Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

All kinds of pleasant surprises…

The rain forecast for this morning never came, at least until this afternoon, and neither did any wildlife walkers, so I had quite a nice morning in Estabrook Park all to my lonesome.

My first treat came on the river between the islands, where I was checking for shorebirds, when I spotted this giant snapping turtle lumbering over a high spot in the river bottom.

All the regular shorebirds were in attendance, the spotted sandpipers, killdeer, and even a solitary sandpiper, but the rarer occurrence and prettier picture was this belted kingfisher upstream, over the riverbank, and against a pretty green background.

As I was searching for the kingfisher I could hear, look who else I saw out on the water: our first spiny softshell turtle of the summer. Woo Hoo!

As I made my way back downstream, I arrived just in time to spot this great blue heron with a nice big catfish in its beak. I couldn’t tell if the heron hadn’t had a fish that big in a while, if it never had a fish that big before, or if something else gave it pause, but it sure did futz with that fish a lot. It set it back down and recaught it a couple of times and rinsed it off, first in this water, and then in that water, about a dozen times. Since it was taking so long, I figured I’d have time to move to a better vantage point, but during the whole 20 seconds that we were out of sight of each other, the bird swallowed the fish. Dang it.

Since those were the best sights of today, and I’ve got a little bit of room left, here are a few pictures from Saturday morning at the Retzer Nature Center. Despite all the big open fields, and the occasional bobolink sighting, none of us had seen a meadowlark. That is until Saturday morning when this little cutie flew in and plopped down on a freshly mowed part to preen.

When I first heard this guy, I couldn’t believe my luck, because if I could get eyes on it, that would make both the yellow-billed and the black-billed cuckoos in the same week. Holy Mackerel!

Finally, I’d heard the familiar call of sandhill cranes in the distance a couple of times already over the week, but it was a special treat to get a low flyover from this pair to wrap up my last outing there. “Thanks, Guys!”

Lastly, it looks like we’re in for a pretty nice morning again tomorrow, with a little breeze out of the north, so maybe someone new will stop in on their way south. Tune in to find out.

Herons in a flurry…

Sorry about missing yesterday. Between wrapping things up at Retzer, packing up, getting home, and catching up, my post fell through the cracks. The good news is that I somehow did complete the Master Naturalist training and now I have a slightly better understanding of how much I still don’t know. Best of all, Estabrook Park was right where I left it, and they even let me back in this morning.

On the river, the great blue herons are getting feisty, or frisky, I’m not sure which, and here’s one struttin’ his stuff.

And here he is trying to give another heron a closer look, but the other heron wanted no part of that.

Our little meadow of weeds at the north end still has not been mowed, and I’m beginning to think that it might finally survive the summer this year. Here’s a black swallowtail butterfly resting on and perhaps sipping nectar from a Queen Anne’s lace blossom. It is an invasive plant, but the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension explains that “the plant is used by some native animals for food. It is a host plant for eastern black swallowtail caterpillars and many butterflies and adult bees and beneficial insects utilize the flower nectar.” So, it appears to be at least better than mowed lawn.

Back out on the water, another heron got into trouble when it landed on a log already occupied by a mallard hen and her ducklings. This picture from across the river is terrible, but if you zoom in or squint real good you can make out the hen just to the right of center as she tells the heron to back off.

The scene was a lot more tranquil down river, where a monarch caterpillar was slowly turning milkweed into a butterfly, and little green balls of frass.

I could hear another pair of herons getting into it even farther downstream, but that was far enough away that this wood duck hen and her ducklings didn’t even put their second foot down.

I was a little bummed that I didn’t find yet another new shorebird paying us a visit, but our first hooded merganser after the breeding season, made up for that. We haven’t seen them since April. “Welcome back, Sweetheart!”

I see that we currently have a 71% chance of thunderstorms for 7am tomorrow morning and 52% chance of scattered storms at 8, so who knows. If it is not actually storming at the time, I’ll be at the beer garden parking lot for our weekly wildlife walk. Consult your favorite weather source in the morning and come on out, if you dare. My phone number is hidden in the text of that page, so you can text me if you want to be sure. Maybe I’ll see you there.

Wrapping up a week in Waukesha…

It was another great day at the Retzer Nature Center and one more great day of class in their Master Naturalist Program. We got an excellent guided tour of the Waukesha Clean Water Plant in the morning and visited Carroll University’s Howard T. Greene Scientific Study and Conservation Area to investigate life in the Genesee Creek after lunch.

The pretties sight I saw today was this darling Appalachian brown butterfly (Lethe appalachia) beside the Genesee Creek, and yet another first for me.

Tomorrow morning, we get to wrap up class, and tomorrow afternoon, I finally get to go home. Yay!

More faces familiar and new…

We had another cool start to the day at the Retzer Nature Center, out here in Waukesha County, but the winds were light, the sky was clear, and the smoke was still gone, so it was a very nice morning.

This hairy woodpecker is a familiar face, of course, but he posed so nicely in the sun in front of a clean and dark background that I figured one more look can’t hurt. Right?

When I first saw this butterfly, I figured it was a black swallowtail, which we’ve already seen this summer, but once I gave the picture a closer look, I can see that it is instead our first tiger swallowtail of the summer and a dark morph, to boot. Note how it has a much planer pattern of dots at the trailing edge of its top wing than the black swallowtail.

As with the hairy woodpecker above, this black-capped chickadee gave me a pose I just couldn’t refuse.

As with the swallowtail above, I figured this shy butterfly was one we’d seen before, perhaps a wood-nymph or wood satyr, but I was mistaken once again. This one turns out to be our very first northern pearly-eye (Lethe anthedon). What a beauty, eh?

Finally, I’ve shown you plenty of eastern cottontails already, but I’ve never seen one quite so comfortable as this lazy bones.

We’re having a little group birding tomorrow morning before class, so hopefully more sets of eyes will turn up something as cool as the yellow-billed cuckoo from yesterday. Wish us luck!

Retzer delivers again…

It was a big day at Retzer today. The first surprise came early this morning when temps were in the low 50s as I hopped on my bike soon after sunrise, and I was thankful that it was a bit warmer when I headed home just before sunset this evening.

In the time I had before class started, I was thrilled to spot the first raptor I’ve seen at Retzer, this gorgeous kestrel on the hunt over their fabulous prairie. Yes, we did just see a pair in Estabrook, but this one is closer and against a prettier sky.

In the afternoon, we took a short field trip to go look for dragonflies, and I did spot a couple, but the big surprise was when one of my classmates noticed this yellow-billed cuckoo along the way. I know we just saw one in Estabrook, but this is only my third sighting, so bear with me.

Finally, we also went out looking for bumble bees, and I saw plenty of those, too, but the big treat for me was spotting this familiar looking creature. If you look closely, however, you might notice that instead of the alternating stripes of yellow and black that we just saw on a snowberry clearwing, this moth is darker with bands of olive green, tan, and burgundy, and that’s because this one is our very first hummingbird clearwing (Hemaris thysbe). Yippee! At long last, something we haven’t just seen at Estabrook!

Okay, now it’s crazy late, and I can’t wait to see what I find next at Retzer, so I want to get up early again tomorrow, and I’d better put this in the mail and get to bed ASAP.

UWM Waukesha Field Station!

The smoke was gone again, and it was a great day in Waukesha County. As was the case yesterday, I got to spend a couple hours at the Retzer Nature Center before class started, and this little cutie, a female common yellowthroat, came out to say “hi” as I paid a visit to Brown’s Fen.

Once class started, we headed out to visit the UWM Waukesha Field Station to investigate the fabulous Marlin Johnson Prairie, and that’s where I saw my first ever blue dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis). Sweet!

Finally, after we returned to Retzer and were heading back into the building to wrap up our day, I was able to capture my first flying snowberry clearwing image of the year. The flower it was sipping from was swaying in the breeze pretty good, however, so this isn’t my best clearwing picture, but now that they are out and about, a have a hope of coming up with a better one for you soon.

We’re supposed to enjoy dinner together after class tomorrow, so I don’t know when, if ever, I’ll get a chance to show you any new pictures, but if one shows up, I’ll be sure to take it.

Back at Retzer again…

As I mentioned yesterday, I was at the Retzer Nature Center all day for the first installment of their master naturalist training, but class didn’t start until 9am, so I had plenty of time before then to look around.

One sight I did glimpse on my previous visit, and failed to capture on film, was a thirteen-lined ground squirrel, but I was luckier today, so here you go. This one appeared to be lining its nest with a mouthful of fresh straw.

There were plenty of birds, but the one I haven’t been able to show you in a while was this clay-colored sparrow.

If you’re wondering how it might be possible to tell this particular sparrow from all the others, wait till you hear its song.

Finally, it’s late, it’s been a long day, and I’ve gotta wrap this up earlier than usual, so here’s a butterfly that we’ve seen before, but not yet in Estabrook and not yet this year: a common wood-nymph.

I didn’t get kicked out yet, so I’ll be back in class again tomorrow, and if today was any indication, I expect that it will be fun and informative. Since I’ll be there anyway, I’ll also try to get you some more pictures.

A whole lot of feathers a-flappin’…

The wildfire smoke was back in Estabrook Park, but it wasn’t as thick as it was a few days ago, and the temps were nice and cool, so I guess we could call it a fair-to-midlin’ morning. I can’t say for sure what might have caused it, and it could be just a big coincidence, but the birds were a bit riled up today.

There were a pair of osprey over the river by the islands, and one of them seemed as though it could be a hungry fledgling, based on how it cried and cried. Every once in a while, it also flapped its wings, as if the crying wasn’t doing the job on its own. I did not see that cause a fish to be delivered either, but that could just be part of the weaning process.

The solitary sandpiper is still with us, and today was bath day. I’ve had the privilege of watching quite a few birds bathe, and it usually involves some thrashing in the water, but this bird took it to a new level that also included darting around.

The big show, however, came a little farther upstream. I couldn’t really tell who was the aggressor in the situation, but I got to watch a pair of kestrels get into it with a quartet of crows over the old candy factory building on Port Washington Road. Here’s the nicest shot I could get of a kestrel from over 100 yards away.

And here’s the best image of the altercation in action.

The show went on for a while, but once it eventually petered out, I hiked over to the meadow to look for interesting or pretty insects, and while I was there, I could hear a distinct call from up on the bluff. Better yet, it wasn’t a “once-and-done” call, so I headed out to see if I could find the source. Well, it took a while and a bit of luck, but the shy little lurker eventually did show its face, and it turns out to be only our second yellow-billed cuckoo ever. “Woo hoo, welcome back, and thanks for letting me know you’re in town!”

Finally, we also have another first-of-the-year sighting in the butterfly department. This is a banded hairstreak, but it looks a little worse for the wear compared to the last one we saw just about a year ago.

I won’t be able to join you for our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning because I’m heading out to Retzer for a week of master naturalist training. My current plan is to take pictures in the morning, before class starts, attend class all day, and then write up a post after class. We’ll soon see how that goes. Wish me luck!

A pause after the smoke…

The wildfire smoke has pretty much cleared out, at least for now, and it was a nice morning for a walk in Estabrook Park. The critters that live there, however, seemed to be not really in the mood for pictures, but I tried my best, and I did get a couple.

I watched this great blue heron catch a couple of fish in short order, so perhaps that’s why it was more willing than the others to put up with me spectating from the riverbank.

Our pectoral sandpiper has moved on already, which isn’t too surprising given how far it still has to go, but the solitary sandpiper, which only has to get to the Gulf of Mexico, was still with us.

I didn’t see any notable mammals today, but this red squirrel gave me a very nice pose yesterday.

I was surprised to discover that I haven’t shown you a common whitetail dragonfly yet this year, given that I see them about as much as any of the others, and they are very good at posing for the camera, so here you go.

This great black digger wasp, on the other hand, is a little trickier to catch sitting still, and that might explain why I haven’t shown you one since 2020.

Finally, I counted at least four different common buckeyes this morning, each with different signs of wear on their wings, and this one looked the freshest.

I see that the temperatures are forecast to be back in the 60s tomorrow morning, after starting today at 81°F, so that will be a very pleasant change of pace, and I can’t wait to see how the denizens of Estabrook react to that, if at all.

Some pretty sights despite the smoke…

The wildfire smoke didn’t clear out overnight as much as I had hoped, but the air quality index was back down into the 300s by sunrise this morning, and it was light enough to venture out about 15 minutes earlier than yesterday, so that’s some progress anyway.

My reward for those extra 15 minutes was arriving at the underpass just in time to catch this worried-looking little masked bandit hoping to emerge from the storm drain. I took a couple of quick shots and then got out of its way.

There are still rough-winged swallow fledglings crying to be fed in the trees on and around the upstream island, and this youngster really let me have a nice portrait while it waited for its food to arrive.

The song sparrows have been singing all summer but have mostly been keeping out of sight lately, so it was a treat to catch one out in the open for a change. Perhaps this is also a fledgling who was more interested in when the next morsel will be delivered than it was worried about me.

The big surprise of the day, however, was seeing a pectoral sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) in Estabrook Park for only the second time ever, and managing to get a picture of the well-camouflaged little sweet pea this time. It’s traveling from the far northern reaches of Canada all the way to South America, so here’s a hearty “Welcome to Estabrook, Darling! Stay a minute, if you can.”

When I arrived, it was just foraging a little, preening a little, and generally hanging out on the exposed river bottom between the islands along with the solitary sandpiper, a couple of spotted sandpipers, and a trio of killdeer. That patch of mud and rocks is really turning into quite the shorebird rest stop. Outstanding!

The butterflies were staying out of sight today, but the widow skimmer dragonflies were patrolling the weed patch beside the soccer fields as usual, and here’s a female posing nicely.

Finally, if you squint real good, you can just make out the white crescent on the hind wing of this backlight butterfly photo from Wednesday, which makes it our first eastern comma of the year. I did try to sneak around to the other side for a nicer picture, but the trail was narrow there, so I didn’t have any luck with that. Next time!

We’re forecast to have a good breeze out of the west tomorrow morning, so maybe we’ll get a break from the smoke. Time’ll tell.