Author Archives: Andrew Dressel

Sure, it was -5°F out this morning, -20°C for our European audience, but the sun was up, the sky was blue, the snow was white, and the forecast wind hadn’t come up yet, so it was quite a nice time to visit Estabrook. Plus, this just happens to be post number 500, so there’s that.Continue reading “Just another day at the office…”

It was a picture-perfect morning in Estabrook, but I had to go to school today, and thank goodness I did. Look who I saw along the way in Cambridge Woods. That little cutie, ladies and gentlemen, is an eastern screech-owl (Megascops asio), and here’s a close-up. As I rode by bike to campus this morning,Continue reading “Hiding in plane sight.”

It was still snowing when we had breakfast, so I waited a bit for it to peter out before venturing into Estabrook, and it was worth the wait. I didn’t see anyone at the south end, at first, and I was already composing the story in my head, when I found that my alarm wasContinue reading “Yay! More Snow!”

The snow did arrive overnight, and the clouds cleared out by the time the sun came up, so Estabrook looked like a winter wonderland. The first sight to great me was a couple pairs of goldeneyes and a common merganser hen all diving together. Here is one of the goldeneye couples, … And here’s theContinue reading “Fresh snow at last.”

The snow did come, and if the wind didn’t blow it into little drifts, there was technically enough to track a cat, which was the threshold for a “snow fall” that my grandfather always used to cite. I saw a goldeneye drake in one of the remaining slivers of open water at the south end,Continue reading “A handsome stranger pays us a visit…”

I had to go to campus this morning and so didn’t get to Estabrook till after 10. The day was pretty enough, but it seemed that just about everyone was already sleeping off their breakfast. For example, here’s our hooded merganser hen dozing beside a pair of mallards. Happily, one creature still up was ourContinue reading “A late start…”

It was another stunningly beautiful morning in Estabrook with bright sun, crystal blue skies, and nearly calm air. Sure, it was cold as all heck, but it was a dry cold, so not bad, not bad at all. Right off the bat, I was greeted by a new bird for the year, a Cooper’s hawkContinue reading “Not bad, not bad at all…”

Oof! It was almost opposite day in Estabrook, at least compared to yesterday. It was sunny instead of cloudy, the wind was howling instead of calm, temps were dropping from the 20s instead of rising, and I mostly saw only the little birds that can forage close to the ground instead of owls, deers, andContinue reading “Oh, how the tables have turned.”

It was cloudy again this morning, so I didn’t expect to see much, but the clouds weren’t very thick, the temperature was pretty mild for the season, and the winds were nice and light, so I still had hope. The show began right away with this common merganser drake at the south end who wasContinue reading “Yet another “great” day in Estabrook!”

The little bit of sun I was promised in the forecast never materialized, and the breeze was up, so it was not a perfect morning for pictures, but Kyle, who I met when he was participating in the Christmas bird count last month, came along to keep me company. We saw the pair of goldeneyeContinue reading “A slow start to the 2nd half of January.”