Monthly Archives: January 2024

The beautiful weather has returned, and it was a gorgeous Wisconsin winter morning in Estabrook Park. The ice on the river is holding steady and perhaps growing on the lake, so our count of common mergansers is up to 16: 4 drakes and 12 hens. On the flat water that stays open above the falls,Continue reading “Together at last…”

Our recent string of beautiful weather hit a bump last night, and we got about an inch of fresh snow in Estabrook Park by sunrise. The air is still nice and crisp, at 10°F, but the skies are grey, grey, grey. The goldeneye love connection I’ve been following lately made a little progress this morning,Continue reading “Approaching eye-to-eye…”

The weather was still pretty nice in Estabrook Park this morning with temps in the teens and skies only partly cloudy. There were a few common mergansers and no goldeneyes on the river, but the nice surprise was finding a bald eagle perched over the far riverbank at the north end. We haven’t gotten aContinue reading “An old favorite and a winter oddity…”

It was yet another beautiful morning in Estabrook Park, and the open river water near the south end attracted another first-of-the-season bird for us. This one is a female goldeneye, and it’s a shame the drake from Saturday didn’t stick around to meet her. She was quite skittish, and this is as close as sheContinue reading “The cold brings us one more FOS.”

I hiked along the entire length of the river again this morning in hopes of spotting some exotic visitor from up north, especially while the weather is so nice, but I didn’t see a bird on the water except for a pair of common mergansers and a couple of mallards at the far south endContinue reading “Even more poofy little birds…”

The gorgeous weather in Estabrook Parked continued this morning with bright blue skies, a little less wind than yesterday, and crisp, cool air, at only -4° instead of the forecast -8°F. Woo hoo! With the expectation that more of the river had frozen overnight, I headed straight to the river path to see if thatContinue reading “The Arctic blast settles in, as if it intends to stick around a while.”

There was a nice blanket of snow on the ground, not a cloud in the bright blue sky, and a nice, crisp air temperature of -2°F, which 17 mph winds out of the northwest made feel like -20°F, in Estabrook Park this morning. It is finally starting to feel like winter in Wisconsin! I sawContinue reading “Our first Arctic blast of the season…”

We finally got some real snow, despite the best efforts of the warm Lake Michigan water directly to our east. Between waiting for the snow to move out, playing with the visiting grandson with the Erector Set my mom and dad gave me for Christmas 100 years ago, and then shoveling the driveway so saidContinue reading “Winter arrives at last in Estabrook Park.”

It’s just 6am, and our next round of snow has already started. This one is forecast to be a doozy and last all day, so I doubt I’d be able to get any pictures for you today. Luckily, I have a couple more from yesterday that I hope can fill the gap. On the river,Continue reading “More Snow!”

We finally got a bit of real snow last night, and the skies were even that beautiful bright blue for a while this morning, but I’m pressed for time today, so here’s the one picture I took this morning that best captures all of that. I thought it was a house finch, but I’ve sinceContinue reading “House finch by the pond…”