Monthly Archives: April 2024

Today was not the same as yesterday. It was sunny again, but it was colder, especially in the breeze, and there was a lot of activity going on between the Brew City Marathon and the Milwaukee River Cleanup. I don’t know which factor, if any, was the cause, but the critters were laying low today.Continue reading “Easing off the gas…”

Wow, oh wow! What an epic morning! The skies were crystal clear, so I was able to get into Estabrook before 6am, for the first time this year. The air was cool, and forecast to be breezy, but the breeze took its time getting here, so I had a couple glorious hours with the critters,Continue reading “Not a bad way to start the weekend…”

The skies were clear as dawn broke this morning, but they soon clouded up again and even started to leak on me before I got back out of Estabrook Park. Oh well. At least there was no graupel, and this should make for some amazing May flowers, if the old saying carries any weight anyContinue reading “Another dreary morning in April…”

What a morning! It rained, it poured, the wind blew, we even got a tiny, but oh so necessary, dose of graupel, and then the sun came out. PS: that title rhymes if you don’t know how to pronounce graupel. Anyway, when I arrived at the pond, the skies looked threatening, the air was foggy,Continue reading “It just ain’t April without Graupel”

The high-pressure system we’ve been enjoying is starting to lose its grip, and we’re due for rain later, but it was still pretty nice in Estabrook Park this morning. All eight goslings are still at the pond, but I left them alone today, and here’s another picture from Sunday. There were a couple surprises onContinue reading “Not the surprises I expected to find…”

As happens from time to time, our streak of beautiful weather continued this morning, with even less of a breeze, and I got out nice and early to enjoy it. Oddly enough, however, the critters in Estabrook Park were much quieter than yesterday. I suspect some have already moved north. I was thrilled to seeContinue reading “Happy Tax Day!”

Yes, we have goslings! I counted eight. Here’s proud Papa right after chasing away some poor little dog whose owner obliviously walked it waaaay too close. In other news, check out this hefty kitty… Here’s an uncommon sight for Estabrook, a rusty blackbird just passing through. This majestic beauty, a turkey vulture, must have smelledContinue reading “Maiden Voyage!”

For a change of pace today, I joined the Pike Lake/ Hartford Area Field Trip organized by the Noel J. Cutright Bird Club and lead by Carl Schwartz. It was a picture-perfect day, and we stopped at several watering holes along the way. The one on Oil Spring Rd. was a jackpot of ducks andContinue reading “Pike Lake and surroundings.”

I didn’t have high hopes for my visit to Estabrook Park this morning. It was cloudy and breezy at sunrise, and neither condition usually makes for great pictures. The critters in the park, however, had other plans. It all started with this white-tailed deer that I only spotted because I was tiptoeing off trail toContinue reading “About as good as it gets…”

The warm sun and blue skies were gone, but the temps were still mild, the clouds had no leaks, and the air was nearly still, so it was a fine morning for visiting Estabrook Park. My first treat for the day was getting this yellow-rumped warbler, our first warbler of the season, to hold stillContinue reading “Every dog does have its day, it seems…”