More oddities from far, far away…

Temps were in the single digits this morning, with a nice breeze out of the west that pushed the “feels like” temperature down into the negative teens. I’d even call that “brisk”, if not necessarily “bad news”. This is the middle of January in Wisconsin, after all. The unambiguous good news, on the other hand,Continue reading “More oddities from far, far away…”

Another thaw comes to an end…

What a fine Wisconsin-winter-weather welcome home I had this morning! When I landed at Mitchel late yesterday afternoon, I could tell it was warm out, and we saw on the news last evening that Milwaukee missed the record high temperature for yesterday’s date by one degree. And that’s a thin degree, on Herr Fahrenheit’s scale,Continue reading “Another thaw comes to an end…”

A surprise visitor of the celestial kind…

With a fresh dusting of snow on the ground and clear skies overhead, I could hardly wait to get out the door and into Estabrook Park this morning. My reward for being a bit early was catching a glimpse of planet Jupiter just before it set in the west and while the sky was stillContinue reading “A surprise visitor of the celestial kind…”

A cold and quiet start to the new year…

It was cold and cloudy this morning in Estabrook, but the wind was light, we already have a nice new coating of snow on the ground from the previous couple of days, and the snow that is coming down now hadn’t started yet. Plus, the park was nearly empty of people, and traffic noise wasContinue reading “A cold and quiet start to the new year…”

A big finish to a big year…

Well, shoot! Somehow, I forgot to finish my post yesterday and send it out to you. I even had some nice pictures for you, as you will soon see, but I must have gotten distracted. Sorry about that! Anyhoo, after the early snow yesterday morning, which was barely more than a dusting, the sun cameContinue reading “A big finish to a big year…”

A look back at some birds of the Balkans…

Sheesh! As if the lack of critters to photograph lately in Estabrook Park was not enough of a problem, today the fog is still so thick at noon that if a bald eagle perched over the island in the pond, I’m not sure that I could even capture an image of it. So, this isContinue reading “A look back at some birds of the Balkans…”

Yet another bird joins the first timers club…

The sky is starting to haze up a bit now, but it was a beautiful morning in Estabrook Park, with mild temps again, still air, and clear skies for a while. The first pretty sight I found taking full advantage of the golden sunlight was this common merganser hen up on the ice above theContinue reading “Yet another bird joins the first timers club…”

Some dashes of brown to dilute all the gray…

Wow! It sure is a very gray day in Estabrook Park, but the good news, at least for folks who have been less than thrilled with the recent winter weather, is that the temps are mild, the breeze is very light, and there has been hardly any precipitation at all. Even better, three folks turnedContinue reading “Some dashes of brown to dilute all the gray…”

The birds take a break…

The skies have cleared up now, but they were pretty dark and cloudy this morning in Estabrook Park. The good news is that the clouds hardly leaked at all, and they rode into town on a warming trend, so it’s 40° now, and it was just below freezing at sunrise. Things got off to aContinue reading “The birds take a break…”

Plenty of woodpeckers in Estabrook…

After taking a couple of days off, winter came roaring back with a vengeance overnight, and temps were back into the low teens by morning. On top of that, the wind was forecast to be 24 mph at sunrise, so the windchill was below zero. Yikes! At least the sun was out, so if IContinue reading “Plenty of woodpeckers in Estabrook…”