Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Some birds on the wing…

I can see out our dining room window as I write this, that it has clouded up and started to sprinkle, but the weather was picture-perfect this morning. The sky was clear, if a little hazy, temps were about 10 degrees warmer than they’ve been in weeks, and the air was nearly still.

As I stood looking out over the river at the north end, I noticed that a few cedar waxwings were doing their best swallow impersonation and flying out over the water to catch bugs out of that still air. After enjoying the show for a while, I thought I might try to capture a picture of one, so I set up my camera to do that, and almost as soon as I started watching for an opportunity, look who flew by.

If that “beak” is throwing you off, as it even did to the iNaturalist image recognition algorithm, that’s because the female belted kingfisher is holding her breakfast in it, a good-sized fish she just caught upstream. This is only the third picture I’ve been able to capture of a kingfisher since April, and I’m pretty sure they are not nesting on the upstream island, as they have in previous years, so it’s especially nice when they pay us a visit.

Man, if it wasn’t for the waxwings, I would never have gotten ready in time for that picture. “Thanks, guys!” After that, I did spend a while trying to capture a waxwing image, as well, but they were zigging and zagging like crazy, and this is the best I could manage. The reason the bird appears to be flying out of the frame is because that’s exactly what it was doing, and I couldn’t crop the result any better than this. Oh well, and better luck next time, but they sure are pretty birds anyway. Right?

Later, as I was making my way back downstream, I heard the familiar call of an osprey, which are always a treat to see, so I hurried back to the islands to see if I could catch a glimpse, and this is the glimpse I could catch. It had just tried for a fish, a sight that my autofocus failed to track, came up empty, and was climbing back up to try once more.

Then I headed downstream again, and when I got to the other wide and slow part of the river, down the bluff from the middle playground, I spotted this muskrat steaming right towards me. Right after I got this picture, it turned towards shore and disappeared behind grass and other plants growing on the riverbank.

When I tried to sneak up on it to see if I could get a better picture, I found it busily mowing down the forget-me-nots growing there, which I had no luck capturing, and then it hopped right back into the water with a mouthful. That bouquet might seem sweet and all, but remember, those are for food.

Finally, the weeds, both native and invasive, are coming up nicely in the meadow beside the river at the north end, and I spotted at least seven species of butterflies there today, but my favorite has to be this question mark, named for the two small white marks on its hindwing, and which we haven’t gotten to see since 2024! “Hello, stranger!”

Here’s the other side of its wings. I read that they hibernate or migrate to survive the Wisconsin winter, and this one sure doesn’t look like this is its first summer. A related bit of good news is that I’ve recently gotten word from the Parks Department that “the Unit Coordinator for Estabrook likes the idea [of not mowing there],” so maybe we’ll get to enjoy the critters it attracts for a while longer. Yay, and keep all your fingers crossed on that one!

I see temps will still be mild, at about 70°F at 7am tomorrow, the rain should be done, and the breeze should be light, but the humidity is expected to be 91%. So, conditions will be just fine for our weekly wildlife walk, but dress comfortably, and bring some insect repellent. The mosquitos will be thirsty! If 7am’s not your thing, I’ll come by the parking lot again at 8 to collect you.

Yet another special guest shows up…

It was one more in a long string of gorgeous mornings in Estabrook Park, and I eagerly searched for the screech-owl from yesterday, but that appearance seems to have been a one-and-done. Oh well. I sure was thrilled to see it, even if for only one day.

Instead, our special guest for today is this dapper green-winged teal drake, dabbling amongst the mallards in the low water between the islands. He even gave us a good look at his namesake green wing. We did see one already this year, back in April, but I’ve only recorded 8 sightings in Estabrook, compared to 24 for screech-owls. So there.

Meanwhile, the deer in the river keep multiplying, and I don’t mean in the sense of our new fawn. I mean that there were two more bucks, besides the three amigos, and another doe, in addition to the fawn’s mom, for a total of seven adults in the water today. Interestingly, the bucks all seemed to get along just fine, and it was the does that ended up chasing each other around. My guess is that it was the fawn’s mom who took issue with another doe sniffing too close to her fawn. Anyway, I had the wrong lens for capturing any of that action, I’m sorry to say, so here’s a portrait of one of the new bucks who gave me a break and stood nice and still for a moment.

That was the excitement on the river for this morning, so I started to head back home, and on my way, this crow gave me a pose that I just couldn’t resist.

I didn’t see any new dragonflies or butterflies in the weeds beside the soccer fields today, but this eastern tailed-blue, which we just saw last week, gave us a rare peek at the in/top/dorsal side of those pretty wings it has.

There’s a musk thistle in blossom at the south end of the weed patch, and I was lining up a nice picture of a male goldfinch on it, when this female arrived and shooed him away, as if to say “you had your chance yesterday, and it’s my turn now!”

Despite the goldfinch’s efforts, I’m a little short on pictures this time, so here’s another look at the fawn, when Mom had it out on the river Thursday.

Finally, here’s one more pose from the fabulous photoshoot the common yellowthroat granted me also on Thursday.

It looks like we’re in for one more pretty nice day tomorrow, if a bit more humid, before the hot and muggy weather arrives, and I can’t wait to see who shows up next!

A nice blast from the past…

Despite the forecast, the sun hardly showed its face at all in Estabrook this morning. It was cool, calm, and dry, however, so it was still a pretty good time to look for wildlife.

This first picture is quite dark, because I took it at 5:15 am, and the streetlights might have still been on, but if you look closely, you’ll see a pair of eyes staring right back at you. In case you don’t recognize them, they belong to the first screech-owl we’ve seen in the park in a long time, and if it weren’t for the robins loudly urging it to find a different tree, we probably wouldn’t have seen it at all. “Thanks, guys! And welcome back, Sweetie!”

The next big surprise was finding the three amigos again, and this time they were in the river just upstream of where the falls used to be. I took this picture from the boardwalk.

By then a small gap had opened in the clouds, and it let the sun light up this great blue heron perched over the far riverbank quite nicely. The gap closed right back up soon after that.

I saw most of the usual suspects around the islands at the north end, including the fawn and its mom, but the next sight that I thought might make a nice picture for today’s post was this young-looking rabbit right beside the paved path as I made my way back south.

The common yellowthroat was still singing in his usual spot, but he kept out of sight this morning, so we’ll just have to make do with this green heron perched over the far riverbank near the abandoned bridge abutments.

There were plenty of ducklings around, but they were all moving too quickly for the light I had to work with, so here’s a batch of teenagers from yesterday morning when conditions were more favorable. And lest you worry, Mom was just out of the frame to the left, and keeping close tabs on things.

Finally, it was too cool for most bugs to be active, so I didn’t see much in the way of butterflies or dragonflies, but as I made my way across the southern parking lot, this male goldfinch rose to the moment and provided a nice dash of color to wrap things up for us. “Thanks, Buddy!”

The forecast for tomorrow looks quite similar to today’s, but from what I hear, we’d better enjoy the cool air while it lasts because it’s not supposed to last for much longer.

The sun did come out, but I highly doubt that it dried up all the rain…

That rain, which we enjoyed for much of yesterday, was gone by sunrise, but it failed to take all the clouds with it, so we had a nice enough morning in Estabrook Park, while the sun dipped out for a bit every now and then.

Young mallard ducklings keep emerging from the woods, if not exactly the woodwork, and here’s a sextet sticking close to Mom on the river just below the falls.

As I was working on the duckling picture, a great blue heron landed on the low island of bedrock, where the falls used to be, and started looking for a good spot to catch some fish.

At the north end, the doe and her fawn waded from the mainland back to their island, just as I arrived, and then the fawn got a good licking.

Back at the beer garden, the common yellowthroat I’ve been hearing there for weeks finally showed its little masked face. Perhaps because it had heard about the showoff at Retzer.

Even better, after deciding that the coast was clear enough, it broke out in song.

Meanwhile, the gravel right below is now covered in dropped mulberries, and this chipmunk, which would normally be pretty shy, appeared to be so enthralled by the taste that I wondered if it would let me scratch behind those tiny ears. I thought better of that crazy idea, however, and just took a picture instead.

Finally, our old pals, the bicolored striped sweat bees, are back, and here’s one on a firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella) blossom in the pollinator garden.

I see that the sun is supposed to be even scarcer tomorrow, so I can’t make any promises, but I’ll do what I can.

Time again for some “deep cuts”…

It’s a rainy morning in Estabrook Park, Campers, and you know what that means. That’s right, it’s time to hit the arts and crafts pavilion, and pity the fools who signed up for waterfront today.

Anyway, before we head over, there was a short gap in the precipitation soon after sunrise, and I snuck out to capture this image of my very first beautiful wood nymph (Eudryas grata), which, despite the glamorous name, is a moth “known for their mimicry of bird droppings.” Long, long-time readers may remember that I found a red-spotted purple chrysalis, back in the day, which also mimicked bird droppings. That’s cool and all, and I hope it works well for them, but I sure am glad that bird droppings are not the only things that bugs mimic. Right?

Now, about that arts and crafts pavilion. If you had your hopes set on stitching up a pair of leather moccasins or braiding up a lanyard, I have some bad news for you. I was just using it as a euphemism for diving into the archives to see some old travel pictures that I haven’t managed to show you yet. Sorry!

Anyway, here’s one of several Cape ground squirrels or South African ground squirrels (Geosciurus inauris) that we saw in Etosha National Park. “Don’t worry, Sweetie, we’re not coming for your burrow.”

I have already shown you a pale chanting-goshawk, from the drive back to Windhoek, and here’s another one, a youngster who greeted us at the start of our second day in Etosha.

I showed you the sociable weavers in Etosha and their massive nests already, but they were not the only weaver birds there, and here’s a scaly-feathered weaver, scaly-feathered finch, or just scaly weaver (Sporopipes squamifrons). They weave little individual nests into a bush and are sociable enough to have several nests in a single bush, but they don’t go crazy and weave them all into one big monster.

You may be stunned to learn, as I was, that “canary” isn’t a species of bird, but that there are 37 species in the genus that includes “yellow canary”, and this black-throated canary or black-throated seedeater (Crithagra atrogularis), foraging in the landscaping around the visitors’ center at Etosha, is also one of them. You can just see a tiny patch of yellow peeking out from under its wingtip.

Besides the flamingos that we saw at the ocean in Walvis Bay , we also saw this quartet of greater crested terns, crested terns, swift terns, or great crested terns, (Thalasseus bergii) taking a break on the sand to rest and preen.

Finally, on our drive to the airport to catch a hop back to Johannesburg, we spotted a small troop of chacma baboons or Cape baboons (Papio ursinus) on a utility pole, and when we stopped for pictures, they were kind enough to climb down to pose on this fence. That doesn’t look like a very comfortable seat, but what do I know?

Lastly, I see that we are forecast to resume our regularly scheduled program tomorrow of cool temps, a light breeze, and partly cloudy skies, so keep your fingers crossed that I can rustle up some shiny new content for you.

Plenty of early summer scenes…

Since it’s just more of the same today, I’ll skip the weather report and get right to the fun. The treats started early this morning when I spotted the wood duck with nine ducklings, on the riverbank just down the bluff from the middle playground. Here she is with three of them as they do a little after-breakfast preening before they take their after-breakfast nap.

That was quickly followed up by this mallard hen at the falls, posing with four of her six ducklings, who were still busy chowing down.

At the north end, by the islands, the fawn appears to have made it all the way to the mainland today, but I suspect it was on its way back to an island for its own morning nap.

By the time I arrived on foot to where the fawn had been, the water was full of hungry herons. I counted three greens, and here’s one tossing back a morsel.

And here’s the one great blue heron, who was doing the same.

On my way back downstream, I found the other wood duck hen, the one with just five ducklings, and they were all out on the water picking something, perhaps recently hatched flies, off the surface.

Finally, the surprise of the day came at the far south end, as I crossed the southern parking lot. I heard some gulls crying, and when I turned to check them out, look what they were crying about. It appears that they don’t like red-tailed hawks any more than the crows and jays do. If you look closely, you can see that the gull is an American herring gull, and the hawk is momentarily flying inverted, aka “talons up”, to keep the gull at bay. Back on the first, when red-winged blackbirds were mixing it up with a broad-winged hawk over the island in the pond, that hawk also flew talons up for a moment, although the picture I chose doesn’t show it quite as well as this one does. Perhaps all the hawks go to the same flight school.

Wowed in Estabrook some more…

As we all had hoped, it was a gorgeous morning for our weekly wildlife walk in Estabrook Park, and we had five early birds for the 7 am service. The pond was quiet again, but a great blue heron was fishing at the falls as we went down the stairs by the beer garden. It appears to have been more perturbed to see the six of us than it was by just li’l ol’ me on Saturday, so it quickly retired to this log over the far riverbank and appeared for all the world to scowl at us. “Sorry, Sunshine!”

We didn’t see the fawn, its mom, nor any of the bucks, but here’s another picture from Saturday, when the fawn and its mom waded across the river to the other island as I was trying to get a decent eagle picture.

We had nine sleepy heads arrive for the 8 am showing, including some first-timers, and one of them reminded me of the expression “the second mouse gets the cheese.” Once the two groups met up at the river, I had to skip out early because of some darn meeting on campus, but I am told that their reward was seeing a belted kingfisher on the upstream island after I left. I didn’t get a picture of that, obviously, but here’s one I did get on Saturday.

Speaking of the eagles, we did get to see one before I bugged out this morning, but I got a nicer picture when I was back up on the bluff Saturday and approaching the beer garden. I could hear a few agitated crows back north, and it finally dawned on me that they were probably mobbing a raptor, so I hustled back that way, and here’s the raptor that had them all in a dither. I don’t bother telling you to click on an image very much anymore, so that you can see the full resolution in flickr, but you might enjoy seeing the crinkles in the iris of this magnificent creature.

I did not see a green heron today, and I did not hear if either group did, but once again, Saturday comes to my rescue.

I did catch a nice pair of flicker bros on the ground at Retzer yesterday, but you guessed it, I like this picture of a darling female from Saturday better.

Finally, I did see a couple of buckeye butterflies today, but I just showed you a nice one on Saturday, so here’s a dot-tailed whiteface dragonfly instead from Thursday, when I was all excited about the calico pennant and the variegated meadowhawk. We have gotten to see a dot-tail before but only once at Estabrook, till now, and once again at Horicon.

Somebody must have stepped in something, and perhaps it was me, but in any case, we’re due for even more of this pretty, if cool, weather tomorrow morning, and I don’t have a meeting till 2 pm, so here’s hoping for another morning like the one I had on Saturday, right?

Retzer Nature Center!

We traded in the clear sky for calm air, but it was still another very nice morning in Estabrook Park, and the big surprise today was finding these three handsome amigos on the exposed river bottom, right beside the upstream island where I spotted the doe and fawn yesterday. I believe that I did also see the doe again this morning, but the fawn must have been sleeping in.

Then it was time to go meet Donna for a ride out to the fabulous Retzer Nature Center in Waukesha, where she and Katie had arranged for the Milwaukee Birders to visit today. They had promised bobolinks, for which I am an absolute sucker, as you may have realized by now, and they delivered!

Someone mentioned that bobolinks are sometimes called “skunk birds” due to their coloration, but I was amused to find, when I searched for “which birds are called skunk birds”, that the title is shared with the hoatzin, which we saw in the Brazilian Amazon a couple of years ago, because of “the manure-like odor that their foregut bacterial fermentation system produces.” Huh!

Anyway, moving on, we came across a common yellowthroat who was being uncharacteristically uncoy.

In addition to the large meadows, which are only mowed on a specific schedule to suit the bobolinks, they also have water features at Retzer, and the small pond we visited had green frogs (Lithobates clamitans), which I’ve only ever knowingly seen before in the Mequon Nature Preserve. I keep searching for them in Estabrook, but I’ve only come up with bullfrogs so far.

Given the open meadows I mentioned above, you should hardly be surprised to hear that we saw bluebirds, and here’s a dad just about to deliver a tiny morsel to the nesting box attached lower to the post he’s perched upon.

As you might expect from a “nature center” they have bird feeders by the main building, and we watched a parade that included, jays, woodpeckers, finches, nuthatches, a pair of rose-breasted grossbeaks, and even a ruby-throated humming bird, but the bird that put on the best show, in my humble opinion, was this house wren singing his heart out on a post nearby.

Finally, there were quite a few large, orangey butterflies flitting about, but I couldn’t will one to land, no matter how hard I tried, until this one found a thistle blossom to its liking, and that was the opportunity I needed to ID them as great spangled fritillaries, which we’ve only gotten to see once in Estabrook and once in the Mequon Nature Preserve. It turns out that they’re just as great and spangled on the outside as on the inside. Nice.

It appears that the recent streak of cool and pleasant weather will continue into the morning, after a shower late this afternoon, so conditions should be good for our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow. We’re already well past the earliest sunrise of the year, but there should still be enough light for a 7 am start, for the early risers, and I’ll swing back by the parking lot again at 8 am for the sleepy heads. Maybe the fawn will be up by then, too, or someone can manifest the eagles again.

Wowed in Estabrook Park again…

It was an epic morning in Estabrook Park. The weather was nearly perfect, with clear blue skies, nice cool temps, and just a bit of a breeze; and the critters simply wowed me. The lack of clouds got me out nice and early, so by the time I reached the pond, the goslings were still keeping warm in Mom’s tender embrace, as Dad watched over to make sure everyone kept a respectful distance.

The great blue herons seem to be finally warming to the place, and this one didn’t even seem to mind me on the boardwalk while if fished just below the falls. The bluff is steep there, and the sun wasn’t very high yet, so most of the light was reflected off the trees over the far riverbank.

By the islands, however, the bluff is pretty low, the sun was higher in the sky by the time I got there, and that conspired to light up this green heron, with the wee fish it just caught, like a spotlight.

You might want to be sitting down for this next image. As I was working on the green heron picture above, look at the action taking place on the island behind it. That’s right, the first goslings on the pond are followed the very next day with our first fawn of the season. How amazing is that?!?!

But wait. There’s more! As I was working on my best fawn picture, look who flew in to perch over the far riverbank. We may not have seen a pair of eagles together since last December when they serenaded each other.

I stopped by the pond again to see if I couldn’t get a picture of the goslings going for a swim, but the pond was already crowded with people, so I retired to the river one more time, and that’s where I found them. Mom and Dad had already marched the three little ones down the path through the woods. Hmph, that was quick! I did get some pictures, but they’re nothing amazing, so here’s one of the two wood duck hens instead, who were also there, with one of her ducklings. One had five, whom I believe we’ve seen there before, and one had nine, who could well be the brood that started with twelve back on the pond just three weeks ago.

Finally, the dragonflies are still thick on the weeds beside the soccer fields, but I didn’t see a new one today, so here’s a gorgeous common buckeye, which we haven’t seen since last October.

Wouldn’t you agree that they put on an epic show today?

Nature found a way…

Long-time readers may recall that back in mid-April, the wettest April on record for Milwaukee, we had so much rain over one night that the island in the pond was under water by morning, the goose was off her nest, and her eggs were floating. I saw both geese hanging around for a while, and then there was just one. When they are together, I can see that the gander is slightly smaller, but when they are alone, I can’t tell which is which. Thus, I couldn’t tell who had taken off and who had stuck around.

Well, the mystery was solved this morning when I came across this bucolic scene beside the pond. It appears that the goose had merely gone back to nesting somewhere nearby, and the gander remained at his post to keep watch. Talk about determination! I have seen her go back to her nest to lay a second clutch, once before, but that happened in relatively short order after a predator had gotten to the eggs. This time she had to wait for the island to dry out, if that’s even where she tried again.

Anyway, congratulations to the proud couple, and I hope things go smoothly from here on out.

Here’s one of the little rascals, soaking in the big beautiful world it has just inherited, a bit later in the morning after the sun had cleared the trees.

Meanwhile, just on the other side of the island, this doe played coy for a moment before is ambled into the woods.

I didn’t see any green herons at the pond today, but here’s one hunting on the river just off the upstream tip if the upstream island.

I couldn’t tell exactly what was going on here, but perhaps red-bellied woodpeckers were still sorting out nesting arrangements, because this male stayed in the cavity and called, while a female hung on the outside a bit around farther up the trunk. Perhaps she’s just not yet ready to commit.

Perhaps this Halloween pennant dragonfly heard me gushing about our first calico pennant yesterday, because here it is, the very next day, as if I had summoned it with a spell.

Finally, here’s another first butterfly of the year, a tiny eastern tailed-blue, looking nice and pristine.

Happy Juneteenth!