Author Archives: Andrew Dressel

The weather was what one might call suboptimal for taking pictures this morning, with temps around 20°F, winds around 20 mph, heavy gray skies, and light snow, but these pictures aren’t going to take themselves, so off to the park I went to see if anyone was up and about. Holy Smokes! I’m sure gladContinue reading “A cold front blows through…”

This morning was a bit warmer, at 21°F, a bit cloudier, and a bit breezier than yesterday, so not quite as magical, but also not bad by any means. I was glad to see that our gadwall drake was still here on the lower river and suffering from much less of an icing problem thisContinue reading “Winter appears to settle in…”

Well, the sun finally came out, and the wind was nice and calm, so 7°F seemed like a small price to pay for such a glorious morning. Some of the critters might probably prefer the opposite trade-off, but let’s hope that anyone not built to handle this weather has long since flown south. Anyway, you’llContinue reading “The sun makes an appearance at last…”

The snow did finally arrive, even though the sun stayed hidden until I got back home, so there was a nice change of scenery after all, and I’ll take it! Our new gadwall drake was still on the lower river, and he appeared to be having icing issues that the mallards were not facing, butContinue reading “A change of scenery at last!”

Happy New Year! I hope yours is off to as nice a start as mine is. This morning looked like many recent mornings with low, dark skies, but as Forrest Gump always used to say, “Estabrook Park is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” This morning, I was thrilledContinue reading “A new bird for a new year!”

I don’t have a lot of time this morning, and it looks gray as heck out there again anyway, so let’s do a little year in review instead. Here are some of my favorite pictures from 2021. Nothing brightens up a gray day in January like a male northern cardinal on sumac, eh? But aContinue reading “2021 wasn’t all bad…”

The exciting news is that we have new arrivals in the park again, this time a foursome of female common mergansers, the likes of which we haven’t seen since March. Here are the two that swam closest together. Meanwhile, the mallards continue going about their business and achieved some nice duck density in this image.Continue reading “Just waiting for the snow to arrive…”

Brrr. It was colder than it looked this morning, and I should have checked the “real feel” temperature before heading out. My hands are still pretty stiff from the cold as I try to type this. Anyway, it seemed as though the big animals saw my post yesterday and took offense or took pity onContinue reading “The pendulum swings the other way…”

Despite a few nice little breaks, the gray skies are hanging around like a Gloomy Gus this month. Even the buffleheads, the smallest diving ducks in North America, and whom I usually find hard at work, were sleeping in this morning. This gray squirrel isn’t even the smallest squirrel in the park, let alone NorthContinue reading “A morning of miniatures…”

Despite the weather, or perhaps because of it, it was quite a nice morning in Estabrook. I didn’t get there especially early, but I still got to make the first human footprints in a lot of the fresh sloppy snow lying on many parts of the river trail. Things were pretty quiet on my wayContinue reading “Plenty to see on a gray Monday…”