Hmmm. Where to even start? Lets’ go with the new guys.
That’s right, the dragonflies were all over the pond yesterday afternoon in the nice bright sun. On the left is a male dot-tailed whiteface (Leucorrhinia intacta) and on the right is a male twelve-spotted skimmer (Libellula pulchella). Hey! I don’t make these names up. I’m just the messenger here. The skimmer really liked that particular dried up old stalk sticking out over the water, and he returned to it over and over again after flying sorties over the pond. If I didn’t get a good picture out of that, it’d be time to quit.
Those aren’t even the only new faces in town.
On the left is a tadpole, of course, and there were dozens, if not hundreds, of them in the shallow water just off shore. It was quite a sight to watch them scatter as soon as they spotted me. On the left looks for all the world to be a bird dropping, by design, but it is actually the chrysalis of the red-spotted purple (a butterfly). The caterpillars are supposed to look no better, but the butterflies sure do finish on a high note, eh?
Lastly, the mammals must have all just come back from the hairdresser because they all seemed to be in a posing mood.
They are, from left to right, a white-tailed deer in the brush near the top of the bluff, an eastern cottontail near the east side of the pond, and our new little buddy, the muskrat, at the breakfast buffet on the lawn sloping down to the west side of the pond.
Man, if this keeps up, I’m gonna need some more film.
In the meantime, nice big versions of these pictures, and others that didn’t quite fit into the narrative are on the new pictures page and/or on flickr, where you can even zoom in to enjoy every last glorious pixel.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 
OK, quit UWM and be a photographer. A photo of dragonfly shadows through the wings? Awesome X 1000. And really, I go to the same dang park several times a week, and have done so for years, and have not seen a fraction of this.
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