Seriously. The clouds were thick, so there were certainly no celestial bodies to see, and they tend to be pretty quiet anyway. There were no races, tournaments, or other events going on, and it was still cold enough to keep many regular visitors home, so there were hardly any people. I did see a few birds but no raptors and less than half the usual number of mallards and rock pigeons. I did hear a squirrel or two, but I’m not sure I actually saw a single wild mammal. It was a little weird.
Luckily, I didn’t get to finish up our look back at 2025, so let’s see some of the colorful, non-avian firsts we saw last year.
We had two stunning butterflies in quick succession, our first great spangled fritillary in the park on June 24,
and our first variegated fritillary east of the Mississippi on June 27.
It may look bland by comparison to the previous two, but I was very excited to see a Virginia creeper clearwing with its bushy tail, only our second ever clearwing moth.
We also saw our second ever saddlebags dragonfly, a gorgeous red saddlebags.
On the more venomous side, I was thrilled to spot our first ever rusty-patched bumble bee as it is the “first federally protected species of bumble bee, and first bee to be placed on the endangered species list.”
Finally, continuing the trend from pretty to scary, I’ll wrap this up with our first Arabesque orbweaver.
I read that tomorrow the Milwaukee Birders plan to “go find some birds,” and I hope to join them. With any luck, I’ll have something new and/or interesting to show you.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 
It’s a good way to start the New Year to learn there’s a creature with the wonderful name, “Great Spangled Fritillary,” in our world. I think Eustace Tilly (aka the New Yorker) needs to be informed about this.
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