Category Archives: Uncategorized

I didn’t get to the park until this afternoon and it was quiet, super quiet. The wind was calm, the sky was dark grey, hardly anyone was around, and many of the critters were taking a nap, like these two mallards beside the pond. We’ve seen them there before, and I wonder how long they’llContinue reading “The calm after the storm…”

The wind was brisk out of the ESE this morning, so right off of Lake Michigan, and it felt like it. The cold snap was not slowing down this maple tree, however. The 5 recent regulars were on the pond, the goose couple, the mallard couple, and the solo gadwall hen, but there was nobodyContinue reading “The cold and blustery before the storm”

First things first, I gotta apologize for misidentifying yesterdays newcomer to the pond. After I gave it what I thought was my best shot and pressed the “publish” button, the decision still gnawed at me, and I dug even deeper, which led me to a nice page published by “The Wildlife Trusts” on “How toContinue reading “Not much color today…”

The fun continues on this fine spring day in Estabrook with new birds on the pond, new birds in the river, and new flowers up out of the ground. First, the new bird on the pond looks like a female mallard or a female American black duck. You may recall we saw a male onContinue reading “More ducks…”

It was a very nice morning in the park, with calendar appropriate temperatures for a change. At the pond, the ice is almost all gone, the pair of mallards were napping in the morning sun, and the pair of Canada geese were feeding. The river is still high, but the parts of the trail thatContinue reading “A whole lot of Spring going on…”

I didn’t get to the park until the afternoon, almost all the snow is gone now, and more than half of the pond ice is gone as well. The mallards and the Canada geese were getting comfortable with all the newly exposed water … … and the grass. The big new arrival, however, are theseContinue reading “Snow comes and goes…”

It appears that a few fish in the pond did not survive the winter, and some herring gulls wanted them. The geese didn’t seem to mind. Meanwhile, the mallard pair was expanding their range, on and off the ice. Parts of the river trail are starting to dry out, if not under the water ofContinue reading “Not every one is a winner…”

Not much new to report today, and we seem to be in bit of a holding pattern while waiting for the pond ice to hurry up and melt already. The pair of geese were in the tiny patch of now-open water on the south end of the island when I arrived at the pond, andContinue reading “Please hold…”

The big news in Estabrook is that the water fowl are starting to arrive back on the pond. We first saw a couple of Canada geese surveying the frozen situation from shore Saturday, but now that the open water is up to a solid (liquid?) 5%, there are a fine-looking pair of mallards… … andContinue reading “Coming home to roost…”

The river trail was nice and firm this morning, after the cold temps last night, but that might be the last time for a while, with low temps forecast to be above freezing for the rest of the week, so I did my best to take advantage of it. The lower river has pretty muchContinue reading “Just some odds and ends…”