I did go to the park yesterday and even took a few pictures, but the rest of the day got away from me, and I never had time to send you a post. Then I went back again this morning, so now I have a lot of pictures to choose from, and there should be something for everyone.

We saw a ring-billed gull with a crayfish a couple of weeks ago, but here’s a herring gull with a real fish just above the falls.

We’ve seen plenty of great blue herons with fish, but here’s one without a fish and all puffed up, also just above the falls. Maybe the herring gull swiped its fish before I got there, and this is its annoyed look.

Here’s the osprey perched over the island right at the moment when it spotted me, and that probably is its annoyed look.

Here’s a red squirrel pausing from eating a maple tree seed, and doesn’t that look like contentment?

Here’s a cedar waxwing giving me grief with the lighting and looking a bit smug about it.

Here’s a song sparrow perched nicely at eye-level, right below the waxwing, but in much better light. “Thanks, Sweetie!”

The pair of nearly-grownup wood duck ducklings and their mom on the pond are really starting to act like they’re comfortable there, and if you behave and sit still….

they might let you take a closeup.

Back at the river, this is the tiniest toad I may have ever seen, and it could have sat neatly on my pinky nail. Watch where you step!

Finally, I’m starting to have some luck with the butterflies, and here’s a painted lady, close cousin of the American lady we saw back in April, sipping nectar from a bird’s-foot trefoil blossom beside the river.

We had an overnight guest and a train set that needed assembling, so I gave the park a rest this morning. Luckily, yesterday was so chock full that I’ve still got some pictures to show you.

I didn’t see the young buck, and maybe I was just looking the other way when he snuck across the road, but this looks like the doe that we’ve seen with him.

There are a lot of recent fledglings among the morning foragers, and many continue to beg their parents for treats, but here’s a young robin, still sporting its baby spots, who managed to catch itself something for breakfast. “Good job, Kiddo!”

A great blue heron was on break above the falls, and here it is scratching an itch.

Ah, that feels better.

Here’s another result from my quest for butterflies, and this one appears to be a least (but not last!) skipper (Ancyloxypha numitor).

The water lilies are beginning to open on the river,…

and I asked this bullfrog if it didn’t want to get off that nasty ol’ rock and swim out to a nice, cushy lily pad by that pretty blossom to make a better picture, and it just said, “croak.” Kinda rude, if you ask me.

So back to the butterflies, and here’s everyone’s favorite, the cabbage white.

Finally, I haven’t found a park beer in a while, but someone did leave me a park soda below the falls, and it made a nice bootleg brandy old fashioned, so thanks for that!

As if such fine weather on the longest day of the year wasn’t good news enough, I am happy to report that I have even better news, great news, outstanding news, and stupendous news, all from Estabrook Park!

First, the better news, at least for photography, is that the haze was almost gone this morning, and the skies were a nice blue for a change, which might have inspired the kingbird who sat for a portrait yesterday, to try again today. I know I would, and wouldn’t you?

Then it started to get a little greedy and wanted me to get both sides, but we’ll allow it!

The great news is that the batch of seven wood duck ducklings on the river is still looking hale and hearty. All that white stuff floating on the water around them is just a splendid blend of cottonwood seeds and foam from the falls upstream.

The outstanding news is that the two wood duck ducklings that went missing on the pond have reappeared! I don’t know where those little stinkers were hiding, but hip, hip, hurray for their return!

Finally, the stupendous news is that there is now a second and brand-spanking-new batch of ten (10!) wood duck ducklings on the pond. I can only count nine in this image, which was the best looking one, but there are clearly ten in a couple of the less-pretty images. That’s a total nineteen wood duck ducklings in the park. Noice!

In other duckling news, the two mallard hens that we saw squabbling on the river a week ago appear to have reached a detente, and I spotted them both napping with their ducklings on the same sandbar between the two islands. Here are the older ones, …

and here are the younger ones. Yay!

In non-duckling, but related, news, a fresh-looking batch of red squirrels was wrastling up and down a tree trunk, and this one paused for a moment to see what I was up to.

I continued my quest for butterflies this morning, and while this is not strictly a butterfly, I did manage to spot a monarch caterpillar on a milkweed leaf. That’s at least a step in the right direction.

And lastly, one butterfly I did spot is this shy little wood satyr (Megisto cymela) hiding under some leaves. We’ve seen them before but in better light.

There are even more pictures from this morning, but I’d better stop here and save them for a rainy day.

It looks like the haze we’ve been enjoying for days is starting to fade, and some blue sky is returning to Estabrook Park. Things were quiet at the pond with no herons or kingfishers, that I could see, and the same four wood ducks as yesterday.

On my hike back over to the river, I came across this curious scene, a female, red-bellied woodpecker on the side of a tree but close to the ground and looking around to see if the coast was clear.

Then she flew down to the paved path to feast on something in the edge of the grass along with a slew of grackles. I have not seen that before. I wonder what she found there. I hope it was delicious.

At the edge of the bluff, very near where I had seen the kingbird yesterday, a goldfinch in all his breeding plumage finery was oddly perched where we could get a nice, good look at him for a change. “Thanks, Buddy!”

Down the bluff a great blue heron was fishing at the falls again, but I didn’t see it catch anything.

At the north end, there was the usual cast of dozens of geese and mallards, a couple of killdeer, a couple of sandpipers, and a couple of herons in the tree, but no eagles or osprey, so I headed back south. Along the way, I could hear a few bullfrogs singing, and this might have been one of them, but he was silent while I could see him.

At the far south end, I was hoping to find some butterflies, but all I could find was this damselfly instead. I believe it is a female American rubyspot (Hetaerina americana), and if so, it is supposed to be “the most widespread of the North American rubyspots, …  reported from all of the lower 48 US states except Washington and Idaho.” I believe we’ve seen one before, and it was a male that time.

Finally, this rabbit was hiding in the shade pretty well except for just a couple of details.

Ebird, the website and phone app I use to log the birds I see, has recently changed the status of wood ducks to “infrequent”, but that must be for Milwaukee County or all of Wisconsin, ’cause they’re still plentiful in Estabrook Park, and I was greeted at the pond this morning by this trio. The one laying down in the middle is clearly a drake still in his breeding plumage, if slightly bedraggled, and the other two are also drakes but in full eclipse.

There was also a great blue heron hunting for breakfast just a bit down the shore of the pond from the three amigos above.

Meanwhile, there may have been further tragedy since I showed you the two ducklings on Friday because there was just a lone hen but no ducklings today. ☹

Anyway, on my hike over to the river, I found a pair of eastern kingbirds perched at the edge of the bluff, and one was willing to let me get a picture.

Finally, not all hope is lost because this wood duck hen has seven healthy-looking ducklings on the river, so let’s wish her luck.

Things were pretty quiet in Estabrook Park this morning. Perhaps everyone was laying low in anticipation of the Shorewood Farmers Market grand opening today, but who knows.

At least this great blue heron was still willing to strike a pose over the river.

I did manage to spot a female hairy woodpecker, whom I used to hear often in the winter, but who have been awfully quiet lately.

On the riverbank at the north end, I stumbled across this odd juxtaposition of a female flicker and a male red-winged blackbird.

Best of all, though, was when this mallard hen led her eight ducklings right past where I was kneeling to take the picture above.

As you may have noticed, I very rarely get to be this close.

To complete the trifecta, the sun was even shining to light them up with a gorgeous golden glow. Who was I kidding yesterday about “taking a break from the ducklings,” right?

Finally, here’s another look at the chipmunk enjoying its breakfast yesterday.

The sky was clear of clouds, but it was a bit hazy this morning, and I don’t know if it was moisture or Canada wildfire smoke. In any case, it didn’t seem to bother the critters, and here are the pair of deer, a young buck and doe, crossing the soccer fields with the Benjamin Church House in the background.

I usually hear the wood pewees, instead of seeing them, so it was a treat to see one again soaking up some morning sun at the north end by the river.

On my way back south, this young-looking rabbit was parked on a picturesque part of the trail below the falls.

Meanwhile this green heron found itself a nice high perch across the river from the rabbit, and you can just see a bit of its right foot poking out through its belly feathers.

This belted kingfisher was checking the sky for threats just south of the heron.

Finally, here’s a chipmunk enjoying its breakfast.

It feels like it still hasn’t gotten completely light out this morning, but I eventually gave up waiting for some sunshine and went out anyway.

There are a lot of fledglings around begging for food, and I suspect that well describes this male flicker who oddly refused to budge and just kept squawking as I tried to get a picture against the gray sky.

At the pond it appears that the wood duck hen is down to two ducklings. Perhaps the snapping turtle took the third. Oh well. That’s just nature’s way.

A green heron was also at the pond and intently fishing for its breakfast and/or a gullet full to bring back to a nest.

Back on the river, I suspect this mallard hen with her three almost-grown ducklings are the ones we first saw back on May 7. My, how they have grown, and don’t they all look just like their mom?

A bit farther up river I spotted the mallard hen with eleven.

And at the north end, here’s a mallard with seven fresh-looking little ones who might be the family that had eight yesterday.

Finally, the Canada goose goslings keep getting bigger, but check out the character in the middle wearing its food. There’s always one, isn’t there?

It was quite dark and foggy this morning, so I took my sweet time with breakfast and the paper and strolled out the door around 7:30, and I was greeted by this tender scene when I arrived at the pond. As far as I can tell, that is one wood duck drake, pretty far into eclipse but still sporting his multi-hued bill, preening the feathers on the head of another wood duck drake. I’ve certainly seen wood duck hens exhibit this behavior before, but this might be the first time I’ve seen it among drakes.

As I turned around to head toward the river, look whom I found had been keeping an eye on me.

All the rain yesterday has raised the river a bit, and there was no heron in the usual spot below the falls, but there was one over on the far shore instead.

At the north end, I found yet another fresh-looking hatch of mallard ducklings, and this one is another batch of eight.

Meanwhile, the batch of eleven was steaming in close formation just a little farther from shore.

I couldn’t believe my luck when the hen with eleven headed over to the hen with eight.

I did not expect, however, that the mission was to enforce some sort of pecking order.

Things got a little splish-splashy for a moment.

But once the task was done, everything seemed to return to normal, and here you can see all twenty-one ducks.

Finally, as if all that action was not enough, it all occurred under the watchful eyes of the osprey who has been hanging around for a while. It’s been almost three weeks now. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and it will decide to stick around for the summer. A guy can dream, right?

Lastly, here is an indigo bunting that wasn’t perched high above me for a change.

I didn’t have much time to visit Estabrook this morning, so this has gotta be a quick one.

House sparrows are “the most widely distributed wild bird,” and there are probably some right outside your window now, but this handsome devil was picking grass seeds out of the loose soil around the new park bench where the snapping turtle laid her eggs, so I figured, “why not take a picture?”

Just past the sparrow, this bullfrog was probably wondering where the nice warm sun had gone.

Finally, the wood ducks on the pond were settling down for their morning nap.

Tomorrow I expect to resume my regularly-scheduled program.