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.

Whelp, the recent thaw is over, at least for now, and winter is back with blowing snow and freezing cold. Yippee!

The bigger surprise, for me and the two wildlife walkers who joined me this morning, was finding a pair of cedar waxwings looking for berries in the bushes around the pond. We’re well within their year-round range, but they must know of good berry sources elsewhere, because we don’t get to see much of them during the winter in Estabrook Park.

The next surprise was eventually finding eleven (11!) common mergansers on the river, two drakes and nine hens. Even better, they all lined up so I could get them in one shot. I’m sure that is a record for me.

That’s the whole show for today, however, but it is a huge improvement over the last couple of days, thank goodness. I see that the cold is forecast to deepen by tomorrow morning, but the wind should ease up a bit, and the sun might poke through the clouds, so I have a hope that this trend of improving pictures might continue. Keep your fingers crossed!

The doldrums that seemed to have settle on Estabrook Park lately reached a climax today, and I didn’t even get a single picture, let alone see anything I would have liked to capture on film. Fortunately, it is only a few days until the end of 2025, so it’s a perfect time to start reviewing the highlights of the past year, and let’s start with the bird species we saw in Estabrook for the first time.

Back in April, I finally got a decent picture of sandhill cranes flying over. Perhaps some will land one day, but this will have to do until then.

In May we finally got a good look at a common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), which I had glimpsed soaring over Shorewood, but never even tried to photograph.

Also in May, our first prothonotary warbler stopped in, twice, so I got some nice shots.

In July our very first broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus) stopped in to say hi.

Then things settle down for a while, bird wise, until just this month when we finally got a look at the Carolina wren I’d been hearing for a while.

Well, maybe I’ll have better luck in the park tomorrow, but if not, we’ll continue more highlights of 2025.

It was a gray-on-gray morning in Estabrook Park, with gray fog sandwiched between thick gray clouds and melting gray ice. Sure, gray is technically a color, along with black and white, but I went searching for colors with more saturation.

This nonbreeding herring gull, with pale eyes and legs but a yellow bill and perched on a gray street lamp, was a tiny step in that direction.

I had a hope that this downy woodpecker, appearing to excavate a nesting cavity already, would have the red nape of a male…

but that was not to be.

This white throated sparrow broadened the spectrum a little more, with a rich, brown back, in addition to its yellow lores.

Finally, a male northern cardinal came to my rescue with a whole pallet of red hues. Phew!

I got a late start in Estabrook Park this morning, for reasons, but there were very few other folks there, so I don’t think my tardiness had a negative effect on my wildlife viewing.

Things were pretty quiet at the river, however, so I was counting on the pond to take up the slack, and we got off to a nice start with this male red-bellied woodpecker, who appeared to be looking for something or someone. He wasn’t foraging, basking in the sun, nor calling, which are the activities I usually see them busy at, so I don’t know what he was up to, but he did let me sneak a nice enough picture before he moved on.

Then this mature Cooper’s hawk swooped in, and that was the end of the “little bird” show at the pond. Thankfully, it also let me sneak a nice shot before it made a try for some of the sparrows on the island, and it then bolted off in search of other prey that it might catch off-guard.

Finally, it was time for me to get home for the holiday feast Anne was preparing, and what the woodpecker was doing or what the hawk caught for its own lunch will just have to remain a mystery.

and all through the park, barely a creature was stirring, barely even this mourning dove. I know, I know, and I’d love to even see, let alone photograph for you, a live mouse in Estabrook Park, stirring or not, but I haven’t so far, and I’m not holding my breath. Instead, I haven’t shown you a morning dove yet this month, so here you go.