The air was cool and still early this morning, but the skies were a bit cloudy, so I went for a bike ride first, and I didn’t get into Estabrook till about 10am. Happily, most of the critters were still out and about, and here’s a great blue heron mid-preen on a perch over the pond.

Here’s a young wood duck mid-nap and closer to the water.

On the river at the north end, I was thrilled to catch a mink again, and this time it was scampering toward shore with a huge crayfish in its jaws.

None of the many birds out on the water seemed to pay the mink any mind, and here’s another greater lesser yellowlegs just going about its business.

The patch of flowers, installed after the removal of Estabrook dam, is in full bloom now, and I finally caught a monarch visiting a purple cone flower.

Just a bit south of there, on the edge of the meadow, there appeared to be a family of indigo buntings foraging near the ground, and the bright blue one kept mostly out of sight, but here’s a young one who preferred to sit on the branch, flutter its wings, and call to be fed.

On my walk back south along the river, a chipmunk challenged me to a staring contest, and it won, of course, because I can’t take a picture without blinking.

Finally, I checked the musk thistle, which still has a few blossoms that have not yet gone to seed, beside the soccer fields at the south end, and there were no butterflies today, but here are two bumblebees sharing one blossom.

The pristine weather is back, so the sky was blue, the temps were mild, and the breeze was light this morning in Estabrook Park. The cherry on top, at least for me, was seeing this critter for only the second time in the park, and for the first time with my camera. In case you don’t recognize it from all the hoopla around February 2, that’s a groundhog, aka woodchuck (Marmota monax), and it appeared to be on the hunt for leafy greens this morning, until it spotted me.

I was surprised to read that “the name woodchuck is unrelated to wood or chucking.” Instead “it stems from an Algonquian (possibly Narragansett) name for the animal, wuchak.” Ha! Also, “groundhogs can climb trees to escape predators.” Fortunately, that was not necessary this morning.

The wood ducks continue to appear healthy on the pond, and I believe this is the remaining brother and sister pair from the first batch of ducklings.

A great blue heron was keeping watch from a perch high over the island.

On the river, a spotted sandpiper was taking a break from foraging for breakfast on this pile of water plants collected on driftwood just above the falls.

The mallard ducklings are also looking healthy and nearly all grownup. Can you even spot the mom? (I think she’s third in line, based on the glimpse of her blue speculum feathers.)

And it is difficult to distinguish the Canada goose goslings from the adults anymore.

On my way back south along the river, I came across a family of blue jays foraging in the bushes together, and I suspect this is a youngster, despite its adult plumage, based solely on the fact that it let me get this picture. Newbie!

At the south end, I checked the wildflowers beside the soccer field for butterflies, but I came up empty this time. Instead, here’s a house wren on one of the trees that also grow there, who was too busy preening to bolt out of sight.

Finally, after my visit to the park, I hustled up to the Shorewood fitness center to beat the lunchtime crowd, and as I approached the entrance, I spotted our first swallowtail of the season as she was visiting the flowers in the bioswales installed there to catch rain runoff from the parking lot. I only had my phone with me at the time, but I managed to get a couple pictures sufficient to identify her as a female (eastern) black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes).

She kept fluttering her forewings as she sipped, perhaps as a defensive mechanism, which didn’t help me one bit, but her hindwings, which have the prettier pattern, were still, at least in this image.

The weather is pretty nice today, but the blush was off the rose a bit this morning, and it was a bit breezy and cloudy in Estabrook Park.

The surprise recurring guest star today was this osprey appearing to be drying off after a dip.

By the river at the north end, this splendid and very fresh-looking question mark butterfly was soaking up some sun.

I didn’t get any little-bird pictures today, so here’s a goldfinch feasting on thistle blossoms gone to seed beside the soccer fields on Tuesday.

I did see plenty of bugs, and here are a pair of damselflies, probably stream bluets (Enallagma exsulans) given the blue tip of her abdomen, working hard to make more. When I arrived, he (the mostly blue one) had a good grip on her (the mostly green one), but it took her quite a few tries to close the loop. She kept getting hung up on the edge of the leaf, but she persevered and eventually prevailed. Yay!

I did see a couple of great blue herons today, but none were as photogenically posed as this one from Monday afternoon.

I saw wood ducks on the pond this morning, but there was also a mink about, whom I failed to capture on film, so the wood ducks were all perched out of the water and in the shade against the eastern shore. Instead, here are the ducklings nice and cozy in the warm morning sun yesterday.

I saw a few monarchs flitting about, but none parked for me, let alone on musk thistle, so here’s a red admiral, who was willing to show us both inside and outside, from Tuesday.

Here you can see it is missing a couple of chunks, but nowhere close to the tattered shape of the red-spotted purple from yesterday.

The current stretch of stupendous weather continues in Estabrook Park, but after all the excitement of yesterday, the critters seemed to be taking things down a notch this morning. I did see, however, my first red-spotted purple butterfly (Limenitis arthemis) of the season, though this one looks seriously roughed up.

I thought maybe it had overwintered, as mourning cloaks do, or migrated up from the south, as monarchs do, but no. They hibernate here as caterpillars, and “life as an adult lasts approximately 6-14 days,” so it seems that this pour thing has just had a really rough 6-14 days.

The wood duck ducklings on the pond looked to be all ready for nap time.

And the young hooded merganser looked about ready to join them.

Meanwhile, the road-dusters, aka Carolina locust (Dissosteira carolina), have returned, and you can expect to watch them flash their dark wings with a light border as they flit a few yards ahead of you on any dusty road.

Things were quiet at the north end. There was no flock of herons, egrets, nor new sandpipers. Instead, here’s a heron with a crayfish from yesterday, …

And the egret with another little fish, also from yesterday.

This catbird serenaded me while I was looking for more butterflies on the wildflowers beside the soccer fields, and when I went to take its picture, it decided also to puff up its feathers, seemingly for a sun bath. You can just make out the small cinnamon patch under its tail that they usually keep well hidden.

Finally, monarchs continue to visit musk thistles, and I continue to find them irresistible.

Since I didn’t get into Estabrook yesterday morning, I gave it a shot yesterday afternoon. At the south end, I was greeted by one of the young wrens still perched and calling as though it is gonna get fed. Maybe it is, but neither Mom nor Dad came through with the goods during our photo session this time.

At the river, I was stunned to count six (6!) great blue herons all in sight at once. They were spread out, and here are the two closest I could find. I wonder if fledglings aren’t being shown where all that fish has been coming from over the past few weeks.

By the time I got to the north end, there were more herons, although some or all of them could have been birds I had already seen. In any case, one of them appeared to be in a courting mood, …

but none of the others seemed to reciprocate. I don’t believe I’ve seen this behavior before, by which I mean the great blue heron courtship display, not the subsequent rejection.

Anyway, we had yet another beautiful morning today, and my zoom call wasn’t until 10am, so I had time for another visit. I approached the pond from the east for a change to take advantage of the morning sunlight, and here’s one of the younger wood duck ducklings on the pond starting to look pretty grown up.

Right behind the duckling, I was thrilled to find an immature or female hooded merganser also trying to catch some zzzzs. I had spotted it on the pond yesterday, but the light was so much nicer today.

Up ahead, I saw a blue heron fishing just off the west shore, but as I made my way around in hopes of catching it in nice light as it caught a fish, look who I saw skulking up the dark side of the island. We haven’t seen raccoons on the island since 2021.

Before I could turn my attention back to the heron, a second one arrived, which started a brief but noisy tussle, and then they both flew off. Oh well.

On my hike across the baseball field to the river, I spotted this little cutie by the beer garden chewing on something tasty. At first it was on the pavement, and I figured maybe its cuteness would overcome the bland pavement background, but then it took off and perched on this branch for me instead. Sweet!

At the north end, there were several herons again, but so was the egret, and who knows how long it will stick around, so here’s yet another egret picture. This time it’s having some salad with its fish.

As I was scanning the sand bars for killdeer, sandpipers, and maybe a yellowlegs, I spotted this sandpiper-looking bird, but it was only half the size of the spotted sandpipers we usually see or the solitary sandpipers we sometimes see. I believe that is because it is a least sandpiper (Calidris minutilla), and the first one I’ve ever seen.

Finally, for some color, the musk thistle beside the soccer fields are still in bloom, and the monarchs are still visiting them, so here you go.

It is a picture-perfect Monday morning, but I’ve got an 8am online meeting, so I’ll have to wait until later today to visit Estabrook Park. In the meantime, recent days have been so fruitful that I’ve accumulated a few extra pictures that I hope will tide you over.

The sulphurs have been plentiful lately, but not quite so much as the whites, and they are a lot shyer, so here finally is a clouded sulphur butterfly on Canada thistle from Friday.

Here’s a look at the back side of that Cooper’s hawk that visited the pond on Saturday. I read that the red eyes indicate maturity, so this one appears to have been around the block once or twice.

We’ve had a pair of female or juvenile hooded mergansers visiting on the river, but they keep near the far shore, so I haven’t been able to get a portrait. Instead, here’s one of the little cuties drying off amongst the mallards and Canada geese on Saturday.

Here’s a second look at the visiting yellowlegs, also on Saturday, and in water deep enough to hide its long yellow legs.

Here’s a green heron showing us just how long its neck can get.

Here’s a family of mallards with ducklings looking nearly all grown up, but not quite.

Here’s a young robin stretching one of its newly functional wings.

Finally, here’s one more monarch picture, this time on Canada thistle.

I almost didn’t go out this morning. I was on a bike ride on the Oak Leaf trail yesterday when the Canada wildfire smoke rolled in, and at 7:30 this morning, two full hours after sunrise, I had to turn on a light to read the paper. Then my friend, Lisa, texted about a turtle trying to cross the road from the pond, and a good breeze out of the west soon cleared the skies, so I couldn’t resist.

At first, it was just another beautiful morning for a walk in the park, but I wasn’t getting many pictures. Oh, sure, the indigo bunting was in his usual spot at the south end, and the sky behind him was nearly the same color, …

the great egret was back, after a brief absence, …

and even the osprey, whom we haven’t seen in a while, did a flyby, …

but the main event, at least for me, occurred north of the northern island as I was scanning the sandbars for the yellowlegs. It started with this very fresh-looking mourning cloak, who kept its wings closed at first, …

but then relaxed enough to open them up for us. Wow!

Then, nearly in the same spot, this gorgeous question mark (yes, that’s its real name) parked on an exposed slab of the Milwaukee formation to soak up some sun. They are very similar to the eastern comma, which we’ve seen already this season, but I don’t see them nearly as often. Sadly, this one did not give me an opportunity to capture its namesake punctuation.

Then the magic really started when this beauty flew in, perhaps to sip moisture from the river mud while also soaking up some sun. It took a while to settle down, and I thought I had lost it a couple of times, but then it finally parked and let me take this portrait. I didn’t think I had ever seen one before, and sure enough, from the comfort of my dining room table, I looked it up to find that it is our very first hackberry emperor (Asterocampa celtis). I read that they are so-named because the common hackberry tree (Celtis occidentalis) “is the only host plant” and “food source for [its] larvae.”

As if three beautiful butterflies, including a brand-new species to us, were not enough, the mostly-white argillaceous dolomite also attracted this stunner, our very first eastern pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis) and “arguably the most aggressive of the dragonflies that live in the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area!”

Oh, and speaking of dragonflies, one of the pictures from yesterday that I couldn’t squeeze into the post was this male widow skimmer. We’ve seen females pretty regularly, but this is only the second male I’ve managed to get on film.

Okay, that’s probably enough bugs for one day for some readers, so let’s wrap this up with a nice portrait of an eclipse male wood duck on a branch over the pond from yesterday.

I had plenty of pictures left over from yesterday, and dear friends kept me up past my bedtime last evening with good food and great company, so I contemplated not visiting Estabrook Park this morning. When I saw the beautiful blue sky, however, I just couldn’t pass it up, so out the door I went, and thank goodness I did!

I hadn’t even gotten to the patch of wildflowers at the west edge of the soccer fields when I was greeted by this monarch butterfly sipping from American basswood tree blossoms.

When I finally did reach the patch of flowers, I found an American goldfinch feasting on Canada thistle blossoms that have gone to seed. Get a load of that gorgeous morning sun lighting up the scene.

Just a bit north of there, an American lady butterfly was soaking up some of that same sunlight.

Meanwhile, across the parkway, against the edge of the woods, and in the shade, a white-tailed buck was growing his antlers and trying to figure out what I was up to.

We had a surprise guest at the pond, this Cooper’s hawk checking out the breakfast menu.

The wood duck hen with her four remaining ducklings seemed less concerned that I would have expected, but maybe Coopers’ are too small for her to worry about.

On the river at the north end, the egret had finally moved on, but I watched a green heron catch itself a little fish and toss it back, right into its gullet, that is.

Higher above the river, a little squadron of rough-winged swallows was eating up the flying bugs, and here’s one on break for a moment.

Right below the swallow, a red admiral butterfly was preparing to open its wings to get itself some of that morning sun.

On my way back south, I hugged the river again, instead of taking the main path, which skirts around the east side of the bottom there, because I was surprised to see no killdeer on the river for the first time in weeks, and I thought I’d give them one more chance. Look who I saw instead! The return of “River Deer!” starring a buck with one antler and a doe.

I also saw the yellowlegs from yesterday, so I backtracked a bit to see if I could get a better picture, without any luck. On my second trip back south, I did take the main path, and I was stunned to spot a flower that I had never noticed before: a Michigan lily (Lilium michiganense). The blossom is similar to the common ditch lily, orange daylily, or tiger daylily (Hemerocallis fulva), an import from Asia, but is smaller and native, and the leaves are completely different. How could I have missed that all these years?

Finally, the monarch butterflies are everywhere now, and here’s another one feeding on a musk thistle blossom back beside the soccer fields at the south end.

I did visit Estabrook yesterday afternoon, but I didn’t get a lot of pictures, and I got home late, so I figured I just wait and include them in today’s post. This morning, I waited out the clouds and brief shower, so the sun was shining, and the sky was blue by the time I arrived.

In any case, I haven’t seen wood ducks on the river in a while, but I counted twelve on the pond yesterday and again today. The two remaining original ducklings are grown enough that it is not easy to single them out, but the four remaining from the second batch still look like ducklings and stick together, so they are pretty easy to spot. Here they are settling in for their late afternoon nap.

Meanwhile, herons are pretty easy to find on the river these days, and here’s a great blue, …

a green, …

and our surprise visitor, who was there yesterday and again this morning, the great egret.

It seems the fish are plentiful enough, if small.

But big enough to get excited about anyway, it would appear.

The Charadriiformes, specifically the waders, or shorebirds, depending upon which side of the pond you are on, also continue to be abundant. Here’s one of the many killdeer, and perhaps a young one based upon its apparent obliviousness to my proximity.

Here’s a spotted sandpiper, another youngster who has not yet grown its spots.

At first, I thought this was another sandpiper, perhaps a young solitary sandpiper, but no. Now that I can get a good look at it, I am thrilled to report that it is a “yellowlegs”, and of the two varieties, I’m gonna go with “greater” (Tringa melanoleuca). I’ve only seen them twice before, in May 2021, and then again in May 2022. The first time they were too far away to identify clearly, and the second time I went with “lesser,” so if the experts at ebird.org agree, this will be a completely new bird for me. “Woo Hoo, and welcome to Estabrook either way, Sweetie!”

Update: the experts at ebird.org did not agree and explained “the documentation … provided shows a Lesser Yellowlegs. The bill is straight and not very long. Just about as long as the depth of the head. Greater would be at least 1.5 times the depth of the head and slightly upturned”

Finally, while I was looking for butterflies on the blossoming thistles at the south end, I spotted these two monarchs doing their best to make more.

Lastly, someone was kind enough to leave me a fresh park beer by the falls, so thanks for that! It’s chilling in my fridge right now.

You may have noticed I skipped the park yesterday morning, so when I got a text message in the late afternoon about an egret on the river, I really couldn’t say that I’d already put in my time, so I hopped on my bike an rode up to the north end to see what I could see. Sure enough, I spotted the egret right away, but it was upriver, and I’d be shooting straight into the afternoon sun, so I hiked a bit farther north for a better shot. By the time I got back to the water, however, the egret was nowhere to be found. Dang! Instead, I could count five (5!) great blue herons fishing on the river, and here’s one of them enroute to a better spot.

As I continued searching, I finally found the egret again, but it had moved way downriver and over near the far shore, so I thought I’d try crossing over the Port Washington Road bridge to see if I could get any closer.

By the time I got to the bridge, however, the stinker had moved again, and I couldn’t find it anywhere. Instead, there was a cedar waxwing hunting bugs over the water just east of the bridge, and I caught it taking a short break on a branch in that sweet, sweet afternoon sun.

So, I turned around and dejectedly headed back south on the Estabrook Park side of the river. Before I rode back up to the road, however, I figured I’d give the river one more look, and look who I found, for the third time. I suspect the geese had urged it off the sandbar, and it retreated to a tree back on the near shore to preen. For an added bonus, there’s a kingfisher perched just above it.

In hopes of getting yet a better picture, I tried creeping out onto the rocks exposed by the low water. While I was there, the kingfisher caught a crayfish and perched on a low log at the edge of the island I was now approaching. I know I’ve seen mergansers and gulls with crayfish, but this might be my first picture of a kingfisher with a crayfish.

Also, a green heron flew up to a high perch over the island, perhaps to bask in the waning light.

And a killdeer stopped by looking worried, as usual.

But the egret was done with, or tired of, moving, kept its perch, and let me take this portrait. Ta da!

It’s a great egret (Ardea alba), to be precise, and only the third one I’ve seen in Estabrook, if I am remembering correctly. I saw one on the pond in 2020, and one hung out on the river for a day or two in 2021.

Anyway, on my way back home, I stopped by the pond to check on the wood ducks. The mom with the four remaining young ducklings was keeping watch while her charges rested. Here’s one at her foot.

And here are two more on a nearby log. The fourth was also there, but not as photogenic today as the other three.

I might have to visit Estabrook in the afternoon more often, eh?