Monthly Archives: June 2024

It was a tad breezy this morning, but the skies were crystal clear so it was light enough for me to go out before sunrise, which is always a treat. Better yet, soon after I arrived, the parks department closed the parkway to through traffic for the Shorewood Farmers Market today, so I got toContinue reading “Sometimes wishes do come true…”

Daylight came late yesterday, and the rain came early, so I didn’t have much to show you, and I opted to try again this morning. The sky was dark again today, but the clouds thinned out a bit, and they never leaked, so things went much better. A single green heron has been hanging outContinue reading “Better luck on the second try.”

Morocco sure was amazing, but I’m always glad to get back home, and temps in the mid 70s sure are easier to take than temps in the mid 100s. Besides the mild temps, the sky was clear, and the breeze was light, so it was a perfect morning to get back into Estabrook Park. BetterContinue reading “Back to Estabrook for a great morning.”

I mentioned cattle egrets when I showed you the glossy ibises we saw in Casablanca, and they are one of the most ubiquitous birds I’ve seen on this trip. In Meknes, when I went up to the rooftop to count birds in the morning and would see maybe a couple dozen storks flying over, IContinue reading “Tétouan and Marrakesh”

We’re taking the train to Fes today, so who knows what wildlife pictures, if any, I’ll be able to get, but here are a few left over from previous days. This first one isn’t very pretty, but I was still glad to get it. I’d been seeing large black birds flying in groups for days,Continue reading “Even something from Casablanca…”

My sister did arrive safely, and after a quick visit to Casablanca, we took the train inland to Meknes, “one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco.” Here we are staying in a riad, which is very nice, and which gives me a nice roof-top view of the city. While out on the coast, we sawContinue reading “Some sights from Meknes and Volubilis”

I was out in the field next to our hotel in Asilah again early yesterday morning when I started hearing little sounds from the grass around me, which I first thought were coming from insects, but instead they were coming from these tiny and aptly named zitting cisticolas (Cisticola juncidis). I have never heard ofContinue reading “More sights from northern Morocco”

After a couple of long, but uneventful flights on Turkish Airways, and a nice long layover in the Istanbul airport, we all finally arrived safely in Morocco yesterday afternoon, at which point we rented a car and drove north along the coast to Asilah, a bit south of Tangier. This morning, after a solid nineContinue reading “Day 1 in Morocco”

You won’t believe who’s back. Ol’ Mrs. Snappy was right were I first found her yesterday morning, and that’s the curb at the edge of the parkway right under her chin. It appears that I misjudged how much she would prefer to lay her eggs in exactly that spot. It did not appear, however, thatContinue reading “Still plenty of lessons to learn…”

She’s baaaaack. Yup, the snapping turtle in the pond was up on shore and trying to lay her eggs again, just three days later than last year. Here she is, perhaps thinking, “oh, it’s you again.” Anyway, this year she had already marched past the bench when I found her, and she was trying toContinue reading “Almost like clockwork!”