Author Archives: Andrew Dressel

It’s a cool and breezy morning with not much new to see. Instead, I propose we take a look at who else was out on Sunday afternoon, when the air was warm, and the breeze was mild. First up is a silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus), of which we first saw an example just over aContinue reading “Cool Tuesday”

It looked like it was going to rain on a quiet and sleepy Monday morning in Estabrook Park after all the excitement of Fathers’ Day and the Summer Solstice this past weekend. I did see a couple of the baby bunnies just north of the beer garden again, but there were no deer on theContinue reading “Sleepy Monday”

Happy Summer, everybody! I hope you all survived your raucous Solstice parties unscathed, or at least barely scathed. Oh! And Happy Fathers’ to all the dads out there, including mine! I hope you are all enjoying your new neckties as much as our painted turtle buddy from Friday. You can just see the pride inContinue reading “Happy Days!”

Thanks to eagle-eye Anne, this morning I finally got that baby bunny picture I’ve been after since first spotting them in May. This little cutie, barely bigger than my coffee mug, is probably from a new batch. They grow up so quickly. Meanwhile, have you ever had that experience when you just get yourself allContinue reading “Lots of visitors this morning…”

Man, this string of beautiful mornings is really something, eh? Even the critters seem to be feeling it, and here are two out making the most of it. The turtle was at the disc golf first tee, and the toad was in line at the beer garden. I let the turtle play on and toldContinue reading “Everyone’s out for a morning stroll”

Well, one beetle, at least. You’ve got to know by now that I’ve been dying to use that headline for days, and today’s the day I just couldn’t wait anymore. If any of you are gardeners, you know darn well that if there’s one beetle, there are sure to be more, right? I found thisContinue reading “Ladies and gentlemen…the Beetles!”

Thank goodness their mom was able to find some native milkweed after such a long flight, eh? I hear the non-native milkweeds are actually bad for the monarchs. Thus, the less-than-fastidious lawn mowing in the park this summer is serving a greater purpose, it seems. Meanwhile, the yellow salsify (Tragopogon dubius) has opened just outsideContinue reading “Heirs apparent!”

The bright sun on warm days and a clear, cool night made for a nice mist rising off the pond this morning. It would be a great morning for swimming lessons, if any of you are old enough to remember taking swimming lessons in the local pond on cold summer mornings. I’ve got only oneContinue reading “Smoke on the water…”

I am very excited to report the sighting of another duckling! This time it’s a good-sized blue-winged teal on the river with its mom on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. You may recall that we first saw the Mr. and Mrs. on the pond back on April 11, when we still had frost on the grassContinue reading “More babies and bugs”

Yesterday, long-time reader Dan stopped by, and we went on a field trip down the west side of the river to North Ave and back up the east side, about 3 miles round trip in the fabulous Milwaukee River Greenway. I brought my camera, just in case, and am sure glad I did, but let’sContinue reading “What a bunch of babies…”