3 August 2024 Sunny Lake Visit

My journey started with a fritillary gathering nectar on flowers.

Turtle Town

Mallards beside the shore with another turtle nearby.

Coneflower in Bloom

Goldfinch up high

25 April 2024 Visiting Sheldon Marsh

We try to visit Sheldon Marsh annually in the spring. Besides the variety of birds, the is always a variety of wildlife and plants. This visit started with a pair of purple martins.

A male and female pair of bluebirds continued the blue spottings.

Ducks were dabbling.

Mergansers on the water

An egret and little green heron sharing a big branch.

This frog was a bit of a chonk.

Great Blue Heron

Beautiful Wood Duck

28 December 2023 Visiting Mentor Lagoons

We were out on a grey day looking for birds at Mentor Lagoons

Besides the lagoons, the preserve offers an opportunity to visit the Lake Erie shore. A quiet walk through the woods brought us to the shore of Lake Erie.

The near shore are was filled with birds.

It was a sea of birds.

Goldeneyes

Mergansers

23 December 2023 Visiting Canalway

Once a nasty eyesore and wildlife wasteland, the Canalway and Cuyahoga River areas have made a great comeback as homes to wildlife and gathering places for locals to enjoy the outdoors.

A majestic heron standing in water that once held few live creatures. The presence of herons and ducks is a testimony of the Cuyahoga River's recoovery.

27 August 2023 Summer Passes

A pair of common mergansers were out for a swim.

An orb spider closing a web in the yard.

Broadleaf helleborine is called a "weedy” orchid by most botanists. The same group will also say it is become a "problem". It was introduced in 1891 so it hasn't exactly been a problem for over 100 years. We have a small number on out property. They aren't showy, but do add late season color.

30 July 2023 Covered Bridges and Flowers

 We started our morning with a visit to a couple more covered bridges.  These are older bridges and greater markers of the past.

We made our annual return visit to two of the pioneer cemeteries.  The cemeteries are home to small stands of the prairie wildflowers that were common here before farming and housing erased much of the beauty.

A pair of female mallards on a small pond near Marysville.

A bee on my finger...