary sandpiper on the river Friday.

Here’s a bumblebee on a purple aster blossom beside the Oak Leaf Trail from Saturday afternoon.

Here’s the fiery skipper again, but this time also on a purple aster blossom.

And finally, here’s another clouded sulphur, but this time at Lake Front State Park on Sunday. How’s that for a green eye?

The grey morning skies over Estabrook Park continue, but at least the temps were mild, so I stopped in to see who was around today now that the crowds of moved on.

There were eight wood ducks on the pond, and their late summer molt appears to be wrapping up, so here’s a hen and drake in all their finery.

At least one Cooper’s hawk is still on the hunt, and here it is over the northern island. I saw one again farther south, but I can’t tell for sure if it was the same bird or not.

The river water continues to be quite low, and a pair of spotted sandpipers were foraging on the exposed rocks below the Cooper’s hawk.

After not seeing a killdeer in the park for a couple of weeks, and even mentioning it yesterday, look who showed up this morning.

Back on shore an indigo bunting was competing with the goldfinch from Friday for worst molt, and it is crushing it. The poor thing appears to have no tail feathers at all at the moment. At least the grasses are providing plenty of seeds for it to eat in the meantime.

On my way back south, I spotted a black-throated blue warbler, but it had no time for me today. Instead, this chipping sparrow immature white-crowned sparrow, whose crown is still brown, posed so nicely as if it was daring me to take its picture.

That’s about it for this morning in Estabrook, so here’s another look at one of the darling sanderlings from yesterday.

And here’s another look at the American pipit who appears to be having its own molt issues.

Despite all the morning gloom recently, the sun has come out in the afternoon a few times, and here are a couple of butterfly pictures I took Saturday along the Oak Leaf Trail where the asters are blooming in a few nice big patches.

First is a fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus) on a white aster blossom.

And finally, here’s a common sulphur or clouded sulphur (Colias philodice) on a purple aster blossom.

I took a break from Estabrook Park today, and rode my bike down to Lakeshore State Park to join Donna’s Sunday morning birding group. There were plenty of Canada geese and mallards, but the first surprise was this gopher keeping an eye on me.

I counted five hooded mergansers in various plumages. I think this one is a female.

and this one may be an eclipse male.

This bird, on the other hand, is one of the many double-crested cormorants plying the waters.

Chuck noticed this female shoveler hanging out with the mallards.

And it may have also been Chuck who spotted this darling American pipit foraging on the rocks at the water’s edge. I first saw one on the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park, but this one has more of a yellowish tint and some situation going on with its head feathers.

Finally, as far as Lakeshore Park is concerned, there are still a few monarch butterflies to be found, and here’s one tanking up for its long flight to Mexico on some white aster.

On my way back home, I took Donna’s suggestion and stopped in at McKinley Beach, where I found several dozens of herring and ring-billed gulls resting on the sand. One of them, however, was not like the others, and that’s because it’s a tern instead of a gull, and a Caspian tern (Hydroprogne caspia) to be exact. I’ve seen them in Estabrook at least once, but I have not managed to get a picture until now.

I also noticed a trio of killdeer, who have made themselves scarce in Estabrook lately.

Lastly, the big surprise at McKinley Beach was this trio of little black-and-white sandpipers that I did not recognize. It was only when I got home that I was able to identify them as nonbreeding adult sanderlings (Calidris alba). I read that they are “extreme long-distance migrants [that] breed only on High Arctic tundra, but during the winter they live on most of the sandy beaches of the world.”

It was an odd morning for me in Estabrook Park. The weather was about the same as the past few days, with plenty of clouds and mild temps, but the park was packed with runners for some big group run, so I wasn’t seeing much. Then I opted to walk around the east side of the pond, to avoid the crowds, and I was rewarded by the sight of this yellow-bellied sapsucker, a male by the look of that little red patch under his chin, and he was even showing some yellow on his belly. I read that “juveniles have a brownish wash over their bodies“, so that probably explains the drab pair we saw on Monday.

Okay, so maybe my visit wouldn’t be so bad after all. Then I spotted not just one, but two Cooper’s hawks at the northeast corner of the pond. They made some unsuccessful tries for the squirrels on the ground, but perhaps they were too distracted by each other to give the squirrels the attention they needed.

Anyway, here’s the bigger one, so probably a female, with some fairly bright yellow on her beak and feet.

And here’s the smaller one, so probably a male, with much paler yellow, almost white, on his beak and paler eyes and feet.

Here he is again in a different pose on the same branch.

That’s our fifth raptor of the week, after the osprey, merlin, and eagle on Wednesday, and the red-tailed hawks yesterday. Awesome!

After all that excitement, I hiked over to the river. On my way, I was pleasantly surprised to find the crowd of runners were all off running somewhere else, but when I reached the falls, I was disappointed to find a full dozen anglers plying the waters, so I was unlikely to see anything there. At the north end, where there are usually dozens of mallards and geese foraging in the shallow water around the islands, with maybe a surprise or two sprinkled in for good measure, there was yet another angler wading around, so there were hardly any birds left to be found. Darn.

On shore, however, warblers were everywhere! Hurray! Here’s a not-great image of a female or immature blackpoll warbler, but it at least includes a hint at the pretty foliage starting to emerge.

There were also yellow-rumps, redstarts, magnolias, Nashvilles, waterthrushes, and even a Wilson’s, but I couldn’t get another good picture to save my life. Maybe they had all just arrived last night from up north, and so were far too hungry to sit still for even a second. Oh well. You can’t win’em all, right? At least we had the Cooper’s.

The skies look pretty clear, if hazy, now as I write this at my dining room table, but they were plenty grey earlier this morning when I ventured into Estabrook Park.

The first big surprise came early when I spotted this majestic red-tailed hawk right on the lawn across the parkway from the soccer fields. My guess is that it was probably after one of the many nice and plump grey squirrels that have been busily burying acorns recently.

From the lawn, it flew into the tree line it had been staring at, but it must not have found what it was hoping to catch, and soon flew back out to perch on this street light for just a moment before heading west towards the river.

The wood ducks and one great blue heron were at the pond again, but I didn’t see raccoons or anything else new so I continued on to the river. There I spotted a big bird over the southern island, and I thought it was the young eagle from Wednesday again but upon closer inspection, I see now that it is another red-tailed hawk with slightly browner coloration. I don’t believe I’ve seen two in one day since the pair courting over the far side of the river back in February 2022.

The next big surprise was this American coot out on the river between the islands at the north end. The last time we saw a coot in Estabrook was back in April.

We still have sandpipers, and I saw three today, two spotted and this one darling solitary.

On my way back south, I came across this male goldfinch who appears to be halfway through his molt. Ugh. Imagine having to go out of the house looking like that because you’ve gotta get your own breakfast, and you don’t even live in a house anyway.

Finally, at the south end, I thought I spotted one of the white-throated sparrows I’ve been hearing and glimpsing recently, but no, it turns out to be a white-crowned sparrow instead. See the peak at the back of its head?

Right around the corner, however, there really was one of those white-throated sparrows, with its bright white throat, yellow eyebrow patches, and nice round head.

Even better, here they are together! Just to be clear, the white-throated is on the left, and the white-crowned is on the right. I believe this is the first time I’ve managed to capture both in the same image and both reasonably close to being in focus. Miracles do happen.