9 May 2020 Tupelo Pond

 We don't make many visits toTupelo Pond.  COVID and no business travel gave us a window to visit more local parks.  The trail at Tupelo Pond winds through the woods and passes a nice stream.  This evening the spring wildflowers added to the journey.

8 May 2020 Snow and a Gosling

 

By the time the goslings are off with their parents all snow has usually passed.  Apparently not in this weird year.

3 May 2020 An Afternoon in South Chagrin

 We returned to South Chagrin to place the containers for a couple new geocache hides.  We were also visiting favorite spots to look for wildlife.  Our first stop was to look for wild hyacynths.  The high water of the Chagrin has essentially destroyed this trail so we were unable to reach the hyacynths, but we spotted a toad breeding pool.

They leave a lot of eggs.

Song Sparrow

Bluebells blanket the flood plain.

The soft-shelled river turtles were out this afternoon.  Most were lounging on the far bank of the Chagrin.

Years can pass without us seeing an oriole.  They seem to have a short window where they are out in the open areas of trees.  Today we were lucky with multiple sightings.

An early butterfly was out today.

The wetlands areaa near the cache we were retiring was hosting a number of turtles sunning on logs.

This area has white trout lilies.  It is given the same name as the locally common yellow trout lilies, but is a different plant.  They are rare in the area.

2 May 2020 Social or Hungry Heron

 We're used to seeing herons fly away when they hear the lens motor 100 feet from where they are standing.  We were at Mosquito Lake State Park and saw this great blue by the shore.

It seems like normal heron behavior until you look at the person fishing a few feet away.

I guess it was hoping to snag a fish before the guy fishing. 😀

1 May 2020 Frohring Meadows Towhee

Phin has been a major source of help when working at home during COVID.  😉 

After work, we were off to look for wildflowers at Frohring Meadows.  We were surprised and happy to see a towhee feeding on the ground.  At best, we see a few a year so this was a happy sighting.

Mayapple and trout lily together

29 April 2020 Rainy Evening in Gully Brook

Once I was done with my day's work from home, we decided to make a visit to Gully Brook for some time out and a chance to look for wildflowers.  The grey day was still dry when we started on the trail, but the drops soon started.  We stayed on the trail and were rewarded with a number of wildflowers in bloom. 

26 April 2020 Empty Hudson

Hudson, Ohio is a vibrant, smaller town in Ohio.  It always has walking traffic on the main street in town.  We stopped for a little geocaching.  With the pandemic and business closures, the sidewalks were completely empty on a rainy Sunday.

We still walked around and visited the commons, but it was an eerie place to be. 

25 April 2020 Fleeting Sightings

 We were back for another visit to Burton Wetlands.  There were birds to be seen and enjoy on our walk, but the opportunities were fleeting.  Our first stop as usual was the Kettle Lake.  Today there were a few ducks who quickly took flight while we watched.

Ali caught a glimpse of this egret moving along the wetlands edge.

Flickers are beautiful birds who are elusive in the woods.  We were able to track this pair moving through the trees.

24 April 2020 Euclid Beach

 The trees in this park always seem to have tortured by the wind blowing off Lake Erie.

Unlike our previous visit the water was like glass this evening.  I remember these peaceful evenings on Lake Erie when I used to boat.  They were magical.

A female belted kingfisher had scored a large (for her) fish for dinner.  The fish was quite large in comparison to her.

and down went dinner.

A male belted kingfisher was no so lucky with the dinner hunt while we were there.

23 April 2020 Metzenbaum Wildflowers

 

There are still woods filled with ramps.

Lizzie always enjoys a park trip.

22 April 2020 Sheldon Marsh

Visiting Sheldon Marsh in the spring is an annual ritual nearing twenty years. We make a few stops on the way and maybe one or two after with the single goal of looking for birds. We were concerned about maintaining social distance at Sheldon Marsh as the paths are not that wide. The weather cooperated with cold and damp to scare off most of the visitors. We've added the nature preserve at Old Woman Creek to the annual spring celebration. It often yields good bird viewings.

Egrets were plentiful.  So was breeding plumage.

Snagging a meal

The arrival of a Great Blue Heron seemed to scatter the egrets.

The Great Blue also realized a meal was available.

We hadn't planned on snow when deciding to drive a rear-wheel drive sports car.

We moved to a newer section of the Nature Preserve and spotted our first eagle of the day.  We're spoiled and used to seeing multiple eagles on these outings.  Today we were happy to see this one.

We have learned there is only one suitable area to look for wood ducks at Sheldon Marsh.  Even if we a lucky and spot them, the are skittish and often move well beyond the camera lens and even our view.  I had a couple of chances for an image within the vegetation.  I got lucky and was able to capture an image of these beautiful birds.  

The birds weren't plentiful at Sheldon Marsh today, but there was a good variety and a fun walk for us.

Blue-Winged Teal

We don't see tundra swans very often to this was a treat for us.

Brown Creeper

We ended our day with a visit to Tofts for ice cream.  Most of the customers were handling social distancing well.  The seating area was off limits, but we rarely eat inside.