Monthly Archives: August 2021

It’s a short report today. Instead of touring Estabrook, I joined the Adopt-a-River Cleanup with Shorewood Conservation Committee and Milwaukee River Keepers, and it covered the east side from Capitol to Hubbard park. We had a crew of at least 8 and 4 of us were from Friends of Estabrook Park. I did bring myContinue reading “Adopt-a-River Cleanup with Shorewood Conservation Committee and Milwaukee River Keepers”

Yesterday morning was so foggy that I decided to wait until this morning, and guess what. Today was just as foggy as yesterday, so I waited for the sun to burn off the fog and finally headed to the park. When I got to the pond, there were a couple of green herons chasing eachContinue reading “Post 366, for lack of a better name”

It was still a pretty nice morning, although temps and humidity are creeping back up, but summer is really starting to wind down. The cacophony of bird chatter is pretty much gone, and all that is left is the quiet chirp of crickets and an occasional crow, jay, or oriole call. I spotted one greenContinue reading “Something green, something blue, something orange, and something new.”

We got one more beautiful morning out of the recent streak, which was a nice treat. Better still, our young night heron was back on the pond so we can have one more look at the little cutie. Here it is on the west side of the island. And here it is just off theContinue reading “Life on the pond settles back down.”

It appears that word has gotten out that a green heron finally relented and posed for an extensive and up-close photo shoot yesterday, and so not even 24 hours later a great blue heron must have said “hold my beer”. I was just walking along beside the river, as is often the case, and hadContinue reading “A close encounter of a heron kind”

Holy Moly! What a gorgeous morning. I can hardly believe we got two of these days in a row. I hope you get to enjoy it while it lasts. When I got to the pond, Ol’ Snappy was making ripples in the surface and the ducks were jumpy. I’m not sure, however, if Ol’ SnappyContinue reading “Just a great day in the park.”

What an absolutely fabulous morning it was in Estabrook! Cool temps, calm winds, dry air, and blue skies. What more could you ask for? On my walk to the pond, I even spotted a flower-of-an-hour (Hibiscus trionum) that was open for a change. At the pond, there were no herons for a change, just ducksContinue reading “More blossoms, birds, and bugs.”

I was hoping to see again this morning our surprise new guest at the pond, the young night-heron, since I’ve gotten a little pushback on my identification, and maybe a better picture would cement it one way or the other, but I’m sad to say that it was nowhere to be found. Oh well. Happily,Continue reading “Some birds, a few blossoms, Ol’ Snappy, and a lot of bees and butterflies.”

I had a great visit back east, although I hardly took any pictures, and now it’s great to be back in Estabrook, where it looks like you’ve had some rain lately. In my rough estimation, there are about a year’s worth of branches and trees down in the park. Yikes! Happily, I didn’t see anyContinue reading “An exciting new guest at the pond…”

It’s a short one today. There was some kind of moisture in the air between us and the morning sun, so it stayed pretty dark well past sunrise. When I first entered the park, I checked for deer or anything else interesting, as usual, and since I didn’t see anything, I then checked the parkingContinue reading “An odd little mix.”