Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

Right on schedule…

It was a classic first full morning of astronomical spring in Estabrook Park with no sign of the warmth and sunshine that are forecast to blow in by this afternoon.

The first pleasant surprise of the morning was spotting this little cutie, our first pied-billed grebe of the year, on the river below the pair of radio towers over the far riverbank. “Welcome back, Sweetie!”

By happy coincidence, the horned grebe was still on the river around the islands above the falls, so today is the first time I’ve ever seen two different species of grebe in the park on the same day. Golly gee willikers!

Meanwhile, several of the winter waterfowl are still here, and we had one goldeneye drake, …

a couple of red-breasted merganser drakes, …

and a common merganser hen with a couple of drakes. We’d better enjoy them before they’ve all flown north for the summer.

I didn’t see the wood ducks at the pond today, but I’m sure we will see them again soon. Instead, the big news there was this gander chasing all other geese away while keeping a watch full eye on …

his goose, who has started tending her nest on the island. Hip hip hooray!

Despite the recent rollercoaster of Wisconsin spring weather, she’s right on schedule, and this morning is within a day of her average start date, based on the extensive data I’ve collected so far. We might expect to see goslings in 35 – 40 days, depending on exactly how many eggs she lays (4 to 9), the rate at which she lays them (1 every 1 or 2 days), and how warm she can keep them once she has laid them all (25 – 30 days).

How’s this for a warm welcome home?

Man, by the looks of things in Estabrook Park this morning, those of you who live around here must have really had some weather while Anne and I were galivanting around Europe. Trees are down and there’s snow on the ground, but spring is back again, and birds are really on the move.

The first big treat for me was not only seeing this secretive character, an American woodcock (Scolopax minor), but actually capturing an image of one on film for my very first time. Woo-hoo!

And then the treats just kept coming. Here’s our first horned grebe of the year. It sure isn’t as fancy as the one we saw last year, but it’s only the third one I’ve ever seen in Estabrook, so hooray!

In the water around the grebe, there were Canada geese and mallards, of course, but also common mergansers, a red-breasted merganser, and a coot, all of which we’ve already seen this year. The big surprise was a pair of blue-winged teals, another first for the year, and here’s the drake giving us his best show. Outstanding!

Meanwhile, the parade of newcomers continued back on shore with our first brown creeper of the year. Yippee!

Right below the creeper, a quartet of golden-crowned kinglets also foraged frantically for calories to ingest. Yeehaw!

Finally, I stopped by the pond, and look who had just arrived to check out the newly installed nesting boxes. Our first pair of wood ducks of the year. Hallelujah!

I couldn’t have cooked up a better welcome home if I tried.

Just one squirrel before I sleep.

As I mentioned already, our flight leaves before sunrise, so I’ve gotta get to sleep, but before I do, here’s a little cutie we saw on our hike up to Vaduz Castle overlooking the city yesterday. Despite the dark complexion, my sources assure me that this is a Eurasian red squirrel, like the one we just saw in Kraków last June. I read that “there are 23 recognized subspecies of the red squirrel,” and that probably explains the variation.

Okay. Now it is time for the sleeping.

A fine Liechtensteiner auf Wiedersehen!

Anne and I did ride trains clear across Switzerland today, which was very scenic, but before we left Vaduz this morning, I had time for one last look around. Skies were clear, for a change, so it was a little chilly, but the birds seemed undeterred.

As I hiked towards the Rhine River, I spotted this little shape at the top of a tree, and I could see the yellow once I zoomed in, and my first thought was “Yellowhammer!,” but yellowhammers don’t have white stripes down their side. The solution to this quandary, which seems obvious in hindsight, is that this is our first European serin (Serinus serinus), instead. How ’bout that?!?

Closer to the ground, I spotted a face that I know pretty well by now, a male black redstart, of which we saw plenty in the Balkans last year.

When I finally reached the Rhine, I was thrilled to see more white-throated dippers. Even better, I watched in amazement as one flew up to the bottom of the old-timey, wooden, covered bridge that crosses into Switzerland there. I read now that they build elaborate, domed nests under bridges, but this bridge is quite long, and I didn’t have much of a view out to their nesting site. Oh well. Next time, right?

Meanwhile, the real yellowhammers were up and at it again this morning, and here’s one giving us a much nicer look than yesterday.

Yellow Hammer perched over levee along Rhine River outside Vaduz

The stonechats were also quite active along the riverbank, and this one gave us another nice look, if not necessarily better than the look we got yesterday. Good try, though.

Finally, the huge treat of the morning came as I was walking back toward town. I’ve been seeing quite a few red kites (Milvus milvus) here, which I have seen before but never managed to capture on film in any way worthy of showing you, until now. These two perched in the middle of a small field, and I almost missed them, but they somehow caught my eye, thank goodness. Even better, they seemed quite comfortable there and let me take all the pictures I wanted, so long as I stayed on the pavement. What magnificent creatures, eh?

A pair of Red Kites perched over farm field outside of Vaduz

I did keep up my end of the bargain, but they eventually took off anyway, and I hope it was simply time to find some breakfast. Nevertheless, it did give me a chance to capture the white patches under their wings and their distinctive forked tail.

Our flight leaves before sunrise tomorrow morning, so I certainly won’t have a chance to look for more wildlife, but I still have some recent pictures in my back pocket, so I’ll post something to tide you over until I can get back into Estabrook.

Lots of little surprises…

I didn’t give you much to go on in my last post, other than “back to the Alps”, so if you guessed “it’s gotta be Liechtenstein,” then you should definitely buy a lottery ticket. At just 62 square miles, it’s smaller than Washington, D.C., so you shouldn’t be too surprised to learn that neither Anne nor I have ever visited, and since we were already in the neighborhood, we thought we’d finally give it a try.

We’re staying in the capital, Vaduz, which has fewer than 6,000 residents, so it’s a pretty short walk to get “out into the countryside,” and the weather this morning was cool and partly cloudy, but not windy or rainy, so I was optimistic. As you will see, Liechtenstein did not disappoint.

The Rhine River flows through the valley, just over a kilometer west of our hotel, and it was chock full of little birds this morning. I saw white wagtails, grey wagtails, black redstarts, and this little cutie, only our second water pipit ever.

Another bird that seemed drawn to the stones that make up the river bottom was this gorgeous European stonechat, which we’ve also only seen once before, but not quite as nicely as this.

European Stonechat beside Rhine River outside Vaduz

Almost as soon as I spotted the first stonechat, and before I even figured out what it was, I heard an incessant call from the top of the levee behind me, and it turned out to be from our very first yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella). I had heard the call before, when we were waiting for hours to cross the boarding from Poland into Ukraine last June, but I was never able to get eyes on that one, and roaming into the woods was frowned upon at the time, so it sure was great to finally see the little stinker today.

Lastly, the Rhine is not the only waterway in Vaduz. Since they built such huge levees to stop the Rhine from flooding the valley, they had to build a canal, the “Liechtenstein inland canal,” that runs parallel to the Rhine to collect water from all the tributaries that used to flow into the Rhine.

There’s still plenty of snow on the mountains that surround the valley, so water in the canal was flowing pretty good this morning, and there are a few rocks sticking out, which made me think of “dippers!” Well, as luck would have it, my intuition was pretty spot on, this one time, and I didn’t have to follow the canal very far to find this stunning creature, our very first white-throated dipper (Cinclus cinclus). Hot diggity-dog!

White-throated Dipper in stream that flows into Rhine River from Vaduz

I see that there are only five species in the genus Cinclus, which means we have only three more dippers to go! Woo hoo!

Anyway, Anne and I start our trek home tomorrow, first with a bus ride down to Sargans, Switzerland, then with a train back to Geneva, and eventually a flight back to Chicago. Wish us luck!

Back to the Alps…

After Metz, we visited Strasbourg for about 24 hours, which was fabulous, but we were in the center of a large city, so I failed to capture any wildlife pictures. 😦 Then we hopped on a train again this morning and took it back south to the Alps, where I have a hope of getting some nice pictures for you tomorrow. Until then, here are a few more sights from Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

Mute swans seemed to be pretty common in the area, and at Chillon Castle, this one minding her nest gave us one clue as to why.

I already showed you one rook that we saw on its nest as we walked toward the castle, and here it is again but now getting some attention from her mate as we walked back toward the train station.

The biggest surprise, for me at least, was finding lizards “at the foot of the Alps,” and my sources suggest that this is a common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis). It appears to be quite comfortable in Europe.

In addition to rooks, there are plenty of crows here, as well, specifically carrion crows, and here’s one giving me a forlorn look, for reasons I do not know. “Buck up, Kiddo! You’re living in the Swiss Riviera. That can’t be so bad, can it?”

Finally, in addition to the black-headed gull I already showed you, there were also yellow-legged gulls, and here’s a trio discussing something, maybe the weather, with great enthusiasm. It was a beautiful afternoon.

More Metz…

As I mentioned yesterday, we’re traveling again today, so I won’t have much time to go looking for new wildlife, and let me show you a little more of what I saw yesterday here along the river in Metz, just in case.

There’s a low spillway right in front of our hotel, where I showed you the goslings yesterday, and it was popular with all kinds of birds. Here’s a darling grey wagtail who had been foraging there with her partner.

Meanwhile, here’s a Eurasian kestrel that was hunting overhead. They seem a little more comfortable with the “built environment” than their American counterparts, in my experience.

Back at the spillway, another bird that enjoyed foraging on it was this common moorhen, which I read is just the European version of the common gallinule we just saw in Nicaragua.

The most likely reason the robin I showed you yesterday was posing so nicely for us is that he was busy singing, and here he is mid-chorus.

Now that I’ve delved into second looks, here’s the grey heron before it spotted that fish at the side of the river.

This is not the same blue tit as yesterday, and that’s mostly because they were all too busy foraging to sit still for more than a second.

Finally, since we’re not going to see goslings in Estabrook for a while, here’s one more look at the Egyptian goose goslings on that spillway. In fact, the river is up a bit since yesterday, perhaps due to all the rain we’ve been enjoying, so the spillway is little more than a ripple in the river, and I doubt I’ll even get a glimpse of goslings today.

Meet some of the birds of Metz…

After a nice, long, and fast train ride through France, we arrived in Metz, on “the banks of the Moselle and the Seille rivers,” yesterday afternoon. Even better, nearly as soon as we checked into our hotel room, I could see goslings out the window! How’s that for a warm welcome?

These happen to be Egyptian goose goslings, which seem to arrive early, long-time readers may recall, and here’s one with Mom, who was keeping a watchful eye on me.

This morning, the rain, which had been falling since we switched trains in Paris yesterday, had finally quit, and I got out for a nice long walk. It was long enough, in fact, that a Eurasian blue tit finally relented and let me sneak a picture.

Similarly, a European robin, which I have been hearing ever since I landed in Geneva, also gave in and even allowed a portrait.

The surprise of the morning was catching a glimpse of this long-tailed tit, who was far too busy foraging for me to slow my shutter down enough for a portrait in the low morning light.

Finally, just as I was nearly back at the hotel and about to go in to join Anne for breakfast, this grey heron snatched its own breakfast right out of the river.

Tomorrow, we’re back on the train again, but I should be able to send you some pictures at some point, so watch this space.

We all came out to Montreux…

It really is right on the Lake Geneva shoreline, and there were no fires today, thank goodness, but that song is seriously stuck in my head right now.

Since we’re sitting in a train for much of today, here are some pictures from our excursion to the other end of Lake Geneva yesterday afternoon. Nearly as soon as we reached the aforementioned shoreline, look who was there to greet us, the fanciest great cormorant I have yet to see.

From Montreux, we hiked along the water to Chillon Castle, and we walked right under this rook’s actual rookery on the way. Besides the nest in the bottom of the picture, there were about another half dozen in the top of that tree along with about a dozen other rooks.

Closer to the water, here’s a pretty little grey wagtail.

There were a few vineyards that came right down to the path along the water, and they were popular with the common chaffinches, of which here is one.

Finally, here’s a black-headed gull out on the water.

Tomorrow morning, I hope to have a nice outing in or around Metz, so wish me luck!

Greetings from Switzerland!

If you recognized the tufted duck in yesterday’s post and then guessed “Europe,” you were correct! Please wait six to eight weeks for your prize to arrive.

In any case, the particular spot in Europe to which Anne has dragged me this time is Geneva, Switzerland, and I am sad to say that I have yet to see a tufted duck. Instead, check out this handsome drake, my very first red-crested pochard (Netta rufina). Yowzah, eh? There were also a few mallards and a bunch of common mergansers on Lake Geneva, but I was a little surprised that this was the only other “duck” I’ve seen so far.

There was also this one common sandpiper, …

a female blackbird, …

a treecreeper, but I’m not sure yet if it’s of the short-toed or Eurasian variety, …

and a whole bunch of great crested grebes. Long-time readers should recognize these last four from my time in South Holland.

Tomorrow we’ll take the train up to Metz, France to meet some relatives. I’ve never been there, but I bet it’ll be nice, and if I find anything pretty or interesting, I’ll be sure to let you know.