It was a lovely morning in Estabrook Park, and it was also very quiet, but I’m not sure which conjunction should go where. I initially wrote that I didn’t see any new or surprising visitors, but I did see my first snowberry clearwing of the season. It was checking out a stand of milkweeds but was gone in a flash, and I failed to get a picture. Instead, the fishing birds showed more patience, so long as I didn’t try to get too close.

There was a pair of kingfishers on the pond, and I hoped to capture them both at once, but this female will have to do.

There was also a green heron, but I didn’t see it move.

The only one I saw catch anything, however, was this young great blue heron on the river.

“Shhh. Be vewy, vewy quiet“

Bingo!

Wait. What?

Ah ha! I thought it came up empty at first, until I zoomed in.

Compared to the fish we’ve seen them swallow, it’s gonna take a few of those to fill that gullet.

On my way to the pond this morning, I found this cutie vacuuming up the mulberries sprinkled all over the lawn under that tree.

And, as I approached the river at the far north end, I spotted this fledgling Baltimore oriole picking away at the mulberries still on the tree there. So, if you have a hankering for mulberries, which I can attest are quite delicious, now is the time to go get some.

Speaking of times that are now, the black raspberries are becoming ripe, too, and they also are a taste sensation.

Back to the critters, I spotted four (4!) belted kingfishers all fishing together, so it appears that the breeding pair on or near the northern island have two fledglings. Yay! Sadly, they were all too busy fishing to pose anywhere near me. Instead, here’s a green heron who has been fishing on foot recently in the shallow river water on the east side of the northern island.

On my way back south, I enjoyed the family-safe show these amorous, or just friendly, gray squirrels were putting on from a branch high above the far shore.

Finally, there’s a new blossom in the park, probably creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides), and these particular examples are from beside of the river trail down the bluff from the beer garden.

This will be a short report. The day is beautiful, and the park looks refreshed after all the rain we got yesterday afternoon, but the critters seemed to be going about their business with a renewed sense of urgency, so pictures were hard to come by.

Luckily, this catbird picked a nicely exposed and sunny spot, with a nice blue-sky background, to sing his song.

The first family of wood ducks on the pond, now nearly grown, were busy taking care of their feathers after breakfast.

The second family, however, was still busy foraging.

A great blue heron also picked a nice sunny spot, just off the northern island, to digest a gullet full of fish.

After a slow start, monarchs are everywhere now, and here’s one basking a bit, perhaps to get rid of the last of yesterday’s soaking.

Finally, the musk thistle at the west edge of the soccer fields are open for business, and one of the first customers is this eastern carpenter bee. I read that you can distinguish them from bumble bees by their shiny abdomens.

Well, it took me three tries, twice yesterday and once again this morning, to get some pictures worth showing, and here they finally are:

The wood duck hen on the pond, who started with ten ducklings just two weeks ago, is down to only four, and here they are all in a row. I also saw the hen who started with three ducklings at the beginning of June, and she still has two.

I am thrilled to report that we appear to have a recently fledged belted kingfisher on the river. I very seldomly see even two at a time, but here are three perched together, and the female on the far right looks like she’s still hoping to be fed by Mom or Dad.

Here’s a closer look at a female, and I can’t say for sure if she’s a fledgling or a parent, but the parents tend to resist letting me have a portrait like that.

Here’s a great blue heron over the pond early yesterday morning demonstrating maximal neck snakage.

And here’s one in flight over the river a little later that same morning with its neck uncharacteristically straight, as a crane would fly.

While out in Waterford with Anne’s family for the 4th, I took a walk around her folks’ place and saw a couple of sandhill cranes, but the sun was hot so the air was very wavy, and the birds were far away, so the pictures are terrible, even worse than the heron picture above. Instead, I was able to get nice and close to this female widow skimmer basking a bit in that same warm sun.

Meanwhile, there were a pair of red-tailed hawks soaring and calling overhead, and here’s one of them.

Back to this morning, I’ve completely lost track of all the mallard ducklings on the river, but here are a recent-looking trio strolling through the muck with their mom.

Then, as I was walking back south along the river, this red squirrel acted like it had never seen anything as strange as me before.

Finally, at the south end, at the west side of the soccer fields, where it is too wet to mow and the parks department lets a few flowers bloom, a stand of Canada thistle is attracting butterflies, and here’s a monarch sipping its fill of some sweet Canadian nectar.

Ah, that’s more like it! The smoke and humidity have moved on, and we had blue skies this morning like I haven’t seen in weeks. I was able to take advantage of it right away at the south end when a ruckus amongst the crows distracted this one enough from evading me for a moment.

The pond was as busy as ever this morning, and here’s a muskrat making a grocery run, …

and a great blue heron working to regain its balance.

But the wood duck hen and her young ducklings were tired enough to sleep through it all.

As I headed back towards the river, I heard an unfamiliar call from the tree right behind home plate, so I checked with merlin, who claimed it was from an orchard oriole, but we’ve only seen one once before in Estabrook, so I wanted visual confirmation to be sure. Well, the little stinker made me follow it through three additional trees before it finally settled down, but then it really put on a show.

At the crest of the bluff, by the beer garden, I was finally able to capture one of the many young grackles that have been foraging with their folks in the big outfield.

Back at the river, the Canada geese have returned from their brief absence, but I was more interested in this shot of a kingfisher perched over mallard ducklings and couldn’t believe my luck when a grackle photobombed the shot.

Back on land, I was looking for butterflies again, but this indigo bunting stole the show.

Finally, back at the far south end, I was looking for butterflies yet again, but house wrens were making a racket, and I was thrilled to get to see this scene. Here’s a fledgling waiting for its breakfast.

Here’s mom or dad delivering.

And then here they are telling me to get lost.

So, no new butterflies today, but here’s a glimpse of the top side of the wings of the first mystery butterfly from yesterday, and those white spots plus that red stripe make this a red admiral.

And here’s a glimpse of the top side of the wings of the second mystery butterfly from yesterday, and those black splotches on a red background, plus the bright white “c” in yesterday’s image, make this an eastern comma.

Lastly, here’s one more butterfly from yesterday, a dun skipper (Euphyes vestris), feeding on milkweed blossoms, along with an ant, and I believe this is the first one I’ve ever seen. Anyway, if you have ever noticed that milkweed tends to have ants on it and would like a short but fascinating read on the topic, try this one.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention that I heard my first cicadas singing this morning.

The clouds were thick again this morning, so I waited until 8am, at which time I figured I had as much light as I was going to get, so into the park I went.

The first treat for me was this perfect arrangement of wood ducks on a rock in the river.

Just upriver from the ducks, I found a trio of spotted sandpipers, and two of them managed to get in the same frame, at least for a moment.

A female belted kingfisher was perched over the far riverbank, but the river was pretty narrow at that point, so I was able to get a nice-enough portrait.

At the midpoint, where I would usually turn east to stop by the pond, I spotted an interesting critter out on the river, but it was pretty far off, and after an expedition to get a closer shot, I had two grocery bags full of left over fishing tackle and supplies, so I popped up the stairs by the southern playground just in time to spot these two in front of the maintenace building as they dashed for the woods along the Oak Leaf Trail. Ha!

The park was filling up with farmers’ market goers by then, so I went right back down to the river, and soon came across at least one and probably two recently fledged blue jays, still sporting some fuzzy baby feathers, who were insistently crying for more food.

At the southern island I spotted that interesting visitor again, and I got a better picture, but still not the best, so I continued to the north end. At the meadow just south of the old boat launch, the parks department has inexplicably resumed mowing the wild flowers, but not yet all of them, so I searched for butterflies and eventually decided to take pictures instead of the pollinators I could find, which happened to be bumblebees and here’s one on a crownvetch (Securigera varia) blossom.

After counting the killdeer and mallards on the river and being stunned to find not a single goose for the first time since I returned home in April, I came back south and look who I found in the grass. Do you recognize this one yet?

At the southern island again, the visitor was as shy as ever, but here it is, a juvenile or female hooded merganser, hanging with the mallards but not quite fitting in.

As I approached the south end, I came across another striking butterfly. Can you ID this one?

Finally, at the very south end, I was able to get my first monarch butterfly picture of the season.

It was very flighty, but it finally landed where I could get a decent picture.

But only one!

I’ve got a couple more presentable pictures, but I don’t want to overload you today, so I’ll save them in case I need them tomorrow.

It was a dark and dreary morning, and the best chance I had for a decent picture were big birds out in the open, so here they are.

At the pond, the wood duck hen with two ducklings was feeling confident enough in their evasive abilities to bring them up onto the west lawn, probably in hopes that I was one of the guys that feeds them. “Sorry, sweetie. That ain’t me.”

In the image above, the duckling on the left is starting to show his male cheek pattern, and the one on the right is not, so my guess is that she’s a female, and her white eyering will come in with her breeding plumage next spring. In any case, here’s a close up of her stretching her wing, which looks like it is starting to grow flight feathers.

There was also a pair of mallards on the pond, of which this is the hen, and when they came up on the lawn, I was surprised to watch the wood duck hen shoe them away from her ducklings, and they yielded. I guess what they say is true: it is not the size of the duck in the fight, but the size of the fight in the duck.

At the north end, we had a Cooper’s hawk fly in and perch for a few moments over the northern island before taking right back off again. That’s nearly the same spot the falcon chose on Wednesday, a clear favorite with raptors.

Coop was too small, perhaps, to spook the ducks on the water, and here’s a mallard hen with two of her three fresh-looking ducklings going about their business as usual.

Meanwhile, another mallard hen with her seven nearly-grown ducklings where busy preening on the shore of the island, …

until something made them all snap to attention, but I never discovered what that was.

Finally, the killdeer must have been celebrating the fourth a bit early because there were ten (10!) of them on the sand bars just northeast of the northern island. Even though most appeared to be just standing around, I couldn’t get them all to stand around together, and this trio, with a fourth in the foreground, is as close as I could get. Oh well. Still a sight to see.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve got a meeting this morning, so I won’t be able to visit Estabrook, but my mid-day visit yesterday was so fruitful, I have some pictures for you today anyway.

I had initially thought that being later in the day might afford me some butterfly pictures, and I did see a nice red admiral and probably an eastern comma, but they evaded my camera. Instead, our first ebony jewelwing was far more accommodating.

This contented-looking family of mallards was taking advantage of the sun that did burn through the haze on the lower river. Mom gave me a stern look at first, but soon resumed her own preening.

Meanwhile, the second batch of wood duck ducklings on the pond was down for their nap on the mat of last year’s reeds along the west shore. When I first walked up from the west, I could see a few drakes, in various stages of eclipse, and the hen with two ducklings, all on the fall shore, and I only noticed these cuties, nearly at my feet, as I began to head north in search of them.

The recent usual crowds of Canada geese and mallards, plus a few killdeer and a couple sandpipers, were all on the river at the north end, but I didn’t see any pictures worth taking until I began to head back south and I spotted this infrequent visitor nibbling on the seeds in the tall grass across the gravel road. “Welcome back, Honey!”

It’s always a treat to see a great blue heron, and when they are fishing at the falls its just icing on the cake.

I was very pleasantly surprised to spot this little darling hiding in a crevice in the steep side of the bluff behind the abandoned bridge abutment. “Way to keep cool, my little dude or dudette!”

Finally, as I circled a little stand of milkweed at the far south end, in one final and fruitless push for a butterfly picture, I noticed something big and moving fast out of the corner of my eye. By the time I was able to turn my full attention that way, mom was already deep in the woods, but I was in time to watch her fawn dash after her, and I figured they were gone for good. It must have really been my lucky day, however, because as I crossed the bridge over the ravine on my way back to the soccer fields and home, look who I could just make out through the foliage down below. “Peek-a-boo, little Sweetie!”

It was not as dark and smokey as yesterday morning, but still pretty dark, and I had a meeting at 9am anyway, so I opted to wait until after the meeting to visit Estabrook Park. I didn’t expect to see much, but I thought maybe I’d find some butterflies. Instead, I was reminded that you just never know what you might find.

As I was coming south along the river from the north end, I stopped to check out the large group of mallards gathered on the sandbar that protrudes downstream from the southern island. I spotted this hen with her seven ducklings and thought they might make a nice picture.

Then I couldn’t believe my eyes at who trotted down off the island toward the water, barely a dozen feet in front of the ducklings. Yup, that’s one of the mink I’ve been after for ages, and I cannot identify what it is carrying.

It trotted right into the water, and the mallard hen got quite excited about that.

But the mink never flinched and swam directly to the eastern riverbank, where it disappeared with its cargo. A couple of mallards followed, from a safe-enough distance, for sure, and just to make sure it kept going, I suppose. I had witnessed the same behavior on the pond.

Meanwhile, the hen took a moment to collect herself, …

and then life went back to normal, and you would never know anything had happened if you had just arrived at the scene.

There are plenty more pictures, too, but I’ve got another 9am meeting tomorrow that will probably take all morning, so I’d better hold on to them.

The Canadian wildfire smoke is still here, so I’m staying in this morning, and here are some pictures that I couldn’t squeeze into previous reports.

Here’s the painted lady butterfly from Saturday again, but this time giving us a little glimpse of the dorsal side (top side, seen when wings are open) of its left forewing.

Here’s a picture, also from Saturday, of the wood duck hen on the pond who started with ten ducklings, but had only five remaining by yesterday. I only got four in this picture, but there were others around at the time.

Here’s a little white-spotted sable moth (Anania funebris) hiding under a leaf, which is making its white spots look green, near the little wood satyr on the Solstice.

Here’s another look at the dickcissel from Sunday as it surveys its realm from atop a nesting box from which a tree swallow is peeking out.

Here’s an orange meadowhawk dragonfly (Sympetrum spp.), also from Sunday, and possibly a young white-faced meadowhawk (Sympetrum obtrusum).

Here’s another look at the meadowlark from Sunday, after it was in the tall grass and before it was perched in the tree.

Here’s a tiny summer azure butterfly (Celastrina neglecta) from just before I saw the great spangled fritillary on Sunday.

Finally, here’s a Savannah sparrow from Sunday that looked away just before it flew away. I’ve only seen their distinctive yellow eyebrows twice before, in Estabrook Park, once in April and once in May.

I hope that tides you over, and let’s all hope the smoke disapates, at least a bit, by tomorrow.