Monthly Archives: July 2020

What? Which three Bs are you thinking of? First the birds. Now that the thistles are going to seed, the goldfinches are starting to be all over them. The young brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater), whose eggs were laid in the nests of other species, appear to be now getting out on their own and somehow learning toContinue reading “The three Bs: birds, bugs, and blossoms.”

We had a nice line of thunderstorms roll through last evening, and precipitation lingered into this morning, so I got off to a latish start. At first, is seemed that everyone was still laying low. Even Ol’ Blue had to take a step back from his usual spot by the falls. So I headed upContinue reading “Must be my lucky day…”

It appears we’ve got our first new bird in a while, a young spotted sandpiper (Actitis macularius). It’s across the river and not very big, so the picture isn’t the best, but it’s the little grey and white shape right in the middle of all the grey and white rocks. I first spotted it atContinue reading “A pretty good mix of old and new…”

Right off the bat, let me present the reader photos of the week sent in by local naturalist John Giesa, which show the absolutely astounding caterpillar of the white-marked tussock moth (Orgyia leucostigma). The moth looks pretty cool, too, but we haven’t captured an image of one of those yet. In the meantime, tell meContinue reading “More cats and caterpillars…”

To commemorate the 100th day in a row, that’s every single day since March 30th, that we’ve managed to find something pretty and/or interesting to look at in Estabrook Park, I am thrilled to show you that I finally managed to find an American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) willing to sit still for a second.Continue reading “Episode 100!”

Sorry I’m late today, but I hope you find this worth the wait. The cicadas were already singing by 8am this morning, so you know its gonna be a hot one, and I was just walking past the pond when I caught a disturbance in the water out of the corner of my eye. HolyContinue reading “A Leviathan!”

when you hear the cicadas singing before 9am. Yup, it sure is hot out there, and the cicadas have begun to emerge from the ground, climb up into the trees, and announce their availability on the original dating app: known by many as mating call. I don’t have a picture for you yet, but I’llContinue reading “You know it’s gonna be a hot one…”

I haven’t been to Estabrook yet this morning, but don’t worry, I’ll get there soon enough. In the meantime, I’d like to show you some pictures from my first excursion out of Milwaukee County since March. As I mentioned yesterday, Anne and I drove up to Kohler-Andrae State Park to visit with her family fromContinue reading “My field trip report”

I spotted somebody new this morning, if you can believe it! The image isn’t very good, and this is the best of a bunch, because the water and low light really messed with my camera’s autofocus, but that’s a pretty big fish, and it has found itself cut off from the river in a miniContinue reading “More signs of summer…”

My morning got off to an amazing start when Anne got me up at 3:50am to see the ISS pass over. The new meteorologist on TMJ4 news mentioned it last evening, and this counts because we went to the south parking lot of Estabrook Park for some pretty good viewing conditions to the west. ThereContinue reading “Wow!”